Babysitting. He was babysitting magical creatures.

After the MCUSA raid on the speakeasy-like bar, they had apparated to an alley by 5th Avenue to regroup and decide on the next course of action. Newt noticed his briefcase's latch was, once again, up and noted the creatures inside must be antsy. Since they'd need to put all of their focus into finding Dougal the Demigise, and because America seemed to have the trust of Frank the Thunderbird, he'd been the one elected to go into the case for the time being to keep Newt's creatures company and to ensure none of them tried to escape.

While America was disappointed that he wouldn't have a part in all of the action, he had to admit it wasn't all bad. Sure, he had to deal with more magic than he's had to for several human lifetimes since the 1600s, but being able to hang with creatures even England hadn't befriended? It was wicked.

He wasn't surprised when he noticed he seemed to have a better bond with Frank than the others. The Thunderbird seemed to recognize what he was and that he was with the personification of his own homeland.

America marveled at the golden bird, remembering the stories that the natives in the western territories of his country had told him when he was out there during his cowboy days. They would always tell him that there must've been a Thundrbird lurking whenever there was a storm and would describe the magnificent creatures as protector who would even sometimes intervene on other peoples' behalf but would always expect something in return. Come to think of it, France and England described him as that after the Great War when he'd asked about the money they owed. Maybe that was why he and Frank seemed to be getting along so well and why Egypt had reached out to him.

His thoughts were interrupted as he fent something tugging on his vest, and he looked down to see a creature that looked like a platypus but without a beaver tail. Its fur was black and its beak and paws were a light peach color. The creature seemed to realize it had been spotted and froze before looking up at him slowly, his pocket watch, normally chained to the inside of his vest, was in its paws. The tugging, he realized, was the creature trying to undo the chain clip.

The two stared at each other for what seemed like hours before the creature undid the clip and scampered away, putting the watch into a little pouch on its belly as the chain hung out. America scrambled and ran after it, noting how fast it was as it dashed from enclosure to enclosure.

"Hey! Give that back you little thief! Prussia gave me that!" America shouted, dodging a Mooncalf. As soon as the furry creature made a full lap around the briefcase, back into the Western America enclosure, Frank flapped his wings and a lightning strike beamed down, stopping the creature in its tracks as it narrowly avoided getting struck. This gave America enough time to pounce on it, grabbing it by one of its hind legs and lifting it up as it struggled to get free in vain. He looked up at the Thunderbird, giving it a two fingered salute with his free hand as thanks before grabbing the gold chain and retrieving his watch.

America heard footsteps come down from above and seconds later, Newt and the others emerged from his workspace. Tina was holding what, to America, looked like a peacock mixed with a snake as Jacob was leading a monkey with long silver hair. Newt took one look at America, who was still holding the creature, and sighed.

"Teddy, again?"

"Oh, so he's a klepto." America's eyes narrowed at Teddy.

"He's a Niffler, they like to hoard shiny objects and are notorious pickpockets." Newt explained, taking Teddy from America and sending scolding words to it as if it were a misbehaving child.

"Yeah, well, my watch isn't up for grabs." America said, clipping the chain back on and putting the watch into his inner pocket where it belonged before buttoning up his vest as an extra security measure. The watch was old, but he'd kept up the maintenance of it out of nostalgia's sake. Prussia had given it to him when he'd completed his combat training during the America Revolution, telling him that it was meant to symbolize the time they shared and that he had put into his efforts. In a rare moment of seriousness from the Germanic nation, Prussia had also told him he should keep it to remind himself of how precious time can be, especially for their kind who live so much longer than humans. It was a lesson America had learned already after what happened with his old friend, Davie, but nevertheless, it was almost sobering to know that even someone as "awesome as the Great Prussia" had gone through similar events. He took Prussia's words to heart, enjoying as much time as he could with the people he'd met and befriended over the years. He was always sad to see them leave, see them die. But he chose to focus on the good times between them rather than linger on the grief.

He watched as Jacob led the monkey, who he suspected was Dougle the Demiguise, to an enclosure that was made to look like a bamboo forest and help him into a little hollow made of bamboo branches. Tina put her creature down into a bigger, similar looking hollow that had others like it waiting for their final member. Newt, meanwhile, seemed to be talking with the little stick creature he'd seen in the bar.

It was then that America realized there were eyes on him. Queenie seemed to be looking at him with interest.

"Is there something on my face?" He asked, chuckling nervously.

"Sorry, it's just… your thoughts were so loud for a moment."

Oh no.

"I won't tell anyone, but… who are you, really?"

America swallowed. "I, uh, don't know what you mean, Queenie. Who else would I be but Alfred F. Jones?"

"Yeah, but you… I'm sorry, I really don't mean to pry but…"

Oh, to Hell with it! Her asking more questions would only give more time for the others to notice or overhear this conversation.

