Chapter 14—Lulu

Romano and I stiffened greatly as the next memory faded in. We were back in the shed, and the children were all asleep underneath their coats. They were huddled together in a big group for warmth.

The twins looked to be about 14 now, a great change from the 11-year-old kids they were just a memory ago.

"This was... four years after the last memory." I said, swallowing hard.

"Only four?! Dude, you had a serious growth-spurt!" America said, a large grin on his face. The others looked grateful for his lightening the atmosphere, but Romano and I couldn't enjoy it; we knew what was to come. Nothing happy was ahead, not really. The only 'happy' memories ahead started when we were found by Grandpa Rome. That wouldn't happen for long time. We didn't bother to really count the years. They just kinda... blurred by. We never told Grandpa Rome about our mafia either, come to think of it...

"What about the girl, aru? Lulu?" China asked. Romano and I flinched.

"Oh... Mon Cher, I—"

"She lived." I cut France off. "The medicine worked. Lulu survived without any permanent side effects. She's eight in this memory... She's over there, if you're wondering." I pointed to the little girl in the sleeping heap. She had white-blond hair, and deep blue eyes, though they were closed at the moment. Her right eye, I knew, was a milky white, though.

Feliciano and Lovino were just pulling on their own coats and hats, getting ready to leave, when Lulu grabbed the back of Feliciano's shirt.

"Lulu?" Feliciano asked, crouching down to her level. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"I... You can't leave! You can't!" She cried in a soft whisper.

"What? Why not?" Lovino asked gently, bending down to her level.

"I... I have this terrible feeling... Please! You can't go!"

"Lulu..." Feliciano said softly, placing a comforting hand on the top of her head. "We'll be fine. Lovi and I go out on runs like this all the time! We'll be all right. We always come out alive, and that's what matters." He gave her a bright grin.

"No... Not... I can't explain it... I just have this feeling... no; it's stronger than that... I know... I know that something bad is going to happen if you go... Please stay! PLEASE!" Her voice had been growing steadily louder, and had woken up the other children.

"Lulu?" A ten-year-old Timmy asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "What's up?"

"Sounds like she doesn't want Feli and Lovi to go out again..." A 14-year-old Jenny stated. "Man... I wanted to get some more sleep before heading out to work, but alright..." She complained, grabbing a 14-year-old Raggis and pulling him up as well.

"Hey!" He complained. "I can manage to go back to sleep!"

"Yeah, but then you'll be late for work again!" Jenny shot back. Raggis just grumbled and begrudgingly put on his own coat.

"Please..." Lulu said again, her dark blue eye shining with tears.

"I..." Feliciano looked conflicted for a moment. I held my breath. Please... Believe her... If you don't... "I'm sorry, Lulu, but we need the food. Raggis and Jenny may work jobs, now, but they can't pay for all of us. If it makes you feel better, we'll do a small run. Only what we need. We'll make it fast, okay? Back by dark? And if we aren't, you can come and find us, okay?" Feliciano compromised. "And we'll leave Asher here with you." The pup yawned sleepily and nodded his head.

I bit my lip. I couldn't cry now; this happened centuries ago! I just... If I had listened to her, could I have made any difference? Her ability was just like mine, but mine hadn't developed by that point. Vino's hadn't either.

"Felice..." Romano nudged my shoulder slightly, pulling me from my dark thoughts. "It wasn't your fault. It was both of ours. I didn't listen either." He whispered to me. I sighed, but nodded my head. Vino's right... But I did feel something... a sense of foreboding...

Hey! This was forever ago! Millennia for you! It shouldn't bother you anymore...

Are you trying to be a dick? I mentally snapped back at him.

I'm trying to be a good brother, damnit!! I'm not good at this sort of thing... JUST FUCKING FEEL BETTER!!

That's not how that works. I mentally deadpanned, though I appreciated his effort.

