The song is "Mały Książe" (The Little Prince) by Kasia Sobczyk. Google "Kasia Sobczyk Mały Książe and the first thing there.
My parents actually used to sing it to me as a lullaby… hence I wanted to incorporate it into Feliks' personality a little. NOTE: I'm SO not making him an Author's Avatar. Trust me, that's the only personal bit I'm throwing in for now.
"…Come on, we have to go to bed. It's been a long night for both of us."
"Night?" Ravis protested timidly. "It's almost morning, isn't it?"
"It isn't morning if we, like, didn't sleep at night." Poland replied with a smile and a playful wink, all the while leading them upstairs. He hoped that his light tone and cheerful demeanor could take the emphasis off of what had just happened.
He then realized that he had never seen Latvia smile. Of course, they had only briefly seen each other at a few meetings, but he had always been looking depressed, anxious, but most of all, scared.
He continued:
"Besides… look at the clocks. It's like 21:30. Way past both of our bedtimes, isn't it?"
Okay, so he would normally still be watching a movie on TVPuls, had it been 9:30 PM. But that was a harmless lie.
Latvia stifled a giggle as he looked at the clock in the room. Indeed, it read: 9:30.
"Why are your clocks set all wrong?" He asked finally, looking surprised at his own bravery.
"Because a certain nation we all know whose name starts with 'A' and ends with 'merica' decided that it would, like, help him feel more at home when he abused my hospitality now and again."
"Why don't you fix it?" He asked again, looking unsure if he was crossing the thin red line by asking another question but ever so slightly emboldened by Feliks' casual attitude.
"Hmm… Too lazy, too busy, have no idea how to program an alarm clock. Take your pick."
Almost unconsciously, Ravis had picked up the device and begun to tamper with it. Feliks noticed but pretended not to interfere, assuming that it couldn't get more wrecked than it was already, and at least it took the boy's mind off of what had happened.
He sat in silence for a while, watching him press the assorted buttons quickly and skillfully.
Almost as if… he knew what he was doing.
"There." The shorter of the two blondes said suddenly, placing it back on the night table. There was a barely suppressed note of satisfaction in his voice.
The clock read 4:38.
"How did you-!" Poland shouted, stating at him in shock. He knew that he was overreacting, but he might as well play it up for the cause. Latvia flinched, as if he was expecting him to lash out, and opened his mouth to stammer an apology.
Wow. Nice going, genius…
"I've been trying to figure that out for, like, a week!" He continued to feign shock, albeit a little more gently. "You've gotta be a genius or something!"
Latvia looked very confused but swelled with happiness, unused to bring praised like that.
"He used an alarm clock that was sort of like that one. It was my job to program it to make it work right."
He leaned in closer and whispered, eyes shining conspiratorially: "Once, I set it to go off two hours early. On purpose."
He once again unexpectedly stopped and placed a hand over his mouth, cutting himself off and retreating back into his rigidly at attention shell.
"Why do you do that?" Poland asked suddenly. "Like, cut yourself off like that."
"I talk too much. I'm sorry." He confessed. "I try not to."
"No, no! That's okay. Keep talking, I'd like to hear how that one ended."
"I got in big trouble after that trick. I never did it again." He finished, beginning to shake all over. He wasn't willing to say the extent of his punishment and somehow, Poland wasn't all too keen to know.
"Well, it came in handy now, didn't it?" The older rushed to change the subject. "You don't, like, by any chance, know how to change the time on a cell phone, do you?"
"I could try." Ravis offered earnestly. "I've never tried."
"All right… but can we, like, do it tomorrow? You just proved it was almost five in the morning. High time to go to bed, isn't it?" Feliks once again forced a light and cheery note into his voice.
Ravis didn't answer, but Poland could notice that he looked rather drowsy.
And then it hit him. His house was adjusted to one inhabitant.
Translation: one bed.
"Szlag" he murmured under his breath in Polish, running a hand through his blonde hair aggravatedly, then looked around to see if Ravis had heard.
He hadn't. Good. He didn't think it was a curse word, exactly, but perhaps it would be better if he controlled his language while around the kid.
"Hey… hmm. What do- no…" he started. He was about to suggest that Ravis would sleep on the couch downstairs, where he had unceremoniously dumped America when the latter had stayed over, but it didn't seem quite right to do so.
"Would you sleep in my bed, and I could go downstairs on the couch?"
Ravis shook his head violently. "No! Please don't! I can't…" he shrieked, then froze and added:
"I couldn't make you get out of your bed, Mr. Poland, sir."
Poland gave him a discerning look. He had paled and was picking at the edge of the blanket (which he still wore like a Mexican poncho) nervously, and his normally wide eyes had become almost perfect circles. Even an idiot could see that this wasn't the case.
"You're, like, afraid of the dark, aren't you?" He exclaimed as it finally hit him.
"Y-yes, sir." Ravis nodded timidly, not taking his eyes off of the floor, his hands unconsciously twisting the fringe of the blanket into a rope.
Feliks ran a hand through his hand uncomfortably, trying to figure out what other options he had left…
"I'm sorry!" Ravis continued quickly. "Please don't be mad, I didn't mean to, I'll go if you want me to! I'll even sleep in the closet if…"
Poland sighed, forcing himself not to shout at the boy to stop apologizing, for the love of God! Instead, he knelt down to Latvia's level, causing him to cease talking abruptly and stare at him, chest rising and falling raggedly in terror.
