7/24

"What?" Turkey asked after a moment of silence.

"You're saying we go to Grandfather Frost's home, knock on the door and politely go 'hello, have you seen Finland lately by any chance'?" England asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Of course not," America answered. He looked offended at the idea alone. "This calls for some excellent spy work in the best guaranteed-to-work secret mission style." He grinned.

Iceland sighed. "Then wouldn't it be better to leave this to Finland's government?"

"I said excellent spy work, there's no way Finland's guys could do that," America rejected, frowning.

"What do ya know about Fin's intelligence service?" Norway wanted to know.

"He has none," America said, shaking his head. "I've never heard of it."

Norway raised a hand to his forehead, eyebrows twitching dangerously. England sighed in defeat. "Just what did I do wrong...?" he muttered, low enough for the person in question not to hear.

"Anyway, there's no doubt he needs to be rescued," America continued.

Japan raised his hand. "Excuse me, America... but wouldn't it be possible that he's already returning and needs no assista–"

"No," America interrupted him briskly. "He's in need of rescue. My hero senses are tingling." He clenched his fingers into a fist and closed his eyes as if trying to sense something with his Herodar™.

"I can tell that too!" Korea cheered. "We have to save Christmas and Finland! He needs us!"

"Oh dear, of course we must help a friend in need," Liechtenstein said serenely and took his brother's hand. "Brother, please help them find Finland."

"Nuh–" Switzerland was about to reject that right away, but then his eyes met the sparkling ones of his little sister. "W-why should we bother? America will do something about it."

"Switzerland," Austria hissed quietly. "You're going to leave this to America?"

"Tch," Switzerland huffed and sent a glare first to America and then to Austria, loathed to admit that his irritating neighbour had a point. "But I can't take Liecht to such an dangerous place."

"Of course I'll stay here," the tiny female nation smiled. "I'll wait here for your return and prepare for Christmas. Since we all came here, we might as well help Finland prepare his house for the celebration and spend it here together."

"Well, all of us going on this rescue trip would be a bad idea in any case," Germany admitted, nodding to Liechtenstein to thank her for a rare reasonable argument. "It would be better that only a selected few go."

"Whoah, Germany." England looked genuinely surprised. "How rare of you to agree to something America decides to do."

Germany smiled softly. "I know it's weird, but just thinking about it makes me feel better than I have in days."

France shuddered violently. "Don't give that creepy expression..."

"I'm smiling!"

"But it's true," Lithuania put in. "The thought of going to find Finland and especially that we'd celebrate Christmas together somehow gives a comfortable feeling to me too."

Russia smiled and nodded. "Mm. It's warm."

"Oh dear, are you sick?" General Winter asked from the window, worry in his voice. "Shall I fix that problem for you?"

"No, thank you."

"Awesome!" Prussia shouted, throwing both hands up in the air. "Action! So of course I'm going! Who's coming with me? Specs?"

"Not coming," Austria answered immediately. "I'll stay behind and supervise everything here to make sure things run smoothly."

"You're boring."

"No, I'm practical and sophisticated." Austria adjusted his glasses.

"Like I said, boring," Prussia said. Austria gave him a practical and sophisticated death glare.

The division between 'Team Awesome' and 'Team Boring', as Prussia called them, was settled with surprising ease. Most knew right away which group they wanted to be in, although for a few of the nations it took some persuading. There were times it was hard, as in the case of making Egypt understand that him travelling into the heart of Russia in the middle of winter was not the best idea. At other times it was easy, as in the case of pressuring Switzerland to join the Rescue group (all it took was a tiny please from Liechtenstein and a piece of cheese Norway offered him from Finland's fridge.) Still other times, persuasion proved flat out impossible and so Italy and Hong Kong would be joining the quest to save Finland from Grandfather Frost.

The decision that begot the most questions was Korea declaring he would stay in Finland. When many nations expressed their confusion; Korea just rolled his eyes and explained that if America were to lead one group, he'd be the natural choice to lead the other one. No one quite followed this logic (except America) nor agreed on the idea that America was some kind of a leader (except America).

