A/N: So sorry about the late updates! In my defense, I had this chapter ready to post on Friday night, but I wasn't able to get on the Internet until now. I still plan to have the next chapter out tomorrow, if I can get it written by then T.T
This chapter was kind of taken over by chibi!Russia and chibi!Belarus (too cute~). It wasn't until after I'd written the chapter that I realized those two wouldn't have been so chibi at the time when the story is supposed to take place. History fail on my part. So, just ignore that, I guess. I never expected the story to be very accurate anyway. Funny thing is, Melon/West and I discovered that a lot of the other plot points actually work with history pretty well, even though we were bad and didn't do research.
Anyway, here it is. I think you guys will like this one 8D
"So, please remind me why I'm here again," Katyusha said, watching Roderich pace back and forth across the floor of the stuffily decorated front room. She had given up on watching him before she had even started, even though the other option was to keep and eye on her siblings. Ivan was easy to keep civilized, since he was merely gaping at the entire room. Natalia, on the other hand, was examining every potentially dangerous object she could lay her hands on.
"Look, sister," Natalia said, staring at Katyusha with large blue eyes. "It is a knife." She held up the ornate weapon, smiling slightly.
"It is. Now put it back."
"Let me see!" Ivan interrupted, taking the knife from his sister. "Nat! It's shiny, da?"
"Da!" the younger girl agreed enthusiastically, clapping her hands as she tried to get the weapon back. "I wanna hold it!"
"Nyet!"
Roderich was only mildly disturbed. He had more important things to nearly have a heart attack about than Katyusha's borderline psychotic siblings.
"Ah, yes, Ukraine, I do believe you asked me why I had invited you over," he continued, ignoring Natalia and Ivan's argument.
"Mmmhmm." The other nation was distracted as she grabbed a squirming Natalia by the waist and pulled her onto her lap.
"Kat! I wanna play with Ivan!" the little girl protested.
"Sshh. I'm talking to Austria right now." She turned her gaze to Roderich, who still looked uncomfortable. "I apologize. And, yes, I did ask that."
"Right. So… I suppose I had better come out and say it…" He paused, Katyusha's gaze still fixed on him, even with Natalia straining at her grip and Ivan fingering the knife.
For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to voice his thoughts. He had been able to tell the messenger he sent to the other nation, but not the woman herself. Obviously, he was terrified, and the two smaller countries weren't helping.
"Kat, why isn't he speaking?" Natalia asked, looking up at her sister with her same innocent expression. "Do we need to torture him?"
"No!" Katyusha replied instantly. "That's not how we treat people, is it, Nat?"
The younger looked confused. "But… I thought it was."
"Well, it's not, dear. Roderich is just taking his time; he'll talk to us in a moment. See, when someone doesn't tell you something, you either ask or wait for his or her answer. Being mean won't help you."
Natalia was quiet for a moment as she pondered this. "You are funny, sister. That is a funny way of doing things, right, Ivan?"
The boy didn't bother thinking for long. "I think you should give them sunflowers!"
"I like sunflowers," Natalia informed Roderich, giving him her best serious stare. "I like them because Brother does."
"Natalia! Please, be quiet for just a moment so Roderich can speak!" Katyusha gave him a flustered smile. Natalia took advantage of her sister's embarrassment to break free of her restraints and crawl over to Ivan, settling herself in his lap with her head on his shoulder.
"Um… very well then," Roderich said, still unsure of whether or not he actually wanted to share with her, now that she was here. "I asked for you to visit because… I need advice. Now that Italy has left my house, I really have no one to ask for… matters such as this."
"Advice?" She seemed shocked that anyone would actually ask her for advice on anything. After all, she was the one who had failed in raising her two siblings, no matter how normal they looked with Ivan's arm around his sister and her snuggled against him.
"Yes… advice. You are a woman, after all, so I presumed that you would be of the ability to aid me in this… endeavor."
She giggled lightly, since Roderich's nerves were showing. "Calm down, Austria. I'll try my best to help you, although I'm not sure how well I'll do." She cast a furtive glance at her cuddling siblings.
"Ah… of course." He took a deep breath and looked away. It would be easier to get it all out at once. "I was planning on proposing to Miss Hungary."
"That is so sweet!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands. This outburst caused Natalia to look, curiosity barely showing on her emotionless face.
"Is proposing getting married?" she asked.
"Yes, Nat. When you propose to someone you love a lot, it means you want to get married."
