Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: Of course I also informed my mom about the guy that's courting me. My mom has always been pretty popular with the guys because of her red hair and big green eyes, so I wondered if she had any advice for me.
Mom: 'Very well! You know what you should do, sweetie? Lean back and let him totally work his ass off for you!~'
Me: 'But that's kind of mean, right?'
Mom: 'Of course not. That loser is trying to get into your pants, dear! LET THE BASTARD SWEAT.'
Me: 'Did you also treat your male friends like that?'
Mom: 'I'm just saying that it's great to feel like a woman.^^'
Grandpa: 'PUNCH THAT NERD IN THE FACE.'
And these are all the reasons why I can't have a dorky boyfriend.
1: I want a manly man, 2: my mom wants me to take advantage of nerds and 3: my grandfather will punch any wimpy boyfriend I dare to bring home in the face.
My family is incredibly strange.

A/n2: Lovi's back in charge now – he's doing the narrating again. God, how much I missed the swearing and cursing.^^

A/n3: My Word-thingy is fan of Karl Lagerfeld, since it didn't even made those annoying red squiggles underneath his magical name when I wrote it down. While when I write down my own, real name, it's like the page is screaming WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN WRITING, WHAT IS THIS WITCH-NAME, OH GOD, I CAN'T EVEN DECENTLY CORRECT IT, NO SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU, GTFO.
And yes, regardless of language it is forced to follow, IT WON'T ACCEPT MY NAME.
So I just added it to the wordlist of both Dutch and English vocabularies and now it only start bitching when I dare to write my name without a capital letter. Huzzah!

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 33:

The only love that I really believe in, is a mother's love for her children.
Karl Lagerfeld
(German fashion designer)

The next morning, I was standing in front of the mirror of the bathroom, slowly brushing my teeth and gazing at my dazed reflection (which by the way also looked very handsome – a bit tired, maybe, but absolutely, stunningly handsome).

I… um, I was thinking about last night, and I mentally redid the whole sexual experience again, so… yeah, it was a bit hard to get that absentminded smile off my face.

God, last night. Man. Some night last night was. Fucking incredible.

…

My ass hurt like hell, by the way. Oww. Like there had been a fucking train inside, dammit, and not Antonio's "instrument of pleasure", as he sometimes very stupidly called it. I didn't really mind the stings, though, or the fact I didn't dare to sit down without some pillowy protection for probably at least a week now, for I had gotten what I had asked for and it had been very, very gooooooood.

'Lovi? Are you ready yet?' Antonio's face suddenly appeared in the door opening, frowning a bit, but not very convincingly since he, too, couldn't get a very sheepish smile off his mug.

'Iwm brusssshing mah teeethhhghhfgfhf,' I foamily explained to him, instantly blushing my face off because he was wearing those yummy pants again and his hair looked like he just rolled out of bed, which ugh, god, was so damn attractive, it should be forbidden.

'We're going to be late for breakfast,' Antonio said, ticking on a clock he apparently had randomly picked off a wall. 'We only have one hour left before the breakfast buffet will be closed!'

I finished brushing and threw the toothbrush into a very cutesy dustbin, groaning. 'God, Antonio, you really need more than a whole hour to stuff your face? I'm almost done, dammit – I just need to put on my shirt – oh.'

I stared at the shirt Antonio was holding up, all wrinkly and ruined, and then I stared at Antonio, who coughed a bit and turned to avoid looking me in the eye.

'I-I think we kind of… rolled over it, last night, over and over again, so… it's a bit weird-looking right now.'

'A-aha,' I mumbled, nodding. 'Oh well. Whatever. It was worth it. I'll iron it when we get back home.'

Antonio smiled and handed over the dress shirt, his eyes never looking away from me as I put the shirt on.

'Do you… um, shall I button your shirt for you?' he asked me – and didn't wait for an answer, he just instantly grabbed the hem of the shirt and started… buttoning away. From bottom to top.

I chuckled as I watched him doing his very best to button my shirt, his face almost just as red and warm as mine, and I couldn't help but lean over a bit and press a kiss to his forehead. It made him look up in surprise.

'I-I…' I stammered, fidgeting with my fingers, '…I just thought you looked cute, dammit.'

Antonio's smile grew bigger and he laughed softly, grabbing my arm and pulling me forward to kiss my lips.

'You…' I swallowed as soon as he ended the kiss and gently poked his face, 'y-you were good last night. Like… like really, really good. I had a good time.'

