Normally I would thank you for reviews, but there arent any for last chapter...

Alright enjoy~!

Sunday the 12th, January.

"Okay, try saying that ten times fast."

"Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Rari-."

"Its 'Bari'."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No its not!"

"Yeah it is!"

"Ok, Josie, I know ya are usually right, but this time, you are waaaaay off."

Josie tipped her head back to look at José upside down. "No, I remember this from some argument me and Toni got into. It's Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo." She stated matter-of-factly, "Do I need to get out the iPhone?"

"An iPhone is like a penis-." José began reciting before Josie shrieked, "No! Don't start that~!" She busted into a fit of giggles and José followed suit.

The two of them were sprawled behind some bushes out in Josie's yard, laying in opposite directions, only the tops of their heads touching. Both were enjoying the nice day, despite the fact that José wasn't supposed to be there and that Josie was actually wearing a dress. She had been overjoyed when José showed up earlier, and hanging out with him had relived some of her pint up stress from earlier in the morning.

Their laughter faded into silence and only the sound of the occasional bird could be heard. What shattered the silence was a loud slam from the house. Sitting up on her elbows, Josie looked through the bushes to see a college prep book go flying out of the upstairs window.

"Sounds like Toni hit the wall again…" She mused, lying back down.

"He held out pretty long this time." José said, shifting so she had enough room. "Your parents left, like what… twenty minutes ago? New personal record."

When Josie didn't respond, he nudged her shoulder, "Eh, tell me which book it is this time?" She rubbed her eyes wearily, "I think it's the law school one."

José whistled, "Man, he must be mad. Wont your dad start shooting lasers at him for doing that?"

"Not like they're ever here. They'll never know." Josie said, and then grumbled, "They never notice anything…Hell I could marry a giraffe and they'd never know."

Sighing, José intertwined his fingers with her's. "Ok then, now let's try to think of happy things. Like the first day we met, do you remember that?"

"How could I forget that?" Josie said, smiling at the thought while José snickered, "Yeah, I get lost an' walk into this random ballet studio for directions, and BAM! There is this lil'ballerina, cryin up a storm. So I asks her, 'What's wrong chica?', and she responds…"

" 'Get lost you ass hat!' " They both call out gleefully, dissolving into more giggling.

"An' then I say, 'Geeze what is your problem? I just asked why you were cryin'." He paused as Josie snapped, "José, this is nice and all, but just listen to me for a minute!"

He continued anyway, "She asks why would I care, and I tell her that I help all damsels in distress. After getting punched, she then tells me this heartbreaking story about her parents."

"José be qui-."

"Apparently they were makin her do ballet, so she could get into this good college when she grew up, but she didn't like it anymore."

"Please shut up for a min-."

"So I asked her why she was still dancing if she hated it, and the crazy thing was that she thought no one would be her friend if she stopped. So I told her I'd be her friend." José turned to look Josie, "An' ya know what?"

"What?" She finally sighed in defeat.

"We've been friends ever since~!"

Josie smiled somewhat, "Nice story, but this isn't about me. I'm worried about Antonio this time…"

José swore, "And there goes my great story. Okay, so what's up with Mr. Perfect now?"

Josie sighed and rolled up into a sitting position, "He's overly stressed out about college. I know, I know, what senior isn't? But he's been acting weird lately…well weirder, and I'm really starting to worry about him. José if I tell you this, you can't ever tell anyone got it?"

She looked at the boy on the ground and once he nodded she went on, "Did you know Antonio used to want to be a musician?"

José kept silent, but shook his head to let her know he was listening. "Well he really, really, did, but when he told papa, well, he told Toni that it was stupid and that he wasn't even that good at it. After that Toni just let papa tell him what he was going to do with his life, and that's why he's going to law school."

This didn't surprise José at all. He knew their dad was kind of a control freak, and honestly the idea of Antonio being a lawyer was ridiculous. He couldn't argue to save his life.

