"Hey, Arthur, Which do you think is sadder; your family is dead, but you know they loved you, or your family has abandoned you without even bothering to say a proper goodbye?" Arthur's younger cousin asked. It was getting late and was raining heavily outside the train.

"They're both sad, Ralph." Arthur replied, glancing out at the dancing water droplets on his window, typical British weather.

Arthur knew what Ralph was talking about. He didn't know to avoid the topic of their family's 'splitting up', he was only eight. He thought back to that awful night.

"Mommy! Daddy? Peter!? Where are you!?" screamed Arthur as he searched dilligentley for his family that had long since been lost to the flames. The smoke hurt his lungs and the flames from the surrounding buildings scorched his skin. Ralph was waiting for Arthur and the rest of his extended family to return to the stuffy train station where they were seeking refuge from the fire and bombs that lit up the inky blackness of London's streets tonight. Arthur had to go back to the train station with his family. They could all go live with another relative when all this is over! Their house was gone, but at least they'd be together…

Ralph's parents however, were most probably still living. Ralph had been born in Australia and had come to England when he was three.

Ralph clung to his aunt's beautiful white dress. He cried as he watched his parents leave on that boat , darkening the dress with his tears. "Why did they leave me!?" he wailed. His awful parents just smiled and waved, not shedding a single tear for the boy that they'd left behind. "Why don't they love me?!" The unwanted child screamed, not receiving an answer.

Ralph was barely four when the prospect of war reared it's ugly head they left him for a better life in their homeland.

Somehow, Arthur and Ralph lived to see the end of the war. And there they sat, on a train to an orphanage in the middle of nowhere.

When they arrived it had gotten darker. From what Arthur could see in the dull glow of the porch light, the orphanage was a mildly happy looking place. It was a huge mansion like building with big windows, colourful flowers and many vines winding up the walls. The path leading up to the porch was covered in chalk drawings of what looked like plates of food. Mainly pasta. The porch itself was quite nice too; it had lots of porch-y things like wooden chairs and small trees along with the occasional gnome here and there.

Arthur glanced at Ralph. His cousin looked on the verge of tears.

"Chin up, Ralph. I'm sure things will get better. They can't get worse." He said

"Okay, Arthur." Ralph replied flashing a very weak smile.

They picked up their small amount of belongings (a suitcase of clothes, a cricket bat, a stuffed crocodile Ralph couldn't live without and Arthur's green bunny) and walked up to the door (which upon further inspection, was also covered in drawings of pasta).

Before they even rang the doorbell, an incredibly happy looking man burst out of the entrance, almost pulling the door off its hinges. He seemed… strange to say the least.

While the strange man chatted to Ralph excitedly, Arthur recognised his accent as Italian (which Arthur thought must've been wrong since they had been at war with the Italians, hadn't they?) The man was quite tall, had curly brown hair, amber eyes and a seemingly constant smile. He seemed to be was having somewhat of a one sided conversation with Ralph.

"…and that's how I met the prettiest lady ever!" said the strange man. What an odd way to introduce yourself. Arthur wondered how he managed to stray from 'hello my name is…' Arthur realised he had zoned out.

"Umm… I apologise, I wasn't listening… who are you?" Arthur asked

"It's alright, Arthur!" said the man, patting Arthur on the back "I am Alvise! You and your cousin's caretaker from now on! It's so nice to meet you!" Continued Alvise, who shook Arthur's hand vigorously.

After many moments of Alvise talking too fast and Arthur not understanding what was being said to him, another tall fellow with long blonde hair and green-blue eyes walked up behind the boys' supposed new caretaker.

"Alvise, invite them inside. It's cold out here." Said the man with long hair

'Why do they both have accents? This one is hard to place… is it some sort of German?' thought Arthur.

Arthur was very confused and mildly irritated. Why were these foreigners living here? How did they get here? Arthur had a feeling these questions would remain unanswered.

"Hello Kurt!" exclaimed Alvise. Ralph giggled, probably finding amusement in Kurt's very… luscious hair.

