Microsoft Word doesn't recognize git as a real word…that makes me sad. T.T

I don't own Hetalia. However, I virtually own America aru.

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"Wow…." Tino breathed, slumping in his seat, staring at the sight before him. Next to him his 26 year old husband Berwald squeezed his hand. The 24 year old's uncle had died a month ago, and at the reading of his will it had been discovered that he had left Tino his house, a huge wooden mansion with 68 acres of land; the place had been a former slave plantation. It had been given to a distant ancestor by a friend and passed down through the family ever since. The house itself was a mansion with three stories, a basement, and dozens of rooms. There was also a forest, fifteen acres of free land that was used as fields for the animals, and five or six little houses that were two stories apiece. And servants. Servants tied to the house and who lived in the houses, and who Tino owned as surely as he did the house itself, with no way of getting rid of either, short of torching one and killing the other.

Tino had thrown a fit at that, demanding to know how that wasn't slavery or some form of it. The lawyer had then disclosed a very complex reason that went on for an hour and left the Fin's head spinning. All he understood of it was the lawyer's parting words, "Look, unless you want to kill them you're stuck with them, now get the fuck over it and shut the hell up." Charming Austrian wasn't he? So now Tino owned ten servants. Ten! What would he do with, how would he treat one servant, much less ten?

Gathering his courage Tino started his truck again and drove up the long driveway to the house, looking in the rearview mirror. The couple's adopted son Peter was looking around excitedly, silent for once, eyes wide. When he pulled up to the front and got out the door to the Victorian style home opened and a man his age came out. He was the same height as Tino and wore a green suit, was blond with massive eyebrows, and had green eyes and a surly look. Nervously Tino approached him, silently backed by Berwald. "Umm, hi, I'm Tino. I really don't know what to do but my uncle left me this place in his will…."

The surly look immediately vanished and the man gave a deep bow, one arm in front and one arm in back, smiling warmly at Tino as he rose. "It's alright lad, don't fret." He spoke with a thick British accent, Tino noticed with amusement. "I'm Arthur Kirkland, one of the servants here."

Tino shook his head and looked at the ground. "I, to tell you the truth I've never had servants before. I've never even wanted servants before, so I don't really know what to do or how to act."

Arthur smiled again, amusement clear in his vivid emerald eyes. "It's alright Master Tino, don't worry. You own us; you can treat us however you choose."

Tino shuddered at the thought, missing the fractional widening of Arthur's pleased smile. Owning people? That was horrendous, that was wrong. But he didn't have a choice. "Okay then, um, what exactly do you do here Arthur? This is Berwald and Peter by the way."

"Hi!"

The Brit smiled and nodded to Peter and Berwald before answering. "I run the house, and I'm also your butler and personal servant Master. Just come find me or yell for me if you need anything at all or have a question."

"Okay, and please don't call me Master. Just Tino is fine." Tino just stood there looking at the ground, utterly lost and bewildered. He was so out of his comfort zone and nervous even his natural cheerfulness and optimism had betrayed him.

Seeing that and smiling sympathetically Arthur tapped the underside of his chin lightly, making the Fin look up, idly noting a faint protective growl from the Swed behind him. "How about I take you on a tour of the house lad? Or would you like me to help you move things in?"

"T-tour please." Tino stuttered, a bit nervous about meeting the other servants but glad Arthur was taking the initiative for him. "Actually my brother's having a moving van bring my stuff tomorrow; all I have in my car is necessities for tonight and tomorrow morning."

The Brit nodded and opened the house door, letting Tino and his family in. Tino walked into an enormous entryway, with a large marble spiral staircase on the left a bit away, a big dining room straight ahead, and a hallway to the right. Tino just stood there, eyes wide. His four room apartment seemed like a grain of sand compared to this place. Failing to stifle a chuckle Arthur took his elbow. "This way Master Tino."

Arthur led him through hallways, showing him numerous rooms. There was a woodshop for Berwald, which Tino could tell the man was pleased about. The Swedish man was quite a skilled carpenter. One room looked to be a child's room, filled with toys, old and new that Arthur assured them were still capable of being played with. They had to drag 10 year old Peter out of that one. There were four libraries, one of them completely filled with nothing but fantasy, to the Finnish author's extreme delight. When he jumped up and down babbling about how happy he was and Arthur smiled happily, he could have sworn the room vibrated, as if filled with happiness itself. But that was preposterous. After all, it stopped as soon as Arthur kicked the wall, explaining to Tino that he had seen a spider.

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In one room Tino was looking at a beautiful painting of the sea when he heard, "Dad! Dad Dad Dad!" And a younger blond man in glasses came barreling into the room, pulling another boy with one hand and waving a piece of paper frantically with the other.

Tino's servant sighed in aggravation, yelping as the boy hugged him tightly. "Alfred you git, what're you doing here?"

