Tjuesjette oktober:
Austria:
Roderich Edelstein played Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293 (also known as "Autumn" of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons) on his recently and finely tuned violin. Which had incidentally been a gift from Vivaldi himself.
He was of course going to play all four concerti, and he knew that normally one would start with "Spring", but for two reasons he'd decided to start with "Autumn"; one, it was his birthday today, and two, his birthday occurred during the fall. Or autumn if you would like.
Once he'd finished with "Autumn" he popped his head out of the door to inquire after the process of the preparations for his upcoming birthday soiree. It wasn't that he didn't have the utmost confidence in his girlfriend, Irina Vlad, the orchestrator of the preparations, but his Germanic blood insisted on having an overview and some level of control.
He'd gotten better at leaving control of affairs pertaining him to other people besides Ludwig, although he still just had to supervise (or even interfere) with the state of things. Like right now, when his thoughts were so consumed with soiree that was happening this evening that he couldn't even concentrate properly on his music!
In her wisdom, Irina had suggested that after every piece he played, he could pop his head out and get an update on the preparations.
As he was doing now.
In stages, after each concertio, he was told, in the melodious voice of Irina, that all the security enchantments were in place (to avoid the disaster of 20 yrs ago when Gilbert had gatecrashed his birthday, literally), room had been made for the gifts the guest would bring, his cat and hers were sleeping in their basket after having been immaculately groomed, and the floors were so neatly polished that one could eat out of them. And, no, there was no sign of the "mysterious force that made the rooms clean on its own".
As the soiree was commencing, and Roderich was sitting contently beside Irina on the settee, he thought to himself that although many might disagree with him, his favorite part was always the preparations. Particularly when everything had been put in order and he could enjoy the clean and orderly sight.
Author's notes:
Only 66 more chapters to go.
I don't own Hetalia