Eduardo sighs, looking around the meeting with nothing less than pure undying boredom. Why, oh why, is he the one that has to sit through this annoying and dull presentation. He huffs and rolls his eyes as he remembers how that conversation went.
"But why do I have to be the one who sits through the presentations? Won't it be more noticeable that Alfred's missing?" Eduardo asks. He'll deny to anyone that he's more whining than anything.
Matthew shrugs. "Actually, Al frequently skips when Antonio presents. Usually cause he can bribe Gilbert into giving him the notes, but no one would blink at him being missing."
"Wait…what?" Eduardo blinks. "How come I've never noticed?"
"Because you're usually drooling on your notebook during Antonio's presentations," Alfred says around a screwdriver in his mouth.
"If you're not there, how do you know that!?"
Matthew and Alfred just start laughing, causing Eduardo to fume and forget what they'd been talking about as he tries to argue that he doesn't drool in his sleep.
Eduardo huffs again. Pendejo Gabachos, Eduardo thinks before giving himself a firm mental shake. This whole thing better be worth it, otherwise Alfred and Matthew would remember quite quickly how bad his temper can get.
His attention is brought back to what he's waiting on when the door slams open during the middle of Spain's speech. All nations in attendance turn to the disruption and the human messenger pauses at all eyes suddenly being on him.
"Gracias Madre de Dios," Eduardo mutters. He watches the messenger walk in and head directly for Germany. Everyone is silent, wanting to try and hear what the man says, however the man has obviously had to do things such as this before since he manages to avoid having even the closest eavesdroppers hear what he tells the blond nation. Germany's eyes flash in surprise and then continue to widen in something that looks like worry. The nations watch as the messenger leaves, then all turn back to Germany. Germany realizes that he's the center of attention rather quickly and clears his throat.
"It would seem…" Germany says. He pauses and his hand makes an aborted motion toward his head, probably to pinch the bridge between his eyes as the man is oft to do during really strenuous meetings. "It would seem that our pets have gone missing."
Noise breaks out as everyone begins to talk at once. Everyone clambering to be heard over everyone else. Eduardo holds back a smirk and hits send on his phone. The message on his way to Matthew (it would have been Alfred, but to be honest, he probably can't be trusted to check his phone right now.), Eduardo waits for a few more moments before letting out a shrill whistle. Everyone in the room stops talking and turns to him.
"Amigos, let's not panic. I'm sure we'll hear from whomever is at fault for this shortly," Eduardo says. Various phones chime across the room, and Eduardo has to hide a smirk at how good Matthew's timing is. He glances down at his own phone, checking on where they'd set up everything, before turning his attention back to the room at large. "Well, shall we go see who decided to pull all of our pets into this playdate?"
"And we should just go along with it?" England asks, eyebrows raising. "We don't know who took them, what for, nor anything else. Am I the only one who this this entire bit screams set up?"
"I highly doubt that it is a set up," Eduardo says, giving a slight shrug. "Now come on tu obstinado cabrón."
England's eyes narrow as though he knows he was just insulted, but can't determine what the insult was. The island nation drops it as everyone else stands and begins to make their way to the door and then the elevators. Eduardo walks along, whistling slightly, as the whole crowd of nations makes their way toward the beach that Alfred had somehow convinced Eduardo to let them use for this event. Since they were holding the meeting in Coatzacoalcos, it made it rather easy for Eduardo to agree, as he himself owned the beach they would be "Pah-Arty-ing!" (to quote Alfred) at. Eduardo and Matthew had both rolled their eyes at that comment and the middle nation had received a simultaneous smack on the back of the head from his neighbors.
Eduardo eventually takes the lead, following the worn steps down to the beach proper, smirking as he can already hear the barking of so many dogs. He bets at least four of those dogs belong to Germany. As they take a slight curve and the sheer sea of animals comes to sight, all of the other nations sprint past him toward their pets. Sure enough, four of the hounds make a beeline for the Germanic blond, knocking him down in their joy at seeing him. Eduardo's dog, Cordero, came running over. Despite what some people would probably thing. Cordero isn't a Chihuahua. Instead, he's a mutt of some kind that Eduardo had found and grown attached to when he was walking around in Mexico City. Cordero is a medium sized dog of mainly brown and white fur with some black markings along his legs and tail tip. Eduardo kneels down and murmurs to Cordero as he scratches the pup behind the ears.
