Shades

Chapter 7

Ame sighed as he ate his breakfast, honestly he wasn't too terribly hungry. He didn't really want to eat the rest of his cereal. France noticed this and walked over to her son.

"Everything all right?" She asked, putting her hand on Ame's shoulder. Ame nodded, though it was pretty unconvincing. France huffed.

"What wrong mon fils?" She asked, crossing her arms. Ame just shrugged.[Translation: my son]

"I dunno, this morning was just bad. Worse than usual." Ame muttered, putting his face in his hands. France frowned.

"Do you want to take the day off-"

"No, I don't want anyone to think that I'm faking being sick. I want to go to school." Ame said, clenching his hand in a fist. France took a step back.

"Okay then, you do what you think is right." She said, grabbing his bowl and walking into the kitchen. Ame huffed as he went and grabbed his backpack and cane, Nada was waiting at the door for him as usual.

They walked to the bus stop and got on the bus. Everything was normal, when they got off the bus they went to their lockers and got what they needed for class. The first thing Ame has that day was Math. He sighed, knowing that it was going to be super boring and easy. Then again, Russia would be there, so maybe it was worth it. He went to his normal seat in math, next to Russia.

"Hey Ame hows—what's wrong?" Russia cut himself off seeing the void look on Ame's face. The boy just shrugged, staring into nothingness. Russia frowned.

"Is everything alright?" He asked. Ame sighed.

"I dunno, just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning I guess." He said. Russia furrowed his brows, something was definitely wrong. He decided to stop posit though, not wanting to upset his friend anymore.

"Okay well, can we meet under that tree on the other side if the soccer field during break?" Russia asked, Ame nodded. Before they could continue with any other conversation the bell wrang and class started.

As always math was boring for Ame, then again everything seemed boring today.

— — —

Ame sighed as he just decided to keep his backpack with him as he made his way to the tree. He sighed as he plopped down next to Russia.

"Hey Ame."

"Hey Rus."

"How are you?"

"I'm okay."

"What's wrong?"

"I dunno." Ame said, looking away from Russia.

"Ame I want to help but I can't do that if you don't tell me what's wrong." Russia said, looking over at the smaller country. Ame reached into his backpack and pulled out a kalimba.

"Woah! Do you know how to play?" Russia asked, turning to face his friend. Ame looked as him.

"Why would I have one if I don't know how to play?" Ame asked, letting out a little laugh. Russia shrugged.

"I dunno, some people have musical instruments to look cool even though they have no idea how to play." He said, Ame furrowed his brows.

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" Ame said, Russia chuckled.

"I guess. Because people are going to ask for you to play it so what do you do when that happens?" He said, Ame shook his head.

"If your gonna have an instrument at least know how to play." He said before starting to tune the kalimba. He smiled as it was almost perfectly in tune.