Hello again! This is chapter five I believe (starting to lose count) :). Well, as usual I'm required to say that none of the characters, with the exception of Wegener are mine. Enjoy!
Wegener stood by a low table, using it to support his weight while Iceland watched expressionlessly, secretly hoping that he would let go of the table and take his first steps. Norway told him to just be patient, but weren't most human kids his physical age already walking?
He let go of the table, balancing for a moment, before falling backwards into a sitting position, looking utterly stunned. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry! Iceland had managed to get Wegener up to the hotel room in Australia without the other nations noticing. Luck was on his side as well, and Wegener hadn't cried since they got there. There would be no way to hide that from the other nations.
Luckily, Wegener just made a face and released some frustrated babbles before pulling himself up again.
"Come here," Iceland called. Wegener looked up at him with his big purple eyes before deciding to ignore him and try to stand again. Iceland sighed and went to go grab Wegener himself. He'd have to leave for the meeting in fifteen minutes, and Wegener's hair looked fit for some animals to make a nest in. He was able to comb it out well enough, but that cowlick was still sticking up. Iceland put some water on it, hoping that it would help. Now it was just a wet cowlick. Oh well, it wasn't really all that noticeable, was it? One way or another, it would have to do.
"Let's go then," Iceland sighed. Wegener reached his arms up so that Iceland could pick him up, and suddenly found Iceland's hair overly-interesting once he was being held. He messed it up as he brushed it with his fingers.
When he opened up the door to his room, Finland was standing there, hand raised about to knock.
"Oh. There you are. Ready to go?" Iceland shrugged and shut the door behind him. No. He was most definitely not ready to go. He should have stayed home and made up some excuse about being sick. He had actually suggested this, much to Norway's disapproval. Sweden had actually brought up a good point, too: most of the other nations were still mad at him for all the ash his volcanoes had put in the air (not that he had any control- and it's not like some of the other countries weren't at fault too this time). The other four Nordics' vote was unanimous though: he and Wegener had to attend this meeting.
"Don't worry Iceland, It'll be okay," Finland said happily. Was it that obvious that he was nervous? Normally people couldn't tell. Then again, Finland had known him longer than most people.
"I guess," Iceland responded. All he really wanted was for this world meeting to be over. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were waiting by the elevator for them. They were leaving early to try to avoid too many people on the way into the meeting.
Norway looked like he was about ready to fall over from exhaustion. Iceland couldn't imagine why. He wasn't the one who had to stay up with a toddler on a twenty hour plane flight from Iceland to Australia.
Sweden pressed the button for the elevator, which was already waiting, and stepped inside. They were on the eleventh floor of a twelve-floor building.
"You're getting heavy," Iceland muttered to Wegener, setting him back down. Wegener proceeded to crawl over to the elevator wall, pull himself up by the railing, and run his hands down all of the elevator buttons within his reach. Sweden pulled him away before he climbed up to reach the top buttons.
Iceland groaned. So much for leaving early. On every one of the bottom seven levels, the elevator stopped and opened for half a minute, while each of the Nordics jabbed the inconveniently broken 'close door' button.
"We should just leave on the next level and take the stairs," Denmark suggested.
"Alright," Finland agreed.
Too late though. On the next floor down, in walked England. Iceland grimaced. He still was somewhat bothered by the cod wars.
"Hello Iceland," England said, not having noticed Wegener staring at him in the corner.
Iceland nodded. "Hello."
"So," England said. Iceland tensed. He couldn't tell if England would want compensation for the damage his volcanoes had done, or if he would offer some form of sympathy for what had happened to him. "have you been doing alright lately?"
Iceland nodded, relieved. "Good. You?"
England, fairly close by, had felt some of the effects of the freaky volcanic activity, but had only suffered very minor (and fixable) structural damage to some of it's older buildings.
"I'm well."
And that was the end of that uncomfortable conversation. Of course, it only led to an even more uncomfortable silence. It didn't take England long to realize that they were stopping at every floor, and look over to the right, where all of the buttons were, not to mention a mesmerized Wegener, sitting on the ground looking up at England wide-eyed. Wegener hadn't been around many people before, so every new person he saw fascinated him.
The huge purple eyes caught England off-guard. "Oh," he said, jumping slightly before kneeling down to Wegener's height, the annoyingly slow elevator completely forgotten. "What's your name, little one?"
Wegener stared at England for several seconds, then up at Iceland for a cue on what to do.
"This is Wegener," Finland said, leaning down to pat the him on the head. "The new island."
