A year passes, another world conference comes, and this year, a "new" northern Nation is in attendance, his polar bear by his side.
Canada arrives and a few people greet him. He smiles kindly at them. He's had so many visitors to his home the past year that it's all starting to blur, and he's really struck up a friendship with Prussia. He thinks Prussia might want a bit more than friendship, but for now, he thinks they should just be friends.
He sees his brother arrive in a crown of American glory, laughing about something totally random. Matthew tries to slip away. He loves his brother dearly, but the number of times Alfred has talked his ear off during the last year.
"Matthew! You have to hear the joke Tony told me earlier today!" He says the second he sees Matthew just ahead of him in the lobby.
Matthew sighs, nods, and turns around to listen to his brother. Kuma plops down, knowing that if it's Alfred, they'll be here forever.
They stand there so long that several of the other countries arrive, including England and France, and when those two combine with Alfred, Matthew just has to pray someone will rescue him. Eventually England and France are dragged apart from each other, and Matthew is still standing in the lobby listening to Alfred, who seems to never run out of words ever.
Then he sees the tall figure enter the room, coat trailing behind him, and the temperature noticeably dropping as he passes by.
Conversations freeze as he walks through the room to the desk, and everyone waits until he's upstairs to speak again. He gives them a glance, and then disappears into the elevator.
"Damn Commie bastard. He still scares the shit out of everyone." Al muttered once he was gone.
"He's not that scary, is he?" Matthew asked.
"Oh, not really, if you're his equal. But if he sees you as any less than him, he'll crunch you under his boot."
Matthew pauses, and asks the question he's been dying to ask for the past two years. "Alfred, what's your past with him? Before the Cold War?"
Alfred looks around. "Let's not talk about it here, okay. Meet me in my room in five minutes."
And then Alfred takes off, and Canada follows.

Matthew sits and listens to Alfred speak.
"He went home early during the Great War because of the revolutions. I managed to keep in contact with him until Stalin took power. And then, he told me to leave his life, that it was too dangerous for the world to know we loved each other. I promised I'd wait for him, but he just got nastier and nastier, and then I saw what happened to Gilbert, and I couldn't stand the idea of being with him anymore."
But you came to his room that night. Were you just lonely?
"He never did anything like that to you, though. Why not?"
"I don't know. I think it's because I loved him back. They were just scared of him, so he'd force them, and hurt them. But he never did it to me. Not that he didn't hurt me occasionally. We exchanged blows a few times before the Great War, but not unlike anything Nations don't do to each other on occasion."
They sat in silence for a while, Canada trying to absorb the information.
"Matthew, why do you want to know all of this?" Al asked, rubbing the back of his head, uneasy. Nations didn't usually talk about their pasts this much. It could bring a lot of old pain to the surface and make it feel brand new.
Matthew took a deep breath before responding. "Before you or anyone else could see me, I lived with him for a while. He could see me when no one else could. Neither of us understood it, and really, I don't think I can say I understand it even now."
Alfred stared at his brother in shock, but Matthew continued, knowing if Al interrupted him, he'd never be able to say everything he needed to say.
"His house is huge, and he'd built rooms for every Nation on earth. He'd placed his sisters and himself on the top floor, along with one other Nation. You. I didn't understand it at first. You were his main enemy. Why would he give you one of the best rooms in the entire house, and why would he place it right across from his own?"
"But I think I understand it now. He loved you, and you loved him back. That was why you had a room on the top floor. You were someone he truly loved, a person he'd never want to hurt, because you loved him too."
Alfred paused. "So he still loves me?" He asked, his voice sounding a little strange.
"I don't know." Canada replied, but he was wondering about something else entirely.

Ivan was first startled, and then angry when he found a polar bear in his hotel room, flopped across the bed like he owned it.
"Kuma, go home!" He snapped as he reached for a bottle of vodka he had shoved in the fridge upon his arrival.
"No. Matthew's coming to talk to you, and I am to make sure you let him in." The bear replied, and then he snapped at Ivan. "And absolutely NO vodka!"
Ivan sighed, and decided that he'd listen to the bear for a little bit if just to humor him, putting the vodka away. Soon enough he heard the knock at his door. He opened it up, and Matthew entered, and he looked angry.
Before Ivan could get a word in edgewise, Matthew started speaking.
"Ivan let me tell you something! I love you, okay? And I've seen what you did to Gilbert and Toris. And I know you won't do that to me!"
"There is no guarantee, Matvey!" Ivan snapped, tired of having this argument.
"You let me live in the top floor with you! The top floor, where only the people you saw as your equals or loved ones were allowed to stay, because you could never hurt them!" Canada shouted.
Ivan shook his head. "Leave, Matvey!"
"Nyet! If you ever try to hurt me, I'll stop you! But you're hurting me more by refusing to listen to me!"
They fell into silence, both almost panting at the efforts this was taking on them.
"When I said those three words to you, you responded. Ya lyublya tebya, Ivan! And I will never stop feeling that way. You saved me from being alone forever, you stopped hurting people because I asked you to! That's why you didn't beat Estonia for ruining our dinner, or Latvia for accidentally destroying your shirt. Because I asked you too! Ya lyublyu tebya, Vanya!"
Ivan stood there, the noise ringing in his ears. This had not been what he had expected.
"Even after you've seen what I did?" He asked, feeling like his heart was about to snap.
"Da. I ya nikogda ne perestanu lyubit' tebya."
Yes. And I will never stop loving you.
"Matvey..."
Ivan pulled him close, and for the first time in years, he felt tears fall from his eyes, freezing and almost looking like snowflakes in Matthew's hair. Matthew was shaking as well, his tears soaking through the thin fabric of his shirt.
"Ya lyublyu tebya, Vanya." Matthew whispered, his arms tightening around Ivan's chest.
"Je suis désolé, Matthew. Je ne voulais pas te faire de mal. Pouvez-vous me pardonner?" I'm sorry, Matthew. I never meant to hurt you. Can you forgive me?
"I already have." Matthew half sobbed.
When Matthew asked, Kuma left, and the two men held each other close, crying into each other's bodies, clinging together like two survivors of a shipwreck. But they had found their island in each other.
At last, they had someone who cared.

The next day, they arrived at the conference together. Alfred was surprised to see them, smiling and laughing.
He watched Matthew talk, his Russian almost perfect. Ivan would sometimes even respond in French.
Ah. That's why he was so curious.
Alfred shrugged away the sight, and then looks across the table, seeing the others who are together.
The always bickering England and France.
Strong Germany and cowering Italy.
Weak, artist Austria, and strong Hungary who wouldn't take shit from no man.
He saw the way that Ivan acted, and it was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Ivan was gentle with Matthew, his voice soft. Even when Al had been with him, there were nights where the two would part, limping and angry.
There was no sign of that unspoken rage in Ivan's eyes anymore. It had been replaced with another emotion.
Love.
You finally have a reason to live. A reason to be happy. A reason to cling to life with all the pain it brings you, and that reason is him.
As they sat down together, Canada was smiling with joy as he leaned on the larger man just a little.
Alfred was happy for them.
He really was.