"You should be sleeping," the blond German said, walking out onto the balcony. He came to a stop a few feet away from the Italian.

The Italian turned, the curl stubbornly sticking out the left side of his head bobbing as he did so. "Something doesn't feel right," he said. There was a distracted look in his eyes as he asked, "Ludwig, has there been any news about the Mafia?"

Ludwig looked at the Italian for a moment, looking concerned. "There hasn't been any activity from the Mafia, Feliciano." He walked forward until he was standing in front of Feliciano. "Now what's really disturbing you?"

Feliciano turned again, a soft wind starting up that made his robe and sash start blowing softly. Feliciano looked up at the sky, muttering, "It's been fifteen years…"

Ludwig winced. He couldn't believe he forgot what today was. "I'm sure that Lovino's safe, wherever he is."

"I can only hope so," Feliciano muttered, turning back to Ludwig and wrapping his arms around the German desperately.

Ludwig stiffened. He took Feliciano's arms and gently pried the Italian off him. "Feliciano, I'm here to guard you, nothing more," Ludwig explained to him. "You're the Pope; don't forget you can't have affections beyond a mute understanding for everyone else."

Feliciano looked depressed as he nodded. "How silly of me," he muttered halfheartedly as he took a few steps back from Ludwig, his eyes showing how much Ludwig's words stung.

Ludwig winced. He didn't mean to hurt Feliciano's feelings, even though it seemed it was too easy to break them.

Feliciano turned, looking back over the city below. "I never did want this…" Feliciano muttered.

"I know," Ludwig replied. "But no one was surprised when you exhibited your powers."

"Because nonno (grandpa) had them," Feliciano finished. "I know."

Ludwig nodded, deciding to forgo the mention of how much attention had been received when his grandfather revealed he had an illegitimate son. "Come on, you must be getting to bed before someone else finds you up."

"Si, si, (yes, yes)" Feliciano said. He walked inside, Ludwig following behind him at the same distance as when he first walked out onto the balcony.

Though, Ludwig was worried. If something didn't feel right to Feliciano, then something had to be coming. Something bad.

XXX

"Are the preparations complete?" the figure sitting in the chair asked. His feet were propped up on his desk, the chair on the two back legs. The figure's head was covered by a black fedora, though the curl sticking out to the right remained visible.

"The final preparations are being made now," the Russian standing on the other side of the desk said.

"Good. I want them completed by twenty-three hundred," Lovino growled. Without skipping a beat, he continued, "You look like you have something to say, Matthew."

The pale blond with glasses hiding behind the Russian winced. "W-well…" he started. "I…I was just…wondering…is this a good idea?"

Lovino seemed to entertain this idea for a moment, before asking, "Haven't you figured out why we're doing this?"

"Well…I mean…kidnapping the Pope? We'd have everyone chasing us!" Matthew said.

Lovino nodded. He shifted in his seat and set his feet on the ground, watching the blond. "We would have everyone chasing us, but how else could we possibly announce to every one of our return? Besides," Lovino said. He stood up and walked over to Matthew. "I would like to see my fratello (brother) again."

Matthew took an involuntary step backwards, nodding.

Ivan took Matthew's shoulder in his rather large hand, saying to Lovino, "We'll get the preparations done."

Lovino nodded. "I'm counting on it."

Ivan and Matthew left the room while Lovino went back to his desk.

Lovino sat down, propping his feet against the desk again and crossing his arms. "Feliciano, we will be meeting again, sooner than you may think…"

XXX

Ludwig was out patrolling the corridors. If there was one thing he had learned since becoming Feliciano's bodyguard when Feliciano had first started training to be the Pope seven years ago was that he couldn't risk letting his guard down, lest danger fall upon Feliciano.

It was nearly midnight. Ludwig decided he'd make one last round before going and waking up his partner, Francis. Ludwig could already hear Francis complaining about being woken up so early.

Ludwig was just passing the front door when he heard knocking. He stopped, looking at the front door. He was sure he just imagined it. Who could possibly be knocking at close to midnight?

Whoever was on the other side of the door knocked again. Ludwig walked over and looked through the peephole, seeing Alfred. For Alfred to be here at close to midnight, something had to of happened.

Ludwig opened the door, about to ask Alfred what was wrong, when he heard the click of guns being prepped.

The German looked and saw that there were about twenty guns pointed at him.

