AN: Sorry it took me so long to update this time, guys! My computer decided to die. Again. I swear, it just likes being irritating -.-
But here it is! This chapter's mainly USUK fluff, which I for one love x3 Enjoy! And don't forget to reveiw!
Oh, and I wanted to give a shoutout to the people who have reveiwed more than once: tillitorpedo91, Angel the Neko, The Voices Talk to Me, KoHachiProductions, Hotaru-Naichingeru, and Neehl! I really appreciate you guys sticking with me, and I just want you all to know I take your feedback to heart and love you all very much!
"Ve~! Britt, your nails are so yucky!"
Trying not to scream out of boredom, Britt shifted in her seat, trying not to jostle her right hand so Feli wouldn't accidentally saw one of her fingernails off with the nail file. After taking one look at Britt's fingernails, the airheaded Italian had been completely dismayed at their state and gone completely bonkers until Britt agreed out of frustration to let her fix them.
"Sorry. I don't really care about them," Britt said shortly.
"You gotta take care of yourself! Alfred won't think you're so cute if you don't look nice."
Britt's cheeks burned. "I don't care if that moron thinks I'm uglier than Ivan. Why should I?"
The redheaded Italian cocked her head to the side, looking confused. "Cuz he likes you, of course! Ve~!"
"What?"
"He said you were cute, which means he thinks you're pretty, which means he's in love with you!" Feli hummed happily with an idiotic smile on her face. "I'm so happy for you."
"What? How did it go from him accidentally giving me a compliment to being in love with me? He didn't even mean to say it!"
"Well that's how you know he really likes you! He can't help but say nice things about you!"
"That's…" Britt had been about to say ridiculous, but it made sense, actually. "If that jerk thinks he has a chance with me, then he's got another thing coming. I'd never date him! Just imagine what he'll look like in a few years if he keeps on eating like he does!"
"Yeah… He needs to go on a diet! And eat more tomatoes!"
"Yeah, sure." Italy had finished filing Britt's nails and was now carefully painting them navy blue, the same color as the backdrop of England's flag. "Do I have to wear polish?"
"I guess not, but you haveta start getting into all this girl stuff so you won't look silly at the world meeting!" Britt's thumbnail turned blue with three effortless swipes of the brush. It was kind of scary how good Feli was at this. But it made sense—she was a very artistic country. Her big hazel eyes looked up at Britt. "I think you shouldn't try so hard to change us back. You're going to hurt yourself! You gotta take a break now and then, ve~! Promise?"
"Don't you want to be a man again?" Britt asked, surprised.
Feli blinked. "Ve~? Of course! Ludwig says Fratello won't like me as a girl, so I want to be a boy again so he won't be mean to me! But just because we can't change back yet doesn't mean we can't have a good time while we're girls, ve~!"
Britain chewed on that for a minute. "I guess… I won't stop trying, though."
"Ve~? Of course you can't stop trying. You always gotta try! That's what Ludwig tells me when I want to make pasta instead of training. But you can't try too hard either cuz then what are you going to do once you get what you want? You'll have been so busy trying to get something that once you have it you don't have anything else to do!"
"Feliciana, I think you just said something intelligent," Britt exclaimed.
"I did? Ve~!" Feliciana cried happily. "Well, all done! They can dry while I fix your hair!"
Britt glanced at her nervously and edged away. "I'll just wear it like it is, if that's okay."
Feli pouted. "Can I just give you a ponytail? That's manly, ve~!"
"Yes…yes, I supposed that would be alright." Maybe at first glance, people wouldn't notice she was a girl with her hair pulled back like that.
She looked down at herself and immediately discarded that thought. Why did she have to be so girl-shaped? Being a girl was bad enough. Being unable to avoid looking like one was just cruel.
Admittedly, the rasp of the brush through her hair felt nice, though. Suddenly she could feel the weight of all those sleepless nights pressing down on her eyelids…
"Britt, wake up! Dinner's ready, ve~!"
"Wha?" the Brit snapped to wakefulness at the sound of Feli's voice. "What happened? Was I asleep?"
"Si! You fell asleep when I was putting your hair up, but you looked so sleepy that I didn't want to wake you up! But it's time for dinner now, are you ready?"
"Uh, yes." Britt stood. "What am I wearing?"
"It's a dress, remember? I left it for you to put on after you took a bath."
Oh yeah. She had meant to change out of it. But now she was kind of starving, and didn't want to wait on dinner.
Peering at Britt, Feli frowned. "You should really shave your legs. It's yucky for a girl to have hairy legs."
"No bloody way!"
"Whaaa…? When you were a guy you shaved your face every day, right? It's not so different with your legs, ve~!"
"No!" Although, it did look kind of weird. Of course, as a man, Britt had had girlfriends, and he would have gagged to see such nice legs so covered in hair. It was just a shame to ruin them like that.
There is SO much wrong with that thought that I don't even know where to start.
