A/N: Well.
Firstly, I'll say: This fic is based off of the manga/anime Kamisama Hajimemashita (the basic plot, anyway). I haven't finished reading it yet, and I've only watched the first two episodes, but I guess that doesn't exactly matter. There are some concepts in this story that are taken from the manga/anime, but you don't have to actually read it first to understand what's going on. There are no spoilers for it, in any case, so if you get interested and want to read it, go ahead, haha.
Secondly, this is sort of formatted in a way that a shoujo manga usually would be, if that makes any sense at all. Some characters might be a little OOC because of this (it's for comedic and fluff purposes, really), but I'll try to keep them as IC as possible. Things might seem to be getting a little ridiculous at times, but this is Hetalia combined with a shoujo manga, so it's to be expected.
Thirdly, this is written as a belated birthday gift to my best friend. I know I promised to finish The Theory of Love for you, but I wasn't feeling it, so I decided to change my plan. I'm giving you a whole multi-chapter fic instead, hooray! (I'm sorry, I'll finish this one, I promise.) I know you're more of a romantic comedy type of person, and I remember you telling me one day how much you wanted me to write a sort of cliché-ish story, so here it finally is. (Now where's my belated birthday present, hm?)
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia: Axis Powers or Kamisama Hajimemashita. This applies to the whole fic. (It's fanfiction, after all.)
the queen and her lionheart
chapter one: lady bad luck
"Well, this sucks."
Michelle placed her chin on top of the palm of her hand, the very picture of sulking. To the strangers around her, she must have looked completely pathetic: a young girl most certainly still in high school, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old, sitting on top of a lone worn suitcase in the middle of a busy pedestrian crossing. She must have appeared as some sort of runaway, with the visible tear near the bottom of her dress, and the fact that she only had one shoe on.
...Okay, perhaps she seemed more like a criminal than anything else, but none of what had happened just that morning had been her fault. Really.
Due to some... financial issues back home in her small town, Michelle had decided to stay with some distant relatives in the city until she graduated. (Of course, she didn't know these distant relatives but, in her opinion, they couldn't possibly be worse than her own parents - don't get her started on them.) It was only going to be temporary, in any case, and she doubted that she would spend the majority of her time with them, anyway. Eager thoughts of a new high school, actually having the chance to make friends who didn't know about her, ahem, unpleasant familial situation, and the prospect of starting fresh clouded her mind the moment she had gotten the okay from her parents to move away; and the fact that she didn't know anything about her apparent "distant relatives" hadn't even once crossed her mind.
Thinking about how excited and stupid she had been back then proceeded to further dampen her already foul mood, and she could almost see herself retreating into the dark recesses of her mind and ignoring the irritated glances of passerby as they noticed her blocking the path and the horrid shape she was in.
Speaking of her horrid state of appearance...
Michelle scowled, a dark cloud of both irritation and despair seeming to almost appear above her dark head of hair. She had only arrived in the city a few hours before, and things were already taking a turn for the worse. The optimism she had been feeling the day before completely vanished the moment she had shown up at her relatives' doorstep, dress still intact and both shoes still on. She had rehearsed to herself in front of her mirror on what she was going to say to them, how she was going to act; and the very second after she had rang the doorbell of their quaint little house (much nicer than the small apartment that she and her parents had lived in for the majority of her life), she had mustered up the brightest and friendliest smile that she could possibly manage through her fog of nerves, determined the make the best first impression she could.
If there was anything that her parents had drilled into her head (that was actually useful), it was that first impressions meant everything.
For once in her life, she was going to get people to like her, even if she had to stretch her lips to their limit doing it.
'Of course, it didn't even end up producing anything useful,' she thought to herself, her lips still curled into a scowl, 'seeing as they didn't even know I was coming.'
No, perhaps that was an understatement.
They hadn't even known that she existed.
She supposed she should have expected this. When she had brought up the idea to her parents of allowing her to move away to the city, they had surprisingly been quite eager with the request, and had immediately informed her of some "distant relatives" that they said would be glad to have her stay with them. She had assumed that her parents would call them to tell them about her sudden intrusion into their lives.
Now that she was really thinking about it, she wanted to face palm. Her parents could barely remember when to pay the rent or the name of her former high school, much less the fact that their one and only daughter was moving away to live with relatives that they had never spoken to even once in their lives.
She had learned this little fact the hard way. The moment that the door had opened, by the expressions on the faces of the family inside, she knew that they had absolutely no idea who she was.
Once she had explained the situation to them as calmly as she could (translation: through her emotional haze of being torn between bursting into tears or running back home and kicking both of her parents in their faces), they had, of course, offered to call her parents back home and clarify the situation (translation: explain to them that they had no idea what was going on and offer to give her a ride back home), but she had quickly refused.
There was no way that she was going to miss the best opportunity she had ever had to stay and live in the city, and like heck she was going to come crawling back to her useless parents and stay with them until graduation.
No. Even if she had to find a job scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets with her own toothbrush, she would find a way to remain living in the city.
Thus, she had promptly placed her huge smile back on her face, told the apparent "distant relatives" that she would be fine making her way back home by herself, and grabbed her suitcase and called a taxi to take her to the nearest and cheapest restaurant that could be found.
She never made it there.
