Falling Nations

Prologue

Prologue

  I was watching Lovino play with Alesa and the twins. It was quite amusing actually. He'd lie down on the ground, and not move until one of them went over to make sure he was okay. Then he'd grab the unexpecting child and tickle them. It was funny how many times they fell for it. They all knew what was coming, but went over to him anyway.

  Turning my focus to Alesa, I watched as she squealed as she was tickled by Lovino. Some of the other countries had tried to take her away before. And she seemed to have a slight fascination with Alfred for some reason. One time she had even crawled across the meeting room table just so she could go over to him and play with his glasses.

  Lovino hadn't liked that very much. It was cute how protective he was over our children. His soft side showed a lot when it came to them. He could hardly ever say no. Alesa knew it too. If she wanted something, she'd go right to Lovino and ask.

  Lovino stopped tickling Alesa and put her down. She still laughed a bit as she tried to catch her breath. A giant smile on her face as she moved away from Lovino, afraid he was going to tickle her again. But he wouldn't, not until she caught her breath.

  Her shirt lifted up slightly, making the scar on her side visible. She had a bad liver when she was younger. But it was fine now. Antonio had been nice and paid for her liver transplant for us. I still couldn't thank him enough.

  "Papa?" A quiet voice asked. I glanced down at Carter and smiled at her. She was the younger one of the twins but it didn't seem that way. She had Axel basically wrapped around her finger.

"What is it babina?" I asked her. I picked her up, and set her on my lap. She had dark hair and green eyes like Lovino. But she had a curl like mine.

  "Axel's not paying attention to me." She said sadly. Ever since the twins were born, they've stuck side by side. They used to scream bloody murder if they slipped out of each other's grip.

  "Why do you think he's doing that?" I asked Carter. She shrugged slightly. She didn't think she had done anything wrong.

  "All I did was accidentally touch his curl, now he won't talk to me." She said. To her, it made no sense. She was to young to understand.

  I couldn't help the slight blush that came to my face when she told me. Just thinking about it made my cheeks heat up. Knowing what had happened, it made me wonder. How many times had I played with Lovino's curl just tease him?

  "Babina, go tell padre what happened." I told her, setting her down on the ground. She nodded and went over to Lovino, explaining what had happened to him. I went over to Axel to make sure he was alright.

  Axel's hair matched my rusty coloured hair. His curl was mine as well, but his eyes matched his twin's. He acted more scared than Carter. If he was going to do something, he needed Carter to do it first. Not that Carter seemed to mind that.

  He said he was fine. Just he didn't like the feeling he had gotten when his sister touched his curl. A weird fuzzy feeling in his stomach. He was too young to get the other affects from a pulled curl.

  "She didn't mean to pull your curl babino. I'm sure if you go and talk to her she'll say sorry." I told Axel. "Plus, I don't think you can stay mad at her, can you?"

  He looked up at me and nodded. "Sí, you're probably right." He said and made his way to his feet. He then went over to Lovino and Carter talking with the two. He hugged his twin and I couldn't help the smile that came to my face seeing that.

  Suddenly the phone rang. "I want to get it!" Alesa said before hurrying to go get the phone. I walked after her, knowing who ever was on the other end probably wasn't calling for her.

  Alesa picked up the phone and I watched as her phone went from happy, to confused to sad. I went over to her and asked to see the phone. She gave it to me willingly and hugged my leg, her tears soaking into my pant leg.

  "He's gone. Alfred's gone. He disappeared." I heard Arthur's voice on the other end.

  "Wait, what do you mean?" I asked. I was confused. I put a hand on Alesa's head, comforting her. No wonder why she was sad. She looked up to Alfred, and always got so happy when she saw him.

  "I mean he's gone. I was visiting him and he faded. Just like Lovino did six years ago." Arthur said and my eyes widened. Alfred was heathy, as was his country. Why would he fade?

  "I- I'll get back to you in a moment." I said and hung up on Arthur. Yes if was rude, but I was so shocked and just needed a minute to process what I had just been told. Alfred faded...

  I jumped slightly when the phone rang again. I picked it up, not knowing if it was Arthur again. "Ciao." I answered.

  "Feli, oh god. I need your awesome help, please." Gilbert's voice came over the phone line this time. I couldn't help but notice that it sounded like he had been crying. Much like Arthur had sounded.

  "What do you need help with?" I asked worriedly. Gilbert never cried. What could have happened to make him cry?

  "Ludwig, he's gone. Faded right in front of me." Gilbert said, choking slightly like he was going to cry again. Tears came to my eyes hearing about it. Not Germany...

  "Listen, we need an emergency meeting. I just got news from Arthur that the same thing happen to Alfred." I told Gilbert. Alesa looked up at me worriedly, hearing as I tried not to cry. Why had Germany and America suddenly faded? They were both strong countries.

  "All right. I'll let everyone know." Gilbert said and I nodded, even if he couldn't see it. I wanted to reply, but for a moment I couldn't say anything. No words would make it out of my mouth as I choked back tears.

  I hung up the phone and luckily it didn't ring again. I picked Alesa and and hugged her tightly as I went outside to where Lovino and the twins were. I couldn't help it as tears started to fall from my eyes. Not again, why was this happening?

  "Feli? What happened?" Lovino asked getting up when he saw me crying. I shook my head, I couldn't explain what was happening now. Not around the children.

  "We need to go." I managed to tell Lovino. "Emergency meeting." I said before going to get stuff packed for the children.