Several weeks passed since the two families had met. The camp gradually expanded as the Russians collected materials and more importantly, began trading with the Aleutian natives of the regions, though that was still kept very limited per request of the twins. Something about sickness, they worried it would hurt the natives.
Vitus has been busy exploring, even taking a few trips on the ship to sail up and down the coast mapping out the region and looking at possible locations for a colony. While the camp was fine its location wouldn't do for a permanent settlement, they needed somewhere with a natural port. From previous trips along the coast they were able to find a sizable island a few miles out, it might be the perfect spot.
A fur trade and a possible new colony? The Empress needs to hear about this as soon as possible.
While all of that was going on, Ukraine kept her word on visiting the boys with her siblings, so now they were spending plenty of time getting to know each other and their histories, though of course only what they were comfortable sharing. Canada and Alfred were particularly interested in all of the other nations Russia and Ukraine would talk about, especially since they were told that there was another pair of twins.
Natalya was also trying her best to remain docile around the twins and especially Alfred, even if every fiber of her being was telling her to tackle him and beat him up until he cries. Not knowing how to properly be polite, she did the only thing she knew how and that was be completely silent and avoid him at all costs.
Though that was growing more and more difficult as the twins seemed to be increasingly interested in her. Obviously as another kid they found her infinitely more fascinating than the adults, and unfortunately her silence around them only made them more curious.
Luckily her mere presence alone seemed like enough for Canada to realize she's dangerous and shouldn't be messed with. Alfred on the other hand, persisted... endlessly. Every single day he would try to talk to her, butchering her name and calling her "Belo" "Bela" or simply just "Bel." And he would try to talk to her despite speaking in English, which surely he knew she didn't understand.
He followed her around just like that Lithuanian, it was enraging. But she could bear it for now, knowing that she'll soon be back in Europe in which case all she has to do is wait out the clock until Russia saves her from Lithuania and Poland.
However, knowing that her entire dream of being rescued by her brother all hinges on this buffoon and his brother is unsettling.
"Hey Bel, whatcha doing?!" Alfred asked as he strolled into the living room. Speak of the devil, why can't she just have a minute alone?
Walking over to her he saw she was laying on her stomach on the floor while holding a pencil. There was a sheet of rag paper she had doodled on, but it seems she has long since moved onto covering the floor.
"What are you drawing?" Alfred asked as he turned his head to see her doodles. On the ground there was a man with long, darkened hair, who was getting beat up by some guy in a scarf. Based on the big nose he is guessing Russia.
Natalya ignored him and moved onto another drawing. Alfred sat down and put his head on his knees as he watched her draw, faking a pout that could barely conceal his boundless joy. "Ty ne veselyy."
At hearing the Russian, albeit horribly accented in Alfred's weird version of British, she stopped drawing and looked up at him. "Did you just speak... Russian?"
Alfred's eyes sparkled as she spoke, the first time since whatever she yelled at him the first day they met. "Yup, I've been picking up on a lot of it."
"Well it sounds terrible. Quit embarrassing every Slav that has ever existed," she stated bluntly as she went back to doodling a picture, which was now her beating up Alfred instead of Lithuania and Russia.
For a moment Alfred left to grab something to draw with, but quickly came back empty-handed. "Hey, could we share that?"
"Nyet," she responded immediately. Not expecting to be shot down so fast, Alfred just sat on the floor again to watch her draw.
She drew countless pictures, each more dark than the last. Whoever this guy is with the dark hair she obviously doesn't like. "So who is this guy?" Alfred asked as he pointed at them.
"Nobody. He's a loser," she spat while roughly scratching out the dark-haired face with the pencil. Alfred didn't stayed silent as he didn't want to pry into her personal life... ok he really wanted to, but if there was one thing he learned from England it was that he should act like a gentleman.
What that entailed he wasn't really sure of but not upsetting a girl was probably part of it. Well then again France taught Canada that and England called France a frog and the farthest thing from a gentleman, so should he be rude then..? No that's stupid.
He decided to just be quiet, even if it was a little boring. Staring down at his feet he picked pick up the piece of paper and looked at the drawings. As the first ones they were more innocent and what you'd expect a kid to draw, like little animals and a house with stick figure versions of her and her family in front of it.
Looking over all of them, he flipped the paper over to another drawing on the back. It was a crudely drawn guy holding a sword and shield while riding on the back of a horse. "Is this a knight?"
"It's my coat of arms," she elaborated as she scribbled a fat baby with a familiar cowlick. Alfred lit up as he looked in amazement. "Like a flag? You have your own flag?! That's so cool!"
Natalya was unimpressed with the compliment and stared up at him with a flat expression. "You don't have one? I created mine with Lithuania, nekompetentnyy pridurok nichego ne mozhet sdelat' sam."
Alfred scratched his head with an awkward laugh, not fully able to understand what that second part was, so he decided to just answer the question. "Well no, it's only ever Artie's flag." She rolled her eyes and looked back to her drawing. "I don't know who that is."
"Oh, right. I meant England," he corrected. "But I'm thinking of what my flag should be. I want it to be colorful and unique, and maybe have a bald eagle on it."
She looked back up at him deadpanned. "Seriously? I made mine a knight, because they're courageous, chivalrous, and strong. You want to make yours have some stupid featherless bird?"
"They have feathers, and they aren't stupid, they're plenty courageous. And unlike your knight my bald eagle can fly," he argued with a proud smile, not having developed any sort of cockiness yet.
"My knight would destroy your little bird. Mine has a sword and armor, and probably a bow and arrows as well," she argued back.
Alfred crossed his arms and shook his head defiantly. "Nuh-uh. My eagle has really sharp talons, a beak, and is faster. Your knight doesn't have a face covering, so the eagle will claw his face off."
"Like they could ever get close enough. The horse alone could step on that thing like a bug," she stated, getting up onto her knees and leaning closer to him with an unrefined glare.