Michelle couldn't help but slump over and bury her face in her hands thinking about what had happened after she had gotten into the taxi, mentally cursing her usual naïvety and the little blinded optimism that she had managed to hold on to up until that point.
She should have known that, being as young and innocent looking as she was, that she would be an easy target of a scam. She had never stepped foot into the city until just that morning, and she knew absolutely nothing about it. She had gone in completely clueless, and the fact that she tended to act first and think later did not help her case at all.
First, the taxi driver had charged her way over the usual price of a ride (she had had her suspicions but, hey - she was in a big city, so by default, prices must be big, too, right?). Second, due to her usual clumsy nature, she had actually fallen out of the taxi the second after she had opened the door and attempted to properly step out. Much to her horror, she had actually managed to land face first onto the ground, bloody scratches immediately appearing on the surface of her palms after attempting to shield her face away from the concrete. If that hadn't been enough humiliation for the day, when she had managed to gain enough dignity to stand back up and slam the taxi door close (a little harder than necessary, as the driver was actually laughing at her - the nerve), she had gotten the bottom of her dress stuck.
Of course, with how things were already going that day, the stupid driver had actually driven away a second before she could even try to tug her dress out, thus ripping a decent portion of it clean off.
She had almost burst into noisy tears right then and there. It didn't help that people had seen it. She could even have sworn that she saw a camera flash somewhere off to the side.
If that hadn't already made her want to sink to the ground and die, after she had somehow managed to regain some composure and pick up her suitcase by her side, she had noticed that one of her shoes was gone.
Gone. Not there, not anywhere nearby, and certainly not on her foot.
After a few moments of numb thinking, she had come to the conclusion that her sandal had fallen off as she had fallen out of the taxi, and it was probably still in there now.
Her whole life, it seemed like bad luck followed her everywhere.
And now, here she was, maybe half an hour later: sitting alone, homeless, and cold. Michelle let out a soft sigh, barely managing to hang on to the little threads of optimism that she had left.
'At least I still have my clothes and my money,' she thought, a tiny smile tugging at her lips. She adjusted her position on top of her suitcase, as if to make sure that it was really still there. Satisfied with her findings, she then stuck her hand in the side pocket of her dress, almost delighted to feel the texture of the small wallet hidden inside.
She wouldn't starve at least. Later that day, she decided, she'd try to find a job. Until she saved enough money or found another place to stay, she could always just sleep on a bench in the park or under the slides or something...
"What's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?"
She fell off her suitcase.
Michelle let out a strangled croak as she painfully landed on the ground, passerby letting out exclamations of surprise as they attempted to move around her and not step on her sprawled form across the crosswalk. She jerked her legs in her haste to sit up, abruptly knocking her suitcase down and almost tripping someone as they walked past her.
She flailed pathetically as she dropped back down onto the rough concrete, letting out a squeal of horror as someone barely managed to stop themselves from stepping on her face.
Momentarily forgetting about the person who had caused her surprise and extreme embarrassment in the first place, she lifted an arm and covered her eyes, letting out a groan. At this point, she was about 99.9 percent sure that she was the very personification of Bad Luck, and that she was going to get herself killed before she could even try to find a job scrubbing toilets with her toothbrush.
She certainly felt like she had dumped herself in a toilet, in any case.
"Need a hand, bella?"
Jerking out of her daze and removing her arm away from her view, her dark eyes settled themselves on a tan hand held out inches away from her spot on the ground. Blinking owlishly, she trailed her gaze up the slim arm, slowly taking in the crisp white shirt and vintage leather jacket (both expensive-looking, she noted numbly), and the sun gently shining against the figure's features.
She blinked. Rubbed her eyes. Blinked again.
No. She wasn't dreaming, surprisingly.
Shamelessly, her eyes flitted across the stranger's face, curiously taking in the cheerful - if not almost charming - smile playing on his lips, the startling brightness and intensity of his eyes - amber in the sunlight, and gorgeous certainly. She tilted her head, her eyes making their way towards his brown hair and the strange curl sticking out of the left side of his head. He wore a stylish fedora, although if he was trying to hide the abnormal curl sticking out of his head, he was failing horribly.
'He's good-looking,' she realized simply, more curious than awed. Events like this never happened to girls like her, where a handsome stranger would take sudden interest in them and help them after a particularly brutal case of bad luck.
Breaking her out of her thoughts, the stranger repeated his prior question, his hand still held patiently out to her. Realizing that he was still waiting for her reaction, she let out an almost nervous laugh, reaching her hand out to grab his own, uttering a small squeak of surprise as he easily lifted her up to her feet.
'His hand is very gentle,' she noticed as he released his grip on her, barely realizing that he had leaned down to pick up her fallen suitcase.
She couldn't help but feel extremely inferior compared to the attractive stranger. He was obviously well-off and wealthy, if his appearance didn't already make that clear. Michelle had never really been one to care particularly for looks, but there were certainly times when even she had to acknowledge someone's attractiveness - and this stranger was definitely one of those cases.
"Are you alright?"
