A/N—

Couple: Ukraine x Belarus

Genres: Romance, Family, Tragedy, Angst

Warning: Incest, murder, character death

It was an average night when Katyusha first told me. I remember the soft tone of her voice when she said it; it was the same tone of voice she'd use when I woke up in the middle of the night when I was younger and crawled into her bed. It made the same feeling of warmth blossom inside of me, it made my heart thunder against my ribcage.

"Natasha, I love you." Despite the fact that those words were said to me so many times with such platonic intentions, I could tell that they differed from the other dozens of times. She rarely ever used my name—often just settling on addressing me as "sister". Her voice didn't seem so strong and comforting anymore, either; her words shook as her voice trembled.

Katyusha let her fingertips brush across my own before letting them sink in between my fingers, intertwining our digits. Her fingers were warm, like they were blushing along with the pink dusted across her cheeks. I removed my fingers from her's, and saw hurt flash across her face. But that pain was gone as it had appeared when I cupped her cheek with my hand. Her skin seemed as delicate as porcelain, and I was frightened that I might make that pale, smooth skin crack. I acted as gentle as possible when I leaned towards her face, our lips growing closer and closer until my lips finally pressed against her. I could feel my heart pounding so loudly I thought it might burst.

With my arms draped around her broader shoulders, I kissed and touched her silky skin throughout the night. Our hands fit together like puzzle pieces as we fell in love time and time again in a mere hour. Those hours came back again nearly every night. We were so committed to each other; a true love we had—one to make fraud lovers glare with envy. And I'm sure we would have been envied, if we hadn't been sisters. No, we weren't admired or envied for having such a passionate love. We were hated by the rest of this disgusting world, and I truly found that out when it took away my dear sister, my lover, but most of all, my Katyusha.

In the beginning, I wasn't quite sure what made that single fateful day so different from all the others. I awoke with an aching pit rising in my stomach, unable to move from the position on my bed.

"Natasha, you should stay home." Katyusha told me, stroking my wisps of long, blond hair.

I turned my head to meet her cerulean orbs. "Yeah, I guess so."

My sister softly smiled down at me. "I guess I'll be taking a day off, then." She stood up from her spot next to me, but before she could move away, I grabbed her sleeve. Katyusha rose an eyebrow, asking the reason I stopped her.

"No, I'll be fine on my own." I assured her. "I'll be sure to take the medicine every three hours."

Katyusha frowned, tilting her head. "But what if something happens?"

I chuckled lightly, mainly to loosen up her worry. "I'm 16, Katyusha, I'll be okay."

She smiled slightly, but I could still tell that there was some worry hidden in the gesture. "Okay, just call me if something is wrong." That said, she leaned down and pecked me on the cheek. "I love you."

My lips curved up in a small smile. "'Love you too."

I wish I knew that it was the last time I would ever get the opportunity to tell her that.

"Hello, this is Katyusha. I can't pick up at the phone right—"

I pressed the 'end' button on my cellphone, taking a moment to gaze at the picture of Katyusha and I in the background before shutting it.

"It's not like her to be so late." my brother, Ivan, mused aloud.

I nodded, biting my lip and staring at the carpet. "And she's not picking up."

Ivan took my hand and squeezed it, attempting to comfort me. He knew about me and Katyusha's relationship, and that I was just as concerned as him.

"I'll call Toris to see if he's seen her." he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and beginning to scroll through the contacts.

When Toris picked up, my brother put it on speaker.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Hey, have you seen Katyusha today? She hasn't showed up and she's not picking up her phone." Ivan stated, concern tinging his voice.

"No, I haven't, sorry. Feliks is here, though. Let me see if he knows anything." he said, before going to yell towards the Pole accompanying him. "Hey, Feliks, have you seen Katyusha lately?"

Ivan and I waited eagerly, with our fingers crossed and our hearts thundering in our chests.

"Feliks said he saw her walking out of the university at around three thirty."

It was nice to know when she was last seen, but it didn't let us know where she was now.

"Okay, thanks, guys." Ivan hung up before beginning to dial another number.

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "Who're you calling now?"

Without looking up, he responded, "The police."

We waited as the phone beeped for a small amount of time before a female voice picked up.

"This is 911, what is your emergency?" she asked rather mechanically.

Ivan responded immediately, "I'd like to report a missing person. My sister left this morning for school and hasn't come home yet; she's not picking up her phone either."