Feliciano looked at Lulu. He hesitated for a moment, before reaching into the pocket of his old patched-up jacket. The nations barely caught the frost creeping out—the only evidence that Feliciano had used his winter powers again.

"Here. Take this; it's a special charm. If you really, really need me, just talk to me through it, and I'll come." Feliciano said, pulling out a beautiful crystalline snowflake on a silvery ice-chain. The nations marveled at the detail of the snowflake.

"Wow~" Lulu also saw its beauty. She gently took it from Feliciano's hand, and put it on. It was a perfect fit.

"We'll be home soon, okay?" Lovino said, patting Lulu on the head tenderly.

"Hey! Can I come, too?" Timmy asked, hurriedly putting on his jacket.

"Sorry, but you're too young, still." Feliciano said with a smile. The ten year old frowned and pouted.

"But I'm 10! I'm old enough!"

"Not yet, you aren't! You know the rules. You start street-training when you're 13, if you haven't found a job by then." Lovino said. "Speaking of which... don't you have somewhere to be today, anyways?"

Timmy looked away from the twins. "N-no..."

"He's a terrible liar." South Korea commented quietly, noticing the morbid mood that Romano and I were in. He didn't know what, but something happened. He just hoped that if it was as bad as he was thinking, that he could help us out somehow.

"We're off!" Jenny called, as she dragged Raggis out the door.

"Ciao! Be careful and safe! Watch out for each other!" Feliciano called after them. They waved back, showing that they heard him.

"Hey... someone's missing..." France pointed out. That other girl... Hazel... She was gone.

"Ah, yes... Hazel..." Romano started sadly. "She got into a bad run... She got hurt real... Er... pretty badly." He forced the street-accent away. "She lived, but was crippled. She lost her left arm—from the elbow down." He then smiled. "Though just a year and a half later, she found a job, and by this point, she's working hard as a well-paid maid of a wealthy businessman. Engaged. She went on to have a good-sized family."

The nations let out a sigh of relief, having feared the worst when Romano had paused.

"Harold! Watch over Lulu, Belle, and Kou, okay?" Feliciano said.

"Yeah, yeah! Go on and bring back some grub, okay?" Harold, now 11, waved them off.

"Belle? Kou?" China asked, confused. He didn't remember those names in the introductions in the last memory...

"Belle and Kou were two of the newer street-kids we added to our famiglia over the past 4 years." I explained, pointing them out. "That's Belle." I pointed to a pretty young girl, about 8, with long, curly brown hair, and sparkling hazel eyes. "And that's Kou—though his real name is Kouki." I pointed to a 6-year-old boy. He had short black hair, and dark brown eyes. He was obviously Japanese.

"Nani?" Japan could feel this boy. He didn't expect to be able to feel the boy as he did his own people. Especially since this was a memory, and the boy—being human—was long dead.

"What is it, Japan?" China asked.

"I... He's one of my people. I can feel it."

"You can?" I asked, surprised. "He..."

"He was almost sold into slavery." Romano said heavily, picking up where I left off. I shot him a grateful look. "We were on a run, and saw the exchange point. The kid looked about ready to keel over, and so we rescued him before the buyer showed. He didn't know the local language much, but as nations, we were able to understand him enough to teach him. From what we could understand, he was brought over from Asia with his parents, who were later killed in an accident of some kind. He wouldn't say how; he witnessed it himself, so we never pressed him for it. But his... older brother..." Romano hissed the word, hating that such a person could be called a brother, "sold him into slavery for his own personal profit." He spat, feeling the need to cleanse his mouth of the whole thing.

Japan was livid. He didn't show it, but his fists were shaking hard. How dare someone betray family like that! How dishonorable! "Arigatou for saving him." Japan said tightly with a deep bow of gratitude. He appreciated that Romano had told him the entire story. He felt, as the boy's nation, that he needed to understand the child. Even if he was dead and gone.

"Kou~ Belle~ You two be good for Harold, okay?" Feliciano called. The two children looked up.

