The next morning Alfred woke up bright and early, stretching his arms with a satisfying yawn. Looking at his alarm clock, he saw it was another 5:00 a.m. morning.
It felt like a cool day, so he slipped on his bomber jacket and gloves and skipped through the house to the kitchen. He hadn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday.
As he entered the room he found Natalya sitting at the table drinking a cup of tea. Her hair was well kept and she wasn't still in a nightgown, so she was up for at least a bit.
"Sup Nat, how's it going?" He greeted loudly while slamming his hands down on the table. She calmly lowered the cup from her mouth and looked at him with a calm but irritated stare. "Be quiet, the other two are still sleeping."
Alfred flinched but chuckled. "Sorry," he apologized in a low whisper. Natalya's cheeks turned a light pink at his smile but she nodded. "Good."
"So why are you up so early? The sun isn't even rising yet," he noted. "I took a long nap yesterday. So I woke up somewhere around 4:00 a.m." she explained.
"Jeez, well-" Alfred paused as his stomach growled loudly. Natalya glared at him skeptically, which made him sweat nervously. "Uhh, what?"
"You didn't eat anything yesterday, did you?" She accused. Alfred looked appalled as he crossed his arms. "Of course I did."
"A single bowl of cereal doesn't count," she stated as she took another sip from her cup. Alfred bit the inside of his cheek angrily. "It definitely counts."
Natalya rolled her eyes and stood up. "Even if it does it isn't enough food to have once a day."
"Chill out dudette, I know how to feed myself," he reassured while turning to get some food. Natalya stopped him by grabbing his wrist and pulling him back to the table, then setting him down in the chair. "No chance. You just sit there and let me make you a real breakfast."
"Nat this really isn't necessary, you know I can cook," he argued, but she wasn't listening as she began digging through the fridge and cupboards for food and utensils.
In a flash she had whipped up all sorts of Belarusian foods and snacks, seems like cooking was something she was very passionate about.
One by one she brought plates and bowls of food, not worrying about making too much as she and Alfred both knew he could eat it all.
Once it was all on the table she took a seat right next to him, in an infinitely better mood than when she began.
"So, uh, what is all of this?" He asked as he pointed at the mountain of dishes. Natalya was more than eager to show off her work.
"This first one is skwarki, which is fried pieces of pork. It's more of a snack but it works well with scrambled eggs as you can see," she described.
"Like bacon bits," Alfred blurted out. Natalya glared at him darkly. "Sure whatever. Now shut up and let me continue."
Alfred quieted down as she pointed to a plate of small breaded balls. They looked a little like popcorn chicken.
"This is tsibriki, a potato ball filled with a creamy cheese filling that's been deep fried. They are pretty good with beer, or just as a finger food. Then of course there are the draniki, which you are familiar with. This is just your traditional breakfast sausage.
Over there is zhur, which despite being a food of that Polish bastard I'll admit is good. You can see how it's in a loaf of bread as it's bowl, though you should really put your bread in a better position, I had to look all around your cellar to find that.
And finally here is machanka, which is a stew of pork, beef stock, flour, and sour cream. I also added some sausage, mushrooms, and dill to it. There's some crepes you can dip in it if you want."
Alfred looked down at the bowl of stew, which was a grey color. He didn't want to say something mean to offend her but grey wasn't exactly the most appetizing food color.
"Oh, and I almost forgot your orange juice. Silly me," she laughed to herself as she got up briefly to set a large glass next to the plate.
Sitting back down, she set her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand to watch him eat with a smile.
Alfred looked back down at the stew, but couldn't bring himself to eat it. Maybe it was the color, or the fact that there were mushrooms and so many sour flavors in it.
He's never really been a fan of mushrooms, mostly because of their texture, and he could only take so much sour. Cotton candy pickle? Never again.
But on the other hand if he didn't try it he would probably ruin her whole week. 'Come on Alfie, don't make her sad you asshole! It's just some fucking stew you coward.'
In one moment of true bravery he grabbed the spoon, dipped it in the stew, and brought it up to his mouth, not even bothering to smell it as he shoved it in his mouth and gulped. It was a survival mechanism he used often when he lived with England.
It... actually wasn't that bad. The mushroom was in such small pieces he didn't really have any need to chew them, and most of the sour flavor was masked by the meat flavors.
