She was the most mature out of all the girls, so this shouldn't bother her at all. The only problem was that it was bothering her. Most men would marry women for pride or money. Most countries would marry women for pride, money, and most importantly land. Who in the world would want her, the small principality of Liechtenstein? And even so, would they survive the wrath of her older brother Vash? In the weirdest way, she felt like a princess locked up in a castle…for good reasons, of course, but…

Erika flipped on her side and looked at the wall next to her bed. Why does this bother her at all? First of all, she's the Principality of Liechtenstein. She has more important things to do than to focus on boys. Plus, in human terms she's only fourteen years old. She was way too young to focus on stuff like this. And yet she was.

Being a principality (it feels as if she was the only one in the world), she knew that she had a lot less rights than other nations do. She didn't have her own army, rarely talked to other countries (with the exception of the girls, and rarely for political reasons), and for lack of a better word, dangled on her other brother. It wasn't just because Vash was her brother, either; she clung onto him for salvation, for her life really did depend on this man.

So was it bad that she personally wanted to be with someone else?

After a while, it became hard for her to distinguish what part of her was Erika and what part was Liechtenstein. Vash had told her that it was a common thing for young nations to go through, similar to how humans went through puberty. The only problem was that, despite all the time that had passed, she still can't tell the difference. Were human emotions associated with Erika, or were they being felt with Liechtenstein with the hope of possibly starting an agreement treaty with him? Whatever it was, it was rather confusing.

The sound of a tea kettle cut her out of her thoughts, and she turned her head to see Monica boiling water for some tea. Like her, Monica was a principality too…but she was trying to be independent from Francis, for reasons that seem to be obvious to everyone else but poor Erika. She even has her own army, for crying out loud! Sure, she still has to depend on Francis to protect herself, but still…if she had to protect herself, she could…

For some reason, she felt more alone than before.

/=+=/

Because of her position as a full principality under Switzerland's rule, she really had no position to be there at the World Meeting. But because of her loyalty to the country, she basically had to follow him anyway. In a weird sense, she was just like Gilbert, only still a nation with people. Instead, she has decided that she was just going to people watch, see if she could learn anything about the other nations and perhaps help Vash in the long run. That knowledge alone helped him become neutral in the Second World War, even if she herself fell victim to it.

As she took her seat, she observed the normality of the country meeting. The minute it starts, Francis and Arthur start arguing. It will always start with Francis being too touchy-feely, and will always end with Arthur successfully shooing him off. This will either be done in one of a certain number of ways:

One – A Nation will try to get one of them to negotiate deals privately, away from the meeting. Bonus points if the nation in question is America, for he will be the only person to 100% separate the two of them.

Two – Germany will step in and demand that they stop right away. This will only work if the meeting is talking about international affairs.

Three – They just get bored and walk away. This rarely happens, as Francis is oddly persistent.

Four – A female nation passes by. Francis will automatically cling like it was a magnet to a nail.

In this case, it was Charice. She was following Kiku to talk about small affairs when Francis stepped between them. From what her ears could gather, he was hitting her and getting too close for comfort. Before Rizal could move from the side of the room, she had grabbed the Frenchman from the arm and threw him out the window. That was the only way that Arthur could be snapped out of the argument, and he finally start talking business with Roderich and Yao Wang. Meanwhile, Seyel took this opportunity to make sure that her fellow colonizer was all right. Erika couldn't believe it, but a strange semi-transparent image followed her out.

"This whole thing is getting stupid…" Vash grumbled. "Why do these meetings always have to be this hectic and unpredictable?"

That's the thing. Erika giggled. It's more predictable than you think, bruder.

She looked up and watched Heracles as he was talking to a South American nation about something, and almost like she willed it, he fell asleep on the dot…standing up, no less! The chaos seemed to be extremely random and out of it, but at the same time…oddly predictable.

"Great…now where the hell is Antonio? I have to go make a treaty with him…again." Vash folded his arms.

"He'll most likely be with Lovino…either with Anri or outside in the lobby drinking coffee."

"I'll start looking." Vash looked at her. "And you?"

"I'll be here." She answered. "I'll be fine, really. I know what to expect from them."

Vash stared at her for a good five minutes before deciding to look for him, bumping into Gilbert on the way out and leaving her alone in the room. She knew that despite the perverts out there, they knew that Vash was extremely clingy on her, and anyone with even the THOUGHT would be horribly murdered before their very eyes. While this has protected her over the years, it's also made her very lonely. In fact, it was only recently that she had started talking to anyone outside her borders…starting with the girl nations, of course.

"Are you all right alone like this? You know the people that are out there."

She turned her head and saw Rizal sitting next to her, looking right at her in confusion. She couldn't help but blush and look down. If there was anything that she hasn't quite learned yet, it was how to have a casual conversation with many of the male nations. There were, of course, a few exceptions, but the Asian nations were definitely an exception to this rule. Rizal, of course, couldn't help but notice this.

