Chapter 25

-Amusement Park Antics-

November, 2015

Julia was upset.

There was no one beside her when she awoke, and she did not like to sleep alone, shouldn't he know that by now?

She thus angrily came down the stairs to tell Varyn off, however, as she neared the kitchen, she smelled something wonderful which immediately lifted her spirits.

"Mmmmm, did you make coffee?" She asked when she saw Reikland sitting in the kitchen, reading a book and absentmindedly petting Värjö on the head.

Varyn nodded in response.

"Morning sleepy head." He greeted her. "You know, you slept in like two hours longer than me."

Oh. Well I guess if I had to wait that long I would get out of bed too.

Julia sat down next to the blonde and took a bite of the toast he made. "Whatever, it's not like we're going anywhere today."

"That was my toast…" the Celt whined.

"Sucks for you, get your own."

"I did, and you just bit it."

"Too bad, it's mine now." She said, eating even more of it. "Is it cold out?"

Varyn shrugged. "A bit, but it's pretty muggy."

The albino then eyed him suspiciously. "Varyn if I look outside right now and see all our mugs on the porch or some shit I swear I am going to leave you."

The Celt failed to hide his grin as he sipped his coffee from a glass bowl.

Julia threw her arms into the air and stomped her way out of the kitchen. "I'm fucking done!"

She was stopped though as he called out to her. "Wait! Julia! I was kidding! I just thought what you said was funny!"

Prussia then immediately whipped around back at him. "Then why are you fucking drinking coffee from a bowl?"

Varyn hung his head low in shame at this. "I… I couldn't find a clean mug… we both forgot to run the dishwasher last night…"

"You couldn't clean one by hand?"

"I didn't think about making coffee until after starting the wash… so I improvised."

"And how many times have you spilled coffee on yourself by drinking it that way?"

He held his head even lower. "About four…"

Julia pinched the bridge of her nose. Some people said that she didn't use common sense sometimes or was just aloof; but Reikland… he takes it to a whole new level. It was one of the great mysteries of the world how the two of them together lived on their own without almost burning down the house daily.

"You know… you're a retard sometimes right?"

Varyn sighed depressingly. "Yeah… I know…"

Julia felt guilty, she didn't want to make him feel too bad, so she kissed his cheek. "But hey, you're my retard."

"Gee, makes me feel soooo much better."

As she sat back down, she took another piece of the toast that he made, which earned her a pouted face from the man. "Anyways," the Prussian said between bites, "Antonio called me last night-"

"Wait, who's Antonio again?" Varyn interrupted before he got lost.

"Spain, remember? He was at the party with us and the meeting. But yeah he called me and invited us along with Tim and Emma to go to an amusement park in Tarragona with Romano and his sisters next week, do want to go?"

"Yeah! It's better than staying here and trying to catch up on all the work I missed out on. Plus it's getting cold here, I hate the cold."

"Varyn, you've lived here your whole life, how are you not used to the cold?" She questioned.

"Well, I vaguely remember that I was okay with it awhile ago, but I think something happened to me that made me like the heat more."

Prussia thought for a moment about all that she had been through with the Nordic… was there anything? "Oh yeah, I mean, you did get stranded on an island in the Caribbean for like two years in the 1700's; maybe that affected you somehow…"

"Really? That sounds awful. But anyways, tell Antonio that we'll go."

Julia nodded and yawned while reaching her arms up to stretch. "Alright, I'll call him back later. But now I'm going to go back to bed."

"But you just woke up." The Celt retorted.

"Hey, don't judge my awesome sleeping habits."

"Didn't you say that sleep was for the weak two nights ago when you stayed up all night to play Call of Duty?"

"Varyn! I had to fucking wreck those noobs!"

Reikland turned away from the Prussian next to him and returned to his book. "You're a fucking dork."

a week later

Varyn was disappointed to learn that even Spain was not that warm during this time of year, so he was currently searching through his closet for some slightly warmer clothes. As he was looking at one of his light jackets, he dropped it onto the floor of the back of the closet; however when he reached down to pick it up, he noticed a trunk that he hadn't noticed before, probably hidden underneath some clothes he forgot to clean up.

