Are personified nations supposed to like their job? Russia wondered, as he parked his car beside the parliament building. Not very many people in the Soviet Union could afford cars, so sometimes kids would run around government parking lots and play on them.
Russia shoed a few skinny kids from his own, and kept walking towards the building. It was snowing already too. He heard many people complain that they don't like their job as a waitress, or a cashier, or a carpenter, or even a dictator. Well, what about a nation? Enduring horrible wars, keeping the economy in check, going to useless meetings? And you don't even get paid at that.
Russia entered the building and walked through the heavy oak doors to the meeting room, plastering the same creepy smile on his face. To his relief, his boss wasn't here. Instead, the chief adviser and a few other government officials sat around the long table.
"Sit down, imbecile" The adviser said. Russia sat down in a chair and wondered what new torture has been prepared for him. "Our great leader is away on business, mostly dealing with the disaster. He appointed that I attempt to explain important matters to an idiot like you, and somehow make you understand"
The men sitting around the table laughed heartily. Russia wanted to squish them all like annoying fat bugs. "The scientists have concluded that all needed information is gathered, and the experiment is officially over. Does that register in your useless head?"
This sent more ripples of laughter through the meeting room. This was certainly new information for Russia, however. Does that mean those mutants are leaving? He almost forgot about his burning side in his joy.
"The mutants living at you house are to be put down. Is that clear?" Russia's smile faded a little. Put down? As in, killed?
"Yes, killed!" The adviser exclaimed at Russia's sudden expression change. "What's the matter? You gonna miss them?" The men around the table exploded in laughter, all mocking Russia's confused expression. Russia cursed inwardly at himself for letting his smile slip.
"Guess what, you fat worm? It's at your house too! Nobody wants to collect those filthy beasts into their cages, but surely you won't mind!"
"why are you killing them?" Russia asked in a low voice. He couldn't stand those things for sure, but is it necessary to go to such measures? The thought of Lithuania crying his eyes out over Boneliet's favorite stick, was enough to make him nauseous.
A round of aww's joined with laughter echoed through the room, and Russia was quick to understand his question will be ignored. He was careful to keep the smile on his face as he imagined picking them up one by one and smashing their skulls on the side of the table. 'No one can make you feel anything' is what Lithuania would have said.
The adviser finished laughing and flipped through a binder of papers. "In forty eight hours our dear scientists and officials will be at your house, and of course yours truly! The mutants are to be killed by shotgun. You know what that is, right?"
He made his hands in the shape of a gun and made little banging noises, to the amusement of the officials. "bang! And the third mutant falls down. dead." The adviser finished.
"You got that?" when he received to answer, he swung his arm and smacked Russia's cheek, where the mark Lithuania left was still healing.
That took Russia by surprise, but he didn't stop smiling. "I asked you a question" Hissed the adviser. Russia wanted, desperately, to ram the adviser's head into the wall. But he didn't dare. Whether he liked it or not, these were upper-class businessmen, and the consequences for that would be too great. And they knew it too.
So he nodded and stood up. "Good boy!" sounded through the meeting room, and a few applause even broke out. "And do us a little favor. Don't tell those little Baltic rats" Russia left the meeting room, his cheek stinging and the laughter still echoing through the hallway.
Latvia shoveled the driveway, as Fatvia ran around jumping in the snow. It was already snowing hard, eh? He didn't know what they did wrong, but all of the sudden Lithuania had to clean the living room, and Latvia had to clean the driveway. Russia sent Estonia away to the grocery store, muttering about how he was a sneaky smartass, so now there was no one to even talk to!
Latvia kicked the stupid snow and kept shoveling. Russia said something about expecting company later today, whatever that means. Come to think of it, He wasn't quite himself since he as at that meeting the day before yesterday. Fatvia kept barking at the window, until a cookie was thrown down angrily. Fatvia caught the cookie in his teeth neatly, and prodded over to Latvia.
