Hello there! I've been dying with the idea for this. That's all I can really say xD
~X-X-X~
I DO NOT OWN HETALIA OR IT'S CHARACTERS! (Axis-Powers, World Series, The Beautiful World, The manga, etc.) Just my own writing. All credit goes to the following:
Manga:
Written by: Hidekaz Himaruya
Published (Japanese): Gentosha
Published (English): (Canada, USA) Tokyopop (2010-1011) RightStuf (2012-Present)
Magazine: Comic Birz
Anime:
Manga Credit: Hidekaz Himaruya
Director: Bob Shirohata
Licensed: (Australia) Madam Entertainment (Canada, USA) Funimation (United Kingdom) Manga Entertainment
~X-X-X~
Prologue
Running away is one thing. It's just...running, running, running...you don't look back, you just go—go, go, go till you can never return. But running away from yourself—that's a different concept. You can't stop running till something stops you first.
They tried so hard to change who he was, what was going to happen and who he loved. So he ran. He left behind everything and ran without a trace. No way to keep in touch, nothing but the pads of his feet and the money in his pocket. He just ran...ran till he couldn't run anymore.
Thoughts rang in his mind the entire time he jumped from taxi to taxi; town to town; and hotel to hotel. It wasn't as cozy as his life at home—
...But he wasn't being oppressed.
If this is what it took not to be judged, then so be it! It wasn't his fault that his mother had cheated on her husband, unintentionally breaking the bloodline. When he was born, he was not fully German. He was of Prussian decent, what his family called a mixed breed. His eyes were the colour of crimson, his skin pale and seemingly lifeless. His hair was as bleach-blond as you could imagine, almost as if it was a dusty silver. He was born too different. Different from all of them.
The blue eyes and honey blond hair of his family genetics cursed him. Why was he born to look like a devil while everyone else was considered normal? He wasn't ugly. He was masculine like his ancestors, but rather baby-faced, unfortunately. He wasn't the absolute dove of downy beauty like his brothers before him.
But his eyes pierced like fire and his skin froze like snow. Once seeing the rest of his family, no one could bear look at him without thinking he was a sideshow for their amusement.
That is—except a single girl. His friend since a very young age. Stolen from him.
Her family despised him. Her brothers spit in his face yet got scared when he stood up for himself. Though they never came to a halt with their instigating. They thought it was their right to tease the ugly duckling, thinking themselves worthy of doing so. They thought he was weak and hideous.
It took till the teasing got out of hand and all he could do was defend himself with the only thing he had—Strength.
It was his own manpower that got him banned from the Héderváry household. Her brothers were weak and could not back up their insults with a punch. And it was he who got punished for the misdeed. The brothers weren't even reprehended, just coddled like dishonouring mutts. Mutts to his eyes and his eyes alone, because his eyes were different.
She had cried when he was thrown out of the house; cried when her parents screamed that she wasn't to see him any longer.
It was only a game to her entire family. And he hated them all for it.
Then even his parents began to hate him. The Héderváry manour was a very large estate. They were wealthy people, just slightly wealthier than the Beilschmidts. Once he was shunned from seeing their daughter, the Beilschmidt family couldn't use them as an advantage anymore. In turn they barked at their son. He was ridiculed more than he had ever been before. Ordered around and mistreated. Neglected.
The only family member who stuck by his side was the youngest brother, Ludwig. He had the dashing blue eyes and blond hair that was favoured so dearly by the people. Yet, Ludwig hated the attention. He was a quiet boy, always keeping to himself. Well...almost. He couldn't see his older brother's differences and told him everything.
That was why he begged to come with him.
He didn't want to let the boy come at first. Ludwig wasn't too young, but he was still only twelve. He didn't want to ruin his little brother's life by taking him away from the riches and glory of the Beilshcmidt manour. It wasn't till after he saved up his money and thought about it that he let the boy come with him.
And they ran together. Together...but not quite. There was still someone missing. His love...his friend...the one he was banished from ever seeing again.
Cursed to running, running...running. Running from himself.