What made the dish extra tasteful was how much Natalya's face brightened up as he took a bite. She was beaming at him in pure joy, not bothered by the fact it took him over a minute to amp himself up enough for try it. If she did that every time he took a bite he might need to go back for seconds... or thirds.
As he finished that and the crepes he moved onto the zhur soup. It was at that point Natalya realized he would be at it for a while and moved away to finish dessert.
By the time she made a plate of desserts for him and turned around, she found that he had already gone through all the food.
She set the plate on the table and put her hands on her hips with a frown as she watched him toss one last potato ball into his mouth. "How many times have I told you to eat slower? You can't savor the flavors that way."
Alfred's eyes shot open as he looked up at her in shame. "I can't help it, it's just how I eat." Natalya saw how earnest he was, but still found it disbelieving that it was involuntary. "But why? It's not like any other nation does that, what's different about you?"
Alfred became filled with pride as he sat up straighter and smiled seriously. "Well because I'm the hero of course. You think Goku got as strong as he did by controlling his diet?"
"I... who's Goku?" She wondered, which almost made Alfred scream at the injustice. "Only one of the strongest heroes ever! Have you never seen Dragon Ball?!"
"Nyet?" She answered honestly, knowing a it would only make him freak out more. Of course, she was right. "What do you even watch in your country?! Dragon Ball is a famous anime, you can find it everywhere in the world! Do you seriously not know about it?"
"Nyet. Now stop talking about it and give me a real reason," she demanded, growing quite annoyed with his whining.
Alfred rolled his eyes while leaning on his hand. "Fine... so I kinda have a really high metabolism," he mumbled, obviously upset with the boring truth. "It's partly because there's a lot of people that starve themselves to get that model bod, but I swear it's mostly because I'm a hero."
Natalya only had to give him an empty stare for him to see she didn't believe him. "I'm being serious, when you have super strength and enhanced stamina you need a lot of energy to power it all. All the best anime heroes are like that."
Thinking it over in her head, it actually did make sense. Russia's strength is comparable to Alfred's, but he also has a thicker body that stores more energy for longer. She also has super strength, and she would consider herself fit despite how poor her country is. Maybe there's more truth to Alfred's words than she thought.
"Right then," she said suddenly while dragging the plate closer to him. "So this is zefir, which is basically a marshmallow made from whipped fruit and purée. I made these ones from raspberries."
That brought Alfred out of his funk as he licked his lips and reached a hand out, only for Natalya to slap it away and scold him. "Don't even think about it."
She grabbed one of the treats herself and brought it up to Alfred's face. He didn't even have time to ask what she was doing before he felt it getting shoved in his mouth.
The abruptness of it nearly got him choking, but he stopped himself last second as he chewed into the pillow-like candy. It was incredibly tasty, but he couldn't get past how weird it was to get force fed.
"Is that really necessary? I can eat slow if you want me to," he told her. "You mean like the rest of breakfast?" She retorted while picking up a second treat.
"That's because you left to do other things. I-" he was interrupted as she poked the other treat into his mouth. "Had nothing *munch munch* to do so my brain *munch* shut down *munch* and went into auto-eating mode."
Natalya grabbed a third one and began playing with it in her hands. "I swear you were getting better, what happened?"
"I still am!" He exclaimed. He crossed his arms with an angry pout, which only grew worse as he felt Natalya tapping his mouth with a treat. He still took it from her but that didn't mean he was happy about it.
After a few minutes she gave him a fourth one, which she led to his mouth by swaying it back and forth as to airplane feed him. The pissed expression he was making made her smile proudly.
"Cut it out, I'm not a baby," he grumbled quietly while gently pushing her hand away. "Well you are certainly whining like one," she fired back. "Now eat."
"You know, forcing a person to change who they are makes you a really toxic friend," he seethed, stopping as he ate the fourth treat.
"Nyet, friends are there to bring out the best qualities in a person," she corrected. "I don't care how high your metabolism is, shoveling that much food down your gullet isn't good for you." Alfred lightened up a little, but he was still pretty angry.
For some more time Alfred was fed them one by one until the whole plate was finished, easing up with every bite. "You're just lucky these things are really good."
Natalya grinned and took the plates away to set them in the sink. "Thank you, I... don't cook for others very often." Her smile dropped a little as she stared off into space.
Alfred raised an eyebrow and looked back at her, pausing whatever he was going to say as he noticed her sad gaze. "It's Russia again, isn't it?"
