Chapter 39

The Importance of Five Minutes

He was sitting next to the window, looking out at the quiet city. The tears streaming down his cheeks glistened as the last rays of the setting sun hit his face. He sighed deeply for what he had just witnessed was something that he was sure would change his life forever. But he was not sad nor angry. Instead, he couldn't help but smile.

"Gilbert, are you okay?"

"Never again" Gilbert looked over at his brother from his spot by the window and smiled slightly. "Never again will I see something as funny as that, I can die a happy man"

"Oh shut it will you!" Roderich's face had turned completely red. Most of the other nations were still in different stages of recovery. Elizabeta put her phone away, now filled with pictures that she'd treasure for a long time. Kiku seemed to be rethinking his entire existence and Arthur just had a smug look on his face. Mostly, the others just tried to not laugh.

"Does this mean that magical girls are real?" Yao's eyes were twinkling.

"I think there are more important things to comme-"

"Yes, sort of" Vladimir cut Gilbert off "It's a form of magic developed long ago to give regular people temporary magic powers"

"I guess that makes sense but why the outfit?"

"The original creator was sort of a pervert"

"Oh"

"Wait a minute" Gilbert held up his hands, still with tears in his eyes "We could do this too?"

"With some help from one of us, yes" Arthur gestured towards Lukas and Vladimir and glanced towards Emil and Antonio.

"Can we move on please?" Roderich was pushing down the skirt to cover up as much as possible. "It'll wear off in a while anyway so let's just forget about it"

"This is something I'll never forget"

"Shut it Gil"

"I guess I'm last then?" Vladimir took off his hat and threw it towards the floor. "At first if I dropped something from up here it would fall down but now it comes back up" Just before it reached all the way down, the hat turned and flew towards the roof again. He caught it easily and but it back on his head before he continued. "As long as I touch it or has recently touched it, it will come back here. Doesn't work with people though"

"So things has gotten worse for you guys too?" Antonio sighed deeply. He was very tired, not only because of the nightmares but because he would from time to time randomly catch on fire. That wasn't the only weird thing happening. Things would change colour, start to float or suddenly break when he was close to them. This far nothing dangerous had happened but he did notice that Shade was growing impatient. Not to mention annoying.

"Yeah but it hasn't been too bad actually" Eduard gave him a pitying look "We've had it pretty easy compared to what you've been trough" Antonio understood.

"You know?" He looked over at Arthur, the only one that had had any contact with the other group "You told them?" Even though he had sort of expected it, it still made him mad. "Why would you do that?!"

"I just-" Arthur took a step back as Antonio stared at him "I thought it was better if they knew"

"Better! How would it be better?" Antonio stood and took a few steps forward. He knew what this would lead to, something he'd gotten used to and tired of during the past days. So much pity, so many side glances and so many of them avoiding him.

"They deserved to know"

"How much did you tell them?" They were now standing right in front of each other. The rest of the nations barely dared to breathe. Arthur held up both his hands and took a few steps backwards.

"Everything"

"Everything?!" Antonio quickly glanced across the room. It was true, they all looked at him with a mix of pity and curiosity. But there was something else there too, something that was worse than anything else. Fear.

"Nothing good would've come out of not telling them"

"Nothing good will come out of telling them either!"

"Calm down Antonio" Arthurs excessive calm was the last straw. Antonio closed the small distance that was left between them and grabbed him by the collar.

"Like hell I'm going to calm down!" Deep inside he could feel that he was wrong, that he was overreacting, but the anger he felt didn't go away. It just got bigger and he felt like he was getting warmer too. Antonio could feel it, this wasn't like him at all so why couldn't he stop?

"Do it, just let it out" His voice came from behind of course. It was almost hypnotic and Antonio felt his grip tighten. He could no longer hear anyone else but him. "Why would you have to stand for this? Go ahead, you're strong now. Show them that they need to respect you. Fear you" Shade chuckled.

"No" Antonio closed his eyes "This isn't me"

"But it is, it is now. As you are now, you can be whoever you want to be" Shade's voice pushed away all other noise. Antonio couldn't focus. Who was he actually? Who did he want to be? The power that had been building within him for the past few days started to grow bigger and it got even warmer. At that moment, he was more confused than angry.

"Stop" It was so warm.

"You can do whatever you want"

"What are you doing to me?"

"I'm not doing anything. This is all you, you're the one that has the power now. The power to rule"

"Stop!" Antonio opened his eyes, it hadn't been his own voice. Someone had managed to reach him, someone's voice had been heard through the silence. All sounds came back and Antonio could see clearly again. The nations were gathered in a circle around him, trying to reach him, but it seemed like some sort of force-field was keeping them out. He felt something on his leg and looked down only to see Berwald. Of course. He could catch anyone's attention. As his mind cleared, Antonio suddenly remembered. "Arthur"

"I'm fine, but I'd prefer if you'd let go" Antonio was apparently still holding on to Arthurs shirt which was slightly smoking. Other than that he seemed fine, a bit frightened but fine.

"Oh, right, sorry" As he let go, the force field disappeared and most of the nations fell forward. Antonio barely noticed their stares, he was too confused. Never had he ever lost control like that. "I'm…" He backed away "I'm sorry"

Then he was gone.

The door slammed behind him and left a worried group behind. It didn't matter, he had to go somewhere he could be alone and calm down. The stairs were many but eventually he made it up onto the roof, the cool air effectively clearing his thoughts. Antonio felt his breathing slow down as he sat down and leaned against the wall next to the door leading back inside. The door that suddenly opened.