"Okay~" Belle chirped happily, her personality reminding the nations a lot of Feliciano's own happy personality.

"Hai. Be careful... come home safe, Aniki..." Kou said softly. Japan smiled. It's good to know that he's found himself a good family, then.

"Oh! And Kou?" Lovino said, as Feliciano handed his brother a wrapped parcel. It was small, and wrapped in something that was likely pulled out of someone's trash, but it was fairly clean and looked to be wrapped with care. The Japanese child looked up at his two older brothers.

"Happy birthday!" They smiled at the same time. The child blinked, confused.

"It's been a year since you joined the famiglia~ That's your birthday here, silly!" Feliciano explained. Kouki's eyes widened in excitement as a small smile played on his lips. He carefully unwrapped the gift, to reveal a small dagger. It wasn't new, but it was still very well taken care of. It obviously cost quite a pretty penny.

"This is... for me...?" He asked in awe.

"You're giving a six-year-old a weapon?!" Hungary asked, shocked. I flinched back slightly—women were scary when angered!

"Technically, he's seven now!" I said, before Romano quickly jumped in, saving my ass from the wrath of her frying pan.

"It was a hard life on the streets! In our famiglia, back then, they'd get some sort of self-defense weapon at the age of 7, or one year after joining the famiglia, whichever is applicable. We always taught them how to use the weapons before we gave it to them, so they wouldn't hurt themselves or the other kids. As much as we wanted to protect their innocence, it's just not realistic here. If they die because they didn't know how to defend themselves, that would be on us." Romano said, wincing heavily at the last part. The nations didn't miss my flinch, either, but kindly ignored it for the time being.

Kou's eyes sparkled as he looked at the gift. "A-arigatou! Grazie mille!" He said, hugging Feliciano and Lovino tightly, a large grin on his face.

The nations chuckled. He seemed to have a personality similar to Japan, so the sudden outburst was rather entertaining for them. The fact that the child bore a striking resemblance to his home-nation made it all the better.

"The kids kinda picked up some Italian from us, even though the language itself wasn't around yet." I smiled softly.

"Don't forget—" Lovino started, before Kouki cut him off.

"Famiglia before all." Lovino looked a little surprised at being cut off by the normally timid child, but then chuckled and rubbed the child's head.

"Si. Famiglia Before All." He said as he and Feliciano stood up.

"Be good everyone~ We'll be back by dark at the latest~!" Feliciano said, before turning to Timmy. "And you have a job interview to get to."

"Aww~ But I don't wanna!" Feliciano gave him a sharp look. The nations blinked at how much like a father the twins looked. Timmy grimaced, and sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'll go." Feliciano nodded his head in approval.

"And don't forget to wash up before you go!" He called back to the stubborn child.

"Yeah, yeah."

Feliciano and Lovino smiled softly at the children. "Ti voglio bene, famiglia~" They called in sync, as the children replied similarly.

With that the memory faded to the next one. Lovino and Feliciano were crouching on the roof of a building, looking for something.

Romano and I grasped each other's hands for comfort, knowing what we were about to witness... again.

The sun was lowering, showing that it was about an hour or so until dark. "We've got the goods... let's head back, yeah?" Lovino said, his street-accent starting to shine through again.

"Si, let's—"

"HA! Found ya!" A man appearing to be in his late twenties cried out as he stepped into view. He had short dirty-blonde hair, and watery blue eyes. He had this crazy, victorious grin on his face. "You little punks won't get away this time!" He declared.

"Ah, Stronzo! I was wondering where you went off to! It's been awhile!" Lovino said with a happy grin, as if greeting an old friend.

"Si~ How've you been?" Feliciano tacked on. This, of course, only angered the man, who started to turn red.

"So this is that cop that kept giving you trouble?" Germany asked.

"Si. Stronzo was so entertaining~!" I chirped, trying to ignore what was still to come.

"Stop playing around, rat! I'll get you this time! You're under arrest! I'm going to make sure they get your hands for this one!" He glared.