"You can just say yes or no."

"…yes, I am fine." She answered, trying to hide her nervousness. "I'm with Vash, of course."

"Geez, you sound like Charice. If it hadn't been for me, she probably wouldn't know how to greet a proper convention." Rizal sighed. "I'm usually the one talking."

"I've…noticed." Erika stared at him. "But aren't you the younger brother?"

"Yes I am. And I have to be the older sibling to her. Can't blame her, really." He stated. "Guess I've been too protective of her…"

"You? Protective of an older sibling?"

"Yeah. It can happen. Men are usually protective of their female siblings." Rizal pointed out. "Younger, older, doesn't really matter. I figured it was genetics, really."

"That does explain why Vash is so protective of me…but sometimes, I want to figure out what I want, you know?"

"You'll find that out sooner or later. Once you're aware of a side of you that's purely your own, then that's when your nations thrives."

"Eh?"

"You probably figured that out already…that there are two sides to you: the nation, and the human." Rizal turned to her. "These two sides are going to constantly clash as the years go on, and there will be decades where your human side just shuts down to the point where it doesn't want to work anymore."

"H-has that happened before?"

"It's happened to me, so I'm aware that it's happened." He answered. "Besides, it takes a man detached from forever to even begin to start a war."

"…that's…that's true…" She looked at him. "I've never fought a war before."

"No?"

"Any war I've 'fought' was done by Vash's army…I don't have my own."

"Oh…I see…" She heard him sigh. "You're lucky, you know."

"Eh?"

"War's the worst thing for a nation to experience."

"I-I mean…I have seen the World Wars just from my homeland…"

"I'm not surprised, but you didn't actually fight, right? Vash protected you?"

"For the…most part."

"Interesting…" Rizal sighed. "We had been conquered by at least four nations."

"Four?"

"Yeah…four nations. The only Asian country to have that title, and it sucks." He answered. "You have no idea how long we had to fight in order to be in this position."

"Rizal, many nations have done the same thing just like you. You can't be the only one."

"I guess so…but then again, I'm sure that most of them weren't born the same way I was."

"Were you and Charice born differently?"

"Just me. Not her; she was normal."

Erika blinked for a few minutes, seeing the cloud of wavering confidence over Rizal's face. Before she knew it, she had leaned her head on his shoulder, shocking him as well. It was then that her mind told her something: he seemed to be rather close to Ludwig, and seemed to talk funny around him…

"Rizal?"

"Yeah?"

"What does it feel like to be in love?"

"Hah?"

"I mean…I can't ask Vash. It sounds weird, so…"

"…uuumm…" Rizal turned his head. "I-I really have no idea how to describe it…but if I can say anything about it…it's kind of like…familial love. Only it's centered toward a person that doesn't share your blood. You want to do anything for them; sacrificing anything is good game. You'd do anything to make them happy, even if it is to wipe out your sorry existence from the planet."

She froze. He sounded too…honest.

"But at the same time…it hurts. The body reacts around them as if it was being thrown into a cold shower, and yet the slightest touch feels like a warm blanket being thrown over to warm you down…almost impossible to determine, really. Indescribable is the best word I can say…why?"

At least…at least I know what this is now…what has been here this entire time…

/= [10 DAYS LATER] =/

She and Vash were in the city, shopping for Christmas gifts and contemplating on whether or not to buy them in the first place. She knew he didn't really want to, but Erika on the other hand knew that she had to. She had just made new friends, and had so many people to shop for. Either that or she could restart knitting again.

They were inside a small store when Vash wandered off to check out a few mirrors that might work well in the house. She stared at the mirror in front of her and chuckled. She had one just like it in her house (even if it did look a little fancy). The people of Liechtenstein were one of the richest people in the world…per person wise.

"Shopping for gifts?"

She turned her head and saw Rizal staring back at her for a second. He lightly nodded away from her, and she realized that he was throwing a quick greeting for her brother, a few feet away from her. Apparently he and Rizal were on neutral terms (something she couldn't help but be grateful for).

"Yeah…it's almost Christmas, after all."

"True…well, I wouldn't want to see you at my place around this time. It's already Christmas where I live."

"E-eh?"

"Yeah. Back at home, Christmas starts on September, ends in January."

"W-wow…that's a lot of gifts."

"Well, not gifts per say. We're not the richest people out there."

"Huh…um, where's Charice?"

"She's out with someone right now. She's probably buying my Christmas gift and doesn't want me to know what it is. Chances are I find it anyway."

She laughed at that declaration for a few minutes before his phone went off. He lifted up his finger before walking a few inches away to answer the phone. Rizal greeted it as normal before being silent for a few minutes. Erika could barely understand what was going on before seeing his face grow utterly pale, to the point where his hand was around his mouth.

"…wait…who was in it again…?"