Summer Picnic

After several days of non-stop rain the sun finally began to show itself through the thick grey clouds that slowly dispersed from the sky. Such a lovely day could only be celebrated in one way, with a picnic.So Sealand, in hopes of being recognized as a country, invited all the other countries over to his brother England's house with a request for each to bring one of their favorite dishes.

Russia was very happy to receive an invitation to England's summer picnic. Not only would it give him a chance to possibly see the Baltics and China again, but maybe he could finally convince everyone to become one with him. He quickly set about preparing a basket of pirozhki and vodka; once this was done, he headed over to England's house for the picnic.

England is sitting on the couch in the living room sipping on a cup of tea. It was a lovely day today, the weather outside simply fantastic. With a contented sigh, he took another sip of his tea, planning to enjoy the rest of the day in peace. Sealand had been around the house, but he paid no heed to it, unaware of Sealand's plans and possibly, the arrival of other nations.

Sea-kun scurried around jerk England's back yard setting up tables and chairs and even a volleyball net and other lawn games Sealand found in the jerks shed, taking a few sips of melon soda every now and then. Sea-kun loved to annoying his older brother and a bonus for Sea-kun is when the jerk's house is destroyed.

The house was quiet, too quiet... Save for the sounds that were coming from the backyard. He raised an eyebrow and decided to go check on Sealand. N-Not because he cared or anything, h-he just did not want to be held responsible if anything happened to Sealand, that was all! With that, he opened the backdoor and found Sealand doing... Whatever he was doing. He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "What, pray do tell me, are you doing, Sealand?"

Sea-kun turned around, head tilted back and melon soda top in his mouth. "Sea-kun isn't doing anything Sea-kun just got a little bored and decided to dig through the shed desu yo. Its not that weird Sea-kun's done it before you shouldn't be that surprised desu yo."

Sealand goes back goes to setting up the yard.

England furrowed his eyebrows. He was not in the mood to deal with this right now. Sealand was not doing anything that is potentially dangerous so he decided to let it go. Just this once and because he did not want to ruin a perfectly peaceful day.

"F-Fine. So long you clean up the yard after this." He threw a warning glare. "And my house better be still in one, complete piece at the end of the day."

Sealand mumbles under his breath "yeah right" and continues his work. Sea-kun wonders if anyone accepted the invitation or if Sea-kun will have to enjoy the summer sun alone. Placing the last table cloths on a long line of tables, Sea-kun sits down drink a melon soda and waits for some company.

As if on cue, Russia arrived at England's house at that moment, walking around to the backyard and finding Sea-kun setting things up. "Hey, Sea-kun," he said, "thanks for inviting me, да!"

Sea-kun fell backwards, partly due to rocking a cheap flimsy lawn chair on two legs and partly because the first guest was Russia of all countries. Getting up and dusting off Sea-kun greeted him. "Hello R-russia, you're the first country to arrive. What did you bring?"

Sea-kun looks over to the window to see his that jerk had seen Russia, but that isn't a problem that jerk must get guests all the time...right?

Russia smiled at the young micronation. "Да, I am the first to arrive, but that can be a good thing, да? And I brought pirozhki and vodka; where should I put it?"

Sea-kun points to a table on the other side of the yard "You can just put it over there and yes the more the merrier" Sea-kun looks over at the melon soda now spilling all over the ground. Sea-kun shrugs and goes to the cooler to grabs another one then sets up the lawn chair that tipped over.

England was about to go back to sipping on his tea, that is until, he saw Russia in his backyard from the window. And so with that, he went back to the backyard and shot a glare at Sealand.

"You better have a bloody good reason for this, you little prat."

He looked over to Russia. As a gentleman, he must play a good host to his guests, invited or not. He settled for giving him a slight greeting bow. "Good afternoon, Russia. What brings you here today?"

Russia walked over and set the food on the table, before turning upon hearing England speak. "Ah, привет, Англия!" he said, smiling at the Brit. "Sea-kun invited us all here for a picnic, да! It will be so much fun to see everybody, да!"

Most certainly not! Is what he would like to say but instead, he turned to Sealand.

"Invited? All? I do not recall you getting any permission from me to use my house to organise a picnic."

"Sea-kun doesn't have to explain anything to you. Sea-kun is just here to enjoy the sunshine."

After hearing Russia's comment Sea-kun smiled "Do you want Sea-kun to tell all the other nations that jerk England decided to rain on their nice sunny day and decided to cancel their fun?"

Russia smiled at both of them. "Да, Англия," he said, smiling the whole time, "do you really want to deprive Sea-kun and the others of a chance to enjoy the warm sun? That would not be very nice, да?"

England groaned inwardly and scowled. It would most certainly be rude of him to turn down a guest who had took the trouble to visit.

"J-Just this once. And, I repeat, Sealand. I want to see my house in one, complete piece at the end of the day. Are you clear?"

"That is much better, Англия." Russia said, smiling, as he grabbed a lawn chair and took a seat, taking a bottle out of the bag he had brought and beginning to drink it as he waited for more countries to show up.

Sea-kun nodded half-heartedly at the jerk and continued to drink the melon soda, unconsciously leaning on it two legs again. Sea-kun wouldn't do anything but also wouldn't stop the other nations from having fun and if that fun destroyed England's house it'd only be a plus.

England sighed.

"All right then. I suppose I should prepare some food for the guests." The opportunity to cook was the only good thing that came out from this bollocks. With that he turned back into the house for the kitchen.

Sea-kun continued drinking melon soda and digging in his pocket for the chocolate bar brought over from Sea-kun's own house. It was a little squishy but oh well. Sea-kun didn't mind eating the jerk food, sea-kun would rather have pasta from Italy or sweets from Japan. Even a hamburger from America sounded so much better then the same stuff jerk England always fed Sea-kun.

England got into the kitchen and set about to begin his work. He was going to seize this golden opportunity and show everyone just how bloody delicious his cooking is!

"Right." He said to himself as he brought out a cookbook from a shelf. He looked through the book and stopped at a page. "Cream scones it is then."

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (75 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream

He began to look through the shelves and drawers for the ingredients, only to find that he had ran out of granulated white sugar. He groaned. How bloody fantastic. He then had a brilliant idea; To replace the sugar in the recipe with salt instead. After all, if he put more of the correct ingredient, it would still be the same, right? Right. With that, he threw in an additional 1/4 cup extra worth of salt. After that was done, he put the mixture into the oven.

He looked at his watch. He had no time, the guests might arrive any minute. He checked the cookbook again. It was to bake for twenty minutes under 190C. He gave a smug grin.

He could reduce that timing by half.

He turned the oven on to 380C and placed the tray of raw scones in.

Perfect.

Now all we need is ten minutes.

After a few minutes of enjoying the sun and melon soda when the smell of something burning came from the house, and something thats wasn't sweet at that. Sea-kun ran into the house to see what was going on.

England is now sitting on a stool in the kitchen, calmly sipping on tea as smoked spewed out from the oven. He was oblivious, or rather, used to this. He had always thought smoke is normal in the process of baking so he paid no mind to it. He looked up when he heard footsteps and saw Sealand.

"Ah. Sealand, not to worry. It should be done soon."