Of Strange Travelers and Stranger Nations

Something was definitely wrong. Canada was sure of it.

He tried calling on England's cellphone to tell the Brit that he would be visiting the next day, but nobody answered. He tried the house number and finally got a response by the second call. But… Canada still shivered when he remembered hearing only gibberish (that suspiciously had a British accent, mind you) and distinctive shouts from the background. He hoped his guess on those voices were wrong.

He sincerely hoped those voices didn't belong to France and Russia.

Canada hugged Kumajirou tighter as he walked up to England's house. It was still raining out so he couldn't see anything from the outside; there was no broken glass, at least. He knocked on the door, still distracted with his thoughts. America said he wanted to take a break from managing all the problems caused by the recession ("My economy's already taking a U-turn!" "Brother, you still look pale" "Hahaha! A burger can fix anything!"), meaning he could be anywhere. Which included England's house.

He was busy thinking of how England would react to that that he didn't notice the door opening until a friendly but unfamiliar voice said, "Yes?"

The Canadian jerked, almost letting go of Kumajirou in his shock. He stared wide-eyed as the door was opened, not by the familiar thick-browed Brit, but by a mysterious human girl with sparkling green eyes and a smile that almost calmed his nerves. Almost. "W-Who are you…?"

The girl smiled at him, at him, as if she could actually see him! Canada could hardly believe it. "My name is Sakura, one of Arthur-san's guests. Oh, sorry," she added, her smile turning to a concerned frown. "You must have been expecting Arthur-san, right? Fai-san said he was still sleeping, so he couldn't answer the door. I hope I didn't scare you too much."

"N-No!" he stuttered in an oddly loud voice, though really it was in normal volume for any other human. "I-I'm sorry for barging in like this. Arthur must be busy, so I'll just…"

Canada was already turning to leave when they heard a loud scream coming from inside the house. It was England's voice. Like he'd been scared the life out of him. The Canadian froze, very scared himself. England was rarely scared, almost never. For him to sound so… He paled at what could possibly pull that off.

"Arthur-san!" the human, Sakura, cried as she looked down the hallway. Another human, a boy with a mess of brown hair, was already running across the hallway and towards the scream. The human girl glanced at the still shaken Canadian as she said, "Um, well, please make yourself at home." She was still glancing nervously at the far end of the hallway when she made way for him to enter.

Canada only stared at the foggy window, still standing outside, when Kumajirou began to move around his arms. It was very wet outside and it didn't like getting its fur wet. It'd rather be near the noisy people than get its fur wet.

The person holding it (who was this again?) still wasn't moving and it had to nibble a bit on his jacket to get his attention. Canada eventually noticed his bear (uh, was it his bear?) tugging him by the jacket. Was it encouraging him to go inside the house? The morning cold wind finally convinced him and he muttered a quick "Pardon my intrusion" before entering England's house.

No sooner had he come in, the human girl made a run for the room where England's scream came from and Canada realized that the scream had turned to death threats. What on earth was happening? He followed Sakura into the room. He stared to gape at the confusion and finally did let go of Kumajirou.

England was yelling at a pale France, shouting of how in the world the naked nation managed to doze off on top of him. A stray blanket graciously covered said naked nation, though he didn't look too good. The fuming Brit was also wearing a black apron over his pants. Over there by the coffee table, Romano and Spain remained very snug, hugging like that, while a big intimidating man covered them with another blanket. His snoring brother, meanwhile, was lying atop the coffee table with Prussia drooling on the floor, Gilbird and a strange rabbit sleeping over him.

As Canada watched the same human boy from earlier trying to calm England down while Sakura tended to the groaning (and still naked) France, he muttered, "W-What… what just happened here?"

"They couldn't handle all that whisky!" a smiling voice replied from behind him, which made the poor nation squeak. He quickly turned and found a smiling resemblance of France only without the hairy chin. And that he looked much younger than the older nation. The tall blonde man was wearing the white apron over him, and he distinctly smelled of breakfast.