She slowly nodded and brought her eyes back to him. "Da, I used to always cook for him due to my... fixation. He quickly grew terrified and refused to eat anything I made."
"What, did you drug him or something?" He joked. She awkwardly rubbed her upper arm while looking away. Alfred's jaw fell to the floor. "Oh my God."
"It was one time and years ago," she specified. "I never did it again after that, well at least not on him, but he still can't get past it."
Alfred sat silently for a second as he thought about who else had fallen victim to her. "Uhh, right. Guess he's just missing out." That seemed to cheer Natalya up again.
"So are you going to have breakfast too? Or did you already eat?" He wondered. "I haven't yet, but I'll just whip up something," she answered as she began preparing to wash the numerous dishes.
Alfred rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I may not be as good as you, but maybe I could make you breakfast in return."
Natalya looked at him but shook her head. "No thank you, you already make us dinner everyday."
"I know, but it feels weird not doing something in return. I'll make you something real special, whaddya say?" His insistence and Natalya's empty stomach pushed her to agree.
"Fine, but no burgers," she demanded as she walked back to the table.
Alfred put his hands up and laughed. "No burgers."
Where was Russia and the Detective Trio during all of this? Good question.
During the time Natalya was making breakfast, Russia had just arrived. The limo pulled right out front of the house and he stepped out.
Looking up at the house, he was actually a little impressed. It was a very large house, and he could feel the history it held.
He never actually got to see any of this side of America, as Alfred never let him be this close to his capital without his own supervision. Even then he was kept in urban areas so there were many witnesses to keep him from trying anything funny.
The constant suspicion of that little brat was obnoxious. Russia couldn't go anywhere without feeling Alfred's eyes burning holes in the back of his head. And whenever they had one-on-one meetings in America the tension would get so thick that bodyguards and politicians would have to leave to prevent themselves from fainting.
Oh how Russia couldn't stand Alfred. Even with the Cold War 29 years behind them it was difficult to remain friendly around the American for long.
Burying away those bad memories, he distracted his time with exploring a little more of the front yard.
Raising a fist he prepared to knock on the door, but paused as he felt just how hard he was clenching his hand. He slowly relaxed his hand and stared at his open palm.
How is he supposed to do this while his blood is still boiling? Driving around the entire United States, sweating his ass off in the desert, visiting his lost land. He can't just waltz into this house with all of this pent up aggression, trying to patch up his relationship while holding back the urge to level the entire state.
Calmly, though a little stiff, he turned away from the door and went back down the steps to the car. "I am not thinking they are going anywhere else. Let us leave for now and be finding a hotel... and a bar. I am in needing of blowing off the steam."
The two agents nervously nodded and reentered the car. Going to a bar to blow off steam could only mean one of two things, a drunk Russia or a massive bar fight. Actually now that they thought about it the two seemed to go hand-in-hand.
The limo pulled back out of the driveway and drove toward the town, not noticing the three people hiding in the bushes at the end of the property.
Japan, Prussia, and Hungary popped their heads out and watched the limo drive away. "Vell now who is zhat?" Prussia asked.
Hungary continued watching as the limo fully disappeared down the road. "I'm not sure, but I hope it vasn't America leaving already."
"Alfred doesn't own a rimo, and there's no point in renting one as he arready had the RV," Japan explained.
"Right zhen, let's go," Hungary commanded as the three crouched down into the bushes again to sneak onto the property.
After some crawling around they had successfully made it to the front garden unseen. Hiding in one of the large hedges, they poked their heads out again as Prussia raised his cupped hands up into the air. He opened them to reveal a small yellow chick sitting in his palms. "Alright Gilbird, it's your time to be awesome. Go find America."
The bird chirped and flew off to complete their orders, meanwhile the three hid again to continue their theories.
Gilbird flew around the back of the house and landed on the ground, staring on as Alfred scarfed down a mountain of food.
After a few more minutes of investigating they were suddenly interrupted by a shrill cawing behind them. Gilbird turned around and looked up at a large bald eagle towering over them. Gilbird chirped angrily at it, but the bald eagle didn't budge, it was intelligent enough to know the small bird was completely outmatched.
Gilbird realized that as well and flew away as fast as it could, chirping out to their owner in distress.
