While Maria had, in fact, watched some cat video's the realization that if the Mint Bunny Corporation had a call center then they most definitely must have a website sent her frantically searching the net. Unsurprisingly she only turned up with fanfiction, upon fanfiction.

"That's not what I mean! Come on google, they have to have something out there!" she hissed to herself, eye twitching at all the fanfiction she stumbled across. On any other day maybe she wouldn't have minded it, she did read fanfiction to destress after work but that was before moving into her grandfather's farm. She had been far to busy to think of even something like that.

She actually had to press the next button on Google, (which was rare in itself) to finally get her answer (on page ten believe it or not) Or so she hoped.

Nothing.

The page wasn't blank. No, it was a functioning website, it had all, if not most, of the Hetalia characters ready for shipping but it might as well have been blank. She got the feeling the website was more talk than actual explanations. There were no details, just filler, and fluff, distracting from the questions of, 'how they made these things' to, 'all the new shiny things they had' along with 'what, and what wasn't in stock.' It didn't alleviate her worries in the least, what if this unit had a camera inside his eyes that took pictures? What if he had a tracking device in him? She didn't like the idea of strangers knowing where she lived or what she did during the day. It was an invasion of privacy, a horror story come to life. The question of how the fact androids walked among them hadn't reached the news if they had such a public page...

"No more stressing out, go back to cats. " Maria muttered to herself smacking her forehead a bit as if doing so would get rid of her thoughts.

Which it did thankfully, even if said thoughts weren't fully gone, only pushed into the back of her head crying out her doom. This was why when Berwald stepped in she jumped in shock, eyes wide, face flushing pink. She instinctively raised her blankets higher, covering her chest, sending her laptop falling out of her lap and onto the floor.

A loud crack seemed to echo around the room making her sit horror-struck from it all. That was when Maria knew she had burst into flames, face hot from the embarrassment and shock, eyes watery from the idea of having to replace her laptop screen. A part of her just wished to burrow under her blankets and never come out again. She couldn't believe she was that easily startled, then again she was used to being in this house alone it would take a while for her to get used to the new presence in her house.

Berwald tentatively walked into the room, bending over to pick up her laptop handing it off to her. She took it, closing her eyes as she slowly closed the lid, hearing another crack and not wanting to think of it. Opening her eyes she placed the laptop at the foot of her bed before getting out. While in bed she felt small compared to him so she stood up to feel less so. Although she believed he'd move backward with her forward advance, he did not leaving her awkwardly popping the invisible personal space bubble between them.

"S-Sorry Berwald," Maria stammered out trying to push away her emotions so she could get his question over and done with so she could focus on her laptop once he was gone. "but I don't speak... uh, Swedish?" Her words sounded more like a question than a statement. "Can you repeat that in English for me."

She wasn't aware if what he was speaking was modern Swedish or Old Norse. She was sure that no one knew how to speak old Norse anyway so it had to be Swedish they programmed him with to make it easier on themselves.

His eyes shined apologetically having taken a glance at the laptop that lay in the midst of messed up sheets before they landed on her once more. "m' sorry Maria. I said the clothes I have won't fit me."

That she could deal with, she was sure that her grandfather had other clothes around the house, she had seen them after all. Not that she remembered where she put them, it had been months ago when she had done that. She'd have to-

Berwald broke her train of thought by saying, "I found old clothes in the dresser drawer of my room. I can wear them."

She blinked, looking surprised at his words before remembering- "Oh! Right, those clothes were the clothes left over from when my dad aunts and uncles were kids..." She had folded them all up and put away in the dresser due to not having a box to put them in. She had been far too distracted by her plans of farming to go into town and find a discarded box to put the clothes away or buy a tub from the store. Not to mention she didn't really feel like going through old clothes.

Sending her laptop one last glance she moved pass Berwald heading off towards the room where she told him to stay in. She didn't have to wonder if he was following behind, able to hear his steps on the old wood floor. Opening the drawers she found the clothes he spoke of, picking them up she handed them off to him while saying, "You can go try these on some of my aunt's clothes are in there as well if you want to have different choices..."

She wasn't sure if he'd want too, or if his aunt's shirts would fit him but she didn't believe in gendered clothes, sure some things were more feminine or masculine then others but that didn't mean the other sex couldn't wear it! She only received a grunted in response to which she took meaning it was okay before he walked out the door and towards one of the bathrooms. For a moment she stood there awkwardly, bouncing onto the balls of her feet, swishing her dress side to side unsure if he expected her to stay here or if she could go back to her room close and lock the door so she could freak out over her laptop finally.

