Familial Affairs

Memories

Greece took the items home with him. Turkey followed him, claiming that he needed to make sure they didn't bombard him with all of the negative memories first. The first memory was of the day his mother died.
     Greece stared blankly at the object that had given that memory to him, it was an old rattle that Greece had given to Romano a few days after he was born. He glanced over to Turkey who was staring at him cautiously.
     "So, what'd you see?" Turkey asked.
     "Just how my mother died. Honestly, that wasn't too bad, what are you scared of me remembering?" He cocked his head to the side.
     "You'll remember it eventually, for now let's not worry about it. Hey, it's still early, want to get breakfast?" Turkey pulled his mask out of his pocket and put it on.  Whenever they were going out in public, Turkey always made sure that he had it. Greece wondered if he was the only one who'd seen him without it.
     "I won't be able to pay though.."
     "I'll handle the expenses, consider it a date." Turkey smirked.
     Greece blushed, "sure"

     They walked to a nearby diner and were surprised to find Cyprus there.
     "Hello you two. How's it been?" Cyprus smiled, "I'm guessing you two are still together considering how you aren't trying to kill one another."
     Turkey smirked, "well if it isn't mr. I'm too cool to have friends, long time no see, where's Egypt?" He began looking around.
     "Egypt is at home I assume, why?" He glanced over to Greece who was just as clueless.
     "Well, whenever I see you Egypt is always nearby." Turkey stated.
     "No, I barely see him, it must be your imagination." Cyprus took a sip of his coffee.
     Egypt walked out of the bathroom, "hi guys, Cyprus didn't tell me that this was a double date."
     "Sorry, it wasn't supposed to be. They just kinda showed up."
     Turkey glared at Cyprus, "I was right! So right! Come on Greece, let's find a table." Turkey's regular happy expression was plastered on his face once again.
     "Actually, we wouldn't mind if you joined us" Cyprus and Egypt said in unison.
     Greece calmly glanced at Turkey, "it wouldn't hurt us, after all, they're the closest thing we have to family." Greece sat down in the booth.
     Turkey glanced cautiously to Cyprus, but reluctantly agreed. He wasn't sure if Greece had told him everything that he remembered, and wasn't looking forward to him remembering. He decided to enjoy the good while it lasted though. He had to agree with Greece on the whole family thing though. It was common for nations to have siblings, a little rare for them to have parents, and very unusual for a nation to have no one. Turkey had no one. He thought that maybe he just hadn't met his siblings yet, but he was still alone. All he really had were the three at his table. He was friends with other nations sure, but  they all feared him. Those three were his everything in life, but he knew that soon he wouldn't even have them. Greece would remember, Greece would fear him too, Greece would leave him. He pushed the negative thoughts back and decided to enjoy things as they were.
    

     Greece was cleaning the house, his father had been getting drunk more often and was making it hard for him to take care of Romano. He had little to no time to take care of the infant, and to make things worse, Rome had started to hit him frequently. But Greece did as he was told in fear of ending up like his mother. Romano was crying and calling out for Greece in the other room, but Greece knew that if he didn't clean up the kitchen then he would get the beating of a lifetime. The small child's blood ran cold as Rome walked through the front door. He wasn't done cleaning yet, and as usual, Rome was drunk. He scrubbed down on the pot that had whatever it was Rome had cooked last off. Unfortunately, Rome noticed.
     "Why are you still cleaning? I was gone an hour, that's ample time to clean everything!" He took Greece's hair and yanked it back, bending Greece's neck in a painful position, "your mother could get this done, why can't you?"
     "I'm sorry! Please!" Greece tried to shift his body in a way so as not to hurt his neck any further, but was unsuccessful.
     Rome let go, "go feed your brother then come back."
     Greece nodded and grabbed some bread and milk and took off to see Romano.
     Romano was two and a half now and was getting better at talking, "geese! You kay?" His eyes looked almost exactly like Rome's and it frightened Greece, but he knew that Romano was just a child and could never be like his father.
     "Hey little one, how are you?"
     "Good, but I wanna leaf this place! Why can't I leave my room?"
     "You leave your room whenever you go to the bathroom or take a bath."
     "But I want to see the kitchen, your room, something diffent! I don't want this!"
     "I don't want it either Roma, but we have too."
     "What was mom like?"
     Greece paused for a moment, knowing that Rome was waiting for him, he simply replied, "mom was like a dream. After she's gone, you can never go back, and eventually she fades away into nothingness, I gotta go, Rome's waiting." As he left, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Romano had never gotten to leave his room, and only got to see him. He knew that as Romano got older that this treatment would definitely cause some severe psychological damage.
     "Took you long enough." Rome said as he was burning something in a pan. He would sometimes burn things to the point where it became next to impossible to scrub off, and if Greece was lucky he got to eat some of it, "here, hold this." He handed the hot pan over to Greece. The child's hands were burned as Rome forced him to hold it with his bare hands.
     Greece felt his hands blister up every second Rome forced him to hold it. He stared at Rome with a fearful and pained look. He couldn't stand the man his father had become and wished that things could go back to the way they were.
     After a while of letting Greece suffer, he decided that he could put the pan down. He got up and left, "clean it up. I'll be back later." He walked into his room and closed the door, leaving Greece alone. Greece stared at the door then at his hands. Cleaning would be much more difficult now. He winced as he put the pan in the sink. He didn't want to do this anymore. He wanted to run away, take Romano with him, and just leave. Perhaps he could find another nation to take care of them, but at this point, he thought that anyone would be better than Rome.