I am a huge fan of multilingual videos, and after I listened to a few of them, this came to my mind. Please don't ask.
/=+=/
There was something weird going on in the meeting hall when Rizal walked in. First off, they were in a UN building. Secondly, no one was saying anything to each other. As they walked through the hallways, he even noticed that the Italians weren't talking to the others. But what really worried him was that Charice seemed to be fine with it.
What the hell is going on here…?
She quietly sat in a seat in the UN, allowing Rizal to sit next to her. He turned his head and saw that everyone was now glaring at each other, not saying anything about anything at all. He couldn't help but wonder if there was some kind of war that was gonna happen. How could Charice be calm at a time like this…?
Around that time, he looked up and saw that even Ludwig was glaring at Lovino. He was talking calmly to Roderich and Vash, so he knew that there was something good going on. Before he knew it, Alfred and Arthur walked out toward the center and the place went dead silent.
And the silence actually lasted for a few minutes.
"Gentlemen, ladies…the both of us are glad to see that everyone had showed up for today's meeting." Alfred pushed up his glasses. "We have given you the papers for what is happening, but for those of you who haven't gotten the memo, we will fill you in now. Arthur?"
Rizal looked around in confusion. He was never the one who had no clue what was going on. It was always Charice, and she would always express it openly. He had no idea what to ask anyone in this situation, as any question can start off a war. The Englishman turned on the projector as the camera flashed to reveal…
Tangled?
"As you already know, my people have created this movie a few months ago and had won a few awards. Of course, that means that it will be scheduled for international releases." Alfred grinned. "So now it's your turn to win the international audiences. The last movie Princess and the Frog was won by Poland in a neck-to-neck battle with Lithuania and Russia, so let's hope we can get this margin a little farther away next time!"
"The song that you will be submitting for this contest is I See the Light, the song that was nominated for an Academy Award in America's national awards ceremony. The minimum time you have is at least three months for dubbing, so let's hope we see it soon." Arthur straightened himself. "If there are any questions that you wish to ask, please ask before you leave. That will be all for the briefing."
The whole room rose from their seats and immediately started with their pep talks and their arguments, making Rizal even more confused. He turned his head and saw Charice laughing at everyone as a fight looked like it was going to start up.
"Um…ate? What just happened?"
"Eh? Oh, this is just a shot to get national pride." She laughed. "I like to call them The Disney Wars, though it's a little inaccurate cause it can go with anything really."
"…I'm now confused."
"Rizal Pacquiao, confused? Now that's something you don't hear every day!" He heard Alfred laugh. "What's there to be confused about?"
"Well, first of all, how did these things even start? Me and Charice usually just watch the English dubs."
"Well, the others usually dub my movies to their certain languages." Alfred stated. "After a while, it became a bit of an argument of national pride and after that, well, everyone wanted to get the best dub!"
"And you're not in the war?"
"Cause we all know that the English versions are the best versions!"
Suuuuuuure they are. "So now what? Who're the judges in this…war thing?"
"Me, Artie here…and why not? You two can be judges!"
"Hah?" Rizal's face went red.
"Sweet! I want to hear all these songs now!" Charice clapped her hands together. "Come on, Rizal! We can't wait until everyone's done!"
"Sure…OK…why not…" He sighed and looked up. "Are we even going to get any international work done or something?"
"During these wars, no one really talks to each other." Arthur sighed. "Unless there's an attack or treaties that have to be written up. Even then, it's pure business. No one really makes small talk unless you're not participating in the contest."
"But have you seen the tension in the room?" Alfred laughed. "I haven't seen anything this tense since Hercules!"
"Really?" Charice looked up. "I say the worst tension was during Prince of Egypt! People were literally singing over each other!"
"No, it was definitely around the time Tarzan came around." Arthur rubbed his chin. "They were all tugging my English-born singer around for cheating points."
"Didn't the French version win there?" Charice asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Alfred sighed. "Man, you should've seen the look on Lovino's face when he learned that he didn't win! It sent you flying across the room!"
"Hey, it was awesome!" She squeaked.
"…why were you flying across the room?" Rizal asked.
"Well, DUH! Because angry and flustered tsunderes are freakin' HOT!"
It was about that time that Arthur took his cue to leave the continent.
/=+=/
The big day finally came, and everyone was sitting anxiously in their seats for the playbacks to be revealed. They don't reveal them for the chance of any bribery to be started. But Rizal had his own issues, for he was sitting (again) next to Ludwig and his sister. He decided to risk it.
"So…how are you, Ludwig?"
"Eh? I-I've been doing all right." He answered softly, almost like he was tired. "We've been working on this for a while."
"I can assume that you did." Rizal stated. "…well, Charice barely told me what all this was about, so I'm not really sure what really is going on."
"You didn't participate?"
"Well, my people speak English, so we don't really need a dubbed version." He stated again, trying to sound professional. "But apparently we all get to vote for our favorites or something like that."
