The Masquerade

Chapter 3 - The Rules

Since everyone was now present, we turned to our father, waiting for him to lay out some guidelines for what we were and were not allowed to do.

Britain cleared his throat. "Tonight, since it's a special occasion, I've decided to let you have mostly free reign over what you do."

We all looked at each other in excitement. Our father never let us choose what we could do! There had always been very strict rules, and those rules had only gotten stricter after what happened two years ago.

Clearly, Father saw the excitement on our faces and repeated, "You can have mostly free reign. You are not allowed to purposefully prank someone into getting lost." That was a game that we sometimes played, to see how lost we could get our guests in the castle. Obviously, that game was not going to happen tonight. "You are not to bring your pets into the ballroom." Pointed look at Australia. "You are not allowed to bring anyone away from the ballroom unless you have specific permission from me or your mother." Glance at Canada. We all nodded. All the rules made sense so far.

"And lastly," Father finished, "remember that all of you are not yet of age, and therefore are not allowed to consume any alcoholic beverages."

Even without looking I felt my father's gaze bore into me. I knew better than to drink. I remembered what happened last time.

The moment seemed to last an eternity, and right as I felt my limits being pushed I heard my father say, "So long as you follow these rules, you can do whatever you please."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Both Aussie and Kiwi looked at me quizzically, but I ignored them.

I was about to ask my father why he was lifting all the restrictions now, when it seemed like he would tighten them even more. But then I caught his eye, and I saw something there I hadn't seen in a long time.

Trust.

Britain was trusting me to make the right decision.

And I wasn't about to let him down.

"Mon amour, shouldn't we be preparing?" Mother asked Father. "La famille is going to be arriving soon, no?"

Father nodded solemnly, as if he was dreading the idea of seeing family. Which he probably was. He was never a fan of big family reunions.

The first to arrive were my uncles on my father's side, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England. And even though my father was the youngest out of all of them, you probably wouldn't be able to tell just looking at them.

Britain was definitely the most responsible member of the family, and everyone knew it. England came in a close second, but even he let my father take the lead.

"Oi, Britain! S'been quite a while since you've thrown a party!" Scotland exclaimed, throwing his arm around his younger brother.

"I'm not really one for large-scale gatherings, you know..." Father grumbled, pushing Scotland's arm off of him.

"Well, so long as you've got yourself some of the good stuff, we'll all be happy, right?" Ireland grinned, and Britain shivered.

I watched as Father got pulled away by his brothers, and I knew we wouldn't see him for at least a couple hours. This happened every time we'd invited family over for a party. We weren't sure what they did, and Father refused to talk about it, but we had some suspicions it involved good old family bonding over a beer keg.

Next to arrive was Mother's cousin Spain and his kids Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Peru, along with his brother Portugal and his kid, Brazil.

Australia and Brazil almost immediately ran off together toward Aussie's room. I couldn't help but smile remembering how they'd bonded over Australia's pets a few years back, and had remained good friends to this day.

I walked over to Mexico. She was about my age and we were pretty good friends, even if we didn't see each other that often.

"Hola, America!" She smiled.

"Hello, Mexico. It's been a while." I grinned back.

Mexico gave me a hug, and the two of us just talked while everyone else just hung out for a little. We teased Canada and Peru about how they looked so similar, they could be brothers, as we always did when they were together. It was a thing.

But it still was weird how similar Canada and Peru looked.

After a few minutes of us just hanging out, France, Spain and Portugal all came over to us to tell us that we had to get ready.

"Vale, niños. Tenemos que prepararnos ahora, los invitados estarán aquí pronto." Spain said to his kids, and they all nodded.

Canada, New Zealand and I just looked at him in confusion.

Luckily, Mexico seemed to notice our confusion and quickly translated.

"He says that people are going to be here soon, and so we have to get ready."

I smiled at Mexico, and she smiled back, before turning back to her father.

"Vale, papá." Then she looked around a little, before asking, "Tengo que sacar algo de mi bolso, ¿me lo puedo dar?"

"Sí, pero rápido." Spain nodded, and Mexico quickly headed to the other room.

"Mes chéris, can you go get Australie and Brésil?" Mother asked.

New Zealand, Canada and I all shared a glance, and even without saying a word, New Zealand sighed.

"Fine, I'll go get him."

"Thanks, Kiwi." I shot a grateful look at my little brother, who just rolled his eyes.

"And don't forget to get your masks! Everyone should have them on when the guests arrive!" France called as we walked away.

"I don't get why you didn't want to get Aussie." New Zealand commented.

We just gave him a look.

"Just because most of his pets are deadly doesn't mean—" He started, but cut himself off mid-sentence. "Nevermind, I'm starting to see the issue now."

He quickly excused himself, heading off to grab Australia and Brazil, and we continued walking. We walked in silence for a little, before Canada broke it.

"Let me guess, you left the mask in my room."

"No, why in the world would you think that?" I said sarcastically, and in such a way that immediately portrayed that it was true.

Canada chuckled. "Yep, classic Ame."

We walked a little more, before Canada broke the silence again.

"Hey Ame, are you actually going to try to find a lady at this ball?" He looked to the ground awkwardly.

I sighed. "I don't know. I guess it just depends." I gave my brother a wonky smile.

Quickly, I ducked into my brother's room to grab my mask. But before I left, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I stared for a moment, thinking, before I made a decision.

I was going to try at this ball. I was going to try to make my father happy.

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