Alfred sat at his dining room table late Christmas night. The day before, Canada had gifted him a Lego millennium falcon, the really big one with over 7,000 pieces. He was so excited that the second he got home he began assembling it. Now he was about six hours in and a third of the way done. It was a lot of work but it was going to be so worth it in the end.
While putting on a new section he had constructed, the faint sound of his doorbell ringing startled him as it echoed throughout the house. Usually he's not able to hear it from his dining room, but then again he's rarely ever this quiet.
The notification that followed confirmed it was in fact the doorbell he heard, but upon opening his phone the doorbell camera revealed no one there. It freaked him out. This is how every horror movie starts. Actually on closer inspection, he could just barely see what looked like an arm, though it was covered by a dark brown sleeve. That wasn't much better, who is at his house this late at night?
He got up and crept his way toward the door, picking up a baseball bat along the way. Once at the foyer he tried looking through the windows at the area in front of the door, but he couldn't make out anything, even after wiping the foggy condensation away. They must be right in front of the door, out of his line of sight. That's so freaky why are they doing that?
With no other choice he moved to the door and unlocked it, very slowly opening the door just a crack in order to see who was there. Catching the person's face his eyes lit up, and he swung the door open fully. "Nat! What are you doing here?"
Natalya looked up from the ground to him, her nose and cheeks red. Her arms crossed over her chest, tight. "Finally. I was freezing my ass off out here," she cursed while ducking under his arm to get inside. "I thought you were immune to the cold," Alfred responded as he let the door close behind him, re-locking it, then following after her as she walked off to the living room.
"Not when it's -23C out. What the hell is wrong with your country?" She wondered, peeling off the trench coat and the rest of the winter clothes. Sitting down on the couch she finally relaxed, the warm air of the living room slowly thawing out her frozen fingers and face.
Looking back at Alfred she raised a brow, finally noticing his strange position. "Why are you holding a bat?" Alfred promptly threw the bat behind his head, ignoring the loud clang it made against the ground. "It's nothing. And yeah, Canada likes to dump a bunch of arctic wind on me. Also, again, why are you here?? I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow."
"It is tomorrow, is it not?" She asked while fluttering her lashes at him. He looked over to the wall at his clock. It was almost eleven, but still very much Christmas day. "Nope, you'd have to had stayed outside another hour for that."
"Oh, it was already the 26th back when I boarded my flight. My mistake then," she replied with a careless shrug. Was that a hint of playfulness in her voice? He didn't really know what to make of that, but he was just grateful she managed to make it in time. Sitting down on the couch next to her he put a hand on her far shoulder and pulled her into a side hug. "It's sweet that you could make it. Though, I didn't get out snacks or anything prepared yet."
"You don't need to always get out snacks, it's just the two of us you know." The two met each other's eyes, finding themselves unable to look away. "But I like snacks," he responded honestly. The two stared a while longer, Alfred's smile slowly widening the longer he looked.
Eventually he pulled her into a full hug, his eyes softening. "Man I missed you, it's boring as hell here alone," he spoke out loud, sounding like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Natalya silently remained in his hug, letting his warmth pour into her.
He stayed there for a couple minutes to relax, but as he pulled back his smile was anything but relaxed, it was wicked. "Though you know what I missed most about you?" Natalya tilted her head to think, but as she opened her mouth to respond he lurched forward and seized it. Natalya gasped into his mouth in her surprise, before it quickly fell into a low, satisfied hum, her eyes shutting.
After being separated for two weeks it only made the kiss that much better, it's that familiar itch being scratched again. It was like withdrawal from an addiction, though this being one addiction she didn't want to stop. Her and Alfred licked and nipped at each other, their parched lips finally rehydrated with the other's spit, that familiar, delicious taste on their tongues.
Using her hands she pushed on his chest, guiding him down on the couch as she lied on top of him, feeling his fingers play with her hair. Why was he such a good kisser? He sent her brain into such a dense fog all she could think about was his stupid sexy mouth.
After a bit she had had her fill and ripped away from his mouth, having to remind herself she wasn't just here to make out. Even so, she didn't stop herself from sighing contently as she rested her head on his chest, staring into his eyes again. "It's only been twelve days, you know."
