Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: I barely had time to do any writing this week, so I'm apologizing beforehand for this very short (and late! Oh, so late!) chapter. I mean, ughhhhh. I normally write a lot more than this, but… well, I really didn't have much time this week. I had to study, meet a friend, work, prepare stuff to pick up my car, then actually fetch my car (I've chosen a red Matiz, by the way, and I named her Matilda ^^) and order new books for the next period of school, so I really can't help this week's short chapter.
Sorry…

A/n2: So! I'm starting my internship at a school this Wednesday. It's going to be at the same school as my father (but he teaches Metal Technique so I'll probably won't see him around a lot, which is good) and I'm both excited and slightly freaked out about it. XDDDDDDDD It's been a long time since the last day I interacted with teenagers in a class and everything. Also, my dad and my new mentor both warned me the kids at the school are pretty hard to handle.
'But you're a pedagogue,' my dad gloated, 'so you'll be fine! You'll know how to deal with a difficult cases! Probably. Right?'
…well, I don't really know, but I'm happy I'm only allowed to observe the following weeks. Let's hope everything will turn out just fine! ^^

A/n3: Some of you wondered what happened with Ángel and Stefano. And you should – they haven't appeared in a while. Not because I've forgotten them, but because I rambled too much. Again. With too many characters. Yeah, I tend to do that, in case you hadn't noticed yet. ^^;;; Sorry for that.
I WAS planning to make them appear in this chapter, but I had no time to make the chapter bigger than this. So they'll most likely pop up in the next chapter.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't worry, they will come back! Absolutely! They have a very important role, after all. Especially Ángel.

A/n4: ZombiecookieX (I'm sorry, I've forgotten your fanfic-name and I hope you know I mean you when you read this), remember those wonderful drawings you made for me a while ago? I've made a small reference to them in this chapter! ^^

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 76:

Parenthood is about guiding the next generation – and forgiving the last.
Peter Kraus
(German singer and actor)

Venetia walked into the apartment, took a long and good look around her – especially at the two grinning dorks sitting on the dying couch – and then, she finally twirled around again to give me a praising smile.

'I see you have your own personal male micro-harem. Nice. We'll become good friends.'

What the…

'Wha— no, no, they're not my… micro-harem, they're my brothers!' I stammered, while Alejo started grinning even more widely (but at the same time, Matteo's smile started to falter). 'They're Alejo and Matteo – they're Spain and South Italy's other kids! Sorry I didn't mention they were coming over as well, but… well, here they are.'

'Aha. Okay then.'

Venetia dropped her suitcase on the small and fragile coffee table Seb once scored on a flea market and instantly sat down in-between both my brothers. With a very serious face, too, as if she was going to give us a stern speech or something. Matteo reacted quite allergic, trying to scoot away from her and all – but Alejo seemed to swell with satisfaction and was more than happy to let her sit next to him.

'So.' Venetia looked from Alejo to Matteo. 'You two are unrealistically handsome. I mean, whoa, just look at you – you're pretty much the slightly-younger spitting images of your Spanish father. You got the same scary creepiness hanging around you – that kind of makes me want to jump you, and you are so freakishly adorable and cute – that kind of makes me want to jump you, too. I could jump both of you. Maybe I will.'

'U-um…' Matteo said, looking rather panicky.

'I'm sorry, Weird-But-Attractive-Italian-Girl, but we're both pretty much taken already! Well, sort of. Still, let me discuss it with my girlfriend, and maybe you will be granted permission to jump me. Or she'll kill us both. Ahahahaha. But anyway!' Alejo then leaned in closer to Venetia's face, because what the hell's personal space, anyway. 'You mentioned our Spanish dad! Tell me more about him! I saw him out on the street once in Barcelona, but—'

'In Barcelona?' Venetia – who didn't mind Alejo's closeness at all, by the way – frowned. 'What were they doing in Barcelona? They live in Madrid.'

'Maybe they were shopping,' I mused. 'After all, you can buy the greatest things in Barcelona. It's always busy here, dammit, you can't even find a place to decently park your car, even if you live here.'

