It was a normal day for 15-year-old Lucille Greene as she walked down the path she had taken every day for as long as she could remember. Her 13-year-old sister Magdalene and her 11-year-old brother Nathaniel trailed behind her, talking about something Lucille had no interest in whatsoever. School had just ended for the year, and the forest trail they always took home was beautiful like it always in the summer. The sunlight filtered through the trees, casting dappled shadows on Lucille's upturned face. She shifted her backpack a little and continued walking.

The path took a sharp turn to the right, and they were facing a small stream. It had no way across it unless you wanted to get your feet wet. There were stepping stones farther along it that they often crossed with. Nathaniel took off his shoes and jumped in the water before giving an uncharacteristically girly shriek and jumping out.

"It's cold! It's cold! It's coooooooooooold!" He shook the water off of his feet and used his socks to absorb the rest. Magdalene was doubled over from laughing. Nathaniel scowled at her and tried to put his shoes back on without socks. Lucille shook her head disdainfully.

"Just go barefoot. We'll be home soon anyway."

Lucille's sister ran up to her as they started walking again. "Have any new Hetalia episodes come out?"

Lucille thought for a moment. "No, but they might soon. The last one came out almost three weeks ago." The three of them were all hard-core Hetalia fans, but Lucille was the so-called 'expert'.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Lucille and Magdalene turned around. Nathaniel was running toward them, shoes and socks in hand. "You guys walk so fast. And I think I stepped on a piece of glass!" He stopped suddenly and grinned at them. "I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!"

Lucille face-palmed and told him to sit on a nearby rock. He lifted his foot for her to see what he stepped on. A look of confusion came over her face when she saw what it was. "This looks like a belt buckle. Or half of one, anyway. When did you find this in your foot?"

Nathaniel blinked at her. "When I was in the creek. It hurts. Could you take it out? Do you have a band-aid? Am I going to die?"

She sighed. Her brother was so overdramatic. Lucille looked at his face. His eyes were a little shinier than usual; having the jagged edge of the belt buckle in his foot was obviously a lot more painful than he was letting on.

Lucille heard water splashing and looked behind her. Magdalene was swishing her fingers around in the water. Lucille turned back to Nathaniel. "It's pretty stuck in there, and I don't carry band-aids with me everywhere. But we could wrap your sock around it when I take it out." He looked a little scared.

"But my sock is coooooooooooold. I don't wanna make my foot cold. Plus, couldn't bacteria and stuff from the creek get into it?" Little red droplets were beginning to leak out from around the metal buckle.

She looked at him harshly. "Would you rather get tetanus* from the metal?" Lucille figured he didn't even know what tetanus was but hopefully her tone would scare him enough to let her use his sock as a bandage.

Sure enough, he set his jaw and nodded before closing his eyes. "Just do it quick, 'kay?"

Lucille smiled a little. "I will. Be brave like America." America was her brother's favorite Hetalia character. Her smile faded when she looked at the steady stream of red again. She placed her fingers on the tip of it. "One, two…"

"HEY, LUCY! NAT! LOOK WHAT I FOUND!" Magdalene's sudden shout surprised Lucille so much she pulled out the belt buckle unprofessionally (not like she was a professional anyway, but she liked to think of herself as one) and the cut started bleeding even more than before. Nathaniel let out a small cry, tears visible on his cheeks now. Lucille shot her sister a glare before pressing on the cut to stop the bleeding. Luckily, it didn't look like the buckle had gone very deep.

Magdalene stepped over and grimaced. "Ouch. Hey, look at this!" Lucille looked over and Nathaniel opened his eyes. In their sister's hand was half of a belt buckle.

Lucille frowned. "Maggie, can you pick up that piece there," she pointed with her foot, "and see if they go together?"

She did, wrinkling her nose at the bloodstained edge. "It's a perfect fit." She said, grinning a little. "That's cool! What a coincidence." Her grin faded suddenly. "Hey… doesn't this look like Italy's belt buckle, from Hetalia?" Lucille frowned. It did look a lot like Italy's, everything from the square shape to the tiny, almost invisible bits of blue fabric stuck to it.

She shrugged. "It's probably some cosplayer's buckle. We should get home." She wrapped the sock around Nathaniel's foot once she was sure it had stopped bleeding. He looked at her and smiled a little, always the optimist.

"It looks like you killed someone," he joked. She laughed. "Yeah, it does. Let me go wash this off, I'll be with you guys in a second. Maggie will carry your backpack, Nat." At Lucille's glare Magdalene sighed and shifted her own backpack to make room for his. They slowly walked down the stream to the stepping stones.

Lucille cleaned the blood off her hands in the creek as she watched them go. She was just finishing when she caught sight of something blue on the other side of the river. I shouldn't go check it out. She thought. I told Maggie and Nat I'd catch up with them, and Nat says the water is freezing. But, after a few minutes of arguing with herself, her curiosity won out. She took off her shoes and socks, unable to wait until she got to the stepping stones. She would meet her siblings on the other side.