"Hey, that's a long time!" Alfred argued back. She couldn't really deny that, relying on texts and phone calls were a pain. Besides, if she could only kiss him every twelve days she might go crazy. "I suppose so." Tilting her head to the side she eyed the large collection of presents under the tree. "Seems like Finland was here already. That's a lot of presents."
"Oh yeah, he said I was a good boy this year," he said, a giant, cute smile on his face. He must really like the praise. "You have no idea how hard it's been waiting to open them. What about you, get your presents yet?" He wondered. She could feel him start to rub her back with one, heavy hand.
"Da, though all he got me was a sewing kit for my dresses, a trivia book, and a recipe book on 1001 ways to cook a potato. Cheap bastard!" She grumbled, burying her face into his chest. "Why do you get favorites?" He chuckled a little, patting her back a couple times. "Just get on his good side. Send him to a fancy sauna or babysit Sealand or something. . . If he'd even let you near Sealand that is."
"And was the party at England's good? You really weren't alone?" She followed up, doing her best not to let out the concern in her voice. He went back to rubbing her back. She was so quick to get defensive. It was cute, for him, terrifying for anyone else. "Yup, it was pretty cool. My bro got me this huge Lego set, you should come see what I've built so far."
"Maybe in a bit," Natalya said while closing her eyes, remaining firmly in place on top of him. So Alfred stayed as well, massaging her back with one hand while the other hang limp off the side of the couch. He took the time to observe her face, taking in all the features he'd been longing to look at for weeks. It was nice being able to be this close to her, without things getting too awkward.
Turning his head on its side he looked at his Christmas tree, bright yellow lights illuminating the room in a warm glow that reminded him of when they danced on their date. It's hard to believe that they've only met up this one time since their date, it was awful, and not healthy. Even if they were immortal nations, he knew meeting once every few weeks wasn't survivable for a relationship. He should continue working on that teleporter with Tony.
His eyes trailed down to the pile of presents, varying in all sizes of large and small, in bags or wrapped in fancy wrapping paper, in a large ring all the way around the base of the tree. Even if most are probably inexpensive games or toys he asked for, it was still a lot compared to what Natalya got. The ones he bought for her were now completely hidden behind them.
"Oh, I totally forgot about your presents," he told her as he sat up slowly, Natalya sliding off him and sitting on the other couch cushion. She looked annoyed to be separated from him. Alfred got up from the couch and walked over to the tree, parting the wall of presents and crouching down to shovel about ten or so presents from far in the back.
He wrapped his arms around them as he stood up, turning to her with a wide grin and marching over to set the presents down on the couch in front of her. The weight caused the cushions to dip, Natalya sliding slightly toward the middle of the couch, until Alfred sat back down and canceled things out. It at least got her a little bit excited that there was something heavy, hopefully meaning it was something better than some books.
She observed as he took a rectangular present and discreetly pulled it away from the pile and hid it behind him, or tried to until she pointed it out. "Is that a second part to a gift or something?" She wondered, pointing at where he hid the gift.
"Uhhhh," he hesitated, pulling the box back out, holding it in both hands and fidgeting with it. "No... it's more like your final gift, I guess."
"I'd expect whichever one of these is so heavy is the final one," she said as she picked at the presents. She couldn't help but feel excited, she isn't used to so many presents from one person. It was a nice change of pace from Finland's scant gift-giving. "You're kinda right. That would be your main gift," he clarified.
Natalya clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth, setting the heavy box to the side and picking up a different one to open. As she took the lid off she raised an eyebrow, reaching down and lifting out a white dress with intricate red patterns all over it. It was one of her country's traditional dresses, and an authentic one at that.
"A little birdie told me you're fond of your country's old-timey dresses. Personally I don't get it. Seems a little flashy for what you usually like to wear, but whatever, you'll probably look cute in it," he said with a shrug. Natalya stayed silent, running her fingers over the fabric. "This is genuine. Where did you get this from?"
