Egg Nation- The French Ghost
When she saw the two bright beams of light shine through the window; Yaya merely brushed them off as the headlights of just another car that was driving by her house, but after the sound of the engine humming down and doors open, she was having second thoughts. Then there was a clink from a key unlocking the front door, and her parents walked in with disappointed looks on their faces. Yaya heaved up Tsubasa from her lap and carried him as she went to welcome home her early parents, and Ivan continued sitting on the armrest of the coach he was on while Pepe went after Yaya.
"Welcome back Mom and Dad, you're home early. Was the restaurant not as good as you'd been told?" She asked handing off the baby to his mother, who he was reaching out for. Once she received her child Yaya's mom greeted him and then her daughter with a kiss, and the father explained, "No, it was everything we imagined it would be… and then some. Th-there was some commotion in the kitchen as we arrived, and a plate of food just floated over to a table."
"Then the entire restaurant erupted in hysteria about ghosts, and we didn't even get seated before a mob pushed us out." Her mother continued giving a depressed sigh after the story was finished. Then her parents walked dejectedly down the hallway, and Yaya's mother dropped off Tsubasa in his room before continuing to her own with her husband. Once she'd shut the door behind them Pepe gave her owner a knowing look.
"It's got to be a character, dechu!" The baby character stated, her eyes sparkling with the contagious sense of adventure that soon took hold of Yaya as well. Ivan then flittered over, curious about his two subordinates' excitement. When the Russian approached Pepe flew behind her owner, poking her face above the girl's shoulder and cowering. Russia only gave her an innocent look as if he didn't understand why she was so fearful around him. Yaya tried calming her character down but her words had no affect on Pepe, so she gave up and let her trembling go on.
"Anyway… we've got to check this place out. From what Mom and Dad said; everyone should've cleared out of the restaurant by now, so it's time to investigate!" Yaya said, shooting a fist into the air after her last sentence. Pepe tried to be as enthusiastic as her owner and nervously put up a wobbling arm. Ivan was amused by the needless exhilaration of the girl and held his hand above his head as well. After it seemed to Yaya that everyone was onboard she whipped out her cell phone, saying they'd need back up.
"Can't call Amu, she's already out looking with the others…. Oh, I know!" Yaya exclaimed typing in a numbering and holding the device against her ear.
"Hey, it's Yaya!" She informed to the friend on the other side of the call.
"Did you say something Arthur? …Is something wrong" Ami asked concernedly in a hushed voice, but the character held in his anxiety and shook his head, assuring that he was only feeling slightly fatigued. She offered him a ride on her palm the rest of the way home, and England accepted it graciously. As they ventured further from the shopping district and into the suburbs, the country was able to relax a bit as he listened to Ami's conversation with her mother. She recounted her day at school, questioned about the evening's meal, and what England enjoyed the most was when she would go off on long tangents about her awe for her older sister.
"Look, it's our house!" Ami cheered pointing at her home; Midori nodded and went ahead to open the door while her daughter held a flat palm out where the nation sat smiling genuinely, and he happily remarked, "It is a lovely house." Ami's smile widened and she recited England's compliment merrily to which her mother agreed whole-heartedly. The door opened, and when the two entered they were welcomed by an eccentric man, England presumed him to be Ami's father.
"Mama and my little sparrow, you've returned!" Hinamori Tsumugu shouted gleefully as he ran to the door snapping pictures of the two. Since they'd come to expect this from Tsumugu; Ami and her mother weren't startled when the camera's flash blinded them, but England tipped and fell out of the girl's hand from surprise of the sudden sightless. He pulled himself up, rubbing his eyes and blinking to regain his proper vision. Then the nation flew up to the man's eye level; ready to give him a long lecture, but when the father's gaze drifted down to his daughter he remembered about his invisibility to adults and sulked back down.
"Papa, guess what? I met a nice foreign boy at school today, and he helped me stop crying. And he told stories about pirates and magic! Oh, I also got a pretty dress with Mama." Ami told her father, wielding a pretend sword after mentioning pirates and started slashing the air. Her father's face became pale as his 'little sparrow' talked so fondly about a boy, and he threw himself into a corner sobbing.
