Elizabeta Herdevary was feeling weird. Her head was laying in that ominous grey area between feeling tired and feeling encompassed with anger. After being shuffled off to New York the night before (her employer personally came to her house and practically dragged her out of bed to the waiting black limousine), she arrived with a neat few hours of jet lag and the uncomfortable oncoming of a migraine. Her head felt like a large block of stone being carried on a small stick of a podium.
All of this was before she saw Gilbert in the same car as her.
It turns out that the United Nations had a colossal amount of money, but could not afford another car. After all, Prussia wasn't a real country anymore.
The ride to the hotel was bad enough with her dizziness, but the high crackling swagger of and gab of the awesome Prussia was enough to get Elizabeta to jump off of the George Washington bridge.
Speaking of which, they got lost and did not get to the hotel until the sun was pushing its giant fist of light through the clear lavender sky.
So here she was, sitting in the white, bare room with nothing but Francis Bonnafoy and, of course, Gilbert for company. Even worse, her only connection to the outside world of sanity, her phone, lost all power.
When she heard the joyful cheers flying through the down the hall with the force of a crash test dummy driven car, Elizabeta could safely say she was out of the grey area and into full force rage-induced migraine.
"You two shut up!" She shouted at the conversing nations who whipped their heads at her.
"Don't you hear that?" She pointed to the door as the sound rose in volume.
They both stared at the door in rare silence as they heard the cheers move closer to the wooden door.
Please don't let them come. Please don't let them come. Please don't let them come. Please don't let th-."
The brown door was pushed open violently and two identical people with slightly tousled dark brown hair were gasping to catch any precious air they could. They put one hand on each others back to support each other until they slowed their heavy breathing and looked up to the center of the plain room. The door ominously creaked to a close without any prodding.
Neither twin could say they were particularly impressed. While there was a quite attractive Hungarian, her forehead clutching and small whimper of pain was not encouraging. They're eyes shifted to the next two behind her.
A long, blond haired man which a small stubble on the tip of his chin was sitting by a milk white man with dark red eyes and a slightly hooked nose. They were both holding cards and dropped them as the the blonde man's cobalt eyes attached to the twins before a large smile erupted on his face.
"Oh..uh...hey everyone. I'm...uh...Kevin Jones."
"Yah, and I'm Thomas. We're the-."
"Dakotas." Kevin finished while a he continued to scan the motley bunch in the room.
The woman with her heart shaped head in her hands sighed deeper than a cascading waterfall and stood up. She adjusted her wavy, long hair and walked the few feet to the anxious brothers at the door.
"Hi I'm Hungary. Elizabeta Herdevary. Sorry for wha-." Elizabeta's voice gargles to a halt as Thomas reached around her frame and reeled her in for an intimate hug. Her eyes expanded to the size of dinner plates before she felt the firm grip slide away from her.
"Sorry. Just wanted you to be comfortable." Thomas said as he was pulled away by Kevin.
"We're just really excited." Kevin said in a flat voice.
"Okay, woman. My turn!" The pale man nudged aside Elizabeta like an annoying tick and stood in front of the two with a wiry smile.
"Allow me to introduce my awesome self. I am the Awesomeness that is Prussia. Hopefully, being from where America is, you can know just how lucky you are to be here with me. So, any questions on my superiority?" Gilbert said with slanted eyes.
"You idiot! Your not in charge." Elizabeta shouted as she raised her arms in despair.
The twins stared at The Prussian with a confused intrigue. They both put they're hands up to there chins and caressed them with the valley between their thumb and finger as the squinted their eyes. After a few silent seconds, Kevin and Thomas's eyes sprung to a full moon, like a dam that broke open.
"Wait a minute! Your not a real country. Your a fake!" The twins shouted in unison.
Elizabeta could only contain Gilbert as he lunged to the Dakota twins and swiped at them with his bony knuckles. Gilbert growled in anger and his eyes grew to a maniacal size as he threatened the two calm brothers in front of him.
"Of course I'm real. I'm the leader of the real Teutonic Knights! In the east of the greatest empire in existence! You can't be as stupid as that stupid austr-"
"Say it! Go ahead! Say it." Elizabeta said while she reached with one hand to the frying pan that was hidden on the floor behind one of the desks. She held the pan above the angry Prussian's head, and he stopped talking like a mouse caught in a trap.
"Hello there. You two Amerique's states?" The tall blonde man who was staring at the scene spoke in a brick-thick French accent.
"Oh, yeah! Your that French fella I heard about."
