Thanks to KorosuKa to beta-reading this!

There will be swearing in this chapter. I'll also explain a little bit of the political stuff at the end.


England woke to the annoying sound of Russia's alarm clock bleeping. "How is it morning already?" she grumbled as she pulled the sheet up and snuggled in again.

"The same way it usually is," Russia murmured, rubbing her back before sitting up.

"And tomorrow we'll be able to sleep in," she said, smilingly sleepily. "After a very long week."

"We went to bed early last night,"

"Yes, but we didn't actually sleep,"

"You didn't mind it at the time," he chuckled and pushed himself out of bed. "And besides, we have to make it through today first. It's a big day,"

"Yes, our marriage legislation goes through today," she said, sitting up and stretching.

"We hope,"

"It has to happen," she said, rolling out of bed to peep out of the window. "Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning."

"It's a good thing we're not shepherds then," he returned before entering the bathroom. She rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see. She showered after him and came downstairs as he was finishing breakfast. He'd even put on water to boil for her morning cup of tea.

"I have to get going," he told her before rinsing his dishes.

"Good luck,"

He nodded, and she imagined how easy it would be to reach up, pull him close, and give him a kiss goodbye. She looked down to her cup.

"Good luck to you as well. I'll see you this evening," he told her as he moved towards the door.

"Bye," she called after him as he left.

She heard the door shut and sighed into her tea. Now she had a few hours to wait before Parliament would vote on the legislation as anxiety curled in stomach. She headed up to her office anyways. She allowed herself a moment to slouch back against her chair before booting up her laptop.

England set down her tea and cracked her back before logging on to her email. Her boss had promised to deliver the news of the vote in Parliament. The treaty between her government and Russia's had breezed through months early, and this bill was the last of the follow through. Immigration reform specific to Russians, trade reform specific to the Russian Federation, and extradition of Russian criminals were all important steps if somewhat minimal policy measures at the moment. No politician could hope for miracles despite the general positive attitude towards Russia from the English public. Honestly, the bill was a heavier weight across her shoulders than Russia hardly being home for the past week. Russia was enjoyable company, but she needed her Parliament and public to go along with this.

She didn't have any new emails, and she needed something to do before Parliament voted. Session wouldn't begin for some time, and the legislation would be the first order of business. She opened up new windows for working on her old standby when she didn't have politicians heckling her. She rewrote administration procedures to make them more streamline and clear as bureaucrats had a habit of piling rules on top of one another rather than actually fixing procedure. The prime minister had to approve the changes, and her current boss usually put them through.

She worked until the time made her antsy. The vote could be finished at any minute, and her boss had promised to email her the verdict. She continually refreshed her email as she tapped her fingers against her desk. She stood and walked around the room to dispel energy before sitting down again. Her email pinged, and she jumped. The email was from her boss, and she quickly opened it. It read 'it passed'.

She clapped her hands together and sank back against her chair in relief. She pressed her fingers to her lips and breathed deeply. She sprung up again with sudden energy and began pulling up news sites, English and Russian, to get a feel for the reaction. Nothing would show immediately, but articles seeped news to the public quickly enough. Little bubbled up from the Russian sites, but she easily brushed that off, assuming they would respond after the vote in the Russian Federal Assembly in a few hours. The English news expressed optimism with a fair edge of caution from politicians and pundits. If she concentrated she could feel a pleasant warmth at the back of her head and down her spine and underneath her skin, the sign of at least a content populace and fainter after so much time spent in Russia than during her last visit to London.

She breathed in deep, but still felt some anxiety left in her chest. She needed Russia to pass the legislation, especially now that the legislation had passed through Parliament. If it passed, they could both relax and not need to worry so much about the highly politicized and policy based portion of their marriage. She returned to rewriting procedures, but couldn't stop herself from looking up every few minutes to check the news. The minutes dragged into hours, and she stopped working; focusing on the news sites entirely. Her stomach sank, her chest coiled, and she kept running a hand over her cheek and pushing her bangs back from her face.

