Chapter 14: Russian Gifts and Homeschool Future

A few days went by and Fern-Lui spent a lot of her time outside with her two parents, even though the German mentioned about new paperwork that the Italian should at least look over, and they headed to where the sunflowers were and she wanted to bring a bunch back. Of course Italy gained the favor of the owner of said sunflowers and they were able to get a bouquet of the sunflowers and Germany drove them back to Italy's home.

Along the way, the girl made a flower crown out of the flowers when Italy made a confused sound.

"Ve? Is that Russia?"

They looked to see the man, without the coat and wearing a white shirt and jeans, was waiting out on front of Italy's door with Ukraine and Belarus.

Germany parked Italy's car in the drive and Russia went up to greet them.

"Ciao!" Russia greeted with his best attempt at Italian. "I was wondering if you guys would come back."

"Дядя Россия! Тетушка Украина! Тетушка Белоруссия!" She said happily, carrying three completed sunflower crowns, as she ran up to the large nation, who bent down with arms spread out as she ran into them and lifted up. "When did you get in?" She asked as she looked at the man before him. (1)

"Only three hours ago. The flight took a while, and the traffic here is so amusing. But luckily everyone is so nice, if not a little strange when I asked them about this address." He said, making Italy go behind Germany as the girl giggled. "Hm? You got a lot of sun I see, you're getting that slight tan on you."

"I have been asking Vati Deutschland and Mamma Italia to take me out a lot. Because there's so much to see here." She said as she placed the sunflower crown on his head and smiled. "Perfect!"

Russia blinked as he felt around his head and felt the familiar shape of the sunflowers and smiled. "You think it's perfect on me, da?"

"Da!" She said happily. "I started making the crowns for whatever reason." She said as she handed the other two crowns to Ukraine and Belarus

Russia looked touched as he smiled gently as he petted her head before setting her down. "I got something for you." He said as he held out a wrapped box.

"So did we!" Ukraine said happily as she held out her gift while Belarus did the same, looking away as she did.

"Ve! That's right! Today is your Christmas." She said as she took the boxes and opened it. She saw a nesting doll of Germany and laughed. "Благодарите Вас! Дядя Россия!" (2)

"I'm glad you like it. I didn't know if I got your father's features right."

Germany saw the nesting doll and immediately didn't like it. 'What the hell?' He thought as the girl opened the doll to see Italy, but wearing what looked like a dress.

"You also got Mamma Italia in there!" She said, which Italy looked over and nervously laughed.

"There's one more."

She opened the Italy doll to see her. "And me!" She said with a giggle. "This is great!" She said as she opened Ukraine's gift, which was a fluffy sheep plush toy. "How cute!" She said as she looked at the nation. "Thank you!"

Ukraine smiled happily. "I didn't know what you would like, so I figured something soft would do."

"I'm definitely going to be dead asleep with it." She said with a giggle as she opened up Belarus's gift, which was a dagger of all things.

"What kind of gift is that!" Germany demanded as Belarus turned her nose up.

"You being a military man could teach a girl like her to defend herself at least." She said simply. "And it's one of my old daggers from when I was a younger nation, so it can't really kill anyone."

Fern-Lui tried to get the dagger out of the case, but found it difficult to get it out. "Looks like I wouldn't be able to use it anyway, but thank you, Тетушка Белоруссия, that was really thoughtful of you."

Belarus blushed a bit as she eyed the girl from the corner of her eye. "Never mention it again."

Russia sighed before looking at the girl and smiled. "I can make you another nesting doll if you like, for your birthday."

"Really?"

"Da. I'll make one with everyone in it."

"Ve! That would be amazing!" She said, eyes seeming to sparkle more.

He chuckled as he petted her head. "Now that I mention it, would you tell me your birthday?"

"It's May twenty-second."

"Oh? Is that so?"

She nodded. "Yep! May twenty-second, born in nineteen hundred hours and thirty-nine minutes."