It did nothing to deter him as he continued. "A bald eagle can pick up a rock, fly over and drop it on the horse, then do the same to the knight."
Natalya scoffed. "Like it would ever get the chance, and even if it could lift a rock the knight has a shield."
"Yeah? Well, uh... bald eagles are super massive and their feathers are too tough for swords," Alfred conjured up as he grabbed the pencil off the floor and started drawing a picture of the knight and horse with a giant bird looming over them.
"Idiot you drew it wrong, give me that," she said as she snatched the pencil from him and made a new one, but now the knight was super buff.
"That's not how you drew it earlier, give that back!" Alfred demanded as he reached out for the pencil, but Natalya kept it away while pushing on his face. "Nyet! You're gonna do something fake again, no way birds get that big."
The two struggled against each other as one held the pencil and the other reached out to get it.
"Give it!"
"Nyet!"
"My house my pencil!"
"I don't care!"
Reaching a little bit farther, Alfred was able to touch the pencil with a finger, which he then used a little bit of super strength to flick out of her grip and send across the room.
Immediately he was on his feet and bolting toward the pencil, only for Natalya to catch his foot and pull it causing him to fall over. Before he could get up again she was crawling over him, so he did his best to roll her off.
They both got away from each other and ran over to the pencil, grabbing it at the same time and holding it between each other. "My eagle is totally better!"
"Your eagle is nothing compared to my knight!" She fought back as the two pulled each other around eventually resulting in Natalya tugging the both of them into a couch, knocking themselves and the furniture over with a loud smack.
"Eagle!"
"Knight!"
"Eagle!!"
"Knight!!!"
They rolled on the ground straining hard to yank the pencil from the other. With four small hands all clutching the pencil they started to squeeze hard, both adding some super strength.
Passing a glare to each other, they looked back up to the pencil and squeezed even harder, only for the pencil to explode into a million pieces of wood and graphite.
They stared in shocked awe for a moment, before turning back to each other with furious sneers.
"That was my pencil!" Alfred yelled as he got up in her face. She shoved him off and started yelling something in Russian he couldn't understand yet. He wasn't sure what it was but he knew it was an insult.
The two started screaming back and forth and even throwing some pieces of broken pencil. Wood pieces turned to pillows, and pillows turned to Natalya herself as she dived forward and tackled Alfred, beginning a wrestling match between the two.
The two rolled around for a bit until they were in front of the living room door, causing them to pause and look up just as Russia walked into the doorway. "What is going on here?"
The two instantly stopped fighting and got out from the other's grip, staring at Russia with similar looks of alarm and worry. Natalya was regretful as she went against her brother and upset Alfred, possibly jeopardizing his entire plan to get her back. And Alfred was a little scared as he fought and possibly hurt Russia's little sister.
Russia opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word in the two children began shouting and gesticulating at themselves and each other. That was until Alfred stopped and randomly began to bawl his eyes out.
That confused the other two as this overwhelmingly happy kid was now crying like there was no tomorrow.
Right after the crying began Ukraine entered the room behind Russia, and Canada soon after. Looking down at the crying boy, she turned to Russia with suspicious eyes. "Brother what did you do?"
Russia turned and looked at her in offense. "Me? I had not the thing to do with this. Him and our sestra were doing the wrestling."
"Sestra is this true?" Ukraine asked in Russian as he turned to Natalya, a serious look in her eyes. Natalya glared at the ground and mumbled under her breath. "He started it."
Ukraine turned to Alfred and picked him up, shushing him and soothingly rubbing his back as she set his head on top of her shoulder. "You poor thing. Here, your brother and myself had made the cookies. We can be eating them while you are telling me what happened, how is that sounding?"
Alfred let out a feeble "ok" as he started to relax in the older nation's embrace. Ukraine turned back to Natalya and extended her hand. "You too, we are having the lot to discuss."
Natalya grumbled and took her sister's hand in her own as she was dragged off to the kitchen. Canada still stood in the doorway, wondering whether he should join or not.
Russia looked down at him and smiled apologetically. "I am the most sorry for my little sestra, she is not what you would say... the people person."
Canada looked over at the tall nation while covering the bottom half of his face with Kumajiro. "That's ok, eh. I'm sorry my brother was fighting with her. He was probably getting overexcited about something again."
Russia laughed quietly and smiled with his eyes closed and his tongue poking out. "You say sorry funny."
"Huh?" Canada gasped as his face turned red. Alfred loved pointing his accent out. There's nothing wrong with his accent, what's wrong with Alfred's accent? He doesn't sound like England at all.
"I'm going to go check on the others," he blurted out as he ran away from the living room, grumpy and embarrassed and wanting to beat up Alfred himself.
A few minutes later Ukraine returned to the living room with Natalya, not wanting her near Alfred without supervision. Turning to Russia Ukraine began to explain what she learned.
"It seems little Fredka was crying because he was afraid you were mad at him for fighting sestra. And they were fighting in the first place because they got in an argument over who would win in a fight between an eagle or a knight."
"It's the knight! They have weapons!" Natalya interrupted. Ukraine just sighed and continued. "Also she wouldn't share her pencil with him, but she claims it's because he was bothering her and she didn't want him there."
Russia looked down at his little sister, who turned away in shame. Walking over he knelt down in front of her, just like the last time. "Sestra."
Natalya flinched at her brother's stern voice, her worry returning as she awaited the inevitable scolding.
"What happened? I know you have been trying to be nice," he pointed out. Natalya crossed her arms and shifted on her feet uncomfortably. "I know, but he just won't leave me alone. He keeps trying to talk and hang out even though I don't want him to."
"Just try to get to know him a little," he requested. "He's a nice kid." Natalya didn't believe that but just kept quiet.
"Now let's go to the kitchen. I'm excited to see these cookies that our older sestra made," Russia announced with a grin, while placing a hand on Natalya's back to guide her to the kitchen.