"Haha! Good luck, Stronzo." Feliciano stressed.

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!" He cried out angrily.

"No, I'm pretty sure that Stronzo is your name." Lovino confirmed with a small nod.

The cop charged them with a sword, hoping to hit one of them, but they easily sidestepped him, and he went running off the side of the—fortunately short—building.

Everybody winced as they heard a very loud THUD. The nations—and the teenaged twins—looked over the edge to see what unfortunate fate had befallen their favorite cop. He was lying in a garbage heap, dazed and undoubtedly bruised. But he was alive and relatively unharmed.

"Well, we've got to go. Things to steal, people to terrorize, you know." Feliciano commented casually to the downed man.

"Really? You were taunting him? It's a wonder you don't still have issues with law-enforcement..." America said.

"Hello? Mafia?" Romano reminded the nations, who winced.

"Riiiight... By the way, if I catch you guys doing anything illegal in my country, I won't go easy on you." America warned us, while casually checking his nails.

"I wouldn't expect anything less. And if we catch you messing with our Famiglia, we'll treat you like Stronzo, here." I replied with an easy smirk, making a few nations blink in shock.

"Haha! Challenge accepted!" America grinned. Of course, he wasn't planning to mess with us or anything. He was, however, planning to see if he could catch us without bringing the law into the picture. He was a pretty good detective, despite what the other nations might think.

"Heh. Good luck, Stronzo." Romano teased. America huffed.

"Come on, I'm not nearly as idiotic as him." The superpower nation pointed to the cop still lying in the trash.

"Good point." Romano shrugged.

Feliciano and Lovino started walking away, heading towards home. Feliciano suddenly missed a step, and stumbled with a loud gasp.

"Felice?" Lovino ran back to his brother who was hunched over, clutching at his heart. The nations stiffened. Was something wrong with Feliciano?

"S-something's wrong! We need to get back now! Lulu! She's calling!" Feliciano gasped out, as he took off at full speed towards the shack they called home. It only took Lovino half a second to follow his panicked brother.

A moment later, though, Lovino also doubled over in pain. "A-Asher!" He cried out, tears pricking his eyes.

It was dark by the time they finally reached their hide out. They stopped at the ominously open doorway. It was too dark to see inside. The nations stiffened... It was too quiet.

I clutched Romano like a lifeline. I couldn't see it again... but I couldn't find the strength to turn my head away either. Every time I shut my eyes, I saw it again. I felt Romano clutch me as well. This wouldn't be easy on either of us. I felt Yang send me calm and comfort from my mind, as well.

Grazie, fratellino.

Prego, fratellone. I could practically feel his blush.

Feliciano and Lovino hesitantly walked into the shack. The scene before the nations was horrific. Blood everywhere. The children were dead. Asher was laying in a heap discarded in the corner.

"I-I thought they were..." France looked at Asher and the children in sorrow.

"Asher's immortal, since he's my bonded. He'll revive like a nation, don't worry about him." Romano's voice was quiet and subdued.

"No..." Feliciano breathed, unable to take his eyes off the scene before him. I couldn't look away either. Neither could Romano.

"C-check for survivors!" Lovino commanded, as he forced down his bile to check the bodies for a pulse.

"R-right..."

Japan bowed his head. The nations all did. These were children... and they were murdered.

"Belle is dead. So is Raggis." Lovino's voice came from the other side of the room.

"He and Jenny had come back from work early that night..." I explained numbly. The nations didn't say anything. They knew apologies wouldn't do anything to help.

Feliciano looked to his left. "Harold is dead, too." His voice broke, but he refused to let the tears fall.

"So is Jenny." Lovino's voice called back.

Feliciano got this panicked look on his face when he realized that three children were unaccounted for. "Where're Kou, Lulu and Timmy?!"

Lovino's eyes widened as he and Feliciano rushed out the back. There, they found Lulu.

