Claire Pov

When I woke up this morning I didn't have any Italian bedfellows to deal with, so without further adieu I throw on some jeans and a purple t-shirt and fix my long hair into a topknot before heading downstairs. Germany was already in the kitchen when I came in, "Morning" I say as I head straight for the coffee maker. "Guten morgen" says Germany looking up from a newspaper he was reading. "Where do you guys keep the coffee?" I ask after opening a couple cabinets and coming up empty handed. "Second from the left, top shelf" says Germany flipping a page.

"Aha!" I say as I grab the coffee out of the cabinet. I pour some into a filter and set the machine brewing before plopping myself in a chair across from Germany. I'm absolutely useless before getting caffeine into my system in the mornings, so I keep quiet until I've drank half a mug of coffee. "So what are you boys up to today?" I ask fully awake now. "Italy and I are going to start our training shortly, but as usual he seems to be lazing about in bed" says Germany tersely. But after a few minutes Italy walks into the kitchen in a beeline towards the coffee maker. "I thought I smelled caffe!" says Italy happily pouring himself a mug and sitting next to Germany.

"Well hurry up because we were supposed to start training half an hour ago" says Germany. "Ve, ok!" says Italy gulping down his coffee and jumping up. "Can I join you two?" I ask, I'm curious to see how what their training is like in person. "Sure bella it'll be more fun with you there!" says Italy excitedly grabbing my hand and pulling me out of my chair. We all troop out the back door and walk through the gardens surrounding the back of the house and into a huge clearing with a path looping around it.

"I'm going to stretch a bit before we get to exercising guys" I say plopping onto the grass. I ease into the splits and start stretching my legs a bit and then go into a bridge stretch to work my back loose (a bridge is where you lay on your back and lift up onto only your hands and feet so you're in a upside down U). "Wow Claire, you're really flexible!" says Italy looking at me upside down, or rather I'm looking at him upside down.

"Oh you should see my teacher, she can can kick about a foot above my head, so I have quite a ways to go!" I say as I flip up into a standing position. "So what do you guys usually start with?" I ask Germany.

"100 situps, 60 pushups, and 20 laps" says Germany briskly. "Doesn't sound too bad" I say and get to work. Germany blasts through his situps and pushups and starts his laps before Italy and I are even half done. Italy collapses in the middle of his pushups but I'm able to get through them all and get up. "Come on lets run our laps together!" I say pulling Italy up off the ground. "Ve...ok...whew" pants Italy as he gets up. To my surprise he actually keeps up with me on the track, I'm not running very fast but I have set a pretty good pace for him to follow. Halfway through our laps I stumble and notice my sneaker's laces have untied, "Hold up" I say and start to bend down to tie my laces but Italy beats me to it and ties the bow for me.

"Th-thanks" I stutter surprised, I don't know how he keeps surprising me like that! I think. "You're welcome!" chirps Italy and we start up jogging again. I'm pretty flushed from the training so I don't think he notices me blushing and I'm able to finish the laps with him in a few minutes. After we finish we walk back through the gardens and into the house. I head into the kitchen and get down two glasses, fill them both, and hand one to Italy after gulping mine down. "I can't believe you guys do that every morning!" I say still out of breath.

"Germany says we have to otherwise we might get caught off guard, but I don't know by who" says Italy after drinking his glass down. "I'm going to head upstairs and get cleaned up" I say and head up to my room.

I shuck off my dirty clothes and take a long hot shower rinsing off all of the grime and sweat from all of the running. After standing under the warm running water for a few minutes I get out and towel off before throwing on some clean jeans and a long sleeve shirt. After I've gotten my hair halfway dry and tamed I meander downstairs to see where everyone has gotten to. I find Germany in the living room talking on his cell phone

"Yes. Ok we will be there shortly, yes. Goodbye." He ends the call and sees me standing in the doorway. "We will be going to England's residence shortly, he needs to have you close at hand to finish determining how to reverse the spell" says Germany.

"I guess I'll go round my stuff up then, where did Italy get to?" I ask. "He is upstairs asleep, he will be coming with us too." says Germany. I feel relieved when I hear Italy is coming with me, I don't think I want to go with Germany all by myself, even though I've gotten to know him a bit he's still pretty intimidating! I nod and head upstairs to stuff all my clothes into a duffel bag I found in the closet of Italy's clothes. I have a bit of trouble getting it to zip, France insisted on getting me accessories to go with every outfit he chose so it's a bit of a workout getting it all to fit. After wrestling the bag shut I drag it down the staircase thumping on each step since it's so heavy. Germany and Italy are in the hallway waiting for me, "Are you ready?" asks Germany already turning to head out the door. "Yeah, Italy will you give me a hand?" I ask motioning at the duffel. "Ve, of course!" he says happily and we both grab an end and haul it out to the car and into the trunk. We all pile into the car and head towards the airport in town, I've never flown before I hope nothing goes wrong!

Thank you for all your lovely reviews, they really encourage me to keep updating, and make me smile!

^J^