Training in Session

"Back off!"

"Aww~ come back."

"You know we don't bite, ma cherie."

"Feliciano might not but I'm pretty sure you do!" I leapt onto the couch and slipped behind Ivan, who was simply reading a book.

Francis had a measuring tape in hand. "Now now, we just want to know your dress size."

I peeked over Ivan's shoulder. "Sure you do, you pervert..." I blushed. He deliberately swiped his hand across my butt!

He held up his hands in defense. "I won't do anything. Alors {Here}, I'll measure you right here where everyone is watching."

I bit my lower lip and sighed. "Back to the room..."

Francis and Feliciano headed back while I followed behind. I grabbed Yao's wrist on my way and dragged him with me, for safety and sanity precautions.

My "training" schedule was like school all over again. Each room in the house was for different lessons. My room was for learning basic pageantry. The next room was with Arthur and etiquette. The other room was with Yao and health, specifically food diet and nutrition. The final bedroom was for practicing public speech with Yong Soo and Ivan as the 'audience'. For the talent portion of the pageant, the living room was to be used as the dance room. Then outside was fitness with Alfred.

"Nine... ten... eleven... twe... twelve..." I slumped into the grass. It was my third set of twenty pushups.

"Dude! You had three more!" Alfred laid on his stomach to be level with me. "Giving up so easily?"

I raised my head and blew a leaf off my nose. "You know I'm not that strong..."

"And that's why we're doing this!" He got up on his feet and helped me up. "So enough of boring pushups. Let's do some jump ropes." He handed me the ropes.

"How many?" I took them and adjusted them to my height.

"Three sets of a hundred!" He started rapidly doing his set.

My jaw dropped. What?

When we were all done, I staggered into the living room and collapsed onto the couch next to Feliciano. He set his kitten on my back. "Ve~ you're trying really hard."

"I don't have a choice. Those bills need to be cleared and it's too late to cancel the registration..." I looked up him in desperation, "but I don't think I can keep it up for another week."

"But, but the pageant is coming up!" The cat jumped off my back from his exclamation.

I sat up. "Why is all of this necessary anyway? Can't I just be myself?" Hours and hours of this only irritated me. Sure the public speech and dance practice were important but the rest was just a waste of time. I was aware of most of the stuff already on the most part.

Feliciano patted my shoulder. "You should tell them. They won't know if they don't know, right?"

I nodded and sighed. He was right. There was no need for all this.

So by week two, the guys laid me off easy and we searched for my dance partner. My units were too old to participate and while Alfred could, he did not want to do any formal dancing. After several open tryouts and ask bouts, it came down to this one person.

I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. "So… are you willing to do this?"

Ryan smiled widely and crossed his arms as well. "Of course I am."

"Well," Francis started, "he was the best one out of the whole session." It was a truth that I refused to believe. I had no choice but to accept him or else my unit ownership would be in jeopardy.

I sighed and stuck a hand out. "Congrats, partner."

"Aw, cut the formality." Ryan gave me a hug instead and I just stood there, blushing. After when I thought he was holding on for too long, I nudged his ribs and he backed off.

I glanced to the side. "J-just don't fail on me."

"I'll do whatever I can for you."

"Your breasts belong to me~!"

"Yong Soo!"

Two awkward practice days had passed. By the third day, we got a little used to it but something didn't feel right.

"Hey…" We were taking a little break after Arthur told us that he had to go do something. He and Francis were the instructors. It was hilarious watching them dance but Ryan naturally found it awkward. Hetalia fans have an advantage there I guess…

Ryan looked up from his water. "What's up?"

I looked at him curiously. "Are you really up to his ballroom-type dance thing?" It did not seem like something he would even think about doing, plus I even found it boring myself.

"Eh…" He shrugged. "Not really but it's something we gotta do, right?"

"I guess…" I kicked at a cushion on the floor. "But I feel like I want to make it a bit more… exciting. I think anyone could do something like this if they tried."

He sat forward and grinned. "I was thinking the exact same thing!"

I nodded. "At least we're on the same page…" I sat back in the couch. "Maybe—"

"Have you two finished your practice?"

Ryan and I jumped when Arthur walked into the room. We quickly nodded at him. He looked at the clock and then at us. "It's still quite early. Are you certain you are done?"

"Y-yeah, we got tired since we tried extra hard today." Ryan fanned himself.

I laughed nervously. "Exhaustion from the practices is starting to build up."

The Brit stared at us suspiciously and then shrugged. "Well, don't overexert yourselves." He picked up his teacup from the table and walked back into the hall.

