The story I'm about to tell you is not a happy one. It's not full of knights in shinning armour, or princes, or princess. It doesn't end with the couple riding off into the sunset. Or the kingdom being saved. This story is about a girl, who was given eight months to live; and a boy, who made her smile in her final moments.

Elizaveta Héderváry had always been a sickly child. When Elizaveta was seven years old she was diagnosed with an unheard, one out of a million combination of Aplastic anemia and Autoimmune hemolytic anemia. While aplastic anemia caused her bone marrow to not produce enough blood cells, autoimmune hemolytic killed whatever red blood cells she did produce. Luckily, or rather unlucky, her father owned a rather large business company which gave her the opportunity to see many doctors. Elizaveta started to take prednisone to suppress her immune system from killing her blood cells. This worked and helped her to get better if only for a short time. Slowly the effects started to ware off and the prednisone no longer helped. Her father then turned to having her get frequent blood transfusions in order to make up for what she could not produce. Once again this only seemed to slow down the inevitable. She received the news that she would most likely not live past her twenties when she was thirteen. In fact it would be a miracle if she even made it to her twenties.

Elizaveta took the cold hard truth head on. She was dying and she couldn't stop it. Her father tried to make her happy by giving her anything she wanted and showering her with gifts. But her never gave her the one thing she wanted the most. Freedom. She was never aloud out of the house without at least two escorts, she wasn't aloud to leave the estate without five escorts (three for protection, two for assistance), and she wasn't aloud to go to public school. Elizaveta was now seventeen years old and she had never once had a real friend besides her servants. Even then they treated her like some priceless fragile piece. Only made for looking, not for interaction.

The only time she was able to escape this life was when she went out for a ride on her horse and only friend, Candle light. She was a beautiful chestnut appaloosa with a long flowing main. She'd sometimes spend hours at a time with her on a ride; even though she'd get in trouble for it later. The feeling she got was like none other. Like she wasn't dying for one; but like she could fly and everything was right in the world.

She did not know, or ever expect, that her life could be permanently changed on just a single ride. If only for a short time.

September 3

Elizaveta woke up to the sound of the head maid knocking on her down. "Lady Elizaveta? Time to wake up." The maid walked in as Elizaveta sat up in her cushions. Her maid was named Katyusha and had short blond hair and an incredibly large chest; she had been her nurse when she was little and practically raised Elizaveta. She sat a tray table atop of her of an omelette, biscuits, jam, and hot tea. Elizaveta always ate breakfast in bed by orders of her father, who thought it would be safer for her to do. After her meal the family doctor came in and requested her right arm, which she handed to him immediately. He stuck a needle into her vein and injected her with a dose of blood that would help her through today. Next her servants dressed her in a light green silk gown and put her hair up in a bun. She wasn't allowed to dress herself either. After that, she sat herself down in a wheelchair and had her maids escort her to her study for her lessons. Her father insisted she was taken everywhere in that thing, saying she was to weak to walk.

Elizaveta studied business, history, mathematics, literature, and music. Four hours later she was done with her studies and was taken to the dinning room by Katyusha in that damned chair. She was served hot soup with a loft of bread, along with a glass of water. Finally, all of this pampering paid off for her favorite time of day, her afternoon ride. Elizaveta had struck a deal with her and father quite some time ago stating that she would accept and tolerate excessive care in exchange for a free hour to herself and her horse. Her guard walked her to the stables where he then saddled her horse for her, her family was in need of a new stable boy, the last one was fired after being caught stealing. Once her horse was brought out, Elizaveta immediately jumped out of her chair to meet her. After giving her a small treat, she mounted Candle and trotted over to the gates. The guard came up to her to repeat the same old instructions before he opened the gateway to her own personal paradise.

"No going beyond the estate grounds, do not converse with anyone you pass on the road, and be back in one hour. If you are gone any later, a search party shall be sent out right away." He said firmly.

And with that, Elizaveta finally escaped that dreadful house. She pick up speed quickly and soon left the road to run into the vast green fields. The wind whipped her oak brown hair wildly and it slowly fell from her bun and dance around her.