"No, not you too, first Amu is interested in b-boys and now you? You're only in kindergarten. That's it! I forbid you from going to school anymore and seeing all those b-boys." He cried hoarsely trying to attain some kind of authority, but only managed to appear pathetic. Ami lost interest in her imaginary blade and quickly rushed over to embrace her father, saying, "Papa, don't be sad. I still like you and Mama and Amu best!"
'I… I'm glad he can't see me. He'd surely ring my neck if he knew I was here and had spent nearly the whole day with his daughter.' England thought, finding a new appreciation for his invisibility.
"What's with all the noise?" Asked a voice that England could only describe as 'cool and spicy', then from down the hall a girl with pink hair came and starred unimpressed at the chaotic scene she'd walked into.
"Onee-chan!" Ami yelled, abandoning her father and jumping onto her alarmed sister. Amu barely had enough time to react and catch the girl in her arms. She breathed out, already exhausted by Ami's boundless energy. Amu did give her sister a gentle smile that no one but England seemed to notice, but when she caught sight of him from the corner of her eyes that smile was replaced by a gawking mouth.
"Uh… Welcome home Mama, can I take Ami to my room so we can play? Okay? Okay! Bye." Amu asked quickly and nervously, grabbing England and carrying Ami off before her mother could give an answer. After she scurried off to her room; Midori and Tsumugu exchanged blank looks, unsure about what just took place. As Amu hurried into her room the door was pulled shut behind her by the rushing air following her as she ran, and her Guardian Characters looked up from their card game while Italy slowly rose from his napping.
"Let go of me at once! You're crushing my body, you wanker!" England yelled wincing in pain from the hard hold Amu held him in. She dropped Ami and released the new character, which flew beside her sister glaring up at her nastily. Ran and the others were soon at her side, looking at the Englishman with inquiring expressions on their faces. Italy lazily hovered over, still yawning and stretching before realizing who this new character was.
"Wah! Please don't hit me, please! I surrender, see? That means I don't want to fight, which mean no hitting. Please don't hit meeeeeeeeeeeee!" Italy pleaded waving his white flag at the irritated England, who was rubbing the parts of his body that were sore from Amu's grasp.
"Sod off you git! I'm not here to hurt you, and besides we're not fighting anymore. Or have you forgotten?" England spat at the Italian before closing his eyes and regaining the composure he had before he was almost crushed. Ami held out her hand for him to return to, and the new character went and stood on the palm offered for him.
"Ami, what're you doing with him? He's not your character, you have to say good-bye and give him to me." Amu sternly said reaching out to receive the character from her sister, but Ami stepped away shielding England with her free hand.
"No onee-chan! You already have three of your own, plus the new pasta character. I found Arthur, and I won't let you take him away!" Ami yelled defensively; her mouth quivering with potential cries that wanted to come out, and the sides of her now squinted eyes swelling with tears. England was quick to combat the girl's sadness with warm words and a bright smiling face that she soon imitated.
"Why do you all looked surprised? He raised Alfred and that other guy since they were little…" Italy said, noticing the surprised looks Amu and the other characters wore at the site of England tenderly caring for the weeping girl. But then the news about America sprang into Italy's mind, and he instantly relayed it to the other nation, "Wait… Alfred! Arthur, it's terrible. Alfred, he's been kidnapped by someone really mean!"
"What? He's… Then I guess that news report makes a little more sense, but what could his kidnapper be doing to him that'd cause such an awful pandemic to occur?" Arthur mumbled, letting Amu and the others only hear a couple words from his speech. Amu shook her head, ignoring his muttering, and cleared her throat, calling the attention of the thick-browed character.
"I'm sorry for trying to take you away from Ami that was wrong of me to do. Please forgive me. I'm Hinamori Amu by the way, Ami's older sister." She said apologizing and introducing herself at the same time. Then her characters came up to England and told their names in order, "And I'm Ran" "Miki" "Su". He nodded at them weakly, but enough to signify that he accepted the apology and introductions. He was still lost in thought about the stolen America.
