Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia. All rights for the characters of Hetalia belong to Himaruya Hidekaz.

Chapter 14

"Girl, work it!" Alfred laughed as Victorea slammed the last note on the piano keys, finishing off what may have been her fourth song. Alfred and Peter had continuously asked for more, but she was panting a little and hunched over ever so slightly. Arthur smiled softly as he saw his necklace gleam as it dangled from her neck.

"Alright, that's enough. We don't want to wear the poor girl out," he said.

"Kill-joy," Peter mumbled. Alfred chuckled at him.

Victorea wiped her forehead with her arm. "Phew. Been a while since I've played this much."

"Alright, why don't we play with your new stuff?" Peter asked happily, bouncing around her. "It would be fun!"

Arthur smacked him upside the head when he bounced towards his direction. "That's rude. Apologize."

"How? I want to play with the stuff she got!" Peter pouted. "You're mean!"

Victorea laughed at him. "Sure, but I don't know what it is you want to play with."

Peter hummed in thought. "How about…Umm…"

"Someone didn't think that through," Matthew laughed. "How about we go to the skating rink?"

"Aww, you always want to go there!" Alfred rolled his eyes and groaned loudly.

Victorea, however, looked intrigued. "Skating?" She asked. Matthew nodded, looking a little put down by his response. "I've never skated before."

"What?" Matthew asked, astounded. "It's so much fun! We have a rink that makes its own snow, so you can ice skate or play hockey or just play in the snow!"

"Play in the snow?" Victorea looked like a little curious child. "Really?"

"What, you've never played in the snow before?" Alfred laughed, but immediately stopped when he got the blank stare back from her. "Wait, are you serious? Doesn't it snow down in Oklahoma?!"

"Yeah, but I haven't seen a storm in a while," Victorea shook her head. "Last storm we got was two years ago, and…I, uhh," she cleared her throat. "I couldn't really go outside then."

"Well, what the hell are we waiting for?!" Alfred jumped over to the door. "Come on!"

"Wait, you imbecile!" Arthur yelled after him. To everyone's surprise, Alfred stopped and turned to face Arthur, listening. "She doesn't have anything to wear for snow!"

"Oh, even I forgot about that," Victorea laughed. "I'm sure it can't be that bad."

Peter rolled his eyes dramatically. "Of course it's that bad. It's cold!" Victorea laughed at him. "We need to find you something to wear!"

Mr. Jones piped in after watching the teens – and Peter – for a while. "I think we still have some of your mom's old clothes – and she was pretty tiny. I think Tia here can fit."

Alfred and Matthew both squinted at Victorea, and she squirmed a little under their gaze, giggling and blushing. Alfred snickered. "Yeah, she's teeny. I think it'll fit." Victorea giggled again. He ran out and to his father's room. Mr. Jones followed suit just as quickly. Like father, like son.

"Alright!" Peter jumped in the air, excited. "I can teach you how to make a snow angel, and how to make a snowman, and how to have a snowball fight, and how to ice skate, and –" he stopped when he noticed Victorea looking at him, completely overwhelmed. "Oh, well, we'll start with the basics."

Victorea laughed again. Arthur smiled at the sensation of hearing her laugh. It was like someone was tickling his stomach, he just couldn't help but grin. "Alright."

By this time, Mr. Jones and Alfred walked in, heavy snow clothes in hand. Victorea's mouth dropped. "I have to wear all of that?!"

"Duh," Peter rolled his eyes again. "It's cold, remember?

…

Victorea squeaked childishly and waved her arms up and down like she was trying to fly. "Haha, this feels weird!" She was fully dressed with ski pants, winter coat, boots, scarf, and mittens, and she seemed to be enjoying it. Arthur couldn't help but notice how sleek her form looked even in such attire. Each one had gotten dressed after Mr. Jones dropped them off there in the changing rooms provided. They had met up in the long hallway that led to the ice rink.

Alfred laughed at her. "Jeez, don't wear yourself out! We haven't even gotten there yet!" Victorea giggled and stopped her flailing, and Matthew (who was helping Peter put on his boots) finally arrived with the bubbly young boy.

"Alright, now, you have to know – don't eat the yellow snow!"

Victorea laughed. "I know that!" The older boys laughed at the two.

"Alright. Have you ever seen snow before?" Arthur asked her. Victorea shook her head. "A few times in the movies I peeked in at that my dad would watch, but no. Is it as pretty as it is in the movies?"

Alfred laughed his loud laugh. "Not really here. The snow doesn't fall. I dunno how they do it – I never bothered to listen. But there's a lot of snow here, even in May!"

