((D; Does Prussia have a cold, too?))

 Roderich pulled the scarf gently off of his head, careful not to grab Gilbird in the process, and looked at it. He smiled softly and looked up at the ex-nation.

"Thank you, Gilbert. But don't you need it? I mean, I know you said you don't feel the cold right, but still..."

Meanwhile, as he was asking, the man wrapped the cloth around his neck and pulled it up over his chin. He resisted humming at the warmth it provided, as it would be too undignified.

North Korea blinked, lowering his head a bit as Russia placed his hand on top of it, turning his gaze onto the larger male, only to have a sunflower invade his point of view. He smiled a bit and nodded, staring at the sunflower, so bright and warm, for a moment before removing the heavy coat and folding it in his arms, leaving his sky blue scarf around his neck.

"It is warmer here than in your country, Russia," he told him before looking around again, unsure of where he could sit.

As another visitor came in, North Korea moved out of his way, tilting his head slightly. The American didn't seem to have been expecting this many visitors in the winter, though he guessed it was because most don't venture out in the cold. He had only come because he was afraid to be in Russia's large home without him there, since Belarus could pop in at any time.

He immediately stopped thinking about the Russian's frightening younger sister, wanting to think on more pleasant thoughts as he enjoyed the warmth of America's home. He jumped a little when the phone rang, having not been paying attention. As Russia answered the phone, the Korean moved to sit on the couch, jacket on his lap.

He looked towards the other blond, England, as Russia addressed him with a smile, one that the Asian nation had seen a few times while living with the larger blond. He shifted himself in his seat, watching the two with soft, curious violet eyes. 

((Oh. I discovered Hong Kong today. |D

My friend was right. He is pretty smexy. c;

And snow kept me from getting to my uncle's. D;)) 

((OMG NUUU. I WUZ JUST SNEEZIN' JUST BECUZ >;))

Gilbert idly shrugged and turned his head up to the sky.

"Hey, there's a storm coming. Roddy, do you see how dark the clouds are?"  He commented in a un-Gilbert like informative tone as he gestured toward the sky. "Unless you want to be stuck in snowstorm, by all means don't have me stop you."

Gilbird cheeped and hopped off of Austria's head, onto his shoulders, and then hopped the distance to land on Gilbert's shoulders, and crawled back onto the top of the albino's hair and settling back down again.  Gilbert looked up at his forehead as Gilbird slung over and looked into his face, tilting her head.  Gilbert then turned his gaze toward Austria and smirked while raising an eyebrow.

---

"Uh, hey America." Canada said quietly and tapped his fingers nervously on the desk, "Nice wheather, eh?  How are you doing?  I heard a really bad storm is hitting Russia and several of the Western European countries...I-I'm not sure about me, but how are you doing?" Canada quickly stammered out the final parts.  This had probably been the most he had ever said out loud to someone other than his bear, Kugamucha.

Roderich looked up at the sky, and his eyes narrowed.

"...Just great. Like it needs to snow! It's cold enough already!" He complained bitterly, lowering his eyes again.

Sure, he just got a scarf, and the weather decieded to worsen. Mother nature fricking hated him. He caught Prussia staring at him, and stared back, wonder what the other was thinking.

"...What?"

Gilbert stared a little bit longer, wanting to see the nation at least squirm in discomfort for his internal amusement.  He turned away and stared out into the vast landscape.

"Heh...nothing.  Just thinking about things~ you know, I always forget what it's like to feel the cold...not the winter cold...like, that cold we all get when we go to war..."  Gilbert said casually and stuffed his hands into his pockets.  He began walking in the direction of Italy, though it was far away, it was better than just standing there.

Roderich stayed silent, staring down at his shoes. He wasn't sure... what Gilbert meant. The cold we feel when we go to war? ...The only cold Austria ever felt was when he overworked himself planning stratagies. The cold... We all feel...? The coldness of our hearts? How we stop caring about the other countries as people and start thinking in terms of how we can beat and destroy barriers... Destroying trust and built up relationships for the sake of our people. He looked up and dashed forward, catching up with Prussia.

"Oh... You don't feel it anymore." He said matter of factly.

Well, the other was no longer a nation. He felt nothing of his country's people's emotion anymore. It wasn't a surprse to Roderich, but he couldn't help but wonder... If he remain as he was at the moment, would he too forget?

