Hello again, here is Chapter One! This one should be longer than the last, and it takes place around a year and a half later :)

Thank you so much to everyone who has added or reviewed my first chapter, it makes me so happy! :3

Once again, I do not own Hetalia.

Enjoy!

Chapter One

"Eduard, did you remember to practice your spellings?"

"Ugh, yes! You've asked that twice already!"

"Alright, sorry," Toris sighed, scrubbing at a sticky juice stain on the front of Raivis' shirt. It was the boy's first day of 'big school', and he could hardly send him off in that condition.

"I'm going to go to school, I'm going to go to school!" Raivis sang happily, swinging from side to side. "I can't wait, I'm so excited! Eduard says they have real homework and lessons, and every Friday there's playtime, and I'm going to make lots and lots and lots of friends and they can all come to our house and play…"

"Mm-hm. Hold still." He hummed, pretending to listen to the constant chatter as he fixed the wonky buttons on his brother's shirt. It was actually quite a relief that Raivis was taking this so well; he had expected him to be screaming and crying and begging him not to make him go, his usual reaction to change.

At that moment, Eduard appeared at the kitchen door, ready to go in his shoes and backpack. Quickly, Toris wiped the crumbs from around his struggling youngest brother's face, then picked up his own tiny backpack and helped him put his arms through it. Reaching over, he picked up two brown paper lunch bags and pressed them into his brothers' hands. He briefly checked the two of them over for stains or unbrushed hair or untied shoelaces, then sighed and pulled Raivis into a hug, feeling him squeeze back tightly.

"Have a good day at school, Rai. Make sure you have lots of fun so you can tell me all about it when you get home! And remember, if you ever feel upset or scared, just tell one of the nice teachers. Or go find Eduard, he'll look after you."

He nuzzled a kiss into his little brother's hair. Pausing, he held his breath as he waited for the tears that were bound to come, but he was greeted with nothing but a cheerful, "Okay!".

Maybe Raivis really was getting better. After Ivan and his mother had left, he had cried at the tiniest little thing, begging for his Mommy and Daddy every single night, but now Toris couldn't even remember the last time he had asked when their parents were coming home. Although it frightened him that Raivis could have forgotten so quickly, it was undoubtably better for all of them, and he certainly seemed a lot happier.

Releasing him, he turned to embrace Eduard.

"Take care, Ed. There's a pizza in the kitchen for you to heat up after school, but remember not to let Raivis have too much or he'll get a stomach ache. I should be home by six, perhaps a little later, because I need to pick up groceries after college. Don't drink any of the milk in the fridge, I think it's gone off. Oh yes, and-"

Eduard rolled his eyes, shrugging out of the embrace. "I'll be fine, stop worrying!" He protested.

"That's my job, to worry about you. Someone has to." He smiled softly and ruffled his hair. "Alright you two, get off to school. You don't want to be late on your first day, do you?"

Raivis almost squealed with excitement, jumping up and down and clinging to Eduard's hand. "No no no, we don't want to be late on our first day!" He echoed. "Let's go, let's go, Eddie!"

"I told you not to call me that."

Hand in hand, they began to walk off down the street, Raivis skipping with excitement as he chattered happily on to his big brother about goodness know what.

"Look after Raivis, Eduard!" Toris called after them, and they both turned. He winked at the younger. "Look after Eduard, Raivis!" He joked.

"I will." Raivis replied solemnly, squeezing Eduard's hand. The other two exchanged amused grins over his head, and Eduard gave a reassring nod as they continued to walk. Toris stood in the doorway with a smile still fixed on his face, watching until they disappeared round the corner. Then, in a sudden rush of exhaustion, his expression slipped and he slumped down at the kitchen table with a mug of black coffee, resisting the urge to rest his head in his arms. He knew that if he did, he would fall asleep again and be late for school.

Gulping his coffee, he raised his wrist to examine his watch. There was over an hour before he had to be at school, as his started later than his brothers' elementary school did. That meant there was enough time to have a go at finishing the history essay due that day. Although he had had all summer to complete it, he had to be a full-time carer for his brothers during the holidays, meaning that he had very little free time for schoolwork. Despite this, he tried hard and still managed to be a straight As and Bs student, and he didn't intend for that to change now. Anyway, he couldn't allow himself to get a detention when he had promised his brothers he would be home by six.

