AN- The Arthur from the prologue was nine, I don't recall if I mentioned that anywhere.

Most things mentioned in here are old superstitions – like salt will drive away evil creatures, walking around your house backwards three times will protect it from evil, etc.

I do not own Hetalia.

Arthur woke in a cold sweat. He had been dreaming about that night again. Considering it was still dark out, Arthur rolled over so as to go back to sleep, but instead found himself scrambling backwards as he saw a pair of glowing blue eyes peaking over the top of the mattress.

"ALFRED!" He shouted as he calmed his racing heart causing the (gorgeous) glowing blue eyes to dart out of sight. "You obnoxious bleeder! Rotter! Berk! Was it necessary to give me a heart attack a six in the stinking morning?"
He felt a weight at the bottom of the mattress as someone sat down with a sigh. "Didn't mean to scare you Artie, but...I'm hungryyyyy." The demon whined as he made his way up the bed until he was straddling the teen. "Feed meeeee." He cried plaintively as his blue eyes bore into the Englishman.

You see, upon rescuing Arthur and helping him recover, the two demons had laid down their terms. In return for lending Arthur their power and protection, he in turn had to provide them with food. Also, in order for them to truly use their powers outside of protecting their contractor in the mortal realm, they required his permission/orders to do so. Which was fairly simple and straight forward, Arthur would've thought a demon contract to be more complex or dangerous. Then he found out what kind of food he would be required to provide...

"You're always hungry you mangy git!" Arthur protested trying to push the immovable Gluttony off of him. No dice.

"Nope. Hungry. Feed now, yes?" Alfred said offering a toothy grin, his teeth also seeming to glow, giving an impression of being the Cheshire Cat from that children's book.

Ugh. No escaping it then. Arthur sat up and leaned over to turn on the small bedside lamp. "Fine. Just make it qui-mmph!" Arthur was cut off as lips sealed over his in what would appear to be a kiss.

Which it wasn't, exactly.

Just to be clear; it was certainly not-exactly a kiss.

Yes, it was the psychical act of kissing but without the sorts of emotions that should be behind it. This is because, by kissing Alfred, or rather, Gluttony, he was providing sustenance for the demon. The food that both Gluttony and Envy required was simply energy; something that apparently was easiest taken through the mouth. They also liked souls but Arthur wasn't willing to go lure some stranger off the street and offer them as a sacrifice to the hungry pair.

Especially considering how frequently they seemed to eat.

"Aww Arthur. You're letting Alfred feed and not me? Such cruelty...I always knew you loved him more then me." Said Envy from the door, light malice tainting his playful words.

The pair separated with Arthur panting heavily, feeling like he had just done a triathlon before working a six hour shift in a warehouse. As he caught his breath, he gestured for Matthew to join them. "Stop being agony aunt and get over here and be quick about it, I have much to do today."

The demon smiled slightly and crossed the room before gently nudging the sated Gluttony out of the way and taking his place. Matthew's lips ghosted over his as he said "Thanks for the meal." before descending for a kiss of his own.

When Envy had also finished, Arthur felt himself slowly drifting off to sleep again but was dragged up before he could. "No can do Artie! You need to eat a bit before going back to sleep! We don't want you to go comatose on us again!"

Like he needed the reminder of that mishap.

"Fine. I'm up, up." he slurred out as he toed on his slippers and shuffled towards the kitchen. "It's too early in the morning for this."

"Alfred, quick stop him! Lu-" Matt shouted but Arthur ignored them, waving them both off. His cooking was delicious and he certainly required no interference... It was only when he was munching on some leftover curry that he realized he wasn't alone...Today was shaping up to being one of those days.

There was a hand on his arse.

"Ve~ Always so tense." Murmured the owner of said hand.

"AGH!" Arthur, though exhausted by early morning and by energy depletion, was not so far gone as to miss that... for long anyway. He spun around and glared first at the oblivious Lust before turning to the smirking Pride, the two freeloaders being far too at home in his kitchen. "To what...honour have I earned the presence of Pride and Lust?"

