Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: I won't be updating next week, because I'll be on vacation! Yep, my first real vacation in five years. We're going to Turkey! I've never been in Turkey! Or on a plane! I hope it's going to be a wonderful experience! I'm already scared shitless! 8DDDDDDD Don't worry though, I'll update the next Saturday after upcoming Saturday. Just so you know! ^^

A/n2: I made the reunion with the kids a little bit sappy. Maybe too sappy. Oh well. XDDDD I hope you'll love reading about it anyway!

A/n3: I think the quotation under the chapter-number comes out of a book ("Never let me go") mister Ishiguro has written. Now I don't know the writer or his book I had it from at all – but I still thought it was very, very beautiful.^^ Does that make me a hypocrite? Ahahahaha, let's not answer that!~

A/n4: By the way, thank you all for explaining the current situation in America for me. I now understand it a little bit better. I hope things will look up for you as soon as possible.

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 21:

And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.
That is what I saw.
Kazuo Ishiguro
(Japanese-born British novelist)

Well, I could knock myself out trying to figure out what America had been talking about, or insinuating about, during the bus ride home…

…or I could just sit back and enjoy the 30 minutes of peace and quietness Antonio and I would have, before we would, once again, be surrounded by kids and people that wanted all kinds of things from us.

…

Well, easiest decision I've ever made, dammit – so I sat back as nicely as I could and breathed out softly.

'Tired?' Antonio, who was sitting next to me, instantly asked and put one of his hands on one of mine – the one that was currently lying on my knee.

I looked at him, smiled weakly and interlaced my fingers with his.

'Yeah.'

'Well, it has been a busy day, so… it's no wonder.'

'I think…' I frowned and licked my lips, that had been feeling pretty dry. 'I think I'm starting to understand just how… hard it is, to be a parent. I'm not saying I dislike it, but it's a lot more difficult than I expected.'

'Hmmm,' Antonio hummed. He snuggled closer to me and rested his head on my shoulder.

'You think we're doing a good job?' I murmured, closing my eyes as well and squeezing his hand.

'Ah, well… we're doing what we can, aren't we, Lovi?' He turned his head and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. 'That's already a lot more than some people do, I think… so you shouldn't worry about that. You should worry about whether the kids will like the toys we bought them or not.'

'They better damn should,' I grumbled. 'It's a goddamn miracle we were even able to buy all those things. I mean, aren't our countries in an economical distress right now? Shouldn't they have, I don't know, stopped us? We have spent quite some money today after all…'

Antonio yawned and nuzzled my shoulder again. 'Ah, yes, but the authorities said we could spend as much money as we wanted – as long as it was for the children, they were perfectly fine with it.'

'Really?' I opened my eyes and blinked. 'What, did they call you or something?'

'Yes. When we were in that jewelry shop, I got a call from some PR-man or whatever – and he asked me what we were up to. They had tried to call us home, but since we weren't home, they called my cell phone. And after I told the man we were buying things for Alejo, Matteo and Luisa, he was like "okay, how nice, just carry on then" and hung up.'

I stared at him. To tell you the truth, I was beginning to feel a bit worried. I mean, what? Since when did the authorities care about our whereabouts? I don't remember them ever calling us, unless they were our Bosses or when the country was in a certain state of peril or the like.

'Why didn't you tell me some shady guy called you?' I asked Antonio.

'I wanted to – but you were talking to the clerk. Also, there was this huge tomato-shaped jewel I just couldn't take my eyes off…'

Although Antonio's stupid action wasn't really something to become less stressed out about (I mean, what the fuck, tell me these important things, don't let huge glittering tomato-jewels distract you), I felt some of my muscles relax anyway.

'You fucking magpie,' I said, sighing deeply.

'But it was so shiny!' Antonio pouted.

'That's no excuse, dammit, you should have paid more attention to your surroundings!'

'Ahh, to you, you mean?~'

'No.'

'N-no…?' Antonio, who's a master at overreacting, instantly got this heart-broken look on his face.

'Well, I – would you stop making that face, it's annoying! – I'd have liked it if you had given me some more attention, yes,' I admitted. 'But not because I wanted you to flirt with me in public. I mean, you got a pretty important (not to mention fucking suspicious) call right there, and you didn't even tell me. That's just stupid.'

'I'm sorry.' Antonio moved his face to the crook of my neck and nipped my skin.

I blinked and let him nip to his heart's content for a second of two (it kind of felt good after all), before turning my head and narrowing my eyes.

'Seriously? Are you doing this in public? We're on a bus, Antonio! We're not alone! Stop sucking my neck!'

