EDIT: Prologue has been changed from first to third person point of view.

Author's Note: This is in an Alternate Universe [AU], some time into our future with human names used. Most of the pairings are already set^^ And as a warning, since this is a prologue, it doesn't explain much, but it does show the point in time where the story is set into motion.

Hopefully I'll be encouraged to continue this~^^ so without further ado~

I humbly request constructive criticism~ I don't mind how harsh it can be...unless you just want to tell me that you hate what I'm writing. In that case, why are you reading it?

Warnings: light yaoi, un-beta-read, kindly consider this a first draft

Disclaimer: Hetalia does not belong to me.

[note: Julian Vargas = Ancient Rome, I have changed the canon slightly from him being the Italy brother's grandfather, to father~ the same goes for Germania (who is Lukas Weillschmidt)~ please be assured that this is needed for the story]

*~::||*||::~*Around the World*~::||*||::~*

*~::||*||::~*Prologue*~::||*||::~*
*~::||*||::~*

"Now, Now…Calm down." Julian Vargas playfully struggled with one, giggling 8-year-old who didn't want to go to bed just yet. His brother, four years his elder, simply frowned at the hyper child; unlike his younger sibling, he was already snug under the bed sheets. After a few more moments of staring at his father and brother, he decided to put an end to the noise.

"Feliciano. Stop wriggling around already!" At the sound of his full name, Feliciano finally stopped moving and smiled with a simple charm that reminded Julian of his wife; may her soul rest in peace.

"There, all settled." Julian sat on the side of the bed after he managed to pull the covers over his youngest son. Unexpectedly, a short tune rung out from his phone, interrupting the small family's evening routine. The two brothers watched with a bit of discomfort as their father sighed and checked the text message, which was likely one from the company Julian headed.

"If that's important, then you can reply to it or go back to work or…whatever. I can tuck Feli in." Looking up at the elder son, Lovino, Julian smiled as he turned off the cell. Although Lovino had said that, his trademark pout told Julian to do the exact opposite. And so, the infernal device got set onto the side table, where it could not interrupt them again.

Evenings like this were especially precious to Julian; it was the only time he could peacefully sit down and talk to his only sons, away from the affairs of work that ate up all of his time during the day. They had made this a tradition the day after his wife passed away, because he never wanted his work to ever make Feliciano and Lovino feel as it their father was not around to raise them. This was their established "family time"; the only time when Julian could find out what misadventures these two managed to have day by day

This evening, Feliciano was the one to immediately answer Julian's usual question of, "So, what did you do today?"

"Mr. Lukas took me and Ludwig and Gilbert to the park." A bright smile split the young Italian's face as he went on to weave a tale of how Ludwig and his elder brother, Gilbert had fended off bullies so they could play peacefully in the sandbox and on the swings.
Somewhere in the middle of Feliciano's account, Julian made a mental note to thank his long-time friend, Lukas Weillschmidt, yet again for looking after Feliciano, since that day was yet another Saturday Julian had to fill with work. As Feliciano's talk for the evening came to a close, Julian looked over at Lovino, indicating that it was now his turn.

Lovino had opted to stay at home for the whole day. He had spent said day either reading, writing, eating or sleeping. The only reason Julian knew this was because he had worked from home that day and anytime he had crawled out of that den known as his office he had found Lovino doing one of those four activities. If one thing was consistent, it would be that Lovino had carried around a few sheets of paper that he handled as if they were made of glass.

Looking away from his father and brother and instead at the ceiling, Lovino began. "My pen pal's letter finally came in today."
As part of his Spanish class, they practiced writing letters to students learning English in Spain. In doing so they were paired up with various students and it just so happened that Lovino was paired up with a boy five years his senior. His name was Antonio, and from what Julian had heard, Antonio seemed a rather bright and cheerful boy.

"Oh really?" Well, that explained why he was writing the whole day and reading from the same few papers. He seemed to agonize over every word that he wrote, crossing out incorrect spellings, checking and rechecking his grammar; in the end he tended to write the reply letter several times before sending it away to Spain in perfect Spanish. "You were rather focused on the letter all of today. What are you two talking about?"
In response, the lightest of blushes touched Lovino's cheeks and the elder Italian had to stop himself from laughing. His eldest son's silence had made Julian all the more curious to know what it was that Lovino's pen pal wrote. After trying to get Lovino to tell him multiple times, Julian used his absolute last resort.

