OK! Here's the post New Year's chapter thats like stupid tastically late but at least it's there now. xP This chapter focuses more on Austria and Caligo than anyone else so I hope that's ok for now. Still working on the Valentine's Day chapter and now that Senior Project isn't as much high stress hopefully I'll be able to finish it. Thanks to those who're still supporting my work, really! You guys are the best and I hope all my readers review! Thanks a bunch!

Disclaimer: putting these hurts my soul, but it's true. I don't own.

Reboot

~Austria's P.O.V.~

Quiet. All I wanted was quiet. Funny, when everything was finally peaceful, I found myself unable to sleep any longer and I was sure that it was too early for my usual alarm. I opened my eyes, everything blurry at first until I realized my glasses were not on. Finally managing to acquire them, I surveyed the alien room, noting the dark red comforter that had been placed over me, my coat draped over a recliner next to the couch I was on, and a purple blanket strewn over the loveseat across from me.

'I've certainly never been here before...'

As comfortable as it was, laying about this couch wasn't going to do me any good, nor help me figure out where I was...am. For whatever reason though, that damn blanket was annoying me! Just lying there like it was part of the furniture.

"Fine. I'll deal with you first, and then find the owner of this house."

Standing and readjusting my shirt, I strode over to the unruly blanket and swiftly pulled it from the loveseat.

"Good lord!" So maybe it was there for a reason? Like hiding a dead body, per say. One leg hanging off the couch, the opposite arm bent awkwardly around their head, the person lay face down in a pillow, completely unmoving.

"Mein gott, what on Earth happened last night...!"

"Glad to have you rejoin the land of the living."

I whipped around fast enough to give myself a headache and a young man with messy chestnut brown hair stood on the staircase, scratching his head with a groggy expression.

"You there. Explain," I demanded, half angry and, perhaps, half frightened if the person lying face down on the couch was any indication of what he was capable of.

"Relax Roderich. You just blacked out last night."

"You say that as if it's perfectly normal..."

"While it isn't," he started when a small hand grasped his leg from behind one of the bars on the banister.

"Otets...YA goloden," the child yawned.

"Minutu Ivan..."

"Da..."

I suppose a normal person would believe that they'd missed some important details and I believed that there was something I hadn't caught on to.

"Wake Cally up, will you? I'm sure she'd be happy to see you," he said, gesturing to the body on the couch.

"You didn't finish explaining yourself."

"Later... As long as we fix your little problem."

He scooped up the sleepy Russian and entered what looked like the kitchen, probably knowing full well that I still wanted answers, so I resigned to wake up what I'd earlier believed to be a corps. 'She certainly sleeps like one...' "Cally...Wake up this instant. I am in need of your assistance..."

"Huh...? Roderich," she yawned suddenly, stretching like a cat. She blinked a few times before she stopped squirming and the dazed look suddenly disappeared. "Holy hell, Roderich! You're awake!"

"Indeed. Now, if you don't mind," I murmured impatiently, though I soon noted where I'd erred in that sentence.

"Cal," the man from earlier called, effectively saving me from whatever she might have been about to do, and sent her scampering into the kitchen.

"If either of you ask me to-"

"Pancakes, da?"

She slumped over in defeat at the sight of the rather adorable sleepy Russian face that greeted her at the counter.

"Fine...But only cuz Ivan asked."

Almost as quickly as that was said, a familiar mess of platinum blonde hair showed up, the head attached to it peering around the corner cautiously. "The awesome Gilbert heard pancakes were being cooked?"

"Come in Gil, just starting," Caligo smiled, pulling out a frying pan.

"No pan to the face today? The awesome me must really be growing on you, huh," he laughed in his usual obnoxious voice.

An even more obnoxious arm was thrown across my shoulders as the owner leered at me as usual.

"No more fainting today, right? God you're such a party killer you girl!"

That seemed to merit a semi hot spatula to the face.

"Shut it Gilbert or else I'll shove it down your throat!"

"Fine! Fine...women..."

"Shut up, stupid Prussia," another voice muttered from the hall. Just how many people lived in this house?

"Bloody hell... Like nails on a chalkboard."

"And so it begins!"

Despite the growing croud of people in the kitchen, I cleared my throat and glanced expectantly toward the man, who I eventually found out was called Vilkas, who was holding Russia in his lap.

"Ah...Well, at any rate, I'm gonna have to take a look at your programming at my house."

"What exactly do you propose on doing?"

Sipping his coffee in an unfittingly sophisticated manner, Vilkas gave an oddly familiar, almost devious look that would put Russia to shame, had he been his normal self. "Oh, not much. Just crack open the back of your head and-"

"Val!"

Caligo shot him a disapproving look, making him sigh as if they'd done this for ages and stated dryly, "We're going to run a diagnostic to see what the problem is and hopefully fix it."

"But for now, everyone shut up and eat their breakfast. You too Roderich~!"

Even when fitting into such a domestic scene, this woman's "sweet" smile sent shivers down my spine...

