I'm so sorry for being late on this one. Sorry also for the fact it is shorter than the usual. Kinda messed up the order for the chapters I had planned, but meh. I've been so busy with school and all. But still I wanted to update, so I also wrote this morning, and finally finished. Hope you'll like it.

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Chapter 4:

Tanned Liquid over Dead Roses

At the end of the road, the Italians found a peculiar house, with rabbit ears shaped chimneys and fur as its thatch. The house was extremely huge (it reminded Feliciano of Ludwig's), therefore they first started to undertake changing sizes again thanks to the pieces of mushroom they had kept.

Before going any further, little Italy stopped his brother, speaking the first word that had been spoken in quite a while. His word was no louder than a whisper and Lovino would not have heard it if a awkward silence had not been reigning the air.

"Nii-chan…"

"What is it?"

"You remember what Gilbert said, right?"

Romano blinked at this. Yes, he did recall very clearly everything that had occurred at that precise moment. Glancing at Feliciano, he could see the other was obviously troubled.

"He talked about two Alices going through dangerous doors, and a Queen that wanted them, and fools that-"

"Yes, I remember, make your point."

"Well, I've been thinking and… could it be that the two Alices are us? I mean… all that had happened in this dream has seemed an awful load familiar, and now I understand why. Could it be that this is the story of Alice in Wonderland?"

The older Italian considered it more longer than he needed to. Though it was somewhat necessary, for this was getting rather troublesome indeed.

"M-Maybe so… it's most likely, unfortunately. But from what I remember, everything hasn't been going exactly like in the tale."

"Yes, however it could be because we aren't Alice, and the other characters are not them. But we are them, just… not them." Feliciano struggled to explain, agitating his arms as he did so.

"W-well…"

"That means we're in danger?"

"How so?"

"I… I can't recall how the story ends… I can't recall much from the tale, but it's sometimes dangerous, ne?"

Lovino couldn't really remember much of it either. As they were debating, loud noises interrupted they conversation and the subject had immediately exhausted their attention span. The Italians went running, curious as ever, to know what the ruckus was all about. My, what a noisy place this was.

Under a tree stood a long table, and at this very table, the brothers recognized England, France and Canada having tea. The first had half of a hare, the second seeming oddly enough a mere human with a too large hat, and the last an anthro-dormouse. The previous two seemed to be arguing loudly, though Feliciano could not understand what they were saying, and the sleeping Canadian in the middle did not seem to mind at all. It seemed very surprising that one could sleep so soundly in so much noise. As the Italians came even closer to be noticed by England and France, they both turned and declared in chorus:

"No spare chairs! Be off!"

In the beginning, none of the Italians dared say anything, the need of having unnecessary problems was not present. However Lovino was not pleased with the sudden outburst, and his mood set on being truly pissed off when it had been on rather scared a few seconds ago.

"There's plenty of friggin' chairs, bastards!"

And so he pulled his younger brother to both sit down on the largest chair at the end of the table. It was quite big as there was plenty of room for the two of them, and it somewhat comforted them to sit so close to one another, since the Italians were unconsciously clinging to the other's sleeve.

Francis and Arthur seemed to have forgotten their earlier disagreement and were themselves sitting next to each other, in different chairs that is, though.

"Would you care for some tea?" England hastily asked, not merely out of politeness, but out of true interest in the drink.

"Vraiment, mon cher, what kind of gentleman are you to suggest such a dreadfully disgusting drink!"

"Excuse me? You haven't even touched your cup, what is your knowledge of the matter? It is the best tea, you know."

"All I know is that if this tea is as good as your cooking, I'd rather not taste it."

"And I'm not a gentleman?!"

"Quite far from it, mon cher, you're a rabbit!"

"I, you see, happen to be a hare, twat."

"Talking about hair, you have hay entangled in it."

Francis' face twitched in disgust, whilst Arthur looked like he was about to slap him. He was blushing furiously, unable to deny the fact France had stated.

It seemed the two weren't paying attention to the Italians anymore. The previous were clinging to each other on the large chair, one quite worried, one staring at Canada, waiting for movement. If it weren't for the fact he was slightly moving from the breathing motion, to the world he was more dead than just sleeping. He somewhat seemed a tad transparent, also. Wondering how the Canadian dormouse managed to doze off in such a mess, with Arthur throwing plates at Francis, and Francis shielding himself with his chair, while cursing and teasing the other in French, Feliciano grabbed a piece of bread and set about crumbling it, throwing the small crumbles at Matthew in an attempt to wake him up, with the hope he might be able to handle the situation.

Eventually, one of Canada's eyes cracked open as he slipped out of slumber.

"Hmmm? What's going on?" He mumbled.

He seemed painfully unconcerned by the violent argument his two friends were having. As he was about to doze off again, Feli tried whispering as loudly as possible to catch the other's attention.

