"Kumajiro..."
"What the? What is that?" Natalya thought as a voice interrupted her dream.
"Sooo soft..."
That was Alfred's voice, but why was he in her dream, and who was Kumajiro?
"Who knew bears... smelled so good..."
Ok this was weird. She couldn't see him in her dream world, but his voice was loud, in fact it sounded like it was right next to her ear.
"Smells sweet... like gummy bears..."
Suddenly something warm blew onto the side of her face, shocking her awake. Some point in the night she rolled over toward Alfred, and he now had his face buried in the nook of her neck.
Seemed like the gummy bear smell was too alluring for him, because he was about a second away from nibbling on her ear. Dodging the advance, she sat up straight and pulled away from the numerous arms around her.
That disrupted all of them as they began to wake up simultaneously.
"Sup Nat, I had the craziest dream," he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. "I was petting Mattie's bear and I think I almost ate him."
"Da that is very odd, but we should get back to the hike," she said quickly while turning to hide her red face. Alfred chuckled to himself as he sat up. "Jeez, at least let us have some breakfast first."
Natalya sat back down as Alfred picked up the bag and pulled out breakfast food. There were the reheatable items: breakfast sausage, waffles, bacon, and something called hash browns. Then there were bagels, toast, oatmeal, and cereal? Where the hell was he hiding milk at?
From the boundless backpack he took out a portable electric stove and a battery and left the tent to start making breakfast.
Him and Molossia obviously wanted lots of bacon and sausage, Peter wanted waffles, and Natalya wanted a few of whatever those hash browns things were. They reminded her of draniki.
After all the food was done and she tried them, she was delighted to find out that hash browns were in fact made out of potatoes, even if they tasted different.
It was a delightful morning between the four friends, and the cheery mood continued all the way to Camp Four.
Following the trend they had been doing for the past camps, they worked together to make something out of snow.
They weren't sure what to make at first, so they made numerous snow angels to pass the time as they brainstormed.
Natalya of all people was the one to come up with an idea, holding a competition to see who could make the best thing out of snow. The others agreed and split into teams, Natalya and Peter vs Alfred and Molossia.
At the end they presented their creations to the other team. Natalya and Peter had made a very large snow maze, which Alfred and Molossia agreed was impressive, but they were still confident they would win.
They led the other team over to their creation, barely able to contain their laughter as they directed their attention to incredibly tall. . . phallic object.
"Alfred!" Natalya scolded while covering Peter's eyes. "What? Come on it's funny," he defended.
"It's inappropriate," she corrected. Alfred crossed his arms and leaned against the shaft. "You swear in front of Peter all the time, how is a sculpture made of snow more inappropriate?"
"Because swearing is just words, you made a dick!" She justified. "It even has... what the hell are those?!"
Alfred raised an eyebrow and turned to where she was pointing, stifling another laugh. "Veins."
"Yeah, fucking veins!" She shouted, then paused in thought. 'Veins?'
"Whatever. Ours is funnier so we win," he claimed with a cocky smirk. She focused on him and glared. "Just because it's "funny" doesn't mean it's better. Peter and I win!"
"I actually think both are good," Peter butted in. Both looked down at him then back at each other.
"See what you did, you took away his innocence," she accused. Alfred rolled his eyes and put his hands behind his head. "He's twelve, the internet beat me to it long ago."
After extensive debate, Molossia was able to convince Alfred to concede defeat and name the maze the winner.
Just to prove their superiority, Natalya's team made a game out of the maze by having Alfred be the hunter with snowballs, while the other three would run around and hide inside.
Alfred was being stubborn at the moment but inside he thought it was one of the best games he's ever played.
Maybe an hour or so later they finished playing, attached the ropes again, and made the final hike up the mountain.
More hours went by, they didn't really care to check since they were too excited to reach the top.
The summit was magnificent. They got lucky and went on a clear day, so they could see all the grassy fields and pine forests for miles. It felt like they could see all of Alaska from up here.
