Italy had a plan; a really, really good plan. It was a plan that, after being completed, would make things perfect and happy again. It was a plan that would stop Germany from being so mad (...well, madder than usual) and that would prevent Austria from losing his mind (more than he already had).

Italy would find a shooting star and wish for things to be back to the way they used to be - the plan was so foolproof, Italy had to pat himself on the back! He was shocked that he hadn't thought of it before.

"Everything's going to be happy again," Italy murmured, gazing up at the night sky as he walked. "No more scary reporters to chase us around...I'm going to miss staying with Austria and Hungary, but things will be better this way..."

Italy paused his stride and looked around, considering which way to walk. Where would a shooting star go if it wanted to go somewhere?

...The forest of course! With a smile on his face, Italy hurried off in the direction of where he could vaguely remember a forest being.

...

"Italy's missing," Austria told Germany, his voice matter-of-fact and revealing no hints of concern.

"I noticed," Germany responded, his voice just as blank.

There was a brief pause.

"I'm not concerned," Austria told him.

"Neither am I."

There was another pause.

"...I think we should look for him." Germany turned to stare at Austria; Austria flushed slightly. "Not because I care of course! Just for...for..."

" - Our own good," Germany finished. Austria nodded, quickly.

"Yes," Germany said. "...Not because I care of course. Just...I mean who knows what Italy could get up to on his own?"

"I agree." Austria nodded his head. "I don't care about him, I just want to save myself...and did I mention that I don't care?"

"Are you two going to go or not?" Hungary demanded, walking into the room. "Who knows what could be happening to Italy while you two waste time?!"

Germany paled. "What do you mean what could -" He shook his head. "I'm not concern!"

"Concern is for people who are not me!" Austria added, firmly.

Hungary let out a loud sigh. "Whatever - are you going or not?"

"You aren't coming?" Germany asked, frowning slightly.

Hungary snorted. "Of course not - this is the first time I'm going to have the house to myself since all this happened. Do you honestly think I'm going to pass that up - I care for Italy and all but...honestly."

Germany and Austria exchanged glances, before getting up and heading towards the door.

...

"We're lost," Germany told Austria, around half an hour later. Somehow they had found themselves on some deserted street that, to their own bad-luck, happened to be completely devoid of light.

"This is all your fault," Austria grumbled, struggling to see in the darkness.

"How is it my fault?!" Germany spluttered. "This is your country!"

"Italy is your friend," Austria retorted. "I blame you."

"He's not my friend!" Germany protested, blushing slightly. "And you raised him for a time so you're to blame for him getting lost!"

"How am I to blame?!" Austria demanded.

"You probably instilled all that horrible coordination into him!"

"Yes well...Hungary raised him too! And she dressed him in women's clothes - tell me that wasn't damaging!"

"You let it happen!" Germany snapped back.

"Of course I let it happen - I thought he was a girl!"

"Like I said - you're fault."

"Well, what was I supposed to do?!" Austria roared. "Pull up his skirt and - and -" His voice cut off and his cheeks turned red.

"I think we should stop this line of conversation before it progresses any further," Germany said, embarrassment in his voice.

"Agreed," Austria said, quickly.

They proceeded to walk in silence.

"I think there's some light over there," Austria said, pointing into the distance. He squinted. "Yes, there is - I think that building over there must still be open. We could go and get some directions from inside."

"Good idea," Germany said. "...Directions to where?"

"Don't push me," Austria replied, stiffly.

Germany frowned slightly but shrugged his head and followed behind the dark-haired nation.

...

"THE AWESOME ME HAS ARRIVED!"

The door flung open and Hungary jumped in alarm, letting go off the bottle she had been holding. She managed to catch it at the last moment before it could clatter to the floor.

"Prussia!" she exclaimed, her eyes growing wide at the sight of the person standing in front of her. "Don't scare me like that you idiot! Couldn't you have knocked on the door?!"

"Why, did I scare you?" Prussia asked, strolling into the house with a smirk stretched across his face.

"No," Hungary retorted, narrowing her eyes. "You did interrupt the nice time I was having though. Where have you been, anyway?"

"In America, doing some cool stuff with America and that other dude." Prussia flung himself down on the sofa. "Breaking into government bases, getting ideas for new armies - that sort of thing."

"...Oh. Well couldn't you have stayed in America?" Hungary took a swing from the bottle.

"I got bored." Prussia leaned forward and peered at the bottle, curiously. "Is that alcohol?"

"It's mine," Hungary snapped, holding the bottle possessively. "This is my private time - stop interrupting. They'll all be back soon."

"Yeah, where is everyone?" Prussia gazed around the room. "I come back expecting an awesome "hey Prussia, never leave us again, we almost died without your awesome self!" but instead I get you drinking away your miseries with a bottle of alcohol?"

"I'm not drinking away my misery!" Hungary retorted. "I'm enjoying some me-time - I told you that."

"I don't blame you," Prussia continued, ignoring Hungary's statement. "I mean, it's a pretty screwed up world...everyone's out there, trying to interview us, and take pictures of us, and break into our homes, and write about our personal lives...and things are probably never going to go back to the way they were, and we'll probably spend the rest of eternity being stalked..."

Hungary stared at him with wide eyes for a moment; then she gulped down the bottle in one swallow.

"...And you know what the worst part of it is?" Prussia let out a mournful sigh, his shoulder's slumping. "I'm not part of any of it."

"I need more alcohol," Hungary muttered, peeling herself off the sofa.

"Is is Austria's?" Prussia called after her.

"Yes."

"Awesome - get me every bottle you can find." Prussia flung himself onto the sofa. "Hungary, let's have a chat about how screwed up this world is."