As he pulled the trunk out, he realized it must have been very old, as it was extremely dusty and worn down. Varyn blew off the dust that was on top and opened it. Inside there were pieces of older clothing that were folded on top of one another, none of which he recognized. He pulled out a black, white, and gold horizontally striped scarf from near the top and examined it. The material appeared to be old, but it was clearly high quality and had almost no tears or frays. The colours too were not too faded, and still looked rather vibrant despite the age. However, he still had no idea about the scarf itself; sure, it was the same colours as his flag and obviously had some sentimental meaning to it, but he didn't know where it was from.

"Hey Julia! Can you come here?"

He called the albino from the other room.

After a moment, she soon appeared in the doorway. "What is it?"

"Do you know what this is? Or where it's from?" He asked, holding up the scarf.

She smiled at the nostalgia. "Ah, you finally found that old thing. That is the scarf that Tim and Emma made for you when you still took care of them with Burgundy. They wanted to show their appreciation and gave it as a gift to you."

"Really?" He asked, "That's nice of them." But as he said this, Reikland was already slipping into a vision.

Antwerp

1450

Varyn saw his slightly younger self in a hallway, standing over what appeared to be children Belgium and The Netherlands, offering him the scarf. Emma however, seemed to be abashed at what Tim was currently saying.

"Timothy! You don't ask for money when you give someone a gift!" She shouted in frustration.

"Why not? I want to be paid for my work."

"You didn't even make that much of it!"

Reikland bent down and patted the girl's head, smiling sweetly. "Emma, sweetie, it's fine, I really like the scarf and appreciate your guy's hard work. Here, I don't mind paying the two of you for it."

Varyn then gave them both a few coins, Belgium was hesitant at first to accept the payment, but the Dutch boy shook his hand eagerly.

"Thank you for your business." And then he walked away with Emma chasing after him.

"Timothy! That's indecent!"

Back to present

Varyn came back from his flashback with a grin on face "Wow, so he was stingy even back then?" He asked himself.

He then examined the fabric again. "Wait… so does that mean this is like… six hundred years old?"

"Oh, no, that was the original one, that one became worn out a while ago. This one is the one they recreated and gave to you as a gift for our wedding in 1721."

Varyn smiled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. "Oh yeah… that…"

Prussia frowned at her lover's misfortune that she caused. "You don't remember it do you?"

The Celt's grin also disappeared. "No… I'm sorry, but I don't…"

Julia hated to make the man feel guilty for something she had caused, so she tried to lighten the mood. "Eh, it's not that big of a deal, I'm to blame anyways; but it was pretty awesome, it was when our counties combined into Prussia-Reikland."

"Wasn't our union a failed state?" He asked.

"Yeah… turned out that we didn't work well under the same government… but hey, it was ambitious and the first dual monarchy in Europe, so we got that going for us."

"Wasn't the personal union between France and England near the end of the Hundred Year's War technically the first dual monarchy?"

Julia squinted at him as if he was some annoying bug she wanted to kill. "That doesn't count you nerd, Henry VI didn't have any real control over France, he was fighting the nobility for most of his reign, you could hardly call it a union anyways. So we're still the first!"

"You like to brag a lot don't you?" He teased.

The albino turned her back to him. "Shut up! Hurry up and pack, our flight leaves in a few hours."

Varyn gave her stiff salute. "Alrighty captain."

One week later

Portaventura, Salou, Spain

After coming through the main entrance of the theme park, the eight nations convened under a pavilion to discuss their next plans. It was here that Reikland was properly introduced to Catalonia, or Sofia, a lively girl who looked like a female version of Antonio. She had long brown hair that was wavy towards the end and green eyes like her two siblings. She seemed friendly enough, her attitude only turning sour when in the presence of Spain, that's when bitchy mode was activated. She also didn't seem as laid back as her brother and sister, probably because her region was rather prosperous. Varyn was then also reacquainted with Portugal, or Joana, who he only briefly met a few months ago at his first meeting. She was the weirdest of the three Iberians, being the most energetic yet also the laziest, with a sharp tongue too. She also had green eyes, but her hair was much darker and wilder than both Antonio and Sofia. From his first impression of her, Varyn could only compare her to Julia in personality, for the Portuguese woman seemed very outgoing.