"That's quite a view," Natalya stated as she took a seat to observe it in all its glory. The other three joined her and sat in a line. "Yup, it sure is," Alfred agreed with a pat on her back.
"So where are we going to go next?" Peter wondered. Alfred looked to him and smiled. "I could tell you, or would you rather wait and be surprised?"
Peter's eyes sparkled at the proposition. "I love surprises!"
Alfred slowly turned to Natalya with a wide smirk. "See? At least someone enjoys my surprises."
She lightly punched him in the arm, returning his smirk to a normal smile. She wasn't really paying attention in the first place, since she was currently trying to get on her phone's camera. No way she wasn't taking pictures of that view.
"Wanna take a group picture?" Alfred asked. She was fine with that, so she stood up and waited for the others to get up as well. What she wasn't ok with was Alfred snatching her phone from her to take the photo himself. One wrong tap and he'll be right in the photo gallery with all the pictures of his journal.
He put the arm holding the phone around her shoulders and pulled her into a side hug, and used the other one to grab Molossia and pull him into frame. Peter stood right between Molossia and Alfred, which was adorable considering the fact he was tiny compared to the two of them.
Alfred raised his right arm at a 45 degree angle and held it steady as he gave a large smile and took the picture.
He let everyone go and looked at the photo to see if it was good. When he determined it was he gave Natalya her phone back.
She inspected at the photo herself. Alfred and Peter were smiling widely, Molossia had shed a few layers just for the photo, but even then he had his arms crossed and was half looking away. Finally, she was staring at the camera awkwardly with her face and hands pushing into Alfred's chest.
Despite herself, it was a nice photo. He even managed to get some of the view in the background. It was worth keeping.
"I think we've seen enough, let's start heading down now," Alfred announced as he started walking.
"Wait!" Peter shouted, startling Alfred as he spun around and looked at Peter in worry. "What? What is it?"
"We haven't made something out of snow yet," Peter reminded them.
Alfred gasped. "You're right, I almost forgot. What do you want to build?"
"What about... uhhh... urrrr... us," Peter decided.
"Us?" Natalya repeated in confusion.
"Yeah, let's make snowmen of each other," Peter suggested while beaming.
The others went along with it and picked who they wanted to do. Alfred would make Natalya while she made him, and the micronations would make each other.
Once they were finished they all took a step back and looked at their work. They started from left to right, beginning with Molossia's Peter.
It was even smaller than the real Peter and slightly lopsided, and had a massive sailor hat that looked like a plate on his head. They couldn't really blame Molossia for how it looks, he could barely move when he puts the layers back on.
Next was Peter's Molossia, which was just a big mound with cut out goggles and hands. It looked like a normal snowman that had frozen in time mid-melt.
Molossia looked down at Peter in offense. He already knew all these layers made him look like a blob, he didn't need Peter making it more obvious.
Natalya's Alfred as a giant oval with a creepy joker-like smile cut into it. On top of it had a small curl, representing Nantucket.
"Did you only make my head? And it's not that fat, you can see my face!" Alfred complained while pointing at himself.
Finally was Alfred's Natalya. He never got the message that everyone mentally agreed to not try too hard, so Alfred did his absolute best to get it right.
He flattened the two bottom spheres together to make a dress, and gave the face a serious expression. He even added a little bow on top.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you all weren't taking it seriously," he apologized with an awkward scratch of his head.
"It's alright, it looks fine. But why did you have to put boobs on it?" Natalya wondered. Alfred shrugged. "Would you rather be a snowman?"
"I don't really care... but you do you I guess," she said while shrugging back.
They observed their snow twins for a little while longer, then packed up to leave.
"Wait!" Alfred called out. Natalya rolled her head around in annoyance and turned to him. "Can we just go already?!"
"And take a whole other day? No way!" He argued as he set his backpack down and pulled out three snowboards.
'Those weren't in there before, what the fuck?' Natalya thought in alarm. What's Alfred doing with Mary Poppins' purse?
