"I'm sorry," Iceland whispers, his weakened voice tapering off to a harsh cough. Norway watches his brother's chest heave, water pooling from the corners of his mouth and dripping from his eyes. Norway does not comment, instead pulling out his handkerchief from his back pocket and handing it over.
"Don't be," he tells his former charge as he wipes away the wet residue around the corners of his mouth, coughing quietly while doing so. Norway quickly adds, "It's not like as if you could have stopped this from happening, at this point, anyways."
"America could have most likely done something way earlier," Iceland sighs. "But I suppose he's going to learn his lesson soon enough. With both Japan and England..."
"He should have taken global warming far more seriously than he did," Norway mutters, frowning slightly. Iceland makes a slight noise of acknowledgement, leaning back into the thick pillows behind him.
"The water's almost at Reykjavik," Iceland suddenly tells Norway with an emotionless smile and a bark of laughter laced with bitterness. "My capital. Oh God, Norway, I'm going to die."
"You're not going to die," Norway snaps, the desperation in his heart leaking through his entire being and entering his quivering voice. "You're not."
"Stop lying to yourself, Norway," Iceland is frowning now, his hands clenching by his side. "We both know it's going to happen."
". . ."
"Just accept my fate, big brother," Iceland says, voice bitter and exhausted and weakly. "I'm going to die."
Norway can't really argue with that, so the silence blankets them, becoming more and more constricting and choking by the second, until Iceland smiles a little.
"I love you, big brother," Iceland says, his voice sounding serious and drowsy. Norway just offers what could have been classified as a smile and tells him to go to sleep.
So Iceland does, eyelids slipping shut and his chest falling into a steady rhythm. And Norway really doesn't notice anything until he notices the cold hand laying limply in his trembling one and the stillness of his brother's chest.
Oops. So, I'm back in school. And I have absolutely NO idea why, but I can't write during the summer. ONLY during the school year. Maybe it's because I hardly use my brain otherwise? Hmm.
Anyways! Thanks for reading! :)
