Ah, this chapter was longer than I had anticipated...of course I did add a lot of things. This chappie actually makes me a little sad. :(

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

WARNINGS: Sadness?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hetalia, because if I did Iggy and America would have gotten together a LONG time ago.

Matilda came into my room that morning to wake me up and wasn't very surprised to find all of us in there. She knew it would have to be one of the bedrooms. She woke us all up and for a few precious moments, all of us hadn't a clue of what day it was. And then we remembered. Ian walked out of the room nonchalantly to his room, so he could get ready. Sean had a sour look on his face and was sulking. Gwydion had to hold back his tears, so he could set a good example for me. I sat up in bed and hadn't computed yet that it was only me left in the room until Matilda placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You should get ready dearie. You'll have to leave soon."

Then she walked out, quickly. She was crying. I was on auto-drive that morning. I don't remember getting dressed, brushing my teeth, or tieing my shoes. My body was doing it automatically. My brain was some distance off. What I do remember was Gwydion brushing my hair. He has such a gentle touch, knowing my hair was usually unruly, and brushed it slowly and gently. I sat on the floor while he was on his knees, taking his time to brush. He was trying to distract himself, I could tell. He wanted to forget that he may never see his brothers or Matilda, who was more like a mother to us than even our own mother had been, ever again.

Also, he was being older brother to me. He wanted to comfort me, for once, he felt the need to. He always felt bad about himself being so tender hearted and now, he had a chance to be brave. He was fabulous.

All of us sat down to a quiet breakfast Matilda had made. It was scrambled eggs with cheese in them, lightly toasted bread with butter and jam, and a warm cup of tea. It's now my favorite breakfast. No one spoke and the only sounds were that of us chewing the food and the clanking of forks as they hit plates. A savored every bite, wanting the breakfast to last forever. I should have eaten slower.

It was ten o' clock by the time we had finished breakfast and ashed the dishes together. We had exactly an hour before the people would come for us. My brothers and I spent it in The Garden out back. We had packed our suitcases earlier that morning and they now waited in thr front hall. How I wish they could have taken our places.

The Garden had been mother's pride and joy, a maze of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. She had been tending to it ever since Ian had been two. We would all go out to The Garden during the weekends and play in it or help our mother with the plants. The Garden was our escape, a place where we could hide away from everything. My favorite place to hide was the sunflower patch we had back there. They were about Ian's height who was very tall. Ian liked the little maze to escape to. He would usually smoke there, but it wasn't bad there. It smelled like thistle. Sean had the small apple orchard where he could sleep in the shade and eat apples to his heart's content. Gwydion had always been content to sit by the small fountain and watch the water and lily pads. That's where we stayed first, not talking, just sitting, at first. But just sitting isn't that fun, and I was the first one to break th just sitting. I stood up and started to walk on the edge of the fountain, between the water and the ground. It was very hard since I was very good at balancing. I slipped and expcted to land in the water. I didn't. I opened my eyes, not realizing I had closed them. My brother's had saved me. Gwydion was holding onto the leg that had stayed put on the side of the fountain, Sean had taken hold of my shirt and Ian had me by one of my hands. They helped me steady myself.

"Yer a clumsy one, boyo.", Ian said, but I knew he was joking.

I had broken the sadness and brought back joy, at least for the moment. Ian helped me walk the whole way around the fountain and Sean helped Gwydion which took a little more work. After that, we went to the apple orchard. It was only early fall, so the apples were still good. We picked a lot and ate them. They tasted sweet. Sean, Gwydion, and I climbed the trees and Ian made sure we didn't fall out. We left the apple orchard and made our way to the sunflowers. They were very tall. We took turns getting on Ian's shoulders. When it wasn' our turn, we played hide-and-seek, which was very fun. I finally got my turn on Ian's shoulders. He picked me up and put me on his shoulders. I was a little unsteady at first, but soon got used to it. For the first time that time, I noticed how blue the sky was and how much the sun shined. It made's Ian's hair look even more fiery than was usual. Sean's hair looked bright, almost orange. It was pretty. Gwydion's hair looked especially shining. His hair was blond, but was a much lighter shad than mine and in the sunlight, in looked almost white. We left the sunflower field and made our way over to the small maze mother had grown. It was very tall, almost eight feet, so no one could look over the top and cheat. It was a favorite past time of ours to run through it and try to get lost, though no matter how much we tried, we always knew our way out. We had just been in it too many times. It was very fun chasing each other through it and sneaking up on each other from behind. It was a dream.

But soon, as with all dreams this one had to end. We heard Matilda call from the house, saying it was time to go. I could have cried. We made our way to the house and entered through the back door. We were sticky with sweat and a little dirty, but we didn't care. If we had had more time, we'd be even dirtier, but then we would be happier.

We get our suitcases and go out front. There's a black car with two people, a woman with chocolate skin, brown eyes, and curly hair in a high pony tail, and a man with tanned skin, brown hair, and blue eyes. They were both waring suits. The woman had a smile on her face and the man looked like stone, but not as much as Ian did. The woman stepped forward, to me. She bent down and held out her hand.

"Hello there. My name's Melissa. You must be Arthur. My, don't you look cute.", she said, with a smile on her face.

I warily stuck out my hand and shook her hand. Once we were done greeting each other, she retracted her arm.

"That's James over there. Don't mind him, he can be a little uptight sometimes, but he's all right."

She had a London accent. James didn't speak. Melissa got up and talked to Matilda for a moment, then turned around.

"Time to go Arthur."

I looked at her, then my brother's, then her again. She gave me a nod. I walked towards them and then Gwydion ran up to me. He clutched me around my neck and I hugged him back. Tears were wetting my shoulder, but i didn't care. They were his tears so it was okay. Tears started coming down my face and onto his shoulder. He backed up, hiccuping a little. Sean stepped forward. He still had that sour look on his face. Quickly he grabbed me and held me close. He was trembling. As suddenly as he hugged me he took his arms away from me. He's never been able to say goodbye very well. The Ian hugged me goodbye. He got down on his knees and brought me close to him. He wrapped his arms around my middle and I wrapped mine around his neck. We stayed like that for a long time. I hugged Matilda after Ian. She was smiling and crying at the same time saying to be a good boy and to brush my teeth and make sure to be nice to girls, just like a mother would do when her child had finally grown up. I stepped away from the group and we looked at each other, tears glistening in Gwydion's, Sean's, Matilda's, and my eyes. Ian just looked agitated. Gwydion let out a wail and hugged me again. We all hugged again. I didn't want to leave.

When I hugged Ian last, he held me very close and whispered in my ear.

"I promise to come get you as soon as I can. Then we'll be a family again.", he said quietly, sweetly in my ear.

We parted and Melissa walked me to the car. They had already put my suitcase in the trunk. I took one last look at Matilda, my brothers, my family. I felt like crying, like screaming. Nothing came out. Even my tears had dried up. I breathed deeply, calming myself. I knew more cars would go and get my brothers within the hour. Then Matilda would go home. My stomach hurt.

James was driving and Melissa was sitting in the opposite of him. She tried calming me down and put some music on, hoping it would cheer me up. She should have left it off. The song that came on was in a foreign language, little of which I could understand. But one word I knew perfectly well. Einsamkeit. Even though I was only seven, my parents had hired tutors who had started teaching me at an early age. My foreign language was German, and I knew enough German to know what einsamkeit meant. It was said six times throughout the song. I was feeling einsamkeit. I was feeling loneliness.

So in case you didn't catch on

Einsamkeit = Loneliness in German

so, yeah R&R