They didn't know how long it was going to last, but the states were very good working under red alert. The nations still in NYC had their security doubled up by D.C.'s secret service and were banned from leaving the city limits. England, France, and Canada were to remain in Windsor with Sam and Owen until D.C. could give them the clear to go to NYC. D.C. was in Boston with the police force hunting down the two culprits, after having dropped of Victoria and Maine to their preferred home; Maine to Augusta and Victoria to Windsor.

New York got in touch with Pennsylvania and told her what was going on. She called late afternoon of the last day. She and Victoria were on the phone all through dinner. Victoria was able to reacquaint herself with France and England, but didn't do much more than rest her head on Sam's shoulder while they talked to the two nations.

They were sitting in the living room, Victoria's feet propped up on Canada's lap, her back and head resting against Sam's side. England sat in the rocking chair and the gentle creak of the wood as he rocked and the sounds of running water from Owen and France as they cleaned the dishes from dinner wove underneath the conversation.

As Sam was getting to discussing why Louisiana had chosen the human name of Samantha, there came a softly muttered, "Thank God," from the other room.

Victoria was the one who heard it and she tensed a little and looked towards the kitchen, unnoticed by Sam as they were incredibly immersed in their story. Owen appeared in the door to the living room, slightly out of breath and clutching his phone in his hand. "Guys," he said softly.

Sam froze and turned abruptly towards their brother, causing Victoria to loose her position and her yelp was ignored as Sam asked, "Owen? What's wrong?"

"It's over."

Victoria pushed herself up and stared at Owen. "What?" she asked.

Owen looked as though he didn't know whether to cry or laugh. "They got him. They got 'im. It's all over."

The words took a moment to sink in and when they did, Sam leapt up, laughing hysterically, and pounced on Owen. They were hugging tightly, rocking back and forth, jumping occasionally as they slowly spun around. Owen kept on repeating, "It's over. We're safe now. Oh God, it's over."

Victoria looked to Canada, tears in her eyes, she was so happy. They may be able to work efficiently under red alert, but the terror and anxiety of not knowing if or when they would be attacked again was something Victoria hadn't wanted to ever experience again. "It's over, Matt!" she screamed.

Owen and Sam pulled away from each other. Sam's hands went to cup Owen's face. "I could kiss you," they said.

"Please don't!" Owen said, half-laughing half-crying.

Victoria's head tipped backwards and she pushed herself off of the couch and stumbled over to her siblings. She caught herself on their arms and they immediately shifted to help support her. "Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage!" she sang.

"This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage," Owen joined in.

"You'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A," Sam crooned.

"'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass. It's the American way!" they all screamed together. They were off tune, and none of them could sing for their lives, but they were happy. They were safe and it was over. They were okay for just one more day.


"Stop fidgeting."

"I hate ties."

"You look handsome in a tie."

"I don't want to wear a tie."

"You're just nervous about seeing a certain someone again~"

Sam glowered at their sister's teasing. "Am not."

"Are too."

"Am-"

Alfred snapped his fingers in front of their noses. "Hey, cool it. Let's go. We're here."

"I still don't know why we had to wait until the next world meeting," Sam muttered as the three of them unfolded themselves from the confines of an European taxi.

Alfred just grinned. "What? Didn't you used to say how you wanted to visit France again some day?"

"That was Vicky. The Paris I remember was demolished by bombs."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "All the more reason to make good memories now, oui?"

"At least we're not in Berlin," Sam muttered lowly as the three of them entered the conference room, the bags they brought bumping into their sides as they walked. The conference room was filled with a majority of the nations milling around as they waited for the meeting to commence. Alfred muttered something about going to talk to Germany and instructed the two of them to get two extra chairs.

They set up the chairs behind Alfred's assigned seats, the bags the two carried resting in the space between the two seats. Victoria looked like she was sucking on a lemon as she studied the nations. "It's a little scary, isn't it?" she asked in Narragansett.

Sam turned towards her and frowned slightly. "I suppose. Slightly intimidating."

Alfred came back from his discussion with Germany and flashed the two of them a smile before sitting between Benjamín and Matt. The meeting was about to start.