But as they entered the room they witnessed as Alfred sat at the table in front of a large empty pan and in the middle of raising the last cookie to his mouth.
Natalya ran forward and snatched the cookie out of his hand, then ran back over to Russia and held her hands up to him. "Here you go big brother."
Russia put his hands on his hips and frowned. "That was the opposite of nice. Apologize." Natalya turned slightly to look back at Alfred, who was staring between his hand and the two in confusion. "Nyet, he's a pig and almost ate all of the cookies before you could try one."
Russia simply sighed to himself, this was gonna take a lot of work. "I am sorry for that. My sestra had been wanting to give me the cookie. I will be returning it when she is letting go."
"It's fine, eh. I tried to tell him not to eat them all but he wouldn't listen," Canada explained while passing a disapproving look to his brother.
Alfred just rubbed the back of his head and looked to Russia with a guilty look. "Sorry they're just really good. You can have it."
That brought Russia's attention back to Natalya, who was still holding the cookie. He reached down and took it from her hands, then took a bite out of it. It was really good just like Alfred said, and had little hard pieces of maple in it.
Afterwords Ukraine walked in, looking panicked as she ran over to the empty pan. "What happened to all the cookies?!"
Scanning her eyes around the room, all the nations looked away as Russia slowly chewed on something. Not even Natalya was ratting the culprit out, fearing they would upset Russia more.
From behind her Ukraine heard a quiet voice whisper, "it was Al." Alfred gasped in betrayal and stood up on his chair as he slammed his hands on the table. "Mattie why did you say that?!"
"Don't make fun of my accent, you hoser," he muttered under his breath.
A few days pass with all the nations spending basically all their time together, the Slavics now starting to spend the night and even having a couple slumber parties with the boys.
While Russia and Ukraine just keep growing closer and closer with the two kids, Natalya hasn't budged in the slightest. So Russia has been trying his hardest to get Natalya to warm up, but so far he's been horribly unsuccessful, her defenses are just too strong.
Thawing her out would not work, she would just become distant and harden herself once again, so all that left for him to do was to break the ice entirely. And luckily he just got the perfect opportunity.
He recently got the notice that in a week or two they would be returning for Russia. So in that time he was to discuss with the land's personification, in this case Canada, about the chance of a future colony.
So when he finally decided to have the talk with Canada, he put his plan for Natalya into action. The discussion had to take place in the supervision of Russian authority so it could be recorded and authorized, so they would have to return to the camp.
Also, as part of his empire and the one Canada easily likes the most, Ukraine would be joining him as well, leaving Natalya all alone. Ukraine insisted that they just bring her and Alfred along to the camp, but Alfred insisted that he could manage himself in the cabin, as he and Canada have been doing it forever. Also he still didn't fully trust the settlers, even if he was friends with their personification.
Natalya didn't like it and wanted to come along, but Russia was able to convince both her and Ukraine to have her stay. He was taking a major risk but felt that some alone time might be what she needs. Worse case scenario she walks alone back to camp.
"Ok sestra, we're going to the meeting with little Matvey now, so be good," he stated while staring down at her, with Alfred by her side. Turning his attention to them Russia continued. "And please don't get into any trouble. I'm trusting you to keep my sestra safe."
Alfred nodded and gave Russia a thumbs up. "You can count on me." Russia smiled proudly, Alfred's Russian has been improving greatly. Turning back to Natalya he spoke once again. "We'll be back by tonight, see you soon."
And with that they turned and left the house, leaving Natalya alone in a nightmare scenario. Immediately after they were gone she tried to leave the house but Alfred stopped her by grabbing her wrist, fully locking her in place like he was some immovable object. "You cant go, Russia said so."
"I don't care, I don't want to be here," she argued as she finally yanked herself from his grip. Alfred frowned and just as she was about to run away he yelled, "I'll tattle."
Natalya froze on the spot. She may be a little too serious for a kid her age, but even she knew about tattling, and based on the tone of Alfred's voice he was serious. This wasn't a threat to be taken lightly.
After a long tense moment of silence, she slowly began to walk back to the house. She couldn't risk this fool making her look evil in front of her brother.
Following him into the house she watched as he lifted up a large axe with ease and set it on his shoulder, despite it being about the entire length of his body. Then he wandered off to his room and came back with a bow. "Now come on, we're heading out on an adventure!"
As he walked past her and out of the door, she grumbled to herself as she came to the realization that he will be bothering the entire rest of the day until her siblings get home.
Pretty soon the two had vanished into the woods, with the house no longer in sight and nothing but giant pine trees around them. "Where are we even going?" She finally asked after her annoyance had reached its limit.
"I have to run some errands. We're low on firewood, and unless you want pancakes again I need to hunt," Alfred explained with a massive grin like this was his favorite hobby.
'Like a kid like him knows how to hunt, he probably is always reliant on his brother and that stupid England. Stupid little kid,' she thought. Well actually how old are they anyway? She never figured that out, he could be old but just really short.
"How old are you anyway? I doubt you and your brother are two toddlers living in the woods alone."
Alfred grinned and marched proudly. "Nope, me and Mattie are five, but we're turning six soon." Natalya raised an eyebrow in surprise. He's not a toddler but he might as well be.
"How old are you?" Alfred wondered, finally turning to look back at her. Her raised eyebrows dropped into a scowl as she looked away from him. "You don't need to know that."
"Aw come on, I wanna know!" He whined, making his eyes all big and even fake sniffing. She turned her head and frowned at him. "I know that's fake, that won't work on me!"
Alfred only increased the intensity, even forcing out a few tears. Natalya looked down at the ground to avoid staring into those bright blue pools, but knowing he was doing it regardless was slowly crushing her.
Eventually she realized that her age wasn't a secret worth bearing this for any longer, so she finally gave up. "Fine, whatever, I'm seven."