...

"A strip club!" Germany snarled, staring in panic at Austria, who looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "How the hell did we end up in a strip club?!"

"I..I...I don't know!" Austria stuttered. "I...I think we...I mean...my mind's gone blank!"

"We need to get out of here," Germany hissed.

"I can't see the door!" Austria wailed. "It's all blurred -"

"What do you mean?!" Germany spat. "This door is right over there!"

"Too many half-naked women to see..." Austria muttered, closing his eyes and trembling slightly. "I'm a faithful husband...I'm a faithful husband! How could I have possibly ended up here...how could I have possibly ended up in a strip-club...?"

"Stop complaining and let's get out of here!" Germany yelled, over the loud music.

"Naked women everywhere -"

And so, that was how the two biggest prudes in the world found themselves in the middle of an Austrian strip-club.

"...My god, my country has strip clubs!"

...

Italy stared up at the sky, a blank expression on his face. He'd lost track of just how long he had been waiting for a shooting star; in fact, his mind had already started to wander away from his quest.

"...Germany is so strong and brave," he sighed. "Why can't I be strong and brave like Germany? Why do I have to be so weak and pathetic..."

He looked around, almost as if searching for someone to answer his question. Of course, he was met with silence.

"I don't want to be weak," he mumbled. "I want to be an amazing nation...like Germany! I don't want Germany to always have to protect me - maybe if I was stronger, Germany wouldn't be so mad all the time! I don't want Germany to be mad all the time..."

Once again, he was met with silence.

"...Germany is so amazing. Why can't I be amazing too? I don't want to be a scaredy-cat anymore..."

Something flashed out of the corner of his eye; he dragged his eyes over to it, his eyes widening at what he saw.

"A shooting star!" he exclaimed, sitting up in surprise. "Ve, this is so great! Now I can wish for things to go back to the way they were!"

He opened his mouth to make his wish - and -

" - I want to become the ruler of the world!"

...Okay so that hadn't been part of the plan.

Italy watched the star disappear at sat still, staring into the darkness. He frowned slightly; maybe he shouldn't have said that. He'd really wanted to ask for things to be normal again but...all that thought of being as amazing as Germany had changed his direction of thought! Being ruler of the world had seemed nice at the time...after all, that would make him as strong as Germany! No, stronger. That way he could protect Germany for once.

"Oh, I'm so selfish!" Italy wailed, screwing up his eyes. "Now things will never be good again, and it's all my fault! I don't want to be ruler of the world anymore - take it back, take it back! Please take it back!"

There was no response (obviously) and Italy let out a loud wail.

"How do I give back a wish?" he cried out. "I want to give it back! Can someone tell me how?!"

Italy sat there for a few moments, a look of distress on his face. How could you hand back a wish? There had to be some sort of process...right? You could get refunds for things like clothes and furniture, so surely you could get ones for wishes...right?

"Germany will know!" Italy announced, leaping up. He hurried off in the other direction. Yes...of course Germany would know! Germany knew everything!

...

"That was horrific," Germany muttered, his shoulders hunched as he walked. "I honestly have no idea what France see's in these things."

"He's France," Austria pointed out.

"True."

The two walked in a silence for a few moments, refusing to glance at each other. Germany stared at the wide expanse of darkness in front of him, letting out a sigh.

"So what are we going to -"

"Germany! Austria!"

Something slammed into Germany from behind; he managed to prevent himself from stumbling forward and whirled around.

"Italy!" he snapped at the figure standing behind him. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Do you know what you made us do?!" Austria snarled.

"I did a horrible thing!" Italy moaned. "I...I...I had a chance to make things go back to the way they were before everyone found out about us! But...I messed up!"

Germany and Austria stared at him.

"...What the hell did you just say?!" Germany demanded.

"I could have fixed things!" Italy screwed his eyes up. "You see - there was this shooting star, and I could have wished for things to be good again, except I wished to be ruler of the world instead! Germany, I don't deserve to be ruler of the world!"

Austria and Germany's shoulders relaxed simultaneously.

"Thank god," Austria muttered. "I thought he was serious for a moment."

"No," Germany responded, continuing his walk forward. "Just Italy, blabbering on about nothing as usual."

...

The sight they were greeted with when they opened the door to Austria's home, actually made Austria scream out loud.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he howled, as Prussia slammed his coffee table onto the ground, breaking it in half.

"Bruder!" Germany yelled, glaring at Prussia, who ignored him and reached for a nearby lamp. Hungary beat him to it, grabbing it and smashing it against a nearby wall.

"Hungary!" Austria yelled in protest. He suddenly paled. "Oh god...she knows about the strip club! She knows about the strip club!"

A nearby ornament was smashed an inch away from the startled trio.

"What are you two doing?!" Germany demanded.

"Hey un-awesome loser, from his un-awesome place, which is clearly not as awesome as Prussia!" Prussia slurred, clearly drunk. Beside him, Hungary let out a high pitched giggle.

"Hungary is way better than Prussia!"

"Is she drunk?" Austria asked in disbelief.

"I am awesome!" Prussia continued, staggering forward. "AND THIS WORLD IS NOT!"

"We're taking out our anger on your stuff," Hungary giggled, beaming at Austria. She reached out and smashed a picture frame inches away from his head. "It's so much fun!"

"I should have wished for things to be better!" Italy wailed. "Oh Germany, help me take back my wish!"

...

AN:

Haha okay, I know not much happened in this chapter to help with the storyline, but I just thought I'd give these characters a bit of time, because they haven't had much in the story so far.

Hopefully this was worthwhile; tell me what you think :D