Alright, this is my first fanfic ever, so I'm kinda nervous about posting it. I really hope you like it. The parts that are italicized are the flashbacks. I hope it's not too confusing
And sadly, I don't own Hetalia or any of the characters, I just use them as my muses XD
When I walked out of the building I worked in, I immediately regretted telling my boyfriend that I'd walk home. The weatherman had said that the blizzard wasn't supposed to move in until later that night. But as usual, the moron was wrong. I swear, in this town, if you want to know what the weather is like, look outside. It was more dependable than the weatherman. He was also wrong about the weather on the day I met my boyfriend. He had forecasted a high of 60 degrees and a slight chance of rain. We got 3 inches of snow that night. Halloween night, to be exact. I'll never forget it…
"Are you really going to Alfie's party as that?" My best friend, Mattie, asked me.
"What's wrong with it?" I pouted, while pirouetting in front of my full length mirror. I was dressed as a World War II era female officer of the United States Army. I though it looked awesome. I looked as though I had just walked off the pages of a history book. My long, black hair had been curled and pinned up into your typical 1940's hairstyle and I made sure I didn't wear too much makeup. But just enough to make my blue eyes pop like crazy. The olive green color of the little hat I was wearing contrasted nicely against my black hair.
"You know how he's going to react. Just like he did last year, when you showed up as a cowgirl. You're gonna drive him nuts!" Mattie sighed.
"You're probably right, Mattie," I chuckled. "But he's been after me for years and if it hasn't happened yet, it probably won't. I mean, I like Alfred and all, but he's way too loud and arrogant for my taste. Been there, done that, and I won't make the same mistake twice," I said.
"True. Simon is a lot like my brother," Mattie chuckled.
I sighed and glared at my best friend. "I'd rather not think about him tonight, please. It's bad enough that I have to see him following me around all the time. Look, I just want to have an awesome time at the party and forget about him altogether, thank you very much."
"Alright, alright. I won't bring him up again. I promise," he said, putting his hands up in surrender. "Now, if you're ready, we should head over to Al's. He wants me there early to help him set up," Mattie sighed, rolling his eyes.
I gave myself one more look over in the mirror, just to make sure I didn't forget anything for the costume. I turned around and grabbed my olive green clutch off my bed. I popped it open and made sure I had everything I needed. Cell phone, check. Wallet, check. Keys, check. Extra hair pins just in case my curls started to fall out, check.
"Yep, I'm ready," I said, grinning at Mattie.
As I shoved my ungloved hands in my warm coat pockets, I began walking through the two inches of snow that had already fallen. I briefly considered calling a taxi. Hell, I could probably be home before the taxi even got here. I only lived about 10 blocks from my office. I wondered why I didn't walk to work more often. Oh, right. Cause I'm lazy like that. It was just easier and quicker to drive. I was usually running late. I had a bad habit of getting wasted the night before and forgetting to set my alarm before passing out. To be perfectly honest, I should've been fired ages ago. But I guess being in a relationship with your boss's brother does have it's advantages. The thought of that brought a smile to my face. I started thinking about the first time I saw him, my boyfriend. How that simple costume caught my attention…
The party was in full swing. Everybody was there. And even a few who hadn't been invited. Alfie practically drooled over my costume, just as Mattie had predicted. I had to be flattered. It's always nice to get a reaction like that out of a man. As I was standing at the bar, waiting for my margarita, I turned around and noticed that a crowd of people had gathered around this one guy, who was dancing like crazy. His costume got my attention. It was so simple, it was crazy. He was wearing a purple zip-up hoodie and attached to the hoodie was a devil tail and horns on the hood. He had the hood pulled up over his head to show the horns. And he was wearing skinny jeans that were the brightest shade of turquoise I'd ever seen. The devil was dancing like I'd never seen anyone dance in my entire 24 years of life. He seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit. Or maybe he was just relishing the attention he was getting. But I still couldn't get past his costume, for some strange reason. Just a hoodie and skinny jeans. But it worked so well together. And he looked dead sexy in it. Most of the costumes here were very elaborate. There was a pirate, a bull fighter, a couple cats, a samurai, hockey player, what looked like Romeo, the Super Mario Brothers, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 from 'The Cat in the Hat,' which happened to be my 2 younger siblings, Kayla and Kaleb. They had all put a lot in to their get ups. But this guy looked as though he had put little to no thought into his costume. Or maybe the was the intention?