Michelle raised her head up from her intent gaze on the ground and towards the young man in front of her, eyes widening in slight surprise that he was still there. His head was tilted as he kept his gaze fixed on her, her suitcase still held firmly in one of his hands. He didn't seem too bothered by her ragged appearance, if at all. Nothing but curiosity shone in his eyes, but she still couldn't shake off the uneasiness that she was feeling. Perhaps it had something to do with all of the bad luck that had been blocking her path all day, but something in her gut told her that there was something distinctly... off with this stranger.
She tried shaking it off. So far he had been nothing but kind to her (in the few minutes that she had been in his presence), and he certainly didn't look like someone she had to be suspicious of - not with that smile of his, anyway.
'It's just paranoia,' she decided, shaking her head slightly to get rid of her prior thoughts.
"Yes, I'm fine," she answered, his question just now implanting itself into her mind. She tried for a smile, although it came off as more of a grimace. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, letting out a little laugh of embarrassment. "I'm sorry I... fell. You startled me."
"It's not everyday that this sort of thing happens to me, you know," she added jokingly when the stranger didn't respond, as if desperately searching for a way to cut through the awkward atmosphere.
The young man stared unblinkingly at her for a few moments, a thoughtful look in his eyes, before he finally allowed a bright smile to overtake his lips. "Oh, I see. I'm sorry I scared you! I should be the one apologizing - I should have caught you before you fell. That was really rude of me, huh?" He let out an airy laugh, his eyes briefly closing.
Michelle blinked owlishly at him, not expecting that response. What kind of person was this guy?
Before she could react, he suddenly leaned forward and took one of her hands in his, pulling it up to his face and rubbing the back of it against the smooth skin of his cheek. His smile turned softer, although now it seemed a little more... mischievous than before.
"I was just wondering: what would make a pretty lady like you make such a sad expression?"
Michelle gaped in shock, a flustered blush spreading across her cheeks against her will. She leaned away from him, reflexively trying to yank her hand out of his grasp. By that point, however, he had already lowered it away from his face and was now holding onto her wrist with a tight grip, that same smile still lighting up his face.
She made a few false starts, stuttering incomprehensibly as he rose an eyebrow at her reaction, seeming almost amused.
He kept his long fingers wrapped firmly around her wrist as he sent her a sweet smile, momentarily closing his eyes as he did so. "A bella signora like you shouldn't be treated so roughly." His gaze briefly dropped down towards her torn dress and her one sandal, his lips twitching a little in what she wanted to take as irritation. But when he looked back up at her, that cheerful smile of his had already made its way back. "But now that I'm here, I'll make sure that no one does anything to you again. Okay? No unhappiness will come to you when I am here!"
Although she wasn't quite sure why, she felt her shoulders immediately start to relax after his words registered in her mind, some of the stress that she had been feeling starting to ebb away. It was impractical, she knew, but she couldn't help but find herself beginning to trust the brunette a little more.
"Oh? What's this?" Breaking out of her thoughts, Michelle turned her face forward to see the stranger pulling up her hand towards his face, his eyebrows furrowing disapprovingly at the red scratches covering the palm of her hand.
"Oh? That?" Michelle spoke up, her eyebrows raising in recognition. "I..." She didn't exactly want to say that she fell out of a taxi, but she didn't exactly have a good excuse for it, either...
"...I fell," she finished lamely, not seeming too sure of her statement. "I mean... on the concrete. I fell on the concrete."
'Way to go, Michelle,' she thought to herself sarcastically.
The young man before her pouted as his eyes wandered over her minor wound, his sparkling eyes troubled. "Well, this is no good. Does it hurt?"
"Not really," she replied automatically. It wasn't a lie, anyway. She'd forgotten about the scratches that covered her palms a while ago, too deep into her despair over the events of the day to notice any pain inflicted.
Deciding not to take her word for it, the stranger once again raised her hand up towards his face and, before she could properly react, placed a quick kiss against the bloody skin of her palm.
Her mind froze.
Flustered gibberish immediately started to circle around her brain as she gawked at him, the shape of her mouth resembling a fish out of water.
"There you go! All better!" he cheered obliviously, straightening his stance - although his grip around her wrist still remained. "Does it hurt now, bella?"
Michelle just continued to gawk at him, torn between the urge to run away in embarrassment, or slap him upside the head to perhaps shove the stupid out of him.
The brunette frowned when he saw her frozen reaction, tilting his head in thought. "Huh...? Are you okay...?"
His eyes rolled up to gaze in determination at the sky, as if expecting some kind of answer to drop down from there. After a few moments, his face lit up, as if some imaginary light bulb had just turned on above his head. His lips curled into a giant grin, and Michelle had to restrain the urge to bolt away right then and there. "Oh, I know what to do!"
With a delighted smile, the brunette tugged her wrist forward with a surprising amount of strength, her body automatically moving forward as her arm was pulled towards him. Her eyes widened in bewilderment as the stranger placed his free hand against the side of her waist before she could fall over, completely trapping her. Although he didn't appear to be very physically strong, his grip on her was surprisingly tight, the gentleness that he had displayed previously almost completely gone.
She gazed up at him warily, her heartbeat pulsing in the wrist that he held in his hand. "What are you-?"
He cut her off with a playful wink and, before she could perhaps scream for help or kick his legs off, he curved his body slightly over her, and kissed her.
Her eyes practically popped out of their sockets.
He was kissing her... He was kissing her...!
HE WAS KISSING HER!