"Fine then. If you don't tell me, I'll just find where you hide all of those letters from Antonio and read them myself." Julian's Spanish was a bit rusty, but from what he understood, Antonio was supposed to be practicing English, so his letters wouldn't be that hard to read. That and the father already knew where Lovino hid them: right under the loose floorboard by the bed the two brothers had long since insisted they share because their home was so big. Lovino had the suspicion that his father already knew of the floorboard, so he relented.

"Lately we've been talking about the dreams that we have for the future…and he went and wrote that one of his dreams was to marry a person that reminds him of a tomato." Lovino's voice dwindled near the end and it took but a single moment more for the stopper on Julian's laughter to finally come off.
He laughed until his sides hurt, but only because Lovino seemed to get redder as he went on and even as Feliciano started to giggle. Forcing himself to stop, Julian took a deep breath and wiped his eyes.

"I'm sorry Lovi, but if you ever get the chance to meet Antonio face to face, he may want to marry you." Julian was joking of course, but Lovino, being the serious child that he was, immediately protested.

"He can't do that. We're both boys." He said with the underlying tone of the hushed social taboo. All Julian could do in response was smile sadly, but he supposed that he could talk to the boys about respecting sexual orientation at a time when they were more awake and receptive.
Before Julian could respond though, Feliciano tugged on his sleeve, silently asking for his turn to speak.

"Did you have a dream like that when you married mama?" Suddenly, Julian found two pairs of large, inquiring eyes waiting for his answer.

"I suppose," Julian said evasively, "but since we're talking about dreams, do you have one Feli?"

Feliciano nodded enthusiastically. "I want to sing with a big group of people in front of a really big audience. And everyone from the group would be from different places around the world and we'll sing songs in all kinds of languages."
Taken aback by his wishful thinking, Julian asked him why he would have such a dream only for the answer to be "because it would be lots of fun!"

Julian sighed wistfully; the saying "like father, like son" had just gained another example.

"You look surprised papa." Lovino spoke up. "Did you have a dream like that too?"

"Yes. A long time ago I had a dream almost exactly like that."

Feliciano wiggled into a more comfortable position under the sheets. "Oh, this is going to be good, I can tell."

"Many years ago, when I was but eighteen, I was part of a fairly popular band here in London." Julian started.

"Called Hetalia, right?" Feliciano came in.

"Right. We were a four-person band called Hetalia, and at that time I thought we were invincible. I wanted us to eventually get enough people from different parts of the world all into one group, so we could have just enough of each of their cultures. We would be a group that essentially represented all the music in the world." Julian paused in his narrative to face two slightly confused expressions; it was time to simplify his idea slightly.

"It's like drawing a circle around the Earth. Each type of music is a dot, and when you connect all the dots you'll eventually go around the world and make a big circle that unifies all the music together." He paused long enough for the small light of understanding to enter his sons' eyes before continuing.

"But…I never got to fulfill that dream."

"Why not?" The boys asked in unison.

"Well even though we got a recording contract with an independent company, meaning we had this little company that helped us find places to perform…eventually a bigger company, called Union, bought the little company. For some reason Union just didn't like us and they terminated the contract, meaning they weren't going to help us anymore. So I started to work for the family business, and that's where we are now."

The looks of visible disappointment on his sons' faces were definitely not what Julian wanted to end the day with. He was touched that they had become sad because he wasn't able to reach that dream, but he considered it his job to end their day on a happier note.

"However, I have a new dream now. Want to know what it is?" Julian smiled broadly as they nodded.

"My dream right now is for both of you to grow up to be happy and successful in life. I'm getting old, so you two have to carry my dreams for me."

In that moment, as he tucked both of his sons in and gave them their customary good-night kiss upon their foreheads (despite Lovino's protests that he wasn't a kid any more), Julian could not have predicted how much this little snippet of his life had affected his two children…or how they would take that wishful dream and make it their own.

Author's Note: The next chapter is when the story truly starts. We'll fast forward 10 years and begin with Feliciano Vargas on his way to the first day of classes for collage where he runs into an old friend and Julian gets to talk to an even older friend.