Alfred had always told them it was boring at the meetings whenever they bothered him about it, and for once he wasn't exaggerating. Maybe it was because the two of them didn't have any reason to actually pay attention as the other nations prattled on about international disputes and trade. But they evidentially had fun ignoring the occasional curious glances and talking quietly in Narrangansett and pointing out the nations that acted just like one of their states.

Finally, just before lunch break would be called, Alfred stood up and made his way to the front of the room, Victoria and Sam following a little later, as they had to grab their bags. Alfred stood at the front of the room and cleared his throat as Victoria and Sam stand at attention on either side of him, their eyes flickering down the assorted nations and mapping out their paths.

Alfred smirked at the nations, but his eyes and stance was guarded and on alert. "You won't need to take notes on this.

"I am here today with two of my closest subordinates-" Sam resisted the urge to roll their eyes "-in response to the latest conference that crashed and burned when my nation was bombed. Two, or rather it ended up being three of my states took my place here while I went to scope it out, followed by three other nations." Here Alfred paused and shot an I'm-still-not-too-happy-you-decided-to-follow-me-and-made-me-have-to-tell-you-things smile towards the two smug looking European nations. "According to my sources," he continued to the rest of the room, "New Jersey, along with Hawaii, basically explained our national policy of keeping the states out of the international affairs. Now, after today, they are still going to stay out of international affairs.

"New Jersey told you about the drink that was distributed to any nation that ever had contact with one of the states. Well, Connecticut-" Sam saluted the crowd with two fingers "-and Rhode Island-" Victoria smiled tensely and only with her mouth, keeping her lips sealed together "-are going to bring around a flask to everyone whose memories were altered."

Alfred nodded at them to begin as he continued to explain that the draught would not harm anyone in any way, and if they didn't believe him, England and France had already taken it and they seemed fine.

Sam had the original set of memories and Victoria was handling the "oops-I-accidentally-spilled-the-beans-to-another-nation-sorry-Sam-can-you-fix-it?" bottles. She would be doing much more cris-crossing while Sam could simply stay in the European area of the conference room.

All they had to do was the read the names and pass them out.

Sweden; Sam had to bite down their smile imagining Alaska standing next to the silent and impassive nation as they handed him his memories back.

Netherlands; he thanked Sam when they gave the flask to him. Sam had to fight their snickering as they imagined Netherland's face once they regained the memories of them as a colony.

Scotland; he ignored it.

Ireland; he asked if Sam was confused and didn't seem to believe Sam when they shook their head no.

Spain; he made a face at the color, but thanked Sam as well. Sam didn't know the memories that Florida had asked to be taken away, but from Florida's intense blush at the meeting when Alfred told the states that they were going to be repairing the memories of the nations, it would be really embarrassing.

Russia; he frowned at it too, but popped the top off and sniffed at it.

Prussia; he stared at Sam intently, ignoring the flask. Sam balked a little and a blush stained their cheeks even though Sam totally does not still have a crush on a dead nation no-shut-up-voice-inside-their-head-that-sounds-too-much-like-Victoria. Sam eventually turned away and coughed, rubbing angrily at the redness on their cheeks.

The reached for the last bottle and pulled it out to read the tag. They froze in their tracks and had to fight not to look around. Since when was that in there? When had-

Prussia. Prussia had brought him over for one of the last few battles. They had wiped their memories at the same time.

"Sam?" Alfred asked in the front of the room, voice tense with familiar undertones of tell-me-who-or-what-is-bothering-you-so-I-can-make-it-better. Sam just stared up at him.

"Um..." Then they put the bottle back into the bag and quickly spelled out the empire's name in ASL. Victoria's mouth dropped open and she just stared at Sam before her eyes flickered to the empire and then back to Sam, looking like a deer in headlights. Alfred was staring at Matt who was just shrugging. Sam swallowed hard and bit their lip.

Matt looked to Sam. "Break it."

Alfred nodded in agreement.

Victoria balked at that and stared horrified at Sam. "We can't do that!"

Sam disagreed. There was nothing of importance that Holy Roman Empire needed to remember. Maybe just Sam's and Victoria's likeness, but that would be all. He hadn't spent that much time with them and even if he had kept his memories, dissolution notwithstanding, he most likely would have forgotten them.

"Vic-Rhode Island," Alfred said sternly. Then he looked to Sam. "Just get rid of it."

