Ok! This is it people! This is the last chapter. *sniff* A big thanks to everyone who reviewed, JustMakeLeftTurns (yeah, Lithuania would make a great father, even if it is weird), Ainien and, of course, an absolutely ENORMOUS thanks to skyfire101 who came up with this lovely challenge fic idea and was kind enough to give it to a rookie who had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Thank you so much! I hope I didn't disappoint.

I don't want this to end either guys! :(

Also many thanks to teamkickass and turtlehoffmann2251 for following and InvisibleGoldStar for following and favoriting. You guys all rock.

And lastly a huge thanks to everyone who has EVER read, reviewed, followed, favorited or in any way taken an interest in
this story. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

You guys know I don't own.

Here's the last chapter. Hope you all enjoy.

*sniff* damn, I promised myself I wouldn't cry…

Chapter 7: Russia's Love

Sophia felt a tingling sensation she had only felt once before, when she had first arrived in this world. Long before she had known Russia, long before she had found out she was a Capital, long before she had gotten a mind-link with a Country, her Country now.

Long before she had fallen in love.

As they walked through the black nothingness that was in between worlds, Sophia clung to Russia's hand. She wasn't scared, just creeped out.

"Dudes!" A figure ran up to them, Sophia gaped, if she didn't know any better, she'd say that the young man who ran up to them was a male version of her. She knew without having to be told that this was the real America.

"Russia, man, am I glad to see you! Who's the blonde chick?" America asked, glancing at Sophia, puzzled. She could tell he saw the same resemblance everyone else did.

Russia didn't answer America's question, instead he just jerked a thumb over his shoulder with his free hand, "Go through that portal we opened, you'll find yourself at my house. Lithuania will fill you in."

"Where are you two going?" America asked, brow furrowed, he was no great shakes at reading people but even he could tell Russia wasn't acting like himself.

Russia looked sad, "we have something we need to do first, and then I'll be back."

"And then we'll be back," Sophia insisted stubbornly. She gripped Russia's hand as hard as she could, he probably barely felt it but that wasn't the point.

"Alright," America clapped Sophia on the shoulder, "good luck then!" he flashed them both a brilliant smile and walked off. He had no idea what they were doing but with the look on both their faces they were going to need all the luck they could get.

Sophia squeezed Russia's hand as they kept walking. She had been here before, of course, but then she had felt as though an invisible force was pulling her along to where she was supposed to be; now she walked, relatively calmly, under her own power.

They reached a spot that didn't look any different than any other to Sophia but Russia stopped and dropped her hand. Sophia's hand felt immediately cold without the contact but she ignored it. When this was over Russia was going to get a piece of her mind for ever thinking that she would leave him. But for now Sophia sympathised, she would never be able to go on if she believed he was about to leave her.

"This is far enough," Russia said, he chanted the spell again and another portal opened. Sophia snatched his hand again and they stepped through the portal together.

Into Sophia's living room.

Sophia gasped. This was her living room. Everything was exactly the same as she remembered it. Well… almost everything. There was an empty beer can on the coffee table when her father normally never drank and all the pictures of Sophia that had been hung on the walls and in frames had been taken away.

Sophia's father sat in his armchair staring, dumbfounded as his daughter and a strange man appeared in his living room. Sophia's first thought was that her father was ill.

He looked terrible, he had a beard now, or at least part of one, and he looked like he hadn't shaved in almost eight months. His face was pale and gaunt, there were huge bags under his eyes, and he looked as though he had lost almost twenty kilos, he resembled a skeleton.

Russia saw the man was clutching a photo of a young girl. He squinted to see better. The girl had long curly blonde hair, done up with red ribbon into two pigtails and was wearing a pair of dirty overalls. Her face was covered in mud and she was grinning up at the camera with startling blue eyes behind thin lenses. The girl looked as though she was only five or six years old. Russia knew without having to be told the girl was Sophia as a young child.

"Daddy!" Sophia yelled before Russia could stop her. She rushed over to her father and very gently shook him out of his stupor, "Dad! Daddy!"