"One for you, and one for you, and one for me. Peter you're gonna ride with me," Alfred said after handing Molossia and Natalya their boards.
That made Natalya even more alarmed. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You fell off a cliff yesterday."
"We'll be fine. The only reason it even happened in the first place was because I wasn't paying attention. It won't happen again, promise," he assured. Natalya wasn't buying it, but couldn't do anything to stop it when in the blink of an eye Alfred put the backpack back on and scooped up Peter as they flew down the mountain.
She grumbled and followed after them.
Molossia looked at his board and sulked and held his head low. He tossed the board to the ground and flopped onto it while it slowly picked up speed and slid down the slope.
What took hours before had turned to mere minutes as in no time they had passed Camp Four, earning one last laugh from Alfred.
Natalya rolled her eyes and kept pace with them. Though pretty soon they all looked over and sweat dropped when they saw Molossia slowly passing them while laying face down.
He was like a missile as he continuously picked up speed and blasted through the snow.
Alfred tucked into himself and used the extra weight of Peter to catch up to Molossia, and when he was close enough he bent down and grabbed Molossia's shoulder to lift him up a little bit.
"You alright?" He asked. Molossia slowly turned to Alfred, blankly stared at him, then laid back down.
"Alright just checking," Alfred laughed as he slowed to let Molossia continue flying away.
Natalya caught back up by the time they reached Camp Two.
"Wow we really made a war zone of that didn't we?" Alfred said out loud. Natalya nodded in agreement.
He grinned and looked Natalya. "When winter comes we should convince the nations to spent a meeting day having a full scale one. That sounds awesome!"
"Ooh, make sure to invite the micronations then," Peter reminded him.
Alfred looked down at his face and raised an eyebrow. "Dude, you're all always there spying on the meetings anyway."
"I don't think it's a good idea. Even if it's fake, a battle between so many countries might bring up some bad memories and rivalries," Natalya reasoned.
"Fine, how about just Axis vs Allies then?" He tried to compromise. "No! That's exactly what shouldn't happen."
Alfred pouted and mumbled to himself about how "it will totally be fun" and "they'll be fine."
They went the rest of the way down the mountain and got back into the RV, finding Molossia already inside and out of his winter clothes.
After making a quick stop at the cabin to drop off Alfred and Molossia's borrowed winter clothes and pick up the stuff they brought, they were out of there and on the long ride back to the vacation's finale.
Russia stared out of the car window to the Alaskan landscape. He could never look at it the same without thinking of gold and oil.
How could he be so stupid? Giving away all this land to America of all people, for a measly seven million?! Just for him to turn it around and make billions.
Why was he ever friends with that arrogant little- "Sir, we are here," one of the agents suddenly said.
Russia raised his head and opened the door of the vehicle to the front of a small cabin. This makes way more sense for Natalya to hide at than that strange house in the desert.
The agents exited the car and followed him, but he waved them off and insisted they stay outside to watch the perimeter. They will not interrupt his talk with his sister.
He stepped up to the cabin door and tried turning the knob, but of course it was locked. Normally he would be inclined to not waste time and just knock the door down, but doing that now would probably only alarm his sister, thinking he was back for round two. That hurt his heart to think about.
After a little searching for a key he found it in a fake stone and unlocked the door with it. Slowly he opened the door and peeked his head in.
He quietly closed it behind him and walked further into the house. Looking around he could see that there wasn't dust anywhere. It must've been cleaned recently.
In front of him there was a wardrobe full of coats, and a few tossed on the floor in an untidy fashion.
He picked one of the coats up and inspected it. It was too large for her, plus its size was in men's. But the thing that was most interesting was the fact that it was warm, very warm.
Strange.
It suddenly clicked with him that they were right in front of a giant mountain. He could look at that in a second, he still has to inspect the rest of the house.
There was first the kitchen, which was completely void of any food besides a few cans. There was a bathroom, nothing special there, though to the left of that was a bedroom.
