For some strange reason, italics don't work when I upload. I put them on when I write, they're there when I put it on the Document Manager, but when it's posted the italics are gone. This is a test, Bold Italics Underline. If I lose the italics again, all italics will be replaced with bold text. It's not my fault.

Note- Someone I knew said that Germany was speaking in a Russian accent. I'm sorry if he does, I have no experience with foreign accents. Japan's accent will be altered (again) since that same person said that it was like Mr. Yunioshi from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Now his accent will only have the 'no th- sound' part, and altered proper nouns. The R/L part has a problem, since it could swing either way, so it is ignored. As for everyone else, you'll have to imagine their voices. China does not have aru- at the end, since I can never remember and I think that that's pushing it.

The reason that I haven't updated is because the power was out. In compensation, here's a thrice-as-long chapter!

Sorry if America is OOC, but if he was always arrogant without England to push him in line, then the plot couldn't move along.

Chapter 18 (Robin POV)

After Feliciano and Lovino were arrested, we held a meeting on the Thousand Sunny. We came in thinking that the fights between Zoro and Sanji were bad. But compared to those two, they were practically best friends.

"Okay, so-" Alfred began, but Germany cut him off.

"Alfred. Zis is un emergency. Ve must not vaste any more time here, got zat!" He yelled the ending.

"Chill out bro, I was just saying that we might not have to rescue them at all!" Alfred said. I was disgusted by how cheerful he was.

Germany took it worse than I had. "You mean to say… you are going to abandon zem?"

"Da, it is just like you to do so, Capitalist-" said Ivan.

"You think you can stand another-" Alfred began right after Ivan paused.

"停止! Stop! You two are acting like children!" Yao yelled. "Feliciano and Lovino have been taken captive! We cannot afford to bicker amongst ourselves!" I like him now.

"Oh, okay then. But this isn't over!" Alfred glared at Ivan, and Ivan gave one of his threatening smiles back.

"Non, eet has been over for years," Francis tried to ease the tension. But what did he mean by that?

"But why would you abandon your own nakama?" Luffy yelled.

"I-I thought that they'd release them soon. I mean, they didn't do anything wrong, right? We could go over there and ask, couldn't we?" Alfred said almost sheepishly.

All of us looked at him. "You know, that might be a good idea," said Zoro. "No one on this island has done any of us harm,"

"What about arresting R-" Spain began, but Francis clapped his hand to his mouth again. Even with part of his face covered, I could see his bloodthirsty eyes, so unlike his cheery disposition. Oh yeah, I thought. He was like this when he attacked Cap'n. Canada told us about his protective instinct. Had we been standing, I would have taken a step back, but we were sitting.

Nami stood up. "Wait. Let's make this clear. We all want both of them out of jail, right?" Everyone nodded. "Antonio, you want to punish the police force for arresting Lovino, right?" He nodded. "But who wants to make amends?" No one answered. "Anyone?"

At length, Germany spoke up. "How about zis? Ve go to ze prison und see eif zey are okay. Ve also ask vhen zey are going to be let out, eif zey are let out today or tomorrow, zen ve vait until zen. Eif not, or eif zey are being mistreated, ve vill break zem out,"

There was a long pause. "Well, I think that's a good plan," said Alfred. "What do you think, Kiku?"

"M-mokusatsu, [1]" he said nervously.

"What was that?" Alfred asked, his tome airy but threatening.

"S-sorry, it means 'I am still thinking about it', not 'I am ignoring you in contempt,'" he said hurriedly.

"Oh~ now I get what you meant back then!" Back then? "Listen, now I'm really sorry about Hiroshi-"

Ivan whipped out his pipe faster than I could see. Alfred saw it, and clammed up. "And that is why I do not trust capitalists." He turned to the rest of us. "Become one with-"

"Shut up!" To my surprise, it was Spain who said that, not Germany. "Ludwig and I will go." He got up to leave.

"Wait," Kiku got up, too. "Sey are also my responsibility. Remember se promise sat we made, Ludwig?"

