Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 5

Vlad slowly opened his eyes. It took him a while to recognise where he was. He frowned when he realised that he was at the back of the café, but he didn't know how he got there.

He looked up when he sensed movement. Arthur's eyes widened before he smiled in relief.

"I just came by to check on you," he said. "How are you feeling?"

"What happened?" Vlad asked. "How did I get back here?"

"You collapsed. There was some sort of magical interference."

Vlad frowned, trying to think of what happened. Only one thing came to mind.

"What happened with Feliciano?" he asked. "We were talking, and then… I think I passed out?"

Arthur nodded, walking closer.

"You also had a bit of a temperature," Arthur said. "Do you mind if I check your temperature again?"

Vlad shrugged, and he felt Arthur's cool hand a moment later. The two remained like that for several seconds, before Arthur pulled his hand away.

"You don't seem feverish anymore," Arthur said. "Do you think you'll be alright to work?"

"I'll try," Vlad said.

Although Vlad felt that he could get back to work, Gupta had other ideas. He confined Vlad to the kitchen to wash the dishes, but instructed him to sit down if he felt that he wasn't feeling well. But before that, Vlad decided to apologise to Feliciano for scaring him.

"No, you don't need to apologise," Feliciano said. "Just make sure you take care of yourself."

Vlad smiled in relief, before he went to the kitchen and started with the dishes. While staring into the foam, he couldn't help but think about the vision that he saw. The man with the opulent armour looked familiar, but he knew that the person wasn't human. He wasn't entirely sure what the person was, but he knew that it was some sort of supernatural entity.

Vlad didn't know why he saw the vision, or what had triggered it. It wasn't the first time he'd had a vision like this, but the other times he knew there was a purpose. He couldn't figure out what the purpose of this vision was.

He'd been working on the dishes for an hour before someone came in. He looked over towards Lukas, who was hovering uneasily near the door.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lukas asked.

"I guess so," Vlad said. "Sorry if I worried you."

Lukas shrugged, before he started to remove his apron.

"Gupta said that we can go home," Lukas said. "He said he knows we'll be tired after our first day of classes."

Vlad smiled before he removed his own apron. He followed Lukas to the backroom, where they removed their uniforms and got dressed in their casual clothes. Arthur also came to change out of his uniform. After another round of questions to make sure that Vlad was alright, the three of them made their way to the front of the café, where Gupta was tending to a customer.

Gupta turned towards them and approached. The trio of students waited for their boss.

"Are you feeling better?" Gupta asked.

Vlad nodded. The question was getting a bit tiring, but he was grateful that everyone was worried about him. If he'd been alone in a foreign country without people worrying about him, he didn't know if he would have been able to handle it.

"You need to be careful tomorrow," Gupta continued. "If you feel unwell, it might be better to stay home and rest."

"Thank you," Vlad said.

The ride back home was silent. Vlad was glad that they didn't pester him about his collapse more, but he could still tell that there was something bothering them about it. Arthur mentioned some sort of magical interference, and if Lukas knew about it too, then the two of them might be curious about the interference.

In the end, Vlad was spared from further interrogation by the fact that the three of them still didn't know each other that well.

…

Feliciano kept wandering through the streets, his mind on Vlad. Not long after he woke up, Gupta had urged Feliciano to go. Told him that there was nothing more that he could do that evening. And while Feliciano knew that Gupta was right, it still hurt.

He was worried about Vlad, and he found that it had nothing to do with the fact that his grandfather had assigned him the mission of learning more about him. Of course, the fact that he still didn't know much about Vlad made his grandfather anxious. But there was something that Feliciano could say about him.

He'd heard what Arthur had to say, and he knew that Gupta had heard it too. There was some sort of magical interference that caused Vlad to pass out. That might be something that Romulus would find interesting. And Gupta had told him that he should tell Romulus about Vlad's condition, and the magic that was apparently involved.

Feliciano delayed returning to the coven. He didn't want to betray Vlad in any way, which was strange, since he didn't know Vlad for so long, and his loyalty belonged to his coven. But he didn't want to relay any information about Vlad to the rest of the coven.

Why was that?

"Hey there, are you lost?"

Feliciano ignored the humans. He could smell the alcohol on their breaths, and if he didn't acknowledge them, then there was a chance that they would ignore him in turn.

He felt a hand on his arm that spun him around. Three men stood before him, and he could sense three more slipping in behind him.

"I asked you a question," the leader of the group sneered.

Feliciano repressed a sigh. It would seem that it would be one of those nights.

"I don't want any trouble," Feliciano said. "So, if you just let me go, then no one would get hurt."

"But what if we want trouble?" the leader hissed, leaning closer towards Feliciano.

