I has returned, and with another chapter for you guys! I know it's been a while (far longer than I intended) but life has been pretty chaotic at the moment, and I hope you can accept my sincere apologies and enjoy the newest chapter!

Also, I try to reply to every review I can personally, but thank you so, so, SO much to everyone who reviewed, favourited and followed the previous chapter, especially the wonderful guest reviewers! You guys' comments give me so much motivation :3 I really hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Disclaimer: Yep, that's right, I still haven't managed to magically transform into the fabulous Hima. So, sadly, Hetalia does not belong to me. This story, however, does. :)


Chapter One: Lovino

16 Years Later

"Wake up. Wake up, Lovi."

The voice, although faint, is unwelcome in my pleasant haze of semi-consciousness, and I simply flip a finger in the vague direction of the sound and attempt to drag the covers further up over my head to block out the noise. Immediately, they are wrenched away.

"Lovi! Have you forgotten what day it is?"

Reluctantly, I peel open a bleary eye to find myself staring straight at my brother, who beams back, hazel eyes wide and sparkling. He looks far too awake for a Saturday morning, his hair mussed from sleep and his whole face alight with joy and excitement, and suddenly it clicks. Oh, of course.

"Happy birthday, Fratello!" He chirps. His face is soft and blurry around the edges without my glasses, but even without looking I can tell that he is wearing a radiant smile, and it takes all my effort not to mirror it.

"Urgh…si,si. Happy birthday, Feli." I yawn, snuggling back down. "Now let me sleep, goddamnit."

"Nope, sorry!" Feli trills, not sounding the slightest bit apologetic. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that. Up, up! It's time to be awake!"

I groan, but allow him to pull us into a sitting position. "What time's it, anyway?"

"Umm…early?"

"Feli."

"Maybe…about six?" He at least has the decency to look sheepish about this as I punch him in the arm, grumbling loudly. "I'm sorry! I tried to stay asleep for longer, but I was just too excited, and I couldn't go get my book without waking you, so I decided to wake you anyway. Anyway, it's our birthday! Don't you want to be awake for every minute of it?"

"Mm." I don't dislike birthdays, exactly, but it's difficult to be enthusiastic about them when you know that each one could be your last. And it's not even like all those romanticised tales of terminally ill kids, living their lives to the fullest with their loving families gathered at their bedsides; it's worse, because we're not ill, and we'll have no warning of what's going to happen. Just, suddenly - in a second or a minute or an hour or a day, or fifty years – our hearts will give up, our lungs will cave in, and suddenly all we'll be is a cold, conjoined corpse, waiting to be sawn apart for the advancement of medical science. Or worse still, Feli's heart will stop, and I'll just be left there, helplessly watching him die as I slowly drain out into him, my blood still pumping into his lifeless veins.

I give the tiniest shudder, but it must have been enough to betray my thoughts, because Feli jabs me sharply in the ribs. "Stop, Lovi. It's our birthday. Be happy!" I force a smile.

My brother shuffles up against me and rests his head on my shoulder, his soft, sleep-ruffled curl tickling my cheek. "We're sixteen," he breathes in awe, "I can't believe it."

A bitter remark about our life expectancy rises on my tongue, but one glance at Feli's blissful expression banishes any thoughts of sharing it from my mind. I can't ruin our birthday for him. "Yeah."

Feli gives a huff of laughter. "How eloquent."

"Oi, I'm not awake yet! You're the one who got us up at six in the morning!" I retort, and my brother just laughs again.

I grin, then lean my cheek against the top of his hair, watching the morning rays filter through the edges of the curtains and bathe the room in an airy and almost ethereal light. Perhaps it's the breathtaking sunrise, or perhaps it's just because I'm not fully awake, but at that moment I feel completely at peace with the world, leaning up against my brother, best friend and lifelong companion, revelling in the fact that we have beaten all the odds and officially made it to adulthood.

I'm not sure exactly how long we sit there, lost in thought, but the sun has risen fully above the horizon and is beaming down past the curtain-rail by the time Nonno comes bursting in, a plate in each hand.

"Good morning, my boys! Time to wake up for a beautiful day!" He balances both plates expertly on one arm, a skill he's perfected from years of running the Pizzeria, and whips open the curtains to flood the room in a stinging yellow light. Feli and I hiss and screw up our eyes. "Ah, you're awake already. Happy birthday, bambinos! Sixteen years old – I can hardly believe it! It seems like yesterday that I was seeing you two for the first time, holding you in my arms…"

Nonno's eyes are becoming misty and I interrupt hastily in the hopes of averting a sappy monologue. "Yeah, yeah, Nonno, we know. We've heard this all before."

"Hush, Lovi," Feli tuts, "he's being sweet."

"I don't give a fuck what he's being, I just want my damn breakfast."

"Language, Lovino," Nonno reprimands, but he doesn't sound at all angry as he presses the plates into each of our hands. He pretends to bow, putting on an affected posh voice. "May I present to you our casa speciality: crisp, golden pancakes with lightly whipped cream, strawberries and grated hazelnuts for the birthday boys."

Feli giggles and tries to bow back. "You may."

"What the hell is wrong with this family?" I grumble, spooning up a small mouthful of breakfast and trying to summon the appetite to consume it. "Fucking idiots, the lot of you."

"Ve, Lovi! Be nice!"