He nodded. "Ze one zat ve made togezer? How could I forget? Eit was at my house, after all. Wenn einer von uns ist in Schwierigkeiten, " he began.

"その後、我々は、どんなにか彼を保存されません。" Kiku finished. "If one of us is in danger, then we will save him no matter what [2]."

Spain didn't argue. Without another word, the three of them walked out.

"So… let's go look for Iggy and Mattie!" Alfred said as the door behind them shut.

"Non, Arthur and Matheiu will come back when zey are ready," Francis said.

"Ma-si-yu? 馬，四，魚 [3]? " Yao asked. "Who is he?"

"Wasn't he with you?" I asked.

There was another awkward pause. "Oh yeah, you never seem to notice Mattie! He's my identical twin brother!"

"Da, I used to live next to him," said Ivan. "I kolled him when his polar bear was gnawing on my head,"

"A polar bear? Dude, Mattie told me about that! He said that it was the first time anyone besides me, Iggy, or Francis actually talked to him!"

"Oh, really? Then maybe he'll become one with-"

"If you do that, I'll kill you, you- you- COMMUNIST!" Alfred spat those last words out with contempt. "And I'm sure that he'll do the same!"

"I do not think so. After all, he was the last to leave wasn't he? The good child, who stayed with Arthur until the end? Unlike you, who was the first to abandon him."

That hit a nerve. Alfred picked up his fists and-

"STOP!" Yao yelled, and both of them backed down. "We should not be fighting amongst ourselves. Now who wants snacks?" he lifted up a bag marked with artistic symbols. (A/N Chinese characters).

When I saw that Alfred and Ivan weren't going to stop, I intervened. "How about if Cap'n and the others don't come back in an hour, we go look for them?" It was a poor excuse, but I trusted that Alfred would forget about Ivan in the confusion.

Yao nodded. "I will do rice… I mean, cook food," I didn't get how he could make a mistake about that, but I guess that it was a language thing. Language… Wait a second…

"Why aren't you worried about your friends?" asked Chopper. "And why didn't you go with them?"

I looked at them. Alfred and Ivan kept a wary eye on one another, as if daring one another to attack [4]. Yao kept his distance from the two, and Francis spoke. "Ludwig and Kiku hav been friends with Feliciano for years now, and Antonio haz known Lovino seence zey were children."

"You also are afraid of Ludwig, and Lovino is afraid of you." Yao said. "It would not be wise to send you after them,"

"Really? Why are you afraid of your nakama?" asked Luffy.

Neither Yao nor Francis graced us with a reply.

"So… are we done yet?" asked Alfred, thankfully forgetting about Ivan for the time being.

"Are we?" Yao asked Luffy. He nodded. I couldn't tell if he had been paying attention or not throughout the meeting, but I trust him. We went to the square, where we were planning on going back to the dock-ship.

"Yao?" I asked. I was scared of Ivan, Alfred would probably forget, and Francis would most likely try to seduce me, which left Yao. "What's the name of the dock-ship where we met?"

"It called Si-yi-lan-de. I mean, it is called Si-yi-lan-de," he caught himself. Si-yi-lan-de… where did I hear that before? (Note- Si in Chinese is not pronounced 'see' like in Spanish, but more like 'sih'. That is why 'yi', which is pronounced 'e', is there.)

"Thank you." I ran after Nami. "Have we ever heard the name 'Si-yi-lan-de' before?"

She gave a thoughtful look. "I think we have. But where?"

"Okay, so we're looking for Iggy, Mattie, and Peter," Alfred began. "I don't know you guys, but I have a plan for everyone else. Francis, you go look in the plaza, keep an eye out for Mattie. Yao, you look in the forest, and go see where everyone is. Ivan… er, I guess you won't listen to me anyway, but I'll look in the south end of town,"

"Oh? In that case, I will go to the north end," said Ivan.

"Luffy? What about us?" asked Zoro.

