Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: The 20th of April, there will be announced who won what in the Hetalia Awards 2015. Just a few more days left before we will know the answer to this burning question! I'm so psyched! 8DDDDDDDDDD
Anyway, I went to read some of the reviews belonging to the fic/award show (I'm a lurker like that), and I read that one of the nominees asked if people could please tell her who nominated her, so she could thank them.
It made me realize that I'd like to know that as well, really! I know a very nice anon was one of the people that nominated me (thank you for that, dearie ^^), but I guess there are more people needed to nominate somebody, right?
So, if it's not too much to ask, please tell me who nominated me! That way, I can thank you like I should for entering me in this exciting contest! ^^

A/n2: About that (by the way Dutch) program Venetia talks about in this chapter: that actually happened. I watched it. Apparently, people were shocked by it in a lot of countries, but here, we were like 'oh well, whatever, what else is on the telly' because we give zero fucks about… um… well, pretty much everything. Yay!~ Except for football, of course (although I REALLY couldn't care less about football, I hate football, I only watch it during world and European cups because of Hetalia fanart ahahahaha).

A/n3: I confess: I love "Your Body's a Wonderland" from John Mayer, even though 9 out of 10 people probably think it's one of his crappiest songs. "Daughters" is a pretty sappy, mushy song as well – but hey, there's a daughter in this fic. One that's going to be a mom, even! So have some John-Mayer-goodness!~

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 97:

Fathers, be good to your daughters,
Daughters will love like you do.
Girls become lovers,
Who turn into mothers.
So mothers, be good
To your daughters, too.
John Mayer
(Daughters)

I was having yet another lovely cup of coffee.

Just simple, plain coffee. No milk, no sugar either – just nice, black coffee. I usually preferred my coffee with milk and sugar, though. Hence why I usually picked macchiato's and latte's. Oh, and, of course, cappuccino. But only in the morning, like they all do in my beautiful Italy. People in other parts of Europe found it very normal to drink cappuccino throughout the entire day, but that's insane. Such a light, sweet and milky drink should only be consumed until 11 a.m. After that time, switch to something else, right away. Really. The nerve of some people.

Ah, but anyway.

While I was reminiscing like this, Alejo was being chewed out by a quite upset Russia and Belgium a few meters away from the table he had seated me, the poor guy. Well, I supposed both Russia and Belgium were upset: both Russia and Belgium did keep grinning, after all. However, even from this distance, I could see that those 'grins' could kill a small group of children when used in the right situation, so yes.

They were upset. They were very upset, even.

So it surprised me that Alejo somehow managed to return to our table a few minutes later, still in perfectly good health, although his face had gotten about fifty shades grayer.

See what I did there? Ohhhh I see what I did there.

Don't read it.

'Welcome back,' I greeted Alejo, as he flunked himself down on the seat next to me. 'I see you're still alive. Good job.'

'Yeah, well, just barely.' Alejo sighed and sat up some more, rubbing his face. 'I barely made it out alive. God. Remind me to never, ever try to hook up with Anya again as long as I'm not looking for a serious relationship with her. Russia and "auntie" just very friendly threatened me to disembowel all of my organs and make a "nice and spicy" STEW out of them the next time I have the guts to publicly declare my affection for another woman while having brought along Anya.'

I thought a bit about that. 'I'm not sure if a stew made out of organs is such a healthy meal to eat. I'd suggest them to eat your butt instead – butt apparently kind of tastes like veal, when prepared correctly. Also, it's easier to cook.'

'Why?' Alejo stared at me, shaking his head. 'Why… why are you – why the hell do you even KNOW that kind of shit? Butt-eating? Are you for real? Have you actually eaten human butt before?'

'I'm happy to say that I haven't – but I have read many reports about cannibalism. Like during the Russian famine of 1921, when people got starved so badly they started eating their own children,' I explained. 'And I also saw a program a while ago about two moronic guys chopping off bits of their tummy and butt to prepare it for the other to shock their viewers. For science.'

'Well anyway,' Alejo said, shuddering ever so slightly, 'I'm happy to tell you that both Russia and Belgium ultimately decided to spare me from a huge beat down because it was my fathers' special day and Mimi had slapped me already anyway and they didn't want to miss Luisa's speech, too, yadayadayada, and now I'm here again.'

'Yes.' I looked at him with a small, happy smile. 'You're here again.'

Alejo nodded and shuffled on his chair awkwardly. 'Um… so… how… how is your foot?'

'Right now, it's very cold.'

