Hey guys -
I know how previous attempts at multichapters have failed me, but this time I promise to get this one done... eventually!
Anyway, this is the prologue, though I figure I should get a few things down first;
Long blocks of text written in italics = the future, when the kids are out and about. Only this prologue has this, because this covers before the kids were born.
Quotations written in bold = Russian, or whatever each individual kid's first language is
Kirill = Russia and America's first child, male, currently sixteen years old
Liliya = Russia and America's second child, female, currently fourteen years old, often called "Lily"
Cleo = Russia and America's third child, female, currently ten years old
Now that you understand me, please enjoy this story!
A young woman was walking down the streets of Kashin, looking very distraught and wondering where she could possibly get help among all these Russian people. She didn't speak a lick of Russian, and was beginning to regret going out on the town with her relatives.
Beginning to get desperate, she reached out and grabbed a boy's shoulder, trying to figure out a way to communicate her need of directions to him when he turned around and asked, in English, "What is it?"
His English was heavily accented, but understandable, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Er, I'm American, and I'm visiting family here, but now I think I've lost them-"
He smiled warmly, telling her, "Say no more. My sister can probably help you - I'm half American myself, and we only stay here half the year, but Liliya is far better acquainted with these streets than me-"
As if on cue, a young, fashionable-looking girl popped seemingly out of nowhere, scaring her brother half to death as she asked in a husky, somewhat creepy voice, "What was that, Kirill?"
The tourist didn't need to understand what she said to see the resemblance between Liliya and her brother, who was a tall, curly-haired silverette with a pair of round glasses covering up his angular, lavender colored eyes and a strange tuft sticking up from the back of his head, cowering as his sister, noticeably shorter with extremely light blond hair, light blue eyes, and a layered, shoulder-length hairstyle, loomed over him.
"N-nothing, Liliya! It's just, this American asked for directions, and I wanted to help her, and you know this place better than me, and..."
"That's enough, Kirill." Turning to the stranger and toning down her aura, she smiled and asked, in slightly more heavily accented English, "Where family are you from?"
"I-it's 'which family', Liliya-"
"Shut your mouth, Kirill."
"I-I was staying with the Abelevs, Miss, er, Lily, was it?"
"Good, I know where are they. Come."
Kirill breathed a sigh of relief as his sister and the stranger retreated, turning back to his task. Where had Cleo gone this time?
"B-brother..."
He turned toward the noise, grinning when he saw his youngest sister crouched behind a pillar on a nearby building, presumably hiding from Liliya. Cleo had the strongest resemblance to their mother of the entire trio, with her strawberry-blond hair and large, sharp blue eyes. Her hair was pulled up into waist-length pigtails and she was clad in a sweet loli outfit, courtesy of their mother's friend Kiku.
Kirill leaned down and said, "Come here, Cleo. Lily won't bother you now, she has work to do."
Cleo leaped forward and took her brother's hand, emotions taking a complete turnaround from before as she dragged Kirill along behind her, laughing and begging her to slow down.
Seventeen years ago...
Alfred stared incredulously at the pregnancy test. This wasn't possible. Not only was he a man, he was a nation. Nations couldn't have children. Men couldn't be pregnant. Duh.
And yet, there he was, staring in the face of the Little Pink Plus Sign of Doom, huddled in a stall of the men's bathroom at the nearest Walgreens to his Milwaukee home.
It had started as a joke between him and his brother, Matthew. Al hadn't been feeling well lately, feeling better at night only to toss his cookies(and hamburgers) every morning, constantly changing his mind about trivial things and snapping when there was really no need to. So today, on his trip to Wisconsin, which just so happened to be pretty darn close to Canada, Matthew had convinced Alfred to take a pregnancy test.
Al felt like he might throw up again, but that would only make cheerful, blond little Wisconsin try, once again, to make him visit the doctor, just like all the other little girls he'd visited before her on his annual tour of the states(His states were basically his harem of fifty-one little girls. He was somewhat indifferent to it, but whenever Spain came to visit...).
And so, he held it in, staggering out of the bathroom. Matthew knew something was wrong the moment he saw his brother, but little Wisconsin, try as she might, had inherited her country's inability to sense the mood and chirped, "Okies, America! Let's go up to Green Bay next!"
"Er, Wisconsin, why don't you go out to the car, okay? Al and I will meet you out there."
