YOUR FACE IS KAWAII! 'Ellos audience! *gets chased by Tobuscus and Pewdiepie* GERRRRRRRRRMAAAAAAAANYYYYYYYYYYY!Some of my favorite YouTube guys are chasing me agaaaaaaain!
So there I was, slung over Germany's shoulder like some sack of potatoes as he walked through the forest. It was a little weird…okay, a LOT weird, being carried around like that I hadn't been since I'd been a little kid, so you can imagine how strange it was as an adult.
Gosh he's strong, I thought. I was against his back after all; I could feel the well-developed muscles…
My eyes flew open. No. No no no no NO! I wanted to keep my mind virgin! I knew that I was an adult so it was a little too late for that, but I try not to give into the sick-mindedness that was so stereotypical to our age group, and being carried by a big buff guy was not helping.
"Put me down!" I shouted, squirming around. I didn't want to be stuck in this position any longer.
"Stop struggling!" Germany ordered, tightening his grip around my legs. "You're only making zis harder!"
"That's kind of the point," I said, pressing my hands against Germany's back in an attempt to push myself loose.
Suddenly, Germany released my legs.
"GAH!" I exclaimed as I dropped head-first towards the ground.
In an instant, my legs were grabbed again and my descent was stopped. However, my hips were now across Germany's shoulder, rather than my stomach as before. This left me in a much more helpless position.
My breath quickened from my sudden almost-trip to the ground. A fear had been reawakened, a long-forgotten fear that had dissipated as I got older and was held less, but now it was back. An old fear; a fear of being dropped.
"Don't drop me!" I shouted, hoping that I sounded more commanding than pleading.
"I zought you didn't believe in falling," Germany said as he began walking again.
My hands quickly grabbed the back of Germany's shirt at the sudden movement. It was a desperate attempt at preventing me from getting any lower, but I knew all the same that if I really was dropped that my precaution would be futile. I just didn't care. "I don't," I said, trying not to look down. "But I believe in dropping, which I really hope you do not do to me right now."
"I don't plan on dropping you," Germany stated. "As long as you stop trying to get avay."
I sighed in defeat. "Fine." I said. "I'll stop. Just don't drop me."
"I von't."
"Promise."
"…Promise? Vhy?"
"Because I don't want to be dropped."
"I've already told you zat I von't."
"I know, and now I want you to promise."
After a pause, Germany sighed. "I promise." He said. "Now vould you please let of of mein shirt?"
"… Pull me back up."
"What?"
"If you insist on carrying me, then at least pull me back up!"
Germany sighed again, then he sort of bounced upwards in the way you would if repositioning a sack, sending me into the air.
I gave a yelp and let go of Germany's shirt to brace myself for impact, (because I thought that I was being dropped), but instead my legs were tugged on, pulling me so that my stomach was once again on Germany's shoulder.
I gasped as some air was knocked out of me. "Do you enjoy scaring the crap out of me?!" I asked him, although I sighed in relief at being in a much safer position. As long as I didn't push against Germany again, if he let go of my legs I wouldn't fall.
Germany didn't answer, and I sorely wished that I could see his face to try and guess that the heck he was thinking.
"Ve Germany!" I heard a familiar voice say, and the next thing I knew, Germany was attacked in a hug.
I gasped again as Germany's balance wavered, but he didn't drop me. I craned my head to try and see what was going on.
"Italy!" Germany scolded. "Vhy are you soaking vet?!"
"Lees!" I heard Zara say. My face began to get hot; I wasn't exactly in a normal position right now.
Zara walked into my line of sight. She twisted around so that her head was almost upside-down like mine. "What're you doin'?" she asked innocently.
I sighed. "Germany doesn't trust me not to run away anymore." I said softly.
Zara giggled. "Ha!" she said. "It's you for once and not me!"
My face burned because it was true and said nothing. I noticed that Zara was dripping water, so that gave me something to say. "Why are you all wet?" I asked.
Zara grinned. "Oh," she said, "I hid in a pond." like it was the most casual thing ever.
