Over the years, Toris Laurinatis had learned to quell home-sickness. He spent so much time away from his country that over time he had become used to it. He had a shell over his heart, keeping the pain boxed up and away. Mourning things he couldn't change did nothing. It only made you feel worse in the long run.
But if there was one time that his shell was weak, that the pain was truly tangible, hovering around him like a cloud, it was Christmas. Every time the weather got colder, (well, colder than usual,) and the year drew to an end, Toris could feel sadness pricking at his consciousness. Memories that he usually tried to keep in the back of his mind, images of happier times that would never return, would force themselves to the forefront of his mind. If he was still with America, decorations would started have gone up long ago. Usually, Toris tried to keep all thoughts of his young friend out of his mind, but at this time of the year, he allowed himself the privilege, (or the punishment,) of thinking about his time across the sea.
Wind beat at the windows of the old palace that was his home now. He had a moment to relax, since the other satellite states had all been summoned to Moscow, and they each had a share of the chores, for the time being. The nations who were allowed to live in their own houses were heading back home tomorrow. Ivan had supposedly summoned them on a whim, but due to the timing of this forced reunion, Toris was fairly sure that the higher ups were just making sure that everyone's spirits remained firmly in the sewer. Thinking back on it, it seemed like a bit of a waste to drag every into the capitol. All of them already knew that each personification had their own special team of KGB to keep track of them. It would have been easier to order more guards for the Eastern nations during that particular season, than shipping them across the rails.
Toris had known the nation of Russia for a long time. And no matter how much Russia toted Communism as the best thing, the Lithuania could tell that somewhere deep in his tortured mind, Ivan was longing for the comfort that always came with the holidays. Christmas was a light spot. It was as constant as the countries themselves, showing up every year, no matter how bad things seemed. Well, unless you lived in the Eastern Block. If you were part of the Eastern Block, Christmas passed you by and went to the happier parts of the world. Celebrating was out of the question. Forcing everyone to visit the capitol was not. So that was what Russia had done.
There was a soft knock on the door, and Lithuania pushed himself up off the threadbare pillow and into a sitting position. "Come in." he called. The door opened a crack, and Hungary peeked into the room. Her green eyes darted around, taking in every corner. Once, Toris would have interpreted that as the Hungarian's curious nature, but it wasn't curiosity that made her study every shadow before she entered. Not anymore.
"Irina would like you to come to the kitchen. She needs some help with dinner." Elizaveta's geranium seemed wilted. Toris felt sorry for her. He was willing to bet she was thinking about the same things that he was. Christmas had been almost as flamboyant in Austria's house as it had in America's. He sighed. "Okay. I'm coming." He stood up and left the small room he shared with the other Baltics. Hungary closed the door and shuffled along behind him. The pair of them headed to the kitchen.
The house that was now the residence of the Soviet Union had once belonged to a Russian prince. The kitchen was, in fact, a rather huge affair, large enough to feed at least a hundred people, when it had been properly staffed. The staff was long gone now, and the kitchen was inhabited only by the beleaguered communist states. It looked like all of the nations in the house were currently in the kitchen. Ukraine couldn't possibly need this many people to help make dinner, could she?
Bulgaria, Estonia, and Poland appeared to be trying to fix the leg on the long wooden table that ran down the center of the room. That leg had been broken for half a year, but no one had gotten around to that project. It probably shouldn't have taken three of them to fix it, but then again, this was the Soviet Union. Romania was sweeping the floor. Ukraine was by the stove, stirring a pot of broth, while Latvia was next to her, chopping some carrots. Hungary walked past Lithuania and over to a lump of dough on the counter, which she started to knead. When Ukraine saw Hungary, she turned around and started to wave Lithuania over.
The door in the back of the kitchen, the servant's entrance, slammed open. Latvia winced, starting to shake fiercely, and the other people in the kitchen all nervously turned their gazes towards the door. "It. Is. Too. Darn. COLD!" an angry voice growled from the entryway. Everyone else in the room immediately relaxed. It was just Prussia.
