Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: I did it! I managed to finish that story I had written for that writing contest (remember?) and I have sent it to the people who are going to decide whether or not it's good enough for the second round.
I'm pretty satisfied about how the story turned out, but I'm scared it might be too… (don't get mad at me for this) difficult for young adults?
You see, I wrote some sort of thriller and a lot of stuff is happening, the blink-and-you-miss-it kind of stuff (but mind you, it's not a Hungry Games-thing, it's really a thriller), and I fear that people who read it might think it's too complicated.
My dad didn't understand it, at the very least. XDDDDDDD He first was like 'what the hell, I'm no moron, sure I understand your stupid story NOW LEMME READ' – but after a while he came back to me with a really long face and admitted that he had no idea what the fuck was going on in the story.
My mom did get it, though, and besides, my dad doesn't read at all, so maybe it's because of his inexperience with books that he didn't understand? Who knows?
Anyway, now all that's left for me to do is wait. And boy, do I hate waiting. I hope you guys root for me! ^^

A/n2: One more chapter left, dear readers. Just one more. ^^

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 99:

I know I don't know that much,
I'm getting dumber by the year
Trying to embrace it all
Even now I'm so much older,
Still feels like I'm on your shoulder.
Chef'Special
(On Shoulders)

After dinner, Luisa reminded me and Antonio again that there would be a dance competition held in yet another room of the Sagrada Família. It was a room that had been saved for renovation last, and therefore, it had the most space for an eventual dance contest.

'The three judges will be England, Russia and Austria!' Luisa excitedly told me as we left the table – don't worry, we had hired people to clean all the mess up – and followed the other nations and humans out of the so-called dining room. 'America will be the DJ, and Canada will do sound checks, and I heard that Luxembourg will be more than happy to be in charge of light effects and stuff! It's going to be fucking awesome!'

I grimaced. 'Oh, that's… that's great, Lulu! I'm happy you're so fired up!'

Luisa beamed a huge smile at me. 'Fired up? Dad, I'm going to blow everybody off the damn dance floor. It's mine and mine only, dammit, and I'll show you! You and everybody around! I'll win that prize, even if it's the last damn thing I'll do! It's my duty as a dancer! COME THE FUCK ON, SEB!'

It was pretty new for me to see my daughter getting all worked up for something as trivial as a… a friendly dance contest, but thankfully, Seb was there to give me some more information on the matter.

'Luu's extremely good at dancing,' he told me and Antonio, ignoring Luisa's pulling on his arm. 'Her hot, Spanish-flavored Latino dance moves are a force to be reckoned with. They are killer. Not to mention very sexy. I swear. If only she stopped grinning like a psycho-killer during her dancing, I'd actually get aroused. Oh well.'

I instinctively grabbed Antonio's wrists, who was starting to breath in and out angrily again, and hastily and demandingly told Seb that yes yes we got the picture, haha, how nice, now please buzz off already before people will attack you and partly eat you, too.

'You must really like the taste of veal, then,' a strict, female voice kindly informed us while Seb and Luisa stepped onto the "dance floor" of the new room we had just entered. Yes, we apparently had entered the chamber we needed to be already – don't blame me for notching too late, dammit, it's very hard to pay attention to your surroundings when you have kids wanting to chat with you!

Antonio and I looked around and were met with the sparkling grin of Alejo and the polite smile of Venetia, who were getting ready for the dance contest as well.

'What was that you said?' Antonio stammered at Tosca's brainy daughter.

'Human flesh tastes like veal,' Venetia informed him. 'It's a delicate sort of flesh, very rich in flavor and, for once, not like chicken at all. I believe it's rather fascinating that there actually are kinds of meat and flesh that don't taste like chicken. Maybe I should do some research and uncover more secrets about how and why people would eat each other.'

'And now I feel faint,' Antonio decided, while I automatically heard my well-filled stomach squeal and twist in fearful disgust.

'What the fuck, Tosca's kid?' I hissed. 'I just fucking ate – don't rub your cannibalism-horror-facts under my nose like it's normal!'

'She's interesting, isn't she? She talks about even crazier shit than me!~ And even then I barely get what she's exactly saying!~' Alejo laughed heartily as he hugged Venetia tightly, making her blush and look more like an infatuated little girl rather than a creepy know-it-all BUT I KNEW FUCKING BETTER.

'So,' I said, hoping my voice didn't sound too high, 'you and Venetia are planning on entering that dance contest as well?'

'Of course!' Alejo nodded enthusiastically. 'I HAVE to, it's a special dance contest, after all: only nation kids are allowed to participate!'

'Really?' I blinked. 'Then what about the nations themselves?'

'They cheer on their kids! I heard that they're pretty fanatic, too. It's going to get crazy!' Alejo got that childish, cute glitter in his green-brownish eyes as he looked at Antonio. 'P-Papa Toni! Y-you'll cheer me on, right? Luisa will probably win anyway, so… you can cheer me on! You will, right?'

'Of course I will cheer you on!~' Antonio responded right away, since he was a sucker for cute requests, especially when made by one of our children. 'I have faith in you! You show them what meat you're made of, Allie!~'

'Meat that tastes like veal,' Venetia commented (this girl, was she for fucking REAL, oh my GOD).

But anyway, now that Alejo got his Papa Toni's support, his happiness almost made his body burst from excitement and he quickly embraced him, thanking him over and over again.

