Hetalia: Axis Powers is entirely the creation and work of Hidekaz Himaruya.
~Ve~
The train station was quiet and nearly empty aside from a cluster of teens sitting around the benches nearest the concession stand serving up food for weary travellers. Out of them the eldest was a boy was on the cusp of manhood, pale skinned and hair so ashen grey as to be white with sporting sunglasses and wearing a loose long sleeved shirt along with black jeans and second hand combat boots. Atop his ashen hair a little bird of yellow dozed, disturbed now and again by his distinctive laugh of 'Keseses'.
"Bruder, why must you embarrass me."
Sitting next to the boy with the ashen hair was another with a strong frame who easily was taller than the elder boy. Dressed in a sweater and slacks with his golden blonde hair slicked back, he currently found himself hiding his face in his hands all the while being comforted by a slight boy with a sincere and kind smile who stared dreamily as if off in his own little world.
"Ve~...but Ludwig, I want to see more!"
"So do I you potato eating Bastards!"
Standing from the trio at a safe distance was a girl who looked much like the boy who was comforting Ludwig, her arms crossed with a stubborn set to her poise though still peeking at the pictures that the ashen haired boy was so readily showing.
"Keseseses. Here's Al's little bruder making mein bruder eat worms."
"Ve~! Luddy, you look so cute!"
Massaging the bridge of his nose knowing it was pointless to try and fight, Ludwig offered a glare to his brother that was completely ignored. How his older brother even had pictures of these childhood trauma's he didn't know, but to have all those old and nearly forgotten memories dredged up had him feeling a cold sweat run down his back.
"Lovi, look, look!"
Laughing harshly, she scooted closer to the trio and enjoyed the sight of a very young Ludwig hog tied with a little blonde boy sitting atop him, the pair covered in scratches, cuts and mud. Grinning evilly to Ludwig's elder brother, she bit her lip at the thought of swallowing her pride to get some copies for herself at some later date. Having dirt on her little brother's annoying best friend would be worth it in the end she had to admit.
"Luddy used to have nightmares, 'Mattie, don't, don't, please...'. Keseses."
Thankful to see the photos put away at last, Ludwig breathed a sigh of relief and let the peace and quiet that dominated the train platform wash over him. The calm was short lived as a loud shout announced Al himself, returning from the concession stand with a box of assorted foods.
"The Hero against Hunger has returned!"
"Ve~! Pizza!"
Snatching their slices, the Vargas siblings munched away with Feli looking utterly in a world of bliss as he leaned against Ludwig and kicked his feet. Ludwig took his sausage with a quiet thanks and excused himself, heading back to dress it full of sauerkraut and spicy mustard, his elder brother joining him and raiding the condiments to dress his sausage until it vanished under a horrific mess.
"Mattie and Luddy used to get in fights all the time." Al had to agree recalling those days.
With a soda and burger in hand, Alfred worked on devouring the bacon cheeseburger in an unsightly show of gnashing teeth and slurping of his drink. Missed at first with all the noise he was making, the distant sound of a train whistle finally broke above the ruckus, the teens looking off down the tracks to see the train drawing around a bend.
"It was unawesome when your mom moved away to marry that French guy."
A flicker of a frown passed over Al's lips at the memory of that day years before on this very train platform, his twin heading off to Canada leaving him alone with their father. Forcing down the gloomy mood and brightening to the reunion ahead, it'd been too long since he'd last seen his 'better half'.
"Artie got me and Mom got Mattie..."
Ever since their little family had broken up, he wouldn't call his father by that name, stubbornly using the elder Kirkland's name in a brazen show of independence. Throwing his trash into the bin with an expert toss that mirrored his game winning three pointer, he stood waiting as the wind rustled his hair with the passing of the train and screech of brakes while the cars came to a rest at the platform.
Being the lazy Sunday afternoon it was, few passengers were getting off, yet try as he might he couldn't find his brother anywhere. A family of three were the nearest, a man in a suit chatting amicably on his cell a bit further away, and off some cars down a girl pulling her luggage while a small white not quite dog shaped mass following beside her.
"Keseses."
Ignoring Gilbert's laugh, he kept looking for his brother, even as he heard a quiet voice calling his name. Scanning about and wondering just where he could be, suddenly he found himself confronted with the girl who was lightly panting for breath and looking flushed.
"Al..."
Looking down to the tired looking girl he felt a swell of concern wondering if she was lost and needed help, suddenly thinking he could be an everyday hero and lend his hand to her saving the day. Beaming down to her, he fell into full hero mode.
"Are you lost, do you need help? Oh, no, no, you ran away from home didn't you? You've run away and have no where to stay and..."
"Al..."
