To Ukraine's delight, Spain maintained constant contact after the news of the impending trip had been broken. She seemed to spend more time texting or calling him than she spent doing anything else.
Then a very exciting message came through, letting her know that he was at the airport waiting to get on the plane and telling her when the flight was due to arrive in Russia.
Hardly able to contain herself, Iryna practically counted the minutes while she waited. All of a sudden she saw Antonio's point, it had been absolutely ages since she had seen him and while she loved talking him in any way possible, sometimes just talking wasn't the same as the time they had spent together in Italy.
And she was made all the more impatient by nervousness. This would be the first time since she and Antonio started dating that the Spaniard would see her siblings. And the first time that she had successfully established a relationship that involved her bringing a partner home to her family, as opposed to being set up with someone by said family.
Although, to her relief, Ivan and Natalya hadn't taken the news too badly when she had told them about the planned trip and there had been minimal mention of threatening her date. Belarus only made one comment about the fact Spain 'better be treating her well' and didn't interrogate her too much on the full details of their relationship so far.
Unbeknownst to Iryna, this was because Ivan had urged her not to say anything in front of Iryna, in order not to upset her. But that didn't mean that the two younger Slavic siblings weren't making their own plans for the trip.
In fact, Natalya had a whole list of questions she intended to demand answers to when she got the opportunity to interrogate the Spanish man on his relationship with Iryna. And while Ivan discouraged her from revealing this to Ukraine, in private, he completely backed her up. They had to be totally sure that their sister was happy and safe in her relationship, no matter what.
So, while the Ukrainian woman headed to the airport Antonio was due to land at in order to meet him, her siblings had an agenda of their own to work to. Belarus produced the notebook full of questions and read over them, memorising what she wanted to ask.
Russia paced while he watched her curiously, before a little worriedly questioning, "Sestra, do you think Big Sister is happy?"
"That's what I want to find out..." Natalya mused, "I mean, she seems happy, but we've been there before and those 'relationships' didn't last," She pointed out.
Ivan paused thoughtfully. She wasn't wrong and there did seem to be limited ways of finding out if Iryna was really happy. It was amazing how they had set out to make their sister happier, yet he had ended up more and more worried about her. He hoped that this time, Iryna's relationship would bring her happiness so they would able to stop doing this sort of thing and return to normal.
It certainly seemed to Iryna as though it would. When she arrived at the airport, she saw Antonio waiting outside and hurried over to him, hugging him tightly in her joy to see him again.
Her boyfriend laughed at her enthusiasm to see him and wrapped his arms around her in return, greeting her cheerfully, "Hello, Cariña, it's good to see you again!" He said with a smile, kissing her cheek.
They both blushed, suddenly aware that this was their first physical contact for weeks, but nonetheless, still enjoying their time together. "It's good to see you too," Iryna responded, admitting, "I missed you a lot!"
"Si, it's been hard being away from you," The Spanish man answered softly, before perking up again, "But we're together now!" He added, breaking their hug to take her hand, "What shall we do? Any ideas where we can go for a nice date?" He asked her eagerly.
Ukraine paused for thought. She had promised her siblings they would be home as soon as possible so that they could get to know her new boyfriend better and that she would still spend time with her family, even though Antonio was visiting. But... They hadn't really had any proper dates due to the prank war before and the distance between them up until now.
She shrugged off her doubts. Ivan and Natalya were grown adults, they would be fine for another half an hour while she enjoyed some preciously rare time with Spain. "I know a few places," She told her date with a smile, "Let's go," With that, the couple walked off, still hand in hand.
Iryna had severely overestimated the patience of her younger siblings. Although she hadn't really been gone that long, Natalya was getting impatient, eager to get the answers to her questions so she knew whether to trust her sister's boyfriend and be grateful that he was making the Ukrainian happy or scare him into behaving or running away.
Right now, the Belarusian woman wasn't feeling ever so trusting. "Brother!" She yelled, interrupting her concerned elder brother's thoughts and her young daughter's nap. Screaming ensued.
Natalya hurriedly abandoned her notebook and went to soothe her daughter. Ivan watched her, rolling his eyes at the aftermath of her yelling, until Nastasya calmed down again, then asked, "What did you yell for, Natasha?"
"Because I think something has happened to Big Sister," She revealed, making her brother instantly panic.
"Why? What's going on? What's happened to her?!" He demanded to know, all his words coming out in a desperate rush.
"Well, she isn't back. And based on the last time I walked to and back from the airport, it takes eight minutes less than it has taken her so far." Natalya commented, her suspicious-minded calculations added as 'evidence' that there must be something wrong.
