Chapter 14: Guests

It's me again! I'm just here to apologise for the REALLY slow updates recently. I've had a LOAD of work from school, and homework has to come before everything else… as much as I'd like to avoid it. So I've not had so much time to write in the evenings, because of said homework. I'm still writing, because I enjoy it, and all of the really good reviews and general support in the way of my stories that has really built my confidence. I'll stop blabbering and let you read now…

I knew, at the time, that it was going to be a long few days, when I realized how many people had come to visit. It was going to take hours to see them all, and explain the situation to them. I would have held a conference just to stop people from continually asking questions, but hospitals don't really have facilities to do that, and I didn't want the message to change like in a game of Chinese whispers. I had only been awake for a few hours, but I was already sick of the smell. Hospitals always smelt like disinfectant and bedpans. It wasn't inviting or particularly tolerable either.

After a few moments, three more people entered the room. Kiku, Ludwig and Feliciano all entered the room. The Italian bounded towards the bed, excitedly, like a bird in flight "Feli… he's hurt, be careful." I heard the German warn, keeping his own awkward distance. Kiku just nodded at me awkwardly, showing his respect.

"Ve?" the Italian replied, curiously. Despite the fact that I had no idea what "ve" was supposed to mean, I took it as "Why?" Ludwig did too, pulling the Italian back away from the bed where he couldn't cause any havoc.

"What happened?" he asked, in his thick accent "You looked like you were in a lot of pain." He said awkwardly; it was obvious that he wasn't sure what to say at this point. Kiku nodded at what Ludwig had just said, in agreement; I guess he was even more awkward. I explained to them exactly what was going on, as there was little point in me hiding anything from them.

"So you're going to have a little bambino?!" the Italian asked excitedly hopping around "Could we babysit? Luddy? Please?" he begged both me and the German. Ludwig stayed silent for the moment, his expression showing the dislike of the pet name that the Italian had bestowed upon him. The Italian, however, was oblivious to the German's distaste, and jigged around the room with the air that only he seemed to possess.

"That's up to Arthur." He said, sternly, trying to calm the still lifted Italian, who seemed to always be on the brink of flight. Kiku stood awkwardly next to Ludwig, uncertain about what to say, and cringing at the Italian's gusto. I wasn't surprised; I would be too if I were him, either that, or I would have punched him in the face for being so incessantly upbeat.

"I guess it would be helpful…" I said, non-committedly "I'll tell you closer to the time?" I say, not wanting to be impolite. I didn't really want the Italian looking after any child of mine, mainly because he was still a child himself, at least mentally. I trusted Ludwig a little more, but we'd always been a little awkward towards each other. I would trust Kiku, but I doubt he would offer, or do an awful lot.

I noticed that despite the situation, a small smile had snuck onto his face. It was hardly noticeable, and I had no intention of asking what the reason for it was, but it was nice to see him smile once in a while. Feliciano nodded excitedly at the prospect of looking after a child; both Ludwig and I grimaced at his mannerisms. My hips had started hurting again, with jolts of pain shooting through the bone if I moved, so I tried to stay as still as possible, not wanting to prolong my guests' wait.

"We should be going." Ludwig said abruptly, after he checked his watch "HE has a lot of guests; we shouldn't keep them." He added with a serious tone. Kiku nodded, following him out of him room. Feliciano moaned, but was dragged by the ear by a slightly disgruntled German. The Italian shrieked, but the other two acted as if it was an everyday occurrence. Knowing them, it probably was.

It was silent for a few moments, albeit for the sound of the monitors they had hooked up to me, and the crowd that had formed outside my room. It was a private room, luckily, because the hospital thought it would be best for the nature of my condition, and for the fact that I was a country. I took a few deep breaths, wincing at the pain a little, but it had subsided compared to how it was before. The pain was still burning hot, and shot through me like nothing else, but I was getting used to it, and the hospital had hooked me up with generous amounts of morphine, as Countries can take much higher doses more safely than humans.

I heard incoming footsteps on the linoleum floor. Through the door came the Nordics. Mathias, Lukas, Emil, Berwald and Tino walked into the room. It was crowded in the smallish room, with so many people squished in. None of them lived in the same corridor as me, so they must have heard about it from someone else. Maybe Gilbert told Mathias, or perhaps Leon (Hong-Kong) told Emil.

"Hey!" Mathias began, grinning obnoxiously "We heard you were ill or something, so we decided to visit." He said, gesturing to the others, who were grinning a lot less than himself.

"You decided; I was just dragged here…" Emil added, looking uninterested. His air was identical to the Norwegian's, who stood with his arms folded over his chest, looking just as bored.

"Don't be mean!" Mathias complained, annoyed at how his brothers only ever seemed to insult him. I was sure that deep down they loved each other, but just weren't good at showing it.