At a snail's pace he cracked the door open and looked inside, but opened it fully when he saw no one.
That stumped him momentarily, but then again there wasn't a car out front, so maybe she went out to buy food or something.
He walked over to the bed and placed a hand on it. Cold. A little more feeling around and he was finally able to find some physical proof of her presence, a single long and silvery hair.
With nothing more to look for inside, he went to go see what that mountain was about. Walking out of the cabin once again, he reached into the car and dug around, opening a secret compartment and pulling out a sniper.
He unhooked the scope, closed one of his eyes, and pointed it at the mountain.
It was fuzzy, but he could faintly make out what looked like snow sculptures all over it. There was a snowman, snow fort, and... he doesn't even want to know why that's there.
More importantly, there were what looked like four trails going all the way from the top to the bottom.
It could just be a coincidence, but if not that means Natalya was traveling with not one, but three others.
He tossed the scope into the car and leaned against the vehicle. Without anymore lucky hairs on any of the furniture, he had no clue who she was with.
There was some haunting thoughts about her being with America, but now... he couldn't figure it out.
Maybe it was Prussia and Denmark with America. But why would those two be here? For weeks Denmark kept boasting about how he would be the next host of the annual Nordic meeting, and last he heard from Prussia was at the world meeting.
Actually now he remembered that Prussia said something about hanging out with America after the meetings ended. The only person Belarus hates more than America is Prussia, there's no way she would hang out with those two together, right?
That was the only reassurance he had in this situation, as otherwise he surely would've gone into panic mode.
He tugged on his scarf a little and fidgeted under the heat. It may be Alaska, but it was still summer. Did he really have to wait out here all this time for his sister?
It would be a lot more helpful if he knew where she was currently. Though if she's going to a store then that means she's most likely in the town they came from, which he could use to track her.
He climbed back into the car and turned on the monitor as he began typing out some code. In a few minutes he had successfully hacked into the street cameras, allowing him to look back and forth up the streets near the stores.
For a while he sat there and watched as the endless line of cars went by, getting false excitement every time a truck or other large vehicle went by.
'By the time I had been getting here she had already left, was I seriously not noticing of myself passing her?' He thought as he flipped through more cameras.
Suddenly something began coming up in the distance in one of the cameras. He raised his head and leaned forward to observe it better. It was an RV, a large one that was black and what looked like gold/copper-colored decals on the sides. Definitely luxury, just as the man in the desert described.
Dragging his finger up on the touchpad, the camera zoomed in on the road a fair ways ahead of the approaching RV.
Russia waited in anticipation for the vehicle to pass into frame, taking a million pictures the moment it had. He followed the RV with some more cameras, but when it didn't stop at any stores and exited the town he couldn't follow any further.
That aggravated him, because that meant she wasn't coming back and he would have to continue this goose chase.
"Get in, I have gotten a new lead," Russia ordered to the men. They nodded and reentered the car, then after receiving their new instruction they drove back the way they came.
While they were doing that, Russia had closed out of the cameras and started looking through the pictures he took, discarding all the ones that were too blurry or out of frame.
There were a few almost perfect ones, and while still pixilated due to the motion and zoom, he could still clearly make out what was a brown-haired man in the driver's seat and a kid in the passenger seat. But it wasn't an ordinary kid, it was Sealand.
'Sealand? Why is he riding with my sestra?' The wondered. And who is the dark-haired person? Obviously a nation of some sort, but Russia has never seen them in his life.
What was Belarus doing? Traveling around North America, making snow dicks and hanging out with children and mystery nations? He messed her up way more than he thought.
If she would just stop moving around so much he could fix everything.
"I've never rode in the front of a vehicle this big before!" Peter said happily as he sat in the passenger seat next to Molossia.
"Sometimes they come by my country," Molossia said. That made Peter a little jealous. "I wish I had other ways for people to come to my country rather than by boat or helicopter." Molossia shrugged. "At least you have moisture, it's so dry where I am."
"Go live in California then," Alfred butted in as he walked in and sat in a chair behind them.
