Guess who's back! Okay that was a little dumb, but anyway. I'm back with a few new chapters for you guys and sorry for the wait but I do have a life to be put in order (and I still need to put somethings in order...) And I was on a bit of a writer's block break of not only this fic but others as well. Anyway... I was thinking what I should do from the last chapter's point and I do plan on giving Fern-Lui some dark background and then it birthed to something from a picture I drew as a final in an art class in college. What that is is still unclear because I'm working on the building suspition that surrounds my little OOC.

Also! I remember one of my reviewers asking how long this will be, chapter wise, and at first I didn't have any plans in mind, but then when I was doing a brain storm vacation (right... vacation...), and I realized that this kind of story would be a trilogy of some sort, this being the first part of the triolgy (obviously!) So! My goal for this one is to reach 25 chapters before going to the second of the series.

'Wait... Why are you making it into a triolgy?'

Well, like I said I was doing a brain storm thing and I realized that the second part of the story is something entirely different, time wise, but still connected to this one. I decided that this one is mainly getting to know my OOC as pieces of her is revealed in her memories and nightmares before some crazy thing happens that involves one of the nations entire well being in jepordy. And I think I said too much there.

So... there you have it, if you still have some kind of question, feel free to review or PM me, either way works for me. Other than that, just enjoy these chapters.

Oh! Before I forget, I recently heard about the Eurovision thing, but by the time I heard about it, it passed, can anyone tell me how that went from beginning to end? I tried to look up on the site, but that didn't help, and then I tried YouTube, which I got a chance to hear the music, but the whole placement is confusing me. If you couldn't answer, that's okay, but it would be helpful for the next chapter after this set of them.

And another thing... The end of the world didn't happen! I swear I'm not going to believe in that whole "Judgement Day" thing... Seriously! How many times have there been perdictions of this? The old guy doesn't know what he's talking about!

Okay that rant is over with, enjoy!

Chapter 17: Lessons, Lessons

'She opened her eyes to see nothing. Nothing but snow with some dead looking trees surrounding her. Then snowflakes started to fall and she looked at the few she was able to catch in her dark green mitten covered hands. She looked closely to see the designs on the snowflakes. She then gasped when the snowflakes became a red, thick liquid as it soaked into the mittens. She heard something that sounded like a twig being snapped to her side as she looked to see an opening that wasn't there before. She suddenly felt fear as she walked cautiously to the edge of the snow and looked down to see…'

"Remember now?"

0o0o0o0o0

Fern-Lui shot up from her bed, startling Gino and Lutz as the two cats looked up at her as she breathed deeply to calm herself down. She then rubbed her eyes before taking another deep breath before looking at the two cats, who seemed to be worried about her. "Morning." She said as she petted the two. "I'm okay. It's just a bad dream." She said with a smile that didn't seem right.

Gino cuddled up to her as she continued to pet him, Lutz watching and seem to study the girl as the false smile turned to that of indifferent and her eyes seemed faraway and fearful.

And as if on cue, Italy entered the room, fully dressed and greeted the girl happily before seeing that she hasn't gotten out of bed. "Ve? What's wrong?" He said as he petted the girl's hair, noting how silky and soft it is.

"Just a bad dream, Mamma Italia…" She said with a small smile.

"Ve~ You've been having nightmares for some time now." He said, looking concerned. "Are you okay?" He added thinking. 'This is the fifth time this month...'

"Si, I'm fine." She said as she got out of bed. "I'll be down in a minute, okay?"

Italy nodded. "Okay." He said as he got up. "Don't forget what today is."

"I haven't forgotten." She said as he left the room and she pulled out a white, long sleeved dress shirt and a red plaid school jumper, puts in the clips in her hair, puts on long white stockings and black penny loafers before grabbing a brown bag and ran to the kitchen, where Germany was making breakfast.

Germany wore the iron pressed grey slacks, a white, long sleeve dress shirt, which the sleeves were rolled up as he cooked and was wearing a pink apron as he cooked. Italy was dressed formally as well, but it was a lot nicer in a blue color, definitely Italian made.

She took a seat as the plates were set down in front of her and Italy, and she waited as Germany took off the apron, hanged it on a hook, and sat down with his own plate before she ate hers.

