Fairytalia: Sleeping Beauty 7

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Lovino dropped his bow and ran to his brother's aid, his friends following closely behind. He held the younger man's limp body in his arms.

"Dammit, Feliciano! I told you not to talk to strangers! Dammit…" Lovino dropped his head back to hide the tears streaming down his face.

"Seppuku."

"I SAID ENOUGH OF THAT ALREADY!" Romano shrieked, only turning his head for a moment to glare at Japan. He turned back to his little brother, and stroked the boy's hair. "Che l'Inghilterra ... che sarà lui a pagare per quello che ha fatto!" he vowed under his breath, and fell silent. He finally reached for the cross around Feliciano's neck, when he felt the most amazing thing.

Thump, thump.

"I-it can't be…" Romano said tearfully, in disbelief. He put his hand over his brother's chest again.

Thump, thump.

"He's…alive…?" The Italian's eyes were wide, then turned to his comrades and finally shouted joyfully, "He's alive! My brother is alive! Il mio fratellino è vivo!"

The other four immediately ran over to the brothers, each taking a turn feeling the boy's heartbeat—which, from an outside view, would look rather awkward—and smiling with relief.

"My spell worked," Romano smiled, something he did very rarely. "And that means…"

"Italy-kun will awaken with True Love's Kiss!" Kiku finished. "Now all we have to do is find his true love and…"

"Yeah, but we don't know who that is," Austria reminded them.

"You don't know that," Gilbert corrected him, wagging his finger tauntingly in Austria's face. "After all, he did seem to talk awfully fond of that Ludwig guy."

"Yes!" Hungary added. "It must be Ludwig! After all, he's the only other person Feliciano's ever met, right? Thus, he's the only one he could have fallen in love with!"

"Speaking of which," Japan asked, stroking his chin in thought, "Didn't Italy-kun say something about him coming over to the cottage tonight?"

"That's right!" Romano concluded. "So that means all we gotta do is find that Ludwig guy at our place, tell him the situation, and he'll do the rest!"

"Sounds like a plan," Kiku smiled. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Alright, then," Lovino said standing up, "let Mission Find-Ludwig-and-Get-Him-to-Kiss-Feliciano commence!"

"Yessir!"

The group's first priority was getting Feliciano to a safe place to rest to reassure that England would not try to take him, again. They made a resting place for him in the watch tower.

"Okay," the older brother said after tucking his brother in, "let's go—"

"Wait! We can't go yet!" Japan stopped him.

"Dammit, why?"

"Rome-sama and Germania-sama and just about everyone else are downstairs! If His Majesty finds out what happened, he'll flip!"

"Shit, you got me there," Lovino stroked his chin. Then he pounded his fist in the other open palm. "Wait, I've got it!"

"What?"

"We'll put everyone else to sleep!"

"Dammit," Prussia cut in, "are we gonna have to find true loves for them, too? Are sleeping spells all you you know how to do?"

"Shut up, or I'll put you to sleep without magic!"

"Man, England's right, you are touchy."

"Hush! Anyway, I can't do this alone."

The three fairies joined hands and focused on what they needed to do.

"Let everyone in this kingdom sleep until Feliciano is awakened by True Love's Kiss," they all chanted.

Meanwhile…

Grandpa Rome bit down on a turkey leg about the size of his head and looped his free arm around Germania's neck.

"Isn't this great, Germy? Our kingdoms are finally gonna be united!" Rome laughed before taking another large bite, and continued with his mouth still full, "I can't wait to see my beloved grandson again! Ooh! I bet he's grown up strong and handsome like me, just like the fairies said! Wouldn't that be cool?"

Germania rolled his eyes. "I realize how excited you are, Rome," he said, pulling the Roman's large arm off of him, "you've told me. Constantly. About every day. For twenty years."

"It's cuz I'm so excited!" Rome cheered, embracing the Germanic in a bone crushing hug.

"I…noticed…" Germania choked. He wouldn't admit it, but he was rather excited too. Just…not like Rome's definition of "excited."

Rome finally let go of him and he took a deep breath.

"Rome, do you smell that?" Germania wafted the air as it went through his nostrils.

"I swear, it wasn't me, this time!"

"I'm not talking about flatulent gas, you dunce!" he snapped. "It's more like a sweet scent. Almost a little too…"

Thud.

"G-germania?" Rome bent down and tried shaking his friend, who was now sleeping soundly. "Hey buddy, I know you don't like stayin' up late, but you should at least…stay awake…for the wedd—"

Rome fell on the floor next to his comrade, snoring loudly.

And so the spell appeared to be working. It only took a mere sniff of the fairy dust, and everyone in the land seemed to all drop what they were doing and fall asleep. Farmers were falling asleep in bales of hay, milkmaids snoozing on their stool with their cows, young children napping up against walls like stray kittens.

"It seems to be working," Kiku observed as Hungary and Austria had slumped down to take a nap themselves.

"Awesome!" Gilbert declared.

"Yeah, I think everyone's asleep," Lovino looked out the window. Not one person was seen that wasn't asleep. "Now all we gotta do—"

Shooop~!

"Wh-wha?" Romano looked left and right. "What the hell happened to you two! You're tiny!"

"So are you, tomato breath!" Prussia sneered. And it was true. The three boys were now the size of bugs.

"Dammit! I think we used up all of our juice!" the Italian whined, shaking his now dull wand.

"So what do we do, now?" Kiku asked.

"We'll go to Ludwig, anyway. Maybe by the time we get there, we'll have some more energy."

The other two looked at each other. They both had a bad feeling about this.