I observed my foot, resting on top of a pillow , which was on top of another chair. It had a pack of ice wrapped in a towel pressed against it. And yes, I did yelp when Alejo put me in this position. I kind of sounded like a cat in labor. Spraining your ankle this badly isn't a small deal. My foot was kind enough to constantly remind me of that.

Alejo chuckled. 'Yeah, I can see that your foot's cold – but how are you feeling? Are you still in pain?'

'Well, naturally.' I frowned at him. 'My ankle hurts terribly. I know that that icepack will decrease the chance of any major swellings, but I certainly am in pain right now. It's like my foot's either freezing or slowly dying. Not the best feeling in the world.'

Alejo gave me a slightly-annoyed look as he leaned on my chair's arm. I instinctively felt my heart increasing its formerly-calm beating.

'Venetia.'

'Yes?'

'Whenever I talk to you, it's like… it's like…'

My heart clenched in silent ecstasy. 'Yes…?'

'Like I'm having a job interview.'

My heart instantly unclenched. 'Oh.'

Alejo grinned when he saw my face fall and playfully poked my upper arm.

'Ahahaha, don't look like that, you know what I mean!~ You always talk so… so formal. And you are so smart! That confuses me sometimes. I'm not sure when you're making smartass jokes or when you're just being plain, dead-serious.'

'Was that the reason why you rejected me?' I wanted to know. 'After our one-night stand?'

Alejo shrugged and cleared his throat. 'I don't know, I… I didn't really… reject you. I just needed more time to get over Aimee. You being with me so soon after the two of us had broken up was just… it was too soon. She was my first love, you know? The first person I honestly fell in love with. I never thought that I'd dump her that quickly.'

'You're right. I'm sorry.' I folded my arms and felt the frown in my forehead getting deeper. I wish I hadn't asked him why he had 'rejected' me back then – it was crystal-clear why he did. This proved how much of a foolish, spoiled brat I was: I always got what I wanted, so I had automatically presumed Alejo was one of those things I'd just get if asked for him to be mine.

But not all people work that way. Alejo certainly not.

It was a very reassuring thought, actually.

'But it's true that I… had doubts about you to start with,' Alejo went on in the meantime, and I looked at him in shock. Well – somewhat. 'Shock' wasn't one of my best emotions, I thought it was a pointless state to be in.

But I digress.

'You… you had doubts about me?' I heard the slight panic in my voice. 'Why? Do I seem untrustworthy?'

Alejo scratched his head and smiled goofily. 'N-no, you're just… you're too… too everything, really.'

'I'm… not sure if I understand what you—'

'You're too perfect. In everything.' He gnawed on his lower lip. 'You're too beautiful, too feminine, too smart, too fashionable, too wise-for-your-age and too mature. You're so young – what age were you again, 20, right? – but you already know what you want in life. I think that's… well, impressive, but also very creepy.'

'I get that a lot.' I sighed. 'I look older than I am because of that behavior.'

'Is it true, though?' Alejo looked at me. 'Do you know what you want from life?'

'Yes. I know exactly what I want from life. I've always known that.'

'Amazing!~' Alejo's eyes got big and shiny, and it was adorable. 'That's so cool! Man, I envy you for that!'

I smiled. 'Why, exactly? I think you and I and everybody else want the same things in life. We all want to be happy and successful. Right?'

He nodded a bit. 'Yes, but you seem to be confident enough to be able to actually reach those goals, too!'

'There's nothing wrong with being confident.' I ran some fingers through my hair. 'But people that aren't confident about themselves have the same abilities as I have, you know? You just need to realize that and do something with that information. I happened to do that on an early age. Others will follow, but maybe a bit later on in life. There's nothing wrong with that, either. Every step you make in life is good, as long as you are the one that has made it.'

Alejo laughed softly. 'There you go again.'

I blinked. 'I'm not going anywhere with this ankle.'

'No, no, I mean that you sound like a perfectly capable and insanely wise person again.'

I felt my blood seemed to stop running through my multiple veins when Alejo gently caressed my cheek with the back of his hand.

'You…' I paused and continued when I had found the capability to do so. '…you mind that?'

'No. It's comforting.' He then slowly turned my face into his direction, so I had no other choice but look at him. His face was really close. 'And… and it's kind of sexy, too.'

'You think it's sexy?' I asked, feeling my arms loosened up as they slid apart from each other bit by bit. 'So my confidence is impressive, creepy, comforting and sexy?'

Alejo's face had gotten slightly reddened and he looked a bit hot and bothered – it made my heart race again. His low breathing had changed and I felt his warm hands held my head in a way that pleased me a lot more than I thought it would.

'Yeah. Sounds about right.'

I wanted to return a similar compliment, but I couldn't.

He wouldn't let me.

o\00/

So.

