For the next few days, whenever Alfred or Natalya needed someone to talk to or were simply bored, they would call each other and talk. It didn't really matter that there was a large time zone difference between them, they would just end up talking until they feel asleep.
With Alfred providing a nice distraction away from all the stress of her election, Natalya was able to blast through all the work in no time. This gave her some downtime before she would have to start planning for the world meeting, which would be taking place in her country for once.
In that time she tidied up her room some more, putting all the bows and ribbons in her dresser. Due to the sheer number of them, her dresses and larger items of clothing were transferred to the closet, as well as the onesie which was shoved in the deepest, darkest spot where no one would find it.
After that was done she wasn't sure what to do, her sister did a really good job of cleaning her room while she was gone, even the Russia shrine was free of dust.
Looking down at the Russia shrine, she realized that it wasn't appropriate to have anymore given her current feelings.
So she carefully removed all of the belongings and trinkets she collected and took them to Russia's room. They were rightfully his and she had no use for them anymore.
Luckily her brother was gone doing some make-up work for the meetings he missed, so there wasn't some awkward moment of her holding all the belongings she stole.
Before she left the room she noticed Russia's printer sitting on his desk. It was one of those high tech printers that had color, and there was even a separate machine for laminating papers. That suddenly gave her an idea as she pulled out her phone and opened her photos.
Selecting all the ones she took of Alfred, she downloaded all of them onto the printer, printed them out on small postcard-sized paper, then laminated them. Just to make sure there was no trace of this, she deleted any history of it off the printer.
Taking the pictures back to her room, she began flipping through them. The first was of Alfred smiling at the camera, after he pestered her to admit she wanted a picture. She didn't, which seemed stupid to her now. How could she not want a picture of his beautiful smile?
The next one was the one of him on top of a mountain, a dark silhouette against the bright orange glow of the rising sun. Standing tall with his classic hero pose, he looked extravagant, like an elegant god.
After that, she flipped to the picture of her, Alfred, and the micronations. They really did look like a family, maybe she was too harsh on those who mistook them as such.
There were a few more she took randomly, such as one where Alfred was giving her a double thumbs up while in front of a bison. Even though they were leaving he couldn't go without getting at least one picture with a bison.
Then of course there is the one of him cuddling the tiny pine marten. They both looked so cute it was unbearable to look at for too long.
Her personal favorite was one where they took a detour to Chicago for the "most awesome burger in the entire world!" According to Alfred.
The look of pure delight on his face when he took that first bite was way too perfect, she couldn't not take a picture. And better yet, he noticed her the second she took the picture. This resulted in her catching him in this awkward, confused, eyes wide open stare with his cheeks still puffed out and full of burger, holding the giant sloppy burger with the large bite taken out of it.
Usually something like that would gross her out, but that look of pure innocence and wonder on his face made her forget about all that. It truly was the perfect picture, and the fact she had felt the same way even before realizing her feelings for him is proof of that.
After going through the photos for a little longer, she held them close while walking over to the empty shine, which she bent over and carried to her closet. Opening the closet door fully, she crawled inside and dragged the shrine to the same corner as the cat onesie.
For now it sat slumped against the wall, as she was too lazy to properly hide that now, but this shrine was a higher priority and needed to be hidden right away.
Putting her hand against the wall, she pushed lightly against it, revealing a large hide panel that slowly came out from the rest of the wall.
She took that panel off and set it aside as she went through the next step of security, which was a keypad with a specific password. It was originally "Big Brother Russia," but that was obvious and would need to be changed.
With the password typed in she opened the next door, which showed a final door with three different locks. Two were keyholes, and the other was a number lock.
She put the numbers in, December 30th, Russia's birthday. Then for the two keyholes she pulled out two keys from nowhere, put them in the holes, and turned them at the same time.
After a beep and a green light signified it was unlocked, she opened the door to the compartment inside.
It had a single item, a book she made about how to win Russia's heart and take down any threats that stood in her way.
She picked it up, looked at it for a moment, then chucked it behind her head. She'll get rid of that later.
Placing the shrine in the secret compartment, she momentarily left to grab the suitcase full of souvenirs. Once she had that next to her she began to place all the objects on the shrine.
For a long while she kept making minor adjustments, wanting the shrine to be perfect. Putting her favorite picture in the middle, she worked off of that and put the rest of the pictures in a ring around it. The orchid was placed very delicately in front of said picture, as her favorite gift overall it needed to be front and center.