She let out a muffled squeal of horror from underneath his lips, her mind whirring frantically and panic swirling inside her chest. He was actually kissing her - in the middle of the street! With dozens of people watching!
'INDECENT ASSAULT,' her mind screamed at her as she attempted to struggle out of his grip. 'Sexual harassment!'
She wanted to die. It didn't exactly help that this was her first kiss.
This was not how she had dreamed of this happening. Damn it, she had one shoe on and her dress was barely covering her thighs at this point - what part of this screamed out romantic at all?! She had barely spoken to him in the few minutes that they had been in each other's company, and he was already grabbing her and kissing her?!
She didn't even know his name, for goodness sakes! She would rather be cleaning a toilet with her own toothbrush at this point.
After what seemed like years (but in reality were only a few seconds), the brunette released his grip on her and removed his lips from hers, a sweet smile gracing his features. He looked as if he hadn't just completely removed her purity and ruined her life in a time frame of a few seconds.
She wanted to punch his lights out.
"Kissing makes everything better~!" he sang cheerfully, straightening his stance and looking like he had just given her the greatest gift to mankind. "It's my secret cheering up charm, ve~!"
Michelle clapped her hands over her mouth, both indignant and humiliated. It didn't help that they had attracted more attention than comfortable. She stumbled backwards, almost tripping over herself in her haste to create a decent distant between the two of them.
"You... You...!" she breathed out, horrified and flustered.
"Huh?" the brunette tilted his head, confusion etched into his expression. "You don't seem too happy, bella..."
Michelle internally seethed, a vein practically popping out from her temple. How stupid and oblivious could this guy get?!
Before she could curse him out or rip his heart out of his chest, the young man's face suddenly brightened, as if some sudden revelation had just come to him. Too focused on her anger and embarrassment, Michelle didn't even notice when, out of the blue, a soft warm material suddenly wrapped itself around her bare shoulders.
"Aha! That looks better!" The stranger's proud voice broke her out of her reverie and, when she looked up at him, she noticed that he had removed his brown jacket and had placed it around her.
"What do you think, cara?" he asked, placing a hand on his hip and giving her a smug smile. "It's warmer now, right~? Now you won't have to walk around in the cold!"
Michelle stared at him in disbelief. If he thought that just giving her his expensive-looking jacket was going to get him back into her good graces, he had another thing coming to him.
...But, then again, it was quite warm... And it was nice-looking...
She had always been a sucker for free items.
"I can't possibly take this..." she said hesitantly, now feeling a little shy. It was hard to stay mad at the brunette when he kept doing kind things like this and kept that smile of his on his face.
"I insist!" he urged, gesturing wildly in the air, almost hitting someone who passed by him in the face. "Besides, my pride as an Italian would be at stake if I didn't give a pretty girl like you my jacket! I only wish I could buy you a whole new outfit, too..."
Michelle sweatdropped, not sure whether to feel offended or take his words as a compliment. She settled for a weak smile, deciding not to think too much about it. "Th-That's not necessary..."
'Your presence isn't exactly necessary, either,' she thought to herself.
The stranger clasped his hands together, his lips formed into an almost silly smile. "Anyway! It was really nice meeting you, bella. I wish we could spend more time together, but I'm actually already really late for a meeting with someone..."
She deadpanned. 'Then why are you still here?'
The brunette turned on his heels to go on his way, his body turned slightly to wave wildly to her in goodbye. "Remember what I said, okay? A pretty lady like you definitely shouldn't be making such a sad expression, so the next time we meet, I want to see a real smile from you. Make sure, okay?"
Before she could yell that there wasn't going to be a next time, the Italian's face drastically softened, and what looked to be a smirk seemed to tug at the corners of his lips. "Ciao, we'll definitely meet again."
In an instant, Michelle's vision blurred dramatically, and by the time her eyes went back to their normal clarity, the young man had disappeared.
For a few long moments, she just stood there in the middle of the crowd of people passing by her in either direction, her mind in a jumbled haze. If it weren't for the tingling sensation she still felt on her lips and the large warm jacket covering her upper body, she would have had her doubts that any of what had just happened had ever occurred in the first place.
Letting out a tired sigh, Michelle reached her arm down to grab the handle of her suitcase, her hand grasping thin air.
...Wait.
What?
'No way...' she thought numbly, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. She shook her head frantically, her dark eyes roaming the area around her. Where the heck was her suitcase?!
Panic was clearly visible on her face as she realized that her old suitcase full of her clothes was now nowhere to be seen. She clutched fistfuls of her hair in her hands, her brain on the verge of exploding as she pieced together what had happened.
Michelle clenched her teeth, pulling at her hair. That jerk had stolen her suitcase...!
Damn it, she should have known! No guy as good-looking or as charming as him would just spare an excessive amount of attention towards a random girl sitting defenseless on the street out of the goodness of his heart. He had completely conned her.
She clenched her fingers around the stranger's leather jacket, feeling the strong urge to just rip it off of her and tear it apart piece by piece. Not only had that airhead stolen all of her clothes, but he had also stolen her first kiss!
A dark aura seemed to surround her, and the strangers passing by immediately took a few steps away from her when they noticed it. Stealing a girl's first kiss was unforgivable.
