Chapter 21: Surprise!
"Lia, why'd you follow me?" Blake asked.
"I was wanting to train…" Lia uneasily replied. "Got a problem with that?"
"Not at all. I just thought you were wanting to talk to me about something."
"Well, yeah. You kinda got me there." Lia sighed in defeat. "I- Do you know what today is?"
"What? It's Monday; why?"
"No. Like the date."
"June 2nd…Oh, right! No one's said anything yet…"
"Yeah. Happy birthday, kiddo," Lia smiled. "I feel kinda bad. We haven't celebrated anyone's birthday since we...changed living areas, I guess. It's like we've forgotten them and left them behind, if that's how you'd say it." She shrugged.
"Well, the nations don't really celebrate birthdays themselves, really, so it doesn't matter. The next time we'll celebrate is after the 2ps are gone for a while."
"Yeah. But what if we're mortal? We'll only have so many years and so many birthdays. We should celebrate them... Right?" Lia sighed.
"We're as immortal as the nations. I asked my dad. But we should do something. Not this time, though. We're preparing for something much more important."
Lia shrugged in defeat. "Yeah. I guess. But maybe I was stripped of my immortality when the others reappeared. I'm just scared. Ya know? What if you guys stay the same forever and I get old and...die..." Her voice trailed off.
"Actually, because you're a nation's kid, you're still as immortal as the rest of us. I also asked my dad that."
"Oh. Okay. Well, I was gonna ask. What kind of cake did you want? I was gonna make everyone a big cake to share!" Lia giggled. "As a surprise! Nothing too fancy or time-consuming at that!"
"I don't think they'd appreciate it that much right now. The nations are all stressed out, and they might be pissed." Blake wiped his illustrious brows. "Just wait until after the fight, if the outcome is good."
"Oh. Okay. Well, I guess we should train a bit."
"Exactly."
"If you wanna focus, I can leave. No problem here," Lia said.
"Stay. We can train together. If we'll be fighting together, we ought to be training that way."
The two picked up their respective pistols and began shooting, pausing every once in a while to talk or take a breather.
"Hey, kid! Look!" Lia pointed at her target. "I'm just as accurate as you! Maybe more!"
"Maybe…" Blake chuckled. "Imma train on the move. Good thing this room is big."
"What?"
"Train while running. The target can simulate a human firing at you."
"Cool. I'll do that too." And so they both did. Blake was somehow slightly more agile and accurate for the time being. Lia quickly caught up to him and smirked.
"Catch me if you can!" Lia sped ahead, but Blake kept on shooting and went ahead again right before the simulator stated "60 SECONDS REMAINING." The two were head-to-head from that point on. As the timer ran out, the simulator compared the scores. They were the exact same.
"Eh?!" Lia gasped. "How!? I mean, what?!"
"I cannot make this shit up," Blake replied, also in shock. "I CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP!"
"You don't have to say things twice! I can hear you loud and clear!"
"Um…I guess we're evenly matched, then?"
Lia sighed. "Whatever. Now can I go bake that cake? Come on and ask your mother. How to bake. How to bake. Bake that cake." Lia just started humming the Latvian Eurovision 2014 song.
"Stop that now. Horrible timing." Blake facepalmed at the song reference.
"Oh come on silly. Take a break. You have a knot in your shoulders," Lia said softly while massaging Blake's shoulders. "You know you want to."
"No! Stop that!" Blake almost punched Lia in the face, but Lia dodged.
"Calm your face, Birthday Boy," Lia laughed.
"I don't give a shit about my birthday. Can't you tell? Let's move on."
"Fine. I only wanted to make you happy on your special day but whatever. I'll leave." Lia walked away, huffing.
"Wait!" Blake called. "Please…I'm sorry. I'm a little uptight, and that won't change for a while. Do you forgive me?"
"Sure. Why not. I'm still leaving, though. I have matters to attend to elsewhere." Lia didn't even turn around. She opened the door and walked out, leaving it to slam. Chloe's hand caught the door, and she stepped in.
