MP: This creep ought to be working on "Flesh Failures" right now, but I have no motivation tonight. But never fear, there's Hetalia to make everything better.

Cee: Hetalia is the property of Hidekaz Himaruya, and MissPessimist doesn't own an iota of the city, county, and state of Hetalia.

MP: Yeah, cool. I'll attempt to keep this updated as regularly as possible, but knowing me that's going out the window.

XXX

Oh…

It's so warm…he couldn't remember it being so warm before. It's too warm…breathing is too difficult when it's this warm…

He tried moving, but it felt heavy. All his limbs were made of concrete, and he felt as though he was buried beneath miles and miles of burning sands.

Oh, he was trapped. Trapped and he was going to suffocate in this terrible, terrible heat.

A sound in his throat emerged, what could be a whimper escaping, but his stuffed ears could barely make it out.

Now there was a feeling spreading across what could be his forehead. It was cool, no, it was cold, and it felt so good…He pushed up against it, fighting against the immense weight of the heat settled over him. He needed to get closer to the cold…

"Try to lie still."

That voice, so hazed and vague in his ears. Did he know that voice? It sounded so far away.

"Too…hot…" that was his voice; he felt it leave his throat.

Two hands; one cooling his forehead, the other pressed against his cheek. So smooth and cold, he pressed closer to them.

"I know, but you need to lay still, Lietuva" the voice spoke again. God, he couldn't place it…was it Feliks? He hoped against hope it was Feliks. "You've been nearly dead for days. You have a fever."

Fever. The heat suffocating him…

"F-Feliks?" he said, his throat raw, scratched. "Polska?"

A small sound of air being exhaled. "No. I am Estonia, Eduard."

No…he…where was Feliks?

"Polska…I want Polska…"

He needed Feliks, where was he? Was he alright? It's so hot here…

"Feliks?" he felt his voice getting louder, the hoarseness creating a block in his throat. "Feliks?"

"Lietuva, please!" the voice said urgently, the hands leaving his face and going to press his shoulders down as they began to rise up. "You need to stay quiet!"

No, no, no, no, no he needed Feliks, he needed to make sure he was alright, he needed to get rid of this damn heat pressing down on him…

"NO! I want Feliks! Polska!" he yelled, his voice raw and painful, but loud now. "Polska!"

A hand was placed over his mouth. But it was covered; it wasn't skin touching his lips, but a thick cloth that smelled of ice and wind. He tried to yell against it, but the hand only pressed down harder, painfully.

"No more screaming, Litva. You need to rest your throat and get well again."

That voice. He knew that voice.

His eyelids were made of lead, and lifting them was taxing on his dulled senses. Barely managing to crack them open, his vision was blurry, but he could make out a large white blob in front of him, with two lilac smears where eyes are meant to be.

Russia.

The hand covering his mouth faded away, and he blinked rapidly, trying to gain more focus. Slowly, he could define small details in the man before him; the familiar white scarf, pale hair hanging slightly into his face, two large purple eyes glinting in the light of what could be a fire.

"Russia…" he croaked out softly.

"Da, Litva" the other man said cheerfully. "Are you happy to see me?"

"Russia" he rasped again, quickly feeling his voice losing momentum. "Where's Polska?"

The tall Russian smiled down at him. "Now he is probably at his home, well taken care of, probably in the same state you're in."

"But…" he whispered, unable to get any louder. "But I'm…"

Russia seemed to chuckle lightly, resting his large hand across the sweltering forehead below him. "Litva is going to stay with me now, isn't that nice?"

"No, I…I can't…" he started, feeling his words slipping away from him as the weight and the confusion of the other man's words settled over him like the weight of a deep sea.

"You're going to stay here, and we're all going to be a family" Russia was explaining, oblivious to the fact that the one he was speaking to was slowly…slipping…

Yes…slipping was the word for it…

"And you won't have to be lonely because I've got you a brother; and sisters too!"

It was like he'd been teetering on the edge of a deep precipice and he had just suddenly slipped sideways…

"So you need to get better again so you can start being happy in your new home."

Home…Lithuania…the forest and the Baltic Sea and the river and running barefoot through tall grass as a child…that home…or was home this black pit he was falling into?

"Litva?"

This searing black pit that scorched every inch of his skin, that only sucked him in deeper and filled his lungs and ohdievashecouldn'tbreathecan'tbreathnonononononono...

"Lietuva!"

He was slipping, being swallowed, crushed, burned…

"He's losing consciousness again."

Praryti grūsti slydimo degimo pagalba pagalba pagalba!

This black pit…

"Good Litva, get some rest now."

This black pit was home now.

XXX

He walked.

A while back he could no longer hear the soft crunch his boots made in the snow, as his ears filled with wind. As this sense disappeared, as did the focus he had on the sound of the soft trudging his silent companion made through the snow.

Around the same time he stopped hearing himself walk, the brunette he dragged along had stopped his screaming. When it had begun it was shrill, panicked, leading down to desperate, spiraling to pathetic cracked pleas, down to silence.

The hand he had grasped tightly in his own gloved one had ceased resisting and now hung still in the cold, ungloved.

It was very dark now; and getting still colder. They were very close to Russia's border now, it wouldn't be long.

Russia turned his head slightly to glance at the silent nation behind him. So unchanged from the many years he had not seen this boy, though they had both been children then. Litva seemed to have only grown more beautiful since then; tall, slender, with finely crafted features, like porcelain…and of course, his eyes, the very ones that first caught his attention. So deep and green, like sea water, full and dark…

And they had looked so beautiful the day they met. It had been snowing then too, just as it was now, but his Litva had not been turning blue then.

That day. That day that had been so clearly carved into his memory had stood against time and many other, far superior, events that had tried to replace it. Since that one day in the snow, with that boy, there had been one objective for him to reach.

He had to become stronger, more powerful. Because if he could do that, then he would have the power to find that boy again, and to claim him, protect him, and keep him.

Russia smiled as he walked. And here they were; Russia victorious once again, strong enough now to bring home the prize that had been denied him for so long.

"We are not far now, Litva. Just a little ways longer and then-"

The sound of weight hitting the snow, and a harsh tug at the grip Russia had on the other man's arm.

Frowning, Russia turned to face his companion. Lithuania had collapsed face-first into the snow, legs crumpled behind him, covered up to the knees in snow, and lightly dusting the shabby coat the other wore that probably made pathetic protection from the harsh wind. And in the hand that Russia held, the fingers were tinted blue.

Russia yanked the other up by the freezing hand he held, wrapping one arm around the brunettes waist and using the other to sweep him up and out of the snow. Lithuania's face was partly stinging red, and the other part turning a gray that would no doubt soon be blue.

He pulled up one end of his long white scarf, and wrapped it around the lower half of the Lithuanians face. Pressing the brown head to his chest with one hand, Russia began to walk again.

His Litva was still so beautiful, even on the brink of frostbite. This thought sent a smile to Russia's face as he trudged and charged through the steadily falling snow. Yes, he would get Litva home, and then they would be happy together…

In his arms, Lithuania moaned and tried to burrow deeper into the folds of the Russians coat.

And he walked faster, hoping that Eduard had the good sense to keep the fire going until he returned.

XXX

Well then, fun times. That was the first chapter, and I hope to have the second finished very soon.

Thanks for reading!