'I'm not really supposed to do this, but I'm not human, per say. My real name is The United States of America, or just America. I'm a personification or whatever of a country, no I'm not crazy, and yes there are others like me for other nations. You can't tell anyone, Queenie, I mean it. The feds for both governments will be at your door if you give them any reason to suspect you'll put the security of my kind in danger, if you need proof I have memories of a guy in Wisconsin who found out because I was screwing around and-'

"I believe you, you don't need to continue." He gave her a look of confusion and she smiled kindly and shrugged. "It just explains a lot. Like why you have a role in both governments and why Frank likes ya. Also, why you don't seem to be all that comfortable around magic. I've read history books."

"Right… The witch hunts."

"That, and the New Salem group Teen's been investigating." She said, a sense of understanding in her voice. "I promise, I won't tell anyone."

"…Thanks." America said.

"….I'm sure if Davie knew, he'd understood and wouldn't have forgotten about you or assumed you were someone else."

"Queenie-"

"I know, I'm sorry, but it's easy, almost too easy to read people when they're hurting. And you're hurting lots… A lot more than anyone I've ever met."

"All of my kind go through it. It's something we learn to deal with."

"You try to mask the pain with laughter. Why?"

"Because I'm the hero, and the hero's always gotta smile. Even when they're alone, or when people leave them, or they leave others."

"That doesn't mean you have to deal with grief alone." She, trying to find the right words. "Tina and I, we lost our parents when we were still kids. Don't you have anyone?"

"I… had brothers. But they left me… well, more like I left them. I said things, did things, and when they retaliated…" His voice trailed off, not wanting to remember Canada and England's faces when they burned the White House down in 1814. "Anyway, I saw them, during the Great War. Mattie didn't look me in the eye and Arthur, while he did accept my help, his attitude told me all I needed to know."

"I'm sure if you reached out, they'd be willing to talk. Siblings fight, but when they're all you've got, you can't stay mad at each other forever."

America resisted the urge to laugh sarcastically at this. If he did, it'd be mean, especially since she was obviously trying to help him. Deep down, he did know that she was right; he couldn't stay mad at either of them. When he'd seen England during the last days of the Revolution, all he could think was how sad he looked and how a small part of him wanted to go to him and give him a hug like he used to whenever England was having a rough time against Spain and France or with his boss. And Canada… They'd been close as colonies, and America would be lying if he said he didn't wish they'd kept that closeness. But still, all he could respond to Queenie with was "Yeah."

"You two okay?" Tina asked as she and the others approached.

"We were just talking about school." Queenie said before America could respond. He silently thanked her through his thoughts. The last thing he wanted was for the others to get in on his rocky relationship with his twin and former older brother.

"If we're talking about wizarding schools, Hogwarts is the best in the world." Newt piped up.

"Hogwash." Queenie said, offended.

"Is there a wizarding school in America?" Jacob asked, intrigued.

"Ilvermorny. Teen and I went there, and we learned tons." Queenie smiled at him.

"It's in Massachusetts and I'll bet it's better than Hogwarts." Tina said, obviously enjoying this school rivalry that seemed to be budding.

"Did you go?" Jacob asked, turning to America.

"I went for special classes when I was a kid, but they didn't last." America put his hands in his pants pocket, the odd feeling of discomfort creeping back in. He never talked about that time, not even with Canada after he'd come to live with them after the Seven Year's War.

"Special classes?"

"My, uh, older brother was high up in the government at the time. He wanted me to get an early start and negotiated a few things. A lot of what I do know about magic is from when he homeschooled me when he had time." America said, wishing they'd stop asking him. He didn't want to relive the incident that made him start to fear magic. "Anyway, is that all of the creatures you lost?"

"Yes, it is." Newt said. "But we still have the issue of the Obscurial being loose in New York City and the fact Tina and I are wanted by MACUSA."

Frank seemed to grow agitated in this moment. Newt and America looked up at him and both seemed to have an idea of what was going on with the Thunderbird. Newt because of his understanding of the creature's body language, and America because of the connection he shared with those who called his land home. Frank was agitated and sensed trouble.

A/N: Hey everyone. Not too much happens here, it's definitely a rest period before the confrontation with Creedence and Graves. I wanted to put more of a spotlight on America and his interactions with Frank and Teddy, as well as dive into how he's feeling.

The 1920s might've been a time of flappers and prohibition, but it was also a weird time in American history in terms of the relations with other countries in Europe. We were in that weird state of "we're no longer in isolation because of the Spanish American War and us lending money and troops to the Allied Powers, but if there's another big war then we're probably gonna try to stay out of it", obviously reinforcing it in the 30s during the Great Depression until Pearl Harbor happened. I'd imagine things would still be tense for America in terms of Hetalia characters during that time, especially when it came to relations with England and Canada.

In terms of this fic, I wanted to emphasize too that America does have trauma like many of the other nations, but he hides it for the most part. It's why he avoids cleaning out his storage and has a hard time whenever he does get around to it, it's why he's always so cheerful and rambunctious, it's why he does what he can to cheer the others up. He wants to avoid the bad memories and stay as carefree as he can, using the fact that heroes need to keep a smile on their faces as an excuse. I really felt while planning this fic that someone like Queenie would be the one to discover all of this and try to get him to be more open with how he feels and to make amends with the other nations.