"At first when he told Toni he was going to go to law school, he seemed happy about it, but I knew different. He would still practice playing the guitar every time our parents weren't home, and he got really good, but the other day…" Josie sighed and hugged her knees to her chest.

"Toni went behind our parents' backs and applied to the local arts college at the beginning of the year, but the other day I found his guitar in the attic. I think he's finally resigned himself to his fate."

José sat up and tried to get Josie to look at him, "I know you're worried about him, but what can you do? Get rid of your parents…Heeeeey, that could work~!"

She snorted and thumped him on the shoulder, "Idiota. We aren't killin my parents."

He grinned and began shaking his head, "No, no, no, not kill, but we could get them deported." Josie began laughing and José went on in a sincere voice, "No really! Tell the immigration officers that they have chickens and marijuana, and the, umm…swine flu? Yeah! That would be a one way ticket to Mexico!"

"Lo siento señor, pero, yo no hablo inglés!" Josie yelped waving her arms in the air.

"God damn wet back, go-o home-o!" José yelled in a redneck voice, jumping to his feet while Josie scrambled up. She gave him the finger before taking off running. They tore through the rhododendron bushes and into the Carriedo's large open backyard. José was catching up to Josie and by a complete accident she tripped over her own feet and he went crashing into her, sending both of them falling over.

Gasping for breath and laughing, the two lay side by side looking up at the sky. Josie turned to grin at the boy next to her and held up her fist. "Friends forever?" She asked, coking an eyebrow while José held up his fist, and brought his knuckles to her own. "Forever and always."

The Hole in the Wall was the only locally run pet shop in North Creek, and while it wasn't huge like PetSmart, it had better variety. It was one of the small shops on the town's square, and even though it had more exotic pets than a zoo, it didn't really hold much interest for the teenagers in town.

Unless of course, you lived in the county district way up in the mountains and your foreign cousins were visiting. Then it was a very interesting place to be.

Mei had squealed at a near ultrasonic pitch when she saw the kittens sleeping in the window and had grabbed a protesting Vy to drag them both inside, leaving the boys on the street corner, confused beyond belief.

The bells above the door tinged when the two girls walked in, Mei getting more excited by the minute. "Ooh! Vy! Look at the birdies~!" She cooed running over to the cages where the colorful parakeets where sitting and chirping.

"Idiot, don't stick your fingers in." Vy snapped when the door dinged opened announcing the entrance of Yong Soo and Kiku. She rolled her eyes at them and jerked her thumb at Mei, "Someone stop her before she gets hurt."

Mei, despite Vy's warning, had all her fingers linked through one of the cage's bars and was giggling at a rather large and crossing looking Macaw. Before it could snap at her, Yong Soo went over and poked her side. She yelped and yanked her fingers out of the cage so she could smack him upside the head, "Ass!"

He glared at her and rubbed his face, "Baegchi."

With the crisis averted, the four spilt up and went about exploring the pet shop. Even though it was rather small, it had a bunch of intresting animals, including chameleons which Yong Soo was now looking at. Kiku was just giving things a pacing glance, as he already had a pet, but stopped when he got to the cat aisle.

He was thinking about getting something for Athena and stepped into the aisle when he almost tripped over someoe sprawled out in it. Kiku caught himself on a shelf before he fell and glared down at the figure asleep in the middle of the floor. His expression went from an angry one to one of complete surprise.

Kiku clapped a hand over his mouth so he didn't start laughing right then and there and draw the attention of his nosey cousins. Instead he knelt down and shook the boy's shoulder. "Hera, is this rearry the place to take a nap?" He asked with a bemused smirk as green eyes flickered open.

"Kiku…?" Heracles mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. He stretched his arms over his head and let out a huge yawn, "Wait…what are you doing here?"

"Can't you hear?" He asked nodding down the aisle to where Mei was gabbing happily to a small kitten she had in her hands. Heracles arched his eyebrows and shook his head once, "Ah, that explains so much."