Instantly Alfred's eyes were all sparkles. "Really?! Your brother said we were close but I didn't know we were that close."
"It's not a big deal, I'm still decades and probably a century or two older than you are," she pointed out. He didn't seem to notice or care because he just kept talking about how cool it all was.
"Hey, what's your name?" He asked, making Natalya angry all over again. No matter how strong his eyes were she would not answer that. "It's nothing. I'm Belorussia."
Alfred puffed his cheeks out in frustration. Why was she so stubborn? "Well my name is Alfred, though you probably already knew that. Since you're a kid just like me you can call me Alfie."
"I'll call you America," she stated. "That is your name is it not?" Alfred rolled his eyes. "Well yeah, but that's so formal. I don't know maybe I'll call myself that when I become a country."
"You're not one?" She asked. Alfred tilted his head a little. "No. I rule under Artie's flag, remember?"
"I guess I forgot about it when you started spouting nonsense about eagles," she said in a barely concealed hiss.
"You're just mad eagles are better," he whispered to himself so she wouldn't hear him and flip out. "So what about you? You said you shared your flag with some guy called Lithuania, is he like your friend or something? Is it like a union of nations thing? Artie told me when that happens then the nations get married."
Natalya visibly shuddered as she heard the word marriage. "Absolutely not! I hate him, he took me from big brother, that... that... catshit bastard!!!"
Alfred loudly gasped and dropped the axe as he covered his mouth. Natalya huffed loudly as anger boiled within her. How can he even think she would marry that horrible person?!
After the initial shock had worn off Alfred removed his hands from his mouth and looked at her with a terrified look like she just committed murder. "You just said a swear word, that's bad you can't say that."
Without regret she crossed her arms and hmphed as she lifted her head high. "Well he deserves it, you have no idea what it's like living with him and his annoying Polish friend."
He put a finger on his chin to think for a moment. It was true he had no idea what it's like being a European nation or being part of a shared country, but England is from Europe and he lives with him, so it can't be that different right?
Taking his finger off his chin he reached down and picked up the axe to put back on his shoulder. Well, maybe not but I am a colony under Artie, it's kinda similar."
Fixing her eyes on him she slowly began to see his point. They both technically are ruled by other countries, even if Lithuania claims they "share the land." Maybe her and Alfred aren't that different after all... well ok they are but they seem to be growing up under similar circumstances, with her obviously getting the short end of the stick when it comes to ruling nations.
After analyzing him for a little longer she began to walk again, so he followed right beside her as he started to skip again. She looked on in envy, why was he able to be so happy knowing he was being controlled?
"Your England's colony, so why isn't he dragging you around everywhere with him? Wouldn't keeping you away from other countries be the smartest move?"
Alfred stopped skipping and looked at her puzzled. "He has a lot of work to do back home, plus he's always out gaining more colonies."
"Must be nice," she muttered under her breath. He knitted his eyebrows together, but decided to sit on his question as he saw she wasn't done talking. "That idiot Lithuania never leaves me alone, and his dumb bosses think that I'm gonna run away with the first nation I meet. They're not entirely wrong but still, I don't get any time away from them."
"Well why is that so bad? I almost never get to see Mattie, and Artie is gone all the time. I was gonna ask you how you think being alone is nice," he said, honestly confused how she could pass up an opportunity to make more friends.
"Because I never get any time to myself. I'm just stuck in some dumb palace with bodyguards and that Lithuanian always keeping me company. I don't want them there they suck! It's been like this everyday for over 500 years!"
That revelation made Alfred nearly choke on his spit. "500 years?! That's most of my life!" Natalya frowned immensely, it was a good portion of her life as well.
"Even if by some miracle they did become my friend, I still wouldn't want to be around them for that long." Alfred couldn't help but nod in agreement. "I've only known Artie for around 200 years, but I guess I would get a little bored if he was with me constantly for that long. But then again it would still be worse than if he was gone for that long."
"I wish Lithuania was gone for that long," she stated seriously. "But I don't have to worry about that anymore, because soon big brother is going to defeat him and get me back for good."
Alfred could practically feel the excitement emitting from her. It seemed like the only time she isn't so cold is when she's talking about Russia. "You really love your brother, huh?"
Natalya gave a short nod with a determined look. "Da, when he saves me from Lithuania and I get older I'm going to marry him. He's so nice and strong and will always protect me, especially away from those two annoying freaks!"
That made Alfred laugh to himself quietly. "Back when I was in Boston I would pass by some of the schools there, and there'd always be some little kids that talked about how they wanted to marry their dads or older brothers. I remember there was one girl that started crying because she couldn't marry her dad since him and her mom were married."
She waved him off and put her hands on her hips. "They're just some dumb kids, I'm serious big brother and I are going to get married and become one, then no one can separate us."
He still doubted it but decided to still give a warning. "You sure? Artie once told me about the Hapsburgs. It's not good to be with your siblings."
"I don't care what that pianist's bosses are up to, I'm going to become one with my brother and that's final," she argued. As Alfred opened his mouth to argue back she suddenly interrupted him. "Why are we even walking so far? Just chop down a random tree. There's a billion right here."
"They're pine trees, they make crappy firewood, plus they're massive, they're way better to use for kindling. I'm looking for something smaller like a young oak or a maple tree, though Mattie would kill me if I did that. Luckily I know the perfect place, now come on."
He then started running through the woods, with Natalya following close behind as they jumped over gullies and dodged rocks, until they finally entered a small clearing with a pile of stumps in one end and tiny saplings speckled throughout.
Alfred walked over to a tree and analyzed it, then when he determined it was the right size he climbed up a branch and delicately cut off a sapling from it. Once he was back down, he set the sapling on the ground then took the axe in both hands, swinging it hard into the tree.
In only two strong swings the tree was nearly completely cut all the way through, and based on the creaking he heard one more should do it. Just as he raised his axe to swing again Natalya walked up from behind him. "Are you sure you don't want something smaller? How do you expect to get all that wood home?"