"I apologise, but a missing persons report can only be filed after 48 hours. Please call back when 48 hours have passed. Thank you." Like that, we were left to stare at the phone as it blinked and beeped.

I clutched the fabric of my dress, growling lowly. My brother didn't fail to notice my rage, and offered to call some people to help search for Katyusha. I agreed, and waited until he got ahold of various classmates.

Me, Ivan, and multiple of his classmates were wandering around ditches and trees not long after he called them.

I was aware that not many people were fond of me and my brother, but everyone adored Katyusha. She was always willing to help people and never seemed to lose her temper.

"You look over there, and I'll check over here!" Gilbert yelled from across the street.

I would've argued about him ordering me around, but I wanted to find Katyusha, not waste time fighting childishly with him.

"Okay!" I responded.

I jumped from the street down towards the forest, a flashlight guiding me around the dark and dreary bundle of twigs and trees. The area made a shiver run down my spine; I didn't like the way it looked. It gave me fear for what would happen to me, but more so what had happened to Katyusha. The stomach pains from earlier seemed to have started growing once more, though this time, my urge to throw up was coming from fear.

At first, I thought that the rotting odour seizing my nostrils was simply due to the paranoia I was feeling inside. I soon realised that wasn't the case, though. My eyes laid on a pile of Autumn-stricken leaves. It was larger than what would've been considered normal, which was the first sign that something was wrong. The moment I absolutely knew something was horribly wrong was when I took notice of a stray limb sticking out from it.

My heart stopped, my eyes widened, and my legs shook. Those fingers looked familiar. They were the fingers I had intertwined with my own just the night before. I reached out and touched them, but they weren't as warm and full of life as they had been last night. They were cold; I squeezed them, as if to relieve them of their loneliness. I yanked on the arm, only to reveal what I had been fearing this entire time.

There, in front of me, lay the cold and deceased body of my beloved. Her face was pale and sprinkled with her own blood. The torso that I had once touched so gently was assaulted with stab wounds. On her forehead were the words 'Sister fucker' written in her own blood, partially covered by her bangs.

I gripped her hand tighter, just gazing at her body. This was the body I had just touched this morning, those lips were the lips that had just touched my cheek this morning. Tears of crystal agony fell down my cheek and onto her face. My sobs grew louder, and louder; and with each cry, my heart ached even more. I hugged my shoulders and dug my fingernails into the skin. Screeches started erupting from my throat.

I stood next to my brother in the town funeral parlour. Many of the others cried along at the loss of Katyusha, but me and Ivan cried the loudest.

She looked so beautiful and peaceful, laying contently in her coffin. She wore obsidian gowns with bows and lace decorating them. I had put a sunflower over her torso, where she had been stabbed. Although her body had been fixed up for the wounds to not be visible, I could still see them as I had on that fateful night.

I bent down near her cold and motionless face, taking a moment to simply stare at it. I would never get a chance to look into those beautiful, sapphire eyes ever again; I would never be able to feel those lips move soundly against my own. Without caring about the pairs of eyes glued to me, I pressed my lips against her's. Ah, they felt as I had imagined. They were frigid as a blizzard on a winters evening, and tasted of powder. I settled for this, though, as it was the last time I would ever get to touch her before she was sent six feet underground.

I pulled away from Katyusha, giving her beauty one last admiration, before walking out of the parlour.

It was a mere week after Katyusha's death when I did it. Ivan was at school, and I had stayed home, claiming I didn't feel well.

Part of me felt terrible for lying to my brother, but the other part of me that wished to see my sister was far stronger. Ivan had no clue that here I stood, in the restroom, with a bottle of toxic liquid and a picture of my beloved Katyusha in my hand.

It happened in a flash. I opened the bottle, looked at the photo of my sister, and began drinking. Bleach drowned my throat in burns and scratches, making its way towards my stomach. Soon, I found myself falling to the floor, with my heart beat becoming gentler and gentler until my eyes closed, and it stopped.

It was agonising, but it was painful for Katyusha to get killed too. I didn't mind dying if it was for her. It was okay, because I would see her once again. One day, she was taken from me, and today was the day she would be given back to me. Our fingers would be intertwined as they were those nights I loved her as we drifted off into a temporary dream that had been shattered. But this time, we would be lulled into a dream that would last for an eternity—it would never be broken.