The nations blinked as Russia tilted his head. "So May 22, 1939?"

She giggled. "You make it sound like I was born in that year."

Russia chuckled as he patted the girl's head once more before standing up straight. "I'm sorry, it's just a strange coincidence, is all."

"Eh?" She said as she tilted her head. "Are you going to join us for lunch?"

"That would be lovely, especially since we've been waiting for what seem like hours, da?" He said as he looked at the two nations, who knew the smile would promise not nice things if refused. Needless to say that it made Italy tremble and Germany had to act strong, yet again, to the large nation.

"It will take awhile." Germany said, knowing that it will take time to calm down Italy from one of his panic episodes.

"I got a game all of us can play!" The girl announced happily.

"Oh? I can't wait to know what it is!" Russia said as he let the girl grab his hand, which made Belarus not happy, but followed nonetheless, and Ukraine followed as well.

"Let us know when lunch is done! Okay?" She said to her parents before going to the backyard with the three nations.

Once the four were out of earshot, Italy let out a sigh of relief. "Russia's scary…"

"Must've had a hard time getting here then… Especially with Belarus tagging along."

"Ve~ I better make lunch…"

"You need help?"

Italy nodded as he raised up his hand, which was shaking. "Can you cut up the tomatoes? I don't think I could cut them like this."

Germany nodded, fearing of the other losing a finger if he let the other cut anything.

0o0o0o0

It took some time, but lunch was served, Russia and his sisters were content, the girl keeping the atmosphere light and cheery, much to both the German and the Italian nations' relief, and soon the three nations headed out of Italy's house and went back to their hotel.

"Ve~ Time for a siesta…" Italy said as he dragged himself to the living room, where the girl was already asleep for the siesta.

Germany looked at the time and saw that it was four in the afternoon, and he knew that Italy wouldn't be up until five or six now because he missed an hour keeping Russia, and mostly his younger sister, content. He folded Italy's clothes, placed a blanket over them, but then felt a little tired as well and lifted both of them up, laid onto the couch, and all three took a nap that afternoon.

Italy woke up a bit and saw the German under him, with an arm wrapped around him and their daughter and smiled. He gently kissed the jaw and went back to sleep, wrapping his arm around the girl as well, bringing her close to him and have her ear over the German's strong heartbeat.

Unknown to the two, the girl was on the verge of a nightmare before she heard the heartbeat and felt two arms around her, one strong and one gentle and both protective. Then she heard the sound of a strong heart that she remembered hearing all the time back with her real parents and the nightmare was chased away by this heartbeat. In her sleep she smiled and fisted some of the material of Germany's faded grey shirt.

If anyone looked into the sight now, anyone would agree that it was one of the perfect family moments in such a peaceful time.

That's what happened when Romano had the urge to see his brother, Spain following to make sure that Romano doesn't jump into conclusions as he usually does. And when both entered the house, since Romano has the spare key, and saw the trio on the couch, the first thing that Spain did was wrap his arms around Romano, yet Romano didn't move or make a sound.

"They're cute like that, aren't they, Romano?" Spain asked as he rested his head on top of Romano's head.

"They are…" Romano admitted. "I still don't like that damn potato bastard…" He said quietly as Spain chuckled as he took out a camera. "Why do you have that?"

"It was a gift from Prussia, I thought it would come in handy." He said as he found a perfect position to get the three and took the shot. He looked at the picture on the small screen and showed it to Romano. "Good? No?"

"Don't turn French on me, bastard." He said as he looked at the picture. "Not bad…" He said as he mentioned to the kitchen. "Come on, we better make dinner."

"Oh? What a very thoughtful brother you are, Romano."

"Shut it, bastard. I just want something to eat, and since they'll be up anytime soon, may as well make enough for everyone."

Spain smiled as he put his camera away and helped the older Italian with dinner preparation.

