Norway caressed the case before opening it and taking his precious violin out. He prepared the bow and carefully tuned the instrument looking forward to a couple hours of playing. He hasn't done it in too long. That in mind, he spent a good half of an hour on warmup. It wouldn't do to sprain something on Paganini just because he was lazy.

He wasn't.

So he went through passages, some easy little pieces, exercise pieces, reacquainting himself with his old friend, feeling the resonant chamber vibrating from the sound under his chin. Playing was always like a therapy for him. Some people took hot baths, some people tried relaxing with a book or a film, and Lukas Bondevik found his peace in his violin.

He could already feel his muscles relaxing. His grip on the instrument became less rigid, the music took on a deeper note, richer sounds flew from under the bow filling the previous silence all around him with music. Emil hasn't come by the last two weeks. That was all good and normal except before Norway hadn't been alone because he could always count on Denmark to pay him an unexpected visit. Now Mattias was too busy sharing his time between his responsibilities and his boyfriend. He was doing great, as always, Denmark rarely did badly. To be honest Norway always envied the Dane a little. He was loud, cheerful and kind though also strong and lethal, and all that coupled with his brilliant mind and handsome body...

Of course logically Lukas always knew all that. He just never dwelled on it preferring instead to curse his friend for his various slights.

What he wouldn't do to have Mattias here with him now... Unfortunately there was no time for Norway in Denmark's itinerary, more so since everything between them was just splendid, politically speaking, since forever. The Danes love the Norwegians all right. Just The Denmark laid it off.

Lukas sighed mentally returning back to reality. It greeted him with the sounds of Karol Szymanowski's "Myths". He scoffed, stopping. First of all they should be played with a piano. And secondly, these were some of the saddest pieces he knew.

'Goddamn.' Lukas muttered, suddenly angry at himself. He was meant to get some peace of mind, not dwell more on Mattias! He took a deeper breath and forced himself to remember something more cheerful. Something like... Mozart! Mozart was mostly cheerful. Or, or... yes!

Lukas rummaged through his notes stacks until he found the sheets for Pachelbel's Canon in D. He smirked, remembering the chelo part and an incredibly funny rant about it he'd found on youtube once. Eight notes, fifty four times in a row. Fortunately the violin part was very beautiful and serene. And serene, he decided, would be best for him. No crazy tempo or anything. Instead he'll have to focus on the quality of the sounds he was producing.

And then he played.

He remembered the whole piece, having played it countless times, like most of his collection. He remembered also how it sounded with the rest of the orchestra playing and that full soundtrack was running in his mind as he guided the bow gently but steadily.

Finishing, he felt calm. The "therapy" worked and he was relaxed again, none of the previous anxiety or anger present anymore. He smiled, nuzzling the violin a little, his precious treasure. What he would've done without it! It brought him happiness countless times, helped him overcome the most troubling of experiences. Music was his cure for the wrongness of this world.

Then his little smile took on a mischievous note and his usually expressionless eyes glinted. Now was the time for Paganini! He hadn't played the Concerto no. 2 in B minor for some time now. That needed to be rectified right away!

Five hours later, Lukas was exhausted but happy like he hasn't been in the year since he last touched the violin. And to think it just laid here in it's case, waiting patiently for him to remember it's magic... He felt like spreading that magic to all his friends and family!

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Norway frowned, not having been expecting anyone, and then snorted. Ask and you shall receive, wasn't it? He wanted someone to play to and here someone is at his door.

He put the instrument down carefully and scampered to open. And the his jaw dropped to the ground because there stood no one else but Denmark! However this wasn't the Denmark that usually appeared in Lukas' house – bright eyed and bushy-tailed. No, this Denmark had red and puffy eyes and good gods, his chin honest to God trembled.

Lukas immediately moved aside to let him in and Mattias slumped in, looking at him with total misery in his eyes. Norway led him to the kitchen, sat him at the table and ignored his heart pumping wildly in his chest because something was seriously wrong and this wasn't time for him to wallow in his own problems. He whipped up a cup of hot cocoa because contrary to popular belief Mattias got drunk only when really angry or incredibly happy, otherwise his comfort drink was hot cocoa with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkled on top.

He put the mug in front of his guest on the table and then sat on the opposite side, looking at him expectantly. Denmark gazed at him with something like shock mixed with gratitude and Lukas' stomach twisted guiltily when he realized he couldn't remember the last time he took care of his friend like this.

Nonetheless, he quirked his eyebrow calmly and patiently waited for Denmark to start talking.

Finally, Mattias took a deep breath. "Greenland is sick." he announced with a trembling voice, reaching for his cup.

Norway frowned. It wasn't exactly unusual for Nations to get sick but it signaled some troubles with the economics or population on Their area. If little Greenland was sick, something must have happened and considering it was only her and not Denmark or her brother, it must have been something connected to the local weather only. Gods knew the girl was tough, though, so whatever happened must have been truly awful.

"I would have sat with her but Faroes kicked me out to be productive..."

"So there is something that can be done for her?" Norway asked. Denmark sniffed.

"You know how her glaciers are thawing, right?" Lukas nodded solemnly. He always kept tabs on his family and Greenland was one of the Nordics. Besides, Denmark's worrying made him speak about her often enough for even Norway to hear him going on about it. "Well, she actually uses that to power her hydroelectric plants. But... something went bad. There was a... I don't know what but the dam just... exploded and, and people died, other people are without electricity, and I'm trying to do something but myself just isn't enough. And then instead of asking any of you I don't know why I called Lars and he said he couldn't help or even come. And it would be just fine with me except I know nothing important is going on right now, neither in Netherlands nor with his family and I just... I feel so betrayed and... guilty."

"And why on the gods' green earth should you feel guilty? There was nothing more that you could have done besides coming to us and don't worry, we'll help. Me, Tino, Berwald, Emil, that's what we're her for. We've been helping each other for centuries, when we were not at wars with each other, and we'll come through this time as well." Lukas assured his friend fervently. Meanwhile, deep in his chest, the loathing he had felt for Netherlands and made himself let go of to not ruing Mattias' happiness, rekindled. He decided to not bring that person up though because he didn't trust himself to not trash-talk him and that wouldn't exactly help with anything.

"Come now" he said calmly. "We'll call them right away."

Mattias sniffed again, looking so distraught and miserable that Lukas couldn't help himself. He did another thing he hasn't done in centuries – he waited until Denmark looked at him and then opened his arms.

Mattias looked so comically startled that he had to stifle his snicker and fight hard to not let his amusement show on his face. He was starting to feel a little dumb though, standing there like that, so he made an annoyed face adding "It's a limited time offer."

At that Denmark shot out of his chair and flew into his arms, engulfing him whole in his warm embrace. His strong arms trembled slightly, though, so Lukas started patting his back. They stood there for a minute like that before Norway pulled back.

"Now lets call them."

/txtbreak/

I UPDATED! I'm sick, guys, so I took the time and instead of learning for my exams I decided to finally do good by you and finish this chapter I've been writing for gods only know how long. I'm really sorry it took me so long. :( But now I'm back! Hope you like this.

By the way, Greenland has three, I think, hydroelectric plants right now but can you believe I couldn't find out where exactly are they?! And if we're talking about hydroelectric plants, I could only find one record of such a tragedy I'm describing here?

Oh, and before you go, I mentioned the Pachelbel Rant. You should check it out on YT guys, It's truly awesome ;)

Well, that's it for now! I hope I'll find the time to write some more and update faster. Thank you for sticking with me!