Antonio grinned excitedly and poked my face as well. 'Well, you weren't bad either, Lovi. I mean… y-you were very sexy and… y-yeah, it was great.'

'I-it really was, right?'

'Yes!'

'That's nice!'

'Y-yes!'

We probably must have looked like the biggest pair of morons ever, the way we stood there in the bathroom, grinning all awkwardly and love-struck at each other and touching each other's faces and blushing and MY GOD, how old were we, dammit, we were experienced adults, for crying out loud – not some teenage kids that just did it for the very first time!

'Come on,' I finally said, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the bathroom. 'Let's get moving already, dammit, before everybody's eaten all the good sex – I mean stuff already.'

Antonio nodded and obediently followed me, seemingly unaware of that cute slip of the tongue – but you bet I could hear the bastard snorting when we left our room and got into the elevator.

\0o0/

'Okay, let's get down to business and talk about our vacation destination.'

I looked at Antonio very seriously, who had been about to take a bite from his toast with omelet and now had to stop his attempts to eat it half-way.

'Ah, our vacation destination? You want to talk about that already?' he said – and quickly ate a firm piece of omelet afterwards anyway.

'Of course,' I snorted, stirring my tea. 'We could also continue talking about all the sex we had yesterday night, but we're in a public dinner room of a hotel now and there are many people with kids and old people around us, yapping away about this lovely vacation they're having in Spain. So yeah.'

'I'd still gladly talk about sex with you,' Antonio teased, winking at me. 'How's your butt doing, huh? Did I fluff that pillow alright?~'

I feel ashamed to admit it, but I vividly flushed at that. 'N-no, asshole, we're not discussing my ass here!'

'Such a shame.'

'V-vacation, dammit, vacation!' I dramatically put my fist down on the table, making my knife and fork jump up from my plate, that was filled with bread and jam.

'Alright,' Antonio laughed, while I mouthed 'sorry' to the many annoyed glances from the other hotel residents around us, 'so you want to talk about a fancy vacation destination. Okay then!~ What country do you have in mind?'

'Hmm, it has to be a country that's got nice weather,' I mused.

'I already told you I'm not going to the Netherlands,' Antonio said, sounding like a bratty little kid, and folded his arms to empathize his words.

I furrowed my brows. 'Of course we're not going to the damn Netherlands, you dope – that country's got horrible weather!'

'It has?'

'Yeah! It's like England, but with more bicycles.'

'Great! Then we're not visiting England, either!'

'Hell no – that nation's crazily expensive, too. Do you know what a weekend trip to London costs? Fucking money grabbers, dammit!'

'France's got nice weathe—'

'NO.'

'Alright, alright…' Antonio rolled his eyes.

I rubbed my chin. 'Let's see. Italy is out of the question too, since people might start throwing stuff at us the second they notice we're a couple…'

'Won't they throw sex at us, Lovi?~'

'No! Shit – I KNEW you heard that, you cocky bastard.'

He chuckled and took a sip from his orange juice.

'What about Turkey, then?' he suggested afterwards.

'Turkey?' I made a face. 'I don't think they'll exactly welcome gay people with open arms either, Antonio.'

'Oh no, probably not. But as long as we stay in one of those luxury resorts, we can do everything we want. It's a good and safe place for kids (and gay people), it has nice weather and it's not expensive at all.'

I was intrigued. 'Really now?'

'Also, the author has recently been there.'

'…wait, what?'

'Never mind.' Antonio smiled sweetly at me. 'Anyway, think about it! It actually is a country that suits us Mediterranean people. Warm weather, salty seas, rocky beaches, tons and tons of food… wouldn't that be a wonderful place to visit with the kids?'

'Yeah, okay, if you're that enthusiastic about it, it should be good,' I admitted, eating some of my bread. 'Damn – this tastes like fucking heaven.'

'It's settled then!' Antonio victoriously said. 'As soon as we'll get back home, I'll make a reservation for a nice resort somewhere in Turkey. It will be wonderful.'

'I sure hope so,' I said.

'Now, Lovi. About all that sex we had last night.'

'You're not really thinking about talking about last night here, are you?'

'You were so very hot, I almost burned myself, ahaha…'

'SHIT, YOU'RE ALREADY DOING IT, TOO!'

'Would you two please keep it down a little bit,' a random, mustached man suddenly nagged. 'I can't even hear my own thoughts!'