The French Demon sat on the countertop as if examine his nails for any dirt as he answered "You don't need to sound so put out by it mon cher. It is most unbecoming."

"Sod off Pride, the two bottomless pits fed again this morning and I'm tired and hungry and certainly not in the mood to put up with any of your nonsense and... DAMN IT LUST GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY ARSE!"

Food consumed, he decided once more that it was far too early in the morning for this shite and went to sleep on the couch, leaving the two interlopers in his kitchen to be more or less dealt with with by the two demons bound to him.

A few hours later, when he woke with a crick in his neck but in a much better mood did he realize something, freezing in mid stretch.

Where Pride went, so too did Wrath and Sloth, the trio having an inclination for destroying his house in the most creative of ways. Bugger him sideways... It was still far too early in the morning to be dealing with this madness and the infamous Trio of Demons. Frankly, it was a miracle the house was still standing; Arthur theorizing that it had to do with the house's old protective wards.

The ancient house was his inheritance, it having belonged to his family since the 15th century, though recently no Kirklands had inhabited it, choosing to live in the city then out in the countryside. He couldn't recall ever having been there with his parents, though by the looks of things when he had moved in, they had come to do maintenance every now and again.

Arthur had fallen in love with the ancient house immediately. It was an old stone house, with protection spells carved into the very brick and, while fairly spacious, gave off a cozy aura and due to the generations of powerful Kirkland's living there, power had somewhat seeped into the core of the land and house. The house came with about one acre of land, which Arthur had steadily been turning into one enormous garden with flowers, trees, herbs and fruits and vegetables – it was now at the point where he didn't have to go to the nearby town to get any sort of produce or bread, he made his own.

He was also pleased as, now that he had finally turned eighteen, the Kirkland house was now completely in his name. After his rescue and turning up in the nearest hospital, starved, badly injured and on the brink of collapse, the media had had a field day. Young boy turns up after a month headlines had read and he had been questioned again and again by police over what had happened and how he had escaped. When all of that was finally over, there was then talk of who would gain custody of him, as he had no living relatives.

And that was when his two demons came in.

They had come to the hospital when one of the social workers was there and proceed to raise quite the fuss about how they were so happy he was alright and apologizing that it took so long for them to get here, that they had had to clear some paperwork and such back in America and that they were here to look after him now... It was all Arthur could do not to laugh at the over-the-top theatrics the pair had used, especially as they pulled faces every time the man's back was turned. Despite any misgivings he or the police might have had, the pair had the right (forged) paperwork and no one else had any sort of claim, so on his tenth birthday he became their "ward."

It was a strange sort of relationship, by their bond, he was their master of sorts but by his lands laws, they had authority over him. Somehow they had made it work.

When he was thirteen, he decided to start his own freelancing supernatural business – a side effect of being bonded to a pair of demons and having magic turning out to be the ability to see ghosts, demons and the fae – as he had developed a bit of a reputation in the shire for helping with any sort of said-related problems. It got to the point where it just seemed easier to make it a business with set fees and a list of what services he could do then to have people come to him and ask if he could read their palms or any other sort of nonsense.

This had worked well for a while, until they had had a major case involving a necromancer and a zombie horde. Alfred had been badly injured and had had to go back to the demon realm, so in order to protect him, he had called in a favour.

That favour coming in the form of a fight-loving demon with red eyes and white hair.

Or Wrath, as he introduced himself.

He had then proceeded to completely annihilate the zombies with his claws. Arthur still told the great pillock that he had scarred his eleven year old self for life when he had then go on to show him how best to kill each zombie by demonstrating on the corpses and then having Arthur do it.

He wasn't squeamish of much though after that.

After that particular case, there had been times when he had needed more then just the help of Envy and Gluttony and had made temporary contracts with the other five most powerful demons in order to solve a case or, more frequently, just survive it.

