Pairings brought up/mentioned: Gerita, Spamano, and Fruk

Warnings: Mentioned violence, but not major

-Part 3: The Return of Romulus Vargas-

-3.1-

I hold Luddy's hand, kicking my legs back and forth and humming softly. After I accidently broke one of cousin Francis's nice vases, Ludwig, myself, and everyone else in the house had gathered in the casual lounge, where we now sit. Arthur, who's been nervously clutching at his tea cup for the past five minutes or so, gently sets it down on the coffee table before him and clears his throat.

"There's something I've been keeping from you all."

Next to me, Ludwig raises an eyebrow as we give the rabbit confused, worry-twinged looks.

"It's about my ancestor-" He cuts himself off. "Wait, let me start from the beginning.

"Once upon a time, a gray wolf spirit later named Aldrich traveled to the British isles to investigate reports of strange goings-on."

Gilbert groans, the sound nearly matching a growl, "For crying out loud, Artie, we already know this story!"

"Would you let me finish?" Arthur glares, the arctic wolf crossing his arms over his chest with a huff.

"Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the spirit animal Aldrich went to the British isles to look into some unnatural occurrences. At some point, he found out that a witch was the cause of all the shadow wolves popping up. She attacked him, then sent a horde of shadow wolves on his trail, chasing the wolf all the way to Italy, where he met Romulus Vargas, and you know the rest." He took a deep breath, eyes uncertain. "T-that witch, that witch was my ancestor, Hazel Kirkland."

As Arthur's words echo off the walls, reverberating in our ears, fratello gives a loud shout of "DIRTY VOODOO BASTARD!"and mass chaos ensues.

"Ah, goddamn Francis, did you really have to hit right on the eye?" Gilbert whines pathetically from his sprawled position on the couch, "You know that's where West punched me! I'm tender."

"Gil, that was, like, two weeks ago." The blond replies in turn, sitting on the floor in front of him, leaning against the item of furniture. "Besides, what was I supposed to do? You were going for my beautiful face!"

"So you had to fuck up mine?!"

"Yes!"

I look between the two, "Why do I get the feeling this conversation happened already?"

"Ve, it probably has," Feliciano laughs lightly, cradling himself against my chest.

"Yeah, we tend to repeat content a lot," Interjects Lovino as he bandages Antonio's side. Who knew a mere rabbit could leave a bite wound the size of my forearm?

Arthur sighs, "Ridiculous. Why is it that whenever we're all in the same room, this happens?"

Roderich continues to silently fume at the arctic wolf as he responds with a flippant, "I have no idea." Apparently, Antonio remains cheerful when his side was torn apart by a potentially rabid Arthur, yet Roderich gets pissy when Gilbert only slightly mussed his hair.

"Regardless, there was a reason for me bringing this up, you know." The rabbit spirit of the group continues.

"What, you mean besides fucking telling people when you have the blood of a psychotic shadow witch coursing through your veins?!" Lovino snaps, "'Cause that seems like a pretty damn good reason!"

Arthur glowers, "Yes, besides that. Honestly, I never wanted you all to find out in the first place, and on top of that, it wasn't like I was born with any magic anyways, so who cared?"

Gilbert hurriedly sits up, a wide grin present, laughter tumbling out from behind pointed fangs, "Wait, wait, let me guess. You're the only one in your family without magic, right? Holy shit, that's hilarious!"

"Shut up, you bloody git!" Arthur's face turns a bright shade of red, "I get along perfectly fine without any cool powers, mind you; hard work and determination can be just as good sometimes!"

"Gil, knock it off." I sigh in a deadpanned tone. My brother's simply too much for his own good.

Francis smacks his leg, "Yeah Gil, knock it off."

"Pfft," He snickers, "What a wuss, Francis. Lutz punches me in the face if I act out, and you just slap me like a little girly-girl."

"Wha- a wuss? Me?!" The Frenchman exclaims, smacking Gilbert harder. "I'll show you a wuss! I can be strong!"

"Oh, for the love of-" Arthur begins before cutting himself off, "WOULD YOU SHUT UP?! Bloody hell, you people are insane!"

"Funny," I comment, "That's what I've been thinking since I first got here."

Feliciano slightly panics from his place on my lap, "Wahh, Luddy, you don't think I'm crazy, do you?!"

I stare at him for a good, hard moment. "I'm not making any promises. Although, if it makes you feel better, I'm probably insane for choosing to stay."

"Yay! We're nut-house buddies!"

"Goddammit Feli, would you stop hugging that potato-sucking bastard right in front of me?!" Lovino complains loudly.

At this point, Antonio draws him nearer with a hush. "Quiet now, tomate."

"FUCKING TOMATO-OBSESSED BASTARD, STOP COMPARING ME TO FRUIT!"

"But Lovi, I didn't! This time, I didn't say you were like a tomato; I said you were a tomato, and who doesn't want to be a tomato?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THE DIFFERENCE?!"

And so, roughly twenty minutes later, we seat ourselves in the dining room, having completely destroyed the casual lounge between our big fight over Arthur's lineage and keeping fratello from making good on his threat to strangle Toni. Suffice it to say, the never-really-seen servants of the manor truly have their work cut out for them. I hold Luddy's arm as close as possible, practically sitting in his lap as Arthur explains the reason for his bubbling nerves.

"-So, the thing is, if there are really shadow wolves running around, what does that mean? I'll tell you what that means: that means my ancestor's back, either that or a successor of some sort. Either way's terrible, because that means many, many people could get hurt, or possibly killed, and it'll all be our faults if that happens, because we're the only ones who know the full story, and even then, we know practically nothing, and-"

As the rabbit spirit begins his tirade, cousin Francis swiftly sneaks behind him, wrapping one arm around his waist, the other gently placed over his mouth, "Arthur, mon cher, I think we get the point."

