The Norwegian stared at the call history, the desperate attempts to talk to him, only to have gone immediately to voicemail. The house was in stunned silence, and Norway took a deep breath before he punched in "911". It was midnight, therefore two days without any contact to Denmark. This had happened once before and it had just turned out that Denmark had been at a friend's house but had lost his phone. Either way, Norway knew it was better to be safe than sorry.
"911. What's your emergency?" The receiver had a slightly scratchy voice, and Norway sadly found himself surprised that his call had been answered.
"I'd like to report a missing person," Norway responded, his voice steady despite the ever accelerating thump of his heart.
"When was the last time you saw the missing person?"
"Sometime two days ago. He left our home, and sometimes he'll show up after a day, but he hasn't answered my calls, and I believe his phone is dead."
"Alright, sir. We'll send out some patrols, but would request you to come to the police station." And with that, the person on the other line hung up. Norway shut the phone with a finality that would last two hours and slipped it into his pocket. Iceland was watching from the couch, and when he saw Norway walking to the entryway and grabbing his jacket, Iceland jumped to his feet and bounded next to Norway, grabbing his coat on his way over. Norway gave Iceland a stern look as he pulled on his jacket.
"You aren't allowed to come along, Ice. I don't want you to see this." Iceland stood his ground, however. Iceland's pet puffin flew onto his shoulder, Norway had no idea where the bird had come from, though.
"He doesn't give a da-" the bird began before Iceland clamped its' beak shut.
"Norway, I know you don't want me to see what's going on, but I have to be informed of things like this. You can't protect me from everything."
Norway groaned in exasperation. "Wouldn't it be nice if I could? Even if I thought I could protect you from things like this, it's evident that simply protecting you from it doesn't stop it from happening. So congratulations, Iceland, welcome to the real world. How does it feel?" Norway's voice was getting a sarcastic vibe, a hurtful, sarcastic tone he always got when even he, one of the most emotionless people, became upset. Iceland took a deep breath, keeping in mind that the hurtful sting he felt from the words only existed because of Norway's strained emotions.
"I don't want to go through this any more than you do, Nor. But I don't want you going through this alone."
Norway harrumphed and shot Iceland an unwavering glare.
"I can handle things like this on my own, Iceland." He then turned around and opened the door, and was just about to shut it behind him when Iceland shouted out "Are you sure you want me here all alone?" and Norway froze. Slowly, the door reopened.
"I'm not letting you come along because you won this argument, because you didn't. I'm letting you come along because you'd be safer with me." And with that, Norway and Iceland drove to the police station and entered the waiting room. Iceland, in the silence, fell asleep on Norway's shoulder, while Norway stared at the ground ahead of him. They stayed like this for awhile, until a sympathetic police officer came to them with two cups of coffee, one that was theirs' and one for Norway, seeing that Iceland was still asleep. The police officer bit his lip as he knew the silence was about to be broken.
"I'm sorry that you two have to go through this," the officer began quietly. "We'll try our hardest to find him, but it will take awhile. The station asks you to be patient. In the meantime, I don't have any paperwork I need to fill out, so I signed myself and my partner up to be your escorts." Norway furrowed his eyebrows at this.
"Escorts?" The police officer nodded.
"We need to keep you two safe, just in case Denmark was abducted." Norway didn't respond. Instead, he used his free hand to stroke some of Iceland's hair off of his forehead. The officer bit his lip as he watched the two for awhile.
"Hey um... If you don't mind me asking, are you really personified nations?" Norway looked over with his blank, emotionless expression and nodded slowly, taking another sip of coffee.
"Would you like me to tell you about what it was like to raid England's harbors repeatedly during the Viking era? I can still hone a pretty sharp axe... Or depending on your tastes in weaponry a sword as well." The officer went rigid for a moment, knowing full well the reputation of the Vikings. "I can also tell you what it was like to talk to Edvard Grieg before he wrote a piece in his home, I can recite the exact words of my constitution and am fluent in every dialect of Norwegian that has ever been spoken." The officer sighed immensely.
"Wow, so it is true," he whispered, but the whisper had so much air behind it that it was really more of a breath than a sentence. Norway nodded, looking down at Iceland's sleeping form.
"My name is Norway, and this is my little brother Iceland."