"Are you alright?" Emil sat down next to him and looked at the slowly setting sun. "What happened in there?"

"I don't know" Antonio wasn't sure of anything anymore, he knew things had gotten worse but it wasn't until now that he knew exactly how bad it was. "The only thing I know is that I want everything to go back to the way it was before…"

"It will" Emil sighed deeply "This will be over in just a few days"

"No" Antonio shook his head "A lot have changed" If what Shade said that night is true it would mean that he would continue to follow Antonio around, the only difference being that he can't move or talk. But, Antonio would know. Then, no one could be sure if Shade would try to do something else. They couldn't know if he would be able to or not but the uncertainty would be enough to make the others doubt him. "I can no longer be trusted"

"Says who?" Emil understood what Antonio was thinking. "No one has doubted you"

"No one? Everyone in there is keeping an eye on me, afraid that I'll do something bad!"

"No, that's not it" He looked over at Antonio for a moment "We're not afraid that YOU will do anything. It's him we don't trust" Emil nodded towards the wall.

"What do you mean?"

"The only person that's afraid of you, doesn't trust you or blames you" Emil stood up again and stretched "Is you" Antonio stared at him and then looked down at the ground. That couldn't be true. "You might not believe me but if I were afraid of you, would I have followed you here?" It was quiet for a moment and before Emil opened the door and went back inside.

"Thanks" Emil heard his low voice just before he closed the door. He wasn't sure why he had ended up following Antonio but he knew that it had been the right thing. Now, he had to get back before the others realised that he was gone. He didn't want his brother to have a heart attack or something. Emil started to hurry down the stars again only to almost crash into someone already standing there.

"Hey" Lovino was leaning against the wall in the middle of the staircase with his eyes closed. Then he opened them, looked up at Emil and nodded at him "How're you doing?"

"Are you trying to look cool or something?"

"Shut up" The silence that followed was rather awkward. They hadn't really talked to each other since that night that no one wants to talk about, even though they probably had a lot to say to each other. That they needed to say.

"Well, I guess I should get goin-" Emil flinched as Lovino suddenly stood next to him and grabbed his arm. A redness spread across his cheeks as he quickly looked around to make sure no one was nearby and whispered so quietly that Emil was unsure if he had even heard correctly.

"Thank you. For… Everything" Then Lovino swiftly disappeared up the stairs and out on the roof. Emil was left alone, confused as of why he would thank him. The way down felt like it took much longer than the way up, maybe because there was a lot on his mind and he ended up finding himself standing still a couple of times. Eventually, he stood outside of the door that Antonio had slammed not too long ago. Emil was surprised, no yelling, fighting or things breaking could be heard from inside despite the group of nations currently gathered inside. He was relieved, they seemed to have managed to get along for a longer span of time than he had ever seen them do before. Maybe all that had happened might actually help them to get along in the future. Still hopeful, he opened the door.

But, he had been awfully naïve.

The room looked about as similar to the room he had left earlier as a puffin looked similar to a unicorn. The only thing still standing in its original spot, even though it was now emptied, was an old bookshelf. On top on said bookshelf was Basch, seemingly unconscious, and beneath it he could see an arm suspiciously similar to Yao's sticking out from underneath a pile of books. In a corner of the room he saw Kiku sitting upside down and next to him stood Alfred, now dressed in a maid uniform with matching cat-ears. Emil let his eyes wander over the room, as he tried to take in the rest of the scene, unsure of whether he wanted to or not.

A movement caught his eye and he looked upwards. In the big swaying chandelier he could see Gilbert sitting with claw marks all over his face as well as the source of said wounds, Matthew, sitting in his lap. By switching his attention a bit to the right he noticed Vladimir bleeding slightly from a cut close to his eyebrow. His arm was extended towards the floor and at the end of it Raivis was hanging, one of the few that seemed unharmed. Emil's gaze wanders down over Tino sitting on top of Sadık and Eduard crouching down with his hands over his head.

"I advise you to lower your weapon"

"How about you lower yours?" Roderich and Ivan seemed to have a stand-off in the middle of the room with their wands pointed towards each other. Erika sat on a half-broken chair looking very lost in thought while Toris was holding the still sleeping Feliks above his head.

"Oh, Emil. Welcome back" Lukas calm voice was heard next to the now broken window where Ludwig and Feliciano was holding onto Heracles so he wouldn't fall out. Lukas himself was hanging upside down in the curtains. "Where did you go?"

"Uhm… I just…" Emil had no idea what to say as he was still trying to process the imagery that he was now seeing. Mathias was laying on the floor mumbling something about whether or not it was necessary to eat and what a kidney could be sold for nowadays. Lastly, he saw Arthur frozen in a pose where he was dipping Francis as if they just were caught dancing or something. Peter's chuckle could be heard from somewhere in the room and Elizabeta and Berwald was nowhere to be seen. "What exactly happened here?"

"I-It's not what it looks like!" With a hard thud Arthur broke the deafening silence by dropping Francis onto the ground.

"It doesn't really look like anything" The messy room, the weirdly placed nations, the broken window. Emil couldn't make sense of anything except that a lot can happen in five minutes. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and asked once again. "What happened here? Where's Ber and Elizabeta? How did Gilbert end up in the chandelier? How-" Arthur stopped him by placing his hands on Emil's shoulders.

"A lot of these guys needs an explanation too. Just sit down and I'll tell you how it all started…"