She thought no one could see her. Bursting into the meeting room, she clutched Kumataro in one arm, panting and leaning on the open door with the other.
"I'm sorry…" she said in a whispery voice, "I overslept." Standing back up, she readjusted her red beret hat only to see all of the other countries confused. "Am I late?"
England coughed to interrupt the awkward silence; she spoke for them, standing up from her seat walking over, "Excuse me, but who are you?"
"I'm C-Canada." She replied, blushing and hiding behind her curly blond locks in shame. Everyone had to strain their ears to hear, but not one recognized the name. Something in her broke quietly.
"…Oh." England lamely said, embarrassed, "W-well." She shifted uncomfortably, "C-Canada, why don't you go sit down then? We haven't gotten that far anyways."
The girl with the polar bear quietly obeyed her former adoptive sister, taking the remaining empty seat between two nations- Cuba and an Asian-looking male in a green collared shirt and dark pants.
Her polar bear, Kumaki, sat on her lap and looked up at her. "Who are you?" The animal asked.
"I'm Canada." And slowly, the personification of the Great North country became see-thru.
Was she really that invisible?
He noticed her.
Though they've never actually spoken before, Vietnam remembers her being one of the few kind countries willing to take his people under their wing. His people, the ones who lived on his land for generations, the ones who fled after his northern communist forces took over Saigon terrifying them.
Vietnam cared deeply about each and every one of his citizens, despite his rather stoic mannerisms, so while it hurt him to see them risk their lives to escape a Communist rule; he wanted them to be, at least safe and happy in another country.
Of course, she wasn't the only one to give his people a home. Her sister also took many of his citizens and so did Germany, France, and Australia. But she took in so many of his people and didn't ruin his land like America, France, and Australia did (1).
He knew her name.
But he had to wrestle the name out of Gillian Beilschmidt after first seeing his savior. He had to admit, Gillian made a good sparring partner; getting kicked and punched by her and whacking his rice paddle at her made him feel pretty good. It refreshed him, getting any anger and stress off of him, even though he got smacked upside the head by Germany and a bunch of bills, when she came home to find the house a mess.
But he got the name and he never forgot it neither.
Canada. A name so exotic yet so natural. He liked to say it in a French accent, though he hated that language in general. It reminded him of his colony days and how he used to be: weak, helpless, chained.
After that, he, supposedly listening to his siblings' incessant chatter, began to watch her at the corner of his eye during meetings at a comfortable distance from her. Vietnam was reserved, not outgoing. Instead of talking, Vietnam preferred to remain silent. To observe. To gather information in a discrete manner.
He saw everything as a result. He saw how kind and polite she was to everyone, how she'd try to assist anyone who needed it, despite it being none of her business; he also saw how other countries took her for granted and treated her. Like how England and Cuba mistook her for America to how Russia accidentally sitting on top on her. But what saddened him the most was how lonely and hurt her eyes were. A kind nation like her should not be abused like that.
But he never tried to talk to her. After the incident with America, Vietnam kept his distance from Westerners. All of them, every single one Westerner that he opened his heart to, betrayed him, used him; he wasn't sure if Canada was like them.
However, when Canada came to the meeting late, Vietnam realized the only empty seat left was next to him. He paled; he's never been this close to Canada before. Still, he managed to compose himself as the Canadian girl silently sat next to him.
"Who are you?" Kumari asked her owner innocently.
"I'm Canada." Vietnam saw the whole exchange; even her 'disappearance'.
Autumn nights were always cold in New York City and to be honest, Vietnam hated it. The searing heat of his land day and night, felt much nicer to him, not having to wear so much excessive clothing for the cold.
He grumbled about the temperature, tucking his scarf over his mouth, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. America invited him earlier to her house for horror movies and video games; he politely declined, thoughts still occupied by the incident earlier at the meeting, despite the Philippines pleading. ("Come on Viet! She has VIDEO GAMES! What kind of girl doesn't do that?" "Andres. That's great, but I don't like video games." "Fine, be that way.")
A breath of cold air seethed through his nostrils, as he stared up at the night sky. There were no stars to decorate the dark blue, but in place were large buildings made of sturdy material, brick and stone, taller than him. They plunged themselves up at the sky like needles as if to challenge its greatness.
And suddenly, he ran.
He had nothing against America's city, really. He didn't actually have anything against cities in general; his land had cities too. He just needed to run. Run somewhere. Run anywhere. Actually, he had this sudden urge to find Canada; she wasn't at any of the nation gathering places he visited.
Heavy footsteps tapped the sidewalks, before he stopped at a public park and there she was: her petite figure silhouetted in darkness, her back turned, gazing at the maple leaf tree above her.
"Who are you?" That was her polar bear. Vietnam expected her to answer, much softer than her pet, but instead, she asked to no one in particular:
"Who am I?"
"What do you mean by that? Your name is Canada." She jumped in surprise, whipping around.
"Mon Dieu! Vietnam!" She stuttered over her words, "S-shouldn't you be at America's house, eh?"
"I wasn't interested." He replied curtly, walking towards her until they were only a few feet away.
"Oh… America wanted you to be there." Canada admitted sheepishly, "S-she told me about her plans for tonight."
"Hm. That's interesting." He paused for a moment, "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be with Cuba or Ukraine. "
"They were busy. I guess I-I'm taking a walk, like you."