Nimbly, she picked her way across to the other side, stepping on the shallowest spots. Her brother was right; the water was cold. Really cold. Her teeth were chattering by the time she reached the other side, even though the stream was only about six feet across.

Lucille dropped her backpack on this side. She hadn't even realized she'd been wearing it the entire time, and her back was beginning to feel sore. She managed to make her numb feet and ankles work well enough to carry her to the strange blue fabric. She ran her fingers along the edge. It was soft yet durable, something you might expect to see in the military.

Shouts came from farther up the stream. "Lucille! Lucy! Where are you?" It was her siblings.

"C' mere guys! Take a look at this!" Nathaniel and Magdalene came running over, the latter helping the former. They bent down next to Lucille.

"It looks like a pair of pants," Nathaniel noticed. The other two nodded. Magdalene looked at Lucille. "Why didn't you use the stepping stones?"

Lucille gave a small grin. "I couldn't contain my curiosity." Her sister smiled, understanding. Curiosity ran in the family.

"There's no buckle on the belt in these," Nathaniel was still looking at the pants. "Just a leather strip." The sisters looked over to see he was right. Magdalene frowned. "It looks like Italy's pants."

Lucille nodded seriously. "I bet someone lost a cosplay costume in the stream." Her siblings murmured statements of agreement and they continued on their way, grabbing their backpacks. The younger ones once again fell behind Lucille, chatting about Italy and cosplaying and what they were going to have for dinner tonight. The oldest was a bit (okay, more than a bit) of an introvert and didn't really like to talk. She was deep in thought. Should they have returned the cosplay costume to whomever it belonged to? No, they didn't know whose it was. Where was the shirt? Somewhere in the creek, maybe? She stopped short, her siblings bumping into her. They were about to leave the creek's side and head home.

"What is it, Lucy? Did you see something?" Magdalene asked her, worried. Lucille looked at them. "Where do you think the shirt is?" When she received only blank looks, she explained. "To the Italy cosplay costume. I think we should find it!"

Her siblings looked at her as though she had grown an extra head. "It's just a costume. Can't we buy one if you really want it? It would be way too big on all of us anyway." Nathaniel actually sounded logical for once. That was unusual. Lucille scowled at them. "It's not so we can wear it. It's for the adventure! I wanna do something fun on the last day of school before I hole myself in my room for the summer."

They looked at each other. She had a point. Finally, they shrugged. "I guess it can't hurt."

Their home was a two-story house in the middle of a forest. Their parents, who were rich, let them live alone because their older sister was so responsible (at least, they thought so). Even though they didn't live with their children, they still paid the water bill (which was high) and the electric bill (which was higher) as well as coming over for Christmas and birthdays (all of their birthdays were in February, so it wasn't that hard).

They dropped their off their school supplies in their rooms, Nathaniel was given a bandage for his foot, and before you could say 'pasta' they were back at the creek. They spent a couple hours looking for the cosplay shirt, finding pretty rocks, trying to pick up salamanders, and chasing schools of tiny fish around the deeper parts.

"I found it!" At Lucille's sudden shout, her siblings ran over. All of their feet were numb by now, but they were wearing waterproof shoes to protect them from, say, broken cosplay belt buckles.

They looked down at the shirt, which appeared to have an oddly shaped lump in the middle. Magdalene bent down and poked it. It squirmed a little. They all jumped back in shock. Lucille carefully crouched down near the bottom end of the shirt and extended her hand toward it. Her siblings bent down next to her to look inside. She lifted the flap to reveal what looked like a very young Italy of Hetalia.

Hello! This is the author. This idea popped up in the back of my head and I couldn't ignore it. Lucille is based off me, Magdalene off my sister, and Nathaniel off my brother, but those are not our real names. However, we are all two years apart (me being the oldest) and were all born in February.

After reading this I realized I forgot to put in character descriptions, but couldn't find a way to incorporate them. So here they are:

Lucille: Lucy for short. Short for her age. Very light blue, almost gray eyes. Light brown hair that turns blonde at the bottom, and goes halfway down her back.

Magdalene: Maggie for short. Average height, same height as Lucy. Light sky blue eyes with gray touches. Light brown hair that almost (but not quite) reaches her shoulders.

Nathaniel: Nat for short. Tall for his age, same height as Lucy and Maggie. Light sky blue eyes. Light brown hair with tiny blonde streaks, short-ish but not touching his shoulders (about 1/4 inch longer than Japan's hair, about the same style). Wears an underarmour company baseball cap most of the time.

This is the first story I've posted here, so I'm not quite familiar with how the site works yet. Any advice is welcome!