It wasn't like he could use caring for his brothers as an excuse anyway. He didn't want to risk getting the social services involved. So, picking up his pen, he got to work.

Toris shot awake with a jerk, his eyes flying to the clock.

"Shit!"

He must've fallen asleep while he was writing! Now he had only ten minutes to get to school. Quickly, he scribbled down a couple more sentences, finishing his essay in a way that was just about passable, then leapt up and hurried around, grabbing his coat and bag and grocery list. He snatched up the key and slammed out the house.

As it turned out, he made it to school with less than a minute to spare, slumping gratefully into his homeroom seat and breathing heavily as the bell rang. Automatically, he answered roll call then sat silently until the bell rang to signal the beginning of first lesson. He navigated the corridors as if on autopilot, in his usual haze of exhaustion and detachment, and dropped into his seat in history class.

Reaching down, he rummaged in his bag for his essay. It wasn't there.

"Damn it."

He stirred the contents of the backpack in the vague hope that it would appear, but he already knew that he must have left it on the kitchen table. What an idiot. There was no way he was going to avoid a detention now.

"Ahem. Mr Laurinaitis, your essay, if you please."

Red- faced, he looked up to find his history teacher standing over him with his hand out expectantly, giving him a smug smirk. For some unknown reason, Mr Edelstein had decided that this year, his pet hate would be Toris. He seemed delighted that he finally had an excuse to punish the usually well-behaved student.

Toris opened his mouth to stammer out an apology, but he was interrupted by the obnoxious crackle of the loudspeaker.

"Would Toris Laurinaitis please report to the Principle's office immediately? Thank you."

It took a moment for that to sink in. The loudspeaker was so rarely used, most people had forgotten it even existed. He hadn't been summoned in this manner since Eduard had got into his fight over a year ago. Normally it was reserved for students about to get into serious trouble, so Toris wracked his brains for any rules he could possibly have broken. Nothing. He had always been a quiet, reserved person who kept himself to himself and mostly went unnoticed. He was never singled out as being particularly badly-behaved or particularly promising or particularly smart. In every shape and form, Toris was normal. He was insignificant. Honestly, he could think of no reason why anyone would need him so urgently.

But everyone had turned in their seats to look at him, so he silently stood and slung his bag over his shoulder, flushing at the attention. Mr Edelstein looked disappointed, but hissed in his ear, "I expect that essay from you next time, Toris. Don't think I'll forget."

With that somewhat sinister warning, he slunk out, gazing at the floor with an expression of shame. He must have done something wrong, he was sure of it. But he honestly had no idea what.

The door clicked shut behind him, and he began to walk slowly through the corridors. The initial relief of the well-timed announcement had begun to wear off, and a feeling of dread and foreboding was beginning to pool in his stomach. This couldn't be good. He was pretty certain he hadn't done anything hugely wrong – perhaps it was just going to be another well-intentioned lecture on all the subjects he was struggling in. But surely they wouldn't have used the loudspeaker just for that? Unless something had happened with Raivis or Eduard…

He picked up his pace a little out of worry, cringing at the loud sound of his footsteps in the echoey hallway. Hesitantly, he approached the office door and gave a gentle knock.

"Come in!" A cheery voice called.

Toris gave a small smile as he opened the door and greeted the secretary. Miss Héderváry was one of his favourite staff at the school; she was always so sweet and cheerful, and she was one of those teachers who knew every student by name. And she always pronounced his name correctly. The only thing he couldn't understand is why someone as lovely as her would be engaged to someone like Mr Edelstein.

"Toris, there you are! I'm so glad to see you. I'm sorry for pulling you out of history, but there's a really important job for you to do."

Toris sighed internally. In this school, a 'really important job' usually meant copying out a dictionary by hand or scrubbing the staff toilets with a toothbrush. Even so, he didn't want to be rude, so he gave her a small smile.

"What is it?" He asked cautiously.

Miss Héderváry gave a tinkling laugh. "You needn't look so terrified, Toris, I'm not asking you to do hard labour! All I need you to do is be a guide for a week or so."

"A-a guide?"

"Yep. We need someone to look out for our new student for a week or so, show him around and all that. I always thought you seemed like a nice, responsible boy who would be perfect for the job. Anyway," she added gently, "it would do you good to make some friends."