'Raquel lives in Madrid, too!~' Matteo, totally not-relevant as usual, mentioned with a slightly bigger smile.

'Well, it's not really important, I guess,' Venetia handwaved it away and cleared her throat. 'Anyway, well done, Luisa, I'm pleased to see that you even collected your brothers to meet up with me here. It will go a lot faster if all three of you are willing to try and remember your real fathers. Also, handsome Spanish guys.'

I stared at her with half-closed eyes. 'You done yet gushing over my brothers? It's getting really annoying.'

'Oh, you want me to gush about you, too?' Venetia beamed a small and rare-looking smile at me. 'I'm not really into girls, but since you look a lot like a female version of you Italian father – who, by the way, is also very easy on the eyes – I guess I could flirt with you, too.'

'No you can't,' a gruff voice next to me suddenly said – and there Seb was, all dressed up, and looking rather cranky. 'She's also taken. By me. I took her last night, even. It was good.'

'S-SHUT THE FUCK UP!' I yelled, stomping him in the fucking knee-hole and making him crash down on the floor. But it was too late, both Matteo and Alejo were cracking up already (look at them, all snickery and chuckely, those bastards), so the damage was done. That fucking blunt asshole.

No sex for him this night!

'Sorry. It slipped right out.' Seb crawled up again like nothing had happened and nodded to our visitor. 'Nice to meet you, Venetia. Please molest Alejo instead of Luisa.'

'Seb!' I shrilly said.

Alejo sighed. 'Yeah, Seb, shush! Didn't you hear what I just said? I'm an honest man! I'll have to ask Aimee's permission to get molested, first! God, you people are so persistent.'

Still, he didn't make any effort to grab his phone and contact with his girlfriend, so I guess he actually wasn't really eager about getting too close with Tosca's daughter. A good sign – looked like he really had changed over the years, or at least he really was genuinely in love with that creepy French chick.

'Who are you?' Venetia asked Seb, looking at him strangely. 'You have a familiar face – and I'm not saying this because I want to chat you up. You're too blunt and blond for me.'

'Yay,' Seb said, never changing his facial expression. 'But moving right along – I guess my face seems familiar to you because I'm the Netherlands and Liechtenstein's son.'

'What?' Venetia said.

'What?' the twins both exclaimed.

'What?' I stammered.

Seb nodded. 'Probably. I saw this picture in that huge book of your mother – still haven't finished it, by the way. That blond, big-eyed kid sure looks a lot like me when I was that age. Also, I kind of recognize that street and the House in the background.'

He went to get the book from the bedroom (well, more like non-private bed-area-part of the apartment) and came back with it already opened on the right page.

'Here,' he said as he put it down on the small table in-between the couches, 'this is me. Cautious, though. I'm cute as hell.'

We all stared at the picture on the page he was pointing at. A small, blond boy with a lifeless expression he couldn't really do anything about and with both of his petit hands being hold by two unknown figures that we could only see the lower halves of, looked right into the camera. Alejo and Matteo both muttered they didn't really see anything cute about that dead-fish-eyes-kid, but I thought he was freaking adorable!~

Look at him! Aww! All tiny and squishy and poke-able!~ Mini Seb – oh god, it was Mini Seb! I could fucking cry!

'Check out those cheeks!~ Aww, I want to pinch him – he's such a sweetie!' I cooed, giggling and looking up why the others didn't say anything about Seb's unbearable adorableness. Venetia, Alejo and Matteo only gave me three speechless looks and never answered my unspoken question. And I'm not sure why, but somehow, a certain part of me told me that maybe that was for the best.

Meanwhile, Seb was beaming with pride – as far as he could beam with pride while being an emotionless guy and everything – and even smiled, very content with my reaction.

'Anyway,' Venetia then said suddenly said, ruthlessly closing the book again (and making Seb utter a soft 'nooooo'), 'if you really are this kid, then you're probably indeed the Netherlands and Liechtenstein's son. I have to admit I see many resemblances with you and your father, but just to be sure, I'll have to ask you a few questions later. Is that okay?'