~X-X-X~
Three years after
"Luddy!" Gilbert called from the stairs of the small ice-cream palour...at least—soon to be ice-cream parlour. There were still a few renovations to be done before it would be open for business.
There was the sound of boxes being bustled around before the teenager came running up the steps to meet his brother's voice. "Ja, Herr?"
"Really, again?" Gilbert rolled his eyes and chuckled at the formal manner he was greeted with. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't expect to be answered like that? I'm not an old man."
"Sorry, it's a habit. Ja, bruder?"
"That's better. Now, do you remember what time the painters scheduled to be here? I told myself I wasn't going to forget...but now I can't figure out if it was three or four."
Ludwig snickered and began to walk back down the staircase that led to the living space upstairs, "They said they would be here between three and four. It's almost two thirty and the floor is still covered with bubble-wrap and empty boxes. If you aren't doing anything right now, I'd like help cleaning up."
"Sure, come on, kid." Gilbert ruffled Ludwig's hair before running down the steps like a child. When he got down he could have sworn it wasn't this messy when he went to the bathroom. "What happened in here?"
"You told me to start unpacking some of the boxes. So I did."
"Oh...that's right. Well, let's get to work then!" The albino exclaimed proudly, a bit excited that the shop was underway. It took a long time to finally get settled down and invest in this building. He was admittedly proud of himself and especially, his little brother. Ludwig had been through a lot since everything happened. But he seemed happy, which was all that Gilbert even cared about.
Ludwig laughed, "I've been working since this morning. It's you who hasn't done anything but order supplies and talk on the phone."
"Hey! I had important matters to deal with. Just hold down the dustpan so I can sweep this shit up." Gilbert told the younger, grimacing at the light green packaging peanuts all over the linoleum. He had just began sweeping them into piles when he heard the bell he put on the door earlier.
"I see we are going through the dusty-old-building makeover today, mon ami." A French accent sounded and Gilbert knew exactly who it belonged to.
Ludwig, however, was the first to say hello. "Hallo, Francis. Bruder is making me do everything for him while he sits around being lazy."
"Ah, I see. So you have the boy doing your bidding, hmm?"
Gilbert glared playfully at the teen and then looked back at Francis, "I am not! I'd have you know I've done plenty of stuff today."
Ludwig was quick to contradict that statement, "Like what?"
"You know...stuff."
Francis chuckled and walked over to Ludwig, seizing the dustpan from his grip. "Then I'll take over for a little while, Oui? I saw a certain little Italian on my way here. He was asking about you, so I assume he'll stop by later on." The Frenchman winked and bent down, holding the pan into place so that Gilbert could sweep in the liter.
"Really? He asked about...me?" Ludwig questioned, not knowing that his friend mentioned him to other people. Honestly, it made him feel like he wasn't as boring as he thought he was.
"Mm-hmm, he wanted to know what you were doing. I told him he should come see for himself. I don't think Feliciano has seen the building yet, has he?"
"Nein...I never thought to bring him inside." Usually, Ludwig would walk around town with Feliciano. Once he even went to the Italian's house...but his brother was there for the weekend and wasn't very fond of his presence. The entire day was full of insults that were emitted over nothing, all being wrought from the sour brother's mouth.
Gilbert spoke up, then. "You should let your little friend come see the construction. I wanted to splash paint on one of the walls to make it look colourful, I'm sure he'd like to help." Francis and Gilbert both shared a smile when the boy nodded and got excited.
It wasn't what most parents would call an excited child, but it was generally all you got from the seemingly stoic, calm German teen. His eyes lit up and he had a light smile on his face, one that showed he was looking forward to the events. "Ja, I'm going to call him real quick and ask."
With that, Ludwig went up the stairs to fetch his phone, leaving Gilbert alone with his French companion.
"God...is it wrong to say he's still fucking adorable?" The red-eyed man spoke up, his smile faltering into a huge, dopey grin.
Francis shrugged, "I would suppose that when a child is cute, he's cute. There's no changing the appearance of beauty." He flipped his hair and smirked, dauntingly helping his friend clean up the mess that was made of the area.