Alfred lowered the axe and leaned on the end of the handle. "What do you mean?" As they began discussing how heavy the tree was, they failed to notice the loud cracking coming from behind them.
The tree's weakened trunk began splintering and breaking until it finally snapped and began falling forward, right toward the two children.
With Natalya being the one facing Alfred and the tree, she was the first to notice it coming right at them. "Idiot watch out!" She yelled as she dived forward and tackled Alfred.
He didn't have time to question it as a second later a heavy thud caused them to bounce a few inches off the ground. The two slowly got up to their feet as Natalya brushed the dirt off her clothes and glared at him. "You moron you almost got crushed!"
Alfred rubbed his sore back and looked down at the fallen tree with a stone-faced expression. "Yeah I guess so." Turning to her he gave a massive grin and a thumbs up. "Thanks for the lucky save!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever," she grumbled. She didn't need his empty compliments, she can get all she could ever want from her brother.
After taking about five seconds to calm down, Alfred walked to the stump, grabbing and tugging it out of the ground before throwing it off to the side. Then after flattening out the dirt he took the sapling and placed it in the center, covering the bottom with dirt then pouring some water from a canteen on it.
"What are you doing?" Natalya wondered as she watched him. Just to make sure he didn't get crushed by any more falling trees or anything. "The natives here don't like messing with nature, so I make sure to give back anything I take."
Once he was done he picked up the axe once more, walked over to the tree, and put an arm under it. With some difficulty he raised it up and set it on his shoulder while wrapping his arm as much as he could around it.
"Alright let's go," he said as he began to walk further in the woods. Natalya just stood still and stared emotionless.
Seeing she wasn't following him he turned around and looked at her. "What, you've never seen a kid pick up a tree before?"
Seeing he was teasing her she crossed her arms and frowned. "My brother is still stronger than you." Expecting him to feel defeated, she was surprised to find him sparkling in wonder. "Really?! Then he must be super duper-uper strong!"
"Da, he's really strong! So strong that you could never hope to be on his level," she continued as she started to walk toward him. "He needs to show me sometime then," Alfred responded as he walked too.
For a long while they talked about super strength and other random things, mostly just about Russia on Natalya's end. That was until they began coming up on a river.
Alfred set the tree and axe down and rubbed his shoulder. "You wanna help me fish?" He wondered as he removed the bow from his back.
"Nyet," she refused as she began playing with some rocks on the river's edge. He just shrugged and put an arrow in the bow, tugging back the string and pointing it at the water as he waited.
For around a minute he sat still staring at the water, until finally taking the shot as he saw a dark object moving upstream.
Reaching forward he grabbed the back of the arrow and lifted it up, showing a decently sized herring. A few more of those and they'll have a nice dinner.
Taking the arrow out he put the fish in a pouch he was carrying then reloaded the bow to fish again.
For a while he repeated the task, catching a few more herrings and a couple small trout at the cost of a few missed arrows that broke off of the rocky river bed. He needed to keep at least a few arrows for some rabbits or other animals so he decided to only fish one more time.
For a very long time he tried to find a larger fish, but he couldn't do anything when Natalya kept skipping rocks on the water and scaring the fish away. "Can you stop that?"
"It's not my fault you're boring. Don't you have enough fish?" She asked as she skipped another rock.
"Well yeah but I want a big one," he argued as he scanned the water once again, seeing nothing.
Looking back at her he saw she wasn't going to stop, so he eventually gave up and decided to go upstream from her. Fairly quickly he found exactly what he was looking for, so he pulled back the string on the bow and fired at a large fish.
As it shot into the water the fish began swimming away as fast as possible, the arrow still sticking out of it. With it out of his range of fire he put the bow on his back and began chasing after it, but it was quickly getting away.
In the distance Natalya could hear Alfred running toward her, yelling "crap crap crap crap crap!" As she looked up from the rocks she noticed a fish going by with an arrow sticking out of the water.
At first she considered letting it go just to spite Alfred, but she was already holding a rock so instead she threw it and sniped the fish in the face, stunning it just long enough for Alfred to come up and get the jump on it.
For a few moments him and the fish disappeared under the water, but then he popped up about ten feet away while holding a giant salmon over his head.
Getting out of the water he set the fish to the side and took the arrow out of it. "Alright we can continue," he said as he started wringing out his clothes.
She got up and walked back over to the tree as she waited for him. Getting himself as dry as possible he took the fish in one arm and walked over to the tree as well, stabbing the axe into it and hoisting the whole thing up onto his other arm.
Rather than walking back like she hoped, Alfred starting walking even farther, passing over the river and walking for about another hour until they arrived at a large area of grassland.
"Can we just go back to the house? We have enough food," she complained. Alfred paused to talk for a moment so he could let his right arm rest. "But we need extra to preserve. You'd be surprised how fast me and Mattie go through food."
"It's Mattie and I, and with how much of a pig you are I'm not surprised at all," she spat. All she's done walk around in the wilderness and follow this tiny child around. She's finally reached her breaking point. "You know what? Whatever go do your hunting, I'll find my own way back."
And so without a chance to respond Alfred was left alone as Natalya began heading back the way they came. "Hey, wait!" He called out as he dropped the tree and fish and ran forward toward her.
She rolled her eyes and turned to him. "What?" Alfred froze and simply stared for a second. The way she was looking at him made him feel cold inside, like he was some cornered animal, and it was at that moment that Alfred realized that she was actually scary. Maybe she just got the glare down correctly, or her terrifying aura had become present, but he didn't like it, it wasn't like how she was before.
Her eyes have always been cold and dark, hardened and intense toward anyone she doesn't like. But there were always little flashes of passion for the things she did, like Russia or sharp things. Now they were just dead, completely void of life or emotion.