'Sure. But only questions?' Seb frowned and sat down. 'What about a DNA-test? I heard you can find out someone's DNA in a matter of seconds if you want to these days.'

'Unfortunately, I don't have any DNA of your parents. The Leaders of the World have gotten very careful about the DNA of their beloved personifications, they don't allow anybody to take their DNA anymore and there is no information about the DNA that was taken from them before. Also, my mother hasn't had contact with any personification in decades. That's why I'll have to do everything with questions,' Venetia explained. 'Besides, if you turn out to not be the kids I've been looking for (which would admittedly amaze me), the appearance of your unimportant person in front of them will have no effect at all on the personifications. They'll chase you away on their own, really. They're pretty fierce, after all. You shouldn't mock or provoke them.'

Alejo's face fell. 'You make it sound like they are wild animals.'

'Cool. Maybe I'll get mauled by my dad if I go knock on his door,' Seb mused.

'B-but that's not fair!' I stammered. 'Venetia, your mother explained in her book that the memories of the nations could be repressed far more effectively than the memories of us – their children! For all that we know, they might send us away anyway even if we are their biological kids!'

'That's true.' Venetia started opening up the massive suitcase she had carrying with her. 'That's why you'll need a big trigger – just mentioning your name and flinging your necklace at them probably won't do much with them. You'll need to get an reaction from deep within them that forces them to remember you. It's hard, I know, and I will tell you more about that problem later, but first, let's see what I have brought with me for you, okay?'

Venetia took some old-looking things out of the suitcase and carefully spread them on the coffee table.

It was a book, a plastic toy-axe and some brown-orange shards.

\0o0/

This day had started out as just another carefree, lazy, well-what-shall-we-do-today-day.

We woke up, stayed in bed until it was unreasonably late in the morning (as usual), took a shower, had some breakfast, checked out the schedule for the next European/International meetings that were planned for the following weeks and, eventually, we ended up in the garden, where Antonio tended his tomato-plants and I looked after the flowers and shit, which I took pretty literally.

'Lovi!' Antonio shot me a disappointed glare from the tomato-plants as he noticed I sat in front of one of our few flowerbeds and just stared at them. 'I thought you told me you were going to look after the flowers!'

'Well what the fuck do you think I'm doing, you nosy wiseass?' I huffed. 'I'm looking after them. Very much, even.'

'You're just staring at them!'

'No, I'm giving them attention by showering them with my indifferent love. Plants kill for my indifferent love. It's good.'

Antonio rolled his eyes – I could see even from this distance – and adjusted his stupid straw hat that made him look hot and sexy and very stupid, all at once, dammit, and I had the strangest boner right now.

'Well, at least give them some water, Lovino – it's going to be a very hot day, and since it's still pretty early in the afternoon, you really need to water them now.'

'What's wrong with watering them later, dammit?'

'Um. Well.' Antonio scratched the back of his neck. 'They'll boil. Alive. Like a Finnish sauna.'

'Like a Finnish sauna. Right.' I chuckled. 'You're such a dumbass, Antonio.'

He made a angry face, which was just adorable, and put his hands in his side. 'Hey, I'm not joking here! If you're going to help me out, you better take it more seriously!'

'Yeah yeah,' I said, getting up from the grass. 'You know what? I'll go make ourselves some nice glasses of tomato-juice, and then you'll take a break from worshipping your tomatoes, and then, I'll just chill out on the stretcher for the remainder of the day and watch you get more sweaty and dirty by the passing second.'

Antonio sighed and wiped his forehead, but I could spy a small smile resting on his lips.

'Alright. But only if you take care of dinner tonight.'

'Will do! What's the number of that really good pizza-takeout again?'

'Lovi!'

'Just kidding, just kidding!' I grinned and gave him a reassuring wink. 'I'll make sure to feed you well, okay? You're my… my important lover, after all.'

Antonio paused from fumbling with some tomatoes and flushed. 'Okay! I-I love you, too!~'

Oh GOD, that FACE!