"Do you know where Alfred is? Please; I have to know, he's in terrible danger!" England asked in a desperate begging tone, his bright emerald eyes pleading along with his words. Amu was taken aback at Arthur's desperation, but after recollecting her poise; Amu was able to deliver a response in a serious mature tone, "My friends and I just spent the day searching for your companions, and tomorrow we're going to save your friend, Alfred. We'd do it sooner, but we're going to need to be at our top game in order in having any chance."
"Yeah, but now we've got you to help us too! That means we've got you, Ludwig, Kiku, me and that other guy you helped raise…uh- Matthew!" Feliciano informed happily and smiled as he noticed that England seemed a bit relieved from the information. Ami picked up on the character's current calmness and beamed at him as well, easing his restless heart even more. There then was a call for the two girls from their mother telling them it was time for dinner.
"Yahoo! I wonder what we're going to have; I hope it'll be pasta. Are we going to have pasta?" Italy asked, a sliver of drool hanging from his mouth at the thought of the noodle dish, but Amu shook her head, and the Italian frowned. Then he looked up and questioned in a hopeful voice, "We're at least going to have pizzelle afterwards, right?"
Yaya tapped her foot impatiently as she waited by the side of the supposedly haunted restaurant, and she puffed out her cheeks after checking the time on her watch.
"He's late! Doesn't that dumb guy know he's keeping a lady waiting?" Yaya said the rhetorical question aloud receiving an eye roll from Pepe and a chuckle out of Ivan. She glared at the two characters, Pepe acted like she'd done nothing while Russia only continued to laugh lightly. Then the girl screamed after a figure seemed to have suddenly appeared and a booming voice came out, "I don't see any lady here, just you Yaya, was there suppose to be some lady joining us too?"
"Geez do you have to yell so loudly! It's not like we jumped out at ya, we've been here for a while." Kukai complained, still covering his ears from Yaya's shrill shout as he stepped out of the bushes the two children were hiding in with Daichi trailing close behind. Yaya mumbled about how she hadn't noticed him there and came out as well with Pepe hanging on the end of her Guardians' cape. Ivan came out last, quietly rising from the hiding spot.
"Hey, is he that new character you were talking about? It's Ivan, right? I'm Souma Kukai, and this is my buddy, Daichi! Nice to meet ya!" Kukai loudly greeted, alarming the character who returned the welcome with a cold glare that made the boy shiver. Kukai and his Guardian Character back away slowly and started talking to Yaya again, "So, this is the place we're breaking into?"
"Like I said on the phone, we're not breaking in. We're investigating!" Yaya corrected, annoyed about repeating it, and Kukai sighed, still saying that counted as breaking in. He didn't know how he ended up here with Yaya; he should've seen the blatant errors in her plan and the amount of trouble they were sure to get into, but here he was. Yaya army crawled out onto the sidewalk and leapt up in order to do a barrel roll to the front door, and Kukai casually walked after her, leading all of the character and suppressing a fit of laughter. Yaya yanked at the door handles only to discover they were locked.
"No problem! Me and Pepe can character change and bust it down with a Giant Rattle Attack." Yaya announced glancing at Pepe; ready for her character to initiate the change, but Kukai was able to stop her by saying, "Yaya! You can't do that; they'll know someone was here when they find their door with a giant hole in it."
"Then what do you think we should do? Use your character change or Sky Jack to put a bigger hole." Yaya ridiculed, jabbing a finger at him. Kukai groaned and scratched his head thinking of solutions when his gaze landed on Ivan and asked," What about him?" The girl shrugged, admitting that she didn't know, and then a sly smile spread across Russia's face that made Pepe scamper back into the bushes.
"Character change" P-ping….
A large, pale pink scarf materialized around Yaya's neck that was too big for her and covered half of her face. You didn't need to see her face in order to know about the gut wrenching grin she wore because of the uneasy energy emitted from her that just seemed to tip you off. She stepped past Kukai and stood facing the door; just starring at it, her eyes twinkled joyfully with a gleam that informed you their enjoyment was for a very wrong reason. The boy kept looking back and forth from the door to Yaya, breaking out in a cold sweat from the intense energy emanating from his friend. Then the door started to rattle, beginning at a weak shutter and escalating to furious shaking, and just as he thought it would be ripped off its hinges the door opened.