My eyes widened. "You hid in a pond?" I asked.
"Yes Echo!" Zara laughed. "And Italy fell in too!"
I said nothing, listening to Germany grumble about being all wet now, and Italy had just hugged him. This sent me into a fit of giggles. Better you than me big guy, I thought to myself. "Have you seen the others?" I asked Zara aloud.
She looked like she was about to say no, but then there was some rustling in the brush and Zara looked up to see what it was. I, sadly, could not.
"I see Safi!" Zara exclaimed, running out of sight and no doubt to give her a bit wet hug.
"… Lees?" I heard Safi say after she'd taken her sopping-wet glomp. "Is that you?"
"Aiya! Germany, what's on your shoulder!?" I heard China exclaim.
I moved my right hand a bit in a weak attempt at a wave. "Yup." I said unenthusiastically. "It's me."
"What happened?" Safi asked as she came into view. She was covered in rotten wood and cobwebs and there was a leaf on her head, like she'd been attacked by an old, musty tree.
"Leesy got in trooooouble!" Zara sang giddily as she skipped around Safi.
"Zara I will gag you with a spoon!" I threatened, pushing myself up against Germany's back with my left hand as I grabbed at Zara, only to miss with my right and loose grip with my left, resulting in me flopping back down unepically as Zara laughed.
I growled a bit at my smallest friend before asking Safi, "So what happened to you?"
Safi blushed a bit. "I hid inside a tree, off the ground." She said. "China had to help me down."
Before I could ask for details, we heard more rustling in the brush. This time, I pushed myself upwards against Germany's back with both hands so that I was half-planking, but I could see who was coming for myself.
Out of the brush came Alex, America, Mari and England. They all looked like they'd gone through the Great Pie War*, only instead of pie they were covered in…berry juice?
"Woah!" Zara exclaimed laughingly. "What happened to you guys?"
Mari wiped some berry juice out of her eye. "Battle." She said in a very serious tone.
"Strawberry style." Alex added, licking some berry juice off the back of her hand.
Mari looked up and saw me, a puzzled expression on her face. "Why is Lees-?"
"Dude! Hahahahaha!" America laughed obnoxiously. "What're you doing on the German dude's shoulder? This is so going on the interwebs!" and to my absolute horror he whipped out an iPhone and aimed it at me as if to take a picture.
"NO!" I screamed, and in a sudden burst of strength I launched myself backwards and out of Germany's grasp. If Germany hadn't grabbed me again I would've landed flat on my back, but he did, so I was placed right back on his shoulder as before.
Luckily England was now fighting with America for his phone, so my home country hadn't had the chance to take an embarrassing photo of me.
Soon after that, the rest of the countries found us. France, Russia and Japan came through the brush and joined the group.
"Why is de leettle girl on your shoulder Germany?" Russia asked.
Before I could say something along the likes of 'I'm not "leettle"!' France chuckled, "Ohonhonhon, you are in quite the vulnerable position, aren't you, ma Cherie?"
"France if you came anywhere near meI will personally see to it that you never have children!"
Thankfully that was enough to keep him at bay.
"Usuarry it is Italy-kun who is on Germany-san's shoulder." Japan said, walking over to me, tipping his head slightly to look at me.
"Ve, you look funny lady!" Italy laughed cheerfully at me, following Japan's example, except he bent himself almost upside-down.
"Thaaaaaanks," I said sarcastically, but of course Italy didn't get my sarcasm and said. "You're welcome!"
"Do you guys have any more strawberries?" Zara asked the berry-war veterans randomly.
Mari and Alex looked at each other. "I think we used them all as ammo." Alex said.
"Darn!" Zara exclaimed. "I'm getting' hungry!"
Now that I thought about it, it was probably getting close to supper time, we'd all missed lunch, and my stomach rumbled at the mention of food. Germany may have felt this, or he may have just been hungry also, because he said, "Maybe ve should get somezing to eat."
"Yeah dude!" America exclaimed as he fist-pumped. "Let's all go to my place to eat yo!"
"We do not want to eat your greasy fast food!" England retorted.
