Forget Yesterday, What About Tomorrow? (Countryhumans)

Chapter 2: Kõik on... okei

The organizations had been talking about contracts and legal stuff with the new members for quite a while now, most of the other countries had left already, except for some of the more 'important' ones who wanted to keep an eye on things. Mainly Britain with his family, and the Nordics... though the latter seemed to just be having a conversation with Poland at this point. This meeting felt like it was being dragged out way too long, though she wouldn't complain, she'd do anything just to get into the EU at this point. Since she didn't feel like she was needed at the moment, she decided to excuse herself from the conference room.

''I... go out... värske ee.. воздуха (Fresh um.. air)'' she announced, awaiting a nod of confirmation from one of her brothers before taking her leave. Lithuania smiled and nodded so she gave a small nod back before walking towards the large double door to leave.

''Fuck their languages are messed up...'' a hushed voice was heard, just as she was about to exit the room.

''They will learn, America, right now we just have to support them,'' another voice, this time stricter. It was Britannia. She couldn't help but linger at the door for a little bit, interested in what the English-speaking countries had to say about her and her brothers.

''I don't want to hear any Russian around here, especially from them. They've been learning English for months now, they should be better.''

''Meri... be a bit nicer...'' Canada quietly interjected.

''You don't learn a language in a few months. And I cannot speak Russian, so it's a bit difficult to teach them. It would be excellent i-'' the door closed behind her with a small thud, effectively muffling everyone's voices, she had heard enough to understand. So that's what this is about, She thought, well I'll just do my absolute best to learn English then.

It was a relief to know that America didn't actually hate them, just Russia. That's how it's supposed to be. He would definitely be the person whose support she would have to try the hardest to keep, just because losing it would basically be a death sentence.

The walls of EUs hall were covered with pictures of the founding members and a very small, young-looking EU. It's weird to see him so youthful when he's so grown-up and intimidating now. Below each picture was some text, but from skimming it briefly she could already tell that it was written in English way too difficult for her. Underneath, the same text was translated as well, but only to French and German... not useful.

She pushed the front door open, moving to stand outside on the street in front of the building. It was pretty warm today, for may at least, but the wind was a bit chilly so she knew she shouldn't stay out too long. The fresh air felt nice though, well as fresh as the air could get next to quite a busy street, it was still quite early in the morning but people seemed to start flowing into the blue-yellow-red building two over from theirs.

On the street there was the farthest left building, which was for miscellaneous small organizations, then the EU hall, then NATO, UN and after that another one, which she couldn't quite recognize. The flag of the house was waving proudly just like everyone else's, blue background and a white-lined red circle with a yellow hourglass in it. Huh.

Hearing the door behind her open didn't really phase her, she kept her eyes closed as she breathed deeply. Whoever it was could easily move past her to leave, it's not like she was in the way.

''Tere, Eesti. (Hello, Estonia.)'' Oh. Only one person coming out from that place could speak any Estonian at all.

''Terve, Suomi, (Hello, Finland)'' she hesitantly replied in Finnish.

''Miten olet voinut?'' Oh, so that's how it's going to be. At least he was speaking slowly so she had time to process what he was trying to say. Okay... how are you?

''Kõik on... okei. Kuidas sinuga on? (Everything is... okay. How about you?)'' She tried to word her sentences as simple as possible so he'd have more of a chance of understanding.

''Hyvin. Kiitos.'' He was polite but so so cold...Good. Thanks. She felt herself involuntarily shiver as the wind blew past them.

''Siis on hästi...(That's good then...)'' she awkwardly ended the conversation.

And silence... maybe he didn't understand? But it's not like she asked another question, the conversation was over at this point. Small talk is horrifying.

Then she heard the familiar flick of a lighter being turned on. Her head turned, looking at him closely for the first time in... what felt like forever. He looked like what he always had, same white face with the blue cross... maybe the circles under his eyes were a little darker than what she remembered, but it had been a long time. His eyes were half-lidded with this sort of unfocused look, so he looked tired and uncaring at the same time, but that's how it's always been, he just had a bit of a resting bitch-face. There was a light blue winter hat on top of his head, with a cute white pom-pom on the back, a blue winter jacket with a white fur collar, unzipped so she could also see the black turtleneck underneath. And he was in the process of bringing a cigarette to his lips, lighting the other end.

Smoking...Eugh. The smell of it was suffocating. He could only breathe in once before she stopped him.

''Suitsetamine on sulle halb,'' she reprimanded him sternly, gently taking the cigarette from his fingers, careful not to burn herself. As she squatted down to put the fire out by pressing it to the ground, he turned away from her, as to not exhale the smoke in her direction. The cigarette was pressed into the ground, hard, and then disposed of by being thrown into the nearest sewer grate.

Turning around she glanced at him for the last time ''Headaega, Soome. (Goodbye, Finland.)'' and then walked back inside.

What did she even say? He pondered. Is... bad... He took the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket again... Smoking... oh.

He chuckled slightly before lighting another one.