This wouldn't be so bad, in fact it would brag worthy in the magical community (which he was still just beginning to make contact with), but now that he had made those temporary bindings, they seemed to see that as an open invitation to come over whenever they felt like - which was more frequent then he'd like. It was also a bit of a blow to find out that his house (his beloved house) was allowing supernatural creatures to come without being summoned due to the power it had absorbed over centuries.

This, however, was only discovered once he had removed the mandrake root he had found when they had first moved in as the creature prevented demons from anywhere near it – meaning it prevented Alfred or Matthew from being near the house. Though he became even more annoyed as the lingering power in the house not only allowed the seven demons to easily come and go, it was also somewhat problematic as, with the mandrake root gone, he was constantly having to exorcize weaker creatures, the creature being responsible for keeping the minor pests away. Poltergeist, goblins and the like he had to continuously banish from his basement, attack and... just about everywhere actually.

That one time when he had been having a shower... it didn't bare thinking about. Regardless, he now kept a small knife and some pre-set barrier spells in each room; just in case.

On the other hand, it was also pretty cool as he got along well enough with the Brownies who lived in his kitchen (especially as they took over the cooking and cleaning) and the Green Man in the garden was helping it to flourish. The spirits nearby, while harmless and slightly annoying at times, had turned out to be excellent story tellers and a unbeatable home security system. Every now and again, he would look out the window late at night and see a unicorn grazing by the forest or fae gallivanting around his garden, new plants sprouting in their wake.

Surprisingly enough, being raised by a pair of demons (for reasons only known to them) wasn't all bad. They had taught him to control his magic and had enrolled him in the school nearby and each demon seemed to have helped in their own way. Pride had made him lunches for school, Sloth had attended parent-teacher interviews, Lust had applied for a credit card (damn age restrictions), Wrath had taught him to fend off bullies, Greed had taken him camping and of course Envy and Gluttony had been his rock, always being there and were his official guardians under the law (still wasn't entirely sure how they pulled that off). He'd never ever admit it because none of them needed the ego boost but they were as good as family to him, barely remembering his own.

Still, he really needed to go find Pride, Wrath and Sloth before they caused any damage. However before he could track down any of the six powerful demons (Greed better not show up or he'd flip his lid), the doorbell rang and so, grumbling, Arthur shuffled to go answer it.

Opening the door with an irritable "What?", he received a blank stare before the man at the door said. "Ah...I'm sorry if I woke you; I believe I have the wrong address. I don't suppose you know where Kirkland Paranormal Investigations is do you? It's supposed to be in this area."

Arthur straightened a little and tried to make himself a little more proper. "You have the correct address, I just wasn't expecting any callers this early.." He quickly checked his watch, yes it was still only about nine o'clock, "...in the morning. Please come in."

The other man looked him with a little surprise though he did step inside before he said. "Er...no offence but you seem a little, well, young."

Arthur sighed, while he was getting this a lot less then he had when had first started this business, the question still bothered him. What did age have to do with his capabilities? Banshees and the like would still try and kill you, regardless of if you were a tot or senile. "When I was eleven I successfully exorcised a murderous poltergeist that not even the strongest mediums or priests had been able to handle. I may be young but kindly do not judge me solely on that."

Before the other man could answer he continued. "Please go make yourself comfortable in the sitting room, I'll be right back down as soon as I've put something more professional on."

With that he darted upstairs where he was mortified to see Wrath and Envy snogging while Pride and Lust went through his wardrobe commenting on what they found while Sloth and Gluttony, seemingly bored with both options, slept on the floor.

Briskly he said, "Lads, I have a customer downstairs so please don't go raising a fuss. Wrath, Envy, get off my bed if you're going to do that, Gluttony go to your own room to sleep and bring Sloth with you, Pride and Lust, kindly sod off and go harass someone else, I don't care what you think of my apparel. Questions? No? Good." Not giving them time to answer, Arthur grabbed a button up, tie, socks and slacks before darting to the bathroom to change.