America frowned. "Hey! It's the grease that makes it taste so good, Englanddude!" And it's better than your food any day!"
Before this turned into an all-out brawl, Italy interrupted with, "Veeeeeee! I want pastaaaaa!'
This only made my stomach rumble more. Pastaaaaa, I thought dreamily. It was my favorite food ever, and the fact that I was already very hungry made it sound that much more wonderful.
America snapped his fingers. "I got it!" he exclaimed. "Let's go to Il Pomodoro!" It's an Italian restaurant at my place, and the food there is quality!"
My friends and I all perked up at this suggestion. Il Pomodoro had always been one of our favorite places to go, but the food wasn't exactly cheap, so we only went there on special occasions.
Mari realized this and said, "Are you sure? That place is pretty spendy…"
America made a 'pfft' noise and laughed. "Spendy?" he said. "I'm one of the richest frikin' countries in the world! This is nothing!"
Even though it was an Italian/American chain restaurant, the other countries seemed game. They must've been fairly used to eating other countries' foods. So we headed off.
"Uh, Germany?" I said before he had the chance to start walking. "My friends and I are going to a fancy restaurant in our pajamas, so we'll be looked at weird enough, and I'm not Italy, so could you please put me down so that I don't lose all of my pride?"
Germany agreed and he set me back down on my feet. All of the blood that had flowed to my brain while upside-down now rushed back down to my feet and I suddenly became very dizzy. I probably would've fallen over if Germany hadn't set a strong hand on my shoulder.
"Whoa," I said, regaining my balance. "Thank you." As I started to walk off with the rest of the group, Germany kept his hand firmly on my shoulder.
"Uh, Germany?" I said again. "You can, you can let go now."
"I don't vant you running off again." He stated.
"… Really?" I asked, giving him a look, seriously wishing that I could cock my eyebrow like Mari.
"Ja." Germany replied sternly.
I looked at him for a moment, then I sighed and continued walking.
~~Hungry timeskip~~
At only a block away from Il Pomodoro, we could smell the garlic and baking bread in the air. While I've always been told that garlic has an unpleasant smell, I'd grown up with strong Italian influences from my father's side and so the smell had always been heavenly to me. And who doesn't love the smell of freshly-baked garlic bread when hungry?
When we walked through the door, the aroma strengthened and my mouth watered. The place had an Italian village feel to it, which I found very appealing. The building itself was not that large but there was a sort of second-story/balcony thingy to create more space.
"Hello!" said the hostess. Her mouth smiled brightly but her eyes darted over me and my pajama-ed friends. "Welcome to Il Pomodoro!"
"Ve! Ciao Signorina!" Italy said to the lady. "Table for thirteen, per favore!"
The woman smiled and said, "Of course! Right this way!" She grabbed a bundle of menus and left her booth, motioning for us to follow. On the way to our table, she stopped to speak to some other workers. They walked ahead of us and went upstairs to the balcony-thingy. The hostess also lead us up the stairs, and we saw the other workers arranging seven small, square tables into one large, rectangular table. Our table was in a corner by a large window, which gave a great view of whatever city we were in. It wasn't big like Minneapolis or anything, and there were no landmarks that I recognized, so I figured that we were just in some sort of medium-sized city in the US. Anywho, the view was wonderful.
My friends sat down at the table, and Germany released my shoulder so that I could too. I sat with Safi to my left and Zara to my right. To Zara's right sat Alex and to Safi's left sat Mari. Alex and Mari still seemed a bit steamed form the strawberry war… Meh, they'd be better by tomorrow. They always were.
"Your waiter will be with you in a moment." The hostess stated, still smiling pleasantly, passing out the menus. "Enjoy your time at Il Pomodoro!" And with that she left us for her booth.
I gasped as suddenly both my hands were grabbed and pulled behind my chair. I tried to pull free, but I was hopelessly outmatched in strength and something metal clicked around my wrists. I tried to move my hands, but they wouldn't move more than a few inches. "What the-?" I said, yanking my hands harder, producing a clinking-clanking sound. I craned my neck over my shoulder to see Germany standing behind me, and when I looked down I saw that my hands had been cuffed behind the chair. "Hey what's the big idea?!" I exclaimed at the culprit.