'Phah! Like I care about your worthless thoughts, you scruffy old man!' I haughtily said.

He gasped. 'WHAT!'

'Theodore, please watch your blood pressure!' a small, friendly-looking lady next to him said.

'DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY SHITTY BLOOD PRESSURE, MATILDA!'

'L-Lovi,' Antonio stammered, pulling on my sleeve to stop me from repeatedly flipping the bird at the man, 'm-maybe we should lower our voices…'

'And give him his way? NO WAY IN FUCKING HELL!'

'OH I'LL GIVE YOU FUCKING HELL!'

'Th-Theodore…'

'Lovino…'

…

…

Yeah.

I think it's safe to say that we had a pretty loud and embarrassing breakfast that morning.

\0o0/

Antonio was kind of mad at me when we walked back home a little while later. I couldn't understand why.

…

Okay, so maybe I had us both kicked out of the hotel by Dusty Dora (you know, that lady that had warned us last night to not-wreck the room), and maybe I nearly gave that elderly man a heart-attack because I wouldn't stop annoying him and sure, maybe I also made a complete fool out of myself when I sat there with my middle finger raised up high the entire time, and maybe Antonio at a sudden moment tried to chair-hop away from our table because he was just that embarrassed, but that still wasn't reason enough to be mad at me!

…

…

Oh god, I fucked it all up, hadn't I.

I glanced at Antonio, who was walking next to me. Well, more like stomping the ground next to me. He had put his hands in his pockets and he had this angry, irritated grimace. He also didn't look at me.

'U-um,' I muttered, knowing I had to say something sensible now, 'I-I sure showed that guy what I'm made of, huh!'

So far for sensible.

Antonio gave me a dark look. 'You sure did.'

…

Goddammit, did he really have to stress that last word?

I frowned. 'Are you really that mad at me?'

'I'm not exactly mad,' Antonio strategically said, sounding like some sort of teacher, 'I just had hoped we could have ended this nice date a bit more… romantically.'

'I just got us thrown out of a stuffy old hotel in a very humiliating way,' I said. 'You didn't think that was romantic?'

He stared blankly at me, but he couldn't fool me – I had noticed that small, amused smile tugging on his lips.

'I even fought with some other hotel guests,' I continued. 'And I did it all out of love.'

'Did you now,' Antonio said, now really chuckling.

I nodded. 'Sure did! I was only thinking very sappy thoughts as I lovingly snarled childish insults at that old man.'

'What a knight in shining armor you are.'

'You bet I am.'

'Maybe you should tell Luisa that story someday.'

I laughed nervously. 'Well, maybe not. She's already swearing way too much.'

'She got it from her papa.'

'But you almost never swear.'

'God, Lovino!' Antonio laughed and finally grabbed my hand, pulling me closer to him. 'Stop making those lame puns, will you? It's alright, I'm not mad at you. It's too hard to stay mad at you when you're bombarding me with puns anyway.'

I grinned, but didn't say anything. I was way too happy that Antonio was smiling and holding my hand again.

\0o0/

To my and Antonio's amazement, our House was still an existing, recognizable and perfectly intact Spanish villa, or so we noticed upon coming home.

'This could mean two things,' I told Antonio as he helped me walking over the flattened gate – we should seriously consider repairing that thing, dammit. 'One: the kids have actually murdered Feliciano and Germany and we'll find their lifeless bodies inside, covered in sweets and chocolates, and the kids have made the House the center of the bloody crusade they're planning to execute. Or two: the outside of the House is fine, but the inside is completely ruined. Also, Feliciano and Germany are dead.'

'So either way, your brother and Germany haven't survived babysitting our children,' Antonio concluded.

I nodded. 'That's correct.'

'You've always had an overactive imagination.'

'That's also correct.'

Antonio smiled and shook his head, getting his keys. 'I think they're fine, though. There might be a lot to clean up – because I, too, think that the kids have internally destroyed the House – but Feliciano and Germany at least did their very best to keep an eye on the kids for us, and we should be thankful for that.'

'Hmm,' I mumbled, 'I'll probably be forced to hear Feliciano's horror stories about how the kids tormented him and Germany for years, but oh well. I'd do all of it again right away.'

'I can't agree more with that,' Antonio said, grinning broadly at me, and opened the door with an exaggerated swoosh. 'After you, my loveliest love.'