"Pssst! Matthew! Wake up!"

"A-ah? Oh, it's you…"

"Ne, ne, can you make Francis and Arthur stop trying to kill each other? It's scary!"

"What? Why would I do that?"

"E-err… because you're a nice person?"

"…No, I won't do it. At least they leave me out of it like this. One would think I hate being forgotten all the time, but with those two, I'd rather be invisible. They might try to drown me in a teapot for all that I know."

At the younger Italian's great dismay, it seemed final. Canada went to sleep once more, an irritated expression still on his face as he did so, though it soon disappeared. Feliciano blinked. This was really not the reaction he had been hoping for, and even if he could have considered the other might refuse, he had had no idea it would be for such motives. Then again, vey few people seemed to know Matthew too well, and this for many reasons as he never opened up so much and even if he did, everybody always forgot him or confused him with his brother, America. Northern Italy had indeed heard they were more alike in personality than one would suspect. Or was that it he had heard? He couldn't think too well with the sound of smashing plates and cussing.

Turning round to ask advice from his older brother (this fact proving little Italy was quite desperate) he realized Lovino had got up from the chair and was now arguing with Francis and Arthur, his voice getting higher and higher as he was yelling.

"You fucking wine bastard, are you threatening me?!"

"Oui, it would seem so!"

"How is menacing him to make me cook tomatoes a bloody threat?!"

"It would be a real murder, mon cher, Lovino could only take it badly."

At this point his brother was more shrieking than shouting which made them all wince at different degrees. Even Matthew dared to open his eyes at this. Oh, so the noise was a question of habit and this one was new to the Canadian. He started shivering and covered his ears looking at Feliciano, his look begging him to please, for God's sake go away. At this little Italy grabbed his brother, trying to contain his struggle, and set about running just in time to dodge the boiling tea the British hare had thrown at the French hatter, missing him.

Suddenly, without understand his action, Romano seized a teapot on the way and clutched to it to not spill its contents. The last thing he ever saw of the tea party was France and England both siding and taking their revenge upon the now awake Canada. Perhaps by forcing him to drink tons of black tea he would pass away from internal drowning.

xXx

The Italians had walked aimlessly since then, also feeling quite down. Everything in this world was oppressing, noisy, aggressive, confusing, and all these emotions seemed too much to handle for just one mere location. None of them knew how to feel about it all. Feliciano sighed and started blabbering.

"I want to see Ludwig again… I miss him so much… He would know what to do… He would-"

"Shut it! Don't talk about that potato freak!" Lovino retorted violently.

Not only he detested the German, but Feli's words made him miss Antonio. Spain was probably the only person he would really want to see, yet he seemed the only one who wasn't. Romano's heart tightened, and he clutched tighter to the teapot, as if to contain a wound.

"Nii-chan!"

Lovi looked up to see what was the matter. Seeing his brother smile to no end was not what he had expected, therefore he became even more curious of finding out. He looked round and- Ah… This is…

Indeed they had finally reached the beautiful garden they had seen so long ago. It was wonderful, shining, it's flowers as the many stars in a night's sky. Roses. Little did they know that the fact these were roses would be such a catastrophe.

Next thing Lovino knew, his brother had wandered off while he was not paying attention. It somewhat didn't matter. He somewhat didn't feel nor angry nor worried for his younger brother. He would manage, since he always did in the end, since each time Romano ran to attempt to save him it seemed the other never needed it anyway. That so lucky brother of his might even find the one he was longing for earlier, so why bother?

No, Lovino didn't feel right at all. He slowly loosened his grip on the teapot, taking it in his hands, wondering what the object had that had seemed so special. This, the Italian quickly understood. The teapot was prettily decorated, the patterns none other than appealing red tomatoes. This is the most stupid teapot! he thought, still now he knew he would not let go before finding the true object that shall comfort him. With this, for Romano, the Spaniard was definitely there, somewhere, and all he had to do was find him.

He might've found the cat on his way,

Who swiftly pointed the road that he may,

Stumbling upon the French mad hatter,

Giving the teapot for the matter,

Who could not say so?

There are a Trio.

And now it was Lovino who had this,

Slowly pouring the tea as a kiss,

On a dead rose that had not shown through,

Perhaps it was longing for love too?

Eager eyes watched it shine in brown,

The liquid made it beautiful still down,

The sour turned in sweet,

It was now good to eat,

But before the tip of the fingers could reach,

One could hear three words spoken for each.

Voilà~

I remember at first Antonio was not going to be included, but then I figured how cruel that would be. I love the guy also, so I didn't understand why.

The tea party might seem short or rushed... worry not, the next omake chapter will be for Francis and Arthur.

Huh... don't think I have much to say about this.

Well then, I'm off to school, wouldn't want to be late T^T With this done I can finally start reading Les misérables by Victor Hugo, yay!