"Are you sure you're not mad?"
I asked Austria as he helped me to walk back to our rooms. My right arm was holding over his shoulder and I held in my left hand the broken pieces of the walking stick.
He shook his had and reassured me, "No not at all. I can walk perfectly fine without the cane."
Not missing a beat I showed a deadpan look and corrected him, "We both know that it's a lie."
"Pfff- You forget that other than you, I can walk without help." Austria gave me a smug face. I let it be and changed the topic. "How is Panama. Did he tried to fight you?"
He shook his head, "No. I'm surprised that he just gave up and listened."
"That's good," I noted, "At least we have one problem less. Now I just need to go back to the previous case and ask Russia a couple of questions. Maybe she'll be willing to give any information about the Red Sickle."
"Shouldn't you take a break?" Austria interrupted me. He stared at me with a questioning look. I groaned knowing that it's going to be difficult to change his mind.
"I'm fine. I don't need a break."
Austria wasn't having it and complained, "I don't get why you can't sit down for a day and rest. You barely can walk now."
"I will rest." I reassured him, "But after I catch China's killer."
He groaned, "Why are you doing this? Who cares if his killer is running around free. I won't be accused for his death anymore and the killer didn't murder anyone again. So there is no need for you to push yourself."
Slightly irritated I responded back, " I need to solve this case. What do you expect how I should explain it to his family. I'm sorry I didn't caught the murderer of your beloved one because I needed a break. I would prefer to give myself the bullet, than admitting that I failed."
Austria looked at me serious with a frown. I could tell that he didn't agree. Which it got confirm as he spoke, "Don't say things like that. The family must understand that you have your limits and the murderer could be caught after we arrive on land."
"No you're wrong. The murderer is one of the guest and they all have enough money and power to easily escape from the consequences. For them it's enough to cross over the boarders and they won't be arrested." I argued and heard how tired he sounded as he spoke back," Listen can we discuss it tomorrow. I don't have the energy to fight with you."
"We aren't fighting."
He didn't say a word. Silently we walked down the hallway and I could see our doors. We both stopped and Austria let me lean on the wall while he went to unlock our room doors. He walked back to help me, but I declined.
"I can do it myself." I said and pushed myself up and tried to walk as normal as possible to my room. Austria let out a tired sigh before he entered his cabin.
I locked the door behind me and let myself fall on the soft bed. It felt weeks since I last slept. On my watch was showing that it's already midnight. I turned around so I could face the ceiling. Tiredly I rub over my face and tried to rethink of everything what happened.
Not even a week before Austria told me that this "vacation" should help me to relax. I raised my arm to see the bandage. Welp at least this ship isn't boring. I'm still a little pissed about our argument. I understand that he only wanted to help me, but repeating the same words over and over again won't get me to anywhere.
Two days.
Only two days I have to bite my teeth together and find out who the murderer is. I can do this. The Red sickle plan got stopped and I have my notebook back with all the information I needed. It's only a matter of time time until I find the killer.
Poland pov.
"Shit. Why it has to hurt like that." Hungary tried to hold back his complaints, but the bandage was way too tight for him and every movement of his arm hurts.
Watching him struggling like a little child, I responded, "Getting shot isn't very funny. At least you got only three stitches."
"Three stitches too much for my liking." He continued, "Do you think it will leave a scar?"
After a short glance over his arm I answered him, "Definitely a yes, but not a big one. You know you could later flexing around with your scar, telling that you got it from a fight."
"Really?" Hungary asked me surprised, "Then why I never saw you flexing with your scars. You have hundreds of them."
"Because my scars make me look like a criminal." I explained shortly with a neutral tone and Hungary reacted with a frown on his face as if he wanted to argue about my statement.
Someone knocked on the door. Soon after it opened and Czechia stepped inside. "I finished hiding the weapons away. Now no one will be able to shot at anyone."
"That's good. Did you talk with the doctor?" Hungary asked.
She nodded and spoke, "He will stay in his room like every other guests. I will also go now because it's late."
Czechia looked at Hungary who was still sitting on the bed not moving. He showed a troubled face and spoke, "I- I'll stay here over night."
Like Czechia I stared at Hungary surprised. An uncomfortable silence appeared and Czechia forced a smile before speaking, "I understand. I wish you two a good night."
