The clock read a quarter before one. That meant fifteen minutes before anyone would come back inside the staff room, or rather that meant fifteen minutes of lonesomeness before Arthur came back from either a date with Alfred or lunch in the editor's lounge. Fifteen minutes to do what she needed to do so she could do it in secrete and so that it could be over and done with. Come on now, just type it all in. You just need to type stuff in. Why wasn't she typing things in?

Elizabeta stared hard at the computer screen for a moment. A rather long prolonged moment at that. Why was she doing this again? What was she really after? The Hungarian woman wracked her brain for answers she longed to have but not a single one came. The blinking cursor seemed to mock her even more than the empty white boxes did. With strength she had always had inside her, Elizabeta jabbed at the computer keys with a furious vengeance worthy of being envied.

Username : Teflon

Age : 28

Sex : Female

Likes :

She stopped there.

Elizabeta was no dull woman, oh that she was most definitely not. Even so she wasn't sure what to put there. She had never been very up front about the things she liked to indulge in. Not to random strangers at the very least. Well... had she been ten years younger then maybe she wouldn't have cared.

"Dammit Roderich." Elizabeta jabbed at a few keys and typed the first ten things the came as pleasing and normal (i.e. raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes- oh God she was quoting Julie Andrews! Again, dammit Roderich!). Worrying on her lip, she pressed the backspace several times and replaced the monstrosity she had typed in with very simple things (cooking, reading, and watching TV). Much better. She moved onto the next box.

Dislikes : Anything Twilight related and white haired obnoxious jerks

There, that part at least had been easy, not that she really meant what she'd written there.

"Okay, now htis is it. No backing out now." Elizabeta took in a deep breath and laid a heavy hand on the mouse, placing an even heavier weight on the buttons. Her green eyes flicked to the simple yet elegant invitation sitting half open on her desk that screamed of Roderich Edelstein. She'd gotten the invitation in her mail just today. Elizabeta hadn't known how to react to each word that seemed to give her heart a different kind of pain. One that she could not describe.

You are cordially invited to

Roderich Edelstein and Gilbert Beilschmidt's

Wedding

RSVP ASAP

At first, maybe the realization that her first love was marrying the bane of her existence was what had overwhelmed Elizabeta. I know what you're thinking. Maybe it was, oh I don't know, the cold and treacherous tendrils of jealousy! No? No! Elizabeta was happy for Roderich (who as mentioned had been her first love and how had their relationship dissolved? Well, it just did. They still loved each other but... not like that... anymore at least or maybe ever). Gilbert... he was a special case for Elizabeta too but none of that hate-and-love relationship, Elizabeta viewed Gilbert as brother, friend, and once maybe lover but now not anymore. She and Gilbert just... fell apart too. Not that they'd ever been in a relationship. God this was complicated. She was just very sure what she was feeling wasn't a bitter jealousy. She'd moved on from those relationships and was now so very far away. Haha.

Although, now that she'd taken the moment to think about it what actually terrified her was the small handwritten note that she'd found along with her invitation, first done in elegant cursive writing followed by an eye-tearing jab of letters as if done by a five year old. An adoring five year old but still a five year old.

Hello Elizabeta,

I'd like to ask you a big favor. Will you be our maid of honor? It's just that you mean so much to both Gilbert and I and neither of our parents are going to be there and not that we're saying you'd be our parents we would just like it if you were at the aisle with us. We completely understand if you don't want to. Even if you don't want to do this, we'd still want you to be there as a our guest.

P.S. Are you coming as one or plus one?

P.P.S. Beta, seriously, come okay? I'll hate you if you don't, I swear I will. Roddy too but he's too nice to say it.

Elizabeta turned her gaze back to the computer screen. She wasn't the type of woman to ever need a man in her life to feel good about herself. Her father had been her best friend and she had no mother. She was raised wearing trousers, shirts, and bull caps on her head and not giving an ounce of care about her hair. The girls laughed at her for getting messy during PE but who cared? She had fun while they worried about their skin getting too tan! She lived while they slaved themselves to what the other students thought of them. It wasn't until she met Roderich in high school that she thought to change herself (and maybe that had been stupid at least it hadn't been a complete change, she was still more of her) but she swore she was never changing herself for any other man again. When she and Gilbert got together, she didn't hide who she was from him and he respected that.