Prussia picked up on the calls and jumped out of the hedge screaming "I'm coming Gilbird!", much to the fear of the other two of getting caught.
Once Gilbird was in sight Prussia jumped up and snatched the chick out of the air a split second before the bald eagle's talons could take it out.
The Prussian ignored the eagle circling his head to hug his pet. "Mien Gott, if you died zhat vould be totally unawesome!"
Inside Natalya looked up from the zefir she was making as she heard a faint noise. "Alfred do you hear a faint... shrieking?"
Alfred was too zoned out while eating to hear her, so she assumed it was a no and went back to her dessert.
Prussia ran back to the others, followed close behind by the livid eagle. "Retreat!" He yelled as he dived over the hedge and ran for the hills. The other two popped out of the hedge to scold him but stopped when they noticed the bald eagle flying overhead.
They thought it was slightly funny how freaked out he was over a single bird, but they too grew scared as they looked over to a nearby tree after hearing a noise, only to see there were about fifty more perched in it and staring down at them.
Needless to say they quickly caught up to Prussia, followed by enough birds to blot out the sun.
"Has zhis ever happened before?" Hungary screamed to the others as they piled into the car they hid out in the woods.
"Nein/No!" Both Prussia and Japan shouted back. Before the birds could catch up Prussia floored it out of there. Maybe they could just wait in town.
As the days went on uninterrupted by any angry Russians or sneaky detectives, Natalya found herself growing more accustomed to Alfred's spontaneous lifestyle.
Let's take a look at how she's been living with her new friends.
Natalya walked to the living room to watch tv, but found that Alfred had just got on it as he turned on his PlayStation.
As he turned to go back to the couch he noticed Natalya standing in the doorway. "Oh, sup Nat are you here to watch me?"
"Nyet, I was actually trying to watch tv," she told him, making him feel a little guilty. "Sorry about that. You can use the one in my room if you want," he offered.
Natalya walked further into the room rather than leave. "Well now I'm curious with what you're playing."
"Sick, but you're going to have to wait a sec because I haven't figured that out yet," he said as he started sorting through all of his games. Suddenly he shot his head up and looked at her. "Wait, you know how you're totally into rock music and violence?"
"Umm, I guess?" She shrugged while strolling over to him. "Then I've got the perfect game," he stated excitedly as he slid a disc into the console and jumped back onto the couch.
Natalya followed and sat down beside him as she observed him select a game called Doom Eternal. "This game is still pretty new, I think it's been out for four months or something so you probably don't know about it."
He went into more depth into the game as he went through the main menu and began playing. Natalya looked on bored as all it appeared to be was another shooter game, nothing special.
After a while Alfred began to notice and paused the game. "Sorry is this boring you?" She shrugged back with a flat expression. "It seems unoriginal. It's got good graphics but..."
Before she said anything else Alfred placed the controller in her lap and crossed his arms. She looked at him weirdly as he nodded at her. "Just play it, you'll see."
She picked the controller up and unpaused the game. It took a while to get a handle on the controls but as she did she got her first glory kill, at the same time heavy metal music began playing.
Her eyes sparkled at the screen, and she was instantly hooked. In no time she was blasting demons with giant guns, chainsawing them in half, and blowing them up with grenades. It was absolute carnage and she was all for it.
Alfred watched her in joy. He could tell she was fully zoned in. He decided to give her a few words of encouragement.
"Rip and tear, rip and tear, rip and tear," he began in a whisper. Slowly he repeated it louder and louder until it was almost a shout.
Rather than get angry, Natalya actually found the chanting immersive as she slaughtered more demons. She opened her mouth and quietly joined in.
"Rip and tear, rip and tear, rip and tear!"
"Look what I found!" Alfred announced as he ran into Natalya's bedroom, jumping up and down with a gun in his hands.
Natalya stared at him blankly, but on the inside she was freaking out. She had finished a shower only a few minutes ago, and if he entered even thirty seconds ago he would've caught her standing in the center of the room completely naked.
"That's very interesting Alfred but just one thing..." Alfred raised an eyebrow. "DON'T BARGE INTO MY FUCKING ROOM AGAIN!!!" She screamed while chucking a pillow at his face.
He let it make contact and slump to the floor with a big smile on his face. "I know, but I got excited. Look, it's my Thompson SMG from WWII, I found it while I was digging in the storage room. I thought I lost this baby years ago. . . Wanna go shoot it?"