Arthur smiled. He wondered what she would think of the snow. It was a strange concept, yes, but it was actually a common place in New York, really. There were many mountains that had snow made for skiers, so they could practice in the spring and fall when it was cold enough to stay. Many indoor rinks had their own snow made as well, outside the ice, so people who didn't want to skate or just missed the snow in the heat of summer could enjoy the frosty chill of the white powder.

Victorea jumped up and down happily. It wasn't a lot, because of her heavy clothes, but it still made Arthur smile. "I can hear the others!" It was true – the voices echoed from the dome that Arthur knew held the ice and snow that made their breaths puff out before them. He remembered how happy Victorea was to get into the warm clothes after shivering in the air conditioning for quite some time. Perhaps this will be a day he will remember for quite some time.

He didn't realize that Victorea was thinking the exact same thing.

"Come on!" Alfred ran towards the door, and Victorea and Peter ran along with him as fast as their heavy clothes would allow them. Arthur and Matthew shared an amused glance at one another, and followed. Alfred turned back to grin at Victorea again before pushing the large doors open that led to the huge room that may have been 20 degrees. Victorea froze, staring ahead, fixated.

The room was large – about the size of a football field, and had a glass dome roof that was thick enough so you really couldn't see anything in the sky. The walls appeared to be cement, and a skating rink sat at the very back of the large room, while a field of white snow lay in the foreground, a few people playing in the snow, most of them adults with children, a few some teens that Arthur did not recognize.

"Wow!" Victorea jumped right into the snow – which was almost three feet deep – and laughed. "This is so cool!" Peter and Alfred jumped right after her, laughing along as Victorea began to dig into the white, packy snow. Arthur and Matthew walked up to them. "So you can do this all year long?"

"Yep!" Alfred packed a snowball together and threw it at Matthew, who yelled in his usual quiet voice at him.

Victorea watched the action in wonder, and picked up some snow and held it in her hand a moment before packing it into a ball and throwing it at Peter. "Haha, this is fun!"

"Hey!" Peter yelled, grabbing some snow and packing it together. "You can't do that!"

Victorea laughed as the snowball hit her arm harmlessly. "Why not?"

"Because I said so!" Peter went to grab another snowball, not done with her yet. Victorea laughed and sat down in the snow, sinking almost a foot into it. She took off her glove and touched the snow gingerly underneath her.

"Brrr!" Victorea immediately took her hand away and laughed. She put the glove back on. "What should we do first?"

Peter jumped up and down. "Let's make a snowman!"

"How do we do that?" Victorea asked.

Alfred and Peter nodded at each other and made a snowball. The lesson basically continued with Alfred making the bottom, Victorea making the middle, and Peter making the head. Arthur and Matthew sat in the snow and watched, Matthew content with the cold and Arthur content with watching Victorea.

"There!" Alfred sighed as he lifted Peter up so he could put his head on the snowman.

Victorea studied it. "But it's blank."

"We don't have rocks or sticks or anything to decorate it with," Alfred said.

"Pssh!" Victorea waved her hand at him dismissively. She used her mittens and made a square with her hands, studying it like a director. "It's like a blank canvas, you just have to be creative enough to paint on it!"

So the boys sat and watched as Victorea ran over to the dressing rooms, and came back with something in her mittens. She bounced up to the snowman and happily placed two buttons on the face for eyes. "See? There's lots of stuff if you look!"

"Oh, cool!" Peter shouted. "I'll go look too!"

They managed to find only one rock and three more buttons, but Victorea placed them so the buttons were lined vertically up the chest and the rock was used as a nose. They used Mattie's earmuffs and Victorea's scarf to complete it. Victorea giggled. "It's wonderful!" Arthur blinked at it. It really looked like any ordinary snowman. He didn't really see anything special about it. But Victorea seemed absolutely thrilled with it.

After the snowman, they had built a snow fort (a terrible one, but who's to judge?), made several snow angels, and thrown countless snowballs at each other until they were too tired to swing their arms anymore. But Victorea wasn't done yet.

"What next?" She asked eagerly.

"Well, I could teach you how to skate," Matthew offered shyly. Victorea jumped up and down in excitement, agreeing almost immediately. "But nobody else likes to skate here…"

Victorea immediately stopped. "Oh. We don't have to."

"No, I think you should," Arthur shrugged. "We can watch."

"Are you sure?" Victorea asked. Arthur nodded. She perked up immediately and jumped over in his direction, hugging him around the waist and thanking him profusely before following Matthew to the hall again where they rented skates, leaving a stunned Arthur behind.