Alfred forced down the lump in his throat and started to speak. "W-We could do something fun... if you want."
She exhaled sharply as she turned away to start walking again. "Like doing anything with you would be anything but miserable."
"B-But wouldn't it be better than getting lost or being at the house with nothing to do?" He tried to reason. "I know a waterfall near here we could hang out at, you can jump all the way from the top into the lake below it. It's fun!"
For a moment she stopped, but then walked forward once more. "I'll take my chances." For the first time in a while Alfred's mouth fell into a full frown. Running back over to the tree and fish he lifted them up and began following Natalya back, but as he got close she spun around and shoved him to the ground.
"Leave me alone!" She screamed, her face even darker than before. Alfred was struck solid as he sat on the ground, staring up into that face of pure hatred. He couldn't even ask if she would at least take the fish back with her before she was completely gone.
He sat for a little longer, putting his knees to his chest and looking at the ground dejectedly. It wasn't even worth it tattling on her if she was just going to hate him. And now he was going to probably make Russia and Ukraine hate him too for not being there to keep Natalya safe.
Sighing to himself he got up again and grabbed his belongings, following after where Natalya had gone. Hopefully he'll find something to hunt on the way back.
Pretty soon lunch came around, but he was the one carrying it in his pouch which was now soaked with water. So Natalya had nothing to eat and Alfred was left with an apple, nuts, and some soggy bread. He could stop and cook one of the fish, or risk it and eat it raw, but then Natalya would get farther away than she already is.
For a while longer he kept walking, growing more and more worried as he had yet to see her. He didn't realize how far they walked, hopefully she wasn't lost.
As he took another step he heard twigs breaking in the distance, so he stopped and listened for it again. A few seconds later more breaking was heard, so Alfred pinpointed where the sound was coming from and watched as two large deer emerged from behind some trees.
Gently setting the fish and tree down, he lowered down behind it then reached for the bow again and counted his arrows. Exactly two, just perfect. Putting an arrow in the bow, he slowly raised up from behind the tree and took aim at his targets.
Somewhere else in the woods Natalya was stomping around, her anger not going away anytime soon. That anger was unfortunately clouding her from the reality that she was completely lost. She stayed on the correct path for a long time, but eventually she got turned around and was now just walking in giant circles.
It felt like hours passed in endless woods, probably because it was. Natalya finally got fed up and began making markings in the ground to track her location.
About half an hour later she thought she was getting somewhere, only to walk up on the first area she marked. "Seriously?!"
Trying a different tactic, she climbed a nearby tree to the top and looked around for the house. She couldn't see it, but really far in the distance there was a small trail of smoke rising into the air. Obviously it was from the camp near the beach, where Russia and Ukraine were. That meant the house was somewhere close, and if she still couldn't find it then she could just make her way over to the camp.
As she climbed back down the tree she suddenly stopped as she heard a loud growl. Looking down at the ground below she watched as a large brown bear trudging by. 'Hopefully America runs into it and gets eaten,' she thought.
Maybe she would wait up here for a while just to make sure the bear was gone.
Alfred whistled to himself as he dragged two deer carcasses behind him, the salmon now wrapped around his neck like a scarf.
It was now starting to become dark, and he was well on his way to getting home, but he got distracted as he noticed an X mark dug into the ground. No doubt Natalya made it, meaning she really was lost.
That certainly didn't make him feel any better. Seeing another X in the distance, he began following them, but all it did was result in him circling back to the beginning.
He started to panic as he ran around again, just to come up with nothing. He ran around a few more times actually, but he still hadn't found her.
When that wasn't working be ran in other directions, going for what felt like forever only to come up empty-handed.
'The markings could've been made hours ago, so she might already be home, right?' He thought, trying to calm his nerves a little.
Hoping that was the case, he began running toward the direction of the house, only to collide into something causing salmon, wood, and deer to fly up into the air.
Colors swirled in Alfred's vision as pain thumped in his forehead. As the rainbow and static left his vision he found himself with his face smashed into Natalya's, head, nose, lips and all.
Alfred got off of her as quick as he could and looked over her with flailing arms, checking for any injuries but also insanely relieved to see her again. "Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere? Oh thank God I thought you were lost!"
Natalya slowly sat up while rubbing her throbbing head, but as she tried to collect her bearings she was abruptly wrapped up in a crushing hug.
"What... are you... d-doing?!" She wheezed out, feeling like her lungs were about to burst. Alfred let go of her and sat back a little bit with an apologetic chuckle. "Sorry I was just getting worried, you were gone for hours."
She nearly gagged as she stood up away from him and brushed her clothes clean. "You're such an annoying weirdo, all I'm doing is walking to the house, I'm not an idiot. The only thing I have to worry about hurting me is you, running out of the woods with an entire tree over your shoulder and swinging around dead animals."
Alfred awkwardly scratched the back of the head. "Yeah sorry about that." Getting to his feet he went and retrieved all his stuff, then returned to Natalya as they began walking again.
"Did you get lost?" He wondered while wrapping the salmon around his neck. "I saw the X's you made."
Natalya bit the inside of her cheek in embarrassment. "Of course not, idiot! Moron! ...Dunce!"
"It's fine we're getting close," he reassured, which she just scoffed at, she doesn't need him comforting her.
His reassurance quickly died as he stopped walking, turning around in circles with a confused expression.
"What's wrong..? Did you get lost?" She mocked. Alfred frowned and looked away. "No! I just... I've never been outside with it this dark before."
Natalya gave a sadistic giggle, startling Alfred slightly. "Admit it, you're just as lost as I... wasn't because I haven't gotten lost. . . Honestly how have you survived out here for this long?"
"I've been doing this for centuries, I just lost my way for a second," he stated confidently as he began walking in a different direction. Natalya walked behind him with an evil smirk still present, making fun of him the whole way as they walked.