"I just took a shower, why would I want to get dirty again?" She asked him. "You're not going to get dirty unless you start rolling around in the dirt. Come on It'll be fun, we can fire guns from all sorts of time periods," he persuaded.
She was going to refuse since he pissed her off, but knowing the puppy dog eyes were sure to come she quickly changed her mind.
The two stood at the shooting range at a table full of guns. Some were the ones hooked to the walls and others Alfred dug out of the storage room.
From left to right it went from old colonial weapons like the blunderbuss and musket, to the comically large .500 Magnum.
Natalya picked up the musket and inspected it. It was the one with the gash in the side of it. "I always hated these guns," she thought out loud as she poured some gunpowder and a musket ball in.
Alfred nodded in frustration as he fumbled with the ornate blunderbuss. "I don't even think I've shot this gun before."
Natalya looked over at him while shoving the ramrod down the barrel. "That doesn't look like a normal blunderbuss, where did you get it?"
"Iggy gave it to me when I was a kid. You know him with his pirate days and all," he explained while loading the gun similarly to Natalya. "You shoot first, mine's more of a shotgun."
Natalya nodded and raised the gun, pointing at a target and firing. After the plume of smoke blew away she could see that the bullet hole was slightly to the left of the bullseye, which annoyed her to no end. "Can't believe we actually used to fight wars like this."
Afterwards Alfred walked closer to the target and raised his own gun, blasting the target with a load of shot. "I know, no wonder the death rate was so low."
The next guns were the Spencer and Henry Rifle, which surprised Natalya with how modern they looked. They took actual bullets now and there were no ram rods.
"So these were the first modern guns?" She asked as she grabbed the Henry Rifle. Pretty quickly she found the hole in the butt of the gun so she started loading it.
Alfred smirked in pride. "Yeah. It's pretty weird how my Civil War made the first rifles and machines guns. Well... I guess the second one is half true. The Gatling Gun needed a hand crank to work, while the Maxim Gun wouldn't come out for another two decades."
The two started shooting at their targets, easily hitting the bullseye every time, though Alfred had to reload again as he could only hold about half the bullets as Natalya.
As he lowered the gun his smile followed, turning into a pained frown. "The most surprising thing was that the deaths in the Civil War weren't higher. It's a good thing the guns didn't become widespread yet, can't say the same thing about the World Wars though."
He sighed to himself as they went onto the next weapons. "I can't help but feel responsible for all the death and destruction. If I didn't trade those weapons with everyone it could've been prevented."
Natalya gave him an understanding look. "We all played a part in the wars, there's no point in blaming yourself for something you couldn't have predicted."
He gave her a small smile in gratitude. "You're right. Thank you."
Looking back at the table he gestured to the line of weapons. "So which one do you want to shoot next?"
"How about this one?" She wondered as she picked up the .500 Magnum. Alfred snickered at its sheer size compared to her hand. "Are you sure you can handle it? It's got a kick to it."
She glared at him but said nothing as she pointed the gun at a target. As she took the shot, however, the recoil launched the gun from her hands and threw it back behind them.
They both flinched as they heard the loud sound of a lot of glass breaking. Turning back they saw the window of the garage was now missing.
Silently they turned back around and carefully picked up the two smallest guns.
"How the hell did you convince me to do this?" Natalya grumbled as she sat in a large pillow fort in front of the tv. She was shaking in rage while wearing the Hello Kitty pajamas, but Alfred seemed unbothered as he entered the room wearing a monkey onesie and carrying a large bowl of popcorn.
"Ready for an epic slumber party?!" He yelled as he climbed into the fort. Natalya gripped hard to her clothes and gritted her teeth. "This is degrading!"
"Really? I think it's cute," Alfred argued before shoveling a handful of popcorn into his mouth. Natalya's face went dark as she slowly turned to him. "What was that?"
"It's..." he trailed off when he suddenly felt really cold. 'Shit.' Next thing he knew he was being tackled to the ground with popcorn flying everywhere. Luckily there were pillows under his head to prevent him from getting a concussion.
He opened one eye to make sure everything was alright, but froze when he was met with Natalya's head against his and their noses touching.
Her own eyes opened and looked back into his. Heat rose in both of their faces as they stayed still for about five seconds, then Natalya's upper body shot back away so she was only sitting on him. Definitely less awkward.
