Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
-Dr. Seuss

***Fallen Stars***

Ivan coughed heavily into his fist as he walked with his other three royalty members with him. They were walking through the forest, something Ivan had learned to get over…slightly. The nightmares he still got from the wrath of that Joker made him a little nervous around the forest, but he could get over that eventually.

"Are you alright?" Natalia asked immediately after the cough and Ivan nodded simply, clearing his throat. He'd heard how bad Vash had gotten and he refused to let it progress that far. He wouldn't be useless and in bed when his own country still needed him. It had only been 10 years and everything was still practically uncontrollable.

"This could be karma for what you did to-"

Ivan cut Elizaveta off before she could do anything stupid. "Do you want him to hear you say that name so he can come and destroy our new castle?"

"We don't know what he can hear," Roderich rolled his eyes.

"We are here," Ivan sighed, walking quickly up to the rather small castle. After what had happened, Gilbert had been so pissed off that he managed to completely destroy their old castle in a matter of seconds. Scars covered his body from that day, not only from the Joker, but from the thing he'd killed as well.

"I don't think I'll be able to get used to this change," Elizaveta sighed as they approached the door. They'd been staying there for quite a while, but they walked out of it any chance they got. "The last one was just so pretty."

"Peter was the one that said it was a historical relic," Natalia stated. "And Gilbert was the one that destroyed it. I'm sure he was punished by that thought."

"And then Alfred," Roderich said. "I am very happy I didn't have to see him angry again after all these years. The few times I've seen it has been rather intimidating."

"And you think a simple King can do anything against a God?" Ivan asked. "We have work to get done, it will do us nothing if we gossip this whole time. If you feel like talking about it later, you can do it after we are done with our important work. Natalia, I will need you to go to that town we received news about and see if you have to take anyone into our custody. You should leave as soon as we are done here."

"Yes, brother," Natalia nodded.

"What do we do when we run out of room in this next castle?" Elizaveta asked. "We can't just keep arresting criminals and keep them there. We were given a scale by Alfred to judge how long we keep them. We can let them go."

"Or perhaps we can wait until a Joker gets mad and he can kill all of the convicts we have in our dungeon," Ivan sighed. "That way we can start over again."

"That was an accident, I'm sure," Elizaveta said.

"In any case," Ivan said. "We have received a lot of complaints about stealing livestock. If that is the case, I propose that we create a new law for it."

"Fine," Roderich said. "Which one of us will be the unlucky soul to give the news across the country?"

"I would do it if you asked it of me, brother," Natalia said.

"No," Ivan shook his head. "We can send someone from the military to deliver it. They will need to learn to respect those not in royalty."

"So what will this law be?" Elizaveta chimed. "People are already burning their livestock with their marks, we could leave it to be decided by that."

"And then people will just burn the mark off and put their own on it," Roderich said. "We can make that illegal as much as we want, but it will still be done in an attempt to gain more livestock."

"Then we simply make the punishment too great a risk," Ivan shrugged. "The punishment for murder is death, the punishment for stealing is to lose nearly all of your belongings."

"Do you intend to burn people that steal livestock?" Elizaveta asked.

"Depending on how serious it is," Ivan said simply.

"And once Alfred hears of this?" Elizaveta asked.

"I have already been attacked by a Joker and scolded by the King of Kings before," Ivan said. "I doubt he can do much to deter me from doing what I want to do."

"I don't think this is a proper course of action to take," Roderich protested.

"Are you going against your King?" Natalia demanded. "He is the ruler here and he has more power than you!"

"Not to mention someone to back up every single move he makes," Elizaveta sighed, glaring at Ivan. Over the past years, Ivan had grown more…hardened. More difficult to deal with. His views on how a country should be ruled were rather extreme and the people of the country made a point to make that known to the royalty. But Ivan was sure that they would grow used to it eventually. It was Ivan's idea to try to make the punishment worse than the crime to avert people from it, though Elizaveta and Roderich insisted on the punishment being equal to that of the crime. Ivan only grew more hard headed after what had happened with Gilbert's dragon, though Natalia continued to insist on his side, despite how crazy it seemed t obe sometimes.

