Familial Affairs

Mother

Greece woke up in a cold sweat. He was hyperventilating and needed to calm down. He sprung out of his bed and left his house. He needed to take a walk and clear his head. He hadn't been getting much sleep recently and he was exhausted. He counted the number of nightmares he recently had. They had been consistent for the past few weeks and he could hardly stand for it anymore. What made the situation more infuriating was that he couldn't ever remember them. He only knew that he woke up terrified and couldn't get back to sleep afterwards. He decided to visit Turkey, knowing that he could definitely get his mind off track.
Greece lazily walked up to Turkey's door step and knocked on the door. He heard Turkey slowly open it, obviously as tired as Greece was.
"What do you want? It's hella early you know. That's not like you." He rubbed his eyes and let out an aggravated yawn.
"Yeah, I know. I was wondering... Wait, you never open the door that fast. What are you doing?" He cocked his head to the side and stared cautiously into Turkey's eyes. He couldn't see any emotion in them, but knew he was hiding something. He stared deeper into his golden brown eyes but no matter what, he couldn't see anything in him. He found it unusual considering how he could normally read Turkey like a book.
"I fell asleep on my couch, now, what do you want?" His voice was just as full and hearty as usual.
"Nothing, I've just been unable to sleep lately." Greece sighed and was about to turn and leave, but Turkey lifted up a hand and placed it on his shoulder.
"You wouldn't wake me up for nothing, and besides, sleeping is kinda your thing. Come in and tell me what's wrong." He stepped aside allowing him to come in.
Greece sat on Turkey's couch and stared at the old painting on the wall. Turkey would never tell him anything about it, but it was of an old tree with two figures, a tall one and a small one. As he stared at it, he realized how damaged it was. He decided to ask about it, "you've never told me about that painting, yet you've had it longer than I can remember."
"How odd. I remember telling you." He stared at it. Turkey often forgot about that painting, but he knew that deep down, Greece knew exactly what it meant and what it was. He sat down next to Greece and glanced over to his friend. Greece was clearly distressed. He didn't know why though, the worst thing that was happening to Greece was his debt problem. He touched his shoulder again, "why don't we see what's on the TV? Have any requests?"
"Not really. I don't normally watch anything other than the news." He shuffled his legs in a more comfortable position.
Turkey chose a random show and watched. Greece on the other hand drifted off to sleep.

"Greece! Wake up!" Turkey was shaking Greece in attempt to get him to wake up. Greece's eyes fluttered open, once again he had a nightmare and had no memory of it. When Turkey noticed that Greece was awake he pulled him into a tight hug, "Are you ok? You were acting like you were possessed or something! What was that?"
"A night terror. I'm sorry I caused you trouble." He wiped a bit of hair out of his eyes.
"How many of these have you had?"
"That one makes 24" He stared at the floor, "They've been happening every day for the past three weeks."
Turkey let go of him, "as soon as we can, we're gonna visit Romania. As far as I know, he has a spell for everything. He'll help you." He got up and poured two glasses of water. Greece followed him to the kitchen. Turkey handed him one of the glasses, "do you know what started them?"
"I was visiting my brother Romano, Italy was there too. Italy wouldn't shut up about Rome, and Romano seemed like he didn't care about anything. It was normal. Something like that wouldn't cause these nightmares." He drank some of the water, "the only thing that bothered me was how Rome was mentioned in every conversation." He stared at Turkey's eyes again. They were still hollow and void of life. He couldn't help but be concerned for him.
Turkey stared at Greece. Every time he saw him, he could only think of that tiny helpless child that he had met so long ago. He wondered what went wrong. Greece was always super mellow, but he would always make sure he that he'd done everything he could to be in the best condition he could be. He was so determined back then, but now he was just ok with the fact that he was getting five hours of sleep or less and was ok with it.

A young Greece put his baby brother to bed. He smiled at Romano, "go to sleep now, I'll be back in a little bit to play later, ok?" The baby laughed and waved his hands up in attempt to poke Greece. "Later Romano, it's bed time!" He left the room and wandered into his mother's room. She had been sick ever since Romano had been born. Greece stood next to her, "hi mamma, Romano's in bed, want me to make you some soup?"
"Not today kiddo, your dad will be home soon, I'm sure he can do it." She smiled weakly. She had been breath-takingly frail and every day she seemed to get worse. He wanted to do more for his mother, but he only had free time when Romano was asleep. Greece felt bad for his mother, she had only held Romano once.
"Ok, well, I'm going clean up, see you later." He left the room and did as he said he would. When he was done, his father came home.
"Dad! How was your day?" Greece ran up to Rome and gave him a large hug. He loved hugs but his dad was the only one that he could hug. Romano was a baby, his mother was sick, and their servants had all pursued different careers.
"Hey kid." Rome didn't hug him back and walked into the kitchen, "has your mom eaten yet?"
"No, she wanted you to cook tonight." He stood next to him, craving some kind of affection. It was unusual for Rome to ignore him like that.
"Well, this is the last time I cook for her, got it?" Rome wasn't his usual happy self.
"Are you ok dad? Did I do something wrong?" Greece stared into his father's eyes and saw nothing.
"Why did your mother insist on having another kid? We were just fine with you, but no, she thought you were lonely. Now she's sick and dying and there's a baby who'll never know who his mother was." He glared at Greece.
"Mamma didn't know she was going to get sick. She could have gotten sick when she had me! Mamma's done nothing wrong-" Greece was suddenly slapped. He took a step back from his father, forcing tears not to come out.
"You don't know what you're talking about. Go take care of the baby. It's all you're good for." He stared coldly at the child.
Greece ran to his room. He sat on his bed and thought about how off his father was. He remembered Rome once saying that people who hit their kids were no better than the enemy. He got up to check on Romano. The baby was sleeping, but Greece picked him up anyway. He was lucky that he didn't wake up, but it was all for nothing. A deafening scream sounded from his parents' room. He quickly checked on his mother, only to find his father with a knife in hand stabbing his mother repeatedly in the chest.
"Dad?" Greece asked horrified. He clutched the now crying Romano close to him, "why? Why?" He stepped back in fear of his father.