The house was silent, many of the Nords still asleep. Denmark and Faroe had made amends the night before and had a lego building competition. Denmark made a giant lego castle for himself and Faroe made a sculpture of her tallest cliff. The two were asleep on the floor in the main room next to their lego creations, Iceland staring blankly at the scene. Sweden made his way into the room and kicked Denmark in the head to wake him up, Iceland shaking Faroe slightly until she stirred. "C'mon." Denny sat up against the side of the wall and Faroe stood slowly as the other two made their way back upstairs then sat on the couch. Em studied her creation thoughtfully while she stretched, "mine is so much better than yours." "Not a chance, ass wipe." "Nuts for brains." Finally Em stood and made her way to the kitchen for coffee. She opened the cabinets and searched for a while, slightly getting nervous. "Den?" There was a pause before he called back in, "yeah?" "Can you come here for a minute?" He basically crawled into the room. "What do you need now?" She spoke in a hushed voice, "did you move the coffee from the last time I was here or… did you run out?" He stood and walked over, "you dummy. You just can't remember where anything is because you've been away so long. He opened the cabinet once again and took out a rather large jar and opened the lid. "See?" She peaked in, "we are so screwed." He looked in and froze, setting the jar down as quietly as possible. He looked at her and mouthed the words "go get Ice as quietly as possible." She nodded and they tiptoed through the house. She padded silently around the corner and looked into his room, not there. She went to the bathroom, the door was locked. Crap. She reached for the key on top of the door frame, quietly unlocking the door.

"Have you ever heard of privacy?!" "SHHHH!" "What?" She had a hand over her eyes as she opened the door slightly, "we're out of coffee." Silence. "Skítur…" He opened the door as quietly as possible and made his way out into the hallway. Norway's door was still closed so there was still time. They made their way to the stairs and there was a creak in the wood from under their weight. Iceland was wide eyed, Faroe holding her breath as they stared at the step. Norway didn't stir and they both sighed with relief. Sweden and Denmark were at the bottom of the stairs now waiting for the two youngest of the Nords. "Emil, Emily, let's go." They pointed to the stairs desperately but Mathias wouldn't have it. "Come on!" The two youngest looked to one another and Emily took a slow step down in fear. Before her foot touched the wood there was a hard grip on her shoulder. She turned to see Norway at the top of the stairs, also a strong grip on Ice. "I don't smell coffee." "Well…" Emily began quietly, "what happened was." She practically threw herself down the stairs, Emil following suit. Berwald caught a grip on her shirt and the four of them ran. Tino must've heard the commotion because he was now descending the stairs as well. The two made their way into the kitchen, the other four huddled in the closet to hide. "We're so dead!" "Don't worry… maybe they won't be as violent this time.." "MISSÄ ON KAHVIA?!" "Or not." Finny tore the closet doors open, "where is the coffee?!" Everyone dispersed in an instant. Sweden and Faroe ran for the door as Ice and Den ran up the stairs again. "Berwald we have to get coffee!" Tino grabbed onto his ankles as they ran and pulled him back into the house before he could make it out the door. "GET THE COFFEE!" "BERWALD NO!" The door slammed. "Oh my god.." Emily sprinted to the main road, listening to the screaming behind her.

She heard soft thumping of feet behind her but continued to run. "Em!" She turned slightly, "Emil!" She slowed a little so he could catch up. "You made it out?!" "They got Mr. Puffin." "Oh my god, they're out for blood…" "come on, let's just get the damn coffee." It was about 6 km to the nearest store so it took some time to actually run that far. "Are we buying in bulk or just about a month's supply?" "Buy in bulk, my brother is scary." They walked now through the streets, actual morning people busy at work already. The two got plenty of strange looks, walking around in nightwear. The male had a long sleeve shirt on with shorts and socks, the female wore a light tank top and night pants (good thing she wears a bra at night as well). They scanned the many buildings for any sign of a store. "There!" Across the way was Irma. It was a small shop but the produce was of exceptional quality. They crossed the road and entered, bare feet chilled on the cool ground beneath them. "I'll go grab it, wait here," Emil said and walked quickly to the back. He came back a short time after with two huge sacks full of the beans. "This should do it for a while." "Let me take one," Em lifted one off of his shoulder and hoisted it onto her own. After paying they made their way back down the old roads. "I never asked you, Faroe, what's with your arm?" She looked over to her right arm, the bandages still binding her forearm. "Oh, that. That's a long story." "We've got time." She sighed, "do you want the long version or the short version?" "Short is fine." "I was at England's house with America and his brothers ended up coming over. We had a sword fight but then I got my arm crushed between the doorframe and Scotland." Emil was horrified, "how can you say that so casually?!" "I have an interesting life full of bad ideas. It's normal now."

