"Carlea, can you clean off zhose tables, s'il vous plait?" Francis asked with his phony French accent that made me jump every time I heard it. It was so strange to hear him speaking in a voice that wasn't really his own!
"On it, sir," I answered, scurrying over with a dampened washcloth in one hand. I suppose it felt correct to address him as "sir" while I was working.
My somewhat maid-like skirt swished around my legs as I twirled and started cleaning up the table behind me. Today was really picking up, and customers were coming in an increasingly steady stream. We were going to need all the clean tables we had in our arsenal.
~~
"Heyyy zhere!"
"P-Prussia?"
"Uncle Gil!" Tatiana exclaimed as she heard that characteristic "Kesesese~!" coming from the front door. She leaped up and bolted down the stairs to jump at Prussia's legs excitedly. "Hi hi hi hi!"
"Hi zhere, Tia," he laughed, leaning down to hug her back. "You look taller. Did you grow?"
"I do?" she asked, her eyes growing wide as she looked down at herself. "Whoa..."
"Pr-- Gilbert, w-what are you doing here?" Canada asked as he closed the door and turned to face him. "Did you take a jet to get here?"
"Luddy von't miss it," Prussia laughed. "I needed to take a break from all of zhat. Vant to go get a drink?"
"N-Now?" he asked, glancing at a clock on the wall. "It's only three in the afternoon."
"Isn't zhere somezhing Alfred says? 'It's five o'clock somevhere', or somezhing like zhat," Prussia countered with a grin. "Come on, let's go!"
"Hold on, there. I-I have to get a sitter--" Canada said, but was interrupted as Vidya waved the tip of her tail around in the air.
"I can watch them for you," she offered.
"... You don't have opposable thumbs, though."
"I'm pretty sure I can take care of them. Or make them do what I can't," she said. "Go on, get a drink with him."
"Come on, Mattie," Gilbert goaded, slinging an arm around the Canadian's shoulders. "You could use it."
"Uh... I..." Matthew stammered, looking around nervously. Wait, wait, this was happening too fast for him to make a decision!
"Bye, Daddy~!" Tatiana called with a cute, royal wave as her father was suddenly being dragged out the door.
"Huh? Eh? EH?" he said, looking everywhere around him even as the front door opened, shut, and he was led down the driveway to his car.
"Really, Mattie, I zhink it's a good idea," Prussia said, leaning against the car and looking up at Gilbird circling downward. "I'm bored, und you're bored, und ve need to get avay from all zhis scheiße."
"Who says I was bored?" Canada countered as he grudgingly opened the driver's side door and unlocked the rest of the car. "Don't think you can keep doing this whenever you want to--"
"I don't!" Prussia said with a loud laugh. "Vhat are you talking about, I don't!"
"Really," Canada answered, sliding in and starting the car up while Prussia clambered into the passenger's seat. "Where are we going, exactly?"
"Kesesese! Don't ask me, I don't live here!" Prussia laughed. "Ve're going to a bar. Any bar! Let's get drunk!"
"I am not getting drunk," Canada promised sternly as he backed out of the driveway. "I have my kids to think about."
"Aww, zhat's right. Ah, vell. Ve can still have fun," Prussia said.
"So... Did something happen?" Canada asked after a moment of no real talking. "I would think you'd at least call to brag about coming over before you actually come over."
"Eh... I'll tell you after I have a beer, ja?" Prussia suggested, and Canada nodded. Gilbird twittered cheerfully from his perch on Prussia's shoulder and nestled into the albino's pale hair.
~
"Alright, so why did you just show up on the other side of the Atlantic?" Canada inquired, a bottle of Molson on the table in front of him. "Usually that's not a good sign. Although i-it's not like you're not welcome, o-of course."
"Vell... Okay, I'm gonna just say it. It's Carlea, she is completely crazy!" Prussia griped, downing a swig of his drink. "Seriously, I don't zhink I can take much more of her staying vith zhe awesome me and Luddy, it's killing me. And and and! Kate and Carlea hate each ozher!"
"They do?" Canada said, eyes wide behind his glasses. "You're kidding."
"I don't zhink I can handle being in zhe same house as zhose two." He slumped against the table. "Now I know how Russia feels vhen his sister stalks him..."
