L:   The next morning, Wehrmacht woke up the same way he did the previous day. He popped out of his bed and shuffled to his son's room. The door was locked.

"I-Iremacht?" Wehrmacht said, wrapping his knuckles on the door. "Are you in there?"

"I'm pretending not to be," came his son's grumbling voice. "So I can sleep in more."

Wehrmacht let out a relieved chuckle. "Today's the big day, pal. We don't to be late to the Mandarians' festival."

He heard shuffling, then footsteps, then the lock turn and the door opened. Iremacht stared sleepily at him. Wehrmacht thought he looked a lot like his childhood self in the morning again, ready to make breakfast.

"Morning," Wehrmacht said. "I'll go wake Germany up."

"Cousin is not a morning person," Iremacht warned.

"Do you want to help me wake him?"

Iremacht smirked. "Get me a pillow."

M:   Poldara was the first to wake up, he was so excited for today that he made sure to set his alarm clock an hour early so he could get ready first. Once he was dressed and finished his morning grooming, he left his room and snuck to his dads' room to go wake them up. He knew that they didn't lock the door at night so Mandara's dog Flurry could come in and out as she pleased, so he snuck in without trouble. Flurry was sleeping at the foot of the bed but turned a blind eye when the kid came in.

Poldara got into position and flapped his wings to pounce on his sleeping parents and scream, "Wake up sleepy heads, today's the day!"

Poland and Mandara woke up with a start and Mandara almost smacked his son with his wing from fright, they settled down after they realized what happened, "Poldara, what are you doing in here, it's way too early for you to be up." Mandara groaned.

"Today is the independence day, get up, get up so we can go," Poldara beamed, shaking his parents to get them up faster.

"Ok, ok, we're getting up, go bug someone else while we do," Poland grumbled, "go see if the guests are awake."

"Ok," Poldara chirped, he got down from the bed and ran out the door with Flurry following, "Don't jump on their beds if they aren't!" Mandara called after them.

L:   Armed with pillows, father and son tiptoed to Germany's room in their socks. Unlike Iremacht, Germany didn't lock his door when a guest at someone else's house. Germany also didn't wake up when they entered his room.

Iremacht made the first swing with his pillow. It landed smack on Germany's face. Germany made a jerking movement and a sharp inhale. After Wehrmacht smacked him a second time with his pillow, Germany's eyes flew open just in time to see Iremacht's pillow coming towards his face.

"FUCK!" Germany bolted upright but he ended up charging right into the pillow and got hit anyway. "God DAMN IT - "

In his fury - and self-defense - Germany grabbed his own pillows so he was dual wielding and swung wildly at Wehrmacht and Iremacht. The invaders ran out of the room with Germany chasing them.

M:   Poldara and Flurry ran down the stairs to "go bug" the guests. They made it halfway down the hall when they heard angry shouting and running coming towards them. Poldara recognized the shouting as belonging to Germany, so with a split second of mental calculation, the kid and dog hid behind a corner and waited so they could ambush Germany.

A few seconds later, they heard at least three people coming towards them, so Poldara whispered to Flurry to follow his lead, and then he jumped onto the first person who ran by. Unfortunately, it was not Germany he pounced on, he was clinging onto Wehrmacht instead, but that didn't deter him, however, as he went about trying to tickle him to the ground, with Flurry helping by yanking on his shirt.

L:   "What the - " Wehrmacht went down in a pile of feathers and fur.

He lost his only weapon, the pillow, to the fierce tickling attack that Poldara was giving him. His wings flapped as he tried to catch his breath in between laughs and sent gusts of wind down the hall that knocked Iremacht over. Germany took that opportunity to pounce on his cousin and the two were rolling in a blur of pillow fighting.

They made enough noise to cause France to slam open her door. She too held a pillow but she was more alert because she thought an ambush was happening. Which, for Wehrmacht at least, was actually happening.

"POLDARA?" Wehrmacht glimpsed the kid before curling into a ball and trying to shield his face from Flurry's licks. "Where did you come from? What is happening??"

M:   "I came to bug you guys after jumping on dads' bed," Poldara answered innocently, "it looks like I was late to the party though."

Flurry barked in agreement and started trying to munch on Wehrmacht's wing, though she was being gentle since she knew wings were attached and it would hurt if she chewed on it too hard. Poldara on his end kept up the tickle attack, he was an expert at these so he knew exactly where to tickle to get the most laughter out of the German.

There was so much noise going on that everyone else in the estate heard the battle going on, Mandara, Poland, and MA could feel the excitement in their wings and were very confused as to what was going on. Belarus didn't have wings so she had ran to the commotion to make sure people were ok.

"What the hell is going on here?" she asked when she saw the battlefield.

