If there was one thing that you loved about Fridays, it was that you were able to look forward to the long weekend ahead of you. This Friday was special, since it was going to be the last day before you were going to be taking the week off until the New Year. That meant a whole week of no paperwork, no attending meetings, no dealing with the conflicts of other nations, and no leaving the house unless it was for something vital. This week you had worked especially hard, so your boss had allowed you to start the vacation early, today instead of tomorrow.

You had woken up abnormally late today, which wasn't much of a concern to you since you didn't have anything big or important planned for today. You had gotten a lot of sleep last night, and this morning you felt a lot fresher than usual.

By the time you got dressed, brushed your teeth, and arrived in the kitchen to eat breakfast, it was almost 11 am, not that you seemed to care anyway. You took your place in a chair in front of the table after you were finished preparing breakfast, but just as you were about to eat, you heard the ringing of the phone in the living room.

You sighed in irritation before you stood up from your seat and headed over to the living room, trying to ignore the somewhat loud rumbling of your stomach. When you entered the room, your gaze instantly settled on your phone, placed on your coffee table as it continued to ring.

You walked over to the coffee table before you leaned forward enough so that you were able to grasp the phone with your outstretched hand, turning it on and pressing it to your ear. "Hello?" you asked, trying not to let the annoyance show in your voice.

"_____!" someone yelled, and the sudden loudness of their voice made you instantly flinch and move the earpiece a little bit away from your ear.

"Um...who is this?" you asked uncertainly a few seconds later, once again moving the phone hesitantly closer to you.

"I-It's America," the voice trembled, and you were able to notice that it was filled with fear and panic.

"America?" you asked, and after a few moments passed and you heard the sounds of heavy, ragged breathing, you felt concern start to edge inside you. "What's wrong? Why do you sound like you're in trouble?"

"Because I am!" America said loudly, once again causing you to flinch at the noise. "_-____, help me..."

The concern inside you was slowly starting to be replaced with fear, and your heartbeat was gradually increasing. "America, what's going on?" you asked, raising your voice so that he would've been able to hear you through all of the mumbling and other noises he had started to make. "What kind of trouble are you in?"

A few moments passed before America replied, his voice soft and shaky. "I-I can't tell you through the phone. P-Please...come over here as soon as possible."

You never got the chance to reply before he hung up, making you stare down at the phone in shock. You didn't know what kind of trouble America was in, but if he was sounding as scared and afraid as he was now, it must be pretty bad. You knew you had to get over there immediately and help him with whatever situation he had gotten into.

You were about to go up to your room and change before you heard the unusually loud rumbling of your stomach as it demanded food. You pressed a hand to your abdomen and sighed in exhaustion. You knew you had to eat breakfast or you would've been hungry throughout the rest of the day, and if America needed any kind of defense, you were going to need energy. And it didn't really take that long for you to get to America's house, so you didn't think he would've minded if you took some time to eat your breakfast. Still, he was depending on you.

You decided to compromise by bringing along a piece of French toast after you got dressed appropriately for heading outside and made your way out the door and towards America's house. Your vision of today being the perfect Friday without having to step out of your house was ruined, though helping out one of your good friends when he needed it was much more important.

By the time you arrived at America's house, you had eaten the piece of bread you had brought along with you. When you arrived at the entrance to his house, you paused, your muscles tense with caution. All was quiet in the neighborhood, and you took a brief look around, checking for any signs of a possible intruder. When everything seemed to be normal, you hesitantly and slowly began to head up the porch steps, you senses alert for any sudden movements or noises.

It took one light push on America's front door for you to realize that it was open. That was when your chest tightened and your heartbeat increased in alarm. Maybe somebody had gone into America's house without him knowing. Maybe it was a robber, or one of the other countries. But if it was one of the other countries, what had they done to make America so terrified? Maybe it was Russia, or France, or...oh god, you didn't want to think about what would've happened if it was Russia or France.

"America?" you asked softly as you opened the door enough so that you were able to poke your head inside the house. When silence greeted you, you frowned in confusion before you took a few steps forward and closed the door quietly behind you.

"America, are you here?" you called again as you began to walk around the house, searching for any signs of him. When you found none, you sighed before you began to quietly make your way up the stairs.

"America?" you asked softly once you arrived at the top. After searching through almost every door and finding no trace of him, you felt your heart beat rapidly in concern. What if something happened to America that caused him to fall silent? What if somebody kidnapped him? Oh god...what if he was dead?

You refused to think about that thought and instead paused at the closed door to America's room, the one place that you hadn't checked yet. If he wasn't in here, you were going to check the whole house again as well as the backyard before you would've called the police.