This was a mistake that many tended to make when dealing with Feliciano. Even though he was more passive than most of the others, he was still a vampire, and when threatened by a human, which was considered to be the prey of the vampires, Feliciano's instincts prevented him from allowing this to continue.

Feliciano moved swiftly, latching onto the human's throat. The others screamed in alarm, but it took them several seconds to understand what they were seeing. By that time Feliciano was finished with the leader and grabbed the second human.

The others scrambled to get out of there while Feliciano fed from the second human. By the time he was finished, they were already gone, and two corpses remained.

Feliciano slashed their throats, hiding the puncture wounds made from his fangs. With the alcohol on their breaths, the police would assume that they were gang members that ran afoul of another gang. No one would investigate further than that.

Feliciano licked the last of the blood from his fingers. After a feeding, he always found his mind feeling clearer. He still didn't want to betray Vlad in any way, but he had a duty to tell his grandfather anything that might be interesting regarding the Romanian. Perhaps Vlad collapsing and there being 'magical interference' would mean nothing, and Feliciano wouldn't be betraying Vlad. It might just be his own magic, and could be completely irrelevant.

Now that he knew what to do, Feliciano started to make his way towards the coven's lair.

…

Vlad was sipping at his tea when Arthur entered his room. The Englishman looked awkward, and Vlad knew that there was going to be something incoming.

"What's up?" Vlad asked.

"I'm concerned about the magical interference I sensed when you collapsed," Arthur said. "Did anything like this happen before?"

Vlad stared at his tea, thinking about whether or not he should tell Arthur about it. But something had triggered him, and it would probably help if he had people that knew what to look out for.

"It doesn't happen often," Vlad said, "but… I sometimes get visions of things that happened in the past. They usually have some sort of trigger, but I have no idea what could have possibly triggered me this time."

"So… you saw something?" Arthur asked.

Vlad shrugged.

"It was so strange," he said. "Some sort of nobleman going to a Romani camp, and apparently he has a grandson there. But he told them to keep the kid safe. I don't know why I saw it."

"You say there's normally a trigger?" Arthur asked.

"Da, but like I said, it just… happened."

"And you only see things that happened in the past? Never the future?"

"Nope. Only the past."

Arthur was silent as he pondered the issue.

"It's strange that it just affected you today," he said. "Is it possible that one of the customers could have triggered it?"

"Sure," Vlad said. "But I don't see the relevance of the vision. Based on the clothes, and the fact that the guy was wearing armour, it looked like it happened a long time ago."

"So, when you have a vision, you don't have to act on it or anything?"

"Nope. Not that I've noticed. Sometimes it's just something in the past that doesn't want to be forgotten. It's hard to explain."

"But this only happens rarely? It's not a regular occurrence?"

"Like I said, it's not something that happens often. I should be fine tomorrow."

"Well… If you're sure." Arthur hesitated for a while longer. "The ability to see through time… Even if it's just the past, it's an extraordinary ability."

"You wouldn't think so if you find out you passed out on a café floor," Vlad remarked drily. "And if you bumped your head on the floor."

"Ah, right. I can see why that would be a problem. So… Everything's alright?"

Vlad smiled.

"Thanks for worrying," he said. "But I'll be fine."

Arthur blushed, but briskly nodded his head. He withdrew from the room, allowing Vlad to continue sipping his tea in peace.

Vlad sighed, thinking about the vision once again. He usually knew what had caused the vision, and why he had seen it, but this time he couldn't figure out the origin or the reason. And moreover, he kept feeling that he recognised the man in the vision, but he couldn't figure out from where.

He shook his head. After he saw a vision, it was done. There was no reason to dwell on it. Perhaps it was just someone in the past that wanted someone to know that the man had a grandson. Or perhaps that the grandson, who was born and raised among the Romani, had a relative among the aristocracy or nobility.

There was one other thing that bothered him. He didn't mention it to Arthur, but usually when he got a vision, it was something related to the place where he was. And the vision he saw was clearly from Eastern Europe. Closer to home, though the accents were a bit strange. He couldn't call it Romanian, but if it was far enough back in the past, then it was possible. Perhaps, since he'd never been outside of Romania before, he just never realised that Romania or the surrounding areas caused the visions. Perhaps the country wanted him to see forgotten pieces of the past. He wouldn't know until he got a vision from something in England.

Of course, he'd never gotten a vision purposely. He had no idea what could potentially trigger him. But if he wanted to trigger a vision, then perhaps he could snoop around at the university. The place was old, and who knew what kinds of things the students from the past had done. There ought to be something interesting that could trigger a vision.

Alternatively, there were many old places in Meldale. He just needed to snoop around a bit.

He knew that fixating on this vision wouldn't be healthy, but there was something pulling him to investigate the vision and the circumstances that caused it.