This speech-event was slowly but surely turning into a huge FUCKING TRAINWRECK.

To sum it all up!

First, there was Alejo, improvising his speech and causing some minor but still VERY annoying because I WITNESSED THEM incidents – like making Anya cry, getting beaten up by Mimi and declaring his affection for Dr. Tosca's daughter, which caused said daughter to try and respond like good-looking actors would do, by dramatically running towards the podium when Alejo asked for it and getting stuck in a crack in the floor and almost breaking her goddamn ankle. After all that, Alejo came to the rescue, pulled her out of the crack or whatever and ran off to some nearby room, probably to look after her and/or sex her brains out.

THEN, it was Matteo's turn – and Matteo was so very impressed by his slightly-older-brother that he decided to say 'fuck you' to his carefully prepared speech as well, also improvising his speech as he, too, made everybody in the room cry and want to hug him (well it caused me to cry and want to hug him, that's all I'm saying). He also proceeded to not only confess his love for Raquel but also his love for Mia on the damn podium, all very dramatic and beautiful as well, although not as… surprising as Alejo's speech's ending.

He now was standing next to Papa Lovi and Papa Toni, being hugged and cried on and stammered all kinds of compliments to, while Raquel and Mia looked on – Raquel with happy, glassy eyes, Mia with that typical 'what-the-fuck's-happening-am-I-missing-something' –look on her face she always got whenever things got too complicated or confusing for her.

The lively crowd, in the meantime, was chattering away, apparently thinking that there was a small break from the speeches now… or worse, thinking that all the speeches had been DONE already, meaning that they were now impatiently waiting for me to hurry up and open the damn buffet already…

'Don't be silly.'

I got a near fucking stroke when Seb's voice suddenly sounded right fucking next to me, dammit and I glared angrily at him. When did he climb up the podium?!

'Seb! You damn sniper! What the actual fuck are you—'

But Seb ignored me and kept staring blankly into the room, his hands casually put in his pockets.

'Of course they know there's one more speech coming up. They know your biological dads have three kids – they could literally count you when the three of you were still up the stage. Like, "ohh, that's one kid, that's their second kid, and that's the third kid". They'll wait for you.'

For some reason, those calmly spoken words managed to… well, actually calm me down, somewhat. It was like Seb's special magic ability. His tranquil calmness vs. my panicky stress-tendencies – and his calmness almost always won, thankfully enough. This time as well.

So I breathed in and out, and then I breathed in and out some more, a bit slower, and I repeated this until I felt confident enough to tell Seb to please fuck off the podium already.

'Are you sure?' Seb asked me, as I pointed to the stairs that leaded back to the actual floor. 'I can stay with you, you know. To give you my good vibes and everything. According to Pa Nederland, it's worth good money. Besides, I have a public announcement to make as well.'

'You do?' I looked at him critically. 'Like an announcement for people that forgot to put their car's lights out or something?'

Seb stared at me. 'Really?'

I blinked. 'Really what?'

'Wow. I can't believe you don't know what I'm talking about.'

I flushed and sputtered at that. 'W-well excuuuuuuuse me, Seb! It's not like I'm in a WORLD of stress and despair and madness right now or anything – oh wait – NO YES I AM, I AM IN AN ACTUAL WORLD OF STRESS AND DESPAIR AND MADNESS, YOUR ARGUMENT IS FUCKING INVALID.'

'Okay,' Seb said, looking a bit irritated, 'I'll just go join the rest then. Good luck.'

Stubbornly keeping his hands in his pants, Seb descended the small stairs at the side of the podium, not even looking at me anymore as he went back to Raquel, Matteo, Mia and the collection of fathers.

Of course, I instantly felt like a massive bitch and wanted to run after him to tell him that I was sorry – not only because I really was sorry, but also to try and avoid any infamous, bizarre revenge-acts of Seb happening (maybe he was going to sit in the middle of the basilica with a cupcake on his head for the rest of the evening to fucking embarrass and punish me for acting like a turd), but…

…my rock-hard, Italian pride kind of prevented me from doing that.

So I just stood there on the stage, almost crumpling the speech I had prepared in my hands as I shook and fought against my tears. It was so frustrating – I was a very frustrating person to start with, of course, but man, being pregnant and getting worked up about… about all kinds of things like this…

It just certainly didn't make me a more pleasant person.

…

I'd better go make up with Seb as soon as I could after my speech, dammit… i-if… if he still was around and… and still wanted to make his announcement. Whatever it was.

Talking about speeches and announcements, what was I going to do with my speech?

