K, so, sorry this chapter may be wonky; I has no beta reader and I was high on painkillers because of a surgery I had. Sorry, but regardless, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!
Latvia woke with a start as he was kicked harshly in his back, causing him to jump and yelp in surprise; this reaction caused the blond boy who he had shared his bed with to scream and fall out of the bed, landing with a much-too-loud 'THUD' on the ground.
"Wah! Sealand! Are you alright!?" The light brown-haired boy yelled, leaning over the side to look down at his friend.
"Owww…I'm alright." Sealand muttered, rubbing his head. "Maybe we should switch with Prussia and Canada though."
The two boys had chosen the topmost bunk, Prussia and Canada decided it was safer, and Sealand explained that he had grown used to staring at the ceiling and felt uncomfortable seeing the bottom of someone else's bed. The whole commotion had awoken everyone by this point; a few of the girls looked around in panic before remembering what had happened, and the strange girl with cones of hair on her head yelled 'MURDER!' for some reason. She calmed down, however, when she realized that there was no murder.
"Ha, sea-boy fell out of his bed!" A blond child named Yu jested, pointing at Sealand; the ocean-bound principality just glared at the boy before leaping back up to his bunk and sitting with Latvia.
"It's not funny. And don't call me 'sea-boy', my name is Sealand."
"Ah, Peter, you might just be encouraging him…" Latvia smiled awkwardly, trying to calm things down. Everything had already started with a rude wake-up call, and clearly nobody was pleased at the moment.
"He started it." Sealand pouted, crossing his arms. Without Finland and Sweden present, the only one capable of enforcing rules for Sealand was Latvia; the blond boy wouldn't listen to Prussia and hardly noticed Canada.
"I know, I know, but-"
"I DIDN'T START ANYTHING, LIAR!" Yu yelled, interrupting the Latvian boy. "And who's 'Peter'? I thought you all were named after landmasses."
"Well, we also have normal names." Latvia muttered, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Yeah, the only reason we never said anything is because none of you asked!" The albino, Prussia, stated as if it were common knowledge.
Everyone sat in silence, staring at the four boys as if they were broken. These were four people, old enough to know how to talk for themselves, and they hadn't introduced themselves with human names because no one asked. Finally a white-haired boy who identified himself a Ryo decided to speak: "That is a very childish way of thinking. But gliding past that idiotic point, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOUR NAMES THEN?!" He yelled, clearly displeased.
"I, the awesome Prussia am also known as Gilbert Beilschmidt! And Canada is also known as Matthew Williams." The albino half-yelled, striking a pose and pointing to himself and the poor Canadian.
"And this is Kumajiro." The quieter one mumbled, glancing at the polar bear in his grasp.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Canada!" The man responded to the small bear.
"Um, anyway, Peter Kirkland is what I'm also called." The blond boy who had recovered from his fall muttered, glancing at Latvia.
"Ravis Galante, pleased to meet you all…um, I guess?"
Everyone was silent; too confused by what was going on and why these people had chosen to refer to themselves as countries when they had normal names. After a few more moments of awkward silence and staring, the voice on the intercom came back and announced that breakfast was ready, and a quiet rumble from someone was enough for everyone to agree that breakfast might be a good idea. Everyone headed out, still in their nightwear and not caring one bit; which was a little awkward as some of the girls were wearing especially short night gowns. But it wasn't much of an issue as the participants, once again, divided into their own groups.
Latvia quickly sat down next to Sealand, not really paying much attention to the food he had chosen; too concerned with his friend who was unusually quiet.
"Peter? Is everything alright?" The boy asked, in his slightly broken English. Latvia was able to speak enough English for others to understand what he was trying to convey, but he missed words sometimes or phrased things in an odd manner; Sealand's English had gotten slightly worse as a result of being around so many people whose first language was not English.
"Yeah! Everything's perfectly fine!" The sailor boy chirped, smiling brightly. Latvia was not fooled.
"It's not Peter. I can tell, something is bothering you. What?"
Sealand sighed, casting a quick glance around the room before motioning for Latvia to lean closer. It was confusing, usually Sealand wasn't so cautious with secrets, even when he tried. "I thought I saw someone cough up blood." The blond boy whispered quietly, a fraction of fear in his voice.
