Thanks so much to ChaoticXXHearts for the supportive reviews!

Right: The excuse for not updating last week is that ... I really have no excuse. Left and I are working on an animation project together for our other on-going series, Avatalia, and it kind of made me ... forget everything else I was doing. So, other than being at the consensus that I'm a terrible person, not much to report XD So sorry, folks. And I do apologize if people don't like the states. I'm ... working on it.

World Affairs: Part Two of Three

As they watched Japan hurry off to whatever business he had to attend to, the North American brothers stared after him quietly. Then, rather suddenly, America raised his brows to his quiet twin.

"So, what? Arthur send you to babysit?"

"And a good thing he did, eh?" Matthew responded as he allowed himself to slump. "Really, Al, can you think just a little before you open your mouth. You're not just representing your own country's interests anymore. This is about Australia, too. And while you have the whole World Superpower thing to fall back on so no one acts too insulted by you, Cody won't have the same privileges."

By the time Canada happened to look up from his bear to more directly address his brother, however, he found that the twin was already taking off down the hall.

"Oh, maples!" he muttered before racing to catch up. "Alfred F. Jones, just hear me out! Please!"

"I always hear you out," the twin stated with a dismissive wave of his hand as the more northern nation caught up with him. "Name a time I haven't, Oh, Canada."

"Eh, ever?" He sighed and shook his head. This was going to end badly for Matt, he just knew it. "But that's not the point, Al. The point is that I know you think you can trust all these nations to not overreact but, as it turns out, that seems to be all we nations do. Throughout history."

"Overreact to people blowing themselves up?" Al questioned skeptically. "Seems like they'd be more happy. Saves them time."

This caused Matthew to groan. "It means there's a danger of them being able to blow up other nations, too."

Alfred blinked and looked over to his brother again, ignoring how much effort it was taking for the Canadian to keep up with his quick, fast stride. "Look, Matt, anyone who knows Cody or talks to him for more than half a minute realize that he couldn't hurt a fly. The only thing he gets super-passionate about is conservation, and so long as Kiku fixes up his whaling practices I don't think Cody is going to war over that anytime soon."

"Not that many people know Cody personally, Al," Matt reminded him. "Not too many outside of our family."

"Sure they do!" the louder responded. "He's part of the G20! How could they not know him?"

This made Matthew's face go as red as his flag, truly catching his brother's attention for the first time. "I'm part of the G20 and G8, Al. And no one hardly remembers me."

This brought the twins to a stop. They looked at each other quietly for a moment, as if to study the other's reactions. They ignored the people and nations who walked by, glancing past their shoulders in bewilderment as they thought they were suddenly seeing double.

"Why would you say something like that, Mattie?" Al asked, his voice filled with genuine concern.

"Because it's true, Al, and if you think about it, you know it," Matt said quietly. "Maples. Half the time you're the one who forgot me at the meetings, but that's not the point, eh? This is about Cody. Besides you, me, and England, who really knows him?"

Placing his hands on his hips, Alfred tipped his head to the side and blinked. That was a tough question his brother was asking!

"Uh," he responded. "New Zealand?"

"Of the G8 or G20, Al," Canada continued. "Nations that have the biggest say-so in how he's going to be punished."

"Who said he was going to get punished? That's what we're trying to fix!"

"Yeah, and so far you've gotten the possible approval of only one nation," Matt reminded him. "So, until you've convinced more people, I'm not giving our hopes up. And you still haven't named anyone."

"Damn, Mattie, you're cutting into me today," Al responded with a forced grin on his face. There was an awkward buzzing noise and both nations checked their pockets. As it turned out, it was Al's phone vibrating. "Ha!" he laughed as he pulled it out and began to enter his password. "That means you make me breakfast."

"I hate this game," Matt sighed. "It's never my phone. Superman."

"Aw, shit," Al grimaced. "How'd you guess it?"

"Lucky," Matt responded with a roll of his eyes. "That means you—"

"Pay for dinner, I know, I made the rules," Al sighed before his face twisted into a perplexed expression. He sighed and rubbed his chin as he glanced at the device. The quietness the message stirred from his brother was actually rather disturbing for the Canadian.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"Storms in California again," Al sighed. "And Nebraska's deficit is just tanking on us. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with it. This is the third stimulus plan I've approved and according to Connecticut it fell on its ass. I mean, geeze. I'm not even sure what to really do for Neb except keep buying Kool-Aid, but that shit's getting expensive now and they're thinking of moving the factory."