She waved to us and as we slowly waved back, she went and closed the door behind her. I stare at the door with a bad feeling in my guts. Something happened between her and Hungary, but both of them didn't want to tell me what.
"Okay Hungary tell me what happened between you two." I told him and he faced me with a guilty look.
He let out a sigh and spoke, "We two had a fight. I heard her saying that she wanted you to be dead instead Slovakia and I got mad because of it."
It hurts hearing that. Now I understand why Hungary act so passive-aggressive to Czechia. He always gets overprotective when one of us get targeted. Still I knew Czechia since my childhood. I know how she ticked whenever she got angry or scared. Obviously she said this out of anger and without thinking, or at least I hope it.
Hungary waited worried for my reaction. I decided to speak, "You know that she's still grieving. She blurted any kinds of insults out without realizing it. You shouldn't take her words serious."
He shook his head and said, "It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not. She said it after you nearly died in front of me. Even after her apology I can't be 100% sure if she really meant it."
I nearly forgot about the strange apology of her. It was strange because not matter what happened, she never apologized first and on top of that she was calm the whole time. She even sat with the murderer in the same room without jumping on him and trying to kill him. Everyone has a different way of grieving, but it's something completely different with her. I couldn't pinpoint it out, but soon a dark thought appeared and it force me to check on her. Just in case.
With a little bit in pain I drag myself out from my bed. "What are you doing?" Hungary asked me worried.
"I will just go and talk with Czechia. Don't worry it won't take long I'll be back soon." I tried to calm him down, but he still looked at me with great concern.
"Maybe I should come with you?" He asked to which I answered, "Don't take it personally, but I want to talk with her alone."
"Are you even sure if she wants to talk with you? She could get into her anger fit and kick you out." He explained. It might happen, but I got a solution for that.
I took my pillow and opened the pillow cover. Hidden inside I pulled the two cigarette packages. Hungary looked confused before asking, "Did you stole them?"
"It was from the gorilla guy. He deserves it."
"Yeah true." He agreed to my short answer.
As I was about to leave the room I heard him saying, "You will come back soon, right?"
I turned around and promised him, "I will and if I won't come back in 30 minutes, then you can go find me, beat my ass and drag me back to the infirmary."
He seemed fine with my answer and I could leave the room. Now I had to go quickly to Czechia because I don't want to risk if he would take my words seriously or not.
The way to our cabin was quite long. Especially when it comes to the stairs. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, but I still had to be careful on the stairs because each steps gave me the thought that my damn wound will open up again.
Thankfully it didn't happen and I arrived on my destination. I knocked on our door before entering the room. "Czechia are you there?" I asked and saw how she left hastily from the bathroom.
My appearance was surely unexpected for her, "Why are you here?"
I explained her while going to sit down on the lower bunk bed, "I just wanted to see if you're alright."
She crossed her arms and said in a defensive tone, "I'm fine you can go back to the infirmary."
"I guessed you don't want to see me. That's why I brought you a gift." I told her that with a smile and pulled out the cigarettes.
Her eyes immediately sparkled seeing the two small packages and not saying a word she went closer to me and snatched them from my hand.
Not waiting a second she opened the package, lit a cigarette and took a long smoke. Relaxed she sat next to me and mumbled with a small smile, "You're a great friend for enabling my addiction."
With a crooked smile I responded, "So you admit that you're addicted."
She pressed her lips togheter, knowing that she got caught. Without a word she turned her face away and continued to smoke. Usually Slovakia was the first one getting angry for Czechia smoking inside the room. Obviously now no one would to do the nagging.
I didn't want to waste too much of our time, so I jumped straight to the question, "How do you feel?"
She stopped and was silent for a while before answering my question, "Not great."
A short answer, but at least something. Looks like I had to do the talking. "At least not horrible. I can't wait to finally leave this ship. Without a doubt I won't enter any ships in my near future. Speaking of future what do you plan to do after we arrive the port?"
Czechia looked down, balancing the burning cigarette between her fingers she answered," I don't know. So far I didn't thought about it."
I leaned forward and continued to speak," Well my plan so far is to stick with you and Hungary. I don't have anywhere to go. We still have a little bit of savings plus I got 500 bucks from one of our guests for my service. With this we can give Slovakia a proper burial and have a little bit to start over."
Unexpectedly she spoke," How can you deal with it?"
"With what?"
