Maple Story - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Breakfast Buddies?

Day ˤ(ō_ō)ˀ Month ˤ(ȏ˽ȏ)ˀ
Weather: Unusually sunny

Oh no! This is absolutely terrible! Today’s such a lovely day, but I when I woke up, it was past noon! I was supposed to get up at seven to do house cleaning! Last night I had the feeling someone was going to visit today. Kumajiro didn’t do a thing to help! Heck, he’s still sleeping right now and it’s almost 1! Oh well, I might as well make some breakfast even though it should be lunch. I promised myself to make pancakes! Maybe I should eat outside since the weather’s so nice today! I hear the birds singing so cheerfully…it makes me so happy! Huh? I hear something funny now. It’s a whirring noise and it’s getting louder…wonder what

CRASH!

“…the heck was that noise?! I-it came from upstairs…”

“Eh? What’s that noise? It made me wake up!”

“Kumajiro! You’re awake! I-I don’t know w-what that noise is, b-but I’ll check it out! _{If only my knees would stop shaking that is…}”

“Who are you?”

“Ca-na-da! N-now hurry up and help me f-figure out what that noise was!”

Canada bolted up his stairs with Kumajirou in his arms. He looked around the second floor and saw nothing wrong. No, there shouldn’t be anything of importance that could make such a loud thudding noise on the second floor. After all, the floor only had rooms full of photos and small memorabilia. The third floor? Maybe…the larger statues, totem poles, and trophies were up there. He dashed up one more floor. Nothing was in the hallways. He checked every room to see if anything had fallen over. Nope, everything was as he left them the last time he cleaned the house. Puzzled, he stepped back into the hallway.

“I don’t get it Kumajiro. If nothing fell, what could have made that noise? You and I definitely heard something!”

“I don’t care, I’m hungry.” replied Kumajiro.

“I’ll make pancakes after we figure out what that noise was! I don’t feel comfortable knowing something made that crashing noise.”

THUD!

“AAAAAAH!!!! WHAT WAS THAT?!” screamed Canada.

Canada jumped and fell backwards, frightened by the noise that came from above. He felt a chill down his spine and shuddered, wondering what could possibly be attacking him from above. Slowly he looked up and saw nothing but the ceiling. Could there be an attic up there? If so, how would he get there? He didn’t know his house even had an attic! Setting Kumajiro down, he stood up to inspect the ceiling. Suddenly…

“ACHOOOO!!!!!”

CRASH!

Before he knew it, Canada was back on the floor again, but this time his body was in a lot of pain since there was something heavy on him. To make matters worse, there was dust everywhere! Blinded, Canada tried to move but to no avail. After a series of sneezing fits, the dust dissipated. Canada then got a better look at what was on him. Instead of some heavy object, all he saw was the rear end of a person a few inches from his face! As a reaction, he shoved the person off as hard as he could.

“AAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!” yelled the mysterious figure.

The person flew across the hall and skid a few feet before hitting the wall with a soft thud. Canada sat up immediately and looked to see who exactly had landed on top of him. His eyes widened and he rubbed his eyes as if he had seen a miracle. Could it be who he thought it was? How long has it been since he had seen this person? His heart began to race. The platinum blond hair, the red eyes… it could only be…

“Prussia?! W-what the HECK are you doing here?! AND HOW DID YOU COME FROM UP THERE?!”

Canada pointed up to the ceiling, but when he looked, there wasn’t a gaping hole. No, instead there was a nice rectangular opening and what seemed to be a door. So there was an attic! The door must’ve been plastered over long ago. Now that he thought about it, he had plastered it because he had no need of the attic. He looked back at Prussia, who was reorienting himself and dusting his uniform. After a few sneezes himself, he stared at Canada. Actually, it was more of a death glare. Canada froze in his spot.

“That was SO NOT COOL. Can’t you see I’m still injured?! You should be thankful that my wounds haven’t opened up again! How are you that strong anyway?”

“Eh? I’m sorry!!!" apologized Canada, "I don’t know my own strength, really! A-and you’re injured?! What are you doing here then? Go to the hospital first!!! Here, let me call the ambulance!”

“No, don’t, I’m fine really! I can take this pain like the awesome person I am! I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? Well if you say so…By the way, how did you get in here?”

“Ahahaha! Oh I simply had my men fly a chopper here from Europe and we just so happened to have landed on your roof. It was hard trying to get it to land on a slant you know. You should build an awesome helipad or something. Anyway, from there I decided to awesomely crash through the attic window by swinging on a rope. I tripped over something (_{how uncool}), and sneezed and here I am.”

“All that and you were still injured? And how did you manage to fly across Europe and over the ocean with a helicopter and still have fuel to find my house anyway?”

“Anything can happen in fiction.” Prussia muttered.

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh nothing. Anyway, I’m hungry. Got anything to eat around here? Better be amazing because I only accept the best for the awesome me!”

“I was about to make pancakes before you crashed into my house…”

“What?" Prussia whined, "Don’t you have wurst or potatoes or something heartier? I heard you got awesome caribou and moose here…I could go for some meat!”

“Eh? N-no, I have yet to go shopping for food this week, so pancakes will have to do. I can always make a lot…”

“Fine, whatever. You’re still the same as ever.”

