Breathe a Little [Colombia]

Izalene watched as Camila rubbed her arm nervously, because yeah, she could recognize a nervous tic when she saw it. However, a worried frown still flickered across Izalene's face as she watched it. There were several reasons for this. One of them is that Izalene could be observant, and this one was... this one was new. Except, no. It wasn't entirely new. Izalene had seen it before. It had just gone away after a little bit, and remembering the time period Izalene associated it with... Well, she had the right to be nervous that it was showing up again. The other reason she was worried, though, was because Camila shouldn't be nervous with her around the house. Sure, Izalene was sometimes in-your-face, but she thought that, in general, she wasn't the kind of person that would make people nervous. She hadn't made Camila nervous before, anyway.

So Izalene made a conscious decision: they were going to get drunk tonight. They were going to play football. They were going to watch ridiculous movies. And she'd make Camila laugh. She'd make her relax. They'd have fun, and they wouldn't talk about the fucking war more than was absolutely necessary. She was quite glad, actually, that she'd thought to come over to Camila's at all. Something seemed to be wrong, and clearly, it was Izalene's job to fix it the best she could! After all, Camila and herself were friends.

(Here is something Izalene doesn't like to admit: most of her friends are animals, and even though she's friendly with everyone, she's friends, truly friends, with too few. So she won't let this one be too hurt, got it?)

Camila got glasses, and Izalene pulled out the cachaça she'd brought. They'd both get a drink in a minute, probably, or at least, Izalene would drink, even if Camila wouldn't. Even if Izalene was the only one who liked cachaça outside of mixed drinks. Meh. She was pretty sure Camila wouldn't mind it, anyway, especially since Izalene had gotten one of the nice brands. She knew how to avoid all the junk ones being sold on the streets, too, and so she'd only brought one of her favorites.

And it was funny, too- had it been anyone else, when Camila suggested they share a bed, Izalene would have done more than raise a suggestive eyebrow and say "Sounds pretty nice to me." There would have been more said, at least a little more suggestion along with that because Camila was kinda cute, Izalene kinda liked the way she blushed. But her friend was nervous, and the last thing she wanted to do was to make her uncomfortable, or worse yet, ruin a friendship with her aversion to serious relationships. Mostly, though, she held back because as much as she loved that cute blush, she didn't want to see that cute blush while Camila rubbed her arm again, didn't want to see her so nervous in a way that made Izalene more worried in return.

She watched as Camila started to relax. She wondered if Camila realized she hadn't been joking, when she said that her social life had once consisted of an anteater and a frog. Izalene hadn't been talking very well when Portugal first found her, her head muddled by too many languages. She hadn't learned Portuguese very fast once he did, because he was convinced she was mute for a little while there. That hadn't done wonders for her social life, to say the least. Recently, too, visiting other people hadn't been that easy, and it had condensed back into a lot of animals. Izalene didn't really mind, though. She figured that counted, too. 

Izalene grinned wider at Camila's smile. "Good, because I plan on doing a lot of that," she said. And then, well, she decided to let that one rest, for now. She figured Camila didn't need to hear too much about her dick of a brother. She also probably didn't need to hear about how Izalene was more and more convinced she needed to tear him limb to limb and then let Apekũ have at him with his claws (largest of any mammal!). At the mention of the fact Camila thought Argentina was cute, well... "Well yeah, of course they're hot as fuck, but that doesn't make them any less irritating!" Izalene said, waving her hands around a bit as she did. She and Argentina had a... complicated relationship. Let's just leave it at that.

For a moment, things were looking good. Then, the moment she asked about Camila, the other girl's head went down, her face falling slightly. Izalene internally panicked for a moment. Great. This wasn't what she'd intended! She'd just wanted to hear if Camila had done anything interesting! However, it only took a moment for her to realize that her friend was hurting. She wanted to shake, no, maul some sense into that brother of hers. Couldn't he see was he'd gotten, right here, right in front of him? An idiot? Oh, definitely. He was acting worse than any of the colonial European bastards right now, or so screamed Izalene's heart. Her head knew a little better. That didn't make her any less angry.

Was it too much to ask to get back to that cute blush again?

She scrambled for words for a moment, because no, Camila was not just tired. They were all just tired to varying degrees, but there was something more going on here. Suddenly, Izalene was worried. She knew that Venezuela had made advances, but that didn't change her opinion on Camila in the slightest. No, she was mostly worried because she wasn't sure how to fix that, not when her own fronts were also burning. She wasn't sure how to fix any of this, but fuck that- they had problems, no one ever said they really needed fixing. They were all who they were. The best thing to do was to accept that, confront that, comfort that, and move on.

Situations like this called for a drink and some friendship and some laughter. Izalene grabbed the glasses that Camila had pulled out and poured some drinks. She poured the drinks, set them down, then draped her arm over Camila's shoulder and put on her biggest, brightest smile, guiding her down towards the table where they could sit down. She thought for a moment before grinning. "Did I ever tell you about that time Apekũ and I convinced our two idiots that all anteaters were girls? And that they had sex with their tongues? And they actually believed that?" She laughed widely, not caring that the subject change was clunky and obvious. "And I somehow managed to do it knowing no Spanish and a grand total of about, what, twenty words of Portuguese? Still not sure how I managed to get them to think that without having any actual ability to persuade them, like, at all..."