1. Selfless

"Ah, it's almost 3 and I'm still not ready!" Lithuania panicked, pacing around the room. His long, delicate fingers fumbled nervously as he tried to do his tie before throwing it down on the ground in a frustrated heap.

"Hey, you totally need to relax, Liet. You're not gonna get anywhere if you have a panic attack," Poland picked the tie up off the ground and wrapped it around his best friend's neck, tying it into a perfect knot.

"I don't know what I was thinking, how could I ever think I was good enough to go out on a date with Belarus? She hates me and nothing I can do will convince her otherwise."

"Hey, don't talk like that! She said yes for a reason, right? And if she doesn't realize how lucky she is to have a great guy like you, then she's not worth your time."

Lithuania plopped himself onto the couch, covering his hands with his face. "No, she's the most beautiful woman in the world who could have anyone she wants. She probably only agreed to be nice. I should call and cancel right now, she'll probably feel relieved."

It took all of Poland's strength to not laugh at his friend's worries of Belarus being too nice. Or to not flinch when he called her beautiful.

"Liet, that's ridiculous. You know Bela is, ah well, a very strong woman. If she wasn't interested she'd tell you to your face,"

"You really think so?" Lithuania asked. Poland gave him the most reassuring smile he could manage.

"Of course, Liet, you're totally a great guy. I can't promise she'll fall in love with you or anything, but you should at least give yourself a chance."

Lithuania, who was now looking much calmer, smiled up at his best friend, and stood up to give him a hug.

"Thanks, Po. I know you don't always get along with her, but I appreciate that you're willing to help."

"Hey, what are best friends for?" he smirked.

Lithuania looked down at his watch, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. "Oh shit, I'm gonna be late. See you later?"

"Yeah, of course." His expression turned playful. "Just don't do anything I wouldn't do," he winked.

Lithuania blushed, mumbling another goodbye before he left. Poland sighed and took out the ring from when he and Lithuania got married back during what seemed like a lifetime ago. It was old and very worn down, but he managed to keep it with him for all these years, never pawning it off even when he was barely scraping by. It was priceless to him, the only thing that mattered more being the man who gave it to him himself.

2. Selfish

"Poland, come on, we both have to do this," Lithuania complained as he was attempting to harvest the rye. It was an especially warm day out, and he was already beginning to sweat through his shirt.

"I am helping, see?" Poland said as he pointed to the baskets by his side. "Whenever you fill one up just let me know, and I'll get you another one."

Lithuania let out a long-suffering sigh. "That's not helping, you have to harvest some of this too. You can't expect me to do it all."

Poland sighed. "Don't we have farmers for this stuff? Why do we have to do the dirty work?"

"Because it's important as representations of our nations to work alongside with our people. It's only fair."

Poland rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I'm totally skipping out on this. Why don't we just pay one of the farmers a little extra and go sneak off to our room for a little one-on-one time?" Poland raised his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"I'm not pawning off my work onto someone else just to slack off! What will your people think when they notice you aren't offering any help?"

"They don't care, they know I'm a very busy man," Poland waved him off.

"I can't believe you sometimes!" Lithuania yelled, exasperated with his new husband. "You know what, fine, just go do whatever you want, but I'm not going to vouch for you."

Poland rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I'll just go to the kitchen. I'm getting hungry anyway." He stalked off to his destination, away from his total stick-in-the-mud husband.

3. Shy

"Go on, Feliks, go talk to him." King Jadwiga urged him. He stared at the personification of Lithuania, who he had just asked to see his private regions, and felt paralyzing anxiety keeping him in place.

"I… I don't want to!" he cried, flinching at how much he sounded like a petulant child. "I mean, maybe we should let him and his Grand Duke settle in before bothering them?" he asked desperately.

Jadwiga sighed. "Feliks, you're going to have to talk to him sometime, this alliance is vital, for both of our countries." She brushed his blond hair behind his ear. "I know you're nervous, but it's not going to be as bad as you think."

"I asked him to show me his cock and balls!" he flinched. "How can I go back on that?"

"Well, you're just going to have to try," she stated firmly. She put her arm around his shoulders and pointed him to Lithuania's direction.

"Just try to make him feel welcome here, you don't have to be best friends yet." She gave him a gentle shove in Lithuania's direction where he was talking to his grand duke. Poland looked back at his king, to see her encouraging smile. He took a deep breath.

"Uh, hi," Poland mumbled under his breath. Lithuania turned his attention from his grand duke to Poland, who quickly took the hint.

"Excuse me, I was just about to leave. I have a few things to discuss with your king," After the Grand Duke left, Poland and Lithuania stared at each other awkwardly.

"Oh, hello," Lithuania greeted in that quiet voice of his. It didn't take Poland very long to remember why he got so nervous around this man in particular, other than the fact he was a stranger. He had long, chestnut brown hair that glowed red in the light, large, blue-green eyes, and a certain gentle strength that radiated off of him, one he hadn't seen in many other men.

"So… are you enjoying your visit in Poland?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Oh, yes, you have a beautiful country. It seems very nice."

Poland blushed at the compliment. "Thank you, er, Lithuania. I take much pride in it."

In a sudden burst of bravery, he asked, "Would you like a tour? I can show you the library, the kitchens, the bedchamber. Mine of course is the largest second only to the king." He blushed again, the thought of taking this strange man into his bedroom making him incredibly nervous.

But thankfully, if Lithuania did notice, he didn't let is show. "That sounds wonderful. I'd love to see more of the palace."

