Chapter Text
“Hey uh, mysterious Ancients? Can we get a break?” Italy called out before the next thing could come up. “It’s Wednesday and you are going to ruin my schedule.”
“DON’T DO IT!” Germany, Greece, and Japan yelled.
“That bastard is just going to kill himself again!” Japan snapped.
“But a break would be nice,” France said, “Then we could answer a bunch of those questions from earlier.”
There was a poof that blinded them all and once they could see again they were in a room with chairs all arranged in a circle, there was an open doorway into what looked like a kitchen and there was a door to the left and a door right behind them. In the middle of the chair circle, there was a birch table and on the table there was another note.
Markus was the one that read the note this time. It said:
“Dear immortals,
We have gifted you this room so you can take breaks as things slowly get bloodier. Whenever you want this room to appear just ask for it, we will teleport you as soon as that memory is over.
We can, and will, bring more Countries if we find it need be. Or if you simply want another one here.
The fridge is stocked with anything you could possibly need. None of the appliances can break.
We hope that you all enjoy yourselves even through the worst of these.
With great hope for your friends,
The Ancients”
“Well that was boring and very anticlimactic,” Andres flatly said.
“As much as I’d hate to agree with a Spaniard,” France said, making Antonio, Andres, Flavio, and Lovino glare at her, “I agree.”
“What the fuck did they do to you?” Lovino asked, ready to fight her.
“Severily traumatized my son,” America said with a dark look in his eye.
“But they didn’t,” Flavio pointed out.
America shrugged, “A Spaniard is a Spaniard, they’re all asses.”
Meanwhile on the other side of the room Germany, Japan, Greece, and Feliciano were trying to catch Italy.
Italy slid under Feliciano’s arms and began to run to his bedroom. He was just about three paces away when he suddenly got tackled.
When they all went back into the main room, everyone was sitting down and a few people were, surprisingly, laughing.
Germany shook his head and threw Italy onto the couch.
“Dude, why is Italy tied up?” Alfred asked.
That was true. Italy had his ankles tied together, same with his wrists, and he had a strip of neon pink duct tape over his mouth.
“Multiple reasons: a) we all know he was going to commit suicide. He does it every other week. b) have you seen his hair? That needs to get brushed.” Germany responded, grabbing a hairbrush from who knows where and started to attack Italy’s hair with it.
“Why is he letting you do that?” Luciano asked. If anyone even dared to come towards him with a hairbrush he would murder them.
“He isn’t, that’s why he’s tied up.”
“Can’t he just break the rope?”
“I bet he could,” Germany smacked Italy's shoulder when he saw it move for something, “I know that you are reaching for a blade. Don’t you dare.”
Italy rolled his eyes, “Mmmphh npfwshf fhnmnm hwn mswh sm enm pp hfh mnmf.”
“I know, but you need your hair brushed or else it will turn into the world's biggest rat’s nest.”
Italy went to turn his head to glare at him, but yelped when Germany pulled his head back into place by his hair.
“Stay still or else I’m pulling all of your hair out.”
Gilbert chuckled, “West, you were just like that when you were small. You despised getting your hair done.”
“Can we ask some questions?” Flavio asked.
There was a slightly awkward silence before France spoke up, “Yes, but if we feel uncomfortable in any way, we don’t have to answer and you guys drop it.”
After they nodded, Oliver was the first to speak up, “Well, dearie, why is it that you and UK get along so well? Louis and I have a good relationship because we have moved past our historical things. Arthur and Francis haven’t and are almost always at each other’s throats!”
UK’s face went a little pink, “Um, we’re married.” He nervously said, as if he was worried at how they would react.
Francis gasped and stared at them, Louis looked at them and chuckled a little bit, Arthur looked surprised, and Oliver had a goofy grin on his face.
“Oh that is splendid!” Oliver exclaimed, clapping his hands a bit, “How long?”
“548 years!” France exclaimed with a brilliant smile on her face, “We got married against my mother’s wishes and I loved every bit of rebellion I felt.”
“Wasn’t that, like, illegal back then?” Alfred asked.
UK nodded, “Of course it was. But we had two parents’ permission. That was always the rule. There was no rule that the parents’ had to be from both sides.”
Markus laughed, the sound booming across the quiet room. “So you two found a loophole in your laws just so you could marry? How long did you know each other before that?”
“We had officially met in 1368,” UK stated, “but we had talked around the gardens back in 1359, so that would be 119 years.”
“You forgot to mention the sneaking out, and the waterfall, and the fish fight.” France said before she erupted into laughter at the memories.
