She knew that it was taboo to fall in love with humans, but it wasn't the love she was after, it was filling the void, which had grown inside of her following his death. He, who had done so much for her and had been her friend, had brought her happiness…Prussia. Who had died because he had given up on life once and for all Who hadn't deserved the fate he was doled out.
Who was gone, and whose death had been viewed only by Elizaveta.
She had been looking for Gilbert, wanting to have some fun with him, as friends, thinking that they were nothing but.
She found him in Northern Germany, and came up behind him. He had been startled when he heard her, but didn't yell, or do anything else.
"Ah... Gil?" She asked, and recognition came into his posture.
"Hungary…Elizaveta…Lizzy." He murmured, turning around to face her quietly. "I didn't want you to see this."
"See…see what, Gilbert?" She said, and he undoubtedly heard the sudden fear in her voice, as did she.
"See…see my death." He told her, admitting it with a voice that had told her that he had given up the fight. "It's been in my future for a long while, and I'm feeling that the time has come, Lizzy."
Her eyes widened. "W-what?" She was horrified. "But…but Prussia…but you can't die! You've always told me you were surviving on willpower!"
He nodded, and took off a Band-Aid on his hand. "I'm not healing anymore, Lizzy. It's my time to go. I can feel it in my blood. You younger nations can't feel the earth's call as clearly…take care of my brother, and yourself, most of all, since I won't be there for you two anymore. Oh, and make sure to bother Austria for me, and tell Liechtenstein goodbye, and perhaps Vash, too."
Hungary looked to him, tears gathering in her eyes. "You were my first friend, Gilbert." She said, quiet. "Even if you were a prick."
"Ah…but you were more than that to me, Lizzy." He said, before he kissed her forehead.
"W-What do you mean?" She asked, looking confused, before understanding dawned on her, her eyes widening.
"My first crush." He admitted. "And my only, and my last." He sighed. "Look, we're not going to talk about this now, the time for that is gone, and it's my fault. But…I want this. Give me this, Lizzy." He held out a hand. "Dance with me?"
She was crying now, but she took his hand, and they did a very slow dance that was getting slower as he started growing weaker.
Eventually, he had to sit, and then, had to lie down. He looked up at her quietly, and she cradled his head in her lap, her hands petting his hair as he admitted his secret to her.
"I love you, Lizzy. I have, I have for a long time. I'm sorry I'm leaving you like this, when I finally have the courage to tell you that I do, but…It's my time to go, and I couldn't choose that."
His eyes slowly slid close, and she started begging him to stay, wanting him to continue on, to let her have another chance, please, let her have another chance. She hadn't known, she couldn't have known.
Once he had stopped responding, his body started to fade, and she shrieked when it happened. "No! No you fucking idiot!" She clutched at his cold chest, his clothing soon becoming all she was holding.
"I love you too!" She screamed into the uncaring night. "Come back! I never knew! Please!" There was no answer. "I'm sorry!" But, he was gone.
Later that year, she and Ludwig had had a memorial service for Gilbert Beilschmidt, known by many names to many people, and who would be deeply missed in the world, especially her. He was Gilbert, Prussia, and he was a flame in the cold.
But it had been over two decades now. She had broken it off with Austria about 15 years ago, her heart broken, and knowing it had been her time with Austria that had caused the rift between them.
So, now, she was looking to fill her void with sex with unknowing humans, who in years time would be gone from this earth, never to be seen again, much like Gilbert himself.
She was at a bar in Germany, in Berlin, and was viewing the scene, before someone came up to her, tapping her shoulder and smiling. His features were handsome, youthful. His grin was nervous, but just familiar enough to spark interest in Hungary.
He asked her in German for a dance, and she agreed, raising an eyebrow. "I don't dance well like this!" He said, laughing, and something about it was… oddly familiar. But she still couldn't place what about him was making her interested.
"Oh? Sorry, I don't speak the best German." She admitted, and his interest peaked, him perking up and nodding firmly, excitedly.
"Hungarian." He pointed out her accent, having to be purposefully loud on the dim lit area, with colored lights hitting them at odd angles, making it hard to make out his face.
"Yes!" She yelled back, laughing. "Let's dance!" She encouraged, and he nodded, taking her hand, which felt really familiar, and took her into the dance floor, and the two started to dance, him a little awkward, making her lose her interest. She went to leave, and he tailed her, obviously awkward. She wasn't looking for that though, she was looking for someone to make her forget…
She tried to lose him in the outdoors area, but he followed her still. She wasn't looking at him as they went out into the more lit area. "Hey!" He said, sounding a bit upset. "I'm sorry! I'm not that good at club dancing…"
"Look, I'm not…" She turned around to look at him flatly, but her expression froze in surprise as familiar red eyes looked at her against pale skin, and an awkward smile, his head tilting as he tried to get her back to talking with him.
"I'm…I'm not that good at dancing like that!" He said, scratching the back of his head as he tried to convince her to dance with him again. "I'm more inclined to professional dancing!" He looked down, pursing his lip before looking up at her with confused eyes. "But I want to be with you. I want to dance with you."
It had once been her asking Gilbert to dance.
The first time that they actually danced together was on her wedding day.
The happy couple had been sitting, feasting with most of the nations in Europe present. Gilbert had been there, but was alone, sighing to himself, poking at his food. They had already done the ceremony. He had been formally invited by both of them; it would have been rude to turn them down. But she got up and went over to him, wanting to involve him, her best friend, she had told herself.
"C'mon, dance with me!" A then drunk on love Hungary had pulled him up, using their common language to communicate. "It'll be like, you know, my last transition from childhood to womanhood!"
