A/N: Thanks for all the review/alerts/favs! I'd never imagined I'd get this many reviews (I'm serious). ;A; You guys…-cries-…thank you for reading this story! Even if you just clicked the first chapter and stopped after one paragraph, thanks for finding this fic!

Rant: Oh my gosh, I found so many sp/grammatical errors in the earlier chapters; I'm so embarrassed! The fact that I can't correct them (I took those chapters off of Document Manager) bothers me so much! But now I've been paying attention and proofreading more! I know those chapters weren't the greatest because I was so nervous about being a new writer and messing up and I eventually ended up mistyping a lot of words, but I hope I'm improving. I can't thank all of you enough for supporting me and staying with this story!

Edit: I thank Ayla The Librarian and Atemu'sLotus (and a bunch of other pfeople...lol i fail oTL) for pointing out my mistakes and telling me how to fix them (cuz I'm a nincompoop and can't figure it out on my own XD). You guys are the awesomesauce, thanks a bunch!

All sp/grammatical errors and DM linked words will be fixed once published, that's the gist. 8D (BTW sometimes when I try to change something on DM, it won't save, so please excuse me! I'll try my best!)

Beginning scene music (Just Be Friends music box): http :/www. youtube. com/watch?v=GnkzT4qbez0
Adrian/Alec "reunion at airport" scene music (Just be Friends piano cover by 櫻井) http:/ www. youtube. com/ watch?v=oTcL9-TCDAU [It's beautiful! ;A;]

So, anyone want to suggest a pairing name for Adr/Ale? [Because I'm too dumb to think of anything cool oTL] Thanks! =w=b

SEQUEL NEWS: There are some barely-there sequel hints in this chapter. You are a ninja if you can find it.

[Fail] Updated Character Notes:

Aloisa Beilschmidt: blond, blue eyes, knows a little bit of German and understands Italian II degree of Italian, adores dogs (she has Blackie, Aster, and Berlitz as family pets), has hit her Onkel Gilbert on several occasions, GerIta
Felicita Vargas Carriedo: olive green eyes, brown hair, knows a bit of Italian and Spanish (Italian swear words included), afraid of dogs, SpaMano
Adrian Braginski: silver hair, blue eyes, Nantucket ahoge lookalike, Alec's lover in real life, know how to speak Russian fluently (but he prefers English), RusAmer
Mikhail Braginski: elder brother, blond bangs, violet eyes, Ivan-aura, knows how to speak Russian fluently (and sometimes slips into it when he is anxious or angry), was thought to be Russia by Gilbert, RusAmer
Alec Bonnefoy: blond hair, England-eyebrows, fail cooking, Adrian's lover in real life, speaks French fluently (sometimes talks in French when he is distraught, but most of the time he does it for fun), FrUK
Evangeline Bonnefoy: green eyes, blond hair, excellent chef, super polite, speaks French fluently (though she prefers to use English), FrUK
(Note: Adrian and Mikhail are fraternal twins. Alec is older by Evangeline by a year. Aloisa and Felicita are cousins.) See age chart in Chapter 12; see flight seating chart in Chapter 8

