Galehus

Part 7

"Are you trying to get yourself murdered by Al?"

France glanced over his shoulder at the rather sudden remark. He'd been in the middle of explaining how the maid's rotation worked—he pouted, apparently no one had actually been listening to him. No, because Prussia was currently standing in the middle of the empty hallway, staring down at a sheet of paper as if it were more important than what France was saying.

France sighed, but gave in. "What do you mean, mon ami?" he questioned, glancing forward toward where Spain was opening every single room and squealing over the cabins' interiors. Another one who wasn't paying any attention to him. Without even a good reason, since every single room looked exactly the same...

He was currently—out of the goodness of his heart—giving his two best friends the grand tour of the cruise ship before the other nations arrived. They'd already gone to the bar, the fancy restaurant where they'd eat all of their meals, the pool, the gym, and various other places, so now he was showing them where they'd be sleeping.

"You put yourself in the same room with England," Prussia continued, shaking his head as he stared at the other nation. "America is already this close to murdering you in your sleep. You want to make him even angrier?"

France smirked and shrugged, ignoring another squeal of 'Look at the cute little dolphin decorations on the beds! I'll have to show Lovi when he comes!' in the process. "Ah, but don't you think Amérique will enjoy having a room all to himself?"

Prussia just snorted and dropped the paper to his side. "You know, Franny, suicide is not the answer..."

"Tomates!" And suddenly they were startled by a sudden shriek of joy before Spain darted into one of the rooms.

And they just gaped.

Until France smirked. "Well, it looks like Antoine found his room."

"That means that this one is yours, right?" Prussia lifted the paper again and stared down at it. The sheet held a map that showed where all of the nations would be rooming; France had made a copy for each of the other nations, even taking the time to get a few copies laminated for those nations who were a little more likely to spill something on them than the others (Italy).

Prussia was currently twisting it around, apparently attempting and failing to orient himself. France just watched for a moment, rather amused by his frustrated actions, then he finally walked over and took it out of his hands, turning it to the proper position.

"I knew that," Prussia immediately remarked.

"Of course, mon ami."

"Okay." Prussia paused for a moment, eyeing the box that was labelled with Espagne and Italie du Sud. Then he pointed toward the box next door, this one labelled with Prusse and Canada. "So me and Mattie are next door!"

"Oui. And right across the hall" He motioned toward the box on the map and then pointed toward the actual door "is where I will be staying with Angleterre..."

"If Al doesn't kill you first."

France chose to ignore that remark. "Here is Amérique, at the end of the hallway." He poked the box again and then motioned toward a door about four doors down. "And here" Now he pointed toward a box two down from Spain and Romano's room "Is where our new—ah, recipients of l'amour—will be sleeping."

Prussia immediately wrinkled his nose in distaste at the remark. "I still think this is a stupid idea, but as long as this gets back so Mattie and I can go to that game..."

"No need to worry, mon ami. We are arriving a full three days before your date."

"You'd better hope we do, because if I miss out on this—"

And he was suddenly interrupted by a voice coming from the loudspeaker above their heads that he hadn't even noticed existed until now. But he hadn't jumped. Of course not. He was too awesome to be startled by something like that. "Monsieur Bonnefoy, the other passengers have arrived."

France immediately smiled and nodded, looking pleased with himself. Then he turned and shouted toward the room where Spain had disappeared, "Antoine, time to go up and meet with everyone else. You'll want to see your Lovino, oui?"

Spain appeared in another moment, holding a half-eaten tomato in one hand and a whole one in the other. He beamed at them, as usual, taking a bite from the already half-gone tomato. Dripping juice on the carpet in the process. Prussia smirked, imagining how Germany would react when he saw that, (because he would see it, the guy was absolutely ridiculous like that when it came to finding messes to clean). "Sí!" Spain responded. "Are you the one who put tomates in our room?"

"Of course, mon ami. I knew that you would want them. And I always try to please mes amis..." France stepped forward, grinning at his friend as he snaked an arm around his waist.

"Unless they're Al and Artie... Ow!" Prussia yelped as an elbow hit him hard in the stomach as France and Spain passed. France's arm had already slipped down from its spot at his waist...

Prussia hurried to catch up with them, choosing to throw an arm around Spain's shoulders on the opposite side of France. "So, what's the plan to get those two idiots together, since you fucking brought us on a boat and everything? Which is pretty awesome, I will admit. At least if the beer is any good..."

"Ah, mes amis. It will be simple!" France responded. "Think of how many chances we shall have to show them the true magic of l'amour! Dancing, wining, dining, afternoons spent out under the sun by the pool..."

"And if it doesn't work, we get murdered by the frying pan-wielding devil-woman."

"It will work, mon ami! Do not worry!" France assured him. "Everything will go according to plan. It will be perfect."

Prussia didn't answer. Instead, he just walked beside them as they made their way to the deck, where they could now look down to gaze at where most of the other nations were standing on the pier. Most of them staring up at them with a variety of expressions.

Italy was clinging to Germany's arm, bouncing up and down as he squealed 'Ve~! Look how big the boat is, Doitsu! It's like a casa!' Romano was glaring at them.

Which Spain either didn't notice or didn't care about, as he immediately broke away from France and ran down the gangway, tackling the Italian in a rather painful-looking hug that he didn't have even the slightest margin of a chance to dodge. "Look, Lovi! Tomates! There's a whole basket in our room!"

"Why do I have to be rooming with you, bastard?" Romano exclaimed, attempting to escape from Spain's iron grip. "Chigi! Let go of me!"

Prussia ignored them after a moment of watching, instead starting to search the crowd for a moment... Ah, there he was! The Prussian beamed and waved toward the blond, who was standing apart from most of the others. And was happy to receive an immediate smile and small wave in response. He caught a glare from America, though, who also was standing apart from the others. Standing apart from the others and glaring up toward where France was standing.

"Bienvenue!" France immediately shouted down, flashing everyone a bright—overly bright—grin, as if he were trying to blind everyone by force of his smile alone. Prussia found it rather creepy. "Everyone come aboard! We'll be setting off in another couple of hours!"

And Prussia suddenly had the thought that maybe it'd just be easier to abandon ship right now. There was no way that this could end up well. No possible way...

A/N: Oh, France. No one thinks that this is going to work except you. Even Prussia is thinking this is a bad idea. But will you listen? Of course not! That'd be too easy!

Okay, insert standard apology for being slow to update. Gah, I'm always bad about writing during the summer (weirdly enough I'm a million times more productive when I'm really busy...probably because I just get sleepy and lazy when I'm bored). So yeah... Sorry.

In happier news, I just posted a new poll earlier today for those of you who are reading "Just a Little Push" about who you'd like to see a POV chapter from later in the story. So go vote if you read that story :D