I-I gulped, pushed away the strange need to run over to him and hug him tightly, and just nodded instead. Then I made my way back to the House as fast as I could, because my cheeks were fucking burning hot all of a sudden as well, dammit, and it was not because of the sun.

So all was fine and well and romantic and easy and even kind of boring, I guess, as I prepared some tomato-juice from both me and Antonio in the kitchen, but all of a sudden, that cell phone of me started ringing – and if I knew then what I know now, right after that doomed phone call, maybe I wouldn't have answered that damn thing, so that Antonio and I could have had at least one more quiet day with no worries.

But it was Feliciano calling, and that asshole-brother almost never called me, so I answered it.

'What do you want?' I therefore gruffly started the conversation, putting the tomato-juice back in the refrigerator.

'Lovi! Something… something really strange happened to me and Luddy today, and I'm scared, and I thought I should warn you!'

I stopped in my movements. Feliciano sounded more stressed out that I had heard in years (also, no dorky "veee"), so I decided to grant him the same honor as I had granted the plants outside – my full attention.

'What? What's the matter – why do you sound so upset? Calm down, first!'

'There was a girl here!' Feliciano hissed, ignoring me. 'A young, German-looking girl with-with a blonde ponytail and blue eyes! She could've been Luddy's sister – the resemblance was uncanny!'

'And?' I didn't really see the point. 'So a German girl knocked on your door that looked just like that potato-snacker. Big deal. You're living in Germany, Feliciano, of course you'll see people looking like that buff husband of yours! Man, if I could get an euro each and every time I noticed a guy looking just like Antonio, I'd have enough money to install a fucking swimming pool in the backyard by now! I mean, just the other day, Antonio and I met this guy in Barcelona, and I swear to—'

'She claimed to be our daughter!' Feliciano cut me off, his voice downright hysterical now. 'Sh-she said she her name was Machteld, or Ilse, or… or whatever, and then she said she had missed us so much, and then she wanted to eat pasta with me, and she called me mama! Mama!'

I could have made a nasty remark about the "mama"-part, but all I could do was open my mouth and let nothing come out of it.

'I-I've never seen that girl before – and neither has Ludwig! But when we told her that, she didn't want to listen and grabbed him by his waist and cried why we didn't know her anymore, and I actually had to call the police, big brother – I had to call the police to come and drag her off!'

'My god,' I managed to mutter.

'W-we're so upset right now, all Ludwig's doing is hiding himself from me and-and I called my – I mean, our – doctor, and he told me it's Tosca's work!'

I felt my hand tighten around the handle of the refrigerator. 'You mean our former doctor? That young one that suddenly didn't want to be our doctor anymore twenty years ago – that doctor?'

'Y-yes!' Feliciano was sobbing now. 'It's that book of hers. You heard she wrote a book on us? Wh-what did we ever do to her to make her… make her write some book full of lies about us – why did she do that! Doesn't she know how much we suffer for being unable to have kids? W-why… why did she have to make money from her experiences with us like that!...'

'F-Feliciano, come on, you—'

'I-I have to call more nations, Lovi – help me out, will you? T-tell Big Brother Toni about what I told you, and… and please be wary around young people knocking on your door… or strange phone-calls! The doctor said what happened to me and Ludwig will probably happen to more nations... s-since Tosca's book is pretty popular, so… ugh… I feel so bad right now… and that poor girl! I-I can't stop my tears when I think about her… She was so desperate...'

'Feli—'

'I-I'm sorry – I got to go, okay? I… I need some rest.'

Before I could even ask him if he wanted me to come visit him or… or cheer him up, he ended the call and left me hanging.

…

I had to sit down for a bit.

\0o0/

Benedetta Tosca was a very young and clever Italian woman when Feliciano and I first met her. She had sharp, piercing eyes, a voice that gave away how deadly serious she could be and a knack for effortlessly learning about medicines, sicknesses, diseases and ways to patch up horrible wounds. She was the best student from her graduation year and boy, she knew it.