"What'd you do to piss off your girlfriend?" Chloe chortled.
"First off," Blake began, "she's not my girlfriend. Secondly, we were both training, so I didn't really piss her off during that. I just pissed her off because I'm in one of my normal uptight tsundere moods."
"Aw. That's not it. The girl would've been much less pissy if that was it." Chloe looked inquisitively at her brother. "Tell your sister what's wrong." Chloe began to slightly levitate, floating to her brother.
"Fuck off, Chloe."
"You are no fun, brother."
"No, I'm not."
"Wait…" Chloe returned to the floor. "You're 14 now."
"That's exactly it."
"What? That it's your birthday?"
"Kind of."
"Whaddya mean?"
"Well, we haven't celebrated anyone's birthday since we went off with the nations, and Lia's wanting to do something about it. I told her to wait until after the battle, but she started acting all silly and singing a horrible and unfitting song for my mood, that stupid 'Cake to Bake' thing. I told her to stop. She did, but she's clearly pissed."
"Let the girl have her fun," Chloe sighed. "She's not ready to grow up yet. She's had a hard time recently. She just wants to be loved and to be appreciated. In fact, she's leaving the house to go to the London Eye and go sightseeing. I can feel it."
"Should we go with her, then? If she wants appreciation, shouldn't she have company?"
"That's the thing, dear brother. She wants to be appreciated for what she does and who she is, not what she is. Also, she's blowing off steam. She's always wanted to come to the UK, as well," Chloe insightfully added. "I feel like she's gonna do something for us while she goes out today. Something nice and surprising."
Blake was confused. "Like what?"
"We'll see what happens. We should leave her alone unless she wants company."
"Should I text her and ask her if she wants us to be with her?"
"Naw. She's too pissy, bro. Leave her be."
"Okay. But I just feel bad for her."
"Sympathy for the girl? Heh. You're funny."
"What? She wants to be who she really is, and I'm pretty much controlling her and denying her that opportunity."
"Exactly. That's why I think it's funny you feel pity. Anyway, see ya. I've got lunch with Alex later." Chloe smiled and teleported with a puff of magic, leaving Blake all alone. He teleported to the basement, where he had been just a half-hour earlier. He went to the center of the room, sprawled himself out, and slept for a while, thinking that sleep would cure his problems.
~Lia~
"What a world, what a world," Lia thought. She rode along on her Razor scooter. "Where to first?"
~Several hours later~
Blake yawned and sat up. "How long have I been out?" He rubbed his eyes and checked the time. "Three hours? Shit!" He quickly got up and teleported to the first floor to see the other kids chatting. "What's happened in the last three hours that I missed?" he asked, panicking that he missed something big.
"Nothing. Come sit down," Penelope suggested. "You look sleepy."
"I've slept for the past three hours, goddammit," Blake growled. "And it's only 1:30 pm."
"Hey, bro," Chloe said. "Lia's not back yet. It's been 3 and a half hours since she left. You worried?"
"Huh? Lia's been out for three and a half hours? Wonder why," Heike muttered.
"I'm not worried," Blake sighed. "Let her have her fun." His phone buzzed. "She just sent me a panoramic from the London Eye. She's fine."
"It also says 'lemon or chocolate'," Makoto said, reading the text.
Blake quickly replied, "Whichever one. You decide," to Lia's text.
"Fin. Ask the guppies. I just want to know. :( " Lia replied.
"Well?" Blake asked of the others.
"Chocolate!" was the collective response.
"Chocolate it is, then," Blake said, and he texted back "Chocolate."
"Alright. I'll be bass soon, mofos" was Lia's final text, ending the conversation.
Blake and Chloe both realized that she was probably getting some sort of sweet for everyone and facepalmed. They both said "That crazy girl" at the same time.
"What?" Rachelle asked.
"It's my birthday and she wanted to celebrate all of the birthdays since we left Burlingame," Blake explained. "I knew she'd do that. Plus, she's probably also thinking of Rachelle and Sarah's birthdays, since those are the 3rd and 6th."