The house was right down the driveway. It was right there. The screaming had stopped but that only made the situation creepier. "What do we do? The only way they'll calm down is if the coffee is actually made, right, Ice?" He nodded. "If we go in from either side they'll probably be waiting. We have to think about this well." Emily always came in through her window so that is out. They could be waiting at either the front door or the back door, that won't go well. "They are probably keeping one of them around Swe and Den to make sure that they don't escape wherever the heck they are so we really only need to deal with one of them." "Finland is more horrifying than my brother so he's probably keeping them hostage." "Norway is smart, so where would he be?" There was a rustling in the leaves on the side of the woods that surrounded the house. "Just run and we'll figure it out!" They ran towards the front door and closed it before whatever was in the woods could exit. "It can't be that easy, just walking to the kitchen to make them coffee, can it?" She looked around, "maybe…" she walked slowly towards the door. "I have an idea but we have to follow through with it pretty well for it to actually work." "Let's hear it." As one person distracts the two rampaging men the other will go to the coffee grinder and make coffee grounds. Get as much done as possible while switching tasks of distracting and preparing. The only key is to not get caught. "Alright, let's see what we can do." "Who wants to distract first?" They waited silently for a moment. "You do!" they cried in unison, "No, you do!" Emily crossed her arms, "fine I will since I'm obviously more athletic and gutsy than you are." Ice glared and walked into the kitchen, cutting the bag open then tossing the beans into the grinder. They looked at one another then, "good luck, Ice." "You too, Fare."

The coffee grinder twisted and shrieked as it obliterated the hard cases within. Em stood ready, knees bent in the middle of the kitchen. Lukas came running in from the left and she threw a glass cup at him, directing his attention to her. She ran out through the other door at a full sprint, Emil focused on finishing the grinding of the beans. "Here comes Tino as well!" "They're done! Switch!" Em sprinted into the kitchen once more and slid under the table, Emil yelling at the two others as he took over the distraction. Faroe hastily swapped the grounds from their former containment to a filter and put the pot under the sink to be filled. "Switch!" Emil did not enter the kitchen yet, but instead Em ran out of the door and yelled, "duck!" He did so, watching her. She ran with her arms outstretched to the sides and clothlined the two unstable men. The water filled the pot now and he poured it in the top of the brewer. The hot liquid began to pour and he grabbed mugs from the cupboard. There was a loud thud and a female cry of pain alongside an outraged growl from one of the men. "EMIL, RUN!" Her voice was shaky and wavered. Tino was at the door, Lukas nowhere in sight. Faroe had been caught off guard by the separation of the two men and was therefore tackled by Norway. He pinned her to the ground so she could not escape anymore, leaving Iceland for Finland. "Lukas we're sorry.." she plead, trying to reason with him. To say that she was scared would be an understatement. She'd seen what they've done on a rampage before: The house had been torn apart, many of the items inside destroyed. It was as though they weren't themselves anymore, not the same people. "It's okay now… it's in the kitchen.. I promise." She could barely hear her own voice over the sound of her heartbeat in her ears. He had a strong hold on her wrists, inches away from her face as he stared down into her, slowly destroying her it seemed.

