Yay! First story :) Sorry if spelling and such is a little off, I'mma working on it.
Disclaimer: Hetalia not mine.
I wake up and see grey.
I suppose grey is all I'll ever see, in this rotten excuse for a world. Grey sky, grey buildings and grey people.
Everything, I suppose, was blue once, with happy shades of green and light yellow hues. However, ever since The Light, this world has dimmed to grey.
Because of this, I too have become grey.
I adjust my eyes to the light and scan around the room. In one corner of our dark, grey, crumbling house I see my fratello. Sound asleep as usual, the bastard. His auburn hair peeks out from under the thin, wool blanket he is sleeping under.
I wonder if when he wakes up, he sees as much grey as I do.
I get up, shoving the coarse blankets off me and slip out of my tattered, once blue, sleeping bag. I shuffle across the dimly lit room and stand in front of our only mirror. Mirrors are particularly rare to come by. If you still have one, you should be damn thankful no bands of thieves have rioted your house over it yet. Mirrors sell for quite a bit of money these days. I think people only buy them and hoard them, because they're too damn busy still actually caring about how they look.
I stare at my reflection, and try and push down the stubborn curl that hangs off the front of my head. It stubbornly pops right back up, and I internally curse the damn thing once again. Still looking at myself, I brush my dark brown hair back behind my ears, and then examine my eyes.
Once bright honey, now grey.
Turning away from the mirror I walk towards the only table we own. Sure it's dirty and falling apart, but its the best we've got. I bet half the people still living here who haven't been killed yet don't even have a damn table.
I reach into a blue, cracking bowl that's sitting on the table and withdraw from it an apple. While I was snooping around The Square yesterday, I found a box full of 'em. I figured they were either bombs or food, but I took my chances anyway. I had opened the dirty, ripped up cardboard box and to my joy; inside I found twelve fresh apples. I remember running home incredibly excited, which was very rare. My brother, Feliciano was absolutely delighted and he and I feasted on those apples like pigs, being careful to leave at least a few apples for today.
That's right, ever since The Light, my only source of happiness is apples and my brother.
What a sad world this Light has left us.
As I sit, feasting upon my apple, I try to remember the day The Light came upon us. It was roughly five years ago, I suppose. I remember a blue sky, my brother laughing and me throwing curses at him. I remember pausing in my rant for a brief second, and standing still. I remember knowing something was wrong. My brother was shaking, calling my name.
And then, nothing.
A bright, white light clouded my vision. I remember hearing my fratello screaming for me. As the light wore on my eyes, I felt very light headed. The next thing I knew, I had blacked out.
When I woke, all I saw was grey. A grey sky. Grey ruins all around me. It was like I had woken up into a nightmare. I remember the days it took to find my fratello. We scavenged around for days, looking for someplace to live. Finally we had come upon a part of the city that wasn't completely demolished. We found a half smashed in house and took up shelter there. We spent many days after looking for food and anything we could use for survival.
It was then we discovered we were not alone. Periodically, we would run into other people and fight over food, clothing and other half demolished objects. I usually won these fights, fuelled by my will to survive and protect Feliciano.
However, I learned, there were worse people to fight. The other survivors, who didn't try to kill me, conversed with me, telling me about how people were banding together and forming gangs. These gangs, I had been told, were ruthless and very powerful. I was told how they entered other survivor's homes, killing them and taking anything they could use. Ever since hearing this, I have learned to be careful. I don't care if the bastard who told me this was lying. In this world, you must always be cautious.
"Ve~... Lovi?"
I stop chewing my apple and look to the corner of the room. I see my brother throw the blanket off of himself and slowly stand up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looks at me curiously as he shuffles across the stone cold floor towards me.
"Lovi... you look very thoughtful this morning. Is there a reason why fratello?" Feli mumbles, still half asleep.
"It's nothing...stupid." I say back, almost forgetting to throw in my trademark insult. Feli would know something was wrong if I forgot that one little detail. I suppose my swearing reminds him and myself that there is still a shred of my old self left. Myself before The Light. Myself that wasn't grey.
"Sorry Lovi, I just wanted to make sure you were okay~" Says Feli, "Oh hey! We are still going scavenging today right? It's always so fun Ve~"
"Of course idiota." I say back, staring at him like it's the stupidest thing he has ever said. Which it isn't. Trust me, my brother has said much stupider things before. Half the time I feel like smacking him for it, but then he would just start bawling his eyes out and make me feel all guilty. The bastard.
"Ve~ okay Lovi! Just checking!" laughs Feli. At least one of us still laughs. Although I'm not much of the 'happy-go-lucky" type in general.
Feli then grabs one of the apples out of the bowl and takes a huge, obnoxious bite out of it. As he chews he chatters constantly, spraying apple juice out of his mouth as he does so. I'm half tempted to tape his mouth shut.
"Hey...Fratello?" Feli suddenly mutters, finally done with his apple.
"Yeah?" I mutter back.