Victoria looked as though she was going to argue some more, but Sam quietly said, "They aren't necessary."

And now England was standing up, as he was the only other nation that could follow their broken conversation. He looked to Sam and then to Victoria. "Whose memories aren't necessary? All memories are necessary."

"These ones aren't," Sam insisted. "They're just silly memories."

"Silly memories are often the most important," England argued.

Sam bristled and was ready to snap back at him in anger, but Germany stood at that time, forcefully calm. Physically he was between Sam and England as Sam had not moved much from when he had given Prussia his memories, but he seemed to question himself as he turned to Sam. He looks like Ryan, Sam thought.

"Mr..."

"No."

A pause. "I beg your pardon."

"Mx. Jones, if you must. Otherwise, I respond to Sam or CT. Connecticut or Samuel will get you a kick in the balls."

"I'm not sure I understand," Germany said slowly, staring down at the tense state.

Sam rolled their eyes. "It's not that hard to understand. I am not Mr. Jones, I am not Mrs. or Ms. Jones, I am not Mr. Connecticut, I am not Mrs. or Ms. Connecticut." Sam glared at Victoria as she snickered at the last term of address. "I only respond to Mr. Jones when I am in Hartford, but I'll be damned if I let you call me that here. Mx. Jones is how you may address me. If you forget that, Sam will be sufficient. Simply Connecticut or Samuel are completely out of the question. Do you understand?"

Germany blinked at them for a while before speaking. "What seems to be the problem?"

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

Victoria snickered again, on the opposite side of the room, as she made her way through the rest of her bottles that she had. Germany blinked again and leaned away. "What?"

"Hmm? I said it's something that doesn't concern you, Germany," they said, emphasizing the name.

Germany was silent before asking, "Who does it concern?"

Sam took a step away. "No one you would know."

Germany looked ready to ask again, but Alfred shouted at the top of his lungs, "Wowee, look at the time! That's lunch break. Woo, let's go."

Sam marched over to Alfred before Germany could say anything.


"Will you stop that?" England demanded.

The four North Americans' hands dropped into their lap and they blinked down the table at England in badly faked innocence. England scowled at them and then glared at France quickly before glancing at the four of them again.

"Can you understand them?"

France shook his head.

Victoria held up a hand, as she looked to America. The back of her hand was facing away from her and her pointer finger stretched up to the sky and then down again. America looked astonished and held out a hand with his thumb and little finger extended and moved it between the two of them. Sam hid their smile in their sandwich and then shook one hand rapidly by their shoulder, almost as though it were on fire.

England growled. The four of them had been carrying on like that for the better part of the lunch break, hands flying fast in front of them and only small exclamations like each other's names or "no" and "absolutely not", escaping the otherwise silent group.

"What is the big deal about that bottle anyway?" he snapped.

Canada blinked up at him and looked back down again before making a 'c' shape with one hand and then his first two fingers tapped against his thumb twice as he moved his hand to the right. Sam gasped and aggressively crossed the fingers on their right hand, thumb touching the knuckle of their ring finger. Their hand then formed into a fist with just their littlest finger sticking up. Victoria shook her head. She laced her fingers together and moved them in a circle in front of her chest. America turned to Canada, tapping his upper chest with a fist. And then it went around again, until Victoria looked right back at Sam and mimicked Canada's pervious movements.

Sam threw their hands up in the air. "Why do I have to tell them everything?"

That was the first full sentence in the last hour that he could understand. England crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

Victoria moved her hands in a fast sequence, ending with a rather complicated dance with her right hand. Sam rolled their eyes. "You know we can use this," they placed their hands, palms in towards them, on top of each other vertically before wiggling their fingers. "We all know who it really is."

"We still have to spell out some of their names," Victoria said, her hand moving again.

"Why don't you just go ask him?" Canada asked. The three of them stared at Sam, one smug the other two honestly curious.

England still felt very much out of the conversation even if they were continuing it in a language he could understand. He glared at the two of them and sat back until they decided to include him in the conversation. France chuckled lowly, almost as though he knew what England was doing. The four at the end of the table didn't notice.

"Because of reasons," Sam snapped and focused on eating their food.

"Then I'll ask him," Victoria said. "I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about."

