Christmas Miracle

A Reader x Hetalia Story

The snow fell in soft flakes like dust on the wind, blurring the edge of your vision but thankfully not doing anything to prevent your vision of the road up to the lodge. The snow was a welcome joy as you considered what would be awaiting you for Christmas this year - loneliness! In truth you had the option to forget the tradition and visit another friend's, Cuba was always offering you a holiday in the sunshine, but it just would not be the same. Since you could remember you had come to the lodge your parents had owned every Christmas to be with your ten best friends in the world - they had hidden presents for you that you would have to guess and you would gift each one when you got it right.

A silly little tradition perhaps, but it had been your own and yet this year they were all far too busy - but that's what being a mature adult could be like, wasn't it?

As you followed the winding path in your little red vehicle toward the lonely log cabin on the edge of the road that stared dreamily out over a white field of nibbling deer and pine forest, you sighed fitfully. You scolded yourself internally for all the silly emotions you felt within as the idea of being alone. But all the more you regretted you actions on the phone with one particular friend... one you'd failed to beg to be with you and had always failed to reveal the truth to. Whatever had prevented your lips from uttering such words had zipped up your sorrow for Christmas now as you pulled into the parking space beside the cabin and felt ease fill your body. All stress from the business of renting a shoddy old banger from the nearest rental had been forgotten by your happiness to see that at least one aspect of the tradition had been kept.

Though work had prevented you from arriving the previous day to see them all one last time that year, they had all managed to get there to decorate and leave their gifts. You would have great pleasure tonight at midnight, hunting around to recognise all ten of the hidden gifts! You could see from the baubells glittering off the tree from the windows as you exited the vehicle, and you grinned visibly. So, they wouldn't be here today or tomorrow, but they were all trying to turn up afterwards. You hopped out of the vehicle in time to hear it give a rattling sound before opening the stuffed boot. Your supplies and gifts for the time had spilled over into the backseat and in the front seat you'd placed the fragile bottles and even had a hunk of beef strapped into the chair! As you got the key out, undid the lock and left the door to swing, you hooked up as many items as possible and scuttled toward the door with a few grunts and groans.

It was nine in the evening by the time you'd set every thing up for your lonely day tomorrow. With time to waste before a good film was on the television, you had stocked the fridges and cupboards as well as chopped a little wood. Alone you had tried to fill in all the roles the others would have taken on throughout the household on this busy day! Where England would have been arguing with America other the drinks for Christmas, you had settled on some non-alcoholic mulled wine to drink and enjoyed adding a little more sugar then England would have allowed! Where Russia would have been busy building a snowman, you'd made a slightly dwarfish version on your own just before sunset and customarily had wrapped a scarf around it and given an old faucet pipe in its arms. Where Canada would have been startling everyone with his speed at chopping wood, you'd had to figure it out yourself and made a few uneven cuts and almost lost the axe-head! You'd then done a fantastic impression of China grumbling about logs as you'd gone out to the woods to find an appropriate Yule Log. You'd always had that job with China as France was customarily drunk at that point whilst making something to leave out for Santa!

It had been lonely going through the woods and once or twice you had longed to hear Prussia being ridiculous and making moose calls to try and attract trouble. Usually it would attract a large red stag, who'd thankfully lost his antlers by then, but would still charge Prussia down. As you had gone through the thick pine air of the wood, you'd heard the stag bellowing out in warning, perhaps even missing the chance to chase Prussia about the fields as well! Your next job had been to make a soup for yourself to have in the evening, something Italy would always have insisted on doing it for the opportunity it would give to make pasta! Your soup had not been as fantastic of course and you had missed hearing France bleat at Italy about putting far too much garlic into the tomato sauce and then not enough... it never changed between those two!

