A sweet, buttery aroma drifted into the living room from the kitchen and combated the grogginess Canada had been dealing with that morning. The scent helped him grow more aware of his sweet tooth. Curious about what was being baked, he stood from the couch, and strode toward the room in which the delicious scent was coming from. Though, when he entered the room, some of his excitement for the food being prepared diminished, as he discovered it was Russia who was the one baking a batch of cookies. It was true he had been the one to suggest allowing the intimidating nation to help America, but even if the other nation proved multiple times it was not his intention to harm his brother, Canada still couldn't help but be suspicious of him and wary of what could've been put into the cookies.
Despite the fact that he now believed he was stupid for even becoming excited at the smell of food, (as England wasn't necessarily known for his cooking, Russia wasn't known for being the most trustworthy individual out there, and America wasn't even capable of learning how to cook at that moment) Canada figured it was best to ignore this as he asked, "How come you're making cookies?"
Russia flinched at the sound of Canada's voice; causing the younger of the two nations to sigh silently with annoyance. Though, Russia appeared to be oblivious to his irritation as he stated, "I didn't notice you enter the room."
He returned to scrapping off the cookies from the pan and placing them on a cooling rack as he explained, "I just thought that everyone could use a little treat. We've all been eating nothing but healthy food for an entire week, and yes, it tastes fine, but it kind of gets boring after a while. Besides, I want to have Fredka explore the hallway upstairs so that he can become more familiar with it, and I just thought that giving him some treats would make him more willing to do so."
"Well, that's very considerate of you," Canada stated, and added, " but don't try to force him to leave his room if he doesn't want to."
"Alright."
The two of them remained silent while Russia prepared another batch of cookies to put in the oven, and when he'd completed the task and set a timer, he told Canada, "I think the cookies are cooled off now. Why don't you have one?"
Even if Canada was still a bit mistrusting towards Russia, he didn't want to make the other nation suspicious of his lack of trust. Besides, he figured it would be plain rude to reject a food offer when he clearly wasn't sick or full. Perhaps others would have no problem rejecting this offer, but sometimes, the silliest things made him guilty, and as awkward as it may have been, saying no to someone was something he believed required a lot of guts. He already had trouble socializing with other people at times, and he didn't want to risk offending others, or coming off as rude. If he did manage to do this, he believed things would only become worse for him.
With all this in mind, Canada walked over to the cooling rack in order to grab a cookie, but there was no denying the fact that he was hesitant in doing so, as even if he didn't want to come off as rude for rejecting the food offer, he was still a shy individual, and the fact that someone had been willing to give him as much as a cookie, especially someone who was quite intimidating, was overwhelming to him. Despite the fact that he didn't want to come off as rude and reject the food offer, he still wasn't going to take a bite from the cookie until Russia ate one of the cookies himself. Though he figured that it wasn't very likely that the other nation would try something, England had always managed to find ways to make him grow suspicious, as the Brit sometimes would talk about ways Russia could easily take advantage of the situation. It wasn't as if he lacked sense when he went about sharing these paranoid speculations either. Some of the things he said that Russia could do sent chills up Canada's spine. It wasn't surprising for England to be knowledgeable on how to conquer other countries either. After all, he'd once ruled over a large portion of the world, so it wasn't as if he would be incapable of coming up with ways Russia could take advantage of one nation.
He was relieved to find, not long after he'd grabbed a cookie, Russia grabbed one himself and ate it without even glancing at Canada and questioning why he wasn't eating his. Well, he wouldn't be eating the cookie if he put something strange in them, now, would he?, Canada pondered, as he bit into his own cookie.
It was when the second batch of cookies was removed from the oven when Russia said, "I'm going to go try and urge Fredka to explore the hallway now."
"Alright," was all Canada replied with before Russia gathered a couple cookies and walked out of the room.
It'd been two days since Russia had tried and failed to have America become more familiar with the other two nations, and this time, he was hoping that giving the young nation a reward for being brave, and only having him explore one section of the house was going to make help him be more comfortable in his own home, instead of scaring him. Maybe he would even become more curious for what else was in the house, and restore some memories from exploring the building.
