It was 7.23 am on a Saturday, in the summer. This is a time Croatia usually goes on morning walks around the property checking on livestock and for any possible damages. During this period none of his siblings are awake or care enough to get out of their rooms. So he could say it was a great surprise to him when he was reaching for the handle and at the same time the door opened into him with Slovenia standing in the doorway.

"oh hey Croatia, have a nice walk bye don't bother me when you get back."

And then Slovenia slipped into the house. When Croatia was over his initial shock and turned around to confront and ask his brother where he was it was almost like the Olm hybrid evaporated into thin air already gone somewhere not looking for conversation.

'alright then' he thought to himself as he left the house not really bothering to close the door. It was still morning so it was rather cold and they need to air the house before it's too hot. The mosquitoes practically can't get in because of the net and their home is guarded by three dogs a three meter barbed wire fence and a very aggressive mother hen that's been terrorizing the 7 countries in the house so much that some of his younger siblings refused to leave through the front door if the chicken and her hatchlings ware anywhere close, they would even go as far as to climb out of windows. And on multiple accessions they thought about naming the protective mother Keren.

The Croatian shook his head as he realized he zooned out in his thoughts and realized that their three dogs ware following him Strela their border collie that had a checker collar and the two Dalmatians Sivka and Mivka, Mivka had a yellow collar and Sivka a purple one. He observed the dogs closely and realized that Sivka usually the most energetic one was falling behind, the first thing he thought about was a possible injury but he couldn't see any wound so that was out of the question... 'maybe she is sick' he thought, 'ill talk to Macedonia later he knows a lot about dogs it might be nothing serious.

He continued his walk around the property checking in on the barn and the sheep where he also saw his rescue tuxedo cat he named gospod laying on a stack of hay bales.

After checking on the sheep, goats, cows and horses he deemed he'd done enough for now and told himself his other siblings will do the rest. So he started his way back to the house where he saw another cat probably brought in by one of the other goblins and out of habit he said 'hi' to it, to his surprise it mowed back.

He got home ten minutes later than expected but that's because he couldn't resist picking some wild berries off a bush behind their wood supply.

He entered the house through an already wide-opened door took off his shoes and made his way to the dining room there he saw Montenegro and Macedonia sitting at the table and staring at the TV playing in the living room,  they ware eating bread with Lino lada for breakfast.

"Good morning" said Croatia, and the two kids in the room repeated what he said back to him without taking their eyes of the television.

Seeing that they ware not up for conversation he walked to the kitchen where he saw Kosovo on the counter his legs swinging back and forth while he was trying to see who Slovenia the other person in the kitchen was texting.

Both of them noticed Croatia only when he stopped almost right in front of them. And asked Kosovo to move over so he could reach into a cabinet with bread and jam.

When Croatia was about to leave the room he saw Slovenia give him a pleading look and understood their 'older brother code emidietly' so he out of nowhere said:"Hey Kosovo,..."
The youngest in the room stopped trying to look at the olm's phone and looked at Croatia instead waiting for him to finish his sentence. "I heard Bosnia had something very important to tell you". Kosovo gave him a puzzled look but left to Herzegovinas room anyway.

"Thank you so much Hrvaška" Breathed out Slovenia like he was holding his breath his tail was unfurling itself from his leg. It was a nervous habit of Slovenia's since his independence.

"No problem" Said Croatia. "But what was he so desperate to see anyway?"

"I am going to....a friends house later today to hang out"

Something deep inside told Croatia his brother was lying but he won't push....for now. "Okay have fun I guess, bye."

"bye"

And then Croatia left with his food up to his room and sat down on the bed where his phone was.

Right off the bat he saw multiple notifications seemingly from a group chat. 'that's weird I don't remember being in any group chat...' so he opened his phone and decided to see what it was.

                                            Group chat
                                      Currently online- 0

Croatia : what the hell is this?????

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Italy: Hey Slovenia do you mind coming to my house a bit earlier? I just realized I have something planned in the afternoon and I still really want to hang out

Slovenia looked at the messege on his phone the one that Kosovo wanted to see more than anything apparently. He's just glad that Croatia got him to leave.

Slovenia: uhh sure I can!
When ware you thinking?

The Olm hybrid could see the others status change to online and soon after three moving dots appeared indicating that he's typing.

Italy: you could come over right now I don't have a problem with it-

Slovenia: you like really sure it's still early???

Italy: yeah? Is it forbidden to come to someones house before lunch or something? 🤨

Slovenia: no it isn't,.....or maybe it is its just not common
Anyway I guess I'll get going

Italy: see ya in a bit

Slovenia: see ya

As Slovenia turned off his phone his mind decided to panic. 'ooh fuck I'm going to Italy's house and it's the children's fault'...'or maybe it isn't they're not bright enough to come up with this, but if it's not them then who'.

His thought process was stopped by yelling coming from upstairs and he assumed it was Croatia, Kosovo and Bosnia.

