For the Love of My Country
A/N: Happy Independence Day, PERÚ!! I paid my tributes to my birth country so now I should have the pleasure of declaring my undying love to my dearest Perú! So here I bring some of my best works! Sorry for the late time but due to health issues I was incapacitated.
Each story comes from one of the feelings desires I have towards my country. This one is easily enough that I would die for it and that I'd love my country's avatar even though he was a girl.
Disclaimer: Only thing I don't own is the idea of avatar countries… and probably Alfred at one point or another…
Warning: All of these are separate drabbles. This story is the most recent so changes in style or intensity might be due to that.
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The shrieking alarm of red alert sounded harshly as her ship began to sink downwards. She had ordered the abandoning of her ship after having successful escaped an encounter with the enemy, the lower deck had been bombed and water was quickly emerging, she had been near an explosion that had occurred during the time cross fire and happened near the control center but she continued her duties sending all injured except herself to be treated and continued to send out orders.
Soon another explosion had taken place and it had been fatal, one of her legs no longer responded and the burnt skin gave way to the blood pouring around her. Her men followed her orders of evacuating the ship and getting everyone to safety but fought against the orders to leave her.
She knew by medical experience that there was no way she would survive getting to land. She didn't tell them that. She ushered them away with a broad smile, telling them that she'd be fine and that once they returned from leading everyone else to safety, they could return for her. Besides, she reasoned with them and herself, there was nothing more honorable than a captain sinking with her ship, and that would only happen if they didn't hurry.
They left soon and she pushed herself against a partially destroyed wall facing the piece of land that belonged to her country, at least she was dying in Peruvian sea. She felt the pleasant, if a bit cold, sea breeze pass threw her open wounds making them sting.
It was good to know she could still feel parts of her body.
She felt footsteps heading her way. They were slow but firm. Fearing the presence of an enemy, she pulled out her gun and pointed at the direction of the sound. Her wounds hurt badly and she barely had the strength to hold the gun up, not to mention keep it steady. She took off the security and waited.
A body of brown hair and lean body stepped into sight.
A civilian!!??
She felt like screaming "WTF is a civilian doing here?" in fact, maybe she did seeing as the man stopped for a minute looking a little perturbed at her words. She put down her gun, simply allowing her arm to rest; she felt the gun slip through her fingers as they were rebelling against its weight, unable to keep up with the effort. It was too heavy. "Doesn't matter, I'll get you out of here. Just give me a minute…"
She pushing as hard as she could to lift her body, but her movements hurt badly and they were too slow. He rushed to her side, holding her to try and put her back down but she held him instead and pulled herself up paying no attention to his disapproving face and stood, not straight or as firm as she would have wanted but she at least wasn't falling down.
"Let's get you out of here before this beauty finishes sinking." She announced to him pulling his hand though it worked more as a support and they both knew it, she took merely ten steps before her knees gave out on her. She always knew they were weak.
He stopped her from hitting the ground and held her in his arms with a broken expression. She smiled softly at his expression finding it absolutely lovable, "Hey, don't be sad about me!" she teased almost breathlessly "I'll be fine, besides I'm dying for my country in one of the best ways possible: in the arms of a cute guy and for the country I love! Ain't I lucky?" she grinned at him trying to ignore the pain that broke her body little by little through their position and her reckless effort was causing in her. "I'm sorry I couldn't have done more!" he exclaimed out of nowhere, tears in his eyes, "You don't have to be sorry, the Chilean government was looking for it! Besides… at least, this time… we entered the war on our own…" she said getting a little dizzy.
"I don't want any more of my people to die! I don't want you to die!!" he cried on, "You know… when I was younger… I wanted to be… the President… of Perú. I… wanted to… do… more for… my country… but… I wasn't well liked… amongst others… talked too little… wanted too much." She managed to breathe out, she was now gulping for breath. Her throat was closing down and she could feel tears falling down her cheeks.
He now smiled at her confession, "You would have been a wonderful president, after all you loved your country like no other. Ever since you were seventeen, or eight, if you make memory." She looked confused "Wha? How did you?" she asked now unable to keep her eyesight on him "I know because I heard you proclaim it, how much you loved me. How much you wanted me to be your husband, how much you screamed when people kept telling you I was a woman, how much you swore to love me even if I were. Now that you see me, do you still love me?" he asked softly.
She felt like crying, she barely had a clear view of him as her tears and sight blurred her vision, she knew her eyesight was leaving her. "L've ya. Kiss… please." She asked, her eyes finally closing. A firm, warm, soft kiss pressed itself against her freezing lips. She no longer could feel the pain of her wounds but she could feel the numb heaviness of her limbs.
"Sc'red. Hug." She seemed to order, her words slurring. He held her as delicately as he could; tears that had dried, began once more as he noticed the temperature of her body. Slowly, her body went limp. A smile, soft and pleasant was present on her face as she faded from the world, her last and most desperate wish had been to die for her country and she had.
An hour later, a rescue crew returned to the ship with paramedics ready to help the injured captain, but the men she had ordered to leave her could only stare in despair at the still smiling face of their captain who was sitting almost peacefully in the control room, where the sight of land was the clearest and though it was nearly destroyed, a chair still stood. Her feet were barely being touched by the water, which had already taken most of the ship. It seemed impossible for the injured woman to have arrived there alone, but no other person could be found on what remained of the ship.
The wind still blew softly against her face, pushing some strands of hair back and kissing her skin already cold and lifeless.
There was such a peace in her features, the men didn't dare touch her until the sun was disappearing through the horizon and return was unavoidable.
The wind that night seemed to whisper one of her favorite songs:
Estoy enamorada de mi
país
(enamorada)
Estoy enamorada de este lugar
Estoy
enamorada de estar así
Yo por aquí me voy a quedar
(mi
tierra!)
