All turned to dust 16/17
Weirdly enough it's Prussia who reminds his new allies to be careful at the upcoming meeting because he feels like someone has to do it. No one is interested in what they have to say right now since they are the losing side, they are just going to make things worse if Russia or someone else get upset.
Hungary isn't surprised over any of this but Romania who stands by her side looks furious. He also looks like he hasn't slept in weeks because of the dark circles around his eyes.
“If Russia wasn't just around the corner I would kill you,” Romania hisses. “You promised me we would bring him down easily and I wouldn't need to take his bullying. And now you're his new best friend while I have to just stand there and smile while he takes whatever he wants.”
“Calm down,” Hungary hurries to say. “We talked about this already, remember?”
“You were all happy enough to join me back then,” Prussia says. His government turned out to be not as glorious as he and his brother had claimed, but it was still Romania's own choice to join them. “And this is probably for the best anyway.”
“It's your own fault for being idiots,” Bulgaria says. “I remembered what usually happens to those who invade Russia. And guess what happened this time too? I never wanted to be a part of your axis in the first place, especially not if you had told me you were going to war with him.”
“I should strangle you both,” Romania says.
“Try,” Bulgaria says. “And let's see what my friend Russia thinks about that.”
Prussia could consider to join a temporary alliance to throttle Bulgaria. Russia shouldn't be so lenient against him and insist he really deep down always wanted to be Russia's friend.
Russia returns before it turns into a fistfight, Romania shuts up and tries to not look miserable. It fails.
Czech and Slovakia are happy, Prussia bet they consider themselves superior to the rest of the room since they been on the winning side from the beginning. They are extremely pleased to be the only ones who didn't start out aligned with Germany. They even have an advantage on Russia there, which they tease him about.
“They must lack some basic instincts of self-preservation,” Hungary whispers to Romania.
***
Before it actually is time to meet the western nations Hungary blurts out a question that must have been on her mind for a long time.
“Where is Poland? Shouldn't he be here too?”
“He's not well,” Russia says, as usual.
“Not well in what way?” Hungary insists.
“He keeps yelling and says bad things about me and my boss. Obviously the hardships must have driven him insane, otherwise he would have known he is safe with me now. I heard about things like that before, some kind of schizophrenia my boss told me about. We're treating Poland until he gets better, so don't worry.”
Hungary makes a whimpering noise. Russia's brings a group of very muted nations to the meeting.
***
The mood on this gathering is different than on the ones before. Russia keeps his nations close to him while they ponder Poland's destiny. Prussia isn't that bothered, once you are conquered you should at do as you're told within reasonable limits if you can't pull of a insurrection. Poland was never good at that. Besides, Poland absorbed most of East Prussia. Prussia's sympathy is very limited.
“I, all on my own-” Serbia starts telling Russia.
“Serbia!” Croatia interrupts. “We talked about this.”
“Sorry. We, all on our own, kicked out the axis. So we never needed to be saved, remember that.”
It's almost true, to Russia's annoyance. He's hurt that Serbia and the rest of the Yugoslavia group want to be communists on their own while America is upset that they want to be communists at all. There are some serious balls there to refuse to align with any side but there is no way that is going to end well. From what their neighbors hinted the group don't get along nearly as well as they appear to at the moment.
Serbia has been calling recently yelling at the poor soul answering the phone without even bothering to ask for Russia, probably he's upset with Soviet politics or something but it's impossible to tell. Latvia almost died of fright and swore to never answer the phone again. Prussia took over and just yelled back. It's weird because Russia even tried to beat up Prussia once for his old friend Serbia's sake. He would have expected the two of them to be a bit more friendly.
But in the end Prussia is mostly uninterested in Yugoslavia, that part of the war was never his thing. Instead he tries to get some contact with his brother. Germany is with England and France and looks almost as usual, as tense as he used to be on official meetings back in Germany when Prussia still was invited to them too. He looks healthier than Prussia himself, which isn't really fair at all.
America talks excitedly to Japan, who isn't quite as expressionless as usual. He looks slightly shell-shocked, like he's not quite there.
Prussia overhears France telling Russia that the dissolution of Prussia was supposed to be a little more permanent than just giving him a new name.
“Your utter incompetence in battle cost me a lot,” Russia says with surprising venom. “Don't dare to tell me what to do ever again.”
France doesn't reply, he must either realize Russia is right or he might merely be afraid of Russia. The two of them had been really cozy in the past, those times must be over. It makes Prussia happy. He and Belarus make much better and loyal friends than Serbia and France.
***
The meeting starts out just as unpleasant as expected. England accuses Russia of being as bad as the axis powers they just defeated, though Czech defends him.
“Perhaps some people actually want to hang out with Russia for a while,” Czech says. “I know for sure I wouldn't want to hang out with you anymore.”
“So why isn't Poland here?” England wonders. “Or Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. Or even Russia's sisters.”
“Silly England. Most of the names you mentioned aren't even countries. There is just the Soviet Union and I speak for us today,” Russia says. “And Poland is not well yet, it was a very bad war for him.”
“But the German Democratic Republic here is a legitimate country in your head?” The contempt England says his new name with make Prussia's blood boil. Russia puts a hand on his shoulder, as a reminder that this is a peaceful meeting. “You can't hide Poland away forever.”
“I'm not hiding anything,” Russia says. “Not like America did.”
America jumps from his chair to try to loom over Russia. Too bad for him that he's noticeably shorter when Russia gets on his feet as well. This derails into a shooting match between the two. It hard to imagine it wasn't that long ago since they were comforting each other over their losses.
Prussia tries to catch Germany's attention again but he isn't looking at anyone. Japan on the other hand stares at him but his expression is completely unreadable. None of the former axis powers utter a word during the meeting.
Sorry for lots of OC:s here, there are so many Warsaw and communist nations who haven't really showed up in canon (or done anything, like Bulgaria).
All nations try to make everything sound as advantageous as possible for themselves at this point... Of course no one was ever allied with the axis by choice.
Throwing Poland into a mental hospital is the cruelest thing I could figure Russia doing to him while still being able to convince himself he is trying to help... Which was something they sometimes did to dissidents in Soviet.
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