Adventures of the Golden State (Hetalia)
Author: Ashynarr
Summary: Under much protest and complaint, I've decided that since I have nowhere else to put these, I'm going to share some of my state OC drabbles to see how people like them. Mostly focused on California, but will feature other states.
Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.
Warning: State OCs, long chapter
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
"Hey, Sue," California greeted her friend after the meeting let out, resting her arms on the back of New Jersey's chair. "You wanna go out and do something? It's been awhile since we last hung out."
"Sorry, I already made plans with Sam," Her friend apologized, gaze flickering over to Texas before returning to California. "Maybe another time?"
California very carefully kept her smile in place at the same words she'd been hearing for the past three months since she'd gotten the two together. "Eh, that's okay, I'll find something else to do. You guys are doing well then?"
"Yeah, it is," New Jersey smiled winningly, gaze drifting again. "I know I said it before, but thanks."
"No problem," California waved off. "Anything for my friend, yeah?"
"Of course," New Jersey replied distractedly, grinning a bit more widely when Texas came over to plant a kiss on her cheek. "Hey, Sam,"
"Hey, Sue," He greeted, glancing up to California briefly. "Hey Bella. You ready for an early dinner?"
"Definitely," New Jersey replied, pressing a kiss to his cheek as well as he helped out of the chair.
"Right, well, you two have fun," California coughed into her hand, smile thinning just a bit when neither of them even gave her a distracted goodbye after a few seconds. Figuring she wasn't going to get anywhere else with them so distracted, she turned and made her way to the exit, looking past all the other States chatting and making plans for the evening and weekend ahead.
There was Nevada chatting up Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, probably another card tournament if she had to make a guess. Oregon and Washington were by the other northern States, and as for the rest, well…
The western State exhaled quietly, pace picking up once she was out of the room. The faster she got back to her hotel room, the faster she could order in some takeout and just think about what she was going to do on her own.
Again.
But hey, that was life sometimes, and with Jers and Texas so enamored with each other after her efforts to nudge them together, she should be feeling elated at how wildly successful she'd been! They would get over their whole young love phase eventually and start hanging out with her again, so there was no reason to… no reason to…
~0~0~
"Hey, Sanne," New York resisted the urge to gag at the doe eyes his sister and hew new - gag - boyfriend were making at each other across the table. "You know where California is?"
"No, I haven't seen her since the meeting," New Jersey replied with a frown, arms crossed at the interruption. "Why?"
"I needed to talk about some economic stuff, but I can't find her anywhere," The Empire state frowned, wishing the meeting had been in his state rather than DC so he could just sense her that way. "You're her friend, she should have told you where she went."
"We hardly tell each other everything," The Garden state shot back. "Did you check the hotel she's staying at?"
"Apparently she already checked out."
New Jersey's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Already? I thought she'd be staying until the party tomorrow."
Texas frowned as well, brows furrowed. "Is she helping Ginny set up the party, then?"
"Nahp, Ginny's still here discussing some stuff with the South, said Cali never spoke to her about it."
"Maybe Al knows?" New Jersey offered hesitantly.
New York sighed again. "Pretty sure he's already dropping off the meeting notes, but I'll see if I can catch him on the way out."
He grumbled quietly as he left the two to their dinner again, wishing California wasn't such an elusive airhead so that he didn't have to hunt down someone who knew where the hell she'd wandered off to. The least she could have done was leave her phone on, for god's sake!
By the time he reached the White House, he was irritable enough that his shout for Alfred's attention was more of a snap, but the Nation thankfully didn't take it poorly.
"Bella?" Alfred frowned. "I thought she was spending time with Sue?"
"Sanne's spending time with the southern hick," New York replied, ignoring the sharp look he got for the insult. "And no one else has any clue where she's gone off to."
"Hold on a sec…" The Nation paused, fingers twitching twice before he shook his head in disbelief. "She's at the airport; already boarded on a flight to LA."
"What the hell's she doing going home early?"