After the introductions were passed around for the Nordic still suffering from memory loss, the group decided what to do next.

"This place better be worth it for how much it cost to get in." The Netherlands complained, crossing his arms.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that much." Antonio tried to reason.

"Are you kidding me? The prices are abhorrent! I would never pay this much normally! No wonder your economy is so bad considering how you operate prices around the country."

The Spaniard slumped his shoulders. "You didn't have to make it personal."

"Oh shut it Timmy. Is the thought of spending a little extra just to spend time with us so detestable to you?" Joana said. She then scoffed, "Besides, you'd probably just waste the money on pot or something anyways."

Tim gritted his teeth at the woman who was the bane of his existence. But he sighed when he realized that he probably would have done just that. He had even brought his pipe with him to this place.

"Whatever. Now that we're all here, what should we do first?" He asked.

There were various opinions from the group, with some wanting to go to the water park first, some wanting to get food, and Romano wanting to check into their hotel first to gets things situated; however, it was Varyn's suggestion that most of them agreed with.

"Why don't we try the Hurakan Condor first? I've heard it's super scary and you get a great view of the whole park."

Tim was the only one against this idea, and he made it known when he pulled the Reikish man aside from the group. "The drop tower? Varyn, I'll excuse you from not knowing because of what happened, but I'm not really great with heights."

"Hah!" The Nordic laughed, elbowing the Dutchman teasingly. "Didn't think a tall guy like you would be afraid of heights! Is it because you're a 'low country'?"

Tim was not appreciative of his joke. "Varyn I will light my pipe and shove it up your ass."

Reikland smirked. "Kinky."

"Fuck you."

Eventually however, despite his mockery of the man, the Celt managed to persuade him to go, and the group experienced the 85 meter drop together, screaming their heads off. There was a preeminent warning of vomit from the Dutchman during the ride, but a threatening by Romano to castrate him quickly dispersed these urges.

While waiting in line for another ride, with the other nations farther in the line, Varyn quietly pulled aside his 'son' for a talk.

"So Timmy boy, Julia here tells me that you and Joana had the hots for eachother way back when."

"Yeah, we did, and still do in a way, what off it?"

"Well, I want to know about it, what was it like between you two?"

Tim thought for a second before answering. "Have you ever seen Mr. and Mrs. Smith?"

"Yeah."

"It's a bit like that. We fight each other and butt heads all the time… but we kinda always make up in the end…" he drifted off.

"Ahh, sounds exciting. Joana seems like a woman who can really give you a run for your money."

The lighter blonde sighed. "You could say that."

"Were her and I friends? I feel like she's someone I could likely get along with well."

"Yeah, you two liked to tease me a lot together and you had some trading policies set up together, but you did fight with her a couple times. She's almost to you what I am to Julia."

Varyn nodded slightly. "I see." He then turned his head at the line moving. "But we're almost on the ride now, let's go.

*Le time skip*

About an two hours and many rides later, the group decided to settle down for a bit and try some lighter stuff. That was when Antonio spotted one of the water-shooting arcade games and told Romano that he would win him a prize, much to the Italian's displeasure.

"Antonio don't waste your money on that, the prizes are so childish."

"Ah don't worry Romano! We can share the prize if you don't like it that much!"

And so, the Spaniard paid the man running the game and got into position. When the bell rung that indicated the start, Antonio took aim and began to fire at the target, slowly but steadily advancing the meter that showed his progress. Despite it being a child's game and rather cold out, precipitation soon ran his face as he continued to fire with determination to win.

When he was about to finish, with only seconds left, however, the bell rung to announce a winner.

"What?" He questioned, "But I'm not finished yet."

The man running the game gave a slight snort of laughter. "No, you aren't." He then jerked a thumb to the right. "But he is."

The group then turned their eyes to see Tim standing at the very end of the row over a water gun with a blank expression.

"I'll take that one." He said to the stall man, pointing at the largest teddy bear there.

Even though it was huge, the bear looked not too big compared to the tall man, who then walked over to Joana and handed it to her. "Here babe."