I stepped into the House and thought about mocking him for making such a flirty, yet cheesy gesture – although I did enjoy it when he made me enter the House with such a gentlemanly air – but as soon as I got into the living room, I was too fucking stunned to be able to mock anybody.

There the kids were, all three sitting on the couch, watching the cartoon channel. They were dressed up nicely and were having cornflakes for breakfast. Sure, Matteo had pieces of cornflake all over him and Alejo had covered his cornflakes with ketchup (at least I hoped that was ketchup), but they looked calm and relaxed, discussing kid-stuff with each other.

And the living room looked breathtakingly clean. I could still smell the flowery scent of diverse cleaning products, lingering in the air. From the kitchen, I heard Feliciano singing an Italian song, and from an entire other room, I could vaguely hear the sounds of a buzzing vacuum cleaner.

I felt like I was stepping into a fucking commercial.

…

And I didn't like it.

'What the crap,' I hissed at Antonio, as soon as he, too, had recovered from the perfect image of a healthy family-life in front of us, 'everything's under fucking control in here, dammit! No! It's more than just under control. It's… it's above control!'

'Are you sure that's still meaning the same thing then, Lovi?' he asked.

'Well, I totally get what I'm trying to say.'

'Ah, alright.'

I growled and wanted to complain a lot more, since I really didn't like the fact Antonio and I had more trouble handling our kids than my brainless brother and his potato-faced spouse did, but Antonio wasn't annoyed by it at all and smiled happily at me, mouthing I should be quiet and follow him. Then he silently started sneaking up on the couch.

…

…

Well, I guess surprising the kids was a lot more fun to do than lamenting about all kinds of shit, so I followed him.

It was actually kind of exciting. I could only imagine how happy the kids would be if we showed up all of a sudden.

Unless they had already forgotten about us and/or didn't give a shit about us.

…

Dammit – don't tell me I'm also craving for actual love from my kids as well these days! I know it's probably considered normal, but… but still!

Anyway, we were almost behind the couch… just a few more steps… just… a… few… more—

'Watcha doin', uncle Lovi, uncle Toni?'

Mimi all of a sudden appeared next to me and pulled on the hem of my shirt, her big, blue eyes staring at me and Antonio curiously.

Antonio and I froze on the spot, of course, in a desperate attempt to keep up our silent American Spy act. However, it was too late, for Alejo, Matteo and Luisa instantly cracked their necks (well it sounded like they cracked their necks, let me put it that way) in their hurry to look behind them.

For a second, I was afraid they'd indeed be like "oh it's just them, whatever, let's keep on watching Courage the Cowardly Dog" – but then a warm feeling spread through my entire body as I watched six eyes, two green-colored and four hazel-colored ones, light up in excitement.

'Pwapwa Lowbi a' Pwapwa Twooni!' Matteo attempted to shriek, and successfully showered me and Antonio with sticky cornflakes while he hysterically fluttered his arms, unable to contain his happiness.

Alejo was also very happy to see us, grinning and blinking his eyes confusedly as he reached out his little arms at us.

'It's-! I-! Hi papa! And hi papa! I-I didn't see you!'

'That's because we were planning to scare you, little man!' Antonio said before plucking Alejo from the couch and kissing his cheek, which made Alejo giggle and kick his feet. Then Antonio pushed him into my arms, dramatically looking around the room.

'Now, I wonder where my little princess is?'

'Yes,' I stammered, still surprised about the warm welcome, and hugged Alejo tightly. 'I-I also wonder where she could be.'

'Ouch!' Antonio suddenly yelped and looked down. There Luisa was, looking pissed off and annoyed, as usual. But her eyes were shining and her face was flushed.

'I-I'm right here,' she muttered, and gave another kick to Antonio's ankle. 'Dummies.'

'Yea,' Mimi agreed, 'you're dummies! Dummies, dummies! Hahahahaha!'

'Mimi, Mimi!' Feliciano came walking out of the kitchen. He looked a bit huffy and was drying off a plate. 'It's very mean to call your cousins dummies! You should go apologi—oh! Lovi! Big Brother Toni!'

'Hi Feli!~' Antonio greeted him with his sunny voice as he picked up Luisa.

I also greeted Feliciano, but I just gave him a nod of the head. I was still feeling a little pissed off because of the fact he had everything under and/or above control so damn smoothly, so he wouldn't get anything more from me than a damn nod. Fucking miracle maker, dammit, he always had to do things perfectly.

