So, my computer isn't working, but I can use the copy and paste toupload stories. Unfortunately, Sea Foam and the other stories are on the computer, and it'll take a week to figure out what the heck is wrong with the darn thing.
So this, hopefully short, story is just until I get the computer working again . . .
This is a loosely based parody of Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy Mysteries- They're murder mysteries, and very good if you like animals. One of the books was made into a movie titled Murder, She Purred. It was different from the book of course, but it was still pretty good.
Mix of pairings, mostly het, so I will be using a mix of nyotalia and normal hetalia characters. If you have a request for a background pairing, feel free to give it in a review.
The tiny little town was surrounded by farms and cattle ranches. It had a small public library, the city hall and police station on one side of main street, the post office was on the otherside, and there were various small family owned buisnesses lining the streets. The largest buisness was a cement plant that was actually thirty minutes from the city proper.
It was the type of town where everyone knew the families and gossip was a better source of information than the small town paper, which only stayed in buisness because it provided facts to either soothe or stir up the gossipers.
While there was a mayor, most of the town was owned by the Vargas family, the patriarch, a humorous old gentleman known to his favorites as 'Grandpa Rome', the rest just knew him as Mr. Vargas. He was a self made man with a good heart (though it was well known that his eyes may have wandered in his youth) He had two granddaugthers (their parents lost in a tragic car wreck) that were practically the princesses of the town. Anything they wanted, they could get.
Being a small town, the Vargas family did have a "court" of sorts. Key players in the town who kept day to day life simple, most grandchildren of the men and women that helped set up the town with Mr. Vargas. The mayor, of course, a man by the name of Roderich Edelstein; The Sheriff, a man named Sadiq Adnan; Vash Zwingili, the town doctor; The Bonnefoy family, who ran the bakery; Wang Yao, who owned the grocery store and a small farm; Antonio Fernandez-Carriedo, who owned a small cafe; Heracles Karpusi, the Librarian, who was best friends with Honda Kiku, the owner of the small newspaper; The Kirkland Family, who was the second wealthiest family (and with the title came a deep seated grudge with Fernandez-Carriedo, who believed the Kirklands had cheated his family out of their land a generation ago) and finally the postmistress, a headstrong young woman named Amelia Jones who was the source of the most recent wave of gossip.
Amelia owned her own farm and land, and had already caused a slight stir by not changing her name when she married Arthur Kirkland, and stubbornly keeping her own assets seperate from her husband. It had blown over because Mr. Vargas had stood up for her, and life had gone on as normal for about two years when Amelia once again caused a stir- this time by divorcing her husband.
Currently, not many people were seeking her company- they were not rude or even hostile, but the fact it was Amelia who filed for divorce, claiming 'irreconciable differences', had caused a lot of people to feel sorry for Arthur Kirkland.
His tendency to get drunk because of the divorce was a large factor of the sympathy.
"It's not like I care what they think, but ya'd think they had something better to do." Amelia ruefully noted to Tony, her large grey and white mutt of a dog. Tony snorted as if in agreement, and then turned to look at the back door of the post office, a loyal guard dog.
'Damn Humans, they have nothing better to do than insult my Amelia.'
'Tony, you do realize Amelia is human, right?' Hero, Amelia's cat looked down from where he lounged on the counter.
'She's a better person than any of them, it's that damn limey, turning them against her!' To say that there was no love between Tony and Arthur would be and understatement, the mutt loved Amelia, who had raised him from puppyhood, but had never liked Arthur.
'It'll turn out alright, Amelia will settle the divorce and everything will turn out fine.' Hero soothed, yet again. 'Oh, here comes the sausage brothers!'
'You only think with your stomach, don't you? Here I thought you were a cat.' Tony still turned his attention to the two humans, who treated his Amelia with kindness.
"Hey Amelia! The awesome me is here to brighten your day!" Gilbert Beillschmidt, the prodigal son of the Beillschmidt family having disapeared for four years before randomly returning to his brother's life (and house) with no explanation and a pet bird, grinned. "How have you been?"
"Same as yesterday, I'm afraid." Amelia sorted stamps.
"Amelia, I'd like to meet with you tomorrow, to go over the paperwork." Ludwig Beillschmidt was a lawyer, as well as a dog breeder (In fact, Tony had been a gift from Ludwig to Amelia, as the mutt was the result of a stray jumping the fence).
"Of course." Amelia nodded.
"It will get better, I promise." Ludwig awkwardly gripped her shoulder.
"I know, it's almost over, I can make it another few weeks." Amelia smiled. "Any new litters?"
"Not yet, the last litter was rough for Blackie, I'm going to have to wait." Ludwig picked up the new topic easily. "I did find a fellow breeder willing to breed Aster. How's Tony?"
"Good, had some trouble with fleas a week ago, but I got that sorted out."
"You could try-"
"Boring! Amelia, you and I should go out sometime, we'll grab Matthias and have some fun." Gilbert offered.
"I'll celebrate when the divorce is finalized." Amelia promised.
"You better." Gilbert grinned. "Hey Antonio!" Gilbert gave an undignified choking sound as Ludwig, exasperated, yanked his brother out of the Post Office with a farewell to Amelia.
"Morning Amelia! How are you doing?" Antonio smiled at her.
"Morning, and I'm doing alright, you?" Amelia returned the smile.
"Just fine, oh that reminds me, I've got some new t-shirt ideas, and I could use a feminine eye."
