Author's Note: After an incredible delay, Here is the next chapter~ enjoy OuO

I humbly request constructive criticism~ I don't mind how harsh it can be...unless you just want to tell me that you hate what I'm writing. In that case, why are you reading it?

The winner of the last chapter's question was pandacat6133 OTL I haven't finished her request picture yet, though when I do, I'll put a note here saying that it's in my DA gallery.

Many thanks to candy4yourEYEZ for beta-reading this Chapter~33

Warnings: Light Yaoi,

Disclaimer: Hetalia does not belong to me; this fanfiction however, does. :3

*~::||*||::~*Around the World*~::||*||::~*

Part I: Italia and Germania

Chapter III: Surprises One After Another
*~::||*||::~*

I wonder if this will become a habit, Julian mused with a soft smile as he ate his breakfast, watching Feliciano do the same. Shocking as it was, Feliciano had woken up early today; not as early as yesterday, of course, but early for him anyway. Like the day before, Feliciano had been looking at his watch all morning, though not with the same urgency. It was particularly amusing for Julian.

"Take your time, Feli. You're not going to be late."

Feliciano looked up at his father, his expression that of a child who had been caught taking a cookie from the jar. "Eh, I just want to be early... since it's college and all."

"Hmm," Julian grinned knowingly. "I wonder if you just really want to find a certain someone, and that's why you're leaving early." Feliciano's light flush worsened.

He pouted as he stood up, the housekeeper taking his plate with a small smile. "I am not!" Despite his father's teasing, Feliciano still beamed at his father before leaving to catch the bus.

"You ought to finish up so you can get to the office on time, Julian." The elderly maid mentioned lightly as she ambled over to the kitchen to rinse Feliciano's plate.

Glancing at his watch, Julian hurriedly finished off his own food and stood. "Oh, Gaea? Thank you for the meal, once again." Julian picked up his plate to give to Gaea, who had come back from the kitchen. The woman had been working at the manor ever since Julian was a child, and for all the time he had known her she had been strong and incredibly supportive of him.

Idly, he followed her into the kitchen, wondering if he should ask what he had been pondering since yesterday evening. Gaea turned to look at him, a motherly smile on her face. "Something on your mind?"

Flushing slightly Julian nodded. "I was just wondering... how should I behave when Lukas comes for dinner tonight? It's been so long and all that I don't know how to be..."

Gaea's expression softened, she had seen and heard much that concerned Julian and Lukas over the years, and she had been particularly happy that Lukas had returned to London. "You should act like you normally do and welcome him back with open arms. It's probably what he needs."

Julian nodded. "Yes, I suppose you're right— you always are, always have been." He grinned and pecked her cheek before going to grab his briefcase. Time to head to the office.

*~::||*||::~*

The next morning, Ludwig slowly made his way to the first class of the day. It had not surprised him that the seemingly ever-energetic Feliciano greeted him jovially that morning, but the what actually had surprised him was how normal he felt as he interacted with the Italian—almost as if they had known each other for much longer than a day.

Unfortunately, they had different initial classes that day. After making a promise to meet up for lunch they parted ways, and all the while Ludwig found himself pondering the familiarity of Feliciano. He found it quite disconcerting that his thoughts were so fixated on a certain person, but no matter what he did, his mind constantly crawled back to the oddity that was Feliciano. Ludwig sighed in defeat as he gave up trying to focus his brain on a different topic, and opened the door to the classroom. This room was slightly smaller than the rooms from the day before. Given that there were still a good fifteen minutes before the start of class, it was unsurprising that only one other student was sitting in the class.

The young man sat in the front row and in the farthest corner from the door where Ludwig stood. As he came in he noticed that the boy was an East Asian, though Ludwig could not tell if he was Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or something else altogether. The young man was listening to his iPod and reading a small book that had a removable white cover on it; the only thing written on the cover were three numbers: 801. Ludwig didn't know what that meant, but it must have been interesting: the boy was engrossed in the book and only noticed Ludwig when he came within five feet of the front row.

"Hm? Oh, Sumimasen... ah, I mean, pardon me. I did not notice you come in." He pulled out his earphones and stood to greet Ludwig. His short stature only further emphasized how young he appeared; Ludwig would have guessed that this guy was only about his age.
As if by habit, he smiled slightly before bowing to Ludwig, who bowed back a bit awkwardly as to not seem rude. After seeing Ludwig's confused expression, the shorter man became flustered and reddened slightly. "Ah… gome—Sorry! Um… Force of habit…" He hesitantly held out his hand for Ludwig to shake. When Ludwig took it he said, "Please allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Kiku Honda."