"Okay FINE." It was probably better for everyone involved if she just shaved them. "I'll do it later, okay?" Maybe Feli was right; she might as well be a girl the right way while she worked on trying to change back. She was well on her way already, it seemed. Really. Dresses and nail polish and agreeing to shave her legs all in one sitting? Was she nuts? Girl hormones were horrid.
"Ve~!" Feli agreed, skipping cheerfully off down the hallway. She wore a spaghetti strap dress in pale green with a floral pattern in white, with a band of lace at the hem. Her auburn hair swirled around her and her hazel eyes were wide and bright, and for a minute, it was hard for Britt to imagine Feli as a man.
Maybe this is better for her, Britt thought to herself. Maybe she should stay this way. I know a certain gruff German who would be very happy if she did.
What if that magical fluke had been something more? Like…destiny?
No, she growled. I was never meant to be a woman. Feli's feminine, but not me.
She had managed to put the whole girl thing out of her mind, almost able to ignore the strange lightness and smallness of her body and the hair itching the back of her neck, when the two girls entered the dining room where Ludwig and Alfred were already waiting, standing behind their chairs and chatting. Well, Alfred was chatting, and Ludwig was doing a lot of sighing and dropping his forehead helplessly into a gloved palm.
Germany's eyes locked on Feli when she skipped in—as always—but then he turned away, blushing slightly. She did look awfully cute with her hair falling loose about her shoulders and her pale green dress turning her hazel eyes dark green. Britt was embarrassed for her, wearing such a girly color already. Good gracious—it was like she was eager to be a girl. Britt's own dress was deep red. At least it was a manly-ish color, and didn't have any lace or frills like Feli's. Alfred was smirking at Ludwig's reaction to Feli, and studiously not looking at Britt.
"Is everybody ready?" asked Feli, of course completely oblivious to everyone else's discomfort. If it weren't for her, this house would be completely quiet and a perpetual cloud of awkwardness would be hanging around all the time.
"You betcha!" yelled Alfred, taking a flying leap into his chair that made it rock dangerously. "Bring it on! I'm starving!"
Ludwig seated himself primly. Feliciana scurried off to the kitchen to get the food.
Britt sat down awkwardly, unsure of how to arrange herself in the dress. Keeping her legs closed took constant attention, but since she was across from Alfred she made sure to do it. That pervert. He wasn't as bad as Francis or Gilbert, but it's not like he was a stranger to women. How could he be? He thought he was God's gift to femalekind. Well, humankind in general, but women especially.
Luckily Feliciana was back soon, jabbering away about anything and everything as she dished out what she called agnolotti (which Britt couldn't tell apart from regular ravioli, but it didn't really matter to her. It sounded more exotic anyway). Feli's general cheerfulness was contagious. Soon everyone was talking and laughing away like Alfred's slip-up from earlier had never happened.
Feli's fresh homemade pasta was always amazing, but tonight it seemed especially good to Britt; she hadn't eaten in a long time. How long had it been? Maybe a day and a half? She'd lost track. Wow. She was going to kill herself.
She tried to maintain some semblance of common table etiquette, but she couldn't. The second the food touched her tongue she moaned and began scarfing the pasta like she was starving, which she was.
"Whoa, calm down Britt! You look like Alfred," giggled Feli.
The American laughed his "heroic" laugh. "I would never eat like that! I'm too amazing!"
"Git," Britt growled, ignoring Feli and continuing to swallow down the food like a starved dog, hardly tasting it in her rush to get it all into her empty stomach.
The ex-Axis countries ate slower, but Alfred and Britt were finished eating within fifteen minutes. Ludwig looked slightly sick from watching the two of them.
Britt belched contentedly, making Ludwig flinch, looking away from her.
"Nooo!" Feli looked fiercely at Britt. Her glare was hardly very effective—in fact, it looked so strange on her face that Britain felt an urge to laugh at the foreign expression. "Girls don't burp, ve~!"
"What? I can't burp?" demanded Britt.
"No, it's yucky!" Italy scowled. "You need to learn girl manners, ve~."
Britt scowled right back. "I don't want to! I'm already making enough girl concessions with the dress and the nails and the shaving."
Alfred burst out laughing. "Dude! You're going to shave?"
Britt's face turned the same color as her dress. "Well, nothing's decided yet."
"Nothing's decided yet? What, you getting married or something?" The younger country was practically in tears of mirth.
"Well I am a girl now so I might as well shave!" Britt defended hotly. "Don't act like you haven't noticed because we all know you did!"
Alfred blinked and his laughter died quickly. Inside, Britt was kicking herself for bringing that back up.
Abruptly, she stood, tossing her napkin onto her empty plate. "Please excuse me. Thank you for dinner, Feli. It was delicious."
"Ve~," Feli protested. "You don't want dessert?"
"No thanks." And with that, Britt fled down the hallway back to her room, hiding from Ludwig's shock and Feli's insistence that she act like a girl and Alfred's big butterfly-inducing blue eyes.
o~O~o
I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.