Latvia pet his head happily, and then resumed his shoveling. He still remembered what happened to Shreduard and Boneliet, and all he could do was be grateful that wasn't his Fatvia. Fatvia can't fight back, and is slow to run away. If had attacked Fatvia instead, the consequences could be way worse.
Latvia shook his head, thinking about how Estonia's plans to run away didn't seem ridiculous now. A few hours later, was staring at the clock in the living room. Every little tic tic tic of the second hand made him curl up and shiver.
He downed another vodka bottle, and tapped his foot as he watched the seconds go by. He then got up abruptly and went down to the basement, before emerging upstairs with the two smaller cages. " ? What are you doing?" Lithuania asked, cleaning a cup with a towel.
Russia went back down to the basement, and pulled out the largest cage with some effort. He set it down with the others, and wiped his brow. The cages took up so much room in the small basement, you could hardly get around them.
"You three…" He began out of breath. "You will be cleaning basement." He called for Latvia and Estonia, and handed the three of them brooms. "Too much dust, da? Get down there." "But it's not dusty-" Estonia began. Russia gave one of his signature smiles, suggesting that Estonia should probably stop talking before he gets pounded into dust.
He pushed the three Baltics into the cold basement. "But why did you take out the cages?" pressed Estonia. "To make room" Russia answered, before slamming the door and locking it with a metallic crunch.
"I still don't understand it! Something suspicious is going on…" Estonia said, gathering up the dust in a neat pile. "Estonia, he just wanted us to clean. You know how he is about cleanliness" replied Lithuania.
"But… why take out the cages?"
"Did you not hear him? To make room."
"I agree with Esti" Latvia spoke. "Something weird is going on."
Latvia trained his ear, and made out the faint sound of footsteps. Many footsteps. "Maybe he has guests, and he doesn't want us interrupting?"
"If that were the case, he would lock the mutants down with us for sure. Much less bring the cages up for everyone to see!" Lithuania said, and swept so quick that the dust made him sneeze.
"Then again… he did make us do a lot of cleaning earlier." This caught Estonia's attention, and he put down the broom. "when was that?"
"When you were at the market", Latvia said. "I cleaned the driveway. Did you not notice?"
Estonia shook his head, and began to pace the basement. Something very interesting was going on, that's for sure, he thought.
"Well, whatever's going on, we know there's important guests, and they need something to do with the mutants. And doesn't want our presence there."Lithuania wondered out loud, loosening his tie and sitting down on a nearby box. Latvia rattled the doorknob.
"He never asks us to leave! Even when his stupid boss is there!" He gave the door a final kick, and sat down on the stairs. Lithuania could feel panic rising in his own chest. What was going on with their beloved mutants? What was happening with his Bonie? He looked around, and the air vent caught his eye. He got up quickly and walked over to it, bending down to see if any air was coming out, and it wasn't.
"Latvia…" He said slowly. "Think you could fit… in there?" Latvia looked stunned by the idea, but Estonia was impressed. "Of course!" He came over and put a hand on Lithuania's shoulder.
"Through the air ventilation system! Latvia, you could crawl to the living room and see what's going on." Latvia put his hands up in defense. "Th-Through there? Are you serious?"
Estonia adjusted his glasses to see the vent more clearly, and then nodded. Lithuania began digging through the boxes for a screwdriver. "What?!" He squeaked.
"You're both ridiculous. Through the ventilation system?"
"Do you want to save our beasts or not?" Lithuania snapped, finishing unscrewing the last nut. Estonia helped him remove the heavy ventilation plate, and sneezed from the cloud of dust coming out the unclean tunnels. Latvia whimpered and approached the hole in the wall. As soon as his bare hand touched the dusty metal, he cringed and pulled away. He'd have to be crawling on his hands and knees through the thick carpet of dust. "Latvia, c'mon, we don't have forever!" urged Lithuania.
