Ok so I suck at keeping nations secret from their human friends. So yeah.

Alonsi

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Gilbert once again led his friends back to his house. Leading them inside he calls out to Matthew.

"Hey Matthew I'm home."

A clang from the kitchen gives away the Canadian's location, "Gilbert, what are you doing out of school?" Matthew sticks his head out from the kitchen and sees Gilbert's friends, he raises an eyebrow at them. "Gilbert."

"I know, I know, but I already told them. So I thought we could go for a swim or something since we skipped the first half of school."

A loud rumble filled the entryway, "Er and we haven't eaten yet either."

Frowning Matthew goes back into the kitchen, "I'll make extra pancakes then. Gilbert go find your friends something to swim in, then you six can eat and go for a swim. I'll call the school and let tell them something."

Gilbert's friends all watched the interaction of the two in astonishment. "Man I wish my parents were this cool."

"He's not really my parent. Why don't you guys sit down in the living room and I'll find you all swim trunks. Uh, Alex would shorts and a t-shirt be good for you?"

Alex grins and reaches into her backpack pulling out some kind of clothing. "Don't worry I brought my suit. I figured you'd want to make up for us missing the chance to swim yesterday and we'd go today. that or we'd be going some time in the future."

Dustin shakes his head at the girl, "Are you telling me that you brought you suit to school on the chance we'd get to come back here and go swimming. Without even waiting for the explanation of why yesterday happened?"

"Yep."

Gilbert is already starting up the stairs, "Doesn't surprise me, she's American. I may not have ever been introduced to Alfred before yesterday but I do know him and how he acts."

Gilbert is already up the stairs by the time Alex realizes he was insulting her. "You jerk!" And runs upstairs after him.

"Keseseses"

Gilbert managed to find enough swim trunks for his friends and after everyone had eaten more than their fill of pancakes they all piled outside to the waiting pool. It was an in-ground pool, large by pool standards and deep. Spread over the pool on tall poles was a sun shade and around the pool were several rafts and pool toys.

"Why the large sun shade?"

"I'm albino, I burn faster than you can blink. The shade saves on sun screen."

The 'Oh' looks he got from his friends made him smile. Giving a whistle, "Kumajirou, pool time." He tosses one of the rafts into the pool as a white blur barrels from inside the house and makes a big splash in the pool. When the water calms down the others all see a polar bear paddling out to the raft and then pulling himself up onto it.

"Hope you guys don't mind, Kuma gets pissy if I swim and don't let him join." Gilbert then takes a running jump and cannon balls into the pool. When he surfaces he turns and waves at them, "Come on guys lets just have fun."

After his friends left Gilbert started up to his room to do his homework, but was stopped by Matthew.

"Gilbert. We need to talk."

"Huh. Ok." the go into the living room and settle down on the couch.

"What's up Matthew?"

Matthew sighs, "You know I went and talked to my boss yesterday right?" Gilbert nods and Matthew continues, "I was asking him to set up a meeting with Germany. Germany thinks it will be for trade, but I want you there. I want you to meet him. I want to tell him what I did."

Matthew waits for a response from Gilbert after the announcement.

"You, I know that you originally saved me to spare my brother from loosing me. That was one of the first things you told me after all this happened." Matthew nods. "Do you think he'll be happy?" Gilbert looked with scared eyes up at Matthew. "I mean Alfred didn't take it too well when he thought..."

"Its ok to be nervous Gil. If you don't want to do this I won't make you. But I wanted you to have the opportunity to do it. To be honest your connection to the land is complete and pretty strong now. If you want to tell someone, one of the other nations, you can do it. Its your choice who knows."

Gilbert bites his bottom lip in concentration. "You told me once that I had a couple of really close friends, one of whom tried to save me from the allies."

"Yes, but France was just one vote against four."

"Yeah and the idiots didn't even count your vote because of your invisibility right." He lets out a sigh, "I'll tell Germany. Depending on how that goes I may also want to tell France and the other guy."

"Spain."

"Yeah." Gilbert looks down at his lap, "Hey Matthew."

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

Matthew smiles gently and leans towards the smaller nation, embracing him in a hug. "It was nothing."

They stayed like that for a while before separating, Gilbert going up to his room to do his homework while Matthew stayed on the couch and relaxed.

Gilbert made his way to school the next day and hung out with his friends as he usually did before going to his first period class.

When he got there he took a seat and tried to make himself comfortable. Jake had again invaded the back of the class so he wasn't able to get to a safer place. He really hated history class.

Then Miss Franklin walked in. "Alright class today we will continue covering the Thirty Years War."

Gilbert scrunched his face up at the subject they were going to cover, why did that sound so familiar, as the teacher called roll. And despite every part of him telling not to, Gilbert actually paid attention. Even the mentions of Prussia being one of the nations to fight alongside the Holy Roman Empire didn't cause his attention to stray, at least not until Miss Franklin got to the outcome of the war. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved at the end of the war. Something inside him snapped at that. His heart began to race wildly in his chest, his eyes became unfocused as he stared into empty space at a point long in the past.

Suddenly he was there as someone that looked so much like Matthew stood over a boy about his age, maybe a little older, bloodied sword held high and ready to strike. He heard a deep voice cry out for him to stop but the blonde seemed not to hear it. Gilbert felt himself lunge to stop the man but found he was held back by strong hands. He struggled, tears in his eyes as he watched the boy on the ground be run through. Only after was he released by the hands holding him and he made his way over to the body did he realize he was larger than the boy on the ground laying in a puddle of his own blood. He could feel tears roll down his cheeks as shaking hands reached for the body and drew it close.

"...lbert! Gilbert! Someone go get the nurse!"