"Please tell me you got a recording of everyone's faces!"
Eduardo looks up, chuckling as Alfred jogs up to him, a medium sized russet colored Terrier Chow mix and large Goldendoodle trotting alongside him. Eduardo pauses, caught off guard at seeing Rex and Buddy, but not Lee. It's been about half a year since Lee, a large gray furred mutt with fur that looked like a mustache and beard around his snout, had passed away. Alfred had been heartbroken when Lee had died, even though he rescued the dog as an older dog and knew it would happen sooner than later.
"Sí, I'd set up some cameras a bit before the meeting started," Eduardo answers. He looks around and his eyebrows furrow. "¿Dónde está Matthew?"
"Por los árboles," Alfred says, pointing. "Sabes que odia el calor."
Eduardo laughs. "Yeah, he really does. Let's go join him."
The two start walking over toward Matthew, talking with each other and watching as the other nations all relax and play with their pets. It's amazing how they're all relaxing more than on any previous meeting. Even nations that normally don't get along, such as Prussia and Austria, seem to be rather mellow around each other with their pets nearby. Of course, that will probably change with someone realizes that there are Nerf water guns around, but the atmosphere is relaxed for now.
Matthew looks up as Eduardo and Alfred near. The Canadian is stripped of his usual clothes and is instead in a pair of white swim trunks and a set of flip flops next to him. There's also a giant bottle of sunscreen next to him as he tends to turn into a lobster around too much sun. Nanuq is also in the shade and Matthew's cat, Puck, is lounging on the bear and keeping a lazy eye on Whale-Dude (who is currently acting as a lifeguard and diving board for the micronations).
"Got your sunscreen on?" Alfred asks, raising an eyebrow at the northern Nation.
Matthew rolls his eyes. "Yes mom."
"Hey! Not cool man," Alfred says. "I just don't wanna hear you bitchin' about being burned later."
"You do tend to mother hen him mi hermano," Eduardo says.
"Don't you start too." Alfred gives Eduardo a mock glare.
Eduardo smirks. "Will you put me in time out if I do?"
Matthew bites his lip to keep from laughing and Alfred's eyes narrow even further. Eduardo barely has any time to realize what's happening before he's hanging over Alfred's shoulder and he sees the sand racing below him.
"¿Qué demonios estás haciendo?" Eduardo shouts. He then looks at where Alfred's running and his eyes widen. "Dejar de loco gabacho!"
Alfred, of course, ignores him, and continues his rocket path to the water. A few seconds later and Eduard feels the water spraying on him and hitting his feet. A moment later and he's thrown into the air. He takes in a breath before hitting the water. It's warm, much like bath water that's been sitting for just a bit, and Eduardo is mentally thankful that he doesn't have his phone on him. As he surfaces, Eduardo shakes his head a bit, trying to keep the water from his eyes, before turning his attention to the laughing idiot in front of him.
"Oh…it's on…" Eduardo mutters. He tackles Alfred, surprising the blond, and causing them both to submerge again. It quickly delves into a wrestling match between the two, luckily with Alfred holding back on a lot of his strength, which has the other nations watching and taking bets. The match ends in a tie. Or, rather, it's forced to end in a tie as Whale-Dude decides to slap his tail along the water, drenching Eduardo, Alfred, and the crowd gathered on the beach.
Eduardo, luckily, had his back turned to Whale-Dude, so he just shakes his head again. Alfred, however, had been facing where Whale-Dude is. The blue eyed man just turns his head to the side and spits out some water before smiling at Eduardo. Eduardo scoffs, but smiles in return. While Alfred heads further out into the water, Rex and Buddy finally deciding that it should be safe, chasing after him, Eduardo heads toward land and Matthew. Cordero meets him about halfway, tail whipping back and forth as the pup gives quiet barks. Eduardo smiles and begins to play a game of chase with him, the two of them ducking and dodging around other nations as they head toward everyone's favorite Canadian.