Seeing that his closet door was open, she took a peek inside much to the chagrin of her shoulder angel. Inside the closet, she noticed just how large the clothes were in comparison of the boy. "These are pretty big," Maria mumbled to herself poking her head farther into the closet looking at many of the outfits. There were some outfits from the anime others were just average clothes she'd expect a man to have. There was a very nice looking black suite in there with a blue tie as well. Sh shuttered to think of how tall he would be when he was older, hopefully, by then they would be- Friend? Hopefully, he would see her as a friend, as she wasn't sure what she'd do with him if he only saw her as a woman to protect. She wasn't naive enough to think that wasn't what he was thinking when he learned she was alone. She wasn't sure what the protocol of Vikings were but she knew that they wouldn't leave the women and children unprotected. He most likely saw her as someone to protect and keep safe and that was the last thing she wanted. If he even attempted to control her she was putting her foot down.

"... Shoes." She heard a voice mumble something out, unable to make out everything he said, due to her thoughts. She tuned back in to see Berwald in blue jeans a blue t-shirt and white socks. He stood in the doorway holding a wad of the clothes she handed to him in one arm, while in the other held his tunic, pants and his shoes.

Clearing her throat, she closed the closet door behind her, flushing ever so slightly at being caught. It was embarrassing enough to have missed half of what he said, only more so to have been caught snooping. Rightly assuming that he was talking about his problem with not having shoes she nodded, "Right you need better shoes than those-" she paused, unsure what to call them. Leather slips? They weren't like any type of shoes she saw even if she recognized them as so. "There are some in the attic, I can bring them down and you can try them on but please try to remember to take your shoes off at the front or back door." She paused for a split moment realizing she sounded like a hypocrite as she didn't take off her sandals until she was in her bedroom. "I know I didn't follow my own rule but I was- emotionally compromised..." Trailing off her eyes took one last sweep of the room, eyes landing on the box that she had looked over in her anxious waiting.

"You can take out the other clothes and pile them up on the bed so you can put your other clothes away; I'll be taking your box to put your other stuff away while you do that." She bent over taking out the shield and placing it on the bed before picking up said box. It looks like she wouldn't need to go to town to get a box as this box was large enough to hold all of the clothes from the dresser as long as she folded them correctly.

Passing him by she didn't look back going down the hallway, passing the dining room and into the living room to the open kitchen. Kicking a stool with her foot she ignored the slight screech it made on the tiles pushing it until it was near one of the higher cupboards. Surströmming, she had heard was smelly, even if some internet reviews said it tasted pretty good.

"Not in my house you're not," Maria muttered to herself once more, easily hopping upon the stool and placing the many, many cans up high so he couldn't reach. Thus he wouldn't even think of trying to get it if he couldn't reach it easily!

"Hm, I don't even know if he likes this stuff in the shape he's in now..." She doubted it, Vikings just ate the fish they caught and as far as she knew they didn't catch the type of fish it was made from. At least she believed they wouldn't waste their energy on it, the fish was small, most likely would shrivel up if cooked then again they would most likely eat anything back then so they wouldn't starve.

"It's so strange," she signed bending over to grab another can pushing the first stack that she made back with it. "A teen nation in my house. A teen nation Viking to boot! That kid must have killed people"

'He could easily snap your neck if you aren't careful.' a voice in the back of her head whispered sickeningly sweetly.

"Yes but he hasn't done it," she argued with the voice in hushed tones. "I don't believe he'd kill people without a reason."

She utterly failed in comforting herself, her voice sounding unsure to even herself. It was odd how composed he seemed to be with all of this, she would've at least expected him to try to take her land and claim it as his own with his Viking line of thinking. That was what they did, they were trying to gain more land, more people and grow their numbers.

She squeaked her train of thought interrupted at spotting someone move out of the corner of her eye. She almost fell off the stool from the shock of it only to have Berwald's hand snapped up, grabbing her arm to steady her while another one rested on her back. Thankfully she was able to keep her balance and straighten herself out before making it down the stepping stool without any injury, by then having finished her task. Not that it mattered now as he possibly saw what she was putting away.

"m' sorry" Berwald apologized softly. Instead of glancing away from her like she assumed he would, (his voice was all soft and almost shy sounding why wouldn't he?) he continued to stare at her. She was suddenly starting to understand what Finland felt like with all the staring and no words. It was nerve-wracking having someone stare at you with as much intent as he did. She couldn't read him at all and it was only mildly distressing- no that was a lie it was stressing her the heck out! She liked to believe she was easily able to read people but Berwald was like a stone wall.