"Are you Matthew Williams, by any chance?" the man asked before Canada could ask who the human was. When the stunned nation nodded, the man smiled widely at him. "I knew it! Gilbert-san really described you perfectly despite being drunk last night."

He blinked. Why would Prussia…?

"Oh, I'm sorry," the human added, most likely at his dumbfounded face. "My name's Fai, the boy over there—" he pointed at the human giving poor England a glass of water "—his name's Syaoran-kun. You already met Sakura-chan." He then pointed to the girl trying to jostle poor France awake, though he looked sicker than ever because of that. "And that big guy over there's—"

The big guy who skillfully avoided the many bottles on the floor called out, "It's Kurogane!" Canada let out a small yelp. Even without those piercing eyes directed at him, he felt intimidated by the human more and more.

Beside him, Fai smiled wanly. "Ah, don't worry about Kuro-tan," he stage-whispered to the nation. "He won't bite. At least, not without warning…"

"At least, what?" The scary big man glared death at the still laughing blonde man, and began a chain of reactions.

The strange rabbit suddenly woke up from where it was lying on Prussia and exclaimed, "Fai-san and Kurogane-san are such good friends!" The outburst awoke the sleepy American who suddenly lost balance and fell off the coffee table and onto the snoozing Prussia, who cursed outright at the wake-up call, with the poor Gilbird barely flying out on time. The little bird later landed on the sleeping Romano's face, who suddenly cried out curses in Italian. The Spaniard sleeping beside him mumbled something and just hugged the volatile Italian closer.

And England was still yelling at the suffering France for traumatizing everyone with his all-skin attire.

As Canada remained to stare at the chaos, half-ignoring the bear clawing on his pants, Fai just patted on his shoulder with a smile. "Breakfast sounds good right about now, huh? Why don't you help me make some?"

~oOoOoOo~

England sat on his chair by the porch, sipping a warm cup of ginger tea. He was watching the rain pour down from underneath an extension of his roof, keeping him dry from the downpour. He preferred to enjoy a few moments of peace away from the groaning nations with hangovers. Honestly, he already played nice and served his whisky on glasses last night and the nations still had the indecency to drink straight from the bottles.

They were barbarians, all of them. Especially that blasted frog France.

Now, they had to suffer from head-splitting headaches and dry throats. It was nice of Fai and Canada to make them breakfast – the pancakes were especially fluffy – and most of them were almost back on their feet. Syaoran and Sakura helped a lot of them move to the table. Kurogane kept things under control as England had a small headache as well and couldn't shout as much (the consequence from yelling at France that morning proved that).

America and Prussia went to brew some of that infernal coffee while they left France to moan in the sitting room. Spain and Romano switched to sleeping off the morning in the guestroom so there won't be much destruction around his house anytime soon. Although, he hadn't seen Sealand at all since last night, he wondered where he went off to this time. Meanwhile, Russia was nowhere to be seen though Fai told him he left already. Another trouble gone.

From behind, England heard the door open and four pairs of steps make their way out to the porch, stopping just before he could see them. The nation didn't look back to see to whom those steps belonged to, but he could already guess. He smiled on his teacup.

"So you're going, then?" he asked after a sip.

"Yes," Syaoran confirmed, determination clear on his voice. England's brows furrowed even as the smile remained. It might be covered with utter obnoxiousness and pure tomfoolery, but America also had that tone on his voice. Always. The nation quickly shook his head before he could delve further into those thoughts, and act more of an old man.

Finally, England turned to find Syaoran and his group wearing the same clothes as when they arrived into his world. It wasn't very long ago (really, it was only yesterday that they arrived), but he thought that he would sorely miss their company. "Care to stay a bit longer for a cup of tea, at least?"

With a shake of his head, Syaoran replied, "Thank you for the offer, Arthur-san, but we really need to get going. There are still more feathers to be had in other worlds." Beside him, Sakura nodded with an encouraging smile.