Meanwhile, Feliciano laughed. 'Veeeee, you're back early! How comes?'

'Oh, Lovi got us thrown out of the hotel,' Antonio explained with a big smile on his face, 'but they were almost out of food anyway, and I really wanted to see my precious kids, so it's alright! Plus, Lovino made some puns to make it up to me!'

Feliciano stared at me like he saw water burning. 'Lovi made puns?'

'Horrible ones,' Antonio grinned at me, 'but they still made me laugh!~'

'Oh!' Alejo said, wiggling in my arms, 'I have a pun also! Yea! Wanna hear it?'

'Oh boy,' I muttered.

Unfortunately, Alejo took that as a "yes, certainly!" and grinned maniacally.

'Okay! What's a fly with its wings pulled out?'

'A… dead fly?' Antonio tried, smiling uncomfortably.

'No! A walk!'

Alejo immediately broke down laughing, his hysterical sounds filling the complete room and making me and Antonio exchange glances that said "he's got that kind of creepy laughing from you – no, he's got it from you!", before we forced ourselves to laugh at it as well.

'Ahahahaha,' Antonio grimaced, 'well, he sure has his preference for bad puns from you.'

'Haha,' I weirdly chuckled, 'always better than having a preference for putting ketchup on cornflakes.'

'But I can't help it I love that particular taste so much!'

'I wanna be cawwied too! Cawwy me!' Matteo suddenly butted in, since he was the only one that wasn't carried right now, and started pulling on Antonio's pants. 'Cawwy me! Cawwy meeeeee!'

'Well, anyway,' I said to Feliciano as Antonio shushed Matteo and somehow managed to pick him up as well, 'how… how did it go? Did they behave a bit?'

Feliciano's smile froze on his face and he seemed to squeeze the plate he was holding very hard. He opened his mouth to answer us, but there wasn't any sound coming out.

'No, at first they didn't behave at all,' a familiar, stupid, gruff and heavy voice all of a sudden said. We all looked at the direction where it came from. Germany entered the living room, wearing a blue apron with fluffy white clouds and yellow bunnies on it – one of Antonio's favorite aprons. He also carried the vacuum cleaner like it didn't weigh a hundred kilograms, that fucking bodybuilder.

'You children,' Germany continued as he put the cleaning device down, 'were being little terrors yesterday. Alejo wouldn't stop trying to punch me. Matteo started crying non-stop after he finally realized you two weren't coming home that night and Luisa…'

He pursed his lips and sighted deeply, shaking his head remorsefully.

'Luisa didn't like my fairytale.'

'It was a stupid story!' Luisa nagged. 'Nobody cursed, dammit!'

'But in the story of the little mermaid, nobody's supposed to curse,' Germany countered sternly.

'Yea! And nobody died, either!' Alejo complained as well.

'I told the Disney-version,' Germany explained.

'But the Disney-version sucks balls,' I snorted. 'The little mermaid is supposed to die a very weird and lame death, all because she's too fucking stupid to make up her damn mind already. These could be very important lessons in life, Germany!'

The German became a bit pale. 'R-really? But I—'

'No!' I narrowed my eyes at him. 'You failed, Potato-man!'

Germany winced, heaved another pitiable sigh and walked off, probably to put the vacuum cleaner away in one of our extremely untidy closets and think mean thoughts about me and/or himself.

'Veeeee… by the way,' Feliciano said after a very unpleasant silence in which the only thing we heard was a grumbling Germany on the background, 'did you two enjoy your romantic night together?~'

Antonio and I blinked and looked at each other for a moment, grinning stupidly.

'Errrr…'

'Umm.'

'No really – how much fun did you have?' Feliciano asked. 'Wait, let me do a quick examination!'

And he smacked my butt.

HARD.

Right away, a sharp, merciless, stinging PAIN shot through my lower body and I yelped, instantly dropping down on my knees, almost tossing Alejo through the air in the process like some sort of human frisbee.

'Whuaaaah!' he shrieked.

'Lovi!' Antonio exclaimed, his face all red and embarrassed. 'Y-you okay?'

'NO I'M NOT OKAY, YOU MORON – HE VIOLATED MY VIOLATED AREA!'

'I liek violet,' Matteo smiled blissfully.

'Wow,' Feliciano said, while Antonio got me back up, 'you had that much fun, huh?'