Staring at her with stars in his eyes as he thought of how he could save the day, his train of thought was derailed as he realized that twice now she had said his name. Glancing around looking for his own brother once more just to make sure he hadn't been calling him, he looked back down to her to see a weary look of irritation in her violet eyes that were suddenly familiar as they peered at him over her glasses. Blinking once, then twice and finally thrice, he noticed another bit of familiarity in the girl as one rebellious curl dangled from her brow.
"Mattie?"
Reaching out to play with the curl, the impossible was proven with a smile now on the girl's lips full of satisfaction at finally being recognized. Gasping in horror, he stumbled back from her to take her in, a stutter on his lips as he struggled with the revelation.
"Mattie, what are you doing dressed up as a girl?!"
Another tired and irritated sigh was had by 'Mattie', the girl suddenly saved as Gilbert ambled up to her and pulled her into a welcoming hug. Back at the bench Ludwig stared in horror as his last bite of sausage fell to the ground, Feli staring off at the reunion with a look of confusion and a tilted head, while Lovi was stalking up to Al for answers.
"This is your brother you hamburger eating Bastard!?"
Looking from Lovi to 'Mattie', Al took a breath and rose to the challenge of getting down to the bottom of things. Already he was wondering just what evil scheme his mother and that Frenchie she had married had gotten up to with his brother, images of the pair dressing him in girls clothing and raising him to hide who he was swirling through his head.
"Yep, we're twins! Mattie, what did they do to you up there! Don't worry, you can wear some of my clothes! I'm sure Artie has some stuff up in the attic that will fit, the limey bastard never throws anything away!"
"Al..."
"C'mon guys, we gotta get Mattie back home before anyone sees him, to the Gilmobile!"
Striking a heroic pose that he had practised in the mirror many times taken straight out of all the comics he had read, the owner of the Gilmobile just laughed again as he stood with the petite girl who was still struggling to get her brothers attention.
"Alfred F. Jones!"
Stunned to silence, Al turned to his 'brother' to see her glaring at him over her red glasses with clenched fists and a flushed face. Beside her the not quite dog shaped thing sat down after scrounging for the last bite of Ludwig's sausage, Gilbert standing over her with a look of absolute delight at the turn of events.
"Yeah Mattie?" Al asked, oblivious to Lovi standing next to him rolling her eyes.
"You thought she was a boy just because you're twins didn't you?"
Asking the question that was answered with the confused look in Al's eyes, Lovi broke out into a heated stream of Itallian, feeling foolish for getting drawn into the double whammy of Al's own self-centred and oblivious nature, and whatever mischief Gilbert was up to.
"We're twins, so of course he's my brother."
Smacking her forehead as Al voiced his flawed reasoning, she turned to 'Mattie' and found the girl blushing out of embarrassment now. Stalking up to Gil who already had the pictures dangling, she snatched them for another closer look at the child that had terrorized Ludwig years before.
"You knew, didn't you? You Bastard!"
Gil's grin was his answer, his little Gilbird chirping from his head wide awake after all the noise. Looking back to her little brother and the pale faced Ludwig, she could at least take some pleasure out of seeing the horror and realization etched on his face.
"You mean your brother was getting beaten up by a girl?"
"Awesome isn't it? Maddie was always getting confused for Al, so everyone always thought she was a boy."
"Maddie?"
"Madeline, Maddie for short but then everyone started calling me Mattie except Gilbert."
The explanation was soon interrupted by a mass hurling itself at the embarrassed girl, hushed and quiet Itallian spoken fast and dotted with some English here and there. Thinking her face couldn't turn any redder, Lovi watched as Maddie blushed a deep, ripe tomato red at the antics of her younger brother.
"This is Feliciano, my idiot brother. Feli, let her go!"
"But Lovi, she's so cute and smells so sweet, and her hair's so soft, and that curl..."
Rescuing the girl from the affections of her little brother, Lovi grabbed him by the collar and dragged him off back to where Ludwig looked to be coming to terms with the great misconception. Dropping Feli next to Ludwig for the boy to babysit, Lovi rubbed her eyes wondering why she was the only sane one out of the bunch. Her point was proven further as she turned to see Alfred with his hands on his sisters chest.
"You're really a girl!"
Stalking up to the idiot American and punching him squarely in the head, Lovi bit her lip as she watched Gilbert lead the suffering Madeline off to his Gilmobile. Breathing deep and trying to calm herself, she turned to look at the remaining members when she noticed the not quite dog shaped bit of white staring up at her.
"Who?"
Blinking once, then twice, she was sure she was hearing things as it grunted and flopped down on its wide behind. It looked almost like a little white bear but that just had to be impossible she reasoned, its mouth covered in a bit of yellow.