I quickly turned to my partner. "He cannot know that we're changing the dance…"

He cocked his head. "Why not?"

"He's not really reasonable when it comes to these things…"

"Oh."

"So we got to do this in secret."

"Do what?"

I led him to Alfred's room. Luckily it was empty since both he and Feliciano were out for work while Yong Soo went somewhere with Francis. I turned on the computer and pulled up Youtube.

"We can look for some dances here."

"Oh!" He smirked. "I didn't think you were the sneaky type."

I shrugged. "I have my days." I hovered my hand over the keyboard, trying to figure out exactly what to search. I tried modern waltz and modern ballroom dancing but they were just as plain. I let Ryan take over.

"How's this?"

The music was really upbeat and fast, but not really suitable for an event like this pageant. I shook my head. "We need calmer music or else we'll upset those fancy people." He frowned and continued his search.

I sighed and decided to scan the place since I haven't really paid attention to any of the guys' rooms. It was messy but considering it was shared by three careless people—Alfred, Yong Soo, and Feliciano, it was understandable. Some manga and DVDs were lined up on a shelf and clothes thrown here and there. The beds weren't made either, except for what I was guessing Feliciano's. Then something caught my eye.

Vocaloids..? I cocked my head. They do have a lot of dances to their songs… I went through the songs I knew in my head and picked out the ones with calmer music. I turned to Ryan. "Hey, I have an idea."

"What is it?" He moved aside so I could sit in front of the computer.

"Do you know Vocaloid?" I wrote down the songs I had in mind on a scrap of paper and started to search to see if they had dances.

He scratched his head. "Yeah… vaguely. What about it?"

"Well… they have a lot of interesting dances and I thought maybe we could mix the dancing we're doing now to some of the moves in those dances." I clicked on the dance for Risky Game. We watched the first two minutes of it and I turned to Ryan for feedback.

He made a face. "I think it's too focused on the words to the song and no one will understand what the heck their saying." He shrugged. "The dance's nice I'll give it that much, but too focused on words."

True… "Fine fine." I looked up Scissorhands next. We went through the whole video, just stuck in amazement.

"Okay…" Ryan ran his hand through is hair, "the chick was awesome!"

I laughed nervously. "I'm sure I can't move that fast…" She looked really cool… And the guy could move just as much…

He chuckled and patted my back for comfort. "The music's jazzy like those… Roaring Twenties or whatever it was called."

I shook him off. "Yeah, I don't think it's that bad."

He leaned over to see the paper. "So what's the other song?"

I blushed. Bad choice now I think about it… "It's—"

"Found it!"

"Hey!" He had searched it while I was hesitating. I sighed. "You have a warning with this video, just saying."

He clicked on the video. "What do you mean?"

I blushed again. "Y-you'll see."

When the video was over, he was just sitting there, eyes still on the screen. I waved my hand in front of his face. "Hello..?" Crap, did I break him?

He broke into a smile. "It's gotta be this one!"

I pulled back. "W-what?"

Ryan put his hands on my shoulder. "This one's perfect! It music's just right and it'll be easy to mix the two dances together."

I stared at him in disbelief. He liked the song..? I was half relieved but I was still in shock. "A-are you sure?"

"Yeah, totally. Don't worry if you don't think you can master the moves, we can just use the ballroom ones." He smiled. "I know you're not comfortable with some of them."

I blushed and looked away. "S-shut up…"

He just laughed and sent the video to himself. "Hey, if you think we're gonna get busted by Sir Eyebrows, then you should come over to my place."

His place..? Now I think about it, I've never been there once… "I guess… Do you have space?"

"Of course," he scoffed, "I've got a huge living room."

"How about your grandma? Would she mind?"

"She's cool with anything, don't worry. I'll talk to her and text you later."

I opened my mouth to protest but changed my mind. This was for the best of this situation. "Okay… thank you."

He flashed another bright smile. "Anytime!"

More time passed. It was a week before the pageant now. We've been continuing the ballroom practice so that Arthur would not get suspicious and I've been going over to Ryan's house every other day to practice the other dance. It's been hectic but it's also been… fun. The practices weren't so awkward anymore for some reason. On another note, I've became more fit and my skin and health were practically glowing. I've never felt so great, but I've never felt so stressed over an event.

"Feliciano…"

"Ve?" He looked up from brushing my hair. I was too lazy at the moment so I let him brush.

