"What are you thinking of?" a voice from beside her suddenly asked, but even with or without any sense of demand, her gaze did not leave whatever was beyond the car window to her left. The least we could say, she was unfaltered by any action, as she was engrossly deep in a reminiscing trance.

"Sia? Earth to Sia?" another voice said, who was at the farthest right of their row's car seat. Sighing, and keeping her arms folded, she rolled her stare away to face her nosy brothers, "What?" she asked, her tone laced with sarcasm.

"We just wanted to know whatever was there in your head." her brother beside her pointed. She stared intensely at them as her retort, which made the two feel very much uncomfortable, "Or maybe not."

She sighed, leaning her elbow on the extended interior of the car window as she proceeded to rest her chin on her hand, and continue watching such a scenery outside pass by. "I don't know..." she told her brothers in a low voice, "It's just that... I can't help but think of how much I remembered this place."

"Yeah." someone from the front seat suddenly chimed back, "Especially now that you get to be reunited with 'Mr. Sunshine', eh, Sia?" he laughed, as he wiggled his eyebrows in a teasing manner, causing her brothers to join in with merry chortles as well.

Her cheeks instantly flourished in a reddish hue, with her left hand effortlessly covering the side of her face in embarassment, "Rain, what the hell?!"

"Come on, admit it, sis!" Ukraine smirked, "You missed him, didn't you?"

Unfortunately for her, she couldn't disagree with that, not when it was partially the truth. After all, it's been years since she last saw her blue-haired friend, though the situation in hand at that time was severely painful yet endearing for her to remember.

"Yes, of course, I do miss him." her voice firm, along with her posture and expression stern, catching her siblings off guard, "Actually, I missed this place as a whole, and let's not forget about the people, Joe, the weath-"

"America??" Belarus frowned, scrunching his nose in distaste at the mention of the country.

"That capitalist pig? Why on Earth would you miss that douchebag who literally set you up?" her brother beside her, Kazakhstan, irked in disatisfaction.

"He was also my friend, Zach." Russia sighed, playfully rolling her eyes, "Of course I missed the times we three spent together."

"But that was when you were just kids!" protested Ukraine, who was not liking where their conversation was heading, "Besides, that no-good two-faced runt had most likely changed, now that his country's 'number one' in the world." he exaggerately expressed the words 'number' and 'one'.

"And we all know he'd do anything to keep it that way." Zach shrugged, leaning further in his seat with his eyes closed restlessly.

Russia also leaned to return her attention back to the car window, exhaling heavily in frustration. Nothing was wrong with America, at least, that's what she forced herself to believe. She knew whatever her brothers said about her childhood friend was true, but she never wanted to think of giving up on him. She believed underneath his pair of dark-framed lens was the struggle, a dangling hope residue of his past innocence.

Watching as their vehicle sped by, she could see Filipino farmers happily harvesting rice in plains and plains of paddies. Zooming on, the rice fields were seen around them, wooden huts sprouting to view, as well as strong carabaos were scattered elsewhere.

Soon, her eyes widened at the sight of a single water drop crash down to the window. Until another came. Then another. The moment water fell continuously in little individual pints, which caused her to slightly jump from her seat in surprise, she realized what was happening.

"Rain." she grinned widely at the view, "Rain! Oh my goodness, guys, are you seeing this?" she excitedly called to her siblings, who also turned their focus to what was outside.

"Welp. There goes my beach babe hunting-" Belarus frowned, only to get interrupted by earning a slap on his head from Kazakhstan, "Ow! The frick is wrong with you, Zach?!" he groaned, rubbing the sore back of his head.

"Seriously? Beach chicks are all you could think of right now?? We're here for an international council meeting, for goodness sake, El! Stick that to your mind."

"You're no fun. We also came here for our vacation, you dingus!"

"Perv."

"KJ."

"Jerk."

Just before Zach could retort another pointless comeback, what luck has bestowed upon the Soviet Siblings; their car broke down.

Their driver, who was also their secretary, hopped off the vehicle, lifting the car hood open to determine the cause. He walked towards Rain's side of the car, his face a tad nervous, as well as agitated. The countryhuman rolls down the car window, "What happened?"

