Disclaimer: Hetalia and its characters do not belong to me or Da Yuu May - unfortunately - they belong to their respective creator/owner.
Author Note: So...there would have been an epilogue after this chapter. But then Ja Yuu May and I realized that we like the open ending of this chapter, so, yeah, it was decided that we'd make this the final-final one instead (also we had an epilogue in "Nordics and I", anyway). Enjoy and leave feedback!
Chapter 10:
Cease Fire and Peace Treaty
He sighed as the others preceded to panic and run around like, as the saying goes, 'chickens with their heads cut off'. He could have told them that Sealand would have gone to his own place, and to England's home first. In fact, that was where Finland and Sweden were scheduled to look, first of all. So Iceland felt he could be forgiven if he merely crossed his arms and leaned back to watch the others act excitedly at Sealand's accidental call when he felt there was nothing truly surprising about it.
Finally, though, reason reasserted itself, and Finland and Sweden quickly donned their coats while Denmark began to make more calls to other countries (who he wanted to talk to, Iceland didn't know). The two parents were beside themselves with joy, worry, and a little anger. After all, if Sealand was completely alright, he should have let them know before now. Finland, especially, had no trouble voicing this complaint multiple times while searching for his shoes so they could leave to visit England. Iceland frowned at him as he stayed in everyone's shadow.
Norway's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Something wrong, little brother?"
Iceland shrugged, not sure if he was comfortable voicing his true opinion out loud (he didn't want anyone's wrath to descend upon him). "Not sure if any of you remember why Sealand left, is all," he said, faltering slightly at the end when all pairs of eyes turned his way. He scowled at his family, anticipating backlash.
"Why he left?" Finland repeated, a bit of hurt and defensiveness in his voice.
That made Iceland a little more uncomfortable, wishing he had never opened his mouth. "Uh...yeah. Well," he hesitated, "he wrote that he wanted some space, right? He left here," he indicated the house, "to get it. If we go running after him, he'll just go someplace else...or fight back."
Sweden slowly frowned at him while Denmark, Norway, and Finland continued to stare at him. Iceland shrugged again, embarrassed, but for what he didn't know.
"Look, I am just saying that following someone who wants some time to themselves doesn't help; it only makes the other person more angry and suspicious. But do what you want. I don't care." He threw out the sentences quickly and ended by turning his body slightly away from the group. He wanted to barricade himself again in his room like he had been doing, when no one was around to drag him out of the room to do nothing but listen to what others had to say. God. Being a Nordic was a pain in the ass most of the time – countries looking at you like you're fuckin' dumb and everything else on top of that...! Arms descended around his tense shoulders and he felt himself jump in response.
"You're right, Emil. We didn't give Peter enough attention to begin with, and then we crowded him when he didn't want it." Finland spoke above his shoulders, arms encircling his chest in a light hug. "I guess it's just hard to notice things...or take a step back when you're a parent." The arms squeezed him once and let go. "Thank you for reminding us."
Iceland turned back to the group to see that they were equal parts smiling at him and gazing with some kind of emotion that he couldn't identify right away. "No problem. 'S'just something that I noticed," he mumbled at them, still getting used to the whole 'family affection' thing. Finland, especially, could be really huggy and Iceland could never tell if he himself liked that or not.
Denmark gave a big smile. "Well, look at that." He turned to Norway and wiped a fake tear from his eye. "Our little boy's growin' up, Nor! What'r we gonna do now?"
Sweden approached at that sentence, cutting of Norway's reply, and laid his (huge) hand on Iceland's shoulder. "Thank y' for the advice, Em'l. Shoul've remembered h'w kids can be."
Iceland felt mollified by this admission. He'd thought that Sweden would be mad at him for stating his opinion like that, especially if it meant postponing going to retrieve Sealand. He relaxed then, knowing that he didn't have to be on his guard anymore.
Sweden patted his shoulder a final time and made a comical expression with his eyebrows. "But stop growin' up. 'Kay?"