"Oh. I thought you were hanging out with Belarus, what happened with that?" Molossia asked.
"Got bored I guess. Skittles?" He offered as he held out a party-sized bag.
Peter scooped out an entire two handfuls of it, but Molossia declined, he already filled up on cookie dough.
Natalya wasn't bored at all, she just wanted to read more from her phone, but Alfred kept bugging her. So she grabbed a bunch of food and locked herself in her room with the intention of not leaving for the rest of the day.
So back to the notebook it is.
October 24, 1945
The new and improved League of Nations, the United Nations, has been established. And this time I'm joining, we are not having a repeat of last time.
November 6, 1945
The first world meeting after WW2 ended was today. Obviously we had to postpone it so the Europeans and some of the Asians could sort things out and get back on their feet. (Except for Japan, he's still bedridden and incredibly sick.)
Even now I'm the only one that doesn't look like I've been through hell and back. In fact this strange situation of me prospering from the war while everyone was damaged has begun some talks about "Superpowers."
They believe that Russia and I have reached some status of global power where we hold a dominant influence others can't match.
Me because of my economy and ability to dominate on two fronts simultaneously, and Russia also due to military superiority as well as territorial claims.
Russia seemed pleased with this prospect, but I'm uncertain. Less than four years ago I was in isolation, and now I'm at the top of the world. Am I really ready for this?
November 7, 1945
I can't tell if England is genuinely happy for me or jealous. Honestly with his attitude it's probably a little of both.
November 8, 1945
Others have noticed Japan's absence, and I can't help but feel like they get scared any time I go near them.
Except Russia, he's got that same stupid grin on his face. I didn't trust him before, but now that he's a superpower? He's dangerous.
July 4, 1946
Philippines has become their own country today. Which I guess is for the best.
Though why on my birthday? That's so uncool.
July 28, 1947
A few days ago I saved an alien that crash landed from space. I didn't know they actually existed. I've seen dead ones the government showed me, but it's so surreal I just figured they were fake.
If they found a live alien then they would probably be put through some horrible experiments, and I can't let that happen. I'm a superpower, I've got to be a hero!
The government got their ufo however, and I believe they're going to build a facility to hide all of it.
April 2, 1948
The Marshall Plan should help the Europeans get everything back on track. Even though it's a lot of money I'm paying it's worth it if it means helping them, it's my duty as a superpower right?
I've also taken the sole duty of helping Japan. He's going to be staying with me like Lithuania and Romano/South Italy had, but on top of offering a place to stay I'm going to make sure to get his economy not only up and running but better than ever.
It's the least I can do.
June 24, 1948
The treaty said that we would be splitting up Germany until we fix it, but Russia is taking it too far. He's now trying to block us off and keep us out of East Berlin.
That's not gonna fly, we're here to fix things not divide it further.
June 26, 1948
Since they want to block us out so much we'll just fly over and deliver supplies that way. Seems easy enough.
April 4, 1949
Another organization has been set up, this one is NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This only includes Western Europe since Russia seems to want to play keep away with Poland and the others.
August 29, 1929
Russia has atomic bombs?! Wait, how? I talked to him about them not that long ago, he said he knew nothing about them, was that a lie?
February 3, 1950
Russia knew the entire time?! He's had spies in the Manhattan Project since the beginning. No wonder he keeps smiling at me like that.
Shit!
June 27, 1950
To fight and contain the spread of communism, I'm helping out and fighting in Korea to defeat the communists in the North, which of course Russia is fighting for.
I just wish I was quick enough to help China.
July 25, 1952
Sup Puerto Rico, welcome to the family! Well I can't really say that, since there's not a personification for it nor is it a state, but one day maybe.
November 1, 1952
I watched the first hydrogen bomb be set off today.
These things are starting to get powerful.
January 20, 1953
Eisenhower has become the new president. Seems like a lot of my presidents were generals at one point.
March 5, 1953
Stalin has died today.