While Feliciano and I firstly were a bit intimidated by her, we quickly grow to like our extremely professional, sometimes somewhat cold doctor – partly because she actually was a very loyal and trustworthy woman if you looked past her scary exterior, partly because she was pretty.

It's a horrible and shallow reason, and I'm not proud of it, but really, Tosca's beauty certainly helped us liking her faster.

Anyway, she was a good doctor. I trusted her blindly, and so did Feliciano. She was accepting and probably the first personal doctor Feliciano and I had that didn't mind our sexual preferences at all – she was there to look after us, not to judge our sexuality.

But something happened.

About twenty years ago, something happened – I'm not sure what happened, but something did happen. Tosca had gotten pregnant from her husband and she had taken her maternity leave at a certain moment, but… she never returned from that break. Not even when she had given birth to her daughter and was meant to come back.

She just didn't.

According to some conversations about her that I sneakily overheard (during meetings and such), I found out that Tosca apparently couldn't handle being around us anymore. And she was not the only one: loads and loads of personal doctors quit their jobs twenty years ago, or so I discovered. Without a logical explanation. Just like that.

Feliciano and I were hurt, of course. What did we ever do to her to give her a reason to ditch us like that? Did we say anything wrong? Did we do anything wrong?

Well, we didn't know and we wouldn't ever know, because we never spoke to Dr. Tosca again after she went on her maternity leave. Others told us about her baby girl and her decision to terminate her appointment of employment as our personal doctor – very unprofessional, and very unlike her. It even angered me.

And now this.

I have to be honest here – I had heard people gossip about Tosca having hit rock-bottom or something and trying to make some money by writing a book in which she didn't only exposure all of the personifications, history and troubles, but, apparently, also made up blatant lies about us having mortal kids. So bizarre. Personifications can't have kids – we're immortal beings, we're not supposed to pass our genes to a next generation!

Human beings can be pretty oblivious and credulous, I know that much, but I hadn't expected them to actually go buy that crap and believe it, too. Or to suddenly "realize" they're actually the children of immortal beings.

Well, sure, part of the book is true, if it's really about us (haven't read it yet, probably won't even will) but still. People weren't supposed to believe all that information about personifications wandering around like real humans, never aging and having fought in all those wars – it's sounds too fantastic to be true, right? Especially when there are also kids being thrown into it. I mean, what the fuck?

I pressed my lips together tightly and clawed at my knees. I had thought Antonio and I could enjoy some nice and peaceful time together, after all those meetings and international problems. I had hoped we could plan and celebrate our wedding anniversary in tranquility, without too many unnecessary troubles and shit. But it looked like I was wrong – heck, it looked like our private lives were going to get destroyed very rapidly if we didn't fucking watch it.

…

I needed to inform Antonio about this. Right now.

Because no way some stupid, ignorant human was going to wiggle his- or herself into my and Antonio's lives with unbelievable lies and irrational yapping like that.

No way in fucking hell.

o\00/

Venetia observed us while we sat on the ground, surrounded by items out of the past. Books, toys, drawings, more toys, crayons and pencils, even more toys, and pictures.

Alejo kept squeezing the plastic axe he had been holding in his arms ever since the moment his eyes had caught a glimpse of it. Same story for Matteo – he had been touching and staring at the pot shards that Venetia had brought with her with a sad, but puzzled look on his face, wondering out loud why those bits and pieces made his eyes sting. Seb didn't do all that much, the things lying around us didn't 'hit' him all that much – 'Looks like I wasn't part of your lives back then, huh' – but as for me…

Well, I… I managed to finally find a picture with all five of us on it.

Not just my brothers and me – no, all five of us. Our… complete family.

It also happened to be the very first picture I saw with my fathers on it, so I couldn't stop myself – as soon as I held that picture in my hands, my eyes darted all over the two young, male adults on the image.

There was a man with short, curly hair, bouncing around his tanned face. He carried both Alejo and Matteo in his arms, in a clumsy, awkward way that still seemed very steady. I don't know – for some reason, I just knew for sure he wasn't going to let the twins fall, no matter how much Matteo was wiggling – with some sort of cactus and all. The curly-haired man laughed at something Alejo had apparently told him, although it was a laugh that told me he actually didn't really know how to respond on whatever Alejo had said.