Germany looked down at me with a stern expression. "To keep you from running avay." He stated.
This made me pretty POed, and I was about to argue, but the expression on Germany's face said so clearly 'Don't mess with me' that I huffed and instead and said, "Never gonna let that go, are ya?"
"Maybe at ze end of ze night." Germany told me before walking off to find a seat.
I resisted the urge to bang my head against the table. I grumbled a bit under my breath, but I stopped when I saw Zara looking at me. Her eyes were bright with mischief and her mouth was twisted into a funny shape, no doubt with suppressed laughter.
"Hey Leesy," she said.
I eyed her warily. It was never good when she looked like this. "… What?" I finally asked.
Zara leaned in closer to me, as if to tell me a secret, but instead she lifted a finger and quickly tapped my nose. "Boop!" she chirped.
"Oh for the love of-!" I started to exclaim, but I was interrupted by another "Boop!"
I growled at Zara. I hated being booped, and she knew it. She was having a great time; she laughed between boops, laughing even harder when I tried to bite her fingers. Dang her! I couldn't fight back, and Zara knew that she was fast enough to not get bitten. This made a giddy Zara and an irritated me.
Most of the countries' eyes and smiles betrayed their amusement as they suppressed their laughter, which my friends did not even try to do. Alex and Mari were giggling as they watched, and even Safi was covering her smile with her hand.
"Boop! Boop boop boop! Boooooop!" Zara pressed my nose for a long time before snatching her finger out of reach of my teeth and cackling.
"I will bite you eventually!" I threatened, glaring at my attacker.
Zara laughed good-naturedly but thankful stopped her attacks.
I sighed with relief before looking at the other countries, who were still watching me. "Take a pic, it'll last longer," I mumbled.
"Okay!" America exclaimed, whipping out his ever-present phone.
I acted upon my instinct and made the most unattractive face I possibly could. My method was successful in the fact that America began laughing too hard to take the picture.
"What was that about anyway?" America asked when he'd calmed down. "The booping thing."
"Lees doesn't like being booped." Alex explained with a grin.
"She hates it!" Mari giggled. "She totally despises it, and now she can't even fight back!"
"Yeah yeah yeah," I grumbled glaring at Germany and thinking, This is your fault!
Germany looked at me with what might've been a suppressed smirk and amusement in his blue eyes.
Before anyone could say anything else, a man dressed like a waiter walked up to us. "Hello." He said unenthusiastically. "I'll be your waiter for today. My name is Paul."
"What?" Zara asked.
"I said my name is Paul." Paul relied in the exact same tone.
"Oh, I thought you were a woman." Zara whispered to me. I quickly bit down on my tongue and squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to keep the corners of my mouth from curling upwards as I suppressed a large amount of laugher. "Carrrrrrl," I managed to whine softly and both Zara and I bit back sniggers. We looked up to see Paul glare at us for a moment before taking everyone's orders for drinks. The funny thing was since Paul didn't move around to my side of the table he didn't see that I was in handcuffs. At least we wouldn't be kicked out for handcuffing people to chairs. Cross that one off the long list of possibilities…
"I'll be back with drinks and bread in just a moment." Paul stated monotone-ly after he'd taken our orders and walked away.
Everyone opened their menus, except me of course. "Have whatever you want guys!" America said. "My treat! Take two of everything for all I care!"
Safi looked over at me and noticed my predicament. She gave me a sympathetic smile before putting her menu between the two of us so that I could see it too.
I smiled back at her and we looked through the menu together. Dang she's fast! I thought, trying to keep up with Safi. She could read a whole page in the time it took me to go halfway though, and I'm a pretty fast reader. She even retained all of that info too! Luckily, we were both thinking pasta, so we didn't have to do a whole lot of flipping.