Ritz-Carlton Luxury Hotel: Adr/Ale: Room 434; Other four: Room 435

Angelina Allred: blond hair, stuck-up, picks on Felicita, hates Aloisa, tried to capture the kids using her personal bodyguards, both her and father are now traumatized by Natalia
Thomas Allred: represents and controls all of California's school districts, now officially fired by Alfred F. Jones, slapped Aloisa once, Germany nearly cut off his breathing until Italy commanded him to stop, speaks arrogantly
Billy (former tutor of Aloisa): crazy driver who took the kids to the airport, is supposedly an academic genius and studying to get into Berkeley, current status unknown
James Stanton (now in George Washington University in D.C.): Alec's old boyfriend; James had dumped Alec (who was a freshman going onto sophomore then) because he lied that he was leaving for college when he was actually cheating on him with Cindy
Cindy: James's would-be fiancé, until Alec came in and Cindy completely rejected him when she knew the truth
Ethan Cole: world famous supermodel, met Feliciano and Lovino (who were acting as supervisors) when he was 18 at his first runway show in Milan, flying to Paris for another runway show and tried to force Alec to accompany him, eventually got beat up by Adrian.
Aaron Liu: model friend of Ethan, half Asian, green eyes, French accent, (name mentioned before in an earlier chapter when Mikhail was assigning rooms in Ritz-Carlton)
Jason Omar: model friend of Ethan (name mentioned before in an earlier chapter when Mikhail was assigning rooms in Ritz-Carlton)
Lisa Berns: psychotic babysitter, burned part of Felicita's school after the kids' departure, was a newspaper headline (discovered by Matthew and Gilbert).
Kate: waitress at the café that serves the prize winning lavender gelato that Aloisa loves, on good terms with Mikhail

Yukiko Karpusi: appears to be an elegant little five year old girl, but is actually thirteen and represents the Kansai/Kinki district in Japan, hairpin is her life source, Giripan
Hanna Oxenstierna: Cute blond girl, age eight, seems to understand her parent's identity, likes to chat with Annelise, SuFin
Eirik Køhler: serious boy with Norway-hat, age seven, likes to listen to Peter talk, seems to understand his parent's identity, DenNor
Annelise (Anne) Køhler: bouncy, energetic six year old girl, friends with Hanna, seems to understand her parent's identity, DenNor

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

9:55 A.M., airport…

Evangeline ruffled her hair with one hand, the other tapping away expertly on her laptop. Maybe she could break into the system and change the flight tickets or something and make it seem like a company mix-up. Mikhail did teach her a little a couple days ago when they were hanging around in the suite, but she finally gave up. She figured that this type of hacking was too advanced for her (after all, Mikhail had only demonstrated how he got into MMORPG servers).

Alec was sulking two seats away from her, staring off into space. Evangeline had promised herself that she'd never let her brother turn into an empty shell like last time with James Stanton, but here she was, unable to console Alec in any way.

She could see Arthur and Francis standing at the check-in counter, the two arguing (well, it was mostly Arthur). The agent was smiling at them nervously, hoping that she wouldn't have to call security. Arthur had changed into his Elizabeth mode, complete with a flowing skirt, glasses, and messy-bun hair. His English accent was shrill as he lectured Francis, alternating between pointing at him and the luggage. They'd arrived late, with the rain and traffic combined.

The sky was overcast and rain was bearing down on the city like a waterfall. People would have to be so ignorant as to step out in this weather, but the flights were still scheduled for takeoff as planned. Precipitation slid down the giant window panes like tears, blurring the view of parked airplanes and the maintenance people making last minute checks on the engine or whatnot.

"Hey, Alec," Evangeline ventured, putting her hand on Alec's shoulder, "I'm sorry I couldn't change dad's mind."

"It's okay," he said quietly, his eyes downcast. "The only one who can change his mind is Adrian, and I was too scared to tell him."

Evangeline didn't know what to say anymore. Alec puffed out a cloud of cold air and watched it evaporate. Some crazy part of his mind had hoped Adrian would come after him and bring him back, but not in this weather he wouldn't. He didn't even call Evangeline's phone and ask about him. Adrian might as well have been lying about loving him. He exhaled again; it didn't matter, Alec was the one leaving him, so he didn't deserve to have Adrian.

"Collin…? Is that you?"

Alec tensely swiveled his head and stared up into the face of Ethan Cole. The latter was grinning, but it wasn't a nice sort of grin. He'd seen it on Adrian before, when they were in bed. On Adrian it was okay, but on this guy, it was seriously frightening. The man held Alec's hands and lifted him up, holding him by the waist, his face way too close for comfort. There were two men behind him, both tall and obviously model-material with their photogenic faces and alluring smiles.

