Long chapter. Sorry about that. Thanks for reading.

Cleaning

Crying is really really tiring. After that totally gloomy morning I should do something productive. Something other than that pile of forms my boss is getting on my case for. My storage room is probably gross I haven't been in there for about 50 years. Maybe there will be something interesting. I grab the bucket and some rags. I pick up a set of Liet's old clothes too. No way and I going to allow my clothes get all messy from whatever is in there.

Seriously worse than I thought. The dust is thick. Almost like one of the treasure hunting movies Mr. Hero, the guy who lives across the ocean, likes. Maybe I'll find some neat treasures. I hunt around and see armor. I reach out and touch the dull metal. It's in a totally messy heap. Looks like everything is there though. I find the maker marks. This is cool. It's from that time Liet and I made the Teutonic Knight, like, totally wet himself. That's a fun memory. I brush some of the dust off with my fingers. It should be on a stand. Liet, the worrywart, would give me this seriously annoying scolding every time I didn't take care of it right away.

"Po, you need to take care of your armor. We have to be ready the next time they attack," Liet was a totally perfectionist when it came to stuff like that. No matter how tired he always set his armor on the stand cleaned it. Like usual he had his gear off and was totally engrossed in wiping away the mud and whatever else.

"I'll like do it in the morning, Liet." Unlike him my armor was on the floor still messy. I would get to it later, "I'm gonna take a bath. Come on, you're totally tired too."

"I need to do this." He gave me this annoyed look. "Why not just put your armor on the stand? I'll be finished by the time you do that. Po, you know with all the time we just spent arguing you could have put it away right?"

"Leit your face is like really funny. Fine, I'll totally put it on the stand but after that we are going to get a bath and then sleep till like noon. Got it? I'm like your boss so what I say goes."

He managed to finish before I dragged him off so we could get clean. I made totally sure he wasn't thinking about the armor after that.

I lick my lips as that memory passes. Armor kinda clashes with the décor but maybe I could put it upstairs somewhere. I examine it a little more closely. Someone has been seriously rough with it. It's like a lot more dinged up than I remember. Probably when jerk Germany and blini bastard were using it to show how totally superior they were. I'll leave it for now. It'll be a total waste of time to try to wipe it down if I'm just going to leave it on the floor. I'll get back to it when I figure out what happened to the stand or better yet a case so I won't have to clean it again.

I look around there seriously has to be something I can do so I don't look like I was just slacking off. Well I am, but I kinda want to have something to show for it. Old clothes have been tossed every which way too. Those two had no sense of fashion. I really should fold them up or something but I'm so not going to try to shake out the dust when it's snowing.

I spot an old chest and figure it's worth a look. Its hinges shriek as I struggle with it. I force it open a couple of inches before it jams. I grunt as I push and pull. The noise is like totally unpleasant but it's personal now. "Ok… Ok… I'm gonna get you open even if I like have to take you apart," I run upstairs and grab a bottle of vegetable oil. I drench the hinges in it then sit in the lid hard to close it again. I like try it again and it opens a little wider. I'm like really mad now. I keep working the hinges adding more oil and until I finally throw it open.

"Ha! I like told you I would beat you." It's totally a win for me. I'm like going to ignore the fact that the floor behind it is now a goopy mess of oily dust. I wash my hands in the bucket. "Ok, so like what were you trying to hide from me?"

I peer inside. I'm seriously disappointed. It's mostly clothes. A couple of uniforms, some of my old skirts and sweaters, a totally funny hat, and then there's something hard. My fingers slip because it's wrapped up in a silk scarf. I pull it out hoping it'll have something that's like worth the effort.

A wooden box? Totally disappointing, all that work I like get a box in a box. But since I like went through all that trouble… I flip the catch and open it. Dried flowers petals. I pick one up one of them examining it. White tulips probably.

Wait… Tulips. They're from that time. That time I really hurt him. Trust me I know it's seriously bad that I made fun of my friend as he was being like dragged off by the creepy one. But seriously how was I supposed to know that blini bastard would be that much of a bastard? This other thing is totally worse. This was something I knew was going to hurt him and I did it anyway.

It like started with a letter. After the January Uprising we both got dragged back to our owners, for a total lack of a better word. Austria was mad enough where he burned a couple of Liet's letters right in front of me. Then one day I had been like cleaning Austria's library when he handed me a letter. He was totally frowning. It was totally weird; he read all of our letters back and forth as a security thing so it's not like there should have been anything surprising. I seriously act like it sometimes but I'm not totally stupid, usually. We can all agree that Liet is like really responsible and stuff, not to mention kinda shy so he wouldn't have written anything shocking. So it was really odd to see Austria looking that way.

When I took the letter he said, "Poland, I'm going to have Italy finish up in here. Why not take the day off."

I was seriously weirded out. Austria was a pretty reasonable guy. He never asked for an insane amount of work but still he like never just gave me a day off. I looked at the letter and I totally understood. Liet was always Liet. Sometimes he wrote in Polish sometimes he wrote in his own language. He had never ever written in Cyrillic. He seriously had a hate on about it. It was like one of the very few things he complained about.

I went back to my room because while I can like read that crap it was seriously harder back then. I figured it out after a while. It said that he was happy and had accepted his place as blini bastard's servant. He didn't have time for me anymore. I take back what I said. I am like totally and completely stupid. I fell for it. I totally believed that Liet had sat there and was like seriously willing to write that letter and send it to me.

It had taken until the end of like WWI before I became a nation again. I heard that Liet was like free too but had left to work for that hero guy, America. He hadn't even said goodbye. I totally thought that it was because he really had forgotten me. That's when I did the most seriously stupid thing that I have ever done. Liet didn't need me anymore but I still like needed him. If I couldn't have him I would take part of him. So when my boss decided that because so many of my people were there that Vilnius was our city I agreed. I totally encouraged it. I knew it would seriously hurt Liet but I wanted that city. Every time I walked the streets it felt like he was still there even though I totally knew that he was still in Russia's house.

After it was done I like realized how insane it was. I was totally going psycho. There was nothing I could do but apologize. I wanted desperately to take it all back but because of all the politics and power plays and stuff my boss couldn't just return it even if he had wanted to. I wrote to Liet. The first letters came back unopened. I knew then that he hated me.

I wrote again. Thinking that if he returned this letter that would seriously be it. He was done with me and I would just have to live with it. I was seriously sure that any day the letter would come back or that Liet would simply ignore me. Then there was a knock at my door and someone announcing that I had a delivery. I totally expected it to be the letter but instead it was a bunch of white tulips. The note was neatly written in Lithuanian, "Aš tavęs pasiilgau." "I missed you."

"I missed you," I was like never happier to see that simple little phrase.

I don't even realize I'm totally crying again till the tears fall on the petals. He forgave me. I still like totally don't understand why. I like love Liet. Even if he decided to keep hating me I would still totally love him. I shut the box. I'm like totally glad that he is as gentle and forgiving as he is but maybe he's wasting it on me.

Paperwork is totally sounding like a good idea. I don't want to be in here anymore.