"What a showoff he is." A voice from behind me said. I quickly turned around to see my boss standing there, looking quite annoyed. And an annoyed cat to boot.
"Oh, hey Ludwig. You know that guy?" I asked.
"Yes, I know him quite well, unfortunately. He's my older brother," he explained.
My jaw dropped to the floor. "That's your brother? Him? The guy who's dancing like no one's watching," I said, shocked.
Ludwig sighed. "Yes. And I told him to behave himself. But it's obvious now that he had no intentions of doing that."
As I watched the devil dance, I couldn't believe that he was related to Ludwig. I mean, my boss was so straight laced and a perfectionist. This dude looked like he was the complete opposite. I was then eternally grateful that Kayla and Kaleb were total wallflowers when it came to social occasions. How embarrassing that must be. Just then, the song ended and the crowd around Ludwig's brother erupted into applause and cheers. And then the devil started walking towards us. And for some reason, my heart started to race and butterflies took off in my stomach. I was almost having a full blown panic attack by the time he reached us.
"Luddy, wha' didya think of my dancing? Awesome right?" The devil said, grinning from ear to ear.
"I thought I told you to behave yourself tonight?" Ludwig exploded.
"Geez, calm down, dude. I was just having some fun. This is a party, not a boardroom meeting," the devil pouted. Then he looked over at me. "Who's your sexy soldier friend, bro?"
"Oh, this is Renata. She's one of my coworkers. Ren," he said, looking at me, "this is Gilbert, my brother," he finished.
"Hey, it's nice to meet you," I said in the most confident voice I could muster.
"The pleasure is all mine, beautiful," Gilbert said, winking.
I chuckled to myself as I turned the corner. Even though I seemed to be physically attracted to him instantly, his cockiness was a turnoff, at the time. See, I had just gotten out of a relationship an abusive, possessive, arrogant, and alcoholic Danish man. So I wasn't looking to replace him with an overly confident German man. But nonetheless, I stood there at the bar, for well over an hour, talking to him. I remember asking him about his costume. He explained to me that he hadn't been invited and when he found out about it, an hour before the party was to begin, he had simply used his costume from the previous year. Well, that explained the simplicity of it. And I swear, every other word out of his mouth was "awesome." This was awesome, that was awesome, or they were awesome. And even the occasional "I'm so awesome." That was starting to get on my nerves. So I was glad when he excused himself to use the restroom. As I watched him walk away, I noticed a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed Danish man standing in the corner. He started towards me when Gilbert had turned the corner into the hallway. I hadn't even noticed her was there. But I shouldn't be surprised. What with the stalking and all. The following events made me look at Gilbert in a completely different way…
'Oh, shit!' I thought to myself. 'What in the hell is he doing here?'
Just the mere sight of him had me seeing red. We hadn't exactly parted on good terms. If I'm not mistaken, the last words I said to him as he walked out of my house were, "You could die in a car accident tomorrow and I wouldn't shed one damn tear for you. Go to hell, Simon!" So needless to say, I was practically shaking with pure anger as Simon approached me.
"Well, hello Renata! Fancy seeing you here," he said, acting as though we were still cordial with each other.
"What in the hell are you doing here, Simon?" I hissed through clenched teeth.
"I heard that this party was going to be the best party that Al has ever thrown. And I must say, the rumors were true. A full bar, catering, and even a live DJ. I'm impressed. Dude went all out this year," Simon said, smirking.
"Really?" I said. "Part of me thinks you showed up to stalk me some more. Yeah, don't think I haven't seen you following me around."
"You're just as paranoid as ever, Ren," he chuckled softly, then reached his hand out to touch my face.
"Don't you dare touch me!" I yelled as I smacked his hand away.
"Is there a problem here?" A voice behind me asked.
I quickly twisted around and saw that Gilbert was standing right behind me. I opened my mouth to answer his question, but Simon interrupted me.
"No, there isn't a problem. Now, why don't you just run along, albino," he said, sneering at Gilbert.
I whipped back around to face Simon. "God, you're such an ass. Why don't you leave? Just leave me alone!" I all but screamed at him.
"No, I'm not going anywhere." Simon said as he lifted his drink to his mouth.