The ridiculousness of the last thing was weird enough for Lutz to start paying attention, “Fish fight?”
Canada sighed, “Don’t try to get the answer out of them. I’ve been trying for centuries and the most I’ve gotten is ‘the best first meeting ever’.”
“A thing that has been pissing me off is that fact there is only one fucking representation of Italy! Where is the second one? I am feeling very forgotten over here!” Lovino bursted out suddenly.
Italy stopped his squirming and Greece’s mouth went into a rigid line. Italy suddenly started to shake his head. Violently. It was almost as if he was trying to detach his neck off of his chest.
“Okay!” Lovino shouted, “I take back the question! Just stop shaking your head so hard! Dammit!”
Italy suddenly stopped and glared at Lovino, before yelping through the duct tape when Germany yanked on his hair.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Antonio quietly said, looking France directly in the eyes. “Why do you hate your Spain?”
“He’s a motherfucking jerk.” America cut in. “He knows only one thing and that is how to hurt a fucking child.”
Canada quickly put a hand on Ame’s shoulder, “Hey, he was asking Mom. Not you. Let’s go and see if there is a coffee machine in this place.”
“I don’t need you to act all big brotherly!” States yelled before he went to a low whisper, “That’s a good idea. Let’s get going.”
So then the two North Americans left, walking towards the kitchen.
France gave Antonio a small smile, “Sorry about him, he has a good reason to be angry. Just not at you. Same with me.”
“You don’t have to answer if you aren’t comfortable!” Antonio exclaimed, “Don’t feel pressured.”
France laughed quietly, “You are completely different from our Spain. The reason I don’t like him at all is because a) we were meant to get married back in 1489, but when he found out I was already married he hasn’t stopped calling me a whore b) he’s an absolute jerk with an ego bigger than the size of Asia. c) he is the son of Spanish Empire. There was once a time where his father went to interrogate a mute person and once he learned that they couldn’t give him information, he gouged out their eyes and murdered them right on the spot.”
Antonio's and Andres’ eyes went wide at the last. Even the 2ps looked disgusted at what that nation had done.
“But, that is only the stuff that he had done to me personally. His father was an even bigger asshole than what I’ve told you about.”
“Which I am not comfortable with sharing,” UK quickly said when he saw a couple of people open their mouths to ask. “I don’t even want to go through it one more time, but these blasted Ancients of yours better be comfortable with us taking a lot of breaks.”
There was a silence before the quiet voice of Klaus filled the room:
“Do you all have magic? Is that why you said that we ‘didn’t have the feel’?”
Japan nodded, “Yeah… we have so many kinds of magic. Ame likes to use protection and healing spells while his brother uses transformation and herbal spells. There are enough kinds of spells out there that, about a decade before you are supposed to take up your nation, you are supposed to figure out what kinds you want to focus on.”
“And the thing with the feel is that humans have a very human magic aura. Other immortals have a different aura, but the aura normally tells you where said nation is from and who their parent is. But you guys don’t have either of those and all we can tell is that you are immortal.” France added.
“That’s… odd.” Was all Arthur could manage as he rethought all of his previous magical experiences.
“Well, if you want to know about more of our relationships and our sexualities, we can tell you.” Japan randomly said. “I mean, I don’t really care if you lot know about mine.”
“Go right ahead then,” Zao said.
“I’m a lesbian asexual, and my two friends are both gay for each other.” They both glared at her. “Oh come on! You guys are so obvious! And I want it to seem like me tagging along with you is just because I get free food. Greece is aromantic. Uh, Canada I believe is Aromantic, or he’s Aroace. I can’t remember exactly. And that’s all the ones that I know that wouldn’t mind me telling.”
“I’m bisexual as fuck and UK is an ally.” France put in.
America finally came back with a large pot of coffee, chuckling slightly, “He has to be an ally, or else he would be disowned from his entire family.”
UK fondly rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah. I know.”
“So, you want to know what we’re labeled as? Uh, I’m either pan or bi, can’t really tell. Rus is gay. Our Spain is a gay aromantic and our China is just a plain old simple lesbian.”
“What about your pronouns?” Matthew asked. “Do any of you guys have different ones like that?”
“Oh yeah! Tons of us do. Brazil goes by he/they. Mali and Indonesia are both genderfluid. Tajikistan and Sudan are both agender. Panama and Venezuela are both non-bionary. And I believe that Mongolia uses she/they pronouns. There are more, but those are just the ones off the top of my head.”
