"And don't forget at the end of the tour to visit the gift shop for some wicked hipster Viking accessories. Now come follow me and my totally awesome pony friends to our first stop."

As they rode behind Poland's ponies on a Clydesdale with blue and yellow zebra stripes, Sweden was positive he'd made the right choice for the tour guide. Was there any more romantic or environmentally friendly way to tour a place than with a trail ride?

"Yo, so check this out. It's totally a museum about a disco group called ABBA. Now you may not know this, but their song 'Dancing Queen' was like totally a tribute to me and how so way fabulous I am."

Although Poland's facts may have been a bit off.

"And then there's these massage hotels. They like totally built them because they wanted to specifically see me shirtless and lying face down on the table. Can you blame them though? I mean I'm so way the personification of sex appeal. Every other country totally made up a sauna tradition for the exact same reason."

...Or a lot off.

"Yo, you guys should see the bikini thong I'm wearing. It totally has Lithuania's face printed on it."

Whoa! No, not acceptable. Wasn't Poland supposed to be shy towards strangers?

It was time to use the emergency "Relocating Poland" strategy.

"No really, it's like so way awesome. Oh hey! Liet! I should seriously show you first. Check out my totally hipster undies Bro-ski!"

Finland looked on with no small degree of confusion as Poland ran off after Lithuania, leaving him and the mysterious stranger alone in the rainbow-filled, environmentally harmonious surreal setting.

"Ha ha! So that was pretty funny yah? I guess one can always count on some laughs whenever ya bring that guy into the mix."

The stranger didn't respond as he helped Finland down from the Clydesdale's back. The moment Finland's feet touched the ground the two were transported to a rocky shoreside. The moonbeams made the spray of the ink black ocean gleam like showers of sparks.

"Ah! Pretty! This reminds me a lot of my place," Finland beamed as he snuggled up against the stranger's warm body. "Thank ya for taking me here! I like this a whole lot."

The stranger nodded in response as he wrapped his arms around Finland's waist, shielding the smaller man from the chilly sea breeze.

For one reason or another Finland's mind wandered back to Poland...and memories...really random memories...

"So ya want to hear a crazy story?"

The stranger nodded.

"Back a long time ago I lived doing a bunch of crummy work at Mr. Denmark's house. So did this other guy...I don't remember who...but one day he snapped and ran away, so I followed him yah? And then the first thing the next day he goes and asks Poland to give him Estonia and Latvia. Ha ha! Ya should've seen the look on Poland's face. It was priceless! Isn't that a crazy story? It sure seemed crazy at the time..."

Finland sighed and rested his head on the stranger's shoulder. "I just wish I could remember who it was...it actually makes me a little worried that I can't remember something as eventful as that."

Sweden's heart was pounding as he held Finland in his arms. So close...Finny was so extremely close to putting it all together...

The air rippled. Slowly a dark purple, semi-transparent curtain materialized just centimeters behind Finland's back. On the other side Sweden started to see clips of scenes and snapshots...all containing himself in some way or another.

Finland's memories of us...

Without a moment's hesitation Sweden reached forward and tugged at the curtain.

The instant he did this two things happened. The curtain instantly became ablaze with lime green lightning bolts and Finland shrieked in pain.

"GAH!" Finland gasped and let go of Sweden, seizing his head with both hands.

Sweden immediately released the curtain, shocked and horrified at the effect of his actions. The purple curtain and the green lightning bolts dissipated, but Finland's hands were still clasped to his head and tears of agony were streaming down his face.

"That was painful! That was really painful! It felt-" Finland's arms wrapped around him again and he started sobbing into Sweden's shirt.

Sweden had never felt worse in his life than now. With trembling hands he tried to dry the tears from Finland's face…tears he was responsible for. Curse it all! He'd done the complete opposite of what he wanted to do. Perhaps he should just vanish entirely. Maybe that was the best way he could protect Finland from pain and unhappiness.

"I'm sorry," Finland sniffled "It just suddenly felt like…like just realizing that the thing most precious to me in the world had disappeared. That was such an empty feeling, so terrible…

…but ya know, it's not the first time I've felt like this…"

Sweden put his vanishing plans on pause temporarily.

"It randomly started happening to me ever since two Christmas season's ago. I'll just suddenly feel this terrible loss…a loss that I can't remember but that still kills me inside. I haven't told anyone about it though…not even my best friend the Magic 8 Ball."

Relationship with Finland has been upgraded from "friend" to "best friend".

"Best friend" = + 200,000 morale

Operation "Vanishing Sweden" terminated.

So Finland had been feeling the loss as well. That settled it then. Tomorrow night the spell would be broken. Tomorrow night Sweden would set things up so that they couldn't possibly fail. Screw the rules about taking things too fast, that spell had to break and it was going to break then!

Tomorrow, Sweden decided, tomorrow night was the night of the kiss that would heal both of them and make this accursed curse a thing of the past.

But not tonight.

"Hey Bro-skillets! Come check it before ya wreck it! I got Liet to wear underwear with my face on it. We look so totally stunning."

No, definitely not tonight.