Humming lightly to yourself, you rummaged through the cupboards of your kitchen, looking for the right ingredients for a cake. Your classes had been cancelled due to the torrential downpour outside and you hadn’t done any real baking in a while, so this was the perfect opportunity for it. You just hoped the power would manage to last long enough for you to finish.

But you would worry about these things as they came. For right now, all that mattered was getting your stuff together and starting the baking process. And of course you couldn’t just settle with the boxed stuff! Nope! Making things from scratch was much more satisfying in your opinion.

You continued making your way around the kitchen, occasionally going back to your recipe to make sure you were getting the proper ingredients. Before long, you had everything set out nicely on one side of the counter, all ready to go. So with an excited smile you got to work.

It wasn’t too long before you were pouring the batter into a pan and setting it in the oven to cook. You sighed lightly and started cleaning up the small mess you’d made, contemplating what kind of icing you wanted to put on the cake.

“What do I even have?” you muttered, finishing your cleaning and going back to your cupboards. You pulled out a stepping stool once you realized all the icing was on a top shelf and set it down, stepping up and straining to reach the containers.

“Wow, something smells good in here.”

You shrieked and flailed before toppling backwards, knocking some of the cans you’d touched down in the process. Before you could hit the ground though, a pair of arms caught you and yanked you out of the way of the falling baking goods.

“That was a close one,” the person said, straightening while continuing to hold you bridal style. “Are you alright, miss?” You took this opportunity to look at the person responsible for your near heart attack and almost forgot to breathe when you looked at him.

“Miss? Are you alright?”

“I-I-I-…” Not your most eloquent response, but what could you do when the male version of Hungary was in your kitchen and holding you in his arms? Hungary looked at you worriedly and gently set you down in a chair, kneeling in front of you and holding your face to look into your eyes.

“I hope you’re not going into shock or anything,” he muttered, checking to make sure your eyes were focused. You turned bright red and hastily pushed his hands away from your face.

“I’m fine…Really.”

“Are you sure?” When you nodded, he stood up, still keeping an eye on you just in case.

“…You’re Hungary,” you muttered, putting a hand to your forehead.

“How did you-… Yes I am.”

“…….And you’re a guy.”

“…Should I not be?”

“You’re not…normally a guy.”

“Why would you say that? Actually, how do you even know all this?” A groan escaped you as you stood and made your way to your bedroom, motioning for him to follow. Once in your room, you brought your laptop out of sleep mode and began showing him his female counterpart as well as himself. The look on his face flashed between confusion and disbelief as you explained Hetalia and Nyotalia to him.

“So, yeah. That’s about it,” you finished, looking up at him hesitantly. Hungary was still staring at an image of himself on the screen, his face blank.

“Is there any way to get home?” he asked, eyes unfocused.

“I wouldn’t know,” you said quietly, feeling useless. He just nodded before slowly sitting on the floor, looking a little defeated.

“Hey, it’s not, so bad! I-I mean, you could, you know, uh stay with me! Yeah! Since you don’t have um, anywhere else to go and I can’t just, kick you out,” you stammered out, freaking out a little and not wanting him to look so sad. Hungary looked up at you in surprise.

“You would do that?”

“Of course!” you said, nodding vigorously.

“Well…thank you, Miss…um.”

“(Name). You can call me (Name).”

“(Name). Well you can call me Daniel then. Thank you for helping me out.”

“Never a problem, Daniel. Never a problem.”


--Timeskip—


You sighed happily as you looked through pictures of you and Daniel that were taken in the year he’d been living with you. It was hard to believe so much time had passed. It felt like he’d only been here a few months. But you had never been happier than you had during this past year.

You muffled another giggle as you looked through the pictures, trying not to get Daniel’s attention. You were making a scrapbook for him to celebrate his anniversary but didn’t get a chance to work on it when he was at his job. So instead, you’d holed yourself up in your room, telling him you were studying for an exam, and begun cutting and pasting the images into a binder.

Looking back through some of these pictures made you realize just how important Daniel had become to you. If he ever did leave, you’d have a hard time getting used to being without him. He’d made such an impact on you and you didn’t even realize it until after it had happened.

You pasted the last photo in and lightly ran your fingers down it, wondering if you’d become this important to him.

“I guess I’ll find out,” you muttered, picking up the scrapbook and standing, heading out to the living room. You peeked in and when you saw him on the couch, hid the book behind your back and stepped over to him. Daniel looked up at you and smiled, setting the book he’d been reading down next to him.

“Did you get your studying done?”

“Uh, yeah. Hey, can you close your eyes for a sec?”

“Um, alright,” he said, hesitantly shutting his eyes and waiting for an explanation. Instead of saying anything, you just placed the scrapbook in his lap and sat next to him. The weight on his legs made him open his eyes and look down before looking at you in surprise but also confusion.

“Happy Anniversary,” you said, smiling, by way of explanation. Daniel’s face broke into a grin as he wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you close.

“Thank you, (Name),” he said as he flipped open the book. Daniel kept you right next to him as he began looking through the pages, both of you breaking into laughter at some or smiling fondly at others. He finally got to the last page and shut the book, still smiling. He let go of your shoulders to lean forward and set the scrapbook on the coffee table before turning to you.

“I got you something as well, (Name).”

“What? You didn’t have to.”

“Please. This is the only way I can think to properly thank you,” he said, a nervousness creeping into his voice. “Can you close your eyes for me?” After an unsure pause, you nodded and shut your eyes, waiting for whatever he was going to give you. When you felt a warm pressure on your lips, your eyes shot open to see Daniel right in front of you. He pulled away after a moment and opened his eyes to look into yours.

“I love you, (Name),” he said quietly, all the hope he felt that you returned his feelings and fright that you would reject him on his face.

You very slowly leaned forward and pressed your lips to his again for a second before leaning back to look at him.

“I love you too, Daniel,” you said, just as quietly.

You could honestly say you’d never seen him smile brighter.