Muttering every curse word she could think of under her breath, Michelle reached her hand into the side pocket of her blue dress, searching for the comfort that at least the little money that she had was still with her.
She grasped empty air where her wallet should have been.
Her brain immediately flashbacked to when the Italian had tugged her towards him and had placed a hand against her side before he had unfortunately kissed her. At the time, she had thought that he had done this so that she wouldn't fall over, but now...
She wanted to knock his pretty teeth out. 'That dirty thief took my wallet!' She felt her hands form into tight fists by her sides, her nails digging painfully into the bloody scratches etched into her palms. The little bits of optimism that she had felt drained away from her body, and now all she felt was anger, and more than a little distress. Although she hadn't exactly appreciated the fact that he had kissed her out of nowhere, she had thought that maybe the reason he had done that in the first place was out of good intentions, not because he was planning to pickpocket her.
If they ever did meet again, she knew exactly what she was going to do to him.
For now, though... She stroked the smooth material of the vintage jacket, a scowl twisting her features. For now, she would try to find someone who was stupid enough to buy a jacket from a homeless teenage girl and willing to pay a decent price for it.
Michelle huffed noisily as she plopped herself unceremoniously down onto the white-painted wooden bench. It was off to the side of the busier part of the public park that she had wandered into a little more than an hour before, but she could still hear the laughter and the numerous chattering of the myriad of children and their parents playing around what seemed like miles away from her.
She slumped over and rested her chin against the palm of her hand, glad that the stinging sensation on her skin had faded away by now. She had just spent the last hour attempting to sell the jacket that that thief had given her, but all of the adults had immediately shooed her off and pulled their children away from her before she could even try to convince them of anything. She knew that she couldn't exactly blame them for their reasonable reactions; she was homeless, after all, and could barely even say to herself that she was properly dressed to go outside. She most likely looked like some sort of criminal coming after their children or something.
The dark-haired girl buried her face in her hands, pressing her closed eyes against the rough skin of her palms as if to push back the tears threatening to leak out. Certainly she had always been particularly unlucky her whole life, but today was definitely the worst day that she had ever had. Nothing seemed to have been going right the moment she had stepped foot into the large unfamiliar city, and she was literally this close to just giving up and trying to find a way back home to her parents. At least there she had a decent chance of survival...
"Excuse me? Do you mind if I sit here?"
Lifting her head away from her hands, Michelle raised her gaze up to see the person behind the unfamiliar voice that had resonated in her ears, wariness immediately flashing across her face. Although the voice had sounded smooth - silky, really - she now knew better than to fall for a charming first impression, and she swore to herself that this time, she would be more on guard. No matter how trustworthy this next stranger seemed to be, she wouldn't curb her suspicions and paranoia this time.
The moment she laid eyes on him, however, the thoughts that had been swirling around her head seemed to completely vanish. She almost forgot to be suspicious this time around.
Because, frankly, this guy was sort of... creepy, to put it lightly.
It wasn't his face itself that bothered her - in fact, he was actually quite cute when she really focused on him, with his shaggy strawberry blonde hair and his overall facial features. His outfit didn't send off alarm bells, either - it was a simple dark overcoat (and, while it was strange that he was wearing such heavy clothing in this season, it wasn't exactly something that would dramatically jump out at someone).
She supposed that what made her uneasy was his... aura, as ridiculous as that sounded. There was just something about him that sent a tingling feeling on the back of her neck, like something or someone was watching her. It was sort of otherworldly, and the fact that his pupils were actually red didn't help in the least.
"Miss?" The stranger waved his hand in front of her gawking face, seeming more amused with her reaction than anything else. "Is the seat next to you taken?"
Michelle immediately closed her mouth, an embarrassed flush spreading across her cheeks. How long had she just been staring at him? In the back of her mind, a little voice told her that she really had no right to judge him based on his appearance - after all, she looked even worse for wear than he did. At least he was probably just born looking like that.
She frantically shook her head, scooting over to make room and waving her hands wildly. "Oh, no. It... It's completely empty. I wasn't trying to... hog the bench or anything." She gave him a weak smile, contrasting greatly to her usual bright one.
His lips quirked up into a charismatic smile at her reaction, and he gave her a small nod in thanks, gracefully plopping himself down beside her.
"I'm Vlad," he introduced himself cheerfully, holding out his hand for her to shake. "Vladimir Lupei; but everyone calls me Vlad."
Michelle blinked at him blankly, her mind momentarily halting. She hadn't expected him to attempt to engage in conversation, much less be this friendly.
"...Michelle," she answered after a few moments, trying for a timid smile as she reached her hand out to grasp his own. "Michelle Courtois."
He sent her a small grin, his teeth showing - was that a fang?! Her eyes widened in curiosity as they focused on the lone fang in his mouth, more interested now than suspicious as she had been planning to be.
"...Are you Dracula?" she asked in wonder, childish awe momentarily overtaking her logic.
Instead of taking offense, the Romanian just let out a good-natured laugh at the innocent question, his grin widening and his fanged tooth flashing briefly in the sunlight. "No, but he lives in one of my castles in Transylvania."
Michelle's eyes widened further at his words, almost seeming to sparkle in awe. "Whoa, really?"
Vlad winked, looking delighted at her childish interest. "No, but I was actually named after the man who Dracula is based off of."