"Don't call me that, I look ridiculous in this," she complained while tugging at her pajamas. Alfred's lips were closed tight as he fought his hardest not to laugh or smile. Her face was all red and pouty, while the big white Hello Kitty head made a big ring around it that brought out the redness more. She looked like a little girl having a temper tantrum.
Eventually she noticed his struggle and raised an eyebrow. "What the hell is wrong with you you bastard?"
Alfred tried to talk but had to bite his tongue to choke back a laugh. "So cu—"
He was interrupted by a palm to the face.
The two of them lounged on the living room couch. Alfred was watching tv and Natalya was on her phone.
Suddenly the tv turned to a commercial, which made Alfred gasp and jump off the couch, it was his favorite commercial. Natalya looked up from her phone to watch as he tossed his glasses onto the couch and began dancing.
Do do dodo. "Yo!" Do do dodo. "Dude!" Do do dodo. "Yeah!" Do do dodo. "What. It. Do. Dawwwg?!"
He stood for a few seconds for Natalya to join, but when she didn't move he curled into a ball and let out depressed tears. "Why does no one groove out with me?"
Natalya passed him another glance.
Molossia walked down one of the halls after leaving the bathroom, but paused as he heard music coming from the other room.
Poking his head in the room, his jaw dropped as he witnessed Alfred and Natalya doing an absurd dance. She had a blank expression while Alfred was grinning and singing.
He stopped and called out as he noticed Molossia in the doorway. "Yo, dude come join us."
Molossia clenched his jaw as he cringed. "And embarrass myself? No way!"
Peter came down the stairs after growing very hungry. While walking through the dining room to the kitchen he paused when he also heard music.
He entered the living room instead, gasping in surprise to see everyone dancing. Even Molossia, despite the frustrated look on his face. Peter ran over and joined in.
A: Do do dodo. "Yo!" Do do dodo. "Dude!" Do do dodo. "Yeah!" Do do dodo. "What. It. Do. Dawwwg?!"
P: Do do dodo. "Hey!" Do do dodo. "Chap!" Do do dodo "Yes!" Do do dodo. "What. Does it. Do. Dog?!"
B: Do do dodo. "..." Do do dodo. "..." Do do dodo. "..." Do do dodo. "..."
M: Do do dodo. "Stupid." Do do dodo. "Bullshit." Do do dodo. "I hate my life!" Do do dodo. "What the fuck am I doing?!"
"You guys ready to watch Hamilton?!" Alfred asked excitedly as he opened the door to Molossia's room.
Peter excitedly ran out of the room while Molossia stayed back to walk with Alfred. "What do I care about some old guy? I wasn't alive then," Molossia said arrogantly.
"Yeah, but I was," Alfred shot back.
By the time they reached the living room Peter was bouncing on the couch, with Natalya sitting next to him trying to keep herself from being thrown off.
With everyone present Alfred shut off the lights and pressed play, to which Peter got off the couch and sat on the ground to be closer to the tv. Alfred moved onto the couch with Natalya while Molossia of course sat in a chair away from everyone.
As the first song came on Natalya turned to Alfred. "So who actually is Hamilton? Is he one of your presidents?"
Alfred looked away from the screen, eager to explain things for her. "No, but he was a founding father so he did help build the country. You'll learn about him in the song."
As the songs went on she seemed to have multiple questions about every new character introduced. Except for George Washington and the other later-to-be presidents as she remembered those from the journal.
What's worse is that Alfred's whispering was horrible since he was an entire couch away, so it was becoming very distracting for Peter.
Eventually it became too much and he spun around to them. "Will the both of you shut up?!" Both looked back at him puzzled until Alfred gave him a nervous laugh. "Sorry about that dude."
Peter nodded and turned back to the tv. Pretty soon Natalya made a confused face, and knowing she would want an answer to something Alfred scooched way closer to properly whisper in her ear.
Even when they weren't talking about the movie he remained just as close. Anytime he leaned his mouth down to her ear to speak it made it all tingly and sent Natalya's heart racing.
As a whole hour passed, then that turned to two, Natalya began to grow tired. The other three were still wide awake as they were fully invested in the story. It's not her fault she isn't as interested, it's another country's history which she already spent the last two months learning.
She started shifting from side to side, leaning on her left arm against the couch arm, then switching to being upright to stave off the tiredness.