"Great!" Poland exclaimed.

And so they made their way around the castle.

4. Impatient

"Come on, Liet!" Poland giggled. He pulled Lithuania by his arm, running as fast as they could toward their hotel room. It had been a long, boring day of meeting after meeting. Even though such things were to be expected at a world conference, Poland could've sworn Germany was secretly attempting to bore them all to death.

"I'm trying, Po, but dragging me there isn't helping me go any faster," he smiled.

The second they both got into their room, (after Poland dropped the key no less than three times in his excitement) Poland immediately started unbuttoning his boyfriend's shirt.

"Be careful, Po, I borrowed this from Estonia. I don't want to tear it."

Poland laughed, light and musical. "We can always get him another one. Now hush while I finish this."

After he helped Lithuania get out of his pants, he started undoing his own clothes, practically tearing them off of his own body.

When he was properly undressed he grabbed Lithuania's face between his hands and kissed him on his lips, his cheeks, his neck, leaving a trail of red marks as he went.

"You seem especially enthusiastic this evening. Is it all the paperwork that's getting you bothered and hot?" Lithuania teased. Poland broke out into a smile.

"God, I was about to go insane in there, listening to Germany ramble on and on and having to hear England and France bitch each other out. You can practically see the sexual tension radiating off of them."

"Oh, so it's England and France that's got you so worked up?" Lithuania teased

Poland swatted his arm. "Shut up, you."

They continued to explore each other, their hands getting lower and lower.

"Are you ready, Po? Lithuania murmured to his boyfriend. In response, Poland grabbed his hand, and walked him over to the bed.

5. Anxious

Saying it was a bad day was an understatement.

Despite the many tragedies and horrors Poland had experienced throughout his long life, or the fact that he had almost lost the love of his life several times, he was not the type to sit and mope about it. No, he could be accused of many things, but moping was not one of them. But some days it became too much and he couldn't pretend.

But that didn't mean he didn't try.

That morning, he received a call from Lithuania asking if he was interesting in spending the day together, being one of those rare days where neither of them had any work or obligation to fulfill. He was tempted to say no, but he knew that would only make Lithuania suspicious, and even thought that having someone over might be a welcome distraction. But, he was wrong.

Minutes after he arrived, Poland excused himself to go to the bathroom. And sure enough as soon as the door closed, he started sobbing.

Wet, hot tears streamed down his face and his breathing came out in short gasps, but he was careful to make sure that he couldn't be heard.

He gave himself a few minutes, making sure that he completely cried himself out before going back out. Lithuania sat outside in the living room, completely oblivious to Poland's breakdown just moments before.

"Hey Poland, sorry I came over on such short notice, but I know you mentioned wanting to see that new art gallery a few times, and we wouldn't get a better chance to go than today. Are you still interested?"

Inwardly, Poland groaned. On any normal day, he'd love to spend the day with his boyfriend, examining art. But he didn't think he'd be able to keep up an act of normalcy for that long.

"Actually, why don't we just stay in tonight? Maybe watch a movie or something?"

Lithuania looked puzzled for a moment, scrutinizing Poland. He shifted his weight to the other foot and blushed.

"What?" Poland asked, defensively.

"Nothing, it's just that you seemed really excited about the art gallery before. Is something wrong?"

"No," Poland said too quickly. When Lithuania shot him another concerned look, he sighed.

"I just don't feel like going out today, okay? I have headache, and I just want to relax."

"Well… okay," Lithuania replied, obviously still suspicious. "What would you like to watch?"

After going through several options, they eventually found one they could both agree on, a simple romantic comedy that Poland was fairly certain he'd be able to get through. And for a while, it was a nice, welcome distraction and Poland could almost pretend he was enjoying himself, but it didn't last too long.

Around the middle point, the main couple were in an argument, over a misunderstanding where the female protagonist believed she was being cheated on.

"How could you do this to me, Brendan?!"

"Lisa, wait! It's not what you think-"

"I knew it, you're just like all the others! Well, I hope you have fun with your new girlfriend."

"Lisa!"

It was a stupid thing to get upset over, Poland knew. It was just a movie, a stupid movie that he didn't even like, but the memories from not too long ago, when it was Lithuania cursing his name, calling him a traitor, became too much. He barely made it to the bathroom this time.

As the tears fell he mentally berated himself. Come on, Polska, why are you still upset about that, it was decades ago! Lithuania has forgiven you, and everything is fine!

"Hey Poland?" came Lithuania's soft voice through the door. "Are you okay? You seem a little… withdrawn today. If you want to talk about it, I'm here."

"I'm fine," his voice cracked. He flinched, knowing he was caught for sure now.

Lithuania was silent for a moment. "Please let me in, Po."

It was the 'Po' that did it. Reluctantly, Poland let Lithuania into the cramped bathroom. Lithuania took one look at Poland's red eyes and runny nose, and pulled him in a tight hug.

"Oh Poland, I'm so sorry. Is it another one of those days?"

Poland, now the tears falling freely once more, buried his face into Lithuania's chest and nodded his head.

Lithuania ran his fingers through Poland's blond locks, murmuring words of reassurance.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked after several minutes. Poland shook his head no and Lithuania nodded.

"Well regardless, let's get you into bed. I'll make some chicken noodle soup and we can talk about whatever you want, or not at all, okay?

"Okay," Poland agreed, still sobbing. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have such an amazing boyfriend. Fate had seen it fit to give him another chance, and he wasn't going to do anything to waste it this time.