Where Winter Meets Summer (Rusame Countryhumans)

Weekend (Canada POV)

"Oh Nada. Don't you know that you can never ask a girl like me to go clothes shopping and expect to get out alive?"

"It... can't be that bad... right?" I asked, my words wobbling with uncertainty.

"You can be the judge of that. Just know that Russia tried to drown himself in order to avoid going to the mall with me."

Oh no. I was definitely going to regret this. Ukraine must have sensed my anxiety because she burst into a peal of giggles.

"Calm down Canada. I won't torture you like that. He was annoying me, but you aren't, so I'll go easy on you." said a breathless Ukraine.

I sighed a breath of relief and quickly tried to move on, "I made my pick, so back to you. Where next?"

She didn't get a chance answer because the bus had arrived. We greeted the driver and made our way to the back and took a seat. A few of the other countries were there too. I assumed some of them were from different branches of the Academy since I did not recognize them. One of them waved at me politely, and I waved back. He seemed pleased at my response and came over to us to say hello.

"Hola. I'm Mexico, I'm from the Latin America Branch of the Academy, what about you?"

"Canada," I replied with a friendly smile, "and this is Ukraine. We're from the main branch. It's real nice to meet you."

Ukraine smiled at him, "Are you taking advantage of this gorgeous weather too?"

"Yes indeed! I'm going to visit my grandmother Aztec," then he frowned, " To be honest, I am a bit startled by how nice it is today, it usually isn't this pleasant during this time of year. It must be a sign, I just don't know for what."

We ended up kicking up a decent conversation. Mexico was fascinated about life in the main branch.

"Wow. Maybe I'll try to apply to the main branch for next year!" he exclaimed enthusiastically.

Our stop had arrived, so we said our goodbyes and gave each other our numbers to stay in touch.

"What a friendly guy," she commented. I couldn't agree more and we walked hand-in-hand to our first destination.

.....................................................................................

We had finished shopping at 5 in the afternoon and I could finally say that I agreed with Russia on something. Shopping with Ukraine was absolute torture. We were back on the bus, but there were more people there. Our giant bags of clothing did not help. The seats had filled up quickly and now people were starting to stand.

"I guess I may have dwindled a bit too long in the sweater section," Ukraine admitted.

"And the coat section, and the dress section, and the jeans section, and th-"

"Okay okay, I get it," she huffed.

Now the bus was crowded to the point where people had to squish together uncomfortably. At one point, an elderly woman had entered the bus with her grandchild, who we offered our seats to immediately.

During the rest of the ride, I entertained myself by staring out the window at the familiar landscape until a small buzz sounded on my phone.

I whipped it out to check and found more than 50 missed calls and messages. I began to read  the texts but the more I scrolled, the more horrified I became.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me..." I mumbled. I glanced up just in time to see my house coming into view.

A giant crowd had gathered around my residence which meant either something bad had happened or...

"SIR! STOP- STOP THE BUS PLEASE!" I cried as I shoved my way to the exit, "PLEASE, IT'S AN EMERGENCY!"

I ignored the shouts of surprise and rage as I pushed and toppled many other passengers. Ukraine wasn't far behind, apologizing to people (which was usually my job) and yelling my name.

It was chaos.

The bus came to an abrupt halt and I jumped out the doors. Ukraine stood in the doorway, confused at my sudden need to get off.

"Nada? What's wrong? Aren't you going back to the dorms?" she screamed through the noise from the bus.

I turned and gave her a small apologetic smile, "Sorry 'Raine. Something came up and I gotta go. I- I'll call you when I get back, okay? Love you, bye!" I turned and ran off without waiting for her response.

"Wait-," she began, but the bus doors closed and I was already gone.

I reached my house and sure enough, a crowd had parked itself right in front of my door.

"Why are you all here? Please, somebody explain," I demanded.

"Oh c'mon. Why do you think?"

I froze.

I could probably recognize his voice from a kilometre away. Even after all this time, but I still couldn't believe he was really here.

"No way..." I whispered in disbelief, before spinning around to find myself face to face with someone who I thought would never come back.

Now the beautiful sunny weather made complete sense.