Icebreaker at Dawn

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((Let's roll with... February 10th, early morning? Just for Tara and Iceland.))

The Boston teen couldn't sleep very well the night before. Her ponytail had fallen apart in her sleep, so she opted to put it into a messy bun in the early morning. From as far as she could tell, she was the only one up at the time. Tara had conflicting feelings about that. Sure, she liked the quiet, but at the same time, she longed for some sort of company in the morning. Sullivan figured it was best not to obnoxiously wake up a bunch of people so she didn't feel alone. She could deal with a few hours of being up on her own, right? Right.

Aquatic hued eyes wandered over to a window. It seemed like it was early enough that she could catch the sunrise. Sounded as good of a plan as any to her. Throwing on her jacket, she made her way outside, doing her best to keep as quiet as possible. "Please tell me I didn't wake anyone up by shutting the door." she muttered to herself as she shut the door. After the kidnapping extravaganza, someone would probably make a big deal out of it and go on a hunt for her. Like she needed that this early in the morning. She inhaled the cool air, exhaling with a sigh.

She sat down outside, watching the sky. For whatever reason, she sorta wished that someone else was up too. She figured she should be a bit more social. The handful of people she talked to weren't too bad. Sure, they may have been a little soft, but they weren't awful. Tara thought that it might be a good plan to branch out a bit.

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As if by similar coincidence, the Icelandic adolescent also had his own troubles sleeping that night, tossing and turning, tired yet restless at the same time like an unsteady balance. His mind was still uncertain about the war and why he was here. Would he ever go home to his island again, and what about Norge, Finland, Sweden and heck even Denmark! He would miss him too. "Nghh..."The sound of a sigh like groan escaped his mouth as he continued to lay in his current position on his bed, unable to move as Mr.Puffin slept on his head, and Iceland knew that the auk would through a huge fit, and be more obnoxious than usual if he woke up. So he just rested there for hours, as his energy continued to slip away.

It only took an hour before the first rays of light had dawned on the Icelander's room, light hitting his violet eyes. "Damn it." He growled through tired annoyance. "I guess there is no use in trying to sleep now." He told himself, figuring it was best to get up now than later, it wasn't like anyone else was awake at this early hour. Being careful, in not waking up his pet puffin, Iceland gingerly picked up his sleeping form from his head and placed him on his pillow. With that over, he then proceeded to groom himself up a bit, including brushing his teeth, cleaning his face and fixing up his silvery hair a bit. he then took off his pajamas and placed on his pants, dress shirt and bow, and the finally, his brown jacket over it.

Iceland then left his dorm to explore around the Critic's house for a bit, curiously yet thoughtfully looking around, studying his new home. It was then that he noticed that a nearby window was open, and someone was outside. Wasn't that the girl from the other night who arrived roughly around the same time as him. The Icelander figured he should've socialized some more as well, being an island country and all, aside from hanging out with his brothers and the other Nordics, he lived a life of solitude. If he was going to be stuck in this horrible situation he might as well make the best of it. After a tired sigh, he approached the window where Tara was sitting and walked outside, numb to the cool nip of the February air as he was used to it from living so far north.

"Hello." He greeted her awkwardly as he walked over to her, exuastion evident in his violet orbs.

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Tara jumped at the sound of a voice. She looked at the owner of the voice and sighed with relief. He didn't seem like the type of person who'd yell at her for being up so early. She figured she should stand up to speak with the male, thus she got herself up on her feet. "Hey, uh, good morning." she greeted back, rubbing her teal colored eyes. It was still early, and Tara could swear she was quiet enough when she got up. Perhaps he was unable to sleep as well. It seemed reasonable, especially since she could see the exhaustion in his eyes. She recognized him from the night she first arrived. Coincidentally enough, she was tired then too.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Tara stuffed her hands in her pockets, glancing down at her dark shoes before looking back up at the Nordic adolescent. "I don't think we've formally... met yet. I'm Tara, Tara Sullivan. Sorry I'm not exactly at my pristine best this early in the morning. I figured I was going to actually get ready for the day later in the morning." It was early enough in the morning that Tara was in a fair mood, not having any snappy comebacks in her head. She didn't want to be yelling and waking up everyone this early anyway. Then again, she didn't really want to be the one waking up everyone in general.