"Lukas!" He looked up, Tino. He slowly let go and made his way to the cup in the other's hands, Emily rolling onto her stomach, covering her head as though to shield herself. Ice placed a hand on her shoulder, "we finished it just in time, it's okay now." She looked to the two enjoying their coffee silently. "I thought I was a gonner…" "Honestly, so did I. C'mon, let's go find the other two." She nodded and rose, wiping a hand over her face as she cleared her head. At least one problem was taken care of. They made their way up the stairs and went towards Norge's room. Ice opened the door and they peaked inside, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. As Ice checked around Faroe went to Finny's room. Again, nothing seemed out of place. She stepped in and checked around the walls and the closet- nothing. She stepped back into the hallway and thought for a moment. They could be in the attic or the basement, both creeped Faroe out. "Ice." He stepped out and closed the door, "yeah?" "Could they be in the basement or the attic?" "I don't see why not. I know the last I saw Mathias he was going towards the end of the hall. When did you last see Berwald?" "I made it out the door but Fin got him and dragged him back in," she shuddered. "We may have to separate on this. Either way, be careful. It takes a while for the caffeine to kick into their systems so they're still not stable. I'll take the attic." He turned and walked down towards the door. 'I am so dead.' Normally she's fine with basements but Matt didn't keep his clean. When they argued he used to lock her down there until he remembered her. Faroe walked down the stairs and looked towards the kitchen; both Nor and Fin were gone. "Creepy as fuck…" She entered the hallway next to the kitchen then turned, opening the basement door slowly and looked down. It was pitch black nothingness. Dust clung to every inch of wall, ceiling, and stair. She pulled out her phone, scared to turn the flashlight on.

The darkness was so thick and ominous that she felt if she turned on the light there would be something right there that wanted to hurt her, something that would run out and try to get her. The light that was on the basement ceiling hasn't worked in centuries due to the fact that a fuse had been blown many years ago when Mathias pulled a horrible prank on his sister. Her heart rate picked back up once more. With each beat her body shook. "It's alright, you're brave," Em told herself. "Just clear your mind, nothing will hurt you." Her worst fear has always been and will always be demons. Sometimes she will think of various scenarios that are highly unlikely to happen but they freak her out. She doesn't sleep with a night light but uses the light from her iPod to light her room. She is not afraid of the dark but rather of what is in the dark. Faroe closed her eyes tight and held her breath, turning the flashlight on. She peeked an eye open, nothing there. She released a slow, shaky breath and descended even slower. The entire room was dead gray and black, no color to be seen. She looked over the railing and called out in a whisper, "Sweden?" No reply. She stepped to the cold cement floor and turned to the left half of the room. The dark seemed to consume all but a fraction of the light, most of the room not shown. She stepped carefully inch by inch, occasionally calling for the lost country. "Berwald?" She saw the far wall and made her way over, walking from one corner to the other. Steps sounded coming down the stairs so she quickly shielded the light and turned it off, holding her breath in the crushing, pitch black. All she could hear was the rushing pump of blood with every heartbeat, the silence of the room creating a ringing in her ears. She stood still, unmoving, silent, for ten minutes. There was no sign of movement or another presence so she was confident that whoever had come downstairs had left. She was still facing the corner and pulled her phone back out, turning the flashlight back on. She turned to face back towards the stairs, lifting the light up in front of her. A face was millimeters away from her own, pale white from the LED light.

