Happy Anniversary, Hetalia! Ten years of personifying countries and not nearly as long of ruining my life. I haven't been in this fandom for very long but it sure has brought me far. This fandom has not only opened my eyes to many new things, but has also brought me closer to new people and helped me become more comfortable with my writing. We should all thank Hima for creating Hetalia and our fellow Hetalians old and new for keeping it alive.

I'm sorry to say that this oneshot is for Queenie and Princess or whatever nicknames you guys prefer nowadays. I say sorry because I suck at oneshots but you guys probably won't see it anyway! Thanks for being great friends!

It is also for Sand who has been my friend on fanfiction and helps me to keep at it when my lazy butt slacks off. Thanks for being a friend and putting up with my sucky update schedule.

Now that I've been mushy and stuff, on with the story! I tried to make the language more juvenile because of their ages, so it probably sounds a bit weird. Also, sorry for the title.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Sadık liked cats. He really did. The problem was: cats didn't like him.

Sadık was four years old at the time. He was still of preschool age and had a busy mother. It wasn't her fault; she was a single mother making a living for her family after all. This meant, though, that Sadık was stuck at some lady's house most days during the summer when school was out. In fact, he was there more than any other kid, being there for twelve hours a day for six days a week.

Sadık missed his anne a lot during the week. That's what he called his mama, his mom, his mommy. He loved when she would cook dinner and they would eat at their little table in their shared house. Their family made up of two, but they shared their house with another family. Sadık didn't see them often because most times he was gone all day from the home, but when he did run into them in the hallway leading from the basement to the kitchen their teenage girls were kind of snobby to him. Never mind him being a cute little toddler; apparently these girls did not care for that one bit.

Him and his mother had a room downstairs in the basement. It wasn't old or leaky or hot as one would expect from a room in the basement. It certainly wasn't big or pretty either. It was a living space and that's what his mother paid for. Sadık had his big boy bed on one side of the room and his mom had her own on the other. They had a closet and a nice window even! Sadık's anne knew they couldn't live their forever, her having a growing boy and all, but for now it would do.

It was the summer time now and Sadık was excited for the time he could spend outdoors. He didn't think much about leaving preschool because school wasn't too much of a hassle for him unless he disagreed with other students. He didn't think much about going into kindergarten next year either, though his mother kept telling him how he was going to be such a big boy now in the older classes. Instead of spending his summer outside, though, Sadık found himself locked up in a stuffy old lady's home with her, the smell of dust and yarn, and one or two other kids at a time.

Sadık knew his anne was at work, but that never softened his mood for the day care. He was the only one that was constantly there throughout the week - Monday through Saturday. On Mondays a nice boy with black hair was there. His name was Kiku and was really quiet and brought comic books that he would read backwards a lot. On Tuesdays those Italian brothers would spend the day there. They were scared of him, especially the older one, though that one had a smarter mouth on him. On Wednesdays and Fridays Gupta would be at the house. When they were allowed outside in the back, Gupta liked to dig in the dirt and find rocks and, during nap time, he slept with his arms crossed. He said he was a 'mummy'.

On Thursdays and Saturdays, Sadık was normally the only one there. Sometimes others would show up on those days, but it was normally just for the day. Sadik didn't care. He rarely talked to the people he saw at the lady's house anyway. There was a special reason for that, though. Every kid that came there had one thing in common: the cat liked them.

The cat would curl up sometimes with Kiku who would pet it. Gupta often sought the cat out to fan it with a little paper fan he had made or do a dramatic bow on his knees to it. Sadik thought that kid was weird. The younger Italian would always bounce right up to the cat and start fawning over it and exclaiming "Ve~!" and even the older brother could pet it when he wanted. Sometimes the cat would walk up to the scowling Italian and he would roll his eyes at the cat. The cat liked all the other kids. Why didn't it like Sadık?

Admittedly, Sadık had never asked about the cat's name or even if it was a boy or girl kitty. His first experience with the cat had been enough for him to stay away from it. Sure, it had merely been a little swat to his hand that was outstretched to pet it, but, as a child with only four years of life experience, he had found the whole ordeal a little terrifying. He wouldn't say it aloud, but that cat had scared him with the little swipe.

It wasn't unusual for cats to hate him, really. Any cat who he had met didn't seem to enjoy his company or attention. This one, though, got to him. How come it should like all the other kids? It wasn't fair! His frustration and almost fascination with the feline only exponentially grew as his time in the lady's care went on and one day he spent the whole day just spying on the cat. Wherever it went he would follow at a safe distance. He would watch it gaze out the window from a table. He would stalk it as it walked down the hallway. He would hide as it was being pet by the other children or went to curl up next to them. Most of all, though, Sadık watched over the back of the couch as it curled up to take a nap on the rug behind the old sofa.