Out of all of the Eastern Block nations, Gilbert Beilschmidt had definitely gotten it worst. He had lost his family, had his power and influence striped away, and had been blamed for horrible things that he hadn't done. He had lost his name and his heart had been divided in half. No one really even knew what to call him anymore. He refused to be called GDR, or East. Only Russia called him that. But calling him Prussia wasn't exactly tactful. In the end, they just used his human name. It was simpler. Toris still found himself referring to him as Prussia, though.
Irina hurried over to him and grabbed the bag Gilbert was holding. "Did you get what I wanted?" She asked him. He nodded, still looking annoyed. Gilbert viciously kicked the door shut. Latvia shivered again.
Irina walked back over to the counter, and placed the sack on it. She began to pull out the contents, placing some on the counter, and handing others over to Latvia and Hungary. One of the larger packages she handed to Lithuania.
"Would you prepare this, dear?" she asked sweetly, before hurrying back to Latvia and her soup. Toris pulled back a corner of the greasy paper to see the meat inside. The Soviet states rarely ever ate meat, and definitely never when the satellite states were in Moscow.
"Toris!" Ukraine grabbed his attention, gesturing for him to come take over the soup. He took her place next to Latvia, and she stood back for a minute, surveying the kitchen. She managed to look every bit the regal ruler she had once been, and more memories of those times nudged up in Toris's mind. Out of the corner of his eye, Lithuania could see that the table's leg had been fixed now. Poland was standing now, and Toris could tell that he was thinking of the past as well. The Pole's green eyes were fixed on his former wife. Although he tried to hide it, out of embarrassment, it was obvious to those who knew him that Feliks was still in love with Irina. But that was the curse of being a country. For the countries, there was no happily ever after. No matter how much you loved or cared for another, they would always be forced to leave you, eventually.
The Slavic woman didn't notice her ex-husband's longing gaze however, and got back to work, gathering up the packages still on the counter. Turning around, she then placed the packages on the newly fixed table. Estonia had gone to put the tools away, so Poland and Bulgaria, fresh out of things to do, hovered over Ukraine's shoulders.
"Is that sugar?" Yuri questioned, reaching out to touch one of the packs. Irina swatted the Bulgarian's hand away. "No peeking!" she laughingly commanded, before turning to Poland. "Make sure no one peeks, Feliks. And don't you peek, either." Poland gave her a jaunty salute, and she laughed, once again. Toris was greatly surprised. Irina Chernenko always seemed too upset for laughter. "Why is s-she laughing so m-much?" Latvia mumbled. The Lithuanian glanced down at him. "I don't know." He replied, shrugging. The two of them looked back in time to see Ukraine pat Poland's cheek and hurry out of the kitchen. As soon as her back was turned, Poland winced. Toris felt himself wince in sympathy for his friend. Irina had treated Feliks like a child just then. Poor Poland.
"Hey, vhere did the dog knight go?" Lithuania had almost forgotten Romania was there. The Romanian was standing in the corner, and his teeth gleamed. Both Bulgaria and Latvia yelped, having forgotten Romania's presence. Hungary ignored her brother's antics, scanning the kitchen.
"Yeah," she muttered, almost to herself, "Where did Gil go?"
No one seemed to have any idea where the former German kingdom had skived of to. After a minute, with no answer forth coming, the group made the mutual decision to move on in the conversation. Poland opened the new conversation.
"Does anyone know when Soviet is getting back from his meeting?" The satellites all trained their eyes on the two Baltic states, waiting for an answer. Since the Baltics were the only ones who lived here constantly with the Kieven Rus siblings, they were the natural people to ask about schedules. Latvia started to shake under their scrutiny.
"It should still be a bit." Eduard said, appearing at the top of the stair to the kitchen. "He usually has to stay awhile after the end of the official meeting." Everyone nodded, accepting this answer. It made sense. There were some things that only a nation was allowed to know.
"Doesn't he usually take you?" Vladimir asked, crossing the room to put his broom in the closet. "I mean, I thought you were his pet-calculator-thing." Eduard sent Romania a dirty look for that one, but then cleared his face and plowed on.
"Well, yes, I do often go with him, but Belarus had just gotten back from her house when we were about to leave, and she wanted to go with Ivan. So I stayed. He didn't need two people there." Eduard smiled weakly. Nobody blamed him for not wanting to go. Spending quality time with two psychopaths is never on anyone's to-do list.