Her body was cut up in multiple places, and she was obviously tortured. Her left eye—the one that could see—had been gouged out of her socket while she'd been alive. It was floating somewhere among the carnage. Her hair had been cut nearly to the scalp, and she'd been flayed open. The snowflake that Feliciano had made for her that morning lay in the cooling pool of her blood; smashed to pieces.

The nations looked on, horrified. How could anyone do such a thing to a child?!

"Look." I said, numbly pointing to the fence behind Lulu. Someone had written a message in her blood.

Come find me... Demons. The message read. The nations stared.

"LULU!" Feliciano cried. He ran to her, and fell to his knees beside her, not caring that he was kneeling in a cooling puddle of blood. He reached out, and hesitantly touched her skin. It was cold. Too cold. "No... NO!" He cradled her in his arms, and sobbed. "Lulu! I'm sorry! I should've listened to you! If... If I had... I'm so sorry!" He repeated apology after apology through his sobs. Lovino, as well, had fallen to his knees in defeat. He then caught sight of the message.

"F-Felice..." He whispered in shock, staring open-mouthed in horror at the message. It took Feliciano a few minutes to calm down enough to look at his brother. Lovino only pointed to the fence.

When Feliciano caught sight of the message, the nations expected to hear another sob of horror, or for him to cry out in rage. Instead, he gently placed Lulu down, and closed her eyes before standing up and walking over to the fence. The blood was dried. His eyes darkened. No longer did they appear to be happy molten gold. Instead, they had a distinctive gleam to them that the nations recognized as someone who would do anything for vengeance. His eyes had a fuchsia glint.

He punched a hole in the fence. "I will find you. And I will make you suffer for killing famiglia." He promised. The nations shuddered. They'd never seen me angry before.

Ice and frost started to form around Feliciano's feet. His eyes shone with icy blue specks, but they were mostly golden. My eyes widened. No... "To think... even back then...?"

"What was that? I couldn't hear you." Romano said.

"Huh? Oh, just... thinking aloud..."

Was that you? I asked Yang.

Maybe? I am a personification of your anger and hatred, so it's entirely possible that I'm a reflection of your winter powers or something, and that's why my eyes are icy-blue?

Yang's eyes were icy-blue, but other than that and his white hair, he looked just like me. Well, he also had freckles. It had never occurred to me before that he could be a representation of my General Winter powers.

"Y-you really are a monster!" The nations jumped in shock—as did Feliciano and Lovino. The twins whipped around to see Timmy, covered in blood, but relatively unharmed, staring at Feliciano with fear and horror.

Feliciano immediately reigned in his abilities, but it was too late. "Timmy! You're alive!" He cried out in relief. Feliciano took a step towards the boy, only for the boy to take a step back.

"S-stay away, you monster! Demon!" He yelled, making Feliciano freeze, a look of terrible shock and pain crossed his face before he smiled softly at the boy.

"I know you're scared, but it's us. Feliciano and Lovino." He tried again.

"Yeah... Timmy, it's okay. Are you hurt? Where's Kouki?" Lovino tried diffusing the situation, but it only made things worse.

"No! You... you knew?! Those men came and killed everyone! They were looking for you! They said it's what we deserved for working with monsters!" Timmy glared at the twins, hate and fear shining in them. "They're dead because of you!" He shouted. Feliciano and Lovino recoiled as if they'd been slapped. Romano and I couldn't help but flinch at the harsh words.

"You haven't aged in all the time I've known you, but then age by three years in four! You're not normal! You're not human! You're Monsters! Murderers!" He stopped, taking a few deep breaths, as if steeling himself for something. "I'm grateful that you showed me how to survive the streets. For that alone, I will not hunt you down and kill you myself. But I cannot stay with things like you. I'm leaving the Family. If it could ever be called that in the first place." He muttered the latter part to himself, but the nations caught every word. He turned around, before he continued speaking. "Never contact me again. If you do, I will not be held responsible for what I will do." He said, and with that, the young boy left without looking back.