With every word, Toris' heart sank lower and lower into his stomach. Why, out of all the confident, talkative, popular people in his grade, was he chosen to do this job? It wasn't like he had good social skills or was particularly likeable or anything. He was just a plain, ordinary, boring boy who wanted nothing more than to slip into the background and disappear. And now he was being singled out.

Well, wasn't this just great.

Miss Héderváry seemed oblivious to his internal anguish. She ploughed on. "Toris, this is Feliks. Feliks, this is Toris, he'll be your guide for the week. Well, now the introductions are over with, I'll leave you two to get to know each other!" In an instant, she whirled around and marched out of the doorway, leaving the two boys hovering in an awkward silence.

Honestly, Toris hadn't even noticed that the other boy was there until his name had been mentioned. Now his eyes were drawn to him as he sat, slightly slouched, on one of the office chairs, examining his nails in a carefree manner. Chin-length blond hair swept over his face and obscured his eyes, which, when he looked up, were a brilliant green.

The boy - Feliks - raised an eyebrow. "So…hi?"

He said it as a question, with a sarcastic undertone that made Toris blush. Oh, of course. He had been so distracted with staring at the new student and feeling sorry for himself that he hadn't even spoken yet.

He hunched his shoulders defensively and muttered,"Oh, um…hello."

Wonderful start, Toris, he congratulated himself bitterly. Not awkward at all.

Feliks' other eyebrow went up, and there was another strained silence as they each waited for the other to speak.

Finally, Feliks said, "Are you, like, supposed to be doing something here? I mean, I totally don't care, but it's like sooo awkward right now…"

Toris started slightly and tried not to look too flustered. "Oh, yes, sorry. Do you have a timetable or anything, so I can show you to your class?"

"Already? It's like, ages until next period." He looked at his watch, which was, surprisingly, a hot pink colour. Toris was pretty sure it was intended for girls. He was also pretty sure that it would be social suicide for a new boy-or any boy, for that matter- to be seen wearing something like that. Feliks shrugged. "Anyway, I don't have one yet. Miss Hedey- vargle or whatever her name was said I should just go to all your classes for this week."

If possible, his heart sank even lower. He just wanted to get through school with the least amount of hassle and stress possible, and having a transfer student following him around would certainly not make that any easier. But he could hardly refuse.

"Héderváry."

"What?"

"Her name is Miss Héderváry. Her family is Hungarian."

"Whatevs. I mean, I know it's not her fault and all, but that name is, like, tf? She totally needs to get a nickname if she wants to keep working with kids. A nickname people can pronounce."

That was true enough, he supposed. Still, he couldn't help but be a little annoyed at the way this new boy just marched in here on his first day and began criticising the staff. It was his bad luck in the first place that he was stuck as a guide, and it would be worse yet if Feliks turned out to be obnoxious and ungrateful. He was tempted to glare at him, or give some biting comeback, but as usual, his polite nature took over.

"You're not local either, though, are you?" Toris asked curiously. As they'd been speaking, he'd noticed that Feliks had an unusual, European-sounding accent that he couldn't quite place. It wasn't very strong, but it was definitely there.

"Nah, I'm from Poland. We moved here a couple of years ago, because my parents thought it would, like, give me a better future or something. It totally hasn't."

Toris gave a slight huff of laughter, and Feliks looked at him expectantly. He realised that he should really tell him about how he moved to the country, just after Eduard had been born. Their mother had been convinced, when she was getting over her boyfriend leaving, that their lives would be so much better here. She had promised that there would be no more boyfriends, no more partying, no more drinking. She said she was going to be the perfect mother, and with the naïve trust of a 7 year old, Toris had believed her.

"Helloo?"

He jumped. "Oh! I moved from Lithuania when I was seven." Best to leave out the details, he thought.

Feliks' eyes widened. "Lithuania? That is so cool! We are like, totally neighbors! High five!"

He shoved out his hand expectantly. Toris stared at it for a moment, then gave it a hesitant tap, a tiny smile spreading across his face. No one at school had ever considered him 'cool' before, and it felt very unusual. But he liked the feeling. Yes, he definitely liked it.

