Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: As a part-time mailwoman, I encounter a lot of letters, cards, tax-collecting-envelopes (which are colored blue in the Netherlands – maybe because we Dutch people get heart-attacks by the mere thought of having to pay for something and blue's very calming and stuff), packages and invitations. And based on my many years of experience with delivering mail, I can tell you that there's at least one internationally accepted rule, a rule that goes for all countries… wait for it…
STAMPS SHOULD BE ALWAYS STUCK IN THE UPPER-RIGHT CORNER OF THE ENVELOPE.
For REAL. I've delivered mail from India, Slovenia, Russia, Australia, Japan, China and you-name-it-I've-had-it-in-my-hands, and the stamps were always in the upper-right corner. It's a FACT.
And for the hell of it, I present to you, the top five of mail-nationalities I've delivered the most often so far (only counting persons, not companies):
1: Dutch (well duh);
2: German/Belgian (neighbors – what did you expect?);
3: French/Spanish/Austrian (especially during the Summer);
4: Italian/English/Australian/Canadian (again, especially during the Summer);
5: American (you guys have some epic, LOUD stamps, by the way).
Of course, this is just a vague guess. I didn't actual do a whole research or anything – but believe me, these are the nationalities I stumble upon a lot!
Not much of Luxembourg, by the way. Not much at all. I wonder if I've ever delivered a letter from Luxembourg, to be honest?

A/n2: Can you guess who is narrating the first part of this chapter? Little hint: it's not Lovino and it's not Antonio either. Also, talking about Antonio, he'll eventually take the narration over. Just watch the /0o0\-break!

A/n3: I know a trip from Madrid to Strasbourg is a LONG one – not one you could make in just a few hours. But, well, I kind of ignore all of that and like to pretend that Antonio and Lovino can hop over to Strasbourg in a matter of a few hours that don't even seem to be that horrible long.
It's because I can't do maths to save my life with, and it's because I've always been doing that (just remember Lovino's trips in Bottoms-Up), so… I hope you don't mind the way-too-swift trip to Strasbourg.

A/n4: I rambled. I'm sorry. Meep.

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 64:

Children have the unforgivable habit of growing up.
Bjarne Reuter
(Danish writer and screenwriter)

And!

Um!

Ummmmm, um um um

We watched Pokémon on the TV y'know. And it was very very cool cause it was a NEW thingie, and we was like YAY, NEW THINGIES! And then Lulu said that she'd pick a WATER Pokémon 'cause they're cute and smart and I was like NOOOOOOO, no no no, Lulu, geez, you're so LAME, you don't wanna pick WATER Pokémon cause they're weak to elek

…

Um.

Electra…

Electwifi…

E-electrifistici

THUNDER!

YES!

THUNDERRRRRRR and they don't like GRASS Pokémons too, 'cause they're grassy and muddy and smell like poop teeheeheehee

Lulu saids I smelt like poop

And I said

Um

WELL YOU'RE LAME

And then Lulu pushed me off the couch, and that hurt BUT I DIDN'T CRY – crying is for PUSSIES and GURLS and TEO. And for Papa Lovi and Papa Toni, they cry all the time.

And then Teo says he would pick Mia

I says you mean GRASS Pokémon?

He saids no

I means Mia I pick Mia

And Mia will KICK ALL THE OTHER PUKMENONS BUTTS

And I was like

Um, NO, TEO

'Cause I pick FIRE

FIRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE

And FIRE Pokémons BURN your stupid Mia to BURN!

To BURRRRRRRN!

Then I punched him

HE CRIED RIGHT AWAY, UGGGH HE'S SO LAME

And then Lulu says I was being dumbs and that her water-dorks would put out my fires and then I almost cried BUT I DIDN'T, cause I'm COOL and COOL PEEPS DUN'T CRY, DAMMIT.

Oh, a bad word

I SAYS A BAD WORD HAHAHAHA WHAHAHAHAGAhagshagsjagsh

I wannad to go to the papa's and tell them bout my VERY BAD WORD and watch Papa Lovi get red and weird and Papa Toni get white and weird, but then Papa Lovi and Papa Toni suddenly were in the room

I DIDN'T EVEN SEES THEM WALKING IN they teleporteded or something

But then their butts were blocking the TV and we was like

YO, PAPA'S

WE SEE NO POKÉMONS NOW CAUSE YOUR BUTTS ARE SO BIG

And then we laughed, cause it was funny!