Her father's eyes widened, "Sophia?" They began to slide shut again, "just another dream…"

"Dad!" Sophia shook him again, harder this time. "I am not a dream, wake up!"

Mark James's eyes snapped open again, "Sophia?!" His eyes widened, his wife's blue ones stared back at him from his daughter's face.

"Sophia!" He pulled his daughter into his arms, "I thought I'd never see you again!" His voice was choked, startled, Sophia realised her strong, carefree father was crying.

Sophia felt her own eyes begin to water as she hugged him back even tighter, "have a little faith in me," she said, smiling through her own tears.

Mark looked over Sophia's shoulder and saw Russia, he yelped in surprise at the huge man standing calmly in his living room.

"Sophia! Who is that?" He asked.

"Oh," she glanced around, "dad, this is..."

Ivan, Ivan Braginski, Russia told her mentally.

"Ivan Braginski," Sophia said smoothly as though there'd been no pause. Part of her was charmed, his real name was Ivan, it was a nice name…

Part of her was irritated, oh now you'll open up, she drawled back. Russia didn't reply, but nor did he sever their link.

"He took care of me all this time," Sophia told him. It had been nearly eight months.

"He didn't kidnap you?" Her father asked.

"NO!" Sophia yelled, er… well… sort of…

Russia glared at her, oh now you listen to me, Sophia thought sarcastically but she did start to keep her thoughts to herself.

"He took care of me dad; I never would have gotten back here without him."

Russia's mouth thinned at the words 'back here' but he didn't say anything, the love between father and daughter was obvious and Russia, who hadn't had a father figure in hundreds of years, envied them and would never even think to take Sophia away from her only family. But it still hurt to watch. He turned away.

"How did you get back here Sophia? Where were you? What was that light, portal, thing?" He hugged his daughter close, "it doesn't matter, all that matters is that you're safe."

Sophia's heart twinged with guilt and she pulled away, drying her eyes, "actually Dad, it does matter. First and foremost." She took a deep breath, this was gonna hurt, "Ivan has to leave soon."

Russia felt the words as though they were a physical blow to his heart. He had known they were coming but they still hurt more than he could have imagined.

Only now did he understand what Lithuania had gone through with his Capital Vilnius or France had gone through with his Capital, Paris, or Joan of Arc as she was more commonly known, or England had gone through with the young warrior King who had been his Capital a long, long time ago.

It hurt. It had hurt more than he had ever believed possible. And it still hurt.

"And I want to go with him," Sophia finished, knowing how much this was going to pain her father, having his daughter leave when he had just gotten her back.

"Dad I need to go with him." Sophia said, "I need him. And he needs me too. It's kind of complicated."

"Why-?" Her father began, looking from one of them to the other, stricken.

"Well," Sophia searched for the right words to use that would make her father see how imperative it was that she go back with Russia without revealing who and what he, now the two of them were.

And preferably without making it seem as though she had a raging case of Stockhome Syndrome.

"Ivan is kind of special," she admitted, "special in a good way. You see he…" she broke off again, still looking for what to say.

Her father held up a hand to stop her, "hon, I just saw you and him step through a portal into the middle of my living room after you've been missing for seven months, two weeks and four days; something about this is obviously a little special."

Of course he remembers how long it's been, thought Sophia to herself.

Russia stepped forwards and held out his hand. "In that case, let me re-introduce myself, I am Ivan Braginski, I am the human personification of the country Russia."

Mark grinned and shook the other man's hand heartily, "nice to meet ya, thank you so much for taking good care of my daughter."

"It was my pleasure," Russia said, smiling.

Sophia just sat on the floor, dumbfounded, "um Dad! This is the part where you're supposed to be astonished and disbelieving!" She yelled.

Her father smiled at her, "Sophia didn't you just hear me? I just saw my teenage daughter who's been missing for almost eight months magically appear in the middle of my living room with a strange man I've never met before. I'm willing to believe a little strangeness. However." He turned to Russia and stared down the huge Country, "if you think that means I'm letting you take my daughter anywhere you are sadly mistaken young man!"

"Dad!" Sophia scolded, "I'm old enough to make my own decisions about where I do and do not go thanks!"