Antonio stuck out his lower lip. 'But you didn't mind doing things with me while being on the bus (or inside a shop for all that matters) a couple of hours ago!'

'That was different, there weren't old women watching us in horror back then.'

I pointed a sneaky finger to two old ladies, sitting a few seats in front of us. One of them looked utterly disgusted, while the other one looked rather interested. She didn't seem to outright like our displays of shameless affection, but she sure was keen to keep her eyes on us. Her piercing, brown, small old-lady-eyes.

…

…

Wait a minute, wasn't that…

'It's our neighbor, Peeping Rosita!' Antonio laughed and waved at the old hag-duo. 'Well, how nice! She and her sister Disgruntled Dolores are also riding the bus!'

'Great,' I groaned. I also wanted to lift my hand and wave at – at least – Peeping Rosita, but she and her sister had apparently found out we had noticed them and they quickly tore their gazes off us, not even greeting us back.

…

…

Vengeful old bitches.

While I was thinking of a way to avenge my denied wave – dammit, there should be a punishment for that! – Antonio uttered a soft sigh, nudging me.

'Hey, Lovi? Remember how pretty those two women used to be?'

I stopped thinking about releasing an evil lawn mower into Peeping Rosita's garden. Instead, I thought about the young, beautiful sisters Rosita and Dolores and nodded a bit.

'Yes, I remember. Peeping Rosita always spied on you when you were watering your tomato plants when she was a hottie of 26, right?'

Antonio laughed. 'And Disgruntled Dolores certainly had a thing for you, Lovi! She always got this huffy look in her eyes whenever you came to visit me – while I was sitting in the garden. And I always found that strange, because when you weren't around, she was all smiles and sunshine!'

'They wanted our ass!' I decidedly and very proudly said.

'Yes, they wanted us!' Antonio nodded, grinning. 'And you know what, if I wasn't into men, I'd probably have started something with Peeping Rosita, too. She's nice enough when she's not busy lurking and being a scary lady in general.'

'Yeah, and I'd have bedded that Disgruntled Dolores faster than the blink of an eye if I had wanted a girl,' I agreed. 'By the way, didn't they have a sister as well?'

'Ah! Yes, I guess you mean Awesome Carmen – the oldest sister!'

'Awesome Carmen! Yes!' I laughed and looked at the two sisters. 'Man, she was the best of the three of them. If I had to choose one girl, damn I'd have picked Awesome Carmen. She was so nice and relaxed.'

'Yes,' Antonio said, now sounding a bit blank.

'I wonder why she didn't go shopping with her two sisters?' I mused.

'She died, Lovino.' Antonio gave me a sad smile. 'Carmen died three years ago.'

'She-she died?' I stared at him. 'Why? Was she sick?'

He shrugged. 'Ah, not really? She was 90 years old. It was her time, Lovi.'

'But… she was Awesome Carmen! The best girl-next-door there was, when all three sisters still lived next to you. She always gave me the best grapes from her grape... plant-thing and told me not to tell her sisters! She had such a lovely smile… She can't just… die, can she?'

'She was a human being.' Antonio sounded even more depressed now, even though I heard he tried to hide it. 'And yes, human beings eventually die. It's natural.'

'They can become way older than 90 years old,' I protested for some strange reason didn't even want to think about.

'I guess some people can pass the magical age of 100, yes – but that's it.'

'They… they can become older.'

'Lovino…' Antonio gave me a weary look.

I ignored him. 'I'm sure they can become older. Wasn't that in the news last week? That a woman celebrated her 200th birthday with her family and friends?'

'I'm afraid not, sweetie.'

'Fuck you, I know what I saw, and I'm telling you I saw something like that, d-dammit.'

'Calm down, Lovi.'

'They can become older than just 100. They… they have to become older than 100.'

Antonio moved closer to me and wrapped an arm around me. 'That's enough, my love.'

'I don't know what I'll do if they die on us.' I pursed my lips together tightly and felt tears stinging my eyes. 'If they die, I'm afraid a huge part of me dies with them. I don't want that.'

'I know.' Antonio now also put his other arms around me and hugged me, kissing my suddenly very damp cheeks. 'I know, Lovino… I know. But let's not panic before we have a reason to do so, hm? They can still turn out to be immortal.'

I didn't say something right away – I just looked up at him, hoping I didn't look as snottery as I thought I did. Antonio gave me one of his most friendly, most comforting smiled and wiped away some of my tears with his thumb.