"It rearry does." Kiku said as Vy stalked past with a corn snake wrapped around her neck. It flicked its tongue out at Mei who shrieked and used the cat to cover her face. Kiku watched all this with silent interest before sighing, "Someone shourd probabry go stop them."

Heracles smiled, "Why? Worried about getting thrown out? No need to fret, 'cause you have a store employ's permission to play with the animals."

"You work here?" Kiku asked in disbelief, and deciding that they'd probably be talking for a while, he sat down on the other side of the aisle. Heracles nodded and hooked a thumb under his red vest, "Yeah, I don't wear this 'cause I want to."

"Well true, but I thought you worked at the Medievar fair thing with Sadiq." Kiku said coking his head to the side. Chuckling, Heracles rolled his eyes, "No, but practically everyone else does. Sulie offered me a job but I said no."

"Why? From the way Sadi acts he makes a rot of cash."

"I dunno, I guess I didn't want to be surrounded by assholes all day?" Heracles said with a shrug, looking over his shoulder at Yong Soo as he ran by screaming, a chameleon sitting on his shoulder. Kiku didn't even give him a passing glance, but he did mutter something in Japanese before looking up at Heracles, "They aren't bad arr the time ya'know?"

He snorted and rolled his eyes, "Could have fooled me."

"No rearry! Can't you cut Sulie a break? She tries so hard to make everything work perfectry for all of you." Kiku said with sincerity even though Heracles was laughing quietly, "How did you become an expert on my not mother?"

Kiku pursed his lips, "I've been friends with Sadiq for a whire, and have been over to the house a rot, but I'm not sure, excerrent atmosphere reading skills?" He sighed and began fiddling with a feathery cat toy, "I know you don't berieve it but she rearry does love you, Sulie I mean."

With a nervous glance up he saw Heracles had wrinkled his nose in disbelief, "What makes you say that?"

"Well…she did come rescue you from an orphanage."

"The whole reason I was in that mess was her fault in the first place!" Heracles snapped, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He glared at a container of cat-nip mice and ground out, "The fact that she adopted me doesn't prove anything, besides she was responsible for mom's…" He trailed off and his gaze softened a little bit, mostly due to the fact that he was on the brink of tears.

If it hadn't been for what he had almost said, Kiku might've scooted across the space to give him a hug, but instead he had his mouth hanging open in shock, "You seriousry did not almost brame Sulie for your mother's death, right?"

Heracles shrugged and quickly turned to look at the ceiling, "…maybe…"

"Hera…"

"But if you think about it, it kinda is her fault. I mean my mom died like two years after Sulie showed up…"

"Hera."

"…with her son tagging along, claiming that my father was his dad. What did that accomplish? Of course my dad would deny that, and all it did was get my parents fighting!"

"Heracres."

"And then mom got cancer so dad divorced her and disappeared…and well you know the rest, but if Sulie had just stayed in freaking Istanbul to raise stupid Sadiq by herself or, hell if she had been more responsible then maybe-."

"Heracres! That is enough!"

He stopped mid rant and turned to look at Kiku who was glaring at him. Heracles was surprised that he could look so murderous, and shrank back instantly.

"Rook, I don't disagree with you. As much as I love Sulie, she was very irresponsibre, but as they say; it takes two to tango. Your father is at fault as much as she is, actually even more so. Didn't he not tell her he was married?"

"…yeah…"

"So there. You need to carm down and think about things rationarry, yes it wasn't the most ideal childhood, but it did gain you siblings." Kiku said with a grin.

Heracles gave a shy smile and tucked some hair behind his ear, "I guess. Man you are really optimistic."

Kiku shrugged and dropped his gaze to the floor, "Eh, it comes in handy when you live in a foster home."

'That's right…' Heracles thought suddenly snapping his mouth shut. He kept forgetting that the people Kiku lived with weren't his real parents, nor were they Yong Soo's. They were Yao's, the other two had been more or less adopted, and all their 'cousins' weren't really that related either. They just said that to make things seem more normal.

