The window was laced with frost from the bitter cold of the still winter day outside. The chill that seeped through numbed the hands of Latvia as he cleaned the windowsill, turning them pale and his fingernails dark. When everything had been satisfyingly swept clear, he frowned as he began to clean the glass itself, trying his best to ignore the cold burn that came from the direct contact with it. Once it became spotless and shining, he was able to look out into the yard at the blue sky and at the leafless trees that were supporting an even layer of snow on their branches. He could not help but feel captivated by the view and by how tranquil the outside world appeared. It was nothing short of beautiful when there was no storm that was so viscous that all he wanted to do was snuggle under some blankets and hide from its fury.

In truth, the unpredictability scared him. He loved when all seemed quiet and safe, but he was also afraid of such atmospheres. He never knew when the peace would shatter. Russia undoubtedly frightened him and the extent of his fear was not limited to the country's weather.

His eyes darted away from the window and he allowed one large shiver to run down his spine that shook his tiny frame. The reoccurring discomfort was affecting him, however he would not allow this or anything else to distract him from today's important task: cleaning the library by himself. Usually this kind of job was reserved for Estonia or Lithuania, for they were taller, but today they had recommended that he do it. They were currently busy in the kitchen hurriedly preparing a large order of food that Russia had said that he would need for some kind of meeting. Russia had not provided many details but one had to expect that it was very important. Thus, Latvia would stay out of the kitchen so that there was no chance that his nervous shivering would result in any accidents.

The library was not all that dirty to begin with for the whole place was cleaned so often by the Baltics. Nevertheless, Latvia thought that it would be worth the effort to take everything off the shelves and clean under where the books had been instead of halfheartedly just dusting around them. Small hands gently removed a few books at a time, setting them down in a stack to maintain their order. When the shelves were polished off, he slid them back into their regular places. It was because it was such tedious work that Latvia's mind started to wander, and this time, he set up a game of chess in his mind and began playing against himself.

I really wish I could play against someone else though. The thought slipped through his mind as his body continued to move. Like Estonia, if we ever had the chance, and I bet Lithuania would be good at it too.

He halted his game and looked despairingly up at the two higher levels of shelves that nearly reached the tall ceiling. After glancing quickly around the room, he could not spot anything that he could use as a boost except for the armchairs, but those were too valuable and he did not wish to risk dirtying or breaking them.

There's a stool in the other room I think, he thought.

He was pleased to find out that he had been correct. However the stool was nearly as tall as he was, so it was an effort to climb on and off it while bearing objects in his arms. It took a while to finish the lower shelf, but then the highest one loomed above him. He stretched up onto the tips of his toes to reach the books, and when he grabbed them, the stool wobbled. His heart leapt up into his throat, but he managed to catch his balance. For a moment he could only breathe while holding to his chest the books with Cyrillic characters printed across their fronts.

He carefully made it back down to the ground, taking a few seconds to let the panic settle down. He looked at the doorway but it was empty, to his relief. Russia might have been lurking around the house somewhere, or he was merely attending to his own business right then. It was always a shock for Latvia to spot him behind him, knowing that any mistakes he had just done would not go unnoticed by Russia. This happened often whenever Russia took a break, for he had this habit of suddenly appearing behind anyone from seemingly out of nowhere. In addition to this, not only did Latvia not want to attract his presence with the loud bang of a dropped object, he did not want him to stay and watch him working. He would only get more stressed, which would cause him to tremble uncontrollably and make this work even more of a struggle.

Latvia sneezed after having had disturbed a layer of dust. I guess it wasn't as clean as I thought it was in here. He reached far into the corner and dared the stability of the stool. There was a little glass bird there which he dragged towards him with his fingertips, thinking, This should be cleaned too-

The stool collapsed and shot away in the opposite direction. Latvia yelped when only air remained under his feet and his eyes glanced up to catch sight of the bird sliding off the edge. He flung out his arm and grasped it in time, then he held it protectively against his chest as he fell. He smashed his right side off a metal-framed side table and he heard a sort of cracking sound in his shoulder. Latvia then rolled over onto the floor and landed on his aching side. He gasped in agony, then inhaled so sharply that it sounded like a squeak.

He set the glass ornament beside himself then tried pushing up from off the floor. Immediately he collapsed onto his right side and gasped again when the pain shocked his arm. He flopped onto his back and breathed steadily, racking his brain for an idea on how to deal with what he had just done to himself.

How am I always getting into these kinds of situations? his mind cried in dismay.

