Icy Heart and Warm Love

Chapter Nine

Quick thing.

Later on in this chapter, I mention sexual assault.

If this makes you uncomfortable, you can skip this chapter and move on.

I'll add in another warning later on, but this is just a heads up.

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Kalda had never thought that she would be hearing about a party so soon, just three days before Halloween, and straight from Russia's mouth, too.

Kalda supposed that Halloween was a very big deal for him, but she just wanted to know where the party was being held.

I mean, not that I would go to it, or anything, Kalda lied to herself.

"I don't want to sound dumb or anything," Kalda started awkwardly, "but what exactly is "Halloween?"

"The only holiday of the year that Russia actually decks out for," came a flat reply from Latvia.

"Well, what about Christmas?" Kalda wondered. "And Thanksgiving?"

"Russia doesn't believe in Christmas, and Thanksgiving isn't really a big deal here," Lithuania explained, tucking some strands of his brown hair behind his ear.

"Who doesn't believe in Christmas?" Kalda questioned with a smirk. "That's just crazy talk."

"Russia?" Latvia scoffed in annoyance.

"It's just the way some people are," Estonia stated wisely, looking up from his book as he situated his glasses. "I'm just confused as to why some people make such a big deal out of the holidays."

"I don't," Kalda said. "I was just asking. I don't get to celebrate my own country's traditions at all, mainly because I'm the only citizen, and who celebrates things on their own?"

"What kind of traditions does your country have?" Latvia asked.

"Well, I had a dream one night when I was little," Kalda answered, sitting down and stroking the soft feathers of the duster.

She smiled, thinking about the memory.

"This big group of people played this game with these little wooden circles," she explained. "They looked like checker pieces, but they didn't use a board or anything."

Kalda grabbed a checker piece to show them how the game worked.

"They would toss the checker pieces across the floor like rocks," Kalda added on. "They had lines, and whoever's checker piece went the farthest won."

"What was the game called?" Lithuania asked with a smile, wanting to play.

Kalda put her hair in a ponytail as she tried to remember.

"I can't remember," she replied, "but it sure looked like fun. They also played instruments and made beautiful music together."

"Are dreams the only that way you can remember your family?" Estonia quietly wondered.

Kalda sighed, closing her eyes as tears formed in them.

"Yeah," she responded. "The dreams started coming back a few weeks ago."

"You mean they stopped once?" Russia inquired, joining the conversation.

Kalda would have normally jumped at his sudden presence, but she didn't this time.

His voice was too soft and comforting for her to be scared of him at that moment.

"They didn't necessarily stop," Kalda started off. "They just...stopped coming so frequently."