"Ethan, is that the boy you've been talking about the whole time?" one called out with a French accent. He had on a fedora, much like Alec's. His face was small and sharp, but some rounded out features suggested that he might be partly Asian. His green eyes leered suggestively at Alec.

The other added, "He's mighty cute, mind if I steal him for a while? How'd you like that, Collin? I'll show you a good time—"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Jason." He turned back to Alec, who was twisting his way out of Ethan's hold. "I've been looking all over the city for you, with no luck, I might add, but now that we're here…We were interrupted by some fool last time," He gripped Alec's waist tighter, and whispered in his ear, "I've got a show in Paris. Come with me, baby, I'll take you around and we'll have some fun."

"Excuse me!" Evangeline exclaimed, startled. "What exactly are you doing to him?"

Ethan glanced at the infuriated girl, uninterested. "Get lost, kid. We're doing some grown-up talking here."

Evangeline sputtered indignantly, "Grown-up? You look like you were about to rape him! You better get off of him right now or I'm calling security!"

"Call the security on supermodel Ethan Cole, hmm? I doubt that'll do any good, girl." His hand was still on Alec's waist, but it was discreetly trying to sneak inside the boy's shirt.

Alec placed both his hands on Ethan's chest and pushed futilely. "Please let go, Mr. Cole. I've no interest in you."

Jason and the other man laughed uproariously, completely ignoring Evangeline. Ethan sniffed Alec's neck and licked his lips. Alec was starting to panic, but he needed to keep it cool and lose this pervert before his mom noticed and slammed his high heels into Ethan's eye sockets. He had enough decency to not murder people, even if said people were trying to climb up his ass.

"You know you're just saying that," he breathed. "I'll bring you to the City of Lights, Collin. I bet you've never been to Paris. Five star hotels, full access to runway shows, unlimited shopping, and of course, me."

Now the poor bastard was trying to bribe him. What a joke, assuming that he'd never been to Paris; his dad was the country of France, and he and Evangeline could probably speak better French than Ethan since they'd lived there before. Evangeline looked at Alec fearfully and gestured if he wanted her to alert their parents, but Alec shook his head no. Better to let them discover on their own than not. He can deal with this; this psychotic idiot had been hanging all over him ever since he met him on the flight here. He was the one that attracted this stalker, now he needed to get rid of him on his own.

Alec waved Evangeline away. The girl hesitantly backed off two or three steps, keeping the two in her line of sight. She saw her parents getting out the passports; they were almost finished at the counter. If Alec doesn't kick Ethan away soon, Arthur and Francis will be on the models' face with bazookas. That, and the siblings will get berated even further for not looking after themselves well enough and letting a stranger follow them around.

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline. I'm returning home to London."

"That's not too far from Paris. Fly with me, Collin."

"I've already told you, I don't want—"

"I love you."

"You don't even know me!" He wriggled uncomfortably as Ethan lifted his chin gently with one hand, undiscouraged.

"I know that you're begging me to take you right now," he hissed. "And I don't see why not."

"Bastard!" Alec recoiled, though he was still locked in the man's embrace. He wrung away a hand that was making its way up his back. "You're making all that up—"

"Where's your little boyfriend?"

Alec froze. "H-he—I—what's it to you?"

Ethan paused to nuzzle Alec's neck, smiling with satisfaction. The boy shivered in disgust, but Ethan was really warm, like Adrian…he didn't move, though he could feel Evangeline mentally screaming at him to do so behind him. "I'll bet he couldn't keep up with you, the sly kitten you are. But I can, and not only can I keep up," he mumbled, his lips lightly fluttering on Alec's neck as he enunciated each word, "I can catch you."

Then Ethan Cole unexpectedly leaned forward until Alec was curving backwards enough that he had to rely on Ethan's arm on his back for support. Alec shuddered unpleasantly; he could feel the man's hot breath on his face now. Maybe it was a bad idea to not call his parents in the first place. Evangeline gasped. Arthur was tucking the passports back into his bag, Francis about to load the luggage on the conveyor belt. Hurry up, Alec...

