Where Thou Art, That Is Home (Hetalia Fanfic, Part 2)

Chapter 129~!

"Alice?"

I grinned at her reply of "Yes? Who is this? What do you want?"

"Hey now, it's just me," I said.

"Oh! Carly! Sorry, the phone distorts your voice a bit," the blond apologized in her distinct British accent. "What are you calling for?"

"Well, I need someone to go dress shopping with," I admitted. "And seeing as how you're the maid of honor, I thought you would be the best candidate."

"Wait... Maid of honor?" she asked slowly, and I hummed an "Uh-huh."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Please, Alice? Will you be my maid of honor?" I almost begged.

I heard her gentle sigh. "I guess it can't be helped, then. Alright, I'll do it."

I didn't need to see her facial expression to know she was really, really excited for this. "Thanks, Alice! Okay, are you free at the moment?"

"Uhm, yeah. Why?"

"We're going dress shopping! Come pick me up at the cafe!" I didn't say anything else after that because I hung up, laughed, and grabbed my coat and shoes. 

'She's probably going to be irritated at me, but that's life for you' I giggled mentally while heading out the door and locking it behind me. Gil already knew about the shopping trip and had given me a budget for the gown I picked, so I was raring to go!

"I can already tell I liked to shop before I lost my memory," I snickered as well. The thought of regaining my memories made butterflies flutter madly in my stomach.

~~

"Kadi!" Canada yelled (or tried to) as he bolted out of a portal door and ran down the hall at breakneck speed. "Kadi!"

The silver-haired ancient turned and studied Matthew as he drew closer and huffed, out of breath. He must have begun sprinting long before reaching the portal if he was this tired. A country's stamina is impressive and downright impossible when compared to humans'.

"What is it?" Kadi asked with slight urgency in her tone. "Did you find the right one?"

Canada, with his hands on his knees and his head bowed forward as he panted, shook his head. "N-No, n-not yet. But the worlds, th-they're..."

"They're, what?" she demanded. Was something happening to the dimensions? Were they falling apart? Splitting at the seams? Blending together and creating widespread chaos?

"They're becoming... normal," he finally reported.

That stopped her in her tracks. "... What?"

"I w-wasn't in some weird medieval dimension this time, or a Victorian mansion, or a city above the clouds," Canada explained. "I was actually in the state of Oregon, and I saw a version of Alice who looked just how I remembered her to look. But she was human, a-and the setting wasn't right. But still! The worlds aren't as weird as they w-were before!"

Kadi breathed a quiet sigh of relief, letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "That's great news, Mattie. We must be getting closer to the right one."

This made the blond beam with excitement. "I can't wait to see her again. The real her. Or, at least, the one I married."

~~

"It's so weird to think I'm getting married," I admitted as I browsed through the racks of frilly, silky, satin-y, and poofy white gowns all waiting to be worn for someone's big day. Well, my big day had snuck up on me and was only a week away. Preparations still needed to be made, but the invitations had already been sent out, so Gil and I considered ourselves to be in good shape for the time being.

Alice, from by her own rack of dresses, smirked. "It's definitely an adventure. I'll tell you that much."

"Were you nervous before your wedding day?" I asked, though I was sure her answer would be a "Yes."

"Of course I was. I knocked over a punch bowl and nearly snapped the ice sculpture swan's neck when I tripped and stumbled into a refreshment table." Alice giggled behind the back of her hand at the memory. "And that was before I even had to walk the aisle."

I bit my lower lip worriedly and resisted the urge to knead it between my teeth. "Uhm..."

"Oh no, did I really just scare you?" Alice asked skeptically as she peered at me through a rack of dresses.

I chuckled a tad nervously and shook my head, making my short hair fan out a bit. "N-Nah, not at all..."

"Okay, okay. Now you're gonna listen to me, Carlea," my British shopping buddy said while pointing at me. "What you and Gil have is beautiful. Don't be getting cold feet, alright? Before you lost your memory you were completely devoted to your wedding plans and all that. The only reason you didn't get a dress sooner is that you were worried it wouldn't fit when you finally wore it on your big day.

"And even if you get freaked out, you have no reason to think that this marriage isn't going to turn out well. Your wedding day is going to be perfect, and so will your marriage to Gil." Only then did she smile at me. "I promise."

My hand automatically went to the back of my neck as my cheeks reddened. "O... Okay."

"Do you believe me?" Alice pressed.

I nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

To my right, a sales clerk was beaming at the two of us, and tears glistened in her brown eyes. "That was one of the most moving things I've ever stumbled onto." She wiped at her eyes and resumed a more professional composure. "Sorry, I was going to ask you both if you needed any help finding something. I can recommend something if you would like, or set up a changing room for you."

"Yeah, that would be great," I agreed cheerfully. Her nametag read "Alex" and she had a cute button pinned to her shirt. The ornament had Buttercup and Westley on it, and the caption "As You Wish".

"Your pin's really cute," I added, and she looked down at it.

"Oh! Haha, I forgot I was wearing that. Thanks. Okay, so... Follow me, please, and we'll grab an empty changing room for you."

~

"Snow! Snow! Look, look, snow!"

"Tia, sweetie, it's Canada. It's almost always snowing," Matthew sighed, letting those blue waves of slight depression roll off his shoulders as he hung his head.

"But it's snowing!" Tatiana squealed, her hands on the windowsill as she jumped up and down on the couch. Her father told her to stop her bouncing on the furniture, and she did, but not before jumping off and running away to go find Tael.

Pale white flakes were drifting down from a gray sky and piling up on the cold, dry ground. It didn't even take ten minutes for mismatched snow gear to be donned before four children and their dad joined them all outside to romp around in the snow, throw snowballs, build shoddy but useful snow forts, and teach Tael how to make a snow angel.

"You gotta fall back on your back and move your arms and legs up and down," Milo instructed, demonstrating for the snake-boy. "Like this."

"Okay," Tael said, sitting on his butt and then lying down. He slowly moved his arms and legs, gathering snow under them and then pushing them aside. Slow wasn't really cutting it, though, and he flailed around with even more vigor than before. He kicked up snow and ended up piling it up on his chest.

"Am I doing it right?" he asked. "Am I?"

"It looks... great, Tael," Canada said from his place where he was kneeling, helping Evan build an army of obedient snowmen.

But, in truth, all resemblance to an angel had been obliterated when he started to thrash around crazily. Maybe it was more like a... snow potato.

Yeah, let's call it a snow potato.

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Sorry for the shortness! But hey, that was a cute ending, wasn't it? Snow potatoes~

DO THE DRILL!