Chapter 8

Finding the Weakness

Lovino noticed how the lights turned off before Antonio opened the door with that stupid smile of his. "Lovino! Come in!" He walked inside of the all too familiar house and sat down on the couch before he eyed Antonio. It didn't seem to have become any physical change to him at least as it had with Feliciano. Lovino shrugged as he remembered the meeting he had with his brother only a few hours ago, just after they had woken up. It had been awful. He pushed the memory aside as he noticed Antonio looking at him with a weird smile on his face.

"What is it?"

"Nothing" He sat down on the couch next to him and Lovino sighed.

"Did you get the text?" From the confused look in Antonios face he could tell that he hadn't seen it. "They sent it to everyone, told us that some spell went wrong and we're all affected in some way" He stretched his arms a bit before he added. "I feel fine though"

"Ah that explains this then" Lovino saw how he stood up and turned the lights on in the room. He gasped when he saw how Antonios shadow waved like crazy with its arms all on its own. "It seems my shadow has come to life somehow"

"That's pretty cool actually" He walked over to the wall and touched the shadows hand, making it stop waving around and instead try to grab for Lovinos hand. He felt like something was off but before he could think about it for long, Lovino was yanked around and pulled in close to Antonios chest. "What are you doing!?"

"Ssh, it's time to sleep now" Lovino felt how his eyes got heavy and his body limb, the last thing he saw before falling asleep was the shadow on the wall waving around even more franticly while pulling his hair.

.

The drive back home was pleasant and without anything actually happening. Tino and Berwald slept most of the way while Mathias drove and hummed along with the songs. As they turned up in front of Lukas house, Mathias carefully shook Tinos shoulder. "We made it" Tino slowly opened his eyes and brushed away his hair that had fallen over his face. They heard movement from the backseat as Berwald opened his eyes and rubbed them. As his eyes focused once again he was met by two faces looking at him with adoring eyes.

"Stop it" Berwald pouted at them. Giggling, Tino unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car with Mathias following soon after. After a bit of a fight with the seatbelt, Berwald also hopped out the car. As they walked towards the door they heard voices from within. They looked at each other, it was weird because Arthur shouldn't be there yet. The voices grew louder, it sounded like they were arguing. The door was suddenly kicked open and through it flew Emil, it looked like he had been thrown out. Mathias was quick and managed to catch him before he hit the ground so there wasn't any damage dealt to him.

"Who?" Mathias looked towards the house were a person emerged from the dark house. When Mathias saw him, he felt how his mouth opened in surprise and he couldn't say anything else.

"And stay away from my house!" Lukas slammed the door and left the four nations stunned silent. For a few minutes they just stood there, looking at the closed door, until Emil realized that Mathias was still holding him.

"Could you put me down?" Mathias let the small nation down and looked at him, waiting for an explanation. "So Lukas woke up" Emil scratched his neck and continued "But it seems he doesn't remember us at all" Mathias had to sit down for a moment and the others quickly joined him.

"What happened?" Tino asked softly and waited patiently. Emil thought back to the day that had went by and retold the whole story while he relived it inside his head.

After the others had left, Emil had begun cleaning up throughout the house. He knew that Lukas didn't like it when it was messy and he didn't really have anything better to do. He left the study alone though, thinking that if they didn't touch anything they wouldn't mess anything else up either. Cleaning had only taken about one hour and after a call from Mathias about how gas stations should have better security he had sat down on the couch and fallen asleep. He didn't wake up until he got a second call from Mathias, telling him that they had found Berwald, apparently he was adorable, and that they were about half an hour away. When the call ended, he decided to check on his brother to see if he was okay. When he entered the room Lukas had still been asleep but when he had put a hand on his forehead to check for fever he had suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed his arm, turned him around and locked it behind him. "Who are you?" Lukas had whispered.

"It's me, Emil! Ow, that hurts!" Lukas had pushed him away and looked him over.

"I don't know you" Emil could see in his eyes that he weren't lying. He really had no idea of who he was. Lukas looked at him and added "What are you doing in my house?"

"Can we please sit down and talk?" Lukas had nodded carefully but made sure to walk behind Emil so he couldn't get attacked from behind. Emil sat down in the couch and Lukas had landed in one of the chairs, still tense and ready to defend himself. "So you don't know who I am?" Lukas shook his head and eyed him suspiciously. "Do you know who you are?" Lukas gave him a strange look.

"Of course I do. I'm Lukas, I'm also Norway, and this is my house you're intruding in." He looked around, probably to make sure nothing was stolen, and stood up unable to sit still any longer.

"Do you remember anyone?" Emil felt cold, if his brother had lost his memory it meant he wouldn't be able to remember anything about the spell either. Also, if he felt threatened he might attack and Emil knew that he was no match for Lukas.

"Why would I? I've been living in this house alone all my life" Emil remembered how Lukas had moved his hand up and rubbed his temple as if he had a headache. "I'm not feeling very well"

"Are you okay? Please lay down for a while" Emil was really worried. How could he have forgotten about everyone? He seemed to believe that all he had been doing all his life was living inside this house. Lukas suddenly looked at him with determination in his eyes.

"You did something."

"No I didn't"

"I need you to leave. Now."

"No! I won't leave!" Emil walked up to Lukas, grabbed his shoulders and shook him lightly. "We need to figure this out!"

"Leave!" Lukas showed him away towards the hall. Emil stumbled but managed to stay on his feet and grabbed onto his brother once again. Before he could say anything, Lukas grabbed hold of him and kicked the door open before throwing the smaller nation outside.

"…and then I think you know the rest" Emil finished his story. The others were currently lost in their own thoughts, trying to process Emils story. The first one to break out of his trance was Mathias.

"We have to talk to him" Emil shook his head.

"He's too confused, he won't listen." Tino hit the ground hard with his fist and said, obviously frustrated.

"We've known him forever, we should know him well enough to find a way" Tino looked at the others that didn't seem to have any ideas either. "I could always go get Hana but that would take too long"

"Why Hana?" Emil felt a bit confused. Mathias nodded and sighed.

"Yes, that would have been good. He can't say no to cute things." Emil nodded as he understood. Lukas loved all cute things, he could probably sit and look at a cat for hours though he would never admit it. "Wait a second…" Mathias suddenly looked up at the others. Emil realized at the same time Tino did.

"If he can't say no to anything cute…" Three pair of eyes was suddenly turned towards Berwald that felt a chill run up his spine as he realized what they were all thinking.