"It can't be that bad," Canada said, trying to salvage the situation and Prussia's mood. "Why would Kate and Carlea hate each other? Alice and Kate are best friends."
"Ja, but I zhink Carlea hates her because of me, and Kate hates her because Carlea hates her. It's so confusing." With that being said, he drank another mouthful of beer and groaned. "I had to get avay from all zhat. It's driving me nuts."
"Oh... I guess that makes sense," Canada empathized. "B-But you know, she's in an entirely different dimension right now. Carlea probably doesn't even know what to do with herself since she's so far away from home."
"Sure, I get zhat. Ja, it makes perfect sense. But she's also totally insane and I vant her to go home as soon as possible." He huffed and leaned his chin against the countertop.
"If that means we can get Alice back sooner, then by all means I'm with you," Canada agreed, sipping his drink. Music played on quietly in the background, and a few scattered humans milled about. It was a lazy Wednesday afternoon near Christmas Break, and hardly anyone was out and about.
'Maybe I shouldn't be so "out and about" right now, either' Canada worried as he thought about how the kids had to be doing at the moment.
The seemingly depressed albino scooted around to look at Canada, but he kept his chin on the counter's surface still. "Is it true you turned into a badass dragon?"
The blond inhaled sharply and sputtered, coughing as beer stuck in his throat. A few quick pats on the back from Prussia later, Canada cleared his throat and was able to speak again. "S-Sorry. Uhm, yeah. Yeah, I did t-turn into a dragon."
Prussia's red eyes were positively sparkling. "Zhat is so cool! I vant to see, I vant to see!"
"Uhhh," Canada mumbled as he took out his phone and scrolled through his pictures folder. "H-Here, Kiku took some photos before I changed back and he sent them to me." That being said, he handed the phone to Prussia and watched as he started to freak out a little bit.
"Holy fuck, Mattie! Zhat's really you?"
The quiet one chuckled softly. "Y-Yeah, it really is me."
"Scheiße, zhat's impressive," Prussia commented, thumbing through the few slightly shaky, candid shots of a ruby-colored dragon that was just beginning to morph back into its proper humaoid form. "Did you get to fly and all zhat?"
"Yup. It was exhilirating," Canada promised sincerely. "I met this other dragon named Lume, and she was nice. She saved me from a bunch of knights that were trying to kill me..."
And so he spun the epic tale of what threw down in that medieval dimension. Needless to say, Prussia was more than just a little jealous.
"You vere flying around vhile I vas stuck babysitting," the ex-nation grumbled into his beer bottle's neck. "Lucky..."
"But... Isn't it true you can't go into Kadi's mansion?" Canada asked falteringly, and Prussia's frown deepened.
"Ugh, don't remind me," he muttered. "So unawesome..."
"S-Sorry," the blond stammered, sipping his beer quickly so he wouldn't have to keep talking.
"So, hey. How're you doing vizhout Alice around?" Prussia inquired before drinking the last dregs of his alcohol. "Is it okay vith zhe kids and all zhat?"
"Uh, y-yeah," Canada answered. "I've... been better, but I'm getting used to the idea that she's not around right now."
"But you are gonna find her. I know it. You've got zhe awesome me rooting for you!" Prussia laughed, flagging down the bartender for a pilsner this time instead of a simple bottle.
"Ha, exactly," Canada agreed. "We've got to get her back so we can send Carlea back where she belongs."
"And zhen zhe nightmare vill be over," Prussia finished, and the two of them cheered to each other.
Clink!
"Hey, I zhink I know zhis song," the albino commented as he listened to the song drifting through the swirling slowness of the Canadian bar. He started to hum along to the tune, butchering a couple notes every now and then but still recognizing it. And then the lyrics began to be sung.
Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
"Ugh..." Canada groaned under his breath. 'Not this song. It makes me want to cry every time I hear it...'
"Somezhing wrong, Mattie?" Gil asked, and Gilbird stirred from his owner's shoulder to bump into Matthew's shoulder like he was trying to get his attention.
"Eh?" the Canadian murmured as he snapped out a stupor he'd temporarily driven himself into. "Eh, I'm fine. It's just... this song. No big deal."