"Huh? Oh, I got it from your country," he answered. "I mean, why not get it from the source, right? Though it was a total pain to get. I'm not exactly that knowledgeable on your traditions and stuff you know? So it took a lot to figure out if I was getting my money's worth and not getting some cheap starchy knockoff or something."
"You did good," she praised with a small smile, holding the dress back up for him to see. "I will wear it later, it appears to have the right Christmas colors after all."
After folding it neatly and setting it back in the box, she picked up an identical box, assuming it to be more clothes, as Alfred would verify as he said, "if I'm being honest the dress looked too stuffy for me, so I figured if you want to wear something more casual, I got you... a sundress!" He finished as she took out the dress, revealing it to have the same pattern as the other one.
With a nod she repackaged that as well and moved onto her first wrapped present, tearing it apart to find. . . another book. All joy fell from her face as she slowly turned to stare him in the eyes, his as bright and filled with stars as they always are. "I know, it's another book, but just take a look at it," he suggested with enthusiasm, extending his hand and tapping on the cover with a finger.
She rolled her eyes but looked down, her attitude immediately flipping to curious as she analyzed the cover. It was dark brown leather, wrinkled with age and littered with symbols and glyphs engraved into its surface. Opening the book she skimmed the pages, finding plenty more symbols along with long texts of Latin and other strange tongues.
"The occult?" She asked once finally realizing what was in her hands. He nodded and grinned proudly. "Yup! I stole it from England." She blinked at him a few times, not that she should be surprised by his antics anymore. "What?! Don't look at me like that! He kept trying to summon the devil while I was making s'mores. It was freaky and I didn't want him cursing my marshmallows or something so I took it away from him."
She looked back at the book, flipping through the pages and detecting the ancient magic that radiated from the texts. She'd seen England, Norway and Romania use these before, but she has never held one in her hands, not a real one at least. She always dreamed of having one, partly because she loves the occult, partly because she knew from England that it could be used to summon Russia.
"Just don't summon a demon to come harvest my organs or something. That'd be super uncool," he advised, to which she smirked. "Well now I have to now that you said it." He grimaced to himself, wondering why he always gifts her things she can use to make his life hell.
While he scared himself with thoughts of all sorts of spooky monsters and freaky creatures she could conjure up, she chose her next present, pulling out a small spray bottle. Turning it around she eyed the label curiously. A white piece of paper was taped to the front, the real label having been peeled off. In colorful bold writing it said, "Crazy Jones's Miracle Anti-Lithuanian Repellent!"
In the center there was a picture of Lithuania's face, with a big red circle and cross covering it. Then under that was smaller text that read, "When they don't want to take a hint, give them an answer they can't ignore! One spritz and they'll be running all the way back to Eastern Europe."
"What the hell is this?" She asked out loud, breaking out into a perplexed smile. Alfred stopped chewing on his nails and turned his head, his fear washing away. "Oh, that's a gag gift. Or... I mean, I say that but you can actually use it. I figured it'd be something you'd find funny."
"Can I gag him with it?" She asked seriously as she turned the bottle in her hand a few times with eyes full of intrigue. "Well you'll certainly make him gag," he stated, smirking at his own witty remark. "It's fart spray, and some rank stuff at that. I think there might be some skunk spray mixed in too."
"That's a little dark coming from you," she said while nudging her elbow into his arm. "You're the one always getting upset when I talk about harming the bastard."
"Because he's a great dude! He's really nice and cool and awesome to hang with..." He paused, chewing on his cheek and shrugging sheepishly. "That being said... as much as I like the guy, I can't exactly let him try and flirt and ask out my girlfriend. Even if the two of us are a secret."
"You could've gotten the same result with pepper spray," she pointed out, setting the bottle on the coffee table. Alfred frowned disapprovingly. "That's really painful. I don't want to hurt him, maybe just burn his nostrils a little bit. Plus fart spray is funny."
"Until people think I shat myself," she mentioned, picking at the next present. Alfred cackled loudly, slapping a hand on his knee. "That would definitely keep Lithuania away, to be fair. Not me though, I'd still love my stinky girlfriend."
He pulled her into his side again, their cheeks smushing together. "Oh fuck you," she responded, a grin peeking through the scowl as she pushed him off of her, going back to opening her next present.