Alejo and Matteo had improvised, and with success, too, but… but I really didn't want to improvise my speech! I had rehearsed it so very carefully! In private, even, so nobody could know what it was about, not even Seb! I knew my speech so very well now, I could practically dream it! I could think it out loud! No way I was going to improvise that!

But… well…

I looked down at the worn-out papers that had my speech chalked up on them.

…I guess I at the very least could pretend I was improvising, by… by putting my speech away and trying to share them with all of my family, friends and guests like that. Straight out of my head.

Yeah, that was a good idea. Let's go with that.

Satisfied with my decision, I put my speech away, walked up to the microphone and looked into the great mass of people, that – amazingly enough – started to hush and shush each other almost immediately. Seemed like they actually really enjoyed these speeches.

Okay then.

Time… time for the big finale, I guess…

o\00/

'H-he-hello, everybody? I'm… um…

W-well, first of all, an announcement.

I-I'm not going to improvise my speech, because I'm not as good as my brothers are with that kind of thing, but… but I will try and say the things I want to say without looking on the paper, because that's what… that's… well, that's ust the least I can do, I-I suppose, but… but talking here is really scary, s-so if I happen to… not know what I wanted to say anymore, please forgive me for… for sneaking a peek at my speech anyway.

Okay? O-okay…

S-so.

I-I'm Luisa. I'm the youngest… sibling. And kid. And… person. Of all the nation kids, I mean. I mean, most of you have to be, like twenty-four, right, just like my brothers are, right?

…

Yes, Johnny, you're an exception as well, you're 31 instead of 24, but… but you know what I mean, dammit – and what the actual fuck, get off that antique already – didn't my brother already tell you to stop behaving like that? Damn!

…

No! No he can't do what he pleases, Mr. America, being American is not a reasonable excuse at all, and what are you doing, don't fucking encourage him to climb higher, what the—

Oh.

Ah, thanks, Mr. England. That'll help. Thank you very much!

…

A-anyway!

Like I said, I'm the youngest. I'm 23. That's… well, pretty… young, I guess…

But still, I'm pregnant.

You're all older and stuff, but I'm pregnant and you're not. As a matter of fact, none of you has become parents already – with the exception of Matteo, of course. That's right, I've looked into it, and it fucking scares me to death to know that… that none of you has been put in this position and could therefore help me out.

Not a single nation kid, or… or other person of my age here that has been pregnant and can tell me what that was like. Not even my eternally 23-and-25 year-old dads, because none of them ever carried us.

And you know what?

I think I'm way too fucking young to be pregnant already.

I actually didn't even want to be pregnant shortly after I found out I was, because I thought I would suck as a parent.

Why I thought I would suck as a parent, you ask? Because my biological dads sucked as parents.

That's what I was convinced about.

They gave us away, after all. Like unwanted presents. And I hated them… intensely for that.

Not only because it gave me the impression that my brothers and I weren't wanted by our real parents, but also because… because it took my ability to tell people I love them away.

In my younger years, I never told anybody I loved them.

I never, ever told my brothers I loved them, or my adoptive fathers, and hell – I later found out that I never even was able to tell my biological fathers that I loved them.

How could I tell Seb that I loved him, when I couldn't even tell them?

…

Oh. S-Seb's my boyfriend, by the way. The… the father of my child.

…

…

…and why do you want to know how Papa Toni reacted?

Piss off. He reacted like he should. Now go fuck yourself.

…

Shit, that is your dad? Oh god, Seb, I'm sorry – Mr. Netherlands, I-I'm so sorry – I didn't recognize you in that suave getup, I-I swear, I…!

…

Blame him for it? But Papa Toni didn't…

…

Well, okay, if that's what makes you feel better…'

/0o0\

The Netherlands came over to me and put a hand on my arm.

'Hi. I dislike you very much for telling me to piss off and go fuck myself.'

My jaw dropped. 'But-but Luisa said all those things about you, I didn't do—!'

He raised a hand, which was enough to cut me off. 'You snorted at that comment. I saw it. Also, I can't rain my rage down on my precious son's cute pregnant girlfriend that happens to have bad eyesight (also your fault). So I blame you for everything.'

I stared at him.

'And I also hope the kid's name will be Dutch as fuck, so you will suffer each and every time you try to speak out that name in my hell-language with that Latino-tongue of yours.'

I stared at him some more and my left eye started to twitch.

'That was all. Good party, by the way.'

And the Netherlands pulled back, disappearing in the crowd, leaving me in a state of very confused anger.

o\00/

'…

…don't glare at me like that, Papa Toni. I'm a very delicate fucking little bitch-flower right now, dammit.

…

No, I'm not going to call my kid Antonio or Antonia! God! Don't be such a baby!

