Chapter 18

Cats, Breakfasts and Dresses

"Up there?" Tino looked at Mathias questioningly after he stopped in front of a big tree to look up. This far, they had been dragged through the forest without stopping which probably meant that Matthew was somewhere above them. "Hold tight" Tino looked at the others and let go of the rope before he headed closer to the tree. He looked Mathias in his eyes but couldn't see anything of the nation left, only an eager instinct to catch whatever was above him. "I'm going up then" Just as he was about to start climbing, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Alfred shook his head and pointed at himself. "Are you sure?" Tino had barely asked the question before Alfred had already started climbing.

"Just let him do it and help me here" Francis was struggling with keeping Mathias under control so Tino hurried back and grabbed the rope. Together they managed to pull him away from the tree before they tied him to another one and sat down. Then they waited.

Alfred pulled himself up and felt how his anger finally vanished, instead he decided to be extreamly helpful from now on. He had to make it up somehow and he knew that he could. He was Alfred, he was America! Of course he could solve this!

"Meow" He suddenly heard the cat just above him and looked up. There, sitting on a branch, he could see his brother that looked down on him while waiting. The distance between them wasn't so far but it was too far for him to reach. How Matthew had gotten all the way up there was a mystery to Alfred. He reached out his hands and motioned for Matthew to jump. The cat shook his head and stared at him like he was crazy. Alfred sighed and nodded before he waved again and this time the cat hesitantly stood up and backed away to get ready for the jump.

"What the?" Tino and Francis stood up when they heard the crash and saw how Alfred tumbled through the branches. He hit the ground hard but was already sitting up when they hurried over to him. With a triumphing smile he held up the trembling but seemingly all right Matthew. Just to be sure, Francis picked him up and looked him over. Tino helped Alfred stand. "Are you okay?" Alfred smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

"What do we do now?" Francis pointed at Mathias that was sitting on the ground glaring at them with his tail waving from side to side.

"You go, I'll try to snap him back" Tino waved as Francis and Alfred disappeared carrying the cat through the forest. He crouched down next to Mathias that was staring after the slowly disappearing nations. "Mathias?" Mathias turned towards him at the mention of his name but Tino could see that he wasn't himself. Tino raised a hand. "I'm sorry about this"

"What?!" Once again, Mathias was brought back to reality by a stinging pain on his cheek. When his vision returned he could see that they were in the middle of a forest and that Tino was sitting next to him looking rather surprised.

"Huh, It actually worked" Tino lowered his hand again and nodded to their right. "We found Matthew and the others are already on their way home." He stood up and looked at Mathias with a smile. "We should get going too". Mathias nodded and stood up.

"Well, I'm glad it worked out at least" They both started walking towards house but they hadn't gone many steps before Mathias was pulled back and fell. Tino turned around and stared at him before he realized and begun laughing.

"Maybe we should get you loose from that tree first?"

Back in the house, Emil had finally finished his round of checkups on the sleeping nations and was now walking randomly around the house. He was pretty sure that he would fall asleep if he sat down and he had to stay awake to keep look out. Who could have done all of this? The only ones able to use magic as far as he knew were Lukas, Arthur and Vladimir that apparently were stuck in his roof. He looked out the window and felt himself get goosebumps as he realized that what or whoever it was, was still out there. At the thought, he pulled down the blinds and walked into the living room where he started picking up some things that had ended up on the floor during the day. Just as he was done, he heard voices outside of the house and he hurried over to the living room window. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was only Francis with Alfred carrying Matthew. He rushed to the door to unlock it and ask them where the remaining two were.

.

"Ow, my head" Antonio saw how Shade stood up again. He had been unconscious for about four hours and the only one that had actually passed them was a small cat that quickly lost interest. Antonio sighed, he had hoped that someone from the house would find him and then realize what was going on but it seemed like he wouldn't have that luck. He had been very pleased when he realized that Shade had weaknesses and that he could use them against him.

"Not used to fatigue, right?" Shade glared at him and Antonio felt himself flinch. He was mad, really mad. His eyes glowed like they were on fire and he took a step towards Antonio.

