it was a stalemate of sorts as they found their eyes drawn to each other as if truly seeing each other for the first time.
Katyusha stood as if confident for once that she was truly powerful and as if she was more than just Russia or Belarus's emotional sister.
She had an identity beyond all of that, and truthfully, it came as no surprise upon that realization and the fact that they were nations that she'd hid some things from him as if she was just playing pretend as some little doll that other nations stared at.
Ukraine was strong, she'd been able to make the decision to be more than a pampered princess in some mansion, but rather a farmer, working hard to earn her pay.
She'd also had to balance out being a nation and attending meetings while working her farm and surviving with her body's decisive aches and pains.
Sadiq finally saw her for who she was as if he'd pulled every secret out of her, hour by hour.
He stared at the woman in front of him, the one who'd cried into his arms at night while feeling dejected, and yet he realized that she never needed him like that.
It hurt to feel as if he was unneeded, just an accessory for showing off, but he knew that she would never use him like that, that she was kindhearted deep down.
He figured that he knew that she loved her family more than anything and that she loved him, but yet this realization of her hidden strength and the truth within that had him feeling as if she didn't, as if she'd just as easily move on from him and that she did not need these human like bonds.
Sadiq stared at her, wondering why he'd never seen the woman inside of her, just the after image as if she were still a little girl, a young nation with no idea how to fend for her self or how to balance the difficulties of such a busy schedule with the bonds that a nation could crave like their human counterparts did.
He wondered why he'd never saw this before, and how often, she never slept, too caught up with work, both her farming work and her paperwork and other ties to being a nation.
The nation of Turkey was staring at a new woman today and almost could imagine her old alter ego of sorts, hidden away in the past, as she had accidentally revealed her strength to him then, and all he wanted was her, still, it had always been her that he'd wanted.
He wondered why he felt more attracted to her now that he knew all of her, now that he knew how strong she was.
There was something about a strong woman that always managed to hit home somewhere in his heart, and he'd never imagined that he'd find that in her that he'd find someone that he loved so much and truly knew.
Sadiq stared at her as he felt all those old walls cave in around him, trapping him with the new version of reality, the new version of her that had always been there tucked away so daintily.
He breathed in, and it was almost as if he could feel her strength, seeping into his bones, making him stronger.
Turkey smiled as if secrets weren't revealed in the most bitter of ways and the most bitter of truths; he could feel his admiration grow from her, and how she'd let this image form of her or why she'd let it happen was a mystery.
Women always were; he figured.