So anyway, I—

…

NO, not Lovino or Lovina, either!

And—

…

…no, I'm not going to name it Daano or Daanline either – are those even names, Mr. Netherlands!

You know what, fuck it!

Thank you, Mr. Netherlands, Papa Lovi and Papa Toni! Thank you very much for… for interrupting me during a very crucial part of my speech, dammit!

Because I was going to tell you about how I felt about not being able to tell the people I loved that I loved them, how angry and unreasonable that made me, how childish and stupid and awful and disgusting that made me feel, like… like I was a mistake of nature, like a person that nobody would ever love for real, since I wasn't even able to tell those three fucking shit-words – but hey, I guess discussing freaking babynames for a kid that I am scared to have for all those aforementioned reasons is just as fucking interesting!

Be my guests!

Be my damn, stinking, fucking guests – I don't fucking care anymore, screw you all!'

o\00/

I didn't even care the audience started to moan and shriek as soon as I dropped the mike on the podium, causing a loud THUMP to echo through the room. It served them right, dammit. I just wanted to bolt. I really wanted to race off that podium, out of the church, and just be… I don't know, be away from everybody here, at the very least!

T-this was very hard for me to do!

This whole… whole speech-thing!

And Mr. Netherlands and my dads were just… just going for this stupid discussion in the middle of my… w-while I was just about to talk about my insecurities and…

They are fucking assholes!

I was going to walk to them and throw my speech papers into their stupid faces, snarling at them to just finish it themselves if they liked talking in my place so fucking much, and then I was going to sprint away and cry in a small corner and it would be fucking wonderful dammit!

I sure as fuck was going to feel miserable about it later but whatever, I was fed up with this, I wanted to eat mussels mixed with whipped cream already and throw up!

But after I had jumped off the podium in a way that made Papa Lovi and Papa Toni turn as white as a sheet and the other people watching gasp in surprise – I assume pregnant ladies aren't supposed to jump off high things, you know, the baby might come bouncing out and shit – I was grabbed by Seb, by my arms.

I thought he was going to give me some monotonous, pseudo-philosophical advice or something and was about to snap at him, but then I saw his face.

'Are you fucking kidding me, Luisa?'

He was angry.

Seb was actually angry.

'Really?' he spat, not letting go of me. 'Did you really have to make a whole fucking spectacle out of your damn inferiority complex again, you attention-seeking ditz? Is that what your damn speech is about? "Please pity me and my unborn baby I'm scared to have, I never told people I loved them even though they STILL FUCKING KNEW I DID, woe is me, whaaaaaaah"? You're supposed to tell your dads why you love them – not to brag about how pathetic you feel sometimes!'

'L-let go!' I nagged back, after getting over the intentional shock. 'You… you don't get it anyway, you never… y-you don't know what it feels like – let me fucking go!'

'So you can run away again? Is that how you solve all of your problems and frustrations – by running away? You can't run away from your responsibilities, Luisa! From none of them!'

Seb's eyes were so fierce and big, it made me swallow all of the awful things was planning to tell him that I actually didn't really want to speak out loud anyway. I still tried to break free out of his grasp, though.

'Fine.' Seb squinted his eyes and released me. 'Fine, run away – it's your fucking time to shine. Do what you do best.'

And I did. He let go of me – and I indeed ran away.

As I ran, I could still see a very upset Papa Toni and Papa Lovi raising from their seats, the two of them instantly getting mad and cornering Seb in an unreasonable anger that probably comes with parenthood, whether your kid was being a bitch or not, and people gathered around them to restrain my fathers. The crowd was making loud noises now but nobody paid attention to me, so I could get outside without a problem.

And naturally, I broke down in tears as soon as I was.

o\00/

After crying my eyes out, I sat on the stairs, for what seemed like hours, as I slowly but surely came to realize that I had just single-handedly ruined Papa Lovi and Papa Toni's anniversary party.

The party that they had looked forward to for such a long time, that Matteo and Raquel had prepared so carefully, that Allie had turned into a great opportunity to tell his love that she was his love, and that was Mia's first official grown-up party.

I had fucking ruined it for everybody, dammit, because my fucking hormones played up again – no, scratch that, because my personality played up again, and now Seb was angry with me. Maybe he now didn't even want to marry me anymore. He had never yelled at me like that before, so… so maybe he was having second thoughts now.

Or worse – maybe he didn't want to be with me anymore.

I gasped. Oh god, what if… what if we broke up, and then our kid would be born, and then we had to battle for custody, and Seb would be like 'that whiny bitch can't even take care of herself, let alone a child – she shouldn't raise the kid!' and the people from the Social Services would be like 'well you ARE the sole parent that makes money – here you go, have fun with your kid as we put your former lover through hell', and then…!