'Papa Toni,' I muttered, putting a finger on the image.

Both Alejo and Matteo looked up. 'W-what did you say?'

'Papa Toni,' I repeated, now looking over to the other people in the picture. On the other side of the pic, there was another, slightly younger guy, holding a grumpy-looking girl with folded arms and an adorable, messy braid. She avoided eye-contact with the man holding her – but she-she listened to every word he seemed to be telling her. And even though the girl was being so mean, ignoring the guy and all, the guy wasn't bothered by it in the least. He looked at ease, amused and charmed by the girl's behavior. He also looked pretty cool.

'Papa Lovi,' I heard Matteo say next to me. I hadn't noticed anything, but while I had been watching the picture, both of my brothers had scooted over to me, and now all three of us stared at the picture, the knots in our head slowly untying themselves.

'I-I think I remember them,' Alejo suddenly said, gripping the plastic axe so very tightly I was afraid it could pop any second now. 'I'm serious – I seriously think I remember them! I… that one guy, that's holding me here – Papa Toni – I really looked up to him. I thought he was the most awesome father in the world!'

'Yeah?' I said, smiling at him.

'Yeah!' Alejo's hazel eyes started to twinkle. 'Like… r-remember that time I threw a huge tantrum because Papa Ángel didn't want to give me more candy, and I started tearing down the wallpaper? I also did those kind of things when we still lives with our biological fathers – I know I did. But unlike Papa Ángel, who always just held me and hoped my rage would wear off as soon as possible, Papa Toni always took me to this shed, filled with tons and tons of sharp weapons and objects! And then… and then he told me stories about them, what he used them for, and how sorry he was for using some of them in really wrong ways, and that… that always calmed me down.'

'Not sure if that's good or crazy parenting, but he definitely gets bonus points for originality,' Seb said.

'I liked him a lot, too!' Matteo added, taking the picture from my eyes and smiling a bit. 'He always played with me. Papa Stefano didn't like it if I wanted to play dress-up and never wanted me to skip around in one of Lulu's dresses… but I know Papa Toni used to join me in those dress-up games. He didn't think it was weird, he thought I was adorable.'

Matteo's hands started to shake a little, but his smile stayed intact.

'It's so strange,' he softly said. 'People tell me that all the time, and it's even getting really annoying sometimes… but when I try to recall the voice in which he told me I wasn't weird, but adorable – it… it makes my heart ache, you know?'

'What about you, Luisa?' Venetia, who had folded one of her legs over the other, beamed a surprisingly humble smile at me. 'Do you recall any nice memories when you look at your Spanish father's image?'

I nodded, but my head barely moved. 'He called me his princess.'

'Ah,' Seb said, probably remembering all the times I responded so strangely to him whenever he called me by that petname.

'I was his princess.' I swallowed and closed my eyes, just for a moment, to watch tiny fragments of those mental films in my head. 'He… he was nice to me, even when I wasn't nice to him, and he always hugged me when I needed it the most. If… well, if that… if Papa Lovi didn't beat him to it, of course…'

'Papa Lovi!' Alejo grinned and snatched the picture from Matteo. 'Man, he was the best. He always defended me.'

'Defended you?' Venetia asked.

My brother nodded. 'Yes, he… he defended me. I can recall a time when… when Papa Toni got mad at me, for no good reason. Or didn't want to touch me, or look at me. I don't know why. It made me very sad. He was my hero, and yet, he didn't act like one.'

I saw Alejo's eyes got misty and gently put a hand on one of his hands. Alejo didn't say anything about it – he just twisted his hand, so he could hold mine.

'But then there was Papa Lovi.' Alejo's voice grew brighter. 'Papa Lovi scolded Papa Toni for being all weird around me. He always liked me, no matter what I did or said, and he protected me. I-I'm not even sure why, but… while Papa Toni eventually became the one who understood me the best, Papa Lovi was and stayed the same loving father I had always had. I was safe when he was close. Always.'

