I felt my heart begin to race and Mr Soviet held the door open for me. He seemed very polite. I was kind of surprised that Meri hadn't followed me. He would have loved to get this close to the house, but because of a past event, he had been banned from stepping onto the property.
Bela held my hand as we walked inside. His house looked reasonably clean for a single father with too many kids. I don't know why I was expecting it to look like a war zone. Bela led me to her room. It was nicely decorated with two bunk beds.
"You still share a room?" I asked.
"Yeah. We have a pretty small house and not enough places to sleep. Even Russia and Ukraine share a room," She explained, scooping a pile of clothes off her bed and onto the floor.
"I have the bottom bunk, Esti has the bunk above me, and on the other side is Latvia and Lithuania," She smiled. She motioned for me to come to sit with her. I did.
"I always hated sleeping in bunks, Aus was the loudest snorer," I laughed.
"But you guys have separate rooms?" Bela pointed out.
"We do, but occasionally when Dad is in this weird mood, Aus and I have to move in with Neth and he only has one spare room," I sighed, thinking about the days where we would move in and out of homes frequently.
"I wish I had a second dad to move in with whenever my dad gets drunk. Any dad is better than a drunk dad," She smiled.
"How are you so positive all the time?" I asked. She always seemed happy despite everything, and I needed to know. I'm mean, getting beaten half to death by your own father, being ridiculed daily by your sister, being starved etc... How the hell does she do it?!
"Dark humour. I find a way to joke about every situation. This is why Esti doesn't like me. I make lots of insensitive comments to help myself cope and Esti is very sensitive," Bela sighed.
"Humour, that makes a lot of sense," I commented.
"Heh. I wish the others could see that. Esti is the only one who knows I do this on purpose. The others think I'm naïve when I make those jokes and think I don't know what I've said," She explained.
"Everyone thinks we are innocent, but to be honest, I wish that was true. If only Canada hadn't submitted me to his own 'interests'," I cringed as those images were burned into the back of my mind.
"Ha, at least none of my brothers are weird," Bela jokes.
There was a small knock on the door and then Kazakhstan walked in. He held a camera.
"Can I take a picture of you two? You know, for my scrapbook," Kaz asked.
"Sure," I smiled. He took a few pictures of just Bela and I and then he jumped in a couple of pictures as well.
"Thanks," He smiled as he looked down at the camera screen.
"You do, scrapbooking?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah. It helps pass the time," Kaz shrugged.
"I have been wanting to make a scrapbook for ages," I commented.
"I have empty albums if you wanted to keep one!" He said excitedly as he ran off.
"You gotta love Kaz. If anything, he is more positive than me, and in a healthy way too," Bela chuckled.
A couple of seconds passed and Kaz came running back into the room with six empty albums in hand. He laid them out on the floor before me.
"Pick one!" I commanded.
I studied the covers of the albums. They looked in good condition. I ended up settling on the plain blue one. I could always spice it up later.
"Thanks," I smiled.
"Dinner's ready!" I heard Mr Soviet shout. The three of us stood up, I left the album in Bela's room and followed Bela to the dining room.
There was a long table and at one end sat Russia and the other was where I assumed Mr Soviet would sit.
Led me to our seats. Bela sat next to Russia, and I sat next to Bela. Everyone sat at the table patiently. Mr Soviet walked in with four plates in each hand and a yellow hand-sewn apron on.
"We are having Beef Stroganoff for dinner," He announced, placing the plates down in front of the kids down the other end of the table.
"You aren't a picky eater, aren't you?" Bela asked.
"Not really. This actually sounds nice," I commented.
It didn't take long for Mr Soviet to serve dinner down to my end. As soon as Mr Soviet sat down, everyone started eating. I actually enjoyed this Beef Stroganoff, it was fantastic. I felt like eating more, but I felt like it would be rude to ask.
"So, New Zealand. You don't seem overwhelmed by my large family," Mr Soviet commented. I felt my anxiety pick up.
"Should I be overwhelmed? Everyone here is a thousand times more civil than my family," I commented, trying to seem brave.
"What are your intentions with Belorussia?" He asked.
"Papa!" Bela shouted.
"Intentions? Hmm, I would say keep her safe, but she is much stronger than me any day, I just want to support her and stand with her in everything she does," I answered. This seemed to impress Mr Soviet.
"And your plans over this camping trip of yours?" Mr Soviet asked.
"Probably to teach her how to fish with nets and roast the perfect marshmallow," I explained.
"Papa, can you stop asking him questions," Bela begged, sinking down into her chair. Her face was flustered, probably thinking about what Mr Soviet was trying to hint at. But I knew that Bela and I were not ready for that level of our relationship.
"Okay, okay," Mr Soviet laughed. Bela and I left the table and headed back to her room.
"Sorry about my dad, he can get annoying at times," Bela apologised.
"Hey, don't worry about it. All dads do that," I chuckled.
"How are you getting home?" Bela asked, looking at the time.
"Oh, I'm just walking back and I'll pick you up tomorrow morning to go camping," I smiled. Bela nodded her head and gave me a small kiss.