"Huh. She's strange indeed," Vicky replied.
"Do you seriously think she'll buy a cake?" Sarah asked.
Blake nodded. "Probably."
"I know Lia well enough to say that she's buying ingredients," Heike sighed in reply. "She'll make the cake here."
"Without us knowing, probably," Blake added. "We already kinda know, though. That'll ruin her surprise."
"There's probably more where that came from, though." Silvia said.
"She might as well go overboard on birthdays while she's at it," Parker agreed.
"Well, we'll see about that, then," Chloe sighed. "Like I said, Blake, she wants to be loved and appreciated." Chloe walked away and up the stairs to her room on the third floor.
Blake just sighed. "I'm too fucking scared and worried and stressed about everything. Just like always. Is there any way to change that?" He lowered his head in disgust of himself.
"I'm home!" Lia's voice should have yelled, but the front door creaked open quietly. Lia's voice was not heard. Just footsteps on the hardwood floor.
"Quick! Act casual!" Mikayla whispered to the inhabitants of the room. Of course, there was no 'casual' for these kids and they all struck weird poses.
"Hey guys." Lia seemed to be sulking as she walked through the room to the kitchen. "Have fun playing freeze dance." Once she turned the corner, everyone reverted to their original states.
"She's never that upset looking," Penelope stated.
"That how she looked when I said we couldn't have cake today," Blake admitted.
"Oh," said many of the kids.
Blake had the courage to speak up and approach Lia. "Is everything alright?" he nervously asked.
"Eh?" Lia turned around from unpacking her backpack. "Yeah. Don't worry bout me, hun. I'm fine. Go back to playing your games with the others." Blake looked over to the unpacked contents of the bag. A bag of cocoa, some sprinkles, and some things needed to make frosting were visible. A box of Sprite cans were next to the bag as well. Blake also saw a note reading "Only Sprite needed; all other drinks in house."
But Blake didn't say anything. He just smiled almost worriedly and said, "Okay, I will. If you need anything, just let me know." He wanted Lia to work her magic in peace. He told the others, "Let's head to the second-floor viewing room," and he went up the stairs to said room and was followed by the others.
At the time, all the nations were out of the house, so the kids had the entire Kirkland Manor to their own. However, they still felt as if they were under England or Germany's careful watch. They simply turned on the 2p Cam and watched their darker counterparts.
"Blake," Chloe asked about five minutes into the session, "where are your notes?" Blake pointed to the computer, which had both the camera and a Word document open. Chloe just looked on, confused.
Blake then elaborated. "I can tell the computer what to type and where to type it telepathically now. It makes everything a little easier."
"Guys!" Lia called from downstairs about 15 minutes later. "Do you know where Grand-père is?"
Blake jumped out of his chair and ran to the stairs, where he called back, "Out with the rest of the nations. Not sure where. Try texting him." He then sprinted back to the viewing room. At the time, the 2p nations were trying to convince their children to do something productive. They just sat around a table and tried to shoo them away repeatedly before 2p!Germany forced the kids into the gym and, similarly to his niece at a previous meeting, locked them in.
"Onkel! Fick dich!" Adolf Beilschmidt yelled. He banged at the door. "Let me out, you arschloch!"
"Not until you learn how to cooperate," Lutz replied. "We want to attack soon."
"As in when?"
"Less than a month from now."
Back in the 1p world, Blake warned the other kids and sent a telepathic message to his father about the word he had just heard.
"Fuck!" A yell came from downstairs, causing Blake to teleport into the kitchen. "Blake! Where the fuck is the vanilla ice cream? It vanished!"
After a few seconds and a concentrated thought, Blake responded, "Right in front of you now."
"Gracias!" Lia hugged Blake in thanks before Blake teleported back upstairs.
"What the hell is she doing?" Silvia sighed. Blake just shrugged and went back to watching Brad Kirkland try to break the gym door open.
"Open! Godammit!" Brad yelled. He slammed himself at the door.
