I do not own Hetalia.

"Graduation is a day of mixed emotions. It symbols the end of a phase of life, and the start of something new. The hundred students we have here, graduating today, now have the chance to go out into the world, and make a life of their own. Parents, I'm sure, will be sad to see them go, but proud to send them away… "

God, that lady went on forever and ever. Making him more teary eyed by the second…

"And now, our salutatorian, Anna Moore!"

Damien listened intently to her speech, proud of his daughter. He knew that she had worked very hard. To see his little girl he'd taken in ten years ago up there, well, it made him so proud he couldn't even explain it.

After her speech came the number one guy, a smart-alec no one listened to, and he droned on and on about his greatness. Whatever, let him have his fifteen to sixty minutes of fame. Anna was a year and a half younger than that kid and had missed valedictorian by .2. When he finally finished, they did the ending ceremony crap, and then sent everyone on their way. Damien waited patiently for that gold honors cap to come bobbing out.

She was talking to Marco as she walked out, and Damien noted, with a sly grin, that they were holding hands. Good going, Marco!

"…Yes, of course. Saturday, 7?"

"Yeah, I'll be around to pick you up." Marco smiled, and then gave her a quick hug and a quick peck on the cheek. Stepping away, he waved and headed for his family. Anna turned around with a blush on her face before bumping into her father.

"So, Marco finally got around to asking you on a date, eh?" Damien wrapped his arm around Anna as they walked out to the car. Her blush got redder. "Well, 'bout time! Took me forever to ask my crush out…did it a tad differently, though…"

They climbed in the car, and Anna looked at her father expectantly, waiting for a continuation of the story, but Damien just started up the car. "Where would you like to go for a celebratory dinner?" That was just like him, starting a story, and then ending it before it even got good. She thought that once she'd started to hear about this 'past lover', her father would open up. Nope. What Anna didn't know was that he always stopped when they started to get painful, and the images of his lover sprang to mind, not that he didn't want to share with his daughter, the center of his universe, as he put it.

That night, sitting out on the porch with the moon shinning down upon him, Damien thought of what he was going to do when Anna was away at college. In this big house, all by himself…again. That's when the little voice nagging in the back of his head started talking for one of the first times since he'd adopted Anna.

You could always go back…tell them you've changed. Go back to the diplomatic office, get your old job, and then, when Anna gets out of school, give her a job! She's always wanted to be a diplomat! I mean, who are we kidding, we did teach her three languages! All we'd…

Arthur. Arthur was the reason he couldn't go back. He couldn't bear the thought of Arthur in another's arms, happier with them than he had been with Alfr—Damien. Anyway, he'd promised that agency…God, he'd stopped thinking himself by his old name…but it always seemed to catch up with him… at least that god damned witness protection lady had stopped coming 'round as the 'cleaning lady'. She had almost let who she was slip in front of Anna.

He didn't like lying to his daughter, but certain steps had to be taken to keep her safe and unknowing. She knew his love was a man, but he hoped that was the farthest it ever would go…

USUK

"Marco, She's on her way home now! Come on over!"

"I'll be right over!" Damien hung up and went to look out the window. It was Thanksgiving break, and in her third year of college, his girl was coming home with apparently 'big' news about her internship, which was to start after Christmas vacation. Marco, who'd been briefly her boyfriend off and on for a while was still her best friend, and so he invited the lad over too. It wasn't that it wasn't working; it was that they didn't want to try the whole long distance thing while they were at their two respective colleges. The important thing was that through it all, their eyes were only for each other. He knew that they both had tried seeing other people, but it never lasted long for either of them…

Anna pulled in the driveway an hour later, tired and hungry. She heaved out her duffle bag and walked up the path to the house, wanting to have nothing more than a hot meal and a seat next to the fireplace. Opening the grand door to the house, she found herself swept up into a huge hug.

"Anna! My little one, you're home!" Her father's strength was amazing, and Anna was out of breath. Smiling, she hugged back.

"Papa, I missed you too! So much!" She paused, seeing her father wasn't the only man in the house. "Oh! Marco! I didn't see you there!" She spotted her dark haired Italian friend leaning against the wall, waiting for his turn to greet, not wanting to interrupt the family moment. He stepped forward with a smile, and held out his arms. She ran into them as well. Damien smiled as the two spoke with nothing but eyes, and picked up her bag and ran it upstairs, giving them a moment alone.