"I got in!"

"Got into where Alfred?"

"Stanford!" Alfred cried jubilantly, waving the paper around once more before shoving it into Arthur's hands. "They want me Iggy, Stanford wants me!"

"Don't call me that…" Arthur absentmindedly ordered, reading the letter.

Tino's eye was caught by the boy Alfred had dragged in with him. Like Alfred he looked to be in his late teens, but this boy was as short as he was, with a small frame and was Oriental in ethnicity. Feeling Tino's appraisal the teen looked to him and instantly paled, yelping, "Stranger!" and pulling Alfred in front of him.

The glasses clad boy looked behind him, then back to Tino, smiling and reaching out a hand. "Hey! I'm Alfred Freedom Jones; nice to meet ya! Are you the new owner? Don't mind Kiku by the way; he's just got a bit of a problem with strangers. It's okay Kiku, he isn't gonna hurt you."

As Arthur looked up from the paper to smile proudly at Alfred and the teen's grin widened, Tino nodded. "Yeah, I inherited this place from my uncle. These are Peter and Berwald. I don't own you too do I? I mean, are you a servant?"

Alfred laughed, brushing a bit of hair from his face. "Nah, I'm not a servant, but you do own me, since Arthur's my dad. I'm Arthur's kid; me and my twin brother Mattie were abandoned when we were four. Arthur was only seven then, but he found us and raised us in secret anyways. Like I said, I'm not a servant, but I run errands for Iggy. I dunno what I'm gonna do with my life-the hero's only 17-but I'll figure somethin' out. And look Dad, a full scholarship to college! I told you football would pay off!"

"No you didn't, you got on your knees and begged me to let you join."

"Eh, same difference."

"Who's he?" Peter asked, pointing to the Asian boy, who looked at him distrustfully. Arthur immediately bit off his retort and turned to the ten year old, smoothly answering, "That's Kiku Wong Peter-"

"His middle name's Honda! Like the car!" Alfred cut in, earning a smack about the head. "Ow!"

"Shut up git! Kiku's the younger brother of one of the servants here, and has a bit of a stranger problem I'm afraid, so please don't go too close to him. Yao's an occasional cook, but mostly he manages the finances of the house and helps me clean a bit. He's been raising Kiku and their seven other siblings since Kiku was one and Yao was four. He's home right now, since two of his kids are sick. Would you like to meet him Mas-Tino?"

Tino looked to Berwald, and then, seeing his agreement, nodded. "Yes please."

"Are there any kids my age?" Peter asked excitedly and Arthur nodded. "Ai lad, there's Li Xiang, who's exactly the same age you are. He's solemn and borderline genius, but a nice little chap."

"Before we go there, I need to talk with you Arthur." Kiku spoke up and stepped out from behind Alfred, giving Tino and his family a wide berth to grab Arthur and yank him into a nearby room, shutting the door.

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As the remaining four stared at the door, Alfred was the first to speak. "You work pretty darn fast dontcha Master Tino?"

"Wh-what?" Tino asked, shocked, and the teen laughed.

"It's pretty obvious to anyone who knows him that Dad's instincts have full rein already. When we have an owner Dad's first instincts are to be completely loyal to 'em, along with trusting and protective. Usually it takes 'im at least a day to warm up to 'em though." Then the teen grew sober. "Listen, Dad's amazing. He's super loyal and he'll protect you with his life. But he's had a rough one. His older brothers work here and they're asses. They abused him somethin' horrible when he was younger, and they still do. So just do me a favor and look out for him will ya? They won't do anything with the owner around." Shocked, Tino nodded, and the teen grinned. "Thanks man. I owe ya one."

"I was getting to it!" The two heard snapped as Arthur strode out of the room, Kiku close behind him. As the Oriental teen scurried behind Alfred again, casting wary glares at Tino and Berwald, the Brit heaved a sigh and looked to the former, a hint of nervousness in his eyes. His head ducked a bit and Tino saw faint-but some not so faint-circular burn scars all over his neck, some disappearing below his shirt collar, an unspoken promise that there were more. The Fin sucked in a shocked, sympathetic breath. Was that what Alfred had been talking about? "Tino, do you have any problems with homosexuals?"

Taken aback by the suddenness and randomness of the question Tino blinked for a minute before answering. "No, of course not. I'm gay myself; this is my husband Berwald and our son Peter. Why?"

Looking relieved Arthur smiled slightly as the group started back towards the stairs. "In the original deed and then exchange of deed it was declared that anyone who worked here at the house had to be gay. That way if any women resided here at some point they could live here without fear of being harassed or taken advantage of."

