Indoor camping

"Well this is pointless…" Natalia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers.

"C'mon, Bel~! Think of it as an adventure~!" Alfred exclaimed as he flashed that signature grin of his.

"That doesn't make the current situation any better, Alfred." She face-palmed due to her frustration and then resumed staring at the floor in a newly-attained fetal position with a tired expression on her face.

"Then think that I'm being the heroic hero that I am and saving you from the grasp of an evil storm!"

"That's even more senseless than the last thing you said." She sighed again, staring desperately at the floor, as if it had the key to her escape.

"Well… We'll be stuck in this garden shed for a pretty long time… The hurricane is at it's strongest point, the wind is keeping the door basically sealed and if we do manage to open and get out, we might end up cut into little pieces by flying debris like metal and stuff…"

Natalia twitched at the thought of being stuck in there for heaven knows how long with that guy. Her thoughts wandered to the knife she kept hidden but decided against it. Maybe finding an exit and getting chopped to pieces by debris would be less painful than this?

"Well… I don't suppose I have many options here…maybe I should try and make a friend?-"

"But don't worry! I know a few campfire songs! In fact, I know this really good one! C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E-S-O-N-G song~!"

"Lord, please… Why me!" Natalia simply tried to focus on other thoughts… on brother. Anything that would lessen the pain of hearing Alfred sing… if it could even be called that. If they were outside… things would die from hearing him.

After around five minutes of Alfred spelling "campfire song song" nonstop while stuffing his mouth with a burger that came from heaven knows where, oblivious to the death glare that Natalia was giving him; she snapped. Feeling as if her mind would collapse if she heard that again she growled, reached for the knife in her stocking and lunged forward. With a fast movement of arms, she had him pinned, facing the wall, with her knife hanging dangerously near his throat.
"If you repeat that pathetic song again… I will MURDER you…" She slowly whispered very close to his ear, emphasizing each word with the deadly venom of her voice.

Alfred gulped and sweat-dropped. He obviously wasn't expecting this. "Whoa… No need to get so violent, Bel…"

"Stop calling me that… only brother can call me Bel…" She hovered dangerously above him, still gripping her knife.

"O-ok… Natalia… Sorry?" He said, slightly fearing the nation behind him, he had know she was intimidating but he never expected to be SO scary.

She sighed, spun the knife on her hand and hid it away within the folds of her dress and slowly stepped back. "No… It's my fault… I just got a bit too angry there… It won't happen again…"

"Uh… It's ok…" Alfred said as he brushed off and sat across from her with a warm, forgiving smile. He was too nice sometimes… "I guess I should think before I act-"

"But we both know that isn't going to happen anytime soon." Natalia completed; a slight sense of humor in her usually stone-cold words.

Alfred just grinned sheepishly in agreement as she just face-palmed and sighed. "Just… STOP singing." She managed to stain out of her voice, obvious frustration showing.

Awkward silence filled the air as they spent around half an hour staring at the floor- well… at least Natalia was.

"You know… You're actually very pretty, Natalia." Alfred said out of the blue with a slight blush.

"Uh… Thank you, Alfred." A faint smile that no one had ever seen in years slowly crept it's way to her lips.

Alfred tried to start a conversation after that. "So… How did we end up in here again?"

"I believe you'd know since after all… We were there… And it was only a few hours ago." She slowly responded, trying not to get angry at the man in front of her.

"Please?"

"No."

"Awwwwww~! Come on~! Pretty please with a burger on top?"

"If I do will you be quiet?" she said while she glared intensely at him.

"Yes!"

"Fine..." she sighed in defeat.

"Yay~!"

"During our meeting this morning, there was a hurricane alert, as you should know. They said we had to return home since it was safer, so we tried. Unfortunately brother didn't seem to notice that I was being left behind so he left without me. I decided to just take cover in the meeting room but on my way back a gigantic piece of metal came flying towards me. So I panicked. Then you appeared out of nowhere and pushed me out of the way, making us both fall in this stupid garden shed that closed itself after we got up. There. Happy now? Will you be silent now?"

"I knew I didn't imagine that! I'm the best hero ever, saving the maiden in distress!" Alfred exclaimed and smiled that contagious grin, almost making Natalia smile for the second time this day.

"I knew that was a promise he couldn't keep... He's America after all..." she inwardly sighed as she rolled her eyes. "He's not that bad though. He's actually good looking and nice and- no! I love brother! And he loves me... He just doesn't admit it yet...right? Right...?"
She thought for a while. Trying to remember a moment in which brother had been nice to her, in which he had acknowledged her existence...but found none...

Suddenly all those years of rejection and pain took their toll on the small belarusian woman and a single stray tear made it's way across her face as she bit her lower lip in a futile attempt at calming herself. She wasn't going to appear weak in front of such a powerful nation...never. Her hands covered her face, in a futile attempt at hiding the pain. I guess never doesn't always stand forever...
The nation in front of her noticed her drastic change in attitude as the woman in front of him sniffled. So he slowly but surely scooted closer to her side, making sure not to get stabbed in the process.

She awkwardly stared as he tried to somehow comfort her but failed. He was a hero. He didn't know how to cheer up sad people. He knew how to rescue them. First he tried to hug her like those guys in the movies he saw. He was reluctant at first knowing well that she had knives hidden probably everywhere. He never did get her obsession with those... Although at first she didn't know how to react to such contact she soon crumbled before him, sniffling as she hid her face on his chest, clutching to his shirt for dear life.

"Natalia? What's...what's wrong? You just randomly burst into tears... Was it my fault somehow...?" he frowned trying to remember if he had said something offensive, done something annoying. But his memories didn't answer that.

"No..." she choked out. Cursing at herself for crumbling in front of him.

"Well... If you don't wanna tell me then that's ok... And I know that you probably hate me... But know that I'm here for you anyway! ...Although I'd appreciate it if you didn't stab me..."
He tapped her on the back, hugging her again soon after. He lowered his head on top of hers and smiled.

"Thank you... Alfred..." that's all she said as she slowly tried to regain composure.

After some time he broke off the hug as she wiggled, trying to escape the bigger nation's embrace. She just sat next to him as she tried to tell him somehow what she felt. After a while she seemed to find the words she wanted to say.
"I've always loved brother...I really have. But he never even looked at me... Sometimes I think I should move on...but I don't know if I want to... If I could actually do it..."

Alfred rubbed the back of his head, he obviously wasn't very good at giving advice. He usually said helpful, heartfelt comments but that was it. He was a noisy man not a philosopher... "Well... Natalia... Whatever you choose, I'll always be here for you! Count on me for anything! That's what friends are for!" he grinned and gave her a thumbs up as she plainly smiled a bit in response.

"One thing..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm still going to murder you if you dare sing again."

"That's fine with me~!" he laughed.

She happily sighed. Sure he was disturbingly weird at times and loud, and annoying, and loud, but nice, but loud... Did I mention loud? I think I did... Somehow she felt different. A new sense of happiness and...love? Towards the nation next to her.

"This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship..." he said as he smiled.

"Whatever..." she closed her eyes and hummed a song from her childhood; a happy little song she hadn't remembered in ages. Somehow she knew that everything just got better for her. Maybe it was time to move on...
"But we're still stuck in here you know."

A/N: Thanks for reading~! Leave a review, da~? :D