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RUSSIA
It was China, North and Canada who remained at the entrance, waiting, as the last lingerers at the amusement park stumbled out into taxis. The latter one looked like he was about to blow a fuse.

"Where have you been?" Canada snapped, sharply smacking his hands on his brother's shoulders and rocking him back and forth in agitation. "You cannot just run off like that ─ imagine if UN or anyone affiliated with him had found you─"

"Lay off it, Nada," America complained loudly as Russia made his way to North and China with an amused smile. "If South had done the same North wouldn't give a shit because he could probably just knock out all the workers."

North raised an eyebrow. "You have us switched up. I'm insulted. I do the punching here."

"Let's just get back," China laughed easily, peacemaker as always. "Let's not ruin the nice break. Plus, maybe Romania's responded... Russia, you look like a loon. Stop smiling." He grabbed North's arm and pulled him forward, leaving the aforementioned loon to awkwardly make feeble strides in their wake.

Canada looked from person to person, gaping at America as the heavy flush on his cheeks was illuminated by a taxi's headlights. He closed his mouth tight, and said no more for the rest of the rid─ but he was still smiling then, reflected in the faint trickle of light in the back mirror.

★

"They're back!" Ukraine yelled from the living room with a cheery lilt of her voice as the door clicked open, her very precarious balance on a stack of couch pillows wavering slightly. "No notification, just a lot of Bailey's and vodka. Reich says that I should stay hopeful, and now we all think he's gone mad!"

"I have not gone mad," Reich insisted, and he was red with the flush of alcohol and embarrassment. A few empty bottles laid before him; he had never drank this much, perhaps in wariness of being surrounded by people he didn't trust quite yet, so the spectacle was a first, and the world was not to be deprived of it. "You all think I'm incapable of being nice, huh, and I'll shove it up all of your sorry─" He paused to force JE off him, who was intoxicatedly humming a song under his breath and messily giving his best attempt at sign language.

Russia gaped. Some chaos had truly befallen the group in their absence. Perhaps this was them exhausting their new, liberative rights; normally one of the more composed members of their knockoff resistance group would try and maintain some degree of control over the nights of revelry, but this time, even China and Germany had succumbed to the cans and pull tabs. (North was hurrying to wrangle Poland's finger out of a bottle. How does one even accomplish that?)

He looked to America, whose cheeks had again turned a very bright shade of red, his lips pursed and his eyes crinkled as if he was thinking very hard about something — but not that there wasn't anything to think about.

"What does that look mean?" Russia pressed.

America looked up. "Um, to be wholly honest with you, Russia, I really don't want to forget tonight but I also don't think I'll be able to function properly if I don't have some wine in my system. If anything, I'm going to be stupid and awkward, but if I get drunk enough, maybe I'll kiss you again." He grinned bashfully, and promptly skidded on his knees to the floor to down a few shots.

Russia's lips curved up into a smile, an action he couldn't quite suppress. And Reich might've been drunk, but he had definitely heard that.

★

COLOMBIA
"I couldn't believe it," she finished,. "There's years' worth of documentation in those yearbooks. We don't remember a thing. Vietnam, if I could tell you how buff you looked once—"