England raised his eyebrows. I know, Iceland thought. None of us expected to find a new personification either. "Well then hello Wegener. I'm England."
Wegener smiled faintly at him, but still moved to hide behind the legs of the Nordics and reached his arms up in an invitation to be picked up, which Iceland agreed to all too quickly.
"Well," England said as the elevator finally reached the lobby and they all went to their cars to leave for where the meeting would be held, "I a suppose we'll talk at the meeting."
Sweden nodded while Iceland helped Wegener into the car, unnerved now. Talk. What did that mean?
" He'll 'b f'ne" Sweden said, seeing Iceland's worry. Sweden had been on the fence about Iceland taking care of Wegener at first, as had Denmark, but both were convinced now. It was true, Iceland didn't know what to do in several situations regarding Wegener, but he was more than willing to learn, and that was enough.
England and the Nordics weren't the only ones who had the idea of arriving early. In fact, by comparison to everyone else, the Nordics were late.
The meeting room was in absolute chaos. Countries demanding money for the money lost in air flights due to another's volcanic eruption. Those accused countries insisting they owed nothing amid a chorus of more sympathetic countries checking to see that those affected by the new island's appearance were recovering well as well as old arguments that managed to resurface. Even Germany was finding that he was unable to reestablish order.
Yet somehow, a young toddler raspberry managed to silence and turn every head in the room.
All eyes stared at Wegener, who was beginning to whimper with all the new attention that had been directed his way.
"This would be Wegener, the new island," Norway said to them all with a tone as impassive as Sweden's expression, even though all of the Nordics' were holding their breath in anticipation of the reaction.
Nobody moved though. Iceland didn't know what to expect. Would they gradually start arguing like normal? Would they attack? Would they break out into an indecipherable chorus of shouts at any second? Would they handle the situation civilly? Wait no, that last option wasn't possible.
"A new nation?" Lithuania was the first to speak
That was when chaos broke loose. The entire room erupted into hundreds of shouts so that no-one could be heard individually, although Iceland swore he heard Hungary say something along the lines of dressing Wegener up in her clothes, to which he barked a quick "no."
"Quiet!" Germany shouted. The nations didn't immediately sit down like they normally did though. Germany had to go around talking individually to everyone to get them to settle down, and even then, the yelling had only decreased slightly.
"Okay," Germany said, pinching the bridge of his nose at the front of the room. "I think we know what's first on the agenda. Nordics, have anything else to add?"
Norway cleared his throat. Might as well get it all over with quickly. "The new island is named Wegener. It's personification was found shortly after it's appearance. Iceland is Wegener's guardian," he said plainly.
The room broke out into whispers and mutters underneath the already existing shouts. Iceland looked around and strained his ears trying to figure out if they were approving or disapproving. He couldn't tell though. The noise of the entire room had settled into a monotone hum of voices.
Romano spoke up above them all next. "So is it him that we should get our lost airline money from then?"
"What? No!" Iceland said, appalled. For goodness sake, the kid couldn't even talk yet! It was a miracle any new nation survived these people.
"Why are you taking care of him, Iceland?" England asked, disregarding Romano's comment. "After all, Wegener is close to me, and you've been busy dealing with the volcanoes."
Iceland tensed and opened his mouth to say some remark that he hadn't quite come up with yet, but Denmark quickly turned to look at him, shaking his head. If Iceland was to solidify his place as guardian among the other nations, he couldn't go off making smart comebacks.
Iceland sat back in his chair, fuming. The things he would like to say to everyone questioning his guardianship of Wegener…
"Location doesn't make it the closest country's property," someone said.
"Thank you!" Iceland blurted out. Norway's eyes widened. Oh no. That argument could be used against him, and not just England. Think! he shouted at himself. Iceland looked around the room for the person who had said that about location, and stopped breathing altogether when he saw who it was: Russia, staring intently at Wegener, smiling so slightly that Iceland wondered if he was imagining it. My gosh, didn't he ever blink!?
"He should become a part of Russia, no?"
"England!"
"France!"
And suddenly, the entire room was fighting over custody of Wegener. Of Iceland's Wegener. Iceland bared his teeth and looked at the other nations who dared open their mouths to speak out against him. Wegener pushed himself further back in chair, trying to wriggle his way under Iceland's arm. He hadn't been around so many people before, much less so many yelling people, and didn't like it in the slightest. He was on the verge of tears, in fact.
