Sorry about the late update ^^ Happy Valentines everybody!

Tala, 1silentmouse, xSalemx, skittleAcullen, Feliciana Vargas, ItalysWifeMab and Pherse Issac, thank you all for your kind reviews; sorry for making you wait.

They stood ten paces apart like an old west shoot-out. Somewhere out there, Clint Eastwood was nodding his approval. The high noon sun shone down upon them and in the distance a cicada buzzed its uneven melody.

"Chi, this is Julchen, Jules, this is Chiara," Daniel felt a bead of sweat slide down his temple. Not only was it unseasonably hot, but the tension crackling between the two women was enough to incinerate a moderately sized star ship.

"I thought you'd be taller," the blonde snarked, eyeing the Italian up and down.

"And I thought you'd have more colour to you. You look like Zio Gilbert," Dan winced and grimaced and Jules, who had yet to meet his father – Chi being the (un)welcome wagon today – laughed,

"Oh, I like you," she smirked, "You're devious like a giant purple cow and spunky like pink camel! Insulting me above my head. Nice aim, pipsqueak," She held out a pale hand for the younger woman to shake.

Chi took the offered hand with a wicked grin, "Don't go thinking we're friends now, bitch. You've stolen my man."

"Pft," Julchen made a dismissive sound, "I'm too awesome to steal anyone's man; I'm just keeping him warm for you."

"I'll pretend I'm grateful if you shut up," they smiled at each other and the German held out her arm. Dan expected a full on catfight to erupt, but instead, the Italian took the proffered appendage and they walked into the hall linked arm in arm.

"Let's be friends," Chi said in her highest, most girlish voice.

"Best friends," Jules answered; a feral, calculating edge to her voice.

~====o)0(o====~

"Uh, Jules?" Dan said, knocking on her open door. He didn't go in – mainly because he had once walked in on his mother and the scolding she had given him at age four was still ringing in his ears – but stayed outside, eyes firmly fixed on the opposite wall.

"Ja, was?" she called, already right at home in one of Lovino's guest bedrooms – Dan had come to think of his surly uncle's home as his own because of the excessive amounts of time he spent there.

"We're going to eat soon, and I wanted to ask you a favour," he said looking slightly uncomfortable

"Spit it out, Dan, I won't bite. You know that costs extra," she snapped her teeth playfully.

"Uh, sure. The thing is. Could you wear pants?"

"Was?"

"Trousers. Pretty much the entire household is devoutly Roman Catholic, and eating together is kind of a big thing. We're supposed to dress smart-casual, and I'm afraid that they're going to do something embarrassing to both of us if your skirt ends above your knees."

The white blonde snorted with laughter, "I know that feeling. I always have to dress like a lady at – when I was with my father." The laughter died, "thanks, Dan. I'm sure I've got something halfway decent."

"If not, I'm sure you can borrow something of my mom's or tia Antonia's. I don't think anything of Chi's would fit." He suggested. It was a bad suggestion, but it was the only one he could think of off-hand.

"No thanks, I like my own threads just dandy," she said, flipping him the peace sign while the Hungarian man blinked in confusion, "Sorry, I slipped in the space-time continuum."

He burst out laughing, "I understand. I'll let you get changed. We eat in ten minutes," Dan left, and Julchen let out a little sigh. She wasn't going to admit it to anyone else, but she was more than a little nervous to eat with Daniel's family. She hadn't had any semblance of a meal with her own in years.

~====o)0(o====~

Dan was at his absolute wit's end with all the melodrama that was happening today. First there was Julchen meeting Chiara, but that had actually turned out quite well. Unfortunately, her meeting with his father was a lot less pleasant. Yes, they both had very similar personalities, but that isn't always a good thing. Trying to fit two egos that size into one excessively large dining hall was diffic- let's call a spade a fucking spade. It was bloody impossible. They knocked sparks off of each other from the get-go.

In the five minutes before they were due to sit down and eat, Jules had gravitated towards the pale man, thinking him to be Daniel's grandfather.

"Oh, I see you've met my dad. Julchen Edelstein, this is my father, Gilbert Beilschmidt, dad, this is Jules," Dan had clapped his hands excitedly, hoping that everyone was going to get along. No such luck.

"Father? I though he was your grandfather!" the German girl gaped at the same time as Gilbert said,

"Edelstein? Arshloch!" And spat on the carpet, prompting Antonia to smack him with a wooden spoon as she brought a try of food into the dining room.

"Gil! Ay, Dios, we're inside! Have some manners, per favor!" she frowned, bustling past, "Has anyone seen Chico?" she asked hopefully, and Chiara, who had just slipped in through a side door smiled knowingly. A few seconds later a different door flew open, the usually sleepy-eyed Antonio Francisco – Chico to his mama – looking absolutely livid as he stood, panting in the doorway, a terrified Señor Tortuga clinging comically to his dishevelled hair.

"You!" he screamed, pointing at his sister and stomping toward her. Julchen looked confusedly between the two and back to Dan, who had his head in his hands and was shaking with a mixture of repressed mirth and despair. Sisco had been reduced to angry Spanish and a lot of very threatening hand gestures. Chi was beginning to look very uneasy, and though Daniel was only catching about half of what the other man was saying, it was not safe dinnertime conversation. Or anytime conversation.

