Pairings brought up/mentioned: Gerita, Rome x Germania, & Fruk

Warnings: Rome. Enough said.

-3.16-

"Ve~ Snuggles!" Bouncing onto the bed, I wrap my arms around Ludwig's waist, nuzzling my face into his side.

He sighs gently, running a hand through my hair. "Yes, I know, you like cuddles."

"All of our bags are packed for our trip, right?" I breath out.

"Just about," My eyelids grow heavy, "Why did we need to prepare so soon, though? We're leaving in three days, not tomorrow."

"Fratello says it's good to be prepared for things!" I grin, "Plus, I tend to be kind of scatter-brained, so it's normally better for me to get things done while they're still fresh in my head, you know?"

He grunts, "Hm, I guess that makes sense. You are rather… air-headed sometimes."

I giggle softly, squeezing him a little. "Good night, Luddy."

"Good night, Feli."

I closed my eyes as Ludwig shut off the lights, losing consciousness almost instantly.

"Ugh, my head," I blink dazedly, attempting to stand, only to make a few steps forward before falling flat on my face. "Fucking- stupid Romulus."

As I finally manage to stop seeing double, I grab ahold of the nearest object, releasing a sudden shout, pain blossoming on my hands. I look down and glare at the ugly, red marks streaking across my palms. It only figures the first thing I touch is a rose bush. However, I'm quickly distracted from this as a loud shriek erupts from the second story of the mansion a few meters away. Well, that certainly reveals where my Roman went.

I stir from sleep at the feeling of a cold finger prodding none-too-gently.

"Mm… Feli, stop poking my face."

The form next to me sighs, bending and flexing his hands, of which are still around my waist. "Ve~?"

At this realization, I immediately spring from bed with a shout. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Oh, now there's no way this could be Feli's spirit animal."

Arms crossed and head tilted stands a man cloaked in red and gold, figure shadowed into a silhouette by standing right in front of the window, preventing moonlight's entrance. However, despite the dark of the night, one feature remains clear: bright, unmistakably amber eyes.

"I mean, jeez, it's creepy how much you look like your ancestor, you know?" He leans forward, peering down at me.

I find myself unable to do anything but stare incredulously, "Wha- what?"

"Well, yeah," he gives a small grin, "I get how this whole thing's supposed to be 'what goes around comes around' or something like that, but I didn't think so much would come back in the future. It's kind of weird, especially since you all have to deal with the same magic-savvy psychopath the rest of us did."

"W-wait, what do you know about the witch?!"

"And then, of course, there are the flat-out insane similarities, like the woods, the shadow wolves, hell, even the garden in the back is a parallel! Oh, and then, of course, there's that one time Feli tried to paint you; do you remember what he said? He said the exact same thing I said to Aldrich once while drunk- oh shit, Aldrich!"

The man stops mid-tirade, standing at attention to look around the room, head whipping rapidly from side-to-side in its frantic search. "Oh no, he's going to kill me for this! Again!"

My jaw drops. "No. There's no way- you can't really be- this is crazy!" I shakily lift a finger, pointing straight at his face. "You're dead and have been for the past nine hundred years! That's almost a thousand!"

"Hm?" The former king absent-mindedly gives me his attention once more. "Yeah, no, I'm dead alright. Aldrich and I came back from the afterlife just for you guys!"

And that's about when he falls to the floor, Lovino standing behind him with a frying pan.

"Damn bastards, keeping me up all the time…"

"Okay, what the fuck are we going to do with them?"

"Lovi!"

"What? I think that's the first question we should ask, since these mother fuckers woke me up in the middle of the goddamn night, when I already missed my siesta because of you guys!"

"Well," Arthur intrudes, "I think the first question should be 'Are they really Romulus and Aldrich, or just some crazy people that tried to break in?'"

Luddy looks at him in forced equanimity, still shaken from the whole thing. "If they were trying to rob us or something, why was he poking my face? That doesn't seem like the best way to sneak around."

Cousin Francis sips at his coffee tiredly, all spark and flamboyancy dead from lack of his precious 'beauty sleep,' "Oh, I don't know. Feli, you were there, right? What do you think?"

While the others have gathered themselves on the plush furniture of the formal lounge, I seated myself on the floor upon first entering, staring curiously at the knocked-out intruders. One of them, the 'ghost' that'd showed up in Luddy and me's room, smiles peacefully, grappling at the other, a spirit animal from from the presence of pointed ears, fangs, and claws.

I blink as the blond unconsciously swats at the human's wandering hands. "They look like they do in the paintings, don't you think?"

"Well, yes, I suppose so, but that doesn't exactly prove they're really… them." The rabbit points out, "It seems the only truly accurate way to see who they are is to wake them up and ask them, wouldn't you say?"

"I've got it!" Gilbert immediately springs from his position as uncle Roddy's temporary pillow, allowing his charge to sleepily collapse onto deep red cushions. For a time, all is silent.

And then Gilbert comes back with a bucket full of water.

"Kesesesesesesesesesesese~ Everyone knows this is the best way to wake someone up!" He gleefully shouts, "IT'S AWESOME TIME!"

I quickly back up as he dumps the entire thing on the two, one releasing a panicked screech, the second going for the elder wolf brother's jugular.

"SHIT!"

Before we know it, the red-eyed menace is tackled to the ground by a wet spirit, wrestling on the plush carpet.

"BRUDER!" Leaping into action, Ludwig joins the fray, using all his strength to pull them apart.