Within a minute, he was downstairs, pouring tea for his potential client. "So what's this all about then?" Arthur asked after a moment or two.

The older man, his blond hair slicked back severely and serious blue eyes placed his cup down on the table and leaned forward slightly as he answered. "My name is Ludwig and I've been sent on behalf of her Majesty, the Palace has had an influx of...unusual happenings. These are getting increasingly more violent and frequent and with the upcoming wedding of the Prince, Her Majesty wants the problem to be fixed. We have tried everyone but so far, nobody has been able to provide a solution. We were about to give in when someone in the archives found a document that mentioned your family name repeatedly as a solution for problems of this sort. Before I can tell you anymore I am required to get you to agree to absolute confidentiality and your word to help."

Arthur leaned back and thought. The case did sound interesting but for it to have defeated so many and for the problem to worsen... he would not be able to do this on his own.

"Alfred...Matthew. What do you think?" He asked, knowing the two bound to him were nearby, they were far too curious to ever leave well enough alone. Demons, like a supernatural creatures in this day and age, were invisible to human eyes unless the person was gifted or they chose to be seen.

So, when the two appeared, seemingly out of thin air, flanking the Brit; Ludwig jumped with a quiet shout. Arthur really couldn't say much for their positions; considering they were supposed to be at least semi-respectable – Alfred lying upside-down on one of the cushions, his feet resting on the top of the couch and head dangling off the edge while Matthew leaned over the top of the couch – wasn't really helping with that.

"Sounds interesting." Alfred said.

"I've been curious about what was going on, I can feel the miasma from here." Matthew commented.

Alfred nodded before he said "Y'know though Artie, if you're gonna take tha' case, you better make temp contracts with the others." Putting stress on that last word to signify just who he meant. "As Mattie said, by the miasma, dude won't leave easily."

"Wh-What?" Ludwig stammered.

"Don't worry." Arthur said, internally delighted by the man's reaction. "They're my associates and are quite harmless." Both Gluttony and Envy looked at him, offended. "To you anyway." Arthur amended.

Arthur then turned to the two demons. "Are you sure I must? To maintain contracts with the rest of you lot..."

"Ve~ Don't worry." Piped up Lust's voice, the brunette appearing behind the chair Ludwig was sitting in. "I'll feed from this boy here. He has some latent power so he should be fine, plus he's quite handsome~."

Ludwig looked freaked out as the demon walked his fingers up his shoulder while Arthur internally sighed. He then said, sympathetic smiling at the Guardsmen. "I'm sorry my friend, it seems you've attracted the attentions of the demon Lust."

"Call me Feliciano~ Luddy." The demon said pressing a kiss to the mans hand as he allowed his glamour to drop and his tail, ears and wings show.

"GAH!"

"Well, looks like I'll be helping." Arthur muttered to himself before he went over to pick Lust up by his... shirt, though it could barely be called that. "Calm down, you're scaring the poor man."

Turning to Ludwig, he said. "I'm sorry about that, allow me to explain. Due to the amount of magical power I have, I can easily summon the strongest of demons. The big seven if you will. I've made a personal contract with these two..." He said waving a hand to the couch where Gluttony and Envy sat, now in their demon forms as well. "While the other five then just decide to pop in every now and again as their wont. Normally they would be confined to the demon realms unless summoned but due to the power here, they are able to come and go as the please. The one hanging off you is known as Lust."

"What was that about feeding?" Ludwig squeaked out, obviously in over his head and still stuck on that one word. This probably wasn't helped by Feliciano (who'd gotten free of Arthur's hold) straddling his lap.

"In return for their power and protection, they require either souls or their contractors energy. Lust here has just decided that you will be his contractor."

"What! Don't I get a say in this?"

