The soldier girl
Her body Lay limply in the snowdrift as another artic blast of wind blew fluffy flakes across the young girl.
"No" Vash muttered as tears streamed down his face.
Her sweet blonde hair was spread about her head, bloody and tangled, like a halo from hell itself.
"I'm sorry" He choked as sobs ripped through his sleeping body.
Her eyes, normally full of loyal devotion and admiration, lay closed as her eyelashes caught snowflakes.
"Lili wake up" He pleaded as he flung his arms pushing all the warm blankets off himself and his bed.
Clenched in her hand was a blue hair ribbon that had once been bright and clean, but now was dull and blood stained.
Vash shivered both from his nightmare and from the chill of a Swiss winter.
Her whole body looked paler than her normal creamy porcelain and her legs were tucked up to her chin, in a vain effort to keep herself warm.
Vash shot up in bed screaming profanities before he realized that the nightmare, was just that, a nightmare. He stared blankly at the moonlit wall.
"But my sweet Lili is still out there somewhere damn it, and it's all my fault" He reminded himself.
"She's alone and cold" By now fresh tears had sprung, and his nose tingled, a sure sign he was about to cry.
"Where are you Lili?" He questioned the darkness as he doubled over, in an effort to smother the pain in his chest.
"God damn it Lili where are you?" He whispered before racking sobs overtook him, shaking him to the core, forcing him to hear his voice crack as tears stained the pink pajamas the small nation in question had hand sewed herself.
~*~oOo~*~
"Morning boys" General Westcott shouted merrily at the group of bleary eyed men in front of him.
"For the past few weeks, I've been warming you up" He marched back and forth in front of the soldiers.
"Now, I'm going to make you men" He leaned into the face of a particularly small boy, with feminine features.
"Yes sir" The whole group of boys shouted in chorus.
"Ah I don't think you understand gentleman" He smirked.
"The training with be grueling, parts of you that you didn't even know you had will hurt, you'll want to go home but you won't be able to."
"Yes sir" The boys shouted again, the little one staring straight ahead, not noticing when the General marched up to him.
"Boy, what's your name?" He shouted in the younger's face.
"Lukas, sir" His voice rang loud and unafraid, yet a little higher than any of the other's.
"How old are you Lukas?" The General sneered, the kid couldn't be much older than twelve.
"Sixteen, sir." Once again the boy looked ahead with unblinking eyes, totally unfazed.
"Well Lukas, I just want to let you know that this is your last chance to drop" He hoped the kid would, he didn't want to loose another little one this year.
"No Sir, I will be staying, Sir" Lukas shouted right back out at the General.
"God bless you son" He whispered so no one but Lukas could hear.
~*~oOo~*~
"Vash, we might have a hit here" Roland, the local police chief shouted to the young man in the other room.
"Ah you always serve Roland" Vash grinned as he strolled over to the cop's desk and leaned into the computer screen.
"So, what've we got?" He tried to squish the little sprout of hope boiling in his chest.
"Um, a young lady named Martha Delfts picked up a girl around fifteen years of age, and dropped her off at the military bus stop. The profile fits, Bobbed blonde hair, blue ribbon, red dress. Everything checks out"
"Great, send a team to that bus stop pronto, get the approximate time she dropped the target off and I want to know which bus she boarded and where it was headed" Vash sipped his coffee.
"Yes sir, already on it" The cubby middle aged man leaned back down to the keyboard.
"Ah, Roland? I'm going on a walk." He needed to think, outside, with the cool Swiss air and greenery.
"Of course Mr. Zwingli" Roland barely mumbled as Vash slipped out the door.
Walking through his great gardens Vash let himself space out, and before he knew it he was sitting on the bench him and Liechtenstein had shared years ago, when she asked him why he saved her the night they met.
"Bother?" She asked her eyes big and innocent
"Yes." He tried to hide his feelings, and it was working.
"Why did you save me that night? I was poor, and you where poor yourself, why did you take on another person to support?" Her pretty voice dripped with guilt.
"I couldn't just leave you there" Oh how badly he wanted to say 'because I love you' but what he said instead surprised him.
"It was my duty as a country to save you." He nodded his head.
"Oh, okay." Vash didn't see silent tears streak down her face as she mouthed the words.
"It was your duty"
Vash Snapped out of the flashback. He Stood and relocated to the little hill where he tried to teach Liechtenstein how to shoot.Oh how he loathed that day. He swore, never to lose his temper at the little girl again, if he ever got her back.
"Lili you hold it like this" He said slamming the butt of the gun into her shoulder.
"Yes Bother" She winced at the impact but said nothing for fear of angering her dear mentor.
"ARG Lili why can you get it? It's simple, this is the trigger, this is the safety and this is the hammer"
"I'm sorry brother" Frustration built in her chest as she tried to please her brother, but the gun felt weird on her shoulder and she kept getting the safety button mixed up with the hammer thingy.
"No, Never say your sorry. Sorry is a sign of weakness. But you wouldn't know. Everything ABOUT you is weak. You don't have a Military, You can hardly carry thirty pounds, the only thing you can do is run. And that's a sign of weakness too. Do you know how hard it is to support us both? And you never fight your own fights, so my people have to. Your so useless sometimes Lili, just like Italy, and just like Sealand."
He went back over what he just shouted. The harshness of his words and the pain in her eyes made his throat clench and his knees go weak. Why did he just say that? He didn't mean any of it. But the tears streaming down her face told him he made a grave error, intentionally, or not.
"I see brother" The pain hacked at her angelic voice until she hiccupped.
"I-I Will try harder" She bowed her head and left the courtyard, no doubt to lock herself in her room.
"Lili" he whispered
"Lili I didn't mean any of it" But she had already carefully shut her bedroom door before collapsing onto the floor as sobs ripped through her tiny body.
Reviews anyone? I have to say this is only my second fanfic, and I'm quite proud of it, so tell me how the first chapter was? ^J^
