Well, its been a while, hasn't it? I sorta got busy and lazy at the same time.

A big thanks to everyone who followed and favored. A special thanks to:

mimi-chan and aliling-chan: You're welcome! If you have any suggestions about characterization, I'm up for it! Oh, and Alfred sees Japan again...*nudge nudge wink wink*

NumiNumNums: Heheh...it's still making me giggle! Arthur will eventually show it. You know, many chapters from now. Maybe not too many...sorry it took so long to get this chapter out.

Those people are awesome. Please follow their example and review.

Disclaimer: I don't own didilly-squat.

The next day, I was faring significantly better. My eyes still hurt more than what should be possible, but I could actually keep my eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. Nonetheless, the very action was still exhausting.

Despite not wanting to leave the bed, Arthur forced me to go into town the next day to adjust my eyes since I would be going back to work the very next day. (He wasn't giving me enough time to heal, if you ask me).

I did exactly what Kirkland suggested of me for once and took it easy, strolling around the main square reading the few shop signs in the windows, and prices for a multitude of objects.

That's when I bumped into a familiar face; it was Gilbert with his younger sister, Louise. Forgetting my most recent transformation, I smiled, waved, and called out to them, "Hey Gilbert! Treating my brother well?"

The albino turned around to give me a smart-ass remark that probably would've sounded something like, "You dare question my awesomeness?!" But the confident smirk slid off of his face and instead he said, "Not to be rude, but what happened to your face?" Even his younger sister looked a little perturbed.

At first I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I remembered he had yet to see my most recent scars and the...damage...done on my eyes. I recovered quickly, and laughed a little nervously. "Aw well, you know, staring into the sun too long and...stuff."

The two siblings shared a look. While Louise looked at me doubtfully, Gilbert shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess. Though, your new eyes color does make you look a lot more like Matthew..."

Huh, I hadn't thought about that. "Um, I guess it does, in a way."

"Of course, his are much more awesome."

Before I could think of a response Louise cut it, "So, Alfred, was it?" I nodded. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, you know..." I really needed to become better at lying, "just looking around and...stuff."

I was fortunate the two didn't pry. Well, Louise, anyway.

"Hey Alfred, can I talk to you?"

I was a little off-put by the serious shift in tone in the albino's voice, but nodded anyways. With that, Gilbert led me away from his little sister, dragging me for a walk.

We walked in awkward silence for a while before Gilbert finally said, "Look, I'm going to be blunt. Matthew's really upset about what happened the other day."

I looked at him with eyes wide in surprise. "He told you?!" I exclaimed. Part of me felt a bit betrayed; we were supposed to be brothers as close as twins. Why would he talk about a moment personal to me to someone I barely knew?

I felt a sudden, painful throb rock through my eyes. I let out a startled grunt, and clutched my eyes under the glasses.

"Uh...are you okay there?"

I made a noise of annoyance. "Just fine." I certainly wasn't going to widen my eyes anymore.

Gilbert let a moment of awkward silence go by before he continued, "Anyways, I mean, I know I have no right to judge, but I don't like seeing someone as awesome as him upset. What I'm trying to say is you should talk to him."

"You're right, you don't have a right to judge," I replied, my tone not giving away my annoyance. "It's not your problem anyways."

"Matthew's unawesome problems are my problem too!"

I looked back at the fire in his eyes, and couldn't help but feel a little happy that Matthew had found someone who treated him like he deserved, instead of some invisible nobody.

Catching the albino by surprise, I threw my head back, and laughed out loud.

"W-what's so funny?!" Embarrassed, the pale boy blushed, making him look like he smudged red lip stick all over his porcelain face.

Calming down a bit I replied, "Nothing. It's just—Matthew was right about you, you know. You are a good person, despite the douche personality you have."

"I do not have a—"

"Look, Gilbert, I know you're simply concerned about Mattie, but whatever problems we have are between us. And we're pretty close; I know for absolute certainty that they'll resolve in time. So don't go butting in where your butt isn't wanted."

Gilbert's white eyebrows furrowed, and he looked ready to yell at me again, if a certain Italian didn't beat him to it.

"HEY! Stupid American idiot, I'm talking to you! Don't you fucking know when someone's talking to you?!"

I turned to see none other than Lovino Vargas storming towards me with white, hot fury in his eyes, and his younger brother, Feliciano, following close in pursuit.

"Lovino! I told you no to be so rude to people!"

The two argued for a few minutes in Italian, Lovino sounding angry and Feliciano sounding whiny.