"About as much as I did..." Arthur grabbed his hand and turned it palm up where Ludwig promptly stared at the newly created mark. "Congratulations. I think this is the first time I've ever heard of Lust making a contract with a human."

"WHAT!"

Having agreed to help, Arthur found himself in London within the hour and was put up in one of the many rooms in the Palace. As per his request, every human with no power to protect themselves had left the premises, any and all tours cancelled and the Palace was essentially sealed off from the outside world.

Grabbing a small bell and some salt, he went around the perimeter, activating a powerful barrier to keep any spirits or demons from following those that had left, just in case their grudge was directed at one of them. The salt layer of the barrier would keep any more malevolent creatures away – for some reason the mineral kept away evil spirits, demons and minor fae and ringing the bell would drive away the spirits that had a weaker hold on the building. He felt a bit ridiculous doing this in the middle of day, especially as the enchantment required the person to walk around the perimeter of where they wanted to barrier three times backwards.

That done, he quickly dusted off his hand before making his way to the courtyard. Hopefully Matthew and Alfred hadn't yet finished their preliminary search and would meet him there, on his way, he had received a text from his employers telling him that there was also going to be a priest specializing in exorcism and a world-renowned medium who would be participating in his investigation. If his demon companions got there before him...well, who knew what havoc they could wreck?

Stepping out from the gloomy corridors and out into the sunlight and the wide green space of the courtyard, he was pleased to see the medium Heracles (they had worked together once before and upon seeing him, the Greek's face broke out into a sleepy smile) and another who he could only assume was the exorcist Lovino – the youngest one to attain such a high rank in a century. He was surprised to see that Ludwig wasn't there yet, in the small amount of time he'd known him, Ludwig was never late.

Mentally shrugging, he went to the grumpy looking priest, offered his hand and said, "Arthur Kirkland, Supernatural Specialist"

Instantly his hand was smacked away and the priest growled at him "Are you out of your mind? You reek of demon!"

"I resent that." Pride said slowly rising from the ground as though walking up stairs in a fashion reminiscent of a miming trick. "I certainly do not smell."

The priest's jaw dropped and he pointed at the demon, mouth moving as he attempted to form words but failing.

Why did the Sins enjoy making an entrance so much? Arthur rubbed the bridge of his nose wishing he wasn't temporarily/permanently bonded to such creatures with such a need for the dramatic.

"Kesesese. Close your mouth, you look like an idiot." Wrath cackled as he appeared, hovering above them and swooping down at the panicking priest, dragging Envy with him.

Lovino turned bright red but before he could retort, there was a finger poking his cheek and he heard "Lindo~ He looks like a tomate, si?"

"God damn it Sloth!" Arthur growled. "Keep your hands to yourself!...Speaking of which, where's Lust?"

Just then, Ludwig came trudging out to join them, Lust clinging to his back while Ludwig just looked drained.

Lovino at last managed to stutter out. "W-What are five of the Seven Deadly Sins doing here?"

"Six." Gluttony corrected as he appeared and leaned on Arthur by resting his elbow on Arthur's head. Arthur already felt the strain of helping five demons maintain solid, human-looking forms...he was going to regret this later. "Relax~ We're not your enemies. First off, we're not the actual sins or anything, it's just the strongest seven demons are given the titles and we cast off (for public use at least) our names. Not like I'm going to influence you to go eat out an entire McDonald's or something... Anyhoo, we aren't any danger to you cause me n' Envy are bond to this dude here and we've all become rather fond of the little tsundere."

Envy raised an eyebrow. "Gluttony, using words that your tengu friend uses without knowing what they mean does not make you sound smarter."

"Shut up Envy. I know what it means, I'm using it cause li'l Artie here doesn't."

Arthur shoved the demon's arm off his head and said. "Stop calling me that you great pillock! My name is Arthur, A-R-T-H-U-R."

Heracles cleared his throat, successfully interrupting any further fighting. "So why did you call us here?"