"Last I checked, I still can't read minds. Can't really sense any sort of emergency from her place, though…"
New York pinched the bridge of his nose. "Now how'm I supposed to talk to her if she's not even on the right side of the fucking country?"
"That's what email and Skype are for."
"Mrph, but then I won't get a reply until Monday knowing her."
Alfred shrugged. "Well, maybe she just wants to relax at home. Though I thought she was planning on coming to the party…"
"Pheh, she at least could've taken her cousin with her then, spared us two headaches."
"Ben," The Nation warned.
"Yeah yeah, don't insult the others behind their backs. Thanks for the help tracking her down."
Alfred sighed, shaking his head. "No problem. Just don't be too pushy if she doesn't reply right away, alright?"
New York rolled his eyes and didn't reply, because as much as he wanted to get this discussion over with, he wasn't that eager to talk with her, and he knew she wouldn't be jumping at the bit to talk to him either. Hopefully between those things they'd just get it done with sooner rather than later so their bosses wouldn't have time to complain about delays.
~0~0~
...Alright, when he'd said get it over with sooner rather than later, he hadn't meant this.
New York frowned as he read over the terse email again, the two sentences basically saying she was fine with the agreement and that he could go ahead with it. He then glanced back to the documents he sent her, all eight pages, including the couple of paragraphs he'd thrown in about her tributing half her crops to him every year just to piss her off, and frowned some more.
He knew he'd been very blatant about those bits, although the rest of the document was serious enough, so she obviously had to have seen them, so where was the natural reply to fuck off with his 'sexist' proposals that had nothing to do with her being female and everything to do with her being an upstart who thought she was better than him? She practically lived off of insulting him whenever she could - it was a long standing agreement at this point, for fuck's sake!
So either she'd somehow missed an entire page of jabs at her, or she hadn't read the document that she knew would probably contain shit to snipe at, and in either case had agreed to it without even a bit of honest debate over the important points. Neither of which was like her at all.
That was…
Well, New York wasn't sure how to feel. On one hand, he could totally get away with just handing it over to his boss and saying that she had in fact agreed, see there's the email with her signature! On the other hand, no one would buy into it no matter how much proof he offered; hell, even he didn't believe it, and he had the proof in front of him!
He leaned back in his chair, trying to think of what to do now. Since he had serious doubts that an imposter had cracked her email just to do her work for her, that meant something was up with her specifically. While he would deny to his last breath caring one whit about her, there was the simple economic fact that she WAS important to the rest of the country and even the world (though to a lesser degree than himself, obviously!), and if she slacked off on her work, the economy might start slumping again, which no one wanted, especially him.
Which meant that whatever was keeping her from doing her work needed to take a hike.
Right, totally doable. At least for his sister, anyways. Nodding at his masterful plan, he reached over to grab his phone, hit the first number on autodial, and waited for New Jersey to pick up.
"What is it, Ben?" She groused once she answered. "I'm sort of busy right now."
"Can you call up California?" He asked, ignoring the impulse to ask if that stupid hick was over at her place again in order to heighten the chance of her complying. "She's not picking up for me, and her last email was off."
He could almost see his sister roll her eyes. "Maybe she just doesn't want to deal with your shit right now. If it's really that important, send her another email, or get Arizona or Nevada to talk to her. If you'll excuse me-"
The call cut off, leaving New York to flounder as he tried to figure out how that had failed so miserably. Eventually chalking it up to his sister being 'busy' as claimed, he decided to take her advice, calling up the two she'd mentioned only to get similar responses.
"Call Sam, he talks to her more than I do."
All well and good, except the hick wasn't picking up and he really didn't want to think about why that was.
Which left only one person. With a groan he dialed the number, waiting a whole three rings before Virginia finally picked up.
"Ben?"
"Hey, Ginny," He replied, exhaling as he prepared himself to explain his concerns yet again. "Have you spoken to California recently? She hasn't picked up her phone for me, and she's barely responding to my emails."