Her jaw dropped at his words, and she eagerly leaned closer towards him, as if he were telling some spectacular story that she absolutely needed to listen to. "Wah, no way~! Really?"
"You bet!" he answered enthusiastically; and for a few moments, Michelle could actually forget about all of the bad luck that she had encountered previously that day. "Vlad the Impaler. You heard of him?"
The dark-haired girl shook her head, clutching the leather jacket in her hands tightly in anticipation. She almost forgot that she was supposed to be finding someone to sell it to. "Tell me about him!"
Vlad leaned forward, lowering his voice to a secretive hush. "Are you sure you want me to tell you about him?"
"Yes, yes!" she squealed, practically jumping in her seat. "Tell me, tell me!"
"Okay, okay!" he agreed with a laugh, holding up his hands. He leaned back in his seat, an excited grin lighting up his face. "His real name wasn't really 'Vlad the Impaler', but like the title suggests, he was known for his excessive use of impalement. That's usually the method he used to kill and torture, and it's estimated that his victims ranged from forty thousand to one hundred thousand."
"Wow..." Michelle breathed out, her eyes widening drastically - if that was even possible.
"But, you know what I think?" Vlad leaned forward, lowering his voice once again.
"What?" she asked, holding her breath in anticipation.
"In a way, I think he's a hero," he told her, an almost admiring sparkle in his ruby-red eyes. "Protecting the Romanian population during his rule... even if he had to use some pretty cruel means to do it. It's really... inspiring when people go so far to protect their country. You know? In my opinion, to protect someone, you have to be willing to sacrifice anyone or anything in your way. And he sure did that, didn't he?"
Michelle tried for a weak smile, now a little hesitant. "I guess so."
Of course, in her opinion, she wasn't exactly sure if killing thousands of people was something to admire, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She was half contemplating whether or not he was a vampire himself.
"Well, now that I've told you a little about me, why don't you tell me something about you?" Vlad suggested amiably, tilting his head as he settled himself comfortably on the bench. His lips curled into a mischievous smirk as he gestured to her appearance, raising an eyebrow. "Like why you're sitting here alone with one shoe on."
Michelle sweatdropped at his straightforwardness, but decided that she really had nothing left to lose by telling him. Leaning her back against the bench, she awkwardly informed him of what had happened to her that day: from moving away from her small town to the city to live with her "distant relatives", to being left alone in the middle of the street with no clothes and no money in her possession.
After she had finished, her face crumpled, the events of the day finally really settling in. She let out a moan and slumped over, depressingly hiding her face in her hands.
Vlad gave her a sympathetic expression and gently patted her head, causing her to look back up at him pitifully. "Wow, you've got really bad luck, huh?"
Michelle's eye twitched in annoyance. "No need to rub it in," she grumbled, despair enveloping her.
The Romanian placed an elbow on top of his knee and placed his chin in the palm of his hand, now seeming a lot more interested in her. "You said that some Italian guy conned you out of all of your stuff?"
"Don't make me repeat it," she muttered, feeling her blood boil at just the remembrance. The jacket clutched in her hands now suddenly felt considerably heavier.
"Interesting..." he murmured, almost to himself. The look he was giving her made her shift uncomfortably in her seat, and that uneasy feeling that she had felt when he had first appeared in front of her returned.
"So you've got nowhere to go?" he asked lightly, that look still on his face.
"That's what I said," she deadpanned, the previous enthusiasm she had been feeling having now completely dissipated.
Vlad hummed thoughtfully for a few moments, before standing up from his seat beside her and going over to stop in front of her, making her look up at him in slight interest.
He tilted his head at her, directing a smirk in her direction as he held out a hand to her, causing her to raise an eyebrow in question. "Tell me, Miss Courtois: Do you believe in magic?"
The world seemed to quiet down as his words hung in the air.
"...I don't see how that really matters," she answered hesitantly after a few seconds, strands of her brown hair gently hitting her face as the breeze picked up around the two of them.
Vlad let out a soft chuckle as he went down on one knee before her, grabbing her smaller hand in his own. He squeezed her hand lightly, sending her a gentle smile - sympathetic, surely, but also a little... sad.
"You know, I ran away from home, too."
"Really?" she asked, tilting her head in interest.
He hummed in confirmation, rubbing his thumb against the skin of her hand. "My situation is a little different than yours, though." He let out a soft laugh, sounding somewhat bitter. "Arthur'll probably rip my head off if I ever showed my face up there again."
'Arthur?' she thought curiously, blinking down at the now depressed young man. 'His brother, maybe?'
"Even so, it's okay, isn't it?" she spoke aloud, making him turn his attention back up to her in surprise. She gave him a warm smile, now seeing an opportunity to give someone a little bit of optimism when she herself was struggling to find some. "Even if he'll be angry at you... You have someone to come back to." Michelle squeezed his hand, moving in closer. "I think he'll be happy to see you again after so long. To not be alone anymore... would be a nice feeling."
'After all, you're fortunate enough to have people who care about you,' she thought, her heart clenching.
Vlad blinked at her after her little speech, completely and utterly moved. Before she could react, tears suddenly sprung into his eyes, and he let out a dramatic wail as he buried his face in her lap, causing her to let go of his hand in her shock.