0o0o0o0

When the trio did wake up, they were greeted with a dinner from Spain and Romano, much to the surprise of the trio, which was welcomed and everyone did enjoy the meal, even though Germany had to deal with Romano's settle insults that aimed towards him but not making the girl feel bad.

When dinner was done, the two Italies and the girl were in the kitchen once more to make desserts while Spain and Germany were, more or less, kicked out of the kitchen and were left in the living room, watching television, which Germany could barely understand.

"So, Germany." Spain said as he easily relaxed in the couch. "How's being a dad so far? Looks like an easy job."

"Ah… No, it's just Fern-Lui is a very calm and happy child. But I recently read something about adopted children and how they react to their new family…"

"Oh?"

Germany felt a little awkward, but he continued to talk. "Well… Children have a tendency to believe that whatever happens, they believe it to be their fault when it isn't. I was worried that she might not be saying anything because she believes that whatever happened in her world, is her fault and they had to send her here to keep her safe."

Spain immediately became interested. "Keep her safe from what?"

"It's only a theory." He said, seeing the sudden interest in the Spaniard and sighed. "I got the results for her schooling the other day…"

"Oh? I didn't know she took a test for it."

"It was sometime before we arrived in America's Christmas party…"

"So? How smart is our little flower?"

"Well, she excelled in language and history as expected… but looks like math and worse so science is her worse subjets." He said.

"Really? I thought she might be really smart enough to go to college or something."

"Thankfully no. She's not super human you know."

"So… are you going to send her to school?"

"Nein…"

"Eh? What about her education then? Even I know a gifted child still has to go to school."

"Italy and I talked it over last week, and we decided that we will home school her."

"Home school?"

Germany nodded. "I even talked to my boss about it over the phone when I received the report on her, and he agrees that, because she's our adopted child that any public or private school is just going to target her and let people who don't know of our existence get involved. So it was best to let her be homeschooled to keep it like it the way it is now."

Spain can see the worry in the German's features and pressed onto the questions. "But isn't that a good thing? That gives us all the more reason to dote on her?"

"She also needs outside human interaction. She can't always stay with us… She's mortal after all…"

Spain knew that as well, but he sometimes wants to forget that as well. "Being a father is a tough job…"

"So is being an uncle." Germany said, making the other chuckle.

"Yeah…" He said when the trio came out of the kitchen, desserts in hand to serve.

The two nations looked at the girl, happy and talking about anything and nothing like her adoptive mother, but they knew the sweet girl will one day become a woman, and time wasn't kind to them with that reminder. But they put on smiles and entertained the idea that the girl is one of them, and that would explain why she can't go to a normal school and interact with other people, if only for a moment.

0o0o0o0

Later that evening, Spain and Romano headed out of the door, with hugs from the girl, they entered Romano's car and headed out of sight.

"What were you talking about with the Potato Bastard?" Romano asked.

"About Fern-Lui."

"What about her?"

"That her least favorite subject is math and science." He said.

"I don't like those either. So is she going to school then?"

"Germany and Italy agreed that they were going to home school her to keep her from being bullied and avoid any Parent-Teacher Conferences that come with the school thing."

"Oh… What else?"

"Her well being and, because she's going to be homeschooled she won't be able to interact with others."

"So what? She has us."

"She's not like us, Tomate pequeño. She won't stay a child forever, nor will she age like we do. She will age like our people have done since the dawn of man."

Romano started to drive slower, which Spain noticed and quietly said the Italian's name. "Just shut up forever, bastard."

Spain knew the other didn't mean forever, but he remained quiet as they reached to Romano's house. 'I wonder if other nations are thinking the same thing?' He thought as he tucked the other in and was going to head to the guest room when he felt a hand grab his and looked to see the other telling him to stay, which he obliged willingly, knowing that the knowledge that they would lose the sweet little girl one day was hard to think about.

Translations:

Uncle Russia! Auntie Ukraine! Auntie Belarus! – Russian

Thank you, Uncle Russia! - Russian