Iceland's POV-

Seriously, how dirty can Matt keep his attic? The stairs were slick with dust, the walls fifty shades of gross. I climbed the stairs and turned on the flashlight, careful not to make it obvious that I was up there. If the full light was on and either Tino or Norge walked by then I would be screwed. "Mathias." "No! Stop! No more!" I climbed the stairs faster and shone the light to the end of the room. Under the big, boarded glass window was Den, tied and blindfolded. "Matt, it's me, Ice." He physically became calmer, "bless the gods." "What did they do?" I made my way over and pulled the blindfold down. "They aren't very soft with their punches when they're upset. It started with them just taking it out on the furniture but they don't know what they're doing so they can't process that they're coming after us." I nodded and untied his wrists. "Broshinki, you're my hero!" I scoffed and put his blindfold back up over his eyes, "shut up." "Where's Faroe? Did they get her too?" He pulled my hand away from his eyes. "No, she's looking for Sweden." "Sweden is through that small door over there," he pointed to the right wall and crawled over to the small square door. He opened it and revealed a small passageway to another section of the attic. "Come on, I'll help you." We crawled through and stood in the dark room. "Yo, Swe?" "Denmark." The monotone voice called back from around a large and crumbled wooden shelf. We shuffled over and untied the man. "We have to be really quiet still. Faroe and I made them some coffee but both of you know it takes about two hours for them to start functioning once they've messed up their schedule." We crawled back through and I turned off the flashlight as we stepped down the stairs to the hallway. I closed the door with almost no noise and the three of us sighed a breath of relief. "Alright this is good and all but where are Norge and Finny?" Mathias stood by the stairs and Sweden and I went to check on their rooms once more. A blood curtling scream resounded from downstairs and Denmark ran, "FAROE!"

Third person-

Mathias sprinted down the stairs and rounded the corner in a heartbeat. The basement door was locked from the inside out and he punched it. "What the FANDEN!" He kicked the door knob, punched it, clawed at the door frame until finally the lock slipped. He threw the door open wide, leaving a hole in the wall where the handle hit. "Emily!" He called desperately. Iceland and Sweden were at the top of the stairs following close behind. "Toss me the damn flashlight!" Emil did so and Denmark turned it on high, making his way into the large cellar. At the far wall in the back right of the room was his sister. "Em!" She was curled up in a tight, heavily trembling ball on the floor on her side. He ran over to her, her back towards him, and knelt before her. She was sobbing openly as a child does, "no no no no no no no no no…!" Her fingers pressed so hard into her ears her knuckles were white and her eyes closed so tight she could see shapes from the damage being done, muscles were so tense she could've been a rock. "Em, it's okay now, I'm here," he tried to pull her to him but she fought him away. She couldn't see through her tears so she thought he was something else, yelling for "it" to go away. "Em, its Mathias!" He grabbed her wrists and pulled her into him hard, encasing her in his grasp. She cried into him, finally holding him tight, lungs tight from screaming. Her sobbing only grew worse and he held onto her tighter as he whispered into her ear. "You're okay. I'm here. Den's got you, nothing is going to hurt you." Her tears flowed steadily one after another which soon drenched his shirt. He picked her up and made his way back over to Sweden and Iceland, flashlight awkwardly in hand. "Let me through." Ice and Swe moved quickly as Denmark made his way up, speed walking to the main staircase. He sat, sister shaking horribly in his arms as she tried desperately to stop sobbing. Lukas and Tino were probably in the basement. Nothing was down there anymore that would have scared her, only old furniture pushed to the walls. Emily never opened her eyes, only clung to her brother for protection.

Finally, she tried to speak in between hyperventilating. "Basement.. helping… Berwald… Steps.. Dark.. Face…" He wiped her cheeks and held her shoulders, "I promise you that nothing is going to come anywhere close to you, not while I'm around." She cried for a good half hour, her breathing finally calming into quick inhales, body still shaking. Sweden walked to the stairs, both Norway and Finland held up by the collars on their shirts. "I can take a guess at which one scared her, though I don't think he remembers it." Norway's nose was bleeding slightly. "Were we that bad?" Tino asked innocently. "You tell me!" Denmark gestured to Faroe. She looked over, eyes bloodshot and puffy, and released a weak, "welcome back." Norge actually had an expression: pity. "What happened? What did we do?" He looked to his old territory and Mathias pulled her away protectively. "I don't know, Norge. What did you do?" "Matt, it's okay now.." she sat up in his embrace but didn't let him go, "he didn't know what he was doing.." When in the basement alone and she had seen Norge that close after working her mind up, her fight or flight response kicked in. She used both, lashing out at that which she thought would harm her but backed away as quickly as possible, collapsing to the ground like a rock and hid herself. Tino pulled out her phone, "you threw this at me." "I know, I also punched Lukas.." Tears clouded her vision once more, apparently she wasn't done crying yet. Sweden set the two down, both looked ashamed. Emil spoke up, "how is it that even though she was crying you didn't go after her?" Lukas was annoyed now, "I don't know. I didn't know I hurt her, alright?!" "But you didn't," her voice was still a half whisper, "you scared me when I was at my worst. Your brother and I managed to gather and make coffee but then went to find Den and Swe. I went to look in the basement but you know how I feel about going down there.." She wouldn't tell anyone about what she's afraid of, only Mathias.

