Stars and Moonflowers in Our Garden(Rusame)

Chapter Forty-four: Regaining Energy and Last Letter Received

"Hey Russia, it's good to see you back!" America happily greeting Russia, who was standing in his doorway.

There was a good few minutes of silence, where Russia didn't respond. That worried him a bit, but Russia was probably just zoned out.

He got up and walked over before trying again. "Hey, Russia, you alright?"

After he said that, Russia started to blush quite heavily and look away from him. He was definitely embarrassed, so he chose to back off a bit so Russia could relax again.

"I'm fine- my mind has just been wandering a bit." Russia managed to get out, definitely embarrassed. It showed through in his tone.

"No, no, it's fine!" America reassured, gesturing into the office to invite him in. He really liked having Russia around, and hoped Russia felt the same way about being around him.

Russia came in after a while, and took the same seat he usually did, the one in front of his desk. So he went back to his chair, sitting back down in it.

"Have you been feeling any different, or is it an off day for you?" He asked, hoping that it was just an 'off day' and not that he was getting sick.

"Just an off day, I've been feeling fine." Russia chuckled, looking at him. There was a sense of softness and care in the look. "Just been doing a lot of thinking"

America nodded and hummed, glad that Russia didn't feel off. He felt a small smile come onto his face as he looked at the other. Maybe having fallen for the other wasn't such a bad thing, even if he never got his feelings returned.

Russia looked like he hadn't gotten enough sleep, maybe he was tired.

America searched around his office for a second, pulling out a pillow he had to make patients comfortable. He gave it to Russia. And smiled at him. The other looked quite confused, he was definitely tired.

"Get some rest, you look tired, and you're certainly acting the part" He explained with a small laugh.

"But that doesn't make sense- I was so energized like five minutes ago-" Russia whined, reluctantly accepting the pillow.

"Well, I think you probably got excited and tricked your brain into thinking you had more energy than you do" America explained, knowing that was something that could be done, he'd seen it many times.

Russia grumbled a little as he rested his head on the pillow, shifting his face around on it until he was comfortable.

Maybe it'd help if I hummed... He thought, returning to his original spot. He reached over, gently patting Russia's head as he started to hum.

Russia seemed to get more comfortable and relaxed at the sound, so America continued without hesitation. He kept humming the same tune, smiling softly as he did his best to make it easy for Russia to get some rest.

He kept humming until Russia was asleep, then picked something to do until the Russia either woke up or his shift ended. So he ended up choosing to draw, decided to sketch a tree. He made it something that looked like it had been pulled directly out of a dream. He made it willow like, drawing a landscape around it to sell the dreamlike quality. Eventually, he was happy with his sketch, so he erased it until he could barely see it.

He then pulled out some water colors, using them to color in the sketch. He painted the sky a pale yellow, the leaves of the tree varying shades of pink, the trunk of the tree a warm shade of brown, the ponds he'd added around it purple, and the land warm shades of green.

By the time he was done, his shift was about to end, and Russia was still asleep. He had to wake up Russia, so he set aside the drying art piece and moved around to the other side of his desk so he could wake the other.

"hey, Russia, you gotta wake up, okay?" He gently prodded, patting his head.

Russia made a grumpy tired noise, looking around with half open eyes.

"It's almost 6, you have to get up okay?" He said softly.

Russia blinked a couple times and squinted as if not believing him.

" It's almost dinner time for you, you gotta get up" He pressed, lightly chuckling. He had a small smile on his face, Russia was being quite adorable.

Russia stretched a little then stood up, handing the pillow back to him.

America took it and smiled softly.

"See you tomorrow, okay?" America said gently, smiling at Russia.

"See you then" Russia mumbled, stretching again. He then made his way out of America's office.

America smiled a little and waited a little longer before heading back to his barracks. He found his friends already there waiting to be let in.

He let them in and sat at his desk again. Luckily, Japan was kept from teasing him about his crush on Russia by her girlfriend openly flirting with her in a slightly sexual manner. Because apparently, Japan was now "Work" and he was never going to drop that until she dropped teasing him about his crush on Russia. Safe to say, he'd never be dropping it.

"Sakura, until you stop teasing me about my crush, I will be calling you South's work. Don't test me, you know I will." He stated, deciding he'd tell her, it was worth a shot of getting her to stop. "Either that or I'll call South to come get her work."

Japan flushed and threw a pillow at him. Safe to say, his crush wasn't brought up again that night.

Soon they were leaving his room and going to bed, so he collected some more comfortable clothes to garden in and changed before he started to do his nightly gardening.

When he got to the chamomiles, he found that there was a different letter in the casing he'd used to protect his from the water. That told him that told him that it was probably left earlier on in the day, when the water could still damage the response. Meaning he'd either tipped his hand too much, or the response was just short.

He carefully opened the casing and then the letter in it.

Dear Aku,
Well, I'm extremely confident in my guess. I would like to meet with you at the fountain at noon tomorrow. The fountain that's surrounded by rose bushes. I hope you don't mind. If you do, I'll be there until eight at night.
My last guess is that you're a cat or feline of some sort.
I hope you won't judge me for who I am.

Sincerely, Nyx

Or he'd done both, as the letter told him. It was short and gave him a location and time to meet Nyx, he'd have to tell his friends that he wouldn't be hanging out with them as usual.

He continued gardening, eventually getting back to his room and starting to write short notes to explain everything to his friends.

After he had the notes done, he ran around, quickly distributing the notes to his friends, they'd see them in the morning.