A cold wind whipped around Norway's head as he stood at the helm of his ship, staring ahead at the recently-spotted land. They'd been sailing for weeks trying to find this area, and it had finally come into view a few minutes ago. The oars pushed through the water, slowly accelerating the ship towards the shoreline that was less than a mile up ahead. This was the moment every viking had been waiting for. Behind Norway came the irritating laugh of Denmark, who came up beside him and took a swig from his huge tankard.
Norway turned around to face the Dane and rolled his eyes, "Are you really drinking right now?"
"Yep!" Denmark replied with a grin, his voice slightly slurred by the alcohol. "Gotta stay in top form, you know?"
"I'd better not need to scrape you off the front of the ship later," Norway sighed. "You weren't invited, I'll remind you again."
"Aw, come on." Denmark slung a heavy arm over the small blonde. Norway cringed back from the Dane's intoxicated breath. "You say you're gonna go discover some new place, of course I gotta come along. Though it's not fun being surrounded by nothing but Norwegian men, lemme tell ya."
Norway shoved the man away from him and the drunkard immediately lost his balance and tumbled backwards into one of the men rowing the ship. The man rowing had managed to catch Denmark, but had to let go of the oar as he did so.
"Watch it," Norway snapped. "Honestly, pull yourself together. We're almost there."
"Aye, aye cap'n." Denmark lazily saluted the Norwegian before promptly passing out.
"Idiot." the Norwegian muttered.
"Just leave him there," he instructed his men, "focus on getting to shore safely." Norway thought for a moment. "And someone stash all the alcohol."
A more than a few men jumped to comply to that last command. It had been a long journey for everyone with Denmark aboard. The rest of the voyage was smooth rowing with the exception of the waves that brought them close to the shore.
Rocks dotted the shoreline, their color matching the cloudy grey sky above. The rowers steered expertly around them, managing to successfully land the ship on the pebbly beach. Norway jumped out first, looking behind them. The rest of the fleet was making good time coming in.
The remaining crew began to unload what they had on the ship onto the shoreline. Denmark was left alone on the boat, his face as pale as a dead man.
"Where should we set up camp?" a burly viking asked.
"Find a place with solid ground that won't be buried by the tide," Norway answered. "I want some men out to explore the immediate area as well."
The muscular man nodded and moved away to relay the orders. By then, the others were landing and unloading. Norway walked over to give out orders to each of them. The main order being to unload the ships. The men began unloading the supplies, setting up a temporary camp on the premesis. Within a half hour, they had assembled a decent living area for themselves.
Denmark, unfortunately for the Norwegians, had woken up and somehow had found the alcohol. Norway had to swipe the bottle from the Dane and throw it into the ocean. To nobody's surprise, Denmark actually dove in after it. He came back out sopping wet, bottleless, and thankfully sober because of it. Norway stood on the shore, watching him with his arms crossed.
"Did you have a nice swim?" he asked.
"Yeah actually, a bit chilly, though." Denmark shrugged, beginning to unbuckle his belt so that he could wring the water out of his tunic then let it dry.
"This whole place is pretty chilly," Norway commented. "We should be used to it, though."
"Yeah. It's always ball-shrivelling cold back home." Denmark beat his shirt against his legs a few times. "But check it out. There are chunks of ice everywhere. There's even snow on the beach."
"An ice land," the Norwegian commented dryly.
"Norway..." the Norwegian glanced over at the Dane who was rubbing his arms to keep warm, "where's camp? I want to get some dry clothes."
"Maybe our camp is over there where everyone is gathered with our things." he replied, sarcastically.
"...Ah."
The two nations walked over to the main camp, observing the progress.
"So how long are we sticking around?" Denmark asked.
"I'm only staying about a week," Norway answered. "I'm taking a few men and one ship. I only came to oversee the arrival. As for you, I don't care what you do."
The two stood in silence, listening to the waves crash against the pebbles. A smirk slowly spread across the Dane's features, "So you don't care what I do?"
"As long as it doesn't involve getting drunk on my ship again." Norway responded, smoothly.
"So if there happens to be a nation roaming around... I can have it?"
Norway glanced at the tall Dane sharply. "Excuse me, who is the one colonizing here? If there is one of us, it goes to me."
"You're the one who said that you don't care what I do!" Denmark pointed out, grinning.
"I care if it involves taking what's rightfully mine."
"Be more specific next time, sheesh." a gust of wind blew passed the two nations, reminding Denmark that he still needed a tunic.
He forced down a cold shudder and hunted one up, pulling it over his head and sighing in relief when the biting cold was lessened. "So what do you wanna do now?"
"Look around." Norway gestured for the blond to follow him.
"Great! That sounds like an adventure!"
Norway told his second-in-command what to do in his absence, and he and Denmark took off. The land around the beach was fairly flat, but there wasn't much around.
Denmark sighed, "When'll we find the kid?"
Norway stared at the viking, "I've heard they take a while before they come out..."
"Yeah, I suppose," Denmark pondered. "We haven't even been here two hours. Hell, the place isn't even named."
"That's right. There's no way there'd be a new nation now. It might not even show up until after we leave."
"If you don't see it before you leave, can I-"
"No."
"-find it for you?" Denmark finished, his broad smile faltering.
"Let me ask you something." Norway crossed his arms as he walked. "How are you figuring on getting back to the mainland?"