You grasped the doorknob and slowly opened the door enough so that you were properly able to look inside the room. "America?" you asked softly, hoping you would've gotten a reply. But once you took in the sight in front of you, your eyes widened and your mouth fell slightly open in surprise.

You found America huddled under the covers, trembling and murmuring things you were unable to detect. Just the sight of it made the fear and concern in your body instantly be replaced by sadness and a little bit of confusion. If America wasn't being physically harmed in any way, what could've happened to make him become so terrified?

Slowly, you approached America's bed before you grasped the covers with both hands. "America?" you asked again, and when you received no reply, you sighed before you fiercely threw the covers off of him, revealing him curled up in a ball on top of the mattress with his face buried in his hands.

Once America realized that he was no longer shielded by the covers, he stopped his mumbling to lift his head and look up at you, your concern only growing when you saw tears stain his eyes.

"_____!" America cried before he jumped out of the bed and practically crashed into you, wrapping his arms around you before he began to cry into your shoulder.

The sudden action had caused your eyes to widen and your face to turn a deep shade of red. A few moments passed as America continued to sob into your shoulder and you were still unsure of what you should've done next. Finally, you raised a hand and patted his back awkwardly. "I-It's okay, America..." you said quietly, your voice a bit uneven through the fact that he was hugging you. "Please, tell me what's wrong and I'll try to help you feel better."

A few seconds passed before America sniffed and replied, his voice soft and trembling. "Th-The world...."

"What about the world?" you asked as you began to massage his back with both hands.

"The world...The world is going to end!" America cried before he once again resumed sobbing into your shoulder, his wails coming out louder than before.

At that, all of the concern that was inside you since the morning was replaced by stupidity and irritation. America was overreacting and crying like a three year old because he thought the world was going to end? If it weren't for you massaging his back, you would've facepalmed yourself.

Instead, you sighed before you moved both yourself and America so that the both of you were sitting on the edge of his bed. "America, calm down," you murmured before you lifted one hand and began to gently stroke his hair. "You have nothing to worry about. The world's not going to end."

"That's what you think," America said, his voice trembling before he lifted his head from your already soaked shoulder and met your gaze through tear-filled eyes. "Everybody else says that it's going to end, so why should we believe it won't?"

"Because there's no scientific evidence that it will," you replied before you began to wipe tears away from America's eyes with your thumb and forefinger. "Just because people think it's going to happen doesn't mean that it will happen. There were many times before when people thought the world was going to end, and it never did."

"Y-Yeah, but this is different..." America said quietly before he dropped his gaze down to his hands, which were placed on his lap.

"The only thing that's different about this one is the theories of how the world might end, but they're all not true," you said reassuringly. "As long as nothing bad happens to any of us, there's absolutely nothing to worry about, I promise."

Before you could've had any second thoughts, you removed your hand from America's hair and lowered it so that it was able to tightly grasp his warm, trembling one. At the sudden action, America lifted his gaze from his hands so that he was able to look up at you, the prominent blush on his face increasing. Once the both of your gazes met, you gave him a tiny smile before he let out something of an exhausted sigh and leaned forward enough so that his arms were able to once again wrap themselves around you.

"Thank you, _____," America said softly. "I'm so happy to have someone like you in my life. I promise that even if the world was going to end, I'd still be here to protect you."

You were silent in surprise for the next few seconds, your cheeks a rather dark shade of red, before you finally smiled, closed your eyes, and wrapped your arms around America, pressing your cheek against his shoulder. "You're so sweet, you said quietly. "It hurts me to see you so upset over something that's never going to happen...."

The two of you sat like that for the next few minutes, you being thankful for the warmth that America was able to give to you. You felt like the both of you would've been sitting there hugging forever before your stomach gave off an abnormally loud growl, seeming to have forgotten the piece of French toast you ate earlier that morning.

The sudden sound caused America to laugh and you to stare down at the sheets with an embarrassed look on your face, and when he pulled away from the hug, he smiled before he grasped your hand. "Hungry?"

"S-Sort of..." you muttered. "I hadn't really had that much of a breakfast after you called me..."

America smiled before he ruffled your hair and stood up and looked down at you. "You can have breakfast here if you want, _____."

You stared up at him in confusion and a bit of uncertainty. "A-Are you sure? I don't want to be too much of a bother..."

America chuckled before he waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry, it's fine. It doesn't take that long to prepare breakfast anyway, so it doesn't really matter."

A few seconds of silence passed before you smiled and stood up from your place on the edge of the bed, extending your hand and grasping his once again. "Okay, then. Thank you, America."

With that, America gave you a quick smile before he led you out of the room, thankful that his fears from earlier that morning were finally gone.