Orange and Navy (The Many Colours of Life and Death AU)

Chapter Ten

The Emirate of Granada heard screaming. In the middle of the night. Which, if he had to say so, was pretty concerning. He bolted out of his house, and found two small children running into the village. One of them had a red and white flag, while the other was green and red.

"What's wrong?" Granada asked.

"The Roman Empire," the girl said, her eyes wide and terrified, "he took Red Ensign Canada!"

"He's going to kill my dad!" the other one sobbed.

Oh no, I'm not good with kids, Granada thought. "Uh, ok, um... we'll get him back, ok? Perfectly fine, alive, his usual, grumpy self. Not that grumpy is bad! Shit. I mean— shoot!" He fumbled, mentally face palming at least five times. The two continued to cry, probably even harder than they were before.

"Leave it to me," the Egyptian Empire sidled up behind him. "Hey kids, let's go grab a cookie, and leave it to the adults. We are going to make ROE pay for taking your dad," she soothed. The two kids started sniffling instead, which was a little better than whatever the Emirate of Granada tried to do.

As she was taking cookies out of her pockets, a country burst out of his house, sprinting over to the kids.

"Portugal! What happened?" he cried. It was the Kingdom of Portugal, who hugged the girl and boy in his arms tightly.

"ROE knocked out REC! W-we had to run, I'm sorry!" Portugal wailed into his shoulder.

"Psst! Why are there kids here?" the Tatar Confederacy whispered into Granada's ear after approaching the scene. Despite likely being asleep moments before, he was already adorned in his fancy uniform.

"ROE took one of their fathers," he explained.

"Damn. Any idea on where he could be?"

"No, but I'm sure they do," Granada gestured to the Ottoman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Dutch Empire, who'd all gathered nearby. The remaining survivors of the Gold War.The Egyptian Empire explained what had happened to them.

"Ah yes, leave it to the war loving experts," Tatar rolled his eyes.

"At least they have experience. Plus, they've managed to avoid war the last thirteen years just like we did," the Emirate of Granada pointed out.

"You agree with me," Tatar said. Granada felt a pulse of power rush through him, and suddenly, he felt his opinions change. Weird, why had he been defending them before.

"Yeah, I suppose they do get into a lot of wars," Granada said. "A voilent bunch."

"Alright, stop it," Tatar laughed. He glared at him.

"I can't believe you just did that," Granada sighed.

"I can make you believe."

"Please don't."

The Egyptian Empire finished explaining, and the survivors of the Gold War—minus Austria-Hungary—started heading in their direction.

"You two, want to help us get REC back?" OE asked.

"Why us?" Granada responded.

"Because he can help persuade ROE to give REC to us unharmed," PLC pointed to the Tatar Confederacy, "and you look awake enough to actually help us out."

He did have a point. Around them, the only countries who were awake looked like they needed at least two cups of coffee before they'd even be able to comprehend someone speaking.

"Fine by me, where do we start?" Granada shrugged.

"We're assuming that ROE will try to go back to his old castle. It's one of the only places familiar to him. If he's not there, we'll try the Spanish Empire's fallen castle," the German Empire said.