She then pulled out the little laminated package from before, which when taken into the light revealed a small shimmering golden strand of hair. It was Alfred's hair, a piece of Nantucket.
She fondly rubbed the strand through the lamination, making it wiggle as if it was dancing against her touch. It was infinitely entertaining.
It was also extremely difficult to obtain. One time when she was cuddling Alfred in his sleep, she was playing with Nantucket to investigate its effect on him, when she got curious about what would happen if a hair were to be removed.
Turns out it is so uncomfortable, if not painful, that Alfred was shocked awake and threw her off the bed. Luckily he appeared to be too dazed to realize she was on his floor, but it was way too close.
She put the hair in its place on her shrine and sat back to observe her work. She now had her Alfred shrine, and it was beautiful. But no one can ever find out.
After covering it with the onesie she closed the first door, then removed the number lock and tinkered with it to change the password to Alfred's birthday. On the next door, she made sure to pick a long password. "Natalya Jones and Alfred Arlovskaya" became her choice.
'Those have a nice ring to it,' she thought gleefully while closing the next door and putting the panel back in place.
Just as she left the closet, suddenly Ukraine bolted into her room with an excited look on her face. "Sestra, we are having the guests. Now come, they will be beyond happiness to see you."
Natalya grumbled as her sister dragged her out of the room and to the front of the house, her grumbling turning into frustrated groaning when seeing it was the Baltics and Poland lagging off behind.
Lithuania's dreary expression brightened up a millionfold as he saw her. He could feel his whole world light up once again, he was beyond ecstatic to have her back.
The other Baltics gave small smiles and waves, or in Poland's case, barely acknowledged her existence. Lithuania walked over and grinned down at her. "It is great to be seeing you back Ms. Belarus. It is the most lonely here without you."
She only gave an annoyed roll of her eyes in response and turned to Ukraine. "Sestra can I return to my room now?"
"But they are just arriving. Can you not be hanging out for at least a little bit?" Ukraine asked sadly.
Natalya grumbled more and sat at a table, not able to cause her sister to be sad so early after coming back.
Just as she sat down Lithuania followed her over and stood next to her. 'He's like a damn stray dog,' she thought angrily.
"Had you been doing anything fun while you were out?" He wondered. Natalya glared at him, hoping to scare him away. He didn't budge but he was at least getting nervous.
"That's none of your damn business. Go the hell away and quit bothering me," she threatened as she looked away from him.
Lithuania only laughed awkwardly and took a few steps back. "Very well Ms. Belarus."
Both of them turned their heads as they heard Poland give an exaggerated sigh. "You know Liet, America once taught me a term that defines you perfectly. You're like, super down bad. Ooh, or a simp. Yeah you're a simp."
Lithuania frowned at his friend. What do they gain from embarrassing him in front of Natalya?
Not wanting to be embarrassed any further, he decided to move away from her fully and sit near the Baltics.
Worst wingman ever.
Once the Detective Trio had made it back to Hungary's house, they spared a few days to relax and get over the initial shock of what they witnessed.
Finally when they had calmed down enough, they reconvened to discuss this new information.
The three entered the living room slowly, lacking the energy they had in their previous talks.
"Prussia you may go first," Hungary announced as she waved him toward the bulletin board. He nodded and walked up to the board, then attached a piece of paper to it.
"So a few days ago I received a text from America talking about his meeting in Russia. Apparently he called Russia's boss "bro" and somehow got avay vith it..." he began.
"I arso got the same message," Japan added. Prussia nodded and continued. "Zhis confirms zhat America vas absent from his home vhen Russia came to take Belarus, vhich is strange in itself as he should've been at zhe meeting as vell."
"Zhat also means America trusted Belarus enough to be around Sealand vithout his supervision," Hungary concluded.
"Maybe. He might have also used Molossia as a vay to protect Sealand vhile he vas gone," Prussia argued. "Molossia? You mean zhe brown-haired boy?" Hungary asked.
"Ja, he's America's micronation. And vhile he is a micronation, he can still hold his own," Prussia explained. "And from vhat ve heard he might have vent toe to toe vith Russia, also meaning zhey veren't velcome. Zhis explains vhy he only arrived after America left."
"So what does this arr mean? How does Berarus tie everything together?" Japan wondered.
Prussia shrugged, as he really didn't have an answer. "Zhere's a great chance zhis whole murder plot is entirely unrelated to the lingerie situation. But if not... zhen ve vill have to make Belarus a prime suspect."