But then Papa Lovi turned out the TV and said Papa Toni and I must tell you twerps something and Papa Toni nodded like uh-huh and we stopped laughing.

CEPTS FOR TEO, he was all eheheheheheheehehhhhhhheeeeeehhhheeee like a GOAT.

TEO'S A GOAT, WHAHAHAHA

But he's dumb so whatevs.

It's SERIOUS Papa Lovi said, and then Lulu asked if we were gonna have a brother or sister

Cause papa's and mama's always turn tellies off when there's a new bro or sis coming AND THAT'S TRUE cause I saw that on the TV, too

Papa Lovi was like WHAT

NO, LULU, YOU DORK

WHAT

FUCK

NO

Don't you have enough siblings already

ANTONINIO YU SAY SOMETHING TOO

And Papa Toni was all giggly and saids he'd like to see Papa Lovi FAT or something and then Papa Lovi kicked his shins and I DIDN'T KNOW PAPA TONI COULD DANCE!

But then Papa Toni got all serious again

And he didn't dance anymore

And then he saids that he and Papa Lovi were gonna go away tomorrow

AGAIN

And that the doctor was gonna look after us cause he's not freaky like Mr. Fatso next door

UGH

And then Teo started to CRY, like a PUSSY, and then Lulu got angry and tossed things at the papa's and they were like whuaaaaa, help hellllllp, and that was pretty funny BUT I DIDN'T laugh, cause it wasn't funny. I think.

LUISA CALMS DOWN WE'RE SORRY Papa Lovi said but Lulu saids NO

NONO NONONONONONO FUCK YOU I HATE YOU

And she ran off

Well she crashed her face into the table and hurt her nose

BUT THEN SHE RACED LIKE VROOOOOOOOM AND AND AND

And she locked herself up in the creepy spider closet WITH THE BROOMS AND BUCKETS AND SPIDERS

Whoa

So creepy in there

Even for ME

And then Papa Toni was like PANIC, OH GOD, LULU, PLEASE COME OUT OF CLOSET ALREADY, I BEG YOU

And Papa Lovi was snorting

And Papa Toni saids WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU NO TIME FOR GAY JOKES

I asked Teo wat a gay joke was

He saids he didn't know, too, but he thought it was about old people AND FLYING DOGS

Teo's weird

I laughed anyway

Teo laughed too but then he cried again

Lulu cried too

WHY DOES EVERYBODY CRY HERE

Papa Lovi then pounded his fists on the door of closet and asked Lulu what he and papa Toni could do to make it up.

EAT SHITS Lulu said

I can't do that ask something normal please Papa Lovi said

Papa Toni saids that he and Papa Lovi could do all kinds of fun things with Lulu and me and Teo

LIKE WHAT Lulu screames

Like drawing and playing tag, Papa Lovi saids, and playing video games and go camping in the back yard and dress up like princesses and dragons DRAGONS ARE SO AWESOME and make crowns out of flowers and shits

Lovi no bad words Papa Toni told Papa Lovi

And we could even make your favorite foods

WOW

EVEN BAKED TOADS? I asked Papa Toni

He looked at me like um no

But what about pancakes?

PANCAKES!

YES

I LOVE PANCAKES!

FLAT UFOS

YEAH

And Teo and Lulu liked pancakes too, and so Lulu said she comes out of closet, but ONLY if the papa's played with us

FOR THE REST OF THE DAYYYYYYYYYY.

YYYYYYYYYYY.

Papa Lovi and Papa Toni looked a bit sick

But they said fine, we'll play with you for the rest of the day

And Teo and I were like YAYYYYYYYYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAY

And Lulu came out of closet

You finally came out Papa Toni said, and then Papa Lovi snorted agains and Papa Toni glared at him and said NO, LOVININIO, GOD.