Wisconsin huffed and said, "I told you to call me Connie, Mattie! Gee whiz!" before marching out the door of the convenience store.
"Why do your states keep getting so mad at me...?"
"Mattie, I think the problem is that you're pretty much the only straight male nation this side of the Pacific, and - oh, God, what am I going to do? I'm pregnant!"
Matthew stared incredulously at him, much the same way Alfred had just been staring incredulously at the pregnancy test. "You're WHAT?"
"DON'T WANNA BE AN AMERICAN IDIOT!" Sang Alfred's phone. A moment later, Matthew's phone burst out into "YEAH I KNOW THAT YOU WANNA BE CANADIAN, PLEASE!"
Fishing their phones out of their pockets, they both touched the screens to open the texts they'd just received. Flashing across both screens was a message from England.
"Emergency international meeting. Get over here NOW!"
They wasted no time in racing out the door, jumping in the limo Alfred was traveling in, and telling the driver to get them to the nearest airport, to Wisconsin's obvious dismay. They'd been trained for situations like this to ignore everything and just get where they needed to be.
"B-but what about Green Bay?" Wisconsin asked, wondering what the hell was going on.
"Your entire state's fine, Connie. Keep up the good work."
"O-okay..."
She didn't dare ask any questions during the rest of the drive, quietly wondering why America and Canada(Ohh, Canada) were suddenly in a rush to get to wherever they were going. She fiddled with her "SAY CHEESE" sweater as things got awkwarder and awkwarder.
When they finally reached the airport, she dared to speak up. "M-mister America?"
He sighed and turned to her. "Yes?"
"C-can I keep the limo until you're back?"
He smiled, despite himself. "Sure, Connie. Anything you want."
One plane trip later...
"Hullo, boys," England sighed as he caught sight of the car he'd sent for Canada and America once he'd heard they'd reached the airport. He was very tired from directing everyone to their usual rooms in the hotel they generally had world meetings in, certainly not needing his little brother America to complicate everything.
Sure enough, straight away America marched up to him and cried, "What happened, Iggy? What's wrong?"
"You'll find that out later, Alfred. For now, get up to your room."
Alfred glanced around before asking, "Is Ivan here yet?"
"That can be discussed later! Just get up to your room before I smack you across the face!"
A couple hours later...
Everyone was gathered in their usual meeting room, chatting and generally hiding a certain piece of information until Arthur banged his gavel and ordered Norway and Romania up to the podium. The two countries, confused as to what they had to do with anything, walked to the front of the room without question and exchanged a few tense words with England before turning to the nations gathered there.
"Everyone," England announced, "I'm pregnant!"
There was a long silence. Then someone burst out laughing.
Arthur blushed, adding, "I'm serious!"
"Oh, REALLY?" Prussia jibed from where he was sitting, resulting in Germany facepalming.
"He's telling the truth!" America shot back at the man who was usually his friend, "I know he is because... Er..." He turned to Russia, blushing and saying, "I didn't want to tell you this way, but... I'm pregnant, too."
Ivan looked blankly at him. "America? Is... Is this some kind of joke?"
"N-no!" Italy shouted. "I'm going to have a baby too, Germany!"
Before Germany could react, Romano screamed at Spain, "YOU GOT ME PREGNANT, YOU DUMB BASTARD!"
"It had better like yaoi just as much as I do," Hungary growled at Prussia.
"It had better NOT like classical music nearly as much as you do!" Switzerland hissed at Austria.
"It's Hong Kong's," Iceland informed Norway.
"It's Korea's," China informed Hong Kong.
"'S yers," Sweden informed Denmark.
"It's WHOSE?" proclaimed Norway, Hong Kong and Denmark.
"Mon cher," France purred, glomping England.
England just sighed.
"I'm expecting, but I don't know..." Japan blushingly told Turkey and Greece.
"I'm expecting, too, but I'm pretty sure..." Greece told Turkey and Japan.
"Who in the what now?" Turkey reacted at the prospect of fathering two different children at once.
"Jett! I have something for you!" Sealand spouted across the room to Australia.
"Is it fairy floss?" Australia questioned, eyes sparkling.
"Erm... no... it's a baby..."
"Uh... that's what I said..."
"Really? I thought fairy floss was cotton candy..."
"No, nope, says who?"