"Need I remind you what the punishment is for treason?" Ivan hummed and Elizaveta sighed, shaking her head. Ivan started a series of coughs and Elizaveta had to force herself to hide her smile. If the disease progressed like Vash's had, he would be incapacitated eventually. And then the King's responsibility would fall to the second highest royalty. The Queen. Elizaveta just had to bide her time and then she could try to turn this country around for the better. For the sake of the people.

***Fallen Stars***

"Dad was so right about this place," Alfred sighed happily, stretching out on the beach, listening to the rolling waves. Townspeople scurried around them, fishing or diving for shells. They had been more than happy to accommodate for the royalty, though Alfred insisted that they didn't need them to give them food or shelter. They'd been through worse in the past and could handle themselves easily enough. He heard a few children laugh as they ran by him and Alfred couldn't stop that smile from growing on his face. Those children never had to deal with the hardships of the cold weeks or the acid rain. They only heard legends of thieves' guilds and Raiders. Sadly, they would only be hearing legends about dragons as well.

"I know Gilbert will be coming soon," Matthew said beside him, pulling his legs close to his chest. "It's been a year today after all."

"He's still pissed off, I don't think it's a good thing to remind him about what happened," Alfred sighed. "I remember what he looked like when he came here after destroying Ivan's castle."

"He's calmed down a little bit," Matthew sighed. "I hate to see him so sad and angry."

"Considering how long he's lived," Arthur sighed from Alfred's other side, "this hasn't been near long enough to get over it. To him, a simple year is like a second to us. Our best guess is to just give him more time to cool off."

"It's been a year since Ivan killed Gilbird," Matthew said. "One way to collect himself is to recognize this day and pay his respects. That's what Hearts has been doing to get over what happened to Kiku."

"Rest his soul," Alfred muttered.

"I am away for two minutes and I come back to see all of you depressed?" Yao scoffed, walking up to them and kicking sand into Alfred's face "accidentally".

"Mattie's fault!" Alfred sat upright, pointing at his little brother, who glared at him.

"There's no use in waiting around for the Joker to show up," Arthur scoffed, swiftly standing up and looking out into the steadily moving ocean. It had calmed down quite a lot since Alfred had first seen it, when there were nearly constant, terrifying storms. He'd only seen it a few times when it was as calm as his father described it.

"Looks like everyone's gossiping about me today," Gilbert sighed behind them and all four looked around to him. "But it looks like you're the happiest of all four countries, so who am I to complain?"

"Gilbert," Matthew muttered and quickly got up to hug the Joker. Gilbert sighed heavily and hugged him back.

"You still sure that today is a good idea?" Gilbert sighed.

"Look," Alfred said. "I'm sorry about what Ivan did, we all are. Thanks to Clubs, dragons no longer exist, as far as we know. But we shouldn't just think about it every day in hopes something will change."

"That's what I've been saying!" Peter whined, popping up behind Arthur, who jumped slightly before attempting to kick the smaller Joker away from him. "But he keeps on sulking!"

"In a way, it's an improvement," Matthew shrugged. "You aren't rampaging anymore. I was a little worried with the way the weather patterns were for a few months there."

"Sorry," Gilbert muttered. He held onto Matthew's wrist. "You're coming with me, then, to do this…pay your respects shit. I'm making all of your future selves do this too, I hope you realize that!"

"It will be torture for all of us," Matthew giggled as he was dragged off. Alfred waved to them.

"Is this a good idea?" Peter asked. "He's been my best friend for…millions of your years. I've never seen him like this."

"Then you better pray that Matthew dies of natural causes instead of getting killed," Arthur smirked slightly. "Gilbird is one thing, but the man he loves is something else entirely."

"I'll make sure to protect that kid with my life," Peter mumbled.

"You and me both," Alfred laughed.

"Was the only point of this vacation for Matthew to go off with Gilbert to do this?" Yao asked.