Another surprise came when Poland suddenly decided that some cold air would be totally fabulous for his hair and joined the Rescue party. With Lithuania, duh. So Lithuania joined the Rescue party. Only General Winter who would naturally become their guide seemed to understand Poland's reasoning. In the end the only Baltic to stay behind was Latvia when Estonia decided he needed to help his friend (and grace Operation Let's Rescue Finland with a little more brains). All in all, making up the groups took only about two hours, which was noted as a record time for any gathering of nations to come to a conclusion that actually worked.

"But don't we need visas to travel to Russia?" England asked when the groups had been decided and the Rescuers were thinking up their plans. "Getting those takes time. Especially to Russia." He sent a glare to the nation in question.

"Don't worry, comrade England," Russia assured him. "I'll make sure everything runs smoothly. It won't take them that long if I ask nicely enough." He gave them an innocent smile.

"Somehow I get a weird feeling when he says that..." Hungary muttered to Hong Kong, who nodded in agreement.

"I'll send a message ahead to prepare us a fast way to our destination," Russia continued. "Of course my boss is likely to object a little but he'll learn to live with it."

"That was the problem?" Germany wondered.

"General." England turned to the window. "How long will it take us to get there?"

"That depends on how you travel," General Winter shrugged. "Last time, there was me and an untiring reindeer and we took about a day and a half from Russia's house."

"What were you planning we use, Russia?" Turkey asked from beside the window where he was leaning on the wall, looking from the General to the Slavic nation. "I'm not gonna walk all the way there, just so ya know."

"Erm~," Russia looked to the ceiling. "I was thinking snowmobiles... And fly as close as possible with helicopters."

"If you use helicopters, it'll be hard for me to direct you," General Winter interrupted. "If I get too close the rotors will freeze."

"That's why we go to the closet possible place they can arrange some snowmobiles to and continue by land from there," Russia explained, offended. "I really hope you'd listen to me once, General."

"Sounds good." America nodded, looking important. "Yes. Good work, Russia."

"Like I said," England growled, seeming to hold back an urge to whack the American. "Stop acting like some leader."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The walls around him curved in and made the ceiling a flawless dome. Everything was ice: the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Even the bars on the little window on the door were made of ice. Finland thought idly that they looked like stalactites, or stalagmites, which one was it when they grew together? His captor had called it steel-ice, the rock-solid kind that wouldn't be broken or melted so easily. That was really the important thing about them; they were as good as unbreakable and blocked his way out and had been doing that for quite a while already.

He didn't know how long had he been here. Somewhere beyond the walls shone a blueish light that illuminated his cell, but it didn't fade or waver and Finland had long since concluded it wasn't natural light and therefore couldn't be used for reading time. Since there really wasn't anything to do, it was cold and Finland had been sleeping for an indeterminate time he had absolutely no idea what time of day – or what day to that matter – it was.

A small shivering snout poked out from his arms as he sat there, his back against the far wall. Finland smiled softly to the white fur ball in his lap and clutched it closer, his fingers remembering the touch of soft fur even if he was wearing gloves.

"Are you cold?" he asked quietly, a bit of a useless question. "Don't worry. I'll keep you warm."

The snout sniffed his sleeve and wriggled its way inside it to where it was warmer. Finland smiled for a moment before a meditative mask slipped over his features again. He needed to find a way to escape. And fast. One thing about time he knew: it wasn't Christmas yet. As long as it wasn't, he hadn't lost the game.


A/N: To enlighten you: Russia is not the easiest place to get a visa to. Well, not he hardest either, States is even more difficult, but still.

And: Only Austria is capable of doing a sophisticated death glare. Please don't try this at home.

Thank you again everyone. We try to keep this fic updated every day, according to the original plan, but we're currently all busy so please don't slaughter us if one chapter may at some point be late. We'll do our best!