"Stop growing? Hell no."
"Language, little brother."
Well, at least he didn't have to be completely on his guard. "I censored myself. And Mathias says much worse things than I do."
"'S true; I won't deny it," Denmark piped up from his spot at the phone.
"Shut up, Dane."
Iceland sighed, already feeling comfortable by things settling back into their regular routine. "I wish you two would stop flirting already; it's so annoying to hear day in and day out." That got a big laugh out of Denmark, the Dane bleating loudly into the phone – Iceland felt sorry for whoever's eardrums just got ruptured. Norway, however, continued to look at him, unamused.
"You're grounded."
Again, Denmark laughed in the background as Iceland gave his brother a look. "You can't be serious."
"I am."
"But I didn't say anything wrong."
"You are loads of wrong."
"You do know I'm an adult."
"Hm."
Iceland frowned at him, feeling this playful back-and-forth quickly being turned into a topic too sensitive to him. He really despised being looked at as some sort of child. He was a grown nation, no matter what others thought of his appearance.
"I am not a child," it wobbled out of his mouth, and Norway gave a dismayed shake of his head at the abrupt change in tone.
"Why are you doing this? I didn't say you were."
"You didn't have to."
Norway looked to the others, silently admitting that they might be able to help better than he could, and Sweden (who was still beside him) nudged him towards upstairs. Iceland took the nonverbal cue and ascended the stairs, still feeling defensive of his age, but now a little embarrassed that he had that sort of confrontation where everyone could see and hear him. He entered Sweden's room (he'd seen enough of his own room for now) and sat on the bed, throwing a hand over a lounging Hanatamago in a brief pet. Sweden closed the door behind them.
Iceland wasted no time. "He treats me like I'm a damn infant. Always doing things like that; groundings and things. 'S freakin' infuriating," he admitted to his friend, feeling his eyes burn a little at the final word.
Sweden sat on the bed beside him. "You brought up the subj'ct," he pointed out, rightly.
Iceland scrubbed his face with both hands up and down, pulling at the skin around his eyes in an attempt to decrease the feeling of being upset. "I know. I know. I'm a freaking idiot, freaking out about dumb things. There."
"You'r' not an idiot," he told Iceland with conviction. "Y' just get defens've about th'ngs."
Iceland groaned. "I know, Sve." He half-wished he could leave the room now. Nothing was worse than heart-to-heart conversations.
Sweden's eyes traveled down to Hanatamago, recalling a previous conversation with Norway. "You an' Pet'r have self-confid'nce issues."
Iceland's head snapped up. "Do not!" he denied vehemently, not realizing how childish his response sounded.
Sweden's lips twitched at that. "'S noth'n t' be ashamed about."
Iceland shook his head. "My self-confidence is fine. Really," he affirmed to the man beside him. "I just get mad when people don't respect me."
"They do. Y' just don' see it, Emil. You're too busy look'ng f'r enemies."
Iceland gave him a look but Sweden shot his beginning protests down with a fiercer look, and Iceland turned away from the intensity of Sweden's eyes. It didn't matter if what the Swede said made sense. Iceland didn't want to deal with this right now. For God's sake, they were supposed to be panicking over a missing kid, not his own self image-!
"We, uh, need to get your kid back. You know, like, right now." Iceland tried to give himself an out of this uncomfortable conversation while looking out of Sweden's window at the afternoon rays of the sun.
He felt Sweden's hand come up to his hair and rub it, annoying but not as fiercely as Denmark liked to do it. "S'meone wise told us t' wait for Pet'r to come to us." With that, Sweden stood and walked out of the room, leaving Iceland to his thoughts.
The younger rubbed his hair back into place with a slight blush on his cheeks. "'M not wise. Everyone else is just dumb." He didn't notice how his smile wiped away the frown that was there before.