They worked for a while after that, all the way till the painters came and painted three off the walls lime green and leaving the one that Gilbert said he wanted to paint himself. It wasn't much longer after Francis went out to fetch everyone lunch that the door chimed again and a short boy walked in and giggled. "Ciao, Mr. Beilschmidt!" He greeted Gilbert, running up and hugging the man.
"Hallo there, kiddo. Just call me Gilbert." He told the Italian, hating nothing more than formal names. As well as the deep hatred he had in his last name, but he wasn't going to bother a mere child with that.
"Okay, Gilbert! Where's Luddy at?"
"He should be upstairs. Here, I'll go get him." Gilbert went up stairs and called for his brother and soon enough, a blond head was popping out of his room. "Francis is picking up lunch and Feliciano's here." Ludwig nodded and smiled again, walking back down to the first story to greet his guest.
However, it was the guest that greeted him, wrapping his arms around the German tightly. "Luddy! I haven't seen you in...three days I think!"
Well, Ludwig hadn't seen any of his family—besides Gilbert—in three years. It wasn't like he much cared though, his family was a bunch of assholes. "Is that a long time to you?" He asked, his spine going stiff form the personal contact.
"Of course! I missed you!" Feliciano exclaimed and let go of his friend with a cheer. Ludwig then relaxed and look around the room, feeling content with himself.
"It looks so different from when we first bought this place...it was mouldy and beaten down. It's a big difference that new flooring and plaster made."
The Italian bounced around the room and grinned, "I can't wait to buy ice cream here!"
"Hey, kid. You're a friend of Ludwig's, you can just have ice cream for free." Gilbert piped up as he opened a large box and began to pull out cans of vibrant paint.
"Wait, really?"
"Ja, I don't see why not."
Feliciano just seemed to be radiating happiness, sending beams of joy everywhere around him. "That's so nice! Grazie!"
Gilbert smirked and sent a wavering hand gesture. "Don't mention it, a friend of my bruder's is a friend of mine any day." Neon and pastel colours were marked on the tin lids and he chuckled to himself. Not once had he ever thought he would paint anything these colours. Alas, they appealed to the younger community of today. If Gilbert expected to be making profit from all this, he'd have to make some eye candy.
He bent down and opened every can, fetching a few paint brushes and handing one to both Feliciano and Ludwig. "You don't have to be neat about it. Just fling it on the wall any way you want."
Feliciano was first to try, dipping the brush into an orange can and splattering the blank wall with a relatively large blotch. He laughed and pushed Ludwig in front of him. "Now you try, Luddy!"
The blond nodded and coated his brush in a light blue, doing the same as his friend. The first marks were right next to each other. "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be." The boy had a smile that matched the brunette's and they continued to dart the wall in any colour they could grab.
According to Feliciano, Gilbert wasn't original at all with the colour he chose first. There was this big black splatter smack in the middle of the wall.
What? It looked cool to him.
The splattering went on for a decent hour, over thirty paint brushes covered in colours to meet the rainbow. Francis had come in with lunch in the middle of it all and watched happily till the three were done. He would have joined, but he preferred to stay a distance away and not get his clothing ruined. "It looks magnifique, mon amis!" the Frenchman decided, putting a wrapped sandwich in front of four out of many bar stools that were soon to be reupholstered in dashing, bright colours.
"I think it looks fucking awesome, already." Gilbert pumped the air with his fist, a triumphant gaze set on his countenance.
"Watch your language, Gilbert," Francis scolded, thumping the man in his nose, "there are children in here. Not to mention one that's your responsibility."
"Oh, come on. Ludwig's fifteen and I know Feli can't be much younger. It's just one bad word."
Feliciano nodded and shot a hand in the air. "Si! I'm almost Luddy's age!" His birthday was coming up in a bit over two months, he was even more happy than usual.
A sigh was pushed from the Frenchman's mouth and he warned, "I suppose...you two still don't repeat those foul words." Gilbert only rolled his eyes and had everyone sit down for lunch. It was a time for new beginnings, not scolding.
~X-X-X~
And thus ends the first chapter to a new project of mine~!
Reviews are rather motivational my dears. It is feedback that lets me know people want me to continue.
*****Chibi America*****