I huffed. 'H-hey, what about me? Is my support not sufficient enough, you damn brat?'

Alejo gasped and was superfast to glomp me as well, almost tackling the both of us to the ground while shaking his head rapidly.

'Whooah!' I yelped, staggering. Luckily, there was this really nice, big wall behind me that prevented Alejo knocking me over, and I hastily but nonchalantly sought support from it to make me look like the great and wonderful dad that I was and of course I could take a tackle-attack from my grown son, pssssh, of course I could, even if the damn twerp was taller than me.

'That's not it, Papa Lovi!' Alejo in the meantime said, clutching my shirt. 'Hell, I'd LOVE to get your support as well, you are GREAT and you probably know a butt-load more about dancing that Papa Toni, too!'

'He does,' Antonio instantly admitted. 'And I should know that better than anyone. Ahahahahaha.'

'You watch what that ahahahahaha,' I grumbled back, not-buying Antonio's innocent grin for one second.

'But!' Alejo went on.

'But?' I wanted to know, sighing and patting his back with a small smile while he kept rubbing his face against my chest.

'But!' He suddenly looked up and swear, he almost looked serious. 'If I get your support as well as Papa Toni's, then who'll cheer on poor little Teo?'

Out of nowhere, Matteo popped up as well, flinging himself onto me as well what the fuck was wrong with these damn flying kids.

'He's right, Papa Lovi!' I heard Matteo stammer. 'Cheer me on! I suck at dancing! So cheer me on! Cheer me on! Cheer me on! Cheer on me! Meer on cheer! Um… I mean…'

'I will! I will cheer you on – god you guys are heavy – okay, okay, I will cheer you on, Teo, I promise!'

I laughed and took my chance to wrap my arms around the twins and press them against me tightly for a moment. It had been a while since I did that – and it didn't go as easily as it used to go anymore, when they were still tiny brats that fought for my attention and loved getting hugged, but… well, it was nice, especially when the both chuckled and returned the hug.

I wanted to tell the dorks that I loved them, but for some reason, I couldn't get it out - I couldn't spit it out, I was too… afraid I might burst into tears again. And I didn't want to burst into tears again: my poor eyeballs had gotten abused and tortured by salty water enough for today, if you'd ask me.

'U-um, Matteo?' Raquel then awkwardly tapped on Matteo's shoulder, giving me this very uncomfortable 'sorry to do this' –smile. 'I-I don't want to interrupt you and your dad's cuddle time, but if you're still planning to compete, we should really get on the dance floor – it's getting loaded!'

Matteo gasped and let go of me. 'What!'

'It's true!' Raquel pointed to the marked floor a bit further ahead, a floor that was already swarmed with couples. The floor wasn't like an official dance floor (it didn't have a smooth, wooden structure, in fact, it was just cold, hard stone all over), but I could see the kids had done their best to make it look like a dance floor, they even put short fences and stuff to the sides of the marked area, just to establish that yes, yes, that really is a dance floor, now shut your pie-holes and dance.

'Oh, this isn't good!' Matteo observed. 'There are like only two more places left: right next to the toilets, or that empty spot next to Wolfie and …u-um… Aimee…'

'Always liked the stench of piss in the evening,' Alejo responded to that – and before Antonio, Matteo and I could even register what was exactly happening, Alejo and Venetia had sprinted to the free spot on the dance floor, right next to the toilets (the church had toilets nowadays, apparently?).

Matteo sighed and took Raquel's hand. 'Oh well. I guess we go stand on that other spot, far, far away from those stinky toilets.'

Raquel blinked. 'You… talk about it like it's a bad thing.'

'I really don't like that girl,' Matteo told her as they, too, left to join the others on the dance floor, 'she hurt Allie – I don't like people who hurt my siblings… but I guess it's better if I go dance next to her and Wolfie than Allie, right!~'

I couldn't hear Raquel's response to that anymore, partly because they had gotten too far, partly because Mia was suddenly pulling my hair.

'Ouch – hey, don't do that, you little annoying… floating tyke!' I nagged, rubbing my scalp as I turned to the side. Antonio had picked up Mia, and the two of them smiled mischievously at me. It surprised to see me that the few bits of Matteo reflected in Mia's eyes seemed to match perfectly with Antonio's.

'I figured we watch Mia in the meantime,' Antonio said. 'While they dance, I mean.'

Suddenly, a flash of France. Fucking France, appearing out of nowhere and slithering an arm around Antonio's shoulders.

'Yes, you watch your granddaughter, mon ami – and keep watching that little girl, because that way, you don't have to see how my adorable Desiree will mop the floor with all of the nation kids! Including yours!'

I very kindly wanted to tell France to please fuck the fuck off, fucking hell, and while you're at it don't touch my man he's mine and NO WAY MY KIDS WERE GOING TO LOSE TO YOUR UNFAITHFUL DAUGHTER'S FRENCH ASS, but then Prussia was there as well all of a sudden, keeping my head in a "playful" headlock as he, too, started provoking us.

'Man, this is gonna be AWESOME! Too bad YOU two need to CHEAT so badly!'

'Ch-cheat?' I choked, trying to get out of his hold.

'Yeah!' Prussia huffed and oofed when I jabbed an elbow in his stomach. 'Oof! Don't do that, dude – that fish I gulped down might come swimming right back up when you do that!'

France snorted, casually patting Mia on her head because of course he wasn't impervious to her ridiculous cute smile either.