"You like playing hard to get? But know this, Collin," he uttered seductively, "when you're playing with me, I always win." With that said, he skillfully captured Alec's gaping mouth with his.

10:11 A.M., Ritz-Carlton…

"Aloisa? What are you doing here?"

Aloisa nervously looked up at Alfred, who cocked his head curiously. She choked out, "N-nothing. My parents are still asleep, so I got up early."

"Is your cheek better?" The man pointed to own face, concerned.

"Ah!" Her hand flew up to her left cheek. "Is it showing?"

"No, no, I was just wondering. That guy hurt you pretty badly—"

He remembered! He was so nice! "I'm fine, Mr. Jones, thank you for asking. And thanks for saving me and everyone else yesterday."

"It's nothing." Alfred smiled. "Allred and his daughter had it coming. Yukiko alerted me."

So that was where she disappeared to. "I see. I'll have to thank her later." Aloisa gave a small laugh. "That was kind of scary, seeing my dad like that yesterday. He's usually really, um, I guess you can say passive-aggressive."

They began to walk away from the elevators. "Yeah," Alfred agreed. "He shouts a lot during meetings, but I haven't seen him get that angry that since…since post-World War Two, I think, when the Berlin Wall was erected…"

"World War Two…?" Oh, right. Her parents were probably centuries old, she remembered. That meant Feliciano and Ludwig and Kiku would have been fighting against Alfred and her friends' parents. It was odd imagining her happy-go-lucky mother who liked to eat pasta and sing and dance wielding a gun and having witnessed thousands of men die. And what about her dad and Yukiko's mom? Her father was the one who would patiently help her with homework and always played with the dogs; Kiku was soft-spoken and Yukiko simply adored him. Did they…did they change for us?

Alfred hurriedly added, "But that's all in the past. It's been a long time, everything is different." His eyes glazed over as his mind wandered elsewhere. "Everything is different."

Then he snapped out of his funk and started to make his way to Adrian's room. "Well, anyways, I was just going to check on Adrian and Mikhail—"

"No!" Aloisa clamped her hands over her mouth after the outburst. Crap! That was too obvious! The American regarded her strangely.

"W-why not?"

"He's sleeping." Damn it, that's a stupid answer!

"But—but everyone's flight is scheduled for today at one…except for Iggy's. They're leaving for London at ten thirty; they've already left the hotel. I'm pretty sure that Alec didn't tell Adrian, since it was completely last minute." Alfred sighed. "I hope Adrian won't feel too down…"

Aloisa stammered, "W-well, what worse way to wake him up than to tell him that his boyfriend moved?" Quick ad-lib, quick ad-lib, Aloisa, use those weird techniques Onkel Gilbert taught you before…! But…I never listened, so I can't remember anything! "A-and he's going to wake up soon, so you should make him feel better by bringing him something nice for breakfast or…or…just don't wake him up!" Oh god, I can't believe I'm actually doing this, I feel bad…

Alfred started at the girl, who was shouting at him too much like how Germany tells him off during the meetings. "Okay, okay. Then what should I do?"

She jumped in front of the man, trying to make the interference casual. "We…we can go wake Mikhail up. He's probably spent his entire night surfing the Internet, so…" That part wasn't exactly lying, since she'd witnessed it in action before.

And apparently Alfred had, too, for he went berserk (almost Natalia-like) and began banging furiously on Mikhail's door ("I know you're in there! If you're on that laptop right now and playing Starcraft, you are grounded for the whole month! Open up!"). Aloisa glanced at her wrist. Ten fourteen. Oh, Adrian, hurry, hurry…

10:15 A.M., airport drop-off area…

Adrian checked his watch: the numbers flashed ten fifteen, there was still some time. He slapped some cash in the cabbie's hands (thank goodness he never took his wallet out from his jacket pocket) and madly dashed outside. The wind whipped relentlessly against Adrian's anxious face as he looked around for any signs of Alec or Evangeline. The tourist families stared at the bedraggled Adrian, wondering if these sorts of occurrences were common in D.C.