Gilbert looked at Austria and smiled sadly,

"Yeah.  I don't.  But sometimes..." Prussia said and entertwined his fingers behind his head, "Sometimes if I remember...or I concentrate hard enough...I can still feel it.  You know?"

Gilbert looked at Austria when his face had changed from that of matter of fact to a hint of worry, "But now you look like you have your panties in a bunch.  What kind of awful things are you thinking now?"

"I see..."

It must be hard, he realized, being an ex-nation. It hadn't really struck him what that entaled. It wasn't something he thought about. I mean... he still felt the same. But maybe it tok time? Maybe... His chest tightened and he felt a spasm of irrational panic.

"This may sound insensitive or selfish, but I don't want to forget, like you seem to have. I don't want to not feel... this." He said, gesturing at his chest and mind, unhappily, broken, and breathless, "This is what I live for. Not fighting, but meeting the needs of my people. If I lose that... the only thing I'll have is my music. What if I don't get my country back? I'll be nothing."

Gilbert stopped walking and watched as small flakes starting falling from the sky.  His breath rose from his mouth in misty clouds.

"What did I tell you earlier, Specs?  Don't you listen to me, or are you too distracted by my awesome?"  Turning toward Austria he fixed an intense stare on him, "Just keep fighting and don't give up.  Everything your people believe in becomes you.  And besides, you never truly disappear..." Gilbert shook his head, "There's...there's honestly more to us than just being countries...if you do lose your country, you may become something greater...don't be afraid of what might happen, because..." Gilbert hesitated and swallowed the lump in his throat, "because maybe you'll become something greater."

Gilbert coughed and shook his head. "Whatever, I'm talking like some stupid prophet. I knew I shouldn't have listened to Old Fritz talk about that kind of thing all of the time." But a faint nostalgic smile graced his lips.  Tilting his head back, he stuck his tongue out and tried to catch a few snowflakes.

"You ever try this Roddy?  Because you should.  You act like an old person too much~"  he added teasingly.

"Yeah..."

Roderich knew the other man was right, but he was still very worried. Of course Prussia could say those things. He was lively and fun-loving. He -did things-. All Austria did was play his piano and stratagize, occasionally make an alliance, eat, go to bed, wake up and start all over again. Prussia was full of life, and he was just... not. He looked up at the sky and hestantly stuck his tongue out, eyes squinching in concentration. When he caught one, he allowed a triumphent smile to spread across his face.

"Ha! I did it." He said happily.

"See? I don't always act like an old man." He added pointedly. nuding the other with his elbow.

Gilbert widened his eyes at the childish behavior. He had never seen this from the aristocrat before, and he had instead expected Austria to angrily answer back why he could act like a kid, or chide Gilbert on calling him old when they were in fact, around the same age.

But the surprise was only there for a minute.   A wild grin appearing on his face, he suddenly jumped backward eyes trained on Austria's every move, his stance resembling that very much of a cat.

"So Roddy, you think that's all it takes to make me believe you're not old? Ha! My awesome-" At that moment, Gilbert's eyes widened and he roughly dropped to both knees, Gilbird chirping in surprise and jumping off of his shoulder at the sudden rocky movement. Gilbert stared at Austria for a second with wide eyes before suddenly falling on his back into the snow, his eyes closed and hands curled at his sides.

Roderich smiled widly in responce to the other's grin, but it quickly changed to an ex
pression of panic when the other collapsed. He rushed to the albino's side and jerked the scarf he wore off, wrapping it around the other's neck quickly, but gently. No matter what was wrong with him, the cold wouldn't help.

"G-Gilbert!"

He slipped an arm around the other's waist and pulled him into a sitting position, but that was all he could do. He didn't have the strength to carry the other five feet, let alone back to his house. And he couldn't leave Gilbert here while he ran to call. But if he didn't, Prussia could die... He shook panic filling his heart.

"Ano... What should I do..." He whispered fearfully, torn between staying and running home to call someone.

"Uh... Prussia? Gilbert, can you hear me?" He asked frantically, tugging on the other's sleeve.

Gilbert's one eye opened a slit as he spied Austria out of the corner of his eye, and a wide smirk of scheming spread across his face as in a matter of not even a second, he scooped up a handful of snow.

"Yeah, I can hear you just fine~"

And with that, he threw a handful of snow into the others face with a triumphant laugh.