"Ludwig Weilschmidt." After letting go of his hand, Kiku gestured to the seat next to him and Ludwig took it with a small, polite smile.

Now situated, a comfortable silence fell between the two of them as Kiku returned to his book and Ludwig pulled out his own Instrumental Literature text. He busied himself by re-reading the chapter everyone was assigned to read for the class before arriving. Eventually, people started to wander into the class and fill up the seats. Ludwig checked his watch when it was a few minutes before class was scheduled to start and wondered where the professor was; he had heard that their teacher for that day would actually be a student who was currently completing his Master's degree at this college and working as the teacher's aide.
A few moments passed as the students anxiously waited for the teacher to arrive when Kiku flipped to the final page of his novel. A satisfied smile at his lips, he paused the music on his iPod and closed the book. In a fluid motion he stood up and carried the two items to the podium at the front. Ludwig's confused expression was shared by the entire class as Kiku rummaged around the lower shelf of the podium before standing back up to turn on the projector affixed to the ceiling.
Ludwig would have gone up to ask what Kiku thought he was doing, but the calmly confident expression on the Japanese man's face made Ludwig believe that Kiku knew exactly what he was doing.
Whispers went around the room as everyone started to wonder aloud about what Kiku was setting up where the teacher was supposed to be. But after a moment or so of preparation, Kiku was standing up behind the podium and smiling at the class; the projector had begun to show an introductory slide from Powerpoint.

"Welcome to Instrumental Music Literature I," He began, "I am Kiku Honda, a teacher's aid here. I hope we can work together nicely this semester."

After a moment of stunned silence, someone finally asked if he really was the teacher of the class or if he was pulling some sort of prank. Kiku flushed, fumbled, and he tried to tell them that he really was the teacher, despite his appearance. While Kiku weakly attempted to prove himself, Ludwig glanced at his course schedule and pointed out that this class was indeed meant to be taught by a Honda, Kiku.

With a sigh of relief and a slightly embarrassed blush, Kiku smiled at Ludwig in silent thanks; Ludwig returned a similar smile and nodded curtly, indicating that it would be fine if Kiku started class.

*~/::/|*|\::\~*

Despite the initial surprise of having such a fairly young teacher—even though Kiku was, in fact, eight years Ludwig's elder, as the German later found out—the class recognized Kiku as being competent enough to admit that he knew what he was teaching rather well. Interestingly enough, Ludwig enjoyed that first lesson, yet for some reason or another his mind went back to that curious book that Kiku was reading earlier. Because of that, Ludwig packed up his things slowly after the end of class and lingered until everyone else was gone before going up to Kiku.

"The lesson was enjoyable, Mr. Honda."

Kiku, who had pulled out his iPod and novel again, smiled in relief. "Thank you. In all honesty, I was rather nervous that everyone would not take me seriously when I started…"

Ludwig took this chance to eye the book and ask, "Um, is… Is that a good novel?"

"Eh? Oh this?" Kiku blushed slightly as he held it up, then nodded shyly. "Yes. It's a rather intriguing story."

"Hm, really? What is it about?"

The Japanese man blinked and hesitated, wondering if it really was a good idea for him to tell the younger about the novel, but luckily for him, someone had knocked on the door and entered the classroom. Immediately a cheerful (and, to Ludwig, familiar) voice filled the air.

"Ve! I finally found your classroom, Ludwig!" Practically skipping across the room, Feliciano made his way to the front. "I was wondering if you were ready to head off for lunch, even though it's a bit early."

"Ah, yes…" Ludwig turned to look at Feliciano, who was now looking curiously at Kiku.

Kiku blinked, wondering whether he should keep quiet or introduce himself. Being Kiku, he chose the former and simply looked at Feliciano to Ludwig and back. Catching onto the shorter man's expression, Ludwig gestured to Feliciano.

"Mr. Honda, this is Feliciano Vargas." Ludwig then gestured to Kiku. "Feliciano, this is the Instrumental Lit.'s teacher's aid for the semester, Kiku Honda."

"Pleased to meet you, ve!" Feliciano stepped forward to take Kiku's hand with both of his own and shook it vigorously.

Startled by the sudden display of excitement, Kiku stuttered out his response. "It's... very nice to meet you as well…"

After a moment Feliciano finally let go of Kiku's hand, smiling brightly. "If you like, you can join us for lunch! The picnic area is really nice right now! It's really sunny!"

Kiku looked surprised, he obviously hadn't expected to be invited along so suddenly, but after a moment of consideration he smiled softly. "That would be nice, if neither of you mind."