'Gilbert means that you have three chances of winning the contest, with your three kids. I have one. All of us have one. But alright. Since you are my very good and hunky friends, I'll let it slip this time. On one condition, however!'

'What condition?' Antonio wanted to know, not noticing how France's hand started to pull up his shirt. Thankfully, Mia did notice, shrieked 'Se-pider!' and kicked the hand.

As France yelped and pulled back his hand, I never felt prouder of my grandchild.

'T-the condition!' France continued, rubbing his hand with a pouty look at Mia (who gloated and happily told me that she "smushed ta se-pider" and I was like well done cactus-girl, you rule, now kick his face, too). 'Well, the condition is—'

'You ditch Romano for now and hang out with us for a while!' Prussia butted in before France could carry on. 'I mean, come on – just the tree of us! Once again! Let's cheer on our kids together, but without the specific others! Because, you know! Mattie is up there! And France is a single man! Come on, man! Just the three of us! It'll be awesome!'

I made a do-not-like-face and frowned at Antonio, who mumbled something to France and Prussia – hopefully something like 'would you just look at my Lovi, he's hotter than any of your lame boy and/or girlfriends will ever be, now grovel for his handsomeness you pathetic douches' – and came over to friendly ask me if I was okay with his friends' plan to temporarily take him away from me. I frowned some more, but one look on Antonio's face was enough to tell me that he wanted to spend time with his friends. Of course he wanted to spend time with his friends, because…

'…I almost never see them, Lovi, only during meetings. Before we got our kids (back), I used to go do fun things with them after the meetings as well, but now, I have to divide my time between you, and the kids, and work, and… and I really… um… you understand, right, sweetie?'

…

The fuck was he getting all meek and shit for?

'Well naturally I fucking understand, you ass,' I snorted, folding my arms. 'And of course you can go hang out with them – hell, they're your friends, I know how much those bastards mean to you. Don't be all frisky and unsure about asking me, dammit, that's nothing like you!'

Antonio instantly stood up-right a bit more. 'I-I know, but since this is our evening, our celebration and everything, so I figured you might want to be with me all the time tonight.'

I grinned. 'I'd like that, yeah, but we're hosts, remember? The kids and us – we have to make sure the guests amuse themselves. You have your friends, I have mine. We should pay attention to them. Plus, I should have a chat with Feliciano and Germany as well. Hooray for social mingling and stuff, I guess.'

'Well – would you mind babysitting Mia, then?' Antonio handed me the little girl, that automatically grabbed my hair, yet again, dammit. 'I'm afraid Gilbert and Francis' jabbering might not be the best things for her to listen too, ahahahaha…'

I squinted my eyes and put Mia on my arm a bit better. 'You three are going to talk about dirty stuff, aren't you.'

'Um.'

'About how you DO your PARTNERS, aren't you.'

'Well…'

'Shaming me, Canada and the poor person that's moronic enough to date France with your PERVERTED SEX-TALES, AREN'T YOU.'

Antonio smiled awkwardly. 'S-sweetie, um, l-language, please – Mia's right ther—'

'MIA HAS THE RIGHT TO KNOW, DAMMIT. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, MIA. YOU TELL HIM.'

'Yer loud, Granvi.'

'YOU HEARD THE GIRL. NOW GO HANG WITH YOUR BAD BREATH TRIO-DUO.'

Antonio opened his mouth, didn't know what to say however, and closed it again. Then he flashed a small, thankful smile and me and leaned towards me, his lips almost touching my ear.

'I'll thank you for this later.'

I trembled and unconsciously grabbed hold on Mia a bit better, my cheeks flushed a fire-red as Antonio backed off again and smiled at my scowling face.

'I see you later, sweetie!~'

'Yeah – just… just don't forget to cheer on Alejo!' I reminded him with a huff as I watched him join his friends, and I touched my treacherous blushing face with a free hand.

Well.

I hauled up Mia a bit more, because she kept… sliding down, dammit.

W-well.

Let's go see what my stupid brother's up to, I guess.

\0o0/

During the time I went looking for Feliciano, the dance contest was spontaneously being called off.

…

Don't be so fucking surprised, dammit, of course it was called off: the judges were all three pretty fucking set on letting their own kid win and they were even more determined to definitely not let any of my or Antonio's kids win. Because that would be unfair – 'Spain and Romano dance like fucking pro's, their kids probably dance like pro's as well, have you seen that daughter's moves, I mean, whoa, she can conquer countries with that quickstep' – and so, upon realizing they wouldn't be able to be as objective as they had planned to be, they called the competition off.

'Just have fun dancing, I suggest,' England instead announced with a very creaky microphone, which was instantly met with a few loud 'what!'s and one annoyed 'FUCK' (now who could this be, I have no idea, don't ask me, certainly not my Luisa in any case).

Yeah, there were some disgruntled faces here and there I noticed, but by the time I had finally found and greeted Feliciano, the nation kids were all dancing on the dance floor anyway and they seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. The light effects and music were pretty amazing, the personifications watching their dancing kids from the side still looked at them with big, proud grins and puffy eyes, and Luisa still danced like a fucking Italian-Spanish tornado, so I guess everything turned out fine in the end anyway.

'Veee,' Feliciano, original as always, commented when I watched the kids with him and Mia, 'according to Luddy, they've changed the plans a bit now.'

'No fucking shit,' I snorted. 'I thought Luisa would strangle England when he told them there wouldn't be a contest.'