Pulling it out of its thin rectangular box her eyes filled with sparkles. She was nearly jumping for joy. "Is this the cardboard cutout of big brother?! I thought he got rid of all of them."
"Oh yeah he did, because of me. It's a pretty dumb story. So as you know he gave them to everyone he thought needed to be better friends with him. And I was number one, because the hero is always number one. I thought it was fun so I took pictures and crap with mine, then it randomly disappeared. I learned later that he got flustered for some reason and took them all back."
He paused as he noticed her growing jealousy, her eyes darkening as he mentioned all the fun he had. Smiling devilishly he continued. "I thought that was scummy, stealing back a gift he had already given me, so I stole mine back. Then as our relations have... soured... over the past few years, so I don't want it anymore. Who better to have it than Miss I'm A Good Girl herself?" He gestured a palm-opened hand to her, putting emphasis on each word of the teasing nickname.
His lovable smirked morphed into a wry grin as she glared harshly, hugging the cutout tight to her face. "You dare mock me?!" She bellowed. Alfred ate it up. "Come on, you claim you're so mature then literally had a tantrum because you didn't understand "why the bad children get a present." That's kinda funny."
"I did not have a tantrum," she said plainly, trying to keep her composure. Alfred poked her in the cheek, his finger squishing into the warm and squishy flesh. "Dude, you literally started crying."
"I did not— I was at my brother's how the fuck do you know any of this!?" She cried out in disbelief, her hands flying up and the cutout flopping down onto the table. He grinned wider and was about to answer, but then she spoke up again. "You know what? Don't answer that." She gripped the hand poking her face, Alfred taking note of how she lowered it down to her side, but didn't let go.
With her free hand she delicately picked up and played with her cutout. He saw that classic, centuries-old look in her eyes she gets when she looks at her brother. She so rarely has the same expression for him he forgets how freaky she can look, her face has been so much softer. Her free hand was all bent and stiff, her nails razor sharp like an eagle's talon as it hovered over the picture of Russia's face.
With his other hand he reached over and wrapped his fingers in her palm, the talon softening into a small and dainty hand, which lightly curled its now harmless fingers around his own. "Don't get weird with it," he cautioned, his voice in her ear, both his and her eyes staring at their hands. "You'll make me jealous."
She looked at their hands a little longer, feeling the breath on her neck. Her fingers curled around his tighter, her chest tightening as well. Though with a blink she released her grip and breathed out. "Let's move on to the next present."
Alfred was happy to oblige, picking up the cutout and removing it from Natalya's line of sight. That is probably for the best. While he removed the distraction, she ripped open the next present. "A knife sharpener," she pointed out. It wasn't a question, it was obvious what it was meant for.
Alfred nodded, an arm back to resting over her shoulders. "Yeah, I gave you all those knives for your birthday then realized they're basically useless if you don't have a way to keep them sharp." Neither had anything to say after that, promptly moving on.
Next was a large rectangular box, and judging by Alfred's shift in body language, this was something he was excited for her to see. Under the wrapping paper she discovered a plastic box with a clear front, showing an action figure of herself within.
Her eyes widened a little, remembering him saying everyone would get one, then she frowned as she began taking it out. "It's freaky how real they look. You stalking everyone?"
"Nah. With how long we've all been around it's sorta hard to forget what everyone looks like," he answered, watching excitedly as she pulled out the figure and held it in her hands.
The box said it was 1/6th scale, which seemed accurate given it appeared a tiny bit smaller than Ukraine's. As for what it looked like, it was a moment frozen in time. Her usual dark blue, almost indigo dress billowed in the wind, jutting out at her right side along with the straps of the white and blue striped bow tied around her waist. Her hair was carried by the wind as well, long and elegant curls rolling and curving every which way, the only thing keeping it secure and out of her face being the white bow on their head.
Her face was mean and intense, though still sharp and elegant, or "totally beautiful" as Alfred would say. One of her hands stayed free at her side, while the other guarded her face while holding a knife in a reverse grip, the sharp edge gleaming menacingly at anyone who dares to touch her.