"How terrible, aru..." China whispered to himself, unaware that I could hear him.

"Oh, Ita..." Hungary wrapped both Romano and me in a hug, and cried. I held back my tears easily with only minimal effort. I had a long, long, time to practice, after all. Romano let a few stray ones run down his face, but nobody said anything on the matter, for which we were grateful. Lulu was still a sensitive topic, and I'd honestly blocked out what Timmy had said all those years ago.

I gazed at my past self, as he sank to his knees and sobbed, mourning the loss of the entire famiglia. South Korea just looked on saddened.

"Fratello?" Feliciano asked, looking just as broken as the day Emma died, if not more so.

"Si...?" Lovino asked, turning to look at his little brother. Lovino, himself, looked hollow, like he was numb inside and out.

"We can't let this happen again." Feli said. "We need to get stronger. We need to protect our famiglia. And train them to protect themselves. We won't always be around to save them, and perhaps... perhaps taking in children wasn't the best thing to do..."

"You know why we can't let adults join the famiglia. They'd ask too many questions. Besides... I like helping the children." Lovino said, looking to Lulu.

"Si... I do, too. But... maybe we should start helping the children indirectly? That way we don't put them in danger." Feli stepped numbly forward, back towards what used to be their home. "We can let adults join if we're more... distant."

"Felice." Lovino said suddenly, sounding stern and hard. Feli jolted in surprise and turned to his brother. "What are you going to do from here?" He asked, making it sound like the most important question in the world. And in a way, it was.

Feliciano paused for a long moment, carefully looking over his options. "I don't know." He spoke slowly. "But all we can do is move on. And we can start by finding out who killed Lulu and the others, and bring them down." He finished darkly.

"Si. I agree. We'll send their soul to burn forever in the Netherworlds; even if we have to sacrifice ours to do so." Lovino agreed.

"Si. For Famiglia. Souls be damned." Feliciano looked back at the message on the fence. "You want a demon? Fine. Now you have two. And they're after your blood. Don't beg the Devil for mercy, because he just sent us." He chuckled darkly under his breath.

A good number of nations shivered at his tone. They'd never seen Feliciano so... hateful. So ready to kill. Was this really the same Northern Italy that sang and made pasta all day and waved his white flag? The same nation whose motto was practically 'make pasta, not war'? How little did they honestly know about the two brothers?

Lovino had a matching murderous look in his eye. These two were out for blood. They were going for the kill, and nothing would stand in their way.

The scene finally faded out, but the vicious glares of gold and green eyes wouldn't leave the nations' minds for many centuries to come.

Words: 4,256/4,356

Pages: 9

Edited: 03/06/2019

A/N: Wow, look! Another update so soon! Don't count on the continued pace, though. This one was already written, so I wanted to let you all know that yes, I'm still here, and no, I'm not discontinuing anything. I've recently started another fanfiction (I'm sorry!) that's surprisingly not Hetalia related. It's actually a Rise of the Guardians fic. I couldn't help but try my hand at it! Jack Frost has so much angst potential, having been alone for 300 years~! And I thought a change of characters would refresh my writing for these fics. Don't worry, though, the fanfics I have posted now will be my first priority. And my RPG (Which I'm planning to update this month!! [October of 2018]) Let me know if anyone would like to see me branch out beyond Hetalia, though. (Just for kicks, I once tried a 'characters watching the show' fic with The Batman while the Young Justice crew watched. It was... interesting. Wanted to get to the 'big reveal' of Robin's past. :P Yeah... didn't get that far.) I am seriously looking forward to Hetalia Day~! Anyone going to the one in Escondido, CA?

A/N 2: Just fun little fact, my headcannon Mafia Names for Feli and Lovi are as follows:

Feliciano Vargas: The Golden-Eyed Demon/The Golden Dragon

Lovino Vargas: The Crimson Snake/The Crimson Wolf