“Cool,” Kuro blandly said, “I have a question that no one has asked yet. Where in the world is your Prussia?”
Greece’s face saddened slightly. “He’s where he wants to be.”
The second that last syllable was said, a poof happened and there was a note on the table. Gilbert smirked and exclaimed, “I want to read it this time!”
“Dear Countries (mainly Greece though),
If you wish, we can bring Prussia here. His living and breathing self. We can even make sure that he will never figure out that you wanted hom here.
With wishes of happiness,
The Ancients.”
“YES!” Gilbert exclaimed after he read the note out loud. “The awesome me wants to meet my other self!”
Klaus was even nodding along slightly, a hint of well concealed wonder in his eyes.
Greece sighed, “Fine. But before he comes, you must accept one thing.” The ancient woman closed her eyes and slowly her pale skin shifted into blue and white. When she reopened her eyes they quickly realized that her skin was the Greek flag. Her eyes stayed the vibrant green same with her dress and her weapon.
“Oh, so we’re doing that now? Thank goodness.” America happily exclaimed before he shifted into his own flag. But there was something else.
“Wings?” Arthur and Allen asked. Arthur said it in a voice of pure confusion, while Allen had said it in a tone as if he wanted a pair. And even though he didn’t say anything, Alfred’s eyes lit up in so much excitement he looked like he could power all of New York.
Ame nodded and stretched them out, deliberately avoiding hitting people, “Yep, it’s my genetic quirk. About half of the Countries have animal features.”
While he was talking, the rest of the Countries had morphed into their own flags.
France had her long hair put into a French braid, but other than that there wasn’t too big of a difference .
Russia’s pale white hair had a few hints or red and blue at its edges, and, somehow, him in his Country Form made him look almost as intimidating as Ivan and Victor.
The dyed tips of Japan’s hair had changed into a pale white with hints of red. She quickly threw her hair up into a ponytail and had a look in her eyes that was violent.
Canada’s Country Form actually managed to make him look more insane. His normal toothy grin turned a bit more murderous than any of the 1ps were comfortable with.
Germany’s glasses had changed from white to a pale blue. His clothes had changed into something a little bit more presentable, and a small blue armband appeared on his left forearm.
Uk’s transformation also raised some eyebrows. He had a pair of bright red dragon wings, a pair of bright white horns, and his neck and the lower-left part of his face, the back of his right hand, and a bunch on his ears were prominent. His blonde hair had some streaks of Irish red and he had a Scottish grin.
And then there was Italy. Italy hadn’t morphed.
“What about you?” Feliciano asked. “Are you not comfortable showing us?”
Italy froze a second, an obvious wave of fear washed over his eyes before he nodded.
“Oh, well, that’s okay! Just one question… Do you have wings like UK or America?”
Italy shook his head then glared at Germany for being a little too aggressive while brushing his hair.
“So you do have scales!” Oliver exclaimed before he ran towards UK to inspect them.
“Just… just watch the wings.” UK said as he realized that it was impossible to get out of the situation.
Then (you guessed it) another poof happened and a guy appeared. He was obviously Prussia, if the flag on his face had to say for anything.
Prussia had white hair, some strands of silver popping in, his vibrant red eyes were half opened, and he was in a suit with a magnificent sword strapped to his belt. And yet, he had a large, glorious, pair of black wings that quickly shielded him from any eyes as a defence mechanism.
But Greece was faster than a defence mechanism. About half of a second after he appeared, Greece was at his side, holding his shoulders so he wouldn’t fall.
“Prussia,” she said in an incredibly soft voice, “may I touch your wings? I need to get you to lay down.”
Prussia lazily nodded and put his chin on her shoulder, “You know you don’t have to ask for permission.”
Greece chuckled as she slowly shifted his wings so she could lead him to a bedroom down the hall.
After they left, Francis asked, “Were they ever together?”
France quickly shook her head, “No, Greece has told me that if she was to ever be with someone, it wouldn’t be the guy that she sees as a brother. But if the rumors are true… Prussia swings the other way.”
America chuckled, “Please, those have to be true.”
“How would you know that?” Japan asked.
“I was friends with Russian Empire!” Ame yelled, throwing his arms into the air, “I adopted his daughter. And Prussian Empire had helped me with my whole Revolution! I have spent so much time with them.”
Gilbert and Klaus’ jaws dropped a little bit and wearily eyed Victor and Ivan.
A few minutes later, Greece emerged from the hallway, a faint smile on her face. “Let him rest for a bit. He needs it. We should continue the interrogation session later. Who wants to help me make dinner?”