Even though she'd been a bit startled by the Nordic's presence at first, she was honestly glad she didn't have to wait around much longer for someone to talk to. It was getting lonely out there.

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(ooc: So sorry for the long wait. /sobs)

Emil only nodded as Tara initially spoke. "Yes. I guess you could say that." He only said, motioning a bit closer to the girl, his glance turned to the rising sun, golden rays peeking over the endless horizon line, it's crisp beauty exciting him a bit. The young Nordic was eventually snapped out of his trance when he heard Tara speak again. "Oh, uh nice to meet you Miss Tara." He addressed formally, like he did with all females that he first met. "I'm Iceland, you know like the country?" He asked her, which would've served as a factor in determining that the female was either from a completely different dimension that his own, or he would just get a blank stare on why he was named after a country.

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Tara took some time to glance at the sunrise. At that time, Tara believed that maybe getting up so early wasn't so bad. Besides, if she was going to be in the army, she had to be able to get up early. Aqua eyes blinked back to Iceland once she heard the male speak again. Miss Tara. Well, he was certainly a formal fellow. Then she heard his name, and she had to raise an eyebrow at that. Iceland? Well, sure, she'd heard of girls being named America, but she hadn't really heard of any other country name catch on as a human name.

"Iceland? Huh. Interesting name you got there. I'm guessing you're from Iceland too, right?" Tara said, removing her hands from her pockets. "I mean, you must be foreign with that accent you have, and you probably come from your namesake." Maybe Iceland was a popular foreign name? Tara considered that possibility, but instead cast it aside. It just seemed bizzare to her to have a country as a name.

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The Icelander was quite surprised that the girl didn't react much more to his strange name. True, it was much better than a sour response, but still he wasn't quite used to it. "Yes, I guess you could say that." He replied taking a breath of the numbing air and glancing back towards the sunrise, satisfied that he could savor such an admirable site.

"You could also call me Emil, if it easier for you." He piped once more, his gaze turning from the awakening sun back to Tara. He glanced at her for a brief moment. She was pretty, Iceland couldn't deny that. Honestly it made him feel a bit nervous and rather inferior in comparison to her. As he felt an awkward feeling amongst their presence, the silver haired youth began to speak once more. "Lovely sun rise, isn't it?" He asked her, violet eyes gazing towards the rising sun again.

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Tara wasn't quite sure what to make of his first comment. You could say that? Tara wouldn't pester him about the situation and move on. She wasn't one to pry into someone's personal life. It would prompt the other party to ask about her own personal life, which wasn't something she was keen on revealing. When he mentioned she could call him Emil, Tara decided it might be easier to remember. Unless she came up with some sort of nickname for him. Then she'd probably stick with that. Her attention drifted to what Iceland had been looking at. The sunrise. She briefly glanced back at the Nordic adolescent. He was certainly an interesting young man. From what Tara could tell, he must have been roughly around her age. There weren't too many people around here that were roughly her age. Typically, everyone on this side of the war seemed to be in their 20's or 30's, or they were young children who didn't quite grasp the knowledge of being a soldier. The humans were at least. There were also quite a few animals, but Tara wasn't used to the concept of talking animals and she was honestly terrified of them. It was nice to have someone around her age to talk to, especially a guy to talk to. Tara wasn't used to feminine topics to talk about, as most of her friends were guys. It was far more comfortable to talk to a guy than a girl to Tara.

The Bostonian glanced back to the rising sun before responding. "Yeah. It's pretty nice. I just love the sunrise. I guess it's a perk that comes along with getting up early. I'm always getting up early. Even when I was little, I'd be getting up and watching the sunrise." A warm, small, and genuine smile hit her lips when she spoke. She had some good memories associated with the sunrise. The female adolescent looked back towards Iceland. "Do you get anything pretty like that back home?"