Papa and papa can be so very weird

BUT THEN WE PLAYED

AWW YISSSS

We did all kinds of thingies, like like like like… um, like

WELL, PAPA LOVI AND I AND LULU WENT TO PLAY MARIO KART ON THE WII

Papa Toni and Teo did something else, something with dresses BUT NO ONE CARES

And Lulu picked Baby Peach

And I picked Mario

And Papa Lovi asked why don't you pick Baby Mario, Allie, I wannad to pick Mario

NO I saids, MARIO IS AWESOMER THAN BABY MARIO, YOU PICK BABY MARIO, OR PICK WEEGEE

WEEGEE IS LAME, Papa Lovi nagged, GIMME MARIO

NO

YES

NOOOOO

YESSSSSS

And then Papa Toni saids that Papa Lovi should pick someone else than Weegee or Baby Mario, like that green dino beast or that ghost

DURRRRR

That's YOSHI, PAPA TONI

YOSHI AND KING BOO

I'm wearing a dress Allie I don't care who they are Papa Toni says

YER PWETTY Teo told him

But TEO WASN'T, he looked like a DORK in a DRESS

Mia looked awesome cause she had a plastic gun

Mia's the bodyguararad

WAIT THAT'S MY GUN!

But then Papa Lovi had picked Bowser and told me to hurry the fuck up, twerp

And I was LOL, cause Bowser's FAT

He's cool and awesome too

Also FIRE

But too slow

Lovi you promise not to yell? Papa Toni asked Papa Lovi before the race started

Papa Lovi was like PSSSSH I NEVER yell, I'm very adult-ish and mature and shit

And then I threw a RED SHELL AT HIS ASS

GODDAMMIT ALLIE Papa Lovi yelled YOU LITTLE BASTARD I HAD FIRST POSITION TOO YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT

And we raced

And I won

And Papa Lovi kicked the table really hard and hurteded his foot

So we played tag instead

WITH TOILET PAPER

Why Papa Lovi asked

Why?

CAUSE YOU'RE LEAVING ME AND LULU AND TEO BEHIND TOMORROW

AGAIN

AND PAPA TONI TOO

And Papa Lovi made this sad face and said okay and then we played toilet tag.

Papa Toni and Teo and Lulu played toilet tag too

It was AWESOME

Toilet paper EVERYWHERE

And then Papa Toni went to make dinner and Papa Lovi fetched the tent from upstairs CAUSE WE WANNED TO CAMP!

We ate pancakes outside

Lulu smiled again

Teo smiled too but then he barfed and then he

CRIED

OF COURSE

And I really really really liked the pancakes, they tasted like CAKES but flat

And then we played some more

Dunno what game but I ran a lot

OUTSIDE

IN THE DARK

LIKE A SHADOW DRAGON WARRIOR

And then Papa Lovi said he wanted to tell a story about the stars in the sky

I was like NO

MORE PLAYING

SCREW THE STARS

But Lulu and Teo are dorks and lame and Papa Lovi tells cool stories, so when they all sat down with him, I sat down too and listened BUT NOT CAUSE I WAS TIRED

Pssssh

I'm too AWESOME to get tired

And then Papa Lovi pointed to a W in the air and told about a EVUL Queen that thought she was the bestest of the bestests and told that to all the others that they weren't so cool and pretty as she, she even said to a guy names Nernose or somethin' that his daughters were all like little ugly trolls in comp... compparrision with her

He didn't like that

He send, like, very evil things like a flood and a SEA MONSTER, SO AWESOME to the city the Queen lived in

EVERYBODY DIIIIIIIEEEEEEED.

Well that's not what really happened said Papa Lovi, but whatever floats your boat

I didn't have a boat?

Whatevs.

Anyways, then the Queen was hung upside down in the sky cause she was a mean biatch and stuff

I though Papa Toni would say LANGUAGUAGE LOVI at him, but Papa Toni was sleeping cause he was cool, but also a wimp

So was Teo

And Teo sleeped as well

Oh so he could do other things that cry

And that's her dress you see Papa Lovi told me and Lulu, it's the dress of the Queen, that's dangling over her head

Man

That sucks

Hanging upside down with a dress over your head

I told Papa Lovi I might save her one day, once my rocket ship was finished. I even had pics of it CAUSE I DREW IT MYSELVES with RED.

I know you could do that, if one person could do that, it would be you Papa Lovi said

And then he patted my head

It made me feel pretty happy cause I made papa smile teeheehee I made papa smile

Lulu fell asleep too

WOW A WONDERS

Lulu NEVER sleeps

And then Papa Lovi saids he and I should crawl into our sleeping bags as well and try to catch some sleep like the others were doing

I said okay and I hugged papa cause papa's papa and he said he loved me and I said I loves him too and PAPA LOVI SNORES.

