(A/N): This is a Human AU of Belarus and America.
One-Shot: Imagine Person A of your OTP kissing Person B's scars.
Scars. Ugly, deep, thick ones. At one point she was convinced that her body was held together by this scar tissue. And that's when she had tried to break it apart. Blood pooled on the floor as her knife cut through her wrist, slicing through the flesh and healing into more scars.
Scars. On her arms, legs, back, stomach. Anywhere another person could touch, the skin was warped. Some barely scratched the surface but some marred large areas. Some healed, returning the skin to a milky white, just a shade lighter than her natural hue. Others were a sick, deep red, never fully healing.
And yet she made more. So many had been given to her, at a point it was a relief to know that she was giving herself these ones every time her knife cut and the sticky red spilled from her veins.
But then the knife was gone, taken from her carefully as a wet rag and then a bandage was pressed onto the self-inflicted wound. The a kiss, a loving on the top of her head, while a broken, hurt voice asked her, "Are you alright..? Please.. Please tell me that you're alright."
Her mouth opened, too dry to speak, as she shook her head. A strangled sob escaped the man as he pulled her into his warm, safe embrace. His breath was ragged as he kissed her forehead, muttering everything he could think of. How much he loved her, how much he wanted, no, needed to help her, what he would do if anything ever happened to her…
At this point he would falter, unable to continue as he stroked her long platinum hair. She let him cry into her shoulder as she hushed him and sang softly into his ear, rubbing his back gently. It broke her heart to see him like this. He'd known this was happening and he'd begged her to stop, but he'd never walked in on her. He'd never broken down in front of her like this.
She pulled him up and kissed his cheek, still singing gently in Belarusian to him as she felt him relaxed in her arms. Never, she told him, never again. And she didn't. She'd never cut more scars into herself. But the ones there never faded as she looked in the mirror at her marred and hideous body.
During the day, the man would laugh and joke with her, keeping her mind free of anything that might bring sorrow to her heart. But at night when she would dress for bed, he would catch her staring in the mirror and trembling slightly as her eyes raked over the markings she considered disfiguring.
He would sigh, biting his lip as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her shoulder tenderly. She would stand there, still staring, until she closed her eyes and nodded, moving back to the bedroom and slipping into the bed with him. The man would smile gently and hold his arms out for her hopefully. She would chuckle and kiss his lips softly while moving into his embrace. There was no safer feeling in the world for her than to be held in his arms as she drifted off to sleep, sighing as he pressed soft kisses in her hair and whispered sweet nothings.
Everything about this man was sweet, from the way he would smile at her to the small gestures he would do without thinking about it that really touched her heart. Finding a cup of coffee already brewed and waiting for her in the morning as her fiancée busied himself with making eggs, would take her aback every time. As she took the warm mug in her hands and thanked him, he would look back, slightly startled by her thanks. He didn't think about it anymore. It was just something he did; he would do anything for her as he so often reminded her. And while she used that as an excuse to make him stand up to get the remote while watching television, he complained only a little before returning with the device and kissing her forehead.
But this wasn't all he did for her.
It was one day, they'd only been dating for a few months but she had been staying at his house over the weekend. It was the day she had realized that she loved him.
Natalya snarled loudly, throwing her phone at the wall as she shouted in Russian. Frowning, Alfred paused his video game even as another tank shot at the alien he was controlling. He hadn't notice that anything had been wrong, she was just talking on the phone in rapid Russian, sounding angry. But then again, to him, she always sounded upset when she spoke in her brother's language like that.
"Hey… What's wrong, babe?" He asked from his remote location on the floor, sitting cross-legged with posture that she would have called 'disgraceful'.
Natalya's sharp violet eyes found him and she fired Russian insults at him that would have made a nun faint, her gaze as brutal as he'd ever seen it.
Sighing, Alfred stood up and walked over to her, ignoring the fierce hateful look she gave him, and pulled her into his embrace. "Shhh…" He cooed to her, kissing to top of the much shorter woman's head, "White-heart. What is it..?"
Any other person would have been on the floor by now, her knife at their throat. No one. No one touched Natalya when she was this angry unless they had a death wish. She had a problem with personal space to begin with, but when she was upset, it was like her body couldn't handle it.
But she didn't push him away. Her shoulders shook, silent tears running down to her chin—ruining up the little make up she was wearing. Alfred kissed her forehead, lifting her face to peer into it. His small smile fell as soon as her saw her, the tears upsetting him more than anything she could do.
"I-I.. Oh, Oh God. Natty! Wh-What's wrong?" He spluttered out, unable to do much else but hold her tight and wipe the tears away gently.