"Do you think I could have a couple of days off..? I've been training nonstop and I don't want to crash at the last minute…" Alfred's last run was ridiculous. Three laps to and from the park, which was a mile away? I hate running in the first place!

"You should talk to Arthur or Big Brother Francis," he braided a portion of my hair, "but I think you definitely deserve a break~."

I weakly smiled at him. "Thanks… I'll do that when they get back…"

"Oh, have no fear, ma cherie. We were planning to give you two days off starting demain {tomorrow} anyway." The Italian and I turned to the voice. Francis entered the room in his chef uniform. He set a white box on the counter.

"Oh~ what's that? What's that?" Feliciano skipped over to examine the box. Francis opened it and inside was a cake neatly decorated in fruits and whipped cream.

I went over as well. "What's that for?" I looked around. "Is it someone's birthday?"

The Frenchie shook his head and stared at me. I pointed to myself and he nodded. "Oui~ it's just a little something I whipped up for your excellente effort."

I blushed. "Y-you didn't have to do that…"

"Yes I did, mon ange {my angel}." He gave me a hug and kissed my forehead. "You're trying really hard even though you didn't want to in the first place. I was even surprised that you accepted to dance with Ryan."

I crossed my arms and frowned. "The bills weren't going to pay themselves…" I had to get in the top three to win enough money. Failure was a thought that I did not want to ponder on and flustering over a guy was not going to stop me.

"Ve~ Big Brother Francis, we ate dinner already so can we have cake now?" Feliciano asked excitedly.

A stack of plates were set on the table. "I am not sure about Westerner desserts, aru, but that looks good."

"It will taste wonderful since Francis made it, da?" Ivan brought the forks.

When did they show up..? Felciano helped me to my seat and the Frenchie served the cake.

A cup of tea was set in front of me. I looked up and found Arthur as the server. "You deserve a break… I apologize for constantly working you into exhaustion."

I shook my head. "It's okay. I like working anyway." The guys got quiet for a second. I raised a brow. "…What's wrong?"

"Do not mind us, podrooga {female friend}. Enjoy your cake." Ivan handed me a fork.

"Umm… okay then." I took it and had the first bite of cake. I paused. It was the best cake I had ever eaten! The sponge was perfectly light and fluffy and the whipped cream wasn't overwhelmingly sweet like the ones found in the stores. The fruits were glazed with what seemed to be peach syrup. The different textures and tasted blended together nicely. I turned to Francis. "That was amazing!"

He looked delighted and put a hand on his hip. "Now, if you think that was amazing then you should try my tart, la prochaine fois {next time}."

"Watch your calories though." I choked on another piece of cake and sipped the tea, which also nicely complimented the cake.

Alfred laughed and hit my back. "I always love that reaction!"

"You should too, da?"

The American stopped and scowled at Ivan. "Shut up, commie!"

"Aiyah, how many times do we have to tell you that he is not communist anymore?"

"Cake!" Yong Soo had just finished taking a shower and jumped over to the table. "Is it someone's birthday?"

"So late, aru…"

"Dude, I thought that too!"

"Ve~ here's your cake Yong Soo."

I gently set my fork down and watched the guys go about in their usual commotion. I really did not want to lose them one by one like they said. I had to earn that money to pay off the bills one way or another; even if it kills me to dress up like a Barbie again, this time to the max. Oh wait…

I tugged on Francis's sleeve to get his attention. "What will I be wearing?"

He gave me a smirk and patted my head. "You'll see soon enough, ma princesse."

...What's that supposed to mean?

More time skips and rambles! XD

Yeah, I didn't have many ideas for this… This pageant thing will be two parts (maybe three if I think of something) so don't worry about length. This was part one. (This pageant's process will be explained in the next chapter because I know it seems really different from the usual/big ones out there.)

So, Ryan returns. And he's her dance partner! He must be pretty happy, if you know what I mean.

Like them, I went through YouTube searching for a dance that they will perform. I did find those waltz and ballroom dances boring for my and Nana's tastes (no offense!) so I decided to bring some stuff that I was interested in:

-Risky Game was nice but like Ryan said, the moves focused a lot on the words than the music (MMD version).

-Scissorhands was really cool. It was jazz-like and the dancers in the video were really energetic (Miume and Kimagure Prince version). I almost went with this but I had a male outfit that I really want to use and it did not match this.

-And guess the last one~ (It also includes Miume-san)

Anyway, sorry for the time skippy chapter. I had writer's block but wanted to move onto the actual event :c

Check out "The Outgoing and the Shy" if you have time ^^ *shameless advertisement*

Thanks Always!~