Thank you all!

Norwegian: It wasn't that :( Though, that one is also stuck in my head now. Danes likes to sing it a lot.

This chapter is for my Canadian friend. I was complaining about running out of ideas and she said I should have ice hockey... Well, here it's!

"This is not a game", Iceland noted after watching the on-going ice hockey game for a moment, "this is a slaughter."

"This is so much fun!" Denmark replied for that and he was clearly excited about the show, "I just hope somebody would be selling popcorns here or something. Too bad we are here always when the place is closed."

"But they are killing each other!" Iceland said and pointed at the ice.

"Oh no", Denmark told him with an amused voice and didn't sound worried at all, "a small fight never killed anybody. And look how much fun they are having!" Iceland indeed looked. Mostly because it was so brutal that he couldn't look away once he happened to glance at that way. He had already followed through the one third and he swore he would never face those three on ice.

The thing was that it was the time for a traditional ice hockey game between Sweden, Finland and Canada. Even only with Sweden and Finland that would have turned to a bloody rampage, because those two seemed to forget all about their love at the moment they put skates on their feet, but when Canada get involved too it got even more seriously. Just let's say that he wasn't so invisible at the moment.

"Does this game have any rules?" Iceland asked with unbelieving tone. So far he hadn't see anything that even hinted about something controlling the game.

"In real it has", Norway replied and followed the game calmly, "but I believe they decided to ditch them a long time ago."

"And in real there are more players than three", the Dane noted, "and only two teams. And judges. And those funny men who always break up the fights."

"And why we are here?" Iceland asked and winced a bit when Canada managed to tackle Sweden on the ice, his skate sliding a bit too close from the Swede's face. Iceland hadn't seen the game from the beginning as he had only wandered in a moment ago while looking for others.

"We are here to break up fights", Norway replied.

"What?" Iceland asked.

"Yeah."

"You are really failing with that!" He had seen already few close calls and once Finland had almost jumped on the Swede. That fight had been broken down only because Canada had snatched the puck and both Nordics had become busy with following him.

"When this happened first time we tried to do the job", Denmark noted and shrugged, "but then it turned out to be easier to just let them do what they want. You know, after you get once hit by that stick because you trying to interrupt, you just realize it's much easier to stay away." On the ice the nations were hurrying after the buck and crashing on each other while doing so. Iceland was sure they all had already few bruises and there were some spots of blood on the ice so at least one of them was bleeding.

"We are also counting the points", Norway noted.

"Really? So who is winning?" Iceland asked and was surprised to hear that there was a possibility to win.

"No idea." Iceland glanced at his brother and just missed out when Sweden managed to get his revenge on the earlier tackling by crushing the Canadian against the wall.

"You are really bad whit this", he noted but the two nations didn't seem to care.

"Well, they never told us how the points are count", Denmark said, "so we just pick up a random name afterwards and they are happy with that."

"Sometime we rate the tackling", Norway added, and nodded when the Finn managed to trick the other two to crush on each other, "that was a good one."

"But not so good than that one at the beginning", Denmark noted, "you know, that one Canada made."

"Oh yeah, that was like an art", Norway admitted, "very clever use of stick." Iceland looked at them with a horror and he heard the Finn cursing from the arena. When he turned to look, he saw the man spitting blood and going after Sweden again. Sweden didn't even have the puck. Nobody seemed to know or care where that small black thing actually was.

"Are you for real?" Icelander asked, "why they are doing this?"

"It's just a tradition", Norway replied, "a friendly game between nations."

"Friendly?!"

"Well, it's after", Denmark noted, "you know, after they had been playing the duration of the usual ice hockey game, they just stop and everything is normal again. Canada is his friendly himself and Sve and Fin so cute lovely-dovely it causes diabetes."

"They fix each other and then go to have a beer", Norway continued, "the having a beer part is definitely the best. We usually join them then." Iceland wasn't still sure and he grimace after seeing those three just going on like crazy. But he was also so not going to get involved. There was a reason why Denmark and Norway had known about this tradition long before Iceland found out.

"Okay", he said, "maniacs."

"Exactly", Norway and Denmark replied at same time. Iceland seemed to be satisfied about having the chance to show his opinion because he fell quiet for a while. Denmark and Norway had nothing to say either so for a moment the only noise was the skates sliding on ice, occasional cursing and other voices that were caused by a man falling down, being tackled or pushed against the wall. It went like that for a while and the game didn't stop even for those few times when the buck actually made its way in to the goal.

"Nore", Iceland said after the last question popped up in his mind, "when this game is supposed to end? I don't understand how they know the time when they are busy with trying to torture each other."

"It takes only the duration of the normal ice hockey game", Norway said, repeating the thing the Dane had already said once, "we are keeping the time on eye for them." Denmark pointed at the machine that was placed between them. It wasn't very complicate looking thing. Actually it was just a big button that had a cable going somewhere.

"When we press this there will be a loud voice and they will stop", the Dane said happily and was clearly excited about the possibility to push a weird, big button.

"How much time is left?" Iceland asked because the game had been going on already before he came by and he had also been there quite while. He hadn't noticed the nations to keep any breaks either so they had to be very tired already.

"I'm not sure", Norway replied, "Dan, how much is the clock?"

"Twenty past eight", the Dane said.

"Okay, we are about twelve minutes over time", the Norwegian said calmly, "press the button, Dan."

"Okay!" The Dane hit his hand on the machine and a loud siren went off. The three nations on the ice immediately stopped. They let the buck be wherever it wanted to be and didn't try to kill each other anymore. Finland slide to Sweden and grabbed him when they passed. It made them circle around few times while Canada went to pick up the helmet he had dropped during the game. They talked something and, though the nations watching couldn't hear them, it seemed to be something positive because they were smiling and Canada patted the both Nordic nations on shoulder.

"You know", Iceland muttered, giving a look at his brother and his brother's lover, "you really failed with your tasks." Denmark and Norway looked back and were not really getting upset about the blame.

"But they are happy!" Denmark said, "isn't that all that matters?"

"I guess", Iceland murmured, "but can't they do this with video games or something? I heard those NHL games are nowadays really realistic."

"We don't know", Norway said with a shrug, "come on, let's have something warm to drink. It's cold here." Iceland glanced at the three nations on the ice once again and then he decided something Norway and Denmark had decided long time before. It wasn't his business.

Why they do this game thing every year then? No idea. For fun, probably.

Tomorrow and day after tomorrow's chapters will be uploaded sometime around and maybe late. I'll be traveling all day and I have been such a smart person that I didn't even wrote the last chapter ready yet. It's already 23:00 o'clock and I'll have to get up at 5:00 and I haven't packed. This happens every freaking time.

So especially tomorrow depends a lot on how well I can do this with my phone. I'll probably update when I'm in the bus so it will be also pretty late. If my phone doesn't want to co-operate I'll postpone the chapter to 24th. Sad but I think you all prefer to read something that is not messed up by the phone (I call it Samu. I got Samu last summer because my old phone had an unfortunate accident with a horse).

But my holiday started today, yay!

Tomorrow: The best Christmas (all)