"Wh-Wha...?!" she uttered out, almost jumping off of her seat.
Abruptly, Vlad stopped his sudden spring of tears, and he turned his face to the side so she couldn't see his expression, still resting comfortably in her lap.
"You're a much better person than me, Prinţesă," he told her quietly, making her jerk in her seat in surprise.
'Did he just call me princess...?' she asked herself, her eyebrow twitching in irritation. Was the city just full of strange people like the two she had met so far today...?
Vlad lifted his head off of her lap, although his chin remained resting on her knees. He had a strange expression on his face, contrasting greatly with his prior enthusiastic and cheerful one. He almost seemed like a completely different person.
"You know, the world doesn't believe in magic anymore..." He stared intently at her, the breeze ruffling his light hair, before he gave her a soft smile, looking as if he was now seeing her in a different light. "But I think that you just made me start to believe again."
Michelle let out a startled sound, leaning back in surprise at his words. She gave him a nervous smile, letting out an awkward laugh. "I-I didn't really do anything..."
Vlad just continued to smile at her as he lifted himself off of the ground. "You said you don't have anywhere to go? Why don't I give you my house?"
She froze.
"Eh...?" she breathed out, speechless.
The Romanian looked down at her, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You said you don't want to go back to live with your parents, right? Besides, if you live there, I'll be relieved of my burden. And..."
In one swift swoop, Vlad leaned down towards her and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead before she could scoot away, one of his hands cupping the side of her face. "I think that you, out of everyone, could make the world believe in magic again."
"Huh?" she uttered out, bewilderment practically stamped across her forehead.
Ignoring her extreme befuddlement, he straightened up and took a scrap of paper from out of his coat, holding it out for her to take. Michelle turned it over in her hand and, through her confused state of mind, managed to figure out that it was a decently drawn map to some location in the city.
Vlad twirled around on his heel and stopped midway, turning his body around slightly to address the dark-haired girl.
"Go to the place written on that piece of paper. Tell the person there that Vladimir Lupei sent you." He gave her a mischievous smirk, holding up a hand as if to say goodbye, the world seeming to stop turning for a few long moments. "You're much more suited to be the master of that "house" than me. I think that, eventually, you will find the happiness that you seek there."
"You'll be the happiness that everyone is searching for."
And, before she could even think to respond, he disappeared among the trees.
Climbing up a mountain wearing only one sandal and half of a sundress gave Michelle a lot of time to think about her life.
So far today, she had lost her home (or, at least, the home that she had been planning to make her home), been humiliated, stolen from, and given a new house to stay at by a complete stranger. She'd been kissed twice, once on the lips and once on the forehead, by two totally separate people that she had known for only a few minutes at a time; and, in both of those incidents, she had felt that there was something more behind the personas they left for view.
To sum it all up: Life, since entering the city, had been very strange, and she felt like some stereotypical female protagonist in some fictional world or something.
Michelle let out a tired sigh as she followed the path that the map in her hands depicted, pinning it on her usual bad luck that the apparent "house" that she may or not soon be living in was stationed on a mountain of all places. She had passed by several houses on her way up, but had so far seen no one walking out and about.
'Which is good,' she thought, the setting sun casting a hue of colors over her lone figure. 'The less people around, the better.'
Of course, she didn't fully trust that Vlad had just given her his house out of the goodness of his heart. He had said something about a "burden" and mentioned this "Arthur" character, after all, so she decided that this time, she would prepare herself for disappointment or whatever she would find up there at her destination.
Steeling herself, she briefly closed her eyes, taking a deep calming breath, as if preparing herself for the sight of being deceived. After a few long moments, she halted and opened her eyes.
What she saw took the breath out of her, and certainly not in a good way.
'Are you kidding me...?' she thought, a gloomy aura surrounding her. She dropped down to her knees in front of the building before her, clutching the front of the jacket that she had grudgingly decided to put on tightly in her hands. 'He sent me to some rundown shrine?!'
A shrine in and of itself was not uncommon in the world she lived in. In fact, they could be found anywhere, even in her old small town. They were known to house or be dedicated to the gods of the new and old world, and people all over would go to pray, offer money - things along those lines. Even she herself had done so a few times, but she wasn't exactly someone who could be called devout.
Between her home in the human world and their world, she had heard, was the netherworld - hidden in the darkness, full of creatures like monsters and demons. It was the sort of thing that she had always been curious about, certainly, but nothing that she would try thinking about too often.
'Why would that guy bring me to a gloomy shrine like this?' Michelle asked herself, full-on despair again deciding to grasp her with its fingertips.
Had she seriously been tricked again?!
Just when she was about to burst into tears and dig herself into an early grave, the world around her darkened drastically, as if a fog had suddenly brought her into its embrace. Much to her horror and shock, glowing dark green fire started to rapidly grow around her, illuminating her terrified and shaking form. The sunset seemed to be miles away now.
"Lupei..."
Michelle could hear her blood thumping loudly in her ears as the voice seemed to echo across the area ominously, the tone depicting strained patience. Years worth of restrained anger seemed to be built towards just that one name: 'Lupei'. Even though she knew exactly who that was and knew that all of this emotion was not directed at her, she couldn't help but feel a shiver of fear dance along her spine.