"Chico!" Antonia called angrily, marching over to her son, only to be slapped away with a barely coherent,

"No, Mama! She -" before he broke down into Spanish.

"That's no way to talk about your sister!" Lovino chipped in, only aggravating the situation as accusations of rank favouritism flew through the air in three different languages. Julchen poked Dan, leaning in to whisper,

"Is it always like this?"

"Welcome to the family," the Hungarian sighed back tiredly. School was stressful. He didn't need to have all the usual bothers of home as well. What a mission. He regretted bringing his pale German friend into all this when she so badly need a break from familial chaos.

Much to everyone's surprise, the young woman stepped forward, taking each of the siblings by an arm,

"Sisco, Chi, calm down already, why do you want to fight when I'm here? Come, Chi, you can sit on this side with me, Sisco, you sit over there with Dan, no you can't kick each other in the shins under the table. Let's put the feud aside and have some food instead, ja?"

Completely confused, they sat obediently as their parents and Daniel sat down, watching her warily in case she bewitched them too.

~====o)0(o====~

Anne lay on her bed, looking at her answering machine and it's blinking red light. Daniel knew when she was home, and he called her then. But this? This wasn't a message from anyone she wanted to hear from. Or did she? She didn't know.

She reached out and pressed play,

"Hallo? Is this Anne Edelstein? I have just received a letter from Marie Therese . She strongly recommends that I meet with you. I would like to treat you to lunch. I will be at Rococoa at one-thirty pm sharp on Tuesday, if you would be so kind as to join me." The message ended. There was no name, no connection to her mother. Just a man on the other end of the line asking her out to lunch.

She had already arranged with her boss so that she could make up the hours she would miss, but it was one o clock and she didn't know if she wanted to go or not. Her mother had never had any contact with men before, platonic or otherwise,

"Your father was the only man I will ever love," she had said kindly when Anne had asked if she was lonely. Which was a sweet sentiment, but she also refused to answer a lot of questions about the mystery man. He was a gentleman, apparently, and a great musician. Marie Therese had been so proud when her daughter grew up taking after her father, looking like him as well.

Fine, she decided, swinging her legs off the bed and straightening her full length skirt. She was going to meet this mystery man. She stopped to touch the floppy velvet petals of a bouquet of peonies that Daniel had sent her. It made her truly happy to know that he was thinking of her enough to send flowers, even though they were in different countries.

~====o)0(o====~

"What the fuck did you even do?" Julchen asked, reclining on Chiara's plush bed as the younger woman painted her toenails a beautiful dark blue. Dinner had gone surprisingly well, even if Daniel's father had been glaring daggers at her the entire time. The Vargas children had been polite and well behaved, aside from a slicing motion across the windpipe from a still-seething Sisco.

"Hmm?" The Italian pressed a little diamante stud into the wet colour, admiring the effect, "Give me your hands. I just called his girlfriend on Skype. All three of them. At the same time. You don't fuck with my violin without some serious repercussions." Chi laughed, dipping the little black brush into the pot of Prussian blue and covering Jules' nail in three practised strokes.

"You play?" the German asked in happy surprise, taking the slim brown hands in her own, careful of her wet nails, "I should have known; you have strong hands."

Chiara felt her face heat up and she leant back, realising that she had been far too close to the other woman.

"Grazie mille," she said stiffly, "I use them to punch my brother in the face." Julchen's smile was wicked as she followed the younger woman,

"Well, if it's just your brother, then you won't hit me if I do this?" Julchen leant in closer, cool fingers on Chiara's cheek as she guided the other into a slow kiss. It was soft and undemanding.

When they broke apart, the German was smirking, her eyes half-lidded and the Italian looked like she didn't know if she wanted to kiss her again or scream.

"Chigi, how did you know?" What was meant to come out as a confidant demand was a nervous whisper. She wasn't very confident about her sexuality, and she wasn't sure that it would be welcomed with open arms by the rest of the family.

"I do now. Besides, only something like three per cent of the population is fully straight or gay anyway, so I figure that my chances are pretty high," Julchen laughed quietly, and Chi went bright red, a tentative smile spreading across her face.

"Come over here, si? It's my turn."

~====o)0(o====~

It was truly surreal to think that she was having lunch with Austria's most famous export; Roderich Edelstein. Though much of his hair was still a rich dark-chocolate colour, there were two large wings of silver-white that swept back from his temples. There were a few creases in his skin, mostly frown-lines, but otherwise his face was ageless. Her best guess was that he was in his late forties.

"I take it then that you don't know why it is that I have invited you here?" he said stiffly, his manner as cool and collected as her own,

"I do not, though I should very much like to know why you claim to know my mother when I have never met you. I would think that my mother would have considered how much I would have liked to meet you."

There was a pause as the waiter set the food in front of it and Roderich chose to focus on the food as he spoke.

"I think that your mother may have been slightly more concerned about how I would react when I learnt that I have a daughter."

Who saw that one coming? Errebodeh.
Anyway, sorry for the late post, have a happy Valentines, you're awesome.
Ah, Schutzengel Universe… Like riding a bike…

RutheLa