It had become routine with Sadık. Staring, watching, stalking. This feline was his enemy and he was scouting its daily activities. It was exactly what he had been doing the day Heracles had arrived.

It was Friday and it was sunny which meant he could go outside today. He was standing on the sofa, peering over the top to watch the cat curled up in its usual spot on the rug when the caretaker lady walked into the living room. "We can go outside for about an hour or so, if you youngyens are good."

Sadık shot up and was already outside before the lady could shuffle to the next room to tell Gupta. By the time Gupta got there, Sadık was already out, tearing up the world. What Sadık did with his outdoor time? It consisted of kick balls, footballs, bats, a lot of running and an equal amount of avoiding the excavations of Gupta digging in the dirt by the fence. Sadık figured if the backyard had a sandbox then Gupta would be in his element. Thank his luck the yard was lacking.

While the two played in their own separate corners - corners meaning Gupta by the fence and Sadık dominating the rest of the yard - their caretaker was chatting with someone on the back deck. Sadık didn't pay attention to who it was; adults were never any fun anyway and Sadık normally ignored the old lady because he didn't like being told what to do.

When it was time to go back inside Sadık, naturally, complained. In the end he complied with a "hmph!" and stalked inside, feeling a blast of cool air greet him as he crossed the threshold of the back screen door and solid but aging wooden door and onto the Persian looking rug behind the couch. He scanned his surroundings for the cat - the evil feline that was constantly the target of his attention each day - until his eyes rested on another, larger, body on the floor.

There was a boy there, lying flat against the scratchy rug, face to the ceiling and eyes closed. Laying on his steadily rising and falling stomach was the cat.

Sadık stared openly at the display he had walked into, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. For one, there was another kid the cat liked! No fair! For another… Sadık had never even seen this kid before.

Naturally, Sadık scrambled to the couch to watch over its edge. And for the whole day it was like that, Sadık continued to watch over the top of the couch, the new boy continued to sleep, and the cat continued to purr contentedly, curled up on the sleeping boy's stomach. In fact, this repeated everyday on from that.

The kid's name was Heracles and he was a cat magnet! Every single day he slept there on the floor and every day the cat immediately went over to sleep either curled up next to him or perched on the kid's stomach. Heracles was the only other kid that was there most days of the week and the cat was with him every day.

After a week of watching this, Sadık's feelings of grumpiness towards the cat and the many people it liked not being him turned instead to hope. Sadık began to realize what this strange new attachment to this boy could mean between him and the cat. Perhaps, with this boy there to keep the cat calm and happy... Sadık could finally pet the kitty!

So one day on the second week the new boy was there, Sadık approached, little by little until eventually he noticed the cat's eyes were directly on him. He paused for a moment, only a couple of feet away from the boy and the cat, then carefully proceeded.

But, despite Sadık's best efforts, the cat immediately hissed at him and the boy under the cat lazily opened his eyes to find the disturbance. As soon as his eyes found Sadık he looked at him accusingly.

"The cat doesn't like you." He said seriously, "I don't like you."

Sadık was taken aback. Then his eyebrows furrowed and he stamped his feet, releasing the pent-up energy he had contained while trying to get close to the sleeping figures. "Well, I don't like you!" Sadık yelled, repeating the statement back. Then he stomped off.

The next day Sadık continued to watch the boy and the cat, seething but unable to do anything else with his time.

"Stupid cat… stupid boy…" Sadık muttered into the couch as his narrowed eyes stayed trained on the two.

"I can hear you." Came the lazy voice of the boy on the floor. He hadn't even opened his eyes to say it.

"Well, I don't like you!" Sadık retorted. The other did nothing. "How come the cat likes you so much?" Sadık asked bitterly, in a voice that sounded almost accusing.

"Cats like who they like." The boy said simply. Why wouldn't he look at Sadık when they spoke? Sadık huffed at the answer.

"Good, 'cause I don't like them either!"

Heracles shrugged, the most movement Sadık had seen from him in hours.

Sadık contemplated his words for a moment then shifted his position from hiding behind the couch to just resting there. "But… if I did want the cat to like me... which I don't!…. how would I?"

Heracles opened one eye lazily to look at him. "If the cat does not like you then it will not like you."

"What does that mean?" Sadık asked angrily, mad at the boy's confusing words and calm, almost serious way he said it.

Heracles shrugged, closing his eyes again. Sadık glowered and slumped down onto the couch. The cat would never like him and he would never like that stupid cat! That was that and he wouldn't change his mind.

Until he heard a voice from the other side of the couch. Heracles was talking to the cat in his serious tone. Sadık climbed back to stand on the couch again and noticed that the boy was sitting up and facing the cat which now sat in front of him instead of on his small child-sized chest.

"Colonel Cat, would it be okay if I brought that boy over here? You do not have to be nice."

