Into Another World (The Lost Souls Trilogy)

-Homestead-

"Hold it, we are getting adopted; already?" Alyona stared at him wide-eyed.

"Wow, nice job bro! It didn't take you five decades to decide, again." Alfred said, mumbling the last part, loud enough for only the two girls to hear.

"Welp, you heard him girls, we will all miss you very much, even though your stay wasn't very long." Sarah smiled sadly at them.

"Spasibo," Alyona hugged Sarah, "dlya vsego."

"Yes... th-thank you." Aoi bows to her, a small smile on her face.

The rest of the kids frowned, upset that they were not chosen this time, especially Romeo and Riku. So the two girls had to say their goodbyes before they were escorted out of the orphanage.

Outside it started to lightly snow, Alfred groaned. "Seriously dude? Why does it have to be so darn cold here!" All of their breath puffed into the air like smoke as they walked to the car. They climb inside, and Matthew starts up the car, rubbing his hands together and setting Kuma in Alfred's lap.

"Stop whining Am... Alfred, snow isn't that bad here." Matthew shivers as the heaters turned on, blasting out a small burst of cold air. Everyone buckled up and Matthew started driving away.

The car was silent, except for the faint sound of music playing from the radio.

Alyona looks out the window as it started fogging up from the cold outside. "Where are we going exactly?" She asked, glancing over at Alfred and Matthew in the front seat.

"Your new house, it's not that far from the orphanage so you can go and visit if you want, I wouldn't recommend walking there in the winter though." They pulled into the driveway of a moderately big, brick house. It was a beautiful red, with white windows and a door. Willow and maple trees decorated the front of it, with flower bushes along the edge of the yard.

Everyone got out of the car and walked inside into the warm house. It had the gentle smell of maple and fresh pancakes.

"Your rooms are upstairs," Matthew said as he led them to the stairs. They all followed him except for Alfred who went into the kitchen. "There's a lot of extra rooms, so you can choose which one you want." They nodded and went looking around the house and in all the different rooms.

"What about this one?" Alyona asked, standing in a large room with two separate beds on each side. Aoi walked in and looked around the room, sitting down on one of the beds.

"It's nice," she said, nodding. "Quite comforting as well."

Alyona sits on the opposite bed from Aoi bouncing up and down as she did so. "Bouncy too!" Aoi nods, and looks out the window.

"You seem quite fascinated with snow." Alyona joins Aoi on her bed.

"I never seen so much before..." Aoi sighs.

"I like snow, it reminds me of home." Alyona sadly chuckles.

"You are Russian yes? Did you live in Russia?" Aoi asks.

"I used to, when I was very little, I don't remember much but it holds fondness in my heart. I moved here, to old cottage with my mom when I was four." Alyona explains, her tone of voice sounded a little sad. "If you don't mind me asking, where are you from...?"

"Japan..." Aoi softly replies.

"What was Japan like?"

"Hmm..." Aoi thought about her home life for a second. "It was good... until the first world war. It used to be so pretty decorated... then everywhere you went there was red..." Aoi frowns. "I was four years old when it started..."

"You witnessed the first world war?!" Alfred pops in randomly, eyes wide open. Aoi and Alyona jumped, startled by his sudden entrance. "Just how old are both of you?"

"One one zero...?" Aoi said confused.

"One hundred! Why?" Alyona wondered.

"Holy crap.." Alfred mumbled. "U-uh... no reason."

"That's lies," Aoi shakes her head. "You seem off."

"How do you--"

"America! How many times do I have to say that you need to clean up after... yourself..." Matthew softly punches his brother, stops shouting at him once he saw his two new kids staring at them. "I'm guessing they...?"

"Yeah..."

"Ding ding... there is truth," Aoi points out.

"Aoi, what are you talking about?" Alyona asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She hadn't noticed all the little slip ups and mistakes the two made.

"They are hiding something from us, and the stupid american exposed themselves," Aoi giggles. Alfred's face dropped at that comment. "Now stop hiding and explain."

Matthew and Alfred looked at one another as Aoi and Alyona waited for their reply.

"We are... countries." Matthew said, sighing.

"What, countries? Explain." Alyona said, narrowing her eyes.

"All the countries of the world have a personification, I'm America, the best." Alfred, now 'America' said, striking a pose as he did.

"And I'm Canada." Matthew said, stepping to the side a bit. "America and I are brothers."

"So, you lied to us." Aoi said, looking down.

"Well, no... yes, but we didn't have a choice, this is top secret, the only people to know of our existence are other countries, and their micronations."

"Micronations?"

"A lot of countries have micronations, they're like a countries kid, in a sense."

"So Romeo, and Riku, they are there, why?"

"In Romeo's case, Romano says it's not safe enough for him to return, he's worried something bad will happen, like what happened in 1968..." Canada sighed. "Riku just simply decided to live there. He's independent from Japan but not old enough to live somewhere else.

"I see." Alyona sighed. "Were you ever going to tell us about this."

"Eventually, I wasn't planning on telling you all this early... but with recent events it kind of happened." They sighed, leaving the room. Aoi and Alyona were alone.

"Izhetsy," Alyona mumbled, standing up and crossing her arms. "All they are, are stupid, strany, who lied to us." She paused for a second, and furrowed her eyebrows sitting back down. "Strana..."

"Alyona?" Aoi asked, watching her.

"My mother had friend she nicknamed Strana... I never noticed it before, but that means country..."

"Did you know them?" Aoi wondered.

Alyona shook her head. "Not that well... I met him a few times and he was...nice, I think."

"That's cool..." Aoi yawns.

"I guess." Alyona lays down on her bed.

There was silence, except for the two country brothers chatting down stairs.

"I still can't believe they lied to us."

"I can, everyone likes to lie," Aoi shakes her head with a sad smile.

Alyona holds out her pinky finger to Aoi. "Let's not lie to each other."

"Hai-... I mean yes, ok," Aoi wraps her pinky around Alyona's.