-Life Goes On-

This is my first attempt at writing a serious story, so please don't bash it! I don't own the characters, obviously. . .

It was a painful truth to him, twisting his heart every time his mind would wander back to it, crushing his soul. He never would have expected it to happen, not now, when they had been so close to one another.

Surely it has to be a joke, right? He i-isn't serious. . . is he? But deep down, Latvia knew that what had happened was real, and an unavoidable truth.

Sealand had dumped him.

-X-

The day had dragged on slowly, much to Latvia's dismay. The World Meeting had ended in failure, yet again, and worse, Russia seemed to be hanging around the back of Latvia's chair, smiling down upon the shorter nation. It seemed that even he knew the spirits of the Baltic were sinking lower and lower with each passing minute. All Latvia wanted to do was to go home and have a good cry in his room, but he had business with Lithuania after the meeting, and his boss would reprimand him if he didn't go. Sure, Lithuania was one of his best friends, however, if he were to catch wind of Latvia's personal problems, it would only get worse. Lithuania always means well, but his words of comfort had only ever served to make the original problem shoddier than it had been. Latvia did not want it to get to that point, because it would just end in more unnecessary suffering. The smallest Baltic picked his jacket up off the coat hanger, and left the meeting room where some of the other nations appeared to be getting into some sort of debate over cooking skills, or rather, lack of cooking skills. The only light to Latvia's day is that it had begun snowing, something that he'd always enjoyed watching from the windows when he was younger, curled up with a warm drink, and enjoying the company of the other Baltics. He hoped that he'd be able to do those things again someday.

-X-

Estonia resumed typing the e-mail he'd been working on, until the phone rang in the other room.

Who calls at this hour? Estonia wondered. If it's this late at night, then it's obviously something urgent... He placed the laptop down on the side table, and went on a hunt for the phone. When he responded to the call, a cheery voice greeted him on the other end of the line.

"Hey Estonia!" The volume on the phone was turned up too loudly, probably because of the last call Estonia had received from Canada, who is almost impossible to understand at regular volume. Estonia winced, and turned the volume of the phone back down.

"Finland? Why are you calling so late in the day? It's nighttime where you live too, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yup! But it's important, and well, I kinda have to call you this late." Estonia paused, unsure of why it was pertinent to call at this hour. "You see, it's not about me, or Su-san either. But it's a family issue so, I, uh..." the Finn on the other end trailed off, not knowing quite how to word the situation.

"Is it about Sealand?" he queried, the only other member of the household who could be in a situation of this gravity.

So that's why Finland's calling this late, Sealand must already be asleep. The idea had suddenly made sense to Estonia now.

"What's happened with Sealand then? Is there something that I can do?"

"Well, I don't know if you knew this, but him and Latvia were dating. . ."

"Yes, I'm aware of th-" Estonia broke off. Was? As in the past- not anymore? But if they're no longer together, then that means. . . Oh, no, Latvia must be in so much pain right now. . . The spectacled nation quickly ended the conversation, promising that he'd call Finland back later, and ran to get his jacket. If Latvia's in too much distress, he'll probably end up doing something risky. . . This is bad, really bad. . .

He slammed the door shut behind him, careful to lock it behind him, and ran in pursuit of the smaller nation, hoping that nothing bad were to happen to him.

-X-

Lithuania stood in the hallway, waiting anxiously for any sign of Latvia. He knew something wasn't right, as the smallest of the three was always on time to meetings, if not earlier. He couldn't have gotten lost, as he'd visited Lithuania hundreds of times over the last few centuries, if not since the day they'd met.

I hope that he hasn't been captured by Russia, he would never stand a chance by himself! Of course, Russia doesn't generally come anywhere near these parts, but still, I can't help but worry for him. The brunette suddenly noticed that he had received a text message. He flipped the screen open to find a paragraph of text from Poland, with plenty of exclamation points to make any normal person's head hurt. Lithuania skimmed the message, and stared blankly at the screen.

" Hey Liet! Like, you'll never guess who I saw running through the woods today! Little Latvia was, like, running through the trees, and like, totally crying about something! But then five minutes later, that glasses guy who hangs around you started running by in the same direction! I bet they're runnin' from that creeper Russia guy or something! Also, you gotta bake me another cake sometime soon! It's gonna be, totally frosted pink!" Lithuania snapped out of it, wondering why Latvia was crying hard while running away from something- or someone. But at least Estonia was following. Lithuania knew that Estonia would watch over him, and make sure that he wouldn't get hurt. The eldest Baltic suspected that he had feelings for Latvia, but couldn't find a way to say it.

As long as they both end up happy, together or not, I don't care what happens in the future. All I can do now is wait and see what happens next.