By the time Cristiano had decided the two could be trusted not to fool around with a certain Italian in the house, said Italian was almost as tall as Spain, and was as good as independent.

The need for Belle as a Spanish tutor had been non-existent for years, but they didn't tell either of the blonde's brothers that, lest they incur the wrath of two more nations who lack any faith in the two. The two went right on living together. Although it didn't take a genius to figure out just by visiting once, that Belle's room was very likely completely unused.

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Lars wasn't a fool. He could see the way his sister and Spain looked at each other during parties, and whenever they were in a room together, which was almost always. One was never seen without the other.

He didn't like it. He might be on better terms with Spain itself now, but he still wasn't fond of Antonio. He wanted nothing more than to get those two apart. He wouldn't stand for the bastard becoming 'part of the family.'

But at the same time, he couldn't break them up, for the sake of protecting his pride. If Belle was even the slightest bit suspicious that he was scheming to meddle in her relationship, she'd reveal things about him that he shuddered to think about being revealed.

And so, he kept quiet, and accepted that things wouldn't change any time soon.

Alfons, on the other hand, was completely supportive of the two. He'd already been over to have a 'chat' with Antonio, (more likely an interrogation) and was obviously satisfied with the answers he got, as he didn't press the matter any further.

So they had the family recognition they wanted, as limited as it was, and that was good enough for them. They didn't need to be constantly worried about what their siblings would find to complain about next.

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"You know what?" Antonio asked, kissing Belle's nose softly, nudging her chin up so he could kiss her on the lips.

"Hm?"

"We should get married." He murmured between light kisses.

"Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, I swear if that's your idea of a proposal…"

"Relax mi corazon, I was just putting it out there as a thought. The day I propose will be the most beautiful day of your life, I promise." He said quickly, with a light chuckle at the frown she'd been sporting.

"Well, there are quite a few days you'll have to top."

"Oh? Like when?"

She thought about it, but only for a moment. "The first day when I offered to help take care of Lovino…"

"Yes, the sun was quite nice that day if I recall."

Belle swatted at him playfully with a hushed 'you know what I meant!' before continuing. "The day I came back after Lars took me away. Oh, and the day we first kissed of course."

"Anything else?"

She grinned slyly at that. "My first birthday as a nation. Best day ever."

Antonio pouted. "No fair, I didn't even know you then. How am I supposed to know how to top that?"

"You're smart…ish, you'll think of something."

"What was the 'ish' for? I'm smart!"

"Well…It did take you…what was it? Four months? Until you figured out that I liked you."

"I said I was smart, not a mind-reader."

"Hey! Are you two gonna fuck? Or are you just gonna spend all night talking like an old married couple?" They jumped at Romano's yell from outside their door.

"You don't have to stay here you know!" Spain yelled back. "It was your choice to come visit, so if you don't like how we spend our evenings, you can leave at anytime!"

"You know, it's times like these where I regret telling you a damned thing!"

As the younger nation stormed off, Belle looked up at the Spaniard with a minute smile. "I don't regret it one bit."

"Neither do I."

So the lesson to be learned here is: When dealing with thickheaded Spaniards, and noisy Italians, patience is the key to love and success.

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Thanks for reading~!

Ha! You thought I was going to end this on a serious note, didn't you?

Yes, you heard me right, put a fork in this story, it's done! (Though I do have an awesome sequel idea, so you can look forward to that) Thanks for sticking with me this long, and I hope to see some more lovely reviews on this story and more.

I'll miss you dearly!