"We all go off in opposite directions! We're bound to find them eventually!" he said cheerfully. Not a bad plan, admittedly.

"Er… do you mind if I go with you?" Chopper asked Luffy.

"Okay, why?"

"I'm still worried about your injury! I mean, anything can set it off!" As if to prove his point, Luffy sneezed, and the bandages began to turn red. "See what I mean?"

"Oh yeah, someone's got to stay behind, if they come back while we're gone," Sanji said rationally. "I nominate Zoro!"

"Are you implying something?" Zoro raised an eyebrow. Anything could spark an argument between those two.

"You can't find your way out of a paper bag," Sanji said bluntly.

"But at least I can find a path for my sword, can't I?"

"Okay, we'll meet back at the inn at six sharp!" Alfred said, and then ran off, presumably to the south. He paused. "If any of you find them before then, come and look for the rest of us!"

We dispersed into different directions, them going into their designated areas, and we wandering off with no destination in sight. It was long, tiring, and would have been boring if it weren't for the shops that I saw. I didn't think that I should go into most of them, since I could see everyone in there without going in, but I thought of visiting later, when we had time.

The only shops that I went into were tea shops, where they sold china teapots, shiny silver kettles, freshly pasteurized cream, boxes of cubed sugar, and aromatic tea. If anyone was a big drinker of that stuff, it was Cap'n.

"You like tea, missy?" the clerk asked.

"No, but I have a friend who does." That reminded me… "Can I get a box of Earl Gray?" I wasn't sure if they had tea on Si-yi-lan-de, but there was no harm in getting more.

"Sure thing. That'll be 800 berries," I paid and left, proceeding to the next shop. It turned out to sell it at a cheaper price, but luckily, the one I got was the kind he liked. That's the sort of thing you picked up, being a cabin girl on his ship.

At last six bells rung, signaling the end of the search. Still no sign of any of them. I set off towards the inn, carrying the crate that I bought. Near the market, I met Yao and Sanji.

"Robin! What do you want for dinner?" Sanji asked loudly.

"We are shopping for when we leave, not for dinner," Yao scolded. "But I would like to know how you cook. You want to exchange?"

They kept at it until Yao remembered that we had to go to the inn. "Did you find them?"Sanji asked as we walked. They had bought enough food for at least a month, even with Luffy on board.

We shook our heads. After that, we didn't have much to talk about, so I amused myself by watching the birds circle around. Yao seemed to be uncomfortable around the crate of tea, but I didn't think much of it.

We arrived at the inn, before long. Nami greeted us at the stairs. "Come on, we've been waiting! Everyone's upstairs!"

He ran upstairs, leaving us to follow. We all piled into the room that the rest of the crew slept in, thankful that it was large enough for all of us to fit.

"Oi! Robin! Did any of you-" Luffy called.

We shook our heads. "I even checked the tea shops. He loves those,"

"I know, right?" Alfred said perkily. "Seriously, I remember the time I dumped his tea off of Boston Harbor! He was so mad-"

Unexpectedly, he became serious. "I don't regret it." He turned to Francis. "Thanks for helping me out, back then." I don't think that he was talking about tea [5].

"You… threw out his tea?" I asked disbelievingly. I can imagine what he must have been like then. One of Cap'ns many faults was his temper, and once he had beaten up an entire interisland gang because one of their newest members stole his tea. Not his treasure, not his ship, his tea. And he had once said that after his crew, what was most important was his tea. And after that… well, I don't think that Cap'n would even let his younger brother off with throwing his tea away on purpose. "What did he do?"

"We… had a huge fight, and… I ran away."

So that's what caused the fight between Alfred and Cap'n. "But why did you do that?"

Alfred was silent. I couldn't help but think that it was the first time I ever saw him speechless.

"Hold on a second, you threw out your brother's tea?" Ussop asked.

"Man, he must like that stuff," Luffy mused.

Creak. The door inched open, and we all spun around, ready to strike. Suddenly, the door swung wide, revealing a disheveled Peter, his hand still on the doorknob. A pair of arms on either side caught him before he hit the floor.

