"You're not afraid?" I wondered. I had to ask him. I just had to.
"I'm terrified," he replied smoothly, quietly, as if his response should not be heard by others.
There were sounds of gunfire, and, thank God, no yells of pain or gasps of fallen victims. The man I stood before watched me quietly, as if the gun I was holding wasn't pressed to his heart. As if I weren't serious about shooting him.
"Damn it, you could at least act like you're frightened!" I screamed at him. I didn't want to shoot him. I didn't, but he had betrayed me, and almost killed my father. I closed my eyes and fired.
...
"Maine, I need you to go outside and wash the car, okay?" I called out to my brother from the kitchen as I pulled my hair into a small ponytail and put an apron on. Today's project goes farther than baking cookies, and it was going to be messy.
"Rodger, sis. Be back when I smell fresh cookies!"
"Don't bet on it!" I yelled as my brother charged out the door.
It's July Fourth, the date of Dad's birthday. It's also the day he declared himself independent from that jerk Britain. I helped him with that, too...
I sighed, reminiscing on the day when he and I snuck out to dump all of Britain's favorite tea, the tea he taxed us enormously for, into the sea. It got him pretty mad, but it was worth it.
"MASSIE!" a blond, energetic state that is my little sister burst into the kitchen and hugged me. I exclaimed in surprise and steadied myself so not to drop the eggs I had in my hand.
"Morning, Florida," I mumbled. I pried her off of me and set the eggs down.
"Can I help you bake? Lick the spoon? The bowl? Taste-test the cake?" she asked.
"No, no, no, and absolutely not," I answered. "Go help Maine with the car."
"Whaaat?" she whined.
"You'll be in the way, and we don't want another flour incident again, do we?"
Florida frowned and stormed out of the kitchen.
"North Carolina, South Carolina, get down here, I need everyone out of the house doing something! And keep Dad out!"
The two twins, heterozygous, ran down the stairs and plunged themselves into the garden.
I whisked the ingredients quickly and preheated the oven. To get myself into the mood, I started playing classical music from my iPod docking station. The iPod was a present from the future from my current boyfriend, who is most likely on his way here. The door opened and I heard keys jingling. Before I could react-
"I'm here, Massachusetts, what do you need help with?" Austria asked.
"Hey, sweetie," I laughed, pecking his cheek while trying not to get flour on his coat. He shrugged it article of clothing off and got himself another apron.
"There was a little trouble with Prussia again, I swear he's been having too many problems lately," he said. "I believe that he might dissolve in a few years if he isn't careful."
I frowned. Dissolvation is a process I didn't really understand very well, because I wasn't a country. Only part of one.
"What'll happen to him if he does? Maine would be so devastated, Prussia's his best friend," I wondered.
"He'll still be around to talk to Maine and ruin our lives, but he won't be recognized as a country anymore, just a piece of history. All of his land will most likely go to Germany, being that Germany already took his house."
There were loud thumping noises from right above, and then the sounds seemed to trail down the stairs.
"Non, mon cherie! You do like me, I know it!" France was yelling.
"Get out of my house, France, can't you tell when you're not welcome?" Cali was screaming. "¡Usted idiota francés estúpido! ¡Vaya persecución Gran Bretaña y déjeme sólo!"
"Spanish is another language of love, ma rose. Ne vous parlez rien mais l'amour à moi."
"¡Está desesperado! ¡Salgo, y no me sigo!" Cali yelled, raising her arms up in exasperation. She turned and ran through the door.
"Sie kämpfen wie kleine Kinder," Austria commented in German.
"Was erwarten Sie von Kindern, Honig?" I answered in the borrowed language. Austria gave me a small smile and turned me to face him, planting a kiss on my lips.
"Ew! Guys, do that on your own time!" Louisiana yelled, coming into the kitchen and covering her eyes. "C'est assez mauvais que nous avons eu la France dans notre pièce sans parler du deux de vous accouplant dans ici!"
"If you find France to be so horrible, don't speak his language," I retorted.
"I speak his language," a quiet voice responded from the doorway. Louisiana screamed and dropped her cup of orange juice.
"Oh, Louise!" I yelled. "Florida made that especially for today!"
"It's not my fault the damn Canadian startled me!"
"I'm sorry," Canada apologized quietly, looking down at the small polar bear that just asked his name.
"Is somebody talking about me?" France asked, making himself known. He pulled Canada into a hug. "Hello, mon fils. Comment avez-vous été ?"
"Ca va bien," Canada answered automatically. "Wait, get off of me!"
"We need room to cook or there'll be less food for the party," I yelled at everyone, excluding my boyfriend. "Everybody, out! Louise, clean up that orange juice before it stains the tile! France, get out of the house altogether! And Canada... Go play with Alaska or something."
I felt Austria wrap his arms around me and kiss my head.
"You're beautiful when you're irritated," he said.
"Don't mess with me," I warned half-heartedly. "So, since your hands have yet to be dirtied, will you go over the guest list for me?"
"Let's see," he said, going into the dining room and coming back with three sheets worth of names. "Well, to make the list short, those you'll want to be around are America, of course, Japan, myself, Italy, Hungary, France, China, Canada, Britain, Tony, your brothers and sisters, Russia, and Prussia."
I groaned. If that was the shortened version, what was the long version like? I already had forty-nine siblings... It made my head hurt thinking about cooking for all of them. Austria must've noticed, because he came over and kissed my cheek.
"Don't worry, half of these people are bringing food, too. All we have to worry about are America's favorite dishes and the cake."
"I don't even want to do the cake..." I moaned. "Help me..."
"I am helping you," he laughed. "Now you're putting us behind schedule."
"You're right. If we don't start cooking, we'll have to resort to Britain and Tony's food."
Austria laughed as we thought back to last year's party. Britain and Tony brought the most food, but Britain's dish tasted so bland and horrible we ignored it, and because of the alien's food France ended up spending his night chasing around a poor, defenseless, and suddenly female Canada. We forbid the alien to cook for us again.
"Now, let's hurry and make some party food," my boyfriend said, pecking my cheek before turning to grab some ingredients.
AN: Hello, bonjour, guten morgen/tag/nacht, buenos dias/noches! This is mrsnessieblack with news. If you liked this, you'll love the rest of it, right? I'm moving profiles for this fanfiction and a few others from here to one called dontpokemepleez. Check it out, or find me on DeviantArt or YouTube! Catch you on the Hetalia side!