I don't really have anything to say this time...

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, obviously... I wish I did though.

No one understood what it was like quite like Canada did, Russia thought to himself as he watched the other northern nation sleep in the early hours of the morning.

Some of the Nordic countries had a pretty good idea and Canada's brother had a small taste of what it was like, but none of them could ever understand it completely.

Ivan was referring to… well he wasn't quite sure what he was referring to; he didn't really have words for it. But it was something that only he and his Matvey could ever understand fully.

Ivan rolled the vague concept he was trying to describe around in his head, attempting to put words to it and give it a more solid form.

The best he could come up with was that it was a feeling. A deep all encompassing feeling of… isolation… and loneliness. But at the same time the feeling was awe inspiring and sublime if you didn't think too hard about and instantaneously terrifying and madness inducing if you did.

Frigid cold was at the heart of the feeling and having to endure all its forms was that heart's twisted way of showing love.

Snow was the first thing that came to Ivan's mind. Snow was a huge part of the feeling and it filled the feeling's self-contradicting criteria perfectly. Snow was deadly, plain and simply. It could harden to hail, assaulting your face and body as you try to brave your way through it. It could lengthen or even halt your travels by tripping you up in anything higher than your ankles, leaving you to freeze to death. And finally, snow could bury you, it could fall off a mountain side and barrel towards you like it's alive and has a mind of its own.

Ice was just as bad as the snow and it loved being part of the feeling's make-up. Ice meant icicles that hung like glass stalactites from any surface they could form on, poised and ready to impale anyone foolish enough to walk under them at the wrong time. The ice that was found at ground level wasn't any better, it formed from snow that had barely melted or on top of bodies of water, just waiting for a victim to come by and lay said person flat on their back.

The wind came next and it was just a bad, especially on the tundras. The wind, Ivan had found, was like a crying child that just couldn't be soothed, constantly howling in your ears and making you feel uneasy. And when the wind coupled with its partner, snow, it made things twice as difficult, but even on its own wind was a nuisance, always biting and nipping at any exposed body part, trying to quicken the spread of frostbite.

There was the water too… the water was just vicious. It seemed like a cruel joke, that there could be water in such mind numbingly cold temperatures, but the water was there and it was deadly too. If you happened to be wondering, cold and alone through the snow and you just so happened to be unknowingly walking across a lake that had frozen over and the ice didn't feel like dealing with you that day, than it let the water have you. The water was the cruellest of them all, where heavy clothes and thick layers couldn't get you, the ice could. It could latch onto you like a pair of strong arms and instantly stop all your protesting flails, leaving you paralyzed and waiting for your death. And even if you managed to get out the hypothermia would set in quickly, without the proper care you'd be dead within the hour.

The darkness or alternatively the constant light were there as well, they were part of the feeling and gave it a certain… mood and atmosphere that remained the same, regardless of which was presiding over the far north at the time. Whether it was the dark, bringing out all your childhood fears and keeping your entire world shrouded in shadows. Or the light, letting you see everything and nothing at the same time in the endless whiteness that was the north, the end result was always feeling completely and utterly alone.

For Ivan and Matthew, looking out and only being able to see snow and sky for days on end in their vast countries was not only a brilliant way to induce paranoia and insanity, it was also brought forth an overwhelming feeling of isolation.

It was lonely at the top of the world and no one else knew that better than Canada and himself.

Who else but the two of them knew what it was like to have so much of their country covered in a whiteness that seemed unending?

Who else but the two of them knew what it was like to be so unbearably cold, but unable to die from it because of their status as countries?.

Who else but the two of them couldn't sleep some nights because the icy chill of the arctic waters decided to flare up as it ran through veins?

And who else but the two of them could deal with all that and still remain stable enough not to push away everyone who approached them?

Why they did of course, Matthew and himself.

People, including their respective siblings had asked why they were both so… What were the words they had used? Quiet was one, introverted had been another. There were several others, all meaning that they valued solitude. Which wasn't exactly the truth, they knew the value of being able to have time to yourself, just like everyone else on the planet did, but they didn't favor it in the same way that people seemed to think they did.

Ivan wanted to tell himself that his and Matthew's constant and unfailing ability to put themselves in isolation was just a natural part of their human personalities. He wanted to tell himself that the human part of him just liked any privacy he got and his unconscious mind was just carrying out its bidding. But deep down, Ivan and Matthew knew that their seclusion from everyone but each other had more to do with their country traits than their human ones.

It all sounded so terrible, when he out it that way, Ivan thought. But he had to concede that because of the feeling's oxymoron nature, it had redeeming qualities too. Snow, for example could be quite beautiful, Ivan couldn't deny that. From the way it could gently fall from the sky, to the way every snowflake had its own unique design, to the way its colour commonly represented unblemished purity and perfection. Yes, snow was gorgeous.

Ice could be pretty too, when it frosted the windows into brilliant swirling patterns or when it formed a crystal chrysalis around trees and other landmarks.

Even the wind wasn't so bad from inside any kind of shelter; it could sway and dance with the snow, making things seem light and other worldly.

And the water, well anyone who's seen a sunset or the full moon in the arctic could tell you that the water could be beautiful, it was usually more menacing than anything else and sure it was annoying to have all that water there without being able to casually swim in it, but it could be beautiful.

Then of course, there were the northern lights, a beautiful show of colourful lights that played across the sky, just for the northern nations and no country had more access to them than Canada and Russia. They were hypnotically beautiful and thought to drive people crazy if they stared or too long. The lights were part of the feeling too, they were beautiful, but there weren't a lot of people to share them with, just the people within their respective countries and even then just those living or willing to travel far enough north.

Yes, Ivan thought to himself, the feeling of being a northern nation was a truly twisted one, it was terrifying and exhilarating, empowering and damning, as well as just plain lonely, all at the same time. But he and Canada felt and understood the feeling and they knew that no one else but the two of them would ever fully comprehend it.

So, have I mentioned that I'm a shameless multi-shipper?

Anyway, I like Canada and Russia as couple, but I feel like a lot of their relationship would be built on their similar climates, so yeah.

Oh and I don't think people realize how much of Canada and Russia's land is actually uninhabited, because it's a lot… them being big countries and all.