"They're always like this…" Lukas added, with Berdwald nodding behind him. Lukas was the only one who I occasionally spoke to, considering he occasionally attended magic club; most of the time though, he was dragged to his brothers' club by Mathias. I nodded, shrugging my shoulders in understanding.

"So, are you okay?" Tino asked, making me want to hit my head against a brick wall. I needed a sign or a brochure, or something so that people wouldn't all ask me the same question. I had to explain it each time in just as much detail, and enthusiasm, as they'd not heard about it before, and I was getting sick of it. But before I could explain, I saw one of Lukas's faeries whisper in his ear. He looked at me curiously, but nodded in understanding. It seemed as if his and my magical friends spoke.

"He's pregnant." He said bluntly, he continued explaining what was happening, ignoring the shock from the other nations. Mathias's jaw hit the floor in amazement, Emil looked slightly fascinated, and Tino looked flabbergasted. Berdwald looked… well his expression didn't really change. After he finished explaining, they all looked at me for some kind of verification. I nodded in agreement "She said that she's spoken to your friends." He added at me. The others looked quizzically at him, but didn't argue, or question who "she" was. Lukas expression was bored and his air of disinterest seemed to radiate. Emil copied his attitude, emulating the expression on his brother's face. It was cute, the way he copied his brother so much, trying not to draw attention to himself.

"Hey Norgie! D'ya think th-"That was the point when Lukas decided to strangle the Dane with his own tie. I decided that the rest of what he was going to say wasn't important. The others didn't react much to this, so I just assumed that it was a very common occurrence. I also assumed that it hurt less than the Dane was making it seem. Emil huffed and commented on how embarrassing his family was.

"So, this is great news, yes?" Tino asked, smiling happily. I nodded unsurely, considering all of the implications and responsibilities I was soon to have. I smiled half-heartedly. I knew that in their minds, there were going to be those who disapproved. They might not speak out about it, but there were always going to be those who harboured disapproval of me.

The Dane fell to the ground, gasping for air as Lukas let go of his tie "Boy or girl?" he asked, standing up and rubbing his neck with one of his hands "Strangling people is mean, Norgie." He added. Lukas just shrugged and told him to get over it.

"I don't know… a boy?" I wasn't particularly sure, but I just thought that raising a boy would be a little easier, as I had raised Alfred, and being male myself, it would make things a little less awkward later on. Tino was on the tips of his toes in excitement. I had a feeling that he really liked children. The others, except Mathias, seemed non-committal on the subject, which meant they disapproved but weren't saying, or that they approved, but weren't saying. Mathias seemed really interested, but I wasn't sure why. We went out drinking a few times with Gilbert, just for fun, but we'd never been close or anything.

"I bet Francis it way exited!" he exclaimed, happily, exchanging looks of glee with Tino. I was a little confused by his enthusiasm to say the least, but I tried not to let it show.

"Yeah… annoyingly so." I told him, rolling my eyes and thinking about how exited he was, and how he'd dragged me around a whole shopping centre, and was constantly crooning over me.

"I get what you mean." Lukas said, rolling his eyes as the Dane, still on the floor, cuddled his legs reproachfully. Lukas just grimaced, but didn't bother to remove the Dane who was attached to his legs. I laughed sympathetically, wincing at the sharp jolt of pain that shot through my bones. That killed the mood.

Suddenly they were looking at me, concerned and tentative. I could have cut the tension in the room with a knife "I'm fine." I say, taking a deep breath.

"We should… let other guests in…" Emil said after a long while. The others nodded, following him out of the room, Mathias being dragged behind Lukas.

I sighed to myself. This day was going so slowly. The minutes were dragging past. All I wanted to do was roll over and go to sleep, but any movement sent shock waves through my pelvis and made me want to die. The bed was uncomfortable, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was also bored to tears. I had to have the same conversation over and over while my mind was turning ideas over in my brain. I couldn't handle it. I wanted to get out. I needed to leave somehow. I hated being treated like an animal in a zoo for people to stare at in fascination and want for something interesting. I just wanted to curl up with a good book and forget the world.

There was a knock on the door and yet more people walked through. I put on a polite smile, trying to look pleasant. Yao, Leon and Yong walked in awkwardly. Yao nodded to me awkwardly; I knew how awkward this would be for him. He'd been getting ready to rise against my rule for a long time, but I'd let him go, he must have felt a little conflicted as to how to feel about me. Leon looked even more awkward, and Yong… he wasn't bothered. I always thought of him as the Alfred of the Asians.

"So… What happened?" Yong asked curiously, wanting to fill the silence in the room.

"You already know about my condition. My body is merely adjusting for the purpose; the pain is because bones shouldn't grow and change so quickly." I explained.

"We didn't tell Yong…" Leon added awkwardly, shuffling his feet awkwardly. Despite his having left me, I still felt like he was a son, or a brother. He had my brow and awkward personality.

