Noxious [DenNor]

1.

The early nighttime sky enveloped the land in its glittering embrace. Crickets chirped, headlights shone down desolate side roads, and a family of five could be seen in their natural habitat, each one doing something to keep their minds entertained.

This family of six- one being away on a business trip- was none other than the Nordic nations, relaxing in their natural environment... Kind of.

"Mathias! You promised that you would help tonight!" a stern voice, that of which belonged to none other than Tino Väinämöinen, called through the arch doorway connecting to the living room. "If you don't, Peter will get upset and you know how things get when Peter is upset!"

Mathias gave a groan of resignation, ripping his gaze away from the game of Scrabble that he had been playing with Emil for the past hour. It was true that the Danish man had kinda-sorta sworn that he would help make dinner that evening, but come on! Right in the middle of Scrabble?

"Can we just finish this game? We're almost out of letters!" he pleaded with the Finn, peering up at him through dramatically over-sized blue eyes and poking his bottom lip out into a puppy-dog pout.

Tino was sympathetic to his cause. He landed his hand on his hip and gave a strained smile. He had been under a lot of pressure lately what with the stress of having to care for the energetic little micronation- not to mention the stress of having to plan for his upcoming wedding with a certain Swedish man. "Alright, fine. But the second you run out of letters, you'd better get into the kitchen. Got it?"

Satisfied, Mathias nodded and began to spell out the word "ARDENT" on the game board. "Yeah, sure. Thanks Finny."

It was only after five more minutes when the game came to a tragic end... It was tragic because Mathias had lost to Emil. For the fifth time that day. But hey! He wasn't going to let that get to him! He would just insist on playing again tomorrow, and the day after that, and every day until he won a game.

"You just got lucky!" he insisted with a good-natured smirk playing at the corners of his lips.

Emil shrugged and turned the page of the book clutched within his hands,"Okay. If you say so, Den." he muttered. Mathias thought he could see him rolling his eyes behind the curtain of silver-white hair shielding most of his expression from view.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off as another voice joined the conversation,"I believe I recall you agreeing to help Tino with dinner as soon as you finished up your little game."

He averted his gaze up to the staircase where, standing at the top with a cell phone in one hand and a glass of water in the other, was none other than Lukas Bondevik. He began descending the stairs, his ever-unreadable blue eyes remaining trained on Mathias.

He rose to his feet and pretended to focus on flicking a spec of dirt from his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah. Hello to you too, Norge. Where've you been since- what? Two O'clock?"

"Three, actually. I've been... Busy." He paused a moment, steady gaze wavering, and then continued,"Go help Tino with dinner, you useless Dane. You know that Berwald will be back from his meeting tomorrow. Try being of some use this one time."

Mathias snorted and started to the kitchen, speaking as he went,"You're implying that I'm lazy?"

"I'm implying that Tino could use some help and that you agreed to do so. I helped out last night."

He opened his mouth to make a witty comeback, but was cut off as Peter came barrelling into the room, flapping his hands in every which direction and splashing him with droplets of soapy water. "Mathias! Tino is on the phone with Berwald, but he told me to tell you to start by helping me peel the potatoes."

Mathias wiped the water off of his face with his sleeve and nodded,"Well that seems easy enough." he remarked as he noticed that The Finnish man already had the whole thing set up for him. All that he needed to do was peel... And to make sure that Peter did not injure himself while doing so.

He grabbed a potato, a knife, and got to work. Meanwhile, Peter placed both hands on his hips and shot a glance up at Lukas. "He also told me to ask if you would start boiling the water and slice the carrots."

Leaned back against the counter, Mathias could not help but to smirk as he observed Lukas' expression go from blank to surprised to resigned. It looked as though Mathias was no longer the only reluctant party,"What's the matter, Nor? Not in the mood for a bit of hard labor? Something to put a little hair on your chest?"

"Shut up, Dane."

With that having been said- or, rather, snapped- he got to work.

Mathias only had to help Peter out for a few minutes before he was a potato-peeling expert, and Lukas worked in silence on the opposite side of the kitchen counter. The silence must have been uncomfortable for the blonde-haired micronation, as he soon took to humming some quirky little tune.

He only had to listen for a few verses before the tune became implanted in his brain and, without thinking, he began humming along as he worked. He bobbed his head from side to side and peeled each potato to the rhythm of the song.

"...Alright, I'll bite. What in the world are the two of you humming?"

Peter's head shot up and he directed a grin in the Norwegian's direction. "It's Heigh-Ho from Snow White. It's a movie that Alfred showed me when he was over at Arthur's last time I had to go."

Mathias stopped his humming to speak,"Hey, why don't you teach us the words? Me and Lukas'll sing along!" he suggested, but his eyes, gleaming with a playful challenge, were focused on Lukas rather than Peter. They were all very aware of how things went when things did not go how Peter wanted them to, and if Lukas refused to sing the song... Well, chances are that all Hell would break loose.

"Ooh, yes! Alright!" Thrilled, he began singing in a squeaky, though not necessarily unpleasant, voice:

"We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig in our mine the whole day through

To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig is what we really like to do

It ain't no trick to get rich quick

If you dig dig dig with a shovel or a pick

In a mine! In a mine! In a mine! In a mine!

Where a million diamonds shine!"

By some weird luck, Mathias had heard the song before and was able to pick up the lyrics after only once verse. Peeling a potato as he went, the Dane swaggered over to Lukas and began singing at the top of his lungs. He had a terrible- and I mean absolutely horrible- singing voice, but that was not about to stop him.

"C'mon, Nor! Please sing with us!" Peter insisted, having to yell over Denmark's dynamic voice.

"Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho

It's off to work we go!"

Mathias stopped his merry singing for only a moment when he saw Lukas mouth the word,"No." to the micronation.

"C'mon, Lukas! Let loose and have a let fun, yeah?"

He took a deep breath and continued, Peter singing right alongside him. Their voices clashed in the most unappealing way possible, but neither country took any notice whatsoever. Mathias swept the peels into the garbage can-

"Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho!"

-and whirled around to meet a sight that he had not at all expected. Lukas, while he was not singing along, had taken to bobbing his head from side to side to the rhythm of the song.

Woot! Nothing better to start off a story than a violent prologue followed by a chapter of pure and utter fluff, am I right or am I right?