Oliver Kirkland laughed on the other side of the door. "Do you think you can break the invincibility charm I put on the door, son? You must learn and train first!"
Blake laughed as he watched on. "They are idiots."
"Agreed," Makoto also laughed. "We train for multiple hours most days. Have they trained at all?"
"Don't go further," Blake said and stopped his friend. "They probably train a lot too. Do not underestimate them. They may have trained a lot yesterday. I don't know. There's no way to go back in time with this camera."
"Don't you have the footage saved somewhere? Or were you so proud of your hacking you forgot to do that?" Sarah laughed.
"Fuck you," Blake replied. "There's actually a surveillance treaty that the 1p and 2p nations signed that says that surveillance can only be viewed in the present. Breaking the law is punishable by…let's just say-"
"DEATH!" Vicky yelled.
"Exactly."
"But treaties get broken all the time," Chloe remarked. "Plus, we're in a war."
"No matter. The cameras don't have the capability, and trying to create it will result in death as well."
"Whatever." The children just got back to watching the 2p Cam. At the moment, Courtney was trying to get her brother off of the currently-pinned Lilo, who was scowling at the Brit while Brad was hitting on her.
"Hey baby, want some sugar?" Brad asked.
Blake gagged and turned away. "Tell me when it's over. I need to go throw up." He retreated from the room.
Back in the 2p world, Lilo was trying to get free, but Brad was holding her down and making even more ridiculous, cliché passes at flirting with her. "Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven? 'Cause you're an angel."
"Fuck you," Lilo hissed. "I scraped my knees on the way up from hell."
"I like you. You're feisty."
"Is it over yet?" Blake yelled from the bathroom.
"It'll never be over," Chloe called to her brother and laughed. "Come back here and face the facts." Blake began to walk back into the room.
"If beauty were time, you'd be eternity." Brad smirked.
"Oh God! Not that one!" Blake yelled and rushed out again before restraining himself and walking back. He sat down in the back corner of the room, waiting it out.
"This is hilarious," Parker chuckled.
"Shut up! It hurts! The pain and horror!" Blake cried in pure agony.
"No, he's right. It's funny," Alex smiled. His normally straight face had a large smile plastered across it.
"You all suck!" Blake groaned.
When the kids (both 1p and 2p) all turned around again, Brad was lying on the floor with a huge red mark on his forehead.
"That's gonna leave a mark," Chloe said.
"At least it's not me!" Blake smiled. "For once, I appreciate something a 2p did! Thank you, Lilo!"
"Guys! Come downstairs!" Lia yelled up.
"What is it now?" Alex sighed.
"I'm not sure," Mikayla sighed.
"Something surprising," Chloe said.
"And nice," Blake finished, quoting Chloe.
Lia ran to the bottom of the stairs as the others were at the top. "Hurry up, slowdey pokes!" She smiled and bounced. She quickly ran on to the patio, which was unseen by the others.
"Was that flour in her hair?" Rachelle asked.
"Or she's growing white hair," Sarah laughed. "Either one."
"Let's go find out." Vicky said, leading the others.
When they had arrived on the patio there was a chocolate cake on one of the tables, a stack of wrapped boxes, and assorted ice cream floats on another table.
"Surprise!" Lia cheered. She had flour in her light brown hair and on her red shirt. "What do you think?"
"What is this?" Chloe and Vicky asked.
"This is a little…shocking…" Blake remarked. "Thanks…?"
"It's a little birthday party!" Lia smiled. "We haven't celebrated any of them recently. So, I decided to have one big party for all of us!"
"We haven't done any since we left with the nations," Blake continued, "and we have three coming up in five days, the first of which is today. So I guess it would be appropriate."
"Are those... presents?" Rachelle asked. She examined the boxes. "This one has my name! And Sarah's is here! And that's Blake's! Vicky and Chloe are here too!"
"Is there one for everyone?" Makoto asked.
"Yeah! I hope I got everything right!" Lia chuckled. "Go ahead, open 'em. It would be too hard to do a song, so let's cut to the chase!"
