A/N: Hello there, yes, this story is still alive! I know I don't really update in record time anymore, but let me assure you that if I begin a story here, I will not abandon it. I'm also still extremely invested in this little AU I have here. So just saying…don't worry. I acknowledge that I've become kind of flaky, but I'm not THAT flaky! That being said, thank you for sticking around!

Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.


Maddie played around with the zipper on her hoodie. The rain continued to pelt the window relentlessly, but she was safe on the other side of the large glass panel. Alfred had ran off to the washroom, leaving her alone at the table. The waitress had already refilled her cup of coffee. Maddie wriggled her shoulders, stretching the hoodie to allow for just an inch more sleeve space, pulling her hands beneath the hem and hooking her fingers around the seams. With just the tips of her thumbs peeking out, she wrapped her sleeve-covered palms around the coffee mug and squinted out the window.

There was no indication of a woman approaching the diner through the drops of water. Maddie sighed.

Both sets of parents, Williams and Jones alike, had been anxious about this meeting. Even more so than herself and Alfred had been, at least on the surface. Maddie was impressed by Alfred's display of nonchalance, though the fact that he was being so cool about it was the key to understanding his own uncertainty. The car ride over had been conducted in silence. Sure, Al did need to pay a tad more attention to the road in this weather, but his tight grip on the steering wheel hinted at something different.

"So, can we safely say that I inherited my excellent timing skills from her then? Huh?"

Almost on cue, he reappeared, sliding next to her onto the bench and craning his neck. Searching for maybe a flash of blonde hair.

"You know…because I'm always late…"

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks for ruining the joke." Maddie grinned, in spite of herself. "Maybe she's stuck in traffic."

"Maybe. This rain sucks, man." Alfred picked up a menu. "Would it be really rude of me to get food already? I'm so hungry."

Just as he said this, the tiny bell above the door chimed. For such a slow day, with such a sloth-like atmosphere, the sound pierced the air and every head turned. Alfred even dropped the menu and pushed himself up from the back of the seat, looking hopeful.

An old man shook the raindrops from his coat and hung it up on the coat rack. "Thanks," he grunted as another waitress offered him a seat at a different booth.

Alfred sat down, disappointed. Maddie opened her mouth to reassure him when the bell chimed again.

A young woman tripped indoors, panting slightly. The small wheeled suitcase toted behind her looked drenched in rain. With a bit of difficulty, she closed and folded up her small polka-dotted umbrella, stepping daintily to one side in order to avoid sprinkling water all over the navy blue pencil skirt and matching high heels.

She had golden-blonde hair that was swept up into a neatly braided bun. As the waitress hurried over to greet the newest customer, the woman turned her head, revealing the same baby blue eyes and upturned, impertinent nose.

"I think that's her," Maddie whispered.

"She's got our face," breathed Alfred.

Evelyn Miller smiled a thank you as the waitress gestured towards their booth. The smile widened as she spotted Alfred and Maddie huddled together with their mugs of coffee. The click-clacking of her heels and the suitcase wheels sang loudly as she made her way towards them.

"Hello, there!"

"Hi!" Alfred chirped. Maddie stared.

Maddie measured to be quite above average and Alfred was clearly one of the taller boys at school, but Evelyn couldn't have been more than 5"4. Everything about her was slender and petite. The siblings watched as manicured fingers deftly closed down the collapsible handle of the suitcase, removed the black purse from Evelyn's shoulders, and delicately took a steady hold upon the laminated tabletop as she settled herself down across from them.

"You must be Alfred," she continued smiling. "And Maddie, of course."

"Yup," Alfred answered before Maddie could regain her senses.

"I can't tell you how relieved I was when I found out you two were okay with meeting here. There's just so many weird horror stories about reuniting with parents. But I'm not one of the mean ones, I promise!"

"Okay," Alfred said again. He seemed to be eager to fill in the conversation gaps. "Well, like. You're an air hostess, right? Did you just get off the plane?"

"I did!" Evelyn picked up a menu and began to examine it lazily. "Kingston. Jamaica. One of my favourite stops. It's beautiful – have you ever been?"

"Nah, honestly, I've stayed in the same country my whole life, so far…but Maddie's from Canada! So she's been overseas."

Maddie bit her lip from correcting him – Canada certainly was not separated from the States by any sort of sea. Evelyn dramatically slapped the menu back down on the table.

"Oh, my – I'm so sorry, I'm being so self-centered right now. This was supposed to be about us getting to know each other, and for me to find out how you are…"

"That's okay," Maddie found herself saying. "We want to, uh, know about you too."

Evelyn beamed. "Oh, good. That's good. So about Canada…I want to know everything about since I last saw you."

"Uhhhh." Those last words were hardly ones to ignore, but Maddie felt compelled to stick to the subject. "My parents…moved to Toronto…when I was…two? I think? They had my other – adopted – brother, Gabriel there. Except he was born in Quebec City. I lived in Canada until like, this year. Then I came back."

"And I was here, all the time." Alfred, restless with excitement, leaned forward, resting his chin on his fist. "And I told you on the phone about how we met and stuff. So I do basketball and Maddie does theatre."

"Theatre! Really?"

"Yeah! She's doing a play right now. Called…"

"No Exit."

"Yup!"

"Wow, how exciting. I wanted to be an actress too." Evelyn had resumed perusing the menu.

"I'm actually not acting in it, I'm the assistant stage mana-"

"You did? That's so cool!" Alfred grinned, charm turned on full blast. "Why did ya stop?"

Evelyn shrugged. "It was a very competitive field…and things just didn't work out like I hoped it was. I prefer my life as it is right now, though."

