Weapon Frayer; DFTBA~

Laurel Silver; Lots of italics in this chapter. Sorry!

[Counting Stars, OneRepublic] And now Gilbert's losing sleep, dreaming up this scheme of his to bring him and Elizabeta back together. Together they were unstoppable, counting their dollars and counting their stars. They're young, and they are both definitely bold.

Elizabeta settles herself back into Vladimir's guest bed, relaxing easily into the mattress. All she can do now is work hard, like she has done all her life, and hope she gets herself a decent job. Then again, 'hope' is a four-letter word.

Tired, she falls asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.

[Team, Lorde] Elizabeta wanders through a town, looking vaguely like her hometown in Champaign. It's run down, the kind of city you'd never see on the silver screen because it's just not very pretty. Broken shards line the street, hounds yap at the chains leashing them to the walls, strange pretty ladies dance about in all their finery with a hundred jewels on their throats, their skin glowing in the full moonlight.

Elizabeta wanders, staying out of the way of the dancing women and the snapping jaws of the hounds. Of course, her home town hadn't had these strange dogs and women when she was a child. It feels surreal; these ruins of a palace of memories bathing in reflected white light.

A soft music echoes through the streets, and Elizabeta follows it, not knowing what else to do with herself here. It's gentle, almost like a lullaby. As Elizabeta gets closer, a male singing voice joins it, too distant to make out the words.

[Safe and Sound, Capital Cities] Closer and closer, and voice gets louder and louder, and clearer and clearer. The voice has an Italian accent, and as Elizabeta enters the old theater the singing emits from, she isn't surprised to see Romulus Vargas standing there belting his heart out, his handsomeness showing exactly what part of the family the Vargas quadruplets she'd used to babysit got their looks from.

"I could lift you up," he sings in his deep, melodic voice, "I could show you what you wanna see, and take you where you wanna be."

Romulus used to sing all the time, belting out songs in both English and Italian, putting many a wanna-be singer to shame. "You could be my luck, even if the sky is falling down, I know that we'll be safe and sound, we're safe and sound." He was never famous as many of their neighbours had said he should have been; foreigners don't get famous. "I could fill your cup, you know my river won't evaporate, this world we still appreciate." Romulus's skin was too dark for him to be famous, the White Americans would have had a heart attack at the mere thought of it, despite him being able to pull any straight woman of any colour with his beauty.

"Eliza!" he cries as he finally sees her, walking her way down the aisle towards the stage, "Oh, how you've grown. You look so much like your father, but so much like your mother, and it is so very pretty on you~"

"Ever the sweet-talker," Elizabeta says with a grin, "What are you even doing here?"

"I tyed God up to come visit every one," Romulus says calmly, as if that's a perfectly normal thing to do.

"And I'm included in 'every one'?" Elizabeta asks, shocked.

"Of course you are, bella!" Romulus says, happiness seeming to erupt from body, "You were so important to me and my family. The boys loved you to pieces; you were like their big sister they never had. And, I know things have been kinda tough for you lately."

"It's nothing I can't handle," Elizabeta says indignantly.

"Of course it's nothing you can't handle! You're one of the strongest girls I know! You're a bit scary sometime, ve! But everyone needs a little reminder to keep their head up every now and again! You could be my luck, even in a hurricane of frowns, I know that's we'll be safe and sound."

[Carry on my Wayward Son, Kansas] Elizabeta smiles, sitting herself down on the front row of the empty seats.

"Carry on my wayward child, there'll be peace when you are done, lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more."

A guitar starts up, a loud riff as epic as Romulus's voice, and Gilbert comes sliding out from behind the curtain, a black and white lefty-guitar singing between his pale hands. The curtains open to reveal Roderich at the piano, and Matthias laid in a ridiculous 'seductive' pose across the top of the piano with a goofy grin on his face. Ludwig stands by the piano, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as he blatantly refuses to even look at Matthias's idiocy.

"Once I rose above the noise and confusion, just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion, I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high." Roderich plays the piano as Romulus sings, both Weillschmidt brothers dragging Matthias off the piano top. "Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man, though my mind could think I still was a mad man, I hear the voices when I'm sleeping, I can hear them say;" Gilbert grins as he plays the guitar, Matthias headbanging that crazy hair alongside the albino, and Ludwig awkwardly tries to copy, his hair too short and gelled down to be effective, on the other side of his brother. "Carry on my wayward child, there'll be peace when you are done, lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more."

Romulus headbangs and jumps around with the boys, "Masquerading with a man with a reason, my charade is the event of the season, and if I claim to be a wise man, well, that surely means that I don't know." Roderich just watches from the piano, lips pursed in a mimped, prissy manner. "On a stormy sea of moving emotion, tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean, I set a course for winds of fortune, But I still hear them say;" And Gilbert, Matthias and Ludwig sing along in varying degrees of in-tune as Romulus sings; "Carry on my wayward child, there'll be peace when you are done, lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more."

Gilbert and Ludwig are mostly in-tune with their singing, but Matthias is terrible, completely off-key but belting the song out anyway, Roderich visibly grimacing at every bum note. "Carry on, you will always remember, carry on, nothing equals the splendor, now your life is no longer empty, surely heaven waits for you."

"Carry on my wayward child, there'll be peace when you are done, lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more!"

Gilbert leaps off the stage to hug Elizabeta as she gives them a standing ovation. Matthis and Romulus bow deeply, and Ludwig bows as Romulus and Matthias basically force him to. Roderich remains at the piano.

"How are you even here?" Elizabeta asks Gilbert.

"Because you're dreaming," Gilbert answers plainly.

"Are you supposed to tell her that?" Romulus asks.

"We have to go deeper!" Matthias yells. As everyone just stares at him, he clarifies; "Inception reference." Gilbert and Elizabeta nod and accept it, but Romulus, Ludwig and Roderich remain confused.

"But does that mean that those two are going to come and separate us again?" Elizabeta asks worriedly.

"I don't know," Gilbert answers honestly, "But I hope not."

"Come sing!" Romulus cries, blatantly interrupting them, "Come dance, be happy, smile, laugh, sing!"

[(Stronger) What Doesn't Kill You, Kelly Clarkson] Gilbert tugs Elizabeta onto the stage, Romulus twittering at Roderich, who doesn't look happy about it in the slightest. Matthias and Ludwig jump up and down, dancing about with Elizabeta and Gilbert as they sing along with Romulus; "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller, doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone. What doesn't kill you makes a fighter, footsteps even lighter, doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone."

And as Romulus, Gilbert, Roderich, Matthias fade away, Elizabeta can only smile as she drifts into a peaceful, awake consciousness.

Weapon Frayer; I really can't wait for the next chapter. *grins* Or two. :)

Laurel Silver; Romulus is, of course, Grandpa Rome. The quadruplets are Veneziano, Romano, Seborga and Vatican City. I know Vatican City isn't an official character, but oh well.

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