"That's really considerate." Tino remarked, then suddenly stopped. "Oh…" He was looking out a huge glass window, and what he saw amazed him. He could see a yard, a shed, two of the five houses, a field with a few sheep and horses, with a forest beyond that. In Tino's eyes it was almost a fairytale place, and a world within itself. The 24 year old author could tell he'd be writing a lot of his stories in front of this window.

"We're practically self-sufficient here." Arthur remarked, breaking his thoughts. "Alfred gets things in town, but for the most part we don't need them."

"Can I go in the forest?" Peter asked, peering out the window with wide eyes.

Not answering Tino looked to Arthur instead, asking, "Is it safe there?"

The Brit gave a small smile. "Absolutely Tino. No harm will come to Peter in there, not even a scratch. I can promise you that."

Relieved and placated, Tino nodded. Berwald stayed silent, but he was puzzling over Arthur's words. "W'rd…" The Englishman seemed trustworthy and sounded honest, but he had said that with such confidence, like he knew something they didn't. What was he keeping from them?

"This place is amazing…" Tino breathed, once again looking out the window at the amazing view. Then he remembered something. "Hey…I…own the servants, and you-" He pointed to Alfred. "Said I own you since you're Arthur's son. So how many people do I...are under my control?"

Smiling in amusement at Tino's turn of phrase Arthur thought before answering, "Nineteen. Ten servants, Yao's eight kids which includes Kiku, and my two, although Matthew's a servant."

"Mama, Dad!" Peter yelped, and Tino and Berwald immediately looked to the boy, Berwald scooping him up effortlessly.

"What's wrong?" Tino asked worriedly, standing on tiptoe to see Peter better. The young ten year old pointed to the light violet wall.

"I was looking at that plant with rocks around it, and the wall changed color! It turned blue!"

Tino looked at the wall, then chuckled. "It was probably a trick played by your eyes or the light coming off the rocks or something. Walls don't change color Peter."

Arthur chuckled as well, but to Berwald's ears it sounded just the teensiest bit forced. "Tino's right lad, it must have been something to do with your eyes. Walls don't change color."

The last sentence was a bit louder, another thing for Berwald to tuck away in his brain and silently wonder about.

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"Oi! Artie!" A rough voice called from behind them and Arthur instantly tensed up, flinching and hunching his shoulders before turning around warily. "What?"

The man before them, taller than Arthur and therefore quite taller than Tino, with fiery red hair, arrogant and cruel emerald eyes and a cigarette, grinned with malice before dealing Arthur a quick but strong punch to the chest. "Is that any way to treat yer elders lad?"

Arthur glared at the ground, hands clenched tightly in fists, as another man came up. He too was older than Arthur, and had fair red hair with light green eyes. He was amiably followed by another, who was younger than the two but older than Arthur, with dirty blond hair and light green eyes. He smiled blissfully, his smile so wide his eyes were closed, at Tino and his family, and held up a sheep, declaring happily, "I have a sheep."

"WE KNOW!" The other three yelled and Arthur yelped as the smoking one hit him. "Ow!"

"Respect yer elders." The light red haired one ordered gruffly and Arthur glared.

"You two didn't! And he's my bloody brother too! Ack!" The smoking one had roughly grabbed Arthur's chin, yanking it up.

Taking his cigarette out and slowly twirling it-awful close to Arthur's skin Tino couldn't help noticing-the man blew smoke into before briskly ordering, "Yew shut the hell up ya wee brat. I'm sure there's somewhere on your body I haven't scarred yet."

Lips curled Arthur spat through clenched teeth, "Haggot breath." As the other got ready to retaliate, fist clenched and cigarette raised, Tino stepped forward.

"Leave him alone!" The Fin ordered and Arthur's tormentor froze, looking up at Tino and studying him through narrowed, glaring eyes.

Taking a drag of his cigarette and maintaining his harsh grip on Arthur's face the older asked almost lazily, "Who the fuckin' hell are you?"

"Scott," Arthur spat, ripping himself free to stand in front of Tino protectively, "Meet Tino, the new lord of the manor. This is his family, Peter and Berwald. Tino, this is Scott and Lannie, and the one with the sheep is Wally. They're my brothers. Scott's the oldest, then Lannie, then Wally."

"Aye, Arthur's the wee sprite o' the family." Scott commented, taking a threatening step forward.

Seeing Arthur's hackles rise, his fists clench and his teeth bare in response to the insult Tino hurriedly intervened. "Well it was very nice meeting you all, but Arthur was right in the middle of giving us a tour!" Already knowing Arthur would follow Tino ran to and down the stairs. Those men-Arthur's brothers-scared the slim Finnish man quite a bit. They were big and brutal, and there was something about their eyes, especially Scott's, that made Tino think of feral animals.

When he caught up Arthur silently led the way to wherever Yao was, Alfred and Kiku at his heels and Berwald and Peter not far behind, leaving Tino to wonder if he had any normal servants at his new house.