"Aww, come on. Are you really okay, Mattie?" Gil pressed as he leaned on the table and tried to look him in the eye. "You can't lie to Zhe Awesome Prussian. I have a built-in lie detector."
"Heh, sure," was Canada's mildly sarcastic reply. "I really am fine, Gil. Promise. We'll get her back and both of our lives will go back to normal."
~~
Alice's POV~
"Hey, Wisp?" a younger version of me whispered to the nearly identical girl lying next to me in a bed.
"Yeah?" she whispered back to me in the darkness of the midnight hour.
"I'm worried about Pa. He's hangin' in there, but... I think..." I suddenly couldn't stave off a bout of heavy sniffling and hiccups, which were the price to pay to hold back my threatening tears.
Then we were clinging to each other and crying softly, the sounds of our sobs never quite reaching past the rustic doorway of our room.
"It'll be okay... It'll be okay..." Wisp assured into my long hair, her eyes squeezed shut while tears decorated her dark eyelashes.
When I opened my eyes, I was my own age again and lying in my fiance's bed. To my surprise, actual teardrops were racing down the side of my face and dotting the pillow!
'Whoa... That was so deep. Was that an actual memory?' I wondered, sitting up and using my arms to clean off my face.
A glance at the clock later, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and marched to the kitchen to make something to drink. It was time to start the day!
'I'll ask Gil about my family later tonight' I vowed. 'After I meet with Dr. Héderváry for that psychoanalysis appointment. Maybe I'll tell her about it, too! It'll definitely make her day to know I'm making progress.'
~
"Hi again, Carlea!" Dr. Héderváry greeted me as I walked into her office around 2 o' clock that afternoon. "How has this week been for you?"
"It's okay," I answered easily as I slid into the chair across from hers and set my purse down on the ground next to my foot. "Gil and I have been making wedding plans lately."
"Oh!" she said, grinning brightly. "That's such great news! Does that mean you've regained those feelings of love you had for him?"
"Yeah," I said, trying to keep the stammer out of my voice. Truth be told, who was I to say what love felt like? But whatever it was, I sure felt something with Gil... I think... "It's exciting to figure out everything for the wedding. Would you like to come?"
"Me?" she asked, looking flabbergasted as she gestured to herself.
"Yeah, you've been a great friend to me these past couple of weeks," I told her with a sincere smile. "Even if it is just your job."
"I devote myself to this job," she said, "because I love what I do. And I would love to come to your wedding, Carlea. Will I get an invitation?"
"When we finally make them," I giggled while rubbing the back of my neck bashfully.
Dr. Héderváry laughed good-naturedly and arranged a stack of papers sitting on her desk. "Alright, well, you have my contact information for when you want to send me that invite. Anyway, have you made any progress with recovering memories?"
My mind wandered back to the dream I'd had earlier that day. "Uhm, yeah, I think I might have."
As I explained and detailed what I'd seen and felt in that dream, Dr. Héderváry listened silently and nodded every now and then. Other times she would scribble something down on a legal pad without looking at it. By the time I'd finished remembering that had happened, the entire page was filled with jotted down notes.
"Do you think it's a memory," I asked her, "or just a figment of my imagination?"
"Well... You did say it felt incredibly real, didn't you?" she asked, and I nodded. "Our records of your life do say you have a younger sister named Willow with dark hair and greenish eyes. And that your father... died of lung cancer when you both were very young."
"He... He did?" I whispered, emerald eyes wide as I processed that information.
"He did, and I'm so sorry," the doctor said sincerely. "I think it matches up with your past, though. It very well could be a memory, though the only one who could verify that would be your sister."
"Should I try to call her or something?" I asked.
"You can try, but it might be difficult to reach her. My records say you two haven't spoken to each other since you moved to New York after graduating high school. Oh, this is all what your fiancé told me," she added. "He said you never wanted to talk about why you two don't talk anymore, so he didn't pry."
"And now I might never know why..." I murmured, looking down at the surface in front of me mournfully.
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I'll leave up the speculation of whether that was Carlea's memory or her own to you guys ;)
So hey! Comment, vote, add + and faaaaaaaan~!
Merci for reading this far with me!
EDIT: Thanks for catching that typo, guys!