When the clock struck six twenty-five, I began to hear voices in the hallway. They were still a ways down the hall from the dining room, but close enough for me to hear and be able to tell that they were coming closer. They were going to come in through the door across from me, I was pretty sure.

I was still sitting in my chair, with my knees tucked as close to my chest as possible and my elbows on top. It was a little hard to read this way, but I'd been doing it for many years, and was used to it. When I heard the voices approaching, I sat up and smoothed my dress in my lap, though I then put my elbows on the table and continued reading while also trying to listen to the voices. There were more than the last two times; I guessed that they were all walking together.

"We shoo'd be out looking steel," one voice said, "Not eating dinner like nuhting is wrong." He sounded a bit indignant; obviously, someone had forced him to quit looking.

"We hud to stahp," another said. "She's not going to ben'f't from oos hoort'g oors'ves trying to find hur."

"The stoop'd Dane knows that, Svee," a different, flat voice said. It almost, almost sounded irritated. "He just can't stahnd to naht be annoying as hell."

"Shut it, Norge," the first shouted. "Just because you cahn't show any emootion but annoyance doo's'n't mean oodder people doo'n't care." I was a little scared there was going to be a fight, but I tried to keep a level head; the door was opening.

"Will both of you be quiet!" yet another voice piped up. This one was new; he hadn't been present in either of the previous conversations I had heard, I was sure. "We need to get dinner ovar widt so we cahn—"

The voice belonged to the boy opening the door. Judging by the shouting, the others were still a ways down the hall. He had stopped out of shock upon opening the door all the way, but the others didn't seem to notice that he had broken off mid-sentence. I looked up at him standing in the doorway, and I smiled, closing my book. He shot me a questioning look, like, Where have you been? I just kept smiling and winked. His face turned a bit red as he took a step back out of the room and called out, "Guys!"

The yelling broke off, but just enough for two of the voices to shout back, "What?!"

The boy in the doorway turned back towards me and smirked; I smiled back, and he turned down the hall to say, "I think you guys are really going to like dinner tonight." I almost laughed; I put a hand over my mouth to keep it in, trying to control my thoughts and expression. I calmed down as a fifth voice spoke.

"Oh, I'm sure we will, Icey!" he called out. The footsteps were really close now, maybe ten feet away. The fifth voice continued, "Dinner is always good at Berwald's house." I heard a deep cough; I imagined Berwald looking at the ground, flattered, but still unable to show it. "It's too bad—"

He broke off as the five of them gathered in the doorway. I tried to imagine what they were seeing; me, in a snowy white dress with a book in front of me, my chin in my hand as my elbow was propped on the table, perfectly fine and not lost in a snowstorm like I was supposed to be. I almost laughed, but kept a straight face and said, "About time you guys got here. I was a bit scared I was going to have to eat alone." I smirked at their stunned faces before sighing, shaking my head and looking down at the table. "Where were you guys? I woke up and no one was around. I sat in that sitting room with the fireplace for, like, ever." No one was saying anything. "I didn't know what to do, so I found the kitchen, and a nice girl said it was already close to dinner and brought me here so I could wait for you guys." I paused and looked at all of them. "Where were you?" I asked with a curious expression.

Tino was first to recover. He rushed over to my side of the table and wrapped his arms around me. It surprised me a little, but still, I automatically hugged him back. "Oh Lillian!" he cried. "We were so scar'd. Where wur you? We luked all over fer you, and we coo'd'n't find you!"

"What?" I asked innocently. I saw Berwald's eyes narrow just a little: he knew. He knew I had been avoiding them. He knew I had waited for them to leave, that I hadn't tried to catch them. He knew, but for some reason, he wasn't going to say anything. I wondered why. "I woke up and didn't know where I was, so I got dressed and went exploring. I found the kitchen at that point, but no one was in there that early, so I left to keep exploring." As I spoke, everyone took their seats; Berwald sat next to me, while Tino sat next to him, Mathias and Emil sat at the head and foot of the table, respectively, and Lukas sat across from me and next to the other empty seat. "I found a living room and sat on one of the couches to take a break, but I ended up falling back to sleep in front of the fire." I blushed a little, and heard Emil chuckle beside me. "Narcolepsy at its finest," I muttered. I cleared my throat. I wasn't going to add the part where I heard the conversation about going to look for me. I still felt bad, but I wasn't going to say I'd been eavesdropping. It's just rude.