Ping! Oh thank God, ping.
"That was fun. Now if I could find some vodka, then everything would be perfect. Da? Aren't you coming in Subordinate one?" Ivan asked as he floated gently into the dark restaurant in search of his favorite drink. Yaya's blank eyes twitched, and her body was trembling very hard until her legs collapsed in on themselves, causing her to fall onto the sidewalk. Luckily Kukai was there to grab hold of her as she fell and began shaking her to bring Yaya out of her dazed state.
"Th-that was… different." Yaya understated, and even though Kukai wanted to yell out about how that was the scariest and most out of character, character change he'd ever seen; instead he just nodded in agreement and muttered, "Yeah"
The two eventually caught up to Russia, it took a bit of convincing and brute force in order to drag Pepe in, but they came and switched on the flashlights Kukai had brought, shinning the light around the restaurant.
'Eiffel tower… Arc de Triomphe… Palace of Versailles…. Oh! I don't want to just look at mere rendering of these places, I want to be home and see them for myself.' France wished to himself as he examined the strange egg he'd come out of earlier that day.
It was at least early in the evening when he was jolted awake, but the nation could barely tell if his eyes were open with the constant darkness. There were busy voices all around him and accompanying them were the unmistakable sounds of cooking. Sizzling, chopping, pouring, stirring and countless more, and they all were orgasmic to the Frenchman. A culinary orchestra was being preformed just outside the thin, delicate surface, and there was nothing that would stop him from taking part in the performance. France popped out of the egg and landed further into the pile of smaller eggs he'd been sitting atop of.
Once he'd picked himself up and looked around France was speechless in a mixture of horror and amazement. Everything in the kitchen towered over him and simple tasks like tenderizing meat translated to him as an earthquake, but when the small country found a safe perch to sit in he was able to watch the chefs, approving most of what they did. Most. It started when France returned to the kitchen with a waiter; he'd gone out to see him take the order of an especially beautiful woman. He was paying close attention to her dish being prepared; if she wanted to eat some wonderful French cuisine, he'd make sure she would. Then he noticed unforgivable mistakes being made by the cook and flew in to correct them.
It started with minor adjustments, such as the addition of a couple spices, but France then got carried away: rushing throughout the kitchen, carrying things and putting them into the meal. He was so absorbed in his cooking that he didn't notice everyone stop and stare at what was to them vegetables flying around and cutting themselves. Once the nation had was finished; he heaved the plate out into the dining area and served in to the woman, flashing a seductive smile at her which was returned with a scream. From there all he could make out was people running, dropping food as they fled and copious amounts of screaming and yelling. It wasn't long until the entire restaurant was empty, except for him.
But as he sat in despair, a ray of light peered through the tiny window of the door that led into the dining area and muffled voices could be heard from the other side.
Kukai found a door with a tiny window, Daichi was peeking into it, and he motioned for Yaya and Pepe to come over while Ivan was off in another part of the building looking for his vodka. Yaya backed away as Kukai went to push the door open and mumbled, "Wait. W-what if the ghost is in there?"
"C'mon Yaya! I thought you were convinced that the 'ghost' was a character. Either way it's the whole reason why we're here, so I'm not backing down!" Kukai said bursting through the door but speedily stepped back out in surprise with a crying character that'd flew into his chest during his brief second in the kitchen.
"Merci dieu, I am saved!" France sobbed gratefully, hugging the boy.
A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! And who better to be found in this chapter on the holiday of love than France? Maybe Prussia because of his awesomeness... And will poor Russia ever be reunited with his true love, vodka? Probablly not. Anyway, all you couples enjoy your Valentine's Day, and for those of you who are (like me) miserable and lonely... Don't be! You've got a new chapter to read and chocolate to eat. *munch munch munch*
We're at least going to have pizzelle: (p ee z eh l) an Italian waffle cookie, and boy are they good! My family makes them thin and crisp! They're made in a pizzelle iron, similar to a waffle iron. Pizzelle is plural for pizzella, but I've heard it pizzelles with an 's' for the plural. Now you know and knowing is half the battle.
Peace~! -MagnifiedSun