"Have fun?" Matthew calls out. He's somehow acquired a drink that looks like a margarita.
Eduardo chuckles. "Amazingly, yes. It's nice to roughhouse once in a while."
"You should try it more often," Matthew says.
"I'll leave that to you and the idiot out there." Eduardo unbuttons his dress shirt, which needs a dire cleaning now, and pulls it and his undershirt off, setting them to the side. Eduardo then groans when he realizes that he has his wallet on him. He flops to the ground and pulls his wallet from his pocket and begins to pull apart the money that had been in there, being careful so as not to rip it.
"And this is why I have waterproof money," Matthew says, taking a sip of his drink.
Eduardo just rolls his eyes and nudges the Canadian with his foot. Cordero settles along Eduardo's side, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. Eduardo smiles at the pup, running a hand along his side and gently petting him for a few moments before returning to his task of getting everything in his wallet separated so it can dry. Once that's done, he leans back and watches the other nations. Everyone seems to be having fun. A lot of the northern nations tend to be more cautious in the heat, some of them relaxing in the shade like Matthew, an others staying in the deeper areas of the water like Russia. Eduardo's eyes narrow and he looks closer at Russia. The man has one of the Nerf water guns and seems to be peering about cautiously. The reason for that caution becomes evident a moment later when Alfred and Belarus pop out of the water from opposite sides of the Russian and squirt him with their own water guns.
"Let's hope that doesn't delve into anything worse than what it is," Germany says as he wanders over, his small pack of dogs following.
Matthew waves the German's concern away. "Don't worry about it. I threatened to have Alfred by my goalie for hockey practice if he causes any trouble with Ivan."
Eduardo laughs at the thought and Germany relaxes at that. The three of them chat for a bit before Germany heads toward France to remind him that while naked beaches are perfectly fine, this is not the time or place to participate in such as some of the nations are rather protective of what their micro-nations see. Eduardo thinks that they're being overprotective, but doesn't say anything. He knows that France won't put up a real fuss about it, just give Germany a bit of a headache for fun. Plus, Eduardo knows that the real reason Francis is getting ready to strip off his swim trunks is because he's wearing a Speedo underneath and just wants to see England throw a fit about that fact. For some reason, the island nation really doesn't like Speedos.
"So," Eduardo pauses, "Think it was a success?"
Matthew smiles. "Definitely. Everyone needed a break like this. Let's just hope that none of the other nations still hold it against it that we practically kidnapped their pets to allow this to happen."
"Maybe one will throw a fit just to throw a fit, but I doubt it," Eduardo says. He leans back and lays down, settling in against the sand. The chorus of laughter, various animal noises, the ocean, and the light huffing of Cordero lulling him to that space between being asleep and being awake.
AN/ Hey, lookie there, an update! And it's in Mexico's POV! Hope you all think I did him justice. I feel that he would be a bit more mature than Alfred and Matthew, but still prone to childishness when the moment strikes. This chapter is based off of the review by DragonAngel FunandFire.
Ok, so another reminder, I don't speak very much Spanish and am in no way fluent. Therefore, if there's a mistake, I apologize. Also, a quick note, since this is in Mexico's POV, I tried using Spanish more native to Mexico. I grew up next to a family who lived in Mexico and I remember them teaching me a lot of words and phrases that I then couldn't repeat in front of my parents. One of those words is gabacho. Gabacho, if I remember correctly, is the word Mexicans use to refer to Caucasians rather than gringo. If I'm wrong, or if it's actually horribly offensive and derogatory, someone PLEASE let me know as I really don't remember because this was at least 15 years ago that I learned that, so I'm rustier than anything on it.
Anyway, thank you all for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favorite-ing. While I'm working on the next chapter, please check out Welcome to the Family by AngelOfPride which is a cute oneshot of Prussia's thoughts on meeting his boyfriend's family for the first time. I'd also suggest In Need of Representation by Mayhem 21, which is one of the few stories I've found (and have seriously loved and reread quite a few times) that adventures into the thought of what would happen if a nation isn't found by another nation as a kid.