"I think we all need a break from work," Alfred shrugged. "We have people watching the castle for us, so we can just sit back and relax. Spades can handle itself on its own for a few days. We've been building it up fairly well on our own."

"We're doing better than Clubs at least," Arthur scoffed. "We think you should call another meeting sometime soon."

"With Vash sick and Ivan following after him?" Alfred asked. "It's best if we have all of the royalty there at once. If Clubs gets any worse, I'll call it, but-"

He was cut off by a little, blonde toddler running up to him. The little guy bumped into his leg, seeming to be running at high speeds and fell into the sand. He shook his head, and looked like he was about to cry, but held back the tears as he looked up at Alfred with bright blue eyes. There was something familiar about him…

"Mathias!" a woman called and ran up to them. Upon recognizing them, she bowed immediately. "I am terribly sorry, my child just saw his friend on the other side of the beach and started to run. I'm sorry if he interrupted you in any way."

"No, it's fine," Alfred smiled, kneeling down to pat the kid on the head. "You said his name was Mathias?"

"Yes," the woman nodded.

"Hey, man," Alfred smirked. It was a possibility that this could be a reincarnation of Mathias, but he couldn't be sure. "You wanna grow up to be big, tough, and strong?" The toddler nodded proudly and Alfred laughed. "I have a feeling you're gonna be great with a sword." He stood up again and the toddler nodded to him before running along again. Alfred looked over to where he was going and saw another toddler with silver hair waiting for him on the other side, a frown tracing across his face.

"I am very sorry, again," the woman bowed to them again and ran off, after her child. "Be careful with Lukas, dear!"

"No one tell Gilbert," Alfred mumbled, still looking at the toddlers.

"He'll find out eventually," Peter mumbled.

"Let them grow up first," Alfred said. "Then we'll see if they'll really cause any problems for us in the future."

"You're too soft to be a leader," Arthur chuckled behind him.

"Maybe," Alfred hummed. "I like to think of myself as a damn good leader."

"We can think of a few other things you're damn good at," Arthur said and Alfred could practically hear his smirk.

"If you two are going to make out, I will take my leave again," Yao groaned and turned around to walk away.

"Gross," Peter mumbled, scrunching up his face before disappearing as well.

"At least they gave us space," Arthur laughed and Alfred finally turned back around to him.

"What do you say we use that to our advantage?" Alfred smirked before pulling Arthur into a kiss that the wizard greedily returned.

Everything was right with the world as far as Alfred could see. There were still a few bumps here and there, but that was just life. More people would get sick, more people would die, more people would be happy, more people would suffer. That was just how the world worked. Alfred could pride himself in the fact that he had managed to successfully join together 18 people in a time of chaos and help the future. It left him wondering what all of his other lives were going to do.

***Fallen Stars***

Alright, here's a little more backstory to this. That dragon horde that attacked Clubs in chapter 38 came back and was attacking everything on Clubs land. Ivan's decision was to have them all killed. Gilbird was included in all of this and Gilbert was able to sense his death immediately and retaliated furiously, destroying the Kremlin and nearly all of the people inside. Alfred, upon hearing about this, attempted to do something to the both of the people involved, but he couldn't do a lot to a Joker and could only really scold Ivan. A lot of people have been asking about Gilbird and the dragons and, well, there ya go! On the bright side, Mathias...

Anywho, I am finally done, I've been working on this for quite a while and I am actually very happy to see it end. I think the quote at the top was perfect for an ending chapter, I love Dr. Seuss! You can look forward to "Challenge" which will be coming up on the first of July. And then I have another new one that I intend to work on as well, though it may take a bit longer for this one to come out. It shall be called "Newsworthy" and it's my second attempt at mystery and I'm hoping to all hell that I'll do a great job. The reason it'll take a while to get out is because I'm gonna go so in depth on back story and shit that I'll be drowning in my notes. Mwahahaha!

Anyway, thank you for reading this all the way through! Any and all feedback is appreciated!

And I will never own Hetalia(this is why I write fanfiction, yes?).