"I was about to ask how you two were related," the police officer said, already accepting of the idea of personified nations. "But what's your relationship to Denmark exactly?" Norway didn't look away from Iceland as he answered.
"He and I grew up together, and we've come to be rather like family, though Iceland and I are the only ones actually related by blood." Norway sighed. "Denmark and I were once under a union together, but I gained independence from him in 1814. Iceland remained under Danish rule for quite some time himself, yet we're all independent now... In short, he was supposed to be back in time to watch Iceland while I went on a business trip, and I'm rather peeved that he hasn't shown up yet."
The officer nodded slowly, his mind tracing facts back to the history classes he'd taken in school.
"Must be a difficult life, having to live as the personification of a nation."
Norway looked over at the officer and gave him one of his rare, small smiles. "Most people think it would be fun," the Norwegian man began, "what, with living forever."
The police officer shook his head. "Excuse my language, but it sounds like it would be hell to live forever."
Norway laughed softly, looking down at Iceland with a brotherly fondness as he stroked a few strands of hair off of Iceland's forehead again.
"At times, it is. Often I find myself wishing for death, but my people support me too much for me to simply drop down dead. No, the Kingdom of Norway would have to be crumbling for me to die. Even then I'd return as a spirit through the history books. You're the first mortal I've met that's given me true compassion." The officer sighed heavily, shrugging.
"And somehow, that fact does not surprise me." Norway raised his eyebrows in response. "Humans are arrogant fools. We look to overextend our lives because we simply want to live longer, but we forget how lonely our lives would be if we could live for eternity," he sighed greatly. "It's the main theme of the Epic of Gilgamesh." Norway nodded, somewhat impressed.
"When you're with others that will live forever it isn't as horrible, but it's hard to see so many of your friends pass. I was rather close to some of my leaders, and I've had to be at their bedside every time as they breathed their last breath..." Norway paused. "Then because of personal disputes, people lose their lives in your name," Norway looked dead into the officer's eyes, "it truly is, pardon my language, hell to be a personification." After that, there was a long pause of silence between them, and Iceland's hand curled up around the fabric of Norway's shirt sleeve.
"My name's Geoffrey, but you can call me Jeff. My partner likes to call me 'Geoffrey Justice,' but please don't catch on to that." Norway shook his head.
"You could call me Nor for short. Or Norge."
"Norge?"
"No, lighter on the 'g' and the 'e'. Nor-yeh."
"Norge?"
"Closer, Nor-yeh,"
"Norge? Nor-yah"
"How about you just stick with calling me Nor?"
"Good idea," the officer said, and both laughed quietly. Suddenly a man dressed in a rather relaxed-looking vest walked up, his brown hair tediously being swept backwards from his forehead, but lacking the gel required to make it stay back, which was a quick and simple way of explaining how often his hand brushed through his hair.
"Ey Jeff! I finished that paperw— why, who've we got here?" The man said as he approached, his voice dropping volume considerably.
"This is Iceland and Norway, Norway, meet my partner Jones."
Jones nodded in greeting to Norway, holding his hand out. "Nice to make your acquaintance, Mr. Norway. I assume these are the people we're supposed to be escorting?"
"Yup, this is them."
"I am pleased to make your acquaintance as well," Norway responded softly, shaking Jones's hand.
"So are you really..?"
Norway laughed and responded "I am," and Jones cast a look to Jeff, and Jeff nodded.
"He is," Jeff confirmed, and Jones leaned back against the wall and sighed a soft "wow." Norway shrugged as if immortality was nothing special and looked at a blank space on the wall, though there was nothing on it.
Jones reached over and pulled Jeff aside, whispering a few things to him that Norway couldn't quite hear.
"Really? Hm... Well then, Mr. Norway, I will escort you back to your ho—"
"I'd rather stay here for awhile, if you don't mind. Iceland's getting more sleep than he got last night, and I don't want to wake him..." The officers glanced at each other quickly before shrugging and nodding.
"Alright," said Jeff, "you can stay the night. Jones and I've got to check in with your case as the information rolls in anyways, so make yourself comfortable."
Suddenly smooth jazz started playing, and Jones quickly pulled his phone out and answered the call before the ringtone played for much longer. "Excuse me, but I need to take this call," he said, and left the room.