"You got all that from a text message?" Matt asked.

"No, just the storms thing."

"Then—"

Al frowned and shrugged before pocketing his device. "They're my kids. I just know," he sighed before releasing his obnoxious laugh. "I guess I needed to get it off my chest. I'm going to get yelled at by Pennsylvania again today it looks like."

"What?" Matt asked. "Why?"

"He thinks I need to come home," Al shrugged. "But I've been busy going between Australia and the UK and every now and then to other countries to try and rally some support. It's just about the only thing Arthur will let me do."

His brows furrowing, Matthew began to notice a very disturbing pattern.

"Alfred," he said gently, "just … just long has it been since you've been home?"

"Hmm?" Al asked before tapping his chin. "Oh, geeze. I don't know. I stopped by LA once or twice. NYC for a stop …" Canada frowned and decided it was best not to point out that plane boardings did not count. "Well, to be honest, Matt, I think I haven't been home for more than a day since this started."

"What?" the Canadian's voice cracked, he looked horrified at his brother. "Al, you can't do that! You'll make yourself sick!"

This caused him to snort. "No it won't. My kids are handling it okay, and I can promise you that as soon as this is over with, I'm probably locking myself in the Kansas estate and not coming out to play the International Game for a while."

No false assurances from his brother could put the Canadian's jaw back in alignment. "Al, you can't be serious. This is bad. You can't do that."

"They're fine."

"What about Nebraska?"

Alfred made a face and folded his arms across his chest. "Okay. Touche. I've already got a flight for going back home at the end of this week, though. A few days won't matter."

Matt looked unsure at his brother before having a hand clasped on his shoulder. America grinned that smile that only he could.

"Don't worry about it, Matt. I'm like Superman. I'm going to get Cody out of this rut, fly back home, save the kids from strangling one another, and give Pennsylvania the shock of his life as I sign every last one of my damn Domestic Policy Papers without him saying a word about it to me."

The Canadian's head drooped. "If you say so."

"I do! Now, I've got to find Arthur and get this all-too-amazing show on the road!"

America was about as subtle as a train wreck.

Arthur knew his former colony was fastly making his way through the halls before strolled through the door. No, strolled was never a good description for Alfred. It was more like the country burst into the room and each moment he spent in it there was the threat that either his head or his ego would explode next.

England stood expectantly in the center of the office before shaking his head and grabbing the flash drive which contained the majority of their visual aids.

Thank God for technology. It made the elder nation cringe as he remembered all the times they had to go so far as carry oversized charts and draw on chalk boards to keep everyone's heads straight in the onslaught of statistics and information.

"You look like hell," was the first thing to come out of the younger nation's grinning mouth. "Don't be so nervous, Arthur. I'm sure it'll all go down fine."

"Of course you are," the former mentor spat before pocketing the flash drive and beginning to gather the last of his papers into his opened brief case. "Have you even given the alternative a second thought?"

To this America snuffed up his nose and shrugged, his hands shoving their ways into his pockets. He smirked at Arthur and cocked his head to the side. "No need to worry. The hero always saves the world at the end of the day! I mean, no one here wants to start a war over this thing."

Arthur resisted the urge to sock Alfred right there for even mentioning war at a time as tense as this. He instead rubbed his face and shook his head.

"I have the unshakable feeling that you're not taking this quite that seriously, boy," he muttered.

"Well, you're wrong. I do take WMD's seriously," Al reasoned as he crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side. "However, I do hope we're showing some backbone here, too. For Cody's sake. We can't make Australia look like it's not taking some advantages of this new discovery."

The elder Nation needed a drink.

"Good God, do you even listen to some of the filth that leaks from that mouth of yours?" Arthur questioned before snapping the brief case closed. "I suppose the one thing I can appreciate from this disaster is that you are seeming to let me handle the majority of thinking. So there's that."

The American grew a peculiar look on his face and crossed his arms.

"Eh," a timid voice spoke up from the doorway. Arthur looked over to see Matthew. "It's close to time for the meeting, you two. I'm going to go take my seat. Maybe I can convince Cuba to consider some of the things you're mentioning if I sit next to him."