She forced herself up from her computer and snatched her tea cup before leaving the room. She walked briskly down to the kitchen and immediately put water on to boil. She paced around the island as she waited for the water. She distractedly made her tea and couldn't force herself back upstairs now that she was down in the kitchen. She took her seat at the counter and held her cup between her hands too tightly to call it cradling. She took small sips, setting her cup against the counter during the interims without removing her hands. She rinsed out her cup when she'd finished, set it at the bottom of the sink, and took a deep breath. "Please be wrong," she told herself, looking through the window at the dark clouds forming.

She returned to her computer and refreshed the news sites. The Federal Assembly hadn't passed the legislation, and her stomach dropped. She sucked in a breath and closed the tab. "Shit," she whispered, covering her eyes with her hands.

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Her heart thudded in her chest, and she fisted her hands in her hair. "No."

Her email pinged, and she looked up; gritting her teeth. She opened the new email to find words of consolation from one of her politicians, and she scowled. She didn't respond to it, too tempted to curse him out, but another email showed up regardless. She scanned it to find more polite condolences. She deleted it as five more emails appeared in her inbox. Each letter followed the same formal pattern, and she might as well not have read them. She deleted them all as she rubbed at her eyes and struggled to keep her breathing even, lips trembling. The next one, the English politician condescended to her brutally; told her they had expected this from Russia, told her she should have expected it from Russia, told her everything had been a mistake, told her to pull out while she could. She knew this man and England could imagine, too clearly, the politician's oil slicked tone and the words burned like embers in her throat. She clapped a hand over her mouth and stifled herself, pulling away from the screen.

Knuckles to the jaw would have been kinder.

She practically slammed her laptop closed and got up, preparing to leave the room. She paused almost to the door, shook out her hands, and returned to her laptop. She closed her email but brought up the news sites. She needed to hear her people; she needed to know what they thought. She found out immediately. Articles used strong words and harsher phrases, and the English comments beneath them sprung up exponentially; most featuring creative cursing. She felt their anger, hot and sharp on the back of her neck. She exited out of the browser and slowly closed her laptop, swallowing too thickly.

She ground her teeth together and ran her hand over the back of her neck as she walked downstairs to wait for Russia's eventually return home. He unfortunately did not arrive quickly, allowing her time to mull over which particular words she would use as she forced her anger to build. That politician had been right after all. She should have prepared for this, and now her people were upset. When the door opened, she glared at Russia as he entered. "You passed nothing?" she asked him as harshly as she could, and she curled her hands into fists.

"England," he began, looking down and not at her. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it," she bit out, taking a step towards him. "Immigration, trade, and extradition, none of it. I already knew this would be somewhat to my disadvantage even if we both passed the legislation. I've lost American investment just over the treaty, and everyone knows you've struggled with even keeping domestic investment. Now, you've just dumped a whole new set of issues on top of me."

"I tried," he countered, looking up enough for her to tell that he had clenched his jaw.

"Obviously, you didn't try hard enough. Telling me you're sorry, telling me you tried," she said, stalking towards him. "Doesn't change the fact that you failed to pass the legislation. Saying you're sorry doesn't change the law."

"I have been hounding literally every politician for the past month, England," he told her, glaring at her and standing as tall as he can.

"I don't care what you've done," she spat at him, raising her voice slightly. "It didn't work."

"I'll fix it. I'll take care of it," he promised her, throwing his arms out.

She laughed cruelly. "Why even bother? Honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised. It's not the first time you've done something like this."

He pushed his way into her space then, getting far too close, but she refused to give ground. "That was unnecessary."

"It's true," she said, tossing up her hand flippantly.

He caught her hand, and practically growled at her. "I understand why you're angry, alright? But don't say things like that. I can get the legislation passed."

"Don't touch me," she snapped, pulling her hand from his. "You know what? Maybe this was a mistake. Everything would have been much easier if I'd told you no."

"This wasn't a mistake," he said, scowling for the first time she could remember. He continued, "I'd forgotten how cruel you can be when you're angry."

She scoffed. "You only came to me to run from your sister. If you have regrets now, you should have picked a wiser path much earlier."

"Then what were you running from?" he snapped. "There wasn't anyone after you. Was it loneliness?"