Good. That maniac was just as brutal as Hitler, possibly worse.
June 19, 1953
Am I just paranoid, or is there a lot of commies around here?
June 26, 1953
Cuba is only the latest nation to fall to communism. It's spreading like a fucking disease!
March 12, 1954
Maybe we should start figuring out ways to destroy communist dictatorships from the inside. Spies and sleeper agents. Mind control?
The CIA will have to look into that.
May 17, 1954
The Supreme Court found it unconstitutional to segregate kids based on their race. Sweet! At least my country's still improving in these dark times.
May 14, 1955
In retaliation for the creation of NATO, Russia has created their own group known as the Warsaw Pact.
Now the world is truly divided.
January 31, 1958
We've sent out our first satellite into space, so we can compete with the USSR and their Sputnik I.
January 3, 1959
Almost 100 years after buying it from Russia, Alaska has finally become a state.
August 21, 1959
Right after Alaska we decided to make Hawaii a state as well. That brings my total number up to 50. A perfectly even number just how I like it.
April 20, 1961
The Bay of Pigs was a complete failure. I'm really good when it comes to facing off against other countries head to head, but when it comes to guerrilla warfare I'm as bad as they come.
No wonder I won against England, this is ridiculous.
August 13, 1961
Russia walled off all of East Berlin. Literally, they put a wall up right through the middle and separated Prussia from Germany.
February 20, 1962
Today the first U.S. astronaut has orbited around the Earth. That is so cool!
I may hate the commie, but the one thing we can agree on is that space is awesome! The other nations just don't seem to understand.
November 20, 1962
That was the closest we've gotten to nuclear war. Luckily Russia finally agreed to get the missiles out of Cuba as long as I took mine and it of Turkey, but that was way too close to getting hot.
Russia and I had a discussion about MAD afterwords. Just because we hate each other the whole world shouldn't be destroyed because of it.
That wouldn't be very heroic of us. . . Like Russia's a hero, what am I talking about?
November 22, 1963
JFK was assassinated today, on live TV!
It sucks whenever it happens, knowing my boss is dead, but when my entire country sees it it's beyond horrible.
I can feel their mourning, and they're traumatized.
March 8, 1965
Once again communism is spreading to another country, this time it's Vietnam, so I'm going to go and help out.
Also because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident but that's not important, I'm here to save a friend.
March 10, 1965
I met up with Vietnam today. This is actually the first time I've met her. All I've heard of her before was from France, and that's not reliable since they are at each other's throats.
She's a lot prettier and nicer than he described, though he wasn't lying when he said she was shy. I tried taking a picture with her, but she covered her face and got all embarrassed, it was kinda cute.
I told her not to be embarrassed since she looked pretty anyway, but that only made things worse.
- Alfred F. Jones
Natalya's met Vietnam before, she's not that pretty Alfred's just exaggerating.
March 13, 1965
I had to comfort Vietnam who had another nightmare about what was happening only a few miles out from here.
Just like Korea, or I guess now South Korea, I can empathize with on their struggle of civil war.
It's really taxing on the brain to constantly be haunted with these dark thoughts of the other side, especially if you're alone, so I'm glad I can be here to keep them grounded and support them.
August 21, 1965
The Vietcong are some crafty bastards.
The amount of mines and pits I have to dodge on a daily basis is insane, not to mention this is all while trying to identify and avoid where they are in the jungles and even underground.
Fighting in Europe and small islands all the time has put me out of my element here, except for maybe Iwo Jima.
October 9, 1965
I compared Vietnam to a girl China, since the eyes and ponytail look so similar. She did not appreciate it to say the least, nearly threw me into a punji pit.
But come on, the resemblance is so there!
June 17, 1966
She helped me in one of our airstrikes against the North, and was deadly accurate with a 105mm howitzer. No wonder the C-130 is called Hell in the Sky.
She may act all shy and embarrassed, but she is incredibly skilled and strong-willed.