All three nations shuddered at the prospect of Belarus and America together. They can't imagine what America would be going through. Either he's so oblivious and idiotic that he doesn't see the danger he's in, or he's trapped in a really bad situation. Neither outcome put a good feeling in the detectives' stomachs.
"Let's ignore zhat for now. Vhat does zhis mean about zhe murder plot?" Hungary changed subjects.
Prussia wheeled out a large whiteboard and began drawing on it, making four stick figures in the murder room. One had a scarf and a smile for Russia, another with glasses and a bigger smile for America, a third with a bow and frown for Belarus, and a fourth with a question mark on their face.
"So vhat ve already know is zhat Belarus murdered somevone, vith Russia present in zhe room. From vhat I can assume zhis vas happening vhile America vas vith me. Vhen sings get veird is vhen he left.
Vhat ve originally sought vas zhat Russia left vith Belarus, America arrived, saw zhe body, broke zhe knife, and canceled his plans to take the victim vith him. As ve know now zhat makes no sense.
For one, even if he took zhe victim vith him and sent them home at one point, he vould never have zhem and Belarus togezher. Second, America must've walked in on Belarus in zhe room, meaning Russia had left her alone. Vhat I'm getting from zhis is zhat America didn't take zhe body or destroy zhe knife, Russia did."
The other two raised their eyebrows, this was beginning to grow intriguing. Prussia continued. "Like seorized before, Russia might have been upset vith Belarus for killing zhe victim, depending on who zhey vere."
He began drawing on the board showing the Belarus stick figure stabbing the victim with an angry Russia behind them and a sad America outside the room. His drawing skills are impeccable.
"So basically, Belarus kills zhe victim, Russia gets mad, breaks her knife, and takes zhe victim vith him. America sees her in zhe room alone and is either forced by her to take her in, or feels pity for her and takes her in to be heroic."
Hungary stood up and walked up to the white board. "But Belarus hates America. Even if she and Russia vere on bad terms she vould never accept his help."
"It happened before in zhe 90s. It could've happened again," Prussia argued. "Because she had no choice, it vas a diplomatic decision. If given zhe chance to be alone she vould take it in a heartbeat," Hungary argued back.
"Unless she had a really bad argument vith Russia," Prussia noted. "If China is zhe victim like you claim, then Russia vould have lost his shit."
"I just don't see it," Hungary said with a shake of her head. She then grabbed the marker from Prussia, wiped off the stick figures from the board, and drew out her own theory. "Vhile China could still definitely be a plausible victim, I don't see a big argument happening between Russia and Belarus. Zhey seemed to be on good terms during zhe meetings. Instead, how about zhis..."
She drew a slightly more detailed Belarus sitting on a couch with Russia outside the room carrying the victim. Then America was drawn inside the room with an angry face.
"Vhat I sink is zhat Russia and Belarus vere eizer vorking togezher or Belarus killed China. America vitnessed zhe ending vhere Russia took zhe body avay, so he entered zhe room and confronted Belarus. She tried to attack him, so he destroyed zhe knife zhen separated her from Russia as punishment and for safety reasons. Zhen vhen America had to leave for zhe meeting in Russia, he left zhis Molossia boy to protect Sealand from her vhile guarding her from Russia. After Russia beat him in a fight he let Belarus go."
"No, vay. If he vas given a task by America he vouldn't have just let Belarus go," Prussia argued as he took the marker back. "Obviously I am right."
"Sure you are, and I'm a boy," Hungary said with a roll of her eyes as she grabbed the marker and tried tugging it back.
"You totally looked like vone. Also, I am right because I'm awesome and you're not!" Prussia boasted as he started tugging too.
"As awesome as you can be vhen you can't even tell the difference between boys and girls," Hungary shot back while straining to yank the marker from his grip. It was quickly turning into a tug of war.
"Could I give my opinion?" Japan asked as he stood up and held his hand out for the marker. The two ignored him and kept trying to get it for themselves. Japan gave an annoyed hmph as he reached out for it, getting himself wrapped up in the madness.
At hearing the loud sound of something banging around and tumbling, Austria had to pause from his piano playing to investigate.
Slowly he neared the source of the noise, before opening the door to the living room and peeking in. "Hungary, is everysing alr-..."
He froze as he came face to face with the three nations sprawled out on the floor, all with their hands clutched tightly around a marker. They all stopped their fighting and looked up at him silently.
