Homesick
They all had little traditions they held on to dearly. Nooks in their rooms where they held treasured bottles of contraband alcohol from their homelands that Minna turned a blind eye to. On most days, what with war and training, all the girls were too distracted to pay care to the mundane activities they would've done differently at home, but that didn't erase the sharp cultural differences between them that cropped up every now and then - forgetting words in the lingua franca resulting in an impasse in communication; food completely foreign to their stomachs and etiquette alien to what their mothers had taught them.
And that wasn't even considering the national pride ingrained into each girl, reinforced by every tragedy that happened in their homeland. Keeping a close eye on the calendar for revolution, independence and commemoration anniversaries was necessary for the smooth running of the squad. The first time Lucchini had spent The Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul away from home resulted in the small girl breaking down in tears during training and begging a startled Minna to let her go back home. It had broken everyone's heart to see the small girl, normally exuberant with joy, so lost and bereft holding onto Charlotte for dear life as she spluttered 'I want to go home' in Italian over and over again; that night even Mio volunteered to help cook pasta.
The language was another problem. It had taken a while to convince Perrine that it was far more practical for them all to speak English than have three quarters of the squad waste time attempting to learn French. Reluctantly, the proud noble had conceded, but on days when chauvinism was riding high Perrine had the habit of acting like she didn't understand Charlotte's broad American accent until Lynette timidly translated what the older girl was saying into broken French. Trude too was often exasperated with the nuances of English during planning sessions and would often break out in German during the middle of her proposals. Erica would laugh lightly, poking her friend in the ribs as she reminded her softly that only she and Minna understood what she was saying. With an exasperated growl Trude would slowly repeat herself in the common language, aware there really was no logical reason she should be so upset over having to speak a language she was fluent in; but ever since the fall of Karlsland, letting go of this felt like a betrayal. Mio quietly understood this and encouraged the three girls to talk in their native language amongst each other even when she was in the room. Being the oldest, and having been the one who'd been playing soldier the longest, Mio understood the importance of holding on to familiar traditions. Homesickness doesn't dull with time, and if letting Eila down a bottle of Vodka on Suomus' independence day allowed her to stay focused the rest of the year, then having Erica brew an old karlslandish hangover cure the next was a small price to pay.
In the end, it was all a question of empathy. They were all stranded in a foreign land with no certain home to go back to. They had to take care of each other as only then would they be able to fight together.
