Magic and Mortals

"Average" Day

Romania's pov
I woke up early the next morning, and instantly started to choke on bits of popcorn. Apparently my brothers and I had fallen asleep where we were that night, meaning that I was splayed out on the living room floor with popcorn littered all around me. Grumbling slightly I checked to see what my brothers were doing. Lukas's body took up the whole space on the couch, and he was snoring like a freight train. How someone so quiet could be that loud, we would never know. Arthur, however, was already up and in the kitchen. This set off warning lights in my head, and I quickly got up and grabbed the fire extinguisher. "Arthur, what are you doing?" I spoke slowly, stretching my words out so they would be heard over Lukas's snores. Arthur looked guilty for a few moments, then shook his head. "Would you believe nothing?" He asked innocently, adjusting his glasses so they weren't lying crooked on his face. I laughed, punching his shoulder lightly. "Stupid." We looked over at Lukas, who had started to talk in his sleep. His new braces were barely visible through his slightly parted lips, unless he would start to talk. "How long has he been doing that?" I asked, watching the Norwegian with interest. "Bout an hour or so." I nodded slightly, knowing that it would probably be another five minutes until Lukas woke up. When we first started to live together back in the second grade, we had no idea who would wake up first or how to stop Lukas from snoring so loud. But after a few weeks we had fallen into a routine. Arthur was always was up first, I would wake up second and stopped Arthur from burning the apartment down, and Lukas woke up last and always had the last say on what we ate for breakfast. We had this system down pat, and it was one of the nicer things about the morning. A thump from the living room announced that Lukas was awake. "What're we doing today?" His soft voice broke through the silence like a knife cutting through butter. Arthur and I shrugged. It was Saturday, and it was also the second to last day of summer. People usually thought we liked school, mostly because we're always studying in the library, but actually we hate it. We studied and got our work done before anyone else so we could do what we want to, like play video games, rewatch our favorite shows on Netflix, or hang out in the park. We had started to hate school as soon as we became friends in first grade, mainly because it had gotten in the way of our bonding. Today however, we decided to do something different. We lived right close to everything, so we could just walk wherever we wanted to. We went straight to the mall and paused outside, standing hand in hand. "Are we really going to go in there?" I bit my lip, unsure how to answer. Arthur was the first to move. He gripped our hands tightly as he slowly walked forwards and I stepped forward with him, Lukas trailing behind. We had never been in a mall before, and it seemed like a fantasy world to our disbelieving eyes. "How is there this much stuff in here?" Lukas muttered nervously, his already pale face going even paler. "Dunno,but it's kinda interesting isn't it?" Arthur shrugged, turning his head this way and that, trying to take in all the interesting sights and sounds. We spent the whole day in that mall, mainly because we found a bookstore and decided to get some new books from there. We even ate in the mall, taking delight in the fact that the food court was close to the bookstore. Later in the afternoon we went home, tired and slightly bored. That's when everything changed for us. As soon as we got home, we noticed something was off. "That's strange," Arthur muttered. "What?" I asked, confused. "I thought I locked the door..." his large eyebrows furrowed slightly. Lukas looked at me, concern visible in his usually emotionless purple eyes. As soon as we got inside the apartment we noticed that-for some reason-nothing was stolen, even though we were able to figure out that the lock was picked. A strange sight awaited us as soon as we found our way to the living room. A woman was sitting perched on the am of the couch, her long blonde hair falling down her shoulders. Seeing the woman seemed to trigger an old memory in the tree of us, and I was surprised to realize that I recognized her.
The time was the second grade, right near the end of the year. Arthur Lukas and I had just started to walk towards our home, when we noticed a lady following us. She was pretty, in a dangerous sort of way. She had long blonde hair and intelligent green eyes. "And where are you three heading this fine afternoon?" Her accent was hard to place, but her voice was nice enough to listen to. "We're just going home." I remember Arthur said, while Lukas and I nodded in the background. The woman had nodded, as if that was what we were supposed to do, and then she walked walked away like nothing had happened.
We couldn't believe it. Here she was, that same odd woman from before, only she was in our apartment. And what was even weirder was the fact that she looked exactly the same! She glanced up at the three of us, then stood up quickly. "Ah, you're finally here!" She said, a bright smile crossing her features. "I thought you'd never come back!" We shared a look. Who was this lady, and how did she know us? "Excuse me," Arthur said timidly, raising his hand as if he was in school. The lady looked over. "Yes?" She asked, tilting her head to one side. "I don't mean to seem rude but who exactly are you, and what are you doing in our house?" I almost threw my retainer at him, but instead settled on kicking him in the shins. "Ow!" Arthur hissed, giving me a death glare from behind his glasses. He mouthed "what was that for?!?" and I shrugged innocently. The lady laughed. "I guess I do have some explaining to do."
"My name is Britannia." We looked at each other in confusion. Before one of us could speak up however, the lady who claimed to be called Britannia continued to talk. "This may be difficult for you to understand but, you three are the human personifications of three nations." The room started to spin, and I placed one hand against the wall to steady myself. "Yes, this probably seems strange to you, but it is the truth." She then went on to tell us how this kind of thing works, and even told us which nations we were. It turned out that Arthur was England, Lukas was Norway, and I was Romania. "Why are you just telling us this now?" Lukas-or should I say, Norway-said, his eyebrows drawing together. Britannia sighed. "You would have known sooner," she admitted. "If it wasn't for the fact that you three contain very strong, ancient magic." This brought on a new wave of confusion. "We have magic?" England looked startled and confused at the same time. Britannia nodded. She started to tell us about our magic, and how it worked. "That's all I can say for now," she said after spending the rest of the afternoon with us. "I have to go now, but don't forget my words." We nodded and watched the older nation head towards the door. "Oh and by the way," she called out over her shoulder. "You shouldn't tell anyone your status as nations. Or about your magic either! That would be bad!" And with that, Britannia was off. We looked at each other. "Was that weird to you guys, or was it all in my imagination?" Norway and I nodded, confused but relatively happy. We spent the rest of the night talking, before falling asleep in a heap on the ground.