Now Heracles felt like a huge jerk for complaining about his life when Kiku's was equally as hard or even more so. "Um, sorry about all the whining…I just…" He stuttered out, trying to hide his embracement. Kiku smiled, "It's okay don-."

"O mai gas! Kamelle-on nae sog-os-e! KAMELLE-ON NAE SOG-OS-E!" Yong Soo yelled at the top of his lungs as he raced past, flailing his arms over his head. Heracles heard a crash and more frantic yelling from Yong Soo, before Vy rushed over and started cursing in Vietnamese. He turned to look at Kiku, "What…the hell?"

Kiku opened and closed his mouth like a fish before stammering, "I-I think he said he has a chameleon in his underwear…"

"Hey big sis, a decade is ten years right?"

Natalia looked in her vanity's mirror to glare at the girl lounged on her bed, "I told you to stop calling me that, and yes it is. Why?"

Aisha didn't answer and instead kept surfing the web on Natalia's laptop. She was laying on her stomach, kicking her legs in the air lazily and sucking on another lollypop from Natalia's hidden candy stash that the younger girl had somehow found.

She looked up after a moment and her eyes went wide before she broke out into a huge grin, "Ah, you look real pretty!"

Giving her reflection another glance, Natalia smiled a little at the way her ice blonde hair was lying flat, no frizz whatsoever. She a light brush of blue eye shadow on and some mascara, along with a hint of pink lip-gloss over her full lips. She did look good, but keeping in time with her expressionless personality she just shrugged, "Eh, if you say so…"

Aisha rolled her eyes but went back to the internet, sticking her tongue out as she concentrated. Natalia couldn't help but smirk at the action. Aisha had been doing that as long as she could remember. "So what are you doing exactly?" Natalia asked, getting up to go look through her closet.

A groan followed by, "Fuckin' damn assed school fuckin' project."

Natalia rolled her eyes, okay how many expletives were in that sentence?

Three?

Four?

She flipped through her clothes. Normally she would have settled for skinny jeans, an indigo cardigan and a white collared shirt, but that was what she usually wore to school and tonight was kind of special.

Today was Alfred and her's one year anniversary and they were going out to dinner so she wanted to wear something nice.

Her hands paused on a knee length purple dress, it's skirt full like a classic Disney princess'. While she was pondering over what to wear with it, a hand brushed across her arm. "Mmm, do'ya have to go? Can't you stay here?" Aisha murmured, resting her chin on Natalia's shoulder.

"No I cannot. He's my boyfriend, I'm not going to stand him up for a silly sophomore girl." She snapped, shaking Aisha off and taking the dress off its hanger. Aisha reached out and let the fabric brush past her fingers, "Yeah, but I'm not jus'any silly sophomore girl."

Natalia ignored her and went into the bathroom she shared with Katyusha, closing and locking the door behind her. She quickly twisted out of her bathrobe and tank top, and then unzipped and slid the silky material of the dress over her head. It fit her as well as last time she had it on, and she did a few twirls to check her reflection. Once Natalia was satisfied with how she looked she strutted out of the bathroom.

In her absence Aisha had gone back to the laptop and was furiously scribbling notes onto a scarp sheet of paper. She hadn't noticed that Natalia had come back yet until the blonde cleared her throat a bit impatiently. Aisha's head snapped up and she just stared in silence for a minute a smile tugging up the corners of her face.

"Well?" Natalia asked doing another spin, skirt flying out around her. When she came to a stop she cocked an eyebrow at Aisha. The younger girl coughed into her fist once, face just a little red, "Ya look beautiful."

Natalia nodded, and spun around so her back was to Aisha. "Zip me up?" She asked, pulling her long hair out of the way and glancing over her shoulder to see if Aisha would comply.

Aisha got up slowly and padded over to Natalia. She placed one of her hands on the small of Natalia's back and gripped the dress' fabric while using the other one to tug the zipper up. When the zipper was halfway up Aisha's hands flitted up to the top of the dress so she could pull the zipper up the last few inches.