At this point, the only people in the kitchen who were working were Lithuania, Latvia, and Hungary. Russia wasn't here at the moment, and no one really felt like leaving the kitchen. It was warmer than the majority of the rest of the house. There was a sense of camaraderie among the nations in that kitchen. They may have been going through hell, but they weren't going through it along. Times like these reminded all of them of that fact.
It was at that moment that Prussia decided to return. He clomped down the kitchen steps, taking child-like glee out of making as much noise as possible. The sight made Toris happy, but confused. Gilbert always seemed so depressed these days. Comparatively, he was probably the most depressed of all of the communists, for good reason. The Prussian was a free spirit, and for him, the cage that trapped them was more than just metaphorical.
"What's your deal?" Hungary asked, obviously wondering at the sudden return of her childhood friend's perkiness. Gilbert shot her a wild grin, a more playful version of the snarl he had worn when he was still out conquering the world. Elizaveta blinked in surprise.
"I won't tell you what my deal is! I'll show you!" Gilbert glanced around furtively, and then pulled out of his jacket one more package. This one was different than the others. The paper was colored red, and the string around it was tied in a small bow. Carefully, he placed the package on the table and began to unwrap the paper. He then proudly showed the contents to the people crowding around behind him.
They were slightly crushed, and messy looking, but that didn't change what they were. They were cookies.
"Is that lebkuchen?" Poland almost squealed. "Yeah." Prussia said proudly, "A guy who was visiting my side from the West brought them to me. They're from Lutz!"
Well, that cleared up Prussia's sudden good mood. Getting a present from a family member in Western Europe was defiantly something to celebrate.
"Ludwig got a present through to you?!" Hungary jumped up and down on her toes, clapping her hands. "How is he?"
"Fantastic! The message I was given said that Roddy and Elise helped him make the cookies. Even Switzy says hi! I'm supposed to make sure to share with you." Hungary's smile couldn't have been wider.
"Will you share with us, too?" Latvia had asked so quietly and meekly that it was hard to hear what he had said. Prussia did hear though, and turned around to smile brightly at the younger boy.
"Of course! I wouldn't just bring them down here to gloat over them." Prussia grabbed a broken piece of cookie and handed it to Raivis.
Raivis's violet eyes brightened with a slightly greedy light. Lithuania and Poland shared a small smile. Even as a 900 year old, after all the crap that had happened to him, there were still moments when even other countries could mistake Latvia for actually being the age he appeared. Lithuania treasured those moments, when he got to see a glimpse of his once innocent little "brother." The one who always wanted to go play with the hunting dogs, or sing songs at any chance he got. Latvia had such a fantastic voice, it was Lithuania's dearest wish that he would sing again.
"Oh, cookies!" Ukraine chirped happily, bouncing down the steps. She was holding something in her hands, and she was beaming. "That will go great with what I've got!"
Irina hurried over to one of the cabinets and grabbed a kettle, which she placed out on the counter. "If you wait to eat the cookies, we can have hot chocolate with them."
The nations in the kitchen who were not Irina or Gilbert took a moment, trying to figure out of if this was a dream or not. Irina gently pushed her way to the table, tapping Poland's shoulder.
"There's one more surprise, as well." The Ukrainian started to open the packages that Feliks had been guarding. There was indeed sugar, as well as flour, some spices, and a couple eggs. "I didn't know that Gilbert had cookies, but I thought that we could make a cake with hot chocolate. Since all of you have been so good this year." The phrasing could have been improved, however everyone understood what she was implying. The cake and hot chocolate was her Christmas present, to them.
The entire Eastern Block got into the act of making the cake, and before very long they were all quite messy. The cake had just been placed in the oven, along with the bread Hungary had made, when Irina was struck by an idea. She seemed just chock-full of ideas today.
"Eduard! Why don't you and your brothers sing a song? You have such lovely voices, and you never seem to sing anymore." Toris unconsciously backed up a bit. Eduard and Raivis shared his trepidation. Making any type of attention drawing noise in Russia's house was a bad idea. Not making loud noises had been such a staple of their day to day life for so long that the idea of singing now seemed rather ridiculous.
"We, uhh…" Eduard came to the rescue. "We don't sing well in Russian."
