He didn't want to care about him. The one who had hurt him, betrayed his trust, the one person he thought he could count on. They weren't friends anymore, nations went through things like this all the time. There was no reason for his senseless worrying, especially after he had cut all ties with him. But that didn't stop his thoughts from drifting over to Poland.

Lithuania's eyes lifted themselves open abruptly, startled at the sound of the front door creaking open, signaling the return of Russia. His heart sank as he noticed the clock nestled on the bedside table. 2:00 a.m. If he was arriving home at this time of night, then it had meant that he was meeting with Germany. His stomach lurched at the thought. Meetings with Germany, in Polish territory no less, usually coincided with Lithuania having to work all the next day trying to get the blood stains washed out of Russia's coat, or at least they would if Lithuania could hold in his stomach and not have to pass the task over to Estonia or Latvia. Lithuania rolled on to his side and squeezed his pillows against his head, as if he held them there long enough the thoughts would suffocate under the pressure.

It couldn't have been Poland's blood…It-it was probably just the blood of the fallen soldiers that Russia had encountered in battle…

It was a lie and he knew it. Russia didn't even take a rifle with him when he went out on late outings like tonight. He just couldn't bear the thought that Russia had been hurting his best friend, and he wasn't doing a damn thing to stop it.

Lithuania forced himself to relax at the sound of his door opening threw him off his train of thought. He relaxed his shoulders and waited quietly, imitating sleep, for the sound of the 'click' of the door shutting and the person behind it to move on and check the rooms of the other Baltics. After he had heard the sound of Russia's door closing, he rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling and let out an exhausted sigh, wondering what it was that they had done to deserve this.

----

It would be a few more days until Russia went to visit with Germany again, so Lithuania shouldn't have been surprised when Russia had greeted him that morning, child like smile worn across his face, informing him that he was taking the day off. He shuddered at the thought of having to have Russia there to supervise over him and his brothers as they did their chores. Russia aside, the day progressed normally and they all went about their usual business as Russia spent most of the day in his study. As Lithuania was putting away the dishes from that night's dinner, he felt a large hand settle on his shoulder. A voice whispered into his ear, the stench of vodka rolling off the tongue, "Lithuania,"

Russia chuckled as watched the smaller nation fumble to catch the plate that he had thrown up into the air, startled. Lithuania whirled around to see him standing beside him holding a basket of laundry with Russia's coat folded neatly on top.

"S-Sir?"

Russia shoved the basket into his arms.

"I would like to have this cleaned for tomorrow. I need to look my best when meeting with my boss, no?"

Lithuania looked down at the basket once more and realized with horror that it was the same coat that Russia had worn the day before. He swallowed hard.

"Surely either Estonia or Latvia could take care of this? I haven't finished with the dishes yet so-"

"Do not worry, Latvia will take care of it. You will clean this now, da? No more complaints." He chimed, the innocent smile on his face in complete contrast to his sickening tone of voice. Lithuania was left with no choice but to comply, and he hated it.

----

Lithuania was curled up in the corner of the laundry room, his sobs muffled by his face buried in his sleeves, arms tightly wound around his legs. The coat lay discarded on the opposite side of the room next to the laundry basket. When he had picked it up out of the basket, he had immediately dropped it, overcome by the horrid stench that emanated off of the Russian's uniform. It reeked of burned flesh, corpses, death…all mixed in with the faint scent of poppies and rye. Images of Warsaw in flames immediately flooded into his head. Shaking them away he reached for the folded coat on the floor and brought it up to his eyes as he spread it out.

An action he instantly regretted

The coat was now on the floor again, Lithuania following not far behind. He scooted himself as far back as he could, eyeing the thing with complete terror. There were several patches of blood splatters scattered around the base of the coat, and one long streak of blood that seemed to fan out into five different paths from the bottom of the coat up…up to an imprint of a small, delicate, recognizable hand that seemed to have been clutching at the base of the coat. Cold horror struck with immediate realization as he tore his eyes away and screamed into his knees, unsure if he had heard the sound of heavy footsteps from outside the door walking away or not.

More to come! ^-^ Please read/review and tell me your opinions!