"You're not eighteen yet! And I just got you back! Are you going to leave me again?" Her father replied, brown eyes flashing.

Sophia felt a huge pull of guilt in her chest at her father's last sentences but she would be eighteen very soon, she had to start living her own life.

"I'll come back and visit," she replied steadily, "we know the spell to get here. But Dad, you have to let me live my life. And now, he is my life. And I'm his. I'm the personification of his Capital!"

"What!" Her father blinked, surprised, "you're the personification of Berlin? But you don't have a drop of Russian blood in you!"

Sophia pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and sighed, "the Capital of Russia is Moscow, Dad, MOSCOW! Berlin is in Germany!"

"What? Oh," Her father rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "oh yeah. Forgot about that."

Then his daughter's words really began to sink in. Not the ones about countries and which capital city belonged where but the ones about her having to live her own life.

Sophia would be eighteen in a few months. Eighteen. An adult. But only in name, she's still just a kid, she's not ready. He thought. Then he glanced at the girl in front of him. No, not the girl, the young woman, the strong, beautiful, determined young woman.

Maybe… she is ready.

"Alright," he said, forcing the word out, "alright. You can leave any time you want to." He hugged his daughter tightly, "just know you can come back any time you want to."

"Thanks Dad," Sophia whispered, a single tear sliding down her face as she hugged him tightly. Russia could see Mark's face over his daughter's shoulder and could see how much it was costing both him and her to let her go. All that pain just so she could be with him.

I'm sorry I ever doubted you, moya lyubov,Russia told her mentally.

Sophia smiled at him over her father's shoulder, that's okay, moya lyubov. She didn't know much Russian but she knew that one. She hugged her father tighter and buried her face in his shoulder.

When they let go of each other Sophia had a question to ask her father, "I have to write letters to Jenny, Ryan and Michael, I know I can't go see them but I need to let them know I'm ok."

"Go see Jenny now, give her letter's for the other two, she's your best friend Soph, you have to at least tell Jen face to face." Her father said, Sophia hesitated, then nodded, she owed Jenny that much at least.

"Besides," her father's smile turned evil, "I'd like to have a man-to-man talk with Romeo over here."

"Dad," Sophia said warningly, she smiled reassuringly at Russia to let him know it really was okay before scampering off to get paper and pen for her notes.

"So you're really okay?" Jenny asked, sniffing, her tears of relief at seeing her best friend unharmed finally stopped.

Sophia nodded, "I'm sorry I worried you so much, I didn't mean to."

Her friend smiled, "you're okay, that's all that matters. Just make sure you come visit me too Sophia, I wont mind any weird things that happen."

What?! Sophia's eyebrows shot up, she hadn't told Jenny any of the 'weird things.'

Jenny's smile turned into a smirk, "you can't fool me blondie, I'm your best friend remember? You always were way too good for this world anyway." She slapped her friend's arm, "go get 'im Soph!"

"How do you know there's a him?" Sophia asked, unnerved by her friend's sharpness.

Jenny winked, "I know there's a him, I can see it in your face," she touched Sophia's cheek; "you're finally in love, good for you."

"I just want you to know I do believe you," Mark said softly, packing a few photos, keepsakes and other things he wanted Sophia to have, including some of her mother's things, into a bag. "But I also want you to know that if you hurt my daughter in any way I will find you and I will kill you."

Russia looked at him with fathomless violet eyes, "and I just want you to know, that if I ever hurt your daughter, I'll want you to."

Mark grinned and slapped his arm, "well said son! Welcome to the family!"

"Likewise."

It was a tearful parting when Sophia left her father. But much later, snuggled into Russia's arms on the couch, her family; Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and even England and America seated around her, chatting and laughing, Sophia felt as though she was back where she belonged.

She wasn't just a little American teenager any more, she wasn't even just a Russian capital city.

She was Russia's love.

The end.

Wahh! Review if you want me to write something for you guys. (Though I'm not sure it'll ever be as special as this one). I feel a little empty now. But I'm so happy too! Hope you enjoyed. Goodbye.