"...Fun?" Hungary asked skeptically. "You told him... to have fun..."

England smiled, "Yeah. He seemed a little upset at the time and he was saying that he didn't know where to go, so I told him that where he wanted to go depended on what he wanted to do."

Hungary gave England a strange look and nodded once, "Uh-huh."

"And he's one of those care-free nations so I asked if he wanted to have fun. I mean, if you're going to go somewhere you might as well have fun, especially if you are as young as he is."

"I see..."

"So I told him to follow his heart to find out what he wanted to do."

"Follow his heart... Yes, okay... Great. You realize you told him this almost 4 years ago... Right?"

"Of course, I may be getting old but my memory is still top notch."

"Right. So then you do realize that no one has seen or heard from Italy in say... Almost 4 years."

"Pardon?" England asked, clearly surprise by this piece of news.

"You idiot!" Hungary screamed, finally losing her temper with him and hitting him over the head with a frying pan. "Don't you realize what you've done? Austria was trying to get Italy to be more serious so he could protect himself and you practically gave him permission to run off and leave his country unprotected! Follow your heart? Sure! That's great advice! But when you couple it with 'Go have fun' you are pushing it in the wrong direction!" She stopped for a breath and glared at the Englishman while he picked himself up from the ground and dusted himself off.

He shook his head helplessly. "But I don't understand how that can be true. Wouldn't his government have said something if he were missing? That's a pretty big secret to keep from the rest of the world."

Hungary narrowed her eyes some more. "Maybe that would be true if North Italy and South Italy had not have been unified. As long as they are in contact with one of the brothers they'd think everything was okay."

"Well then, there you go," England nodded with a smile. "Everything is just fine."

"Except Italy is still missing!" Hungary was almost screaming.

"Not all of Italy, just the northern half. If South Italy and the government aren't worried then nothing could possibly go wrong."

"It's been four years!"

"Has it really been that long?" England tilted his head to the side.

"Are you drunk?" Hungary spat out.

"I try to be, yes."

She let out a wordless sound of frustration and stomped away. England really was useless sometimes. "Austria!" she screamed. "Guess what that idiot England did!"


"Ven," Romano asked as he looked over his brother's shoulder, "why are you putting that in? Is it really important? And is it even true? You weren't there."

"It helps explain some things that happen later on. And I know this happened because sometimes Hungary rants about it when she gets into fights with England," the younger nation explained. "Plus Mr. Austria seems to think it makes for a funny story," Veneziano smiled widely.

The Southern nation nodded with a skeptic look on his face and went back to sitting on the bed. "Then I guess this is as good a time as any to put that in the story... The next part is when we find Japan," he added as he read over the next chapter.


"Don't you think you've had enough of those?" Romano sneered as he watched his brother bite into what might have been his seventh muffin.

"They're so good, Romano!" Veneziano practically sang. "I can't help it! It's almost as good as that Bolognese we had the other..." he stopped short as he saw a crowd gathering in the middle of the park. "Ooh! Romano! What do you think is going on over there? Do you think it's a show? Do you think there will be music?"

"Shh!" Romano hushed him. "Geez, if you want to know so bad why don't we just go over there?"

"Yay! Let's go!" he yelled, stuffing the rest of his muffin into his mouth and pulling Romano by the hand towards the crowd only to stop a couple feet behind them.

"What's wrong?" Romano questioned him.

"I'm too short to see over them," Veneziano pouted.

Romano rolled his eyes. "Then just go through them."

"But there are too many."

"Hey!" Romano yelled. "Let us through! We want to be able to see!" When no one moved, or even responded, Romano grew angry and stomped forward, elbowing his way through the crowd.

As they neared, Romano barely cared anymore to get through, but Veneziano had taken the lead again and pulled him towards the center of the crowd.

"What is wrong with you people?" Romano finally snapped. " Can't you see we're trying to get through here! Get out! I'm going to go after all of you if you don't get out of here! Right Now!" The crowd around the two Nations grew nervous and dispersed quickly, thinking Romano might be a killer, or at the very least insane.

"Shh!" Veneziano said, gesturing towards a small child sleeping on a bench. "Romano! You're too loud!" Then he laughed at the look of displeasure on Romano's face. "They're gone now! Put on a smile!"

"Shut up," the older nation grumbled as he bent to pick up a stick. Boredly, he poked the child in the side with it. "Oh god, Veneziano!"

"What is it?" North Italy pushed his brother out of the way, causing him to stumble and his anger to return.

Trying to get a hold of himself he asked, "Is that who I think it is?"

Veneziano knelt in front of the child and shook him, trying to wake him up. "Japan?" he asked.