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Over the next couple of days was something that Iceland liked to refer to as 'Waiting in Hell Days'. This was because, now that they had found Sealand, there was nothing left to do to direct everyone's nervous energy towards; no goal to get them out of the house. That pent up energy made them a group of walking time bombs. Already Denmark and Sweden had gotten into another fight – though this one only involved words, hooray for small favors. Finland couldn't help but get his nervous energy out by pacing ceaselessly back and forth and back and forth – Iceland had to leave the room before he snapped at the poor man to sit down, dammit. Norway seemed to be in the kitchen a lot – he seemed to be making a lot of snacks and things lately (huh, he didn't know his brother was a nervous-baker). As for Iceland, well...
Iceland would admit (to no one) that he did love his family. But, like was bound to happen in some families, they pissed him off sometimes, even if they didn't mean to. He just couldn't be down there with everyone so high-strung; he would snap and say something they'd all regret. So, for everyone's safety, he'd barricaded himself in his room again, kicking Mr. Puffin out when the bird began to get on his nerves about being cooped up for hours and complain about his 'emo-ness'. Damn sassy poultry.
Every once in a while, his brother would come upstairs and knock on his door, offering him the latest kitchen concoction to taste-test. Keeping the door shut didn't work on Norway, either, because the country would then knock on his door, repeating 'little brother' until Iceland opened it for him. Seriously, he was going to be fat from all these snacks by the time Sealand got back.
Which was tomorrow, if their informant (Prussia, of all countries. And wasn't Germany's brother supposed to be insane or something? Were they really trusting his judgment?) was to be believed. He wasn't sure how Sealand was supposed to get from his fort in the middle of the ocean all the way back to the country of Norway, but Iceland assumed the younger country would figure it out. The kid seemed to be really resourceful – to Iceland's personal surprise. The kid could be a great country, if ever given the chance. He was a bit of a brat, especially when they first met each other, but Iceland had decided he'd support the younger one if it ever came down to a matter of 'being recognized or not'. It was the least he could do as family.
He had gone to bed early that night in an attempt to stave off Norway's feeding him and everyone's concerned intrusions ("Emil, why are you in here alone?"/"Hey, you want to hang out? Get out of this room, man."/ "Feelin' a'right?"). He would appreciate their concern more if he actually needed it; he really just didn't want to be around a bunch of tense countries if he could help it, and their attempts at including him wasn't exactly what he'd intended. Once everyone, very rudely and intrusively, had opened his door and seen his lights off and him 'asleep' in his bed, they stopped coming to his door. Thank God. He'd been trying not to yell at them all day.
As Finland came in (Iceland guessed by the footsteps, and he hoped the other country was the last visitor of the day), Iceland stayed quiet and continued his realistic mimicry of sleep. The footsteps came closer to his bed, and he had to stop himself from twitching in surprise when a palm placed itself on his forehead. He couldn't quite stop himself from gaining an embarrassed blush as he realized the 'mother hen' of the group was checking him for a fever. Finally, Finland turned and left, and Iceland felt himself relax even though he wasn't sure when he had gotten so tense. As he grumbled and covered his embarrassed face with his bedsheets, he couldn't help but think that Sealand was a freaking moron not to see that these people cared for family, and he'd give the younger personification a good handball beating if he continued to refuse to see it once he got back.
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
Waiting for Sealand to come was like waiting for the final scores during the Olympics. Everyone is excited, anxious, fearful, and generally ready to explode with energy (good or bad) no matter what the score is. Or, at least, that's what it felt like to Iceland as he observed the people in the room. Most had gathered in the sitting room, Sweden having placed himself directly at the window facing the front yard. Iceland eyed him bemusedly. He understood how everyone felt; he just hoped they wouldn't bowl Sealand over before the boy had a chance to enter the house.
Earlier, he had been dragged from his room by his brother to socialize and have a conversation between the both of them. He'd noticed Finland looking at them with worry as they talked, but it wasn't really anything as dramatic as the two brothers fighting. Really, Norway just wanted to ask him if he was feeling any better about...'things'. Iceland had shrugged and said he'd get over it. His brother responded by giving him a look and said they'd continue the conversation later. Iceland then gave him a middle finger but his brother turned too quickly to see (on purpose - he always liked to have the last 'word') and Iceland was left flipping off the air.