In not too much time, Paul came back and gave us each our drinks and set a few baskets of bread, some small bowls, and a bottle of virgin olive oil along the table. "Bread is unlimited," Paul stated as if he was reading a script. "So let me know if you need more." Then he took our orders.
When he got to Alex, she said, "I'll just have a plate of plain noodles with some cheesy bread please."
Paul stared at her. "Plain noodles?" he asked.
"Yes." Alex stated. She looked around the table to see some of us looking at her. Italy looked just plain horrified. "So I'm picky. Get over it."
Paul sighed and continued. When he got to America, our country exclaimed, "I'll have twenty burgers!" heroically.
Paul raised his eyebrows, not looking amused. "We don't carry burgers." He stated.
"What?!" America shouted angrily. "What kind of American restaurant doesn't carry burgers?!"
"Sir, if you have a problem with our menu, you can find yourself somewhere else to eat." Paul said in a controlled-anger voice.
America huffed. "I guess I'll have the steak then." he said unenthusiastically.
When Paul got to Zara, she said, "I'll have the Parmesan Challenge!"
Paul's eyes widened. "That is a lot of food. Not many can do it."
"But I'll get a free desert!"
"If you finish."
"Not if, when."
Paul sighed again, but wrote on his notepad. "I'll be back with your food soon." And he left, walking rather quickly.
I stared at the basket of bread that had unfortunately been placed directly in front of me. It smelled wonderful, and it had come with a small bowl of oil for dipping. My stomach moaned in longing, and I tried to reach out for the bread but was stopped by the handcuffs. I watched sadly as the others took bread while I had so sit there and watch.
I was so focused on what I was missing out on that I didn't even notice when Germany got up, walked around the table and knelt down behind me. I jumped in my chair when I felt my handcuffs being messed with from behind, being a naturally jumpy person. I craned my head over my shoulder to see Germany release my right hand and lock the other cuff to the chair.
Germany looked up to see the slightly surprised expression on my face. "How can you eat without a free hand?" he reasoned.
Even though Germany was the one who'd cuffed me in the first place, I couldn't help but give him a small smile of gratitude. Then I turned back to the table and eagerly grabbed a piece of bread. I dipped in in the olive oil, let the excess oil drip off, then raised it to my mouth and took a bite. I sighed in satisfaction, enjoying the taste of freshly baked bread and olive oil on my tongue. I hadn't eaten nice like this for so long, so that and my hunger made it taste that much better.
As we waited for our food the countries, my friends and I chatted up a storm. It was extremely interesting, talking to the countries, and they seemed to find us interesting as well. We traded stories, each one funnier than the last, having a great time! The more we talked, the more we got to know about each other, the more fun we had.
"So where deed you girls come from?" Russia asked us at one point.
My friends and I looked at each other. "Well," Safi started off. "We come from-"
"Another dimension!" Alex blurted out.
"ALEX!" My friends and I yelled at her.
Alex shrugged. "Well we did! They were going to find out somehow."
"The plan was to break it to them slowly!" Mari said, putting her face in her hands.
I sighed and looked at the countries. They all had shocked looks on their faces. "W-What?" Japan stuttered. "We thought maybe you ferr out of an airoprane! Another dimension? Are you serious!?"
"Yep!" Zara said and I facepalmed. I guess she'd given up on sticking to the plan also.
"Another dimension?" America asked, astonished. "Are you serious dudes? That is so cool yo! What's it like?!"
We all looked at Mari looked at Mari, who would probably have the best chance of explaining it.
"Um," Mari said. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain. The world isn't anime, like this is." She gestured to the world.
"Then…what is it?" England asked.
"It's…more detailed." Safi said.
Zara snapped her fingers. "Lees! Draw 'um a picture." She commanded.
"What?" I asked, taken aback. "I'm not sure if I can pull that from memory, but I can try. Does anybody have paper and a pencil?"
"Can't you pull some out of thin air?" Alex asked. "Like these guys can and Mari did with the book earlier."
"Um, I don't know," I answered, then I looked at the countries. "How do you do that?" I asked.
"Wait, you can't do that-aru?" China asked.
