Chapter One

"It's your fault this happened Toris!"

"Feliks, if you keep struggling like that you're only going to hurt yourself." Lithuania soaked a rag in water to dab his friend's brow. "I did not expect this to happen after the war…"

"Fuck if I believe you!" Poland struggled against the restraints that kept him tied down to the floor. "If you did not know what was coming, why do you get to stay in the house? Why are you working as a servant for that bastard? Tell me, Toris. 'Cause until now I thought you and I were friends."

"We are friends, Feliks. Trust me."

"Then why didn't you fight with me?" Feliks looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "We were beaten like shit during the war, but if we stood together we wouldn't be in this rat hole Soviet Union."

"I couldn't."

"What do you mean you couldn't?"

"Feliks, I couldn't fight. I never expected this, but I couldn't fight." Toris did his best to clean the wounds on Feliks's wrists, but the leather restraints got in the way. "I don't want things to be this way… I just thought that if it was her it would be okay to be friends."

"Fucking pink scarf." His flaxen haired friend spat into the air. "After all those years moping over a girl, see where it got you? No lame ass name to call her by. No clue as to where she came from or where she disappeared to. Just a fucking pink scarf."

Toris sighed. "You know I hate it when you curse. It really doesn't suit you."

"Neither does leather restraints." Feliks managed a half hearted grin. "I always preferred silk to leather."

"Still able to joke." Toris dabbed his friend's forehead again before standing up. "I need to go back up. Otherwise I'll get in trouble with Ivan."

"You say we're still friends, right?"

"Of course."

"Then will you do me a favor then; as a friend?"

"Anything."

"Put a slug between that foul smelling idiot's shoulders for me."

Toris sighed as he closed the cell door. He mumbled quietly to himself as he walked down the cold corridor toward the stairs. "All I wanted was to see her smile for real. Was I wrong for wanting to help her?"

Xx

"OUCH!"

One of the practice arrows that stuck in his pant leg had managed to pierce the skin. Not a lot of damage was done, but it still stung quite a bit. This time Prussia came over to test out a new bow he received for being given the title of Prussia. The albino never gave Toris his human name, so until that day he only knew him as the nameless caped boy that bullied him regularly.

"Was it really necessarily to test the bow twelve times?" Toris threw the last shaft into a pile with the rest. "What did I ever do to deserve any of this?"

Small drops of blood fell onto the fresh crust of winter snow as he walked along his eastern border. Prussia had chased him almost into the land stuck in harsh winter. The snow made life hard at his home, but stories circulated that on the other side of the forest was a land that was carved out of ice and was a frozen as the deepest parts of hell. No one dared to travel through the woods and he certainly was thankful he wasn't chased into the mysterious realm.

"Just wait until I make an alliance…" Toris mumbled to himself what he was too afraid to tell the stronger nation. "When I have a friend or two or maybe even three, no one will think to ever bully us. Just you-"

"Hahahaha!"

Toris stopped in his tracks. Someone in a thick winter coat was lying in the soft powdered snow just ahead of him. The stranger was laughing and giggling despite the cold. He thought this odd and spoke without thought. "Oh. I didn't know that there was anyone around here."

The stranger fell silent when he approached. He looked down at the stranger and was caught by their bright blue eyes. Their beige coat was missing the third button from the top and their boots' soles looked heavily worn. They did not seem hostile, so Toris offered a friendly greeting. "Hello."

Without warning, the stranger rolled away from him with a sudden jolt. Startled, Toris lost his balance and fell backwards on to his bottom with a loud crunch. The stranger stared at him warily as they spoke. "What do you want?"

The low voice sounded strange, but scared him none the less. He heard of people that would just as easily skin a friendly traveler as they would a rabbit. Right now his heart beat was so rapid he felt like he was a rabbit.

"N-n-nothing," he stammered. "I just was not expecting to find someone so close to such a scary place."

"It's not so scary."

The stranger seemed to soften and offer his hand. Toris accepted it with a smile. "Then you're much braver than I am."

"You're hurt!"

Toris jumped at the stranger's outburst. Looking at where they were pointing he saw a shaft from one last practice arrow poking out of his shoulder. Thankful that he was wearing a thick coat, Toris felt a little wave of relief. "Oh! Looks like I missed one. That Prussia boy came over again to bully me. Guess it's a good thing my jacket is so thick."

"Someone has been picking on you?"

"Yeah, I'm not that strong…" It was embarrassing to admit, but the truth was the truth. Then he remembered what his boss told him about making a new friend. "But one day I will make friends with lots of other nations. Then no one will be able to beat us up because we will protect each other."

"Do you have friends already?" the stranger asked with a surprising amount of interest.

Toris let out a nervous laugh. He wasn't used to holding conversations with anyone he did not know for a long time. Something felt different about this one though. It wasn't so bad talking with this person. "Well my boss is going to marry this other nation's boss soon. My boss really wants me to get along with that guy, but he is a little hard to handle."

"What is it like to have a friend?"

The statement dumbfounded Toris. He did not have any friends that were nations, but he had some human friends that he was fond of. Toris wondered if the stranger meant friend in general. "You don't have any friends?"

With an unmoved face, the stranger shook their head no. He stared at them for a moment and tried to imagine life without a companion. It was a very sad thought indeed. "I could be your friend…"

Their eyes lit up. "You would be friends with me?"

The stranger's reaction made him feel happy. "Only if you were okay with being friends with someone like me, of course."

Then before he could realize what was happening, Toris was being held in a tight hug. After the shock wore off, he felt slightly awkward with how long the embrace was lasting. He finally spoke up when after several ore seconds passed the stranger did not let go. "Um… Is it normal for two boys to hug where you are from?"

The stranger instantly let go of him and crouched down on the ground. A much softer voice than before replied back to him. "I'm a girl."

"Girl?" It took him a moment, but after closely examining the stranger he noticed how feminine the coat's design was and how the features of their face were soft like a women's. When it finally clicked, a bright flush of blush heated his face. "I'm sorry! It's my fault! I just assumed with your short hair and thick coat that… Not that you look masculine or anything!"

He rambled on as he always did when he was embarrassed, but the girl stopped him. "Thank you very much for your offer to be my friend, but we cannot be friends. At least not right now."

"We can't?" His heart fell a little.

"But I would like to see you again… But I don't know when I will get another chance to leave… Can we meet again?"

Now his heart leaped making him blush again. "Of course! I don't live too far from here, and I take a lot of walks over here so..."

The girl smiled brightly at him and then ran off. She only looked back once to call back at him, "Then we shall meet again some other day. It's a promise."

"Wait!" The girl never stopped running. "I never caught your name!"

He watched her until she disappeared among the trees. Staring at the tracks left behind by her boos he smiled. She would be his first friend made on his own. No one was pushing him into the friendship. It just happened. Smiling, he repeated her last words. "It's a promise…"