"Kumakiku, come...!"
At the hushed yell from Madeline, the white not quite dog rushed off after its apparent owner. Chasing after it was Alfred who had recovered from his well earned pounding, leaving Lovi with her brother and his annoying best friend. Without needing to be asked, Ludwig took up the forgotten bit of luggage and threw it over his shoulder in an easy display of strength, Feli holding onto his free arm and chatting away the whole while. Watching after them, Lovi thought again back to those pictures and smiled, the summer ahead looking to be interesting to say the least.
~Ve~
Hanging up the phone and breathing a sigh of relief, Arthur wandered off to the kitchen where his kettle was whistling at a horrid screech. Taking it off the burner and fixing himself a cup, he walked off to his office with the steaming mug of tea and looked to the pictures on the wall. There they were, his children, an instant family with one miraculous birth. Yet those happy days weren't meant to be as time had proven, his proposals turned down twice until the love of his life had run off with their little girl to marry his eternal rival, Francis Bonnefoy.
"Stupid git."
Hissing harshly thinking of the man, he stubbornly wiped at the tears thinking of finally seeing his daughter again. Sitting down at his desk, his typewriter sitting there with a blank page taunting him, he set his mug down and reached for a drawer to find one of his life's treasures. Pulling out the little box, he opened it to find it full of postcards that had found their way to his mailbox in those years ever since that day at the train station.
Flipping through them and reading the only thing that really mattered to him at all, the row of x's and o's signed with her name, his dear Madeline, he looked forward to the reunion to come. As much as it pained him to hear the call, Al had said they were going over to a friends house for a bit before finally coming home. When asking when to expect them so he could know what to make for dinner, the gagging noise his son made gave his ever less than stellar opinion of his cooking skills before the line was cut as the rebellious boy hung up.
"Prat."
Even as he said it thought he had a smile, glad at the young man his son was growing up to be even if they were often at odds against another. Leaning back in his chair and staring about his office that was his retreat from the mundane world, along the book lined shelves were little sculptures of all the magic he really believed existed in the world that everyone overlooked. How couldn't he believe when for those handful of years he had lived a fantasy with his children and their mother. Turning back to the typewriter and having one last sip of his mug to finish it, he let his fingers find the keys and start hacking away at his next novel in a series of fantasy he had written that was his one claim to fame.
"To my Children, the miracle that opened my eyes to all the majesty and magic that really exists in this world if you only look..."
It was the same dedication he had writ in every novel, novella and short story, hoping one day maybe he could convince his son to crack open something beyond a comic book, wondering at the same time just what had become of all those gifts he had mailed off to his little girl a country away. It didn't matter to him if he never found out, he took solace knowing he professed his love for them every time he lost himself to that world he saw beyond the everyday and ordinary world around them.
~Ve~
The Gilmobile was an infamous car out on the roadways of town, a classic 1978 Trans Am that had its iconic golden flaming bird replaced with the Prussian Eagle. Sitting shotgun was a scared Madeline who barely had time to buckle up, while squeezed in the back was Ludwig with Feli on his lap, along with Lovi and Al fighting for room. Laughing as distinctively as ever, Gil owned the roads with Gilbird on the dash dozing despite his reckless driving.
"Awesome, I shaved off three seconds from my best record. Keseses."
"W, where are we?"
Maddie looked to the unfamiliar house that sported an Itallian flag from its front porch, a vegetable garden dominating the front yard ripe with tomatoes and zucchini and a rainbow of peppers.
"Ve!~ We're home Lovi!"
Her answer given, Maddie found herself alone in the car watching as Gilbert rushed off to the house along with Feli and Lovi, her brother Al giving chase after forgetting her. Squeaking in surprise as she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up to see Ludwig standing there with her luggage slung across his back looking awkward and nervous.
"We should go after them."
Reaching down to snatch up the slumbering Kumajiro who had been at her feet, she held the tiny bear in her arms as to protect her against the world in general as she stepped out of the open door with Ludwig standing aside. Blushing out of embarrassment, a hint of rogue that was matched on his own cheeks, she followed him on into the household of the Vargas siblings. Letting herself be shown in, she wondered if this was what was considered normal as she spotted her brother Al and Gilbert already playing on the Xbox 360, Lovi trying to restrain her younger brother who had leapt at them as they entered the front door.
"Ignore them."
Looking up to Ludwig, he looked to be trying to save face at the antics of everyone else all the while avoiding her violet gaze. Feeling Kumajiro struggling in her arms, she let the little bear down who dashed off into the house with one last spared glance her way.
"Who?"
"Behave." Maddie ordered, the bear rushing off.