After the bell rang for next lesson, Toris had been expecting to be able to brush Feliks off on the first group of popular kids he came across. But to his surprise, the other followed him around throughout the whole day, sitting next to him in every class and eating lunch with him. He even hung out with him during study period, although he slumped across the desk and moaned with boredom whilst Toris hunched over his textbooks, his brow furrowed in concentration. By the end of the hour, Toris had written pages and pages of notes in his neat scrawl. Feliks' page was empty, except for an elaborate doodle of a unicorn in one corner. Toris glanced over and frowned.

"You spent all study period drawing…a unicorn?" He asked a little incredulously. Admittedly, it was a very good unicorn, but still. Study period was for studying, not doodling.

"Yep! Isn't it fabulous?"

"Um…I suppose so…?" Teenage boys didn't usually talk about things being 'fabulous', so he wasn't quite sure how to reply. "What about your English, though?"

"What about it?" Feliks didn't even look up from his sheet, where he was adding sparkles to the unicorn's mane.

"We have a test tomorrow. Didn't you listen in class?"

"Noo.." His hand paused for a moment, mid-sparkle, then he continued drawing. "Still, it's not like it matters. I, like, totally suck at English."

Toris blinked, confused. "That's why you have to study for it, so you don't fail."

Feliks just shrugged. Does he honestly not care? Toris thought, annoyed. Sure, it was difficult for him to keep up his studies with two younger brothers to look after, but at least he tried! If he could manage it, surely Feliks could. Feliks probably had two loving parents and a calm, steady home; he wouldn't have to worry about bills, or where his next meal was coming from. A sharp pang shot through his heart, which he realised was jealousy.

"At least you have a chance to do well!" He exclaimed in frustration, and Feliks looked up, his green eyes brimming with surprise and confusion. "It would be so easy for you, if you only tried. Is that the kind of attitude they encouraged at your old school?"

There was a pause, then Feliks burst out laughing. "Calm down, seriously! You sound like a teacher! Besides, I don't have an old school. I was, like, homeschooled." He said it as if it was the most ordinary thing ever.

"Really?" he asked, surprised. Though, to be honest, that explained a lot. Like the way Feliks thought it was a good idea to wear a pink watch to school, or his use of words like 'fabulous'. If he had ever been to a high school before, he would know that that was the recipe for bullying.

"Duh." Feliks waved a hand carelessly. "Anyway, I already know I'm going to fail, so what's the point in trying? It would just be a totally pointless waste of time, right? I have so much more important things I could be doing."

"Like drawing unicorns?"

"Exactly!" The sarcasm seemed to be completely lost on him.

Toris sighed, giving up. "Fine, alright. It's your future."

Slowly, Feliks replied. "Yeah. It's my future."

When Toris let himself in around seven, juggling with armfuls of groceries, he was greeted with a tight hug and the overexcited squeals of a five-year-old.

"Toris!" Raivis cried joyfully. "Guess what, guess what! School was really really fun and I made a new friend called Peter and we played together at recess, and I also made a friend called Lili and she's a girl and she played with us too, and also Emil but he doesn't really talk much but he sat with us at lunch and ate weird yucky fish stuff…"

Awkwardly, he struggled to set down the grocery bags and returned his brother's hug, looking over at Eduard who sat smirking at him across the table.

"Finally!" Eduard grinned at him good-naturedly. "He's been going on at me ever since we got home, it's good to see him doing it to someone else for once."

Toris chuckled and ruffled Raivis' hair. "I'm glad you had fun." He smiled. "How was your first day, Eduard?"

His brother shrugged and looked down at the table, and he thought for a moment that his brother was going to 'go teenager' on him and not answer. Then he looked up, blushing slightly and trying to bite down a smile.

"It was great. Mr Carriedo said he needed some help with the school website, and he asked me if I could do it!"

Eduard's face was flushed with pride and he couldn't stop a smile spreading across his face. Toris came over and pulled him into a hug.

"That's wonderful, Ed! Well done!"

His brother beamed proudly, then picked up his pencil and resumed his math questions. Raivis sat next to him, swinging his legs and poking his tongue out in concentration as he drew a scribbly picture. After watching both of them for a minute, he carried the groceries through to the kitchen and unpacked them, then began to cook dinner. It would have been simpler to just make a ready meal for them, but he was determined that his brothers would get a healthy meal every evening.