I would never forgive myself if my child would have to be a part of that.

I had messed up so bad.

I had messed up so… so bad…!

I sat down on the stairs of the church, pulled up my legs and pressed my face against the fabric of my dress.

'W-why am I like this…'

'I don't believe there is a reason why you are like that,' a young, female voice suddenly told me. 'You just are.'

I looked at the blonde person sitting next to me with painful eyes, trying to figure out who she was. Where the hell did she come from all of a sudden?

It was definitely a girl, not yet a woman. She had boyish haircut with a white ribbon in it, and her whole appearance was kind of fairy-like, with her white, puffy dress and the many cutesy bows stuck on it. She also wore short, white gloves and she had…

…well, she had one of the most hollow, motionless eyes I had ever seen. Like green absorbing black holes of doom.

Wait, green black holes… was that even…

Well whatever. In any case, I had no business with this girl, dammit. Shouldn't she be at home, studying for school or whatever? What pedophile had brought her to this party!

'Leave me alone, okay?' I grumbled at the girl, shoving myself away from her. 'I don't know who the hell you are, but I don't feel like talking to random girls right now. Take a hike.'

'Random girl?' The girl finally showed some emotion by giving me a tiny smile. 'Very well then. I'm a random girl. Call me Lily – most people tend to do that.'

'Ohh, Lily, huh? How quaint. Do they put "lovely" in front of it, too, when you put on that dress and look like fucking jailbait? Well hi, Lovely Lily. I'm Worthless Weed. Now take a goddamn hike already.'

I turned my back to her. Did I mention yet I really didn't want to talk to anybody?

For a couple of minutes, neither one of us spoke up. I even thought that she had left after a while, to cry somewhere far away from me.

But then I heard her inhaling, as if she had finally gathered enough courage to say more things.

'He shouldn't have lashed out at you like that.'

I knew right from the bat she was talking about Seb, of course, but pretended I had no clue what she was talking about. In fact, I just kept ignoring her.

'You were overreacting, that's for sure,' the girl carried on, 'but he shouldn't have told all those things to you.'

'Shut up,' I then growled. 'You know nothing.'

'You're pregnant after all,' she still kept talking. 'You get annoyed by certain things easier when you are in that position. He should know that and support you and approach you with better words. He should also learn to think before acting. I'll tell him later.'

'Why…!' I hissed and turned back to her, rage flaring up inside of me. '…why the fuck would he listen to a stranger like you! You know nothing about him! Nothing!'

The girl averted her eyes. 'Sadly, that's true. I don't know him as well as you do.'

I blinked. My heart started to pound against my chest as if it was being kicked. Who was this girl? What was her relation with Seb?

'You were planning to talk about the good parts, too, weren't you?'

The girl smiled at me again, making me forget about what I was about to scream at her. Instead, I felt my eyes were stinging again.

'You were just building up the tension, like your brothers did. You still wanted to tell the crowd all the good things about the person you are, like how you eventually learned to say "I love you" to the people you care about, how you now believe you can be a pretty good mother and how you actually never hated Mr. Spain and Mr. Romano, no matter how many times you told yourself you did before you found out the truth about your family and background,' the girl explained. 'You wanted to make people feel your pain and admire how you overcame that pain and came clean with yourself.'

I stared at her, my mouth open, my tears trickling over my cheeks.

'…h-how?'

'Hmm?'

'How… how do you know?' I felt my lips were shaking as I spoke. 'That I was going to tell the better things eventually – how did you… while the rest didn't…?'

'The rest did know,' Lily said, 'And they were all waiting for you to get to the positive part. But… well, I guess you kind of messed up your own atmosphere when Daa – Mr. Netherlands and your fathers started to discuss other things. I understand why you got so angry, though. It would have been funny in many circumstances, but not now. Still, you should forgive them. Personifications tend to get distracted quite quickly, even when they don't want to.'

'You are one as well, aren't you?' I stammered.

Lily closed her eyes for a moment, keeping quiet for a second before continuing.

'Your boyfriend's simply stressed out. He has prepared something special for you, after all. When you started talking about all of those unpleasant things, he was getting more and more worried about both you and his preparations, probably. He managed to control himself because he knew that the good part was still coming, but when you lost it and jumped off the stage, it was the last straw.'

I had so many questions bubbling up inside of me that I couldn't say a word. So Lily went on.

'He most likely reacted that way because he knew that when you left the podium, you couldn't tell the people about all the good things anymore, they now couldn't get to know your good sides anymore, and that frustrated him so much that he got angry. Which, unfortunately, made him lash out at you.'