The Portuguese woman smirked sadistically at her brother's misfortune. "Ahhhh, thanks Timmy." And planted a kiss on his cheek.

Antonio on the other hand was on his knees, reeling from his failure. "How did I not notice him? Why does he try to beat me at everything?"

Romano, still retaining the same bored expression since the game started, looked at Sofia who nodded at him. Together they walked over to Spain and crouched to reach each of his ears. "You're a fucking disappointment." They whispered is unison.

Antonio broke into soft tears.

*Le yet another time skip*

Later on, after more rides and a bite to eat, Emma convinced the group to go into a clothes shop to look around. While the girls (plus Antonio) decided to try on some clothes, Romano and Varyn (Tim had to pee) sat outside the changing rooms rather awkwardly, as most of the clothes here were for women.

"Hey Varyn, do these pants look good on me?" Prussia asked him, stepping out of a changing room with a pair of skinny jeans.

"Hmmmm… they do… but you'd look even better with them off." Reikland joked.

Julia winked at him. "Oh you know it baby."

"Oh my god shut the fuck up, we are in public." Romano interrupted irritably.

The albino gave an annoyed 'hmph!' before turning to go change again, whispering "buzzkill." as she walked away.

The dirty blonde chuckled lightly before seeing Sofia talking to Joana, which made a question form in his mind.

"Oh yeah, Italy, I was wondering something." He started, looking at the tanned man besides him.

"What did you call me?"

"Uh, Italy?"

Romano sat silent for a moment, making the Reikish man curious.

"Is that not right? Isn't that what people call you?"

The shorter man sighed before speaking. "The name 'Italy' is almost always reserved for my younger brother, I honestly can't remember the last time I was called that by someone."

"That hardly seems fair, don't you represent half the country?"

"Si, yet less than a quarter of the population. My lands are hardly deemed important to the history of our country, so I am often overshadowed by Feliciano."

Varyn could tell that the Italian man was troubled by this and did not want to talk about it, so he decided to ask his original question.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that, but don't worry Romano, I'll never treat you unequally to him. But anyways," he continued, "I wanted to ask about Sofia; what is… or was your relationship with her? Because if she used to represent the Kingdom of Aragon, doesn't that mean she ruled over you before Antonio did?"

"Well, you're right about that; I guess I would consider her to be an older sister figure to me. Despite how she acts around Spain, she really is a sweet and caring woman, and the two of us always like to annoy him so we get along well. Sadly one of the few people I can say that with."

"Were we not good friends?" Reikland questioned.

The Italian looked a little puzzled. "Varyn… the only connection I had to you was that you knew my Grandfather… we barely knew each other until World War Two; and if you can guess; I wasn't too happy about being apart of the Axis."

Reikland felt a little embarrassed for assuming that his past self was friends with everyone. "Oh… I guess you're right…" But he then gave a slight grin. "Well maybe we can get to know each other better now." And then extended his hand.

This came as a surprise to the dark haired man, usually people were rather uninterested in him or turned off by his more negative attitude; yet here Varyn was right in front of him, offering friendship. In any normal situation, he probably would have rejected to proposal, but for some reason he felt urged to accept. Romano looked again at the Nordic's grin and then took his hand into his own.

At that moment though, Antonio came out of one of the dressing rooms and saw the exchange between the two men. "What?! Nooooo! Romano you're not cheating on me are you?!"

The Italian then lurched forward angrily punched the Spaniard in the gut. "As if we were ever together!"

After the exchange between the two southerns, and after everyone was done shopping, the group started to depart, but as they were exiting, something that Varyn hadn't noticed before caught his eye.

"Hold on a second guys." He said quickly, rushing to buy the item.

When he returned with his own shopping bag, the group looked at him oddly.

"What did you buy?" Asked Emma.

The dirty blonde smiled and took the object out of the bag, placing it on top of Julia's head for everyone to see.

It was a yellow bird hat.

The albino gave a surprised yet ecstatic shriek and hugged Reikland. "Oh my god Var thank you! How did I not notice it before?! This is perfect! I love it!"

Varyn's grin grew wider. "I knew you would."

She wore it almost daily for the rest of the winter after that.