Homeless (a Hetalia Fanfic, Book Three)

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"Tatiana, are you ready yet?" Matthew called up the staircase from his spot at the landing. "We need to leave right now!"

"Almost ready!" the thirteen-year-old responded to her father in the middle of her throwing the last few necessities into her pink duffel bag. Though she wanted to bring her laptop and iPod along, she knew they would probably be confiscated as a hazard to the security of their location, so they remained where they were on top of her duvet. However, she glanced at her homework desk and frowned, having spied a couple of flash drives each labeled with a handwritten letter or two.

There was a T, and a Ta, although either one could have belonged to Tatiana or Tael anyway. Then an E, M, and S. There had been another one stowed away in their mom's magical backpack, but Dad had taken it before any of the kids could ask who it was for.

Vale had retrieved and given the flash drives to Matthew sadly, but she had looked a bit hopeful nonetheless. "I get the feeling these are going to be little treasures to you and the kids," the Scribe told him.

Matthew had simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak as he pocketed the one labeled "Ma" and held the other five between both hands. Those five were offered to his children, but only Evan, Tatiana, and Sarah took them. Before Milo and Tael could refuse theirs out of anger, Tatiana snatched them up and ran off with them in case they were in harm's way.

The first chance she got, Tatiana locked herself up in her bedroom and plugged in her flashdrive. A video file popped up on the screen, and she opened it. As she predicted, her mother was suddenly looking back at her with a melancholic smile, and her eyes were a little bit red from crying. She probably hadn't filmed Tatiana's file first, and the others had brought her to tears earlier.

"Tael, I can't even imagine how you must be feeling right now," Alice began, and Tia immediately ejected the flash drive out of respect for Tael's privacy. Whoops, she had played the wrong one! Hers must be the one labeled "Ta" and not with a simple "T."

"Ack, sorry," Tiana murmured to no one, though it was sort of intended for Tael, who wasn't anywhere nearby. She plugged in the correct one, opened the file, and listened intently as her mother talked.

In the background, Tia could make out a few signs with unfamiliar Chinese characters; had Alice been somewhere in China when she filmed these? Anyway, that wasn't really the point.

"Tatiana, you turned nine just a little while ago... I always celebrate everyone's birthdays when they roll around, actually," Alice said with a closed-eye smile. Her much longer hair was brushed back so it rested behind her shoulders. "I wish I could see what you look like now, baby. I bet you're just stunning, even at nine years old. Really, you've always been the absolute cutest and sweetest girl I know. And I love you so, so much, even though I'm not there with you right now.

"I really hope you can forgive me for what I did; leaving you guys for now, and all." Tatiana hung on every word her mother said, and didn't even notice when the tears started to prickle behind her eyelids. She listened to the things that her mom had told her in person a while ago; thinking about back then really drove home the fact that Alice had been yearning to tell Tiana this for a long, long time.

"How are things going for you at school? Are you getting along with your brothers and helping out your dad with stuff?" Alice inquired, and looked genuinely interested even though she technically was speaking to nothing more than a camera in what was probably her ancient laptop. Maybe it was the same one Finland had given to her for Christmas when she and Matthew and all the other nations were in school...

Even though she was totally alone, Tatiana decided to reply, and smiled through her tears while doing it. "It's okay, Mom. Things aren't really all that bad at school, and my brothers are... okay. We fight sometimes, but not a lot."