"Okay!" Blake replied. "Ready?" Everyone nodded. "Three! Two! One! GO!" All the kids ripped their boxes open.
"Are they good enough?" Lia nervously inquired.
"A necklace with my city's name on it?" Rachelle asked. "I love it!" The necklace said the word Paris on a bottlecap.
"Me too!" Sarah smiled, putting on her nearly identical necklace, with the word Lyon instead of Paris. Both girls hugged Lia.
Iryna pulled open her box and pulled out a Russian Hockey Jersey from the Sochi Olympics. "This is great!" She slid the jersey on over her shirt and walked around proudly.
Penelope opened up her package next. Inside was a book of Greek mythology. "Good ol' myths. Nice. I knew that would be it. Well, I need to know these, so why not know 'em now?"
Mikayla tore the wrapping off of a book of Māori mythology. "This is cool! Myths from my own heritage! Nice!"
Heike tore the paper off of her package. She opened up the lid to the brown box and found a doll of a black wolf, similar to the character she drew very often. "You're the best cousin, East!" Heike tackled Lia, who was just finishing recovering from Rachelle and Sarah.
"No problem, West!" Lia smiled, laughing at her cousin.
Silvia opened her present to find a box of 100 presharpened colored pencils. "This is great! I needed new pencils!"
Linyang opened up her box to find a t-shirt with a panda on it. She smiled as she saw a little panda hat in the box, too. "All pandas!" She laughed.
Vicky stripped her package of its paper. A box with a new wetsuit was inside. "Now I can go surfing! Yes!"
Parker was next. His package was thin and flimsy like a children's book. "A Rock N' Roll book for electric guitar!" He flipped through the pages. "It's got all the classics!" He did a quick air guitar.
Alex was watching his friends open their gifts and he almost forgot about the one in his lap.
"Come on Alex!" Lia cheerily said.
"Okay," Alex smiled. He opened a box with a 2014 FIFA World Cup German football uniform. He slid the red and black uniform shirt on over his head. "Nice fit!"
Makoto gingerly opened his present, worried he would break something. When he found a book on samurai and the Bushido Code, he smiled. "Dad would want me to read this…"
Like Makoto, Chloe also found a book as her present. Hers was on the British Invasion, a subject she had been fascinated with for years. "This is perfect!" she said as she went over to thank Lia, who had been recovering from multiple embraces and could barely stand.
Blake had waited to open his box for a while. Slowly, as everyone else was around Lia, he opened it and found the one thing he thought he would never get as a present. He just looked on in shock as the bright red box of Mario Kart 8 was in his hands. Finally, Blake cracked a grin that went all the way across his face and maybe back around his neck too. He controlled it to go into the Wii U game shelf in the family room.
"So, Kirkland? What did you think?" Lia asked Blake. "You lovin' it like Mickey D's?" She was standing right behind him.
"McDonald's is for crazy Americans. So, much more," Blake replied. He finally got up and hugged Lia. "Did you read my mind?"
"Nope! I figured you'd want it." Lia smiled and hugged him back. She mumbled something only caught by herself. She pulled away and smiled. "So who wants cake? And ice cream floats?"
A chorus of "I do!" replied. Lia smiled and cut the cake and gave people ice cream floats. varying from root beer to Coke to Mountain Dew. An odd bout of silence followed as people wolfed down their cake and drank their floats. Seconds, thirds, and even fourths (for Parker, duh) followed before people returned to the viewing room upstairs to chat.
Blake stayed behind to help Lia with her cleanup.
"I can see what's happening!"
"Not again!" Blake yelled.
"Don't worry, kid. It was me this time," Lia laughed.
Blake lightly punched Lia in the shoulder. "You're not Instagram. Have a filter."
Lia smiled. "Oh shit! I got flour on your shirt!" She pointed out the white powder on Blake's shirt. She giggled.
"Don't worry. I'll clean it up. There's magic for that."
"So basically-"
"When there's not an app for that, there's magic for that."
"You're the worst," Lia sighed. "But I can never get rid of you. Ever."