"QUIET!" England yelled, getting people's attention, "and Australia, if you laid one hand on Peter, I swear I will rip your-"
"Oh, come off it, England!" Sealand retorted, "I'm over sixty already, that's plenty old enough to have some fun with Australia!"
"That's nowhere NEAR old enough and you know it! Besides, Australia's your brother!"
"As if fucking your own brother makes any difference to YOU of all people..."
"Y-you shut your mouth, you bloody convict!"
"I'm no convict, you stinking pirate!"
"If everyone doesn't shut their mouths right at this very moment, I will sic Romania on you," Norway said just loud enough for everyone to hear, successfully making everyone cower in fear as the vampire licked his fangs with obvious relish. They did not like the idea of those teeth meeting their necks. "Now, everyone, please return to your seats."
The entire assembly obeyed, glancing over their shoulders as they went. Once they were once again seated, Norway began. "Since many of you seem to be confused as to how this development came along, I'm sure you will have no problems with those of us with palpable magical ability conducting some tests on expectant couples. I'm not going to force you, but I'd advise even those who aren't getting a little surprise next year to stay, so that you know the situation and can take necessary cautions in the future."
Despite him saying "I'm not going to force you," a great deal of nations let out a shudder when he said this, indicating that almost no one was going to leave until the matter was settled.
That being said, a small number of couples that weren't receiving any exciting news were wondering if they could possibly produce a child soon, almost excited at the possibility. Canada and Ukraine were already cheerfully chattering, Lithuania already picturing what, one day, his and Belarus's baby might look like.
Belarus, on the other hand, was a different story as she watched Alfred and Ivan together enviously. Little did she know that someone was thinking about her, and that one day she might be the greatest aunt in the world to a little girl with a big sadistic side. All she was thinking at that point was how hopeless her love for Ivan really was at this point.
Ivan was already in love with his child. "We'll name him Kirill, if he's a boy, Alfred. That way he'll always remember his Russian side, even though he'll love his mama even more than me."
Alfred knitted his eyebrows, saying back, "It won't be a boy! And there' no way it'll like me better than you, mister doting daddy! She'll be a little girl, named Lily, and she'll love even the craziest people on your side of the family."
Ivan grimaced, complaining, "But I really want it to have something Russian on it's side... How about, instead of Lily, Liliya? It's pretty similar..."
Alfred smiled, just barely, before pulling his frown back on and replying, "She'll be Liliya, but I swear, she'd better not be some Russian city or whatever..."
Probably one of their few cute moments so far, and probably at the worst possible time, with Nataliya, behind them, sighing deeply in despair.
The next morning...
"Alfred!" England shouted, banging on the door of the room his brother was sharing with Canada, "You need to get up now, so that Romania and I can do some tests on you!"
Alfred groaned, rising out of bed as Matthew grunted something about turning off the dark. He pulled on a sweater from the bag e'd had pre-packed in case anything like this happened, not caring what he appeared in front of the others in, and opened the door.
Seeing Alfred's wardrobe choice, a green sweater emblazoned with yellow letters saying "SAY CHEESE" emblazoned across the front, he raised his eyebrow but said nothing. Instead, he directed America down to the meeting room.
Upon entering said room, he found only Romania, who stared pointedly at the front of Alfred's shirt. Looking down, the superpower realized that Connie must have put it in his bag as a gift. Changing the subject before Romania even had a chance to bring it up, America asked, "So, I don't believe we've been formally introduced before..."
"Serban. Serban Albusel." Romania answered quickly, adding, "I know you, of course, Mister Jones."
"Yeah, I guess everyone does. Not that they don't know you!" he provided, seeing the look on "Serban's" face.
There was an awkward silence, then Alfred decided to sit down in the front row. He was saved from the awkwardness when Hungary and Switzerland arrived, both looking like they wanted to punch someone. Hungary's expression worsened upon seeing Romania, who teasingly waved.
They both sat down a couple seats away from Alfred, Switzerland looking expectantly at Romania whilst Hungary just moped.
A couple minutes later the Italian twins arrived, significantly brightening up the day when Italy began talking to Hungary and assuring Switzerland had done a great job "fathering" himself and that he was sure their baby would be happy as well.
