AN: Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This oneshot is the combination of some of the cutest things ever: Sealand, Liechtenstein, and kiddie romance. I hope you guys have as much fun reading it as I had writing it! ^^
Sealand and Liechtenstein didn't talk much at the world meetings. Well, Sealand would if anyone let him, but the fact was, no one did. As much as he tried to shout over the noise, nobody paid the little micronation any attention.
Liechtenstein didn't talk either, but that was because her big brother was loud and pulled enough guns on people for the both of them. She didn't have to talk—her big brother loved her and would defend her interests, she knew. There was no need for her to have to raise her voice.
When he got frustrated and tired of trying to out-scream America, Sealand would join Liechtenstein where she sat against the wall, farther back from the table, and plunk dejectedly down into the chair next to hers.
That created the beginnings of a friendship between the two of them. They were the corner-sitters, the wallflowers. Not by choice, but they were. They were also the youngest nations physically speaking, and that gave them a kinship as well—none of the older nations really understood what it was like to be kid, since they'd been one so long ago. Some of them, like America, had been children for only a couple decades.
They talked a little, exchanged a couple words the first time they sat beside each other. The conversations grew longer each meeting, and when Switzerland and England dragged them off they became sadder and sadder to have to go.
At the January meeting, Sealand crumpled into his seat with a despondent look on his face, a little earlier than usual. "Why doesn't anyone notice me?" Sealand asked mournfully. This year Sealand's New Year's resolution had been to get recognized as a nation, but he was already losing hope that it would happen this year.
Or the next. Or the next.
Liechtenstein patted his back comfortingly. "It's okay, Sealand. We're just little, so they don't think we have any big things to say."
"Well I do have big things to say, if only those jerks of jerks would listen to me!" Sealand cried furiously. "Oh, I'm sorry, Liechtenstein… I didn't mean to yell. I just get so frustrated with them sometimes!"
"I understand," she said, swiping a strand of her cropped blonde hair behind an ear to get it out of her olive-green eyes. "You just need to find somebody to take care of you until you're all grown up big and strong!"
Glancing around, Sealand found his gaze settling on a bluff-faced Nordic. "Someone to take care of me… That Sweden guy looks kind of nice, don't you think?"
"Yes, he does. Under all that creepiness, I mean." Liechtenstein smiled at Sealand. "Why don't you go talk to him?"
"Well…" Sealand looked down, studying his swinging legs. "I don't know. What if he's allies with that limey?"
Liechtenstein slid her hand into his. It was small and grubby and sweaty—a typical little boy hand. She was a little older than him physically and much older than him in actuality, but her hand fit into his like she'd been holding it forever, almost like her brother's. "I don't think that should keep you from becoming friends, should it?"
Startled, Sealand glanced down at their linked hands. A hint of a blotchy blush crept onto his cheeks, but he didn't tug his hand out of hers. "You think so?"
"Yes, I do. Wait, I have something for you." She drew her hand back and tugged on the end of one of her green hair ribbons, making it come loose and fall into a coil in her hand. "For luck!" Gently she took his wrist, rolled back the sleeve of his sailor suit, and tied the ribbon around his wrist. "See, now you can be brave enough to go say hello."
Sealand's blush deepened. "N-no, I can't take your ribbon!" he cried,
"Don't worry about it," she said sweetly. "My big brother bought me some new ones last week, and I want you to have it. Just wear it when you need to be brave, okay?"
"O-okay," he stammered. "Thanks."
Wobbling a little on his feet, Sealand rose and dashed off to introduce himself to Sweden, made brave by Liechtenstein's gift tied round his wrist.
o~O~o
By the next month, Sealand was living in Sweden and Finland's house, and they were taking good care of him just like Liechtenstein had said they would. Sure, Sweden was a little gruff sometimes and he talked kind of funny, but he cared in his own strange way, and Finland was very nice and gave Sealand presents all the time.
They were a family. A really strange, mismatched family, but then again, when weren't families strange and mismatched? Sealand had never been happier. He loved curling up in front of the fire with a book while Sweden trapped a trembling Finland on his lap and everyone was happy.
Sealand never took Liechtenstein's hair ribbon off his wrist. It was the thing that had made him brave enough to say hello to his future foster father. He wanted to thank her somehow, but he wasn't sure how to do it.
Then he realized that the next world meeting was going to fall just two days before Valentine's Day. He could give her a valentine! That would be perfect! They were good friends, so he could give her a valentine!
Excited with his idea, Sealand locked himself in his room for an hour in a whirlwind of creativity. When he'd finished the card, he sat staring at it, unsure of what to write on it.
What to say about Liechtenstein? He tried to think of all the words he could. Nice, pretty, sweet, grown-up for her age. She was like an angel. A special angel whose hair ribbons had the power to make him brave, who made him feel just as big and powerful as any real nation just by smiling at him. She even had her own halo, a light around her that made him happy just being next to her. All she needed was a pair of wings and she'd be the most beautiful angel ever.
Somehow that was embarrassing to say, though. He turned pink just thinking it—he couldn't imagine putting it down on the card. So he settled for the watered-down version.
o~O~o
"Liechtenstein!"
