Author's Note: Hey, it's been a while. :D Yeah... I so sorry 'bout that. :( Over the past year, I've been having a lot of difficulties, a change of heart, and I've come to realize how horrible I was being. So among the announcement for this new story, I'd like to say something. I'm taking down my other stories. Yep! Forever. I'll leave them up for one more month, so reread them as much as you can, copy it into your Microsoft whatever files, even post it on your account. You can even continue the story for all I care! Just get the word out. :D Sorry if that seems harsh! I just want this to be the beginning of a brand new start for me! ^^ Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this, and please don't hate me! :( *LE CUE EPIC DREAMSCAPE MUSIC*
Warning: Genderbends and mild language used! Don't like, please move along and don't read~
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia! If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing this. xD
Chapter One: A Light in the Mist
November 9, 2001
Hello. My name is Madeline Williams. I have a large, white dog named... um... I believe it's Kumichi...or is it Kumajichi? My mind is fading... It's something like that, though, I'm sure of it! I also live in Ottawa, Canada. I've been separated from my twin sister Amelia F. Jones for over five years now due to our parents being divorced. She now lives in Massena, New York with my mother, but she still makes the occasional phone call or visit. I have a Cuban friend named Ricardo Lopez and a friend who claims to be Prussian named Gilbert Beilschmidt. You may be wondering why I'm telling you this... well...
On the ninth of November...
My death became a fixed moment in time.
-*O*O*O*(/) ^ J^ ) /)O*O*O*-
"STOP SMOKING! YOU'RE MESSING WITH THE AWESOME ONE'S LUNGS!"
"If it bothers you so much, why don't you leave me and Madeline to do our homework on our own?"
"BECAUSE THEN YOU'LL MESS WITH MADDIE'S LUNGS!"
I let out a sigh at the usual sight of my two best friends fighting. It always bothered me that two initially nice people seemed to want to start a war with each other on sight, no matter the circumstance. Really, I would never understand it.
"U-Um. . . Could you two please stop fighting? We really need to finish this. . ." I murmured and diverted my violet-blue eyes to the floor.
"Kesesese~ Of course, Birdie! As long as Retardo here promises to stop smoking!" Gilbert smirked.
Ricardo seemed to be seething with anger at the nickname, "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"
"C-Come on, guys. . ."
"You heard me! Re-tar-do~"
Ricardo grabbed Gilbert's collar and lifted him into the air, "Say that again! I dare you!"
"Okay, that's enough!" I exclaimed, speaking louder than I usually did, "I think that calls for a break! Why don't you two go downstairs and calm down while I make pancakes?"
Ricardo sighed and set the albino 'Prussian' down, "I apologize, Madeline. I don't know what came over me."
"Yeah, yeah. . . I'm sorry too. . . Now how 'bout some of those wonderful pancakes you make, Birdie?" Gilbert smiled sheepishly.
I rolled my eyes and put my hands on my hips, "I swear, you guys only like me for my pancakes!"
-*O*O*O*(/) ^ J^ ) /)O*O*O*-
"Your drawings are really good, Birdie!" Gilbert stated with a mouth full of pancakes.
I looked up in mid-stroke of drawing what appeared to be a creepy, smiling man with a long scarf tied around his neck, "O-Oh? Thanks. . . Most of the time, though, I don't mean to draw everything that I do."
"What do you mean?" Ricardo asked curiously.
"It's hard to explain," I murmured as I shifted in my seat, "It usually starts with an image of a person I've never seen before in my head, then I suddenly find myself drawing some stranger."
"Usually?" Gilbert and Ricardo said in unison, causing them to glare at each other.
I made a small nod and flipped through my sketch notebook. I stopped on a page of a person that resembled Gilbert, but he seemed to be in some sort of old time-y, elaborate soldier costume, "Sometimes I see the faces of people I do know, but they end up having some kind of different attire. I've drawn you, Ricardo, and even my twin sister before."
Gilbert and Ricardo looked at each other with an unknown emotion passing between them. The look surprised me, I remember that much, but I couldn't find myself able to identify the emotion before it was gone.
"You've been having daydreams about me?" Gilbert teased, "Something you want to tell me, Birdie?"
My face flushed a bright red at the tease. I scowled quickly at an attempt to cover up my embarrassment, but I don't think it helped in the slightest, "Mon dieu, Gilbert! D-Don't be so childish!"
"Kesesesesese~ Why? It's so much fun!" Gilbert snickered.
Eventually Gilbert's contagious laugh made me giggle, the giggle a quickly turning into a full-blown laugh, which even made Ricardo trickle into a small bit of laughter. We may not have remembered what we were laughing about after a while, but it did not matter. We were having a good time. A really good time. I miss those days where the biggest event was Gilbert getting into detention because of spray painting school property, or that my dog Kuma had gotten a hold of Gil's pet bird, ironically named Gilbird.
It was a few days after that meeting, if my fading mind serves me right, and the beginnings of the wonderful, blessed weekend had just begun. I was walking my dog in the orange, golden lights of the beautiful evenings of Ottawa. The snow from earlier that day had settled in thick, glistening layers on anything it could attach itself to. It was just another normal day for me. I never expected what was to come of that day and I still find myself having difficulties to grasp it, but perhaps that is because my mind grows hazy, even now.
Kuma started barking and growling, but I could not find the source of what was troubling the bear-like dog, "Calm down, Kuma. . . There's nothing there." Yet no matter how much I tried to calm him down, he just wouldn't stop. When I was about to leave and dismiss it as nothing, I heard the faint sound of someone singing.
The flow'rets have been sleeping
Long since moonlight fair.
Their heads are gently nodding
On stems in silence there.
The flow'ring trees their branches wave
And rustle as in dreams.
Slumber, slumber
O sleep my little one.
I froze in mid-step at the lullaby. It was a song that my mother and grandmother used to sing to me when I was younger... It gave me such a nostalgic feel, because I had not heard it since my grandmother's death.
The little birds were singing
So sweetly in the sun,
But now they are all nesting
And dreaming ev'ry one.
The cricket in the meadowland
Is all that one can hear.
Slumber, slumber
Sleep on my little one.
As the third verse came around, I looked around frantically to find the source of the singing, "Who's there? !" The only reply was the continuing of the song.
The sandman comes on tiptoe
And views each tiny head,
To find perchance a truant
Who had not gone to bed.
And when he finds a little one
He strews his eyes with sand.
Slumber, slumber
O sleep my little one.
When the song ended, I felt a strange emptiness inside my chest. It even made me feel lightheaded. In my confusion, a light appeared in front of me. It started as a small, hovering ball that resembled a miniature star. Little flickers of light came from the glimmering ball and licked at the sky greedily. Eventually the ball began to shift and change in shape. The end result was a small woman with an aura of light and mystery surrounding her.
"Madeline. . . My sweet grandchild, how I have missed you."
Author's Note: So what do you think? Good? Bad? Meh? For over a year of not writing, I wasn't as rusting as I thought I was. xD If you have any question about who's who, just let me know! What do you guys think about the Cubaxfem!CanadaxPrussia? I think i made it kind of obvious, yet Maddie is as oblivious as always. xD I'm not even sure if who I want to end up with her! Please drop a review on your opinion~ I hope none of my readers/reviewers got chased off, because I still love you! :(
Maddie: P-Please R&R! Every writer needs a critic, eh!
Gilbert: HAHAHAHAHAH! REVIEW AND GIVE ME BEER OR I'LL INVADE YOUR VITAL REGIONS!
Elizaveta: *knocks Gil out with a frying pan* Shut up, stupid. -_-