Arthur looked sheepish for a moment before he said. "I figured the best way to get started would be to do a divination, I have some rune stones here. That way we can find out what it is the spirits want..."

Lovino nodded, though he continued to eye the demons wearily. "Sounds good."

Settling up another barrier with Envy and Gluttony's help, Arthur then began to chant and throwing the runes, taking note how each landed and began to summon one of the spirits interfering to ask it questions.

However, as with most things in Arthur's life, this didn't go to plan. It didn't go to plan for one of seven reasons it always seemed to...

"...You called da?" A pale head covered in silver hair and two horns popped up from the ground.

"...FUCK OFF GREED!"

It had been four nights, and yet the teams had yet to run into any sort of major spiritual activity. This was fairly typical as most ghosts and the like are wary of change and of new faces and make themselves scarce when there is someone new in their "territory". While not entirely uncommon, it was still strange that this was still happening four days later, especially as these spirits were supposed to be violent. In fact, Arthur was troubled by how little they had seen – with the number of instances his employers had reported, there shouldn't have been any period of quiet, not when they had been such violent spectres.

His concerns only grey as in tonight's searching, Arthur had run into a bunch of the old, harmless ghosts that haunted the area. Harmless as in they weren't powerful enough to do anything, nearly all of them held grudges and if they did have power would be causing mischief. Key words being if they had the power, which they didn't.

Now, if they had, Arthur would've considered the case closed; after all the likes of Guy Fawkes, Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots, Lady Jane Grey, the two Princes of the Tower (Edward IV's sons), Arthur (nephew of John Lackland), among others had perfectly good cause to haunt the Palace and had no reason to be at peace with the history of the building they haunted or with its present occupants. But as they were lesser spirits, Arthur let them be, after all, their haunting were good for tourism and the little mischief they could manage was harmless. However, that still left him with the problem that the lesser ghosts had appeared before their more powerful and destructive ghosts. Had they gotten through the wards? But a quick phone call dispelled that theory.

It had him bewildered. Never before had he gone against an opponent(s) who had gone so against what he was expecting them to do...it was very strange.

Besides the frustration of having had little results, their hunt for the source of the ever-increasing miasma, left them fairly irritable and Lovino complained of a constant headache. The Sin Demons had mostly paired off with each other, Lust following Ludwig around and Envy and Gluttony taking turns working with Arthur while Lovino and Heracles – Lovino being fortunate enough to be born on Halloween giving him an innate sixth sense that when combined with the little power he had, outmatched even Arthur's gift. The priest could clearly see and converse with all manors of ghosts, even those that had been around for millenia and who's voices had faded to little more then a whisper – which was useful in their present search; that and by being with the medium, Lovino could easily perform the necessary exorcisms when Heracles got possessed by one of the more mischievous spirits.

As dawn approached, Arthur became increasingly okay with the creatures not showing up as helping the six demons he had contracts with maintain solid form and be able to move about the mortal realm easily combined with searching the Palace for fifteen hours a day had left him slightly better off then an insomniac. In fact, it had gotten so noticeable that Lovino and Heracles offered to support one each temporarily so Arthur could recover a little. Pride had gone with Heracles while Sloth, for some unknown reason, was the only one able to handle contact with a priest and had been feeding off Lovino. Wrath and Envy had offered to go formless for a while which reduced the strain somewhat and Greed had already wandered over to the Tower of London, to "investigate" and help the old souls pass on (Arthur didn't want more clarification as not only was the demon was giggling but he seemed to have found someone/something else to sustain him... Arthur was running into less and less ghosts lately.)

Still, Arthur was still a dead man walking even with this help, causing Alfred to hover around him protectively to prevent him from walking into anything, especially after he nearly fell down an enormous staircase.

As Gluttony worriedly herded him back to their rooms, he tried to focus on the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that was telling him that they were missing something.

But what?

