Brotherhood (New Zealand Countryhumans)

Misplaced confidence

New Zealand's POV:

Everything hurt. I hated him. I was lying on the ground holding my stomach. I felt bruised, but no blood was drawn.

Suddenly the door opened, and I huddled myself into the corner, thinking that Netherlands came back for another round like he would usually do. I squeezed my eyes closed. I didn't want to see. I felt better if I didn't see it coming. There was no point in dodging the violence anyway.

"Kiwi!?" I heard the sound of Aussie running over to me. The suddenness and loudness of Aussie frightened me more and all I could do was huddle and cry.

I sensed him leaning over me, but he didn't do anything more than that.

"Kiwi," He sighed.

My breathing was heavy and difficult to control. I felt Aussie place his hand on my shoulder. It hurt, and I jolted away from him.

"You are hurt badly. Let me help you," Aussie begged. I felt bad. I wanted help. I know I did. But I found myself unable to respond. I tried to open my eyes to see him, but I couldn't. I tried to move my body, but I couldn't.

"I-I," I managed to mutter.

"Tell me, I'm here," He explained.

"I-I'm sc-scare-ed," I stuttered through the pain.

"Me too," He mumbled back. He moved his hand to my back and gently patted me. I was able to calm my breathing a little and think more clearly. I was still frozen in fear, but this was a step up.

Aussie stopped patting my back and began to run his finger down my arm lightly until he stopped on a particular spot. It hurt some much.

"Ow! Stop!" I shouted.

"This is a burn mark," Aussie stated, still not lifting his finger.

"N-no," I muttered as I was told to do when anyone noticed the marks.

"Hold on, I can find something for that," Aussie said. He finally lifted his finger and it sounded like he was rummaging through a bag of sorts. As the pain in my arm was beginning to dull, Aussie began rubbing an ointment on the burn mark which initially intensified the pain. But, it felt better.

I managed to open my eyes, but my vision was blurred by the tears. I blinked a couple of times so I could see clearly. I watched as Aussie pulled bandaids out of a first aid kit. He noticed my opened eyes.

"Kiwi, can you sit up?" He asked. I nodded weakly as I began to slowly position my body. Every movement hurt. I was starting to regret sitting up. It hurt less lying down.

Aussie didn't waste any time. He helped me out of my shirt and gazed at my bruised body. I noticed several cuts on my shoulder and my chest that were likely from the buckle of the belt.

Aussie began cleaning the cuts with antiseptic liquid and it stung a lot. Aussie then went on to clean my arms with the liquid, but as he did so, the pigment that was covering up the other marks wiped off.

"How long has he been doing this to you?" Aussie asked.

Tonga's POV:

I'm starting to regret taking Tuvalu. The others had a point. She is only little and has misplaced confidence. But her heart is in the right place.

"Do you have a gun?" She asked.

"Uh, no." I responded.

"Aw, I wanted to kill him," Dolphin sounded disappointed.

"Killing someone is not something to be proud of," I laughed nervously.

"But UK is a bad guy. He deserves it," She said confidently.

"Dolphin, everyone knows he is bad, but we can't just kill him,"

"Why not?"

"It's wrong. I know murder sounds like fun, but like the rest of us, you will learn that it takes a lot of cleaning up," I joked.

"I guess that doesn't sound very fun," She sighed.

"But that doesn't mean we can't give him a few scars." I shrugged. Her eyes lit up and she skipped ahead of me joyfully. I couldn't help but look upon her proudly.

My little sister is going to earn her first battle scar. I remember my first battle scar. Good times. I think.

"Is that his house?" She asked.

"Nope," I answered.

She kept asking the same question over and over again until we actually made it.

"So now what?" She asked me.

"This was your plan, what do you want to do?" I asked. I wanted her to feel like she was in charge for once.

"I uh, we scope out the house!" She announced excitedly.

"Good call, I'll look in the windows," I smiled. She nodded and ran off in another direction. I was so proud of her. I started looking through the windows to see if I could spot anything or anyone.

As I was looking, I couldn't stop thinking about how proud I was of Tuvalu. The others say it is stupid and that she is too young to know what she is doing, but she has listened to so many stories, she has her strategies down straight. I trust her completely. The others should believe in her more.

I peeked through a window and spotted UK. He was reading a newspaper and didn't appear to suspect anything. I watched him for a while to see whether he would get up or not. He seemed very intrigued by his newspaper though.

I continued looking around the house and looking in the windows on the first floor. It was uncomfortably empty.

"Tonga!" Tuvalu shouted. I immediately ran over to her. She was crouched down in front of the house and was looking into some kind of window with bars. I got down on her level and looked in. It was Maori. She was chained up and struggling to get free.

"Mao! We are here!" Tuvalu announced to get her attention. Maori turned her head to us and she held her finger up to mouth.

"Dolphin? Tonga? What are you guys doing here?" Maori whispered.

"We are saving you," Tuvalu whispered back.

"You guys need to leave. If UK finds you two as well, you will end up like me," She warned.

"That's okay, he just won't find us," Dolphin smiled.

"You put her in charge of this, didn't you?" Maori sighed, looking at me.