Claire POV
England and I got home rather early last night, but I was totally wiped out so I conked out on my bed still fully dressed. When I woke up it was just getting light out, so I rolled over onto my side to look at the clock. It only read 5:45 but I don't think there's any chance of me going back to sleep so I might as well get up.
I slip out of my rumpled clothes from the night before and take a shower to fully wake myself up, standing under the hot water usually snaps me out of the half awake daze I usually stumble around in after getting up. I throw on a denim skirt, a long sleeved blouse and quickly wrap my waist length hair into a messy bun. I slowly open the door, but it creaks loudly making me wince at the loud noise. I'm pretty sure Mr. Grumpy won't take kindly to being waken up at the crack of dawn. I pause at the doorway a moment listening for any reaction but the house is silent. I ease the door open the rest of the way and pad down the staircase in my bare feet, the floor is a bit chilly but not too bad. The summers back at home are always so hot and miserable, after the first few weeks the grass gets all dried out and crunchy and going outside in the heat is just dreadful. But over here, it's much nicer and cool, but still warm enough to remind you of the season.
"Hmmmph what should I do now that I'm down here?" I wonder to myself out loud. I wander down the hallway and see that the door to the kitchen is open, Hey, maybe if I make breakfast before England gets up I won't have to force down more of that god awful porridge! I walk into the kitchen and close the door behind me, I don't want England hearing me and coming to "help". I open up the huge fridge in the corner to see what I have to work with. There are a lot of mysterious dark tupperware bowls full of what I guess are leftovers from England's previous meals, and some weird glass jars in the door full of murky liquids. But after a little digging, I find some eggs, cheese, and one slightly sad looking bell pepper. "That'll have to do for now", I'm not much of a cook, most of what I make are pastries and cakes for the bakery. But I can make decent omelets, so omelets it is!
Half an hour later after I've almost finished with the food, the door to the kitchen swings open and England walks in, looking bleary eyed and haggard. "You look terrible!" I blurt without thinking. "Why thank you for that most astute observation" says England snarkily, crossing the room. "I'm sorry, I just meant you look exhausted" I say. "Well, since America barged in and commandeered my study I wasn't able to get any of my paperwork done, so I stayed up late last night finishing it". Oh, and he spent all of yesterday entertaining me and driving me around town, ugh this is my fault too. "I'll get breakfast started in a moment-" "Oh, I already made something" I interrupt. He looks over my shoulder and sees the omelets sizzling in the pan, "Well is there anything I can help with?" asks England. "NO!" I say loudly, "Umm no, you're so tired out already and these are almost done, so why don't you go rest for a moment in the living room and I'll call you when I'm ready" I say ushering him out of the room. Whew, crisis averted, I think to myself after I get him out. I finish up the omelets and bring a kettle of water to a boil so England can have some tea. I bring the plates and tea out into the dining room, and call England in to eat. After sitting down, he takes a bite of the omelet and makes a surprised sound. "This is even better than my cooking!" says England digging in. "Thanks" I say, although that isn't much of a compliment is it? England finishes eating before me and is sipping tea while I eat the last of my eggs when a phone rings somewhere in the house. "Who is calling me so early?" says England looking annoyed, and he gets up and goes off to answer the phone.
England POV
My personal line in my study is the one ringing, so I run up the stairs and I'm a bit out of breath when I seize the phone of the hook trying to get it before it stops ringing. "H-hello?" I say wheezing. "Bonjour Angleterre!" I groan leaning against the wall, "Why on earth are you calling me so early you damn frog!" I say angrily. "Well excuse moi, I was actually trying to help you out!" says France. "But you sound so out of breath, have you been "busy" already this morning?" says France with a leer in his voice. "Just what are you insinuating!" I shout. "Hohohohohon, I think you know exactly what I mean Angleterre!" I'm about to retort when Claire comes through the door, "Who is it?" she asks. "No one important, just the frog" I say. "Oh, it's France? Tell him I say hi!" says Claire. I'm about to say no, but she did go to all the trouble of making me breakfast..."Ughh, Claire says hello" I say into the phone. "Tell the mademoiselle bonjour from me!" "He says hello back" I say. "Oh, Angleterre, give the phone to Claire maybe she'll tell me what has you so worked up?" says France. "There is no way I'm letting a pervert like you talk to her!" I shout, Claire jumps a bit at my raised voice. "Well, I don't think I'm needed in here, I'll just go... and wash the dishes!" she ends abruptly and escapes the room.