Scratching her cheek nervously she laughed it off. "It's okay, I know you came in here too..." She trailed off before saying, "help, right? Well, you don't have to worry about it all I have to do is-" she reached into the box pulling out the sharpie, pushing away the stray hairs that got into her face. "Write out kids clothes onto the box and put that stuff away, then open up the attic to get you some shoes!" Hastily she wrote out the tile onto the box, but before she could grab it Berwald did.

"Uh-" He nodded at her in agreement, not saying anything else. Pulling a confused face she raised her brows not sure what he was nodding for. Sighing through her nose she picked up the footstool, subconsciously holding it between them as a barrier, almost as if it could lessen the feeling of his stare. "Let me put this up then I can get you some shoes for you. We have a lot of work to do later Like moving that crate you came into the burn pile." and looking at my most likely damaged laptop she added on silently.

Once putting the stool back she made her way to where the entrance to the attic was. She heard Berwald pattering away, most likely back to his room so he could put the clothes into the box for her. It only irked her slightly, she did tell him she was going to do it and to not worry about it. She wanted to do it so she could make sure all the clothes were folded correctly so that the full capacity of the box could be used.

With a shake of her head, (then having to fix her hair once more due to the strands getting into her face) she pulled the stairs down. She coughed loudly the dust and sun coming down onto her face. She could spy the particles floating around the air, causing her to sneeze.

"Aw gross," she muttered having sneezed so hard some snot came out. Racing to the bathroom she took care of the mess, washing her hands after before grabbing a spar hair tie so she could work without having her long wavy hair get in the way. Getting back to business she lifted her foot up preparing to get up the ladder only to have an arm come out and stop her.

What. Seemed to be the only thought in her head, question marks floating above her head as Berwald stared back at her. They both silently stared at each other. 'Surely he couldn't have finished putting up the clothes that fast!' she thought silently hazle eyes narrowing onto his own turquoise eyes.

Alas, he didn't give anything away only speaking once a straight minute had passed of intense eye contact. "I can take care of it, tell me where to find them."

A surprised, "oh?" Left her at his words. It was slightly confusing why he suddenly saw the need to do it himself, but seeing no problem with it, (at least this is what she told herself) she told him to look with a box that had the word shoes on it. Watching him go up she failed to hide a snorted when he bumped his head on the entrance of the attic. She had done the exact same thing a few times as well on the small entryway.

He seemed to find a pair he liked with no problem, coming down quickly with some hiking boots in his hands. He sat on the floor to put them on while she closed the attic. Waving her hand in a come here motion she called for the Viking to follow her outside putting on the pair of crocs that sat at the back door. She'd need some help with carrying his crate out to the burn pile after all that thing even without it's... "contents" was heavy.

What she didn't expect was for him to lift the whole thing over his head like a strong man. She openly gaped at the spectacle before her, wildly pointing at him as he stood as still as a stature most likely waiting for her to show him where the burn pile was.

"wha- How did you- it's so heavy!?"

Berwald looked like he would've shrugged if he wasn't holding the crate in the air. "Not really, it's about as heavy as a bag"

Maria had just started to get over her shock only to be hit in the gut with his words. As heavy as a bag he said? How strong was he then- what were the capabilities of his full strength?

"Hm? you didn't reprogram me that's why."

Did she say that out loud?

"Yes, you did."

"O-Oh sorry! So you're left at full strength than when you're shipped," she asked motioning for him to follow her towards the back. Even so, the questions in her mind still roared. This was insane, first artificial intelligence being a thing and now them being strong as hell? Sure he looked buff but there was a difference between the normal buff and super strength! Not to mention he was a teenager, teenagers weren't suppose to be that strong, to begin with!

A pensive look crossed Berwald's face at her question. "I don't remember much. They wanted us at our best." He seemed to pull a face that Maria could confidently say made him look like he was constipated and confused about it. "I was, activated more then once before, for test runs, they talked over my head as if I wasn't even there. They said that owners apparently liked being able to control our personality traits and how strong we were."

She grimaced at the term owner. It just- it never sat right with her. Knowing her ancestors use to be treated the same way, as objects, savage animals of little worth. Being faced with that in this day and age? It was nuts! Though slavery never truly ended. It was illegal, yes but she knew that it still happened around the world which only made her heart ache more. There were so many issues with today's world that it made her head spin. The one thing she knew for certain though was that the mint bunny corporation was going to go through some hell if they thought this was going to fly. How they haven't already boggled her mind. They may be a new company but news travels fast on the internet and they had a website for christ sakes! They couldn't have such high security to have made sentient life without anyone finding out...