Further down she saw that the figure had the normal black Mary Janes and leggings, her legs a little wide like she was gearing up for a fight. Though one detail to take note of was that when leaning the figure back she could see what looked like the bottom of a strap to a garter belt. Slowly she leaned it back more, her eyes following the black strand as it disappeared into a dark void.
"Yeah no way I was letting Japan add that, that was too awkward," Alfred said while shaking his head. "My, aren't you protective?" She mused, looking at the accessories in the box. She pulled out a deep green military jacket and began trying to figure out how to switch it with the dress.
"It's not protective," he defended, blushing a little. "Besides, we weren't together then anyway. I don't want any of the nation's figures to be sexualized. These are cool toys, not some gross thing you shove in a mason jar."
"Mason jar..?" She inquired, utterly confused. "Forget about it, let's go onto the next gift," he deflected. He didn't want to talk about sexualizing his own friends. Sure, only the respective nation would get their own figure, but it's downright uncomfortable with the sketching out and planning he does with Japan and their whole production studio. They don't all need to see the world's underwear.
Realizing he had been silent for a while he spoke up. "Uh... anyway next gifts." Reaching into the now couple of presents he picked up the smaller one, thumbing it fondly with a smile.
Natalya set down her action figure, now clad in a military uniform and holding a Tokarev SVT-40, a classic Soviet WW2 gun. Alfred and Japan really must've done their research to get things this detailed.
Now with free hands he set the small box in them, piquing her curiosity once more as she noticed this box wasn't wrapped. Lifting the box lid off she saw another box inside, a square, velvety black box. Taking that out, she slowly lifted that lid, opening at its hinge to reveal a necklace, a bright, lustrous, beautiful necklace.
She gaped at the sparkling treasure, carefully taking it out of its box and holding it up in front of her face. The whole length of the chain was encrusted in white diamonds, center diamonds increasing in size as it reached the middle, while miniature diamonds outlined the center gems, a line of ocean waves rippling along the chain. Light danced off each and every one, shimmering little prisms that begged for her attention.
All the diamonds with their increasing size trailed toward the central and main diamond, exponentially larger than the rest and dangling freely from the others. It was a deep violet, the same exact color as her eyes. She gawked at it for several minutes, starting to doubt that this was real life.
"Holy shit Alfred," she marveled, not able to say more. He smiled, out of every gift he hoped she would like this the most. "It's beautiful isn't it?" He asked, his voice low and steady. She couldn't even nod. Holding her chin he turned her head, breaking her view of the necklace and replacing it with his vibrant blue eyes. "It matches your eyes."
Leaning in he kissed her deeply, her previously focused eyes hazing over, her hand jolting and nearly sending the necklace flying, the other clawing desperately at his shirt sleeve. He pulled away eventually, their lips parting with a wet smack.
The light immediately returned in her eyes, along with a scowl. "First you tease me and now you're being all sexual. Make up your damn mind already!" She wanted it to continue, they both did. It's been too long.
"Wanna try on your necklace?" He suggested. "I'd like to see how it fits." She let go of him and returned her attention to the twinkling jewelry. Untying the bow around her collar she loosened the top of the undershirt, leaving her neck exposed. Then she turned the necklace around and brought it to her neck, wrapping it around and securing it in with a satisfying click.
Letting go of it she tested how it felt resting on her neck. It felt secure. It felt perfect. She smiled warmly, grazing the big purple diamond with her fingers, taking in its smoothness and the neat angular cuts in the gem. "I like it," she accepted with a nod. "It looks good on you," he complimented, staring between her neck and her eyes, the bright jewel bringing out her bizarre yet enchanting eyes.
"How much did this cost?" She finally asked, only for Alfred to shake his head. "Who cares? Just enjoy it." He turned and picked up the large and heavy present, holding it out in front of her and smiling sweetly. "Merry Christmas Natalya."
She couldn't look at his smile for very long, taking the box from him with a small "Thank you." Something in her gut was telling her to be gentle with whatever contents were inside. Quickly unwrapping her main gift, she opened the top and found a row of thin cardboard and paper... sheets?