Feliciano grinned amusedly at me, leaning on the low barrier around the so-called dance floor. He looked very chic, very handsome, even. He wore a carefully tailored, white suit, which obviously had been extremely expensive. It made him look a lot more mature than the way he actually acted like most of the time, but it suited him very well. He was my brother, after all. Naturally he looked good.

'I heard,' he said, 'that Austria managed to make some sort of program for the dancing part of the evening. He apparently felt like he needed to please the kids with an alternative program, and so… um, there's an alternative program now!~'

I frowned and put Mia on the barrier, so she could sit there and not on my arm.

…

What, dammit? Carrying kids on one arm really makes your arm feel like it's going to drop right off any moment! And I didn't want to traumatize Mia with a arm suddenly falling off my arm. I was a fucking rad grandfather.

'Why didn't I hear anything about this – what kind of alternative program?' I asked Feliciano, my head resting upon Mia's. I know I tended to do that a lot whenever I had her on my lap or anything, but come on, she made the cutest little noises when I leaned my chin on her curly hair and I loved that little twerp, dammit, she's my fucking grandkid, I'll hug her to bits one day.

'You didn't hear about this alternative program because you were busy looking for your sweet little brother!~' Feliciano in the meantime chirped.

'I didn't know I had a sweet little brother.'

'It's me, silly!~'

'You're not a sweet little brother. You're a douche.'

'Veee… you're mean,' Feliciano huffed – but his smile came back when I grinned apologetically at him, smacking him on the back.

'Just kidding, you dork – you're my sweet little doofus brother.'

'You-you really mean that? In… in spite of everything that has happened in the past, in… Venice and stuff...'

'Yeah.' I nodded. 'Don't worry, Feliciano.'

'Okay!' Feliciano blushed and took a deep breath. 'Okay, let me explain. Luddy told me that the kids are just going to dance with each other at first, then they will dance with a parent, then with another parent, and then it's pretty much free for all, anything goes, veee…'

'Right,' I mumbled. Seemed like I was going to dance a lot, then. I had a shitload of offspring. Feliciano had it easy, he only had Mimi. He'd only have to wait for his turn after Germany, or maybe he wouldn't have to wait at all—

Wait a minute.

'Where's your potato lover, by the way?' I asked Feliciano. 'Gone to the toilet or something?'

Feliciano giggled and shook his head. 'Veee… Luddy's chatting over there with Mimi's caretakers.'

He then got silent, so I looked over to where he had bobbed his head to. And yes, in-between the many backs and smiling faces in the crowd around the dance floor, I could recognize Germany's turned back. He was talking to two elderly people that had put on their best clothes for this evening and leaned on canes.

'Otto and Lena Graf are a German couple selected by the PPSS to take care of Mimi. They couldn't have children by themselves and were way past the fifty already when they told them they could raise Mimi. They accepted and Mimi thankfully enough had a great childhood in their care, but I fear they won't be here for much longer,' Feliciano suddenly said.

I looked at him but didn't say anything.

'Otto's very sick.' Feliciano swallowed. 'And Lena's slowly getting more and more senile. She actually believes that they're on Mimi's wedding party right now and thinks Luddy's Mimi's husband. Otto knows the truth, but he begged us to just play along and let her believe what she wants to believe.'

'Sounds hard,' I said. 'I feel bad for them.'

'I'm scared.' Feliciano averted his eyes from me and stared at the dance floor instead, were Mimi was laughing broadly while dancing with Yosyp – Ukraine's son. 'Otto and Lena don't have more family. Once they're gone, Mimi will only have me and Luddy.'

'How is that scary?' I asked him with a frown.

'Mimi still lives by her parents – if they are gone, she'll move in with me and Ludwig. Luddy was very clear about that: as long as she needs to have a place, she can stay with us.'

'You don't want that?' I wanted to know.

'I-I do want that!' Feliciano looked at me with a pout. 'But… but she'll move on one day! She'll leave us again! Sh-she'll get a boyfriend, or girlfriend, and then she'll live out her life and die! She's going to die, Lovi! I don't want that… I don't want that!'

I didn't really know what to say to that and looked away from him. I was just in time to see Raquel shrieking and tripping over her own long legs, only to have Matteo very eagerly catching her, smiling from ear to ear.

'And yet, you…' I heard Feliciano mutter, '…you and Antonio seem to be okay with that.'

'Hm?' I smiled, looking back at my brother. My smile faded a bit when I noticed his brown eyes were all boggly and watery.

'You have three children, you and Big Brother Toni.' He sniffled. 'Your kids even all have boy- and girlfriends. You seem to get along fine with all of them. And your youngest son even has a daughter already.'

'Very well observed,' I said.

'Aren't you terrified?' Feliciano's voice quivered. 'Aren't… aren't you scared to death?'

'I'm not.' I waved at Alejo, who was doing some sort of… chicken dance, with Venetia very sternly doing the robot right next to him. Seemed like that little creep didn't inherit any dancing genes at all, heh.

'W-why not!' Feliciano gave me an almost angry look. 'You have so many humans around you that are close to you! A-and you know they will be gone one day – they won't be around as long as you will be! The thought of losing Mimi again one day is enough to paralyze me, but you – you will be getting the triple amount of pain of that once all of your kids are dead and gone!'

I automatically covered Mia's ears somewhere halfway his stammering and gave Feliciano a 'watch what you're saying' –glance.