But just a little

And I felt a bit scared sleeping outside where the monsters could be

But papa had VERY strong arms

He'd strangle them all if they'd try something

I knew

And then and then and then…

Um.

And then I fell asleep!

/0o0\

'Mr. Spain? Mr. Spain, could you please wake up?'

I first wanted to groan a loud 'no, leave me alone, I'm tired, those kids have completely eaten all of my energy and I'm lying so very comfortable right now' but… ugh, but that was way too much of a sentence to say. Besides, it would be a lot easier to just open my eyes and see what familiar voice had tried to wake me up.

Also, I was cold.

…

Wait, last night…

…

Oh god. Don't tell me.

Did the five of us really fell asleep on the grass, just outside of the tent?

I opened my eyes and sat up – very quickly, like ripping off a band aid – and swiftly looked around me.

The mustard-colored tent was indeed right behind me, the sleeping bag was around me, and Lovi and the kids were lying next to me, all still asleep, two of them snoring contently. One of them was Lovi – he snored, yup, not too much or too loud, but he did, and the other one…

…oh, Allie snored, huh? I didn't know that…

'Mr. Spain!' I heard again, and I stopped yawning half-way to glance up. I instantly recognized Hernández, my slightly slow doctor that bore a shocking resemblance to me – I still didn't see it, by the way – but I didn't recognize the man standing beside Hernández.

At least, not right away. But I could have sworn I've seen that huge posture and dangerous beard before.

'Ah, Dr. Hernández,' I said, scratching my head with an apologizing smile. 'I… kind of feel bad for you for having to find us like this, ahahahaha…'

'Good GOD,' the man with the beard muttered, 'you weren't kidding – that moron looks just like you!'

I looked at the man, dazed, and wondered what I should say in response to that. It was pretty rude of him to call me a moron, but there was something about him… something that almost made him cute.

Almost.

Mind my words.

Almost.

He wasn't my type at all – he just sounded like my type, and that was enough to make me confused, confused enough to not-get pissed at him.

…

Oh.

Ohhhhhhh.

I get it, I get it – it was that Italian guy, huh? That Stefano-man.

…

Well, it's nice to know that Italian men were my weakness, regardless if I was attracted to them or not…

Still better not tell Lovino about this.

'So.' I said as I got up from the ground. 'You're Stefano, I presume?'

The bearded man growled and put his arms together. 'That's Mr. Castagnetti for you, Mr. Spain.'

'Mr. Castagnetti?'

'My last name.'

'Your last name's… Castagnetti?'

'Is there a problem with that?'

'No, it just sounds so… so… musical.'

'…musical?'

'No no, don't mind me, Mr. Castanet…'

'CASTAGNETTI.' Hernández' lover's face got all big and red as he turned to said doctor. 'You see what I told you? I knew he was going to say something like that, I just knew it, ALL those damn Spaniards hear my last name and think "ohhh, castanets! How fun!" You know how annoying that is?'

Hernández just smiled like him like a love-sick idiot and shrugged. 'I don't know, my love – your last name's just very beautiful sounding to us Spaniards…'

As Mr. Casanova got even more embarrassed and stammered all kind of insults, I decided to check the time on my cell phone. I didn't know what time it was, though I did know Lovi and I didn't need to travel that long since the meeting was in France this time. However, I wondered how long we had been catching z's here in the open field…

Ugh, I left my cell inside, didn't I?

'Mr. Spain,' Hernández suddenly said again, 'I hope you don't mind I brought Stefano with me. It's just that he loves kids as well, you see, and since it doesn't look like we are going to get some children of our own anyday soon, I thought it would be nice to bring him with me!'

'No, you DRAGGED me here,' Mr. Castaway corrected him. 'You threw me out of bed and pushed me into the damn car before I could even comb my beard! And you know how much my beard means to me!'

Hernández ignored him, like I, admittedly, ignored Lovino as well sometimes when he was being unreasonable.

