Silver Umbrellas

Thirty-- Executioner

We made it to thirty chapters, guys! That's so amazing!! Your support is really the only reason why I can write so much for things like these, so give yourself a pat on the back. You earned it!

... You're not patting yourself on the back. C'mon, do it! No one's gonna judge you~

There, see? That wasn't so hard. Great job, Birdie. I love ya.

Okay, enough stalling. On to the next chapter!

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"Lili, where did you leave the potions?" Tino asked as they trudged through mud puddles left and right. The rain was coming down with such force that both nations could feel a weight pressing down on their pretty glass canopies.

"I have them right here," she answered, jutting her hip out to indicate the rucksack resting against said hip. "In case ve find ourselves near that place that Alice said ve should throw them avay. Vhat vas the name of the river?"

"The... Will... The Will-something," he replied, trying very hard to think back on what she had said rahter quickly. "It sounded like a Native American word to me. I couldn't tell you what it means." (A/N: That's the "Willamette," Tino)

That earned a little laugh from them both, and then Lili looked up into the center of her "umbrella." "Ve picked umbrellas that look like our flags! I just realized."

Tino had to look up at his as well and smiled wide. "Wow, we did! I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner."

"How does your side feel?" Liechtenstein asked after a moment of silence between themselves. "Does it hurt? Be honest vith me, Tino."

"Ei, it's alright," he said. "It does hurt a little bit, but the better bandages are helping, I think. Thank you for worrying, Lili."

She shook her head at that. "Ve're partners, Tino. It's my job to vorry about you sometimes."

"I thought it was to watch my back and keep me from getting lost?"

"There are a lot of things in the job description."

Another round of laughter. It felt so nice to laugh, even if just for a few seconds. When she exhaled, Lili couldn't help but feel like her spirits had been lifted ever so slightly. The incessant gloom of the rain definitely had a psychological effect on the mind, so it was no wonder that she had been feeling down lately.

"Do you think the children vill vorry about us, though?" she had to ask, and felt the urge to look both ways before crossing a cracked street. It was a silly urge since there were no cars beind driven anymore, and she internally berated herself. 'At least big bruder taught me vell.'

"Undoubtedly," Tino sighed, and readjusted his grip on the glass handles inside his blue-and-white canopy. "I mean, I hate to make them worry, and all I want is to get back our umbrella and go back to them before it gets too dark, but I know that's not going to happen at this rate."

"I vish Tyson hadn't slipped out of the ropes," Liechtenstein added in a grumble. "I really don't like that man."

"Neither do I. He deserves Hell for what he's done."

~

Despite all their efforts, their peeled eyes and keen senses, Tyson managed to evade Tino and Lili's detection. They searched the university campus, peering into whatever places looked habitable still-- of which there were few, fortunately. Of course, for all they knew there was another underground laboratory somewhere nearby, and he had fled to that.