"We have a problem," their secretary announced, scratching the back of his neck, and ignoring the fact that he was now soaking wet, "the engine's dead. We'll need a mechanic to fix it, since I didn't bring the tools. My apologies, Your Excellency."

"Oh great. Moscow's at it again-ack!" Belarus rubbed his sore arm, after a receiving a blow from his brother beside him.

"Moscow did nothing wrong, El." he frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose, "It wasn't frequent for him to forget things like this. He's been out working sleepless nights, it's only natural he'd fumble this one up."

"I'll call the Malacañang Palace to inform them of our delay. There might be no available mechanics at this time of the day." Ukraine swiftly decided, motioning for Moscow to climb back in the car after watching him in a sneezing fit, "Ah, and make sure Russia stays in her-"

"Too late." Kazakhstan gulped, as all four of them looked to see the empty seat at his right, not to mention the open car door.

"Someone get her before she catches a cold." Rain groaned, facepalming.

"You go get her, El."

"No, you. She's fricking right beside you, how could you miss that?!"

"Well, you were facing this way, you would've known if she'd slip out!"

"You were blocking my view on her the whole time!"

"This is all unless she bribed you into it-"

"At the time we're supposed to be in a meeting?!"

"Oh, so now you finally talk about the meeting??"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up-"

"Enough!" Ukraine yelled his throat out, startling the two. It didn't stir Moscow though, who fell asleep after seeming to catch a cold earlier, no thanks to the rain. "I'll go get Sia." he grumbled nonchalantly, rapidly hopping out of the car and into the liquid rain shower.

________________________________

Stepping out of the stuffy car was a good idea, to her at least. She hummed in pure bliss as she gracefully spread her arms, while tilting her head to face upwards, letting the gentle drizzle slide down her soft complexion of white, blue, and red hues. This wasn't the first time she saw rain, so what made her all fussed up for it?

Back in her country, it would take a miracle to actually let the heavens bless their rigid lands with moist drops of fresh water. Rain was never a frequent guest to them.

It had always been cold snow.

Huff.

They say metaphors that included 'soft as snow', which to her, or better yet, to all Russian citizens, that fact alone deserves to be something to laugh at, for it'll only stay as just a metaphor. Their frigid winter had always been hard on them, they don't understand why other foreigners would think of such a flake-y weather as something one must bestow his envy upon.

Unlike rain, however, it was not too hot, not too cold. It's not an aspect that may cause your death if you sleep for too long, but the sounds of pits and pats landing down the roof, no matter how loud it seemed to sound, made everything about it to look very welcoming, lulling us back to a much safe and peaceful slumber.

The rain had always calmed the lady, it excites her to an extent, in which she considers it as a humidifying incense that washes all her worries away in a steep slope. No wonder it was absolutely enough for her to ignore his brothers'concerns, and decided to escape, dancing in the rain like a goof she is.

As she enjoyed frolicking about, skipping from puddle to puddle, she did not notice a white auto pulling in several meters away from her. And before she knew it, it's as if the rain stopped, for she no longer felt the soft trinkles of rain down her skin.

Instead, while it's supposed to feel warmer whenever the downpour goes away, she could only shiver at how colder everything seemed to be. Possibly even colder than her home.

In wonder, she opened her eyes to see it was still raining, looking up, however, she was surprised to see the white hood of an umbrella above her, shielding her from the gentle showers. What's even more peculiar, was that the white umbrella had a significant yellow sun symbol beautifully engraved on it, giving her familiar vibes, in which unfortunately, she could not seem to put her mind to where she last saw that symbol.

As if on cue, the world seemed to take on a slowmo pace, with Russia turning around to stand face to face with a guy in a white hoodie, half of his face covered with a black face mask, and a grey cap. She couldn't make eye contact with him, but she knew the both of them were staring at each other for a long time now.

She could hear a faint sigh coming out of him, as he proceeded on taking one of her hands, and placing the umbrella handle into her grip, before he lets go. With one last look at her, he swiftly ran to his car, and away they went, leaving her in an overly confused and dazed state. She glanced at the handle, and looked up the sun symbol. She wondered why the winter cold aura around him was very familiar to her.

Who was he?