"When I woke up, I went back upstairs and read a couple of books. Then, when I came back downstairs, I went looking for people. I kept thinking I heard voices, but I wasn't sure, and every time I got to where I thought they were, no one was there." I looked up. "That was you guys looking for me, wasn't it?" They traded looks with one another, then nodded. I groaned. "Ugh!" I swept a hand over my face before saying, "I'm so sorry. I knew I should have said something. I just didn't think." I was a bit sheepish; I felt a little bad for acting like I had no idea. "We must have kept circling each other." I shrugged. "About an hour ago, I went back to the kitchen, but I didn't expect there to be so many people there." I grimaced; it really had been a lot of people, and I'm not exactly a people person. "I found this really nice girl, and she brought me here to wait for dinner. I'm surprised you hadn't heard where I was." I shrugged again. I happened to catch a glimpse of the clock; six thirty exactly.

No one said anything for a moment. People came in with food, and we all started eating. I hadn't realized how hungry I had been; I had to try really hard to control my impulse to shovel food in. I saw Mathias smirking over at me, which made me blush and look back down. I swallowed and took a sip of water. It tasted a bit bitter, but then, I've never been a fan of water. Sure, I love eating snow and icicles and stuff, but drinking water? No way.

No one was speaking, so I didn't want to and risk getting into trouble. As far as I knew, there weren't rules as to no talking, but then, I'd only ever seen them eat a meal in the anime. Which, I admit, is exactly what was happening, but still…

We all continued eating in silence. Once dinner was done, we all walked to the living room I had been in earlier. Berwald held my arm as we walked, almost like he was preventing me from disappearing again. We sat in the semicircle of couches and chairs. Finally, I couldn't take the silence anymore. (Okay, I just said that because that's what's expected; really, I just couldn't take another second of Mathias, Lukas, and Tino staring at me. It was driving me insane.)

"So," I said. It startled them a bit, I think; they jumped just slightly. "What happened in the rest of the meeting?" This was as good a place to start as any, I thought.

Berwald and Tino exchanged a look, then Tino turned so he was facing me. He was on the same sofa as me, so it wasn't that hard. "Well," he said hesitantly, "When we were shoor you wur asleep—which I have too say, you fell asleep very quickly—we all descuss'd what shoo'd happ'n." He paused for a moment.

I asked, "And you decided…?" I looked around at the others a bit nervously. A couple—Mathias and Emil—were smiling, but Berwald wouldn't look me in the eye—I could only see the side of his face—no one can tell Lukas' feelings from his face, and Tino just looked thoughtful.

Finally, Berwald spoke to the fire. "Dat yoo shoo'd h've 'n excavation d'ne." I looked over at him, a little confused. That had already been decided when I was awake, hadn't it?

"About that," I said, "Not that I'm not so much happier to be here, but wasn't I supposed to stay with Gilbert until the results came?" I looked around, feeling my eyebrows scrunch up. I saw Berwald grimace as he replied.

"Due to r'c'nt ev'n't's," he said, "It huz b'n d'cid'd dat you w'll stay h're. Wid me." He almost looked to be blushing, but it was probably from the heat of the fire.

"Oh," I said, shrugging, "Okay." Now everyone was looking at me. "What?"

"Well," Mathias said tentatively, "It's just dat…" He looked down at his beer glass before smiling at me, then laughing. "No one's ever said 'okay' when they'll have to be in Svee's presence for longer than strictly necessary."

"But," I said, confused, "This is necessary, isn't it? And why would people not be okay with it?"

"You huv seen it yers'lf, Lillian," Berwald said. "My 'gl're'—" he used quotes "—is sc'ry." He grimaced and looked back down. "If," he started, but stopped. I waited for a moment. He started again. "When you get scar'd, you c'n leave. I woo'n't blame you." He was so self-deprecating, I wanted to cry.

"I won't," I said, "But thanks for the offer." I smiled, and he looked over at me, startled. I shrugged. "I know what it's like to have everyone think you're scary without them even knowing you." My smile turned to a grimace, and Mathias laughed incredulously. That guy laughs at everything. "No one gives you a chance," I whispered, looking down. After a moment, I looked back up. "What did you mean 'due to recent events'?" I asked.

"Well," Lukas said, "It has come to everyone's attention that you could possibly be a…" He hesitated, more for my benefit, I thought, than because of any kind of feeling. "Long lost relative," he decided to say, "Of ours." He almost smiled, like he was proud of himself for not giving anything away.

"Um," I mumbled, "Okay." I looked around the room. I was a little confused. Why would they think that? I don't look anything like them. "I don't—" I felt my eyes widened. "Oh." Oooohhhh. "You can't possibly think—" I broke off. "I mean, I'm not—" Ugh. This is so difficult. "You think I'm Uralia, don't you?" They all looked at me, like, Duh!