"Alright, let's get you two to your room, come on!" said Alvise.

On the way to their room, Alvise explained that Kurt was his 'best friend forever' who helped take care of the kids.

"I have grandkids about your age~ you'll probably meet them later, I love them so very much~ Kurt has some grandchildren too…" Alvise trailed off "Ah, I forgot I have work to do. Kurt, can you take these two to their room?" Alvise said before rushing off.

Grandchildren? Arthur found it strange that two seemingly young men would have grandchildren. Alvise and Kurt induced too much thinking and too many questions.

"Mm" Kurt grumbled "This way." He motioned for the boys to follow

After walking through the kitchen, out the back door and into an entirely new building, Kurt took them up a large flight of stairs. On the way, a little boy about Ralph's age with striking blue eyes, blonde hair and a cowlick ran into Arthur full force.

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed the boy. "Oh, hey, I don't think I've seen you before!" he shouted, following the three. Loud, check. Too much emphasis on his 'r's, double check. An American.

Arthur just stared straight ahead. He was tired after the train ride from London and didn't want to have to deal with 'new friends' just yet, but things never seemed to work out like he wanted.

"I'm Alfred! Who're you?"

"I'm Arthur."

"I'm Ralph!" he and Alfred seemed to take a liking to each other because they immediately partook in a High-Five.

Alfred looked at Arthur "Aw man, your eyebrows are amazing… I sorta wanna… touch 'em… but I won't~ Papa said it was rude to touch people without asking."

There was a pause.

"Can I touch them?" asked Alfred

"Yeah, Art can we touch them?" said Ralph

"No." Arthur said bluntly "and my name is Arthur, Ralphie."

A look of sadness formed on Alfred's face, then a look that said 'oh, yeah, I had something to do, didn't I?' "Bye! See ya soon!" shouted Alfred, running off in the opposite direction.

"See ya, mate!" yelled Ralph in his too broad Australian accent.

"You seem unhappy, Arthur." Said Ralph

"Not unhappy, just tired" replied Arthur, trying his hardest not to scowl.

"could'a fooled me"

There was more silence until they stopped in front of a door. Kurt spoke up.

"This is your room." Kurt said standing pointing to said door. "I could help you unpack, if you want."

"No thank you." Ralph said quickly, standing in front of the suitcase of clothes protectively.

"Dinner should be done soon. Come down to the house when you want some." said Kurt before walking away.

"You should go and explore! Maybe have dinner or something! I'll unpack for us!" Ralph said suspiciously.

'You would think he's keeping a koala bear in the suitcase or something' Arthur chuckled at the thought.

"Not a bad idea, I think I'll take you up on that." Arthur replied.

Ralph smiled a very suspicious smile and as Arthur walked away from the now closed door, he thought he heard Ralph say "Hey Bruce, don't give me evils" Ralph was a weird one, wasn't he?

Arthur walked around for a bit without seeing a single soul, they must've been having dinner. He didn't want any, all the excitement from moving and whatnot. Suddenly he felt himself get tackled. Or sat on. He couldn't really tell through the crushing weight and loss of air.

"Ah… comfy… oh wait, you're not someone I know." Said the huge (presumably Russian) boy sitting on Arthur. Neither said anything as Arthur wheezed and gasped for air.

"Get… off…" he managed to say after much effort.

"Okay." The boy with the Russian accent said.

Arthur stayed on the floor for a few seconds after that, trying to regain his breath.

When Arthur sat up to get a look at his tormentor, the boy was staring at him intently. He was very tall, had light blonde hair, a big nose, light purple eyes, and was wearing a white scarf with a big, tan coat.

"So, who are you?" he asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You did sit on me after all." Arthur grumped.

"No. You tell me your name first." Insisted the boy

"Why should I?"

"Because I said to"

"You're so rude." Arthur gave a look of displeasure but sighed and decided it was gentlemanly to introduce himself first. "My name is Arthur Kirkland" he said.

"Ivan Braginski." Ivan stared at Arthur for a few more seconds, and then gave him a smile that caused shivers to run down Arthur's spine.