Gilbert rolled his eyes clearly annoyed. Poor guy must deal with this a lot, I figured. "Will you two please go away and argue somewhere else? I was having a little chat Alfred before you two completely unawesome people interrupted me."

Lovino opened his mouth to make a retort (probably full of profanity) before his eyes flicked to mine, and his expression changed to shock. "What the hell happened to your face?!"

"Lovino! Don't be so rude!" pleaded Feliciano.

I sighed, but refrained from rolling my eyes; that would hurt. "What do you think?" I groaned out at the Italian.

Lovino's eyes narrowed in on me, as if I was transparent and he was attempting to see through me. (Psh, as if. I am the least shallow and transparent person I know). After a few awkward seconds of this, Lovino said, "I have no fucking clue, and I actually don't care."

"Lovino, what do you want?" said Gilbert, quite annoyed at this point.

Lovino grabbed my arm so quickly that I didn't have any time to react. "I have business with this idiot that doesn't concern you." He then huffed, and dragged me away, Feliciano following close behind.

Lovino dragged me all the way around town until he got to a secluded, quite alleyway, where he proceeded to pin me against a wall. "Alright, I want answers, and I want them NOW!" he shouted.

"Fratello, stop it!" piped Feliciano. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Shut up!" Lovino briefly turned his head to yell at his brother. Feliciano shut his mouth, eyes swimming with tears. The older Italian rolled his eyes, so I figured Feliciano must cry a lot.

He turned his eyes back to me. "Now. Tell what what the fuck you meant when you talked about my mother."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Feliciano's face grow white, as he turned to look at me with big eyes.

"Exactly what I said," I replied. "Your mother is a ghost that lives in Kirkland's basement. She always screams for you two, so I figured that if I showed her you two were safe and unharmed, she'd pass on to the next plane."

Lovino's grip slackened completely as his arms fell to his side, and his eyes grew wide and moist.

"But ghosts...they don't exist..." whispered Feliciano. His eyes were also wide, but he wasn't crying. He was white as a sheet, and shaking visibly.

As for Lovino, he fell to his knees, and held his face with his hands. "Please...take us to her."

I shifted from foot to foot nervously. "Well...this is awkward," I said. "Look, I want to help you and your...mother...but as of right now, my hands are tied. When I mentioned Antonio to Kirkland, I happened to get the felling the old man doesn't like your spook. On top of that, if I sneaked you into the mansion and took you to the basement, I'd get in a whole lot of trouble, which I've had enough of for right now."

Lovino froze. Slowly, he raised his head to look me in the eyes. I swear, I had never seen such a murderous, enraged look on anyone's face in my life before. It was as if I was looking at my own personal Satan. "Let me rephrase that," the Italian said, eerily calm. "You will take us to our mother. Tonight. We'll meet you at your creepy-ass mansion tonight. If you happen to get in trouble, that's your problem, not mine, so you'll just have to find a way to avoid that yourself. Come on, Feli. There are a few things I have to explain to you about my apprenticeship."

"Wait, how do you know where I live?" I asked.

"I have my ways!"

As the two walked away, I could hear Feliciano's frantic voice: "F-fratello? What was the American talking about? What's a spook? What was he saying about Mama? Why—"

"Shut your damn mouth for once, I'll explain everything if you'd just give me a fucking second to breathe..."

Their voice faded away, and I was left in the alleyway all alone. Lovino is sure a mean brother, I thought. I felt bad for Feliciano, having to put up with Lovino all the time. For once, I'm glad Mattie is always so quite and soft spoken...

I sighed, wondering how I was going to avoid Kirkland and sneak the two loud-mouthed Italian twins in, when I turned around and—

I screamed the scream of a boy in the middle of puberty, so you can imagine that it was very manly.

Standing right in front of me was the mer-creature I saw in the Sea Dimension, the same girl I had literally ran into the other day.

Her eyes were hard, her expression gave away nothing. She no longer had any of her weird fins, but looked completely human. "Why were you following me?" she demanded in a strange accent.

"W-what? I'm sorry, I don't even know who you are." The logical part of me was telling me to leave. The other part was...

Bottom line is, I wasn't going anywhere.

The girl gave me a suspicious glance, clearly not believing a word I was saying. "You human seers are all the same, thinking you can fool me with pretty faces."