L:   Iremacht was throwing his pillow at Germany, but Germany ducked so the pillow smacked France instead. France glared at them both. Germany and Iremacht exchanged a glance. Iremacht saw the rest of the estate had come upon their little war, so he did the only thing left to do.

He grabbed the pillow that Wehrmacht had dropped and chucked it at Poldara's face. "PILLOW FIGHT!"

France, with two pillows, had already joined in and was clobbering Germany. Wehrmacht was trying to get his wing out of Flurry's reach and crawling like an undead zombie towards the Mandarians and Poland, his face contorted with way too much laughter.

M:   Poldara fell backward from the force of the pillow smacking his face but got up quickly and retaliated by pouncing on Iremacht and tried smothering him with his feathers. Mandara and Poland had very conflicted looks on their faces, they weren't sure if they should be mad about the ruckus, or start laughing and join in. MA on the other hand was laughing his ass off, this had to be about the funniest thing he had ever seen.

Belarus and Poland decided to help Wehrmacht escape from the action, Poland shooed Flurry away and Belarus helped Wehrmacht stand up. While they helped the German, MA snuck away to grab a few more pillows from some of the guest rooms, and when he came back he hit Mandara in the back of the head with one. Mandara turned around and ended up getting a faceful of pillow, so naturally, he grabbed one and went at it with his brother.

Poland and Belarus decided to just watch the battle.

L:   Germany and France duked it out like history just went down all over again. Iremacht somehow got a mouthful of Poldara's feathers; he gagged and spat them out. His hand flailed around, brushed his fallen pillow, snatched it up, and shoved it in Poldara's face.

Wehrmacht gratefully accepted Belarus and Poland's help from the second dog attack of the visit. He stood up and straightened himself to regain his dignity, but he was utterly surprised to see that MA and Mandara had joined the fight. So he couldn't resist and picked up a pillow to get right back into battle. What a way to start the morning.

M:   This had to be about the most fun the Mandarians had in a long time, pillow fights were not a common occurrence since they didn't get many visitors. Tank finally decided to see what the fuss was all about and when he saw everyone having fun, he joined in too, grabbing a pillow in his mouth and started fighting with his sister.

"Last chance Derogan, yield," Mandara said, he pinned down MA by forcing him on his stomach and sitting on his back.

"Natin, we shaln't surrender to thou," MA said, deciding to use his old royal voice, "not until we have claimed what is our birth-right." MA then looked over to Poldara, who was fighting Iremacht over control of the pillow, "Poldara, we require assistance."

Poldara looked over to his uncle, he nodded and pried the pillow away from Iremacht and threw it at his dad's face. Mandara fell backward off of MA and the militant took the chance to crawl away and pounce onto his brother.

"How the tables have turned, dear brother," he teased, "dost thou surrender?"Mandara grunted, he knew that MA was stronger than him so it wasn't worth trying to get him off, so he nodded.

"Huzzah, we have won the battle, the crown now belongs to Derogan the Brave," MA announced.

L:   "We have a winner!" Germany announced, pointing at MA. He only called it out because he was losing against France and wanted the pillow fight to be done with. "Alright, alright, break it up. War's over!"

"I like war," declared Iremacht, tossing the pillow he had at Poldara one last time.

"Nein, Machty, war is not something to enjoy," Wehrmacht said. "It is much more brutal and frankly doesn't involve so many pillows."

Iremacht was going to make a rebuttal but remembered that he shouldn't be snarky today. He stood up and dusted himself off. Most of them weren't even dressed in proper clothes yet.

France started, "We should probably ..."

"Ja," said Wehrmacht, picking up pillows from the floor.

"Imagine if we arrived in our nightwear," Germany mumbled, going back to his room to get ready.

M:   "Aww, but we were having fun," Poldara whined, moving the pillow out of his face.

"They're right Blue-Jay," Poland said, "we have to get ready if we want to go to the festival."

Belarus nodded and took her leave to go do so. MA got off Mandara and helped him up, the two shaking their wings to knock off any loose feathers. "That had to be the most fun I had in a long time." Mandara declared, still laughing slightly.

"Agreed," MA said, "If this happened this morning, I can't wait for the rest of the day."

"Hold your horses you two, us three have work to do remember," Poland said.

MA and Mandara frowned, he didn't need to ruin the moment like that, but he was right, "we know, you need to learn to have a little fun, Dove, all work and no play makes for a dull personality." Mandara said.

Poland rolled his eyes, "and all play no work makes for a bad independence day, Mandy. And besides, the sooner we get our chores done, the sooner we can have fun."

"Ok ok, we'll go," Mandara said, he turned to the others, "we will probably be gone by the time you all are ready, I hope you don't mind walking yourselves to the park."

"Or babysitting the little soldier," MA added, Poldara responding with a mischievous look.