Safeway Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

Sleeping Together Now

   Awoken by a knock at her door, Y/N called fuzzily, "Come in."

   "Comrade Y/N?" One of her guards poked her head in. "Comrade Korea is summoning you to his office."

   Y/N was instantly awake, reaching for her phone instinctively to check the time, stopping when she realised that she didn't have one anymore. "I'm, um, I'm coming," she called, heart beating hard. It was dark out.

    She straightened out her clothes and brushed her hair, hands shaking. Why was he calling her to his office? There was something so ominous about that. Why not just come to her room and ask her himself? Unless...

   'Is he going to kick me out?' Y/N felt dread climb up in her throat. That was it- he was going to kick her out. Maybe not out of the country- she knew too much- but definitely out of the high-rise, maybe even to a labour camp.

    'Stupid, stupid, stupid,' she cursed herself, opening the door and stepping out into the hallway. 'You couldn't just keep minding your own business as usual? You had to be a hero? Stupid girl.'

    Her guards took her to the staircase, and she climbed it, hands slick on the gold railing. The hallways were cool at night, but she was sweating as she nervously approached the office door.

   She gently knocked, but when no one answered, she cautiously crept in. "North?" she called.

   Empty.

   Y/N went over to the desk, where a stack of photos caught her eye. There was only one chair, so she sat in it, trying not to glance at the pictures. After a few minutes of twiddling her thumbs, and examining the certificates on the wall, though, she lost the battle with herself and picked them up.

   Some of them were old, in black-and-white with tattered edges, while some of them were semi-new, and in colour, albeit faded ones.

    Two of them slipped out, and she picked them up.

   One seemed to be the oldest, and depicted two young-looking Countryhumans, white- judging by the pallor of the photo paper- with pale grey matching shapes on their faces. After a moment, she recognised them as North and his brother.

    It must have been taken just after the Liberation from Imperial Japan, as the shorter one had his arm around the taller one's shoulders, and was beaming widely. The taller one- North- was smiling, too, though more reserved. The photo looked well-loved, with almost translucent edges.

   The other photo that had fallen out was in colour, though faded, and had North- now with his striped flag, and sporting his star eye-patch- standing next to a tall red Countryhuman wearing an overcoat and ushanka. He had a square, black eye-patch on the same eye that North did, emblazoned with a hammer and sickle.

   Though Y/N hadn't been alive at the same time as him, she recognised his look.

    'USSR.'

   The tall country had his arm around North's shoulders, and they were both smiling, looking tired, but relieved.

    Y/N stroked the picture. It was an expression that she hadn't seen on North's face before. There was no bitterness or anger. He looked relaxed... happy.

   "Having fun?" a voice asked, and Y/N jumped in her seat, quickly dropping the picture.

    "N-North," she stammered, standing up. "I'm sorry, I was just-"

    "It's my fault for leaving them out," he said gruffly, coming in and closing the door. He walked to her side of the desk and leaned over her shoulder, picking up the fallen photographs.