"You know, we'll have to back downstairs eventually."

"Nope."

"There's more coffee downstairs."

Norway sighed. Coffee….

"Alright, fine."

Denmark followed Norway down the stairs, trying to hide his smirk. What happened next…well, it would be interesting, to say the least.

He was so caught up in his thoughts (he had so few that when he did have them, they were just so overwhelming) that he didn't notice that Norway had come to a complete stop. He managed not to run into the shorter man.

Six children of varying ages were lounging around the living room. Norway had stopped at the entrance of the room and was simply looking at them.

"Denmark," he hissed under his breath, "what have you done?"

For an instant, Denmark considered that he might have messed up, but that was totally impossible; after all, he was Denmark! Of course, he'd never had quite the ear for the very distinct (at least, Norway would have thought so) difference between the "a" sound and the "e" sound.

Still, Norway did manage to stay composed (showing emotion was not something Norway had ever excelled at) as he strolled nonchalantly into the living room.

Perhaps this really was a bad idea after all?

Well, no use crying over spilt mead.

And anyway, what had he thought would happen? Norway hadn't seen some of them for more than a hundred years. And that had been under…uncomfortable circumstances.

"Good afternoon, children."

Most of the children in the living room actually did look up (Faeroes was the exception, and Tormod did look back down at his phone a moment later, but on the whole, it looked mildly…promising?).

Normandy, one of the only people who actually looked happy to be there, ran up to Norway and silently demanded to be picked up. She was, of course, immediately, if a bit absent-mindedly, scooped up.

Norway did take a moment to shoot Denmark a glance that very clearly said, "We'll speak of this later," before taking a seat on a nearby couch.

"Faroes, I didn't expect that you had planned on leaving your house this month."

Chilly as only a Nordic could be.

"I didn't expect to, either." She barely looked up from her phone. "Or ever, for that matter."

Yeah, there really was no doubt about at least one of her parents.

"And Greenland. How are things? I'm afraid I rarely hear from you."

"Oh, the letters must just get lost in the mail."

Not that anyone in the room believed that.

"Yes, of course. Tormod, how is your sister?"

"Fine."

The other two, who had actually put their phones away (likely even turned them off), were common enough visitors that Norway had no compunctions against not trying to mend fences. Mainly because those fences had no need of major repairs; maybe a paint job, but nothing major.

"Come on, Normandy, let's go make sure Danmark didn't screw up anything else." Norway stood and retreated to the kitchen. Denmark figured he should probably follow.

Once in the kitchen, Norway put Normandy down and turned the coffee pot on (at least he hadn't reached for the liquor yet), then opened the fridge and got the carton of milk out. Without acknowledging Denmark's presence, he moved to pull two mugs from the cabinet. He poured some milk into one and handed it to Normandy. He poured some coffee into the other and took a large swig before turning to face Denmark.

He said nothing for what seemed like an eternity.

"You're mad, aren't you?"

"Oh, I'm not entirely sure 'mad' covers it, Denmark."

"Well, you know, they are your children too."

"Why yes, I'm so glad you remembered that."

"Oh, for God's sake-! Look, I'm sorry. I really am."

"Well, excuse me. I suppose I'll just stop being irate, since you're so, so sorry about how you royally fucked up!"

"It might be good for you."

"Excuse me!?" Things seemed to be escalating quickly; Norway had actually set his coffee cup down.

"Well, you've always talked about how you wished you were closer to them, how you wished you could have been a better father. Now's your chance."

Norway looked like he was about to say something, but then he took a sip of his coffee.

"Fine. I'll try it. But of anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you."

A/N: Goodness, apparently it's been forty days since I updated anything here. I'm rather sorry. Like, a lot. Hopefully (fingers crossed), I will be able to update more often. No promises, though.