A/N: I am the biggest piece of trash possible. I've had a couple chapters of this fanfic sitting on my computer for the past year and a half and haven't done anything about it. *sigh* Everything is so crazy. I've kinda drifted apart from all my fanfics, including this one, but I started thinking about it the other day and decided I'm at least going to add a little bit to it. So here's the next two chapters. At least it's something.

Chapter Nine: Maria – Smoke and Mirrors

Distant. Everybody was so distant now. Ćerima, Lara, the other countries even – they all seemed so distant. I tried so hard to cheer them up, but nothing seemed to work. Now, I retreated to the solitude of my bedroom where no one could bother me and I could work on my online class. Still, no matter how hard I tried to concentrate on my essay, my mind kept wandering to strange and uncertain things. I finally ended up closing my laptop and grabbing some nail polish before heading to the bathroom. Until I could concentrate on my work, I would just paint my nails as flags like I used to many years ago.

As I slunk out of my room, a few pairs of eyes stared at me as if I was a beast leaving its lair after many years of hiding, but I simply stared shrugged it off, figuring I had been in my room longer than I thought. I cracked a small smile at them and continued on my way.

"A little boy and a little girl in an ecstasy of bliss~" I began to sing softly to myself as I hopped up on the counter and began to paint my nails as I had many years before. Come to think of it, I hadn't painted my nails since we had come to New York… I shook my head. It was no use thinking about those days now. Instead, I just opened the red polish and began applying it to my thumb. America on my thumb, France on my pointer finger, a surprise on my middle finger, Taiwan on my ring finger, and Russia on –

"Aiyah!" I think both the thing flying through the mirror and I exclaimed that at the same time. One moment, I was quietly paining my nails, and the next, I was leaning over the counter to find China wiping his face and trying to pick himself up off the floor. Lara burst in a moment later with an angered expression on her face.

"Hey," I grinned at her. "Nice to see you."

"Mm," Lara grumbled and glanced at China, who looked up at her and said, "Where am I? I walked into the bathroom and got sucked into that mirror. What an a**, aru."

I snickered, "New York. Care to join your buddies?"

"What?" China rubbed his head. "You mean the other countries are here too?"

"Of course!" I leaped off the counter.

Lara ambled back into the living room and I followed her.

"China, dude! Welcome to our home!" America greeted the long-haired nation.

China sighed, "So immature. I'm only here because of stupid mirror."

"We're all here because of that dumba** mirror," Romano muttered.

"Well, I'm going to leave you guys here. I have to go to work this afternoon." I stalked toward the door. Even though it was Saturday, I decided to work to get a higher pay for all of the bills we had. Everyone waved me goodbye as I left, and I smiled and waved back.

As I descended the stairs, I began to think about everything that had happened recently. I still had no clue how we got our power back, and I would occasionally wake up in the middle of the night smelling baked cookies, but I was always too lazy to get up and check out the smell. I would just hope there were some cookies left over in the morning.

Work was quite boring, but filled with action. I had never realized how many people come to Starbucks during the weekend.

-x-

Around four in the afternoon, I got a call from Lara. Strange, I thought. She never calls me when I'm at work. Unless… "Hello?"

"Mal – Maria, get your a** back here!" Romano was at the other end of the line.

"Wha – What? Why?" I stammered, trying not to drop my phone.

Romano grumbled, "Just get back here!"

"I'm… I'm coming," I squeaked and hung up. "Cover for me and clock me out. I have an emergency," I told my co-worker Mei as I scrambled out of the store with my purse. I took off in a sprint probably faster than a retreating Italian, trying to hurry back to the apartment when I smelled it. Smoke.

"Oh God. Please don't let that be us. Please don't let that be us," I prayed. Tears streamed down my face as I imagined the worst case scenario. Lara and Ćerima dead, Romano calling on Lara's phone because it was all he could salvage, the mirror broken beyond repair so the remaining nations would not be able to return to this world.

"Maria!" Lara ran up and hugged me when I turned to our street. "Thank goodness you're okay! The building's on fire!"

"Thank goodness I'm okay? You were the one in the building! Thank God you are okay! Where are Ćerima and the rest?" I gasped, trying to catch my breath.

"Over there." Lara pointed to a crowd of people standing in front of the apartment building. I said nothing else to her and ran over to where Ćerima and some of the other nations were gathered. "Guys! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine, but some of the others are missing," Spain said.

"And I didn't get my phone out," Lara complained.

"What?" My eyes widened. "Then how did Romano call me?"

Lara paused. "Romano didn't make it out. That's who's missing. And Prussia."

"Holy –" I almost let it slip when Ćerima screamed at me, "Language, child! Language!"

"Sheise," I corrected. "Sheise." Then I ran. I ran toward the building, and I ran past the firefighters into the doors. I bolted up the stairs and into our apartment. "Romano! Prussia!" I screamed, but no one responded. Everything was ablaze around me. My vision clouded from the bright oranges of the flames and the thickening smoke. I gagged every time I tried to breathe in, so I quickly lost oxygen and started to feel dizzy.

But I had to go on. I had to find Prussia and Romano and bring them out alive. I had to get the mirror too. Then it hit me. What if Romano was trying to free the mirror when he called? Maybe Prussia was helping him. I stumbled forward in the direction of the bathroom, still calling out to the missing countries.

After entering the bathroom, I tripped over something soft, hopefully not a body, and I screamed. I guess it was instinct or something of that sort. I leaped onto the counter and coughed some more. The smoke was even thicker, and the fire was nearing where I was. I should probably get the mirror, I thought. I could barely see my reflection except for a faint silhouette of something black, but I still knew I was facing the mirror. My fingers groped around for the edges of it, and once I found them, I began pulling. Crr-rack! The mirror began pulling off the wall, cracking in the process. I felt blood flow across my palms, but I ignored it and worked on freeing the mirror. The heat was almost too much to bear when I started, but suddenly a new wave of it flooded into the bathroom, and everything spun before me. Before I knew it, I was tumbling backward off the counter. This is it, I told myself, expecting to slam against the smoldering wall, but it never happened. Time slowed as I flew backward, but instead of my fall ending with pain, I found myself in someone's arms.

"Huh?" I grunted. My sight was failing me, so I couldn't see who it was.

"You idiot. Can't you take care of yourself?" the person who saved me muttered. "And that so-called 'awesome' one."

"Is Prussia okay?" Ma hands were shaking and I could barely hear myself talk.

Romano lifted me like a baby, but he trembled, probably from my weight. "Si."

I coughed again; this time it hurt like nothing I had ever felt before. "The mirror," I rasped. "We have to get the mirror."

"I have it," Romano replied, and I felt an extra weight on me. Then, just as I felt my world spin away, Romano's face got close to mine and I had the vaguest sense of his lips on my forehead.