It was when night fell again twelve hours later when the demons reported no findings and Heracles and Lovino, being the daytime searchers this time and still no perpetrators were found, that it occurred to Arthur that it might not be spirits that they were dealing with. He had looked out the courtyard and saw a large circle of mushrooms right in the middle of it. A fairy ring. That was it! The reason they couldn't find a nasty, malevolent spirit was because it wasn't a spirit at the source of the miasma! It could be a demon or ghoul or one of the higher fae! It could be that the Royal House had somehow angered the beings and that all the damage and problems were being caused by the vengeful creatures. It was possible someone had made a deal in a dream or the like and had fallen through on their side of the bargain... However, the only way to know for sure was to find out from the horse's mouth – so to speak.

Now all he needed to do was track down one of the types that lived in the palace, preferably a Brownie, they were the nicest to deal with, not at all snooty like some of the others kinds of fae. Not even bothering to explain, he ran to his room, grabbed the pouch he kept for these sorts of cases before running back.

He then quickly pinned a four leaf clover to each of their jackets as, by old superstition, they would allow them to see the tricky creatures and gave them each a makeshift hat which, if they had to cut through the ring, they were to reverse so the fae could not whisk them away or make them fall under their influence. While he didn't tell his companions his suspicions – as the one time he had mentioned the fair folk, the other three had been skeptical – , he was successful in getting them to wear the hats and clover. The hats themselves were amusing as it wasn't as if normal hats could really be found in the palace and resulted in all of them wearing the strangest things on their heads.

So that night, while the others were patrolling, he sat instead in the throne room and poured out a bowl of milk and waited, humming quietly.

Meanwhile, Heracles was investigating the underground tunnels he and Lovino had found in the cellars when he stumbled upon a hidden room that had strings of ageing wooden flutes and charms all over the walls. It was as if stepping into another world. As soon as you crossed the threshold, the weight of the miasma tripled and Heracles had to fight to not empty his stomach or pass out.

He immediately began to back-pedal, shouting for Lovino. He needed to get out of there.

What on earth was a barrier of this strength doing under the palace anyway?

Soon enough, the four of them were again in the courtyard, this time with an entirely different purpose in mind. Heracles had gone dashing out of the cellars in a panic, dragging a bewildered Lovino with him and had run into Ludwig who had then promptly found Arthur just as he was finishing up his conversation with the fae.

Between the two of them, they were at last making progress on their case.

Arthur was the first to share his findings for the night. The fae that still lived in the palace and who had enjoyed much of the old courtesy directed at their kind (bowls of milk left out at night and the like) and had returned the favour with their protection were the source of the destruction. They had done it in order to try and gain the attention of the family in order to alert them of the danger below or at least cause them to summon a high calibre supernatural specialist who could find it. None of those who had come before Arthur had had enough power or belief to see them and upon sensing Gluttony, Envy and the others, the small creatures had hidden from the powerful demons.

Heracles then explained about the hidden room and the disintegrating barrier contained within. From what he could recall and from past experiences, he hypothesized that the powerful barrier was either sealing off a gateway to the demon realm or one to the underworld. If that was the case, it would also explain why none of the Sins had been able to find the room – such barriers were two-fold one which also prevented any non-human entities from even entering the room.

Upon hearing that, Arthur pulled out the oldest looking book ever from his bag and flipped through it quickly before settling on a map that appeared to be from about the 1500's. The borders were all wrong and the continents inaccurately portrayed but it was clearly a map of Europe with small dots on them of different sizes and shapes. Arthur, bent over what could maybe be a legend before having a whispered discussion with the Sins before he began to speak.