"You man!" Gilbert said as he continued laughing, "You should have heard yourself! God, works everytime..."

Roderich stared at Prussia, the cold of the snow biting into his skin. Gilbert was... faking. Gilbert was faking. Gilbert was faking! Austria scowled and scooped up a handful of tightly packed snow. He launched it at the other as hard as he could.

"You idiot! I was seriously worried!" He screamed angrily.

He reached down to grab some more snow, now shaking in rage and not worry. Smirking, he piled up some snow next to himself, ready to lauch more snowballs at the other to relieve his stress.

"Pfffft. Why would you be worried about the awesome me?" Gilbert scoffed, not noticing the rather heavy artillary Austria was packing.  Instead he was staring at Gilbird that was frantically hopping up and down and flapping her wings frantically.

"What's wrong Gilbird? It's like you're trying to warn me about something, but I haven't a clue what it is!  Is Ludwig stuck in the well again?!"

Gilbird rolled her tiny eyes at the sarcastic remark and dismissively flapped her wing as if to say, 'Whatever. Let him get hit, see if I care.'

 ((Have any of ya'll ever hit someone with an iceball? Tis fun! xD))

Roderich just growled and packed the snow in his hands so tightly, it was almost like a chuck of ice. Who cares if the jerk got hurt? It was his fault anyways! He lobbed the iceball at Gilbert, fuming.

"Because! I don't want to see you die, stupid! You looked like you were seriously in trouble." He huffed, frustrated.

((Can't say that I have, Austri. xDD))

America blinked, a blank look on his face. Canada? Where had he heard that name...?

"Oh!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Canada! You're my brother!" America laughed loudly into the phone, quite proud of himself for remembering such an important detail. "I'm doing good, of course! England, Russia, and North Korea are staying at my house for a while. They all said it's really cold in their own countries, so..." He trailed off, tapping the end of the phone against his chin. "How are YOU?" he said after a moment, his laughter once again filling the room.

Russia looked from England to North Korea and smiled. "It is nice to have friends with you, da?" he asked, stifling a yawn. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept a full night without waking up. "Friends make wars much easier to fight."

Canada sighed slightly.  At least his brother didn't take as long to remember him as England did. He pulled the phone away from his ear as he heard the loud laughing on the other end.

"Really?" Canada said quietly and raised an eyebrow, "W-why? Is it warmer over there?"  Canada was confused.  Surely it wasn't that cold when Spring was just around the corner in Eastern Europe?

"U-um..." Canada continued, not sure if he could hold America's attention any longer, "I-I was just wondering if maybe you had any battle plans for the war?  B-because I wrote some up, and I was wondering if maybe we could hold a meeting to discuss it with each other...?"

He definitly didn't like the idea of war.  But he knew that by the way things were going, one wouldn't be inevitable in the near future. And Canada could only help but feel that he should at least prepare to do his part.

---

Gilbert let out a (un-manly) yelp of surprise and covered his face as the treacherous ball of ice smashed right above his eye.

"Oh...God... Austria! You know, for such a wuss, you really don't throw like one!" Gilbert grumbled, "You dare mess with my awesome?!" he exclaimed and shoveled up a handful of snow and threw it in Austria's direction, "TAKE THIS!"

(Glue, we're being silly ;o)

((Yes. Yes, we are. Are we supposed to be serious? >.>))

Roderich let out a silent hiss when he was struck with a wad of snow and scowled, gathering some more snow.

"You're so childish, Gilbert! Startung a snowball fight at your age? Please. At least I'm mature enough not to go along with your little games." He drawled.

Austria launched a snowball at his albino compainion, not seeming to notice how his actions contradicted with his words. His frown deepened as he seemed to realize something.

"And I'm not a wimp, thank you very much."

((Pffffffft, naw. We make dis cou ;D)

Gilbert laughed as he dodged the snowball.

"HA! Prove it Roddy! I could tell you one hundred, no, my awesome could tell you ONE THOUSAND reasons why you're a wuss!"

Gilbert leaned over to gather up another snowball (meanwhile, Gilbird was flying in frantic circles, trying to avoid one white m*censored* after another) and stopped, looking around himself in a confused manner.

"Uh, Roddy? Where did Japan go...? And not that my awesome has no sense of direction, but where the hell are we?"