To his horror they ended up right back at the X in the dirt. In a few more hours all the food he was carrying would go bad and now it was starting rain. "How did you not get eaten by that bear? They must be even bigger idiot than you," Natalya teased while stifling another giggle.
Alfred raised an eyebrow as a wave of alarm washed over him. "Bear? What bear?" His voice wavered as he grew extremely nervous.
On cue a hot breath blew on his back, making him shiver and freeze in place. Behind him the massive brown bear sniffed at him, finding the salmon draped over his neck and shoulders especially enticing.
Both nations stood still, Alfred trying his best not to have a panic attack as Natalya watched the bear cautiously, while reaching into her little dress for something. Inside she had a small hidden knife, which she was planning to use on Alfred if Russia hadn't told her the stakes of being cruel to him.
As the bear neared Alfred's neck and opened its jaws to snatch up the fish, he bit his lip as hard as possible as to not freak out, but a sudden flash of lightening and a massive boom of thunder sent him dashing forward in terror.
That aggravated the bear, causing it to slash forward at him. Abandoning the fish and deer, he jumped away from its claws and tried running away, but the larger and much faster bear quickly caught up and knocked him to the ground.
It put its paws on his back to keep him in place, then it began moving down to bite them, only to be stopped as Natalya threw her knife, impaling it right above the eye.
It let out a pained whimper as it staggered back away from Alfred, bringing up a paw to swipe at the knife and get it out.
In the small window of time he was given he shakily got up and ran back toward the bear to grab the tree with the axe in it. With the knife now removed the bear roared at him, so he pushed it far away with the length of the tree then ran away, grabbing Natalya by the hand and pulling her along.
"Are you stupid?! We can't outrun a bear!" She yelled. "I know, it's raining heavy we just have to get far enough so the rain throws off our scent."
As the bear started to advance on them he turn and smacked it with the tree, pushing it back and allowing them to get further away, nearly tripping over themselves as a crack of thunder made their hearts jump out of their chests.
Passing a nearby gully, Alfred spotted a carved out indent in the bottom of one of the walls. Dragging Natalya over he set her inside it before taking the tree and using it as a door to block them in.
Ripping the axe out of the tree he held it in his hands and peered out of small gaps between the gully and tree, fearing the moment that bear would come around looking for them. The constant flashes and booms of thunder and lightning weren't helping, every time it would happen Alfred would jump and nearly drop his axe.
Looking over at Natalya she was basically emotionless, except for the wary glint in her eyes. Even if she was calm it wouldn't do much if she had nothing to defend herself. Digging into his pocket he pulled out a small knife, handing it over to her.
She took it and looked at him in surprise. "When did you have time to pick this up?" Alfred gave a shaky smile, calming him ever so slightly. "I already had to pick up the tree and axe, the knife was just in the right place and I figured it was important to you."
"Oh. Thank you for not being so useless," she said while hiding her face from him. Alfred started to quietly laugh to himself, but that was interrupted as a sharp pain fired through his arm, causing him to drop the axe and clutch the hurt area.
Despite it being almost pitch black now she could still notice that he was in pain. Moving a little bit closer she grabbed him and removed his hand from his arm, then held it out until a strike of lightning came.
Under the split second flash of light she could see a single long cut on his upper arm, either from when the bear swiped at him or pushed him to the ground.
Alfred noticed the cut as well, making his eyes water as he began to cry. In annoyance Natalya started pounding on his head with her small fist. "Idiot do you want the bear to find us?"
That only made him cry harder, forcing her to slap a hand on his mouth until he wasn't wailing. "Quit being such a baby, you only got nicked."
Ripping off his own sleeve she wrapped the wound, not because it was a medical emergency or anything but just so he was stop crying.
With the wrapping completed she scooched back and crossed her arms. "Now why are you being so screechy and scared? If you've been doing this for centuries then you should be used to this."
"Give me a break, I almost got eaten," he said in between sniffs while rubbing his eyes. "Thank you by the way, for saving my neck back there," he joked. He seriously made a joke in a situation like this.
"It was whatever, I would've let you get eaten if I wasn't trying to stay on big brother's good side," she argued. He didn't even dare test that claim, just politely laughed it off. "Yeah well thank you again."
He then started moving toward her with open arms, which startled her a little bit. "Nope. Nyet get away from me," she said while extending a foot to keep him away.
That didn't stop him as he crawled over her leg and wrapped her up in another bone-crushing hug. "You need a hug, especially after helping me so much today. I probably would've died way earlier from the tree, and that fish definitely would've escaped if not for you throwing that rock. Sorry it turned into bear food."
Natalya squirmed to get out of Alfred's grip, but he was fully latched on. "It's not like I did anything special you're just clumsy. Now let go."
He refused to do so, tightening slightly as he heard more thunder. "Seriously America cut it out. America... America..!" She sighed in defeat and rolled her whole head. "Alfie!"
Alfred finally let go and stared into her eyes with sparkling blue orbs. "You said my name!" Natalya shoved him further away and crossed her arms, using the darkness to hide her puffed out red face. "That's a one time thing. I was just trying to get your attention because you weren't listening."
"Whatever you say Bel," he teased, looking back out of the crack to make sure the bear wasn't there, only to get a hard slap on the back of the head. "I told you not to call me that."
He laughed more and rubbed his head. "Right, sorry about that Bel." That earned him another slap, with plenty more to come after that.
A few hours passed after that, they were finally calm to begin falling asleep, but Alfred was having trouble now that the cool midnight air was reacting poorly to his drenched clothes. He couldn't stop shivering he was so freezing, and he couldn't even get a fire going because everything was soaked.
Through her sleepy haze Natalya looked over at him shaking. He noticed her shift a little bit, bringing his attention to her body, which wasn't shaking at all. "H-How are you n-n-not cold?!"
She shrugged and groggily sat up. "'M resistant to the cold. As long as it's above low negatives I don't really feel it."