'S-sorry.' He sighed. 'But… but… you know. How? How do you do it – how do you keep yourself from bending over from the pain of… knowing you've lost them all one day?'

'I don't want to waste the time I have left with them by panicking about what I will do when they die.'

I gave Feliciano a small smile, still covering Mia's ears.

'That's the upper side of having so many children: they keep you busy, They force you to live your life with them as much as needed. There's too much to do, Feliciano. I still need to watch Luisa getting married to the man that loves her. I still need to buy flowers from Matteo. I still need to cook with Alejo. I have another grandchild to meet. Also, I need to console them when their adoptive dads die. I have to be ready for all that.'

Mia was getting fed up with my hands I heard, since she was starting to make annoyed whining sounds. So I removed them from her ears and wrapped my arms around her tiny frame instead. She accepted that and held on to my arms.

'I can't allow myself to let my own selfish thoughts, feelings, "what-ifs" and "buts" get the best of me,' I said. 'I'll forget to live if I do.'

Feliciano listened to me quietly, nodding slowly. 'I-I see. I see…'

'You know who's going to win. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the game anyway.'

'It's… it's a struggle, right? A pleasurable struggle… r-right…?'

The inside of my throat thickened when I noticed my brother smiled and sobbed at the same time. So I put a hand on Feliciano's shoulder and squeezed it softly.

'It's a struggle for pleasure alright.'

\0o0/

Feliciano and I talked a little more after that. Some more words about the kids, some more words about life, I guess…

Then, we stopped talking at a certain moment – but fortunately enough, the wordless silence that fell over us wasn't an awkward silence. It was a very comfortable one in which the two of us just let our thoughts wander and enjoyed each other's company, without saying a word. We simply stood there and watched our children dance to their hearts content.

I smiled. It was nice, really. I liked this. Simply hanging out with my younger brother without the need to feel like I needed to prove something to him, or him having the urge to prove something to me.

So for a few minutes, we didn't say anything, until Feliciano all of a sudden realized that the part of the dancing program in which we were supposed to dance with our kids would start any moment.

'Veee, I need to talk to Luddy – I need to figure out who's going to dance with Mimi, first!' he gasped, before giving me a questioning look. 'What about you? Don't you have to discuss this with Big Brother Toni as well?'

I shook my head and changed leaning-leg (I was leaning on one leg for most for the longest time and therefore I needed to switch legs).

'Um, Antonio is over there, at the other side of the room, having fun with his fuckfaced friends. It'll take too long to go over to where he is and talk about how we're going to figure this out – especially when you keep in mind Ángel and Stefano probably want to dance with the kids, too – so I think I'll just… wait here and see what happens.'

'Okay.' Feliciano smiled. 'Is it okay I go over to Luddy to…?'

I nodded. 'Of course, you dork. Go.'

'Alright! Veee… later, Lovi!~'

And so, Feliciano wriggled and wrung his way through the crowd to Germany (who was still talking to the elderly couple), leaving me and Mia by the barrier.

'Okay,' I muttered, more to myself than to Mia – although the girl did glance at me when she heard me talk. 'Who should I dance with first… I'd actually like to dance with Luisa to start with… she's my only daughter, after all, and for some reason, dancing with either Alejo or Matteo sounds… off. But then what about Antonio, he'd probably want to dance with her as well, and… oh, what about Ángel and Stefano…?'

'It's very simple. First the biological parents can dance with her. Then the adoptive ones. But, well. You all just have to wait for me to have danced with her, first,' a dry voice very decisively said, right next to me, and I looked up with a jolt.

The Netherlands had for some reason thought it wasn't strange at all for him to randomly hang out with me like this, all of a sudden, and he gave me a puzzled look when I stared and gaped at him in shock. That man's size never ceased to amaze me (and no, don't go there, I'm talking about his height here, you fucking dirty assholes, just his height).

'What!' I sputtered. 'You are planning on dancing with Luisa, first?'

He blinked. 'Is that so strange? She's my daughter-in-law to be. The mama of my first grandchild. The sorceress of Bas' heart. Naturally I want to dance with her. Dancing with Seb is just weird.'

…

…he actually was right about that, picturing him stoically dancing around with Seb was about as freaky as me dancing with Dr. Delgado.

…

…

No, that… that was actually freakier.

'Plus, he's taken,' the Netherlands casually went on.

'What?' I said, surprised. 'What do you mean, Seb's taken?'

He didn't reply with words, but with a finger, pointing at the dance floor. I followed the finger's direction and noticed how most kids had stopped dancing and were now early pulling their immortal parents out of the crowd. Like Anya, that had been dancing with Emile: she was now tugging excitedly at Russia's arm, while Emile went for Femke and even bowed to show her how gentlemanly he was. Apparently, he and Anya got along better than I thought they would.

…

Judging from the panicked looks on both Canada and Prussia's face, however, they weren't all too happy with that…

'No, not that way,' the Netherlands commented – and grabbed my head, firmly twisting it into the right direction. '…that way.'

I wanted to curse and snap at him for fucking pushing my poor neck and head around like this – but those thoughts flew from my mind when I witnessed Liechtenstein, shyly allowing a unusually enthusiastic Seb to join him on the dance floor.

My eyes grew in size. 'He met her?'