"Oh? Sooo…what's that like? 'Cause we wanna know too. I mean, you're like. Our. Mom. That we haven't seen since…uh, forever. You know? Like…how did we all…end up here?" Alfred tried to pose the question as casually as he could, but the awkwardness remained lingering in the air. Maddie kicked him under the table. He grimaced back at her.

Evelyn was quiet for a few seconds. The silence reminded Maddie that it was still raining outside, gentle drops sounding off directly to her right, as if they were curious fingers tapping upon this fascinating scene in their little aquarium – two teenagers and one adult, hands hovering over coffee cups, gripping the table's edge, or hidden in the sleeves of a hoodie.

"Hmmmm." Evelyn exhaled softly. Maddie could feel Alfred squirm a little next to her. Clearly he was feeling a bit guilty for rushing into the topic when only such a bare minimum of conversation had been exchanged. There was no backing out now.

"Let's see. How old are you two right now...fifteen, right? And fourteen? Okay. That was when I was still with Chuck." A nostalgic expression crossed Evelyn's face. "It was Christmas break in my senior year when I found out. Boy, was I mad. He was kind of an idiot, I'm sorry. I don't know why I stayed with him. My parents weren't thrilled either. But they're these really big Catholics, so they refused to let me have an abortion…not that I would, anyway," she hurriedly finished. Alfred's face was inscrutable.

"But it was so hard, having to go to your prom, then your graduation, having absolutely no way of hiding the fact that you're like, seven months along." She frowned for a moment. "And of course, it didn't affect him the way it did for me. It was "

"You were such a beautiful baby," she suddenly sighed. "So healthy and we didn't even have to check whether you were breathing or not, because as soon as you were out you just started wailing like nobody's business."

"You were different though, Maddie," she mused. "Not that you were any less beautiful – of course not – but you were so quiet, and I was so weirded out because it was so different from Alfred's delivery, you know? And oh, the delivery…Alfred just like, popped out of there. You took hours."

Maddie didn't know what to say, so she shrugged. For some reason, it wasn't surprising that Alfred had been loud from the second he was born. And that she'd needed more time. It wasn't a problem to take your time.

"So, uh. Do we have the same…father?" Her eyes darted between her brother and her mother.

"Yes. God, I don't know why – but I stayed with Chuck until you were born. You see, the first time around, I didn't feel ready at all to be a mom…I was seventeen, I wanted to do the whole actress thing, and I had no money. Then I stayed with Chuck for another year, got pregnant again and this time it was like, okay. Maybe this will all work out. But as soon as I told him, he tried to ditch responsibility again and I was like, no. So he left. And I thought, this isn't going to work out…so I had to give you up too."

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "Don't be mad at me. But does it make sense that...that I knew it would have been better to figure out my life first before raising another's?"

Alfred was still blank, staring downwards at his stained coffee mug. Evelyn looked scared, every muscle in her shoulders tense as she waited for an answer. Realizing that neither of them would initiate conversation, Maddie surprised herself by speaking.

"No. I mean, yes!" she corrected herself. "Yeah, I understand. We…we turned out okay. And you did too, I guess. We're not going to hold it against you. Right, Al?"

"Yeah," he said softly.

Evelyn let out a shaky sigh. "Oh, my god. Thank you. I knew it was going to be weird. But – thank you."

She smiled at her daughter, who smiled back. Alfred looked up and managed a small one.

"So…um." The three of them started as their waitress suddenly appeared at the foot of the table. "Sorry for keeping you guys for so long…have you decided what you want to order?"

"Oh! Yeah. Sure, that's okay." Alfred looked at Maddie. "Ladies first?"

"We have an all-day brunch, just to let you know."

"Oh! Great." Maddie didn't even have to look. "Pancakes and bacon?"

"Typical Canadian," Alfred scoffed. Maddie stuck her tongue out at him, eliciting a laugh from Evelyn. "No, ladies first."

"Alright then," Evelyn smiled. "The scrambled eggs special, please."

"I want eggs too, but sunny side. Can I have brown toast instead? And can you add the brownie to it?" Alfred jabbed at the menu. "Actually, can I have the eggs first then the brownie with ice cream on top, and for the breakfast green salad can it come in its own little bowl so it won't get mixed up in the egg…"

Maddie kicked him again. The waitress just nodded and walked away, probably used to such demands. Outside, the rain had stopped, even just for a moment. Even though the water droplets created a filter of pale shadowy dots, sun poured through the window and filled the diner with light.

"So, like. Evelyn." Alfred sat back in his seat, heartened with the idea of food. "Let me tell you all about us, starting with my totally awesome basketball team this year."

"Can't wait to hear it," she said. Maddie leaned her head against the glass as Alfred launched into excited babble about his coach, teammates, home and away games. In her own head, she began to formulate her own speech – about Canada, rehearsals, tech meetings, HK and Yong Soo...

Because Evelyn said she wanted to know, so she'd tell her everything.


A/N: So now it's out there. I haven't felt so satisfied with my writing in a long time…hooray! Let's hope this means I can get better at updating too. OTL

Something interesting that reminded me of this story: I read this super-cool article on a pair of twins adopted by different families. However, the girls' parents had recognized the similarities right away and after a DNA check, agreed to raise them 'as sisters', even if they had different parents. It was fascinating. Just thought I'd share it with you all C:

Also, if anyone is interested, I finally caved and got a tumblr. It's webcomixwastaken since, well. Webcomix was taken. All it really has though are Spamano reblogs, Hong Kong nostalgia spam and repeated reminders of my reignited obsession with Les Miserables. Come say hi to me there!

Thank you once again! We'll be wrapping this up shortly. And then I can finally get into another part of their lives that I've been formulating since like, forever. o3o