"Hey. It's all cool, okay?" He started, not really sure where his monologue was going. "I promise I won't make you sleep in the closet or anything unless you want to. How about… how about we both get into my bed?" He knew that he, Liet, and Estonia had shared a bed and decided that this option might help the boy feel safer.
Ravis nodded vehemently.
"Th-thank you!" He bowed slightly, but a small, grateful smile now graced his lips.
"Right." Feliks returned the smile, feeling both glad and relieved that he hadn't only made things a billion times worse.
"So here's, like, your pillow, and… Hmm, I think all my other clothes are much too large for you, and yours are still, like, sopping wet, so you'll have to sleep in what you've got, okay?"
"Okay." Ravis echoed, clambering into the bed and under the covers, looking up to Feliks expectantly and somewhat disbelievingly. Poland finally slid in beside him and turned off the night lamp.
"Goodnight." He managed belatedly, but the only reply was soft breathing that signaled the boy was already asleep.
Feliks closed his eyes and let a wave of exhaustion wash over him as well, slowly making everything fade into the velvety black of dreamless sleep.
Sleep without dreams that would keep him awake. Without thoughts, doubts, or regrets. Without hope and without disappointment. Just a dark, heavy curtain that allowed him, if just for a second, to distance himself from the real world.
It didn't last long, however. He was soon woken, but when he opened his eyes, he couldn't immediately place why. Had he imagined it, or had Latvia cried out?
"Mmh… Śpij!" ("Sleep!") Feliks muttered indistinctly, still partially asleep, turning from his stomach over onto his side. He closed his eyes and tried to tune out again, but was already wide awake by that time (or at least as close as he could get on two hours of sleep).
He suddenly registered that there was a soft crying coming from behind his back. He slowly flipped around, careful not to disturb the boy. Once his eyes got used to the darkness again, he saw that Ravis had his face buried in his pillow, curled up into a tiny ball. When he held his breath and leaned in nearer, he noticed that there were tremors wracking his entire body.
"Hey… all right?" He whispered finally, placing a tentative hand on the child's shoulder. He was shocked to realize that it was far too hot to be healthy. He moved his hand to Ravis' forehead on an impulse. He was practically burning up.
The touch made Ravis jump and almost fall off the bed with an incoherent shriek. "No! Please don't hurt me, I didn't want to… Help me!"
"Szlag!" Feliks whispered. Ravis was evidently delirious, shouting at things that weren't there. He cursed himself for being an idiot. What else could he have expected after wearing nothing more than a hoodie and jeans in thirty centimeters of snow? If not more than thirty.
Poland tried not to panic.
Pull yourself together, Feliks, idioto!You're not going to, like, help him by freaking out.His inner Germany seemed to shout at him. That helped, a little.
"Ravis…? Ravis, it's me! You're safe! Nobody is hurting you!"
"Stop! Please! No more! I don't, I can't, don't…"
"Ravis! It's me! Feliks! Wake up!"
This was again only met with screaming, which devolved into sobbing. It made his heart twist in guilt; despite his best efforts, Latvia was seeing him as his tormentor, after all. And he couldn't do anything to help.
Finally, feeling more powerless than he had thought possible, he began to hum a song he had heard on the radio somewhere, many years ago. It was sweet and melancholic, but moved along at a decent pace as he began to remember the words.
"Gdzie jesteś, Mały Książę, gdzie?
Odszedłeś z mej książeczki kart.
W świecie, gdzie nikt nie kocha róż
Na zawsze ktoś pozostał sam.
"W świecie, gdzie nikt nie kocha róż
Na zawsze ktoś pozostał sam."
He continued to sing, singing the first verse when the last was through so that he wouldn't have to stop. Not if it was the only thing that he could do for Ravis. And it seemed to be working, too; Ravis had stopped cowering and eventually relaxed, gentle sobs still escaping his lips occasionally even after Feliks assumed he was asleep. But those eventually also ceased, and for the first time, it struck the Pole how tiny and helpless he was against Russia's tyranny. Like a leaf tossed by a sandstorm. He couldn't stop what was going on or even shout out for help, only pray for it to stop sooner or later. It broke his heart.
Even though he had already promised help to Latvia, he made a vow in his own heart. He would do everything it took to help the tiny Nation. No matter what the costs.
"Gdzie jesteś, Mały Książę? Gdzie
Odszedłeś z mej książeczki kart?
Czy po pustyni błądzisz? Znów,
Rozmawiasz z echem pośród skał?
"W maleńkiej Róży kochał się
Książę na jednej z wielu gwiazd.
Nie widział przedtem innych róż,
Kiedy w daleki poszedł świat.
"Na Ziemi zwątpił w miłość swą,
Tę najpiękniejszą z wszystkich snów,
Bo jak miał w jednej kochać się,
Gdy ujrzał park z tysiącem róż?
"Zrozumiał wtedy Książę to,
Że tylko jedna w świecie jest,
Ta, którą kochał w wszystkie dni
I wrócił znów do Róży swej.
"Gdzie jesteś, Mały Książę, gdzie?
Odszedłeś z mej książeczki kart.
W świecie, gdzie nikt nie kocha róż
Na zawsze ktoś pozostał sam.
"W świecie, gdzie nikt nie kocha róż
Na zawsze ktoś pozostał sam."
I love how this turned out rewritten; I never liked this chapter before.