Ludwig shook his head. "I don't mind."

"In that case, let's go!" Feliciano tugged energetically on both of their sleeves.

It was more sunny than usual that day as the trio made their way outside to the picnic benches. Ludwig looked around for an empty table, figuring it was his job because he was taller than the two others in their little group. Finally spotting one in sparse shade, he led the way to what was about to become their usual eating area.

Finally situated, Kiku pulled out a box wrapped up in a large cloth. Feliciano and Ludwig had brought their own lunches as well, and opened them also. Feliciano seemed particularly interested in Kiku's boxed lunch and gasped when Kiku opened it to show a neatly organized and tasty-looking meal.

"Wow! Hey, Mr. Honda, did you make that yourself?" Feliciano asked as he unpacked his own lunch to show quite a bit of pasta.

Kiku nodded, flushed, and smiled. "Yes."

Feliciano's eyes -and smile- widened. "It's so organized and pretty!"

Kiku's blush got worse, but he continued smiling at the compliment and lightly mumbled "Itadekimasu" before he started to eat. The only reason Feliciano didn't ask what the foreign phrase meant was because he got distracted by Ludwig's lunch next to him.

"Oh, is that wurst?"

Ludwig looked down at Feliciano. "Yes..." He hesitated as he thought about asking why Feliciano was asking about his lunch, but Feliciano's suddenly unreadable expression stopped him. He looked like he wanted to ask something, but held back his tongue. Thinking quickly Ludwig changed the subject. "You have pasta?"

Feliciano looked up from the wurst and nodded earnestly. "Yep! Say..." He hesitated, but went ahead anyway, "I remember I once mixed wurst and pasta by accident and it tasted really good, do you want to try that? I don't mind giving you some pasta! I have a ton!"

For some reason, just by looking at Feliciano's smile, Ludwig just couldn't say no. "Sure." He traded half of his wurst for half of Feliciano's pasta and mixed it together. Even though he didn't remember trying something like this before, he had a feeling that it would actually taste good.

Twirling some pasta around the prongs of his fork and picking up a piece of wurst, Ludwig ate the whole bite and realized that Feliciano was telling the truth. Not only was it good, there was something nostalgic about the wurst and pasta. He stared down at the mixed dish blankly until Feliciano lightly prodded his arm, asking how it was. Snapping out of his daze Ludwig smiled and praised the mixture.

*~/::/|*|\::\~*

After lunch, Ludwig—although he would not admit it—was disappointed that he didn't have a chance to see Feliciano or Kiku for the rest of the day. He half-expected Feliciano to track him down just to say goodbye, but that didn't happen. Mentally admonishing himself for getting his hopes up, Ludwig made his way down the street from the campus to an office building that was only ten minutes away. Ludwig opened the front door, walked in, and greeted the secretary, who smiled kindly and informed him that his father was in his office.

Thanking the young secretary, he headed to the elevator to reach the top floor where his father's office stood. As always, Lukas greeted his son with a look, a slight smile and a nod of his head before he returned his attention to the laptop in front of him. Ludwig didn't mind, he greeted his father the same way and settled down to sit on a couch that faced a television Lukas had allowed to be put in the office. Digging through his bag, he pulled out his Music Literature text and read over that day's assigned chapter as well as the next one.

This was a usual afternoon for the small German family, and the comfortable silence punctuated only by the clicks of Lukas' keyboard or the turning of Ludwig's book's pages persisted until it became time for them to leave for home. Ever-punctual, both father and son finished off all that they could do before the packed up their things and headed down to the ground floor parking area.

"We'll stop by at home quickly and head over to Julian's." Lukas said as he opened the driver's side door.

"Mm, All right."

When they were finally seated, and Lukas backed out of his parking spot, he mentioned in passing, "Oh...when we do get there, Julian's home is rather large, since his family has had it for generations. It may be slightly...intimidating."

*~/::/|*|\::\~*

Intimidating didn't even cover it. Ludwig stared up at the building, stunned to silence at the sheer size of the whole thing. A small nudge from Lukas and he continued up the front porch steps to the front door, on which the elder German was already knocking. Shaking his head slightly, the younger tugged down on the hem of his dinner jacket, straightening the creases as the door opened. As soon as he saw who had come to greet them, he felt his jaw drop.

"Fe-Feliciano?"

"Ve~ You're right on time! Come in!" Feliciano's voice had not faltered a moment, as if he had been expecting them.

Lukas gave a nod to the young Italian, as well as a small smile. "It has been a while, Feliciano."