"Oh." The young country sounded like she'd had a low-key epiphany. She looked like she was about to say something else, but she instead laid her head back on Ivan's tiny chest.
Katyusha was planning on giving Roderich yet another apologetic glance, but he was too busy blushing and looking away. She sighed. Why did she always have to be the mature one? "So, Roderich, what exactly do you need help with?"
"Well, I need a way to propose to her," he said, trying to sound businesslike while suppressing his blush.
All three of the visiting nations seemed deep in thought for a few minutes, all the while Roderich began pacing nervously once more.
"I know!" Natalia said at length. Both Roderich and Katyusha seemed to be dreading the child's idea. "You should just ask her, and if she says no you can cut off her finger and put the ring on it anyway."
The creepy factor was only intensified by the completely normal tone in which she had been speaking for the entire visit.
"Nat, that's not very nice," Katyusha said. "If you loved someone, would you want to cut off their finger?" The younger girl nodded. "What about Ivan? Would you want to cut off his finger?"
She thought about this for a moment. "Does this mean I can propose to him?"
Everyone looked sufficiently disturbed, although Katyusha looked as fed up as a person like her could. "Nat, dear, why don't you and Ivan go play in the garden?"
"Do they have sunflowers?" Ivan asked, looking far too hopeful.
"Um… I'm sure they do." The young country brightened at his sister's words, and immediately dragged Nat away, prattling on about sunflowers.
Katyusha let out a relieved sigh as she turned back to Roderich. "I am so terribly sorry about them. Sometimes I feel like I have completely failed at raising them…"
"It's alright," Roderich said, awkwardly patting er shoulder.
She smiled slightly, letting out another sigh. "So, yes, I have a plan. If you want to, here's what I think you should do…"
*insert obnoxious border here*
As a (former) warrior, Elizaveta should have learned to expect surprise attacks. However, when they came from her uptight lover of more than a year, they were practically nonexistent and therefore completely unexpected. So, it was perfectly rational that when she felt arms encircling her waist from behind, she instantly went into attack mode . "Hello, Lizzy," Roderich said, so close that she could feel his lips moving against her neck as he spoke.
"Mmm?" After realizing that it was Roderich after all, she let herself abandon any though if actually doing chores and instead leaned back against his chest.
"I need you to do something for me."
"What kind of thing? Maybe something in bed?" she asked playfully, knowing full well how he would react. Still, she couldn't help hoping that someday soon he would let up.
"Don't be so lewd." She could picture his blush, which caused her to laugh. "My morals are not amusing." Even Roderich didn't sound serious as he said that.
"Yes they are. Why else would I be laughing?"
"Because you're cruel and insensitive." He kissed the top of her head as he said this, which was oddly forward for him. Usually Elizaveta would have to be the one to instigate any sort of physical affection.
"You know me," she laughed. "Now, what did you want me to do?"
"Stop using that tone. It's nothing remotely related to our relationship. I simply need you to clean the music room for me."
She groaned. "The music room? You're making the woman you love clean the largest room in this fu-"
"Language. And, yes, I am. I'm terribly sorry, but I need you to do this."
"Why? There are tons of other maids who you can boss around. You can't do that to me you know, because then I might decide I'm tired of you."
It was meant as a half-joke, but Elizaveta could have sworn she heard Roderich gasp. "Please, Lizzy," he said, sounding like he had lost most of his composure, "for me?"
She paused. If he had not sounded quite so broken, she would have vehemently refused. But, since he seemed rather distressed, she sighed audibly and none too gently broke free of his hold. "Fine."
"Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me."
"No, I don't, because I can't see what meaning me cleaning the largest floor in the house has, unless it turns you on or something."
"That's not it!" he said rapidly. "There are some supplies in there already."
Something was definitely up. She gave him a long, obviously annoyed stare before she walked off in the direction of the music room. Sure enough, when she arrived she saw, sitting absurdly in the middle of the floor, a bucket. Nothing else but that random bucket.
Rolling her eyes, Elizaveta walked over to the bucket and looked inside, still moving cautiously as the peculiar situation dictated. However, she could see nothing out of the ordinary but the soapy water.
Since she would need something to clean with and Roderich had told her that she wouldn't need to bring any supplies, that left the possibly of there being something to use hidden inside the bucket. She kneeled in front of it and stuck her hand into the water, feeling around for a cloth or other such object.
Instead, her hand brushed against what felt like a box. Intrigued, she ran her hand by that spot again and, sure enough, her fingertips brushed wood too smooth to be that of the bucket. Fishing around once more, she managed to grab the little box and pull it out.