'Did you hear me, sweetie? They can be countries, just like us. Don't forget it could turn out just like that as well, Lovino. It's too early to jump to depressing conclusions already. Okay?'

'Yeah, alright…' I mumbled.

'Good. Now…'

Antonio brusquely grabbed my chin and gave me a soft, long kiss, not even minding the wetness of my face or the muffled sobs I tried to hide from him, and gently caressed the small of my back with his other, free hand.

'…dry your tears, my sweet love, because it looks like we have to get off here.'

\0o0/

Few minutes later, Antonio and I got off the bus and walked straight into our backyard.

…

That's right, we actually also had a bus stop right in front of the House. Which was very convenient. Almost too convenient. But let's not think about that too much. Especially not when you realize we had to walk to the bus station for at least ten minutes when we left here earlier, with the Netherlands and Liechtenstein.

…

So anyway!

When Antonio and I walked back into our backyard, there was, thankfully enough, not a sign of the kids yet. Two of doctor Tosca's wacky assistants, who were dressed like fucking astronauts or something, were apparently taking a break – and so, we asked them if the creeps were finished experimenting on our offspring yet.

'Calling our investigation a mere experiment! How rude!' one of them snapped at me in a huffy voice. 'We're only doing this for the benefit of everyone that's involved with this case, mister Romano! We're putting countless huge needles into innocent young children and test them with other questioning instruments – but surely we're not hurting anybody!'

'Indeed! And you have no idea how hard it is for us to eat our lunch while wearing these suits!' the other one said, sounding just as offended.

'You are weird, sick people,' I concluded. 'You need help. Or a whack on the head.'

'Ah, please don't mind his words,' Antonio quickly said, before the two psycho-moonbunnies – that's right, psycho-moonbunnies, that was their name and that's what I was going to call them from now on – could start nagging at me again, 'he's just nervous. You see, we only want to know if you're done with your… investigation yet. We promised the kids we'd be here as soon as they'd come out, so…'

'You psycho-moonbunnies know more about that?' I finished Antonio's sentence – and ignoring the look he gave me right afterwards.

'Yes,' one of the moonbunnies said, without bothering to look at me, and made a strange, throw-away hand gesture to the inflatable lab a few meters further up ahead. 'I expect the children to come out of the lab any second now, so why don't you two go over there, hmmm? Thank you very much.'

'Also, please stick around, if you don't mind. Doctor Tosca will inform you about what we've discovered about the kids in short time,' the other moonbunny suggested.

Then he and his pal walked away from us, probably looking for a place where they could enjoy their lunch in peace and where they wouldn't be disturbed by annoying Spaniards and Italians.

I wanted to shout some mean things to them, just because that happens to be in my nature and because I feared they had seriously hurt the kids, when Antonio softly grabbed my hand and pulled me with him, as he walked towards the floating, rubbery-plasticy-shit lab.

'So anyway,' he said, gently – yet kind of demandingly – pushing me down on a small bench on the right of the weird laboratory, 'we bought lots of stuff for the kids today, like furniture and things to put in the garden and toys and dog tags…'

'Yes?' I impatiently said.

'But what did we exactly buy as… individual gift for the kids?' He gave me a nervous smile. 'Because we bought them so many things, I don't really know what are the three special gifts anymore…'

'Oh, I have two of those right here.' I raised one of my shopping bags and patted on it. 'And you have one right there.'

I pointed at the cactus, still sticking to his arm.

'Oh?' Antonio said.

'We bought a big, old book with fairytales for the gi… I mean, L-Luisa, and we bought a huge, but thankfully very plastic axe for Alejo. We were running out of time to buy something for Matteo, but then the Netherlands came along with his cacti and you took one for Matteo, and that's that, problem solved, we got the kids their individual, special gifts and my god, we're spoiling them so hard, it's shocking people all over the world.'

Antonio, who finally seemed to get everything, smiled and nodded. 'Yeah, we sure are spoiling them. But then again, we do have some years to catch up to, don't we? I mean, they're three, four years old, so… we missed out on a lot of birthdays.'

'That's true.'

'Now, let's hope they'll like our presents!~'

'I'd rather hope they are feeling fine. Getting examined for this long… poor little shits.' I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. Walking around with so many bags really isn't good for your body, let me tell you that much.

'I also hope doctor Tosca didn't discover anything disturbing…' Antonio muttered, plucking at the cactus at his arm.

I wanted to open my mouth and tell him something to calm him down, even though I really had no idea what, exactly, but then there was suddenly coming a lot of noise out of the lab.

