* * *

A few weeks into the semester, Tino concluded that whoever invented the kanji must have been a masochist.

Yao begged to differ, but he agreed with his opinion about the kana.

Eduard wondered why they couldn't just let the computer write the kanji for them instead of them having to memorize a few hundreds every semester until their graduation. Technology did exist for a reason, after all.

Francis pointed out that the kanji could be a good inspiration for sex positions.

Arthur kicked him out of the chatroom.

Fortunately, the lecturer paid no attention to Francis when he tried to throw his eraser across the computer room toward Arthur. Unfortunately, the eraser missed, and zeroed at Ivan's head instead.

Everybody pretended not to notice when the Russian dragged the screaming French out of the Information Processing 101 class.

* * *

"Finland, Finland!"

"What is it, Feliciano?"

"I'm making pasta for dinner! Wanna join me?"

"Voi... I don't know, I have to finish Senor Carriedo's essay tonight...."

"But, your husband agreed to come, too!"

...On retrospection, maybe he shouldn't have let Berwald drag him all the way to Japan.

* * *

It was easy to look for Ivan. All Tino had to do is to find the crowdiest spot of the day. Today it happened to be the cafeteria, courtesy of the beginning of the East Asian festival, the first of the series of cultural festivals of their university (which had too many festivals along the year that Tino had to wonder if he had come here to study or to party). It did help that the boy was big enough to be easily spotted even among the crowdiest crowds.

"Such a nice day, da?"

"Indeed."

"It would be nicer if they can start screaming for their life now, though."

Tino sometimes wondered if his friend wasn't just joking, but then again, that was Ivan for you.

* * *

HETALIA!

* * *

The moment Ludwig entered the bath, all eyes trained on him. Or rather, discreetly trained on him.

Tino watched in amusement as Alfred gave a suprised look while Kiku an embarrassed one.

Then Francis came in.

Alfred blinked in disbelief. Kiku started to look green.

Then Heracles came in.

Alfred openly gaped. Kiku tried to drown himself.

Then Gupta came in.

Tino thought he could hear whatever confidence Alfred had for his manhood crumbling into pieces.

* * *

"Fam'ly."

"Kazoku."

"Fath'r."

"Chichi. Otousan."

"M'th'r."

"Haha. Okaasan."

"H'sband."

"Otto. Danna."

"W'fe."

"Tsuma. ...And, err...."

Berwald's green eyes flickered at him, and it was bscary/b, the way the shadow casted on his face as he loomed over him (it's just the height, Tino told himself, it's just the height!).

"Nyoubo," the Swede then said.

...Somehow it felt like Berwald wasn't just merely telling him the translation.

* * *

Francis had concluded that there was a serious lack of girls in the uni and that was why he had no choice but to start molesting the guys instead.

Arthur proposed that they lock Francis in his room or ship him back to Paris.

Alfred suggested that they just feed Francis Arthur's scones.

Kiku reminded Arthur to be quiet because the public computer room was part of the library, and Berwald, who happened to work part time in the library, was already glaring daggers at him.

Tino informed Kiku that unfortunately, that was Berwald's usual face, not his angry face.

Ivan offered to show them an angry face.

Everybody declined politely.

Feliciano wondered if they would be having pasta for dinner.

* * *

"Germany, Germany!"

Tino could see Ludwig's back tensing up considerably before the man turned toward Feliciano. "What?"

"Veeee, don't be scary like that, or you will get old very fast!"

Ludwig looked like he wanted to strangle the Italian. "What do you want?"

Feliciano gave him a bright smile. "We're going to the city tomorrow. Care to join us? There's Japan, America, England, China, France, and Russia, too!"

Ludwig frowned. "I don't know...."

Feliciano grabbed the German's hand. "Andiamoooooo. It will be fun! Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, and Austria are coming too. Even my brother is coming!"

In Tino's opinion, mentioning Lovino, who had made it quite clear earlier that he hated Ludwig, didn't really help in persuading the German to come. But at the end Ludwig gave up anyway and gave his concent. Tino pretended not to notice Ludwig becoming quite flustered when Feliciano hugged him out of joy.

* * *