'He met her.' I couldn't see the Netherlands' face, with Mia's head in the way and all, but I could sense he was smiling. 'It took me some time to convince her he would accept her as his mother right away, no matter how old she looks, and she finally gave it a shot and walked up to him. Now look how happy he is. Look at that smile. He got that from his old man.'

I wanted to snort and mock him for that, but when I looked at him, I actually saw that Seb indeed had inherited that smile from him. But fuck – I didn't even know he could bend his lips like that!

It was tempting to make a remark about that, but there was too little time – before I could even open my mouth to tell him anything, Luisa, Matteo and Venetia suddenly appeared in front of me.

The three kids looked all pumped up and excited, ready to dance some more.

'Dad!' Luisa said, giving me a demanding look. 'Will you dance with m—'

'Of course I will dance with you,' the Netherlands interrupted her, swiftly pulling the barrier back a bit to slip to the other side of it.

'…whuh…' Luisa stammered, bewildered, while I gave her an apologetic grin. 'Mr. Netherlands, y-you want to dance with me…?'

'Yes.' He very seriously put her arm onto his, leading her to where the others were. 'I'm warning you though. My moves are legendary. They're even whispering about them in space.'

For a moment, I feared that Luisa actually wouldn't really like to dance with him – but much to my relief, Luisa didn't mind at all, laughed and hopped after him to keep up with him, excitedly talking to him about… something, I guess, and that was such a nice sight to see. Just look at her, look at my dear daughter, look at my princess going along with somebody as gruff and huge as the Netherlands like it was fucking easy!

'And I'll be dancing with you, young lady!~' I heard Matteo say, and the next thing I knew, Mia was gently pulled from my arms, into the arms of her father.

'Aww!' I grinned. 'You're going to dance with papa, Mia! Good for you!'

'Yea!' Mia happily yelled back at me.

Matteo chuckled and looked at me as if he wanted to share a huge secret with me.

'Hey hey, Papa Lovi, guess what? Papa Toni's going to dance with Raquel, and Alejo's planning to dance with Dr. Tosca! Look!~'

I looked, just like he said, and it was kind of hard not to burst out laughing when I saw Antonio and Raquel frown and watch each other's physics, trying to figure out how they were going to make this work. I actually overheard a part of their conversation as well.

'…but Matteo didn't mind it at all when I leaded.'

'Ah, it's not that I mind, but… um… aren't… isn't the guy supposed to lead? Not that I mind you leading, but…'

'Oh, so you actually lead?'

'Why… why do you sound so surprised?'

I snickered – fucking priceless – and looked over to Dr. Tosca, already firmly standing in the right position with Alejo, who was… well, he was sweating a lot, really, and why wouldn't he: Tosca was all kinds of intimidating.

'Straighten your back.'

'Y-yes, ma'am!'

'Keep your arms like this.'

'Yes, ma'am!'

'Stop staring at my boobs.'

'Yes, ma— h-hey! I'm not staring at your boobs!'

'You're thinking about staring at them.'

'Wha–! I–! I-I am now, yes, thanks to you!'

'I can't believe you're thinking about staring at my boobs. Bad Alejo. Venetia will kill you for that later.'

'BUT YOU STARTED!'

I groaned and shook my head. Poor Allie. Venetia, who was watching everything with me, snorted at the sight.

'Mother is kind of a trickster.'

'That sounds a lot better than "Mother is kind of a manipulative bitch".'

'My.' Venetia turned to me, quirking an eyebrow. 'How foul your language is.'

I smirked. 'Your mom and I go way back. She doesn't mind.'

'Okay. In that case I don't feel so bad telling you that she always calls you a whiny little twat.'

'She calls me WHAT?'

Venetia laughed and then grabbed my hand, forcing me to go to the other side of the fence-barrier thing as well.

'W-wait,' I stuttered, although I did comply and follow her onto the dance floor, '…y-you're dancing with me?'

'Yes.' Venetia nodded like I had just asked her a scientific question, turning to face me when she had found a nice spot to her liking. 'Because I'm a dreadful dancer and so is Alejo. But I heard people gossip that you and Mr. Spain actually are two dancing miracles.'

'Well I don't want to brag,' I way-too-nonchalantly grinned, 'but yeah, I do have some sweet moves. Hell, I can make everybody dance, even a totally stiff twig like you.'

She gave me an admiring look. 'Really? You can make me look good?'

'Venetia, I can even make a damn pole look good,' I assured her.

'You pole dance?'

I stared at her, my face completely blank and motionless.

'That's amazing,' Venetia carried on.

I gave her a tired smile. 'Um.'

'I respect you so much more now.'

'Yeah yeah, that's nice–'

'You must be bendy. I bet Mr. Spain likes that a lo—'

'JUST PUT YOUR HANDS ON MY ARMS ALREADY AND STOP TALKING.'

This girl. I swear.

Thank god that the music started playing shortly after this.

\0o0/

Dancing with Venetia was about as much fun as dancing with a plank, but then again, it certainly was a likable plank.

Because no matter how strange and intelligent this young woman was, she was – well – I could understand why Alejo would fall for her. She was pretty, she had confidence for two and she certainly knew how to dress herself. And if you ignored little things like her constant stream of random funfacts ('Did you know there's a change of 20% a kid will be left-handed if the mother is left-handed? Did you know this chance is increased by 10% if the father's left-handed, too?') and the fact that she really, really couldn't dance, then yes, there actually wasn't anything annoying about her.