Wearily, England returned the smile. He just couldn't stay depressed when she smiled like that. He stood up and offered Syaoran a hand, saying, "Well then, Syaoran, it was a pleasure meeting you and everyone else."

He smiled and took the nation's hand, shaking it firmly. "Thank you, Arthur-san, for letting us stay in your house. I hope it wasn't too much trouble for you."

"Oh, no. No trouble at all." Though he wished his fellow nations were the same. "So then," he continued after letting go, "how do you plan on heading off to the next world? As I recall, you seemed to have fallen from the sky."

At that, Syaoran, Sakura and Fai smiled at once with Kurogane looking intently at the beaming white creature on his shoulder. Syaoran looked at the bunny creature as well and muttered, "Mokona?"

Said bunny nodded cheerfully and began to glow, much to the Brit's surprise. He continued to stare when Mokona floated up the raining sky. "M-Mokona?"

As beams of light began to emanate from its body, Mokona exclaimed, "Mokona Modoki can't wait to move! Let's goooooo~!!!" With that, it shifted in midair and out sprouted wings from its back. A magic circle formed soon after and the beams of light began to tangle themselves around Syaoran and the rest.

England was stunned at the sudden burst of magic. So Mokona of all things was their key for transportation, he wouldn't have guessed it.

As the light further enveloped them, Syaoran and Sakura smiled at him. "If we come back to this country, we'll come and visit!" Syaoran called out to him. "Definitely!"

"Thank you for taking care of me, Arthur-san!" Sakura told him with bright eyes. "Please thank Francis-san for me as well!"

Not knowing what else to do, England waved at them weakly and nodded. "I will."

Syaoran, Sakura and Fai smiled their farewell to him with Kurogane nodding at him in acknowledgement before the whole group disappeared into a ball of colorful light, which Mokona later swallowed and departed into the magic circle with its cry echoing, "Wheee~!!!"

And just like that, they were gone. England blinked once and even rubbed his eyes to make sure. The rain suddenly stopped, as if it went with the group. He looked down to his garden and it was already busy with pixies fluttering everywhere and greeting each other. Some of them waved at him and he waved back with a small smile.

So everything was back to normal.

"Hey, jerk England!"

Well, not quite. Things weren't so normal for a nation in the first place.

As England steeled himself to face the little terror that was Sealand, the micro-nation yelled at him, "What did you do with Syaoran and those other people?"

What? Had Sealand been watching? "What are you talking about, Sealand? I've been on the porch this whole time."

But the micro-nation was upset beyond reason. "Then what happened to Syaoran and the girl and-and…" He paused for a moment to gather himself and hurriedly announced, "You scared them off with those thick eyebrows of yours, didn't you?"

"What? I did no such thing! I was only—"

"Hey, was that bunny floating just now?" America peered in, a cup of coffee in his hand and, undoubtedly, a hamburger on the other.

England glared at him. "Now, don't you start as well! Really!" And just when Syaoran and the others left him in a good mood too.

"What? The talking rabbit could float, too?" Sealand gasped.

The American nodded, taking a bite of his hamburger. "Wayme Tony imviteb dem ober?" he suggested in mid-chew. "I thaw fwathesh of might, too."

The older nation groaned as the younger nations began to ruin his morning. "Don't talk with your mouth full, you stupid prat…"

~oOo~

A/N: Oh, it's finally done :")

Thank you! Merci! Gracias! Grazie! Спасибо! so much for staying with the twin stories to the end! I may not have replied on all the comments but I have read them all and appreciate every last one of them ^^

I am thinking of a sequel-that-isn't-because-it-happened-at-the-same-time kind of thing (and it'll be twin stories too), but I'm not making any promises as of now. The plots are hanging out with the clouds right now. Still, London wasn't the only place in the world that rained...

Lastly, I leave a small translation on what the mouth-full American said (and if you figured it out already, you're awesome :D):

"Maybe Tony invited them over? I saw flashes of light, too."