"Ve~ Who's teaching, Germany? I forgot."

"Spain's teaching her today."

"Ve, that'll be fun. What's Spain going to do?"

"From our talk yesterday, I do believe he's teaching her dance, guitar, and Romano will be there to teach her football."

"Ve~ Sounds like a lot of fun!" Italy said as he finished his plate.

"Italy, are you okay picking her up around five? My boss wants me to stay a few hours longer to look over some papers for any defects."

"Not a problem!" Italy said cheerfully. "I have to go to the store to pick some things up anyway."

Germany sighed. "Make sure you get everything that's written on the list this time." He said as he gathered the empty plates, placed them in the sink to be dealt with later, grabbed his jacket and the three made it out to Germany's car and headed to Spain's house.

0o0o0o0

"¡Hola! Welcome to my house!" Spain called out happily as the girl went up to him and he was more than happy to dote and gush over her before Germany brought him back to reality. "Oh right! Romano won't be here until one, so I'll make her some lunch after her dance lesson."

Germany nodded as he pointed to Italy. "Italy will, hopefully, come by to pick her up around five." He looked at Spain. "If there's anything that needs to bring to our attention, don't hesitate to call either of us."

"Right o!" Spain said with a cheerful smile.

Germany nodded as he looked at his adopted daughter. "You be good now and listen to Spain."

"Ich werde."(1) She said as they parted and she watched both her parents drive off, Italy hanging out of the car while Germany held him back by the belt to keep him from falling out of the car. She giggled until she couldn't see them anymore before Spain mentioned to follow him.

"Alright now, since this is your first time in my house, the first thing in order is a tour." He said.

She nodded as she looked at the house. It was indeed large, almost like a castle, and followed him through a lot of hallways to rooms and knowing where the bathrooms are, which he told her funny tales about Romano's accidents because he couldn't find the bathrooms, even blaming the squirrels when he wets his bed.

"Okay! Now that you know my place, let's get started on your guitar lessons." He said as he led them to his garden, where there was a fountain and two guitars there, one large and the other child sized.

Both picked up their guitars and they started on the basics before trying out one song using the basics. They worked on the guitar for two hours before he told her to put the guitar aside and taught her some steps at a time for the dancing part of the lesson.

Around noon, Romano came over and they made lunch together.

Afterwards, Romano helped with the dance lesson by doing a few moves and she had to copy him, being corrected now and then. Then it was siesta, which all three rested under the comfortable shade of the tree.

After that, Spain was in the position as goalie as Romano went over drills about football. She wore a plain white shirt and black shorts and wore the shoes used for football as she was taught through the drills before putting them into practice. She liked the game as she tried to get the ball pass Spain and into the goal. Soon it was getting late and Spain allowed the girl to wash up before Italy, only a half hour late, came by to pick her up.

"Ve~ How was your lessons today?"

"It was a lot of fun, but I wasn't able to get a goal in during the football lesson."

Italy smiled. "You will one day, it takes a lot of skill and speed to get it. And because you're half Italian you'll get it soon, and Germany's sports teams aren't bad either, so you'll do great with a lot of practice. But the main thing is to have fun playing, otherwise there would be fights going on and everyone will be sour and not happy."

She giggled as they headed home, made dinner, greeted Germany home, and talked about their day.

0o0o0o0

The next morning, Italy drove the girl to Japan's temporary house south of his home, which nearly gave the Japanese nation a heart attack when Italy screeched to a halt in front of the house.

"Hello Nihon-ojisan, how are you feeling?" She asked seeing that the other was slightly pale due to what happened just north of the island.

"Herro, Rui-chan. I'm feering a rittre bit better… Amerika-san and his men are being a great herp."

"Where's he now? Wasn't he staying with you?"

"He has to go back home to tark to his boss about the situation in Ribiya-san's home."

"Oh yeah… I bet both aren't getting along, huh?"

"Not so much."

"Ve~ Japan, are you going to be okay? Germany and I understand if you're not up to teaching her…"

"Iie, I can handre it. I promised to teach her on this day, so I wirr." He said, looking a bit determined.

"Okay, ve~ But if you're feeling tired or something is wrong that you don't want her to get involved with, let me or Germany know, okay?"