Iceland and Sweden came in next and began chatting with America, but whenever America mentioned fathers of any kind, Sweden's face darkened. Emil later informed Alfred that Berwald and Mathias weren't on the best terms, and that it was hurting Berwald's soul a little to be bearing the Dane's child.
Finally, the rest, Japan, China, Greece, Sealand, and England, arrived, and they were ready to begin t investigation.
"Norway will be here soon, but apparently he had some business to cover with his boss before he was supposed to leave that never got taken care of, so he's off on a conference call or something. That doesn't hamper either of our abilities, though, so we will be testing you one at a time until we figure out what's wrong. Now, lets start with America and China, since they're the first in the alphabet..."
The two aforementioned nations stepped forward and presented their tummies(Well, America presented his tummy to England. China was slightly more shy, seeing as he barely knew Romania). The magic-possessing nations bent down and put their ears to the barely-protruding abdomens, listening close with their eyes shut.
"Romania," England said.
"Yes?"
"All I can detect is the regular protection spell we cast at the last meeting."
America raised his eyebrow. "Protection spell?"
"Norway, Romania and I have a spell we cast every once in awhile, when a new country joins the council or it's just been a while since we last renewed it, that protects the countries from harm. We took to doing it after the Great Depression, and it's worked for the most part."
"Oh..."
Romania spoke up. "I can't sense anything else either, but... wait. Something seems different on my link."
England burrowed deeper, grasping for Romania's part of the spell, nodding to himself when he found something. "Yeah, I think you just got distracted or something and switched a couple words around in the incantation, because everything that needs to be there is, it's just screwed up a little." Taking his head away from his brother's belly, he announced, "We'd like to check over everyone else, please."
The spell appeared to have the same glitch across the board, and while England and Romania tried to figure out what part of Serban's mistake had turned his safety spell into a fertility spell, the mothers cheerfully discussed their pregnancies, Elizabeta mentally noting all the yaoi material she could get out of this.
England then turned to them and said, "Looks like this is over quicker than we thought, so tonight we'll gather everyone together and take a vote as to who wants the spell to remain this way and who doesn't. I've already cast one to get rid of morning sickness, so you all should be fine for the next few months. When you've reached two weeks within your due date, I will send you to a special hospital I've arranged for us. You may go now."
Six months later...
Alfred was swearing like a swearing thing on swearing meds as the doctors wheeled him to the birthing room in his wheelchair, biting his lip and gripping the arms of the vehicle. Ivan was running along behind, wishing he hadn't let Al out on his "little" walk that had resulted in him coming back, already in labor. Not that they hadn't been expecting it - He was one week overdue.
He watched as his lover was lowered onto the bed, panting and swearing and gasping and SWEARING, clearly in pain as they settled him into the correct position. He was already crowning when they shouted "Push, Alfred, Push!"
Ivan, disregarding the doctors, raced to America's side and grabbed his hand, which was numb within seconds from Alfred's superhuman strength. Within moments, it seemed, a scream echoed through the chamber, rattling Ivan's eardrums.
Alfred, having done all he could, collapsed into Ivan's arms, already asleep and unable to watch them cut the umbilical cord of their new little boy. The child was handed to him promptly, tiny and red and somehow gigantic compared to other babies he'd seen, yet so, so fragile that he was afraid he's crush it with his clumsy hands.
He smiled down at the little bundle and whispered, "Hello, Kirill."
A few days later...
"Let me hold him, big brother!" Nataliya cried, reaching for the miniscule creature and being rejected once again. "You let Yekaterina hold him," she whined, pouting.
"That's because I'm not convinced that my older sister will drop him on his head," Ivan retorted as Yekaterina giggled. "Why not let Alfred have a turn?"
"Alfred has his whole life to hold him! I only have the next couple hours!"
There was shouting in the hallway as Ivan handed Kirill to Alfred, who in turn made a face a Nataliya.
Matthew came in, panting. When everyone looked at him, he explained, "Elizaveta just popped."
"Ooh!" the girls exclaimed when they heard their friend's name. Ivan and Alfred just gave each other a look off relief; maybe with her baby, she would finally leave them alone.
France and England had visited a couple times, having given birth to a sweet little boy a few days earlier than Alfred, but had gotten out of there the moment they were given the okay. Elizabeta had been a little too much for them to handle.
There erupted a sound from within Alfred's bundle. In the new parent's musings about Elizabeta, they'd forgotten how busy they already were.