"Actually," Virginia started slowly, causing New York to sit up in his seat again as he realized he might actually get somewhere this time. "She never called back when I asked why she'd cancelled at the last minute for the party. So it wasn't just me, then?"
"Nope, doesn't seem like it. You have any clue why she'd drop off the radar like this?"
"None at all; did you ask Sue?"
New York snorted in wry amusement. "She's 'busy' with her newest fuckbuddy right now."
A sigh came over the line. "What about her other siblings?"
"None of them have spoken much with her in months."
"What about…" There was a pause. "...does she know anyone else that well?"
New York started to answer, only to stop and think back on all the people he'd ever seen her speak to for more than two minutes, only to come up short. Painfully short. "...well shit."
"Does Alfred know about this?"
"Alfred's over in Moscow right now for the World Meeting. Probably not gonna be back for weeks if he goes through with that trade agreement tour thing he was thinking about."
"Damn," Virginia replied, and long experience with her made it likely she was biting on her thumb while she thought. "Ben, what sort of meetings do you have in the next week?"
"None; this trade document with California was the only big thing I had to get done this week. Why?"
He instantly regretted being honest with her when she replied. "Get a flight over to her place and check in on her. She can't ignore you as easily if you're there in person."
"What?" He shouted, baffled at the absolute stupidity of this plan. "Why me? Why can't you go?"
"Because I'm the one doing Al's work for him in DC while he's away, remember? I can't just up and leave without saying anything, but you can."
"She hates me, remember? You at least get along with her most of the time."
He could see Virginia roll her eyes. "Just do it; you're the one who brought it up, so obviously you care about her at least a little bit."
"Only because the economy-"
"Ben."
New York exhaled sharply, knowing when he'd lost. "Fine, I'll text you when I get there."
"Good; I'll try to get an email to Al letting him know something's up just in case he has any advice we can use."
"You do that," He groused, not mentioning that he'd already sent two out that way before he'd even called her. "I need to get packing, then."
"Have fun," She replied before ending the call, the Empire state managing to last a whole three seconds past that before swearing as he went to find a smaller suitcase.
This was not how he'd planned on spending his week, damnit!
~0~0~
It took six hours and more than a few directions from Virginia, but New York finally managed to find California's house just as the sun was starting to set on this coast. He'd been lucky enough to catch a transfer flight from San Francisco over to Monterey, but the area outside the city proper was still large enough that he'd gotten lost somewhere along the way and had to backtrack.
At least the rental car was better than a taxi in the long run.
In hindsight it was obviously her house, because who else would have so many goddamned different kinds of flowers and fruit trees on their property that were actually tended to instead of just decorative? (Alright, he'd picked up a little bit of gardening from his sister, so sue him.) So why weren't the lights on even though her car was sitting in the driveway?
He bit his lip, praying internally that she was actually here and hadn't Walked off to some other part of her land where he could never hope to find her. His fears were laid to rest shortly after that, the front door opening as he sat there like an idiot. California raised an eyebrow from the doorway, waiting for him to roll down the window before calling out.
"Why are you all the way out here?"
He shouted back, "You weren't picking up calls."
"I've been busy with my gardening; I probably just didn't hear it," She shot back, waving for him to come in. "I know you didn't bother getting yourself a hotel room, so get in here so you don't have to shout about whatever is it you're here for."
He turned off the car and got out, hiding his short burst of confusion at that. He'd left messages, and knew Ginny had done the same, and California was in fact capable of using an answering machine, so that was utter bullshit. None the less, he followed her inside, waiting for her to start heading back down the hall before he shot off a fast text to Virginia.
'She's home, let me in; claimed didnt hear phone while gardening.'
'answering machine?'
'yeah what i thought too'
'defintely something wrong; al hasnt replied yet, will text when he does'
'got it'
He shoved his phone back into his pocket and quickly caught up with the other state, who had just poured drinks and turned to offer one to him.
"Who were you texting?" She asked, showing she hadn't missed the gesture.