As I danced with Venetia and her many witty comments (I considered them different persons), I could see that Antonio and Raquel were able to dance pretty well, even if Raquel was a bit taller than him right now, and the Netherlands and Luisa seemed to have a good time as well, and so did Alejo and Dr. Tosca, and of course Matteo and Mia had fun, too.

A lovely sight! I just… I couldn't describe it otherwise. It made that one thing in my chest skip a beat, even. And to think – the dancing had only just began! I still had to dance with Raquel, with Luisa, maybe even with Mia and Tosca, or with my sons, if there would be a suitable song coming up…

Fuck yeah. I smiled broadly and made Venetia spin around a bit. I couldn't wait to dance more. I just loved dancing with people I either liked or loved.

\0o0/

'Y-you are so good at this!' Raquel stammered as I leaded her over the dance floor as good as I could. 'I-I… I'm almost a decent dancer now! I-I do feel bad about my choice of shoes, though… maybe I shouldn't have put on the high heels… I-I keep on tripping and I bet I've annoyed Matteo so much with that!'

'Huh.' I heavily doubted that, that sly, sneaky little asshole surely had smiled a lot whenever he got yet another chance to get her breasts stumbled into his face. Antonio on the other hand had been less pleased to constantly save Raquel from colliding with the stone floor – and he wasn't too enthusiastic about boobs, either.

However, now that she danced with me, Lovino the Dancing Quee-KING, she hadn't fallen over one single time, although there were some close calls. I guess that's what you get for being a shorter yet way more experienced dance partner: you could actually help the other one instead of hoping her tiny chest would crash into your face and/or saving her from a stone-cold fall.

Raquel actually wasn't as bad as I thought she was, as long as you guided her well. She just was wobbly as fuck. But really, once you made her feel that no, you wouldn't let her fall, and yes, she could do it, she could dance very well, even, then… well, then she indeed was a fairly good dancer!

'You know what your problem is?' I told her – hastily pulling her away from Antonio, who was now dancing with Mia and was so overcome with the toddler's cuteness he didn't see us approaching him. 'You – watch it! – you need to find a partner that's taller than you are. And one that's good at dancing. If you have those two things, you'll rock the dance floor.'

Raquel blinked, mesmerized by my incredible knowledge, as she should, naturally.

'Y-you think so, Mr. South Italy?'

'Yep. But don't tell Luisa. She'll breath out fire.'

That made her laugh, and once again, I got why a son of mine would pick a girl like the one I was now dancing with: Raquel cleaned up really nicely, for starters, she was very kind and sweet, and she had legs. Also, if you didn't pay attention to her rather shaky self-esteem and her boyish looks, she was the most convincing woman of all the people on this dance floor.

I told her this, too.

The way she smiled and blushed at that was too cute for words.

\0o0/

Next stop: Liechtenstein.

…

Yup.

I didn't see it coming either, but, well, Antonio had been too swift, that speedy asshole: when the next dance came up and I had just thanked Raquel for dancing with me, I was a split-second too late and had to accept the fact that now my bastard husband was dancing with her.

Alejo was dancing with Mia (they looked very cute together, I never knew Allie was such a fan of kids but he had the time of his life, letting his niece dance on his feet), Venetia was dancing with her mother and Raquel had actually followed my advice and had asked Seb to dance with her. That kind of left Matteo and the Netherlands as the spare pair, because I had asked Liechtenstein to dance with me before that Dutch mountain could.

'Okay Mini-Spain #2: one, two, three – let's jam,' the Netherlands told Matteo, immediately accepting his destiny, and the two of them spend the next two, three minutes awkwardly bouncing around each other. I actually had to keep my face turned away from then all the time, at all costs, because I'd choke in my own laughter otherwise, sweet god, I swear I would.

'So,' I said to Liechtenstein as the music started playing again, 'um… you danced with Seb, right? How was it?'

'He's so tall. And so careful.' Liechtenstein smiled happily at me. 'He accepted me as his mother, Mr. Romano. When he found out I was his mother, he didn't hesitate for a second and asked me to dance with him. It was so much fun…'

'Yes?' I smiled as well, although it did feel kind of awkward to dance with a small, fragile-looking lady as Liechtenstein. 'I bet you two had a lot to talk about.'

'Oh, we didn't say anything.'

'…you didn't?'

'No.' She sighed but still looked overjoyed. 'I couldn't.'

Somehow, I think I understood what she was trying to say and I nodded.

'Will he visit you and his gun-wielding uncle soon, you think?'

'I'm sure of it!' Liechtenstein's voice shot up a bit, from sheer excitement, and how remarkable – she actually sounded like a teenage girl now. 'Mr. Netherlands promised me he and Bas would, and that makes me so happy! It makes me so very happy…!'

'I'm happy you appreciate your son so much.'

'Of course!'

'And your lover.'

'Natura…'

But Liechtenstein stopped halfway, taking control of her emotions but still chuckling softly.

'I keep him waiting, don't I.'

I shrugged and put our arms up, so she could twirl.

'The best ones are the ones that wait.'

Liechtenstein's lightless, green eyes seemed to lit up a bit, looking up at me as if I had just said something deep and meaningful and holy hell, I think I actually did!

Shit, I was on fire tonight!

\0o0/

'And now she's dancing with Mr. Netherlands! I swear, does she think she can outsmart me? Me?'

'Actually, I think she's just happy to be able to dance with a man that's taller than her, baby. More support and all.'

'Pfah!'