Britt sat on the edge of the tub, her legs lathered and the razor poised against her skin. But she couldn't make herself start shaving.
Every new girl thing that came up always seemed like the final concession to femalehood. First it was her name. Then it was a dress. Then it was groomed nails. Now it was shaving.
But this… This was so…final. She knew her hair would grow back when she managed to change back into a man, but it still seemed like if she did this, some irretrievable part of her manhood would be lost forever.
Because what was the only reason girls shaved? To attract men. If she did this, this would mean she was all girl through and through, including having a thing for guys. Not to mention the fact that there were only two guys in the whole house to attract, and one of them was all but taken and the other was so irritating that she wanted to punch him in the face half the time.
Taking a deep breath, Britt dragged the razor up her leg, taking off a wide strip of fine blond hair. She flinched as it came off. The line of hairless flesh seemed to mock her.
Well, I can't stop now. I'm a pirate! I can do this. The blonde nation gritted her teeth and finished the job. It might have been the hardest thing she'd ever done. And that included convincing Alfred that blindness was less heroic than glasses when he was just a stubborn teen.
Stupid Alfred. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid STUPID…
"OW!"
Swearing like a sailor, Britt dropped the razor into the bathwater, clasping her hands over the hole where a chunk of flesh was missing from her ankle. Redness seeped between her fingers.
"Holy mother of God this hurts! Drat it all! I thought I stopped cutting myself shaving centuries ago!" Still cursing, Britt dressed, shaking the moisture out of her damp hair and holding a paper towel to her injury.
The bathroom emitted a cloud of steam when she opened the door. Huh. She must have sat there trying to get up the nerve to start shaving longer than she'd thought.
Grumbling curses under her breath, Britt hobbled down the hallway, favoring her injured ankle. Why won't it stop bleeding?
Suddenly the last person she wanted to see came around the corner at the exact same time as she did and they ran right into each other.
"OW!" two voices cried indignantly as the pair fell to the floor.
"Britt?" asked America, adjusting his glasses on his nose. "What're you…" Then he caught sight of the red-soaked paper towel she was clutching to her leg. Instantly he had his hero face on. "You're hurt! I'll get the first aid kit, okay? BRB!"
Muttering darkly about what she'd do to her former little brother when he came back, Britt daubed at her cut. In the process of this she noticed something. Whoa, my leg is so smooth! Fascinated, she rubbed a hand across the length of her calf, marveling at its sleekness.
Alfred was back in less than a minute, holding the first aid kit, at which point Britt stopped obsessively rubbing her leg. She's had no idea that he'd remembered where she kept the medicine. It was so strange—he seemed to have no problem finding random things like scissors or spoons, but he had to search for half an hour to find his room after dinner each night.
"Here, let me take care of that," Alfred said, carefully stretching out her leg to rest her foot in his lap so he could doctor it. His probing fingers were surprisingly gentle on her skin as he smoothed antibiotic gel across the cut to clean it.
Britt observed him as he worked. He was wearing his hero pajamas, a sweatshirt covered in Marvel superheroes and matching sweatpants, and was barefoot. His messy, dirty blonde hair was damp, like he'd also just gotten out of the bath, and looked like he hadn't bothered to brush it afterwards. In many ways, he was still the child she remembered fighting with France over the right to raise. But he was also a lot different—she could tell by the concern and concentration creasing his brow as he taped a bandage across the freshly cleaned wound.
"There, all done!" he announced, wiggling her big toe playfully and winking at her. "You're good as new thanks to your hero!"
"Git." Britt glared at him.
As always, he ignored her. Instead of responding, he wrapped a hand around her ankle, removed her foot from his lap, and placed it on the floor. But when it was on the floor, he didn't let go. His eyes widened as he had a realization, the same one she had experienced a moment before.
"Dude! Your legs are so smooth!" He ran a hand from her ankle to her knee and back, staring at the soft skin as if its smoothness was a deception.
"Stop groping me!" she cried angrily, drawing her leg back under, definitely not blushing and not feeling any stirring of warmth in her belly at his less-than-platonic touch. "Who do you think you are, Gilbert?"
"But… They were just so smooth…" he pouted.
Britt stood with a huff. "I'm going to sleep! Be sure and put the first aid kit away," she ordered, turning back towards her room.
"Yes ma'am," he drawled, making her draw her spine up stiffly. "And by the way, you're even cuter when you're blushing!"
Red-faced, Britt whirled, perfectly manicured nails poised to rip Alfred's face off, but he had already disappeared.
AN: Me: Bahahaha! I can't believe how much a fit you threw over a little scrape!
Britt: It hurt! Did you see all that blood?
Me: It's a fanfiction! Of course I didn't SEE it.
Britt: ...Did you just break the fourth wall?
Me: This is an author's note so it doesn't count. Just don't tell Feli; she'll freak out.
Feliciana: Don't tell me what, ve~?
Me and Britt: NOTHING!
Reveiw!