Both Antonio and I looked at the floating thing, and right on that moment, the doors opened and tons of weird, white-clad moonbunnies came out of the lab, all cheering, clapping and shouting 'We're finished! We're finally finished!'.

After they had exited the lab, doctor Tosca and some normal assistants followed, mumbling and scribbling all kinds of things down on their notepads.

And after they had exited the plastic laboratory, only then the children finally came shuffling out.

'There they are!' Antonio said, and we both quickly raised from the bench.

I was worried they would look pale, or that they would be crying, or otherwise not looking too well, but to my relief the kids looked perfectly fine – except for the many, many, many bandages they had sticking over their body.

Their arms, legs, face… everything was plastered with bandage… material.

…

W-what the fuck had those creeps done with them?!

As soon as the kids realized they were outside again, the first thing they did was fearfully glancing around them – and oh, that look on their face when the spotted me and Antonio, waving at them all awkwardly…

It was just one of the most precious things I had ever seen.

Creepy Kid's face… I mean, Alejo's face, instantly lit up and beamed such a overjoyed grin at me and Antonio – I don't believe I had ever seen a kid looking at me like that.

'Papa Toni! Papa Lovi!' he shouted, and he was the first one to dash towards us in that same insane, bloodthirsty manner as Antonio always did and fuck if it wasn't just criminally adorable, dammit.

Not to mention how cute it was to see Antonio swooping him off the ground, laughing and hugging him and telling him how much he missed him.

'Aww, you're so tattered up, you look like a mummy! Aren't you the most awesome little mummy I've ever seen!~'

Meanwhile, Moody Kid… no, Luisa, followed her brother, and I could tell she was really doing her very best to keep herself from sprinting towards us as well. She walked over very slowly and paused every now and then to dust off her dress or to, well, glare at me.

Until I got down on my knees and made this fake-bored beckoning gesture with my hands.

'Well, are you going to hug me already or are you just going to stand there like that, baby?'

She blushed furiously and hastily increased her way of walking, which caused her to practically fall right into my arms, which probably was her way of initiating a hug.

'Stupid,' she told me, her eyes a bit watery as she wrapped her arms around my neck and attempted to either hug or strangle me.

'Okay – ack, not so tight! – okay, you can cry now, if you want to.' I smiled and stood upright again, now carrying a softly sobbing Luisa, who was doing her very best to avoid me seeing her cry.

'We'll work on that later,' I softly said, stroking her hair. 'Because it's perfectly fine to cry, baby. We won't like you any less if you do.'

'Hey cutie!~' Antonio all of a sudden shoved his head into my chest as well, pressing a kiss on Luisa's cheek. 'I'm so glad to see my little princess is okay as well!'

'What about the little serial killer?' I asked, faintly smiling as I patted Alejo's head.

'He's fine, too!' Antonio grinned happily at me and put the kid on his shoulders (who instantly started pulling his hair out of sheer excitement).

'We're still short on someone, though.'

I glanced over to Dumb Ki…Matteo, I mean, who was still standing… well, still, staring at us with those enormous eyes of his, almost as if he didn't want to believe we had really returned.

'Ohhhhhhh!' he finally said, hopping up and down a bit without really jumping, and pointed at us. 'Ohhhhhh! Ohhhhhhhhhh!'

I snickered and rolled my eyes. 'Don't tell me you recognize us only now, you little slowpoke.'

'Papa, papa!' Matteo smiled broadly and pitter-pattered over to us, bumping into almost every single obstacle on his way because he didn't look away from me and Antonio anymore until he reached us.

Then, when he was standing right in front of us, he looked up, grinned even broader and raised his arms.

'Yaaaaa!'

…

…

I groaned and didn't know how fast to grab one of his hands with one of my own.

'God, you're so dorky – you're the cutest little weirdo I've ever met!'

'You're as cute as a bug!~' Antonio took Matteo's other free hand. 'I'll cuddle you so much later, you bet!~'

Doctor Tosca suddenly shoved right in front of it. You really couldn't call the manner in which she was appearing all of a sudden anything other than shove – she really just shhhhhoved right in front of us, and there she was.

'Right. That was a wonderful and unnecessary long reunion sequence. Well, since the both of you are here anyway – could you tell me the official names of your offspring now, before I'll tell you want we've discovered about them?'

'Sure!~' Antonio said, about the same time I took out the nametag-necklaces and started putting them around the necks of the kids.

'They're called Luisa, Alejo and Matteo Vargas-Fernandez,' he continued, while the kids eyed their dog tags curiously, 'and they're probably the most interesting persons I've ever met in my entire life.'