'Anyway, Mr. Spain. I'm glad we've found you! You see, when Stefano and I came here and saw the front door was half open, we for one moment feared the worst, like you and Mr. Romano had fled or something – you sounded pretty panicky yesterday evening, after all – and then we searched for you inside the House, and my, it was such a mess inside, ahahahaha, like someone had dropped a huge toilet paper bomb!~ And then my Stefanito, who has very sharp, mesmerizing blue eyes – did you notice? Aren't they just two jewels, hidden in the dark-brown shrubberies that are his eyebrows – suddenly saw a tent standing in the back yard, and my god, Mr. Spain, I was so happy to see all of you were okay!'

'Oh. Okay,' I said. I was still a bit drowsy, really – I'd rather pretend I never saw them and go back to sleep with Lovino and the kids.

I mean, god, just look at them, the four of them all cuddled up… Lovino on his back, one of his arms holding Alejo, who had rolled against him, his other arm was being hold on to by Luisa and Matteo lied on his stomach, his legs resting on Lovino's legs, his head resting on my legs. Like a bridge between the two of us.

AWW!~

Dr. Hernández seemed to realize I was still busy waking up – or busy gawking at my adorable family – and cleared his throat to get my attention.

'Mr. Spain… I'm sorry we woke you up like that, but… shouldn't you and Mr. Romano get ready for your meeting already? It's pretty late already and you still need to make a pretty long trip…'

'Yes. You're right.' I breathed in and out. 'We should hurry up, I know – I'll just wake Lovino and the kids up real quick. Just…'

'…yes?' Hernández smiled.

'Just… just let me look at them sleeping for ten more seconds, okay?'

I didn't wait for his permission and gazed at Lovi and our kids, stirring around and mumbling sleepy mutterings.

They looked so beautiful, so vulnerable, so… so precious, all of them…

I wish I could hold on this moment forever. I wanted to engrave this family picture into my memory and never forget it, no matter what would happen during and after the meeting.

I was kind of scared for what was going to come. I admit it. I know it didn't have to be a bad thing that was going to happen, since the letter had been shockingly aloof and none-too-threatening (although that 'we know where you are' comment spooked me), but it was just a gut feeling.

Things were going to change after this meeting. I felt they were. Maybe even change in a way I didn't want them to change. So…

So I should cherish this moment.

Cherish this moment until the ten seconds had turned into fifty seconds.

/0o0\

Because both Lovino and I were the current holders of the Get-Dressed-Crazily-Fast World Record – we had a tendency to sleep in and arrive just in time at a lot of important happenings, after all – putting on some slick, smooth formal clothes with rapid speed was easy as pie.

Sure, Lovino swore during the whole get changed-thing since he hadn't even thought about what to put on yet (like 'dammit dammit dammit I can't believe you just let me snore away like that, what on Earth should I put on, ugh, I've got nothing to wear dammit dammit'), but trust me if I tell you Lovi and I were already ready to go after fifteen measly seconds.

All thanks to Dr. Hernández and his hot-tempered lover. The two of them had been kind enough to prepare some breakfast for us as soon as we speed-walked out of the bedroom, and they even had brought our kids to their beds in the meantime.

'We thought about waking them up…' the doctor said, '…but they seemed to be so peaceful and at ease, we-we just couldn't bring ourselves to wake them up. So we hope you don't mind we carried them to bed.'

'You really have a lovely bunch of kids,' Mr. Caravaggio had to admit. Aww, even a wild-looking man like he could be completely swept off his endeared feet by the cuteness that was our offspring!~

'Letting them sleep was the right thing to do – they're wonderful, but saying goodbye would cost us even more time. In any case, thank you two so much for all of your help,' Lovino sighed as he fixed his – very sexy – black jacket's bottom buttons and took a gulp of milk in the same hasty but flawless fashion, 'if it weren't for you guys, we'd probably have arrived too late at that damn meeting, and… well, I don't think we want to miss this meeting…'

Lovino didn't talk any details about the meeting, and I was glad he didn't. We never told the doctor about the way our children had just appeared one day and we hadn't told him about the PPSS or the unsettling events we had been experiencing in the last few days/weeks, either. Partly because it was none of his business, partly because it would just take too much time to explain. Also, maybe Guillermo had somehow informed him about our situation…

…naaaaah, Guillermo's probably still too busy being an old, mean man to show some interest in his grandson.

'Antonio! Ugh, just look at you – your tie's crooked!'