"Hai." He said as he and the girl waved the Italian man off before he looked down at the girl. "Werr then… Sharr we get started?" He asked, which the girl was more than happy to start.

Japan handed her a plain, light blue kimono and helped her change into it and started the lesson by doing the tea making ceremony, which the girl had no problems with since she'd done this many times with her obasan. Then he handed her a fan and showed her how to move like a geisha.

"Nihon-ojisan, how do you know how a geisha moves?" She asked.

"There is a rare case where men with very femare rike faciar features can purr off rooking rike a geisha."

"Were you one of them?"

"You missed a step."

"Wha!" She exclaimed as he held in his chuckle as they started over again as he told her that the way of a geisha is to be a living, moving art form.

Then they headed outside where he brought out two bamboo kendo training swords and did a few warm up drills before lunch. After they ate, they meditated before she fell asleep for her siesta, which Japan has no problems with because one, he was used to seeing Italy do the same thing, and second he was able to catch his breath and took the medication that America gave him for the radiation he has, and some pain killers caused by the earthquakes. It didn't really help, being a nation, but to the unnamed human part of him it helped eased the pain just slightly.

After her siesta, they went over some striking basics for kendo before he allowed her to try a few on him, which he expertly blocked easily. This went on until Germany came and found them still practicing and they parted to head back home.

"Thank you Japan. Are you sure you're doing okay?"

"Of course. Teaching has provided a distraction and it's very nice to see someone so young so interested in traditionar teachings. Makes me feer young a bit."

Germany smiled a bit as both men looked at the girl, playing with Pochi and Tama as she waited for the German nation to mention about leaving. "We better head back then. Who knows what Italy is up to." He said, making Japan chuckle a bit.

0o0o0o0

The next day was France's house, which Germany gave her a pager, showed it how it worked, and told her to only eat her lunch that Italy made for her. He even threatened France if he tried anything to his little girl that would scar her for life that he will humanly harm him.

France sworn he wouldn't do such a thing and Germany left with a last warning to the girl and reluctantly left to work.

'Why did France have to have the day off today?' He thought as he looked back until he couldn't see France's house.

France showed her around, avoiding the 'special' rooms, and led them to the kitchen where he taught her how to cook a five star French cuisine fit for a king.

She enjoyed the cooking quite a lot, and even secretly liked smacking her oncle's hands when he tried to do something, or pull out the pager on him to back off.

'I swear, it's like I'm dealing with my Oncle all over again.' She thought before having a reminiscing moment of a man teaching her how to make a crossant. She can easily see the flour in the nicely well managed blond hair tied back in a low pony tail, some batter onto the fair skin with a bit of a growing beard on his chin and partly up on his jaw. Looking at France now, she can clearly see the man she was just remembering not a second ago, eyes focused onto the thickening batter in the bowl in his arm and a wooden spoon in his hand.

When siesta came around, she devised a quick alarm thing to warn her when France is getting close to her as she slept, which was a waste as he relaxed with a glass of wine, just watching her sleep.

'She looks so much like Italy when she sleeps.' He thought with a content grin. 'Now if only she were my little girl… or better yet a nation that I can claim as my property.' He chuckled, but he saw the look of pain on her once peaceful slumbering face. 'Italy did say she would have nightmares periodically.' He looked concerned and sad. 'England explained that it has to do with whatever happened before coming here. Should it be confronted then? It can't be healthy for a child. But then again, Prussia mentioned a talk with Germany about confronting. Surely a serious matter needs to be confronted immediately, shouldn't it?' He finished his wine as he continued to think whether or not asking her about her family in the other world would be the right thing to do. 'This family thing is hard.' He realized. 'All this worrying is going to make me look thirty years old human wise.'

After waking up early from her siesta, they moved onto making desserts until Italy's car parked out in front of France's house with a loud screech of the brakes from the speed, which Germany slightly stumbled out of the passenger side, picked up his daughter, giving a hasty 'thank you for watching her' and ordered Italy to take the passenger seat and drove out of the drive, after a 'Why Germany? I can get to your house faster,' and a 'No, Italy, last time I allowed you to do that I had to bail you out on so many accounts due to your speeding!'

'Such an overprotective father…' France thought amusingly and added, 'and husband.' as he went back inside.

