Day 4 Challenge: On a Date

Title: "Candlelight"

Enjoy!


Prussia smirked happily at his work, nodding proudly. The table was set perfectly, according to the instructions he found on the internet. The forks and knives were set on either side of the plates and the table cloth didn't even have a speck on it. He'd even learned how to fold the napkins into little swans, thanks to YouTube. It was perfectly awesome.

So why was he so nervous? Dammit, he shouldn't be nervous! Prussia groaned, pacing as he ran a hand through his hair. Gilbird cheeped happily, flying around the table.

"Don't you even fucking think about landing on one of those plates," Prussia growled at his bird, who cheeped and landed in the middle of the table. Prussia sighed, shaking his head. He had to snap out of this and focus. He had a few others things to do. The candles. He had to light the fucking candles. He was shaking so much that, when he turned on the lighter, he actually managed to burn his thumb.

"Fuck everything," Prussia grumbled, shaking the burn off before moving on with lighting the candles successfully. They were all around the dining room. Germany told him not to use candles, something about not trusting him and lighting fires in his house, but Prussia didn't listen to him. This was supposed to be romantic. Google said candlelit dinners were romantic. Google said it was normal to be nervous for something like this, but Prussia wasn't normal, dammit! His hands shouldn't be shaking and he shouldn't be constantly looking over at the damn door, waiting for the damn knock.

Prussia stared at the flame on the closest candle, watching the wax begin to run down, to the metal holder underneath it. They were pretty old relics, something Prussia kept for sentimentality reasons, but they were…pretty? Yeah, they were pretty. Proper dates had pretty things. God, he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He was definitely out of his element here, he couldn't do this. He should call to cancel, he decided. He reached for his phone in his pocket, only to have the doorbell ring loudly around him, making him jump and actually let out a startled yell. Gilbird made a tittering peep that sounded like a laugh.

"Shut the hell up," Prussia groaned before swiftly walking towards the door. He straightened himself out, adjusting the tie he'd learned how to tie off of YouTube, but he knew it was wrong. It all seemed wrong, his hands were clammy. Dammit, he had to keep himself together!

Sucking in a deep breath, he swiftly opened the door and his nerves relaxed slightly. The man in front of him looked perfectly relaxed, even slouching slightly as he attempted to hold his bear in his arms. And he looked perfect, everything down to the suit to that little curl that hung in his face.

"Hey, Birdie," Prussia smiled brightly, some of his nerves disentangling themselves.

"Hey," Canada smiled at him happily and Kumajirou finally managed to get out of his grip and swiftly walk over to Gilbird, who was tweeting happily at him. "So you, uh, said you had something planned?"

"Well, it is our…uh…anniversary…so I had to do…uh…something," Prussia mentally cursed himself for how stupid he sounded. So painfully stupid. He wasn't used to romantic shit, he was used to fighting and politics and war, sure, but romance? He had actually gotten close to calling Hungary, he was so out of his comfort zone. Hungary!

"That's sweet," Canada smiled sympathetically, placing a delicate hand on Prussia's cheek. "Thank you."

"No big deal," Prussia shrugged. Gilbird suddenly started cheeping quickly and in a panic but Prussia chose to ignore him for that moment.

"I can tell when you're uncomfortable," Canada smiled softly, kissing him chastely before stepping in and freezing where he stood. "Um, Prussia?"

"What? Did I do something wrong?" Prussia groaned, turning around. "I swear to God, I did everything like the website said." Prussia stopped his train of thought when he saw the scene in front of him. When he had jumped from the doorbell, he was so nervous, he hadn't noticed that he hit the small table, which held about five candles. They'd lit the curtain of the nearby window on fire and Prussia hadn't noticed it. The fire was already on the wall. "Shit," Prussia cursed, running towards it. He picked up one of the glasses of water that was nearby and attempted to put the fire out with it, but it wasn't enough.

"Does Germany keep a fire extinguisher anywhere?" Canada asked and Prussia mentally hit himself for being too nervous to smell the damn fire.

"No, but he fucking should if he keeps a lighter in my reach," Prussia groaned and the fire continued to spread. "Fuck, get a bucket from under the sink, fill it quickly." Canada nodded and ran to do what he said while Prussia grabbed hold of the other glass of water and attempted to use it to control the fire. He was so stupid, he couldn't do this romance thing right, could he?


"How did we manage to make it worse?" Canada laughed slightly as he and Prussia stood on the street, watching as firefighters tackled the fire that had taken over the entire dining room.

"I don't fucking know," Prussia groaned, running a hand through his hair. Germany would kill him as soon as he got back from Italy's house. "Why do I suck so bad at romance?" He gripped tightly onto the only thing he'd managed to get a hold of, one stupid, little candle. Gilbird and Kumajirou busied themselves by chasing after each other.

"I don't think you're bad at it," Canada smiled at him. "It was a very sweet thought. We can still get dinner, right? I don't really care where, if I'll be honest. As long as I'm with you."

"You're way too nice for your own good," Prussia shook his head. "Wherever you want to go, then."

"Know any place that makes good pancakes?" Canada hummed and Prussia smirked.

"Of course you'd want to get pancakes tonight," Prussia laughed. "Sure."

In just a matter of minutes, Prussia had left the burning house in the care of the firefighters, and they had made it to a small restaurant that was hardly busy. Prussia honestly felt a lot more relaxed than he did in the dining room. It was just a nice, relaxing, anniversary dinner.

"One second," Prussia said once their food had arrived, stopping Canada from devouring his high stack of pancakes. With a smirk, Prussia pulled out the last candle and his lighter, swiftly lighting it and setting it carefully on the table. "Awesome."

"Definitely," Canada laughed. "Try not to light this room on fire, then."

"I'll try," Prussia shrugged. "But it's just so hard to look away from you in this beautiful candlelight."

"Did you learn how to flirt online, too?" Canada giggled and Prussia rolled his eyes.

"It was easier to learn how to do than tying a tie," Prussia laughed and Canada finally dug into his mount of cooked batter drowned in syrup. And it was a perfect anniversary.

Well, for them at least.


Prussia, you're so cute. How long has it been since I've had them as countries and not in an AU? At least a year, maybe two. I'll have another chapter or two, I think, of them as countries because I like the way they work as countries and not just as humans. In any case, Prussia as a nervous wreck is fantastically amusing to me. He managed to light Germany's house on fire. (Yes, I like to think Prussia lives in Germany's basement because he doesn't really have his own house…considering…not a country…) Canada didn't seem to mind though, he's such a sweetheart.

Anywho, please review and I'll see you for tomorrow's challenge, Kissing. Titled "Carnival".