A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long to get to the last chapter. From now on, I'll be hopefully updating more regularly. Thank you so much to everyone who reads this story and stuck with me so long!
By the way, I guess this has been a long time coming too, but as to the tea vs coffee debate… I guess it doesn't matter which! But I did realize I thought there was something cute about an "old guy" like Turkey drinking tea, so…
Alice deleted her site, so I'm really sorry to everyone asking for directions…
I don't own Hetalia!
After that incident with Greece, it was pretty quiet. … I-I mean comparatively. Like hell I wasn't going to argue with Turkey every chance I got. But, uh… Even though I'd never admit it to him… Turkey wasn't such a bad guy after all. He'd stood up for me, I mean… Said he'd protect me (even though there's no way I need protecting, dammit!)… He actually…
Seemed to care…
W-which was… It was a lot more than I could say for most people I knew.
Anyway… N-not much happened, like I said. Every so often, people would show up, since for… For some stupid reason, Turkey's house became the "Official Hangout Spot" of everyone after that. It was pretty stupid…
Er, but, I guess… Sadiq- …. Turkey, I-I mean—seemed about as annoyed as me that people kept popping in for no good reason. W-well… I guess I didn't mind seeing more of Alice… E-even if she could be a lot of trouble and stuff.
Anyway, even if people were annoying, it wasn't as if I wanted to be alone with Turkey or anything! N-no way! I still wanted to get home as soon as I could. … A-and dammit where the hell was Spain…?! Th-there was no sign of him, and Alice didn't seem to know where he was either…
N-not that I was worried about him. Stupid tomato bastard.
Turkey and I got into a routine. We'd wake up, o-or really… He'd wake me up (b-by knocking on my door, dammit, I-I did still have my own room, so don't think s-stupid Hungary-like thoughts or anything!) a-and we'd have breakfast together.
… And m-maybe I helped with the dishes. So what, dammit. I-I'm not so ungrateful that he was… Y-you know… Actually feeding me. Real food, I mean, not shit like that eyebrows bastard cooks. You know what I mean, no matter how much that guy denies it.
A-anyway, after breakfast a while, someone would usually come bursting in and being stupid, as usual. I guess we kind of got used to that though. Whether it was Alice wanting to go to some suspicious amusement park or France being a huge pervert bastard, w-we… We learned to deal with it.
… T-t-together…
And… A-and maybe I got used to him calling me "Romeo", a-and ruffling my hair, a-and that stupid, stupid smirk he got whenever… He was reminiscing… B-because if there was one thing I knew about stupid empire bastards, w-whether it was that eyebrows bastard, or Spagna, o-or even Turkey… They liked to reminisce.
I guess… M-maybe I can understand that. If I had ever been r-really powerful… I guess I'd want to think about it a lot to make myself feel better too. Even if those guys were all stupid assholes. Really stupid assholes.
But… Uh… It wasn't such a bad smirk. E-even if it was annoying a-and arrogant as shit. W-which it was! It really really was! B-but I did ask him what he was thinking about… B-because I was bored dammit! A-and because I'm such a damn nice guy! Not like I actually cared or anything what he was thinking about. N-no way.
So… Uh… S-so we spent a lot of time with him telling me stories, a-and me listening. And getting on his case when he got too damn arrogant, of course…! I-if he thought I wasn't gonna call him on his shit just because he was the one telling the story, he was dead wrong!
B-but uh… W-well, it…
It was actually kind of nice.
N-n-not that anyone would ever know that in a thousand years! No way! I'd die before I told that Turkish bastard that I m-maybe kind of a little bit… Enjoyed… S-spending time with him.
But… There… There was still one thing…
Late one night, Turkey caught me picking the lock on the front door.
I-I told you already, I don't care who, I-I never wanted to be ruled by anyone again! S-so even if… Even if Turkey wasn't such a… Such a terrible guy to be around… Th-that still didn't mean I wanted to be stuck in his house forever…! D-dammit…
But the second I felt that strong grip on the back of my collar…
I-I knew I was fucked.
And no I did not squeak, dammit…! Don't even ask! Bastards!
He lifted me up, with just that one hand—muscular bastard—and turned me to face him. His eyes were dark, a-and angry, except… There was… There was something else there too. I didn't… I didn't really know what it was at all.
He sighed, angrily.
"Look, it doesn't have to be like this, Romeo…!"
He was scolding me. Scolding me, and I hated it. I HATED it! I hated being scolded and talked down to…!
"No, no it doesn't!" I growled in return. "You could let me go!"
He stumbled back a step, almost imperceptibly, but I could tell because I swayed a little in his grip. And then he was defensive. I… I'd never really seen him defensive. It was… It was different than the childish desperation from when he was arguing with that lazy bastard Greece. It was… It was different.
"I can't! I won't!"
And… It… It kind of dawned on me that those were two completely different statements.
I… I'm not really the brightest bulb in the box, I… I-I'll admit it, dammit, but… I'm not an idiot, either. It didn't matter, really… W-what he meant, I mean. Because no matter what he meant, or what… What that implied…
I couldn't answer him.
I couldn't think…
Not of a single thing to say…
A-after a while, he set me down gently. Kind of… Nudged my shoulder, s-sent me up to bed. You know… And, I couldn't think of a reason not to go. I didn't feel like arguing anymore… Not with that look in his eyes. S-so I trudged up the stairs.
O-only…
Something made me stop on the landing and look back down.
Thankfully, he wasn't watching the stairs, instead… It looked like he had sat himself down heavily on the couch… And… His head was in his hands. A-and no matter… No matter how much of a jackass either of us was, I still couldn't help a little…
Just a twinge of pity.
There was something about that moment that made him more than Turkey, more than the former Ottoman Empire, more than the nation who had tried twice to kidnap me and had at last succeeded.
He was…
He…
He was…
"Sadiq…"
He didn't move as I near-silently tested the feel of his name on my tongue.
I turned and went back to what had been designated as my room, feeling an odd mix of comfortable heat and a twisting guilt in the pit of my stomach.
"M-maybe tomorrow… I'll try to behave. B-but don't count on it too much, you bastard."
I curled up in the too-large bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.
"… I'm not used to this at all…"