The little nation turned at the sound of her name being called, still hanging onto her big brother's arm. The nations were standing outside the building where this month's meeting was to be held, waiting for the doors to open so they could go inside.
To Liechtenstein's surprise, Sealand was skipping toward her, holding the hand of a blonde nation that she recognized as Finland. Behind them trailed Sweden, looking as unapproachable as ever.
"Guten tag, Sealand," she said, letting go of Switzerland's arm as she headed off towards her friend. Switzerland glanced her direction when he noticed she wasn't attached to his arm anymore, but when he saw she was just meeting Sealand he turned his attention back to the discussion—well, argument, really; Switzerland's shooting hand was beginning to twitch toward the holster over his shoulder—he'd been having with Austria. "What's that?" she asked, noticing something in the hand that wasn't holding Finland's.
"Oh, this?" Sealand released Finland's hand, turning faintly pink. "Um, can we go over there to that bench to talk?"
"Sure." Liechtenstein was a little confused by his sudden embarrassment, but she let him lead her over to the bench, situated under a droopy oak tree. When they sat down, Liechtenstein straightened her skirt and waited for him to talk. But he didn't. He seemed fascinated with scuffing his boots in the dirt under the bench. So she cleared her throat quietly and asked, "So have you been living with Sweden and Finland?"
He jumped when she spoke. "What?"
"I asked if you'd been living with Sweden and Finland," she repeated.
"Oh, yes, I have! I talked to them and they were shocked that I had no place to go, since I won't sleep in my room at that British jerk of jerk's house, and they invited me to come home with them."
"That's good! I'm so happy for you," she said cheerfully. "Now you have a family to take care of you!"
"Yeah," Sealand said. For some reason he was blushing. "Um, I…er, I brought you something, Liechtenstein," he coughed, reddening by the moment.
"Oh, for me? You didn't have to do that," she said, her own cheeks darkening slightly.
"It's not from me," he said hastily. "It's…It's from a friend! Yeah!"
"I see. Do I know him?"
"Ah, no, but…" Somehow he got even redder. The tips of his ears were almost glowing like Finland's lead reindeer's nose. "He thinks you're really cool…"
"Oh, that's nice of him!" Liechtenstein was beginning to think that Sealand wasn't talking about a friend after all. "So, can I have it?"
"Have what? Oh yeah, the card." Sheepishly, he passed her the thing he'd been holding.
It was a construction paper valentine in the shape of a pink heart. The heart had two little angel wings and a halo, and it had a poem written in pencil on it.
In spaced-out, carefully rounded child-like letters, it read,
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I think you're nice
And real pretty too.
At the bottom, she could just barely see a word that had been very thoroughly erased, as if whoever had written it was trying to hide it.
Sealand.
Liechtenstein bit her lip to hide her smile, glancing at Sealand. He studiously wasn't looking at her, examining a flock of birds flying overhead. But his face was still crimson.
And she could just barely see, poking out from the wrist of his sailor suit, the very edge of a very familiar green ribbon.
"That's very sweet of your friend," she said, still trying to hide her grin.
He coughed. "Um. I'll tell him you said that."
"Thank you. Could you give him something for me, too?"
"Wha—" He cut off, eyes flying wide, when her lips pressed gently to his cheek.
"That." She flushed prettily pink and averted her olive green eyes, embarrassed by her forwardness. "To say thank you."
"Uh…" Sealand's brain had been turned into plum pudding. Hot tingles chased through his body, all coming from the spot where she'd kissed him. "Um. Yeah."
Shaking her hair over her face to hide both a blush and a smile, Liechtenstein stared at the card. He's so kind to me… Just like Big Brother. Then she frowned a little. No, not like Big Brother. He's…different. I don't feel that way when I kiss Switzy's cheek…
Kissing Switzerland didn't make her feel light enough to float right off the bench. But she felt like a balloon right now, lighter than air.
Sealand's sweaty hand settled over hers. Surprised, she glanced at him. He still wasn't looking at her, but he didn't move his hand away, either.
So they sat there like that, not looking at each other, Liechtenstein smiling down at the valentine on her lap and Sealand blushing at the ghost of her lips on his cheek, their hands touching, until the doors to the meeting room opened and all the other countries began to go inside.
Sealand popped to his feet. "Well, I suppose I'll see you inside! After they all ignore me again…" At the end, his voice grew sullen.
The valentine in her hand making her brave, Liechtenstein took Sealand's hand again. "I'll listen to you, Sealand. Always. Promise."
He turned blotchy red, but his voice was grateful. "Thanks, Liechtenstein."
"You're welcome." And the two youngest nations went inside the meeting room, hand in hand, together brave enough to face the whole wide world.
AN: x3 My. Headcanon. Kya! I just love them so much together. Plus it's an alternative to Liechtenstein x Switzerland, which usually grosses me out a lot unless it's done really well. It's like...incest! And somehow straight incest is even grosser than Germancest or Itacest. -endrant- Okay so there you go! Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Ti amo, ich liebe dich, te amo, je'taime, all that jazz :P