And that was good because Elizabeta liked a man that respected her. She liked any man who respected any woman. Guess how hard that is to come by nowadays in a world where teenagers think getting a boyfriend is all sunshine and rainbows and so they have to say yes to every person that asks them- through texts even!

Elizabeta didn't want that. It's why she was having second thoughts about joining this online dating thing. She wanted what she'd always wanted even when she'd been a little girl. Even with no mother, Elizabeta's father had explained how he'd gotten so lucky to marry his childhood sweetheart. He'd courted her mother's parents. Asked for their blessing to have a relationship with their daughter before they graduated college and that's when he asked for her hand.

Too bad cancer was just too big an enemy to fight.

Elizabeta wanted that kind of relationship. And heck a Romeo and Juliet relationship would be nice too. Not the dying part. Just the... forbidden love part. Or maybe even a Disney love as farfetched as that could possibly be. What the hell was she saying? Disney love? Romeo and Juliet? What happened to not needing a man to be happy?! God! Pull yourself together!

But... just this once.

Click.

Congratulations! You've registered into "My Beau Finder!"

You ready for some mingling?

She didn't want to be alone.

"What the hell did I just do?" Elizabeta pulled the table towards her, dragging her chair in the process of getting closer. Maybe it would have been easier to simply stand and walk but she wasn't thinking straight. Had she just really? Had she just really? Had she, Elizabeta Herdevary, the woman everyone came to for advice, really just committed the lowest of lows? "Oh my God."

"I don't know how to answer you love, you look like it's the end of the world and yet you've only joined an online dating site."Fellow editor, Arthur Kirkland, stared at her sulking form and shook his head, messing up his already shaggy blonde hair.

And that's when Elizabeta let out the girliest shriek ever and she would forever deny making such a sound. Her chair spun so fast she almost fell over. "Arthur! When did you get here? How much did you see?!"

"Not much." Arthur crossed his arms over his chest. "I see you've gotten an invitation."

"I have." Elizabeta sighed. "Have you as well?"

"Gilbert made sure I got it personally." Arthur frowned. "Is that what's got you joining online dating?"

"What?" Elizabeta cried. "No! Heck no! I've been wanting to do this for some time and now that I've done it I'm starting to question my sanity. What have I done?"

"Again, joined online dating." Arthur's massive eyebrows rose. "What's so bad about that?"

"What's so bad? What's so bad?" Elizabeta gaped at him incredulously. "How about what's not bad about that? I'm a single, fine, twenty-eight year old woman who joined a lame dating site. God Arthur I'm so pathetic! Online dating!"

"No matter how many times you say it won't change the fact that it's all right." Arthur rolled his eyes. "It doesn't say anything bad about you Elizabeta."

"How about it saying I'm hopeless with relationships, so bad that I have to sign up for online dating." Elizabeta performed a full-hearted head desk that Arthur sympathetically winced at. He'd done that himself and it always left him with a headache.

"With that kind of attitude." Arthur trailed off. "Honestly, Elizabeata, it's not that bad. Take Alfred and I for instance. Yes he's a pain, and yes he's annoying but if it wasn't for that site we would never have met and I wouldn't be happy."

"Classic love story." Elizabeta sighed dreamily. "Some people are just so lucky. Why can't I be that lucky?"

"Maybe you are." Arthur said quietly. He took a sip of his tea and turned back to his computer but hesitated. "Good things come to those who wait, but great things come to those who put themselves out there. Just a bit of advice."

"From who?" Elizabeta raised an eyebrow.

Arthur turned fully to his computer. "A good friend, anyways if you don't like being on that online dating site so much why not rescind your account? You know you can do that right?"

"Yes." Elizabeta nodded then looked at her open monitor. Of course she knew that. She'd read the rules almost religiously before signing in and perhaps she would have pulled her account down if it wasn't for the messages she'd already received.

Torn: Interesting username there. Are you by chance a cook? Perhaps we can swap recipes, I'm always in the mood to try something new.

AN: Short prologues are short. This is a prompt challenge by my dear good friend: Jellydonut16. I am not familiar with Hungary OR the other half of this crack pairing Romania and this ship has so little fics (or so I think) but a challenge is a challenge and I hope to deliver. Hope you like what you read here lovelies and send me your thoughts on it.

Pairings: eventual-RomaHun, PruAus, Spamano, USUK, Franada and whoever I might feel like putting in.

Nique