Ahh sorry this took so long! I've been really busy with school and stuff so I can't update as frequently, but here you go! Also, how did this get 100 reads out of nowhere?? Anyways, this is a little shorter than usual so sorry about that.
The walk was going to be long, and Germany knew it from the start- which was right when he stepped out into the comfortable afternoon air. He took out his phone from his back pocket and put in the name of the restaurant that he would meet Poland and Czechia at. Once the directions had finally loaded, he began to walk. He admired the tall trees and beautifully coordinated plants that Austria had in his backyard.
About halfway through the walk he realized he forgot his jacket. Oh well, he could always get it some other time. At some point he had almost gotten run over by some crazy dude driving a truck. Germany hated truckers, and for good reasons. They were always loud and obnoxious.
Once he had finally arrived at the restaurant he went in. It was a very nice restaurant, themed according to the Polish flag. It made sense, it was a Polish restaurant.
"Hey, have Poland and Czechia gotten here yet?" he asked the waitress. Germany knew she would know who he was talking about because she was one of Poland's friends. Her name was Hungary.
"Oh no, not yet, but they do have a table reserved if you'd like to go sit there and wait," Hungary said, smiling.
"Great, thank you," he said while Hungary led him to the reserved table. It was in the nicest part of the restaurant, decorated with maps and pictures of cardinals and famous locations. Germany smiled when he saw a picture of Berlin on the wall.
"Here you are, I'll let Poland and Czechia know that you're here when they arrive," Hungary said.
"Thank you again, Hungary," Germany smiled. He sat down at the booth. This part of the restaurant was nearly empty, only a few other people there. Germany assumed that this was a VIP sort of section, seeing how there were only countries here. He decided to see how many of them he could name. First he counted them all. There were 8 countries there. Looking around he saw Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Belarus, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. They were all European countries mostly in the north, so they all knew each other and were sitting very close- as close as you could get using up 2 booths.
"Hi Germany!" Poland called, running over to the table with Czechia following slow behind.
"Oh hello Poland, Czechia. I just got here a few minutes ago so Hungary brought me to our table," he chuckled.
"Hungary is so sweet. Anyways, how have you been? It's been forever," Poland asked, sitting on the opposite side of the table from Germany, Czechia sitting next to her.
"I've been good, took a day off working at the EU to spend some time with a few friends and all that," he responded.
"Wow, you never take a day off work," Czechia was surprised.
"USA begged me and he would've bothered me all day. I wouldn't have gotten anything done anyways," Germany sighed.
"Alright, well we should look at our menus to find out what to order," Poland brought up.
"Good idea. Also, how do you say the name of this restaurant? I don't speak Polish and it sounds really hard to do," Germany asked. Poland laughed a little bit.
"It's Brzydka Pieprzona Restauracja," Poland said, proceeding to burst out in laughter.
"What's so funny?" Germany asked. Czechia simply shook her head and laughed along with Poland. Germany shook it off and decided on what to drink. Poland and Czechia had stopped rolling on the floor laughing just before Hungary came in to take their orders.
"Alright, what can I get for you guys?" she asked.
"I'll have coffee please," Germany asked.
"At this time of day? Okay..." Hungary chuckled.
"I'll take the kompot," Poland said. Hungary jotted down her order and looked over to Czechia.
"I'll have the same as Poland," Czechia sighed, not knowing what any of the drinks were.
"Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks," Hungary smiled and turned to walk away.
They sat in silence for most of the time, not knowing what to say. At some point Czechia tried to bring up how Germany had lost both world wars and still had one of the best economies in Europe, but that just made him sad. By the time Hungary had returned, everybody knew their orders. Germany was still frowning, but fixed his facial expression when he had to look up to order.
"So what does the name of this restaurant mean in English?" Germany asked. Poland smacked her head on the table while bursting out with laughter, Czechia doing the same with the back of the booth. Germany still didn't understand and assumed that they didn't want him to know.