Ivan considered this thoughtfully. While he was automatically worried about Iryna's absence, he was also very much aware of the Belarusian woman's tendency to exaggerate and jump to conclusions. "I'm sure she's okay, da? She'll be home soon...And if she isn't, we can always go and find her," He tried to reassure Natalya.
"Hm..." Belarus thought about this. Her trust for the Russian man and her suspicion of anyone who wasn't part of their family when it came to looking after Iryna wrestled in her mind. Overall, she tended to trust her brother's judgement, so she nodded in agreement, "Alright. But if she isn't home in fifteen minutes, I'm going to find her," She decided.
Thankfully unaware of all this plotting going on at home when her back was turned, Iryna had led her date to the coffee shop where she and Emma had discussed their holiday. After all, that conversation had eventually led to her relationship with Antonio. And it was somewhere she liked to frequent anyway. The atmosphere was so much more peaceful than the alternative available at her brother's house.
The two Nations had ordered drinks and taken a window-side table together. Now, they were able to catch up in peace. "So who won your 'prank war' with Lovino?" Iryna asked, making her Antonio laugh again.
"Well, Feli was the judge and he couldn't decide. Lovi's demanding a rematch," The Spaniard revealed. "What have you been up to since then?" He asked her. They had already talked some of this stuff over in their endless text conversations, but it was good just to talk face to face again and to some extent, happiness blurred memories.
"Mostly talking to you and trying to make sure Natalya and Ivan don't get too... Out of hand," She admitted.
"Out of hand, how?" He questioned, slightly nervous considering he was meant to be spending time with her aforementioned family members at some point during this trip and, despite not knowing them very well, already aware of their Worldwide reputation for both being more than a little eccentric.
"Well, in general, if Vanya gets too bored he has a tendency to try to get the neighbours to 'become one' with him... Don't ask for an explanation about that," Iryna revealed, "And Natalya gets over-zealously 'in love' with him and makes him nervous sometimes," She added. "But mostly, they're well-behaved," Here she sounded as though she was talking of children, as opposed to Nations. "The worst bit I was trying to avoid is them getting too... Involved in my love life," She got to the point, admitting this part with a slightly red face.
Well, he had already known about the first points from World meetings and was only mildly reassured by the fact that his girlfriend viewed these as occasionally occurring stains on otherwise good characters. The second confession, however, demanded his attention. "How do they get 'involved'?" He asked.
Iryna gave a little sigh, "I guess it's my fault really, I told them I was a bit lonely... Before we met, obviously and ever since they've been vetting potential dates. They've stopped setting me up with people now, of course, but they still want to know all the details of every relationship I have and insist on getting involved," She tried to explain.
Antonio thought about this. It did sound... Unusual. And perhaps it didn't bode well for his meeting with her siblings later on. But it seemed like their hearts were in the right places, so they shouldn't have any issues with him as he truly cared about their sister. "I guess they mean well," He answered aloud, shrugging.
As if on cue, Natalya and Ivan burst into the shop and practically pounced on the couple.
The half an hour Iryna had assumed wouldn't be noticed had swiftly passed and, having given up on waiting after fifteen minutes as promised, Natalya had grabbed her brother, bundled their sleeping daughter into her stroller and spent a thorough fifteen minutes searching around the airport before she had remembered about her tracking device and at last located their Ukrainian sister.
Defensive as always, Natalya shoved the stroller into her brother's arms and marched over, ready to accuse Antonio of stealing her sister away. "Sestra, are you okay? What happened?!" She demanded to know, all while glaring at the Spaniard like he had personally ruined her life and wronged her entire family.
Iryna sighed again, giving her boyfriend an apologetic look and blushing as her Little Sister once again made a scene. "Natalya, I'm fine, Dear. I realise I probably should have phoned you to let you know where we were, but I was enjoying our date so much I forget," She explained, carefully stressing that everything was okay and that she hadn't been abducted and dragged off for coffee against her will.
Ivan came over to join them, positioning the stroller in a corner near the table, but out of harm's way, and putting a restraining arm around his wife's shoulders before Natalya could erupt again. "Well, that's good for you, Sestra Dear! And now we're here, so you don't need to worry about us," He reassured Iryna, before sitting down beside her and beaming at her, innocently ruining yet another date, "We can have another double date, da?" He suggested as Natalya sat down too, still giving Antonio dirty looks.
The Ukrainian diplomatically resisted all urges to face-palm, say 'I told you so' to Spain or flee the scene before war broke out and wondered how badly this one would go.