He quickly jabs the Frenchmen in the side with an elbow, angrily crying out, "YOU BLOODY FROG, DON'T DO THAT!"

"Mon lapin, that hurt!"

"SERVES YOU RIGHT!"

Their fight is short-lived, as Ludwig coughs loudly and abruptly to get their attention, the pair's heads whipping towards him.

"What?" They snap, irritable snarls paralleling one another.

The gray wolf's face is purposefully hard as he continues, "As amusing as it may be to some, now's not the time to argue like an old married couple."

Arthur's jaw goes slack, "Wha- WE'RE NOT LIKE THAT!"

"Arthur, please." Francis covers the rabbit spirit's mouth once more, addressing the younger of the wolf brothers. "You were saying?"

He nods, "Thank you." Ice blue eyes scan the room. "The bad news is we don't have the full picture. However, the good news is we have a rough idea of where to start digging for information. Remember, you're Vargases; nearly anyone would bend over backwards to please you. This means that we can easily get access to any resources we may or may not need. It really shouldn't be that hard to investigate, then come up with a plan to stop whatever's happening."

Several sounds of agreement arise from the others, all except for me. I look at my spirit animal, eyes wide, a grin tight across my face, and tackle him in a hug.

"Luddy, that's so smart! I mean, sure, you're normally really smart, but this is super, duper smart; like, I couldn't have come up with this myself!" I nuzzle my face against his, "Gahh, I love your brain!"

"DAMMIT, I LOOK AWAY FOR ONE MINUTE AND THIS HAPPENS- FUCKING POTATO, GET AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!"

Antonio suddenly becomes aware of his surroundings and lifts fratello into his arms, laughing at my twin's protests. "Okay Lovi, time for a siesta!"

Red-faced, the fox's captive charge yells, "PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN NOW, YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!"

"Nope!"

And the two waltz off, one screaming bloody murder while the other responds to the passionately-given death threats with a jovial grin.

"Well, that happened. Kesesesesesesesesese~" Gilbert snickers, "Hey, Francy-pants, when do you think Toni's finally gonna get some out of this?"

"Gilbert!" My cousin smacks the arctic wolf upside the head all too harshly, "He's seventeen!"

"So? That's less than a year until eighteen!"

"Ve~?" I watch them curiously, "Get some of what? Pasta? I hope it's pasta!"

The squabbling friends tense, eyes wide. Arthur snorts amusedly, "Good thing Lovino's gone, right? He would kill you if he found out you said that in front of Feliciano."

"Yes," Roderich raises an eyebrow, exchanging looks with the rabbit, "It is good."

Gilbert's the first to break out of their shocked trance, "Sheisse, you're not gonna tell him, are you?! So unawesome!"

"Oh, no, of course not," My uncle places a hand on Gilbert's shoulder, face impassive as his spirit animal gives a sigh of relief, "Well, you know, as long as you and Francis keep yourselves in line throughout the investigation."

"Wha- you arschloch! You lying, cheating arschloch!"

Francis complains, melodramatic as always, "Mon lapin, how could you do this to me?!"

"Like this." Arthur sharply flicks the Frenchman's forehead, causing him to back away with a muttered string of curses.

"Hey," Ludwig cuts in gruffly, "Do we even know where we're starting?"

The rabbit thinks for a moment, eyes closed in thought. "Well, I guess we could begin at the museum. They're sure to have something about this, whether it be their interpretation of the story, or even just a pamphlet about magic."

"Oo, can we look at the pirate section? I want to see if the awesome me's there!"

A/N:

Hey, guys! Good news: as of today, SAS is now on AO3! I posted it to my AO3 account, KittyReaper; you'll recognize it because my profile picture's the same. Aside from that, I've decided that my hiatuses should never last longer than a month, so here I am! However, I haven't been working on SAS nearly as much as I hoped I would, because, well, life's been happening, so I've only finished initially typing up to 3.18, which isn't that much for me. Sorry, but I hope you like the updates anyways!

With a new part comes a new title: part 3 is 'The Return of Romulus Vargas.' Obviously. I mean, the intermission. Yes, in this part Romulus and Aldrich will finally meet their descendants face-to-face, then promptly play the parts of embarrassing grandparents. You're mother fucking welcome. In fact, there'll actually be a really funny story in 3.16 about their fall down, so that'll be great.

Responses to review(s):

maryranstadler1: I know, right?! My favorite part was when they told Athena they're gay for each other, then expected anger for Romulus technically cheating but got anger for not doing so sooner. Also, Bastet went and scammed Athena out of her money. It was beautiful. Heheh, thanks! That's going to be the sequel, of which will be slightly hinted at very soon, so I hope you continue to read that after SAS ends!

Seele Esser Deustch: Yeah, that took me forever and a half to figure out, the whole ancients backstory thing. As for Arthur, thank you! I can't help feeling like my portrayal of him has the gentleman a little more mature than he probably is, so I get a little worried sometimes that I'm writing him OOC, you know? I don't know, I just prefer having Germany and Germania top. It's a preference. :)

APDubtalia: Yeah, pretty much. Although, since the Italy brothers are 16 to 17 years old, I'm going to wait another year or so before having that happen. Spirit animals stop aging after a while, so Ludwig and Antonio are literally hundreds of years old by this point, and crushing on teenagers... Yeah, definitely going to wait a few years. It's more that Romulus is worried and no one else cares, which is always hilarious. Thank you!

So yeah, you might enjoy re-reading this on AO3, and I'll see you tomorrow!