11/24

Team Decorations had locked themselves up in Finland's study and Korea had declared the operation a top-secret one. Team Cooking, led by Ukraine, were in the kitchen trying to come up with a menu that would satisfy almost forty stubborn nations who all believed their way of spending Christmas was the real one.

Team Cleaning sat in the lounge, waiting for someone to start speaking.

Austria coughed. "Well then," he started. There was another long silence. He coughed again, this time twice. "First, we need to decide the division of labour. The whole house is for us to clean except for the kitchen, the cooks can handle that, and I don't think we have to go fumble about Finland's attic either."

Iceland smiled briefly. "I could guess he wouldn't be too happy about that."

"Exactly. So we'll concentrate on the part of the house we will probably use in the party." Austria patted his pockets and glanced around the room. "Does anyone have some paper?"

"You can borrow this." Japan offered his notebook. "I use it for my important notes."

"Thank you." Austria sat down in the exact middle of Finland's couch, took a pen from his breast pocket and opened Japan's notebook.

He froze.

"Is there something wrong, Austria?" Japan asked worriedly. When Austria gave no reply, he walked over and waved a hand in front of his face.

Austria snapped out of it. "Japan…" he began very slowly. "Important. Notes?"

"Yes?"

"…Forget it." Austria carefully flipped the page before turning his gaze back to the offending notebook. "I didn't see that. Now, let's divide this up according to the tasks. Or do you prefer dividing by rooms?"

"You know," Cuba answered, already sounding bored. "Whatever."

"Okay. Let's start with the basics then." Austria started making notes.

Norway grunted and massaged the bridge of his nose. Do I have to do this?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"We need turkey," Australia announced in the kitchen where the nations had gathered around the table to plan the menu.

"Don't we have one?" Belgium asked cheerfully.

Australia snorted at the joke. "Yeah. But one that we can roast."

"...Don't we have one?" Belgium offered.

"I'm not going to eat that."

"Add a turkey, Ukraine," Seychelles laughed and the other nation wrote the bird down on their growing list. "What kinds of Christmas dishes are there in the world? I'm fine with anything as long as there's some fish too."

"I'm going to make cougnou!" Belgium cheered. "Ah, it's kind of a sweet bread. Then I'll make a lot of chocolate desserts for everyone! Wah~ I can't wait."

"We need a gingerbread house, a lot of gingerbread and sweets in general and candy canes," Australia listed so quickly that Ukraine had a hard time keeping up with him. He wasn't at all bothered that he was the only man in the room. "And I'll make White Christmas."

"What? The song?" Seychelles wondered.

"Nah, it's a sweet o' mine. Damn delicious, I make it every Christmas."

"Then we need a Christmas cake!"

"And a lots of different pastries."

"Fruits."

"I think many people eat ham?"

"Seafood."

"Chocolate!"

"Beer and wine too!"

"But, listen, we can't make everything," Ukraine stopped the others, looking a little worried about their workload.

Belgium grinned wickedly. "Oh yes, we can."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"What?" Korea looked absolutely disappointed. "You haven't cleaned up yet?"

Austria huffed. "There's no way we'd be that quick, you imbecile. You took only half an hour planning your decorations," he noted, fuming righteous disapproval at the people doing such a careless job.

"Ah!" Korea flew his hands up in frustration. "Can't be helped; I'll lend you a hand. Taiwan! Where's the cleaning closet?"

"How should I know?" the other Asian answered. "And don't shout, I'm right beside you."

"We're not done yet," Spain explained quietly to Austria in the meanwhile. "Korea just couldn't stay put so we figured we could as well come and take a look around."

"I see," Austria answered dryly and rolled his eyes.

"France! Find me a closet!"

"Why gladly~!"

"France!" Austria warned and rose from the couch.

"It's next to the kitchen," Iceland told the Korean indifferently. "The door on the left."

"Great! Romano, let's go!"

"Like hell I'm coming!"

But he was already dragged out of the room. There had been too much of that happening to him today to his liking. All the other members of Team Decorations followed, except Sealand who firmly believed cleaning was for other People and thus took Hanatamago to go play somewhere instead. Iceland slipped out of the room after Korea's troop as well.

"Where do you think you're going, young man?" Austria asked strictly.

"As a Nordic, I'm one of the guys Fin will complain to if they break something, so I'd better keep an eye on them," Iceland answered truthfully, glancing over his shoulder. "And besides, we need the things they're looking for too, don't we."

"Maybe but–"

Before Austria could finish, they heard a loud crash, heavy swearing that sounded unmistakably Italian and two mixing laughs very much in the vein of Taiwan and France. The combination was all but encouraging. Iceland stuck his head out of the door to see what exactly the others were ruining this time. They had already managed to drop a lamp from Finland's table. To their luck, Cuba had been able to repair it.

"You stupid wretched Korean!" Southern Italy raged, sitting in the middle of a pile of what looked very much like the contents of a whole closet upside down around him. Nothing was impossible to Korea. Romano snatched a rag off his head and tried to fling it towards the snickering Taiwan, failing miserably as the light piece of cloth only floated peacefully to the floor before hitting the Asian. Without bothering to try again, Romano sprang up and started chasing after Korea who had fled upstairs from his rage, laughing his head off, stomping in the stairs as he went.

Egypt lifted the rag from the floor and started dusting the nearby chest of drawers.

"Good grief, you really can't be left alone for a second," Japan said, shaking his head. "You are making even more of a mess, everyone."

"France, if you won't stop laughing soon, I'm going to feed your balls to Norway's trolls," Iceland announced seriously, crouching down to pick up some of the fallen cleaning tools.

"Won't they get food poisoning?" Liechtenstein inquired innocently.

"If you just knew what they eat..." Iceland visibly shivered at the thought. "Egypt, that's used for cleaning toilets."

The African stopped polishing the mirror and looked at the yellow rag in his hands.

Spain sighed. "Maybe it's better you don't tell that to Romano..."

"Umm..." Latvia began cautiously and lifted a mop. "C... can I...?"

"Yes," Austria answered strictly. He was fast losing his temper with this loud lump of nations that should be making this crazy Christmas work, not ruining it.

Latvia squeaked and nodded a few times. "I'll... g-go get some water," he gasped and sprinted towards the kitchen to escape from the aura of the irritated Austrian, grabbing a bucket with him, only to come to a sudden stop at the door courtesy of Ukraine's breasts.

"Oh?" Ukraine startled as the Baltic sank into her chest before bouncing back and flopping down, seemingly in shock. Ukraine tilted her head. She had just been about to see what the ruckus was all about.

Canada caught the falling Baltic before he hit his head on the floor. "Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, supporting Latvia.

"Mm, yeah–" Latvia started before his eyes locked above him and he shrieked in horror. "Polar bear!" And he promptly fainted. Kumajirou tilted his head. Canada sighed.

In the living room, Norway was now alone listening to the racket in the hallway, a hand on his forehead and a nice temptation to leave everything troublesome to someone else poking his consciousness. Do I really have to do this?