By the time Japan arrived, Italy had already packed and had his bags sitting next to a couple crates of wine. He had also stopped whining and sobbing just a little while ago, when he had decided to just deal with things as they presented themselves.
"Hi Japan!" he said, and led the shorter man in. "Do you want to eat anything? We should eat pasta. You want pasta? Because I want pasta."
"Italy are you alright?"
"OfcourseI'malrightwhatdoyoumeanbythatlet'shavepasta."
It was the most terrified and jittery pasta dinner Japan had ever had.
The next morning, Prussia arrived exactly at 10 and not a minute earlier nor later. Italy started feeling anxious when he and Japan realized that Prussia had replaced his car's normal honk so that it played jingle bells instead.
Italy looked straight at Japan and said "I know you haven't been to our last few Christmas gatherings, so maybe I should warn you now."
"But I've been to the Christmas parties!" said Japan.
"To the parties. Not the decorating gatherings. Never to a decorating gathering."
Prussia came out of his car and true to tradition, he had brought his old eastern Germany car that seemed to be made of more carton than metal and with a pair of ugly reindeer horns stuck to the roof. Italy fidgeted nervously. When he saw that Prussia was wearing an oversized ugly Christmas sweater, all his hopes fell to the ground. Prussia knitted all their decorating uniforms in only two sizes: Germany and Gilbird.
"Guys! It's almost Christmas! Aren't you excited?" he said. Gilbird fluttered over his head a little and then settled on Italy's shoulder. It was wearing a perfect tiny replica of the sweater Prussia wore. Down to the details of the reindeer making some strange convoluting spasm in the middle. Lucky bird got one his size. Italy could already imagine how ridiculous he was going to look in it. "Let me carry your stuff to the car."
Prussia picked their bags easily with one hand and then looked at Italy's wine crates.
"Heh, heh… you can never have too much, right?" laughed Italy, trying to not look at Prussia.
"That's nice. It says I thought of you, and that's why I'm gonna be drunk the entire time. Super thoughtful. West will appreciate it.," he said, and picked up all the boxes by himself. Italy screamed internally. Prussia was aware of how ridiculous this was, and that made it all even worse. Because he enjoyed it.
When he put everything in the trunk, the car tilted so much that it's front tires lifted a little from the ground. Japan paled and tried to hide behind Italy.
"Maybe we could take my car?" asked Italy with the brightest smile he could.
"No way. We have to arrive in style to Austria's house," said Prussia, rummaging around in the back seat for something.
"Austria is coming to decorate?"
"Weird, right? I don't know why he is but yeah, West invited him. Maybe it's because Germania is coming too!" Prussia took out two perfectly wrapped gifts and handed them to each one.
Japan bowed. "Thank you so much Prussia."
"Come on, open them and put them on! I can't wait until Austria sees us!"
Italy swallowed and opened the present. He had packed a bunch of very stylish clothes in the vague hope that he might look dashing enough to not have to wear one of those, but even his luck seemed to have deserted him by then. He pulled out the bright red sweater and extended it to get an idea of just how big it would be on him.
"Oh, they all have different drawings," he said, looking at the cat with a santa hat knitted into his. He smiled. It wasn't as bad as he'd expected, even if it would probably fall to his thighs, so he put it on.
"This is a bit…," said Japan next to Italy. He looked down at his sweater that had knitted dog looking remarkably like Pochi with a red nose.
"Isn't it cute? Pochi dressed up as Rudolph! I got the idea when I went to visit you last time. You should have brought him too!"
Prussia's eyes shone with excitement, and when Japan looked desperately at Italy, his friend could only mouth Sorry to him and give him a sad smile. Japan sighed and put on the sweater. It reached almost too his knees.
"Oooh, you look so cute!" said Prussia, and took out a battered camera. "Stand closer together so I can take a photo!"
Italy and Japan stood together and tried to smile. They failed, and ended up with a nervous grimace. Prussia didn't care. Prussia only cared that they were all together and they were all going to have a great time, whether they wanted it or not.