Arthur blinked and recalled the hands-off involvement of the second North American brother. Bloody hell, they had both been his colonies, why did he keep forgetting Canada?

"Er, that sounds wonderful, Matthew," Arthur responded, how off guard he was leaking into his tone.

"Oh, forget smooth talk, Matt. All you need to say is that I'll kick his ass if he doesn't agree with us. Oh, and drop a commie joke while you're at it," Alfred interrupted.

It caused Canada to shift uncomfortably. "Come on, Al, he's one of my friends …" the thought continued on in a low mumble.

"Oh, sod off, Alfred," Arthur hissed. "Matthew, go sit wherever you feel like it. Do not let your brother bully you. If you cannot stand up to him for yourself how in the world are you going to stand up to the likes of Russia and China for your younger brother?" He turned his sharp eyes on Alfred. "And you. We have enough conflicts to deal with in the world today without you egging on more."

"I'm not egging on anything," Al defended.

"Oh, yes, you are. You're just now trying to get me on a tangent," Arthur snapped. He looked over the tall Nation and scowled at the brown suit, the flag tie. "And I told you to wear black, you yank!" he snapped, waving a hand over his own attire. "We have to at least appear unified for Cody's sake."

This caused the American to roll his eyes and snort. "Arthur, please. It's not like I'm taking you to the prom." The Nation irked slightly to the left and rubbed the his side of his face. "Ow, shit."

Arthur narrowed his look as Matthew walked over, his face spelling out his concern. "Um, Al?" the twin questioned.

"I got a cramp," he muttered. "I haven't eaten since noon."

"It's only three o'clock," Arthur moaned before grabbing both boys by their elbows and pulling them along out the door. "You had better make it through this presentation without that empty pit you call a stomach growling or so help me I will stuff you so full of cheeseburgers you'll never go hungry again."

"Oh, sweet. I'm holding you to that one."

Japan tugged slightly at the cuffs of his suit. This was most certainly one of his least favorite of the Western clothing his nation and people had been introduced to over the years. There was nothing decorative or formal to him when it came to these plain suits. They did nothing to help him feel uniform with the others who wore them.

Or, perhaps, his frustrations were being unfairly juxtaposed to the voice in his head.

He liked the Western Nations and their people. He appreciated their culture and, since he became more open to them, they more than accepted his own. They were his economic trading partners, his close friends. Kiku liked the idea of them appreciating Japan, appreciating him, for what it was. They were not obligated to pleasantries as the Asian siblings were.

China was not so sheltered from the European nations and their 'kin' either. Japan knew this, as did most of the world. He had his borders opened to them longer than almost any other Asian country.

But Kiku knew his older brother well. For all his formalities toward the rest of the world, Wang Yao did not trust them as Kiku or Im Yong Soo did. The only friend in them he found was in Russia, but that had become strained as ideologies changed.

It worried Kiku that his brother was perpetually growing this distrust in the rest of the world. The surprise meeting earlier had done little to change that.

He entered the orator room, glancing at the small stage as well as the sloping steps which led to the several rows of desks that would soon have nations occupying them. He grimaced slightly at its openness and knew that soon enough it would be filled.

Every nation had his or her concerns about this new element and its highly destructive properties. It was going to be a madhouse.

[Notes]

*Someone please tell me they also have a constant bet going between friends over whose phone is ringing~
*Nebraska is the home of Kool-Aid. We really didn't realize this until we started researching for this fic so, surprises! (And no offense to any Nebraskans. We swear, we mean nothing by our constant ignorance of Nebraskan economics). Recall that this is an AU and so this does not reflect the current state of Nebraska's economy which, form what I hear, has been fairing pretty well.
*WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction

Right: Shorter notes this time, eh? Well, there's at least that. Trimmed some extra scenes in this chapter to keep it from being overbearing. I've had to do that with a lot of my story arcs because I don't know when to stfu ._. I'll probably collect them along with some of Left's misc. scenes (we have a bunch from before this stuff even happens because we're CRAZY like that) and post them on LJ or something. We're eventually going to be putting profiles and what not up there anyway~ Fun stuff, man. Fun Stuff!

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