"Hm." He nonchalantly mumbled for lack of a better response.
Silence.
"A-Achoo!" Canada sneezed so unexpectedly, it frightened Vietnam for a second. "Ah, maple, sorry. It's k-kind of cold here, isn't it?"
"I can agree with you on that," He grumbled, sneezing himself. He lifted the scarf around his neck higher, covering his mouth. The hands in his coat pockets burrowed deeper into them for warmth. Canada only giggled.
"Looks someone getting sick." Vietnam snorted. "N-not very used to the cold, are you?" She teased, smiling lightly.
"I live on the equator, Canada. The temperatures don't get lower than 21 degrees Celsius."
"Oh… I'm s-sorry." Vietnam didn't see the reason why she needed to apologize, but could imagine her blushing, all the same.
"Why are you apologizing?" He took one of the curly blonde strands of Canada, rubbing it between callused fingers before letting go, "There's no need to."
"O-oh! I-I'm sorry," Vietnam glanced at her coolly; she apologized again. Recognizing her involuntary remark, she flushed, continuing anyhow, "It's a habit of mine that I can't seem to break… Prussia's been trying to help." No more words were exchanged then, the both of them standing in a self-conscious stillness.
Obviously, Canada was fidgeting in discomfort, tomato-faced, taking peeks at the taller man, but Vietnam, well he was in the same situation as Canada. His cheeks burned a cherry color, though he kept a stony face. It wasn't until Canada's cell phone alarm activated at the stroke of midnight.
"Um, I think I should probably go home now, if you don't mind, eh." He wordlessly nodded, "I-I'll see you tomorrow, Vietnam."
"Yeah. See you tomorrow." He added casually as she shuffled pass him, "And don't be late, Canada." He didn't miss Canada uxexpected pause, using the moment to grab her wrist. It was cold in contrast to his gloved fingers.
"Look. You're not invisible, okay? I can see you and I can touch you."
He awkwardly released her wrist, then swiftly walking in the other direction to his hotel room. The path Canada took was actually a shortcut to where the nations were staying at for the meeting, including Vietnam's.
Vietnam also knew that.
"Ok! Time to start the meeting!" America announced, rising suddenly from her seat, effectively with her boisterously loud voice shutting the rest of the countries up, "Hm?" She suddenly looked puzzled.
"What, America?" England snapped in retaliation, "We haven't got all day!"
"No, it's just that… where's Viet? He's never misses a meeting!"
"I'm sorry! I'm overslept again!" Another voice disrupted the apparent confusion, bursting into the room in the same manner she did yesterday. Whipping her head up, she sighed again. No one recognized her. Again. Déjà vu.
"Um… who are you?" England questioned from her seat, slightly freaked out by girl's appearance. That girl looked familiar, and England felt that she should know her, but… who was she?
"Her name is Canada." Everyone's focus shifted over to Vietnam, who had one hand on the door frame. He frowned in disappointment, "You should know that, England. You raised her." He calmly ambled to an empty seat next to Taiwan, ignoring the others' whispering and England's bewildered expression and sputtering.
As for Canada, she remained by the door, in shock. She didn't think anyone would actually defend her like that.
"Yo, Viet! There you are!" America shouted over the commotion, "You're late! And you too, Canadia! I was just about to start the meeting without you! There's a spot over there!"
After the meeting, just as Vietnam was gathering his papers, he spotted Canada behind his chair, her face strongly resembling a tomato, waiting for him with Kumakero sleepily resting in her arms. He raised a single eyebrow in question.
"Ah, um," She started, stammering all the same, "I wanted to um, thank you."
"It's nothing." He responded monotonously, getting up from his chair, "I just thought it wasn't very polite of England."
"But still, th-thank you."
"You're welcome. Say, Canada, do you want to eat some pho with me?" Some of Vietnam's siblings, lingered in the room for him to pack up, gasped in surprise at his offer. Ever since the Vietnam War, Vietnam became wary of western nations. Being a colony under France and having America come and supposedly 'save' him did that to Vietnam. He didn't want his people getting hurt anymore, so then what was so special about the Canadian?
"Eh? N-no! I mean, I wouldn't mind, but y-you don't need too! I didn't do anything!"
"Nonsense, it's not a problem." He grabbed his hat and wooden paddle, then with his free hand, seized Canada's delicate wrist, dragging her to the door, "There are plenty of good pho restaurants around here. America hasn't butchered them, yet."
Meanwhile, the rest Asian nations, consisting of China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, silently, but definitely not calmly, observed Vietnam stride out with Canada in tow. Out of all of them, Thailand was the only one without a comedic response.
"Aiyah! My little brother's growing up aru! NOOOO!" China wailed loudly, though no one tried to comfort her.
"Aw, that girl he was holding hands with was so cute! We have to go stalk them later, Korea!"
"Just as long as his man-boobs belong to me, da-ze!"
Thailand blinked her eyes a couple of times, still smiling, "Vietnam's falling in love, ana."
A/N: I tried my best with Male Vietnam's personality; his female counterpart seems to be more reckless, but just as hot-tempered.
(1) This is actually somewhat of a lie. Though the Canadian government didn't actually send troops to Vietnam, many Canadians supported the war and crossed over to the US to fight.