"Lupei..." The green flames grew higher and brighter, now completely blocking any route of escape and covering any view that she had had of the old shrine. "Long time no see..."
Emerging from the wall of glowing flame, shadows began to slowly form into the dark outline of a tall figure - distinctly male, she could tell, but somehow seeming... inhuman.
Alarm bells rang and beat inside her skull.
"It's been a while... Leaving me alone to take care of this shrine for twenty years...!"
The fire burned and, before she could even blink, the figure stepped out into the glow.
She almost passed out.
He was slim, with short messy blond hair that contrasted greatly with the wall of fire surrounding him, and seemed to be even more underdressed than she was. He was barefoot, and covering his pale legs was a dark green skirt reaching down to his knees, almost seeming to wrap around his body like a coil.
That, however, wasn't what immediately caught her attention. Because, covering his upper body, were scales.
They seemed to come in splotches scattered across his thin arms and his bare chest, almost taking attention away from the visible form of his ribs.
Because he was looking down, Michelle couldn't see the expression on his face or what his features looked like, but she definitely could see what was coiled around his neck.
'N-No way...' She could hear her own sharp intake of breath as she clumsily attempted to scoot away from the figure, still on her knees. 'Is that a...?!'
A snake - green, matching his owner's scales.
It curled around the figure's neck, its head protruding out from the side above his shoulder. It settled its sights on her and let out a sharp hiss, its fangs bared.
She felt a chill run down her spine.
"You idiot... Where have you been...?" The figure let out a threatening chuckle, his bony shoulders shaking, before he sharply turned his face up to look at her.
The livid expression on his face was enough to make Michelle scream. His eyes were two crackling pools of emerald green, beautifully terrifying. If she had had the capacity to think calmly and clearly, she would have thought that he wasn't that bad-looking at all, and most likely would have outright laughed at the size of his eyebrows.
At the moment, however, she was completely and utterly terrified - rightly so - and she had absolutely no inclination to tick off a creature who could and would most likely kill her.
The green flames crackled noisily around them and suddenly shot up towards the sky, synchronizing with the blond figure's action of abruptly blazing towards her with his teeth bare and his eyes almost seeming to explode with fire. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
Michelle let out a shrill shriek, clumsily falling down onto her bottom and attempting to scuttle away from him before he could reach her, more afraid than she had ever been in her life as she tightly closed her eyes. "Wait, stop! I'm not Lupei!"
The world froze.
After a few long moments, the dark-haired girl hesitantly opened her eyes to see the blond figure having frozen just inches before her, one hand clutching the front of her jacket, the other held out near the side of her face as if about to strike her. Even the snake around his neck seemed to have turned to stone in midair.
Now that he was so close, she could see the surprised, wide-eyed expression clouding his face as he stared unblinkingly at her, the head of his snake almost seeming to be looking at her in confusion.
Her eyes practically popped out of their sockets and, before anything else could be done, she promptly fainted in his arms.
End Notes:
one ) Human Name of Seychelles: 'Michelle' is one of the most popular female names in Seychelles and is most commonly used as her first name; 'Courtois' came from the fact that I read a fanfic and that was the last name she was given. I was stuck on what to use as her surname so I just went with that.
two) Human Name of Romania: 'Vladimir' or 'Vlad' is usually the name that he's given in fanfics - at least the ones I've read. Plus, I really did name him after Vlad the Impaler. 'Lupei' was chosen as his surname because I was looking up suggestions on what name to give him, and I found that as one of the options. I liked the looks of it the best.
three) The Italian who kissed Michelle and stole all of her stuff is obviously Italy. There is a reason he did all of this, deeper than just deciding to con her. He'll show up later on in the story.
four) The specific details about the world they live in is meant to remain unknown, as does the specific place Michelle is at right now.
five) The reason why Arthur (because obviously the human-snake hybrid is England) didn't realize that Michelle wasn't Vlad when he saw her was because he was blinded by his emotions and didn't really pay attention or try to register on who exactly had arrived at the shrine.
A/N: Agh, that was longer than I had intended it to be.
If you've read the manga or watched the anime, I'm sure you've noticed the plot points corresponding with Kamisama Hajimemashita, although I've also added my own twists and events that didn't happen in it. This chapter will basically, I think, be the one that most closely resembles the manga/anime. Most of what happens next in this fic will be from my own brain, although I'm sure they'll also be other plot points that will be based off of the series.
Since Kamisama Hajimemashita is obviously based off of Japanese mythology, I'm also basing my story off of this, although giving it my own twists. In this AU, shrines, gods, creatures, and such taken from Japanese mythology and folktales are considered the norm in this world, and aren't particularly distinguished with one culture, as they're shared around the globe (to give me an excuse to make any Hetalia character a god or a creature without confusion).
I'm not an expert on Japanese mythology, so bear with me on that. It's a learning and researching process. I'm more familiar with Greek mythology, but I'll try my best with this, haha. It's pretty interesting, in any case.
So, here it is~ I'm sorry if any of the characters seemed OOC, but I was pretty much basing this off of how I think they would kind of act in a shoujo manga, and I needed to somehow fit them into a specific role I needed them to fill.
Updates might be a little sketchy, but I'll try my best to actually finish a multi-chapter fic for once.