Belarus sighed in disgust as she watched France skip around wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day from her bedroom window. She wished she had borrowed one of Germany's guns so she could get France to shut up.
There was a soft knock on the door and Belarus growled. There was only one person who would knock.
"What do you want Lithuania?"
There was no answer. She walked away from her window and opened the door.
Instead of finding a trembling Toris as she had expected, she instead found a sunflower lying in front of her door.
"What in the hell?"
Then she noticed the note. It was a small card that someone could usually attach to a bouquet or a balloon.
Inside was a message:
Natalia,
Instead of getting you a rose like last time and having the thorns shoved into my fingertips while I sleep, for Valentine's day I'm giving you a way to become closer to Russia. Give this to him. He loves sunflowers. - Toris
Belarus sat on her bed and twirled the sunflower in her palms. She knew this was her brother's favorite flower.
But was Toris right?
Both Natalia and Ivan not only despised Valentine's Day, but made public demonstrations of their hatred for it. To her, giving him flowers was as good as celebrating the retched holiday.
She laid the yellow blossom on her bedside table and pondered it.
Russia did love sunflowers. If Belarus gave him one, he might love her more.
But what if she gave it to him and he was disgusted with her for acknowledging, let alone celebrating, Valentine's Day?
There were three things that Natalia was sure her brother loved.
Her.
Sunflowers.
Vodka.
She gasped suddenly. Belarus knew how to give the flower to her brother without any chance of rejection.
Russia heard a soft knock on the door and breathed a heavy sigh of relief that it wasn't Belarus, she would never knock.
He opened the door to find an extra-large bottle of vodka and a sunflower with its stem fed into the mouth of the bottle.
There was a small card next to the bottle:
Brother Russia,
Happy vodka flower day.
Your only,
Belarus
Ivan raised his eyebrows in surprise as he picked up the bottle. He put his face into the sunny blossom and took a long, deep breath. After pulling the flower from the vodka he took a large gulp of it.
"Well," He said finally. "A few more years of this and maybe marriage isn't so out of the question."