She swallowed hard and moved away from him. "Don't be such a fool. You weren't even the first person to propose to me."

"What?" he asked, rearing back and staring at her with wide eyes. "Who?"

"That's not your business. Just know; you're mucking up the only chance you've got. Don't bother me for at least the rest of today, and don't expect anything to change by tonight," she said, horrified at hearing her voice break in the middle of the sentence and needing to end this before tears began spilling over.

She turned on her heel and walked away. She realized she didn't have a place to go and be alone when she reached the top of the stairs. Anxiety burst in her, like pinpricks running up her back. She turned away from the bedroom and returned to her office. She made sure to lock the door behind her. She sat down heavily in her chair and swiped a hand over her jaw, anger already wiped from her system though her people's still pricked her neck. Her phone rang, startling her, and she couldn't locate it for a moment. She found it where she'd left it on the corner of her desk, and picked up the call immediately.

"England, I just heard. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Portugal asked, words rushing out. "I called you three times."

"I'm fine. I just didn't have my phone on me," she said, forcing her voice to hold steady. She straightened her back and crossed her legs at the ankle.

"Are you sure? This is a big deal," Portugal said warily.

"I know, but it's," she shook her head and put a hand to her forehead. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, okay," she said, retreating somewhat. "How about a distraction?"

"I don't need a distraction," she answered, frowning. "Don't you still have work?"

"You know that politician I was telling you about the last time we talked with his really annoying group of, you call them lobbyists, don't you? You remember them?" she asked.

"Yeah, there were a lot of Portuguese curses in that conversation," she answered, feeling like she could breathe a little better.

"I have a meeting with them so really providing a distraction is just a win-win situation for everyone,"

"What did you have in mind?" she asked, dropping into a slouch.

"I've found a new online RPG. It's got bows and arrows as a weapons option."

England's lips twitched towards a smile. "Alright, what's it called?"

She opened up her laptop again. She'd take about anything over sitting alone with a public's anger for company.

"I'll send you a link," Portugal answered.

"I'll put you on speaker so we can keep talking," England told her, pulling up her email again and ignoring every unopened letter except for Portugal's.

England didn't spend much time on creating her account or character for the game. Portugal talked her through everything, adding commentary. England focused on the game as best she could while she could still remember the burning words from earlier and the back of her neck still felt too hot. She always kept her ears open in case Russia walked passed for any reason. Within an hour, she had lost track of what Portugal was talking about. She didn't know what she was doing within the game and no longer cared for it, and she had exhausted herself struggling to keep a straight face.

"I think I messed up," she admitted, pulling herself away from her laptop and turning off speaker phone.

"What? No, you didn't. You've gone up a level haven't you?" Portugal asked, still half lost in whatever she had been talking about.

"Not in the game. With," she paused to take a deep breath. "Russia."

"What did you do? If you don't mind sharing," she prompted.

"I might have mentioned that he hasn't followed through before,"

"I don't need to explain to you how bad of a move that was,"

"It's true,"

"Of everyone, so there was no need to go flinging that in his face."

"That wasn't all of it,"

"I told you your temper would shoot you in the foot,"

"I know, just let me get through it," she pleaded, resting her elbows on her desk.

"Alright, I'm not here to upset you,"

"I, also, might have implied that this," she waved her hand around even though Portugal couldn't see it. "Marriage was a mistake."

"Is it?"

"Probably, politicians are sucking up to me, but the public is spitting fire. I wanted to avoid this. I don't think it's going to subside soon," she admitted, threading her fingers through her hair and forcing herself to take deep breaths.

"People generally are…fickle,"

"I also informed him that he was not the first person to propose to me," she added, keeping her tone neutral.

"Normally I would ask why that matters because after all you did reject the other person, but it probably came into the conversation just so you could hit him where it hurts,"

"You know me well. He said I was lonely so I proved him otherwise," England said tiredly, massaging her forehead.

"Yeah, there could be a blind side in that case. You don't sound that mad, though. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine. I was just mad at him because my people were. Portugal, I'm still living in his house. I have to sleep in his bed. We agreed to it."

"That is a problem. Maybe you should apologize for at least the first thing."

