Updated 12/11/24

Liberia glanced down at his phone, waiting for Texas to respond to his message. While the stubborn man had agreed to the plan, just as fed up with the unofficial-official secrecy now that there was really no reason to pretend, he was...a handful.

Texas: Almost here.

Texas: You're going to take the fall if Dad gets mad at us, right?

Liberia: I have the right to remain silent

Texas: you aren't American anymore

Texas: shut up

Liberia: no

Liberia: and I always take responsibility for my bad ideas

That last part was a bit of a lie, and Texas began typing his response, most likely to call Liberia out on said lie. However, Liberia didn't get a chance to see it as he heard someone coming up behind him.

"Salut Liberia!" Liberia heard Côte d'Ivoire say from behind him. Liberia quickly shoved his phone in his pocket. While he wanted to keep plotting with his brother, he knew being on his phone for the meeting was rude.

"Hello Côte d'Ivoire," Liberia said.

"Where's your father?" she asked. Liberia shrugged.

"Probably trying it to convince Sam that Samoa doesn't need to change her name back," Liberia joked, remembering the many times American Samoa had gotten upset about that.

"You think he would be less upset about that since so much time has passed," Côte d'Ivoire said.

"Americans hold grudges. Sam even calls her Western Samoa. Sam also tried to get the UN involved." Liberia said. Côte d'Ivoire gave Liberia a confused but slightly amused look.

"Your family is interesting," she said as Samoa walked up to them, having overheard the conversation.

"I should probably talk to American Samoa then." Samoa said, a small smile on her face. Liberia wasn't close to her, but they had spoken a few times about American Samoa.

"He won't forgive you unless you change your name," Liberia said. Well, he wasn't sure about that, but knowing how his family could be, he would have eaten his shoe if that weren't the case. Samoa sighed.

"He will, I think. Love is stronger than names," she said. Liberia shrugged, not knowing how true that was.

His father loved him, but things were always strange when you were a colony. But Liberia wasn't going to fight her on that. She was closer to American Samoa than he was. It wasn't his place.

"Seriously, if you think Dad is stubborn, his kids are about five times worse," Liberia pointed out. He had wanted to say states, but he decided it would be best not to spoil the surprise.

District of Columbia was going to have his head for this, but at least some of the last memories he'd have would be of the countries that really should have more brain cells being surprised at one of the most obvious things ever.

Seriously, how did half of them not realize that Dad's territories were personified just like every other territory in existence?

He knew they all knew about the territories, and he knew that Britain had met Michigan before, but some of them still didn't realize it. It was shameful.

However, no one pried into things like that, and his father's lie had permeated society long before many of the countries at that meeting were born.

Still, most of the world knew, so it wasn't that much of an excuse.

"People can be more stubborn than America? Are you sure?" Samoa asked, a teasing tone to her voice. Liberia thought back to the many, many arguments that his siblings had had over the dumbest things.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," he said with a slight grin. Samoa laughed and walked off to join the other Oceanic countries.

Liberia sent a glance towards the door, wondering when Texas would come. He couldn't check his phone, as Côte d'Ivoire was standing next to him, and the meeting was getting close to starting. United Nations was not afraid of confiscating things they saw as a distraction.

"Can I talk Liberia alone?" Liberia then heard the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ask from behind him.

Well that was odd. NATO had no reason to be at a UN meeting.

What was he doing here? New York City wasn't even his headquarters.

"Uh, yes. Talk to you later." Côte d'Ivoire said, moving over to Croatia and Costa Rica, who she sat between. As soon as she was out of earshot, NATO turned to Liberia.

"What are you doing?" he asked quietly.

"Nothing!" Liberia said. NATO narrowed his eyes.

"You're a really bad liar, Liberia." The organization said. Liberia smiled.

"Well, even if something was up, what makes you think I'd tell you?" he asked. NATO sighed.

"Don't do anything dumb. Please," NATO said.

"Of course, I won't do anything dumb," Liberia said. NATO crossed his arms.

"I have a difficult time believing that," he said. NATO then glanced at United Nations and sighed, "UN will be starting things soon. I will figure out what you're doing, though."

And with those final words, his little brother walked out of the room, a focused expression on his face. Hopefully, he didn't run into Texas. NATO would stop him if he noticed their brother.

Liberia then walked over to his seat between Lesotho and Libya, looking around to see who was skipping this meeting. Mexico wasn't here; neither was South Sudan or Syria. Many other countries were also missing, most of which were facing crises.

That was normal. As much as United Nations wanted everyone to be here, there was always someone missing, whether they were dealing with a crisis or they just didn't feel like coming.

United Nations had only pointed out when people were missing if it was a member of the Security Council or someone who was supposed to be presenting something.

"Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming." United Nations said.

"If you really want to thank us, stop having us go to these things!" Kiribati called out. United Nations sent her an annoyed look.

"Republic of Kiribati, if your people come to meetings like this, then so will you." United Nations said.

"Another thing. Do you have to call us by our full names?" Kiribati asked. Liberia smiled. This conversation always came up during these meetings, fueled by United Nations' unrelenting desire to call everyone by their full names, something that either amused people or annoyed them.

"Yes. Does anyone else have any complaints?" United Nations asked.

"Is there a logical reason for calling me by my full name?" Britain asked. United Nations sighed.

"Stop trying to waste time," they said, knowing that maybe people were only involved in the conversation because it was a great way to try and burn time.

"I'm pretty sure UN is only doing it because they know how much it annoys us," Canada said.

"I am. If you guys are going to undermine my authority and be annoying about everything that I do, then I will annoy you back by always referring to you by your full name because some of you get unreasonably upset about being called by your full name." United Nations said.

"My full name is very long and is an inconvenience to say. That's why everyone but you calls me Britain." Britain pointed out.

"Well, I'm special. Now stop trying to waste time." United Nations said, "Or I will prevent anyone from using UN meetings for personal announcements in the future."

"Unie, we love you to death, but you can't stop that from happening," Dad said, his voice tinged with amusement. United Nations sighed.

"I can try. Still, we have housekeeping to do first. America, Spain, are you both currently fronting?" United Nations asked. Dad nodded, and Spain made a so-so gesture with his hand.

"I think I am, but it's crowded up front," he said. United Nations nodded.

"Let me know if you need any recordings or transcripts of the meeting sent your way," they said before sighing as if the next words they spoke were about to hurt them, "Are there any personal announcements?"

Liberia wanted to raise his hand, but his brother still had yet to arrive, so he kept silent.

He didn't mind interrupting a UN meeting if he needed to.

Getting this over with was better in the long run.