"Do you have a family?" Norway asked suddenly when Jones was out of the room, and Jeff, who had been zoning out, jumped at the sudden and unexpected question.
"Erm, well, yes, I've got a wife and two lovely children."
"They sound wonderful," Norway said politely, and Jeff began digging in his pocket.
"They can be," Jeff said, chuckling. "Here, I knew I had a photo of them in my wallet," he pulled out a photo that was tattered around the edges with a charming woman, a young girl and an older boy. "My wife's named Janice, my son's Aldrik and my daughter's Lorelei."
Norway laughed weakly, "they look very kind, I'd love to meet them one day." Jeff put the photo back in his wallet and returned his wallet to his pocket.
"My family's right in front of you," Norway patted Iceland's shoulders gently. "Then of course Sweden, Denmark and Finland as well."
"Do you have a photo?"
"I do, but it's rather old..." Norway reached into the pocket on the front of his light jacket and pulled out his simple wallet. He then began to get a photo, even more tattered and worn than the one Jeff had shown, and held it out to Jeff. Jeff looked at it, noting the black and white coloring of the picture, and made a mental note that despite the obvious age of the picture, there was little to no difference from the photographed Norway and Iceland and the older people in the same room as him. He did note how happy all five of them looked however, every one of them were smiling, though how much they smiled varied by personalities.
Jeff recognized Norway and Iceland, and both had smaller, more subtle smiles. The tallest and the only one with glasses was barely smiling, but the man with his arms wrapped around Norway and Iceland's shoulders with spiky hair was grinning the widest grin that Jeff believed was humanly possible. The shorter man next to the tall man had a perfect in-between smile from Norway and Denmark, matching the meeting point of the variations perfectly.
"And which one is it that's missing?"
Norway pointed to the man with spiky hair and the wide grin, "that's Denmark. And this," he moved his finger to the taller man, "is Sweden," he slid his finger down to the man next to Sweden, "and Finland. They've 'adopted' Sealand though, so we'll need to take another picture with the whole family now."
Jeff sighed as Norway put the picture and the wallet back in their proper places. "Nor, I... Have to tell you something. We've sent out a few men to patrol the area and ask some questions, but I want you to know that this police station will do all it can so that you may reunite yourselves as soon as possible."
To this Norway dipped his head in gratuity. "I thank your station, but I do hope that we can stop being bothersome to you and your coworkers."
"No, no, you haven't been bothersome at all. Do not worry about it, Mr. Norway. I've found that I rather enjoy your presence."
"And I, yours. Pardon me, but I think I will try to catch up on some sleep now. Wake me if you find out anything." And with that, Norway shifted Iceland's torso so that his head fell onto Norway's chest and soon, Norway was asleep, one arm loosely wrapped around Iceland. Jeff smiled to himself as he looked at the two, knowledge of what Jones had reported back to him weighing his heart and shoulders as he leaned back next to the brothers, taking a sip of coffee.
The patrol the station had sent out was not a scan, it was a search for a man that had not been seen for more than twenty-four hours.
After thirty minutes of doing quite literally nothing, Jeff got a call while getting another cup of coffee.
It was Jones, reporting what had been found. "All that we could find was his cell phone, which had been thrown in the dumpster, and a few scuff marks. I called down to the people who own the security cameras around here, and they gave us access to the tapes from last night. You should check them out, I'll be back to the station in no time and you can tell me if you see anything."
After the call, Jeff went to his desk, which was mildly cluttered, and viewed the tape that he had been given access to. He swore, quite loudly, when he saw what had happened.
He saw the man, who in the photograph had been so cheerful and happy, being dragged down an alley. He was fighting, yelling at the top of his lungs, by the look of it, but no one was around to hear him. Nor did he get the chance to scream for very long before a man cloaked in black came out of the shadows and stabbed him with a syringe. Denmark dropped to the ground, his legs crumpling underneath him.
Quickly the man tied up the fallen Impersonation, and drug him into a vehicle whose design was popular at the moment. When it drove away, the license plate was illegible due to the glare of lights reflecting off of it. There was a person who came by later who threw something into the garbage, that Jeff could only assume was Denmark's phone. Jeff clamped his hand over his mouth, shutting his eyelids slowly.
He did not wake up Norway and Iceland to share the details of the video, instead he watched them sleep for a while, greatly dreading the information he would have to tell them when they woke up.