"Oh…" Latvia sighed. Sealand had hemophobia, an unnaturally intense fear of blood. Latvia had discovered this fear by sheer accident one day; he was cutting up some vegetables to have for dinner, Sealand decided to stay over for fun and was helping to prepare dinner, when the knife Latvia was holding slipped and cut his finger. It was a tiny cut, comparable to a paper cut, but as soon as Sealand turned around and saw the small amount of blood, he got quite pale and froze. Latvia had told Finland and Sweden the next day, and apologized profusely to Sealand, but it explained why the usually hyperactive boy was suddenly so calm; he was trying to hide his fear.
"I'm sorry Peter, do you want a hug?"
"No Ravis…I'm fine. But if someone is bleeding they could die…what if they already performed some tests on some of us and that's the reason some one is bleeding? What if we all have been asleep for weeks and something bad has happened?! WHAT IF EVERYBODY'S MEMORY OF US GOT ERASED AND THEY DON'T KNOW THAT WE'RE MISSING BECAUSE THEY DON'T REMEMBER US?!" Sealand cried frantically, getting louder as he continued.
Latvia noticed everyone looking at Sealand, fear slowly ebbing into their eyes as they caught wind of the crazieness his mind was concocting.
"Sealand, calm down. Please, do you know how unlikely that is?" Latvia muttered, frantically trying to calm down his friend. It wasn't easy though, simply because once Sealand got rolling, it was hard to get him back on track, and the recent discovery that someone was already bleeding from something wouldn't help at all.
Wait, why did I think that something here could hurt us? The tests could just be silly things like stamina and memory. "That was odd…What possessed me to jump to such a conclusion?"
"What was that Ravis?"
Latvia looked at Sealand and realized he had been thinking out loud. "It was nothing Peter, I was talking to myself. Just sit down and eat something, we shouldn't waste food."
After a semi-eventful breakfast, Latvia somehow convinced Sealand to wander around the building with him. There wasn't much to do, so the blond boy agreed. They wandered around, chatting idly about recent events that had occurred in their countries; which wasn't that much. Eventually they ran out of things to talk about and went back to the topic of the mysterious blood.
"Why would someone keep b-bl…being injured a secret?" Sealand complained, avoiding the red substance in the best way possible.
"I'm not sure. But there has to be a reason."
"Like what?" Sealand yelled, throwing his arms up in disbelief. Bleeding was not good no matter what!
Latvia shrugged, muttering quietly, "Maybe they're hurt and don't want anyone to freak out about it."
"But then they need medical attention!"
"Peter Kirkland." Latvia stated, finally getting his friend to be quiet long enough to talk and share his own thoughts. "Sometimes people don't share when they're hurt because they think it'll make everything easier. They don't think about everything the same way a soldier does; and humans are very picky about when to share things and when not to. Just leave it be and we'll see if anyone comes forward, alright? Does that sound better?" Latvia smiled, placing a hand on Sealand's should in an attempt to comfort him.
"Alright…" Sealand muttered, looking down at the floor. "Just promise me that if you find out who it is, you'll tell me, okay?"
"Promise." Latvia held out his pinky finger, and they both agreed to tell the other and only the other if either of them found out who was bleeding.
Once they were done with that, they decided to just wander, exploring the strange building and all its secrets. It was this random wandering that brought them to a strange area they had never seen before; it was a long hallway, with a dusty map near the entrance and color-coded lines, connecting to the closest rooms. One line was purple with only two words on it, while the other was black and clearly led to multiple locations.
"What is this place?" Sealand looked around in wonder, noting that the lights were much dimmer here than anywhere else.
"I don't know, but something tells me we shouldn't be here." Latvia replied, trying to read the chapped paint letters. It was futile though, the writing was too worn down and cracked to be of any use, and the lack of working lights didn't help either.
A loud clang from further down the darkened hallway surprised both boys; obviously they were not the only ones here.
"Just DIE!"
Latvia and Sealand took that as their cue to run, run as far away from the hallway as possible, and never talk about it ever again.
Yay! Cliffhanger! JK, I hate cliffhangers, but I had no idea on what else to put. These first few chapters are gonna be hard for me. On another note: as I am thinking of the possible deaths, I'm debating on if a change of rating would be appropriate. I'm thinkin' it might be. IDK, I'll check back later. Until then: Ya see any english screw-ups, feel free to share.
I'm sorry my baby countries! You all so hard to write for! *Cries in a corner*