"Do you... do you ever think that maybe... there's a place far away from here... one that wasn't affected by Light? One with people who get to live like we used to? Where everyone smiles and eats pasta everyday?" Feli says, eyes lowered.
"Huh?" I say, shocked at the seriousness of the topic Feli brought up.
"You know Lovi... do you think there's somewhere in this world that never got touched by The Light?" Feli questions, staring at me with the most serious face he can muster.
Do I think so? It's funny, in the five years we have been living like this; something like this never once crossed my mind. Somewhere The Light didn't touch? Could it exist? Maybe... But I'm not so sure. Remembering that day, my whole world was consumed by Light. But... maybe it was just my world, because my world isn't the whole earth. Maybe Feli was onto something...
"Ve~ Lovi? You're being kinda quiet over there..." Says Feli.
"Oh! Ah.. I was just thinking... stupid, about the possibility of a place with no light..." I mutter.
"So you think I could be right fratello?" Feli asks eagerly.
"Maybe Feli...Maybe..." I say, lost in thought once again.
"A world with no Light..." Keeps whirling around in my head as I examine the various bits and pieces of rubble in front of me. After Feli and I finished getting dressed, we headed out for our usual routine of scavenging to find anything we could possibly use in the rubble surrounding our home, left by The Light. We often split up to do this, but because I was so stressed this morning, I decided to stay close to Feliciano.
After several hours of scavenging and finding several useful bits and pieces, the possibility of a world with no Light lingered in my head the whole time.
"Ve~ fratello! Over here!" suddenly calls Feli.
I rush over, carefully avoiding anything I could trip on. I stop, and stare in shock at what Feli has found.
"I-is that a-" I stutter, completely in awe.
"Yes! Yes!" cheers Feli.
I stare at the object in awe some more. In Feli's hand lies an old, worn pocket watch. It has lost much luster, but that doesn't matter. As on the back of it, engraved in rough cursive, is the word "Vargas".
This is our family's heirloom. My grandfather's pocket watch. Made of pure gold, he had planned on giving it to me once I had turned 18, proclaiming me the new head of the Vargas' family. I remember staring at it in awe as a child, often commenting on its gleam and beauty, while my grandfather affectionately ruffled my hair commenting on how "observant" I was. My grandfather Roma, who was killed by The Light.
A few tears escape my eyes while Feli watches me in understanding. He knows just how important this watch is to me, to him and our family. Well, the two members of our family who haven't been swallowed by Light.
"T-thank you Feli... f-for finding this" I manage to stutter out.
"Your welcome fratello, I know how much grandpa would've wanted you to have it... and now you do" says Feli, cheerfully.
"Grandpa..." I whisper to myself, staring up into the grey sky.
We kept searching for a few more hours, when I finally decided that we should head back home for the day. This is what our days consist of. Wake up, eat, scavenge all day, eat and sleep. What an exciting life I live.
We trudge carefully through the rubble, and I can just make out our house in the darkness.
However, as we continue to approach our home, something catches me off guard.
I hear voices.
Coming from our house.
I hear talking, laughing, and the occasional odd "Kesesesese" sound.
"Fratello? W-what is that?" whispers Feli.
"Shh!" I whisper back.
I lead Feli by the arm, tiptoeing towards the smashed in building. The voices become louder. Finally we get close enough to hear them, hiding as far away from the entrance to the house as possible.
"Kesesesese! These poor unfortunates must be rich!"
"Hmm... yes, I suppose.. Though a still am curious, have we searched this area before and found nothing, oui? So why now? It's not like people to suddenly migrate to another area of rubble. Makes them more likely to get caught, non?"
"Pfft ...Sure. I think people just see my awesomeness and go into hiding. Really... good... hiding..."
"Please, get over yourself."
"Sir, I don't think he can!"
"Hey! You! Stop with the insults and keep searching! You can't insult your superiors!"
"Lousy superior.. oui?"
"Francis! Stop with the insults would you?! You're hurting my awesomeness! Although your probably just jealous..."
"Non, mon amie. Trust me I would never ever be."
"Well I-"
"ENOUGH! We came here to do work, and if the boss finds out we have been slacking off image what will happen you dolts!"
"Boss?" I wonder. Boss... oh.. oh no...
Thieves.
In our house.
Crapola.
I get up, dragging Feli with me and slowly back away from the house. Feli looks at me, worried. However, in my stupid attempt at walking backwards I trip, sending both me and Feli backwards onto the hard ground with a loud "Oof!".
I freeze, trying to quiet my breathing, holding a hand over Feli's mouth.
Hoping they didn't hear that.
"Hey... did you guys hear that?" one of the thieves asks.
Why does fate hate me?
I scoot backwards, still dragging Feli, while constantly whispering at him to keep quiet. I then get up, turn backwards and take off in a run.
Which only lasts a few steps, as someone puts a hand on my shoulder and roughly pulls Feli and me backwards.
The next thing I know, I'm on my back with Feli rolled over on the ground beside me. I look up and stare into the reddest pair of eyes I have ever seen.
"Well.. Now what have we here?"
Hope you liked it! Reviews are welcomed :)