“Same with you.”

**************************** OﮞO ****************************

“Ugggh….I’m starving….I’m about to die…Hurry up with the food!” moaned Prussia.

“I’m almost done! Gimme a few minutes!” shouted Canada from within the kitchen.

Prussia continued to groan in his seat, waiting for the pancakes Canada had promised to make. He looked around the dining room and saw a lot of paintings of Canada, America, and England, as well as paintings of Indians and nature. There was a moose head trophy above the fireplace, whose mantle had photos and trinkets on it.

Heh, he’s collected quite a number of junk after all these years. Wonder what he’s been doing since the last I saw him? Probably sleeping and being his quiet, shy self as usual. To think I could’ve changed that long ago…Naw, I think I did some good to that guy. He needed to loosen up.

While reminiscing, Canada had come in with the pancakes. Prussia noticed the sweet smell of maple syrup and sat up straight. His eyes widened and his mouth began to drool. There in front of him was a humongous stack of hot, steaming pancakes with warm golden maple syrup oozing down. Screw wurst and potatoes, this pile of delicious heaven looked divine!

“Here you go! Pancakes with some of my special maple syrup! Help yourself to as many as you-”

Canada cut his sentence short as Prussia had already begun to down the pancakes. He chuckled and sat down to eat some himself. That silly jerk. Prussia didn't have good manners at all, compared to himself who always said please and thank you. Glancing up again, he noticed Prussia crying.

“Ah! Prussia! Are you ok? Why are you crying? Are you in pain?”

“No, these aren’t tears of sadness…they’re tears of AWESOME! These pancakes are so awesome that they made the awesome me cry tears of awesome! These are AMAZING! It’s been so long since I last had something this good!”

“And when was that?”

“Never!” said Prussia with confidence.

“I figured as much. You never could cook well.”

“S-shut up! That was long ago. I lost my ability to cook because I had my men cooking for me.”

“That’s sounds like something you’d do. Haha, you’re lazy you know.” Canada chuckled.

“Hey, what about you? You sleep too much and forget things!” retorted Prussia.

“S-shut up! I don’t sleep that much anymore!”

“Oh? But I heard that you were late for the G8 conference because you overslept~”

“W-wha? How’d you know? You weren’t even there!”

“A little birdie told me~” sang Prussia.

“But that was just one time! I swear!”

“Whatever you say, sleepy head!”

Canada blushed and averted his gaze from Prussia, though he could still feel those red eyes piercing him. He proceeded to jam pieces of his pancake into his mouth. They weren’t that great, and he had even burned a few in his hurry. It goes to show that Prussia really hasn’t been eating well. Well, at least Prussia could cook better than England. Canada’s stomach hurt just by thinking of one of England’s dishes. He looked back up at Prussia, who was still shoving piles of pancake into his mouth like a machine. Suddenly, he remembered the strange feeling he had last night. His premonition was right; someone had indeed visited him today, though it was still quite unexpected. Wonder what Prussia was doing here in the first place? He should just ask.

“Hey, Prussia…I’ve been wondering…why are you here? I thought you were busy what with the war going on across the ocean.”

“Yo, I’m thisty, get me something to drink!” said Prussia flatly.

“Eh? Um, ok…”

Canada stood up to go get some milk. He looked over at Prussia briefly and saw that his expression had changed. Instead of a cheery smile and twinkling eyes, he saw an expressionless face. Something terrible must have happened and he wanted to know more, but now wasn't the time. He quickly made his way back to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of milk.

That face…something definitely happened to him. He’s not the one to talk to anyone about his problems…he never was. Heck, I still don’t know why he won’t tell me about his childhood with Hungary! Maybe I should ask him another time…

Canada came back with the milk and gave it to Prussia. Prussia took the glass and downed it immediately.

“AH! That was some awesome milk! Is everything here this awesome? I feel so awesome! I could go climb a mountain and back down several times! In fact, why don’t I do that right now! Ahahahaha! Thanks for the awesome food, buddy! I’ll be back again tomorrow for some more pancakes! See ya!”

Prussia stood up and went over to an open window and began to climb out.

“EH!? You’re leaving just like that? A-and the door’s this way, you don’t have to climb through the window! And don’t you have to return to Europe soon? It’ll be suspicious if you’re gone too long!”

“For someone as awesome as me, there’s no need to use doors! They’re so not cool! Window exits are more awesome! I’ll be back tomorrow, it’s a promise! We’re breakfast buddies now!”

“B-but….”

Before he could continue, Prussia had already leapt out the window and disappeared.

“Breakfast buddies?”

Canada sighed and went back to the living room where his diary was. He continued to write where he has left off, detailing everything that had happened until now.

…and he left just like that. He didn’t even answer any of my questions, as if he didn’t want to answer them. Maybe he didn’t. Something doesn’t feel right. I wish I could ask him, but he was never the one to tell me certain things in detail. The last time he refused to answer me was when I asked him how his childhood with Hungary was, but that was long ago when I first met him…

“Though unexpected, Prussia’s visit was quite nostalgic…I remember the first time I met him those many years ago. We certainly got into a lot of trouble! Haha…”