The Dane's grin slipped off completely, replaced with a confused expression. "Hitch a ride with some of your guys?"
The small Norwegian shook his head. "Wrong. After I leave with a few other men, no other ships are coming or leaving. Which means if you want to get back home, you're coming with me."
"...Dammit."
XxX
That night after supper, the vikings and nations immediately went to sleep. Norway and Denmark laid out their mats not too far from the rest of the crew. As soon as they were settled, Denmark said, "Norway?"
"What?"
"So we're going to leave Ice by itself if we don't find it before we leave?"
"...Ice?"
"That's my nickname for it!"
"Why?"
"Because you said it yourself. It's an ice land. And you didn't answer the question."
Norway rolled over on his back and stared up at the stars. "I suppose so. There's nothing we can do about it if that happens."
"It just doesn't feel right, you know?"
"People like us are capable of raising themselves," Norway pointed out. "It's not like anything that bad would come of it."
"I know, but...look at people like Switzerland. Or Sweden."
"You subjugated Sweden."
"Hehe, Finland too. But that's not the point."
Denmark cleared his throat, "I think we should search for Ice."
"Hm."
"Come on, imagine the small thing living amongst all these guys!" Denmark gestured towards the snoring men.
Norway raised his eyebrows, though he knew the Dane wouldn't be able to see it. "What is wrong with my men?"
"Well..." There was a long hesitation. "What if Ice is a girl?"
Norway choked on his saliva, thinking he didn't hear the Dane right, "What?"
"What if Ice is a girl?"
"That's ridiculous. There are rarely female nations."
"Although rare, it could happen."
"If that happens, I'll let you drink as much as you want on the way home," Norway replied flatly, rolling his eyes.
"You know I'm going to hold you to that."
"Get some sleep." was the Norwegian's reply as he yawned.
"Fine." True to form, Denmark was asleep in moments.
XxX
Norway, and the rest of his company, were up at the crack of dawn. Denmark, on the other hand, slept until the sun was fairly high in the sky and only awoke when Norway kicked him in the ribs.
Denmark groaned, holding his side, before snapping, "Hey, what was that for?!"
"You've been asleep for hours."
"So you kick me?!" Denmark questioned, glaring at the blond standing before him.
He shrugged, "It was easier to do."
"Ass," Denmark grumbled, before sitting up and getting dressed, rubbing at the bruise flowering on his side.
"Get over it. You wanted to come, you're going to help out."
Without another word, Denmark followed Norway to a camp now moved further from the beach. Finally, he asked, "What do you need me to do?"
"Stay out of the way."
"Alright! ...wait, what?"
"You heard me." Norway gave the Dane a fixed stare and got a whine in return.
"Oh come ooon, I thought we were actually going to do something today!" Denmark stuck out his lower lip.
"Do you have anything in mind?" Norway decided to humor the man. Big mistake.
"But of course!" a smile broke out on Denmark's face, "I was thinking we can go find Ice!"
Norway facepalmed. "What did we talk about yesterday?"
"You said there was no way Ice could exist after only two hours." Denmark flashed a thumbs up. "It's been a whole night now."
Norway stared, "You really want to find it, don't you?"
"I am not abandoning Ice, dammit." Denmark replied, firmly.
"...Alright."
Denmark cheered and Norway pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to drive away the inevitable headache. He could be such a child...
"Okay. So where should we start?" Denmark asked, pacing now.
"The shore."
"What kind of kid wants to hang out at some rocky place?" Denmark scoffed, clearly disapproving.
"I would."
"Yeah, well..." Denmark waved his arms. "Well, you're weird!"
"Is that the best you can come up with?" Norway smirked slightly. "I'm disappointed."
"I hope Ice doesn't end up like you." Denmark replied, ignoring Norway's response.
"He will."
Denmark rounded on him at the speed of light. "How do you know that?!"
"I'm the one colonizing." Norway huffed out his breath. "Don't you have a nonexistant child to search for?"
"...Shut up!" were the only words Denmark could think of in response to that. Before Norway could reply, he then added, "I'm getting some mead."
"More alcohol?"
"Yeah!" Denmark stalked away angrily.
"Because the kid will really appreciate being found by a hungover drunkard," Norway called after him.
"Again, Norge, shut up!"
Norway rolled his eyes and started for the beach.
"Way to give up so easily!" Norway snapped loudly. Honestly, he hadn't even wanted to come on this snipe hunt, but it irritated him even more to see the instigator be so pathetic.
Denmark halted and twitched, and then whirled around and came marching up the beach towards him. "No I sure as hell am not giving up! Let's go for it!"
Lolo: Hiya everyone! Welcome to our first uploaded fanfiction on this shared account. I'm KokoLolo and I'm proud to say that this chapter was seriously fun to write with the awesome Hatsu Yukiya.
Hatsu: See, we were trying to get further in our other story that's on my account that's really awesome (yes I will self-advertise) but this one plot bunnied us to death. So...voila!
Lolo: Heh, bunnied.
Hatsu: It's a verb now.
Lolo: That is interesting. Anyways...
Thank you for taking the time to click and read!
Hatsu: It'd be great if you guys could review~ The chapters come faster the more you do!
Lolo: Yes. Thank you! Catch you next chapter!
Hatsu: Bye :D