"Why did you sit on me?" Arthur questioned

"I like to sit." he said plainly before wandering off down the hall but stopping to admire some sunflowers in a vase.

'I don't like the creepy bugger already.' Thought Arthur, shivering again.

After making sure nothing was broken Arthur went downstairs and ran into Alfred again. Alfred had been in a rush to get out the front door, but he hugged Arthur rather unexpectedly just before he disappeared out the front door with two adults who he bared resemblance to

"Bye Artie! We have to play sometime!" yelled Alfred.

How can someone yell that much? Arthur felt as if someone else was left with them, but he remembered no one.

"Alfred's lucky" said a brunette that had been sitting near Arthur. He had a big curl sticking out from the rest of his chestnut hair. He also donned a massive frown; he vaguely resembled Alvise and the frown would've made it difficult to tell if they were related if it weren't for their similar accents. Arthur gave up. Too many different races. More than two made his head hurt from thinking too hard about how they ended up in England.

"He has parents? I thought this was an orphanage." Arthur said after partially getting over the accent problem.

"Yeah, you're not wrong. The bastard moved here with his family. He came over to this place a few months ago to visit for god knows why, probably to eat our food, and hasn't stopped coming over since" said the boy.

"Mm… I'm jealous of him" Arthur mumbled, thinking about how nice it would be if his immediate family were still alive.

"I'm Lovino Vargas" he and Arthur shook hands.

"Arthur Kirkland"

"Have you met a little boy who looks like me?"

"No, why?"

"Keep it that way; Feliciano will infect you with his stupid. So will my grandpa if you get too close"

"Ah, sounds like you love them a lot." Arthur said, not entirely sarcastically

"Mm, we have our moments, but in the end they're still stupid bastards"

Arthur laughed.

"So Alvise is your grandfather, right?"

"Yeah"

"Lucky~ I just have a hyperactive eight year old as family"

"Too bad for you, bastard"

"I should teach you some manners, you might accidentally swear at someone who isn't as forgiving as I am" Arthur said jokingly

"Shut up your fa-"Lovino started

A loud noise was heard and an albino, a brunette, and a guy with stupid hair walked into the room. The albino then proceeded to walk into the wall next to him.

"You should probably run. Those three are douchebags, you don't want them to catch you" Lovino said.

"What?"

"Just go." Lovino said as he retreated

"Bye. See you tomorrow?" Arthur said loudly as he did the same

"Yeah, whatever, bastard" Lovino shouted back.

Arthur headed back to his room. In the hallway he could hear Ralph muttering unintelligible nonsense to a 'Bruce' 'who is Bruce?' he wondered. Arthur walked in as Ralph was saying 'you bludger, why did I even bring you?' To an angry looking koala

"Why do you have a Koala bear?" Arthur questioned. Ralph looked shocked to see Arthur.

"Koalas aren't bears, and Bruce isn't a koala, he's a drop bear, if you don't get it right I'll think you have kangaroos loose in the top paddock." He said like Arthur knew what he was saying. Arthur was obviously confused. "It means I'll think you're 'intellectually inadequate' as you pommy bastards would put it." Ralph said mockingly

"You're avoiding the question." Arthur said

"He followed me here."

"Koalas can't swim across the ocean."

"Bruce can."

"Why?"

"Because he's not a koala, he's a drop bear."

"aughhh… I give up, wake me in the morning"

"But it's so early!"

"Cut me some slack, I've had to deal with you all day."

"Fair dinkum"

"Goodnight, Ralph"

"G'night, Art"

(A/N: I'll define some slang for you:

Drop bear: An Australian animal that looks like a koala and loves to eat people, Especially Tourists.

Pommy bastards: An endearing way to address English folk.

Bludger: A lazy person

Figjam: Fuck I'm good, just ask me.

Oh, how I love this country's slang! It's fuckin' ripper (a lot of it's hard to explain though…). Also, in Aus it's rude NOT to swear, so… expect a lot of that from Australia/ Ralph. Actually, just expect it from everyone.)