Seers? I thought. That's a new one. I put up my hands in a surrender gesture. "Look, I'm not lying. All I'm saying is, I never meant to run into you, nor did I plan on seeing you when I went to the Sea Dimension-Wait, did you just call me pretty?-Not that I didn't like running into you, you are quite pretty—I mean, you're not ugly, because I don't judge on looks, though I must admit, you did startle me quite a bit with your fins and everything, seeing as you looked humanoid when I saw you before. It also didn't help that you looked quite a bit like a nymph, because there was a certain crazy whacked out nymph that tried to kill me about a month ago, so I'm still pretty skittish around water at times; heck, it was even hard for me to take a bath for a while—not that I don't bathe, because that's disgusting, I mean, ew, right? But that's not that point. The point is—wait, what was my point? No seriously, why are you here? Who are you? Are you following me?! Because that's seriously creepy. But I would totally understand if you were, because, I mean, look at me; I'm the American dream. Of course, Tori didn't seem to agree with that, politely calling me a big jerk with an inflated ego, whatever that means, but I guess that doesn't matter since you don't know her. Wait, now that I'm seeing you face to face, I have to ask; how did you travel from the Sea Dimension, and this dimension? Because you're trapped in the realm in this dimension, that's for sure, or that mother wouldn't have quickly ran away with her daughter, shouting that I needed help a few seconds ago."

I fell silent, realizing she staring at me, dumbstruck. Not knowing what else to do, I laughed, and rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

After a long moment of silence, she spoke slowly; "I did not understand a word you said, but I am now certain you are not a stalker."

"Well, that's, nice..."

We stood there. For some reason, she wouldn't stop scrutinizing me with that piercing gaze of hers (she and Louise would get along just fine, if they ever got around to talking), and I couldn't bring myself to leave. I felt like I was a school boy, and she the teacher, having yet to dismiss me.

I couldn't take it anymore; "Stop staring at me!"

Her gaze only hardened. "Why, do you have something you wish to hide from me?"

"What? No! It's just creeping me out! Who are you anyways?"

A suspicious look overtook her features once more. "That is none of your business," she tartly replied.

"Well, okay then." I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting any information out of her. Normally, I would attempt to pick her brain more, (like I really wanted to in that moment), but frankly, I didn't have time; I had to make a plan about what I would do with the whole Lovino situation. "I guess I'll be going."

I turned to leave and walked a few steps away before she called back, "What is your name?"

I spared her a side glace. On impulse I said, "Alfred," before I remembered how tight-lipped and rude she was about giving me her own name. "Not that it's any of your business."

I began to continue walking before she called once more, "It is Sakura."

When I turned back to see her, she was gone.

Page Break

Some people sure are weird.

Kirkland was weird because he was Kirkland. The Vargas twins were weird because one was a crybaby, the other was a hot head with the sight, and they were both Italian. Gilbert was weird because he was a gay albino. Louise was weird because she was so serious for a young girl of fourteen years. Matthew was weird because he was so soft spoken and also gay. And now this Sakura girl was the weirdest one yet; I happened to meet her two different times, each in a different dimension. One time she appeared human (weird, but human), even though I knew she wasn't because no one else could see her, and the next she appeared to be some sort of mutant fish. On top of that, she confronted me about who-knows-what.

I simply couldn't get my head around it. Sometimes, I thought I was the only normal person in my life.

I had to put that girl out of my head and focus on more pressing matters (cough) the Vargas brothers (cough), but it was easier said than done. It was true that I had wanted to see this mystery girl again, but not in the way she randomly appeared not answering any of my questions. I wasn't prepared for it.

Luckily for me, I had a very short attention span. So as soon as I stepped foot inside the house, Sakura was immediately put out of my head, and my mind was currently preoccupied with how to get rid of the Brit. I knew I should've learned my lesson at that point not to do anything behind his back, but I didn't. It was too much fun to defy the temperamental old man.

I looked around the house to see where my target was, but he was no where to be found. He wasn't in any of his weird "labs", or sulking in his room, or out in the garden. He wasn't even getting drunk in any of the cellars. (I had never seen him drunk, but I new he did it).

After a while of looking for him, I began to grow worried. Not because I cared about him or anything, but because if he still wasn't home, it meant he was more likely to come when Lovino and his brother came, or slightly before, making it all the harder to convince him to go out again. Not good.

Hours went by, and still, no Kirkland. I began to grow a little antsy. It would be just my luck that he showed up the moment Lovino arrived. I prayed to god, hoping that I was due for some good luck for once in my life.

I began to start pacing, when I heard pounding on the door. That's not Kirkland, I thought, he wouldn't need to knock. So, that must mean it's...

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR BEFORE I BREAK IT, YOU BASTARD!"

Yup, Lovino had arrived.

I sprinted for the door, tripping over a stool in the process, and nearly falling on my face (Phew! That was a close one! I almost broke my glasses! That would not have been good.). Hastily pushing myself back up, I launched myself at the door, disabled all the locks and security procedures, opened the door, and practically threw the Italian brothers inside. Once both the boys had all their body parts inside the building, I quickly scanned the area for any sighs of the old man, before quickly slamming the door shut and re-bolting it.