"That's not a dog is it?"
Startled, Maddie found herself in the company of Lovi while Feli was latched onto Ludwig's arm, stuttering as she tried to find the words to reply.
"K, K, Kumajuma is a pygmy polar bear."
Wilting under Lovi's intense gaze, Maddie latched onto the nearest arm and managed to hide herself behind the strong frame to which it belonged to. It wasn't until she heard the younger Vargas sibling that she realized something was amiss.
"Luddy, Ludwig? Ve~, Ludwig isn't breathing Lovi!"
Looking up to the person who belonged to the arm, Maddie gasped in shock and let go all the while backing away with a hurried pace. Ludwig stood rigid and finally took a breath, walking off with a purpose to the kitchen and rummaging through the cabinets until he found the glasses to fetch himself a glass of tap water to guzzle. Slumping down and curling up against herself, Maddie watched from the hallway as the scene played out.
"I, I, I'm sorry..."
Pulling her luggage against her as a shield, Maddie saw the elder of the Vargas siblings roll her eyes once and let out a hissed sigh, taking her up by the arm with a yelp. Lead into the kitchen where Feli was chatting away with Ludwig, she was set down at the kitchen table.
"Feli, let the Bastard go! Remember that Grandpapa Roma isn't home tonight so we have to cook dinner."
Watching the two siblings, Maddie saw Feli brighten at the mention of cooking, Ludwig once again breathing a sigh of relief as he found himself free of his friend. The relief was short lived though as Lovi stalked up to him and grabbed him by the shirt to lead him off into the hall.
"Gilbert, drive us to the grocer, we have shopping to do!"
"Awesome, we should get beer, the drink that was given to the world so the unawesome could experience just what it's like to be awesome like me!"
"And hamburgers! Lets see, we'll need eggs, spices, ground beef and bread crumbs..."
Stunned to silence by the sudden eruption of activity so shortly followed after thinking everything was safe and quiet at last, Madeline stood stuttering after their retreating backs when the door slammed.
"Wait for me..." Maddie finally whispered, her voice drowned out by the roar of the engine of the Gilmobile.
"Pasta!"
Startled again, Maddie spun to see Feli digging through her luggage, a treasured box of yellow and blue in his hands. Yipping in surprise and rushing up to the little box, she snatched it out of his hands in an uncharacteristic bit of forwardness to clutch it to her chest.
"Ve~?"
Looking at the surprised expression that Feli threw her, Maddie felt her cheeks burning as she slowly offered up the box for inspection. Curiously looking at it, she couldn't tell what his impression of it was though it was one of her favourite foods after that blissful breakfast treat that she was a master of.
"I can make you some if you like, it's KD."
Maddie found herself at a loss as Feli looked on her in utter incomprehension. Staring down to the yellow and blue box, she smiled and thought again to the gooey treat it was and beamed. Once again finding a bit of strength to act in a way that was just too forward and impolite, she started rummaging through the fridge to find everything she needed. Milk and butter were set aside, a large pot found and filling it full before dumping the noodles in and setting it to a boil. Placing the white packet beside the wet ingredients, she smiled as Feli stepped up to stare into the pot.
Stirring away until the noodles were cooked to perfection she emptied them into the colander letting them sit while measuring out just the right amount of butter and milk into the pot. It hissed and bubbled, mixing it until blended before adding the powdery cheese mix and stirring some more. Satisfied at last, the noodles in the sink were finally added and stirred until the gooey orange goodness was ready to be served right along with tall glasses of milk.
"Enjoy."
Setting a plate before Feli and taking a seat herself, she had a spoonful ready to devour after her long train ride when she saw the boy look from her to his plate with a fork poised. Finding one noodle and trying it, he chewed once, then twice before placing his fork down with a beatific smile as he reached for the plates. Feeling her grip on her spoon grow weak as her plate of KD was taken away to be dumped into the trash, tears welled in her eyes at the horrific scene.
"Let Feliciano teach you to make pasta."
"But, but, but..."
Maddie stared in disbelief as Kumajiro appeared to attack the trash can, spilling it over to feast on her treasured Kraft Dinner with gluttonous abandon all the while the smiling boy looked down at her as if she were a sweet, dear innocent child who needed to be shown the way.
"I'm sorry."
Maddie whimpered at her apology, her head patted kindly before being helped out of her chair. Shown off to a pantry where an assortment of aprons hung on a hook, Feli helped wrap up her golden locks in a white handkerchief that he had all too many of down in a box before leading her back to the kitchen. Ravioli was decided upon and in sort order Maddie found herself amazed as Feli taught her that everything she knew had been a lie in regards to the pasta she had grown up eating out of a can.
~Ve~