"Oh, but its Christmas!" sighed Ukraine, totally oblivious to the looks of shocked horror that she was receiving from everyone else in the room. But she wasn't done blowing their minds just yet. "Just sing something in one of your languages!"
You could have heard a pin drop. Latvia gave a rather strangled cry and collapsed sideways onto Romania, who huffed with surprise at the sudden weight. Ukraine gave the three Baltics an expectant look.
"Don't worry about Ivan, dears. I'm his big sister, if anything comes of this I'll just tell him that I told you to." Although Lithuania was just as flabbergasted as his "siblings" were, he immediately snatched up the chance that Ukraine was offering him. There was no way she could have known what he had been wishing for earlier. Maybe God figured it'd be nice to throw a certain Lithuania dog a bone once in a while. Whatever the reason, Toris wasn't missing out on this chance. Tentatively, he launched into one of his folk songs. Eduard and Raivis would have no problems joining in on this one. The three of them had used to sing this song a lot, before Sweden had taken Estonia and Latvia away. Once the eldest of them started to sing, and such a familiar and comforting song, the younger two Baltics couldn't keep their mouths shut anymore. They also began to sing.
It took a few minutes, but after it finally sank in that Russia wasn't going to burst in and kill them, the other nations relaxed and began to chatter happily with each other. Irina filled the kettle and put it on the stove to boil. The smell of the baking cake began to fill every corner of the kitchen. The Baltics began to take requests, singing songs from all over Europe. For one moment, the highly exclusive club of imprisoned communists had managed to capture the same happiness that people in the West had at this time of year.
Everyone was enjoying themselves so much that they didn't hear the door open upstairs. They didn't hear the rushed pounding of boots, or the sound of footsteps in the hallway. It took them a moment to notice that there was an extra presence in the room. Then Latvia suddenly stopped singing with a whimper, beginning to tremble extremely violently. Slowly, as one, the people in the kitchen turned to see the new person on the stairway.
There, standing in all her maidenly glory, pale hair flowing out behind her, ribbon perched perfectly on her head, and arms crossed over her chest, was Natalya Arlovskaya.
"Bela!" Ukraine hurried across the room, arms outstretched. "You didn't come see me when you got back! How are you, sister?" The older woman proceeded to glomp her sister, unconcerned with the fact that she was covering the other woman's pristine dress in flour. Natalya's facial expression didn't seem to change at all during the hug. She allowed the Ukrainian to manhandle her, and seemed unbothered by the fact she was now covered in flour. The Belorussian then directed her attention to Toris. She glared at him. Despite himself, Toris cowered a bit. If Natalya was here, that meant Russia was back. And even though he wasn't here now, as soon as Belarus went and told him that they were singing in their native languages, all of them would be dead.
"What are you doing?"
"They're singing for us, isn't that sweet?" Ukraine clapped her hands happily. Belarus gave her older sibling a flat look, then gave the same look to the Baltics, before looking back to her sister. Belarus swept over the other inhabitents of the room, all of whom were frozen like statues, before settling back on the Baltics. Her gaze was just as icy and inhospitable as always.
"Do you know any Belorussian songs?"
It seemed to be a day for that family to shock people, because no one would have expected that from Natalya, of all people. She was willing to go behind the back of her Beloved Big BrotherTM, and have them sing in a language that wasn't Russian? That was a completely foreign idea to everyone involved. Thinking quickly, Eduard burst out.
"YES! I, uh, mean, yes, we, err know some of your songs?" It ended up sounding like a question, but he had managed to get the words out without stuttering, which was a commendable feat. Few in this world could claim to be able to speak with a steady tone while talking to Belarus. Eduard nudged at Latvia, who was too caught up in rapt horror to recognize a cue. With a jerk, the youngest Baltic snapped out of his terror and started to sing.
It was a lullaby. The soothing song was completely disconnected from Natalya Arlovskaya, but it was very pretty. Even Raivis seemed to calm down a bit, wearing a serene look on his face. Painful punishment might have been mere minutes away, but seeing that expression on Latvia's face once more was worth it, for Lithuania.