Feliciano looked surprised for a moment before smiling broadly, but not as usual; it had a tinge of reminiscent sadness in it. "Yes, but I'm glad you've come for dinner. Papa was looking forward to this all afternoon." Lukas gave another nod and walked through the doorway. As Ludwig did the same, Feliciano looked up at him with a brighter smile. "Surprised?"

"Um, yes... very..." Ludwig began to follow Feliciano to the living room, which had an arrangement of couches in one corner with a low table in the middle and a television set on the wall furthest from the couches. "I didn't know that you lived here..."

"Yeah, but I'm sure you've heard of Julian Vargas? That's my Papa."

Ludwig nodded. "I see..." He resisted the urge to smack his forehead. Julian Vargas...and I already knew he was Feliciano Vargas. How do I miss something like that?

*~/::/|*|\::\~*

Just as Feliciano insisted that they sit, Julian himself came into the room with a small tray with two clear glasses of water balanced on it. For a moment, just a single, hesitant, moment, Julian's smile faltered before it split into a wide grin.

"Lukas! And Ludwig as well? Sit down, sit down! Here you go." He handed each of them a glass of water before settling himself comfortably in a chair by the sofa that the Germanic father and son had sat on. Swallowing slightly he found he couldn't take his eyes off of the Weillschmidt elder; almost nothing had changed in his features- except his hair. It was too short for Lukas; that was something Julian made a mental note to remedy. He smiled at the elder of his two guests as if he had just met with Lukas the previous day. "It's, ah... it's certainly been a while." Julian nodded a bit as he tested the ice. IT was time to make some cracks. "Ludwig has grown quite a bit. He looks just like you."

Ludwig glanced at his silent father, who -to his surprise- seemed a bit preoccupied by simply looking at Julian, and then answered the elder Italian. "Yes, many people say that." He smiled a bit. "Feliciano looks much like you as well."

"Ve~ That's good, isn't it?" Feliciano pitched in, helping the cracked ice finally break. "Hm, I hope you like the dinner, Mister Lukas! Papa and I both helped make it!"

"Ah, speaking of the dinner—" Julian perked up. "There are still a few things that need to be done. Hey Lukas, want to help me out a bit so the kids can talk?"

*~/::/|*|\::\~*

Lukas looked surprised at Julian's light-hearted tone but nodded and stood as soon as Julian did. Feliciano followed suit, only to go over to Ludwig and ask if he would like to have a tour of the house, a query to which Ludwig said yes. This left Julian to lead Lukas to the kitchen, the path to which—much to Lukas' disconcertment—he remembered quite well.

As they stepped inside, Julian let out a breath before grinning again. "You haven't changed one bit, except for one thing." He frowned and looked serious suddenly as he walked closely to Lukas from one side and lightly twirled a lock of the back of the other man's hair between his fingers. "You've cut it so short!" Almost whining now, Julian pouted. "Why? It looked lovely when longer!"

Lukas looked at Julian incredulously. How... How can he sound so nonchalant about all this. Choosing my hair as a topic... really... He never changes...

"Lukas?" Julian looked at him with worry. "Hey, I was just kidding... don't look at me that way..."

Blinking Lukas shook his head. "What? Oh... I apologize... I was just..." The expression on his face had become a mixture of nostalgia, hurt, and so many other emotions that he could not tell them apart anymore.

"Lost in thought." Julian laughed. Lukas saw that the dinner had been completed and had already been put on the island in the middle of the room. All the dishes were covered, and a stack of plates had been put to the side.

"Seems like everything is done here." Lukas raised an eyebrow at the set up of food.

Julian chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, but the table isn't exactly set. You know how I always run out of time on that." Yes, Lukas could remember; practically each and every time he had come to this house to have dinner with Julian, the Italian always managed to be scatterbrained enough to forget to set the table as he proudly showed off the food he hand-cooked for Lukas.

Circling around the island, Lukas nodded. "I figured. I'm not the only one who hasn't changed." He looked up from the food to Julian hesitantly. "... Julian..." he paused as he saw Julian's smile waver ever so slightly and his eyes become anxious; it was the look Julian always had when he felt he had done something wrong. "I'm sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?" Julian's light-hearted voice had gone and been replaced with a weighted tone, bogged down by the events of past years... events that both he and Lukas knew were the answer to his question.