That seemed more like a government thing.

So just who were the masterminds behind the mint bunny cooperation? Why weren't they called flying mint bunny cooperation? Was it too much of a mouth full? did they not want to get dragged to court for copyright infringement- that's the least likely since it would be considered copyright that they even made these Hetaliods if they didn't ask the creators permission. What did Hidekaz Himaruya think of this if he did he agree to this?

"You're thinking too hard again."

Maria blinked owlishly not even noticing that she had stopped walking, standing in front of the burn pile. Her brows were so deeply furrowed that there were wrinkles on her forehead.

"You've got a pained look on your face," Berwald said observing her as he sat the wooden crate into the ashes of what was there in the last time.

Maria sighed softly shaking her head, "You'll come to find I over think a lot. It's just- you do realize how wrong this is right? You're just a kid!"

Berwald sent her a truly perplexed look tilting his head to the side in obvious confusion. " 'm 1,820 years old, not a child..."

A choked gasp mixed with a wheezed left her at the ridiculously large number he gave her. The constipated look was coming back to his face, she should probably stop laughing "I think if you look at what year it is you'll find that Sweden is much older now."

She had no clue why she just said that.

"But 'm not, the Sweden here is older but 'm from the 800AD."

'You're not real at all though,' a traitors thought whispered in the back of her mind. 'All those memories of your time as a Viking are fake, programmed into you to give you a reason for your actions.' It felt cold to think of it like that, besides he was here now, he could make new memories, ones that weren't fake.

"Let's just not get into the whole immortality thing and being old it's making my head ache." And wasn't that an understatement? There was just way too many things to think about involving all of this but so little time to do it in.

At least too much for today.

"Also, don't call me master or mistress okay," Maria sent him a stern glare that swore vengeance upon anyone who dares give her that title seriously. Before she could get too far into her passionate rant Berwald bluntly stated, "You're not my master, I'll never see you as one. You can't tell me what to do. Though I keep seeing red warning signs behind my eyelids telling me not to go against you... It's annoying."

Those words sent red alarms to go off in the back of her head but no matter how much she pestered him and tried to persuade him to talk more about it he was as silent as the grave. Maybe he didn't like being reminded of the fact that he was an android? If her memories where suddenly downloaded and put into an android body she'd surely not be happy with her new state of life and would want to go back to being human. Though the fact that he had red warning signs come up at all were curious. Was this a mechanism they put in place to keep the android compliant and make sure they kept their owners happy? It must have been. Why would they send fully functional humans to people, knowing some folks would want to return them if the android did something they didn't like.

It was just another mystery for her to ponder on.

Authors Note: First off not to be a beggar but comments are literally my motivation. Seeing them has got me typing furiously away at my keyboard whenever I have the chance to write. It lets me know you guys are still interested even though I myself haven't been here for a long while. It's hard to keep writing a story when no one seems to hold any interest in it even if you, the author have interest in it.

If you can't tell Swedens obviously having trouble with accepting the fact that he's an android, our boy here is at least on layer 56 denial. He's more confused than anything but yes he still thinks he's flesh and bone. Unkillable flesh and bone but flesh and bone all the same. It really hasn't hit him yet that he was basically made for someone else's pleasure or the fact that there could possibly be another version of himself out there. Maria, on the other hand, is thinking deeply about the MP corps ethics. She's going to be doing a lot of questioning/searching for answers for maybe a few more chapters before she gives up on that.

Hullanta: Thank you for your review! I was truly ecstatic to see it in my inbox. I can't promise regularly scheduled updates nor how this story will end. The only thing I do know is what I want to convey with this story and that's good enough for me! I'm just thankful for all the people who still have interested for it even when I was gone for a while.

Raven: Well I did in fact cut the chapter in half, I thought it would be way too long if I kept it together so that's why it, 'ended abruptly' as you said. I kept trying to write a smoother ending but couldn't think of what else to put and left it as is in the end.

I'm pleased to hear that you were excited about how I went about writing Sweden talking in his native tongue. I can sympathize with your plight. I've always found it frustrating, especially if the chapter was a long one. Having to scroll all the way down to figure out what the character was saying only to lose your place was a nightmare. I didn't want to do that to my own readers so I placed them in parentheses for easy access.

As for the shipping thing, I still stand firm with my decision of not having it as of right now. I don't see my mind changing but as I said in the last chapter I'd have to feel like doing it for it to happen at all. It would only ever happen if I myself feel that my character has romantic chemistry with one or two of the Nordics that I can't ignore.