When Russia entered America's room, in order to determine if he was awake enough to do a bit of exploring, Russia was excited to find that he was, in fact, wide awake, and immediately walked over to him to try and urge him to stand up. However, America appeared to be confused by this action, and soon became a bit nervous about what the other nation's intention was. It wasn't long before he formed an idea in his head that his bed was no longer a safe place for him to stay, and was up against a wall, while the other nation in the room panicked as he tried to come up with a way to help the young nation get over his fear. It wasn't as if he was being rough with the other nation. All he did was gently try to urge him out of bed, and the mistrusting nation freaked out.
In an attempt to try and make the young nation more comfortable around him, and to apologize for frightening him, Russia broke off a chunk from one of the cookies he'd brought with him, and handed it to America. At first, the other was apprehensive toward the food being provided to him, but it wasn't long before the curiosity toward what it was urged him to take the piece of cookie from his caretaker's hand and take a nibble from it to determine how it's flavor. The satisfying, sugary, and buttery taste of the chocolate chip cookie melted into his tongue and sent a wave of reassurance throughout his body, causing him to be pleasantly surprised by how tasty and innocent the treat was. Not even the smoothies or the sandwiches, which had been his favorite foods Russia would feed him, could amount to what the chunk of chocolate chip cookie had to offer.
Even if he was still a bit scared of what his caretaker wanted from him at that moment, America still couldn't help but be more enthusiastic about what Russia wanted him to do. He could still see that there was some of the chocolate chip cookies left, and he was hoping that maybe if he was obedient, the human would give him more. Which was why he didn't struggle when Russia grabbed his hand into his own, despite how reluctant he was to go along with this action, and walked out of the room with his caretaker.
Exploring and helping America become more familiar with the hallway and what was inside of each room had not been such a long process. In all reality, there weren't too many rooms to examine in the first place. Other from his bedroom, there was a bathroom, a closet, and a couple guest rooms. Most of the items the rooms contained were difficult for the young nation to understand the purpose of, so Russia believed there was no use in even bothering to try and explain their reason of existence (not that the one he was caring for would understand what he was trying to say, anyway). Even if he had the urge to do so, he didn't bother telling America who stayed in what room either, and who stayed in the guest's room downstairs. Instead, he let him observe his surroundings and figure out on his own what the rooms were all about, if he wanted to.
When he was finished becoming more familiar with the rooms in the hallway, Russia gave him the cookies as a reward for being obedient, and America couldn't help but be delighted by the fact that his prediction of what would happen if he went along with his caretakers plan actually turned out to be true. After leading the young nation back to his bedroom, Russia couldn't help but hug him due to how adorable he believed America was as he snacked on the cookies in delight, instead of being so fearful. At least it was a vast improvement from a week ago.
Perhaps the human wasn't so terrible after all. It wasn't as if he'd ever tried to harm America, and the food he gave him was great, and contained no substance that would cause him any harm. Maybe, the place he was in wasn't too terrible either, but that still didn't mean that the young nation would give into his seemingly innocent surroundings so easily. Just because Russia had shown him nothing but kindness for an entire week, and at least tried to be understanding toward what he was going through, didn't mean everything that was going on wasn't some facade hiding a brutal trap. He suspected it wouldn't be wise to let his guard down. It wasn't as if he had known this human for a long time, anyway.
A/N: I realize that it may have seemed awkward, or even a bit out of character for Canada to be so hesitant about being offered a cookie. Especially since, despite still having some suspicion towards what Russia's motive might be, he's still more trusting towards him than England is. It's just that based on my own personal experience, back when I used to be more shy, I believed that people thought poorly of me. And I don't mean in the way of, "Oh, they might find me annoying, so people might not like me much for that." Instead, I believed that people absolutely DESPISED me, and thought that life would be easier if I just stayed out of the way. Thus why I tried to avoid talking to people, or eat in their presence. I thought that most people would find it revolting if something as 'disgusting' as me ate in their presence, because I thought that they believed I didn't deserve to eat, but only allowed me to do so because it would just be cruel to starve someone.
I understand that these thoughts may seem completely irrational, and that some may believe that there is no way an intelligent individual like Canada could ever have these thoughts, even if he is shy. I'm just one person, with only my personal experience, so I don't know what goes in the minds of other shy people, who possibly might even suffer from social anxiety (I'm not saying all shy people suffer from this). So I apologize if anything in that part of the story bothered someone.