The song ended. Nothing happened. Raivis snapped out of his momentary peace, and started to shake like a leaf again. Belarus wordlessly turned and walked out. Ukraine, looking worried for a second, reached out to stop her. Belarus jerked around before she could be touched.
"I'll keep Russia away." And that was it. Belarus left.
Stars glittered brightly in the sky, and the moon cast a bluish light on the snow. It was snowing for the umpteenth time, big fat snowflakes that acted like they had all the time in the world to reach the ground. Like they had never heard the phrase "Time is money." Frankly, Lithuania envied them that. At times, it seemed like it would be easier to be something slightly less… permanent.
Dinner had been nice. The soup and bread had been delcious, and the hot chocolate and sweets were an unexpected treat. It had been meager, but it had been a celebration, none the less.
There was an itchy feeling under Toris's skin, like he had to move. He rolled over in bed, so he was facing away from the window and toward the other Baltics. Latvia was curled up right next to him, and as soon Toris faced him Latvia cuddled into his chest.
Eduard looked more relaxed than he usually did. The strain on Eduard's face wasn't even noticeable, until something, such as sleep, had taken it away. Lithuania reached out and gently rubbed Eduard's head. Eduard sighed happily, and leaned into Toris's touch. A smile lifted Toris's lips. He still had the uncomfortable feeling, though. Gently, Toris pried Raivis's fingers of his shirt and stood up. Raivis whimpered slightly at the sudden cold, but the Lithuania pushed him a bit towards Estonia, and wrapped the blanket around the two of them. When neither of them moved, Toris silently slid out of the room.
Wandering around the halls did little to settle his uneasy, and was only making him more paranoid about running into Russia, who was known to suffer bouts of insomnia. He was thinking about sneaking down to the kitchen and maybe stealing some vodka. At the very least it would knock him out. He would just have to be very careful not to leave any trace of where he had gotten it from. If given the chance, Latvia would drink, and drink a lot. Technically, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia were the only ones allowed to fix Latvia drinks, due to his slight alcohol problem. Russia thought it was a stupid rule, and saw no problem with letting Latvia get as drunk as he wanted. But after a lot of begging on Lithuania and Ukraine's part, Russia had finally made it a house rule. He didn't enforce it much, so people still slipped Latvia a sip or two here and there, out of pity.
All thought he had been having about people indulging his little brother's bad habits flew Toris's mind when he heard footsteps down the hall. Lithuania froze. It had to be Ivan. The only other person who wandered around at this time was Ivan. He seemed to be awful near to… A door creaked open. That was the door to the room the Baltics shared. Lithuania felt his blood run cold. Nothing good ever came when Russia decided to wander into people's rooms at night. And the other two were in there by themselves!
There were rare occasions when Lithuania felt like a knight again, felt like he could take on anyone. Felt like he deserved his title of greatest sword fighter in Europe. Now was one of those times. It might have been a result of letting himself dwell on the past so much today, but honestly, that made no difference to Lithuania. He started to move swiftly down the hall, summoning his sword to his side. It had been so long since he had last used it, the sword was in a bit of disrepair, but it would work in a pinch.
It what was quiet possibly the quietest dynamic entrance ever, Toris somehow got the door to swing open without smashing against the wall. He bounced on the balls of his feet in the door, holding his sword out in front of him. There was a person in the room, leaning over the bed. It was too small to be Russia, though. The person stood up and turned around, looking slightly startled, but then smiling blissfully at Lithuania. Lithuania raised an incredulous eyebrow, lowering his sword.
"Tino?"
The Finn laughed happily, straightening out his red cape-thing. "Moi moi, Toris! It's been a while, huh? I knew there was someone awake in this house! You should be asleep."
"What are you doing here?" Lithuania interogated, sending his sword back to where ever it had come from.
Finland looked truly affronted. "It's Christmas, right? Of course I'm here! You guys are actually the first I've visited."
"But… you never came before." Toris pointed out. Finland looked down sadly. "It's pretty complicated, but to put it simply, my magic depends on belief. Hope and joy make it stronger. Sadness and despair have the opposite effect. I couldn't come into the Eastern Block by magical means. For quite a while, I haven't been able to sense any sort of hopes from you guys. Very sad. But just a little bit ago, someone made a very big wish. Easily one of the most powerful wishes I've ever seen. It was enough to compensate for the lack of hope, and so I was able to come see you! Uwahh, isn't it so wonderful!"
