Author's Notes: Hello everybody! Quick note: Guglielmo here is not any particular Hetalia character. He's just there. He shall be important later, though.

4: Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept it

There's a knock on the door. That's weird, because Toni doesn't really bother knocking the door before entering his own house. He barely ever remembers to bother knocking the door before entering other people's houses, which can end awkwardly – though most people keep their doors locked around here, so it usually works out. That, or Mel has to kick him in the shin.

"I'll get it!" Peter leaps away to answer the door, while Ano grumbles about something or other because grumbling about something or other is what Ano does (and she is not being a hypocrite, shut up). "...Oh, it's you."

Antonio pouts. "Thank you for that. May we come in?"

Huh? Mel hears an unfamiliar voice with Toni. "Ve, who is that? Is that one of your new people?" Toni laughs, like he always does, and Mel is getting seriously confused when Whoever It Is comes inside, grinning at Peter. "Heh, who are you?"

"...Peter," he says, sounding kind of shy given how okay he tends to be with that random woman stalking him. The Random Person's eyes go big.

"Really? You've gotten so big! Wah, come here!"

"Feli!" calls Toni.

"Ah!" yells Peter as this "Feli" person grabs and hugs him, and it is left up to Mel to charge up and push him away.

"HEY. YOU. Who are you and what do you want with my friend?"

"Ve...?" Feli seems confused. "I'm Feliciano; I used to live here! You weren't there, but Peter remembers me, don't you Petey?"

"...No?" says Peter, and Mel narrows her eyes.

Antonio steps in, laughing nervously to defuse the situation (laughing is Toni's response to all situations). "Ah, sorry children; I should have introduced him properly, si? This is Feliciano. An old friend of mine. He did use to live here, and yes Peter you were there, but you were two so I understand that you may not remember him.

"...Right," says Peter, looking embarassed. Mel's still suspicious. "Uh, sorry!"

Feliciano grins again, and Mel can see why him and Toni are friends. "Ve, that's okay!"

"Alright," Mel says again. "But why is he here?"

"Toni invited me!" Feliciano says. "He said he needed me to help out with some sort of trouble..."

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" says Ano from wherever he was observing the whole conversation.

"Toni, what happened?" asks Peter.

"Are we out of money?"

"Are we in danger?"

Antonio looks very, very uncomfortable. "Feli, did you really have to say that?" he whines. "Guys, it's... it's nothing. Feliciano is helping me out with my finances a little, that's all. It's nothing for you to worry about."

"So we are out of money!" declares Ano, and Mel is struck with the urge to slap him.

"Gah, no! Feli's just giving me a hand, that's all," says says Toni. "It's nothing to worry about, really. None of your business. Why don't you all go run along now? There's still a couple of hours before dinner..."

He's distracting us, Mel thinks, but she sees Ano and Peter getting a look of resolve. Oh for the love of god... it won't do any good if they fight to know what's going on; Antonio will just get angry, and he still won't tell them because he sees everything as protecting their 'innocence' or whatever. They'll just need to spy later on him. She is not letting the boys make Toni all suspicious about them snooping before she's found anything out. God, they're dumb.

"Alright, fine," she says, getting scandalised looks from Peter and Ano. She glares at them, and they shrink away, cowed. "We'll be in the meadow if you need us... just... shout if anything's up, alright?"

Toni gives her a confused look, and Peter and Ano, as is their response to everything, glare at each other (if they get into another fight, she will punch them both in the face).

"Come along, you two," she beckons them, making Peter scowl at her.

"What do you think we are, sheep?"

"Yup. Exactly. Baa, baa." He's still scowling, but Ano laughs at him, but they both follow her out anyway.

It's a pity she can't hear what Feliciano and Toni say to each other after that, but she'll figure it out later anyway.

There's a few moments silence after the children leave, and both Antonio and Feli stand around, wondering what to say.

"...Well that was awkward," offers Feli.

Antonio laughs it off. "Ah, sorry Feli. I was stupid and forgot to warn them you'd be coming! Sorry... but they were asleep this morning, and I couldn't wake them up..."

Feliciano nods. "Right," he bites his lip. "So, uh... What is this about?"

Antonio's smile doesn't fade for a second. "What?"

Feli looks very uncomfortable, avoiding Toni's eye like a guilty child. "Well... I realised when they were asking, I don't really know why I'm here. What you want from me. Are you going to tell...?"

"Uh..." Antonio suddenly coughs awkwardly. "Ah, right." How can I say this in a way where he'll actually do it? "We should... probably move to my study, if that's alright with you?"

Feliciano nods, obviously attempting a Serious Face. It's so adorable Antonio wants to pinch his cheeks, but he decides that probably wouldn't help.

Feli follows him to the study, and Toni stares down at his absurdly messy desk. Feli probably thinks he's looking for something, but really he's just avoiding looking at Feli.