…

"So, he passed out and you overheard them talking about 'magical interference'?" Romulus repeated.

"That's right," Feliciano said. "I don't know what caused him to pass out, or what this 'magical interference' might be, but I thought it might have been important."

Romulus was silent as he pondered Feliciano's words. There were many possibilities of what the 'magical interference' could be. The boy lived with two other magic practitioners, and was a sorcerer himself. Romulus didn't know the mechanics, but there was a chance that their magic might interfere with each other. Alternatively, it could have been another type of magic that did not belong to any of them, but which reacted. There were too many possibilities, and unless they knew what the 'interference' was, there was no way to know if the 'interference' was relevant to them.

"Keep an eye on him," Romulus said. "For all we know, this 'magical interference' could be what we're looking for, and could be the beginning of what's to come."

Feliciano hesitated. There was something on his mind. Romulus waited patiently.

"How are you so sure that Vlad is who you want?" Feliciano asked. "He could be someone completely unrelated."

"Perhaps," Romulus said, "but he's Romanian. One way or another, there's a chance that he might be related to the Prince. And after those savages chased us away… Even if he's not who we're looking for, he could be useful. A sorcerer that's turned into a vampire could be quite powerful. Just look at Gupta. And he could help us get back into Romania to search there."

"So… he might be useful to you."

Romulus grinned.

"That is correct," he said.

Feliciano still looked uncertain, but that wasn't too strange. Feliciano had always been the most reluctant to act like a true vampire. Though even as a human, he had been a coward, always eager to please the people around him. If not for the fact that they were related by blood, Romulus would have avoided siring Feliciano. Nothing about his human personality had indicated that he would have been a good vampire, and centuries later, he still didn't have much use.

The only real use Feliciano had was that humans were able to trust him. He was unassuming, which made him useful bait when hunting.

"Is there anything else?" Romulus asked.

"N-no!" Feliciano sputtered. "I-I'll be going now."

Romulus watched Feliciano go in amusement. Once he was alone, he started to think again.

They needed to find a way to gauge how powerful that Romanian was. They needed to see how much of it was his magic, and how much was foreign magic. And they needed to divine the exact nature of the magic.

"Gupta," he called out.

He waited about two minutes before Gupta entered the study, looking curious but respectful.

"You called?" Gupta asked.

"Right," Romulus replied. "Feliciano tells me that the Romanian passed out and that there was some sort of magical interference."

"That's correct. I haven't examined him myself, so I cannot say what kind of interference it was."

"I figured. So then, I think you know what I want from you now. I want you to gauge the Romanian's magic. Learn what type it is, and how powerful he is. See also what is his, and what belongs to his housemates. And if possible, see if there's anything else, and what it is."

Gupta, who was usually so stoic, widened his eyes in clear panic. Romulus narrowed his eyes, anticipating any bad news.

"With all due respect," Gupta said, "what you're asking for will not be easy. It's complicated magic, even under normal circumstances. But unless they specifically tell you and allow you in, practitioners will not appreciate another trying to gauge their magic. They will be able to sense if I use any magic. And if they learn that I'm trying to discern their powers, they will grow suspicious. Even if they are humans and young, this isn't the type of magic that would go unnoticed."

"You said that it would not be easy," Romulus said. "You didn't say that it would be impossible. Which means that you would be able to do it."

"Y-yes, but…"

"Then do it. Even if it takes long because you have to be careful, you will do it. Is that understood?"

Gupta closed his eyes and nodded. He couldn't go against the wishes of his sire.

"Good," Romulus said. "What would you be able to discover from their residence?"

"That depends entirely on how much they fortified the house," Gupta said.

"Then try to get what you can. Go now."

"…Yes, of course."

Romulus watched as Gupta left, his mind racing from all the possibilities. He supposed that he would also need to make arrangements to meet the Romanian in person.

…

Gupta clenched his fists as soon as he was out of Romulus's sight. The fool! He didn't understand what he was asking! If Gupta tried to do something like that… Did the Italian even realise what he was asking?

He shook his head. No, he couldn't be angry at his sire. Not only was he grateful for what the man had done for him, but the bond they shared meant that Romulus would be able to detect any hostility, and Romulus wasn't one to forgive if he sensed any hostility among his coven.

Gupta would have to be careful about this. He also realised that it would do him well to feed before he attempted to pry into someone else's magic. Because even though they were young and mortal, they were still practitioners, and magic had a tendency to act like a wild animal if the one that wielded it was in any danger. Gupta would need the energy to hide himself from that, and to fight it off, should it be necessary.

He used the temporal sense that all vampires were blessed with and inwardly groaned. He wouldn't find any appetising prey this time at night. But he had to do what he had to do.

He just hoped that Romulus appreciated the effort.