And at that very moment, something came over me. I had had enough. I raised my arm and smacked the glass right out of his hand. Causing it spill all down the front of him. As I glared at him, the look on his face was one of absolute shock, then it quickly turned to anger.
"My beer!" He yelled.
The next thing I know, Simon's raising his arm as though he were about to hit me. Then a flash of purple right in front of my face. Gilbert had reached around me and caught Simon's wrist in mid-air.
"I know you were not about to hit a lady," Gilbert said, raising an eyebrow. "And especially in front of me."
"Nobody does that to me and gets away with it. Not even a woman, not that I would ever call her a woman," he said, wincing as Gilbert squeezed his wrist harder.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?" Gilbert asked. "Or to listen, at least. Cause I do believe Ren asked you to leave."
"This isn't Ren's house. She can't tell me to leave," Simon hissed at Gilbert.
"It doesn't matter whose house it is," Gilbert said as he walked around me to stand between Simon and I. He put more pressure on Simon's wrist and twisted it down to where it was at Simon's side. "When a lady asks you to leave her alone, you leave her alone, dude. It's as simple as that."
"Gilbert! You're causing a scene!" Someone to my right said.
I turned and saw a very disgruntled Ludwig standing there.
I hadn't even noticed that everybody was watching the whole scene play out. I was immediately embarrassed and felt my face grow red.
"He obviously needs to be taught a lesson, Ludwig," Gilbert said glaring at his younger brother.
"I agree. But now is not the time nor is this the place, Gil," Ludwig said angrily.
Gilbert stood there for a second. "Yeah, you're right, bro," Gilbert sighed and let go of Simon's arm. He started to walk away, but instead, he bawled his hand up into a fist, swung his arm up, and punched Simon square in his jaw. He had put so much force behind it that Simon had fallen down and slid about two feet away from where he was standing.
"That was for bothering Ren!" Gilbert yelled. He then walked over and kicked Simon in the ribs. "And that was for calling me albino, you prick!"
I remember standing there, shell-shocked. Gilbert had turned around and asked me if I was okay. It surprised me that he looked genuinely concerned about me. I told him I was fine and then he nodded his head, turned around, and walked out the front door. I was worried that he was leaving. I hadn't even told him thank you. I remember rushing to the door, hoping to at least catch him before he left. I had to thank him for doing that. It was the first time anyone had even defended me against Simon. Through all the years Simon and I were together, nobody came to my defense. Not even my own family. Whenever I would go visit them, they never said a word about the bruises or the occasional broken bone, towards the end of the relationship, they turned a blind eye to it all. Even though I love my family dearly, a part of me will never forgive them for that. So, I had to tell him how grateful I was towards him. I wrenched the door open and ran out onto the porch…
As I stood on the porch. I was amazed at just how much snow had fallen over the last few hours. All the Halloween decorations had an inch or more of fluffy, light snow covering them.
"You lookin' for me?" A voice said softly.
I turned my head and saw Gilbert sitting on the porch swing. I was relieved that he hadn't left.
"I was, actually," I said as I walked over to the swing and sat down next to him.
"What's on your mind, beautiful?" he asked me.
I sat there , staring at my hands, trying to think of the right words to say without sounding like your typical female. You know how girls get when they're grateful towards a guy.
"I just wanted to say thank you. For what you did," I whispered, still staring at my hands.
"That was nothing'. Any one of those guys would've done the same. Just not as awesome as that," Gilbert said, grinning at me.
I shook my head. "You're wrong. They would've let it happen." I knew I was going to regret saying this, but he probably already knew about it. "They didn't do anything about it back then."
" 'Back then'? What're you talking about?" He asked.
The confused look on his face shocked me. I figured, with how connected we all were, he would've heard the story second hand from Ludwig, or the gossip happy Frenchman, who probably heard it all from Mattie. 'Oh what the hell? It couldn't hurt anything.' I thought to myself. He'd probably find out eventually. Especially after what just happened.
So, I told him the whole story. Starting with how Simon and I met and how the abuse and possessiveness started slow and then got worse over time. It started with small bruises that I could cover with concealer. Then the bruises I couldn't cover. Next were black eyes and the occasional bloody nose. I had finally had enough when he broke two fingers and my nose in one of his tantrums. I fought back with the heaviest frying pan I had. I succeeded in knocking him out cold. But I had to get out of there while he was knocked out. There was no way in hell that I was still going to be there when he came to. I gathered my things and sat in the café across the street from the apartment building, waiting to see if he would leave. After about forty-five minutes, he walked out of the front door, carrying 2 overnight bags.