"Boss complaining about my up and leaving without saying anything to him; told him to cool his heels and that I'd be back soon enough."
She hummed, leaning against the counter and sipping her drink while he sat on her table. "So he didn't ask you to come out here?"
"Not directly, no," New York admitted, ignoring the buzz of his phone. "I was actually going to talk to you about the trade proposal."
"I thought I approved it," She frowned, and in this lighting he thought he could just see the dark blotches under her eyes.
"Yeah, you did, including the parts where you offer tribute to me for the rest of our lives," He replied, trying to see what reaction that got.
Instead of anger or a sputtering denial, she just shook her head and sighed. "Look, I wasn't in the mood to go over a stupid joke like that, and I assumed you wouldn't actually keep that in the final agreement. Was that really all you needed?"
Part of him just wanted to take the offer and leave, but he knew Ginny would nag forever if he just up and left now when something was so obviously off, so instead he replied, "Actually ,Ginny wants to know why you cancelled on her. Sounded pretty upset when she brought it up."
California snorted, taking another sip afterwards. "Please, I doubt she even noticed I wasn't there; didn't most of the others stay for it?"
Okay, now this was just getting surreal. "Of course she did; spent the whole afternoon complaining about how no one else was helping her keep things under control."
"I'm sure everyone else suffered horribly, then."
That, for some reason, brought back his comment to Alfred about headaches, and he found himself biting back a wince. "Place was a bit of a mess by the time everyone left."
"It always is; maybe I just didn't feel like cleaning up this time."
"Don't worry, Ginny did more than enough bitching at the rest of us to do it ourselves," New York grumbled, glad he'd only been responsible for the small bedroom he'd kept to for most of it instead of the entire dining room some of the others had trashed.
"There you have it, didn't need me there to fix stuff," California finished off her glass, turning to wash it in the sick. "If there's nothing else you need, I can probably still find you a hotel-"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" He finally snapped, just plain done with this mockery of the State who by all rights should have been snapping witty comebacks at him, not avoiding all conversation and trying to drive him out of her house without even trying to convince him to buy something.
(...well, not the first part anyways, the second was somewhat understandable.)
"You won't answer calls, you barely respond to emails, and now you won't even man up and fight me. Ginny agrees with me, so don't even think of waving it off as my imagination."
"Why do you care? You hate my guts."
New York sighed. "I don't hate you; you're a pain in the ass and could have your ego deflated a few notches, but hate's a word I reserve for England exclusively." He paused. "And Percy on game nights."
She stared at him in disbelief. "I've heard you complain about me enough to be fairly sure of how you feel about me, Yank. I figured you'd be glad not to have to deal with me nitpicking all the bills and trade agreements and shit you throw my way."
"Glad?" New York raised an eyebrow. "Who else is supposed to keep me on my toes when it comes to economics? None of the others know how to finance their way out of a paper bag besides Ginny, and I'm not exactly crazy enough to pick fights with her regularly."
"So what, you want your little upstart to come back just so you can rag on me some more?" California snorted. "Thanks but no thanks. Maybe try playing with Quebec for a while instead."
"Do you even hear yourself?" He gaped, unable to believe that California was just - giving up like this. "He's a fucking idiot, and you're- you're-"
"-only useful when I offer something people want," She replied flatly. "Once they have what they need, might as well throw me back in the bin until they need something else from me."
"That's not what I was going to say," New York denied, raising his hands defensively.
"But it's what you meant," She shot back at him. "No one has ever given a fuck about me once they've gotten something from me; not Spain, not Mexico, not Alfred, not Sue, and definitely not you or any of the other States. So stop pretending you give a fuck and tell me what you want."
"I want you back," He replied tentatively, feeling like he was seeing something he was never meant to see.
"Tough shit; get a new playtoy for your delusions of grandeur. I'm done being thrown away."