"I'd be happy to, but shouldn't you try asking Lovina first?"
" . . . She turned me down again. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong." Antonio was genuinely confused.
"Trouble with l'amour? Allow me to help!" Both Amelia and Antonio jumped as Francis Bonnefoy and his sister Susane entered the shop. Francis wasted no time wrapping his friend in his arms. "First you should be more forceful and- ow!" Susane hit him with the mail.
"Don't take advantage." She walked out without a word to Amelia.
Francis didn't miss the way Amelia's shoulder's slumped at his sister's dismissal. He released Antonio who gave a cheerful goodbye as he left. "I wouldn't take it personally, ma cher, Arthur was never the right man for you, too controlling."
"Yeah, I know . . ." Amelia sighed.
"If you want, I can help get the town to look another way."
"No thanks, I'll deal with it." Amelia smiled. "But thank you for the offer . . . Uh-oh." Amelia froze staring at the entrance. Francis turned, and winced. Arthur was walking up the street, and he was frowning- along with a slight waver that signaled he was drunk. "He's drinking again?"
"I'll distract him, you best stay here ma cher, this will get ugly." Amelia nodded, and Francis left.
"Good morning Ms. Jones." Eduard von Bock, the owner of the cement company, entered, placing a package on the counter and adjusting his glasses.
"Good morning." Amelia calmly took the package to weigh. "Do you need this express?"
"That would be preferable, I don't suppose you could overnight it?"
"I can try, but given last week's mess with the mail, express might be the best way to go." Amelia marked the package.
"Then go with that . . . Ms. Jones, has anyone tampered with my mail?"
"Why?"
"No, you wouldn't let that happen. I'll see you tomorrow." He walked out, past the fighting forms of Francis and Arthur.
"See you tomorrow." Amelia echoed, confused.
"Morning Amelia!" Feliciana and her sister Lovina entered. "Oh, wait, it's lunch, good afternoon then!"
"Hmph." Lovina ignored Amelia entirely, getting the mail.
"Afternoon, how are you today?"
"Pretty good, oh, I have a new pasta recipe-"
"Feliciana, we're going."
"Oh, okay, see you later Amelia!" Feliciana waved as her sister pulled her out.
'It's okay Amelia, you've still got us, we're better than them.' Tony nuzzled her leg. Amelia absently scratched his head. Outside, both Francis and Arthur were being seperated by the Sheriff and his deputy.
The rest of the day passed normally, and Amelia closed up at 5, heading home.
At one point, the Jones' barn had been full of horses, now there was only one, an American Paint with a white spot in the shape of a whale . . . And was so creatively named Whale.
"And work is never done . . ." Amelia jumped straight into her chores, Whale coming in and affectionately nudging her. "Hang on, hang on."
'Another bad day?' Whale noted.
'The human, Francis has earned a couple points in my opinion.' Tony sat down to guard the barn.
'Oh, and I think Gilbert wants to date Amelia!' Hero purred, jumping onto a stall wall.
'Gilbert, the one with the bird, right?' Whale's ear perked up at the sound of oats. 'He gives me sugar.'
'Not acceptable, he's too unreliable.' Tony laid down.
'You don't think anyone's acceptable.' Hero sighed.
'I was right about the limey wasn't I?'
Amelia tossed her jacket to the side as she finally came in from her chores. Putting food down for Hero and Tony, she grabbed a sandwich and headed for the living room. She crossed another day off the calendar and hit play on her message machine (old fashioned, but it helped in screening calls from certain men she didn't want to talk to at the moment).
Beep! "Amelia, it's Ian, Arthur's brother, just thought I should warn you, Arthur's drinking today . . . And I probably just missed you."
Beep! "Amelia- chan, this is Kiku, I know you're screening calls . . . This is a reminder that I need to speak with you thursday about the cuckoo clocks. See you tomorrow for my mail."
Beep! "Hey, it's Feliciana, so anyway, I have a new pasta recipe, but no one wants to taste test, and I was hoping you wouldn't mind taste testing? Give me a call when you get a chance!"
Beep! "Ms. Jones, Eduard von Bock, I'd like to speak with you tomorrow morning, as soon as the post office opens. Thank you."
"Great . . . I'm probably in trouble again." Amelia sighed. Tony jumped up on the couch, resting his head on her lap, Hero coming up behind her to lay on her shoulders. "Early morning tomorrow boys, I'm going to turn in for the night."
Yes, I made Tony a dog and Whale a horse. (Because there aren't a lot of whales in farm country) America's cat isn't given a name other than Americat in subs, so I gave it the name 'Hero'.
I was looking up dog breeds a while back, and I found a description of a dog that said that the male was a loyal dog, and a good guard dog for a single woman because it wouldn't trust any man that didn't earn the dog's approval. Thus, Tony is going to jealously guard Amelia.
Susane is the name I gave to the 2p nyotalia France for this story, mostly because most parents are more creative and are not going to give the same name in different gender-versions to their kids. Susane means lily, which is the national flower for France.
Yes, Rome is alive in this fic, I want to mess around with how characters would react to him. I used the Nyotalia versions of the italies, primarily because I needed Lovina to act as a foil and, well Lovino would be nice to Amelia. By the way, Lovina is the name of an actual beach, and is a valid name, Feliciana, on the other hand, I'm not so sure of. Oh well.
Speaking of names, did I spell Estonia's 'human name' right?