Damn sassy Norwegian.
In any case, yes, here they were waiting for Sealand to get his ass here. Actually, the day had progressed very far by now (about 4 o'clock in the afternoon) and the others were starting to wind down, becoming less hopeful their youngest would show up today. Iceland sighed and looked to the far wall, not wanting to see their downcast faces. Well, that's what they get for taking Germany's less-than-sane brother at his word.
And wasn't that just the moment that Sweden had tensed and walked - rushed - to open the door.
The universe just loves to prove me wrong, Iceland thought as the door opened to reveal an awkward and guilty Sealand.
The young fort – dressed in his usual sailor outfit and looking no worse for wear – twisted his shirt in his hands as he looked up at Sweden, who was standing in the doorway. "H-Hello, Papa. I-I'm back."
Iceland took a breath and a moment to thank the huldufólk for not making his life harder and to mentally thank Sealand for actually coming back. He studied the kid in the doorway before his vision was overtaken by a worried 'Mama' Finland, who proceeded to bury Sealand's head in a tight hug and babble concernedly and, after a moment, scolded him for running away and for not trusting his family, to which Iceland wholeheartedly agreed (This whole thing could have been avoided, he thought, with no real anger to accompany his frown).
He caught the tail end of Finland's rant going something like, "I'm so sorry, Peter, and I love you so much and I never want you to do something so stupid as to run away again, do you understand me!" At the end, Finland gave Sealand a little shake of the shoulders.
"I-I'm sorry, Mama. I just-!" Sealand sniffed as Denmark entered Iceland's eyesight and took a seat on the couch, remaining abnormally quiet, as they watched the reunion. "I-I didn't mean to worry everyone. I just-! I just wanted to be alone for a while. I didn't…!" Sealand's voice broke and he began to sob. Sweden brought his son to his chest as Finland carded his fingers through his hair – Sealand's hat having fell off when Finland had gone to hug him.
Iceland looked away at the display and noticed Norway glancing at him out of the corner of his right eye. "What?"
Norway indicated the affectionate reuniting family. "Want a hug from your big brother, little brother?"
Iceland's lips twitched. "Thanks but no thanks. Why don't you spread that offer to Sealand?"
Norway looked at the circle of huggers in the doorway and leaned against a chair. "I think he'll get enough attention from his parents without my adding to it."
Iceland nodded in agreement as the family parted and took their seats, Sealand taking a chair for himself. Denmark got his shot in first, angry and hurt that Sealand had run away from people who cared about him and laying it all out what chaos the young fort had caused because of his disappearance. Sealand tearfully responded with his reasons: that no one else thought of him as a 'Nordic' and so he began to have doubts about his true place as part of the family. He had run away to get some space to clear his head. The others took their turns both berating him for doing something so dangerous as running away and assuring him that he was just as much their family member as everyone else in the Nordics. The sun continued to set as they began to talk about how they could communicate and trust each other better, not just for Sealand, but for the family as a whole. Of course, Sealand got punished for a long while for running away, but the fort almost seemed happy about it and he didn't complain...much (but Iceland kept the last bit to himself, since Sealand seemed to be, at the least, trying to get to know the rest of them better now). Over the next few days, the group of personifications would begin putting into place the plans that would allow them to become an even stronger Nordic family.
End.
Post Script - Whoo! This concludes the "Nordics" series. It feels...weird not to be writing the next chapter. I don't want to let any of you go, so I'm putting it out there that if anyone wants it bad enough, I could make a fic of mini-episodes that takes place in the "Nordic" series before, during, or after (but most likely 'after' because that means I could work with more material). I'll put a poll on my profile and we'll see what everyone wants. Regardless of the outcome, thanks again to everyone who stuck with this fic series and supported it. See you later!