"For the way in which I left... and for refusing to communicate after that point—"

"And I don't blame you." Julian cut in gently. "It was only to be expected." He shook his head and went around the island, past Lukas, and to the drawer to pull out the needed silverware, his back to Lukas. "I know that the... the incident eight years ago was enough to push you back to Germany, but I still stand by what I said then." For the moment his voice had dropped down to a dangerous pitch, and Lukas could imagine the rarely serious expression dominating his dearest friend's features, but as that friend turned around, he only found a smile and a lighter voice. "In any case, this may be me just taking shots in the dark, but I'm guessing you found out something about what actually happened then."

He was always more perceptive than he would admit… Lukas turned away to face the island and look back down at the covered dinner. "Why do you suppose that?"

"Well, you wouldn't be bringing up that time otherwise."

Lukas looked up at him and sighed, then nodded a bit. "Yes… I did find out what actually happened. And to think all this time… all these eight years I blamed your eldest for what happened to Ludwig." He gripped the edge of the island, looking down and not willing to face Julian who stood just across from him for fear of the guilt eating him alive; he swallowed slightly before continuing. "I only found out the truth some six months ago."

"From Gilbert, I presume?"

Lukas' head snapped up. "How…?"

"He's not here with you, so I couldn't help but wonder…" Julian sighed and walked around the island to stand by Lukas, his back leaning on the counter as he set the silverware down. "So what did you find out?"

"Gilbert admitted freely that he was the cause of it, all because of a fit of childish jealousy. As soon as he told me and Elisa, he just left. He left right after asking that he would be allowed to tell Ludwig the truth when he came back."

"But… why didn't he tell Ludwig right then and there? And what stopped you?" Julian's tone came out sharper than he intended.

"Gilbert told me that he felt guilty and that he didn't deserve to live under my roof. I never saw him so humble than in that moment when he placed himself in exile."

Julian cracked a little smile. "Yet he didn't lose any of his melodrama."

Lukas tried not to smile, but welcomed the slight lightening of mood, letting out a puff of breath —the closest thing to a laugh for the moment. "Yes. I understood his past actions, and I could feel his guilt, so I kept my word that the truth would be told when he returns." His expression turned severe, and he could already feel his voice quiver unexpectedly. "However, Elisa didn't take his leaving too well. She was already sick when he admitted it and the shock of his departure only made it worse… until two months ago when she finally passed. Everything seemed to fall apart right then… before Ludwig convinced me to come back here… for my sake."

Swallowing hard, Julian hesitantly took a few steps forward and took the German by surprise by gently wrapping him in a hug. Lukas froze for a moment, tensing up before relaxing and putting his forehead on Julian's shoulder, just taking in the comfort— comfort he had missed for much too long. "I'm sorry." His voice was now barely over a whisper. Julian shushed him but he continued, letting out everything he felt he needed to apologize for, "I'm sorry for running away from the problems my family caused for you… for us. And for cutting all ties and… and this wasn't fair to you, because you actually wanted to try to fight the problems while I just avoided them. I really am the worst—"

Julian, who had enough of the Lukas-style breakdown, pulled back and essentially covered Lukas's mouth to silence him. The situation would have been a lot less awkward if he didn't reflexively cover it with his own lips. Trying to appear unabashed as he stepped back and cleared his throat—more out of trying not to laugh at the glorious and rather refreshing—blush on his old friend's face, looking away. "You were talking too much; it's not like you." When Lukas didn't answer and just continued to stare at him… or straight through him (he wasn't exactly sure), Julian just went on, "Besides… what's done is done. The only thing we can do is work with what we have. You know, we could learn a thing or two from Feli and Ludwig. Maybe it's time to start over?" He put a hand on Lukas's shoulder.

At the question, Lukas blinked and snapped out of his daze. "Start over? Yes… perhaps that is the best way now."

"Well then, we'll worry about the incident when Gilbert returns. Until then, let's just move forward." Julian grinned broadly at what he knew was the over-simplified final decision. "Now can you help me put all this stuff on the dining table? Then we can go off to see what the kids are doing." He scooped up the silverware and headed to the adjacent room.

Sighing, Lukas shook his head as he ran one hand through his cut hair in an old habit of calming himself down after the impromptu kiss before picking up one of the large platters and carrying it to the dining table.

*~/::/|*|\::\~*

Author's Note: OvO This chapter was longer than the last one, so I hope you liked it~ Just a single review is enough to keep me writing! As long as I know that at least one person enjoys reading this fic I'll keep writing for him/her. ^_^

In the next chapter, Ludwig gets a grand tour that ends up in a room that looks more like a musical museum than a place of practice, Feliciano sings a song that evokes forgotten nostalgia, and the seeds of a dream that passed from father to sons are spread.