"M-My.." Her lips trembled, "It's my brother.."
His eyes darkened, "I'll kill him."
Sighing sadly and blinking to try to stem the flow of tears, Natalya shook her head, "Al-Alfred.. Please. I just… He wants me to move back to Russia. He doesn't want me here anymore."
Alfred's entire body stiffened and his hand curled up in the skirts of her dress, preventing her from moving. "Y-You.." His face was unreadable, "I'll do anything."
She looked up at him, slightly confused. Natalya had told her brother 'no' without a moment's hesitation, but Alfred didn't know that. "Alfred, I—"
His fingers came up to cover her mouth, "Natalya.." Alfred's eyes changed, sorrow and pain behind them as he said her real name for the first time in weeks, instead of the nickname she pretended to hate.
"You.. You know I would do anything for you. Anything. J-Just.." His voice broke, "Don't leave. I-I.. If you leave, I'll just have to follow you. And if I follow you, you're going to get really irritated with me and force me to go back here. And then I'll sit here, thinking about you until I drive myself insane and fall down at your feet and beg you to come back." Alfred spoke quickly, becoming more and more desperate by the second, "B-But.. If it's going to end with me begging, then I might as well do it now! Y-Yeah..?"
She'd never seen his face so broken as when he knelt down, tears threatening to break through his normally clear sky blue eyes. "N-Natty.. Please.." Alfred looked up at her, hugging her waist while he was on his knees, "I-I.. I can't lose you."
Blinking back tears, she stroked his hair gently as she knelt down in front of him. "Hush..." She said softly, kissing his cheek, "I'm not. I'm not leaving you. I said no. I'm not going anywhere…"
A relieved sob tore through his throat, his chest still tight, "O-Oh.. Oh God." He wept silently, holding her tightly while she spoke to him gently.
"Alfred…" She cooed after a minute, "I-I.. I love you too."
His head shot up, grinning behind the tears. He'd said those words a month ago and every day since, but she'd only nodded or rolled her eyes. Occasionally she'd mumbled, 'You too..' But she'd never said them.
"I love you… Natty, I love you." He kissed her softly, happily.
Natalya sighed into the kiss before pulling away and hugging him a little tighter, whispering in his ear, "And I'm not going back.."
Alfred had never been so happy in his life and with every beat of his heart, he felt as if it might burst with joy. Natalya had never felt so safe and loved; it was strange to think that someone could love her this much, but Alfred did and that both thrilled and terrified her. And yet, she wouldn't have changed it for the world.
Even though that was the first time that she'd said 'I love you', it was not the first time she'd thought it. It was their first time.
Natalya blushed lightly as he threw her shirt across the room, turning her head away. She hadn't told him or warned him. Honestly, it was because she didn't want him to leave. When Alfred looked back down at her, love and lust mingled in his gaze, his face fell slightly.
Her lips trembled and her eyes shut tightly as he gazed down at her, "P-Please, don't leave…"
Alfred's mouth opened to speak, but he found he couldn't. Sighing, he leaned down and kissed her ear, whispering, "Natty, I'm not going anywhere.. You're beautiful."
Her violet eyes opened to see him still gazing at her with utter adoration, a small comforting smile on his lips. Natalya trembled as he caressed her cheek, mumbling softly, "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I would never change a thing about you; a few scars won't make me feel any differently."
Eyebrows knitting together, she tried to make sense of what he'd said. But too many thoughts flew into her mind, tangling up together in a jumbled web of emotion.
Alfred had seen the scars to her face, a slice on her eyebrow, cuts to her lips, and more, but he didn't know there was more. He wished he had. It broke him, everything that was Alfred F. Jones, to think that she was going through this pain without his help. "But…" He sighed softly, kissing the scar on her brow, "I wish you had told me. I would have done this a long time ago.."
She looked down at him, more questions in her mind than she could ever voice, but they were all silenced as his lips moved down her face, peppering it with soft kisses. Alfred moved across, kissing every scar he could see, wishing with all of his heart that this would make them go away. Not because he hated them, but because he hated how they hurt her.
Soft, but firm lips touched the deep scar on her neck, where someone had tried to slice her open throat. They kissed the nick on her collar bone from where she'd broken it and it hadn't set properly. His lips brush down the long slice across her side.
Alfred didn't miss a single one. And as he poured his love for her into these scars that indicated her shameful past, Natalya felt it disappearing. No matter how hard he tried, the scars on her body would never be gone, but with every passing day that she spent with him, the scars on her soul faded.