I was roughly pulled out of my musings – pretty literally, too – and when I looked down, I saw Lovino, his hazel eyes looking very intense as he fidgeted around with the black tie I had loosely put around my neck.

'Oh, sorry,' I said, chuckling. 'I'm no good with ties.'

'I'll fix it,' Lovino reassured me, and I could've sworn he gave me a little forgiving smile as he put the tie underneath my dress shirt's collar.

He looked so handsome.

Oh, so very handsome.

Lovino always bragged about how Italian men were the most good-looking men of all men in the entire world, but god, he was so right about that. He was such an attractive, charming, dignified and charismatic man – I just couldn't keep my eyes of him.

And I had married him! I had gone and married him. I almost knew for sure there were many men and women out there that hated my guts for claiming Lovino as my lawfully wedded husband. I was such a lucky bastard – Lovi told me this many times a day, but he was right, again, he was right. I was lucky.

'You're staring.' Lovino had just finished fixing my tie and smiled cheekily at me. 'Thinking about how damn handsome I am, huh?'

'Yes,' I nodded, 'and about how lucky I am to have married you.'

'You're a lucky bastard and you know it,' Lovino said, proudly puffing up his chest.

I laughed softly. 'So… are we ready to go, sweetie?'

'Wait a minute.'

Lovino looked at my tie one last time, nodded as if he wanted to say 'uh-huh that's perfect' and then he grabbed it, yanking me towards him to press a firm kiss on my lips.

'Now we're ready to go,' he grinned as he released me again, his cheeks flushed but controlled.

I could only smile and blush, just as much as he did.

/0o0\

I felt a bit weird about leaving the House without saying goodbye to the kids.

Well, okay, Lovi and I did went back to their bedroom and whispered goodbye to them and even pressed kisses on their foreheads, and okay, Matteo even woke up to sleepily hug me and Lovi real quick before falling back asleep, but they didn't see us off, and that was strange. It felt strange – yes, it just felt strange. I had grown so close with our kids, it was weird to ignore one of our family-esk rituals.

'You're such a dad,' Lovino commented when I told him, shortly after we had departed and waved at Hernández and Mr. Castagnetti – oh wait, sorry, Castaroni. 'But I know what you mean. Some rituals can be pretty nice. I mean, I know I'll manage to find the way back to them, but I'm still very relieved that Luisa gave me her dog tag again.'

'Oh, she gave you her necklace!' I smiled broadly. 'When did she give it to you?'

'Yesterday, during dinner. I bet she really liked those pancakes.' Lovi beamed. 'I took it as a sign that she had really forgiven us for going away. Again.'

I sighed and looked at the road. 'We should do something fun again. The five of us, I mean. Maybe we could go visit something special later this week? Like the Sagrada Familia – it could be fun and educational. Maybe we could even tell them about our wedding!'

'O-okay, then let's!' Lovi nodded excitedly. 'We'll take them to where we got married this week. It'll be great!'

'Deal!' I grinned and felt a bit more at ease. Looked like we had just found a very suitable way to make up for sneaking away from the children. And for going away from them to some lame meeting in the first place, of course.

/0o0\

We were still a out of it as we drove to France – both Lovino and me. We had stayed up a bit too late last night, no doubt. I suspected we probably fell asleep when it had been past one already…

Oh god. That was late. I suddenly understood why the kids hadn't waken up when Hernández and his lover had brought them to their beds.

Anyway, Lovino and I decided to take turns in driving. Normally, Lovino wouldn't let me drive at all as he was driving – he was strangely possessive about the car, it was kind of cute – but like I had said, we were tired, so Lovi didn't mind it this time to switch places with me. That way, we could take little naps while driving to Strasbourg.

We weren't very nervous or anxious about what could possibly happen or be told during that extra meeting, by the way. Me neither - not anymore. I'm not really sure why we weren't but I guess the fact we were sleepy and recovering from a rough night that sadly enough had nothing to do with sex (nothing at all, even though I would have liked to sleep with Lovino last night - to be honest, that was on my to-do-list, pfffft funny - before we went to tell the kids), had made us really indifferent about the meeting.

So yeah.

It was a calm, normal, sluggish route to Strasbourg, France.

Nothing special to add to that.