"What's going on here?" Ludwig asked Alfred, though now that he was facing this person face to face, he realized that this wasn't Alfred standing in front of him. His hair was too pale of a blond and he had a curl bobbing in front of his head instead of a cowlick.

"Well, well," a voice from behind Matthew said. A man in a black suit walked forward. He was wearing a mahogany red shirt and a black tie.

The Mafia. Feliciano was right.

The person walked up to Ludwig, stopping next to Matthew. "Matthew, fall back," Lovino directed him.

Matthew nodded, turning and joining the ranks of the rest of the Mafia quickly. Ludwig tried to follow him with his own eyes, but couldn't see the Alfred lookalike once he had been swallowed by the crowd.

"Are you not going to invite us in?" Lovino asked. "It's getting to be quite cold out here."

Ludwig didn't know why they were here, and he didn't know the person standing in front of him was Lovino, the Pope's long lost brother.

Thinking quickly, Ludwig slammed the door and bolted it shut. He ran over to the closest phone and dialed the police, not being able to give much more information than the Mafia was at the Pope's residence and asking for reinforcements.

It only took a few minutes to complete the call, but that was enough time for the Mafia to start attempting to break through the door. No doubt they were swinging around to the windows and other doors, looking for ways in.

Ludwig didn't hesitate as he moved over to a button locked behind a case. Ludwig smashed the case and hit the button, manually setting off the alarms that signaled there was an intruder.

Everyone surged to life immediately. Ludwig had to cry out, "This isn't a drill!" so everyone would know how urgent it was.

Francis, his hair a mess, found Ludwig after a few minutes and mumbled sleepily, "What's going on?"

The banging on the door answered Francis' question. Francis turned, seeing the bolted door, and turned back to where Ludwig was standing.

The German had disappeared.

"Verdammt (damn)," Ludwig muttered. He should've seen this coming the moment he opened that door and realized it was the Mafia.

Ludwig got to Feliciano's room and broke it open. He was worried that the door was still closed and the halls were empty. In case of an emergency, it was up to a few select members of the guard to get to Feliciano and get him away from there.

"You will freeze, da (yes)?" someone inside asked. Whoever he was, he had pointed a gun at Ludwig, looking content with the situation.

Ludwig was immediately worried. This person wasn't a part of the staff, and he was dressed up as a member of the Mafia.

With him was the man who looked like Alfred and convinced Ludwig to open up the door, though now he had a polar bear with him.

These two were standing near the smashed in windows. Feliciano's room may have been on the third story, but there was a tree that Ludwig would find Feliciano in when he seemed to disappear. These two must've used that to climb up and reach his room.

On the other side of the room, standing on his bed, was Feliciano. His right hand was held up, pointing at the two Mafia members, and glowing.

"Ludwig!" Feliciano cried, seeing the German appear through the door.

Ludwig ran over to Feliciano, managing to avoid the bullets Ivan shot at him. He stopped moving once he put himself between the Pope and the two Mafia members.

"Feliciano, get out of here!" Ludwig growled, pulling out his own gun and pointing it at Ivan and Matthew.

"No!" Feliciano cried. "I'm not going to leave you here!"

"You've got to!" Ludwig replied. "Follow the escape route. I'll cover you. And, mein gott (my god), be careful."

Ludwig fired a few rounds at Ivan and Matthew. This gave them the few needed seconds for Feliciano to make a break for the window and dive into the tree.

"I will see you again," Ludwig told Feliciano, firing another warning shot at Ivan and Matthew.

"Si (yes)," Feliciano replied before starting to jump from branch to branch, moving closer to the ground.

Ludwig turned his attention back to Ivan and Matthew. The two had regained their composure and Ivan was pointing his own gun at Ludwig again.

Ludwig knew something was wrong when he saw Ivan grin. Something, probably an elbow, hit him in the back of his head and he fell unconscious.

XXX

By the time the police arrived, the residence had been deserted of everyone but a few members of the staff. All of them that were still there had been wounded.

The police knew something was wrong when they found no sign of Feliciano or Ludwig.

/AN

And here's Chapter 1. So, what do you guys think of the story so far? Sorry if it seems a little fast, but I'm hoping that from here on out things will slow down.

And yea, I put what they're saying in different languages behind the actual word in question. I never liked having to scroll down to the bottom to figure out what they were saying.

Oh, and I don't own Hetalia in any way!

And I didn't come up with the title. My fantabulous friend did!

R&R Please!
AN/