And he decided to do what he did back when their father was alive. Leave. In his mind its better to be absent than to be caught in one of their sibling non agreements. But he knows that he'll probably be dragged into one tomorrow as the voice of reason or just the one with the height advantage.

He quickly put his shoes on in the vestibule, checked if he had everything he needed and then he was off. Walking down a path that lead to their property gate and of course he couldn't resist stopping by the berry bushes to eat some of the forest fruit.

He was already on the main road when he got a call from another one of his neighbors.

'Hey Slovenia!'

'Hey Austria?'

'Do you have time today? I really need to talk about something with you.'

'If it involves me then it probably isn't important'

'It IS! Please do you have time or no?'

Now Slovenia could of have been truthful and say that he was free the whole afternoon. But he didn't really feel like being under more pressure than the school puts on him so he said the following:

'no actually I don't.'

'how come?'

'Family things. Not your concern at the end of the day'

'right your annoying siblings...'

'don't fucking call them annoying.'

'but all of you fight all the time and you call eachother annoying?'

'Yeah but we're blood related and have the right. You do not.

And Slovenia hung up on her.'I guess I'm not leaving the house after I come back.' he thought. 'But what could Austria need to discuss with me..? Oh well I don't  really care'

Before he even realized it he was already at the end of their street so he walked left and to the first house. Unlike with the Cyprus twins he rang the doorbell and waited outside nervously rocking from side to side. A bad habit of his.

It didn't take long for Slovenia to hear rushed footsteps and the door practically swung open in front of him revealing a tall green, white and red vertically striped country.

"Hi Slovenia how are you? And come in!" he held the door open so the amphibian could get in.

"I'm doing alright, what about you?" asked Slovenia after he took his shoes off and followed Italy into the western country's living room.

"I'm also doing alright" said Italy sitting down on his couch Slovenia sat down a little bit away from him.

"So is there anything you wanted to do?" asked Slovenia.

"To be honest I just wanted to talk and hang out...but I did hear from Croatia that you need help with chemistry, I could help you out and explain some things if you want?" Italy offered.

"How does Croatia know that?"

"I don't know but he said that he overheard you talking with Romania in the halls on Friday about how you both need help with chemistry" answered Italy. "He told me during our biology class since neither of us really felt like listening"

"That's fair.... but I'd rather not talk about school right now and start off the weekend shitty"

"Alright so, any idea on what we could do?"

"Do you have any board games?"

"How. In. The. UN. Forsaken. world. Are you so good at this game?"

"Having siblings is an unfair advantage Italy, let that be a reminder before you play a game of uno with me again"

"How come?"

"Well when you have to stay in a single living room playing the same game hours on end you are about to either come up with good strategies or steal good strategies nothing in between."

"Alright, I won't argue"

"I knew it you're known for being a qui-"

Slovenia was interrupted by a loud crack of thunder and not even seconds later it was pouring it down outside.

"I'm glad nothing worse happened"

"don't jinx it you little Slav"

"what? Practically nothing else can happen"

And a few seconds later with another sound of lightning both of the countries ware left surrounded by darkness.

"I take back what I said a few seconds ago...WAIT- did you call me little?! How dare!?- you..."

"what what is it? You look like you've seen a ghost or something"

"I- Your eyes are different?"

And they really ware, his once pale blue eyes ware now glowing a bright yellow, if Slovenia didn't know who the romance boy was he would of have been terrified in that very moment as much as Italy looked charming he looked equally scary but what surprised the Slovene the most is that he liked how his western neighbor looked and he was slowly admitting to himself that he may have a little tiny crush on the Italian but he'd rather go to hell than to admit it to any of his friends much less the older boy sitting in front of him.

"Oh right that...Its nothing special really just something that got passed down in our family, sorry if it freaks you out...?"

"No, no its actually very fucking cool like whoow..."

The Slovenian couldn't help but stare into the practically hypnotizing eyes that belong to Italy but he was quickly shook out of his trance when said country spoke up

"Take a picture of them it might last longer don't you think?"

That made the Slavic countrys cheeks flush red and in return the Italian laughed out laud and sat up from the couch.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to prepare the guest bedroom just in case the storm doesn't go down."

"Oh no its fine i don't mind a bit of rain its not like I'm made of sugar"

"Well yes if it was ordinary rain but this is a literal tropical storm carino."

"The Slovenian tilted his head in confusion at the last word but didn't question further before he shook his head and a few strands of platinum hair fell on his face.

"Its not like i live that far away i can just run its not a problem  and i really don't want to bother you since you said that you had something planed"

"Well there's absolutely no way that what i had planned can be executed in this weather so you're not bothering i promise."

"Okay if you say so...but i can still leave-"

"Oh shush don't sweat it ill prepare the room in case the storm isn't gone in a few hours and then i can make lunch for both of us how does that sound?"

"Okay you sure don't need help?"

"I'm sure carino I'm sure."