"Awww," Alfred pretended to swoon. "Cute!"

"Shut up!" Arthur hissed. "Don't say another word!"

Alfred shrugged, not really caring. He grabbed Peter's arm and led him towards the skating rink, stopping at the edge and beginning to build a snow fort. Arthur huffed and sat on the benches along the skating circle's edge. This ought to be interesting.

…

Victorea was trying so hard to hold herself still. This was just too cool! …No pun intended.

"Thanks, Mattie!" she said as he finished tying her last skate on. He had already strapped his on, and was helping her out. "They're awful tight…"

"They're supposed to be," Matthew said with a chuckle. "They can't slide off. That would hurt."

"Good point," she said. "Now…What do I do?"

"Uhh," Mattie shrugged. "You skate, I guess."

Victorea laughed. "Well, thank you for that input. Now, how do I do that?"

Matthew smiled at her. "Here," he held her hand out, and she took it gingerly and attempted to stand, giggling as she wobbled. He laughed and led her slowly to the ice, guiding her like a child learning to walk. "Now, all you have to do is keep your balance, okay? Just slide your feet across really slowly, like your trying to walk, but dragging your feet a little."

"Okay," Victorea said quietly, trying to focus. Clearly, this was not something she was good at. She fell almost immediately, landing on her rear with a tiny "oomph" and sliding away from a laughing Matthew. She laughed at herself. "Whoops!"

"It's alright," Matthew skated skillfully over to her and helped her up again. "It's not something you can learn on your first try."

"Right," Victorea glanced down at her feet. "Well, I can stand at least." She turned her head a little to see Arthur watching from a bench, Alfred and Peter right behind him, throwing snowballs at each other. She gave a wave, and he waved back. She smiled brightly.

"Here, try it like this," Matthew slowly walked across the ice, looking like an elderly man unable to bend his knees well. Victorea laughed but copied, her tongue out in concentration. "Nice!" Matthew laughed at her again. "Doing great!"

Victorea beamed at the compliment. "Okay, so just practice this?"

"Yeah," Matthew repeated the motion. "Just get this down, okay?"

"Okey dokey," Victorea continued on. She practiced this for perhaps ten minutes, falling down two times, before Matthew began teaching her how to actually skate a little more. She picked it up quickly, and she was soon enough sliding almost as gracefully as Matthew was.

…Almost.

She fell again. "Aw, man! I so thought I had that!" She laughed.

"Alright," Matthew chuckled and helped her up again for the tenth time in that hour. "I think that's enough."

"Okay!" Victorea skated with him back to the bench, and he helped her out of her skates. He put on his boots and took the skates to return them.

She ran over to Arthur as soon as her boots were back on. "Arthur! Arthur! Did you see me?! I skated! I skated!"

Arthur laughed and stood up to face her properly. "Yes, I did! You were very good!"

In reality, she was a complete amateur, but she knew that. She was just happy she did something so different and fun. "It was so cool! You have to try it with me next time!"

She could see something in his expression. He seemed calm and content. It was something she saw on him more often now, and, while she wasn't sure why he looked like this, she liked it. It was better than him yelling at Alfred, after all. He chuckled and brushed off some snow on her arm. "Come on, love. Let's get your scarf and go back home, okay?"

Home…Victorea paused at the word, earning a confused look from Arthur. "Okay!" Victorea jumped up happily. "My nose and toes and fingers are numb!" she added with a giggle, rubbing her nose with her soaked mitts. He laughed and took his glove off and touched her cheek with the back of his hand to warm her.

"Yeah, you're cold all right!"

"Oh, but your hands are so warm!" Victorea giggled. "Come on Alfred! Peter! We're going!" She ran over and took her scarf and Matthew's earmuffs off of the snowman, glancing at it one more time before handing the muffs to their owner and heading out to the rooms, tired and happy. Arthur was blushing the entire time at that off-hand comment Victorea had thrown at him, liking the way it sounded.

Oh, but your hands are so warm!

He blushed a little. It was easy to mistake it for the cold. Each one took off their excess clothing and Alfred called Mr. Jones to pick them up. They had been there for three hours. And Victorea didn't stop talking about how much fun she had the entire way back.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

A big thanks to Pineapplebombgirl for the idea! It's a little weird, I know, but they do have these kinds of buildings! …I think.

I know I seem to be dragging this on, but bear with me, please. :S

Thanks a million to all of the nice people who reviewed!

~Dreampainter