L:   Iremacht nodded good luck to Mandara although he felt he himself was the one who needed more luck to pull this through. It sounded simple enough, just one word and kneeling and standing. Granted, he wasn't naturally comfortable with the kneeling part; he hated submission. But it was just to be knighted for one day.

Iremacht took a seat next to Poland behind the curtain and asked him, "Have you watched these knighting ceremonies before? You visit Mandara on all his independence days, right?" As he talked, Iremacht waved over a crew member who had a mirror. He absentmindedly smoothed out his royal green clothes and adjusted the short cape at his shoulders to make sure he was presentable.

M:   "Of course, it is a very important part of this festival and I wouldn't miss it for the world," Poland said as he sat down next to Iremacht, "and I actually live full-time with Mandy. The humans in my country are more capable of running things on their own than here so they don't need me there 24/7, I do go back every other month to check on things but for the most part, I stay here."

Just then, a round of applause started as Mandara and MA came onto the stage from the opposite side. Mandara walked up to the podium in the middle while MA stood next to him like a bodyguard. The country gave a quick little wave to Poldara -who was sitting in the audience with everyone else- then began his opening speech.

"Greetings ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming to celebrate this very special day, the day our country had won against the Soviet Union." There was a bout of cheers and applause of celebration, once it died down Mandara continued, "I'm sure you all know the story and why this day is so important to me, but you should know that I wasn't the only one saved during that war. Countless men, women, and children were lucky to have been protected by the brave soldiers who fought to keep the Communists out, many of which never made it home to see this day. So let us honor those heroic souls who gave their lives so we could live ours."

With that, Mandara stepped away from the podium and withdrew with MA backstage, then several soldiers came on stage with instruments and started playing a bunch of memorial songs, including the national anthem of Mandara.

L:   As Iremacht hummed along to the national anthem, he said to Poland, "You're very dedicated to Mandara. Few countries are like that with their partners. When he was still the militant, my vater spent a lot of his time in Germany and Ireland spent most of his time in Ireland. I was always jumping between the two."

Iremacht tried peaking around the curtains for Poldara, but couldn't quite catch sight of the kid. He sighed, "Even though things are going to change for Polds, I envy the fact that he had a grounded life here."

He swallowed nervously at the mention of Poldara's planned departure to Poland, hoping again that Poldara would keep up an oblivious act. "Say, would you be going back to Poland if Poldara is being sent there?"

M:   Poland stared at Iremacht with an "Are you serious" look, did Iremacht really just ask that? He basically just asked if Poland was going to leave his own son by himself in a new country or not, and that made the country pretty mad.

"What kind of question is that?" Poland said curtly, "He's my son, Iremacht, I'm not just going to dump him in a new country and leave him to fend for himself, what kind of parent do you think I am?"

L:   "Alright, alright," Iremacht said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was just making sure, especially since you said you live full-time here. I don't trust human supervision and I suppose neither do you."

Iremacht folded his arms and leaned back in the chair, watching Mandara and MA on the stage. Mandara had said it would be very hard to let go of Poldara, and he would also be letting Poland go. At least he had MA, but if Mandara really did worry himself sick because Poldara and Poland were away, then it would be partially Iremacht's and Wehrmacht's fault - again - for bringing the idea up.

Iremacht craned his head to rest against the back of the chair and closed his eyes. "I want to go home ..."

M:   Poland's expression changed from irritated to confused at Iremacht's statement, wondering what he meant by that. Then he thought about what the militant said about jumping between Ireland and Germany with his parents, that must have been hard for him as a child to always be on the move and never truly getting to spend time with both dads at once. From what Wehrmacht said, it seems that Iremacht spent most of his childhood in Germany, now that he is Ireland's militant he probably hasn't been there in a long time.

"I'm sure you do," Poland said, "the feeling of being forced to work in a country that you weren't born in, to have to stay there and not be able to return to the place you feel most comfortable and secure in is a horrible thing to experience. I know that experience all too well from back in WWII, I didn't have a choice to go home, but you do Iremacht."

Poland brushed his wing against Iremacht's arm comfortingly, "I might not completely understand the duties and dedications of militants, but if you ever feel you need a break from Ireland to go back to Germany, then you do that. I know plenty of countries who have militants that don't spend all their time in their nations, sometimes they'll go visit other countries or even live in them, but they always come back when duty calls. If you miss your home, there is no one stopping you from going back for a while, if anything, Ireland would want you to do what makes you happy, because that's what dads do."

L:   Iremacht smiled gratefully at Poland. "Thanks. I needed that." Then he nudged Poland, "You know, I always felt like parents such as yourself are experts at counseling. I keep telling myself that I'm an adult now but I guess you don't really achieve adulthood until you have kids."

He paused, and his eyes grew distant as he started thinking about a certain person.

"Hey Poland," Iremacht said suddenly. "How did you meet Mandara? And was it a love at first sight kind of thing? What did he do for you to make you choose him?" Iremacht wouldn't admit it, but he was indirectly asking for dating advice.

M:   Poland's eyes widened at the sudden and off-topic question, "wow, th-that's a bit off-topic don't you think," he said with a small blush.

The country took a moment to recover from the initial shock before answering, "it's an interesting story actually, we met back in WWII when Third had invited him to Germany to discuss forming an alliance with him since he fought with the Central Powers in WWI. He never told me if he was planning on accepting it or not, but that's not important, I was more or less used as Third's personal servant so we saw each other pretty often while he was there. I was fairly young for a country at the time, being 40 or 50 years old, so I was nervous around someone who was centuries older and had such flashy wings. Mandy, on the other hand, couldn't take his eyes off of me, I could feel the flustered emotions from his wings so I had a fairly good idea that it was love at first sight for him."

Poland chuckled as he remembered Mandara's behavior, "as for how I chose him, it was a few things, first, he made a pact with Third to allow the Germans safe passage through his territory if Third allowed him to send relief supplies to my country. The second was how I almost lost him."

Poland let out a sad sigh, he leaned forward so his elbows were resting on his legs. "That night MA and I found him bleeding to death in that cell didn't only change those two, in that moment that he was fighting for his life and slowly dying, I realized how much I didn't want him to go. I know that sounds cliche, but I honest to god felt that if he died there wouldn't be anything else to live for, that's when I knew that I loved him."

Poland sniffled and wiped away a tear that was forming.

L:   "I see ..." Now Iremacht was the one patting Poland's arm in comfort. "But you all made it through. That's what matters."

Poland's story, however, sparked a tiny bit of fear in Iremacht. He hoped that he wouldn't realize his own love for someone in such a dire situation. Given his occupation though, dire situations were everywhere.

"You and MA saved Mandara and brought an amazing child to this world." He tried to lighten the mood by referencing the prior story about Mandara. "I'll bet 'Mandy' had hearts in his eyes while he was ogling you." At the mention of him, Iremacht peered back onstage to check if the host country was giving him any cues yet.