Norge made his way over slowly as if held back by the glare Denny was giving him. "I'm sorry for anything I've done this morning." Faroe released her brother with one arm and held out a hand to Lukas. He took it slowly, feeling her fingers tremble slightly before she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "It's okay. Tino was much more horrifying than you were." "I vouch for that," Berwald shuddered and looked to Finland. "Well, I do make it up by giving you guys extra presents on Christmas." Ice, Swe, and Fin made their way back to the kitchen and Lukas began to walk away as well but Em held his hand tighter. "What?" He looked to her and she nodded him to come back. "I know that even with the lack of expression you feel guilty and I know that someone is going to stay mad at you for a while. I want you to know, though, that I do forgive you and I'm sorry about the nose." He sat on the stair below them and nodded. "Plus I've learned a valuable lesson." "Really?" "Yeah. Always check the coffee supply days in advance." Den chuckled a little, "funny." She released his hand and he made his way to the others, guilt drenched throughout his being. Faroe closed her eyes once more and stayed close to Mathias, focusing on his breathing to steady her own rapidly worsening pattern. "Want to tell me what happened down there?" She shifted slightly, pressing her cheek to his collarbone and peeked an eye open to watch the rain outside. Her throat tightened up as she spoke from holding in crying but she talked anyways, "Ice and I split up to find you and Swe because we thought that keeping you two in the same room would be too obvious. I'd already been tackled by Lukas but he'd never officially caught me when he was like this before so even before going down I was already on edge. It's creepy down there Den, you've gotta do something about it.. fix the light at least because there's no windows. I heard steps coming down the stairs so I turned off the flashlight and stood still for a long time but nothing made any noise so I turned my flashlight back on and turned around and he was right there. At that point I'd already let my mind run loose and think about anything that it could be and you know what I thought of so when I saw that…"

He rubbed his hand over her back as she began to cry again, only this time silently, "I hear you. As long as I'm around nothing will ever hurt you, you're mine to protect anyways. What kind of a brother would I be if I didn't care?" In the kitchen, Lukas and Tino were sipping on their second and third cups of coffee silently. What an awkward turn of events that had played out. "There has to be something we can do for you guys to make it up to you. What's something we all enjoy?" They thought for a moment before Berwald spoke up, "we like football, some of us more than others, but we all like it." "A football tournament maybe? Or we could just have a game of 3 on 3. Mr. Denmark, can you come here?" Mathias came into the kitchen with his sister on his back, looking over his shoulder with tired eyes. "You look tired, Faroe. Do you need a nap?" "No, I'm okay, Tino. I just need water soon." He nodded and Ice cut in, "what is it with you and carrying her around now? She has legs." "Piss off Ice bitch, she's my sister and I want to." She flicked his ear, "I think it reminds him of when I was small and more dependent on him. He wants to feel like the big brother agaaaain." "Shhh." She smiled at him and Finland addressed the siblings, "we were thinking that as a way to make it up to you all we could have a nice game of football, 3 on 3, or we could have a tournament." Faroe chuckled slightly, "If we had a tournament I'd be the first one out." "Yeah, no offense but you suck ball." "Shut it, Nor." "Three on three it is then! How are we choosing teams?" They all thought for a moment. "We can do pipe cleaners. The ones with the three shortest are on a team and the ones with the three longest are on the other team, " Sweden suggested. "That should work. Anyone have any pipe cleaners?" Em sighed, "you're lucky I had some when I was small. C'mon Denny, to my room." "Yeah yeah." "You signed up for this!" "Fight me, shortie!" "I'M NOT SHORT!" "Whatever you say."