Worldwide Secrets

Chapter 13 - The Break

"C'mon Feliks, breathe," Northeast encourages soothingly. The group of five are in his room, with a now less-hysterical Poland. The Pole's breathing starts to even and he lets out a breathy laugh.

"Guess it was finally my turn, huh?" He says, taking deep breaths. He's referencing the fact that Northeast and Veneziano have also had their own similar moments within their little group.

"Ve, guess so," Northern Italy comments with a rueful grin.

The three tend to use humor to cope with things, so after corny jokes courtesy of mostly Northeast, all three of them are chuckling. Lithuania, who is well used to this from his friends, shakes his head. Finland, who is unused to this, is a surprised by the laughter, but doesn't comment on it.

Wordlessly, Poland flops backwards onto the bed that he's sitting on, holding his arms out wide. Taking the invitation, Italy Veneziano and Northeast flop on to the bed on either side of Poland.

"Like, come on Toris," Poland invites Lithuania. The brown-haired nation sighs fondly, and joins the other three on the bed.

"Ve~! Cuddle time!" North Italy declares, hugging Poland and Lithuania, the two closest to him. Northeast copies him from the other side, only he lays on top of his friends in order to hug them all. Finland laughs, and gets up to leave the room, letting the four friends have their alone time.

In the main room, pretty much everyone is up and moving around, except for Germany. The blond nation is sitting in his seat, head in his hands and obviously upset with himself. Finland decides to leave this be once he notices Liechtenstein making her way to her brother so he rejoins the Nordics, who have pulled Canada into their little group already.

"How are they?" Canada asks upon seeing Finland.

"I think Poland's better now," Finland smiles, remembering the scene he left a few seconds ago.

"That's good," Canada nods to himself.

"Fin! Can you believe it?!" Denmark exclaims excitedly, breaking away from his conversation with Norway and Sweden. "We've got both of our colonies back! Our kids!"

"It is great, isn't it?" Finland smiles, glad for the change in topic. Canada blushes, burying his face into the fur of his polar bear.

"We've missed so much," Norway joins the conversation with a small frown.

"Yeah, but we can still make more memories with them!" Denmark exclaims happily.

"You could come over in May," Canada suggests. "I have a huge tulip festival then, and it's always really beautiful. Alfred always comes up too."

"Ooh! We could make it a family trip!" Finland exclaims, stars in his eyes.

Elsewhere in the room, Latvia has practically stuck to Prussia's side the entire time, on edge and trembling. Noticing this, Prussia takes Latvia off to the side, away from the majority of the group.

"What's wrong, kleiner bruder?" ("Little brother" - German) Prussia asks, taking a knee in front of the short Baltic nation.

"Mister Russia keeps staring at me, and it's scary!" Latvia confesses. The two had formed a friendship even before they discovered their relationship as brothers. Prussia protected Latvia and Lithuania when they were in Russia's house together.

"Calm down Ravis," Prussia soothes, using Latvia's human name. "It's okay, you're not in his house anymore, you're independent now, he can't hurt you like he used to."

"He's just so threatening! And he's always close by!" Latvia exclaims, tearing up. Prussia pulls the Baltic nation into a hug, one which the smaller nation reciprocates.

"Shh, Ravis, it's okay. If he tries anything on you or our brüder I'll protect you, okay?" Prussia rubs the tearful nation's back reassuringly. After a bit, the tears stop and Latvia hugs back tightly.

"Thank you Prussia," Latvia says quietly after the hug ends.

"It's no problem, and call me Gil or Gilbert, ja?" The ex-nation implores with a smile.

"Okay, thank you Gil," Latvia amends, eyes shining happily.

Latvia finishes drying his tears and the two return to the main part of the room. Elsewhere in the room is the East Asia family, all gathered together.

"So what's this about England and Portugal?" Taiwan asks China teasingly, with a small smirk. The ancient nation blushes lightly.

"You brat," he bats at her shoulder, making the far younger country laugh. "Nothing you need to know of, you nosey child!"

"Well when-" Japan starts with a smile.

"Stay out of this you!" China cuts him off in mock-seriousness, the effort ruined by his own laughter.

"Oh come on mom," Hong Kong teases. "You gotta tell us," the teen pulls Macau to his side as the two make their eyes big and pouty.

"This is unfair, aru!" China protests, trying not to cave under the pleading looks from his sons. It's not a well-kept secret that China is a sucker for puppy eyes from almost any nation.

"Please~?" Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea plead together, the latter three adding to the puppy eyes.

"Oh fine!" China relents, causing the entire family to smile.

"Story time da-ze!" South Korea cheers, plopping down onto the floor, the rest of the East Asians copying him.

"It's not a story, aru," China shakes his head fondly, but sits anyway. "England and Portugal were some of the first foreigners to visit my land after the time of the Ancients had ended. They and their kings were interested in my riches at first. Portugal was the first to come, and he stayed far longer than his men did. He was charming, and appeared completely infatuated with me. He even stayed as long as he could after Macau was born, but eventually he had to return to his own land. This was during the 1560s. Then there-"

China is cut off by France returning with the announcement of food made by him, Ukraine, and Egypt, and Northeast, North Italy, and Lithuania returning with a much happier Poland.

"I'll finish later, aru," China promises his family as they all stand and help each other up.