"Sorry about my friend. He gets high strung. I'm France. Francis, so it's easy to remember that name.
"I'm Kevin. New up here, so don't have much to say. And that's-."
"I'm Thomas. But you can call me Tommy if you want." Thomas interrupted, eliciting an annoyed sideways glance from his brother.
"Well, Thomas, I like your voice."Francis leaned in and Kevin saw his jaw move, suggesting a whisper. Thomas's eyes shot open and his face suddenly eased into a rose-red. He covered his mouth with one hand and clutched it, as if he saw a three-headed dog.
Kevin's eyebrows contracted like a drawbridge as he was about to voice his confusion. He was interrupted by the door opening with the shorter Englishman striding into the room.
"Okay everybody. I see your a little acquainted. So I guess I'll go over the details. First, anyone like a drink. Not alcoholic!" England pointed to Gilbert whose mouth snapped shut like a disappointed alligator.
"Hey, uh, Mister England?" Thomas asked raising his hand.
"It's Britain." Arthur responded tersely.
Everybody stared at Arthur and Kevin looked up to the ceiling before snapping his gaze back at the impatient country. "What?" Kevin asked.
"It's Britain. Not England."
"I don't understand. Everyone calls you England."
Arthur let out a cool bark of a laugh. "Since when? You three!" He shot his hand to the three other nations sitting next to each other behind the Dakota brothers. "When has anyone called me that!"
"Angleterre, it's no big deal. Lets jus-."
"Shut up frog! I didn't ask you. You! East Germany. When has an-."
"Don't call me East! I'm the amazing and awesome land of Prus-."
"I don't care. Just answer my question. Does anyone call me that?" Arthur said in an exasperated shout.
"Wait. Mister England. Britain. Whatever. Can we just get this started." Thomas said in a rapid fire speed, like he was trying to be the adult on the playground. The room snapped into a silent trance as the people inside looked up to the still standing state.
Arthur sighed and rubbed his forehead before looking back up to the stoic faces in front of him. "Okay, fine. I'm sorry. That was quite rude of me."
"Do you wanna hear a joke?" Thomas said in a flat voice.
"Wh-what? A joke."
"Yah, just a little thing to tone everyone down, y'know? Tommy, tell a joke." Kevin said.
"If its fine with you, your majesty." Thomas said with a playful tone in voice, causing a huff from Arthur.
"Uhh...so there was this guy at a bar. And he...ordered a shot of something. I forgot. Anyway!" Elizabeta put her head in her hands again as Gilbert and Francis stared straight at the slightly anxious state.
"So he sits there and he just stares at the drink, y'know? So this trucker guy is sitting with his friend at the table by him and notices he hasn't drunk anything. So after an hour or so, he walks up and drains the shot glass." Thomas smirked and turned his head to Kevin who put his hand on Thomas's shoulder in reassurance.
Kevin kept his pasty smile and continued. "So then the guy starts to cry all of a sudden. The trucker guy starts feelin' bad and says 'Hey, I'm really sorry bout that. Ill buy you another.'" Kevin said in a fake deep voice.
"So the man turns around and says 'Its not that. It's just that I got fired today, My wife left me, my house got robbed, and my car broke down. And just when I'm about to end it all, you come in here and drink my poison." Thomas finished with a flourishing hand flick and visibly lowered his shoulders in relaxation.
The room was quieter than a bad improvisation show's audience. Out of the disappointing dearth of silence, a whistling crackle lit up the soundless room.
"Oh man. That was awesome! Why didn't I think of that one!" Gilbert tilted his head back in laughter and clutched his shaking stomach. Elizabeta groaned in annoyance and kept her head covered. Francis smiled genially and looked at the Thomas standing on the middle of the room. He supported his head with one arm and rested it on the desk. Kevin saw the quiet reaction and his smile disappeared like a sponge wiping of a dinner plate's dirt. Then, Francis gave a wink with his blue eyes and sighed softly.
"Uhh...Gee, sorry Mister...I gotta go to the bathroom. Ill be right back." Thomas whipped his body around to face the door and he yanked on the silver bar on the door before powering out of the room like a mouse that escapes from a cage.
Kevin looked at the exiting state with an inquisitive face, as if he was trying to piece together a long crossword puzzle. His face lit up as his mouth barely hing open. He turned to Arthur and started to walk backwards towards the door.
"Oh! I gotta go to. Twin powers, y'know." Kevin smiled at the frowning nations.