I still didn't say a word, but I nodded a bit.

It… it made sense, really. It sounded like a Seb-thing to do.

'R-right, first of all, I'm sorry for… for being so mean to you, whoever you are,' I finally managed to stammer, as I rubbed my eyes. 'A-and second, thank you. You… y-you're right. Seb's probably… worried sick about me all the time. I'm such a fool. I should pay more attention to… what he feels and thinks. But it's hard. I can't read him. Not all the time, at least.'

'I understand what you mean.' Lily sighed. 'I can't read his father either.'

I heard her say the words, let them quietly reach me and then, I instantly sat up, staring at her as if I had never seen her before, and opened my mouth to ask her the question.

'You're missing it, by the way,' Lily however cut me off.

I blinked. 'What am I missing?'

'Your speech.'

I smiled awkwardly at her. 'My opportunity to speech in front of the audience, you mean? Well—'

'No. Your speech.' Lily gave me a serious look. 'You're missing your speech.'

'I don't understa—'

'Your speech fell out of your hands when you ran away. He picked it up. He is currently sharing the rest of your speech with the others.'

'W-what?' I stuttered, checking myself and realizing I indeed no longer had my speech with me. 'S-so Seb's… is Seb now…?'

Lily nodded and looked over her shoulder, into the direction of the door. 'He started a few minutes after you left. I went after you shortly after he began. If you want to, we could—'

'Of COURSE!' I shrieked, getting up from the stairs and pulling Lily up as well. 'O-of course I want to see him – I want to see him r-right now – and so do you, don't you? Don't you want to see him?'

She blushed a bit. 'W-well, I'm not sure if he wants to accept a small girl like me as his—'

'We're going back in! We're going in right now!' I waltzed over her words –and without any further ado, I tagged her along with me as I hastily went for the Sagrada Família's big, heavy doors.

o\00/

We were just in time to hear Seb say the last, following words:

'…and so, I love you. For the rest of my life, I will love and cherish all of you. Please have fun at the party.'

During these (oh so very dryly-spoken) words, I heard people snivel and I noticed handkerchiefs and tissues being passed around, and as soon as Seb had made clear that the speech had ended – by stiffly bowing, like a slip joint knife, well…

T-the whole chamber, with all of its visitors, guests and everybody else… just… just started applauding madly!

A thunderous, standing ovation went through the big room, each and every bit of air filled with the sound of clapping hands, enthusiastic yelling and just… just all around, not very comprehensible (it just was so all over the place!) praising. People had tears in their eyes, where embarrassedly pointing out the salty drops on their friend's cheeks and had red faces they tried to rub away with their hands.

And in the midst of all this, Lily and I stood, totally astonished by seeing all of this, and seeing how extremely wonderful everybody was responding to Seb… or my… or… o-or the heck do I know who it belonged to now speech.

'Hey! There she is!' I then heard somebody shout – and then all the faces, formerly facing the podium and my absolutely fantastic boyfriend, were abruptly turned my way. Seeing all those staring eyes was a bit confronting for me at first, but soon, I got over my shyness when people just kept on… saying nice things!

'That… that was the BEST, girly!'

'Hey! She has a name, you cultural swine – but he's right, Luisa, that was positively Shakespeare-worthy.'

'BLASPHEMY!'

'Oh zip it, England – and wipe your nose already.'

'My god! My eyes – they BURN! THEY BURN FROM THE GREATNESS OF IT ALL, SOMEBODY DOUSE MY EYES PLEASE!'

'Calm down, Gil.'

'BUT MY EYES!'

'Well done, Luisa! That was… wow!'

'This was one of the best things I've ever heard. I'm so glad to be alive. I might actually sing.'

'A singing Norge? Wait – wait just one moment, this moment should be TAPED and made VIRAL!'

I awkwardly put my hands on my face and grinned like a complete moron, gleefully accepting all the back-pats, shiny teeth and thumbs-up that the guests were now flashing me.

'T-they liked it? They… they actually liked my speech? But… but it wasn't even improvised – Seb literally read it from the papers on which I wrote it, so h-how…'

I looked behind me to seek some answers, but Lily was gone.

My smile got a bit smaller. Looks like she had just… crept back into the crowd when I wasn't looking. Silently, quietly, without uttering a word.

Hey… hey, that wasn't fair!

That wasn't fair, Lily!

You made me go back, you… you comforted me and you made me feel better about Seb and myself!

You did that for yourself, right? Because it's Seb, right?