0o0o0o0

The next day Germany drove up to Russia's house, which both he and the girl were donned with heavy winter clothing as Russia was outside, waiting for them.

"I was afraid you might've been snowed in on the way here." Russia said as he was holding a shovel.

"Sorry…" Germany said as the girl got out and greeted the nation warmly, which seems to put him in a good mood, if he wasn't already. "I'll be by sometime around five to pick her up." He said as the Russian nodded.

"Okay, and if you're not here by seven, then I will be nice and call out for some help in searching for you if you get trapped."

"Danke…" He said as the girl told him to have a good day and to see him later, while he in turn told her to mind her manners and not cause any trouble during her lessons before leaving.

Russia's lessons were only ballet for her as he has an outfit ready for her as she changed and started the lesson with some warms ups as he told her how she should position herself, helped her with some examples of how she should move before letting her go on her own and watch as she makes a few mistakes before stopping for lunch and siesta.

Germany did have difficulty getting to Russia's house later, but he made it and picked her up, thanking Russia as he waved to them.

"I'll see you on my next day off, da?"

"Da!" She said as she waved. "Thank you for teaching me ballet!"

"Keep practicing, Немного Подсолнечника." (2)

"I will!" She said before they headed back to Germany's house for dinner.

0o0o0o0

Next was Finland, Sweden, and Sealand as Finland taught her math and science, her two worst subjects as Sealand suffered along with her while Sweden co-worked with the lesson, which both children didn't mind the intimidating look that would catch Finland off guard and scared for a moment.

Next was Norway as he didn't really have a lesson planned, but she was introduced to the forest spirits and had a field day, learning a bit about Vikings from Norway now and then.

Then it was Denmark's turn, which mostly consisted of his own history as they walked around the town where his house was located.

Then it was Germany's turn to teach his daughter something. He started with some morning drills, which became fun when his dogs wanted in, and most of the snow has melted away, leaving a lush, new green grass to come up. After that he went to teach her math, which was close to pre-algebra, but still very basic for an eight year old, who is improving thanks to Finland and Sweden.

After her siesta, he figured she had done enough math and helped her practice her football form and taught her some extra moves to use until Italy came home and made dinner.

When it came to be America's turn, because they have to use normal air travel with his case, she had to take the flight, alone, and spend a few days with him before going back the same way. Needless to say they had to plan something different for the American's lessons, which were history, math, science, and, in spite of Germany's request to avoid it, hip-hop dancing.

It didn't help that he learned that she had taken a liking to the game Just Dance, which Prussia was more than happy to reveal that he just got the game the other day, and now he has a dancing partner to share.

Then Canada came over to visit, after much convincing (though it was actually begging) from Prussia to let the nation stay and taught the girl how to make pancakes, his history, and helped in her science studies, which were nature related at the most.

When it came to Italy's turn, he brought canvases and he wanted to advance his adoptive daughter's artistic abilities, and what better place to do so in Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance.

Then it was finally England's turn.

0o0o0o0

"Remember what I told you." Italy said as it was his turn to drop her off.

"Don't eat Uncle England's food. I know." She said happily as Italy headed off to work as she and England headed inside his house.

"Okay, Little Lady. Since I'm your instructor for today, I'll be teaching you something that's related to science."

"Related to science?" She asked, not really understanding as she was lead to a room that has furniture moved towards the walls and there was a chalk drawing of a circle and odd symbols drawn within the circle. "What's this?"

"A magic circle. This one is for training purposes only."

"You're teaching me magic?"

"Just the basics. We'll start briefly with the history of magic and I'll help you unlock the flow within you so you can perform one of the few basics of magic."

"Will it hurt?"

"No dear, far from it."

She didn't seem too sure, but at the same time was a bit excited to learn magic and listened to the Englishman intently.

After the history lesson, he told her to stand in the center of the drawn circle, being mindful of not scuffing the lines he drawn and chanted a spell that allowed her to glow.

She closed her eyes, a bit fearful of what would happen, not seeing the shocked expression of the Englishman's face.