Kevin opened the door and walked out of the room to see the empty white hallway that was lit by the cheap panels on the ceiling. The cool draft of the hallway pushed at Kevin as he walked briskly to the nearest men's restroom, which was a mere three doors away from the cramped conference room.
When he pushed in the grey door and turned the white stone wall to reach the open expanse of the restroom, he saw the brown haired tip of Kevin's head, submerged under the cool river of a sink faucet.
"What happened?" Thomas head jolted up and hit the hard metal faucet.
"Jesus Christ, Kevin. Don't sneak up on a guy. If I did that to you, you woulda tried to decapitate me." Thomas rubbed the throbbing back of his head and turned off the water as he wore a pained expression.
"So, that French guy winked at you, right? Is that what it is?"
"It's not that. Well, that guy walked up to me and whispered to me." Thomas paused as he grimaced again.
"So, what'd he say?" Kevin asked.
"We'll, he went along the lines of 'I'd like to hear the voice even more' then he told me his room number. He said 419 Grand Plaza, and that's we're we stay. I think the guy actually means it. i mean, he is France, right? so what if he is after me? Thomas finished and then grabbed some more air for his hungry lungs.
"Tommy, I did want to ask you, but I guess now is the better time. Are you still homophobic?" Kevin leaned in closer and looked over his brother's shoulders, checking for any intruders in the empty restroom.
"Wh-whaddya mean, Kev? You know I've been that way for a while. Why would anything change?" Thomas waved his hands in frustration in the closing space between him and Kevin.
"Because its pointless, Tommy. You've barely even associated with anyone like that, and you avoid them like a plague. I mean, a lot of people that did anything to me were straight and I'm not afraid of straight peo-."
"It's not about gettin' hurt, Kev!" Thomas interrupted with a frantic, high-pitched voice. "It's about me just not wanting to be by a group of people. Why is that a problem. White people didn't like black people. White people didn't like Indians. So I'm not nea-."
"Don't talk about them, Tommy. Don't talk about the Natives like tha-." Kevin said in a quick and fervent voice.
"Let me finish, Kev. Let me finish. I don't do anything bad, okay. I don't go out of my way to do anything bad to them. You know that. But yeah, Everybody has that one type of person they just don't wanna be around, y'know. Why is it wrong for me to have one too?
"Because I thought we taught each other than that. Remember all the trouble that happened to us for something like that?"
"But I don't do what those kind of people did, Kev. Y'know I'm not like that, yah? Why is it so wrong to be uncomfortable by certain people? I'm sorry, Kev. I don't wanna mess anything up, and ya know I won't try to, but...can you just make sure that French guy doesn't get by me. I have a feeling this guy won't just leave me alone if I just said to leave me alone."
"Yah, Chris said that when he went to Louise's house that one time. He's persistent." Kevin sighed and move toward his brother and out his arm around him as they started to walk out the bathroom. They felt the slow breeze of the cool air conditioned wind blow through their hair like a tractor slowly plowing through a farm field.
"I know I can't control who you like and don't, and I still don't understand the logic behind how you feel." Kevin said softly to his twin brother's ear.
Thomas shifted his dark emerald eyes towards Kevin and sighed as deep as the clear blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. "It's not logic Kev. It's just how I feel. I know it's wrong, but I just don't know what to do." Thomas said in a quiet and slightly dejected voice.
"It's fine, Kev. Honestly, even if you weren't like this, you would probably be scared of that guy anyway." Kevin smirked.
"I'm not scared of him, idiot." Thomas nudged him and they both broke into a light chorus of chuckle.
The two found themselves back to the opaque wooden door, and Thomas gripped the cold metal handle.
"So, we'll just not sit by that guy. Lets just stay close to the England guy. Or at least the hot Hungarian."
"That other guy doesn't seem bad, either." Thomas said with a ghost of a smile on his face.
Kevin adjusted his slightly messy hair from in front of his eyes before returning the smile. "You just like him because he laughed at your joke. By the way, get some new material. You've been telling that joke everyday for like twenty years." Kevin said.
Before Thomas could get a protesting word in edgewise, Kevin yanked led the door open, causing the strong, cool draft to flow into the room like a cloud blowing its soft air into the sky.
A/N: This isn't a reflection on the State of North Dakota, BTW. I just thought it'd be interesting. Although we have yet to scratch the surface on the story or characters, I think we have delved into an interesting situation. As always, I plead for reviews or suggestions of any kind. Your opinion matters! They help everybody. i get to become a better writer, and you all can let out those awful things called emotions out without any fear of what others will think. It's a win-win, honestly. Thanks, and good luck!
