Tiende januar:
Belgium:
-But Madame Nation, it's too early to start any preparations now! We've got nine years!
-Exactly! Emma Vanderbilt, Belgium, cut him off. We should've started earlier!
She whirled around, staring the man straight in his face.
-This is our National Treasure! She paused, contemplating. Well, one of them. We need to treat it with the respect it deserves! We've to remind people that it isn't French; it's Belgian. This, Belgian Chocolate and Waffle, are the only things, out of the things associated with Belgium, the country not me, that people truly enjoy. We need to do it justice!
She crept slower, and said in a hushed voice,
-I don't want to hear a peep of this not getting all the attention and care it deserves just because we didn't start early enough with the preparations. Got it?
Swallowing nervously, he nodded.
England:
Down an almost forgotten track, Arthur Kirkland went holding a flashlight.
He'd waited with turning on the flashlight until he could be sure that no one would see him. He would never live it down if Alfred, any of his brothers, or worse, Francis, found out about him going here, or worse, the real reason for him going here at all; he'd just remembered, after almost 200 years, where he'd put that watch.
It was a watch he'd received from Charles Pearson at the opening of Metropolitan Railway, the first installment, as it were, to the London Underground.
It was also a watch that he'd put somewhere safe after the celebration… but he just couldn't remember where. Until today, that is.
He'd remembered it when Alfred had been on the phone this morning talking. As usual he babbled about this and that, but today he'd also talked about all the clocks and watches he'd gotten from various events and occasions. Which had sparked a memory of him putting the watch aside for safekeeping while he took care of his brother whom had turned up rather drunk, Seamus of course, and would've disturbed the opening if he hadn't done something.
And when he'd returned from discreetly taking care of him (no killing, although he'd been very tempted), he'd just completely forgotten about the watch. Until everyone was on their way home, and then he couldn't for the life of him remember where he'd put it.
USA:
At the foundation of Time Warner Company, through the merging of Time Inc. and Warner Communications, Alfred received a watch with an inscription saying, "Just call it [the watch] Warner", as a nod to it showing "Time" and the clock being called "Warner". Or "Time Warner" if you prefer.
At their first anniversary, he got cake.
Four years after that he got a phone with the discreet inscription of TW Telecom.
After that, it was every fifth year with various gifts.
So now five years after the last time, although he did get a small present every year at the start of Mardi Gras (he'd asked for that shifting date specifically), he was waiting for the next big thing. As he waited, he rang up Arthur, telling him about the first gift he'd gotten from the company, which made him tell about all the other times he'd received watches and clocks.
When he hung up, he thought about calling Vatican, but truth be told, he'd never really liked that guy. And any call he would make, could only serve to damage the diplomatic relations they'd only recently reestablished in the 80's.
It was too early to gaze at the moon, but that didn't mean that he couldn't reminisce and feel proud of what his people had accomplished with moonbounce communication.
Vatican City:
Vatican didn't know what to think of US. On one hand, more than half of his people were good Catholics, on the other hand, very few of his leaders had been Catholics themselves.
So, he supposed he would just continue to settle for the diplomatic, not friendly, relationship that'd been reestablished in 1984.
Author's notes:
I don't own Hetalia
and this, obviously, my tenth chapter of 2020