Chapter 8

Lithuania examined Poland's face very, very carefully. In all of their time together, Lithuania still had trouble gauging what his former commonwealth-buddy was thinking.

Poland, for his part, had gone completely pale. "Y…You…"

There was a moment of silence, disturbed only by a strong breeze that tousled the tall grass of the dramatic-looking meadow they had come upon.

"You thought I was hitting on you? You moron." Poland laughed, but his heart wasn't in it.

And that's when an army of squirrels suddenly powered out of the meadow and knocked the two of them over.

~8~

"Latvia, you're going to have to stop trembling. I don't know how, but you're trembling so hard that it's actually making noise. I don't know if it's your teeth chattering or your heart pounding against your ribcage or what. I don't want Belarus to be able to hear us."

Latvia let out a little meep. "I-I'll try, sir," he sputtered.

"That's good, Latvia, that's very good. Because honestly, Belarus terrifies me."

Latvia paused. "Terrifies?"

"Yes, that is what I said."

Latvia thought about this as they inched their way down another flight of stairs. Russia was probably the biggest, baddest, scariest person Latvia knew. Anything or anyone that could terrify Russia was bad news. Suddenly the thought of Belarus clawing her way in frightened him as well.

"You should be scared too, Latvia," Russia said.

"Oh, I already am, sir." Latvia bowed his head.

"Good. Because if Belarus gets in here, she's going to think that I've kept you here as my boyfriend and she'll tear you to pieces."

Tears wobbled in front of Latvia's eyes. "Eeeehhhh…" he groaned. Icy fear curlicued down his back.

"What was that, Latvia? I told you to be quiet."

"Nothing, sir. Sorry."

~8~

"We're going to die out here," Canada moaned.

"We are not, you stupid asshole." Romano had set up a tent.

"If you had a tent all along, why didn't you want to stop for the night?"

"I've been running from that bastard for several days, and he can recognize this tent by now."

No wonder, thought Canada. The tent was emblazoned with pictures of tomatoes. Also, Spain's face took up half of an outside wall. He was smiling and pointing.

"Stole it from Spain, huh?" Canada hung his head. "Well, at least I don't have to be afraid of Spain."

"You're not afraid of him beating you up because of a misunderstanding? Maybe he'll think you're trying to make me your territory."

"That seems unlikely."

"Well, maybe he'll say that's what he thought you were doing, and really he'll just beat the hell out of you because you're my new boyfriend."

"I'm not, though."

"He doesn't fucking know that."

"So, if I'm your new boyfriend, does that make Spain your old boyfriend?"

"What did I tell you about appeasing fangirls?" Romano growled.

Canada sighed. "I am not trying to appease the fangirls. If I was, I'd be asking if you thought we should go bathe ourselves in the river buck naked, and we'd compare penis sizes and then we'd compare how well they fit into—"

A bird chirped loudly, covering up some of Canada's words to the casual reader.

"Then we'd realize we forgot our towels, so we'd have to dry each other with our hands by a fire, and we'd eventually realize how cold we were and warm each other with our hands too, and then somehow our clothes would have gotten washed away, and we'd end up—"

A branch fell off of a tree, obscuring Canada's voice to all but Romano.

"And then we'd spend that whole night like that," Canada finished.

Romano stared at him slack-jawed.

"What? I said if." Canada stared grumpily off into the night.

"Is..."

"Is what?"

"Is this what happens when part of you is colonized by France?" Romano cried.

Canada rolled his eyes.

~8~

Russia stared at Latvia. He was trembling, as per usual. The two of them were nestled in the safe room. Russia was seated comfortably on top of a box that he had furnished with a cushion, while Latvia was on his knees on the hard floor. Latvia sighed.

"What's wrong, Latvia?"

"How long do we have to stay down here?" Latvia asked, still looking at the floor.

Russia grinned menacingly, the kind of grin that would've made Latvia wet himself if he hadn't been staring at the floor.

"Oh Latvia," he said. "I don't care. I like spending time with you."

Latvia shivered. That's creepy as fuck!

~8~

"And don't come back!" England tossed Sealand out. The boy turned on his hell and stuck out his tongue.

"You suck!" Sealand said. "I'm going to be recognized as a country! I'm not just your leftovers, you know!"

The normally kind, industrious, and carefree Sealand then proceeded to make crude hand gestures at England. England was appalled.

"I'm appalled!" he cried, and slammed the door shut.

"Sigh," Sealand sighed. "I was hoping England would help me…"

It was time for the first phase of his plan to be enacted. He had started it earlier, but it hadn't gone well. He had to make his way to Latvia's house. Giving one more scalding look at England's house, he started to cross the sea so he could get back to mainland Europe.

~8~

Meanwhile, France and America were still on their way. They had gotten lost. Miles upon of identical miles of blue ocean, don't'cha know.

~8~

Belarus was outside, looking for rocks to throw. Although she thought of herself as a cute and dignified lady, she really needed to get inside. Her face had a dark look to it,

There were plenty of pebbles around, but Belarus hadn't yet espied one large enough for her purposes. She growled and paced around like a feral cat.

In an angry fit, she clawed at the front door. She was getting nowhere. She needed a new plan…

~8~

After puking up things he didn't even remember eating that night, burly Germany was finally staggering his way home. He felt light-headed and nauseous. Finally his house came into view. He paused in drunken consideration before walking onto the porch. He was going to catch hell from Austria, he knew, whether now, or in the morning. He preferred now, when his mind was too unsettled to care. However, the entire house loomed dark. It looked like condemnation and admonishment would have to wait until the morning.

The door was slightly ajar. This information would've made Germany instantly tense, but he was much too tired to care at this point. He pushed it open, and a bucket of water fell on his head.

"Owch."

It looked like Austria hadn't been angry enough to stay up to yell at Germany for coming home late, but had been angry enough to set a trap for him.

"Really now, that is so unnecessary," Germany lamented. The cool water at least made him a bit more alert. He closed the door behind him and locked it. He looked down. Austria had even set out towels so that the water wouldn't get the floor too wet. Germany sighed, and set about drying where the towels hadn't done their job well enough. Then he made his way into his room and stumbled into bed, Hungarian dresses still swishing around in his mind.

Sorry that it's so short, and that I haven't updated in awhile. _ I'll try to get back into the swing of things!