Finland grew happier and happier as he talked. By the time he finished talking he was practically glowing and his eyes were shining. He seemed to have become his own source of light. Dropping the bag he was holding, Tino struck a pose, grinning so wide that his face seemed like it would fall off. Toris could have sworn he heard music swelling in the background. Lithuania felt like he had just been pulled into one of those cartoons America was so fond of. This little show also brought to mind Matthias Kohler. Apparently spending a few centuries among the Danes rubbed off on people. Miraculously, neither of the still sleeping countries stirred due to the Finn's over the top display.
Toris couldn't help but be wonder. "Who made the wish, then?" Tino shook his head in a faux-chastising look. "I can't tell you. It's a wish! I'm trusted to not tell anyone. If I told, then I would be breaking their trust! It's not nice! Plus, my magic suffers whenever anyone breaks a promise. If I broke a promise, I wouldn't be able to use my magic!"
"Oh." That seemed like a lot of red tape, just to be able to move from place to place faster. But Toris shrugged it off. If Tino wasn't going to talk, Toris wasn't going to make him. It was the first time in years since Toris had gotten a chance to speak to a Western country without the threat of Russia looming over his head. In theory, he should have been even more worried, since Russia was just down the hall, but that didn't bother Lithuania at the moment.
Finland used his foot to push his sack out of Lithuania's way, and gave a little bow, motioning for Toris to get in bed. "You're really supposed to be asleep for this." Tino sighed. Obligingly, Toris pulled back the covers and climbed back into bed, where Latvia promptly snuggled up to him. "Goodnight Leituva. All of us are rooting for you and the others! Give Eesti my best wishes." Finland waved his hand, and Lithuania felt himself getting sleepy.
"Good night Soumi."
Lithuania nervously knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. All of the others had already left, and now it was only Prussia and Poland left. And he was taking forever to leave the room. Downstairs, Toris could faintly hear Russia asking if maybe Prussia felt like staying, if he wasn't going to come down. Upon hearing that, Toris threw politeness to the wind and walked into the room.
Prussia was sitting cross-legged on the floor. His bag was full-packed, but open, and the room had reverted to its former empty blandness. When he realized that there was someone else in the room, Gilbert jerked and swung around, shoving whatever he had been holding under the bed.
"Oh, Lithy." Gilbert sighed. "It's only you." "What are you still doing up here?!" Toris squawked, waving his hands in a frantic gesture reminiscent of a frightened bird. Prussia's face lit up, totally forgetting his terror just moments before. Lithuania found himself staring at someone's nose. Discombobulated, Toris grabbed the picture out of Prussia's hands and held it back so he could see what it was. It was a sepia picture, one of the highest quality he'd ever seen. It was in a simple wooden frame, but that didn't seem to bother Prussia. The picture was of about six people posing on a couch, and when Toris started to recognize who they were, he felt a smile come to his face.
It was the Germans, as well as Hungary. They were all wearing very stuffy looking clothes, but other than that they looked exactly the same as they looked in real life. It was a very old picture. If the clothing hadn't tipped him off, the fact that Germany and Liechtenstein looked about seven did. The two of them looked adorable, sitting right next to each other, holding hands and smiling at each other. Liechtenstein was half sitting in Hungary's lap. Roderich, Vash, and Gilbert were all standing behind the couch. Gilbert appeared to be talking to Liechtenstein, and for once, Roderich and Vash looked relaxed next to each other.
The more Lithuania looked at the picture, the more he realized that it couldn't have been a picture. Photography hadn't been anywhere near as good as this when Ludwig and Elise were that age. Toris was fairly certain that he had seen a painting once of the same group, in a similar arrangement.
"Where did you get this, Gilbert?"
"I don't know! I was just checking that I had all my belongings, and it was wrapped up on the top of my stuff!"
Toris didn't know how Tino had done it, and probably never would. But whenever he next saw the man, he would thank him profusely.
"That's nice and all, but if you don't hurry, Russia will make you stay."
That got Prussia moving. "Why didn't you say so!?" He snatched the picture back, placing it in the suitcase and slammed it shut, before running out the door.