"Yeah. We're stuck with each other forever," Blake sighed back.
"How long is forever?"
"Not even God knows that one. We'll see how long it is."
"Would it be enough time for me to win you over?"
"Goddammit!"
"Hahaha! I guess we'll have to wait it out."
The two quickly cleaned up the mess the others (mainly Parker) had left behind. Once they did, Lia went up to the second-floor viewing room. Blake went downstairs to, in his own words, "grab a few things."
"So? What happened out there?" Chloe asked Lia.
"Just being stupid." Lia smiled.
A few minutes later, Blake brought his supplies up. He hooked everything up to the giant TV in the viewing room and turned the power for everything on. About a minute later, Mario Kart 8 was loaded up.
Blake was about to begin the first grand prix when he looked back and saw everyone watching on eagerly. "Who wants to play with me?"
"Me!" A deafening roar of everyone replying followed. Sooner or later, everyone got their chance, as they played long into the night. By the next day, Blake was practically an expert, and so were a few others. It was a nice break from the kids' normal lives.
A/N:
Lilac: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! It may be the last for a while. But saying that, I wanted it to be fun and light-hearted before we get into the real deep shit. Plus, maybe a little omake for you guys too. Not anything related to the chapter, just some characters that I never used in the book. All of these ideas were before Blake came on the team.
Blake: Exactly. As you guys probably know from Chapter 20, Lilac and I will both be away for a chunk of time in the early summer. But between July 5 and August 10, expect a good amount. Also, it was fun to write this chapter because it switches from totally dark to the most lighthearted the book has been since Chapter 10.
Lilac: Yeah! So without further ado, here are my unused characters.
Chapter 21N: Some Concept Characters
Name: Charles Edelstein/Jones
Gender: Male
Personification of: Vienna or New Orleans
Age: 14
Looks: Short and blonde with blue eyes.
Name: Val Héderváry
Gender: Female
Personification of: Budapest
Age: 14
Looks: Short black hair and brown eyes. Wears glasses.
Name: Cody Bonnefoy/Jones
Gender: Male
Personification of: Nice or Memphis
Age: 14
Looks: Buzzed black hair and darkly tanned skin. Brown eyes.
Name: Rin
Gender: Female
Personification of: Osaka
Age: 14
Looks: Black hair and brown eyes. Wears glasses.
Name: Mel Beilschmidt/Bonnefoy
Gender: Male
Personification of: Leipzig or Marseille
Age: 14
Looks: Black hair and brown eyes. Tall.
Lilac: There ya have it! These characters were not scrapped completely and will show up later and make some appearances.
Blake: They probably won't be nations' kids, but there's always a possibility for expansion. And on a related note, *SPOILER ALERT* there will be expansion in Book 2! However, it won't be any of these kids, and it won't be any of these nations either.
Lilac: Ya! I'm excited for that! That'll probably come out around late 2014 or early 2015.
Blake: And there may even be a Book 3, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're school kids too. And soon enough (dare I say it)…HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN! *insert dramatic sound effect*
Lilac: We are growing up so fast. I don't wanna grow up! *flails arms*
Blake: You don't want to stay like this forever. It's good for all of us to get older and mature…unlike the nations.
Prussia: I HEARD THAT, YOU ARSCHLOCH!
Blake: Gil, get out. Your awesomeness is not welcome.
Prussia: And fick dich to you, too! *walks away*
Blake: Let's end this. Peace, Love, Pasta, And Whatever Else I Wanna Say,
-Blake "Brows" Kirkland, signing off for Lilac the Kitsune
Lilac: *bows* Adieu~
*curtains close and audience applauds*
P.S.:
Blake: …We don't have a fucking audience. We're a fucking fanfiction.
Lilac: Screw you. We do. They are our followers.
Blake: I don't know who would take the time to read a fanfic by two depressed teenage maniacs, but thank you to whoever does.
Lilac: Thanks to all 32 of you! Yay!
Blake: Don't forget to ask us some questions!