"L-Lucky," he whined. After about a minute of silence he decided to make a weird request. "C-C-Could I m-maybe st-tay close to you... f-for heat."
"You mean hug again?" She assumed. "Yes." Alfred confirmed, making her grumble and lay back down while turned away from him.
"P-Please?" He asked, practically pleading with her. For a few minutes she didn't say anything back, leaving him to assume she fell asleep once again. Then was until he heard a defeated sigh and movement as she got up and grabbed him by the wrist.
"Just get over here dammit," she grumbled as she pulled him into a hug. "D-D-Don't swear," he responded as he wrapped his arms around her, his frozen fingertips poking into her back.
"Just shut up and be quiet, or I swear I'll throw you out for the bear," she threatened, all while trying to pour as much heat into the freezing kid as she could.
At some point it must've been successful, because the next thing they knew they were waking up to birds chirping and still in each other's embrace.
Untangling themselves from one another they rolled the tree out of the way, revealing the bright dew-sprinkled morning. With themselves now situated and Alfred being able to see his surroundings again, they were finally on their way back home, but not before passing by the cleaned salmon bones and part of a deer. The rest of it and the other whole one were probably dragged off for later.
Knowing their siblings were probably worried sick the two hurried home as fast as possible, but as they strolled up to the cabin no one came out to greet or shout at them. Walking inside they saw that no one was there, either they got lucky or their siblings were out looking for them.
They both mentally agreed that if it was the latter, then they didn't need to worry about it since two of them are adults. So with exhaustion still racking them they cleaned their clothes the best they could and walked off to bed.
Natalya didn't really care that she was sleeping right next to Alfred again, she saw a bed and was absolutely taking it.
A couple hours after that the three other nations finally arrived. Due to the storm last night they decided to stay at the camp, which actually worked out in Russia's favor, because more time at the camp meant more time for compromise which meant a greater chance of getting a colony.
As they walked into the house they were left with the same confusion as their siblings. Why weren't the kids standing at the door, beyond ecstatic to see their older siblings again?
Walking around the cabin Russia searches through the rooms, until he finally came up on the two children sleeping peacefully in Alfred's bed. Natalya was silent and kept to herself as she slept with her back to her neighbor, who was sprawled out and snoring loudly, though it didn't seem to be bothering her.
Russia couldn't help but smile softly at the scene, it seemed like his plan was an astounding success.
For the next couple weeks the two seemed to grow much closer, or at least for Natalya she wasn't openly trying to start arguments or harm Alfred, which is all you can really ask from her.
But sadly that bonding had come to an abrupt end as Russia and his sisters had to return home, where Natalya would regretfully be sent back to Lithuania.
And so with their last few moments together the two North Americans decided to come to the torn down camp to wish their friends goodbye.
Saying their goodbyes to Russia and Ukraine Alfred finally turned to Natalya, who was stoic as always but he could tell she dreaded going back on that ship just to be returned to Lithuania.
He smiled warmly and stuck his arms out for a hug, but she refused and instead stuck out a hand for him to shake. Hesitating for a moment he grabbed her hand and shook it firm.
"It sucks that you guys have to leave so soon. I wish we could hang out for longer," he said. In response she gave him the tiniest little giggle. "Why? Because you have no one else to save you when you inevitably do something stupid to get in trouble again? Alfie you big dummy, what would you ever do without me?"
Saddened to see them all leaving he said what he truly felt. "Well... I would probably find a way to hurt myself, that way you'd come back. Maybe if I go find that bear again it will work."
"Trust me I'm not dealing with that again," she stated seriously, her glare coming back once more and making a shiver go down Alfred's spine. He wasn't sure if he will ever get used to that.
"Well whatever I figure out I hope it'll work, you guys are really cool," he said with excitement in his voice. Natalya nodded her head along calmly. "I suppose you aren't as lame as I originally thought, but that doesn't mean I think you're cool or anything."
Their discussion was paused as the captain gave the order for everyone to return to the ship, so Natalya turned back to Alfred and decided to keep it short. "I hope we meet again someday soon," she said with a tilt of her head, before running away to go to her siblings.
As they entered the boat and began floating back over to the ship, the family turned and gave one last look to the place they were leaving behind, and then the two kids waving them goodbye.
With his booming voice Alfred gave the family one last send off. "When you get Bel back for good make sure to come visit us!"
The family waved back and promised they will, or at least Russia and Ukraine did, Natalya screamed at him not to call her that then stuck her tongue out at him.
Sadly that promise would not be one that was kept. In the decades to come both families would go through a lot, and for the kids it would be too much to deal with, enough to where they blocked as much of it off as possible.
For Canada it would happen during the French and Indian War, where he would have to deal with his papa France being taken away from him.
For America it started with his rapid growth and through his Revolutionary War, causing him to shut himself away from the world and even his friends.
For Natalya it came with the final partition of the Commonwealth, finally returning her to her siblings but not without its repercussions. Right after being returned to Lithuania from the Alaska trip the many small scuffles between Lithuania and other bordering countries, as well as the widening cracks within the empire caused Natalya to start to age up as well. Not at Alfred's speed but a steady growth that coincided with her increasing rebellious nature toward the empire. Once she was freed and returned home she was the happiest she's been in over 500 years, but that only reminded her of how long she's been gone, bringing up countless horrible memories of the numerous wars and hardships she had to endure. It quickly became too much and she was forced to repress it, in a sense erasing large chunks of the last half a millennium from her brain.
The only two that remember that time were Ukraine and Russia, but with the United States having a strict isolationist policy the two never visited again. It became nothing but a distant and painful memory once the Cold War was is full swing, and was never brought up again.
So the memory of these nations' first meeting was essentially lost, that was until now.
Ty ne veselyy - You're no fun
Nekompetentnyy pridurok nichego ne mozhet sdelat' sam - Like that incompetent moron could do anything on his own