Finally you had just two tasks left to fill and they had been the most difficult to do on your own. The first had been to stoke the log fire - something Germany was excellent at doing. As you had struggled away to get a fire going, you'd found yourself looking about for any kind of paper to use as tinder before a miracle had occurred and you'd managed to get a small spark. Fearful of smothering it, you'd placed a thin log beside it and waited until the flame had shown sufficient interest in the wood before adding a larger one. You had then been left with the final task that Japan usually held, despite the fact he was not that into Christmas, Japan had always insisted on going for a gentle walk around the cabin as a group just as the stars began to shine. Being alone... it had been dreadfully miserable and even attempting to sing a Christmas Carol had failed and the usual hour-long stroll was ten minutes pacing up the track. Now you settled down to a movie about love and Christmas and somehow managed to start dozing off!

With sleep starting to sink in around you, it was far too easy to just close your eyes and drift away, but you couldn't. Instead you had decided that, although early, you would look for all ten of the special presents. With a gentle sigh you stood up from your comfortable chair and straight-away went straight toward the Christmas tree where you spotted the first present tucked neatly behind the pot - a cuddly toy with Christmas gear on. You knew who that was from definitely and picked it up with a firm hug before settling it down upon the sofa, before you looked up at the tree and spotted something odd. You were pretty sure there was a pickle-shaped ornament hanging from the tree and gently you picked it up, only to grin and assume that was another gift! The third gift you found tucked behind the sofa - a bottle of wine with your name plastered upon the label! You then shuffled into the kitchen in search of the next gift... before opening one of the cupboards you had not stocked and being clonked on the head by a box of candy before spotting a tin of Danish butter cookies behind it. Yeah, you knew who those two gifts were from!

Five gifts down, you had five more to look for and guessed wit would be difficult as the ones left were often the most cryptic of gift-givers! In fact the next gift threw you off completely, you had walked past the coffee table several times near the door and had never dared to look at it. When you eventually sighed and lent against it, your hands were brushed by a gentle piece of paper... a thin envelope with your name on it! Inside it were tickets... plane tickets for February with the destination carefully covered with a yellow sticky-note. You grinned, feeling deeply humbled and knowing that February meant only one thing to one particular country. The next gift was just as unexpected as the cold began to seep in through the chimney and you'd scuttled upstairs to go look for the spare blankets usually left in the cupboards for the night. As you passed by the three spare rooms filled with empty beds, wishing to hear the familiar swears of Germany as Italy would ignore his little bed on the ground and join him, you'd spotted something sitting on a window sill. Stepping into the room you had spotted a very special decoration of a polar bear holding onto its cub and looking upwards out of the window - you looked out in the direction the bear pointed and chuckled as you spotted a twinkling star in the sky. You made a wish and chuckled as you recalled that only one of your friends would be so cute as to gift you a wish on a star!

Seven presents down and three to go, you had returned to go and look for a blanket when you'd instead found a massive soft-pink shawl to wrap around yourself. Neatly made and delicate to the touch, you knew very well who this gift was from and lovingly wrapped it about yourself. Wishing to wipe tears from your eyes as you dared to hope that the last two gifts could be your friends appearing at the door, you stepped back down stairs and looked about the fire place for the ninth gift. Sadly you found nothing hidden around there and instead had to look through the DVDs for something to watch tomorrow morning when you spotted the camera. You had been surprised to think that one of them had dared to leave it out when you turned it on and found it started to replay the previous day's gift-hiding and decorating. Judging by the way the camera was used so elegantly and everything was taken into account, you knew this was a very awesome gift from a rather ridiculous cameraman!

The video revealed the shifting about of the others but none of the gifts and you scanned it carefully to find the location of the last person in hopes of finding the last gift. To your great surprise though this person could be heard but never really seen and you were left guessing as to where they might have hidden a surprise for you. Normally his was an easy gift to find as it was often exuberant and funny... hand-made and all the more meaningful for it. Eventually though you found yourself settling down in your own lonely bedroom for the long restless night that would lead you to what you assumed would be the most miserable Christmas ever. It was only then that you spotted a little CD-player on the table beside the bed and dared to put it on, only to hear a series of wonderful little Christmas carols and stories being told by that cheerful little idiot. Content and happy to have found all ten gifts and that so much love had been put towards it, you settled down into slumber and hoped that the next day would bring some kind of miracle.

In fact... you had hardly closed your eyes to sleep when the clock hit midnight and there was a hefty thumping at the door... who could it be?