Written: 10/4/2023

Published: 10/15/2023

XXX

The first thing that registered was the pounding headache.

The second thing that registered were the soft voices nearby. Even with how quiet they must've been, the voices were extremely loud to my poor, aching head.

"Is she going to be okay?"

That was Kortinee. But where was I? We obviously weren't still at Zao Island. I couldn't hear the obnoxious sounds coming from the laser tag arena anymore, or the GoKarts racing around the track, or even the kids giggling as they keep hitting the golf balls in the wrong direction. It was too quiet for any of that.

I forced my eyes open, swallowing back a pained groan when the dim light made my head hurt all the more. "Where am I?"

Arthur's face appeared over mine, the concern morphing into relief. "Good to see you're awake again. How do you feel?"

"Like my head got run over by a truck," I answered truthfully.

Arthur gave a small smile. "Yeah, I thought you would feel like that. Sounds like you had a migraine."

Making a face caused the ache to feel worse. "Ick. I get too many of those. My brain likes to torture me with migraines and auras."

Arthur helped me sit upright. Once I could look around, I recognized my bedroom. Garrett sat at my desk, talking with Alfred of all people, the two quietly chuckling about whatever they were saying to each other. Kortinee hovered behind Arthur, seemingly not believing that I was any better. If I was upright, conscious, and able to string words together to form a coherent sentence, then that meant I was a lot better. Especially after such a fierce migraine as this one had been.

And yet, I had the strangest feeling that I had lost something...maybe I'd dreamed while passed out? That might've been what was niggling at me. I'd had dreams after a migraine like that before, and they were pretty weird although I didn't remember all of them, and sometimes just vague pictures or even a feeling of deja vu.

"Where'd Lovino go?" I was disappointed not to see the guy anywhere.

"He's upstairs with Feli, trying not to feel bad about you getting a migraine while out with him."

I rolled my eyes. Ouch. "That's dumb. I get migraines out of nowhere. It had nothing to do with him."

A strange, female giggle came at my words. "Try telling him that. Poor guy has quite the guilt complex."

The female turned out to be none other than Hungary, aka Elizaveta. She smiled at me warmly when I met her eyes.

"Wow..." I stared at her. "The anime doesn't do you justice. You're so pretty."

She actually blushed at my words! "You're too sweet, Charlie. Oh, is it okay that I call you Charlie?"

I nodded. "Definitely."

"I brought Ivan with me. He was eager to meet the two of you," Elizaveta said, turning to face Kortinee. "Are your other friends going to come over?"

"I'm only here because I saw Charlie at Zao Island. So no, it's just us."

"Ah, Ivan will be disappointed. He was hoping to meet the others." Elizaveta looked like she wanted to say something else, but Arthur gave a sharp shake of his head, shooting her a warning look.

Kortinee and I glanced at each other. There was definitely something going on that we weren't made privy to.

"Wait a second, you told her who you are?" I was a bit shocked that such a huge secret had been confirmed, and ignored the mocking voice in my head saying that I had already confirmed it back at Zao Island. (They didn't need to know that.)

"Of course." Elizaveta nodded. "She already knew, anyway. I told the boys they needed to use aliases, but nobody listens to the women. Honestly!" She sniffed as if offended.

Kortinee and I just giggled.

XXX

Ivan wasn't as bad or scary as the anime made him out to be. That was a nice surprise.

Although, he did tend to stare at both Kortinee and myself with an expression I couldn't decipher...

He was very cordial and warm, a charming smile ready for us as soon as we came upstairs. Alfred, however, just huffed at how easily we accepted him, and went to sit in a corner and sulk. Arthur merely shook his head in exasperation at the country. Elizaveta was amused at the whole thing.

Another country that was there was Denmark for some reason. He lit up when he saw us and came right over for a bear hug, hugging the two of us at the same time. Kortinee and I blinked at each other in surprise, words leaving us for a moment. Then Arthur made him put us down, hissing that the Dane was going to crush us to death.

"Um..." Kortinee studied him with a quizzical look. "Hi?"

Unlike the others, Denmark wasn't disappointed when she didn't react a different way. He beamed down at her. "Hi, I'm Matthias!"

"Kortinee," Kortinee introduced herself.

I gave a small smile when his gaze flicked to me. "I'm Charlotte, but you can call me Charlie."

"Where's Norway? Did you leave her behind?"

Matthias stuck his tongue out at England. "No, she said she was busy, and threatened to spear me with a butcher knife if I kept bugging her. Her words."

Alfred guffawed. "What, were you flirting with her again in a poor attempt to rile her up? You do remember how poorly that same crap ended the last thousand times you did it, right?"

Kortinee and I inched closer to each other when Denmark turned on America, the two now bickering with each other. England ignored them and settled on the couch with Hungary. Russia continued to stand near the TV, seemingly fascinated with the argument between America and Denmark.

"Do they do that all the time?"

I about jumped out of my skin. "Garret!" I whirled and whacked him hard on the shoulder. "Jerk! Don't do that! I'm gonna hang a bell around your neck!"

He cackled maniacally at me. "I just got back from Connor's house. How many new friends do you have?"

"...you don't want to know."

I heard a quiet intake of breath. Hungary was staring at Garrett with a mixture of sadness and hope. The way the countries kept reacting to him was weird. Did they know my brother from somewhere?

Garrett's double-take when he noticed Elizaveta was priceless. He stared at her for a full ten seconds before turning to me with an awed expression. "Charlie, who is that? And how do you know such a beautiful woman?"

Lucky for him, he said it under his breath so the only one who heard his cringy words was myself. I smirked at him. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yes, I would. That's why I asked."

"She's a friend of my college friends, so that makes her a new friend."

"Does she attend our college?"

"Not that I know of-"

"I've enrolled, and will be there next week," Elizaveta jumped into the conversation with a beaming smile on her face for Garrett.

I'd never seen Garrett scramble so hard for words in my whole life. And he'd had crushes on plenty of girls! But this reaction really took the cake.

Kortinee sidled up to me, nudging my arm playfully with her elbow. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Our grins matched.

Even though Elizaveta was a country, there was no law in the world that said a personification couldn't date a human. And it seemed Kortinee and I both had the same idea: to matchmake Garrett and Elizaveta.

After all, what were sisters and their friends for?

XXX

Hope this is a good chapter for you all. I had to write the whole thing out in one day, but in short stints due to schoolwork and my job. :( Sorry. I'll try to write more for next time.

Lemme know what you guys think! Reviews are the bribes I use to keep my muse sitting still long enough to write. ;)

And sorry I didn't upload this last Sunday. I was busy with stuff and honestly forgot. :( Forgive me?

Allons-y~

KitKat