My angel [Vietnam]

The trouble with a war like this is that it's often difficult to fully pinpoint who is being aggressive and who is being defensive. If one nation - fearing another - gathers their army, which then causes their enemy to believe that they're about to be attacked, prompting them to take preemptive action to protect themselves from this threat, which is then taken as provocation for an all-out war, who is really the aggressor and who is the defender? Likely both nations would cast themselves as the victim.

And Vietnam has seen enough war to know that pretty much all of them are like that. Who went after who first? Does it even matter? Either way she still believes that she was provoked into war and is simply defending herself - if everyone else is going to cast themselves as the victim, why can't she? Especially since she is just defending herself. Well, herself and her brother's southern shores.

Oh, she may be accused of conquering, but really she just brought Cambodia back into her house - which is simply restoring things to how they should be, so it hardly counts as conquering - and then there's the islands she's positioned her forces on. But that's purely to keep everyone else away from them - what is she supposed to do, wait until they're on her doorstep? As far as she's concerned, her enemies are not welcome to set one foot on her land - and that means engaging them before they get close. She can't do that without a number of very strategic islands under her control. It's not like she's gone after Australia and tried to conquer him yet - she doesn't even have the forces for that yet!

His remark about how Russia sees her causes her eyebrow to raise just a little. "Should I be offended that you think this is news to me?" she asks him rhetorically, her expression becoming quite calm as she states, "As long as he acts as my friend, I will act as his friend - if he does not, I will not." Though her tone is quite light, there's just a small hint of that same dark note that had more fully shown itself when she'd spoken of her victory over America at the end.

But that hint of darkness disappears instantly when he winks, as it causes her to laugh again - this time more openly because she's not as afraid that it will offend Is she adorable or is she ruthless? She is both. Though she'd assume that he'd be more bothered if he knew exactly how much of her laugh was at him instead of with him - though it would be a lie to say that it was entirely that. As much as her history has given her reason to dislike Europeans, she does have to admit that all of them have a certain exotic charm to her eyes. And unlike in the past where she felt that she was practically helpless against their foreign ways and devices, she's now able to see them more as equals instead of some fearful superpower.

And this man in particular has the bonus of not being on her list of nations she has a specific grievance with, and his cockiness is adorable. So perhaps he is convincing her that all Europeans aren't terrible - or at least he's making a good start of it so far. "Perhaps I can convince you that all communists aren't ma quỉ - evil things," she responds with a smile when her amusement dies down enough to allow her to speak.

Just because Vietnam counts Russia as her best friend doesn't mean that she considers him to be a good friend. No, he's simply the least terrible - most of the nations that she's had any significant relationship with before has been simply awful to her lately in one way or another, while he's actually been quite nice to her. But that doesn't mean that she's blind to the way that he treats others or imagines that she's somehow special and doesn't need to worry that he'll do the same to her someday.

After all, in the grand scheme of things their relationship hasn't lasted for very long - while they're both quite old nations and have known of each other for quite some time thanks to China, they really hadn't had much to do with each other until the Vietnam War. Before that she'd been taken over by France, and before that had been another era - when the fact that Russia's house was all the way on the other side of China's lands was considered to be a considerable distance. So it could simply be that Russia hasn't gotten around to doing anything extremely unpleasant to her yet - possibly because he doesn't seem to actually care about her very much. And while it's really irritating when your best friend doesn't really care about you, that's also quite refreshing when compared to all the nations who decide to not only pay attention to but strongly disapprove of everything you do.

When he steps forward, she holds her ground - not appearing to be even the least bit intimidated by his size and closeness. In fact, she looks at him directly in the eyes in a bold manner reminiscent of someone looking at someone the same size if not smaller than herself. She smiles at his words, still looking amused though any actual laughter is being contained. "Socialist?" she asks, her smile becoming teasing as she comments, "Well... that's a start." She makes no attempt to touch him either, but because that includes not hitting him with her oar again, that can only mean that she doesn't object to this invasion of her personal space.

In fact, when he comments on the quality of the rations, she says, "Ours aren't anything special either, but is the company not more important than the meal?"

"Who is wearing who down?" Vietnam asks him, her voice and expression teasing. Though when he glances around, it encourages her to do the same and remember that they're still in the middle of a battle. Not a battle that she's that invested in, but it's still a battle and she's not normally one to try too hard to avoid them. She may not feel like this fight is that important to her interests, but it's still enough to get her blood flowing.

Though his comment on the idea of her being behind bars causes her to frown and say, "It would not be the first time." Nor likely to be the last, for that matter - she has far more passion when it comes to war than actual success, and though she's now more powerful than she's ever been and success seems far more likely, she's not about to assume that she'll never wind up in that situation again. She's just more likely to be able to escape quickly, is all.

But she can't help but feel warm at the tickle of his words in her ear, and the look that she gives him as he writes on her hand is certainly intrigued enough - she'll probably call the number. Though he's quite right that there's a battle to be fought first. But it's the way that he indicates that they should get back to the battle that causes her to act as she does next - he's much too cocky and confident, isn't he? Shifting her oar to let it lean against the building once more, she suddenly takes a step back, and as she does so she slides the rifle back off of her shoulder with the smooth ease of someone who is very familiar with the weapon. In an instant it's pointed right at his head.

"Ten seconds," she says, a certain fierceness in her expression indicating that yes, in spite of their preceding conversation she is going to shoot him if he doesn't take advantage of the time she's giving him. All's fair in love and war, right? Besides, if she didn't like him, she wouldn't give him any time at all, and if she does shoot him it's not like he won't get better. And if he faults a dragon for being both fierce and competitive, then he shouldn't be asking one out on a date.