- Alfred F. Jones
"Incredibly stubborn and idiotic more like it," Natalya mumbled with a snort of indignation.
April 4, 1968
I got word that back at home Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Why is it always the best people that get killed?
January 20, 1969
My new boss has been elected, and he's a strange one. Richard Nixon, a very paranoid man, even more than I am. He has a tendency to record his conversations, so when he got word that he wasn't allowed to make recordings when talking with me he got pretty upset.
He did talk about trying to ease tensions with the USSR though, which is impossible for me to disagree with. This tension between Russia and I is way too stressing.
July 20, 1969
The first people have landed on the moon, and it's the Americans! This is way too cool, my flag is on the moon. The Moon!!
Tony wasn't all that excited, his planet is way bigger and farther away. Oh I forgot to mention that the alien's name was Tony.
I bet Russia's upset that I got there first. I wonder how long it will take before they can get their own flag up there.
If only this war would end so I could go hop on one of those rockets and ride it out to the stars.
December 11, 1970
I woke up today with Vietnam huddled next to me, her nightmares keep getting worse.
Don't worry, as long as her hero is here she'll be safe and sound.
- Alfred F. Jones
Natalya rolled her eyes. 'If she's so "strong-willed" then why does she need to cuddle with the American?'
She herself was stuck with Prussia and had to deal with feeling her people being slaughtered in concentration camps constantly, Vietnam can suck it up.
December 25, 1970
For Christmas Vietnam made me one of those straw hats she always wears. This one she weaved herself and even made a little American flag on the side.
All I got her were some stupid American clothes I thought she would look cool in.
Good job Alfred, you damn idiot.
- Alfred F. Jones
'Clothes are expensive. Vietnam was being cheap and gave him a hat made of grass.'
May 26, 1972
I visited Russia today to sign the SALT agreement, which should help put some control on the amount of defense missiles we can make.
I met the whole rest of the USSR today, it was nice seeing Lithuania and those guys again. The Ukraine and the Baltics were happy to see me, Belarus was as angry as ever, and Russia... I still want to punch him.
After the signing I caught up with some of the others. I talked with Ukraine for a while, and it was pretty obvious to see she was still haunted from Stalin's famine.
He treated her like absolute shit, her words not mine. That should be some pretty good evidence on how bad it was, Ukraine never swears.
June 25, 1972
After the SALT agreement and having to deal with some ridiculous Watergate crap with Nixon's re-election, I finally made it back to Vietnam.
I hadn't told Vietnam I came back yet so I could surprise her. Her reaction when I showed up was priceless, though hugging her was a close second.
We may have hugged for a little too long actually. Haha, yeah that was kinda awkward, but embarrassed Vietnam will always be funny.
- Alfred F. Jones
Natalya grinned blankly at her phone, not moving or even blinking.
It was only after she made a loud crunching noise did she avert her gaze from the phone, down to her hand which was clenching a Pringles can so hard the chips had all shot out of the top and was three quarters of the way to being ripped in half.
Oops, must've not been paying attention.
September 1, 1972
The anti war sentiment in my country is getting really large. I understand that we haven't made much progress, but I can't just leave her. Just a few more years and we'll win it, I know we will.
I'll do it alone if I have to. Fly me into Hanoi and I can take it down, just send me in coach.
January 25, 1973
Now Nixon's talking about ending U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
No! I can't leave her to be taken over!
I've been through a civil war before, I know how terrifying it is to go through it. But I won my war, I don't know what it's like to lose it, to have your entire political belief and personality suddenly flip like a switch.
January 27, 1973
Nixon called for a cease-fire so we could pull out the U.S. troops.
How am I going to face Vietnam now?
March 29, 1973
I was the last soldier to leave. I just... couldn't leave without saying goodbye first.
She was crying, so hard. I don't like seeing her cry, and I hate the fact that I'm the one doing it.
All I could do to help was hug her, just hold her and hope it would stop.
It didn't work.
August 9, 1974
Nixon resigned because he didn't want to get impeached, and I can't be happier. That big-jowled bastard took Vietnam from me.