Sam glared up at their sister. They then shook a finger in front of her face. "No no."

"Well you should ask him," America said. "It is his brother, afterall."

"Who?" France asked lightly, drawing the attention of the other four.

They stared until Victoria said, "Prussia. We need to ask him what to do with Holy Roman Empire's memories."


He still didn't believe this shit. That little girl with her tattoo hadn't enough proof. No nation had more than one personification. Or so he'd thought until he remembered Sam. But now it seemed impossible that he could have forgotten all of the very potent memories that Sam and her sister were in. Or maybe it was just because he had finally revisited those memories after two hundred years of just ignoring them.

Or maybe Sam had been able to wipe his memory and alter them after all. She was really powerful. He'd gone over to help, expecting a fledging country with little to no history. But one look at Sam and her sister and their expressive eyes and he could see the centuries of history that their land held, history that they didn't know about or couldn't access. But they were powerful; their very bodies immersed in buckets of magic and power. They hadn't needed his help, just his guidance.

And his little mausi was a grown teen, more masculine than he remembered. When she had told him that she didn't want to be called Samantha or Samuel, he'd only wanted to help her. He remembered Hungary and her difficulty understanding what exactly she was. And if Sam had had to go through that alone...

He wasn't supposed to think about that. Those were unawesome thoughts.

Now he was watching the two of them, Sam and Road Island, as they glanced towards him and away many many times until Road Island rolled her eyes, grabbed Sam's hand and dragged her over to him.

He raised an eyebrow at the two of them. "Ja?"

Road Island smiled sweetly. "Do you remember me?"

"Ja, but not your human name."

"Viktoria," she said, holding out a hand to shake as though they were first meeting. He shook her hand.

"You're nicer than your other sister. She just yelled at me. What can I do for you?" he asked.

Viktoria pulled a flask out of her pocket, exactly like the one he had downed with his lunch. "We wanted to know what to do with this."

Prussia's eyes widened as he read the scrawled handwriting on the side of the bottle, half faded with time. At his silence, Viktoria continued.

"What you guys drank wasn't your memories. It was a potion meant to undo the cloaking the first potion did. And if we give it to your brother, we don't know if it'll unearth the other memories that were suppressed and if it will, that decision isn't ours to make. It's yours; so what should we do?"

"Oh...um... I'll uh take it. Just in case." He took the flask gently, as though it would break under his fingers her his brother's memories that Prussia wasn't even sure he wanted to let Germany remember.

Sam turned away and muttered something under her breath. Viktoria, who had heard it most likely, rolled her eyes and the two of them turned to walk away.

"Hey!" Prussia said. "Sam."

Sam tensed up too fast and too much and Prussia felt bad immediately. Viktoria sent a smirk at Sam before pushing her towards Prussia. Sam turned around, face red and looking as though she wanted to be anywhere but there right then. "Yes?" she said.

"Did you figure it out?'

"Did I-?" then she cut herself off and mouthed an 'oh'. She nodded and looked at him shyly, looking exactly like she had when she asked for him to call her Sam and only Sam. "I did."

He smiled. "That's great. Do you want to tell me? You don't have to..."

Sam stepped closer shyly. She tucked an errant strand of her hair behind her ear. "Uh...I'm actually...I actually have no gender."

...Well that's not what he was expecting. He almost laughed and chided her for the joke, but she was standing as though fearing that response, and hoping to all above that she wouldn't get it. He tilted his head to one side. "I'm not sure I understand, mausi."

He didn't miss her light sigh of relief. Sam blushed and smiled softly. "You haven't called me that in two hundred years," she murmured, more to herself than anything. "We can talk about this later, okay? I don't really want to do this in the middle of a conference."

He smiled. "Okay mausi."


Chapter Title is Pink in English. Pink symbolizes caring, tenderness, and acceptance.

(okay as promised, the list of stories with the states)

Little Girls- Rhode Island, Alaska, and Hawaii from 1912-1960ish (Friday)

Have You Forgotten?- song fic about 9/11 narrated by Arkansas (Gabe), but the entire ensemble shows up at some point. (3/13)

Heat of the Snow- North & South Dakota and the blizzard of 1941 (3/20)

Aww I'm sad it's over...:(