It made no sense, though. I mean, I was only twenty-one; Uralia had been around in BC times. Sure, I guess I looked a little like her…okay, exactly like her, in this anime form, but still. She seemed nice in that vision I had, and I…wasn't. "Why would you think that?" I asked. I realized I had gotten up and started pacing behind the sofa I had been sitting on, and I froze for a moment. I turned and went to sit back down. I repeated my question.

"First of all," Mathias said happily, "Have you looked in a mirr'r?" He was at least trying not to laugh, for my benefit; it would have seemed like a big joke if someone was laughing. "You look exactly like her." He pointed to a portrait hanging in the back of the room. I hadn't seen it earlier, but it was kind of hard not to, now.

It was a beautiful painting. Seven people stood in a group; four taller boys in the back, three smaller ones in chairs in front of them. Wait—only two in the bottom row were boys. The other was a young girl. She had her left arm around a boy—I was pretty sure it was Tino. The way the two rows were, she was in front of the space between the two boys on the left. Each of them had a hand on one of her shoulders. The boy on the left was practically laughing, his smile was so wide. The other boy looked very serious, but still gentle. It was Scandia and Berwald. I could tell. The girl was smiling, as well. It was easy to tell that it was Uralia, but…she looked just like me. She wasn't wearing glasses like I was, but her eyes sparkled with the same mischievous light I saw every time I looked in a mirror. I then realized…in the vision, she kept playing tricks. She wasn't exactly all sugar, but she was still sweet. Maybe that's how I looked to other people, too. The thought was warming.

"Second of all," Emil said, calling my attention back the boys. "Just the way you act."

"What do you mean?" I asked. They all looked at me. I blushed a bit under their scrutiny.

"Well, everything," Lukas said. I shot a glare his way, like, Yeah, that's helpful. I heard Tino chuckle. I looked over at him, and he grinned.

"Dat's what we mean, Lillian," he said. My eyebrows scrunched, and he laughed again. "Uralia had deh best mean luke, just like you just gave to Lukas." I blushed a little, opening my mouth to apologize, but Berwald interrupted me.

"And she alw'ys apol'g'zed after she g've it," he said, looking at me pointedly. I snapped my mouth shut, blushing even darker. Mathias just could not control his laughter any longer; he was incapacitated for a good five minutes, throwing his head back and shaking so hard he almost spilled his beer. It was contagious—I started to laugh, too, and soon enough we were all rolling. Even Berwald was chuckling—not the good, hearty laugh he had had in my vision the day before, but still more than I'd ever seen him laugh in the anime. It was several minutes before we calmed down. I was gasping for air and had a laughing headache. If this is what it's like all the time, maybe those will go away. It wasn't a terrible idea.

Finally, Mathias said, "And she had laughing fits like no other." He looked at me, grinning. "She always laughed when someone else did, and if she started laughing, you couldn't help joining in."

I realized that was just like me; I couldn't help but laugh when others did. I thought it was an empathy thing, but…maybe not. There was a pause in the conversation, but it wasn't uncomfortable in the least.

"And," Lukas said, bringing me back to the present, "She was constantly biting her nails, even though it was not acceptable of a lady." I hadn't even realized I was doing it, but I'd been chewing my nails in the silence. I am a compulsive nail-biter, I thought.

Berwald said, "She w's alw'ys a s'mple g'rl." I looked over at him curiously. He nodded. "She w's alw'ys trying to f'nd deh simpl'st ootf'ts," he said, and I looked down. I had chosen this dress simply because it was girly, but not too much. "L'ke you seem to do." He paused. "She w's g'rly, but she h'ld her own. She w's qu'ck to choose b'ttle arm'r ov'r f'ncy dr'ss any d'y, but she w's st'll g'rly enough to l'ke dr'ss's." His face looked heated, but I forced myself to look away. Not because of you, I thought. Only for her. I was a little bitter, but a thought was manifesting in my mind, and I was excited by it. Maybe not for long.

"She was always pacing," Emil said, bringing my attention to him. I had a flashback to a few minutes earlier, and he confirmed it. "Likes you dids a couple of minutes ago." He looked thoughtful. "She never seemed to notice it, sough." He looked over at me and asked, "Do you have thats problem?" When I blushed, he smirked and said, "I thoughts so."

"And she was always blushing," Tino said. "It was so cute!" He laughed, which just made me blush harder, when made everyone start laughing again. It was crazy. And so much fun.

Hi guys!

Hope y'all like this chapter. One of my (non-fandom) friends told me that she forgot she was reading fanfiction, which I guess is good?

Anyway, I know that Berwald is a little OOC, but I did warn you.

Happy reading!

Anya