Sadık gawked at he boy. Was he seriously talking to the cat? And, wait, was he asking it if Sadık could come over?

Heracles looked up. "He will not be nice, but you may sit here if you like." Heracles motioned to the carpeted floor around him.

Immediately Sadık scrambled around the couch to sit. The rug was large and covered most of the room. It was a dark red one and looked like, in a smaller size, it could be sold from a merchant on the side of an old dirt road.

Sadık looked at the other boy who was gazing steadily at him. What took Sadık off guard though was not the boy's serious gaze that rarely fit a child of his age, but the intensity of the look. Instead of a dull sheen as Sadık had expected to be looking back, Heracles' sea foam green eyes were full of wonder and curiosity. Questions swirled in those eyes, not one of them having or needing an answer.

After a brief moment of awed silence, Sadık opened his mouth again. Before he could exclaim whatever loud and startling question he posed though, Heracles put a single finger to his lips.

"Colonel Cat doesn't like too much noise." Heracles murmured as if since Sadık was now closer he had no need for a louder register.

Sadık's eyebrows shot up. Did this mean…

Heracles reached out and pet the cat. "Colonel Cat won't want you to pet him yet."

Sadık looked at the boy hopefully.

...Heracles was going to help him get the cat to like him?

-/-

"There are five at my house." Heracles said as they both sat in their usual position on the floor. It had been a few weeks since they had started to do this: sit around, not make noise, Heracles would pet the cat sometimes or lie down and sleep while Sadık would be stuck there watching. When they did talk, though, Sadık usually found himself surprised at what the other would say.

"You own five cats?" Sadık exclaimed, forgetting the 'quiet' rule. Heracles shot him a look and he calmed down, grumbling all the way.

"I do not own them. Can a being own another being? What is the value of one soul over another?"

Sadık looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Heracles always sounded like this and it made Sadık confused.

"Stop saying stuff like that! I don't get it!" Sadık was almost pouting. That didn't happen much.

"No one gets it. The human mind cannot take it." Sadık felt the urge to throw his shoe at him suddenly. This boy seemed to aggravate him to no end.

"My cats would not like you either." Heracles stated. This time Sadık did throw his shoe at him.

-/-

"Sadık," His mother called to him from the front wheel, driving away from daycare. Sadık was in his new booster seat because now he was old enough to be out of the regular car seat. The car seat had been too restraining and now Sadık was proud he had graduated up in life. Soon, he would be able to drive like anne! He was a big boy after all! Anne was still talking though, so maybe he should pay attention… Heracles' unfocused nature was starting to get to him. Sadık zoned back into his mother's speaking, her voice kind and accented as she spoke in Turkish, "...we thought that it might be nice for you two to get together to play sometime. You two have really seemed to connect since he started daycare a few weeks ago."

Sadık froze. Was his mother saying…

"So we decided to set up a play date between you two! How would you like to go to Heracles' house on Tuesday?"

Sadık could hear the smile in her voice as she asked, but it did nothing to change Sadık's reaction to the question.

Immediately, Sadık began to cry.

-/-

Heracles' house smelled like cat. And Sadık would be stuck there all day because his mom had decided to let him be there instead of the old lady's house. It was Tuesday, the only day Heracles' mother had off of work. At least Sadık wouldn't have to deal with the Italian brothers that day. Heracles was asleep when Sadık arrived, leaving him to suffer through the exchange between their mothers until his anne had to leave for work. It was early, so Heracles' mom offered him breakfast.

Heracles' mother was very pretty, Sadık had to admit. She had long brown hair and wore a pretty white dress. She seemed very nice too.

That day, when Heracles finally awoke, they spent the day like any other they would have at the daycare - they laid around surrounded by cats. Heracles' cats, just as he had said before, did not like Sadık. Cats never liked Sadık. Nevertheless, Heracles introduced them all to him as they passed by or approached their spot on the carpeted living room floor. There was a TV in the corner, but Heracles never turned it on. There was also a comfortable looking couch in that living room; sitting on actual furniture, though, was not something that Heracles liked to do unless he could lay on it.

"Her name is Athena. She is named after the greek goddess of wisdom." Heracles was pointing at a slick grey-coated cat that had just passed by the hallway beside the room.

"Pssh. A cat can't be wise!"

"Yes, they can. A cat can hold all of the wisdom of the world."

Sadık rolled his eyes. This guy practically praised cats, though, not more so than Gupta who enjoyed bowing to the cat even nowadays when it was laying on Heracles' stomach and Sadık was laying right next to them.

Suddenly, Heracles' mother entered the room and asked him a question in a sweet voice. What… what was she even saying?

"What was that?" Sadık asked when the woman left the room.

"What do you mean?" Heracles looked too bored to dawn a perplexed expression, though Sadık knew that was what he must have been feeling.

"She wasn't saying real words."