"Well, I've had to explain it too many times, and god knows how many more I will have to repeat the explanation, so if you'd do the honours of illuminating the situation to him." I said, gesturing a hand to them, with a slightly aloof expression. I wasn't sure how else to treat them, seeing as their feelings towards me were equally awkward. I addressed them formally so I would come across as neutral in their presence.

Yao huffed "I don't take instructions from you anymore," Defiantly. I rolled my eyes at his petulance "Explain it yourself." He added, crossing his arms. It was funny to watch, as his oversized sleeves made it an awkward process for him. I held back a chuckle, knowing that it was not only inappropriate in the situation, but would also hurt and be rather unpleasant to me.

Leon rolled his eyes "I'll tell him later…" he said awkwardly. I nodded at him, gratefully.

"Well… I'm leaving." Yao said after another long silence. Leon followed behind him, with Yong hovering around him, asking what was wrong with me. At some point after they left the room I heard Leon yell for him to get off. I guessed that the strange Korean must have tried to claim his "breasts" or something to that affect.

I sighed to myself again, leaning back against the pillows, despite the sharp pain it sent shooting through my pelvis. I closed my eyes in an attempt to relax. I wasn't comfortable, and I doubted that I would be for a long while. I checked the clock, and realized that it was going to be an incredibly long day. Very little time had passed, and I was already tired of company.

The room was clean and had a sterile and minimalistic feel. The air was unpleasant to me, as it must have been to most, and the ceiling was made up of panels, like in most government funded buildings. I had tubes feeding all manner of things into my hand. I hated feeling like this. I felt like a situation that had to be dealt with, and like I was some kind of side show for the other nations to gawp at. I guessed that this feeling wasn't going to go away, even after I left the building.

The door opened again, but only one person came through it this time. Ravis raced in, his eyes streaming with tears. I looked at him quizzically as he launched himself onto me. I was hit by a blinding pain, but I held back the strangled yell that wanted to erupt from my throat. He buried his face into my chest, fisting at my hospital gown that I hadn't realized I was wearing.

"I-Ivan is going to h-hurt me!" he cried hiccoughing, and sending more jolts of pain through my pelvis as he sat on my lap. I grimaced in the pain slightly, and petted his messy hair. He wasn't the brightest of boys, but he meant well. Most children know not to jump on hospitalized people. He sobbed into my chest for a while; I cringed slightly when I felt them start to soak through to my skin.

"What makes you say that?" I asked him, still petting his hair. It took a lot of effort on my part to not sound like some sort of wounded animal.

"I-I accidentally walked in on him and Yao!" he said, in a panicked tone. That was news to me. I had always thought that Yao hated the Russian. I must have been wrong.

"That doesn't mean anything." I tried to console him, with as soothing a tone as I could muster. He told me otherwise, and of the purple aura the Russian emitted when he discovered the Latvian's presence "I'm sure it'll be fine." I told him, trying to convince myself, just as much as him.

At that moment, the door burst open "Ravis!" Eduard cried out with a sigh of relief. A moment later, Toris walked through the door, slightly out of breath. Ravis looked up at the two others, his eyes wet, and his cheeks blotchy. I smiled awkwardly at them, and tried to ignore the crushing pain "What are you doing here?" the Estonian asked walking over to the shaking nation "You realize he's hurt, don't you?" Ravis turned back to look at me, with shock on his face "We came here to visit him, remember?" he added.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot when Ivan scared me! I ran to your room, because I remembered the one they said it was!" He garbled in apology and panic. It was funny how his mind worked. He was brilliant, but often forgot important things; like he was able to remember the room I was in, but not the fact that I was there because I was hurt.

"It's okay, old chap." I told him, putting a hand on his shoulder "You didn't mean any harm." I told him. The other two Baltics looked awkward at the fact that they could see the many tubes poking out of my hand, and the fact that I was most probably in a lot of pain. They probably thought "Old chap" was an odd thing to call a young boy, but I've always done that.

"Well, I'm leaving." Eduard said after a moment of silence. Toris called after him, and looked as if he were inwardly complaining about the fact that he was left alone with me and a crying Ravis. He pulled on his jacket and walked out of the room, picking up his laptop on his way out.

"So… What's wrong with you anyway?" the Lithuanian asked awkwardly. Before I got a chance to answer, someone else came through the door.

CLIFFHANGER! I really want to update now, I already have a character in mind, but I'm still open to suggestion. I'm really sorry about the slow update, but I have had a million pieces of homework recently… Question time!

Who's at the door?

Will Artie and Yao ever really get on?

What's going on between Yao and Ivan

Will Ravis ever stop being adorable

Feel free to answer any of my questions, ask your own, or just give me a review, because I will reply to all of them, and I absolutely love getting them. Even if it just says "Cool story bro." ^_^