Book 3 - Retrievers

XXV - Glitter

"Okay, so, here," Massachusetts says, "this is a battery. I want to see if you can charge it. You can reflect magic well enough, so let's see how good you are at this."

Russia takes the object. It's a small necklace made of string with a small jar on the end. He lifts it up to his face and sees that the jar contains light pink glittery dust and lighter sequins shaped like stars. The jar itself is about the size of an acorn.

"It's emotionally charged, so it can hold magic," Massachusetts explains, "now try to take the magic from the stump and channel it into the necklace."

"How do I do that?"

"You just do. Try," Massachusetts says.

Russia holds the vial out in an open palm. The string swings aimlessly in the breeze.

'What the fuck am I doing?'

Russia shakes his head. He begins feeling for the static in the air. Suddenly, he feels like a valve had been opened behind his rib cage, connecting between his palms. The jar started to warm up, and then it began to vibrate.

"Okay, that's-" Massachusetts gets cut off by a loud explosion.

Russia shuts his eyes out of reflex and feels the wind blow against him. He opens his eyes again to Dixie's hysterical laughter. He looks around to find Massachusetts staring at him with wide eyes, and America giggling.

"What the fuck did you just do?" Massachusetts asks, perplexed.

"I have no idea," Russia replies.

"You're sparkly!" America yells, throwing his hands in the air.

'I'm sparkly?'

Russia looks down at himself and finds that he's covered in light pink glitter, and a few of the sequins poke out of his sweater. He tries to dust it off, only to find that if it doesn't stick back to his sweater, it sticks to his hands.

He looks at his hands and finds that they sparkle like stars when the sunlight hits them. He feels something against his teeth and spits out more pink glitter. This sends Dixie into another laughing fit. He fights the urge to try to wipe it away with his hands, knowing that if he tries, he will only get more glitter in his mouth.

Russia starts shaking his arms trying to knock it off, and though some of the glitter falls to his feet, most of it stays fixed. He groans.

"Well, I've never seen that before," Massachusetts comments offhandedly.

"I haven't either," Russia dryly replies.

"You even have glitter in your hat," America says, taking the hat from Russia's head.

Russia watches quietly as America shakes it, and a cloud of light pink erupts from the fabric.

"That is never gonna wash out," America comments with a laugh.

Russia sighs. He drops his hands.

"Okay, let's try something else. Here, try to summon a ball of magic in your hand."

Russia reopens the valve in his chest and feels magic flow in from the stump and he tries to hold it. He opens one eye and sees a glowing ball in his hand. His eyes open and he stares at a pale pink mass, almost the same color as the glitter.

"Huh."

"Oh my Lord, your magic is light pink!" Dixie cackles.

"Well, it looks nice with blue," America comments absentmindedly.

Russia feels his face heat up.

"Manitoba tried that before and it wasn't like that," Massachusetts ponders, rubbing his chin.