All the guards that usually stood throughout the house were off on lunch break so it was easy for Elise to slip unnoticed into her father's office. She stealthily made her way to the back closet, slipped in and grabbed the dusty old box. She was aware of every noise she made as she closed the closet door and tiptoed up to her room. As soon as she got to her room she locked the door and knocked the lid off the box of memories.

The first thing in the box was a photo album. It was full of pictures of Elise as a baby and Roderich before the grays and the wheelchair. She smiled as she flipped through the old photographs. Her smile wavered for a moment and then grew when she found the first picture of the people from her dreams. It was her at age three and a little boy about six, with a grumpy look on his face. They were having a tea party together.

As she flipped through the book she found dozens of pictures of those people. She found pictures of the little boy's twin brother in a dress, their older brother, Antonio, holding hands with Elise's father. She wondered which of the twins was Lovino and which was Feliciano. When she had seen all the pictures she set that book aside and looked back into the box. There were a few knickknacks from her childhood, but what immediately caught her eye was an envelope labelled 'mi amor' which she quickly grabbed from the box.

She opened the envelope and found a farewell letter from Antonio to her father. It was beautifully written and filled with words of love. But most importantly was how it ended with a phone number

'Though we must become enemies I will always love you and if you need me call me xx xx xx xx xx'

Elise grabbed a pen and copied down the number in her diary. She checked the time and decided she could still get the box back in her father's study without being noticed. She delicately replaced the letter in its envelope and placed it and the photo album back in the box. Once again, she slipped unnoticed into her father's study and returned the box.

That evening Elise locked the door to her room once again and called the number she had copied from the letter. She bounced on her heels as the phone rang and soon someone picked up.

"Ciao- cazzo, spagnola. Hola," a young Italian sounding voice answered.

Elise was puzzled and concerned, this couldn't possibly be the voice of the middle aged Spaniard she was looking for, and she hadn't thought about the fact that he wouldn't speak German.

She tried English "Hello, is this Antonio? I am Elise, Roderich's daughter."

"Well Toni's busy… wait, Elise? Roderich? Beilschmidts?" he said the name Beilschmidt as if the word hurt to say, but quickly switched to a peppier tone "Elise, this is Lovino, we played together when we were little, do you remember me?"

Elise realized this was the grumpy little boy from her childhood, and she grinned widely. "Of course I remember you, it's been so long!" She paused, remembering the way that he had said her surname with disgust just a moment ago. "...I suppose you hate me now?"

Lovino sighed "I don't hate you, I hate your Uncle Ludwig and your Grandpa Folkhert, not you, you're just an innocent girl. I just want this war to end."

Elise cheered up instantly. "Then let's end the war, if we talk it out we can arrange something!"

Lovino's voice sounded happier as well when he replied "Si that sounds wonderful. Call me back tomorrow, I'll give you my number. Don't call this line ever again, it's the bosses phone and that's dangerous."

Elise copied down the number in her diary as Lovino gave it, and crossed out the old one. "Danke Lovino, I'm sure it will be a pleasure to work with you."

Lovino laughed "you too, chica, ciao" and hung up the phone.

Elise went to bed that night brimming with hope for a brighter future.

Elise spent the next day dillydallying around the house. She watched cartoons, sat through one of Gilbert's stories about exploding heads, and drew with Edwin. At lunch she actually listened to Uncle Ludwig's announcement, now that she had this plan.

"Talks with the Oxenstierna's are going well, and an alliance is most certainly in our near future. We have lost very few men in the war against the Vargas' in the past few months and things are looking up. Now for grace."

As the family said grace Elise silently rejoiced, it was a perfect time to discuss a truce as the fighting was less rampant. She finished her lunch quickly and went up to her room to call Lovino.

She pulled her diary from her desk drawer and called the number Lovino had given her the night before. As the phone rang she thought through what she would say.

Lovino quickly picked up the phone and Elise was caught off guard by his friendly "ciao?"

"Lovino, hello, let us truce discuss," she babbled confusedly.

From the other end of the line, Elise heard Lovino chuckling. "Si, that sounds great," he said through the laughter. "What do you have in mind?"

Elise started explaining her plan. "I can go to Switzerland. Being German, French, and Italian, it's neutral territory. We can write up a plan and I will present it to my uncle Ludwig and you will give it to your brother Antonio."

Lovino thought for a moment, eventually he spoke again. "I can get to Switzerland. I'll just give Antonio some bullshit excuse... but it's a big place, where do you want to meet?"

"Can you get to Zurich?" Elise asked nervously.

"Si, I'll be there in a week."

"Danke! Bye!"

"Ciao."

They each hung up and Elise hid the diary back in her desk, unlocked the door of her room, and ran to her father's study. Elise adjusted the bow in her hair and smoothed down her dress before slowly opening the door. Her father sat at his desk reviewing some documents.

In her sweetest voice, Elise got his attention "Daddy, can I go to big brother's Basch's house?"

Roderich looked up in surprise. "Go visit Basch?" he asked, "that is rather far, and last time I sent you there alone, you came back with your hair gone."

Elise laughed at his attempt at a joke "I promise I won't do anything to my hair this time, I just miss him."

Roderich tutted, but he eventually said "Fine, I will arrange for the plane to take you to him. And stop calling him 'brother', he is your cousin" he turned back to his papers and waved her away.

Elise left the room swiftly and closed the door, she almost jumped in excitement from her success. Quickly, she skipped up to her room and began packing her bags.

The next day Roderich arranged for the family's plane to take Elise to Zurich. And after another day she was there.

[reviews and critique are loved]