"Yeah, everyone votes for their favorite versions! The rule is that you can vote for as many versions as you want, but you can't vote for your own!" Charice leaned forward into the conversation. "But I already know that you have Rizal's vote, Doitsu-ki!"
"C-Charice!" He stuttered, extremely embarrassed.
"W-why's that?" The German asked, embarrassed as well.
"Cause my brother just loves the German culture! Um…past all the Nazis and Hitler stuff, but you know what I mean!" She chirped and clapped her hands together. "I mean, he'd probably marry you on the spot if you were available and cater to your every need!"
The both of them blushed extremely. Ludwig blushed because this was something about marriage, a topic that he's not really good in as of yet. Rizal blushed because…well, he's Rizal. If you didn't get it now, you'll never get it in the future…kinda like his sister at this point.
"All right, everyone! All the copies have been gathered together!" Alfred lifted his finger in the air. "Your iPods on the table have been uploaded with all the versions, so listen to each one and check off which ones you like! We have all week to decide, and once we get all the ones that are good, then we go to the finals!"
"Yay…" Rizal sighed.
/=+=/
It was in the middle of the night, around eight or nine, that Charice went for a walk.
She had been voting for quite a few versions of the song (European French, Korean and Swedish definitely got her vote while the Russian is still straddling her choice), but the European Spanish really hit her. Maybe it was because the singer sounded like Antonio? For some reason, she liked songs that had voices that sounded like her nation friends. She had no idea why. Her only guess is that it runs her extremely crazy imagination.
As she closed her eyes and sank into the park bench, she could barely see the lights of New York erupt behind her eyelids as she pressed the "Play" button again. Her eyes opened and she was no longer in New York City: she was now walking on glass above water, the surroundings nothing more than floating lamps. The song was barely playing behind her as she saw lamps move out of the way and Antonio walked out of the lights with that smile on his face.
Were they singing with each other? Well, she was singing, he was singing, it was all at the same time, so…they must be singing with each other. Half way through, she realized something: there was a strange sparkle in his eye. That sparkle scared her for a minute, cause that was a sparkle she only saw him give the Italian brothers. It made her heart flip a couple times.
The lamps were getting closer and closer, forcing them to walk closer to each other until they could literally touch each other's fingertips. She risked looking into his eyes and caught him mutter something in Spanish that she couldn't understand before they finally hugged each other. For the first time, she thought she felt a sort of fatherly love coming from him…if this warm feeling in her was fatherly…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
"Ahahaha! You'll catch a cold if you sleep out here, Charice!"
"GAAAAAAAAAAH!"
She jumped backward and saw an oblivious Antonio standing over her, wearing a dark blue jacket and tan pants as well as that freakishly happy grin on his face. It made her heart flip just a little bit…but it was nothing that big, right? Totally.
"Don't. Do. That!" She panicked. "This is America, you know!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He said with a laugh (which means that he totally didn't care). "I just thought you were cold!"
"A nice shake would suffice!" She stated.
"Really, Charice!" He laughed, unbuttoning his jacket. "You need a jacket? You'll get cold!"
The blue on the jacket made her cringe and back up from him as he continued to push on. After a few seconds, his face was open in realization and he backed up with a sad smile, rebuttoning his jacket.
"Ah, that's right. I'm sorry, querida. I seem to have forgotten about your fears…"
"I-It's fine…" She sighed. "There are some things you really can't let go of."
"And you have the ability to let go of more than the rest of us combined." Antonio smiled. "That just means that you have suffered from our mistakes."
"I guess." She answered.
"Hah…oh, speaking of the past, isn't that your brother?"
She looked up to see Rizal walk toward them, a rather confused look on his face that tensed at Antonio's presence. He smiled and waved lightly toward her, making her blush as she watched him vanish into the hectic New York night. Rizal stood next to her.
"It's not like you to sleep in the middle of the night on a park bench." He stated.
"Yeah…it's not." She said. "I was just wondering on which other version to vote for."
"By sleeping out here?" Rizal sighed. "Speaking of which…what the hell was Spain doing here?"
"Um…for lack of better word…I think he was hitting on me?"
She was too flustered to realize that she had not think that sentence out, or realize that Rizal was now calling for the Spaniard's blood the moment he heard those words. Guess being in a panicked state does that to people.
/=+=/
Aw, come on! America was raised by England and we have the JoKir pairing, Germany was raised by Prussia and we have Germancest, Canada was raised by France (originally) and we have FraCan fanfiction, and who can forget Spamano? Why not some Sparice?
…
OK, for some salvation points, Charice isn't 'technically' in love with him. She's extremely romantic and ended up daydreaming about the scenery itself (which you have to admit is romantic) and somehow Antonio got into the picture. So it's not really her fault.
By the way, European Spanish version of "I See the Light" is awesome. The male part is sung by a sixteen year old! Remember the spaces…
http:/ www. youtube. com/ watch?v= bHsCsyAdu74&feature= BFa&list= PLD8CD1FE7 386DE01C& index= 8
For story purposes, the Antonio sparkle happened between 2:55 – 2:59…the most awesome part of the song.