"… No. If we want to pull something out, it comes from our pockets, and we have to have put it in there earlier."
"Vell zat seems limiting." Germany commented.
I nodded. "It is, but we manage…for the most part. Anyway, how do you guys do it?"
None of the countries really knew how they did it, they just did it. When I asked Mari, she shrugged and made a "Wff!" sound, so I decided to just try it. With my free hand, I reached behind me, thinking, paper and pencil, paper and pencil. To my surprise, I actually felt something in my hand. Smiling triumphantly, I pulled my hand back around to the front to look at…a rubber ducky.
"… Uh…" I said, staring at the yellow imposter. "You are not a pencil." I gave it a squeak before bursting into laughter to be joined by my friends and the countries. "Here Ducky," I said, handing the duck to Zara. "Have a ducky." This earned another bout of laughter from her.
"Ve, I did not know you were a duck!" Italy exclaimed at Zara, which made her only laugh some more.
"Long story," she said, and before she could elaborate, Paul and some more workers walked up to our table with huge platters filled with food in their hands. Even though I was starving, we were having such a good time that it'd seemed like hardly any time had passed at all. Not that I would've liked to postpone the food; Oh no, I was more than happy to except it now.
My eyes widened as my dish was placed in front of me. It was a huge, heaping plate of fettuccine alfrado, with a breaded chicken breast and shrimp, all topped with a dusting of parmesan cheese. My mouth literally hurt from watering so much. I inhaled the aroma of my dish, eyes rolling back in pleasure of the tantalizing smell. It took every ounce of my self-control to not dig in and wait for everyone to be served.
Zara was presented with her Parmesan Challenge, and she licked her lips with anticipation while my eyes bulged out of my head. The heap of pasta was huge! It'd take maybe two big guys to eat it all…or one Zara.
Once everyone started, so did I. Sadly, I couldn't use the fun round little spoon thing with my fork that you sometimes get at Italian restaurants to spin up your noodles with since I only had one free hand, but I managed. I quickly spun up a forkful and popped it in my mouth. "Mmmm," I moaned softly as I sat back in my chair, chewing slowly and enjoying the blissfully delicious food. As soon as I swallowed, I filled my fork with more. I ate quickly like this for a while, satisfying my hunger before I slowed down and could focus on something other than my food.
This is when I figured out that Mari and Alex were fighting. I had completely missed the cause of the argument, as I have a tendency to enter, exit, and reenter group conversations at weird times, but I figured it had something to do with the strawberry-war from before.
A plain noodle sailed through the air, hit Mari in the face and stuck there. A very POed Mari stood up from her chair, grabbed her untouched plate of spaghetti, walked over to Alex, and promptly dumped it on her head. "Waiter!" she called to Paul, who was nearby but somehow hadn't seen what she'd just done. "May I have another order of spaghetti please?"
Paul sighed, wrote on his notepad before walking back down the stairs.
Once he was gone, Alex launched herself at Mari and knocked her to the ground. Yet another dust cloud ensued.
"Guys!" I yelled when I'd thought that it'd gone on long enough. "Do you really want to get kicked out?"
The stopped fighting and looked at me. Then they looked at each other. They stayed frozen like that for a while. Then Alex picked the first noodle she'd thrown off Mari's face with her finger and put the end of it in her mouth, slurping up the rest. Mari didn't move and Alex froze as well. Suddenly, they burst out laughing, hugged and walked back to their seats.
The countries stared at them, but Safi, Zara and I just shrugged our shoulders and continued eating. This was normal behavior among my friends and I; making up suddenly for no discernible reason. Maybe it was because we hated being mad at each other? Meh, it didn't really matter.
My short attention span moving on, I looked around the table, noticing some funny occurrences. Japan and China seemed to be having a hard time with their forks, being used to eating with chopsticks after all, and found it easier to instead use two forks in a chopstick-like fashion. America was eating his steak, grumbling about the lack of burgers while chewing, a very messy process indeed. I couldn't look at that for very long. Italy and Zara were going absolutely bonkers, shoving pasta down their throats, trying each other's, and even stealing some from the people around them; all when Zara was supposed to eat that huge plate of pasta. Well, she'd manage. Safi sat quietly next to me, not saying anything as she ate her five cheese ziti. She never really talked much while she ate. No reason, she just didn't. China however did not know this and her silence bothered him. "Are you alright-aru?" he asked her.
