Pairings brought up/mentioned: Rome x Germania, minor hints of Gerita

Warnings: Mentions of past violence

-3.2-

"WAHH MAFIA GHOST ATTACK!"

I come running down the stairs as the door slams open to my precious grandson crying out in fear. In the foyer, Ludwig stands, bruised and clawed, Feliciano clinging to his neck. The two are then swarmed by a suffocating mass of people, all members of the household fussing over them except for Lovino, who stands in a doorway, mouth agape.

"Feli, are you alright?!" I push past the others, cupping the panicking Italian's face to check for wounds.

He nods vehemently, "Si, I'm fine, but Luddy got hurt and it really freaked me out! You don't think he's going to die, do you?!"

I breathe a sigh of relief, "Oh thank God. What happened?"

"Perhaps we should head somewhere else first," Aldrich states, "We need to bandage your wounds, right?"

Ludwig nods once, carrying Feliciano off towards the hallway Lovino currently blocks. Subsequently, this happens:

"Whoa, whoa, hold up." Lovino glares, fixing the wolf with a rather nasty look, "What the actual fuck did you do to make my brother scream about mafia ghosts?!"

"Wha- I didn't even do anything!" His eye twitches, "We were attacked by a shadow wolf; of course he got scared!"

The Italian huffs, "Shadow wolves or no, my brother's freaked out and it's all your fault!"

"Would you stop picking fights at the very worst of times?!" Arthur snaps, "Honestly, maybe we could find out all sides of the story if you'd just let us sit down and talk about things for once!"

He fixes the rabbit with his nastiest scowl yet but moves aside regardless, turning sharply on his heel to lead the way.

"Yikes," Aldrich comments, the two of us lagging behind the others.

"I know, right?" I sigh, continuing on for a surely tiresome story time.

"Now that we're all seated and comfortable, why don't you tell us what happened?" Cousin Francis looks at us worriedly.

Luddy begins, "Well, Feliciano and I were wandering around in the neighbor's fields again because he wanted to paint a landscape of them."

"Did you at least save the painting?"

"Antonio, my brother could have fucking died, and yet your main concern is the painting."

"Ow, Lovi, that hurt!" The fox whimpers, rubbing his head where fratello had hit him.

"Good, you deserve it!"

"Fratello, stop being mean to Toni!" I pout from Ludwig's side, still clutching onto his arm affectionately.

The wolf sighs, rubbing one of his temples with his free hand, "Anyways, we were standing around in the vineyards when I started hearing a rustling noise, like something running amuck between the plants. So, I decided to investigate, and it turned out to be a shadow wolf. I managed to activate the self-destruct hex, but got slightly beaten up in the process. Is that good enough of an explanation?"

It's silent for a moment, only for Arthur to break the ice with a groan, a hand smacking onto his forehead, "Ugh, looks like we're not going to England then. We'll have to take care of this as soon as possible!"

"Well, think about it this way," Francis grins, a hand on the rabbit's back, "At least this means we won't have to eat terrible English food for a while longer, right?"

"Oh, shut up, ya' wanker," He hisses grumpily.

"Ve~ Fratello, guess what? We don't have to eat English food! Yay!"

My older brother gives me a funny look, "Yeah, we already covered that. Pay attention, will you?"

"Oo, hey Lovi!" Toni perks up, "We should do something special to celebrate that we don't have to eat Arthur's cooking!"

He turns his incredulous look to the Spaniard. "Wait, what? Why the fuck would we do that?!"

"Keseseseseses~" Gilbert cackles, "We should dump tea into a river or something!"

"Wha- Can you not?" Arthur exclaims half in exasperation, half in outrage, "Honestly, what the bloody hell is with people and dumping British goods into the harbor? Besides, weren't you all excited to go on vacation to England?!"

"Yeah, but now we don't have to eat terrible food, so we're even more excited!" Cousin Francis beams cheerfully, "I mean, it's not that we don't love and care about you, but, well, there's a reason you're not allowed in the kitchen."

The rabbit mutters angry, incomprehensible curses to himself for a moment, then promptly proceeds to smack his French charge upside the head, eliciting a sharp cry of distress from my cousin.

"Hey, Lovi, we should make paella!" Toni grins brightly, nearly blinding all who behold the sight.

And yet, somehow, fratello manages to form a slightly forced scowl at the expression. "Fine, fine, whatever. You do realize we have private chefs for that, right?"

"Yeah, but it's much more fun when you do it yourself!"

Francis smiles, "You don't mind if I join in, do you? I used to love helping maman in the kitchen," He pauses, "Oh, but Arthur's still not allowed to cook."

"FUCKING FRO-"

"Hey, quick question," Grandpa Romulus raises a finger. "What's 'paella?'"

Lovino freezes as everyone turns to gauge Antonio's reaction. The fox spirit's nicely-tanned skin is stark white, his horrified features accentuated from the tremendous intensity of his pale.

"You've… never… had… paella?"