Usually he found cooking therapeutic, but today as he was chopping vegetables, he couldn't stop his mind wandering back to Feliks. It had been strange to spend a school day with someone for once. After his parents had left, he had been overwhelmed with responsibility, and had no time to maintain friendships. Slowly, all his old friends had drifted away. He couldn't remember the last time another kid had voluntarily spoken to him in school, never mind spent a whole day with him. It had been…unusual, but he didn't dislike it as much as he had expected to. In fact, he had almost enjoyed spending time with Feliks…

Suddenly, the pot hissed and boiled over, and Toris dropped the carrot to run and rescue the stew, all thoughts of Feliks banished from his mind. He sighed with relief as he turned off the heat.

"It's time for dinner!" He called through to the other room. "Can you come and set the table for me?"

Raivis entered the kitchen and began rifling through the cutlery draws, whilst Eduard reached over his head to grab three glasses from the overhead cabinet and fill them under the tap. Within minutes, they were all sat around the table, eating their stew and talking.

"What are you going to do for Mr Carriedo's website, then?" Toris asked Eduard, blowing on a spoonful of soup.

"Well," he began, "I was thinking the website needs a better background, maybe a dark blue with the school crest on it, and I'm also going to add a few pictures. Mr Carriedo said he tried to add some but they wouldn't work, so I had a look and I told him that they didn't work because they were in the wrong format. Because he didn't know that the format that's most compatible with a web page is JPEG-"

"What's a JPEG?" Raivis piped up, swinging his legs under the table. Eduard pushed up his glasses.

"It's a type of compression format for pictures on the computer. But there's actually two types of JPEG image format…"

Toris listened to his brother talk on to a bemused Raivis, trying not to let his own expression show his confusion. Vaguely, he wondered at what point his younger brother had become more clever than him.

"Rai, stop kicking me!"

"I'm not, I'm not!"

"Yes you were!"

"No I wasn't, I was just swinging my legs!"

"Well stop swinging them!"

"Can if I want!"

He was drawn out of his confusion to the sound of his siblings squabbling, as they did frequently. It exhausted him. He shouldn't have to deal with this; he wasn't a parent.

"Stop it, both of you," he sighed, his tone so weary that it made them both pay attention. "Good. Raivis, go get into your pyjamas and then come down for a story. Eduard, go upstairs and read for a bit, or you can join us for the story if you want."

He received a withering look in response to this suggestion. "No thanks. I'm eleven now, I'm not a baby."

On the last word, he gave Raivis a pointed look. The other boy whimpered. "I'm not a baby either!" He whined. "That's mean!"

"Eduard, stop it. Go upstairs. You too, Rai." Still whining and grumbling, his brothers climbed the stairs. Toris sighed again, wanting to drop his head into his hands, but instead he forced himself to stand up and drag himself to the sink to do the washing-up.

When he emerged from the kitchen, Raivis was standing there in his blue footies, with a book under his arm and his thumb in his mouth. Toris scooped him up under the arms and carried him over to the couch, settling him on his knee. The little boy cuddled up to him and tucked his head under his chin. Smiling, he began to read.

Ten minutes later, Raivis was fast asleep in his lap, curled up against him. Carefully, he carried him up to bed and tucked him in, then gave him a goodnight kiss and turned off the lights. After checking up on Eduard, he tiptoed softly down the stairs and pulled out his laptop. In the dark silence of the lounge, he typed away, a mug of coffee beside him to keep him awake, studying for the English test the next day. However, once again he found himself thinking about Feliks.

He couldn't say that he had liked Feliks, exactly. The other boy was just too shallow and frivolous, and he didn't seem to care about anything at all. There were times during the day when his carefree attitude had almost driven him to insanity. But still, there was something about him…something that made him want to get to know him better.

No! He didn't have time to think like this, not now. It wasn't like he would ever have the time to commit himself to a friendship. His brothers needed him, and they had to come first. There was no point in complaining about it, because it wasn't going to change.

With a groan, he rubbed the balls of his hands into roughly against his eyes, then leant back in his chair with a slight wince, his head tilted upwards.

Just a week, Toris, he reminded himself. Just one week, then everything can go back to normal.

Then, banishing all irrelevant thoughts from his mind, he hunched back over and began to type.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to review and tell me what you think :)

Also, guess what? I'm going to Iceland in a couple of days! :D Finally, Icey will have tourists XD

PS - I have no freaking clue if what Eduard said about the JPEG stuff was right or not, as I know nothing about computers xD So if anything's wrong…blame Google!