Safi glanced up from her food, nodding briefly at him before returning to eating.
China's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why are you not talking?" he asked persistently.
"Ahem," Mari cleared her throat after, swallowing some food before saying, "Safi doesn't talk much while she's eating. It's just a quirk of hers, right Safi?"
Safi nodded again, not bothering to look up from her food.
China still didn't look convinced. "Say something-aru!" he pleaded.
Safi swallowed her pasta, wiped her mouth with a napkin, looked up at him, smiled and said, "Hi China!" cutely and went right back to her food.
I chuckled at China's surprised expression, then I saw something reaching for my pasta out of the corner of my eye. "No!" I said, slapping away the offending fork with my own. "Bad girl!"
"Aw!" Zara whined. "Leesyyyyy!"
"It's my pasta and you can't have it!'
"Pleeeeease?"
"No."
"Pretty pleeeeease?"
"No!"
"Pretty pretty pleeeeeease?"
"NEIN!"
Every one of the countries stopped eating and looked at me, including Germany, who was just plain staring at me.
"… What?" I asked, not realizing what I'd just said.
"You just spoke in Germany-san's native ranguage." Japan explained.
"Ve!" Italy exclaimed. "You sounded like Germany when he's angry!"
"… Oh!" I said, just now realizing what I'd said. "I just- I mean- I didn't-"
"She does that." Zara explained with a laugh for me. "When she wants to say no and she really means it, she'll say it in German."
"And it's even funnier when she shouts it in public!" Alex giggled.
"She meant no disrespect," Mari added quickly.
"It's just a quirk of hers." Safi said with a smile. "Right Lees?"
"… Right." I finished lamely. I looked in Germany's direction but was too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. "I just think German's a cool language, that's all." To give myself something to do, and to draw the attention away from me, I continued eating my pasta. Once everyone's conversations stared up again, I sighed with relief and tackled the task of cutting up my chicken with one hand. It was difficult, and I had to use my fork, but the chicken was wonderfully tender, so I managed.
I was slowing down, filling up with food. Zara meanwhile had been steadily working away at her Parmesan Challenge, when she hadn't been laughing or stealing other people's pasta. She was about 3/4ths of the way done, and she wasn't slowing down. I smiled at the sight of such a small girl eating so much food, but I had no doubts in her. Zara frikin' ate like a pro linebacker. Knowing her, she'd have no trouble finishing both her pasta and her free desert. I hummed Eye of the Tiger in encouragement, not that she needed it.
~~Stuffed timeskip~~
It was getting towards the end of the night and most of the countries and my friends were just finishing up their food. I was full; full to the brim and tired. Some of it was because of the food, but most of it was because we'd had a long, eventful day and it was getting late. Because we were in public, I stayed sitting up, but what I wanted to do was go find a place to lie down. It seemed to me that I should be ashamed for eating so much. Weren't girls supposed to eat dainty foods like salad? Salads are okay, but give me real food any day. I felt fat, immobile and exhausted. Is this what being pregnant feels like? my groggy mind wondered. Then I realized that there was still about a forkful of fettuccine on my plate. I'd eaten everything; the chicken, the shrimp, the rest of the pasta, everything but that little bit. I groaned inwardly and lifted my fork. It wasn't enough to take in a box and there was no way I was just going to waste this amazing food, no matter how full I was. I slowly scooped up the remaining noodles and brought them to my mouth. I took as deep a breath as I thought I could manage and ate it. Swallowing, I lifted my fork a bit and said "Yay." softly to no one in particular in celebration of my accomplishment. I hadn't the energy to do anything more.
"YEAH!" I didn't even jump in my chair as Zara yelled in triumph. "I DID IT!" she exclaimed, leaping up from her chair and dancing wildly in celebration.