"All right, I want answers!" shouted Lovino. "Where is our mother!?"

"Geez, keep your pants on!" I said. "And don't be so loud either. Kirkland tends to have ears everywhere. Sometimes, I get the creepiest feeling that the house actually listens to everything I say and reports it back to the old man..." It would certainly explain why he knew about me going cow tipping that one time.

"I don't really care, as long as you take us to her."

Not even wanting to respond anymore, I motioned for them to follow me, before leading them to the secluded room that had the trap door which lead to the basement where Bianca's ghost resided; I almost forgot to grab a spare candle and matches.

While walking over there I asked, "So, Lovino, how much does your brother now know about...well...the business?"

"Everything."

I stopped in my tracks and turned back to look at him in utter shock. Not because he actually had the guts to tell his brother everything, but because it was the very first thing I had ever heard him say without one single cuss word or insult. I looked at Feliciano's face, noticing for the first time that he no longer had a carefree smile, but a sullen frown. I couldn't help but hope he wouldn't stay downhearted for too long; frowns just didn't suit the guy.

"No one asked you to stop! Are you really that lazy?!"

"Hypocrite..." I muttered under my breath, but started walking again anyway.

As we arrived at the small room, I closed the door behind us so that the only light source we had was the small candle I was holding. Gripping the handle to the trap door, I flung it open sounding a loud slam! Immediately following was a cold draft.

"Before I take you guys down there, I have to warn you," I said, shooting them a slightly guilty look, "she's going to be a bit...well, different than you remember her. She's a little crazy, actually."

"Of course she's not the same, she's dead."

I wasn't Lovino who spoke, but Feliciano. His head was down cast, and in spite of the dim lighting, I could just make out the glimmer of tears on his shadowed face.

"Feli..." whispered Lovino, shocked even more so than I was.

"Well, it's true!" Feliciano was clenching his fists, shaking slightly. Taking a shaky breath he continued, "Let's just go now."

I turned and led the two into the darkness, leaving the hatch open because it didn't open from the inside.

Once we got to the bottom of the dark cellar (I never figured out how big it was), we waited. Pretty quickly, I heard moaning that was the telltale sign of Bianca Vargas. As always, the first thing she did was wail, "Lovino! Feliciano! Where are you? What have they done with you!?"

My hands began to shake, so I set the candle on the ground. I bit my lip hard and closed my eyes, chanting, I will not pee myself I will not pee myself I will not pee myself over and over and over again. Even though I had gotten a little better, I was still terrified of ghosts.

"M-mama?" muttered Lovino. He sounded suspiciously close to tears.

"Is that you?" It was Feliciano.

A stillness followed closely behind that made the hairs on my neck stand on end. Then, "F-feli? Lovino?"

Her voice was different that what is was before. It sounded...more human. More substantial. It made me relax a little and less afraid.

There was the sound of footsteps coming closer. She still looked the same; nothing had changed since the last I saw of her. But as soon as she touched her sons' faces, her skin changed to an olive tan, her hair replenished in it's luster, her cloths morphed into the most beautiful red dress, and her eyes filled with life.

She hugged her two boys close to her, and despite her being a dead spirit, it looked like they were actually hugging a solid human. They spoke some things in Italian that I had no hope of understanding. A tear graced her cheek as she said one last goodbye to her children, and dissolved into the air. But she was smiling.

Huh. Just like that. That was rather quick and anticlimactic...

Feliciano fell to the ground and sobbed, Lovino quickly following suit, hugging his brother like he was his lifeline.

If I could, I would've let them stay like that for as long as they needed, but I was too worried about Kirkland comming back and finding out that I had let them in. So... "Hey, I hate to interrupt a big brotherly moment and all, but you kind of have to go. Like, right now."

To my surprise, neither of them uttered a word as the got up, and showed themselves out. However, at the door, Feliciano enveloped me in a big hug, muttered, "Graize," and left. Just like that, the Vargas brother were gone.

Aaaaaaaand...the world happened to hate me, because at that exact moment in time, Kirkland decided to show up, just in time to see the two Italians leaving.

Great.

Hey guys, tell me where you think Arthur was.

That's all for now, folks! I will try to get the next chapter out much sooner this time.

In the meantime, please follow, favorite, and REVIEW! Advice, thoughts, criticism, suggestions, anything is welcome!

REVIEW! (I would like to get more than two reviews this time...) Until next time~