/0o0\

It was a quarter to three when we arrived in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg was a pretty beautiful place, I have to say. The city seemed to breathe old culture and there were well-kept green parks here and there. There were also castle-like buildings placed around the city, as if they had run away from mysterious, medieval times. There were ponds, lakes and bridges, and in all honestly – it was a good think it had just been my turn to drive, because Lovi was so amazed by all of the wonderful architecture and what-not around us that he'd probably had crashed the car into the water.

'Oh wow,' he muttered, his face almost pressed against the window of the car, 'this place is fucking breathtaking! Look, Antonio! Look at those buildings! The trees! My god those little houses lined up on the side of the street are so damn ADORABLE!'

I still didn't give a crap about architecture, though, so I just responded with stealthy comments like 'yeah that's nice sweetie' and 'oh really how interesting my love' and acted like an uninterested douchebag in general, to be honest – but lucky for me, Lovi was too mesmerized by the city to even notice.

Like this, we roamed around in Strasbourg for a little while, and then we suddenly saw the place of our destination, the Palace of Europe, in the not-so-far-away distance.

It was a large, imposing and pale-colored, square building – with the all the European flags placed in front of it. The flags were fluttering in front of a huge grassy area and close to the parking lot, just in front of the building.

There wasn't much space left, though: there were cars EVERYWHERE. Seriously EVERYWHERE around the darn "Palace". It took me at least ten minutes to find me a decent place to park the car – and while I was repressing the need to act like Lovino and swear my butt off, Lovino informed me about all the personifications he had spotted already.

'There's Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania… oh, and there are Belarus and Ukraine as well. Looks like Romania finally found himself a decent hat… and Femke! Femke is here as well, Antonio! She looks pretty nice in pink. And there's Denmark… Turkey… Greece… Hungary and Austria…'

'Sounds like most of us are here, huh?' I said, uttering a celebratory sigh of immense relief when I noticed a free spot. 'Did you see Feliciano yet?'

'No.' Lovino's voice died a bit. 'Maybe he didn't come.'

'I'm pretty sure he did come, Lovi,' I said as I parked the car. 'England mentioned the PPSS knows where he hid, so he must have gotten the letter as well. Didn't you see Germany already?'

'That's the point – I did see Germany. But he was alone.'

'How did he look?'

'Surprisingly suave, I guess. He sure knows how to wear a spiffy blue tux.'

I chuckled and we got out of the car. 'No, Lovi – how did he look? Happy, angry, sad?'

Lovino frowned. 'I…I'm not sure…'

'Well, we'll find out later, no doubt.'

I looked around, noticed most countries were going inside the building already – well, I guess it was about time we did – and suggested to Lovino we'd do the same. Lovino nodded and the both of us merged into the big collection of very neatly dressed countries, spilling into the building like we were all extremely important people.

Once we were inside and waited in the spacious hallway until 'they would come pick us up', or so the civil servants (I didn't know they really were civil servants, they just looked like civil servants) told us, I saw Francis and Gilbert's faces in the big crowd.

'Hey!' I cried out and waved at them. Francis and Gilbert – one of them had been staring into space with a bored expression, the other one had been discussing things with Canada – waved back and then wiggled themselves past the other nations to join me and Lovino. So did Femke, who looked happy to see familiar faces, and Hungary and Austria, who both looked drop-dead gorgeous. The Netherlands spotted us too and also came our way.

…

Why.

Francis, Gilbert, Femke, Hungary and Austria were my friends, so I could understand why they came to us, but why Netherlands.

'Because I'm Romano's friend, you Spanish dipshit,' the Dutchman bluntly told me, not even looking at Lovino as he carelessly lighted a cigarette.

'No you're NOT,' Lovino nagged, 'you don't even know my human name!'

'Of course I do. It's Marco.'

'Marco?'

'Yes, Marco. All you Italians are called Marco. Or Paulo. Or Christiano. You guys just grab a normal name, stick an 'o' to the end of it and call it Italian.'

'My name's NOT Marco!'

'But it IS something with an 'o' at the end, right?'

'…yes, but—'

'That means I'm partly right, so you're partly wrong. Let's call it a draw.'

'Whu-what are you even…'

Femke decided to end the silly discussion by laughing weirdly and putting a hand on Lovino's arm.

'Smile and nod, honey – just smile and nod. That's what I do when he's picking a fight or just being his jackass-self.'