Then why don't you show yourself to him? What are you afraid of? What is it that you…

I'm not sure if he wants to accept a small girl like me as his

Lily's lastly spoken words suddenly came back to me.

Oh.

…

O-oh.

I understood now. I… think I got it, yes…

But although I now understood her… disappearance, I also didn't understand, not all of it, in any case, and I actually wanted to go and try to find her somewhere in the huge heap of living beings – she couldn't be too far away, after all…

…but then I heard somebody was panting pretty heavily, very nearby, and I momentarily forgot about her, looking up.

And even further up, because Seb.

Just Seb.

Tall, blonde and handsome and amazing Seb, wheezing and sweating and only wearing his dark red/reddish brown waistcoat and not his coat anymore because he had been running towards me and my GOD, was I slightly bummed out by the fact I hadn't witness THAT hot sight.

But anyway.

'S-Seb,' I stammered, while he grabbed my shoulders and had to bent over for a bit to catch his breath. 'W-what did you do?'

Seb raised a finger, the universal very well-known sign that meant 'give me one more fucking minute you crazy woman', and I chuckled as I indeed waited for him to regain his normal breathing patron, affectionately putting one of my hands over his.

Then, when he finally was able to talk, he looked at me sternly and… and…

…oh god, had he cried?

The emotion gods were fucking spoiling him today!

'Whoa,' I softly said, almost hypnotized by his wet face, and instinctively took his face in my hands. 'You look… you look awful!'

Seb blinked. 'Thanks. I needed that.'

'No, in a good way! You… you look awful in a good way!' I started smiling broadly. 'A-as if the things I wrote down… t-they were about you as well, a-as you… no doubt have read (out loud, even)… they… they really reached you, haven't they? My-my words. They really reached you!'

'Yeah.' Seb sniffed. He tried to make it seem very casual and cool, but like hell I was going to fall for that. The snot was almost dripping out of his nose, dammit.

'I-I'm sorry, okay?' I pursed my smiling lips together tightly, since my eyes were getting watery, yet again. 'I-I'm sorry. I-I know I'm not the easiest person in the world, I'm very… v-very difficult…'

'No shit you are.'

'LET ME FINISH, DAMMIT.'

Seb snorted. 'Fine. As long as you don't get all emo again.'

'I'm NOT emo, I'm just… just a very high maintenance-kind of woman. It must be hard for you sometimes. But… but I heard you.' I gulped and gently stroke his way-too-high cheeks – I had to actually stand on the tips of my toes to reach his face, for crying out loud. 'I'll try to… to grow up already, okay? I'll try to.'

Seb nodded. Then he suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me against his body – which was kind of strange, because I was now kind of hovering in the air.

'I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I should have known that a happier part was coming up – I even read it myself. I was very mean. I apologize. I know how much trouble you have with your low self-esteem. You're not an attention-seeking ditz. You're just Luisa. I'm just an ass. And so are our dads. So I told them.'

I stared at him. 'You scolded our dads?'

He smiled 'Right after they had scolded me, I scolded them. Just like they did in Ancient Greece.'

'…they let kids scold parents back in Ancient Greece?'

'I don't know, I'm tired.'

I chuckled and managed to put my feet down on the ground – somewhat at least – while still holding his face.

'D-dumbass. You're such a dumbass.'

Seb didn't respond to that, he just leaned down and kissed me, his hands softly squeezing my waist. I was more than happy to close my eyes and let it all happen – hell, I even was more than happy to let him go as far as he wanted to go. I loved his lips, his taste, the heat of his skin and the way our very different bodies still were very compatible.

'I-I love you,' I breathed against his moist lips, moving my hand up and down his neck and back, 'I-I love you so much, Seb…'

'Yes.' Seb swallowed and rubbed his forehead against mine. 'I know.'

I giggled. 'And…?'

'And I think I should go back to the podium now.'

…

'Um… what?' I asked, confused.

'I think I should go back to the podium,' Seb repeated. 'You should come, too.'

I wanted to say 'what' again, but Seb put me on the ground, took my hand and gently but determinedly pulled me after him. I stumbled after him – only now finding out that everybody had been able to watch me and Seb eating face, dammit, fucking embarrassing – and too much happened for me to be able to ask more questions, or demand Seb to fucking tell me he loved me already.

'I still have that announcement to make,' Seb explained as he bulldozered over the floor, 'and I need you to listen to that.'

'O-oh?' I said.

'So I'll just ditch you where your dads are and then magic will happen.'

'Okay.' I smiled. 'But what kind of magic, Seb?'

Seb gave me a very disappointed look over his shoulder, that was greeted with my huge, pestering grin.

'I'm kidding, you idiot. I know.'

Seb's eyes got big again.