What followed promptly after this thought was the sound of heavy footsteps padding across the carpet towards him. Automatically his heartbeat picked up and all the blood drained from his face. He was sure that this familiar sound would always spark fear into him whenever he heard it approaching, but now the fear that stirred within him was much more intense as he lay there feeling so absolutely helpless on the floor.

"What happened here, Latvia?" Soft Russian words floated closer as the footsteps stopped by his ear. When Russia crouched down and gazed over him with a smile glued upon his face, Latvia squeezed his eyes shut.

"I-I'm sorry, Mr. Russia…" Latvia stuttered, then thought, Why does he always check on me at the worst of times...?

"Hmm? Why are you sorry?" Russia asked set a hand down on Latvia's shoulder.

Latvia immediately choked out in pain. The hand swiftly retreated. Latvia was left quivering in fear due to the additional pain that had been inflicted upon him. He looked up at Russia's face, afraid of how he would respond and unsure if he could even recognize the signs of terror that he was displaying.

What is he going to do to me now? Latvia despaired.

The floor dropped away and strong arms that could easily break him held him tightly. It took a lot of effort to not wail from being grabbed suddenly. Tears budded in his eyes and all he could think about were punishments as Russia walked away carrying him. He had hurt himself so he was not able to work right now; Latvia assumed that the other would surely be displeased by this result.

He blinked in confusion when he was gently placed in an armchair instead of being thrown and locked into the basement. Russia brushed up his arm, but Latvia only reacted when his shoulder was touched. He whimpered when the hand stayed this time, pressing around to find the sore spots.

"How did you do this all by yourself?" Russia mused.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it. I will fix it up."

"What?"

Latvia squirmed as his arm and shoulder were grabbed roughly. Russia shoved him against the chair, pressing him firmly against it while he pushed down powerfully on his shoulder. Latvia screeched and writhed, but this accomplished nothing and did not help him escape from the hands holding him. His cry of pain was however audible from the kitchen, and when it was detected by their ears, Lithuania and Estonia froze with dread rising up within them. Latvia was hurt. To them, the only conclusion was that Russia was involved.

"I'll go," Estonia said. "One of us will have to stay here at least."

Estonia, still with a ladle in his hand, raced through the halls towards the library. Lithuania continued working but he stirred the contents of his pot with a face downcast with worry.

Away from the others and still alone with Russia, Latvia screeched anew. He barely heard the pop over his scream. It was over so surprisingly quick and now Russia was stepping back to analyze him. He cast his eyes up and down over Latvia's shivering form before he chirped, "There, you are all better now!"

Latvia rotated his arm tentatively and his eyes widened in utter surprise when he noticed a vast decrease in pain. Yet as it dawned upon him that Russia had just helped him, he remembered some past experiences where apparent kindness expressed by Russia was followed by some kind of dark cruelty afterwards.

How will he hurt me? Latvia could only think. Surely, he will want to punish me for at least taking time out of his busy schedule?

It was the fear that caused two twin tears to roll down his face. Russia saw them, but he assumed them to be from Latvia's continued pain. Russia smiled and wiped one of them away with a quick brush of his gloved thumb across his cheek.

"You do not need to cry, friend Latvia," Russia said. "You are all healed."

Latvia nodded automatically in response, driven by the fear of Russia smiling and touching him at the same time. These were never good combinations; Russia was always nice and calm before his mood darkened into something else on the turn of a dime.

"Yes, Mr. Russia. Th-thank you."

"Latvia!" Estonia burst into the room.

He went abruptly quiet when he saw Russia beside him. Now he thought, Bad, bad, bad.

"Estonia," Russia uttered as he got up to his feet. "What are you doing here? Should you not be working in the kitchen?"

"I, er- I heard Latvia scream and I wanted to make sure he was alright," Estonia replied, trying his best to conceal his nervousness.

"Well, he is with me. There is no need to worry." Russia smiled a little at him, but it was one of those false smiles that was meant to intimidate the receiver of it.

Estonia took a step back instinctively, but he threw a glance behind Russia to check on Latvia. He saw that no marks had been inflicted upon his visible flesh, so he immediately wondered why Latvia had screamed like that.

It was daring, but Estonia had to do it anyway. He asked Russia, "What happened here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Latvia slipped and fell. Very silly thing of him to do," Russia replied simply. Much too simply for Estonia's taste, thus he grew suspicious.

