Alfred sat on the couch that was provided for the group, they had only seen three of his memories so far, and yet he felt exhausted. All the energy that he had when they started seemed to dwindle. His breath was short and sweat beads threatened at his hairline. The cold silver around his neck provided some relief against his chest, but it wasn't for long. "Is it hot in here? I'm burning up."

"You okay, Al?" Matthew sat next to his brother and placed the back of his hand on his damp forehead. "You're a little hot, but not much. Arthur can you magic him up medicine?"

"Of course, how do you think I took care of you both when you were tots?" Arthur waved his hand and a bottle of fever medicine and a water bottle appeared out of nowhere. Normally he would be amazed at the sudden appearance of medicine, but as he sat on the couch, head slumped on Matthew's shoulder for support, he didn't care. He just lifted his head enough to have the horrible grape flavored syrup to fill his mouth with water not to far behind. "You'll feel better in a bit."

The rest of the group decided to mingle amongst themselves while Alfred was tended to. Some walked around the perimeter of the circular room, commenting and conversing about the portraits and of the relics that decorated the walls between corridors. Two-thirds of the Awesome trio were trying to enter the locked halls. An invisible barrier stood at the edge of the entrance, preventing the blond dane and albino prussian from entering but instead they were flung to the wall behind them. Groans of pain and laughter erupted from the bystanders.

Gilbert lifted himself off the floor, his hand rubbing the lump on his temple. "Worth a shot."

"What were you trying to do, aru?" Yao chuckled.

"We were trying to see if we could look through other memories to try and speed things up," Matthias rubbed his lower back, he landed on his ass when he was flung back, Gilbert on the other hand crashed into the wall and fell forward. Which was amusing, but the blond knew how much it hurt. "It was good in theory, not so much in practice."

"Thanks for trying though," Alfred said from the couch. He wished he could have seen his two best friends get launch across the room, but moving his body hurt. Even lifting his head from Matthew's shoulder made a terrible ache erupt from all over his head, at least he could talk.

"What if you guys go on through the memories without us?" The Canadian suggested. "We've already been though it, and I don't think Alfred has the strength to stand and go through his memories."

"You sure?" Arthur asks. "It feels weird experiencing them when you're there, without you both, or even just one, it makes it feel like we're intruding."

"You're already intruding being here," Alfred grumbled, the noise of the other countries making his throbbing head hurt more. "Just go on without us."

"Ve'll try to be quick," Ludwig says and opens the next unlocked door, 1-8. The group walks in hesitantly as if they're trending on broken glass. "Get well soon."

On the other side of the door, they stood in the dark underside of the forest. The moon was peaking little beams of light through the canopy and illuminated the ground below in soft white light. If it wasn't for the situation of how they got there, the world was very serene. It was calm and quiet, the air cool to the touch, and the ground damp with dew. Fireflies danced in the dark replicated the twinkling lights above the trees to the countries hidden below the branches.

"It's beautiful," Feliciano spoke for the group who had a loss of words. "I hope to paint this when we return, do you think Alfred would like it?"

"He would love it," the soft voice from the beginning of their journey startled the men who stood in the foliage of her land.  She stood behind them, dressed like before, but her hair pulled back into a loose plait. Her dark brown eyes reflected the fireflies as she looked to the northern italian. "This was his favorite spot when he was a child. On days like this, the cold autumn air ruffling the leaves and the twinkling lights, with the moon bright and high above his head."

Before them, Makawee walked out from the darkness, the two twin babies held against her body in the same sling they were in from the memory before. Both of them were wide awake staring the blinking lights that got close to their mother. Giggles erupted from baby Matthew when one blinked on his nose. Their mother chuckled and turned her head to look at her son, "What are you giggling about baby bear? Hm?" He didn't pay attention to his mother, just the strange lights he's never seen before.

She smiled brightly and sat on the ground, carefully taking out the small Alfred on her chest before removing Matthew on her back. "She's almost here, okay? Don't wander too far off."

They looked curiously at the continent behind them. "I was waiting for my daughter, Vinland. She wanted to meet her little brothers at least once while she was alive."

"Vinie?" Lukas asked, eyes slightly wide hoping the Vinland she spoke of was their little sister they helped become a settlement. Native America smiled and gestured back to the scene in front of them. There the two babies had stopped roaming and instead found interest in the little raccoon friend that stumbled across them. Normally, little creatures like that would avoid them at all costs, but here they openly ran to the personifications and played with them. Maybe it was because it knew they were different, or maybe it was because Native America encouraged the critter to come closer, either way, it enjoyed the company the small children gave it.

