Toris turned off the TV, falling back onto the neatly made bed. Yet another country had turned against them, joining the majority of Western Europe. How long would it be before Germany started to blitzkrieg the hell out of the Empire, making it crumble in a faster time than it could be built up? If it wasn't for America being the Empire's biggest ally, Toris would've been hysterical by now, making plans for surrender and trying to make sure no one would get hurt. But now that there were American troops in Poland-Lithuania, Toris didn't feel as panicky as he usually was.

"Hey, Liet?" Feliks called from the bathroom. "Can you bring me my tie? It's in the outside pocket of my suitcase."

"Okay, give me a second," Toris answered, getting off the bed. He grabbed Feliks' suitcase, removing a pink silk tie.

"Seriously? Do you think pink is appropriate for this?" Toris sighed as he handed it to Feliks.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Toris leaned against the doorjamb, watching Feliks attempt to figure out how ties work. "You know, it's a huge event and all. Not some silly world meeting or thing like that. This could win us Ukraine."

"And I bet the Ukrainians all love pink." Feliks was getting slightly more frustrated, the knot looking more like a feeble attempt a child would make at tying their shoes than a Half-Windsor.

Toris took the tie from his hands, undoing the knot and skillfully tying it. Feliks mumbled something about how he could've done it himself, but Toris doubted that. The Pole had his strong points, but his pride was not one of them.

"Do you have your parts memorized?" Toris asked, adjusting his own tie in the mirror.

Feliks dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Oh, please. I could do it in my sleep."

"Are you positive? Because I printed some copies just in case you needed them."

Feliks rolled his eyes as an answer, stepping out of the small bathroom.

"Is that a yes?" Toris laughed anxiously, pulling on the sleeves of his jacket. He was starting to get nervous, like he always did before any sort of public talk. Usually he could overcome it before they started, but this was much more serious than any other speech he'd done.

"Sounds like you're the one who'll need the copy."

"Whatever." Toris tried to put his fears far away, but all he could think of was how many people were expecting to see them. And what if he screwed up, or did something stupid?

He turned off the bathroom light, grabbed his briefcase, and followed Feliks down to the armored car waiting for the two. They quickly got in, hiding behind the tinted bulletproof windows. It was strange to be so protected again. The last time he had been treated like royalty was during the Soviet Union, when Ivan would've slaughtered anyone who laid a hand on Toris. It was weird to think that just a year ago, he'd been allowed to drive on his own, go out in his country without a guard, and visit other nation representatives without the promise that there would be no hidden weapons. Now they were guarded like priceless museum pieces, not somewhat humans.

"Do you want to go over the speech one more time?" Feliks suggested, twirling a strand of blond hair.

"No, I think we got it," Toris said, watching the city of Kiev go by. He wished he could be one of those people outside, not a care in the world about if they were going to have assassination attempts made on them. It would be nice to have a day free of worries every once in a while.

The rest of the ride was silent, Feliks keeping himself occupied by drumming his fingers. It was excruciatingly annoying to Toris, but he was more concerned about getting his nervousness to disappear. He tried taking deep breaths, but that didn't work. Then he went to thinking about happy things, but his mind was completely blank. The only things he could think of was his speech and the constant drum of Feliks' fingers. Toris was ready to snap all of Feliks' fingers off when the car came to a stop, and they were escorted out by two armed guards.

A much larger crowd than they had expected was crowded around the steps of Saint Sophia's cathedral, Feliks' choice site for the speech. It truly was a beautiful church, but Feliks had chosen it because it gave them the appearance that they wanted peace. If they had done it at the capitol building, it would've seemed like they wanted to overtake Ukraine rather than welcome them into their Empire. Or so Feliks had tried to explain, but it didn't really make that much sense to Toris.

When the crowd spotted the two, a loud roar of voices suddenly came about, people pointing at the two and shouting. Feliks love the attention, waving and smiling. Toris gave a few polite waves, but mostly hid his face as they were led to the podium. He was trying to keep his calm and remember his parts of the speech, repeating the words over and over as to not forget it.

Once they were standing above the crowd of people, Feliks waited until they were quiet to begin.

