Chapter Ten: Catherine II and Russia

Welcome to Russia's House!

A.D. January 7, 1796

St. Petersburg, Russia

"Здравствуйте! Sorry it took so long, Russia, but the snow, and the carriage…" [1] Catherine II trailed off when she saw all the commotion right behind her motherland in the large foyer. A Polish blond was chatting amiably with his Lithuanian friend in a loud Valley Girl accent, but what made it unusual was he was wearing a hoop skirt. Near the ornate stairwell in the corner was a busty Ukrainian scolding two trembling teens, a glasses-wearing Estonian and his shorter ally, a Latvian. And a Finnish youth was sitting on the stairs, watching the conflict beneath him, looking a tad lonely.

"Ah, General Winter again? What a shame. At least you didn't miss the dinner feast…" Russia waved his hand to distract the empress from the indoor scene. But then she notices a young Belarusian hiding behind him, holding a knife and staring daggers at her.

"Belarus…?" The beige haired Russian asks uncomfortably when he sees her, too. "Why don't you greet Her Imperial Majesty? After all, she didn't have to come today and could have just stayed at home. "

"You're right, brother. She and everyone else doesn't have to be here today. It can be just us…" Belarus laid a gloved hand on his arm, making the Russian flinch.

Fortunately, his boss found it in her heart to ignore the seemingly rash statement. "As you know, I'm Catherine II, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias, and I'm here for your New Year's celebration," she said in a loud, proclaiming voice. All the other nations stopped what they were doing and lined up to properly greet her.

Except for Poland, who snickered, "Like, you're all a bunch of kiss-ups!" The empress and her country eyed him warily. In a few months time, he was to spend his time with Prussia, then Austria, and return to Russia again, but some were keen on him not coming back. [2]

"So this is where you live, Russia? I'm surprised at how many countries we've conquered over the years. But now you have one big, happy family," Catherine motioned to Poland, Lithuania, and Finland, the newest additions.

"Yes… All will become one with Mother Russia." An aura of fear appeared, stopping many countries dead in their tracks on the way to the Great Hall.

Finally, this time the empress noticed the strangeness of the setting. "Russia, could you do me a favour and not do that again?"

"Stop doing what, Your Imperial Majesty?" He was genuinely confused.

"That creepy purple air that floats around you…" Catherine made gestures towards the atmosphere. And still he remained perplexed.

"He doesn't, like, know about his own weirdness. Isn't that totally odd?" Poland interrupted.

"No…this entire group is full of eccentrics," she muttered to herself. But at least they're not as bad as my family, she thought, finding an urge to grin despite the craziness.

A/N: The title is a parody of my other series, Welcome to New York!, which you could all read, at my greatest appreciation. Hehe…shameless self-advertising, but I digress.

Catherine's family was, as mentioned, strange. Her husband and her son especially, were the more well known oddities. That is why she arranged a coup to take her husband, Peter III, off the throne so she could rule and placed her son in a far away place so he would never be emperor. Unfortunately, after she died, Paul did rule, but only for a short time until his death. Why do I know all this? Because I did a report once on her, my readers.

Notes:

1) Здравствуйте!: Is the formal way of saying 'Hello!', at any time of the day, in Russian.

2) After the Third Partition of Poland, the independent country ceased to exist and was instead divided amongst the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Habsburg Austria.

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