This probably had to do with the fact that she wielded both spatula and frying pan like dangerous weapons when plating pancakes. Her clubbing someone named Mal in the face with it on 'accident' really didn't have anything to do with it. Really. It didn't.

~Vilkas' House~Caligo's P.O.V.~

"Sometimes I wonder why I drive your lazy ass around."

"Well, in this case, it's really for Roderich's sake rather than mine."

"Point taken. Still. You have a car, you have your license. Why don't you ever drive? I mean really!"

I set the parking brake and flailed my arms to make my point - whatever it was - before we got out.

"Waaaahhh... It's so warm here otets!"

"Just a little. Inside's cold though Ivan, so put your scarf back on."

Little Ivan gave a quiet "oh" before wrapping the thick tan material around his neck and shoulders before hopping out of the car.

"Oh man Val...You have no idea how good your AC really feels..."

"Eh... Not a big deal."

"Mein gott...No big deal? Herr Krev, your home is equivalent to that of a walk in freezer," Roderich huffed, crossing his arms as we entered Vilkas's more or less mansion of a house.

"I know where he keeps the spare blankets so hang tight til you get to his study, ok?"

He must've been taken aback by the more-like-a-fact-than-an-offer if the indignant look he gave me was any indication of it. Uncrossing his arms, Roderich's posture became rigid again as he followed Vilkas and Ivan down another hall leading to the back of the house and I departed to search through his linen closet. "I guess he doesn't remember the first time we met... More like the morning after," I mused quietly to myself. I almost laughed at that. I think, either way, he'd be offended by my pointing out that he indeed needs help, much less insinuating it. "Oh well. Shouldn't keep them waiting."

Four years with Vilkas in this house and sometimes I still worried that I might get lost. His study never moved though, and I found it today like every other time.

"Val, I'm coming in so I hope you're not doing anything strange!"

"I hear you Cal," came the lazy drawl from behind the door.

Minus the lack of lighting and the rather large computer monitor casting an eerie glow throughout the dimly lit room, it looked like a nice place to sleep and at the moment it looked as if Roderich was doing just that. The spare bed in the corner of the room looked comfortable, but much too small for anyone bigger than me. Ivan had taken to making a fort at the foot of the bed where Roderich's feet were just hanging off the edge and all matter of wires presently sticking out of the back of his neck.

"Hey Ivan. Wanna make a tent," I grinned, holding up one of the fluffy blankets. Poor guy wouldn't know what hit him when he woke up, although I felt a little bad for a moment as we clipped one edge of the blanket to the straps on his boots. Either way, we finished sometime later and while Ivan hid under the covers playing with a lamp light, Vilkas was still crouched over the keyboard of the computer as he had been for hours.

"You look upset," I murmured, tiptoeing over and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I am."

"Can't find the problem?"

"Oh, I found it alright." His scowl deepened. "What annoys me is that this person had no business messing with such complicated code."

"Why? What happened?"

"Whoever this was," he grumbled, leaning back in his seat for once, "they went into this unit's programming and tried to erase the code linked to Austria's trait of having no sense of direction. The AI tried to correct the error by rebooting the unit every night when his system shut down in sleep mode. Now the computer has to delete and rewrite everything in his system just to get him functioning properly, including whatever he might remember about you."

I had the strongest fear that he would think I was silly if he knew I was bothered by something like that but, well, it bothered me a lot... "Whatever it takes to make him better. He doesn't remember much about me to begin with so it's not like he's forgetting anything important." Sometimes it's hard to remember he's not really...human. Sometimes I wonder if Vilkas has trouble remembering that as well, or if any of the others do for that matter?

"Cally!"

"What? What're you yelling for?"

"Geeze, space cadet. I was saying that Roderich's going to need the night to reboot. You can go home and I'll call you when he wakes up."

"No, I'll stay with him until then..."

"Your manager must really like you to let you off from work so much," he chided playfully before getting up to collect Ivan for lunch.

"I took the day off because I expected to be hung over this morning."

The sound of the door swinging shut led to a silence that I knew all too well since my parents had left. I wondered where I'd be now if I were still alone. YenKin and Mavi... Lin and Mal... Vilkas of all people and even Felicity. If we never met Gilbert, Arthur or Ivan and if Roderich hadn't come along... My ohana, my family wouldn't be here. I draped the other blanket over Roderich with a small smile and slumped back into the chair by the computer, a heavy drowsiness weighing my eyelids down on me. "See you in the morning Roderich..."

A swift shake of my shoulders wrenched me from sleep and I found myself staring up at a pair of dark violet eyes behind square framed glasses. For whatever reason, the very first thing from my mouth was, "Matthew...?"

But no. The Canadian's gaze was never so intense in all the time I've known him and the firm, perfected German accent concluded that I was delusional.

"Wer bist du."

I almost laughed aloud, having believed that Matthew would be so bold as to wake me in such a rude manner. I couldn't help but smile and cast a weary glance at the clock on the computer monitor. 3:22 am.

"Sprechen," he ordered.

"Morning, Roderich... I doubt you remember me, but my name is Caligo Valgus."

Sprechen-German: Speak.

Wer bist du-German: Who are you