He'd seriously arrived unprepared. He was wearing a t-shirt and baggy blue pants and his jacket. He had his wallet, but he was sure that his cell was still sitting on his bedside table. His clothes were damp from earlier when he was flagging down the cab, and drops were rolling off his silver bangs and landing on his nose.

He ran inside the airport, doing his best not to slip on the floors. The place was sparsely littered with leaving visitors and frowning businessmen. He navigated around running children and furious parents, but where was—

There. He saw Alec, but he was in the arms of another man. His heart throbbed painfully as he realized that Alec must've been cheating on him, but…no, Alec was pushing the man away, his expression livid and alarmed at the same time. Then, Adrian could clearly make out the smirking face of Ethan Cole, who was forcing his way closer to Alec. Alec seemed to be protesting, his palms on Ethan's chest and attempting to draw himself farther away. At the last moment, Ethan bent Alec backwards and kissed him full on the mouth—

Adrian practically glided across the floor towards Ethan. Without hesitation, Adrian swung his good arm across Ethan's face, delivering a jolting blow to his jaw and effectively knocking the man out. Evangeline and Alec squealed in surprise, watching Ethan crumple to the ground. The two men yelped the model's name in astonishment and frantically dragged the fallen man away under Adrian's piercing gaze. Evangeline collapsed back on her seat, her green eyes wide and numb with shock. The surrounding travelers instinctively moved away, sensing a madman on the loose.

Arthur turned around on his heels. "Just what is the commotion—" He gasped, tugging on the Frenchman's sleeve. "Francis! Look!"

"What is it, mon cher—?" He leisurely followed where Arthur was pointing and immediately quieted. "Is that…is that Adrian?"

"And that Ethan Cole who keeps harassing Alec! That's it, I'm going to crush his ba—"

Francis held out a restraining hand on Arthur's shoulder. "Wait, Arthur."

Arthur stopped, studying Francis in bewilderment. "No? But—"

Francis's face softened. "This is the one time that Adrian Braginski can win Alec and my approval. I don't hate the boy, mon cher, I am only uncertain. If he can show that he is sincere, then maybe…" He motioned for the agent to stop processing the tickets. "Will you wait a moment, Madame?"

The lady blushed squeaked out a flustered reply, "Y-yes! But sir, you're almost late for your flight—"

Arthur pursed his lips, unaware of how troubled the agent was. "Good god, Francis. Now you tell me that you'll give him a chance? He's a nice lad, you've seen him at the café. You, on the other hand, are an insufferable idiot." He said this mildly, quite relieved that Francis had reverted back to his original state. He had to admit that he wasn't at all used to Francis's serious mode. It reminded him of the time when France lost Jeanne because of him…

Francis chuckled lightly, his eyes trained on the two. "Love works in mysterious ways, mon cher Angleterre. Just like it did with us, non?"

Arthur cheeks felt hot. "Okay, that's crossing the cheesy border. I'm going to throw up now."

Meanwhile, Alec was gawking at his lover, stunned. His legs gave way and he slid to the ground slowly. He'd been wishing for Adrian to come, but he never thought it would actually happen. But Adrian was kneeling before him in a drenched jacket and wearing a forlorn expression. He gently took Alec's hand in his and placed a crushed piece of paper on it.

Alec recognized it as the note he'd left. "W-wha—"

"I'd like to return this to you." Adrian closed Alec's hand around the paper but did not release his hold.

Despite how he thought he'd already come to terms about his hasty breakup with Adrian, Alec felt drops of wet on his face. He didn't bother to wipe them away. "R-return?"

Adrian's lips curled in a sad smile. He pressed his forehead on Alec's brow, the rhythm of Alec's breathing becoming ragged. "I can't accept this…"

"Why not?" Alec's eyes were boring directly into the floor, watching his tears stain the ground. It's as if it's raining inside…

"Because I never found you."

