Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia

If anyone was curious, the next chapter of Succubus is currently being written. I'm halfway through, but I've seemed to have gotten stuck in the middle of it, and I'm too tired to try to think of a way to continue it for the time being - but don't worry, it is coming out sooner or later.

Now, in the meantime, I'm going to try to get the writing juices flowing by putting out one of my bazzillion other side stories. I'm also planning on continuing on other stories, such as Let Down your Hair and Of the Other Type, but they're not on my priority list.

Here's another MapleTea, on of the billion useless plots that run around my head daily. I thank the amazing novel ROOM for being this particular idea in my head.

Warnings: Other than the usual, this is wholly in the POV of Maddie, starting when was five. So expect disconnected, child-like sentences in the first large portion. Please also note that Francis and Arthur in this particular fanfic are rather young. So by the time Maddie is a teen, they'll be in their thirties.

First of all, we wake up.

Open up our eyes and the great face of light is shining in our eyes, it hurts like crazy because Papa always opens the curtains to take me away from the Sandman.

Kumarie whispers something to me, only just a bit more sleep, si'l vous plait, and I nod because I agree with her. I always want more sleep. Papa says I could sleep the day away like a owl, like those ones with the giant eyes and they can twist their heads all around -

But then Papa comes over with a big smile. Papa's face is large and kind of hairy at the bottom, but he has beautiful hair surrounding it, all yellow and long like a girl's, and his eyes, which are blue, always have a nice look in them.

Because of that I know that I don't have to be scared of Papa. How can anyone can be scared of their Papa? He's always nice, even though he always wakes me up with the big whoosh light.

"Rise and shine, mon cheri," he says happily, lifting a gigantic hand to pat my head.

"Why do you say that always in the morning?" I ask him as I sit up. Then I raise my hands all the way to the ceiling for a stretch and yawn the biggest yawn before he can answer me.

He waits politely for me to stop yawning, because that's what gentleman do, and said, "It's just a phrase, mon chou. There's no real reason for anyone to say it - it simply makes your sentence much more fancy."

"Oh," I say, though I still don't really get it.

"Now, c'mon along Madeline. You need to get out of bed or...do you remember what I told you will happen?"

I remember. Papa told me, when I was four and still little, that when you sleep, the Sandman helps you sleep for the right amount of time so you won't do something called 'oversleep'. He keeps giving you his sleep sand while you're sleeping. But if you don't stop after how long you need, he'll keep giving you more because he thinks you still need it. You'll keep on sleeping until you go on forever.

Since I remembered it, I nodded and jumped out of bed, fast fast fast, holding Kumarie with me. Kumarie a polar bear, but not a scary one like the one in The Fox and the Hound, or the ones in Care Bears. She's just Kumarie. She forgets my name a lot.

Papa gives me a pat on the back to make me move faster, and calls me 'cheri' again, so I do, so fast that I can almost fly.

Papa speaks sometimes in another language, and so do I, because he taught me them. There are a lot, like Spanish in Dora, and Chinese in Kai-Lan. We speak French, from France, even though we live in a place called Canada.

After I get running, we have to do what Papa calls 'the daily routine'.

First we have to clean ourselves because Papa says that being clean is very, very important. Brushing our teeth - mine is all electronic and goes voom voom and has flowers all over it - and brushing our hair. Mine is yellow like Papa's and goes all the way to my knees.

We don't take a bath in the morning but at night because I get sleepy after it, and I can sleep better, without waking up in the middle of the night like I used to when I was two and all sick and throw-up.

After that we eat. I don't get why we have to brush our teeth before we eat, because our teeth get all dirty anyway.

Papa takes my hand and we walk down to the kitchen together, where he showed me that he made pancakes.

I almost jump all the way in the air. Pancakes are my favourite! I think it's what it would be like to eat a cloud - Papa says that a cloud would be more like cotton candy, but I secretly don't believe him. Kumarie thinks I'm right, though.

We both eat, and Papa lets me put on lots and lots of syrup on the pancakes, which makes them even more better. Syrup is all sticky, but I'm always careful with it. All the time Papa says I'm good because most kids are bad with syrup and put it over the walls and themselves. Why would you want to waste syrup like that?