"Like, hello people!" Feliks started, waving. The crowd cheered, as Feliks had become rather infamous for his valley girl way of talking. He was much more of a crowd favorite than Toris, who could only offer a few smiles and a stutter when he got scared. Feliks was more of a people person, while Toris preferred to stand on the sidelines and watch.

"We've come here today for peace, not warfare. The Empire of Poland-Lithuania has no interest in like, attacking Ukraine. Instead, we want to be friends. Is that cool with you?" Feliks shot a glance at Toris, his green eyes gleaming. This calmed Toris down much more than anything, knowing he had Feliks at his side. Taking a deep breath, he pushed his nervousness aside and began talking.

"Countries have always been plagued by warfare. You can't escape it. It's human nature, to fight with others. Anyone can be drawn into the arguments, including the nation representatives. We're not some kind of perfect being meant to rule over the lands, but to live alongside our people." His voice was much quieter than Feliks' and was much shakier, but Toris could still be heard. The timing of his sentences was a bit awkward like it always was when he started talking, but he was much calmer than he had been at other speeches.

Feliks nodded in agreement. "And that's exactly why we're here. You see that big country that lives next to us? You guys know him as the Russian Federation. I personally prefer to call him Potato Nose, but call him whatever you want. He's pretty famous for being a terrible country, and once again he's living up to that. He's taking the things he claimed as his back into his land, trying to create a much bigger problem than he already is."

Now the two were beginning to fall into the rhythm that they had when they talked, a sort of back and forth pattern derived from all those years of being married. "Many of you have heard your parents or grandparents speak of the Soviet Union. Maybe a handful of you even remember it. Our lovely neighbor caused that, enslaving us like cattle. Both of us remember the years spent under the rule of the Russians." Toris felt Feliks grab his hand under the cover of the podium, and realized he was trembling. This almost always happened when he got to talking about the Soviets, but why did it have to happen now? "We have the scars of the people burned into our hearts; we have the memories of the cold and pain. And we don't want anyone to ever go through that again. You and your children make the future of this beautiful country, and if you too have to live in the Soviet Union that is trying to be reborn, your future that seems golden right now will quickly go grey."

"We want to prevent that. All of you have such a bright life ahead of you, one that shouldn't be wasted with suffering and warfare. When you live for thousands of years you have good years and you have bad years. I can't imagine what it's like to live with only a few decades on this Earth, and a portion of them is bad memories and things you can't talk about and laugh." Feliks gave Toris' hand a tiny squeeze, the persistent smile still on his face. "Trust me, you want good memories, ones you can laugh about for years to come and share with your children."

"This future is priceless. That's why you have to protect it, and the easiest way to do that is to join us." Toris looked at Feliks, wondering how he could be so calm. "Sure, we fight like the old married couple we are, and we may seem a bit intimidating, but we understand you. We understand the pain, the sorrows, and the seemingly endless depressions that haunt many of you. But we also know how to give you joy and happiness, to let you live in a world where you aren't standing in line for hours for a loaf of bread. One of the worst things I can remember from the Soviet Union was being banned from my own language. What sort of country is it when the people aren't even allowed to see their own flags, to recite words in the tongues their parents spoke, to sing the songs of freedom? It isn't a country anymore, it's a prison."

"If you join us, we'll give you protection. If they even make a move towards you, we'll send help to make sure this land never turns into a jail. We will let you have your flags, your words, your songs. Nothing will change, except our relationship between countries. No longer will we just be neighbors, but brother and sister, keeping you safe from the hungry bear that's trying to get into the house. We'll be there to kill it before it can even get close."

"All we ask is that you take our hand, and let us help you. We don't want your land, money, or people. We want to help. We want to live alongside you, like we're not centuries old, somewhat immortal beings, but human beings just like you." Toris scanned the crowd, trying to keep his own smile like Feliks always had on.

"So," Feliks held out his free hand, motioning for Toris to do the same. Still holding tight to Feliks' other hand, he reached out to the crowd.

"Will you take it?"


A/N: So this is new. It's sort of a jumble of ideas that somehow came together in the form of a speech. A lot of it came from listening to Mumford and Sons repeatedly until I had the ideas for Toris' parts. Feliks was pretty easy to write, but Toris is a special case.

See you next chapter!