Take this flashlight!"Estonia handed him a small flashlight, and pushed him into the hole with it. "And stay away from the heat!" and with that, Latvia was off through the smelly tunnels.
It was terrible at first. Dust in his eyes, dust in his nose, dust in his mouth. His hands would occasionally slip on the layer of dust, and he'd faceplant into the tin, sending the walls ringing from the hallow bang. That scared him into moving faster.
He wanted to get out of this smelly tunnel as soon as possible and save his mutant, however the thought of Russia hearing him and getting angry made him want to stay in the vents forever. At least couldn't fit there. He held the metal flashlight in his mouth, and as soon as he saw an opening, he came closer to check if it was the living room.
In some cases, the vent would take a turn upwards, and Latvia had to muster up his courage and jump. Even when he jumped high enough to reach the second level ventilation duct, he'd often slip on the dust and fall, sometimes hitting his head in the process. The whole system shook and chimed.
He couldn't have been on this little excursion for more than fifteen minutes, but to him it felt like hours. He was sure his nice red uniform was ruined by now. It didn't help that his hair looked like an old duster. After checking one vent opening after the other, he finally found one that demonstrated the living room.
Latvia's heart leaped in excitement. He peered through the bars of the ventilation plate, praying nothing makes him sneeze (Russia was within earshot). Speaking of which, Russia had his back to him on the couch, and was listening to his chief adviser lecture him about something.
Latvia shrugged and shifted his gaze, scanning the room. Nothing was out of the ordinary, it just looked like a normal business meeting. Had Latvia made this trip over nothing? Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the cages. He had forgotten about this part...The metal bars of the plate restricted his vision, but he could vaguely make out something moving around inside. And unless he was hearing things, he could make out a faint barking.
One of Russia's important administrators got up, still saying something blurry. Latvia's eyes widened as he took out a pistol and nodded at the adviser. Latvia jumped away from the opening like it was molten. The look in the administrator's eye was enough to explain everything. And his mutant was in great danger.
The way down to the basement was much quicker. While the way up to the living room included lots of jumping, the way down included lots of falling, and Latvia was much less concerned about the sound. He easily slid through the system, praying to finally see his brothers again and for them to do something.
The image of the administrator holding up the pistol flashed over and over again in his head. 'You just wait, Fatvia' he thought over and over again. 'We'll save you!' He pictured his poor little Fatvia shivering inside the dirty cage. He pictured him being dragged out by the neck, and a cold gun being pressed to his forehead.
The adrenaline pounded through Latvia's body. He wanted to see his brothers so bad! Lithuania was so strong, and Estonia was so smart, they'll be able to fix everything for sure! The gray, smelly walls flew past him until finally, like a door to heaven, he saw the opening in the wall with the removed plate. He zoomed through the dark tunnel, and the opening grew bigger and brighter until it hit him like a flash of light, and the horrible nightmare was over.
Lithuania and Estonia had been waiting outside the opening for the past seventeen minutes. Estonia was still pacing the basement and chewing his nails. They were already in bad shape. Lithuania kept looking down the tunnel to see if Latvia was coming every time he heard banging noises. Well, he was definitely close.
Estonia stopped pacing as soon as the banging got louder and louder, it filled up the whole basement. Finally, a red flash covered in white fluff flew out the hole and fell on the floor. Latvia stood up on shaky knees, gasping for breath.
He looked like he rolled around in a field of dust, and it snowed from him onto the carefully cleaned floor. Lithuania sneezed as he rushed over to him. "What happened? What's going on?" he said, correcting and brushing over the uniform.
Latvia grabbed his wrists. "They're going to shoot the mutants!" He yelled. Lithuania froze in panic. He had time to picture many horrible things be done to Boneliet, but this was not anticipated. "What?!" Estonia shouted, attacking the locked door.
"Not Shreduard! You brutes!" He barely had time to move out of the way before Lithuania marched up to the door, and with one swift kick, sent it flying off it's hinges. It crashed to the floor, and he walked over it and straight to the living room.