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Pretty things back at home? Ha! He had plenty of those. "Actually yes I do." He said, eyes briefly turning from the rising morning star and back to Tara. "I'm the country of Iceland you know, we have volcanoes, springs and other wonderful sights like the Blue Lagoon, the Gullfoss Falls, the Geyser," He told of his sights his voice growing more dreamy as he thought of home and how much he truly missed it, no matter how obnoxious his family was. "There's also the Midnight Sun in the Winter and you cam see the Aurora on certain nights." He finished looking back at Tara.

" I know there are more touristic countries out there, but I call it home. Too bad not many other people see it that way." He sighed, remembering his recent dip in tourist attraction while more southern countries seemed to be getting good attention about it. "And what about, where are you from?"

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Tara listened intently to what Iceland said. She couldn't help but notice he said he was the country of Iceland. She cocked an eyebrow at that. Did he legitimately think he was an actual country, or did he just take some serious pride in his homeland? Tara brushed it aside for now. Iceland sounded like a nice place to go to. There seemed to be a lot of natural beauties to stare at whenever someone visited, which surprised Tara when the male adolescent said there were more touristic countries. Although, when he mentioned touristic countries, her mind quickly wandered back to her own home. Her own hometown was pretty touristic. It was as if the Icelander had read her mind when he asked about where she was from. Her perplexed expression quickly transformed into a far more neutral one at that question. The Bostonian offered a shrug in response.

"Eh, I'm nothing special when it comes to my hometown. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, right here in the US of A," Tara verbally responded to the question. "It's nice I guess. It's home. There's the ocean nearby, so that's a plus. I've got a nice family back there I guess. At least, what's left of it." Tara had muttered the last sentence, directing it more towards herself. She readjusted her dog tags slightly before speaking again.

"I think I'm getting homesick out here. I hate that feeling. I mean, it's pretty depressing at home, don't get me wrong, but now I'm stuck in a war. Not exactly a better situation to be put in if you ask me. I can't imagine you're feeling great either, since you come from a much farther place than I do." The teen forced a chuckle after that. Why was she revealing so much to this guy? Probably because she needed to talk to someone for just a little bit, not to mention she was used to talking to males around her age.

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Emil listened attentively as Tara talked about where she had hailed from. Boston, it was one of America's cities if he recalled correctly-it wasn't like he spent much time learning about and socially with other countries outside of his Nordic family. "Well, that's nice to here." He spoke up, catching the emptiness with her last sentence. Mentally contemplating on whether he should ask her if everything was fine, until she spoke up again.

"Hmm, tell me about it. I'm a country that hardly fights, and now that I'm in a war, it's a bit overwhelming for me." He rolled out a rare smile that hardly anyone ever saw. "But, it's kind of a good break from my crazy family." Iceland finished thinking about Denmark annoying Norway while the latter shot back snarky comments at him, while Sweden gave Finland stares of affection with Sealand never to far away. "But, maybe it will be a matter of tome before I miss them." He ended with a sigh, feeling more comfortable talking with this girl, she seemed pretty relaxed and chilled, unlike some of the females he had met.

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There was the country talk again. Odd. Did he really think he was a country? The question rattled around in her mind once more, but she just brushed it aside again. She was sure there were going to be better opportunities to ask about it. She noticed a smile on his face when he spoke and couldn't help but smile herself. She heard him talk about his crazy family, however, and wasn't sure what to make of it. She was the only child to a single parent, so the only family she had was her mother and her paternal uncle, the latter she didn't see nearly as much.

"I'm sure my family misses me pretty bad," Tara responded, her tone growing a bit more serious. "But, I can't say that I don't enjoy being away from the depressed zone over there. I have to agree that it's a nice break." When she heard him say it would be a matter of time until he missed them, a few bittersweet memories flew by. "Yeah. It usually takes a while until it really starts to sink in how much you miss someone. I miss my mom quite a bit. And my dad, him too. I miss him a lot."