"And you're always going on about what a gentleman you are" says France triumphantly, apparently he ad heard what Claire had said. "Well it's your fault you frog! Why did you call me in the first place!"
"Ahh, I almost forgot, Amérique asked me to tell you he needs you to go over there today" says France. "Well why didn't he call himself?" "He said something about being busy with his haunted house". "But he was able to call you about it? What a dolt". "Well who raised him? I've always said I make a much better parent, just look at Matthew!". "Well at least Alfred doesn't disappear in the middle of meetings and has to be tracked down!" I say angrily. We start to argue whole heartedly, but I realize if I have to go over the pond I should start getting ready and tell Claire. The frog is in the middle of a long tirade about how french cuisine is superior and I try to interrupt but just end up hanging up on him. Well that had to have some effect!
I go downstairs to assist Claire in putting up the breakfast things, but they've already been cleaned and put away. I find her reading on the sofa and I tell her that were headed to America. She seems to take it in stride and heads upstairs to pack her things, I should probably get all the things I'll need to prepare the spell at the full moon, we'll probably be stuck at Alfred's until then. I walk down to the basement and pull down the spellbooks, candles, and ingredients I need and put them into a leather case. I'm a bit relieved to have this come to an end, but I'm sad to see the lass leave so soon, she's brought a bit of color into my usual humdrum life.
Claire POV
After I get all my clothes stuffed into the duffel bag from Italy's, I grab a couple of books from the bookshelf before heading downstairs. "Hey is it alright if I borrow these for on the flight?" I ask England, holding up the books. "Oh that's fine love, you can keep them if you want, I'll probably never get around to reading them again" says England as we head out the door. The drive and getting through the airport are uneventful, the guards wave us through after nodding respectfully at England so we practically glide through security. All is calm until we get on the plane and walk down the aisle to our seats, and a certain Frenchman is sitting smugly in the middle of our row. "Oh, Claire, England! Fancy meeting you here!" says France with a smirk directed at England. We're almost thrown off the plane because of the resulting row England makes but he finally settles down at my pleading. But he makes France get out of the middle seat because "I won't allow such a pervert to sit next to Claire for over seven hours!". So I end up getting the window, England the middle, and France the aisle. Thankfully we're able to get through the rest of the flight somewhat peacefully, with only a little yelling from England when France starts flirting outrageously with one of the stewardesses.
After we land in New York the minute we get a hold of our baggage, England books it out of the airport with me in tow, trying to lose France before he can catch up. He hails a taxi, gets our bags situated, I slide in the taxi, England gets into the front, and all of the sudden the passenger door across from me opens and in comes France! The cabbie sees me greeting France, so I guess he thinks it's ok so we start our drive to America's. England puts up quite a fuss, and I think he's going to try to get the cabbie to pull over so he can throw France out, but after France offers to pay the fare he just sits there steaming for the rest of the ride. While we're driving France asks me questions about my time in London and I answer most of them honestly and hedge around the ones pertaining to England's "cooking". France seems disappointed that I don't have any complaints about England's food, so he decides that England must of killed my taste buds, like he must of done to America's, and that he must take me somewhere with French food A.S.A.P to remedy the situation. When we finally pull up to America's, I swear that cabbie was driving as slowly as physically possible!, I dart out of the car and run up the driveway to the door of the house. Well it's more a mansion than a house, it's looks bigger than the white house almost!
After hearing some banging from inside, the door slams open revealing Italy. "Ve, Claire you're finally here! I don't think I can take much more of America's planning, it's too scary! Come on, you and I are going to go into town and get some real pasta, can you believe it the only pasta America has is in a little box with this weird orange powdery stuff he called cheese! And the only other food in his house is hamburgers, I haven't gone this long without pasta in years, veh!" rambles Italy, and he pulls me down the street. "Hey wait, shouldn't I tell America I'm here first?" I say protesting, but Italy must be using that italian running superpower of his because I can't pull free. I give up and yell down the street at England "HEY ENGLAND I'M OFF WITH ITALY, I'LL BE BACK LATER!" England waves back looking confused so I guess he must of heard me.
