Trust is Dangerous- Russia x Germany

Preparation and the Tsar

All was going well. It felt like I was just settled into bed when my alarm went off. I heard the creaky floorboards outside my room signalling that my father...no, dad, was awake. His footsteps were receding and the soft pitter patter of Belarus' feet now dominated the floor. With a light groan my door opened and she crept in.

"Russia," she whispered into my face. "Wake up."

"Hmph," I rolled over the to other side.

"Come on. Papa is waiting for you,"

"We don't need to go collect firewood so early," I whisper-groaned back.

"Now we do," she said, opening my curtains. "Grandpa is coming today."

"WHAT!" I bolted upright and looked at her with surprise. "No, he was supposed to come after tomorrow!"

"Change of plans," she sighed, airing out the room. "The house looks like a mess and we still have stuff to do."

"That's his fault," I grumbled, stumbling out of my room to the far end of the hall. I washed my face with the icy water in a metal basin that was standing in the shower. When I finished with my regular morning routine, I went to change clothing and met my father downstairs. He greeted me and passed some oatmeal, we ate quickly and silently and we went outside with Belarus skipping down the steps soon after. The sky was still grey but all the snow had already fallen on the ground. The soft crunch of wet snow under our feet was the only sound heard as we entered the forest where we collected wood. After finding the right thickness of tree, our dad gave us both an axe each and told us what trees had to be cut. Soon the song of the axe reigned the quiet landscape.

"I think this is enough," father wiped his brow. "To sustain us for the next few days, at least."

"When is grandpa coming?" Belarus asked.

"When he wants to," he huffed in reply, tying up the wood blocks into uneven piles. He gave the lightest one to her and the middle on two me. The whole process took under twenty minutes. We left the woods and I could feel again that snow was falling. "Snow again,"

"Yay!" Belarus tried to catch the snowflakes in her mouth. "I love snow."

"Of course you do," I patted her head with my free hand.

"Hopefully grandpa won't get stuck in the snow," she seemed worried by that fact. Father and I exchanged a look of 'I sincerely hope he does'.

"Of course not," father said to her affectionately, though he had a strained edge to his voice as if he couldn't hold the lie in too long. Thankfully our grandfather wasn't here yet. We came in and found that everyone had woken up and had eaten the oatmeal on the table. "Good. I don't have to waste time," father said and immediately began to tidy up.

"Why now?" Germany asked me when I came over.

"Change of plan," I told him. "He's coming today."

"WHAT?" Germany had the same reaction as I did when I found out. "Wait, why today?"

"He does what he wants..." Ukraine muttered under his breath while cleaning the countertop. I took a cleaning cloth and motioned for Germany to follow me upstairs. I gave him a cloth to clean the rails and doorways. I took a bucket with soapy water as well.

"Picky?" He asked when I gave him the instructions to what to do.

"He says he has 'dust allergies'. I think he's faking it, but he might." I said while dusting the railing. It definitely had a fine layer of little debris on it, but nothing very serious.

"Russia!" I heard my father yell to me from the back. "Open the door in my room and air it out!"

"Okay!" I took Germany by the wrist and pulled him to father's room.