Heracles nodded slightly and returned his gaze to the ceiling. "It is Greek. My mother is from Greece where they speak it."

Sadık's eyes widen. "My anne speaks different too!"

Heracles nodded.

"You speak it too? Say something!" Sadık demanded.

"Like what?"

Sadık quickly looked around, "Uhhh, cat!"

"Cat is γάτα." Heracles seemed to think for a moment. "How do you say cat in the one you and your mother speak?"

"Oh! Um, kedi."

Heracles nodded. Sadık was starting to notice that he did that a lot.

Sadık decided to try out his new word. "Funny word... γάτα."

"Mhmm," Heracles agreed, "kedi…" Heracles mused, trying this one out too.

The words rolled off their inexperienced tongues oddly, but they both seemed satisfied with the outcomes. Sadık could only wonder what other funny sounding words Heracles knew…

-/-

"I hate cats! They hate me so I'm going to hate them! That cat is mean and I don't like it!"

"Maybe if you weren't so obnoxious the cat would like you."

"Stop using big words, whisker-head!"

"Whisker-head. Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to have whiskers…"

"You're dumb! Cats are dumb!"

"Cats are far smarter than you."

At this point, the caretaker lady had to split them up. Sadık had been ready to tackle the boy opposite him, still laying on the ground in his normal way while Sadık had jumped up and started his tirade. Heracles hadn't moved an inch and his tone was still serious, but his eyes flashed like they never had before. They showed annoyance and even anger.

The lady could not have come at a better moment. It was Friday, meaning the only other kid in the house was Kiku who happened to be peering around the corner that moment to catch the commotion. She stormed around the same corner.

"Boys!" She exclaimed, barricading the way between Sadık and Heracles. Sadık wished he knew her name so he could throw every curse at her he knew, though, being only four, it wasn't many. "That is enough! That's it! You are both going to time out!"

Sadık didn't spend enough time contemplating why Heracles had been sent to time out too when the lady had only seen him lying on the floor, but as he was led away, thought that the other had gotten what he deserved. The mean cat lover!

Sadık's time-out was the longest four minutes of his life. Why couldn't he still be one year old so he could have only one minute in time-out? It felt like the whole day had passed by the time the lady said he could get up from the wooden chair in the corner - he was sure of it!

When Sadık came back to the living room he saw Heracles already there. He had forgotten; Heracles was a year younger than him! This proved to sour Sadık's mood. Now Sadık wasn't sure what to do. Should he go back to the rug? Should he just stay away? Sadık wasn't going to say sorry - no way!

While he was standing there indecisively, Sadık suddenly noticed what Heracles was doing was not his usual lying on the rug. Instead Heracles was sitting up, seeming to be talking - whispering - to the cat. Without realizing it, Sadık started to walk forward. Heracles noticed and stopped his chat with the cat.

Sadık was mad again. Was Heracles telling the cat to never like Sadık again? The cat had never liked him to begin with! He was tempted to turn and run away but Sadık was too prideful for that. Instead he sat down, looked at Heracles and spat "Meanie!" before lying down and glaring at the ceiling. Sadık could tell Heracles was still annoyed with him but not necessarily angry anymore. He didn't care though!

He continued to glare at the ceiling, ignoring the boy beside him and the stupid cat on his stomach. Who needed cats anyway? Who needed friends? Heracles sure wasn't his friend. Heracles was anything but his friend. Heracles was the meaniest ever-

Sadık's thoughts were broken when he felt something soft on his hand. When he looked down his eyes widened.

The cat was rubbing its head against his hand.

"She wants you to pet her." Sadık looked over to see Heracles watching from his spot on the floor. Slowly, Sadık raised the hand the cat had been occupied with and ran it along her back.

Sadık was holding his breath, afraid that one wrong move from him would scare her away. Soon the cat seemed to get bored and curled back up on Heracles' stomach but it didn't seem scared or mad at Sadık.

Sadık looked up at Heracles, not even realizing he was smiling. Heracles eyes were closed again, not paying attention to Sadık or his life changing excitement. But now Sadık knew and he frowned a little thinking about it. Heracles had told the cat to let him pet her, hadn't he? Heracles was his friend.

Pssh. No. No, of course not. Sadık didn't need friends and if he did Heracles wouldn't have been the one he chose. He was just his rug-buddy - the boy he laid next to on the rug behind the couch, waiting for the cat to finally like him.

The cat may not have liked him. Or maybe it did. He didn't want to be friends with it just like he didn't want to be friends with Heracles.

But, whether Sadık wanted it or not, he had two friends sitting beside him everyday he was at that lady's daycare. He never chose Heracles as his friend; sometimes things just happened.

My translations either come from word reference or google translate. Sorry if I got them horribly wrong. Hope you enjoyed and go celebrate the anniversary with burned scones or a ridiculous amount of hamburgers or something! Thanks for reading!