And thus opens the floodgates.

"Paella's almost as great as tomatoes!" The Spaniard jumps to his feet, hands flying, "It's an amazing, delicious, wonderful thing with rice, seafood, chicken, rabbit, sometimes vegetables, sometimes without meat, and it's really, really awesome. Like, it's reached Gilbert levels of awesome! HOW COULD YOU HAVE NEVER TRIED PAELLA?!"

"Well, logically, it kind of makes sense," Uncle Roddy cuts in, lip curled pensively. "After all, he was alive roughly a thousand years ago, right? I don't think paella's been around that long."

Fratello agrees, "Yeah, and besides, isn't paella mainly from some coastal region of Spain? Even if it was around back then, Grandpa probably wouldn't have had it anyways, because he lived all the way in Rome."

Romulus shrugged, "And even if I did know about it, I probably wouldn't have had it made for me, because Iberians were considered barbarians."

"So were Germans," Aldrich gives the Roman a blank look. Hey, that expression's kind of like when Luddy gets really exasperated because I want to paint on the roof again!

Grandpa goes sheepish, "Hah, yeah, well, you're different."

"How?"

Their eyes meet, amber and green locked in silent combat. Grandpa's grin is clearly forced, Aldrich's glare stern, both just staring, and staring, and staring, and-

"Geez, you two really need to bone."

Thank God for Gilbert.

The ghosts turn their attentions towards the arctic wolf, the spirit deadpanned, the former king relieved.

"Ve~ Paella, paella, paella, paella, paella-"

Feliciano chants happily, clenched hands moving up and down minutely to the beat of the repeated word. Antonio washes his hands at the large farmhouse sink on one side of the vast, unusually habited room known as the kitchen, Lovino sitting on the counter, tomato in hand and already dripping its red, translucent juice from a big bite taken as if it were an apple. Having decided to sit in so as to see what this oh-so praised 'paella' is, the visiting ghosts stand off to the side, conversing between themselves while stealing occasional glances at the resident 'paella expert.' I smile softly at the scene from my place beside the younger Vargas twin.

It's kind of interesting that we're actually in the kitchen for once…

Pleasant smells infest the area, trailing up the nostrils of all who enter and seducing them with mouth-watering aromas akin to olfactory catnip. Bright, white tiles coat the floor, each individually polished to perfection, creamy, yellow walls complementing the flooring and surprisingly subtle, olive green cabinets topped with neutral, marble counters and light gray overheads separated by a mossy, glassy backsplash. The sink sits gracefully upon one section of cabinet, a steel monolith uncharacteristically engraved with flowers and foliage of sorts, mainly roses. Stainless, double stoves, an insanely large fridge, and two dishwashers are placed about, an island and grill at the room's center.

"Alright, I think I've got everything I need!" The fox grins, observing the wide assortment of ingredients carefully organized on the island.

"SHIT!"

The yell comes suddenly, along with the crash of yet another priceless vase, as the beginning of a song rings throughout the air.

Feliciano blinks. "'Respect' by Aretha Franklin… oh, that must be mama!" With a grin, he shouts out, "HEY, UNCLE RODDY, TELL MAMA I SAID HI!"

"Wah!" Antonio jumps at the unexpected noise, almost dropping a bowl of seasonings.

The Austrian rushes into the kitchen, slamming the door behind him, phone out and eyes wide. "Quick, what do I do? Elizabeta keeps calling for a check-up on the twins and I don't know what to tell her!"

A/N:

Okay, so I had this FLIPPIN' GREAT A/N written out, most of the responses done everything, when I had to log out for a test on the computer in school. Subsequently, I had to close out of all tabs, and completely forgot to save the document before I exited it. Life really sucks sometimes.

Regardless, I'm going to try and recreate the majesty that was my original A/N!

With the next upload spree after the hiatus starting after this chapter's posting will come the introduction of three new characters. One will be Hungary, another her spirit animal, and the third her spirit's older brother. However, I'm not going to tell you who they are, because I want to leave you all to guess! XD

Aside from that, I need some advice on whether or not I should tie up a loose thread in the developments of the characters' relationships. This chapter brought up the unresolved tensions between Aldrich and Romulus, so I want you guys to tell me if I should give them an arch of their own to fix that. Have at it in the review section!

Responses to review(s):

maryranstadler1: Thank you! Honestly, the sole reason why the rule of ghosts getting hurt in the mortal plane is a thing is that I wanted to have that scene with Romulus being super happy because he can finally give Aldrich hickies. X3 As for the spoons, I just thought to myself, "What would Gilbert do if the old wolf guy fell asleep at the breakfast table? ... Wait, why the hell am I asking myself that? He would do the dumbest thing possible: SPOONS!"

Seele Esser Deutsch: Yeah, good point. Hey, what's your favorite thing to learn about history then? =3

So yeah, I'll see you all in a month or something crazy like that! X3 Have fun wondering what's going to happen!