Story: Sticks and Stones, Chapter 2 - The Obvious Facade
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia...

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About a month had passed since England had apologized to America, or rather, as the American, being his stubborn self liked to see it, one month had passed since England had said what he truly thought of him.

'Fat !' His words once again echoed in his head, causing him to flinch. It hurt, yes, when other people made bad comments about him, but this was England. This was family, damn it!

It would be bad enough if he was only a 'fat ', but it was so much more than that. He was useless for one, always burdening other nations with his problems. He could easily tell that they were all getting fed up with his problems, and would often talk about him behind his back; even to his face. China was always fussing at him about the debt he owed, Cuba hated his guts, and hell, even Japan, who rarely ever shared his personal opinion regarding others; his best friend, would try to avoid him.

Idiot

Pathetic

Annoying

Capitalist Pig

Clumsy

Reckless

Childish

Stupid

Worthless

Loud-mouthed

He suddenly had found himself remembering what other people had called him, and throwing in insults of his own, when Canada stepped in the bedroom, holding Kumajiro.

"America?" he looked up to meet the eyes of his brother, giving a fake smile. There was another person who probably hated his guts. According to what he'd heard, Canada was always getting the crap kicked out of him by Cuba after being mistaken for him. He couldn't help but also blame himself for the fact that Canada was always being forgotten. Because he had such a loud mouth, and Canada had such a quiet one, it only made since that he would be the one to be noticed.

"Oh, Canada, what's up?" he asked.

Canada looked at him, then gazed away. "What's been up with you? You've been acting different lately."

"What are you talking about? I'm totally fine, dude!" he said, mentally shuddering when he saw that Canada didn't seem too convinced.

"Are you sure about that...?" Canada mumbled, meeting his eyes. America knew he couldn't standing lying to him much longer. He had to come up with something soon to get him to leave.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" he momentarily rolled his eyes. "Look, you worry too much. I'm completely fine, alright?"

It was obvious that Canada still didn't believe him, but he reluctantly let it go. As he turned to leave, he looked back at his brother. "Just know that if you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here..."

With that, he left, closing the door behind him. America just stood there, before letting his smile fade, as he momentarily sighed.

Meanwhile, Canada trotted toward the living room.

"That America...! Doesn't he know that I'm even here for him?" he wondered aloud. He wasn't stupid. Even France could see that there was something different about America lately. In the past three weeks, he'd asked him to play baseball several times, only to be turned down each time. He hadn't been eating much of anything to speak of either, but when America was asked why he wasn't eating anything, he simply said he'd already eaten, but judging by the fact that he was getting paler each day, it was quite obvious to the Canadian that he hadn't been eating.

While it was true that America was the main reason he was practically invisible to everyone but France and Cuba, he didn't hate him, nor did he exactly blame him. He did care about America, regardless if they were really that close or not. Right now, he was worried. He just wanted for America to be normal again. He wanted to play baseball again. He wanted for everything to be back to the way it was.

He sighed, as his picked up the phone, dialing the only other person who he wasn't completely forgotten by.

"Hello?" the person on other end of the phone spoke. "Who is this?"

"England?" Canada spoke in response, holding Kumajiro closer to his chest.

"Oh, Canada? Is that you?" England replied, realization suddenly present in his voice.

"Yeah it's me." Canada confirmed. "Anyway, we need to talk. It's about America."

There was a moment of silence before England asked with alert, "What about him? Did something happen? Is something wrong?"

Canada inwardly sighed, knowing this was probably going to be a long conversation. "I don't really understand it all myself, but he's been acting really weird lately... I'll try to my best tell you what I know..."

~ End of Chapter

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A/N: What did you think? Good? Bad? Horrible? Amazing? Tell me why, if you want. Anyway I can make it better? Grammar errors? Spelling errors? Errors in general? Feel free to let me know, and thank you for your support :)