A rustle in the brush near them startled the raccoon and made it flee, tears welt up in the babies eyes seeing their friend leave. "Did I scare their friend away?" A young girl, about thirteen, stood at the edge of the small meadow. A dark green dress skirt ruffled slightly in the wind and a matching dark grey cloak wrapped around her shoulders, clasped together at her clavicle with a pin. Two silver clamps in the shape of a hammer joined by a little chain. Her dark hair plaited in two twin braids that fell on her chest. " I'm sorry little brothers, I didn't mean to scare him away; but I brought another friend, I hope that's alright." In her hands was a little rabbit who hopped from her hands to the little babies that giggled at the tickles the whiskers that brushed against their midsection.

" Hello mother, how was the journey here? " She walked to her mother and sitting herself by her. Sitting next to each other, they could see the resemblance between the two. Their noses came to the same button tip and plump pink lips, strong jawline and petite frame were almost identical.

" A little longer than normal, " Native America answered. "but I don't mind, it's nice to take my time on the trip. What about you? How are your people?"

"They're lovely, all of them so kind, especially the man who taught me," She smiled and picked a little daisy off the ground. "He says he's from across the sea, from a place called Norway. I hope to see it one day, mother, he's like a brother to me."

"One day I hope, my child, you'll see his land," Native America brushed away the stray wisps of hair from her face. "Maybe there you can see Sweden and tell me about it when you return."

Vinland smiled and nodded before turning her attention to her new little brothers. She couldn't help but notice slight similarities to her 'older brother.' Pale skin, vastly different than her's or her mother's copper skin, blue and purple eyes that looked like her brother's. And blond hair that matched the people of her village. "Mother, who is their father? They look like brother Lukas."

"He's from across the sea like your brother, he left before he could meet them," She wiped the dirt off of Alfred's face. "But I don't mind, he had to. I just hope he meets his sons when they're older."

"They will, I know it," Vinland smiled picking up Matthew to play with him.

The scene faded from view and the room where Alfred lay asleep on the couch appeared when they blinked. They didn't know what to say when they noticed they were back, but soft hiccups from the Norwegian brought their attention to him. He said nothing but walked away, wanting to have some time to regain himself. He wished his little sister was still alive, she would've gotten along well with Emil, the two of them roaming around their land and pranking Lukas.

Her death was what made him cling to Emil like a lifeline. He had already lost one younger sibling, he didn't want to lose another.

"What did you see?" Matthew asked from the couch, a book in on hand, the other on the sleeping Alfred.

"We saw this beautiful forest meadow, oh it was so calm and pretty," Feliciano recited with a bright smile. "Can I paint it when we get back to reality?"

"Sure." Matthew smiled.

"And then we saw you two as little bambinos, you were so small, and your mother, who was talking to a girl who looked like your mother, in the forest that was so beautiful," he rambled on, forgetting the answer to the question he was asked. The tangent bounced from topic to topic before settling on a mumble about which kinds of paints would be the best to recreate the scene.

"We saw Vinland," Lukas said walking back to the group. "She looked just like how I remember her."

"Wait, you know Vinie?" Matthew leaned forward shocked. He missed his older sister she taught them all that she knew when they grew older, but one day she disappeared and they didn't know why.

Lukas nodded his head. "I helped her become the small settlement she was and she grew a little bit from there, but she was never big enough to become a country." He smiled a bit, going through the memories in his head. "She always called me big brother whenever I was there."

Emil looked to Lukas eyes wide in realisation. He always wondered why Lukas pestered him into calling him 'big brother,' he wanted to be called that because of his unknown older sister who called him that. He missed the feeling of being a big brother. He wanted to be a big brother. And he was, but he was never called big brother.

"How's Alfred?" Arthur felt the sleeping blond's head, trying to change the subject.

"He fell asleep shortly after you guys left, and I think he's getting better," Matthew closed his book. "Whatever you gave him worked pretty well."

"Good," Arthur said and sat on the couch adjacent to the one the twins were on, beginning a small conversation with the Norwegian beside him.

Despite being Matthew and Alfred's biological father, Berwald grew envy towards Arthur and Francis. He grew envious of them being there for his sons, for taking care of them when they were sick, for singing them to sleep when they had nightmares. He wanted to watch them grow before his eyes. He wanted to play with them and hold them, to be a father. But, Berwald couldn't, he couldn't sing to them, he couldn't mess around with them, he couldn't be there like he wanted.

He knew he shouldn't be angry with the brit and frenchman, they did nothing wrong, they just raised the small countries that needed help. And for that reason alone, Berwald didn't hate them.

Words: 2016