"ALL OF YOU BE QUIET ALREADY!"

Of course, nobody listened to the booming voice, choosing to continue their conversations or run around screaming about types of foods. A blond male slumped down into his seat with an exasperated sigh. These breakouts of insanity during the World Conferences had become more
common recently, and now even Germany couldn't keep anyone under control.

America was trying to make an important point about something his scientists had discovered about global warming, and England had interrupted halfway through by saying some stupid word "only snobby British people" use. Then France had piped in about something completely irrelevant, and it had all went downhill from there.

The blond groaned and rubbed his temple with his fingers, a frown creasing his forehead.

"What's wrong, America?" a childish voice a few feet away chimed him back into reality. He looked up at the violet eyes responsible.

"Eh, Russia?" he hesitated, looking down and reshuffling his notes that contained more doodles of England and France getting stabbed than actual notes. "Um no, uh, nothing's wrong. Err, why would you think there's something wrong?" America said, rushing ever so slightly at the end of his sentence.

Russia giggled softly, leaning over the glossy table, keeping his hands in his lap. "I just happened to notice how less eccentric you've been acting the last conference or so. You were less hyper than usual at the missile pact as well."

"Well, nothing's wrong. I'm perfectly... Perfectly dandy, okay?" America said, straining to smile at the taller blond to prove his point.

Russia cocked his head and a concerned look took over his features. "America, are you--" a loud bang across the table cut I'm of mid-sentence.

"I AM TIRED OF THIS! EVERYONE, SIT BACK DOWN AND SHUT UP! ITALIA,
PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON THIS INSTANT! Now, it is China's turn to speak, so I will give him the floor and I expect all of you to SHUT IT AND LISTEN!" Germany screamed; he had finally managed to get everybody's attention and apparently it was going to stay that way.

China had started to speak, glaring a hole through America's forehead when he mentioned how he was expecting the money people owed him soon. The blond sank even lower into his seat and groaned near- silently, frowning and averting his gaze to... study the concerned look still apparent on Russia's face. The amethyst eyes tried to probe into America's own blue ones, but were met with pain and exhaustion masked with a dulled sparkle.

America shifted uncomfortably in his seat, breaking the contact by looking at his "notes" and coughing quietly. He scribbled something down inconspicuously while looking up at China, not really paying attention to the brunette's sharp glares that were still being thrown at him.

He slid the paper forward only an inch or so, drumming his slender fingers to catch the scarved man's attention. Russia flicked his eyes down and let an emotionless mask fall over his face as he read the tiny note scrawled next to a poor drawing of Italy with an arrow saying "idiot" sticking out of his face.

'white house tomorrow 5 pm'

Russia grunted quietly to get America's attention before tipping his head upwards in a nod only the other would recognize.

They both flicked their eyes back up to the front of the room to see who the speaker was, but they soon both realized that there was no speaker. The room had fallen into chaos again; France and Italy were streaking, Switzerland was getting a little trigger-happy, and Germany had given up, his head on the table. About half of the nations had already left, seeing that it would be more beneficial to go to their hotel rooms and get some sleep than stay around here where nothing would get done.

Russia and America looked back at each other and silently stood up and left the room together, unnoticed.

The halls were empty; the only thing tainting the silence was the scuffing of the pairs' boots. Once they had rounded a corner, America coughed into his fist nervously, frowning, and said, "Yeah. Look, something's uh, wrong. Okay?" He opened his hands and moved them around indecisively trying to see what to do with them, before stuffing them in his tan pockets hurriedly. "I didn't know it was so obvious..."

A tiny crease appeared and disappeared in an instant between Russia's eyebrows. "I believe I am the only one to have noticed, everyone else is much too preoccupied with their own problems to notice or care about yours." America let out a quick breath, almost a huff, of some emotion similar to anger. He opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the other adding to his previous comment, "Although, I'm pretty sure England has noticed, the way he's been extra caring to you lately. In fact, he's far too caring towards you as it is than should be expected from a brother."

America stopped, now only meters from the door, his boots squeaking against the shiny wooden floors of the building. His mouth hung open and he was hunched over; a look of comical disbelief had fallen over his face. "You think England likes me?"

"Romantically? Yes. Although I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion. Most of the others who were at the World Conference today have thought the same thing as well." Russia made a point to smile down on the American.

"But h-he's my brother! What the hell?"

"Must I remind you that you and England are not actually related? You don't have a single drop of shared blood with him." Russia said, the smile of a five-year-old taking over his pale features.

America picked up his jaw off of the marble floor. "Well... Damn, this sucks. It just adds to the fact that he would never leave me alone if... if he ever found out that... something's bothering me." America said, looking down at his feet. Russia had to strain to hear the end of his sentence, which had gone down to a near-silent mumble.

"America?" Russia said, eyes going half-lidded.

"Yeah?" The other blond mumbled, keeping his head down.

"...I'll be there tomorrow, okay? But for now... go home and get some sleep." America looked up at the taller nation, and Russia finally noticed just how bad he looked. The skin under his eyes was very thin and bruised. His eyes themselves, once a bright, "heroic" shade of blue, were now dull and missing their daring sparkle. Even his hair was limp and lifeless, and had changed into an ugly shade of dirty-blond, versus the usual full, golden locks that he once had.

America nodded softly, and moved to push open the thick glass doors. Russia clenched his teeth at how the younger nation struggled to move the doors, and how violently he shivered when he was met with an onslaught of wind from a Maryland winter. It was pathetic; and as much as the Russian hated to admit it to himself, America was most definitely one of the least pathetic people he had ever met.

Just as Russia was about to lose sight of him, America had shot him a glance that the taller man had only ever seen on the older nations. As if he felt and understood every pain anyone had ever felt. As if he had the world and all its burdens on his shoulders.

Ukraine and Belarus found Russia fifteen minutes later staring out into the streets, having not moved an inch since America had left.

Author's Comments: I wrote this about a month ago, and I didn't like how it came out, but I left it saved on my computer anyways. So about half an hour ago, I decide to read it again because I couldn't find anything else that I wanted to read. I kinda edited and added to it, and then decided I felt like posting it.

Yes it will have more chapters, just how many I don't know. I'm the world's biggest procrastinator so don't expect really frequent updates. Also, updates will probably be extremely sporadic. It all depends on my homework load and if I have anything going on in my social life or not. It also depends on the evil writer's block.

Thank you so much for reading this :)