"You" Antonio couldn't move away as his body stepped closer towards him. "It's all your fault!" Shade stopped when his face was only an inch away from Antonios. "There will be consequences, everything I'll do from now on will be much worse than the things I've done this far" He leaned in even closer and whispered "Remember that all that's happening is all your fault" With an all too wide smile he turned around and started walking again with Antonio right behind.

"How is this my fault?!" Antonio tried for probably the millionth time to sit up or at least grab something they passed but it was no use. The only answer he got was a soft laugh as they continued through the forest.

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Tino snuck past Mathias that laid on the couch in the living room and carefully entered his and Berwalds room. He quietly laid down to not wake him up and listened to the silence that had settled over the house. He and Mathias had arrived shortly after the others and as long as Mathias and Matthew were separated there weren't any trouble. Everyone had been exhausted after the long day and they had all gone to bed immediately after getting through the door. Mathias had insisted on sleeping on the couch since he would be able to keep an eye out much easier and they had all agreed, a bit relieved to know that he was there. Tino closed his eyes and despite all the different questions running through his mind, he fell asleep.

When Tino woke up, the house was still quiet. He looked at the clock, it was only 7 am but he was wide awake. To not wake up the still sleeping nation next to him he carefully lifted the covers and snuck out. Mathias was quietly snoring in the couch as he passed and made his way to the kitchen.

"Might as well make them all some breakfast!" The atmosphere of the group had been pretty low lately and Tino wanted to find a way to lift it again. After looking through a few cookbooks he decided to just bake a pie that he already knew the recipe for since he had made it too many times to count. It took him a while to gather the ingredients but after about an hour, he finally put it in the oven.

"Morning" Arthur walked into the kitchen still half asleep and sat down on a chair. He was soon followed by both Emil and Alfred and they could hear movement from the living room.

"It smells good" Emil looked at Tino "Making pie again?" Tino smiled and nodded just as Mathias joined them in the kitchen giggling while looking very pleased with himself.

"I know that look, what did you do?" Tino glared at Mathias that shrugged for an answer.

"Nothing really" Tino didn't look away so Mathias chuckled and added "You'll see". After a while they heard footsteps coming down the stairs and it didn't take long until Lukas entered, led by Francis.

"Matthew is staying in the living room right now" Francis pointed towards the room as he helped Lukas find a chair. Mathias nodded and sat down himself just as Tino took out the pie from the oven again. He listened the soft chatter that slowly started to fill the room and felt how he relaxed, more people is always better. The chatter suddenly stopped and all heads were turned towards the doorway. Tino froze in the middle of cutting up pieces of the pie and dropped the knife as he looked at the furious Berwald standing in front of them.

"Mathias, I swear, when I get back to normal-" He couldn't finish his sentence because he was picked up by Tino and was twirled around with through the room.

"I didn't think you could get any cuter!" He was soon put down again, blushing like mad, while Mathias wiped his tears. While Berwald was still asleep, Mathias had snuck inside his room and switched out his clothes to one of those old dresses Lukas had made for Emil many years ago. Berwald sat down and glared at Mathias, wordlessly asking him were his normal clothes were. Mathias looked rather amused and shrugged.

"There's actually a reason for this." He stood up very dramatically and turned to point at Berwald "We all know how world meetings usually turn out so if we use Berwalds cuteness, we can distract everybody from fighting!" He looked very pleased with himself for coming up with such a great plan and the others nodded thoughtfully. He chuckled and added "That's a sentence I never thought I would say!"

"That might actually work…"

"Not bad Mathias."

"I like it"

"What?" Berwald seemed to be the only one that didn't think it was a good idea but there wasn't actually much he could do about it right now. He got distracted when Tino put out plates, each with a piece of the pie. They continued their breakfast in silence and only a few praising words to Tino would break it. Mathias suddenly noticed how Berwald was glaring at him again and moved away his plate a bit. "You can't have it"

"Why would I take it?" Mathias looked at Berwald that still eyed him suspiciously while Emil was chuckling next to him.

"Just a feeling"

A/N Hello! As you might have noticed, the updates are a bit slower now. It's not because I'm tired of this story or anything, I just got a lot of school and stuff going on that I have to take care of! As always, thank you for reading! Reviews are always appreciated!