"So, I guess that's all of it," I sighed, coming back to reality.
"Wow…" Gilbert finally said after a minute of silence. "Had I known he did all of that to you, I would've hit him a few more times," He growled.
"He deserves much worse if you ask me, but it doesn't matter now. What's done is done, and there isn't anything anyone can do now," I said.
"How long were you two together?" he asked, hesitantly.
"A couple years," I answered.
"That went on for years and no one did anything about it?" he asked incredulously.
"Nope. Nobody helped me. Not even my family. Even when I did ask, I was practically ignored."
Gilbert just sat there and shook his head. "I wish I would've known you. I would have done something about it."
"Thanks. Like I said though, it doesn't matter now. But hey, at least you were here to come to my rescue tonight," I said, attempting to lighten the mood a little.
"Hell yeah! It's cause I'm awesome like that. Kesesesese~" he sniggered.
I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head.
"I hate to think about what might have happened had you not been here."
"Me too. Cause it was obvious none of those pussies would step up and take care of it. That's why I stepped in," Gilbert said angrily.
"You're right," I agreed. "So, what can I do to repay you? I can't let a good deed go unrewarded." I was blatantly flirting with him now. I knew that if I didn't, he wouldn't let me do anything in return.
"Hmm," he said. "How about dinner?"
"Okay. Dinner at a restaurant or would you like a home-cooked meal, perhaps?" I asked.
He looked at me for a second. "Well, you look like you'd be an awesome cook, so a home-cooked meal sounds good," he smirked.
"Awesome! Then it's a date." I cringed at my choice of words, but he just laughed it off.
"Sounds good to me. Now, let's go back in side and get a few drinks in us. You look about half froze."
"That sounds like an awesome idea," I smiled as we stood up and walked towards the door.
When we got back inside, everybody turned to look at us. My sister, Kayla, caught my eye and she looked worried. I just smiled and winked at her to let her know everything was okay. She smiled back and continued talking to Feliciano, the Italian kid she had a crush on. It looked as though everybody was going to forget about what just happened, which was fine with me. I wanted to forget about it too. And that's exactly what I did.
Gilbert and I sat at the bar, drinking and talking until well after 2 in the morning. After about 4 margaritas and countless tequila shots, after Gilbert had teased me about how girly margaritas were, he decided that I'd had enough. I whined and pouted when he took my drink away from me. I wasn't done. Bastard. Anyway, when I spun around on my bar stool, I noticed that everybody was either gone or passed out. I was obviously too drunk to drive home. Ludwig had brought Gilbert, but when Ludwig came to tell Gilbert he was leaving, he told his younger brother that he'd find a way home. He could've driven us back to my place, but he was just as drunk as I was. That's when I noticed Alfred walking around, checking on people.
"Alfie~!" I cried out.
"Ren, you're still here?" he asked with a surprised look on his face.
"Yup! I've been sitting here, drinking with my new best friend," I said grinning at Gilbert.
"You're new awesome best friend!" Gilbert said.
"Damn skippy, you're awesome!" I agreed. I turned back to Alfred. "Dude, I'm gonna need you to call me a taxi." I slurred at him.
"Sorry, babe. None of the taxis are running tonight. Cause of the snow," he said.
"Well, hell!" I roared. "How in the hell am I supposed to get home?"
"You two can stay here. Ren, you can share my bed with me, if you want," Alfie said. Then he looked over at Gilbert. "And you can have the upstairs guest bedroom , if it's still available," he added, begrudgingly.
I busted out laughing. "I'm not gonna share a bed with you! Are you insane? Gilbert and I will take the guest bedroom."
I looked over at Gilbert and he nodded his head and I nodded back at him.
"Gilbert, you're awesome! I love you man!" I yelled at him. But as I jumped up to wrap my arms around his neck, everything went black.
So, how was it? Horrible? Yeah, it was, wasn't it? *sighs*
Anyway, thanks for reading. Please review. Constructive criticism is welcomed. No flamers. Or I'll send France to climb through your windows tonight~ *srsface*
P.S. I'll try to have chapter 2 posted the first week of October when I get back from my 2 week vacation XD