World, Meet North America

The End?!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. This story is, however, mine. Please enjoy.

Countries' names:

America: Alfred

Canada: Matthew

England: (not canon) Evan

Russia: (technically not canon) Ivan

China: (not canon) Cory

Prussia: (not canon) James

Germany: (not canon) Aldwin

Japan: (not canon) Darwin

Italy: (not canon) Edmundo

Romano: (not canon) Jason

Spain: (not canon) Arturo

France: (not canon) Peter

_____________________________

America tried not to think about how he was going to say goodbye. But he found it harder and harder to ignore his time limit.

  "As soon as this semester is done, you're pulling out of college, it's too stressful. We're immortal, not stress-free. Our country comes first, our people take priority."

   He sighed deeply, exhaling through his nose. He replayed England's words, twisting them, turning them, trying to find a loophole. He couldn't, not really. It was true, he was a country personified, he was immortal, but that didn't stop him from being stressed. He wasn't entirely human, but he was close enough to know that prolonged exposure-- even to nonhuman beings-- wasn't healthy and ultimately could lead to death(in his case, a form of comatose state where his mind would try to catch up and sort through everything). Alfred couldn't do that to himself, or to his country.

  Which brought him to the second point:  His country came first, his people were his first and foremost priority. But this point brought him round full circle to the whole reason why he went to college again in the first place. While his people were his top priority, they weren't his only priority. He had likes, dislikes, hobbies, other duties. He was a country, but he was also still a teen; granted, a teen centuries old, but still a teen. How would he know what to do? What the right choice was? Alfred didn't feel like he'd come full circle, like he'd figured out the root of his problem.

My people take priority.

My people. Priority.

Priority. People. Understand?

Understand. My people. Priority.

Something seemed to click right then. Do I understand my people? Alfred realised his problem wasn't about his likes or dislikes, at least, not in the way he'd been thinking. He'd assumed that if he wanted to prioritize his people and their needs, then he'd need to comepletely leave behind anything else that made up the other facets of his personality. While he wasn't wrong, he wasn't right either. He could do his recreational activities and see how his people were doing, whether they were happy or not. Just like how he'd been going to college and seeing(not really) how college students were living their lives; he could do the same with all of his people, go to the different workforces, experience first-hand what his people were working for or against.

Alfred was his people and his people were Alfred, he couldn't turn a blind eye to their struggles and their accomplishments just to pretend that his country was the same it was in the beginning. He needed to bring the true issues immediately affecting his people to the forefront, he needed to make people understand that everyone had different struggles and that no one else's struggles were less than anyone else's. For that to succeed, he needed proof; irrefutable evidence that nothing was black and white, there was a gray-scale spectrum. He needed to our himself back into the narrative, he couldn't afford to stand to the side and watch everything unfold; he needed to be the author, not the reader. He needed to reach out to his people and pray that someone, anyone, would listen.