Gilbert snapped out of the memory, he could feel the tears streaming down his face and knew that he was shaking terribly. One word was ringing clearly through his mind as the memory slipped back into his mind. "Bruder, why? Why did they have to kill him? He was just a boy. Just a boy!" He latched onto his teacher, the person nearest him and cried. He didn't care that everyone was staring at him. He just wanted to forget.

When the nurse arrived they helped Gilbert to the clinic and called Matthew. Gilbert was vaguely aware of the bell ringing, the start of second period, but paid it no mind he just sat and stared. Why wasn't it going away? He had stopped crying, only because he had no tears left to cry. The nurse glanced up when she heard the door open and looked at the five kids that were standing there.

"May I help you?"

They didn't even bother to answer her as they saw Gilbert and rushed him. Alex was the first to wrap her arms around him. The others following suit quickly. All of them offering comfort. Not too much longer and the door was opening again, this time it revealed Gilbert's Canadian guardian.

He took one look at Gilbert and his friends and began speaking with the nurse. With a nod from the nurse Matthew walks over to the group of friends.

"I'm going to take Gilbert home. You five are welcome to come by after school. And no I can't get you excused."

Slowly they release the albino and let Matthew take him up into his arms.

"I guess I'll see you all after school. Don't worry, Gilbert will be fine."

Boy in his arms he turns and leaves, taking the still in shock albino home.

Matthew looks over to Gilbert once they pull into their driveway. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Silence. Matthew moves to get out of the car and then goes around to help Gilbert out. He helps him to get inside and leads him to the couch. about to go and make some maple hot chocolate, Matthew is stopped by Gilbert's hand tangled in his shirt.

"We were learning about the Thirty Years War." Gilbert pauses and his eyes glisten with unshed-able tears as he looks up at his guardian. "They killed him. They held me back and made me watch as they killed my little brother. there was nothing I could do. Nothing!" Matthew sits down next to the boy and pulls him into a tight embrace. "He wasn't much older than me Mattie. He was just a boy, a kid, and, and they just."

Matthew rubs Gilbert's back soothingly and listens to him as he describes what he remembered. He felt so helpless. There was nothing he could do for him. Internally Matthew cursed the European nations. Was it really so easy to kill their own kind that they even slaughtered the children. Its no wonder that Alfred kept his states a secret from the other nations.

By the time the afternoon rolled around and school was dismissed Gilbert hadn't changed much. He was still in a dazed state when his friends showed up and tried to cheer him up. They asked Matthew about what happened and he told them what he could.

"Gilbert just recovered a memory that was very painful. Give him time."

They stayed around for dinner and would have stayed longer but it was a school night so Matthew ushered them all home with the promise that they could all come tomorrow if Gilbert wasn't back to his usual self by then. Shutting the door Matthew looks to the boy sitting in the living room and sighs. Tomorrow was supposed to be the day that they met with Germany. But if Gilbert was like this... Matthew shakes his head. Sometimes Matthew wondered why it seemed life seemed so unfair to his charge. He had learned over the years that Gilbert had suffered much throughout his history. Despite being a strong and powerful nation throughout his peak it was during a time of great conflict and turmoil. War, famine, plague. He had seen them all and survived while his people suffered and died.

Matthew shook his head, he wouldn't think about it. There wasn't anything he could do to help Gilbert other than give him time to collect himself. "Lets get you to bed Gilbert." Robotically the boy stood and they made their way upstairs. Maybe, Matthew thought, Germany will know how to help him. Or at least be able to offer some explanation for the boy Gilbert claimed as a brother that had died. Matthew was only aware of one brother the former nation had and that was Germany. Was there another?

The following morning Gilbert made his way downstairs. He hadn't slept well. He couldn't get the memory to leave him. The smaller body held tightly in his arms. He could feel the boy struggling to breath as blood filled his lungs. He shook his head, he needed to forget. It was the past. It was pain long since dealt with by a self that was him anymore. But the ache wouldn't leave him. He took his seat at the table as Matthew laid a tall stack of pancakes before him.

"I know you probably don't feel up to it, but you should eat. Today's when we're supposed to meet Germany."

Gilbert nods in acknowledgement and eats the food Matthew had set in front of him with little of the usual vigor.

A few hours later and the two found themselves walking up from the parking lot to a government building. Matthew was gently leading the boy who had only slightly recovered some of his former self after the previous day's sudden memory. Matthew could tell that it was just a mask. Gilbert was trying to be himself for this meeting with his brother. Matthew gave the smaller hand a squeeze as they approached the meeting room. His boss's aid, the one that helps him out with nation duties from time to time, was standing outside the door to the room they were using. Normally either their bosses or an aid would join them for discussions involving international affairs, but Matthew had already told his boss that this was a different kind of meeting, even if they had made the other party believe otherwise when arranging things.

One last squeeze and Matthew released Gilbert's hand, "I need you to wait out here for a moment. I'll call you in when we're ready." He turns tot he aid, "Thank you for waiting, I'm sure you have other things to do than stand around out here." He smiles at the aid as he runs off to do whatever tasks he had been asked to perform that day. Then taking a breath he opens the meeting room door and steps in, please let him be visible and memorable today.

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Ha! Finally I'm moving this dang thing along. God the flash backs to high school where starting to drive me bonkers. I'm so sorry for the long drawn out filler chapters with Gilbert in school but, gosh darn it, they were necessary. Especially now that I've gotten this chapter out.

I was going to end this quickly and start the story over from chapter 3 but I think I'll keep it after this chapter. I don't know. Maybe I still will revamp this thing once I finish it. Have two versions posted. Whatever. Hope you guys enjoyed this.