As she passed over the hills she soon noticed she was no longer alone. A figure ridding a pure white horse made their way towards her, she began to worry but worry turned to panic as the came if front of her and caused her to come to a complete stop. The figure who stopped her was a young man with platinum blond hair and viviolet red eyes.

"Didn't know there were women who could ride like that around here." He spoke in a German accent, sounding cocky. Elizaveta narrowed her eyes, never once in her life did someone ever talk to her with that tone of voice. "Care to race?" He smirked. She glared back and he took that as a yes. "To to the next hill over there." He pointed to there destination. Elizaveta looked over and started off right away, with the stranger right beside her. They were neck and neck for awhile, occasionally pulling ahead of the other. But he soon pulled ahead of Elizaveta where she could not keep up. He finished the race first with Elizaveta right on his tail. Candle light panted heavily under her, so she dismounted and they sat down together, Elizaveta leaning on Candle.

Also dismounted and sat down in the grass, asking her for her name. She wasn't sure if she should tell him, she had never really spoken to anyone besides her father and her servants. But for some reason, she found herself saying "My name Is Elizaveta."

"Ah that's far too long, I'm gonna call you Lizzy." He grinned at her bewilderment, what was that? A pet name?! How rude and immature! But... also slightly refreshing.

The immature man then pointed to himself and said, "My awesome self is called Gilbert Beilschmidt. Do you by any chance know where the Héderváry mansion is? My awesome self was on my way to their estate when the chirping sound of birds led me off course." He said dramatically.

"So you're lost." Elizaveta stated bluntly.

The strange man scoffed. "Lost is such an unawesome term to use."

Liz rolled her eyes and stood up, pointing over too the hill to their left. "On the other side of that hill is the main road, if you follow it westward you should reach the estate in about twenty minutes at full speed." She answered Gilbert. She then grabbed Candle's reign and walked her down the hill. Gilbert quickly followed behind with his horse. Elizaveta looked back at him confused. "Why are you following me? I just gave you directions."

"Yeah, well it would be totally unawesome for one as awesome as me to leave you alone out here in the wilderness with no protection." The red eyed, blond replied.

"Thanks but no thanks. I can handle myself." She retorted back. Out of nowhere, Elizaveta was spun around to meet a long sword faced right at her. Her heart started to beat faster and she began to panic, resulting in her becoming extremely light headed.

"If you can protect yourself then what would you do if a stranger, such as myself, suddenly attacked you?" Gilbert inquired.

Elizaveta staggered and leaned against Candle light for support. "Well I am out of sorts at the moment, but I would usually..." Liz paused to think of what she would do. She was unarmed and she didn't know how to fight. Eventually she came up with a cowards answer, even though she despised the idea. "I would run away back to the main house."

Gilbert gave her a hearty chuckle. "And what if they had a horse as well?" He continued as he sheathed his blade. Elizaveta kept her mouth shut that time, knowing if that was case, she wouldn't have been able to escape.

"Well then I guess I would die." She said firmly, as if she didn't seem to care. This shocked him, for someone to sound like they didn't care about their life at all. Elizaveta ignored him and continued to walk until she came across a river, where she sat down and scooped up some water to drink. Her head was pounding and she felt like the world spinning around her. Looking up at the sky she noticed that the sun was almost at three O'clock. She nearly bolted up from the river, still taking it slowly, and swiftly mounted her horse.

"Where are you going now?" The lad known as Gilbert asked her.

"Home." She replied shortly then took off in a flash. She raced her way over the hills and back to the main road. Her head would not stop pounding as she breathed heavier and heavier until she was struggling to breathe. Her doctor's words rung through her mind, but she just shook it off. Soon she saw the gates and slowed down. The guards opened up for her to let her in, but as soon as she entered her vision began to turn black and her consciousness slipped away. She felt herself fall from her horse and collapse onto the ground. The last thing she remembered was seeing faces swarm around her, and pick her up; putting her back in that blasted chair.

.

.

.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my first Hetalia fic. I have nothing really else to say besides I hope you enjoyed.

I also don't know much about medicine so if I got something wrong please have mercy.

Favorite, Follow, Review~