California swept out of the room, leaving New York to stand there awkwardly wishing he'd never let Ginny pressure him into coming, because he absolutely sucked at emotions, especially the ones that implied deeper issues that had apparently never been dealt with. With a groan he pulled his phone out, forgoing texts in favor of calling Virginia despite the late hour on that side.
"Ben, what happened?"
"Fuck, I don't know, I just-" He grimaced, exhaustion of the physical and mental kind starting to sink in. "I tried talking to her, getting her to fess up, and when I finally just told her I was onto her she just went off the rails, and I have no clue how to deal with it."
"Explain everything," She demanded, the last fringes of exhaustion leaving her voice.
He complied without a fight, repeating almost everything word for word, and some parts twice when she wanted clarification. It wasn't hard to hear the disbelief and anger starting to grow in her voice, not directed at him but at the world in general. "And Alfred never bothered to tell me that his new Golden State was suffering from abandonment issues?"
"Well, we weren't exactly welcoming when she first joined us," He noted, wishing the issue wasn't so blindingly obvious and that he wasn't feeling so queasy because of it.
"I know, and he was probably trying to respect her privacy by not saying anything," She swore under her breath before continuing. "I'm going to shoot a message off to Alfred letting him know to call me as soon as possible, and I'm going to catch the first flight out of here tomorrow morning to join you."
"Are you sure?" He asked, wondering how long it'd take to hear Virginia chew out their Nation for once again not thinking these things through and leaving problems alone to fester.
"Of course I'm sure; I'm bringing out Sue and Sam as well."
He raised an eyebrow. "How're you doing that?"
"By telling them that if they don't I am going to personally go over to her house and kick both their asses, especially Sam's for not bothering to mention something like this."
He whistled, imagining how that would go and finding himself glad he'd gone along with her plan without too much of a fight. "And what'm I supposed to do then?"
"Well, considering she'd probably crying right now, your best bet would be to go in there and comfort her."
"But-"
"Ben."
"Yes ma'am," He squeaked out, swallowing in fear. "I'll get right on that."
"Good; I'll be there by lunch tomorrow her time, with Sue and Sam in tow. Keep an ear out for the car, will you?"
"Got it," He replied. "See you then."
The call ended, his hands coming up to rub at his face the second he put the phone down on the counter. This would have been so much easier if he were anyone else, but as it was, he was not about to piss off an already angry Virginia and risk that wrath coming down on him if he could avoid it.
(He quietly admitted to himself that he didn't exactly like knowing he'd made California cry, because she was supposed to be strong and careless, but now…)
Splashing himself in the face with some water, he shook his head and made his way out of the kitchen, now intent on finding California's bedroom to try and provide, well, some form of comfort.
(He only hoped he didn't fuck this up just as horribly, but he had a feeling that'd be hard to do at this point. Only way to go from rock bottom was up, right?)
~0~0~
By the time the next day had rolled around, California and New York had entered a silent, uneasy truce. He didn't mention how red her eyes were or how dark the bags under them had become, and she didn't try to kick him out of the house for pushing her until she broke down in tears. He was fairly certain this was not what Virginia was expecting of him, but he knew absolutely jack shit about dealing with psychological issues and figured she would handle things far better if he didn't start things off with another marvelous fuck up.
The sound of a car horn had never been more welcome in his life, and he gladly abandoned helping California make lunch in favor of rushing for the door, opening to reveal that Virginia had indeed succeeded in dragging her two current victims along. New Jersey and Texas were both looking absolutely chastised, the guilt only growing when he heard California walk up behind him.
"Ginny? Sue? Sam?" He could hear the accusation in her voice directed at him and he didn't bothering turning around to see the look she must have shot him. "Why are you here?"
"Because we owe you help and more than a few apologies," Virginia replied, walking past New York to rest a hand on California's shoulder, expression softening. "Especially Alfred for not saying anything again."
"Is he here too?" California's eyes widened, turning back to the doorway as if she'd catch sight of the Nation despite him still being on the other side of the planet.