After a few blocks Italy finally slows down and turns around to face me with a sheepish grin on his face, "Sorry I dragged you out here like this bella, I just haven't seen in you in so long!" he chirps happily. "You just saw me two days ago! Well I can't stay mad at you when you grin at me like that, just give me more of a heads up next time would'ya?" I say smiling back. "Ve, sure!"
After walking a couple blocks and keeping a hold of Italy's hand so he doesn't dart off somewhere without me, I ask where we're going. "I don't know, I just thought it'd be nice to take a walk on such a beautiful day with you bella!" says Italy. I look away and blush a bit, "Well it looks like there's a park over there, do you want to walk in?" I ask. "Ve, that sounds fun, come on!" he says speeding up and pulling me along, where does he get all this energy? We walk into the park and follow a path into the center of it, it's a weekday so there's hardly anyone here. As we turn onto another path Italy sees an icecream vendor, "Hey bella do you want to get some ice cream?" "Sure! Could I have a chocolate chip one?" I ask. He's already on his way over there and talking to the man at the cart, he gets a strawberry cone and when the man tells him the total he pulls out some foreign bills and looks dismayed, "Ah, don't worry about it" I say and pull out a ten from my back pocket. I had decided I should probably start carrying some money on me before I left England's, what with all the random dashing about. After I pay and thank the man we slowly walk along eating our ice cream. "So you like chocolate?" asks Italy. "Yeah, I really like rockyroad too, but I always get nuts stuck in between my teeth" I say laughing. Italy laughs a bit too, and we walk out of the park just as we finish our cones.
A couple of stores lie across the street from us and Italy notices them, "Hey, we should get you a dress for the party!" he says. "Ah, no! You and France already spent so much on clothes for me!" I say protesting. "Well then we can just look can't we?" says Italy. "Well, I guess so" I say. We cross the street and enter one of the shops, it's a vintage thrift shop with old glamorous dresses on mannequins out front. I'm perusing the racks not really paying much attention since we're not buying anything anyway, when Italy pulls outs an A-line dress with a sweetheart neckline, "Hey look this one's chocolate colored!" he says. "Huh, it is!" I say looking it over. It even has white trim around the neck and bottom so it sort of looks like rockyroad. "Go try it on!" says Italy pushing the dress into my arms. "Hey, I said we aren't buying anything!" I protest as he pushes me towards a dressing room in the back. "We're not leaving 'till you try it on bella!" he says arms crossed and a determined look on his face. "Ugh, fine", He can be pretty stubborn!
I slip the dress on, and to my surprise it fits perfectly, and since Italy probably won't believe me if I say it didn't fit, I come out of the dressing room to show him. He motions for me to turn around so I do a little spin and the skirt floats around me, "Bella you look fantastico!" says Italy clapping his hands together. I go back into the dressing room and change back into my clothes and put the dress back on the hanger. When I come out I go to put the dress back on the rack but Italy takes it from me and heads towards the register. "Italy get back here!" I say disapprovingly, but he's already plopped it down on the counter and a young woman is ringing it up. "I'll pay you back at America's house, so don't worry so much! Veh, You look so much prettier with a smile than that grumpy frown!" says Italy with a smile of his own.
Looks like I have no choice in the matter so I pull out the money and pay the cashier, so much for my pocket money, I think. She puts it into a pink and brown paper bag with tissue paper and holds it out to Italy for him to carry. As we walk out and down the street Italy starts humming happily lightly swinging the bag back and forth. "I can see how you get away with so much with Germany" I mutter. "Huh?" says Italy. "Oh nothing" I say, he probably doesn't even notice he's doing it, the charmer! When we finally get back to America's place and get through the door I can hear America and France yelling and England screaming, what in God's name have they done now!
Hiya everybody! I've procrastinated so long on writing this chapter, but I finally sat myself down today and wrote out an outline for the rest of the story, (and there may or may not of been a lot of SAO involved in between bouts of writing). Anyway hoped you enjoyed and stay tuned for new countries next chapter!