Matteo chuckled. 'He used to call us names, though – do you remember? Um… let's see… I-I think you were Scary… no wait, Creepy Kid, I was Dumb Kid, and Lulu was Grumpy Kid!'

'Again, not really sure what to think of those unconventional pedagogic tactics – but I'll take my hat off for him for amusing instead of scarring you with those petnames,' Seb commented.

'He was very kind,' Matteo said, having found another picture of our Italian dad with Matteo in his arms, glaring at the camera rather embarrassedly. 'He scowled all the time, but he was one of the kindest people I've ever known. Always talking to me and giving honest answers on my dopey questions… Also, he smiled and laughed a lot more whenever we were all together. He was a real family man!'

'South Italy, a family man?' Venetia raised a surprised eyebrow. 'He's always been a very difficult guy to be around with, though. Always feeling like he was being put in his brother's shadow, always frowning and complaining, acting like a bratty kid and giving his lover a hard time… at least, that's what some people who knew them said.'

'Bullshit, he loved Papa Toni, with all of his heart,' I snorted demonstratively. 'They both loved each other very much. You should have seen how good their relationship was.'

'I can't deny that.' Venetia shrugged. 'Your parents are still together, and very happy, too. A little birdy told me they are going to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in about a few weeks. They're even throwing a huge party and everything.'

Matteo laughed, amazed. 'What a coincidence! Raquel's neighbors are going to celebrate their wedding anniversary in about a few more weeks as well – and it's going to be really big, too!~ What are the odds!'

'That really is quite a coincidence.' Venetia cocked her head and leaned towards him. 'And those neighbors of that lucky girl you're seeing, what are their nam—'

'Stories!' I suddenly interrupted her.

'Yes!' Matteo and Alejo gasped right away. 'Stories – oh god, who could we ever forget about the stories!'

'Stories?' Seb asked, while Venetia gave me a questioning look as well.

I smiled excitedly and pulled my old fairytale book closer to me to try and explain what I was remembering all of a sudden. 'Papa Lovi could tell amazing fairytales! He never told them the way they were used to be told – he always gave them weird little twists!'

'And! And! He did voices!' Matteo beamed gleefully. 'I loved it when he did voices!'

'He cursed like a sailor!' Alejo laughed. 'And Papa Toni would be like "no, you shouldn't tell them such things" and he'd be like "fuck you" and carry on his amazing tale anyway! So awesome!'

'Didn't you two found it weird as well when there were no racing lawnmowers in the movie of the little mermaid?' I asked the twins.

'THANK you – I was afraid I was the only one who was waiting for those things to appear!' Alejo cried out, while Matteo nodded ecstatically.

'Racing lawnmowers in the story little mermaid.' Venetia shook her head and sighed, before turning to Seb. 'You and I are the only people in this room that find that extremely silly, I'm afraid.'

'Actually, I wondered about that as well.' Seb made a strange face. 'I think I heard that story, too.'

'You do?' I stammered. 'You… you were there, when Papa Lovi told us one of his fairytales?'

'Not just me – an entire bus.' Seb frowned even more. 'I… think many kids heard that story. Don't ask me why, though.'

'Why?' Alejo instantly asked.

Seb groaned and rolled his eyes. 'Stop trolling, Alejo, I'm not in the mood.'

'That's what she said,' he grinned – and then ducked for a stuffed bear Seb chucked at him.

'So anyway, what do you think?' Venetia managed to get our attention when she got up from the floor and looked at us in turns. 'Do you remember everything now?'

Matteo smiled. 'I remember more than I ever thought I could, in any case!~'

'Then, are you up for a meeting with your biological parents?' she continued.

'Sure!' Matteo said.

'Absolutely!' Alejo agreed as well.

And as for me, I… I could also only smile and feel very happy and enthusiastic about all this.

'Yes, I… definitely! The sooner, the better!'

After all, now that we had regained most of our memories and were more than willing to go and meet our real parents, what could possibly go wrong?