Standing by the door, Poland was waiting patiently for Prussia to show up. The two of them were taking the same train for a large portion of the trip, and for once, they were allowed to be with each other without constant surveillance. Maybe it was Ivan's own little way of giving a Christmas present.
Belarus and Ukraine both stood by Russia's side, watching as Prussia began to load the luggage into the car that would take them to the train station. Estonia and Latvia hovered in the doorway. Russia watched for a moment, before leaving the room, sweeping past the two Baltics. Belarus followed him like a puppy on a leash. Once the two of them had left, Eduard and Raivis came forward to say their goodbyes.
Prussia had finished his goodbyes and gone out the car, more than ready to leave the heart of his enemy. Estonia had finished also finished his goodbyes and had darted off to get to work on his chores. Poland finished hugging Latvia and Lithuania, and gave a little bow to Irina.
"If you'll excuse me, I have a ride to catch."
"Feliks, wait!" Poland turned around, and Irina caught him up in one of her famous, bone crushing hugs. Poland was stiff with surprise for a moment, but then he relaxed and hugged her back. Lithuania felt that it was a good idea to continue on with the day, so he steered Raivis further into the house, leaving Feliks and Irina alone.
Latvia gently opened the door to the study, holding his feather duster in front of him like a weapon, or a peace offering. The study was one of Latvia's favorite places. He could escape into the world of books, where no one could hurt him. Where if he got scared, he could just shut the book and be done with it. He often ended up making up new ending, if he didn't particularly enjoy the fate of a character. These he would share with Estonia, Lithuania, or occasionally Poland, who would put up with it and then praise him for his creativity at the end. They didn't find them interesting, of this Raivis was almost positive, but they knew he enjoyed it, so they dealt with it. Latvia felt kinda bad for forcing them to listen to his stories, but then again he didn't. It made him feel powerful, being able to dictate what the characters did. It was more than he had been able to do for himself in ages. Plus, being praised and doted on by his older "brothers" was a guilty pleasure of Raivis's. It made him so happy. It was awesome, as Prussia would say.
Raivis almost had a heart attack when he opened the door and saw his master's broad back facing him. He tried to close the door as swiftly and clandestinely as possible, but Russia heard the movement.
"Come in, little one." He chirped. Adult men should not chirp. Especially adult men who towered over everyone else and were one of the three most powerful people ever. Nobody gave Russia that memo though. They were probably all too terrified.
Latvia came into the study, shaking like a dog. Russia jerked his head a little bit, signaling for Latvia to come stand next to him. The Latvian couldn't help his prickling curiosity. What was Ivan looking at?
Raivis peeked out the window. The car was finally driving away with the German and the Pole inside. Irina stood in the driveway, waving as they disappeared down the road. Her not-so-little brother watched as she came back inside the house, with a slight bounce in her step, which hadn't been their for a long time.
"I'm sorry." Russia apologized, still staring at the window, "You need to clean in here, da?" Latvia nodded his head harshly, so Russia would not confuse the action with his normal shakings. Russia stayed in the window for a minute, absent-mindedly fiddling with one of the pins on his jacket. It was one that Latvia had never seen before, shaped like a sunflower. Ivan caught Raivis eying it. The giant of a man smiled, not one of the fake ones he always wore, but a real smile.
"It's new, do you like it?" Russia asked, turning a bit so Raivis could see better. "Where did you get it?" the Latvian asked. Novelty shops where not particularly popular in communist countries. The joy remained bright on Russia's face.
"It was a present."
Merry Christmas!
December is my favorite time of year. There's Christmas, and my birthday, and snow! Usually. This year the weather decided that we don't deserve snow in the part of the country I live in. l:P
I feel like I was rather repetative with my word choice, but what the heck. I'm a person, not a thesaurus. Maybe I'll change up some of the words later. Maybe.
This is the most words I've gotten in one chapter so far. 6,000 words in one go is impressive for me.
As the description said, every character in this story made a wish. I was going to have each wish get mentioned in the story, but then I couldn't think of a good wish for a couple of the characters. If you can think of what each character wished for, tell me! I think it would be cool to know.
Thank you for reading, and please review! Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! ;)