I and several others gaped at Zara in astonishment. First, she'd actually been able to eat that massive plate of pasta; I couldn't be prouder. Second, she still had the energy and mobility to jump up and dance.
"Ve, good job bella," Italy said sleepily as he began dozing off against Germany.
Paul walked over to us and stared at Zara's empty plate. "You actually managed to eat that?" he wondered aloud.
"That's right Paulie!" Zara exclaimed as she continued dancing. "I'm getting' a free desert! All right!"
Paul sighed, clearly not appreciating the nickname. "Allright," he said. "What would you like?"
"The fudge-stuffed brownies!" Zara proclaimed as she sat back down. Then she looked around and saw many more empty plates and tired faces around the table and added, "To go please."
Paul nodded and handed America the bill before walking off to get Zara's prize.
America took the bill and smiled at it. "I'll leave an extra-large tip; poor Paulie deserves it." To which we all agreed.
"Paulie…" I heard Safi and Alex sigh in unison, pretty much asleep.
Everyone forced themselves up from the table in preparation to leave, some forcing each other to their feet. I tried to rise also, but the handcuffs kept me to the chair. "Germanyyyyyyyy," I said, moaning a bit as I yanked on the cuffs.
Germany looked up at me, shrugged Italy off him and walked over to me. "Had enough for one night?" he asked.
"Mmhm." I was so groggy I didn't even bother to give a smart reply. I just let Germany undo the cuffs, stood up and walked with my friends and the countries towards the stairs.
Paul came up to us and asked for the bill. America handed it to him with a pat on the back, a grin on his face but silent.
Once we'd almost made it down the stairs, we heard Paul scream, "Oh my gosh! Guys! Look at this tip!" he appeared over the balcony, beaming hugely…and maybe tears in his eyes? "Thank you! Thank you sir! You have no idea what this means to me!"
Our country laughed. "Peace out dude!" he said, holding up his fingers in a peace sign as he held the door for the rest of us to walk through.
Once we were out of the building, England said, "My goodness America! Just how much did you give the man?"
America smiled and looked over his shoulder at Il Pomodoro. Sounds of Paul's celebration could be heard from outside. "Just enough," he said.
~~Sleepy timeskip~~
The countries took us back to our new house. My friends and I were nearly falling asleep on our feet, so once we got in the door we walked directly into the unfurnished living room and flopped down into a pile on the carpet. Zara staggered over to the fridge and put her fudge-stuffed brownies in. I'd been able to convince her to not go and get a sugar-high right before we went to bed. Then she walked over to our pile and flopped down on top.
The countries watched us in amusement, but we were so tired we didn't really care.
"You ladies seem tired," England said, smiling kindly down at us as he stated the obvious. "So we'll let you sleep. There'll be a surprise here for you in the morning." He tossed a key to me, which I just barely caught. "Be sure to lock up. Sleep well." He said and him and the other countries headed towards the doors.
I groaned, wedging myself out from under my friends, staggered to my feet and followed the countries to the door. "G'nite," I said groggily. "Thanks for supper, and the house, and the breakfast, and so on, from all of us."
The countries smiled at me as they walked out the door. Germany was the last to leave. Seeing him made me remember something.
"Thanks for uncuffing me Germany!" I shouted after him as he walked down the path. "Guten nacht!"
Germany paused, turning to look at me funny. Then he gave a small smile. "Bitte." He said before turning back around and walked after the other countries.
I stared after him for a moment, my mouth open a bit. Slowly, I closed the door, locked it, and leaned against it. Did he just…smile?
"Whadid he say Leesy?" Zara asked sleepily from the pile as I walked over.
"Idk," I mumbled, nestling into my mound of 'migas. "I only got to take one quarter of German in sixth grade, but I think he actually smiled! Did you see that?"
Zara didn't answer; she was already asleep.
I managed a small smile. I sighed contentedly, snuggled down, yawned "I love you guys," randomly, and soon followed Zara's example.
*Veggietales! King George and the Ducky! BEST CHILDHOOD EVER!