She pulled one of them out, noticing that it wasn't just some random piece of cardboard, it was an album. Specifically a Davie Bowie album cover, with a fancily written signature right on the front. "What... is this?" She asked, the shock evident on her face. He grinned pridefully, more than eager to explain.
"Only a huge collection of priceless signed rock albums. There are even a good few rare editions, mint condition of course. Plus they're all a ton of great classics: David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, Janis Joplin... I could go on. Given you're a total rockstar like me I figured you'd love this."
Natalya darted her eyes around, trying to prevent him from seeing her emotions. "I-I'm not... I don't like rock music," she mumbled. Even she didn't believe her own words. Alfred shrugged nonchalantly. "Ok. If you really don't want them..." He reached out toward the box to take it back, only for Natalya to hug them defensively and stare at him like she had just been threatened.
He retracted the hand and left her alone, letting her sift through the albums to see what she had gotten. He watched how her eyes would brighten whenever she recognized something, or how her brows would slightly twitch when she was more unsure. She pleasantly appeared to recognize even more than he thought she would.
"Why would you do this all for me?" She had to ask, turning to him, those large violet eyes full of confusion. Alfred wasn't expecting that question. He didn't know what to say, so she decided to continue. "We have only just gotten together. I thought we were still building trust again, why would you give me all these things? They're either stupidly expensive, you built them, or you stole them. A lot of these were your things anyway, why trust me with them?"
Alfred stayed silent for a moment, his face slowly turning red as he rubbed his neck. "I uh... I mean first of all I have hundreds of albums in storage so I'm not too worried about giving you some. Also money really isn't an issue here, not that I want your gifts to be about how much I spent. So don't get caught up on that."
He paused, thinking over what he wanted to say next. Knowing he would inevitably become too embarrassed to speak he let out a warm chuckle and a defeated shrug. "I know it's stupid to go this quick, after just rehashing things, but I can't help it. I just, I like you a lot, like, I think about you a lot, and think about doing stuff with you... and stuff."
He put a hand to his face and laughed into it. "God I'm awful at talking with you. You'd think being together would make it easier." Raising his head up he took a deep breath, steeling himself and turning to face her directly. She was tight-lipped and red as a lobster. How is it that two of the most confident people can barely discuss their own feelings with each other. The irony of it all.
"I think about you and a big part of me really wants to see you happy. I mean, I want to make everyone happy, but... I don't know, I can't explain it but I really like making you happy. Just part of loving you I guess. So yeah I wanted to give you the coolest gifts ever. Though yeah, pretty dumb given I should still be cautious about all this."
"It's not dumb. Naïve, maybe," she said. Nothing more than that. Rather she turned slightly and leaned into his side, holding him tightly, enough to crush a normal man's ribs. For Alfred though, he accepted the hug and put a hand on the back of her head, rubbing it as he gazed down at her red face lovingly. The two ogled at each other's faces for a moment, then proceeded to begin kissing again, everything erupting in fire.
As Alfred slowly leaned back on the couch again Natalya followed him down, though as he landed they both froze as they heard a loud crinkling noise. Feeling something on his back Alfred reached behind himself and pulled out the present he had previously hid. "The final present," Natalya thought out loud as she snatched it from his hand.
Alfred snapped up frantically as she sat back up, speedily tearing the box apart. "Oh um... maybe you shouldn't—" But it was too late, she had already gotten ahold of it and was now opening it.
The second the top was removed her red face darkened, her eyes falling upon, what else, but that familiar pair of lingerie, all neatly folded and prepared for her. Slowly her eyes made their way to Alfred, who was nearly maroon. He attempted to speak, but kept catching himself on his tongue. "I-I didn't— it wasn't—"
Out of desperation he slapped himself in the face to refocus, then went back to rubbing his neck. "I was thinking, since we're together, n-not now, but, like, later, when we're more comfortable, we could... use it..? I can get rid of it if you want, but I was digging through my closet and found it and figured if we're together, why not then?"
As he rambled in a panic she tossed the box behind her, striking him silent. With a sly little grin she crawled toward him, her hands grabbing onto his legs, her face right in front of his. "I'll consider it, but let's leave it for now. Now, why don't you come and make me happy, like you say you love to do." They quickly went back to kissing.