'We could have told you!' I bit at my brother as I tried to bite through the pain. 'You didn't have to slap my ass!'

Feliciano tapped his lips. 'Veeeee, but then I wouldn't have gotten my revenge, y'know? Because nobody verbally hurts my Ludwig and gets away with it. Well okay, pretty much everybody gets away with it – but you won't get away with it, big brother, because you're just as weak as I am! So ha! Feel my wart! I mean wrath!'

I stared at him, shaking with anger.

'Aw, come on,' Feliciano stammered, already sensing something wasn't right, 'admit you acted like an asshole and that you kind of deserved that.'

'I'm going to wring your little neck,' I explained and cracked my fingers.

Feliciano gulped.

\0o0/

Of course nothing bad happened in the end anyway, because Antonio knew to shush me and gently pulled me off the curtains I was trying to climb, since my stupid brother was shouting half-meant apologizes from the ceiling.

'Veeeee, I'm sorry to have smacked your sensitive tush that got a lot more action than mine last night! I'm sorryyyyyyy – please don't pound me! You know I bruise easily! Although my butt's probably tougher than your wimpy, loser-behind, haha – EEEEEEEEEEK BIG BROTHER TONI, HE'S CLAWING THE CURTAAAAAIIINS!'

…

…

All in all, it probably cost us all a few very important hours of our lives before everybody was calmed down, the kids no longer ran around us like four loose projectiles and we all sat down in the kitchen in relatively peace and rest.

The grown-ups, I mean. The kids were sent outside, to the playground in the garden.

'Anyway…' Antonio was the first one to clear his throat, '…regardless of all the chaos and stuff that just happened, and the fact that we just wrecked priceless and irreplaceable pieces of art that will make Spanish authority-figures extremely mad at me, I'd like to say thank you to you, Germany and Feliciano.'

'B-big Brother Toni…' Feliciano muttered, staring at him with his big, brown eyes.

'Without the help of you two, Lovino and I wouldn't have had such a wonderful night. We really needed that night. So… well, thank you very much. We're in your debt.' Antonio gave both Germany and Feliciano a thankful little nod.

'Were…' I hesitated, but forced myself to finish my sentence anyway, '…w-were the kids really that horrible, though?'

Germany coughed. 'I already told you that they indeed were quite a handful – at first. But after they got used to both me and Feliciano, they became a lot sweeter. Especially Matteo. Once I finally convinced him that you and Spain would definitely return today, he suddenly showed me Mia and asked me if I could groom her hair.'

I almost squirted tomato-juice through my nose, I couldn't help it.

'H-he showed you the cactus.'

'Yes.'

'Did he make you put ribbons in its spines?'

'Even worse: I had to wash them.'

'Oh god.' I started to laugh.

'So I did.'

'You did?'

'Yes.' Germany showed me his hands, both covered in bandages. 'It's not easy to wash a plant that doesn't like water, you know.'

I stopped laughing and clumsily rubbed my arms. 'Well, thanks anyway. It's pretty cool of you to play along with Matteo. It means a lot to him – a-and to us, too. Right, Antonio?'

'Certainly.' Antonio smiled at me and pecked my cheek and the ambiance all of a sudden wasn't that bad anymore.

And that was good.

\0o0/

Afterwards, the four of us talked for a little while – nothing too special – and Germany, Feliciano and Mimi even stayed for dinner.

Because… well, why the fuck not, they had nothing better to do anyway and Antonio and I had more than enough food to feed an entire orphanage. So sure, they could stay for dinner. My and Antonio's way of saying "thank you for babysitting our cute weapons of mass destruction".

We enjoyed a pretty busy, yet amusing day, altogether, and it really was great to do all these family-things with my younger brother and his spouse and kid. At one point, we even were all playing outside, chasing the kids, playing tag or pushing them on the swing, laughing and having fun.

It was pretty strange to watch Germany smile that much as he played with Mimi, but considering the amazed glances I picked up from him every now and then, he probably was just as weirded out by my constant grinning, whenever I was around Alejo, Matteo or Luisa.

…

M-mind you, I still was very relieved to say goodbye to all of them at the end of the day, when Mimi and Feliciano were waving at Antonio, me and our kids (Germany only gave us a stern nod, as if he felt too uncomfortable with waving). I mean, they were annoying, dammit. Now Antonio and I had more dishes to wash, too. Fucking stupid. Meddling dorks.

I still felt happy, though.

…

Maybe I was still tired.