He stared for another few seconds, before moving his head behind the door and very slowly closing it. Standing in a daze for a moment longer, he shook his head and went back to his piano.
Late during the night before the first meeting, Natalya put her plan to get close to Alfred into action.
By tracking the nations once they got off their flights, she was able to find which hotel they were staying at. For some reason everyone had permanently made Germany in charge of seating arrangements, so she had to sneak into his room while he slept and change it herself.
Usually she had one of the Baltics sit next to her, so she decided to swap them with Alfred, meaning they would be sitting together for hours.
She smiled down at the new and improved seating chart, until she heard the screechy voice of Prussia coming down the hall. Quickly she crept to the nearest window, opened it, and climbed out just as Prussia entered the room.
"The hell is the window doing open?" He wondered as a cool breeze trailed in and made him shiver. As he started moving to close it, he stopped at the sight of movement. Now very on edge, he tiptoed closer and closer to the window, before darting forward and sticking his head out with a loud "aha!"
The noise startled Germany awake as he sprung to his feet and ran to his brother. "Vhat's wrong?! Vhy are you yelling?"
Prussia stared down at the ground far below in bewilderment. There wasn't a single thing in sight, just the dark, empty night. "Um... it's nosing. I sought I saw somesing, probably just a bird or vhatever."
Germany sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. "Just please be quiet and go to bed. I'm not dealing vith you vhen you're sleep deprived."
Prussia nodded as he brought his head back in and shut the window. "You're right. Being tired is totally unawesome."
A floor below them, Natalya fell face first through a window in a desperate attempt to hide. She got to her feet and shut the window as she explored the room. Walking past the bedroom, she had to do a double take as she backed up and peered inside.
On one of the beds was Alfred, quietly snoring and sprawled out as much as possible. Maybe she could get in an extra night of snuggling.
As she attempted to step into the room, she paused and looked over at the other bed. In that one was Canada, sleeping completely silent and tucked into himself. After extensively forcing herself to remember Alfred's brother, Natalya could now see him as clear as day.
While nestling up in Alfred's strong arms was near impossible to turn down, it was just too much of a risk with another person in the room.
With a longing look she slowly left the room and returned to her own room for the night. She'll have plenty of time to be with him tomorrow.
As the next day came, a combination of countries being slow, Germany getting distracted by Italy, Canada staying back to talk to France, and Natalya having to leave to grab the papers for her introductory speech, it led to a nightmare scenario where the first two nations to enter the room were Alfred and Russia. And not just any Russia, a Russia that had finally gotten out of his depressed funk.
The two entered the room simultaneously, and went to their respective seats on opposite sides of the room, or that's what Alfred thought until he saw his seat was now labeled 'Latvia.'
Confused at the sudden change, he began walking around the table trying to find his own seat, attracting the attention of Russia. Eventually he was able to find it, but looking over he became filled with dread as he saw there was only one seat separating his from Russia's.
Russia raised an eyebrow as Alfred slowly pulled out the chair and slumped down into it, resting his head on his arm and looking away with an irritated scowl.
After letting the initial surprise set in, Russia smiled creepily at the back of Alfred's head. "So you are finally wanting to become one, da?"
Alfred turned and glared at Russia from the corner of his eye. "Keep thinking that Russki. Someone switched my seat, that's all."
Russia's grin widened as he let out a childish chuckle. "Are you certain? From what my government had been telling me, you kept asking them about me during the meetings. Definitely is sounding like a desperate nation to me."
The two smiled sinisterly at each other. 'Fine, if that's how you want to play,' Alfred thought. It's been a while since his last mental battle with the Russian.
"It was kind of an important meeting to be at. It took place in your country and yet you were gone for, what was it? Oh right... family matters," he finished with a knowing smirk.
"Sometimes it is good to be spending time with the family, not that you could understand that," Russia retorted. That one cut exceptionally deep, but now the ball was in Alfred's court.
He calmly leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "Don't act all high and mighty. Come on, be honest, which sister did you push away this time?"
Russia tightly balled up his fists under the table as a little bit of his aura seeped out, though his smile remained. "I pushed away no sister, it was quite the delightful time. But it is personal and you are having no reason to poke nose in it."
America smiled coldly and laid an arm on the table to lean closer. "Well you see, it stopped being personal when you came near my capital unannounced and attacked my micronation. So I'll ask you this once Russki, what were you doing in my country?"