'Good Lord in Heaven… What is that?' He thought as he saw black, transparent smoke going around her like a snake and wondered why the girl has that. 'Was she casted already? Looks more like a curse by the looks of it…' He thought, studying the pattern. 'Should I really open her inner flow?' He debated himself as he continued with the spell, finishing the preparation for her first magic casing lesson. 'It didn't hinder the opening of the flow, but I have to look into this.' He thought as he taught her the basic Latin words that will help her light a candle by blowing on the wick. 'Looks like whatever it was isn't harming her...'

She was doing well for her first lesson, she even managed to change a flower's color by blowing on it.

England got a little curious as he took out a book that was a level higher than the ones he's teaching her to learn and asked her to pick one form of magic she would like to learn for extra practice.

She looked through the book and found one that seemed interesting to her. "Uncle England, what's this spell?"

He looked over and read over what the spell is about. "It's a spell to put your thoughts into something and send that thought and it will not stop until it reaches to the one you were thinking of."

"Meaning…"

"Say you write a letter to… Spain, and you put every thought of him into the letter. Then, once you're done with that letter, recite the spell onto it and it will gain a life of its own and will not stop until it reaches Spain."

"Oh! I see!"

"Well… I haven't put that spell into good use so far. So I don't highly recommend it."

"But you said any spell in this book, and I want to practice this spell."

"However-"

"Please Uncle United Kingdom? Pretty, pretty please?" She said as she unleashed her puppy eyes, courtesy of her mamma.

"Oh bullocks! Okay! Let me write it down for you." He said, a huge sucker for the puppy eyes.

"Yay! Thank you!" She cheered as she yawned. "Siesta's coming up…"

"Let me tuck you in then." He said as he picked her up, bridal style, and carried her up to one of the guest rooms when she was already asleep, and tucked her in. "Well now… since she's out for the moment, I better get that spell copied and start on that tea."

0o0o0o0

An hour into the siesta, she was having the nightmare again.

'She walked towards the edge of the opening, looking down to see a body, a pool of blood staining the pure white snow. The source of the blood was at the body's head, covered by a hood, but she can see a few strands of blond hair.

"…Nien…" She whispered as she crawled down the icy rocks before slipping on one of the rocks and fell onto the snow next to the corpse. "Nien." She said as she placed her hands onto the body's shoulders and turned it over.'

"Fern-Lui!"

She woke up and saw England, looking panicked and concerned before sighing in slight relief.

"Good Lord child… Don't scare me like that."

She sat up and noticed that her clothes stuck onto her due to sweat and felt her eyes were wet from possibly crying. "I'm sorry…"

England waved it off. "It was only a bad nightmare."

"But it scared you too."

England sighed. "You were shouting 'no' in German. It sounded like you were being attacked or something."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. It's just a bad dream."

"Yeah…" She said, but not sounding too sure.

"Well, I better get your clothes cleaned up. Can't have you going home in such a mess."

"Do you have anything I can use for a while?"

He grabbed a large t-shirt as she changed, handed her other clothes to the man and, while waiting for her clothes to be washed and dried, had tea with the British man and started to practice a bit with her self-assigned spell.

Once her clothes were dried, she changed into them just in time for Germany to pick her up.

0o0o0o0

Once the father and daughter left the Britain's home, the nation looked troubled as a fairy appeared next to him.

"Is something wrong?" Asked the fairy.

"You've sensed it as well, haven't you?" He said.

"Well… yes… But she's so innocent…"

He closed the door and leaned up against it, a troubled look on his face. "That she is. But when I was releasing her inner strength to make magic training easier… that energy… I remember sensing that years ago… But this was stronger…"

"Could it be one of your dark spells you were experimenting back in that war?" Said another fairy.

"If that was the case… Then the reason why she's here…" He bit his thumb. "I have to find out those spells. I should have them stored somewhere here…" He then started his night long search of the books that he banned as forbidden to himself.

Translations:

(1) I will - German

(2) Little Sunflower - Russian

Wait... what! Did Cupid add something to the plot? Well, kinda, but it has been my idea to go in depth with her. And because I'm a curious kitty (though I'm more of a dog person), what kind of theories do you have from this? And also, something is really screwy with the reviewing replies from my e-mail. So if I get your comments/theories from my e-mail and I want to reply to them, I would have to go back to this site, find the reivew and reply it from there or PM your response. Just figured I let you guys know about that, though you probably care less. Well! I hope this is satisfactory and I'll see you guys later!