Trigger Warning: Chapter contains mention of Eating Disorders

Eventually, all the groups broke and everyone went to their rooms to rest, as they all had no doubt that would need to be well rested for whatever lay ahead in that book.

-_-

The countries eventually started to wake gradually, there were several who would have preferred to stay in bed the entire day than see what was held in that book. Though eventually, all the stragglers had come into the large living room.

"So, who's gonna read first? I don't mind being the first to start reading since I'm the hero and everything, but if anyone else wants to, then the hero will stand to the side for a while?" He quickly looked around and saw that Matthias had shot his hand up, so he slid the book over. "Floor is yours dude."

Matthias gave a thumbs up and quickly opened the book up. "Oh fuck, there's multiple on one page, we're never getting through this thing."

"What did you expect? One per page? Only on one side?" Lukas said sarcastically. Matthias responded with a shrug and Lukas muttered something about stupid Danes. "Just get on with it."

Whenever Tolys speaks English, he tends to use slang from 1920s USA. Alfred doesn't correct him when he hears it because a part of him misses the carefree language. Tolys is aware of this.

"You could have told me Alfred. I still use it even with knowing.." Tolys was smiling, he had known the slang he used was old, but whenever Alfred heard it he always seemed to perk up a little, so he continued to use it.

"I didn't want to risk it!" Alfred quickly defended. Everyone else was slightly smiling at him, and they talked a little about the old slang, and explained a bit of it to Wendy and Peter, before they eventually continued with the reading.

Alfred and Matthew both have a real knack for languages from being around so many growing up. Alfred holds it over Matthew to this day that he is ever so slightly better at learning languages than him.

"Will you ever let it go?" Matthew looked at his brother while shaking his head, trying to hide his smile.

Alfred seemed to consider it for a while, but eventually said, "Nope!"

Matthew still makes Ludwig wary. He remembers how the Canadians fought in the World Wars. He tries his best to make sure he is never on the receiving end of that ever again.

A lot of the countries gave Matthew a look, because he had always seemed like a sweet country, especially when compared to his brother. Ludwig just nodded his head once towards Matthew, who returned the gesture. There was some unspoken respect between the two.

Gilbert has caught cereal on fire while making it. No one is sure how it happened. Not even him.

That made everyone laugh, because honestly, how do you fuck up cereal? Especially fuck it up to the point where it catches on fire.

"I'm pretty sure that just takes some skill." Francis said, he was really thinking about how it'd even be possible.

Francis, Arthur, Matthew, and Alfred have a family night every month. They don't always act like it, but they all recognize the fact that they are very much a family, no matter what happens.

Alfred and Matthew gave cheesy smiles. Francis shook his head at his boys while Arthur muttered about how that was supposed to be a secret. No one was surprised, as they had all seen little bits and pieces of them being a family.

Alfred keeps a mini constitution on him at all times, so that when someone, be it a politician or a random person on the street, inevitably misquote it, he can pull it out to correct them. He also has it memorized word for word just in case.

"Is it a common thing for people to misquote it in America." Feliciano asked. He was confused on why people would do that.

"Second amendment. That's all you need." Alfred looked just defeated.

"Alfred, non of us know your constitution." Gilbert said from his seat. His legs were on a couch. The rest of him was not.

"It's the gun one. They all seem to forget that it was written before there were assault riffles and that guns took for-fucking-ever to reload." Alfred sounded tired. Anthony simply nodded.

Matthias has decided that if something bad ever happened to him, the last words he would say are "Fuckin Deadmark am I right?"

The other Nordics all just shook their heads at him.

Alfred and Arthur constantly argue about trivial things. One of the arguments was about one of Alfred's contractions. Arthur was insistent on saying the whole phrase, Alfred would not.

Before anyone could ask, the two started arguing all over again.

"It's 'You all are not'! Not-"

"Y'ain't!"

"That is an abomination to the English language and you know it is Alfred!"

"It's so much easier than saying all those words! Besides that isn't even the worst one!"

"What could possibly worse than this monstrosity"

"Y'all'd've'f'i'd've." He said with a tone of finality.

"Alfred, what the fuck does that mean?" Matthew asked incredulously. He was used to his brother's batshit contractions, but this one went too far.

"You all would have if I would have!" He said proudly. Everyone else was just shaking their heads. 

"Alfred, please do us all a favor and never say that again." Francis said while patting the American's shoulder.

In the time it took everyone to recover from the monstrosity that was whatever had just come out of Alfred's mouth, Matthias had read the next entry. He quickly glanced at his friend before he read it.

"We should take a little break after this next one!" Matthias said, and he read the entry without letting anyone ask why. 

Along with high obesity rates, America also leads the world in eating disorders. Alfred has never kept down the burgers he eats at world meetings. He was tired of everyone calling  him fat, so he stopped eating anything that was beyond keeping him from passing out. He's gone days without eating.

No one said a word. Everyone was looking at what they all thought was a carefree country. Alfred sat there, staring at the floor. He was terrified that he would look up and see something in his brother's eyes. He wouldn't be able to stand that.

Alfred cleared his throat, said "Excuse me for a little bit," before simply walking out of the room. He was about to cry. He didn't want anyone to see him cry. Hero's weren't supposed to cry.

It took Matthew a second to recover before he raced out of the room trying to find Alfred, Arthur and Francis right behind him. Matthias and Gilbert were about to go run to their friend before Antonio stopped them. Alfred needed his family first, then his friends after.

Everyone knew that this book would not be a fun thing to read, that there would be subjects that no one wanted to bring up, but they hadn't really known what it would be like to actually happen. The book suddenly seemed a lot longer than it was, as they all now knew, this book would change everyone in the room. And they could all only hope that it would help them, just as the Ancients had planned for it.

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Word Count: 1226

So, we're are already changing some stuff up big time from the original. So, my faithful readers, how do we like the rewrite thus far? These next few weeks are gonna be really fuckin hectic for me so it might be a little while before the next chapter, but I will try to get it done within a reasonable time frame. Also, I am taking suggestions for what yall want from this rewrite. More angst, less angst, angst from a certain character, go back to shorter chapter or keep the longer ones, maybe feature a ship now rather than later on. The fate of this story is (partially) in your hands!  Also, hope yall like FACE family cuz I am gonna be throwing so much of that at you guys it's not even funny. Also, should I delete the old chapters as I rewrite them or just move them to after like I've been doing? Anyway, hope you guys have an awesome day/night and I'll see you in the next update.