Nonno just laughs and ruffles our hair – normally I would shove him away, but seeing as we haven't brushed our hair yet this morning, it doesn't really matter – then sits opposite us on the bed and watches fondly while we tuck in. Or, at least, whilst Feli tucks in. One of the downsides of sharing a stomach is that Feli has most of it, leaving me with a ridiculously tiny appetite and a tendency to get sick when I eat too much. The doctors didn't figure out that's why I wasn't eating until I was twelve years old – before that, they figured I was just a stubborn little brat, and stuffed me full of protein shakes and all that crap. At one point, they even tried to diagnose me with an eating disorder. Fun times.

"Are you going to eat that, or can I have it?" Feli is eyeing my pancakes hopefully, and I shove the plate towards him.

"It's all yours. Knock yourself out."

"Grazie!"

As Feli finishes ravenously shovelling food into his mouth, Nonno rifles through our drawers and pulls out a set of clothes, then tosses them to us with far greater force than a sixty-year-old should be capable of. "Catch! Yao's coming round later, and I want you both to be dressed and ready to meet him."

"Whaaaat?" Feli says plaintively, letting his mouth drop open and widening his eyes. "I thought you said that we weren't having any lessons today!"

Nonno lapses into peals of laughter at the look of horror on his face. "Oh, Feliciano. Whatever am I going to do with you?" When his laughter dies down enough to speak, he clarifies, "No, no lessons today, so wipe that look from your face. Yao's only coming over for birthday dinner, like he has every year for the past ten years?"

I snort at my brother's gaping goldfish expression. "Wow, little bro. Your stupidity is almost impressive."

"Heyyyyy!" He whines. "I'm not little! I'm just as old as you, and I'm taller, too!"

"Huh, by what, two millimetres?"

He ignores my jibe. "And I'm not stupid, either! Tell him, Nonno!"

Already on his way out, Nonno puffs out his cheeks and shakes his head, giving an exaggerated, long-suffering sigh. "Don't call your brother stupid, Lovino." And, turning back to the door, "Now get dressed. Being sixteen doesn't give you an excuse to be lazy."

And with that he strides out, leaving Feli and I pouting at each other on the bed. After a few moments of glaring in silence, his lips start trembling and a second later he splutters with laughter, collapsing sideways against me and giggling helplessly. I try to hold onto my indignation for a while longer, but his happiness is infectious and we soon find ourselves sprawled across our double bed in hysterics, laughing until we're breathless and we can't even remember what's funny anymore.

Finally, Feli releases the last of his amusement in a contented sigh and leans back against our modified cushions, smiling blissfully. "I love this life," he states simply. "I couldn't be happier."

I manoeuvre myself up onto an elbow to look down at him. "Really? Even though we're, you know," I gesture to the join across our abdomen, "like this?"

"Conjoined?" He echoes, sounding confused. He runs his hand across the strange, numb patch of skin that connects us as if he hadn't realised it was there before. "Of course! This is our life, isn't it? We're fine the way we are."

"I guess."

Feli frowns. "I don't understand why it bothers you so much, Lovi. We've always been like this and you've never minded before. Why have you suddenly started getting all self-conscious about it?"

"I'm not self-conscious!" I snap. "I don't care what anyone else thinks! They can go fuck themselves."

He doesn't even blink an eyelid at my bad language, having grown so used to it over the years. Even Nonno turns a blind eye to it, most of the time. "Then what?"

I roll my eyes. Of course. Feli wants to be a psychologist if he grows up, so I should've known he would use this as an opportunity to psychoanalyse me. I've walked straight into his trap. Now would be the time to tell him to fuck off and grab the clothes Nonno has laid out for us, but he's watching me with wide, eager eyes, waiting for me, so I relent.

"I don't give a damn what people think of me, that's not the problem, it's just…don't you ever wish you could just be normal? That you could just go hang out down town, or go to the park, or to the swimming baths, without every-fucking-body giving you the evils just for existing? Without everyone wondering why you weren't aborted in the womb? Wouldn't it be great to be able to do sports, to go to school, without having to worry about the fact that your heart and lungs could give out at any moment? Wouldn't that just be fucking fantastic?! Do you see my problem?"

Feli's eyes are glazed as he listens to me rant, staring off into the distance, and for a moment I think I've struck a chord in him. I finish speaking, and am greeted with an oppressive silence. Then he blinks. Shakes his head. "No." He says, so firmly that I almost believe him. "I've never thought that, and you shouldn't, either. It's good to be different, Lovi - that's what Nonno's always said, and Yao. And me. We wouldn't want to be like those boring, normal people; we're us. We're special. We're unique."

"We'll never make friends, Feli. We'll never fall in love."

"So?" He grins and flings his arms around me in a cumbersome sideways hug. "As long as we have each other we'll be fine, right?"

I can't stop the smile that spreads across my face as I return the embrace, gazing out at the birds that wheel and caw in the late morning sky. Feli's right. Even if we'll never be the same as everyone else, we'll always have Nonno and Yao and each other to rely on. And that's what matters most.


Gosh, that was difficult…first-person present tense is harder than I expected! Still, I hope I didn't do too badly xD

I know not much happened that chapter, but I promise there will be more action coming up! I'm trying to make the chapters shorter for this story (aiming for 2-3k per chapter) and hopefully have more regular updates. Do you guys like that idea, or would you prefer longer chapters, like in We Will Survive? Review and let me know! Or…just review about anything? It's you guys who keep me going! :D

Thank you!