[Goodbye, (aa)
I won't see you again.
But you're tied to my heart,
By a crimson thread.]
---AxM---
In a small shack on the edge of a town, there was a man who lived on his own.
His walls were adorned with photographs of people he loved and places he missed, things that no longer existed. Remnants of a past he missed that he could never get back. The pictures hurt him, but also helped him, because without them he'd be so alone.
There was a picture of his first love, who had disappeared before he could convey his feelings. Looking at that hurt him almost even more than anything else, because the picture was the eternal question of 'what-if', and it was one that would never be answered. He had made the wrong choice and his love had been lost.
There was a photograph of his best friend, who he'd abandoned his first love for, believing that he loved his friend at the time. That photo was like a smack in the face, because they'd been friends since they were children, and even tried getting married. It didn't work out, and he ended up losing his best friend as well.
There was a photograph of the boy he'd considered like a son to him, the boy who had gone off to the battlefield and never returned. The picture, to him, was the worst one of all, because the father hadn't protected the son, and the son had died for it. The man still saw the boy's face every time he closed his eyes.
There was a snapshot of himself and his childhood friend that always used to save him from fights. In the end, he had pushed that friend so far away that they had become enemies. He blamed himself, of course, for being so weak that he always had to be protected. But it had always been nice to know that someone was there.
He had been an idiot and lost so many people for that, and now he was alone. The framed faces smiled at him from the walls with a happiness he no longer possessed.
"Hey, hey! Aren't I awesome? Don't I just blow you away?"
He wanted to go back, change things, but that wasn't an option.
"I'll avenge you, and crush him like the bug he is!!"
He could only move forward from this point on.
"I'll be back after the battle... Keep her safe for me?"
He was alone, but he was alive, and he had to keep walking.
"Strengthen up, Roderich… Hey, Roderich… Roderich-san~! I brought over some pasta~!"
Well, maybe not completely alone.
He wasn't the only one who'd been left behind, after all.
---AxM---
[I called your names like a chant,
Over and over.
I won't forget you, (aa),
Your voices and faces,
Are spun into my heart.]
---AxM---
A/N: It's kind of an AU thing I guess... I wanted to explore what Austria would think if he was all alone. And I know that Hungary didn't really abandon him, and Prussia didn't disappear, but this is more what-if than anything else... I was thinking of expanding on this. Should I?
Um, the characters in order of mention (first love, best friend, etc) are Prussia/Gilbert, Hungary/Elizabeta, HRE/Holy Roman Empire, and Switzerland/Vash. And of course, at the end, there's N. Italy.
The song lyrics are from Makka No Ito (Crimson Thread) by Plastic Tree. There's a really good HRExChibitalia video for it on Youtube. /shameless plug whore/