"Sooo... What's going on."

Toni winces. This can't end well...

"I – I need money."

He spins around so he can see Feli's reaction. The man looks a little confused. "...Oh."

"I – Wait, let me rephrase that!" Please don't think badly of me, please! "I don't want you to – it's not just that you have money now and I want to exploit that. Really! It's just... some stuff's happened lately and I can't, I can't make payments, and you know we only ever had enough to keep ourselves afloat –

"Are they asking for more?"

Antonio gives him a quizzical look. "Huh?"

"You know. Them." Feli tries to smile at him, which doesn't really work, but bless him. "They want you to – uh, pay more? For 'protection'?"

Toni stops himself wincing. You're really stupid, he tells himself. "Y-yes. I'm sorry, Feli..."

"Ve, it's okay!" And Feli is grinning again and it's Antonio's turn to be confused. "Of course I'll pay for you!"

"Wait, Feliciano – thank you, but – I can't just ask you–"

"You're not asking." A pause. "Well, actually you are. But even if you weren't, I'd still offer. Because – I remember you, okay?" Toni's still confused. "Ve... after what happened to my father, you – you took care of us. And I think you're still doing the same thing. Those three kids I saw before? Uh, maybe I'm wrong... but I think they love you." And finally, Toni starts to get it. He smiles back. "And, ve, if they love you as much as we did... Then no-one can ever take you away from them, not ever, I won't let that happen."

"...Thank you, Feli." Antonio has to wipe his eyes because he is kind of soppy at heart, but it doesn't matter.

Feli suddenly seems puzzled. "Although, ve... Papa won't be happy..."

Antonio's mind is suddenly struck with realisation. Oh no. Why didn't I think of that? I can't let him... "Uh, Feliciano?"

The boy shrugs. "Well, he doesn't like me spending a lot, he really doesn't like me spending a lot without telling him why, and if I spend a lot without telling him why regularly he might shut the piano lid on my head."

Toni cocks his head to the side. "He owns a piano?"

"Ve, yes? Papa plays piano really well! But I was kidding, by the way, and it's not really relevant."

That isn't really surprising, thinks Antonio. "Oh... Uh, I wouldn't want to make things difficult for you with your family – Don't worry about it! Papa's just weird about stuff."

Feli pulls a face, but Toni doesn't feel much better. "...So are you planning on hiding it from him or?"

"Ve, probably. I'll just tell him I did something silly at work and had to take a pay cut as punishment. He'll believe it."

"...Can you tell I feel really guilty about this?" Toni laughs. Come on. Isn't this what you wanted?

Feli giggles a little. "I noticed," he says. "Anyway, I'll just take out some money when I get payed, and... should I give it straight to them?"

Antonio's eyes go wide. "Ah, no! Please! I... Right, they shouldn't know you're helping me. So you'd have to give the money to me, so they wouldn't think I was... cheating them." Argh, now you sound like a blatant con man! "Actually, you should only give me about half. That will stop us running out of money, but it'll still look like I'm struggling and they'll be happy. They want to teach me a lesson, I think, that's why they–"

Toni cuts himself off and swallows deeply. He stares at Feliciano, who looks confused again.

"...Ve? Antonio? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Toni shakes himself out of it (Feli can't ever know that). "Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking. So, uh, have we agreed on that plan?"

"In-deed." Feli nods decisively and sticks his hand out for Toni to shake. Antonio has to struggle not to giggle. He's so cute! Nonetheless, they shake hands and it is decided.

"Now, ve, that's enough of that. I'll make you some pasta!"

"Ah, you're meant to be my guest, Feliciano!" But he doesn't try too hard to stop the boy. Pasta is good. Pasta is good and it's nice to have someone try and take care of him again.

"...Why?"

Guglielmo rolls his eyes. "He needs to learn his lesson. You're the best way of doing that – we both know how he feels about you. Look, I don't give a shit about where the money comes from and neither does anyone above me. But we can't let him know that, or the second he saves up the cash he'll make his way out. We have to keep him scared." Romano keeps scowling, and Guglielmo leans it. "Hey, don't you look at me like this. It's your fault this is happening anyway. Now, if you wanna redeem yourself and keep out of trouble, I suggest you do as I say."

A pause. Romano still scowls.

...Fucking bastard. Why do I even care so much?

"Fine. So I just have to give your stupid letter to one of his kids? Whatever. Why not straight to him, though?"

Guglielmo smirks. "You know what I said about frightening him? Those brats are his world. You don't have to do much, just scare one of them a bit – you'd probably need to do that to make 'em give him the note – and he will panic. Implied threats work really well; I though you'd know that already."

"I'm the guy who pulls the trigger, not goes up saying he will," Romano says. "You're a sadistic piece of shit, you realise?"

Guglielmo shrugs. "I'm efficient. You could learn from me."