"No, he's still in Moscow, but he'll be coming straight here once the meetings have wrapped up," Virginia replied, gesturing for the other two States to come in so the door could be closed. "Seriously, I know I didn't raise that boy to let problems fester like this…"
"It's not a problem," California denied sharply. "I don't know what Yank told you, but I've been handling myself just fine until now, so you don't have to waste your time."
"I think it becomes a problem when you try to cut yourself off from the rest of us under some delusion that we all hate you," The eastern State shot back.
"Why didn't you say anything?" New Jersey asked quietly, drawing California's attention.
"Why didn't you say anything about your fear of flying?"
"That's-" His sister cut herself off, lips pressed into a thin line.
"Bella," Texas stepped in, moving towards her to give her a hug, only to pause when she stepped away. "I'm so sorry-"
"Sam, you don't have to-"
"I do," He cut in, scowling as he pressed forward again. "I heard about your fight with Spain and Mexico back during the UN Charter signing; I should have realized then I was just as much at fault as them, but I didn't let myself."
He pulled her into a hug, tight enough to keep her from squirming away again. "I was stupid as a kid, always leaving you alone even though I was the closest to you. I always told myself that you were too far away, that I was too old to play with little kids, that I wouldn't be taken seriously if I wasted time worrying about you. But I was being selfish, trying to get in with the other States while you were left to suffer alone; I let myself be convinced you didn't need me there, even when it was so obvious you did those few times I actually did drop by."
New Jersey seemed to regain her confidence by then, stepping forward to rest hands on her friend's shoulders. "I should have seen it too - you called all the time even after we'd only just become friends, always pushing to get time with me when you could. I just thought you were trying to skive off your work or get out of meetings, so I didn't think much about it when I had to turn you down.
"I didn't even really realize it until Ginny pointed it out, but you started calling me way more often after Sam and I started dating, and I started turning you down more. I'm so sorry for making you think I was abandoning you for him; you're my best friend, Bella, and I can't tell you enough how much you mean to me."
It was about then that California gave up the last semblance of control, pressing her face into her cousin's shoulder and starting to shake in place while he simply held her close, New Jersey and Virginia exchanging determined looks over her shoulder. New York looked away from the scene, feeling more awkward and out of place than ever, before someone rested a hand on his own shoulder.
"Thank you for helping her," His sister told him quietly, smiling self-deprecatingly. "You've been a better friend to her in the past day that I have in the past few months."
"I didn't exactly do much," He replied, shaking his head. "It was Ginny who kicked my ass into gear and got you guys and Alfred to all come over; I just kept her from running and hiding."
"Which is more than I've done," She corrected. "I didn't even realize she wasn't at the party; what sort of friend misses that?"
"We all have a lot to make up to her," Virginia joined them, looking the entirety of her four hundred years and then some. "I only hope we aren't too late to help her."
"She'll come back to us," New York replied, quiet but confident in at least that much. "She's too much of a stubborn upstart to give up over something like this."
The two women at his side snorted quietly, but they were smiling a bit more honestly now.
"I suppose that's true," Virginia conceded. "She wouldn't have made it this far without a good amount of tenacity."
"Makes sense," He replied. "She is American, after all."
(And if that was closest he'd ever get to admitting she was a part of the oddball, eclectic family that made up the United States, well, at least it was something.)
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
AN: ...so in other news, I wasn't quite planning on writing 5000 words of hurt/comfort fluff nonsense yesterday, but somehow I did, and I really sort of got into a few things I wanted to get into at the same time – a deeper look at the relationship between New York and California, the darker side of her psyche she really doesn't like showing off, and that Alfred is still really bad about actually dealing with his State's problems when they aren't directly getting in the way of their normal lives.
To be clear as well, I'm not saying Isabel doesn't have some blame in all this – she could have brought it up at any point when she was truly insecure with her standing – but at the same time I feel it's all too understandable why she didn't think anyone would be willing to listen even if she did. (Sam, of course, was not happy when she mentioned that bit.)