It was a well-made little thing, tightly sealed to protect its contents from the water. As to why it was in there in the first place, Elizaveta had no clue. However, she didn't plan on letting this stop her from finding out just what was inside. For something that bizarre, it was surprisingly easy to open.
All it contained was a diamond ring.
For a moment, all thought ceased. Just as she realized what this most likely was, Roderich was at her side, kneeling beside her. "I hope you're not too mad at me," he murmured.
"Only if this means what I think it means."
"Then I will gladly explain." He gulped and turned to face her, adjusting his position so that he was now on one knee. He gently took the box from her hands and cleared his throat once more, as if it would help him gather his courage. "Elizaveta… my boss has been speaking to me about something… something very, very important that will most definitely change both of our lives. He claims that it is only temporary but… even if it is, I feel that it will be better than nothing. I know that we have only been aware of and actively displaying our feelings for a year or so, but we have known each other for far longer and I… I want this. It is my boss's command, but I believe that I want it more than he. So, I suppose I have nothing left but to ask you, my dearest Lizzy… will you marry me?"
Even though she had definitely seen it coming, especially after he started blushing, his words still took her by surprise. "Roddy," she said slowly, taking a deep breath, "that was one of the things I thought you would never say." She glanced at him (instead of the floor) and saw a mixture of hope and despair in his expression. "And therefore I have no reservations in saying 'hell yes!'"
He was barely able to say, "Language," before Elizaveta tackled him with a fierce hug. He was smiling, she knew, as he reached around her to take the ring out of its box and slide it on to her left ring finger.
As soon as she felt the foreign metal band around her finger, she reached up to cup his face in her hands. "I love you, Roderich Edelstein," she whispered against his lips before pressing the tiniest bit further. Almost automatically, his hands went to her waist as he gently bit down on her lower lip and it began again.
While Elizaveta figured that this should have been the sweetest, most loving kiss the two had ever shared, it felt more like something out of her more perverse dreams. It was more hands and teeth and tongue than the slow, sappy kisses that had become normal. Not that she had a problem with those, but this was a side of her Roddy that she had never before seen.
Seriously. It wasn't every day that he was on top of her while she laid on the floor on the floor, kissing her senseless – this was as close to dominating someone as he had probably ever come, and she decided that she kind of liked it.
Roderich's hand was halfway to her chest when she heard an all-too-familiar "Ve?" from the doorway.
That caused any kissing to stop (and Roderich's hand to lose any progress, she noted sadly), their gazes drawn to the three figures looking at them in various degrees of shock. The only two Elizaveta actually recognized were Italy and Prussia. The blonde boy next to the albino was a mystery.
"Veeee! Amore! You are so cute~" Feli exclaimed, clapping. The new boy looked at him with a mixture of disapproving and disturbance.
This caused the two on the floor (even though Roddy was no longer on top of her) to blush and the strange boy to shove the doors closed. However, that didn't stop Gilbert's cry of, "Lizzy's doing it with HIM?"
OMAKE
"Ivan? Nat? Time to go!" Katyusha called, walking out into the garden looking for her younger siblings. Of course she loved them, but sometimes they grated on her nerves. Like now. The two were nowhere to be found. It wasn't as if sunflowers grew in the middle of winter. That was probably why Ivan was so thrilled whenever he saw them.
Suddenly, she noticed a brown-ish clump off to her left, away from the rest of the garden. Curious, she headed toward it. If her siblings couldn't find a sunflower patch, then they would most likely settle for the most morbid place they could find.
Turns out, the clump was both. She was abruptly met with the sight of an old sunflower garden; the stems bent over so it was almost like a cave. The plants were gray now, so it was easy to see the bright(er) colors of her siblings' clothes between the stalks. Ivan was curled up on the ground, asleep, with one arm around Natalia. It was almost cute, despite the location.
"Kat?" Natalia asked softly. "Are we leaving now?"
Her big sister nodded. "We are. Now wake up your brother so we can go."
"Ivan won't want to."
"This isn't about what Ivan wants. I need to get you two home."
Natalia said nothing and pouted. It didn't last long, however, since she immediately brightened. "Look, Kat!" she exclaimed, sitting up and holding out a particularly grey and wilted sunflower with most of the petals missing.
"What is it, Nat?" She tried to sound as sweet as possible, but she wasn't sure how well it came out.
"Look at the flower I picked for Brother!"
Katyusha could only smile and nod.