"With everything. You got shot, saw Slovakia dying and you're still able to stay calm. Meanwhile I'm a train wreck and as this woman pointed the gun at me I was literally waiting for her to pull the trigger. How do you do that?" Czechia explained. Her voice was slightly shaking. I sat there thinking what to say.
Watching as the smoke slowly dissolved in the air, I answered to her question," I might handle it easier because I got desensitized to it. In the gang every day could be my last day and I watched many people including friends who never came back. To be honest I never learned to not grief, but only learned to cover it up."
She silently listened to me and when I finished, she spoke," I'm still surprised that you manage to hold a poker face. It reminds when you arrived into the orphanage with your brother. How old where you? Six? Maybe seven? Doesn't matter, you always gave a cold stare at everyone and Slovakia and I had this stupid game to force a reaction from you."
"Oh yes I remember." I said, " I was six I think. Lith was five when we both entered the orphanage. You two annoyed me a lot. Especially in winter you two threw constantly snow balls at me."
Czechia chuckled, "Yeah I remember. Or how we took your shoes, bind them together and threw it over the oak tree. Without a reaction you always climbed up, took your shoes and later threw rocks at us."
"Yup, but you did once manage to get a reaction from me." I noted and saw how her face frown in pain.
Reluctantly she spoke, "True, you cried. We saw how you carried this teddy bear with you all the time and I had this horrible idea to take it away from you and talk Slovakia into burning it with the lighter she stole from the nurse. Half of the bear was burning as you found it."
I nodded and continued," No wonder I cried because the bear was a gift from my mom. After that you both stopped with your game." I shook my head as I continued," I can't believe that I was still clinging to the half burned plushi until I was maybe nine? Then I was in that phase, thinking that my mom hated me because she left me."
Czechia eyes widen in realization, "So that's why you threw the teddy away. We thought you were sad because it was broken. So we bought you a new one, but you kept saying that plushi are for babies and threw the new one away."
I smiled, "Yeah. I was a stupid child. Nonetheless outside all the fights we had, I'm still grateful to have you two as friends."
Czechia stayed silent. I couldn't see her face because she was looking down. As she didn't say a word I decided to continue, "Listen I understand if you want to be alone, but could you promise me something?"
She looked up curiously, " And what?"
"Tomorrow let us three have breakfast together." I said and slowly stood up.
Czechia looked at me perplexed until I slightly bowed down to her with my pinky stretched out, "I want you to promise me that you will visit us alive and healthy in the infirmary tomorrow and we three are eating a nice breakfast together. Can you promise me that?"
Her eyes went to my finger and then back to me with a "are you kidding me" face. Nonetheless she knew I take pinky promises serious. So she hooked her finger against mine and said, "I promise, but you have to expect me being grumpy for walking that far in the morning."
With a smile I responded, "I will take the risk. Now excuse me, but I need to use the bathroom."
I released my finger and saw how her face turned into a panicking one, but I ignored it and went straight to the bathroom. Quickly I locked the door behind me and glanced around the room. At the first look everything looked fine. Nothing was laying around. Thankfully the room has only the one cabinet underneath the sink.
I opened the small wooden door and found what confirmed my thoughts. It was a mistake for letting her storing the weapons away, but thankfully I could fix it. I took the revolver out from the cabinet and emptied it. The empty revolver was placed back and the bullet inside my pocket. Before opening the door I gave a last glance over the room to make sure that it's completely save and went out.
Czechia looked at me worried with a mix of confusion, as I walked out with the same expression as I entered.
"Don't forget about our promise because we won't start without you." I said to make sure she remembers. To my delight she nodded and with that I could leave the room.
On the hallway I managed to walk until I reached the staircase. Exhausted I sat down on the stairs. I flinched a little bit because I sat down too fast and my guts eagerly reminded me that I should not risk to get new stitches.
Carefully I took the bullet out from my pocket and studied it closer. I'm relieved that I could prevent a mistake from happening. Now I have to go as quickly as possible back to the infirmary before an agitated Hungarian starts to search for me.
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2913 words.
Hi i hope you like the chapter and if it's not boring because it's mostly only about talking.
The next chapter might be delate or even an extra week longer because next week I'll be finally visiting my grandma!
I didn't saw her since the begin of the pandemic and I can't wait to finally see her again :D
I wish you a good day/night!