"Peter!" Nami ran up to him, followed by Alfred. "Are you all right?"

"I… we… t-tried to-" Peter stuttered.

"Taci! Talking will only make it worse!" said the person who was holding Peter's left arm. As they came into the room and laid Peter into one of the beds, I saw that it was Feliciano and Lovino. Lovino was the one who held his left arm.

"We can tell them, you can rest," Feliciano said. He wasn't his usual bouncy self now, he seemed like he was on the verge of tears.

Chopper got out a medical kit and began to examine him. "He's been shot! What happened?"

Feliciano stared at the floor, unwilling to face us, and Lovino grabbed a pillow and sulked. "Maledizione. Damn it all. Tomato jerk, Tea jerk, Syrup jerk, Potato jerk, and Sailor jerk came to help us and… (He yelled the strongest swears anyone could think of, some of which were in a language that I didn't understand)." Lovino said as he hugged the pillow tighter. "We're useless. We always were, we always had someone to protect us. First it was Grandpa, then it was-" he cut himself off short. "Maledizione! We couldn't help them! Maledizione. Maledizione. Maledizione!" With every word, he hit himself with a rusty sword that he had carried with him.

"Stop it!" Sanji pulled the sword away from him. "Hurting yourself will get you nowhere. Would they have wanted you to do this to yourself?"

Lovino shook his head, and then hung it. "This… this is how much Antonio is suffering right now. For so long…"

Wait a second… "Didn't he collapse when he fought Ussop?" I asked.

"You mean that it wasn't my Tabasco sauce?" he yelled, but no one was listening to him.

Feliciano shook his head. "Ve… He's been like this for years. He isn't delicate, like us, but he's weakened since then…"

Since when, I wanted to ask, but Lovino said something that caught my attention. "And this is how I repay my debt?"

DONE!

[1] Mokatsu- there was a great mistranslation between America and Japan during WWII. America asked Japan to surrender, and the Premier said "Mokatsu," which can mean either 'we are ignoring you in contempt,' or 'we are still thinking about it'. The translator took it to mean the former, and Hiroshima was nuked ten days later.

[2] The promise between Germany, Japan, and Italy- The Tripatite Pact. It was a pact between the three of them to help each other if they were attacked, in a nutshell. It was signed in Berlin. Japan's sentence was translated horribly, don't pay any attention!

[3] Mathew, Ma-si-yu, 馬，四，魚. China cannot pronounce the name Mathew, so he came up with three Chinese syllables that are close. They are 'horse', 'four, and 'fish', respectively.

Si-Yi-Lan-De is Sealand, Let's just say that it got transported there. The citizens were all off on vacation in Sweden, and are not there at the time. I'll bend time a little, so Sealand was adopted by Sweden and Finland sometime before 1994, just for the sake of the plot.

[4] Russia and America staring down one another- a reference to the Cold War, which was carried out with no actual fighting, but with threats, war in other countries, and the Space Race (somehow). But the important thing is that if one of them attacked, then the other would strike back with nukes, which both of them had. And since neither of them wanted a nuclear war, it was a standstill until the Soviet Union surrendered (I think).

[5] The tea- Boston Tea Party. One of the causes of the American Revolution, in which a band of the Sons of Liberty, a rebel/patriot group, dressed up as Native Americans and boarded a ship carrying tea to sack it and destroy the tea/ throw it overboard. This may seem like a pointless act of aggression, but tea was a taxed item, and there was a British monopoly on it. So Americans stopped drinking tea. And that is why we have coffee as our staple hot drink.

America thanked France because they were allies after Saratoga, and it was thanks to French fleets that the last battle- Yorktown- was won.

I assume that there is tea in the One Piece universe, and there is such a thing as Earl Gray there. China is uncomfortable because that tea reminds him of British domination.

The sword that Romano hits himself with is the rusty sword that he gave to Spain, that Spain drooled over.