Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland walked over the th threshold together.
"Remember," Finland warned, "don't wander off, it's really easy to get lost here."
"Sure, we'll be careful," Norway said blandly, turning to Denmark. "Won't we, Anko?" Denmark didn't answer, looking around eagerly. Norway sighed and tugged his tie. "I said, won't we?"
"Yes! Yes we will!" Denmark said hurriedly, running over to Sweden and Finland.
"Come along, lillebror," Norway said, beckoning Iceland as their group started off.
"Coming," the island Nordic said, catching up to Norway. Under his breath, he muttered, "And I'm not saying it."
"One can hope, brother dear," Norway said as they joined Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. "One can hope."
*I am a line break*
*POV change: Sweden & Finland*
"Ber, wait," Finland said suddenly. The tall, intimidating-to-most Swede stopped and turned to her.
"Wh't 's 't?" he queried
"I don't see Matthias, Lukas, and Emil," Finland fretted.
Sweden used his greater height to look around. "I c'n't see th'm e'th'r," he admitted. "I th'nk w' l'st th'm."
"Oh no," Finland moaned. "This is what I was afraid of. We'll have to split up and look for them."
After agreeing on a time and place to meet if they didn't find the missing nations, the couple split up, eager to find them before something happened.
*POV change: Denmark, Norway, Iceland*
Denmark had seen something he thought was really cool, so naturally he dragged Norway to the side so he could show him. At the time, Norway's hand had been resting on Iceland's shoulder, and the instinct of tightening his grip when Denmark seized him by the other hand meant Iceland got dragged along as well.
"Hey, Lukas?" Iceland ventured.
"Yes?" Norway responded, choking Denmark with his tie. After a few moments, he released the Dane, who fell back and calmed his breathing.
"I don't see Tiina and Berwald."
". . . " Not replying, Norway turned to Denmark with a blank expression on his face and without warning, yanked on his tie again. "You idiot," he hissed, extreme irritation visible on his face for a split second. Just as quickly, he released the Dane, his usual mask back in place. "Come on, both of you. We need to find our way out of here, or them."
*POV change: Sweden*
He knew this place quite well, bit so far he'd seen no sign of the trio he was looking for. He opened his mouth, but shut it almost immediately as he saw that the spiked blond hair ahead of him was not, in fact, Denmark's.
This might be harder than he'd thought.
*POV change: Finland*
"Matthias!"
No response from the hyper, over-excitable Dane.
"Emil!"
No sign of the generally slightly reclusive Icelandic teen. If he'd had his puffin, she would've been able to hear them from a mile away. But Iceland didn't trust Mr. Puffin to behave himself here, so he'd left him at home.
"Lukas!"
Oh, who was she kidding?! If the ever-hyper Denmark and more-talkative-than-Norway Iceland hadn't responded, there was no way she'd hear anything from the quiet, magic-loving, bookworm of a nation.
'Oh, where are they?'
*POV change: Denmark, Norway, Iceland*
"Do you see them?" Iceland asked, craning his own neck.
"Nope! But I'm sure we'll find them in a few minutes!" Denmark cheered. Norway just sighed and shook his head, in both a) a negative response to his brother, and b) exasperation at Denmark.
"Oh, hey! They might be over there!" Denmark cried, running off once more and pulling the brothers with him.
*POV change: Sweden*
The problem wouldn't be seeing them, Sweden reflected. It would be knowing when it was actually them, he thought as he turned away from yet another person he'd mistaken for one of the three he was seeking.
'Tiina, I hope you're having better luck than I am, " he thought as he forged ahead.
*POV change: Finland*
"Matthias! Lukas! Emil!" Finland called, hurrying through yet another area. A pair of mothers, their children in strollers, gave her sympathetic looks, understanding her struggle; Denmark, Norway, and Iceland were definitely not the first people to get lost here, nor would they be the last. She sighed. Why, oh why had they wandered off? Well, in all likelihood, it was completely Matthias's fault.
*POV change: Denmark, Norway, Iceland*
"Norrrrrge! I'm hungry!" Denmark whined pathetically, tugging at Lukas's sleeve.
"Shut up, idiot! We're hungry too!" the Norwegian said shortly, yanking his sleeve from the Dane's grip. He turned to Iceland, walking at his side. "You okay, lillebror?"
" 'm fine, " the teenage nation mumbled, gazing to the side embarrassedly as his stomach grumbled.
"Don't worry," Norway said. "We'll find Tiina and Berwald, or at the very least, food."
*POV change: Sweden & Finland*
"Y' h'ven't f'nd th'm?" Sweden asked Finland as their search paths crossed.
"No, I was hoping you had!" Finland burst out.
" 'm g'ng t' k'll M'tth's wh'n w' f'nd th'm. Th's 's 'll h's f'lt," Sweden muttered.
"Honestly, Lukas will probably have done it for you by the time we find them," Finland sighed.
"Th're's st'll t'me," the Swede soothed her. "C'me 'n, w' st'll h'ven't ch'cked 'v'rywh're."
"I suppose you're right," Finland said, taking his hand. "Let's go."
*POV change: Denmark, Norway, Iceland*
"We're never going to get out of here," Denmark moaned, collapsing to the ground.
"At this rate, no. You've been leading us around in circles," Iceland said venomously, slumping down as well.
Norway, by no means spared from the hunger and exhaustion the other two were suffering from, wearily hauled them to their feet. "Come on. That area over there doesn't seem familiar."
*POV change: Sweden & Finland*
Finland was freaking out now. She paced back and forth, in her anxiety listing all the things that could have happened.
". . . and they could have gotten hurt, and they're probably starving because it's been ages since breakfast, and the poor things are probably exhausted and-"
Sweden reached out and pulled her into his arms, rubbing circles between her shoulders. "C'lm d'wn, T'na. Th'y'll ' f'ne."
"I hope so," she said, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"F'l'ng b'tt'r?" Sweden asked, stepping back and holding her by the shoulders.
She nodded. "Yeah, thanks Ber." She squared her shoulders and breathed deeply. "There's only a couple more places we haven't checked. They'll have to be in one of those places."
"L't's g' th'n."
*POV change: Denmark, Norway, Iceland*
They'd all but given up hope, sitting huddled together in a corner, when Matthias's nose twitched.
"Hey Norge, Icey. . . " he began.
"What?!" the brothers snapped, shooting him almost identical death glares. No matter how much Iceland denied it, the two of them were very obviously related.
"I smell food."
That simple, three word sentence got them on their feet and dashing to the area where food was being sold. . . until they came to a realization that sent the three of them collapsing onto a bench.
Tiina had the money for lunch.
*POV change: Sweden & Finland*
"They have to be here," Finland said as she and Sweden entered the little eatery. "We've looked everywhere else."
Looking around, Sweden spotted the spooky blond head of Matthias, Lukas's flaxen hair, and Emil's silvery white. "T'na," he said, nudging her shoulder.
Following the direction of his gaze, she exclaimed, "Ber! You found them!" Seizing his arm, she dragged him over to the trio huddled in a corner, half asleep. The poor things barely had time to look up at them before Tiina was upon them.
"You're okay!" she wailed, glomping them each in turn. "Never do that again!" she said a moment later, hitting them each upside the head. Back to mother hen mode, she pulled them to their feet, brushed them off, and put money in their hands before ushering them off to the line for food.
Sweden sighed. "W' r'lly n'd t' w'rk 'n th's." And he was right.
After all, IKEA is a really big place.
AN: I wrote this for today, when my Industrial Design class went to IKEA. Inspired by the fact that IKEA is Swedish, and that I used to get lost there all the time when I was younger.