Russia turned his head fully and glared down at the younger nation. He should've known that little micronation would've gone crying to mommy. "I am not needing to tell you anything."
Alfred cocked his head to the side and matched Russia's threatening stare. "Oh, but I think you do. Just think about it, you entered my country without permission and harmed an American personification. . . Huh, a foreign nation invading another country and assaulting an area of land? Definitely sounds like an act of war to me."
Russia hardened his gaze and gritted his teeth as Alfred stood tall above him, looking down at him with a condescending gaze. "So unless you want to start World War Three because of "family matters" as you claim, then I suggest you acknowledge your fuck up and answer the question."
Knowing he was forced into a corner, Russia sighed inwardly and agreed to answer. "My little sestra and I had parted the ways a while back, but I was not knowing where she had gone. After some of the searching I found out she was in Virginia with two micronations and an alien. I had not been wishing to fight, but your little Molossian kept getting in my way, so much as to be lying about her being there. While annoyingly persistent, I can at least be admitting he does show some potential."
Alfred nodded at that, still very proud of his micronation for what they managed to do. His recollecting was put to a stop as Russia spoke up again. "But that had been leaving me with the question. I discovered that Molossia's home was all the way in the desert, but for the reason I do not know he was near your capital looking after my sestra and Sealand. I know for the fact that if I am not allowed near the capital then my sestra definitely is not. So that got me wondering..."
He then rose from his seat as well and loomed over Alfred with suspicious, narrowed eyes. His smile curving up unnaturally. "Out of all the countries in world, why was my little sestra in your country with your micronation?"
Alfred took a step closer so the two were face to face, then looked up at the taller nation with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "I think I should be asking you that."
For a split second Russia's eyes widened in surprise before being snapped back to threatening, ice cold slits. "What are you implying?"
"I think you know exactly what I'm implying," Alfred responded in a near whisper, just so Russia would have to get nice and close. He was enjoying this way too much.
Russia couldn't keep his aura back anymore, quickly filling the room with the dense, dark purple air. As both nations continued their staredown, Russia slowly reached for his pipe while Alfred lowered a hand to the holster hiding in his pant leg.
They most likely would've whipped out their weapons on each other if not interrupted by a terrified cry. At the same time they both turned their heads to the meeting room doors, seeing a trembling Italy standing in the doorway as he began to cry.
Then loud footsteps could be heard speeding up the hall until Germany suddenly bursted into the room. "ITALY VHAT'S WR- oh Gott verdammt," he sighed when he spotted the two nations having another Cold War moment.
As if Italy had opened the floodgates, suddenly all the nations began pouring into the room, only to become immediately sketched out when spotting the two as well.
Alfred and Russia turned back to each other and stared angrily for a second longer, before both began to laugh. They just laughed and laughed, in their own boomingly loud or creepy way. It only terrified the rest of the world more.
With closed eyes and a wide smile Russia patted Alfred on the shoulder. "I had almost forgotten how much I am hating you."
Alfred's eyes, which had been previously closed from laughing, shot open and peered over at the hand on his shoulder, the same hand that had slapped Natalya. Alfred closed his eyes again and gripped Russia's wrist as hard as possible as he lifted it off. "Do not touch me," he seethed through clenched teeth.
Finally Natalya had entered the room, holding her large stack of papers and wanting nothing more than to sit down with her brother and Alfred.
She was stopped, however, when she bumped into another nation's back. Looking up in annoyance, she saw that there was a decently sized crowd gathered in front of the door. Wondering what they were all staring at she tried looking over them, but sadly the taller nations prevented that, so instead she began pushing through them while yelling various curses.
When she was finally through she froze as well. Across the room it looked like Russia and Alfred were about to fight. Only a few other nations had the courage to sit down, but it was only the ones that sat at the opposite end of the table.
Snapping out of her stunned state, she quickly ran to the podium and ordered the meeting to begin. That worked in getting the rest of the nations back on track. "America go sit down," Germany ordered.
Alfred turned to him and nodded, then took two steps back from Russia before plopping himself down in the chair. All the other nations looked on in bewilderment, even Germany.
"America quit fooling around and get over here," England ordered. Alfred looked back at England with an innocent expression. "Would love to Iggy, but this is where my chair is."
"Germany explain," England said as he turned to the German. Germany looked down at his seating chart in frustration. "I'm not sure, but America's and Latvia's seats have been svitched for zhe veek."