Prussia has scoffed. "Are you insinuating that I'm handing you- you, of all people- off like a father would with his daughter?" He asked, amused, and pretending to be shocked, though she knew it was all in jest.
"Well, you did agree to walk me down the aisle." She teased. "Plus, your hair gives you that appearance, even if I know better."
Gilbert pretended to look offended, "That, my dear, was entirely uncalled for!" He said, putting his hand on his heart dramatically. He kissed her hand, waggling his eyebrows playfully. "But sure, if the lady desires."
He took her out to the ballroom dancing area, where he put her into proper waltz hold, and the band started to play a new song.
"Prussia…I didn't know you actually knew how to dance…" She murmured, looking up into his sad red eyes, looking away from hers slightly.
"I also can play the flute." He smiled gently; leading her smoothly through the simple steps Austria had taught her. "Not that I capitalize on that skill. But…"
"But what…?" She looked curious, something on the tip of her tongue that she wasn't willing to tell him, just as he was unwilling to tell her the truth.
"But, I hope you don't change your mind!" He laughed quietly. "But, I guess your heart's too strong, anyway…" He twirled her around, while she looked at him suspiciously. "Anyway, we have to make up the time we've lost! I've actually never danced with you, in the like, thousand years we've known each other."
That got her attention. "Oh! I suppose…you're right." Her hand tightened around his shoulder, around his hand holding hers.
I want you.
The words stayed between them, unspoken by Prussia, who smiled at her, taking this stolen moment of heaven for his own pleasure.
He took her back to her husband, smiling at her. "Well, newlyweds, time to consummate the marriage!" He laughed obnoxiously.
Hungary slapped him for that, and things returned to normal.
Her hands gently went up to his hair, and felt it, disbelieving. "Is this…your natural color?" She asked, switching it from her original question of "Are you real?"
"Uh, yeah!" He laughed. "I'm albino, I have been from birth!"
"When…when were you born?" She asked, her voice weak.
He shrugged, laughing. "To be honest, they found me as, like, a two year old…but I guess, about 20 or so years ago?"
That…that sounded like… Like he had been born after Prussia had died. Like a nation had been born. "Really? And they have no idea who your parents are?"
He shook his head. "They said I was clothed and stuff, but I was wandering around in Kaliningrad! By myself, too, it's kind of weird?"
Kaliningrad. It was once Prussia's territory. The last piece of him, actually.
"They said I had a sword, even!" He chuckled. "But that might have been a story to tell an overactive child."
"Really?" She asked, realizing that this, this man in front of her, was undoubtedly some sort of reincarnation of Prussia- something that wasn't entirely unheard of, but…. very, very rare, that was certain. The location, his origins, that was all in alignment for how nations were born, not…not human children.
Russia had some explaining to do, she thought, her thoughts going dark.
"So, uhm, yeah. Dance with me?" He asked, smiling, still embarrassed. "I can, uhm, show you how to waltz?"
"You ballroom dance?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, and I also have quite the knack for playing the flute!" He laughed, obnoxiously familiar.
"You'll have to beat me." She said, smug. "I'm quite good at waltzing." These days, at least, she hadn't used to be.
He took her hand, and his other wrapped comfortably around her waist. It felt good, and familiar. He tapped out the beat in the club behind them, and immediately started on the basic waltz step. Hungary was not one to lose a challenge, and so she stepped up her game eagerly, mirroring and following him, letting him lead and occasionally overtaking him, the two getting a crowd of humans around them, watching and cheering them on.
The man dipped her, and she let him pull her up into a twirl, before she saw the opportunity, her hands leaving his hand and shoulder, to grasp his shirt and kiss him firmly, making him go flush, but relax against her, his hands, originally having gone up in surprise, finding their way around her waist, hugging her comfortably, kissing back. He wasn't that good, but she imagined Prussia wouldn't be in his life either.
"What's your name?" She asked, pulling away, and looking at him with intense green eyes, into his hazy red ones.
"Oh…my name?" He asked, breathy. "I was named Gilbert. Gilbert Beilschmidt." That confirmed it, too many things were coincidences for this not to be true.
"Well, Gilbert, I want to dance. I want to date." She said, making the albino go flush.
"Really?" He asked, in a surprised voice, before he corrected himself with a cough. "I-I mean, of course you do!" She rolled her eyes, but felt the similarity in him so hard, her heart aching slightly as she recognized this part of Prussia in this reincarnation of him.
She got out her phone, and watched him fumble for his. She tested something really fast before she gave him her phone to exchange numbers with. "Please, call me Elizaveta."
"Ah! Alright!" He grinned. "That's a very pretty name, but I think I'll call you Lizzy."
She entered her number in his phone smugly, knowing that he was using the common tongue of nations, and was now feeling so many conflicting things at once. The urge to cry in relief, that he had come back to her and they could try again, the right way, the urge to kiss him and have sex because in reality, she had regretted it, the urge to tell him everything here and now and the urge to call up his brother and say that he had returned to them. But she didn't do any of that. She nodded, and gave him back his phone as she received her phone back.
She looked at her phone, and acted aghast. "Oh my goodness! I forgot I had to go in for work!"
"Oh!" He nodded firmly. "Alright! Get going!" He urged, grinning widely, excited and clearly unable to hide it.
"Thanks, Gil! I expect a text later tonight!" She kissed him again, and once she was out of the club, looked to her phone and saw a selfie that the new Gilbert had sent her.
She sent that to Ludwig with the caption: He came back.