When we're done, we have to brush our teeth again, and I sit at the kitchen table with Kumarie and talk with her while Papa has to wash the dishes.

Washing the dishes always take just forever. And today is the one day I want to end already, because tomorrow was going to be a special day, the most specialist of all the days, even more than Christmas. I was going to be six tomorrow.

I look up at Papa's back, waving Kumarie's paw around. "Papa, do you remember what tomorrow is?"

He looks back at me and makes a face, like he's confused. "My apologies, ange, but I don't seem to know what you're talking about. Is tomorrow important?"

My jaw drops and I fly off the chair, running up to Papa and grabbing his leg. He couldn't have forgotten about it! Papa always remembers everything in the world because he knows everything in the world, especially the most important things in the world, like this is.

"Oui! It is!" I cry, tugging hard on his pants. "Why would you forget about it?"

"Madeline, please calm down," Papa says and he's laughing. How is this funny? "I'm only joshing you, my dear."

"Huh?"

"Madeline."

"I mean, excuse me?"

"It meant I was just joking around." He gets down onto his knees and pulls me into a great big hug. I hug him back, nuzzling my nose into his shoulder. Papa always smells sweet, like flowers. "I would never, ever in a million years forget about your birthday. Especially since you're turning six!"

He let's me go and I see tears in his eyes. But I know now when Papa's tears are just joking tears. I heard something called 'melodramatic' on the TV. That's what Papa is, I think. He over does stuff so people around him can laugh.

"Mon babe is growing up so fast!"

"Oui I am!" I stretch my arms up like I did before so I'm a giant. "Tomorrow I'm going to be an ldot - "

"Adult, cheri."

"Right, ldot!" My fingers wiggle all around like snakes. "And I'm going to be just as tall as you are, Papa, and Kumarie, because she's the same age as me, is going to be big too."

"Of course, you're going to be one fine woman," Papa laughed. He picks me up and puts me on his knee, holding me on the waist so I don't fall over to the ground with a big boom.

"Will you tell me about when I was born again? I mean when you got me?" I ask, laughing when Papa bounces me on his knee. That story is my favourite story ever, even more than The Velveteen Rabbit and Alice in Wonderland.

When babies are born, they're in their mothers stomachs. But my mother was gone after I came down down from Heaven and left her stomach, so Papa took me. When I was just a baby, there were two Papa's (though mine says the other would be called 'Dad'), but my now Papa left him, and doesn't like talking about the other one, because he was mean and tried to hurt everyone.

He also doesn't want to talk about the other one because he tried to take me away from Papa! I would have hated him forever if he did that.

"Mon ange...you know that I simply adore going back to the day when I took you as my daughter. As you know you're nothing more than the absolutely highlight of my life, but..." His face looks pained. He doesn't want to talk about the other one.

I don't want him to be upset, so I hug him again and say, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Papa smiles again and hugs me back. "Thank you, dear. But it will be your birthday. You'll be the birthday girl, and you'll be an adult, so you deserve to have whatever you want on your day. Now..." He puts me back down, smoothing down my curly hair. "Let Papa finish the dishes, and then we'll go on and tomorrow will be here before you know it. D'accord?"

"D'accord."

I wait, and when he's done, it's time for another part of the 'daily routine'.

We have to exercise now.

It said on TV that kids need exercise for when they'll be adults, even women need them though they don't have to be all muscles like men, so I need to get a lot in before tomorrow comes.

We go to the basement, which has a nice comfy carpet for a floor, and first we run around the ginormous room, doing a billion laps and moving like rockets. We have to do sit ups and push ups and then we dance around the room in different dances. Papa tries to teach me old stuff like ballet but I like to dance to Lady Gaga more.

Then we just play a bit, with me being on Papa's back and pretending he's a horse. But then Papa falls down because Kumarie's a full grown bear, and she's so huge to Papa can't hold her, and he flops to the floor with a goofy face and I laugh and laugh.

After exercise, we're both really hungry, so we go back to the kitchen for my favourite: hot dogs and KD, yum yum. It's funny because Papa doesn't like it, and he always makes funny faces whenever eating it, but he says we can have it again tomorrow, cause of my birthday.

