Stars and Moonflowers in Our Garden(Rusame)

Chapter Thirty: Implied Promises and Notes

America chose to bear down on the wall next to him as he wrote down where his room was. 
"There! Now if you have any troubles with relaxing, past 2AM and before 6AM or 7AM, you can probably find me there." America said with a smile, handing the note to Russia before he leant in for a hug. 

Russia seemed a bit surprised by the hug but happily returned it. 
"Thank you, but you didn't have to do that" he said, leaning into the hug for a second. 

"No problem! And of course I did, and I'll be there to help you with any trouble sleeping you may have." America said without hesitation. "Well, goodnight Russia. Have a night rest." 

Russia smiled and leaned into the hug for a second. "Thank you, you have a nice rest too." 

America smiled a little and slowly let go, waiting for Russia to do the same, once he did, he said "goodnight" one last time. Then he headed off, going back to finish up his gardening. He didn't even notice as the roughly five hours went by as he gardened. 

He knew Russia wasn't aware that Argentina had put him on edge, and that him showing up like that made him feel better. And Russia didn't need to know that, as he would prefer keeping the situation with Argentina even at his own expense. Though, he'd definitely find some way to show Russia gratitude. He wanted to make sure Russia knew he was thankful, though he couldn't really do anything without possibly causing more problems. 

His thoughts were caught on that subject until he got back to his barracks. 

After which, he took the letter from Nyx out and put it on his desk. 

Though before he would be able to get to writing, he needed to take a quick shower and get himself cleaned up. So, he did. Once he was content with how clean he was, he turned off the shower, got out, grabbed a towel, and then dried himself off. He grabbed the comfortable clothes he'd brought in for himself and changed into them before leaving the bathroom. 

He went back over to the desk and turned the chair to face the desk again. Then he sat down, pulling out some sheets of paper and his inkwell and quill. 

He opened the inkwell and dipped his quill in before starting to write on one of the blank pages of paper. 

As he wrote, he checked the letter to make sure he addressed everything in Nyx's letter. 

He was excited to see his friend in person, and seeing as he was getting closer to the right answer, he'd get to see him soon. 

Once he was done writing the letter, he took out an envelope and excitedly wrote the usual on it, then waited for the ink on both the letter and the envelope. Once it was, he slipped the letter into the envelope. 

He then checked the time, hoping it'd be closer to 7 AM than it was. 

He'd been writing since about 2:45 AM, and it was now about 3:13 AM. He had three hours and forty-seven minutes to do basically whatever he wanted until he would leave his room. He knew it'd be fine to leave, but he had promised to be in the room until 7 AM. A promise to stay in his room, a promise to Russia, someone who he saw as a friend but also part of the royal family. But mainly, he saw Russia as a friend. He knew from the outside view it definitely seemed like there was a power imbalance there, but there wasn't. As Russia's father had told America he had no one other than himself to answer to. And most around the castle weren't aware of that- other than those who'd overheard the conversation that brought that up, or those who were perceptive enough to notice how he didn't flinch at any attempts at power play in his earlier days here. 

He remembered the first day he was officially employed there- an old coot who was a healer decided to push around the "fresh meat". He'd just been taking it at the time and Soviet, against his own medical advice, came in and berated the old coot. After that, Soviet had told America and the old coot, who America had come to learn the name of: Eugene Clark, that America didn't have to answer to anyone but himself. It was kind of funny to America now, as he'd come to know Soviet as a usually calm and relaxed man who was sometimes stoic, seeing him reversing power play onto Eugene. The full name card was petty and funny to America. 

Though he felt he was reminiscing too much and decided to check the time. It was now 5:06 AM. He had at least 54 minutes, definitely not enough time to sleep away, so he'd need to find something else to do. 

He figured that he could draw, though he wasn't sure what to draw. But he supposed he could grab the flustering sketch from earlier and continue it. Hopefully Russia wouldn't mind that he'd drawn him. 

He drew his other friends, and they didn't mod when they found out, so hopefully this wouldn't be any different. 

So, he reached for his bag and rustled through it, searching for the sketch. Once he found it, he carefully brought it out, placing it on his desk gently. He then opened the drawer of his desk, pulling out his watercolor paints. 

He got up and walked into his bathroom, grabbing a glass and filling it with water. He then walked back into the main area of his room, taking a seat back at his desk. 

He took a brush out of the drawer then closed the drawer once again, using the brush to wet the paints. Then he lightly erased his sketch before he started to use the watercolor to add some more life to the sketch. It brought the drawing to life. He liked it as a sketch, but liked it a little less since it was now far less defined. But he could fix that, his quill was still nearby, and his inkwell was uncapped. 

So he grabbed his quill and dipped it into the ink, then started to go over the lines from his sketch that he wanted to keep. 

By the time he was done, it was a bit past 6 AM. There was a bit of time until he was clear to leave his room, but it wasn't as overwhelming as before. 

He hummed then got up, leaving the page to dry as he went and grabbed an outfit for work before going into his bathroom to change. Once he was changed, he left his room and got himself some breakfast. He brought it back to his room and ate it. Once he was done with his food, he brought the plate back out and cleaned it. 

He returned to his room and picked up his bag and the letter, excited to drop the letter off for Nyx. Especially since their game was getting closer to an end! 

Once he'd collected both items, he left his room and closed the door behind him. Then he started the walk to his office, stopping by the chamomile flowers. He gently hid the letter in the chamomiles, then continued his walk to his office.