Chapter 6: 1939: France PoV:

“So… what do we do now?”

France looked up from where she was petting Mouchette, her mostly normal tabby with white Maine Coon. She had invited B.E over to chat about what was happening, mainly that Reich and Soviet were doing practically nothing, well, to provoke action from the West.

“I don’t know,” France sighed, shaking her head. She didn’t know how to say that Reich had “met” her a couple of years before this all started. She was still haunted by that.

“Not so high and mighty now, are we~?”

B.E nodded, his lips pursed tightly together in a grim expression. “If we provoke him, he’ll just attack like a rabid dog. But if we don’t…” B.E trailed off, his eyebrows furrowing as his eyes darkened. He didn’t need to finish that sentence. France knew what he meant.

She nodded, closing her eyes against the subtle burning sensation at the corners of her eyes. Her lips pulled tightly together, nodding slightly. She didn’t want to remember, but when she did, invisible knives stabbed her heart and thighs.

“You don’t need these pesky-”

Mouchette mewed softly, placing a paw on France’s chest. She blinked, not even realizing she had let the silence go on for too long. B.E was just looking at her in a mildly concerned manner.

She looked down at Mouchette, continuing to run her hand over the cat’s soft back. “Sorry, I got lost in my mind,” She apologized, blinking a couple of times. She couldn’t allow anyone to know, not yet.

B.E nodded, leaning back into his chair. “Understandable. This is a hard time for all of us.”

“Yeah…”

Notes: Maine Coons actually did originate from Maine, America! They were around in the 1860s, but their population declined starting in 1895 due to an influx of other (exotic) cat breeds like the long-haired Persian cat. In the late 1970s, their population started to increase due to the CFA (Cat Fanciers Association, founded in 1906. Not to be confused with the other CFA [Chartered Financial Analyst] which was founded in 1962), which is the largest cat registry in the world, acknowledging it and registering the breed. The first Winter War did start on November 30th, 1939, and it’ll stay the same for this. The period we are in now is called the Phoney War, since there was virtually no action on the Western Front from September of 1939 to April or May (depending on who you ask) of 1940. There was war that raged at sea, just not on land. That’ll also be mostly the same for this as well.