'I heard that,' the Netherlands said.

'That's because I didn't think it this time.' Femke glared at him, annoyed, which luckily was enough for her brother to get the hint and keep quiet – for now.

Femke looked very pretty with her pink dress – which was a rarity, Femke almost never wore feminine colors as far as I knew – but aside from her clothes, she looked troubled, tired and slightly jumpy. She probably didn't get much sleep. According to what Russia had told me about her last time, her health had at least improved at lot more. Maybe it was because we had found out that the kids were mortal?

Femke gave me a thrifty smile. 'Actually, Antonie, I've only started feeling a bit better after we got that letter. It promised us answers, and that was soothingly enough for me to finally knock me out of my creepy behavior. I just hope we don't get any unwanted surprises…'

'Talking about creepy behavior,' I said as I looked around the large hall, 'where's Russia?'

She giggled. 'Don't be mean, he's pretty friendly once you get to know him!~ He told me he wanted to check out what the ruckus was about over there, so I said he could just go if he wanted to find out – I spotted you and Lovino on that moment anyway, so…'

'Ruckus?' Lovino – who always was a bit timid and silent when he was around a lot of other countries – unexpectedly spoke up. 'What ruckus?'

'Well, that ruckus.' Austria, who had listened to us, pointed to a small, but very noticeable group of countries, standing a couple of meters away from us with their backs turned our way as they stared at something and seemed to be stunned by that same something. I then recognized Russia's figure (he was the only person wearing a scarf with his suit). He simply looked over the countries in front of him and was very confused as well.

'What's going on?' Lovino muttered as our ground made our way towards the other group as well. 'Are there people bleeding to death over there or something?'

Francis shuddered. 'My oh my, aren't you the romantic, Romano.'

'Yeah,' Gilbert added, 'no wonder Anton fell in love with your bratty, pessimistic ass.'

Lovino huffed and was about to say something nasty, when we suddenly heard a very familiar laugh – tearing through the air but sounding like a very warm, comforting welcome.

'Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Well! You Europeans certainly know how to organize a black tie party!'

Lovino, the others and I exchanged bewildered looks.

A-America?

He was here?

And he laughed?

'America, you bloody twit, this isn't a bloody party – it's a very important MEETING. Why are you here in the first place? You're NOT European, you blubbering dolt! Get lost already!'

And… and England?

Sounding like England, and not like a broken man who had lost all his hopes and dreams?

'Okay – that's enough,' Hungary decidedly said and before I could even try to stop her from doing anything drastic, she started pushing the baffled nations around the duo out of our way, so that we could actually get a look on the two. Netherlands proved to be not completely useless by lending Hungary a hand and even Russia helped, by simply walking with us and causing other countries to back off in fear.

When enough nations had been pushed out of our way (or ran off), we finally saw the two English-speaking countries eye to eye.

They looked…

They looked fine, really! Perfectly, absolutely fine!

Sure, England was still a bit skinny, but he had taken care of his appearance and looked just as irritated by everything around him as usual. No, as… as before all of this had happened.

And America… well, America always looked like he had just won the jackpot, and today was no exception. The only disturbing thing was that the last time we had seen America this happy and peppy was during his nightly escapade to the PPSS-headquarters, just before a dart plunged into his neck.

Oh, and that bandage around his throat. I guess you could call that kind of disturbing as well.

'America!' Hungary was the first to say as the rest of us acted like statues, grabbing the America's upper arms in amazement. 'You're okay! Thank God you are!'

America laughed, giving her a confused look. 'Of course I'm okay, Hungary! I'm America! I'm the best goddamn country in the whole wide world! I produce hamburgers and FREEDOM on a regular basis! Why wouldn't I be okay?'

England made an 'ugh' sound and rolled his eyes. 'You're so full of yourself, you know that? I still can't believe I'm going out with such an utter fool. I must be loony.'

'That's not what you said last night.'

'S-shut up!'

…

Something…

Something wasn't right.

It felt off. Their behavior, their reactions, even their tones and the way they looked at each other…

What had happened to them?

'So tell us,' France asked America before I could, 'what did they do with you? Did the PPSS threaten you, or did they let you go with just a warning?'

America blinked with his eyes, his smile still intact but his entire being even more confused than before.

'I'm sorry – what? PPSS? What's a PPSS?'