Iceland was too angry to notice, although he did hold on to Wegener tightly, which was helping the little guy slightly.
France had moved on from arguing with England and went over to Wegener to bribe him with a platter of food. Iceland chose not to dwell on the fact that France seemed to have been able to pull food out of thin air, and instead began to swat the food away from Wegener's reach. "Get that away from him." He did not, however, see the scone England had managed to smuggle over to him in some sort of attempt at bribery as well
. Wegener reached out to it, putting the scone in his mouth and sucking on it.
"-Ucky foo-" he babbled, scrunching up his face and letting the scone-burnt on the bottom- fall into his lap.
"L'ts go," Sweden suddenly said in a deep voice.
"What?" Iceland asked confused. Why would they be leaving already? Sweden stood up, taking a slightly protective stance in front of Iceland and Wegener. Iceland peered around him to see what the problem was. The arguing was escalating quickly. He was only able to pick up little snippits of speech though.
"-Why-even want him?"
"-island will grow-might be big-someday; I -get it now then-"
"-can't- just leave them alone?"
"Pasta."
"I'll save you from all of them!"
"Still-compensation for-ash- canceled plane flights-"
"Pasta-"
"How-even- personification?
"Iceland-"
Iceland couldn't keep up with it all. He saw what Sweden was talking about though. The argument was turning violent in several places around the room, and was quickly being drawn towards Wegener. Defenseless little Wegener.
Iceland stood up with Wegener and the other Nordics, who quickly moved towards the door. Germany grimaced. The Nordics were needed at this meeting, but he couldn't argue with their reasons for leaving.
Iceland helped Wegener into the car outside the building while Sweden watched to make sure nobody was following. Heck, they were all probably too busy arguing to notice their departure.
Once Wegener was secured in his seat, Denmark climbed in, squishing Iceland in between he and Wegener. Then, the car was off.
Norway drove while Sweden opted to sit in the passenger seat. Finland got stuck sitting in the third row of seats in the back, although it had to be more comfortable than Iceland's seat.
"You two okay?" Norway asked, looking at his two little brothers in the rear view mirror.
"Yeah." Iceland said tersely. Wegener was still staring into the air, wide-eyed and a bit shocked. Not a people person, obviously.
Finland leaned forward, playing peek-a-boo with Wegener trying to calm him down, although Wegener wasn't really cooperating.
"Never had this problem with Surtsey," Iceland mumbled, not intending for anyone else to hear. Norways creepily good hearing picked up on it though.
"Surtsey doesn't have a personification," he said. "Plus, it's much closer to your coast. Most other nations couldn't argue with you if you said it was yours." Surtsey was an island quite similar to Wegener, appearing in the ocean much the same way, though a bit (all right, a lot) less violently than Wegener had appeared.
"But why?" Iceland asked, puzzled. It was not the first time Iceland had wondered this. "Why does Wegener have a personification when most other micro-islands don't?"
Norway shrugged as he sped away from the building. "Wegener's island is bigger than Surtsey."
"So you think it's size then? What about Sealand?" Sweden's muscles tensed, ready to defend Sealand if needed.
"There were people with permanent residence on Sealand."
"But there's nobody on Wegener's island."
Norway shrugged. "It's a mystery."
Iceland nodded and closed his eyes, overwhelmed. "So who do we need to worry about now?"
"Russia showed an interest in taking over Wegener's island, since it will grow tremendously in the near future and make good farmland." Iceland had to hold back a growl. People using Wegener just for fertile soil. "France did too...and a few others."
"England?" Finland suggested.
"No," Norway flashed a rare grin. "I think Wegener took care of him all on his own."
Denmark chucked beside Iceland. "His first words were 'yucky food.' I'm proud of him."
Well that's chapter five for you! I really do like England, I'm sorry, it just made sense for him to be one of the ones wanting custody of Wegener since he was close by geographically. Reviews are very much appreciated, and please don't hesitate to let me know if I did anything wrong with information, grammar, writing style, etc. so long as criticism is kept constructive. A big thanks to everyone who read, followed, favorited, and especially to my latest reviewers: St. Helena, animeduchess14, Miss Akiyata, and Transformers' BABY. If you review but don't want your name mentioned, please let me know! The next few chapters will be probably be about Iceland and the other Nordics raising Wegener as usual, but I will eventually move on to chapters with an older Wegener, Wegener's independence, etc. I may work on correcting language mistakes and editing chapter one (which horrified me when I reread it) before posting chapter 6 though. Thanks once again for reading, everyone!