Alec felt something inside him sink to the pit of his stomach. I never found you…that was akin to I never loved you. He was so wrong, and his dad was right, he did make a mistake. He was only fooling himself when Adrian proclaimed his love for him. But if he knew this from the start, then why was he feeling so horrible? "I-I'm sorry—"

"You found me."

His heart skipped a beat as Adrian tenderly put both hands on Alec's face and closed his eyes. Alec clenched the soggy note in his hand harder. "Yesterday you asked me, and truthfully I didn't know. But now I have an answer for you: I love you." He paused, letting Alec catch his breath. "I can't make you stay with me, but I can ask you to. Please don't go, Alec. Whatever I did wrong, I'll correct them, but just please don't go—"

Alec raised a finger to silence Adrian, the note forgotten on the ground. "You're wrong," he laughed. He couldn't help himself; the whole situation was really quite confusing. When Alec looked up, his face was bright, if not tainted with bitter tears. "You did find me, over and over again."

And he leaned forward and very carefully brushed his lips on Adrian's mouth. He intended it to be short, but the latter tilted his head and push himself closer, delving deep inside and tasting all of his sorrows and hopes. His arms automatically snaked around Alec's waist, and Alec eagerly responded. I'll never look for you again, but that's because I'll never lose you.

"Is that enough proof for you, Francis?"

Francis finished talking to the blubbering lady, who seemed absolutely taken by Francis and was fumbling with the keyboard. "It was enough proof already when the boy came by himself through the rain to find Alec. I have no doubts now—"

Arthur punched France in the shoulder. "Frog! You could've told me when the boy arrived, instead of making me wait! You! Are! Such! A! Dumb! Bastard!" He pelted Francis with his designer handbag (yes, because only real men have handbags, like Alfred, who currently owned around twenty three) with each word.

Francis shrank back but continued to smirk at Arthur. "Mon cher, I waited outside your house in the rain for thirty minutes to beg you for a date."

Arthur flushed and graudually ceased beating up Francis. "That was because you were half naked and singing. My neighbors thought you were a lunatic."

"Perhaps, mon lapin, perhaps." He plucked four tickets out of the lady's hand and handed it to Arthur. "Merci, ma belle~" he said to the girl and blew a kiss to her.

The lady was about to fall into a mass of goo right there. Arthur checked the tickets and gave a small smile to Francis. "Evangeline!" he called. "Come here for a second, won't you?"

Evangeline hopped over to her mother, glad that Adrian had come to save her brother from certain depression, but she feared the worst for the future. They were still planned to go to London, and the fiasco would start all over. "Yes, Mum?"

"Would you tell your brother that we'll be leaving for California at one? We'll be meeting the others soon, so we can idle around for a bit."

Evangeline beamed. "Yes, Mum!"

Francis and Arthur left the counter and the giggling agent then. As if moved by a last minute decision, Arthur stepped in front of Francis, frowning, and very simply pressed his lips on the Frenchman's. He pulled away after a couple of seconds, blushing fiercely.

"It's only this once, frog, but…thank you, Francis," he mumbled, thoroughly embarrassed.

Francis was too surprised to respond immediately. "Mon cher…" Then his grin transformed into a leer. "Can I…can I have another one?"

Arthur quickened his pace. "No."

"Don't worry, I'll get another one soon…"

"Shut up!"

The corners of Evangeline's lips curled up. Alec was laughing as he ran his fingers through Adrian's soggy clumps of hair, bringing out a towel from his backpack and drying it for him. Her mother was doing his best to evade an eager (which is never a good thing) Francis. She scratched the back of her neck and stared transfixed at the open sky. The clouds lingered, but it had stopped pouring. She'll take that as a sign; heck, she'll believe anything now. A distant plane flew into the clouds, lifting as easily as a feather.

Evangeline flipped open her cell and dialed Aloisa's number. It was ten thirty five.