It was over dinner that she shared her news.

"So, you guys know how I want to work in diplomatic services, correct?" She paused, and they both nodded, knowing quite well. "Well, my college has a partner college in England… London to be more specific, and with my mastery of four languages, I was given the opportunity to do my internship over in the London offices, and if I'm lucky, my first job!"

Both the men at the table stared at her for a moment before her father broke out into a shaky grin. "That's great, dear! And I assume you'll be going to college at this London place?" He tried to hide his anxiety at her going over seas. He talked with her all the time while she was at college. He couldn't imagine her being thousands of miles away…

"I'm really gonna miss yah, small fry…" Marco's cheery face had saddened.

"I'm really gonna miss you too…and Papa, oh…" Anna's face started to redden, and tears threatened her eyes.

"Now, Anna, no tears! This is a great experience! Why, when I was nineteen, I used to travel across the seas every month or so, before I settled down! It'll be good for you to travel on your own. I'm sure you'll make lots of friends…Just don't eat homemade British food unless absolutely necessary."

They were quiet for most of the evening, until Anna tried to start conversation once more.

"So, Dad, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much. Reading all the classics. On Gone With the Wind." What he didn't tell her was that he'd been so lonely that he was finally back on the dating scene, but was sticking to strictly women. He wasn't exactly gay, more pansexual, having fallen in love with the person regardless of gender. But Damien had decided women for now, so as to not cause trouble in town. No one even vaguely interested him, but it gave him something to do. Also the fact that he'd read the classics before, and the one he was 'reading' he'd read when it first came out in 1936.

USUK

The suitcases were in the car, and they were to leave the next morning bright and early. The days had flown, and Damien's bird was truly flying the nest. He wanted to give her something very important to him, and now was the time.

"Anna?"

"Dad?" She walked into his study; tall and slender, making her father realize his baby had grown up.

"As you know, I once was very much in love with a young man in my youth, and from that relationship came my most treasured possession, which I am now passing onto you." Damien unbuttoned the first two buttons of his dress shirt, pulling out a chain that was always hidden from view. He'd grown accustom to wearing dress shirts and black pants, always very old fashioned, but classic. She'd never realized he'd been hiding a necklace under there.

She saw two dog tags reflect in the low light of the study, along with a silver ring with engravings on them. Damien took the dog tags from the chain and set them in a drawer, then handed the chain to her. She looked at the inscription.

"A Promise of My Heart ~AK. Dad, is this a promise ring?"

"Yes. For a long time, it was what kept me going. Its yours, now." He got up from the room and left, without another word, to the confusion of his daughter, who was touched that he gave this to her, seeing as he was moot on the former partner subject most of the time.

Author's note: It is 12:10 pm in the good ol' US of A, and I'm still in my guitar hero Pajamas. Yep.

Gone with the Wind is so sad! "Ashley...Ashley, I love you!"

"But Scarlett, we aren't alike. I'm going to marry Melanie.(his cousin)"

"But don't you care at all for me?"

"Yes, I care, and that is why I wish not to say such things as I am about to say..."

This is only 90 pages into the book which is 1035 pages long. needless to say, I got the same feeling as when Dumbledore died in the sixth book (sorry for spoilers, but its pretty obvious) Stupid hormones.

Anyway, next chapter we meet IGGY!

Any questions comments or complaints(I'm sorry in advance if I've made any of you not pleased), just drop me a line. I LOVE ALL YOU GUYS WHO REVIEWED LAST CHAPTER! (not in an ooky way, don't look at me like that!)

Fun fact: I'm related to Edward the third of England through the old family that came to the USA in 1650. needless to say, they lost everything in the great depression... (I'm sorry, I'm a real Anglophile. Watched the Royal wedding! whoo whoo, prince harry's still available!)

P.s., I know my notes are long, but if you want to get a taste of what I listen to while writing, go to youtube and listen to "till I hear you sing" from Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is amazing, but the musical, love Never dies, phantom of the opera 2, was apparently ghastly.