The next part we can relax and watch the television. Papa doesn't like the TV too much, because he says it can rot your brains and make you stupid, but he lets me watch for a few hours. Sometimes on the weekend, which is samedi and dimanche, he watches his own shows, which are mostly real people who talk about boring things.

Me and Kumarie go into Treehouse and into all the shows and play with everyone. Today's a Wednesday, so it means we can watch My Little Pony on Treehouse. I like Flutteryshy the most because Kumarie says that we're like each other, because we're both quiet and like animals.

I go up right to the TV and put my fingers onto Pinkie Pie, because she's mostly in this one, asking how she is and if she's going to make a big party for my birthday. She says she is, and I'm delighted, but Papa tells me to not be so close to the screen.

Supper is next and we have something French with chicken in it. It's not bad, but it's almost my least favourite.

Finally it's time for our bath. We sit together in the bath tub and Papa fills it all the way up with pink bubbles. We do a contest to see who can pop the most bubbles and I win!

We have two different parts on us, and I don't know much about them because he won't tell me until I'm older (maybe tomorrow he will tell me then) but I know that it connects to the stomach so women can have their babies. I don't want a baby to come out of mine, it might hurt.

Once Papa finishes cleaning me and drains the tub, I get nice and dried in the big fluffy towel, and then put on my nightgown. It's nice and white, the colour of purity, Papa told me when he got it for me. I think purity has something to do with angels, and he's always calling me one in French.

Because of the bath, I get all sleepy, so I don't make a fuss or anything like some kids on TV do, they're what they call brats. To become a lady, like I have to, you have to be 'civilized', which means you always have to be polite, no matter what.

I'm then tucked into bed, all snug as a bug in a rug. Papa sits beside me and takes out a book - one of my favourites, Alice in Wonderland! Except he changes it around so it's Madeline in Wonderland, so I can pretend that I'm in Wonderland with the March Hare and Mad Hatter, and the evil Duchess who hurts her baby.

He reads one chapter for me and says it's time for sleep. I don't want to stop reading it, but I keep my lips zipped so I don't make him mad.

Papa gives me a kiss on the forehead and says, "Bonne nuit, my love. May you have sweet dreams. I love you."

"I love you more," I said.

"Non, I love you more."

"I love you to the Sun and back."

"I love you to Venus and back."

"I love you to Neptune and back, and all the way around again!"

Papa laughs, gives me another kiss, and leaves. He turns the light off because I'm not like those others kids who are afraid of the dark. Besides, I have Kumarie, who can be wild when she wants to. She and Papa can take out any of the bogeyman on the Earth!

I lay back and look up at the ceiling, where there are beautiful glow in the dark sticky stars. Someday I'll be able to reach them without standing on the bed. While staring at them, I wonder.

What does Papa mean by that the other one (the one called Dad) tried to hurt everyone? Why did he want to take me from my own Papa? And why was he more upset about it lately? I'm only five, but Papa has called me smart for my age, and I know when something was making him sad.

The other thing I wondered...when I was watching a show on the television, they said that kids usually started school when they were five. I'm almost six. Almost an adult. Why haven't I ever gone to school? Papa teaches me things sometimes like math, but not all the time, like they show in school.

Very soon my eyes get really heavy and me and Kumarie go to visit the Sandman. I had no time to worry about it anymore.

This is my 'daily routine'. It's always been like this.

Ever since I could remember.

And so there's the first chapter. I'm sort of having fun with this, writing like a five-year old would. c: I think this will be one of the one's I might really have fun with...if I continue.

So, anyone who can guess who 'Dad' is, and why Maddie pressed on the fact that everyday is like this (is something wrong with this picture?) you get 50 awesome dollars. :L

And 100 awesome dollars to anyone who reviews...this is a different format of writing, and I'm really not sure if anyone will like it...that is, except for those who've read ROOM and enjoyed it.

So. As always of me, I would like to see 8-10 reviews, or it won't be continued. Please tell me what your thoughts are, if it's good, or so bad you want to rip your eyes out.