Of Struggles and Duties.

Chapter 1: Unusual Ties

Latvia's P.O.V

I was woken up from my dreams due to someone knocking on my front door which is a bit unusual as someone has to knock rather loudly just for me to hear the knocks. I'm not sure why the visitor wasn't using the doorbell as it wouldn't waste their energy and I would hear it regardless of my location inside my home. I got up from my bed and nearly tripped over the chest once I took a step towards my bedroom door. I glanced at the clock on the bedside table just to see it's only around 9 o'clock in the morning? Who could be this early? My best guess was either a door-to-door salesperson or Riga. Something was the telling me that my esteemed visitor was Riga, she was an early bird while I was a night owl myself. I just wish she didn't come this early if it was her, late noon or afternoon seems more like my speed, but then again, Lithuania always said I slept-in rather than woke up at reasonable times.

As soon as I left my bedroom the knocking sounded even louder than before and my ears were drumming because of it, I could never understand anyone who was able to handle rude awakenings like this. I either woke up at my own pace or I felt like everything could hurt my senses if I didn't wake up at my pace. I merely shook my head and made my way downstairs to the front door, just making extra sure I didn't also trip down the stairs considering the fact I just woke up. 

I finally opened the front door and I wasn't at all surprised that it was Riga and just squinted my eyes as I tried to adjust my eyes to the light outside. 

''Labrīt guļamgalva! Sen jau vajadzēja būt augšā!''(Good morning sleepyhead! Should've been up long ago!) Riga greeted with the most cheery morning smile I've seen on her face. She was usually not a very cheerful person at all and this left me surprised to say the least. 

''Es neesmu tu, man vajag vēl dažas stundas.''(I'm not you, I need a couple more hours.) I groaned in response as I was still not ready to wake up and most people probably still slept if they didn't have work and during weekends, school. To emphasize my need for sleep, I forced out a yawn to hopefully get Riga off my back for a few more hours. 

''Tad ej gulēt laicīgāk vai sāc strādāt agrāk nekā parasti, vai atkal vakar biji augšā līdz vēlam naktij?''(Then go to sleep earlier or start working earlier than usual, did you stay up until late night again?) There she goes again, she always suggests the same thing: go sleep earlier, work earlier. I hate that she is trying to cater me to her schedule when that was completely unnecessary. Most Capitals didn't even interact with their Countries unless it involved work or any major decisions that could affect the very land we personified. My relationship with Riga was a special case as Capitals and Countries only had business relationships, we somehow became friends.

''VAI atnāc vēlāk, tā arī ir opcija, Rīga.''(OR come later, that is also an option, Riga.) I countered as usual and she merely let out a hearty laugh, she never took me seriously about this at all.

''Kas tev sagādājis prieku? Parasti neesi tik laimīga.''(What's made you happy? Usually you're not this happy.) I changed the topic before she could patronize me over my sleep patterns and I was rather curious what's gotten her so cheery.

''Vai tev ir pielūdzēji? Atradu trīs aploksnes ar sirsniņām, pārējais bija reklāmas.''(Do you have admirers? Found three envelopes with hearts, rest were advertisements.) Then she waved me 3 envelopes in my face that did indeed have hearts plastered on them and I could only blush in embarrassment and mild anger. She can't just snoop in my mailbox!

''Kurš teica, ka tu drīksti rakāties manā pastkastītē?!''(Who said that you can snoop in my mailbox?!) I snapped as I took the envelopes from Riga's hands before she could further tease me over them and possibly not give them back if she also felt mischievous enough by any chance. She wasn't the mischievous type, but she was out of her usual line of thinking and who knows what she would've done had I not reacted fast enough.

''Ahhh, vai mazā Latvija negrib, lai es redzu, kurš tevī samīlējies?''(Awww, does little Latvia not want me to see who's fallen for you?) I knew I was scarlet red at this point and closed the front door in embarrassment as I did not want to interact with Riga for now. She was frankly out of character and I don't want to subjugate to more of her teasing.

I stared at the envelopes and they were plastered in heart stickers, all of them had my address, but no return address to link it to. Did someone send these as a joke? If that's the case I must say they fooled Riga. Or maybe RIGA HERSELF lied to me about getting these from my mailbox and did actually just prank me and I have yet to catch on the prank? But that's out of character for her, she would never prank me, would she? I looked at the handwriting of each envelope's address area and they all differed from each other, one was even cursive which made it a bit obvious these were not written by the same person.  The hearts on them were also different colors. First one had pastel pink hearts, second had rose red hearts and last one had purple hearts. Maybe Riga was good at faking different hand writings? So many questions, but no answers. Why am I even overthinking this? I can just open them and see what they say and then I'll know if Riga was just making a fool out of me or I actually somehow have an admirer or two that I never knew about.

Eyyyyy, after 84 years, I finally updated. (I also changed some tags, fixed grammar mistakes and edited problematic parts of the prologue.)