Luisa pouted enviously as she watched the Netherlands and Raquel dance around like fucking tumbleweed (but more graceful, I'd give them that).

I snorted and squeezed her hand, finally about to dance with her – with my very own daughter. I had waited a long time for this, but now it was going to happen at last. At the same time, Antonio was now feeling extremely haunted by the Netherlands' piercing stare, as he ended up with Liechtenstein instead of the Dutchman.

Mia was still with Alejo and laughed out loud when Seb made a hilariously disgruntled face right on the moment his 'bro', brimming with confidence, forced him to dance with him. Matteo in the meantime was sharing many useless plantfacts with Venetia, who actually found them about as interesting as, say, veal.

'And, how well did Papa Toni dance?' I asked Luisa, successfully distracting her from Raquel and her future parent-in-law. 'Was he any good?'

Luisa's bright, green eyes instantly where shifted my way.

'Yes! Yes, Papa Toni's really good! He's got really smooth moves and he told me all about how he conquered you on the dance floor! You didn't stand a chance to his charms, he said.'

'DID HE, NOW.'

Luisa made a surprised face. 'He didn't conquer you on the dance floor?'

I frowned and flushed a bit. 'W-well. Um. I myself wouldn't have described it like that. I… liked him a long time before we started dancing. I kind of used every opportunity to be… close to him, really. Including an invitation for a ball that Austria sent us one day.'

'Yeah?' Luisa smiled. 'Sounds romantic. Did he know right away?'

'Of course not, it took me fucking weeks to get that dense asshole to get that I was in love with him.' I grumbled and moved in time with Luisa, the both of us starting a clean, fast cha-cha-cha. 'Please don't tell me you took just as long to notice Seb liked you.'

'Oh no, I noticed his interest in me pretty rapidly.' Luisa rolled her eyes. 'He sent me notes in class every fucking day, dammit – he even numbered them.'

'No way. So, like… "Note #10. Be my partner for the next project." Something like that?'

'More like "Note #114: Your hair's very auburn in the morning light when you lay on your desk and snore and drool all over it it's pretty um I find you pretty too do you think I'm also pretty here's my number".'

'That Seb.' I whistled in-between my teeth. 'Smooth as fuck.'

'Right?' Luisa giggled. 'I'm glad he never gave up, though. I was a huge hard-ass, but he always… always… h-he was always nice to me, you know? Even when I was a bitch. And I was a bitch a lot of times. I felt myself getting more and more attracted by him after that one time he spilled a drink on himself and casually started undressing himself in the middle of class. You should have seen me look. You should have seen ALL those girls look.'

'Hm,' I said, glancing over at Seb, nonchalantly but brutally swatting away Alejo's hand from his butt. 'If you say so. He's not really my type.'

'You have a type?' Luisa grinned. 'What's your type, then?'

'Well as long as he's got a good, firm ass – I mean NO!' I gave her a horrified look. 'What the hell, I'm not discussing what guy I find attractive with you! You're my daughter, remember? God!'

'Yeah, whatever, dad.' Luisa snickered.

We talked about the most unimportant things for the rest of the dance, really, and it was nice to chit-chat about random stuff like this. It made me feel like a proud father dancing with his wonderful daughter, spending some quality time together, and it also made me feel… well… really, really happy.

It was enjoyable. It was relaxing. It was all I wanted.

\0o0/

But you know what?

My feet were starting to fucking hurt. And with hurt, I meant that they were feeling like I was TORTURING THEM WITH WHITE-HOT COALS.

I mean, shit – I liked dancing, but man, if I had known beforehand all of my sons' girlfriends, my daughter and even Liechtenstein had wanted to dance with me, I would have prepared myself for this a bit better!

I had blisters! Blisters! Motherfucking blisters, scraping against my shoes and making me grimace every time I made a wrong move!

No way I was going to dance with anybody else after I had finished my 'dance' with Mia (I just kept her in my arms, easy-peasy, wait, did I really say easy-peasy). Absolutely not. I was going to limp to the side of the dance floor and beg Ángel and Stefano to take their moment to dance with the kids already and put my feet in ice or something, because ouch.

'Okay, Gr-granvi's going to take a break, now,' I told Mia when the music stopped, and handed her over to Raquel.

God damn! My feet! My poor, poor feet!

I tried to look as cool as possible when I walked away from the dance floor, to the salvation that was the barrier. Oh, good, sweet barrier!

Nobody could convince me to do another dance!

Nobody!

'Lovi?'

I let out a sigh of annoyance and looked up. Who the fuck had interrupted my awkward walking-to-the-side-movements, dammi—

'Antonio,' I noticed, staring right at his hopeful, friendly smile and beautiful eyes.

'Hi, Lovi.' Antonio's smile grew significantly as he bowed for me, holding up his hand. 'Instead of taking a needlessly depressing stroll around the basilica, my love, may I have this dance, my love?'

…

Um…

'…you… don't need a melancholic stroll anymore?' I asked him. 'Are you sure? Because I don't mind, you know. You can talk about all your worries with me!'

Antonio smiled reassuringly at me.

'I have no worries anymore.'

I looked at him and the honest, broad smile he sent me, and gave him a small smile in return.

'I see.'

'So…' Antonio took my hands and pulled me closer, pressing a soft kiss on top of my head. '…dance with me, sweetie.'

'U-um…' I muttered. 'W-well…'

'Please?~'

…

…

Oh well, who needs feet anyway…