It didn't work, and without knowing it she fell asleep with her head resting on Alfred's shoulder. The first second she did it Alfred nearly had a spasm in his nervous surprise, but as he realized she had fallen asleep he simply smiled down at her with a warm blush. It's best to let her sleep.
In her dream Natalya found herself sitting at a vanity. Looking at herself in the mirror she saw she was wearing a fancy wedding dress with a frilly bottom and lace top. She's had this dream thousands of times.
Lifting herself off the stool she walked over to the nearby door and opened it to the venue. It was a luxurious venue with everything a person could ever want in a wedding, and in all the chairs every single nation sat staring at her as she slowly walked down the aisle.
She doesn't even like most of them, but having all of them smiling and congratulating her on her big day made her feel like the most powerful nation in the world.
At the end of aisle was her prized blond beauty, as tall and powerful as always. And he was all hers.
She lifted her dress up away from her feet to run to him, not wanting to stall for any longer. Like most of these dreams he was facing away from her, only to turn and face her as she met up with them.
Only this time when he turned to her it wasn't the same blond beauty she was used to. This one's smile was bigger, had glasses resting in front of bright blue eyes, and bright yellow hair with a stubborn cowlick that appeared to dance in her presence.
She gasped and took a step back in bewilderment. "Alfred?! What are you... where's big brother?"
He raised an eyebrow while smiling in confusion. "Umm, standing behind you. He's your best man remember?"
She turned around and sure enough Russia was there smiling proudly at her. Ukraine was by his side blowing her nose and wiping away tears of joy.
Then that means... Natalya looked at Alfred's suit then back at her dress. Taking about a twenty take she finally seemed to understand her situation.
Before she knew it the officiant had arrived and began making their speech to the couple. For some reason in her dream it was England, like he had the authority to officiate a wedding.
They were asked to speak their vows, which Alfred did easily and in a very sweet manner. Natalya on the other hand was still stuck wondering what was even happening, so her dream decided to skip over her own vows.
And so they were both asked the traditional "do you take this man/woman to be blah blah blah."
Alfred smiled softly down at her and nodded his head. "I do." Natalya's face turned hot pink. She couldn't look in those damn eyes of his.
When Natalya was asked she remained silent for a while. "I..." Looking up at Alfred's face once again a wave of warmth and peace washed over her. But she can't do this, right?
"I do!" She said automatically, slapping her hands to her mouth in horror. She didn't even mean to speak.
"Then you may kiss the bride," England announced. Alfred took that as his cue and began leaning in. Natalya could feel her heartbeat in her ears, if it weren't for her being in a dream she would probably faint right then and there.
Despite her brain screaming, 'don't kiss him! Don't do it!', her dream self keenly got on her tippy toes and closed the distance.
Next thing she knew her eyes were opening to Alfred's face only a few inches from her. He had one hand on her back and the other on the back of her head so it was raised off of the couch. She freaked out and pushed him away. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"
Alfred flailed his hands in front of him as he frantically stuttered out a response. "I-It's not what it looks like I swear! See you fell asleep on me during the play and I didn't want to wake you up so I waited until it was over then I tried to lay you down but then you woke up and are all angry and... I-I-I'll just go."
Before what he even said could be processed he had sped out of the room, leaving her alone and in the dark. She rubbed her face in confusion, stopping once she realized how warm her cheeks were.
Abruptly she stood up and marched to her room. 'I need to stop falling asleep in this dress, it always makes me overheat.'
The next morning she hadn't gotten any better, she couldn't stop remembering her dream. She kissed Alfred, not like last time where the dream ended right before. Good God she was fantasizing about kissing and marrying Alfred!
"Nat?" A voice and knock at the door called out. She turned to it and almost squealed when she saw it was Alfred.
He wasn't looking at her, rather the floor as he tried to hide his own blush. "I just wanted to come apologize again for last night. I wasn't, you know, trying to make a move or anything if that's what you're afraid of."
The two were silent after that, and neither could face each other without turning into a tomato, but Natalya was at the very least able to nod in understanding.
Alfred nodded back and finally looked at her. "Right, so me and the other two were gonna head to the beach today. I was wondering if you wanted to go with us, we could get ice cream or something."
She thought it over in her head for a moment. Ice cream may help cool her head off, that sounds perfect right now. Content with that thought she agreed and began getting ready.