"I don't want to," England responded stubbornly, mostly out of a desire to avoid him entirely. "Even if he did get this legislation through by like next week, it wouldn't be soon enough. I'm going to have to deal with it for months, and every time we try to change legislation on our marriage afterwards."

"He's going to have to deal with all of that, too. It's only going to get worse if you don't apologize."

"Stop making sense," she said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry? You still want this to work, right?"

"I don't," England cut herself off. She ran her fingers over her lips then whispered. "I just had such high hopes."

"It'll be alright. Nothing too bad has happened yet. It'll turn out okay."

"No, it won't," England snapped then took a shuddering breath and wiped her fingers across her eye. "I'm not like you, Portugal. I don't do these kinds of things well."

"England, you've blown up at him before. He knew that before he married you. You've gotten mad at me before. It's not the end of the world."

England looked up towards the ceiling and sighed. She didn't have the words to explain how wrong she felt about the situation. "Fine."

"Think you can handle an apology now?"

"I might as well try," she said, sucking in a breath.

"Good luck, and call me tomorrow," Portugal told her before hanging up.

England set her phone back on the desk and left the room. She tip toed her way downstairs and found Russia on the phone in the living room. He sat on the edge of the chair with his elbows on his knees, and his free hand covered his forehead. She leaned against the doorframe and waited, rolling her tongue in her mouth as she tried to swallow down her misgivings. Russia noticed her after a moment, looked up and pushed his hand up and back into his hair. He didn't motion for her to leave, and instead he watched her as he listened; tight lipped and brows lowered. She didn't leave.

"I have to go. I'll call you back," Russia said after several moments then pulled the phone away from his ear. He stood and took a few steps towards her, tucking his hands into his pockets. "I've got people who are ready to amend a few bills to get the legislation for our marriage through. Immigration, trade, extradition, all of it, just like you want," he told her quietly

She frowned. "How did you manage to swing that in only an hour?"

"Contingency plans," he answered. "My boss and I worked it out that some of the other, I guess you'd call them bits, making their way onto the bill wasn't going to help it pass. We had people to announce the amendments, but we hadn't decided which bills to put them on until now. It'll probably be a month until all of them have been voted on, but they should all pass."

"Good," she said, though her people's anger continued to sting. She crossed her arms and tried to force her shoulders into a more relaxed position. "And I apologize for my earlier comments. They were unnecessary. I guess I was…unduly influenced."

"Did that hurt?" he asked, cocking his head.

"What?"

"Apologizing," he said with a shrug. "You never apologize this quickly."

"And?" she asked suspiciously, her eyebrows pulling together.

"And nothing," he said, taking a step away from her. "Do you want dinner?"

"Yes," she responded, and he began to walk away. "But-,"

He threw her a glance over his shoulder, and she stopped speaking. He continued on to the kitchen without breaking stride. She pressed her lips together and drew in a shaky breath. He hadn't believed her.

She hardly ate dinner, and when night came; she curled herself into a ball at the edge of her side of the bed and wrapped the sheet around her snugly. She also woke to an empty bed in the morning. She pressed her face into her pillow and decided it was still too early.


For those not politically savvy, I picked immigration, trade agreements/reforms, and extradition because people generally don't like to have them change, but they feature in the special relationship between the US and the UK; though only the extradition is really formal. Immigration and trade agreements/reforms generally are considered to have negative affects economically (reciprocated or otherwise, but it's nice to have it reciprocated) though immigration also has the whole xenophobia aspect. Extradition isn't so economically relevant, but it's more of an 'if I'm going to give you your criminals back you should give me my criminals back' type of deal. It's just kind of shitty not to follow through, and makes Russia look super uncommitted in this chapter.

Also, foreign direct investment is important nowadays, especially if it's from the US, and Russia is currently having a really hard time just to get it's oligarchs to keep their money in Russia. I doubt it's going to change in the future so it's a problem if England is losing that investment over Russia, especially if he doesn't seem to be helping her out.

I'm not an expert. It's intentionally vague. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong so long as you do it nicely.

That said, sorry for the unhappy chapter. The next one will make things better. Please review anyways.