"Latvia go switch with America," England stated. Germany slammed his fist into the table as America stood up. "Nein! If I put zhem in zhis order zhen it vas for a reason. I just... don't remember vhat zhat vas."
"Change it, I refuse to sit next to that disgusting American pig," Natalya spoke up, glaring down at Germany. Alfred turned and looked at her in confusion. She looked back at him, her glare instantly vanishing. She really didn't want to do that, but she still has to keep up her hating America persona. It certain helped in throwing off the Detective Trio. They had no clue what to think anymore.
'Well that was weird. I haven't heard an insult like that from her in a while. Is staying at Russia's really that bad?' Alfred wondered. Looking over at the other end of the table, he noticed Canada offering to switch seats, but waved it off. He can handle himself.
Looking back at Natalya, he finally responded. "Look, I don't like this any more than you do, but what Germany says goes. You just gotta deal with it."
Natalya glared at him as her brother was watching, but inside she sighed in relief. 'Oh thank God, he's playing along.'
'Now she's glaring at me... is she brainwashed or something?' Alfred thought, he really hoped she didn't reset to hating him again.
With everyone situated and no longer arguing about seating arrangements, Natalya was able to get through her introduction with little interruption.
Finally she was able to get to her seat, in which she immediately latched a hand onto Russia's coat sleeve. For a moment the usual terror began to rise within him, but remembering it was just Natalya and she wasn't trying to marry him, he slowly calmed down and let her continue.
Natalya then turned to Alfred, who was having a quiet conversation with Ukraine, about the road trip no doubt. The happy look on both of their faces made her extremely jealous. How could she forget, one of the biggest threats to winning over Alfred was her own sister. Their personalities are both so cheerful and their countries have far better relations, Ukraine could probably steal him away with extreme ease.
Slowly Natalya reached out toward him, but froze as she heard Germany speak. "America please stop talking vhile ozhers are presenting."
Alfred gave him a quiet apology and promised to Ukraine to finish the talk later. Natalya didn't like that one bit and extended her other hand to grab his bomber jacket sleeve.
At feeling something touching his forearm, he raised an eyebrow and looked down, noticing Natalya holding onto him. 'What the hell is happening? First she's acting all mad at me only to turn around and start clinging onto me?'
He moved his eyes up to her face, seeing her peaceful expression focused on the presenter. Obviously she has no qualms about showing him affection when in private... in private. Alfred nearly facepalmed once he finally figured it out. She was just acting hostile as a cover.
With a small laugh he beamed down at her. Even if they weren't together, this Romeo and Juliet level of secrecy behind their friendship was enchanting.
He raised his eyes from her face to right above her head, seeing Russia do the same thing at the same time. Now facing each other, their momentary happiness vanished as they glared into each other's eyes with vicious intent.
Natalya grinned in nervous delight at feeling the clashing auras sandwiching her. While the idea of the them getting into a fight was still horrifying, she had to admit that the thrill of having the two she loves most this protective of her was wonderful.
With how lonely she's been for so long, she planned on taking full advantage and basking in all the attention. And that's exactly what she did... for about four days.
Her enjoyment was put to a grinding halt after her people received the results for their extremely controversial presidential election. Over night her entire country had erupted into protest, with thousands upon thousands flooding the streets to speak out.
As government officials themselves, the nations were under threat of being harmed, so until further notice the meetings were canceled and all of them were to stay in the government building for the next day at least.
From one of the break room windows, Natalya stared out at the swarms of people chanting and marching through the streets of Minsk, flying their red and white flag proudly. She couldn't help but feel this is a side effect of falling in love with Alfred of all nations.
With her distracted, she didn't notice someone approaching her until she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. "Man it's getting pretty crazy out there," Alfred nearly shouted, making her wince in pain.
Looking around to make sure no one was there to catch them, she allowed the arm to stay on her. "Da, it is."
The two both turned and looked out at the protestors for a bit, before Alfred turned back to her with a curious look. "So which side do you support?"
She snapped her head to the side and gasped in exasperation. "How can you even ask that?!" Alfred laughed nervously while removing his hand from her shoulder to plug up the ear she shouted in.
Natalya's anger disappeared as she became full of regret. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell it's just... these protests are really giving me a headache. . . I mean, how can you even expect me to choose between my boss and my people?"
"Well from what I've been hearing he really shouldn't be your boss anymore. But I get it, it's hard to decide," Alfred said as he gave her a supportive pat on the back.