After they had finished eating everybody had fought over who would pay the bill. In the end they got Germany to do the math and split it three ways.
"I could have just paid for it all and you'd have to do way less work, Germany," Poland rolled her eyes.
"I would feel bad if I didn't pay my part," Germany sighed.
"Well you're already doing so much for us. Can I drive you home?" Czechia offered.
"I'd appreciate that, I'm pretty sure I should check up on the EU soon though," Germany liked to whistle while he did math, so that's exactly what he was doing.
"I could drive you there," Czechia persisted.
"Oh fine, only since it's a long walk," Germany mumbled. Czechia smiled with a look of triumph on her face. They all payed their portion of the bill that Germany had calculated perfectly, forgetting he had a calculator on his phone. He didn't mention it because they would have laughed at him.
"My car's just over here, it's the black one," Czechia said, walking towards her car. They both waved goodbye to Poland. Czechia put in the directions to EU headquarters where Germany worked.
For the whole ride they sat in silence. Czechia was a fairly decent driver, however she had to pay a lot of attention to the road so that she didn't crash. Germany had never taken this route to work before, so he simply stared out the window the whole time, taking in the sights of the city they drove through.
"Alright, we're here. See you later I guess," Czechia said her goodbyes to Germany, receiving a smile and a nod in response. Germany walked into the building and was immediately greeted by his personal security. His guards weren't actually in the EU, they just worked to protect him. His main guards were off duty today, so he had substitutes. He had never met these substitute guards before.
"Names?" he asked, formally.
"South Africa," one replied.
"Philippines," the other added. Germany nodded at them. He walked towards the elevator and pressed the 'up' button. His office was on the 27th floor, the highest the building went. Each floor could fit ten people, but since there were only 27 countries working for him, they all had their own floors. Germany had anticipated at least 10 more members, but he forgot that Switzerland was neutral and everybody else just didn't want to be there. Thinking of that reminded him of Brexit and that godforsaken Brit he hated so much. What a dumpster fire.
The elevator finally arrived at the lobby floor and Germany stepped in. Nobody was in the elevator with him besides his bodyguards.
They stopped around the 5th floor. That's where Italy worked. Just as Germany had anticipated, Italy stepped into the elevator.
"Oh, hi Germany," Italy said, shy as usual.
"Good afternoon, Italy" Germany responded.
"I thought you weren't coming to work today?" Italy questioned.
"I just took a half day off. Wait a minute, how do you even know that? I don't have to call anybody to take a day off," Germany said.
"I- well, uhm..." Italy struggled to think of an excuse, knowing Germany knew everybody's positions in the company and their jobs. He thought of an excuse that he was Human Resources, but then he remembered he wasn't and Germany knew that. Philippines stepped closer to Germany. He had been standing on the side that bordered Italy, so he ensured Germany would stay safe. Germany simply did a hand motion and Philippines stepped back to where he was.
The elevator opened once more at floor 18 and Italy got off. That was where Belgium worked. Germany questioned why he would be going into Belgium's office, but could not draw a conclusion.
Finally, the elevator opened at floor 27. He walked out into his office and sat at his desk. On both sides of his desk were poles with the EU flag on them. His desk was decorated with a jar, accompanied by his laptop and his paperwork. The jar contained all 27 flags of the countries that worked for the EU. He opened up his laptop and started working on an advertisement, campaigned towards other European countries. It listed the benefits of joining the EU and other things alike. He had been working on it for a while now, and it was almost finished.
The jobs of his bodyguards were usually very boring. All they did was stand on either side of his desk and follow him around.
The elevator pinged, signaling that somebody was stopping on his floor. Germany looked up from his laptop and towards the elevator, which was straight across from his desk.
"Hello, Germany," they said. Germany simply stared ahead, not knowing what to say.
//Human Resources is how countries connect with their citizens. Citizens need to know when a country does not feel well, for that could mean low stability or a lack of manpower, resources, etc.