A/N: Hello, this is a bit shorter than the previous ones because this is only one brief encounter. The next one is longer I promise.
8. Three sunflowers in the snow
Snow twirled all around the park as the people of Moscow trudged through it from work and school. There were stands where people could buy some hot chocolate or tea but very few people actually stopped in the snow to buy it. It was too cold in their opinion. The same opinion shared the personification of Russia, Ivan Braginski, who stood there in the middle of snowfall and just watched his people walk on and on to their destinations.
"Excuse me, mister, have you seen my mittens?" A small voice asked the tall nation. Ivan turned around. A child, age of six, was standing there. He was wearing a green hat, a light blue woolen scarf, a blue winter jacket and dark grey trousers with darker grey winter boots. And like the question initiated, he didn't have any sort of gloves or mittens.
"No, little boy, I don't think I have." The man smiled gently.
"I lost them! I just put them into my pockets while drinking hot chocolate but they fell!" The boy started panicking on the verge of tears. "Katerina and I split to look for them but now I can't find her either!"
"Do you want me to help to find your sister and your mittens?" Ivan asked the boy who nodded with a sniff. He seemed to have caught a cold some time ago.
"Da!"
"What's your name?" The nation asked when he took the boy's tiny hand into his large one.
"Nikolai Yanovich."
"Nice to meet you Nikolai. My name is Ivan Braginski."
They looked around the park, walking from one end to the other one in the case someone had taken the mittens and put them somewhere completely different spot than where they had fallen. Nikolai was about to lose his hope by when…
Jingle, jingle, jingle…
"Did you hear that?" The little boy asked, looking around them frantically but couldn't really see anything due the snowfall everywhere.
"Da. What is it?"
"Katerina. She has bells in her braids." And right on cue the jingling seemed to come closer and the pace between the jingles faster.
"Niko!" A girl's voice called. "I found your mittens!"
It was not one girl running to them but two.
"Katerina!" Nikolai let go of the nation's hand and ran to the first girl who indeed had bells tied on her long braids. She was wearing a pink coat with large buttons and a pink scarf the matched the boy's. She was holding a pair of light blue mittens which undoubtedly were Nikolai's.
"Let's out these on, your hands are freezing." Katerina told the boy.
"Nyet, you dummy. Don't you see they're soaked through? If anything they're making his fingers freeze off." The other girl, older of the two sighed. She kneeled by Nikolai an plucked off her own pale lilac mittens and put them on the boy's hands. She had deep violet jacket with fur trimming on the hem and cuffs of the sleeves and the same pale lilac colored scarf than her mittens but no hat. Instead she her silvery grey hair was pulled on a high ponytail and tied with a purple ribbon.
"Big sister, your school ended already?" Nikolai asked.
"Da, did you already drink the cocoa?"
"Da, that's when I lost my mittens." The eldest of the three nodded and got up, brushing her bluish violet skirt from snowflakes in the process.
"Sister… I can't wait for June." Katerina said suddenly. She was practically bouncing on her feet. The other girl looked at her and smiled faintly.
"What's so suddenly? It's just another month."
"But we are going aboard! To London!"
"Mum promised we could ride the London Eye and see the city on night from there." Nikolai piped up.
"You surely are excited." Ivan smiled to them. The trio looked up.
"Da, we've never before been aboard." Nikolai smiled.
"Niko, your scarf is slipping." The eldest child crouched again to fix it. "You'll catch a cold."
"Why aren't you excited sister?" Katerina frowned.
"I am. A bit. Anything to get out of here. But I'd rather go home."
"Why don't you go then?" The personification of Russia asked. He didn't like the sound of the part 'anything to get out here'. But maybe it was just the girl didn't like Moscow.
"Because our parents don't want to leave. They work here. And our friends are here." Katerina explained.
"Hmm… Yeah…" The other girl muttered.
"But we have a bit of home with us! Our granma made these scarves and mittens for us!" Nikolai added.
"We don't really see her anymore so we were really happy when we got these last Christmas."
"Katerina, Nikolai, that's enough!" The eldest snapped to the two. "We need to go now." She took their hands.
"I never caught your name, miss…?" Ivan let the question open for the girl to answer.
"Natasha Yanovich."
"Have a safe trip then."
"Thank you." Natasha nodded curtly and stiffly as if she didn't really want to be polite to him. She started leading her little siblings out of the park. Nikolai twisted around a bit and waved to the man.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Braginski!"
"See you later!" Katerina called too over her shoulder.
"See you, my little sunflowers."
A/N: Alright, this was here. The next chapter is about Natasha too and it takes place about a month later. And Russia will be there too. And Natasha is impolite to Russia because she hates Russia as a country so her hatred is channelled towards the personification too. It's my headcanon that the personifications will appear as trustworthy people towards humans regardless their nationality except they themselves to something t shatter their trust or if the nation they represent are in a war with the country the human in question is from. Was that clearly explained? I hope so...
Well, I'm trying to finish the next one as soon as possible. Meanwhile please review!