"This is one of my family's old record books and parts are indecipherable, but the Latin that could be read explains that these dots..." he pointed to the three that looked like a bulls-eye, "mark the locations where the boundaries between out world and the demon world are weakest and these dots..."he pointed to the ones that were small stars, "mark the locations of the sealed portals that led to the underworld. The bulls-eye ones aren't a concern for us right now as they're in France, Greece and Ukraine – the ones that are important in this case are the stars, particularly the one that is marked . Each of these were to be heavily monitored and maintained by old, powerful families,s eeing as there are only three in total, this is not too hard a task but from what Greed tells me, the Romanov family guarded the portal in Novosibirsk and the Medicis were the guardians of the one in Florence. However, after the fall of the Medicis in the 18th century, their task fell to lesser magical families who slowly forgot it and when the Remonovs were all killed in the revolution occurred in Russia in the early 20th century, no one knew about the portal. My family was in charge of maintaining this one, but judging by what you saw Heracles, no one has fulfilled that duty in too long. Since the three barriers are tied together (why did magic favour that number anyway?), as one fell into disrepair, the seal on the other two also began to crack. We're going to have to repair the damaged flutes and replace those that had already broken before renewing the seal altogether...Then I'm going to need to take a trip to Florence then to Novosibirsk to fix the other two."

"Why couldn't it just be a simple exorcism?" Lovino groaned out. "What do we have to do to renew the seal?"

Arthur turned beet red and shifted uncomfortably. "You're not going to like this."

That was how the four of them (sans demons who could not enter the room without destroying the barrier altogether) ended up in a small, dark, dank room in the ancient cellars, holding newly carved flutes, painted completely in weird symbols and...naked.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" Asked a very uncomfortable Ludwig who had to not only suffer under the cool air as the rest did but had also been under Lust's scrutiny all the way down to the room. Poor man.

"According to the spell...yes." Sighed Arthur, who was no happier about this then Ludwig, the teasing he would get for this later. He shuddered at the thought.

"Shut up and get with it already!" Shouted the irate priest. "The sooner you hurry up and do this, the sooner I can put some pants on bastardo!" Lovino had also suffered under the scrutiny of a demon on the way down, Sloth acting...very unSloth-like to say the least.

Heracles didn't seem to really notice, opting instead to curl up on top of one of the empty barrels while he waited for the other three to get their act together.

None of them were particularly happy to be in the room either. Heracles and Arthur as the ones with the most magic had practically keeled over with the first few steps before they had adjusted and all of them looked sick, pale and were tense. The sooner the barrier was fixed, the better.

Arthur nodded in compliance with Lovino's request (and wanting pants on as well) began to draw the chalk circle in the ground while he got Ludwig and Lovino to light the candles for him. Then each of them sat within the circle.

While each had power which they used to feed the circle (Lovino having reluctantly taught Ludwig not even an hour before), none had the ability to see what Arthur was seeing now.

As they passed around the flutes, both new and old, and added them to the string, Arthur was able to see the threads that connected each flute to the other and then to the overall barrier and ward. As they progressed through the spell (a relatively simple one, a few words here, an incantation there and a few gestures) the room slowly began to resemble a beautiful multiple-coloured spider web, each strand glowing with power.

When they were at last finished, the symbols they had previously drawn into their skin were gone, having bled into the working leaving the four of them to do their best to avert eye contact as they no longer even had the paint to somewhat cover themselves.

"...If Pride stole the clothes I left out there I'm going to kill him."

A day in the life of the Kirkland prodigal son and little did he know, his troubles were just beginning.

Gilbert/Prussia (Wrath)

Francis/France (Pride)

Matthew/Canada (Envy)

Ivan/Russia (Greed)

Antonio/Spain (Sloth)

Feliciano/ North Italy (Lust)

Alfred/America (Gluttony)

I read some of Garth Nix's works recently, specifically Abhorsen that I borrowed the wood flute idea from - I'd highly recommend the series.

I didn't want to make France Lust because probably anyone who has done such a story has made him that and there's more to his character then being a world pervert... I made him pride because of France's monarchy days (especially under the Sun King) and imperialistic time where nationalism was a very big thing. Pride is also somewhat tied in with vanity, which, by canon, France is (uniforms! Tacky vs. stylish/flashy)