She gave a strained laugh and leaned her head against him. "Way to be blunt." Alfred chuckled and met her eyes. "You're one to talk." Their eye contact remained unbroken for an extremely awkward amount of time.
Both realized what they were doing at the same time and separated from each other, looking away with red faces and longing feelings.
Alfred scratched his head as he nervously turned to her. "So... besides the headache, how do you feel about this whole situation?"
Natalya's own nervousness evaporated under her rage. "My country's in turmoil, my boss' leadership is being called into question, and my people are leaving for the two most pathetic bastards I know. Besides that I'm doing great."
Alfred chuckled some more and walked closer to the window. "Hey, at least they have some cool flags. It's like a reverse Austria or something."
"You say that like it's a good thing," she joked. Alfred tilted his head. "I mean, yeah his is kinda boring but... wait does that one have a knight on it? Yo that's badass!" He praised while smushing his face against the glass to get a closer look.
Hearing such a simple compliment as that filled Natalya's chest with an intense warmth. He's just too innocent for this world.
"Da, those are my old flag, and that knight is the Pahonia, my coat of arms," she explained as she stepped up next to him. "For as bad as it was being a part of that cat shit bastard's commonwealth, the coat of arms was probably the only interesting thing to come out of it."
"Cooool," he said in a sort of trance, which Natalya found funny. She looked out to the fields of red and white, then up to a red and green flag hanging from a government building across the street. "But I still prefer my current flag. It's very unique, especially the embroidery pattern on its side, which still includes the colors of the Pahonia."
"Then why don't you just combine them? I have like... 27 official flags. Here, I'll do it for you," he offered as he ran off to find some colored markers or something, which was easier said than done in a government building.
About ten minutes later he ran in with a piece of paper that had his new and improved Belarusian flag. There were horizontal lines of alternating red and white all the way up and down the flag, then in the upper left corner there was a green square with the unique embroidery pattern with the coat of arms in the middle.
Natalya took the paper from his hands and inspected it. Her cheeks began burning when she noticed that she had not only combined the Belarusian flags, but his own as well.
"Alfred you just turned it into your flag," she told him. Alfred took the paper back and looked at it with a blank expression. "Well yeah, my flag is awesome."
Before she could respond, Alfred interrupted her. "Look, it's so awesome I bet all those protesters down there will love it."
Alarmed, Natalya reached out and dragged him back before he could run off. "What are you doing? It could be dangerous."
"Since when have you ever been one to be afraid?" He asked as he slipped out from her grip. "Besides, I'll be fine. I love democracy. Now make sure to watch me from the window." And with that he had sped out of the door and ran down to the streets below.
About twenty minutes later some wandering nations ended up in the same break room as her, mostly the Nordics and Peter, whom Alfred had returned to Finland on the trip over.
Suddenly a pissed off England stormed into the room and looked around. "Have any of you seen America?!"
Everyone but Natalya turned and looked at him. "Nope, but if I did I definitely wouldn't be hanging out with these losers," Denmark joked. Norway instinctively reached out to grab his tie, only to find it not there.
Denmark turned and gave him a cocky smirk. "Ha, I didn't wear a tie today." But that cockiness was short-lived as he saw Norway beginning to conjure up something. Probably a troll.
"We haven't seen anything British jerk. What do you even want with him?" Peter asked. England turned and glared at him, his big brows arching down with it. "You stay out of this! I am only here because the bugger ran off and I'm certain he is currently doing something foolish."
Seeing they had no clue where Alfred was, England turned to leave, only to spot something in the corner of his eye. Looking out the nearby window, he caught sight of Alfred running around in the crowd talking to the protesters and showing them a piece of paper.
"What is that bloody git doing?" He thought out loud. He grumbled in anger and turned to leave. "That stupid pain in my arse!"
He froze on the spot as he felt four orbs burning holes into the back of his head. Spinning around, he saw Natalya and Finland both giving him dark looks, with Finland covering Peter's ears.
Quickly he left the room, no longer able to bear the murderous gazes. After he was gone the two turned to each other, with Finland being the first to snap out of his anger. "Let me guess, a headache?"
Natalya nodded, at least they were partly right. She then brought her attention back to the window, just in time to catch Alfred waving up at her with a massive, victorious smile. He was so happy over what was most likely a single person out of hundreds of thousands that liked his drawing.
Natalya smiled and discreetly waved back. 'I'm going to marry this boy if it's the last thing I do.'