Alfred slammed the palm of his hand down suddenly on the circular table. Arthur flinched at his sudden ferocity, and Ivan's' lips twitched higher even than they already were,

"Do you have any idea how hard the Civil War was on me?" he growled through clenched teeth. Arthur and Ivan didn't respond to the rhetorical question. An answer wasn't intended,

"You have no idea what it's like to have contradicting voices constantly arguing inside your own mind, to the point that you feel like you're going insane!" his voice was loud and strained, his chest expanding and contracting noticeably, from his heavy breathing. Arthur gave him a degraded glance, before switching his gaze down to look at the table. Ivan merely continued grinning, his face still lacking any readable emotion,

"And then..." Alfred began again, "There was the war of Independence-" Arthur's head flew up at the mention of the past conflict between him and the other nation, his eyes boring directly into Alfred's. He meant the fire that was lit behind Alfred's blue eyes with one of his own, glowing like a wild fire from his intense, green eyes,

"Pardon me, but I wasn't the one who left you!" he exclaimed in his distinctly English accent, his large eyebrows furrowed in obvious frustration,

"Anything caused by that falls right back onto you, sir!" he said, watching as America's fists tightened on the table, and he bore his teeth, about to spit back a response, when a bubbly, Russian accented voice cut him off,

"That, I must say, is where you are wrong, comrade," his eyes were closed due to the size of his grin, although he was still mysteriously able to look directly at Arthur,

"I believe is was you whom tried to keep him from the freedom he so desperately yearned for, da?" Russia said smoothly, receiving shocked looks from the two arguing nations. Although, Arthur's shocked look quickly morphed into that of disgust,

"Oh, and as if you're one to bloody talk," he spat at the Russian,

"You're the one that threatened to drop atomic bombs on him, and drug him into two wars he didn't even want to be in, you git!" he yelled. Ivan shook his head,

"Nyet, France and America's own self proclaimed hero complex was what drug him into the second one, I did nothing but stand by and watch," Ivan replied, and Arthur mumbled loud enough to hear,

"Of course, and bloody send the other side war materials...right after the second world war ended, too, great bloody timing to switch sides," Alfred, who had still been shocked, up to the point that the conversation of the Cold War had begun, was now looking down, short blonde bangs covering his face,

"Look, first of all, stay the hell out of my problems, you commie, you too, England!" He said, pointing an accusing finger at both of the other counties. England looked revolted, and Ivan wore a rather disturbing grimace,

"Wait, so you mean to say you are aloud to come into any other country, calling yourself the hero, and boss us around, but we're never aloud to do anything to help you, da?" Russia asked, staring at Alfred discreditingly. Alfred's eyes grew wide in surprise,

"I...just-I mean...I-" he stumbled through his words, completely caught off guard by the other's question. Truth be told, he had never thought of it that way, he always set out trying to help. He guessed now that he thought about it, he did sometimes end up telling everyone what to do. He wondered why he'd never noticed that before, and if he didn't notice that, he wondered if there were other things he did that he wasn't aware of.