Estonia stared back at Latvia again, who nodded slowly twice. Sensing the mood, Estonia knew it was in his best interests to leave it at that. He dipped his head respectfully before whisking away back to the kitchen where Lithuania continued to wait anxiously. He had wanted to stay, naturally. He really wanted to take Latvia away from Russia and just lead him somewhere safe where he and Lithuania could talk with him and find out the full story. However, interrupting any of Russia's business would only worsen the outcome for anyone involved, so with a bitterness against Russia building up inside him, Estonia was forced to leave Latvia to his own fate.

"What happened?" Lithuania asked the moment he heard Estonia's footsteps approaching.

"As far as I know, Latvia fell. But I don't really know if he's hurt or if he is going to be. Russia practically had him pinned against a chair."

"And we thought he'd be safe not being in the kitchen at all today," Lithuania sighed. "Poor guy. He is so breakable, you know. If I could, I would take any of his punishments for him with no hesitation."

"It wouldn't do you good to be strong for all of us." Estonia glanced at him with a raised brow. "It'd be too much and he would break you."

"No. Russia will never break us." Lithuania spoke these words very lowly so that only Estonia could have possibly heard him.

The Baltics looked forward to the peace that usually came in the evening after they had finished their daily chores. At these times they had the opportunity to be together, to chat and to relax their exhausted muscles before they crawled into that one bed that they were all forced to share. It was a good time to read, but recently books in their own languages had been banned and none of them wanted to look at the Cyrillic alphabet any more than they had to. Instead they would try to recall stories of their people or even make up their own. They came up with whatever they could in order to strengthen the bonds with each other and share whatever happiness they could scrape up together.

Latvia was sitting on the bed with his pyjamas already on when Lithuania and Estonia came into the room. He had taken out a stack of cards and was playing a game by himself in the corner of the bed, but he stopped when they entered.

Finally, they could question him.

"Latvia, what happened to you today?" Lithuania started.

"I fell," Latvia said.

"Did you really, or is that just what Russia says?" Estonia demanded.

"No really! I was on a stool but I leaned too far and I fell off it. My shoulder hit the table all wrong, and I must have made a lot of noise because Russia came into the room immediately after. And, well- he figured out that I dislocated it because he grabbed me and shoved it back in. That was why I screamed. It really hurt, but after it felt a lot better."

"Russia helped you?" Lithuania voice contained all his surprise and disbelief.

"What did he do after I left?" Estonia asked.

"That's the weirdest part," Latvia admitted. "You might not believe this but, I was so sore that he even told me to take a break. So I sat in the chair, then I watched him clean all of the top shelves for me... Really, it's true!"

"What?" Lithuania gasped.

"Yeah, he was strangely nice to me… but then again I didn't break anything so I guess that's why he wasn't angry."

"Ah," was all Estonia said.

They had managed to get through the rest of the day without any more concerning incidents. Now that the drama of the day had passed and they were relaxing in their bedroom, Estonia decided to sing for them. Russia had made some of his songs illegal, so he never sang those ones here just in case Russia was hanging around and would hear him. One could never be too sure.

Estonia had a phenomenal voice. His people liked to sing and have song festivals back in his country, so he had therefore acquired their love as well. Nevertheless, all of the Baltic countries were known for their music and how it expressed their old culture. Estonia encouraged Latvia to sing a daina when he was done, and so he did.

Latvia started off quietly at first, but then his voice rose in volume as he beguiled himself with the words of his own language. His voice was always sharply clear and the words came out so smoothly so that whenever he sang, a calm would dwell in the room, making all of them feel quite sleepy and at ease. Each sentence ended unstressed and sweetly, but the next one always rose mystically and it was entrancing to listen to. However, his daina was a short one, for it was only two paragraphs. It was over so quickly but its shortness only made them appreciate its perfection ever so more.

Latvia blinked a few times when it was over, as if remembering where he was. Then he said to Lithuania, "Would you like to go now?"

"No," Lithuania replied. "I think we can end off with something like that. I'll go tomorrow."

His folk songs, his dainos, were similar to those of Latvia's. However, he preferred listening to Latvia sing instead of singing himself. When Latvia sang, it expressed all of the innocence that the small nation contained. Lithuania watched Latvia stretch then begin to snuggle in under the blankets, his movements so careful and gentle.

Once Latvia had settled in, he was heard piping up, "Goodnight, you two."

"Goodnight," Lithuania and Estonia both murmured in unison.

Lithuania got up and switched off the light, throwing the room into darkness. Once everything settled into silence, it was then that Russia decided to drift away from the spot just outside the door where he had been standing. He left without a sound so that they would not know that he had been listening to them the entire time.