April 30, 1975
South Vietnam has finally fallen to the North. Vietnam is a commie now.
They corrupted her! I could've prevented this!
I'm a failure!!!
I'm sorry Vietnam, I'm just a pathetic excuse for a superpower. What hero fails to protect their closest friends? One that doesn't deserve to be one!
May 6, 1975
I didn't want to go to this world meeting. I already knew seeing Vietnam again would be hell, but when I walked in and saw Russia's smug grin, with Vietnam right by his side, wearing communist red and looking on in absolute misery... I just couldn't hold it in anymore.
- Alfred F. Jones
Natalya gaped in surprise. Now she finally knows the motive behind that infamous day. "The Infamous Day" was a day discussed amongst the nations to describe one world meeting in which Alfred went on a rampage and started fighting everyone. They were all convinced he had gone insane.
That day started out as any normal meeting, Alfred was the last person to arrive, as usual. Everyone was waiting for him, and Germany was about to burst a blood vessel, but it all changed when Alfred walked into the room.
He entered the room quietly, with a frown present on his face, whilst looking down at his feet. About five feet into the room he looked up at Russia, stared for a moment, then suddenly dived at him and began wailing on his face.
She didn't even have time to retaliate before the entirety of Western Europe had pulled Alfred off.
Russia's nose was badly broken, but he was still smiling like always, which only made Alfred more furious as he knocked away the nations one by one and jumped on Russia again.
It took forever to get him off again and Russia to safety. At that point Russia couldn't smile anymore, not that he wanted to anyway since most of his teeth were gone.
Most nations had only seen the tame, smiley Alfred, none of them had known about the superpowered fighter he really was.
Italy was in WW2 against him and hadn't seen it, so seeing him act so animalistic, it actually made him cry. Alfred was his oblivious buddy, not a rampaging monster slamming everyone's faces through walls and the floor.
Switzerland hadn't even attempted to hold his ground as he took Liechtenstein and ran out of the building.
England looked like he was having Revolutionary War flashbacks, same with Spain and Japan.
She's sparred with Alfred multiple times and even when he was serious it hadn't reached that level.
It was surprising that everyone now had completely forgotten what Alfred was capable of, opting to see him as the laughingstock of the world.
Natalya waved the memory away, a berserker Alfred and a blood-covered Russia sucked to think about.
Just then her phone screen went black, then a icon of an empty battery came up. 'Son of a bitch. iPhone batteries die so fast.'
Prussia impatiently tapped on the steering wheel with his thumb as him and Hungary waited at the airport.
"Calm down, Japan vill be out any second," Hungary reassured. Prussia frowned and looked at his phone, which showed that the red dot had gotten a whole mile further.
"Zhey're going to be in Canada by zhe time ve leave," he complained.
Roughly ten minutes later Japan came out of the front doors of the airport, but stopped to talk to a Japanese couple that had come to Alaska on vacation.
"Oh for fuck's sake," Prussia groaned as he placed his forehead on the steering wheel. Hungary slightly slapped him in the back of the head for being rude, but was beginning to grow impatient herself.
Another two minutes went by, until Prussia reached his breaking point. He punched the car horn a few times and shoved his head out of the window. "Get in zhe fucking car!!"
Japan's eyes widened in surprise before turning back to the family to say his goodbyes. He jogged to the car and got in, to which Prussia quickly sped out of the parking lot before Japan could even get his seatbelt on.
"About time holy shit," Prussia grumbled.
Japan bowed his head after securing his seatbelt. "Forgive me, that famiry required my assistance with directions."
Prussia calmed down a little bit at Japan's calmness. "It's fine it just... America and Sealand are on zhe move. Right now zhey're heading for zhe Canadian border."
"Do you think they are going to go visit America's brother? What was it again?" Japan wondered.
Prussia frowned at the other's inability to remember Canada. "Birdie? Maybe, ve'll just have to follow and see for ourselves."