"There." She said, her hands trailing up the bare skin exposed by the dress' neckline, "Perfect." They came to rest on Natalia's arms and Aisha leaned over to rest her chin on her shoulder. "Do'ya have to go?" She asked again, looking at their reflection in the full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door.

They were a strange pair, the two of them.

A princess and a pauper, both were from completely different ends of the spectrum, girly and tomboy-ish. Aisha realized with a sinking and queasy feeling in her stomach that she could pass as a guy when she stood this close to Natalia.

Natalia's eyes narrowed, "I already told you my answer. Why do you care so much?"

Aisha shrugged and shifted her arms so she was kind of hugging Natalia from behind. "I dunno, I'll miss you?" She mumbled into Natalia's hair, twitching her nose when she got tickled. Natalia's eyes narrowed even more and she placed her hands on top of Aisha's before roughly yanking them off her.

"Aisha I thought I told you to knock this off?" She hissed when the brunette snaked her arms around her middle.

"Mmm you did…"

"Then what are you doing?"

"…I dunno."

Natalia's eye twitched as she squirmed out of the hug, "Aisha, I am fine with being your friend, but you must get it through your head…" She whirled on her heels and placed her hands on her hips, "I. Do. Not. Like. You! At least not that way, got it?"

Aisha only blinked in response before shrugging, "Eh, can't blame a girl for tryin'." And then without another word, she went to go pack up her stuff. Natalia's eye twitched again as she sat down on her stool in a huff. She began yanking her hair up into a ponytail while the Iraqi hummed some tune to herself that sounded suspiciously like Hound Dog.

It wasn't exactly a secret that the fifteen year old had a crush on Natalia. It hadn't taken her long to figure it out, but in the end she hadn't ditched Aisha.

Why? Because honestly Aisha was one of her closest friends and Natalia wasn't about to wreck their friendship just because of a slight emotional hang up. Besides it was completely one sided, it couldn't do any harm.

Natalia was fumbling with the clasp on her necklace when Aisha snorted and walked over to her. "Need some help princess?" She asked taking the clasp from Natalia's fingers and doing it herself. Her fingertips brushed against Natalia's skin as she smoothed the chain out, "There~! Fantastic!"

It hadn't meant to be a flirtatious touch, just one of pure accident, Aisha hadn't even noticed and had gone to get her backpack and athletic bag, still humming Hound Dog to herself. But Natalia had noticed and that one accidental touch had sent sparks shooting down her spine and an evil, evil, blush to spread across her face.

"Hey, Nat, I gotta get home 'fore it gets dark. Ma locked me out last time." Aisha said with a frown, readjusting her beret on her head. Natalia nodded, but it was slightly robotic, "Yeah…sure." She staggered to her feet and into her inky black boots before she grabbed her keys and followed Aisha's heavy footsteps down the stairs.

It was all one sided…right?

Thirty three days left...

Please, oh please read and review~! I love to hear if my story is being enjoyed at all.

Okay, long author note now...

I understand that some of the pairings in this story don't make any sence. For example, BelarusXIraq. Those two countries have alomst no relations with each other unlike the rest of the Hetalia crew.

But, I'm not shipping them as countries.

For the purpose of this story, everyone is a human, so it's not BelarusXIraq, but Natalia and Aisha, two slightly deranged young ladies.

In other stories if I use Aisha and she actually is Iraq, chances are that she wont be intrested in Belarus. Just thought I should clear somethings up so you arent confused later.

Also I have gone back to school TT_TT Life sucks.

Anyway, I have decided to update regularly on Fridays from now on until this story ends. I didn't this Friday becase that is when my school started and it has been storming for the past three days. I didn't really feel like getting electrocuted any time soon.

One last thing, would anyone be intrested in a Spamano fic with Fem!Romano?

Thoughts are appreciated.

You win a prize for putting up with my drivel.

~Anna

P.s. And yes, Yong Soo really is yelling, "Chameleon in my underwear!"