And so, roughly ten minutes later, we finally manage to pacify the wild beast. Although, by that I actually mean, 'the great and handsome Romulus reclaimed his bearings and pounced on his surprisingly attractive companion, thoroughly distracting him enough for the other four spirits, later introduced as Ludwig, Gilbert, Antonio, and Arthur, to restrain him until he stopped trying to kill anything that moved.'.

"So, what was your first impression of Mr. Aldrich?" The youngest of my darling grandsons gazes at me with wide, curious eyes. "When I met Luddy here, I thought he was really scary!"

Ignoring my wolf's confused echo of 'Mr. Aldrich,' I grin softly and answer, "Well, I thought he was going to die." With a growl, Aldrich promptly hits me upside the head.

"Ow!" A pout becomes present on my face, "Hey, what was that for?"

"Oh please, I wasn't going to die; you're being melodramatic," The blond spits out. I guess he's still bitter about his little water-induced meltdown. Who knew a dog would hate the stuff as much as a cat?

My thoughts are cut short at Feliciano's giggle, "You two are silly. You're like an old married couple; the ancient world's version of cousin Francis and Arthur!"

At this, the Englishman nearly chokes on the tea he'd brewed. "Wha-what?!"

Meanwhile, his charge merely laughs and scooches ever closer to his bushy-browed Brit, "Ohonhonhonhon~"

"StupiD FROG!"

Right about now is when Ludwig decides to cut them off, "So, what are you doing here, anyways? Correction, how are you here?"

"Oh, yeah, we're here to help you kill shadow wolves!" I cheerfully exclaim, wrapping an arm about my spirit's neck.

The wolf carefully lifts said arm, removing it unceremoniously. "And by that, he means he's here to help you kill shadow wolves. I'm just an innocent spectator."

"Wha- but Aldrich!" I gripe, draping myself on him.

"No. I'd rather not be turned into a toad today, or anytime soon, thank you very much."

"Aaaalllldddddrrrrrriiiiiiiiiccccccchhhhhhhh-"

"Hey, how come you two ended up in such different places if you jumped from the same hole in the sky?"

Shit. Gilbert just noticed the logical loophole.

"Um…" I stare sheepishly into space, thinking back to our fall.

"HEY ALDRICH!" I yelled over the pounding of the wind, something that so fascinatingly resembled to beating of a heart.

"WHAT?" He responded in kind.

I flashed a devious grin, wrapping my arms tighter about him, "HEY, DO YOU THINK WE HAVE TIME FOR A FUCK BEFORE WE LAND?"

The look he gave me was downright incredulous, "WHAT?!"

To prove my point, I rutted against his leg a couple times. "AWW, COME ON! IT'S NOT LIKE ANYONE NEEDS TO KNOW, AND PLUS, I'M KIND OF HORNY."

"NO WAY IN HELL ARE WE HAVING SEX WHILE FALLING IN MID-AIR TO VISIT OUR DESCENDANTS."

"I PROMISE I'LL MAKE IT QUICK!"

"NO!"

"BUT ALDRICH!"

One thing led to another, and Aldrich and I found ourselves in a strange game of chase, the wolf trying his hardest to get far, far away from me, and myself trying to catch up to him.

And then, of course, we landed.

"Heheheh…" I nervously rub the back of my head, lost in my own head. Aldrich just glares.

"This idiot thought it would be a great idea to chase me while we were falling."

Roderich blinks, "But why was he chasing you?"

This elicits a huff from him, "Why else? He wanted to have sex mid-fall. Only an equally-stupid human would be okay with that!"

Everyone present pauses, some dumbfounded, others mildly surprised.

Ludwig cuts through the awkward silence with his halted question of, "So you're…" he coughs into his fist, "Romantically involved?"

With a beam, I suddenly hug Aldrich affectionately, "Yeah, pretty much! Since shortly after we died, actually."

The room returns to a state of dead quiet.

"Huh, so Shakespeare was right." Comes the muttered comment from Arthur.

A/N:

Hello, hello! And thus is the last chapter of this update spree. Honestly, I really, really wanted to cut it off at 3.2, but I'm still working on 3.18, so yeah... Meanwhile, Romulus and Aldrich are back and better than ever! Yay! Who's excited?

Also, I seriously love how I ended this chapter. "Huh, so Shakespeare was right." Pfft.

So yeah, just so you know, regardless of how much I get done, my hiatuses will only be a month, max. I blatantly refuse to force you guys to wait longer than that. And speaking of the hiatus, if you want to re-read the whole thing again, but on a different site, or if you're friend that you've been trying to make read it simply doesn't like , I'm cross-posting the fanfic to AO3. My username is 'Kittyreaper,' and the fanfic is titled the same thing as it is here: 'Spirit Animal Shenanigans.' You'll know it's me, because the profile picture's the same!

Responses to review(s):

Seele Esser Deutsch: Yeah, I was more thinking countries in general, not focusing specifically on Europe. (For future reference, I'm American.) One of the things that really bugs me is that I get the impression my government tends to pick stupid fights with basically everyone, you know? But yeah, that totally makes sense.

maryranstadler1: Yeah, heheheh. Feliciano's the cute one, let's just be honest here. Feliciano's the cute one, Ludwig's the square one, Arthur's the crazy one, Francis's the French one, Gilbert's the awesome one, Roderich's the music one, Lovino's the tomato one, Antonio's the secret one, Romulus's the debauchery one, and Aldrich's the feral one. End of story.

pieluvr: No problem! Really, I just want my fanfic to be a fun and fairly easy experience for all readers, so if someone points out something I can improve on, I'm more than happy to do so. Thank you, and will do!

I'll see you in a month at the latest!