Annime: Hello! I know I haven't updated in a while, but you guys REALLY don't know what's going on with me right now. I'm dealing with anxiety, I'm kinda sick from it, I'm going to get braces soon, I'm about to take another kind of medication, and I have band and school breathing down my throat.

Chiro: Annime doesn't own SRMTHFG or anything belonging to someone else.

Italian

Chapter 24

As Chiro explored his room (which he thought was another palace all together), a noise came from behind him. He spun around to find a woman, shorter than himself, with boy-short brown hair, darkly tanned skin, and hazel eyes.

"Hello, your highness," she spoke in a soft voice as she bowed. "I'm so glad you have come to make our acquaintance."

"Please," Chiro replied. "Don't call me, 'your highness.'"

She blinked and stood up straight. "Well then, Chiro, it may benefit you to know that my name is Lorenza. I am one of the three head maids in the palace."

"It's nice to meet you, Lorenza," Chiro said with a warm smile. He glanced around for a moment before his smile turned into one of awkwardness. "Umm…could you please show me around?"

Lorenza blinked again before smiling back at the teen. "Actually, I was sent here to help you dress."

Chiro tilted his head in confusion. "Dress; I'm already dressed, though."

"You can't wear that to meet your mother, silly," she giggled. The black haired boy gave her a weird look.

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"They are those or a commoner, and you are royalty." She turned to her left and motion for the young boy to follow. He was reluctant at first, but marched behind her slowly. She led him from the hallway of his room to the extremely large closet Chiro could get lost in by itself. Lorenza then pulled open one of the many doors and pulled out what looked like a blue army uniform. "It's very simple to put on," she explained. "Just call for me if you need any help." The woman gently handed Chiro the clothes and walked briskly out of the closet.

"At least she didn't insist on dressing me," Chiro muttered as he pulled off his shirt.

Antauri wondered around his large room in wonder. Everything was so big. He stopped as he heard some noises coming from down the hallway. He quietly cracked open the door just enough to where he could see the new comers but they couldn't see him.

"Camille," boy spoke. He seemed older than Chiro. "Who is this visitor father spoken of?"

"Oh," the blonde woman spoke. "Someone very special"

"That's not a real answer," the girl spoke as she walked beside the two. She looked older than Chiro too, yet younger than the other boy.

"You will find out soon enough. But you two need to go into your rooms and wait for your orders."

"This is my least favorite part of seeing someone new," the boy grumbled as the group disappeared around the corner."

Antauri shut the door.

"Those two must be Chiro's step-siblings," the silver simian thought out loud.

Chiro looked at himself in the mirror and tilted his head.

"THIS is what they want me to wear to meet my mom?" Chiro asked his reflection in disbelief. "So, she is gonna think I'm some spoiled royal person right off the bat?" After taking a few breaths, Chiro calmed himself down and stalked back out of the room. Once he stepped foot inside the hallway of his bedroom again, he heard someone clapping. He, again, spun around to find that it was only Lorenza.

"Now we need to take you and your friends to the meeting hall," she announced. The woman took Chiro's hand and almost dragged him out of his room.

Antauri was startled by a loud knocking at his door. He turned the knob to find an Italian woman with Chiro behind her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," she said in English but with a very heavy Italian accent. "But we need all of you to come with us when Chiro meets his mother." Chiro gave Antauri an awkward smile from where he stood. The silver monkey didn't know what it was about until he saw what his son was wearing.

"Apparently I HAVE to wear this when I meet my mother," Chiro said before his dad could ask anything. As the woman beside him nodded, the teen rolled his eyes.

"Please follow me," the woman spoke. "Oh, and my name is Lorenza."

The two Hyper Force members found out fast that Lorenza was a VERY talkative person. That's all she did as she knocked on each of the visitor's doors. After rounding up the group she led them down the hall in the direction of the ball room. They didn't go inside, but they did go past the doors and into an area they weren't introduced to yet. Lorenza opened the door and stepped to the side for everyone to enter.

"So," Samantha said as she poked Chiro continuously in the shoulder. "Are you nervous?"

"A little," the boy admitted. "I never realized I'd have to do so much just to say hi to her."

Samantha giggled. "Or wear an army uniform." Her poking didn't subside even as Marcello walked into the room from a different door.

"Are you ready Chiro?" the man asked as he raised an eyebrow.

The teenage boy took a deep breath. Antauri floated up and squeezed the shoulder that Samantha wasn't poking. The door that Marcello came through opened again, making Chiro's cousin FINALLY stop her antics (much to the blue eyed boy's liking).

Into the room came a black haired, blue eyed, and oddly pale Italian woman.

"Marcello," the woman laughed. "Who is it you want me…to…meet?" She slowed down in her speaking as her eyed landed on Chiro. The black haired boy gulped from nervousness. His famous awkward smile appeared for the hundredth time that day as silence flooded the room. "Who are you?" the woman questioned the teen with a blank stare.

"My name's Chiro," he answered with a shaky voice. Suspense made everyone in the room tense as the woman took slow steps towards Chiro.

"Chiro," she whispered. "You're…you're Chiro?" Once she was face to face with him, Gioia took his hand. "My little boy is named Chiro." The blue eyed teen held his breath. Antauri kept his hand on his son's shoulders. "You ARE my little boy, aren't you?" the black haired woman asked as tears filled her eyes. Her arms then wrapped around him and she squeezed him. "You ARE my little boy!"

Annime: AWWW Finally!

Samantha: (Starts poking Chiro again."

Chiro: (sigh)

Antauri: Please review.