Letters Never to be Sent
Summary: When Italy goes for a surprise visit to Austria and Hungary's house; he finds himself locked in an attic. He finds a few things, including a shock about Holy Roman Empire. . .
Pairings: ChibItalia/Holy Roman Empire, Germany/N. Italy, Austria/Hungary
~ Hetalia! ~
Italy walked through his house. So bored, so bored. . .
He had walked around the whole house - no, the whole block - not knowing what to do.
Ooh, maybe I could make pasta for frattelo! Wait, he's spending the day at big brother Spain's house, Italy thought, frowning as he thought of more nations. Ludwig's discussing plans with his boss, Kiku's at Heracles', big brother France told me he'd be visiting England. . .
Italy stopped pacing; a bright bulb was instantly flashed in his face.
"Oops, I forgot to turn off that lamp," said Italy aloud, skipping to the brightly lit lamp to turn it off.
But then, Italy had a thought, like a bulb going off in his head, figuratively.
He would go to Austria and Hungary's today!
Shaking his head, Italy felt an urge to 'turn off his brain' as he quickly pulled on a brown leather coat from his closet. He closed the door behind him, shutting it with a large thud.
The childish nation flinched at the involuntarily noise, but hurried away none the less.
~ Hetalia! ~
Austria stared at the brunette haired woman from the door. He looked at his watch impatiently and tapped his foot.
"Come on, Elizaveta! We're already ten minutes late for our reservation, and Germany told us to keep Italy company after that," the Austrian exclaimed, slowly stopping his tapping foot.
Elizaveta just waved a hand dismissively at him, one last look in the mirror and she stood up from her chair, walking towards impatient man.
"Don't worry Roderich! We'll just eat really fast and make it to the airport on time." She walked past Roderich coolly and before running down the stairs, she coed, "Ooh, I can't wait to see my little Ita-chan!"
The only thing Roderich could do was follow his lovely girlfriend down the stairs.
~ Hetalia! ~
Italy hummed a happy tune as he thought of what Austria and Hungary would do when they saw him.
Elizaveta would open the door, her face looking surprised before changing it into a smile and giving the Italian a hug that would rival next to a crocodile's death roll.
She'd rush him into the house, seating him onto a comfy chair from the dining room, telling him that she'll make him some pasta.
Soon after she'd leave, he'd hear Roderich playing his beautiful music on the large grand piano from his music room.
Italy would soon leave the dining room to walk into the music room. Roderich wouldn't stop playing until he'd be done, but Italy didn't mind. He would just stand there, listening to Roderich's beautiful music, watching his graceful hands skim over the piano keys.
When Roderich would finally finish, he'd greet Italy with a polite hello and tell him how nice it's to see him again. OK, even Italy had to admit he made that part up.
But Italy had already snapped out of his imagination when he realized he was at the couple's house. He knocked a few times, waiting for someone, anyone, to answer the door. He started to furiously pound on the door, but nothing.
Italy was just about to turn and leave, disappointed, but being his clumsy self, he tripped and ended up opening the door by accident.
Oops,Italy thought, picking himself off of the ground, It doesn't look like anyone's home, I'll just leave.
He looked back at the door, and then back at the classy house.
Well, I already opened the door. I might as well go in, Italy thought again, peering inside.
The clumsy man walked into the house slowly and carefully.
"Hungary, Austria?" he spoke softly, then said louder, "Elizaveta? Roderich? Anyone home?"
No response. The Italian took that to enter the house even more, and checked all of the first floor.
Unfortunately (maybe even luckily), he saw no one, heard nothing, or smelt anyone. He turned to leave again, but then looked at the second story stairs.
What if they're upstairs and they didn't hear me? Italy thought, looking at the stairs. Italy ran up the stairs, looking through each room carefully.
To Italy's shock; nobody was there. But Italy had noticed a door out of his eye, the only door he hadn't checked:
Elizaveta and Roderich's room.
A memory came back to him.
Italy's child form, ChibItalia was running around the house, dusting and cleaning, trying to make everything spotless. He wanted to show how well he was good at cleaning to impress Austria!
He cleaned all the rooms so far, except for that one at the end of the hall. Austria never explained to him what that room was, so ChibItalia didn't think it was important.
His filthy hand went to reach for the shiny doorknob, but another hand caught his wrist.
"And where do you think you're going?" Austria asked angrily, holding ChibItalia's wrist tight and firm.
The little maid-child looked at Austria. "I was just trying to clean every room," he said, pouting sadly, fresh tears stinging his eyes.
Austria looked at him, less angry. "You are not allowed to enter this room. This is my room, so leave it be. I'm not letting you try to steal anything valuable out of there. If I ever see you go into this room or try to you'll be punished severely."
ChibItalia's eyes leaked out tears slowly. "I-I would never steal something! Especially Austria-san's stuff!"
Austria just left without a withering glance. When he was gone, ChibItalia started to sob uncontrollably. He would never earn Austria's trust now. . .
Of course, that was when Italy was still a child and under Austria's control, too, but Italy still shivered when he opened the door. He quickly put his arms over his eyes to cover them.
Curiosity won in the end, and Italy ended up looking at the room.
The room was stunning, the curtains were made of silk and were a gold color, the bed was huge; it was a white bed, but very comfy looking and soft. Italy couldn't control himself as he looked at that bed. He immediately jumped on it, giggling as he did so.
Although Italy calmed himself down, his attention was distracted by another door in the room. It was slightly opened, so Italy hopped off the bed and ran to the door, entering inside it.
What he saw shocked him, he thought it would be a bathroom, but instead it was an attic. And a pretty big one at that. The attic was dusty, walls uncolored, wooden floor, looks like your average attic.
Italy hadn't even noticed the door closed.
~ Hetalia! ~
"Mmmm, thank you for that delicious lunch," Elizaveta told her boyfriend after that they'd got off after the plane.
Roderich looked at her confused. "But that was a few hours ago."
Elizaveta just nodded. "I know, but it was just so good." Silence passed over for a while as they stood for the bus.
"So," Roderich broke the silence awkwardly. "You think Italy will be happy to see us?"
"Yeah!" said the Hungarian instantly, and loudly, causing others to look at her. "I mean yes."
Roderich just shook his head at his girlfriend's excited attitude.
After a while (a while means getting kicked off the bus after Austria criticized the bus driver's driving and having to walk the rest of the toward Italy's house), they finally made it to Italy's.
"You just had to criticize the bus driver didn't you?" Hungary complained.
Austria scoffed. "We probably would've died if we stayed any longer on that horrible bus. It was a blessing he sent us out."
As much as Elizaveta loved her Austrian, he could be really annoying, meaning she didn't pay any attention to him as she rang the doorbell.
The pair stood outside the house for a good long few minutes before Hungary started to knock on the door. They waited for a few more minutes again. This time Hungary started to pound on the door and yell out Italy's name.
Austria looked around. "Stop it! The neighbor's will think we're crazy."
"I don't care! My Ita-chan is probably trapped; I'm ripping the door open!" With that, Elizaveta opened the door harshly, still yelling, "Ita-chan! Where are you?"
Roderich face palmed himself.
Elizaveta checked through the whole house for him. "Roderich! Ita-chan isn't here!"
"What do you mean he isn't here?" he asked. "He has to be here! Germany said Italy wasn't doing anything today."
He watched as his girlfriend started hyper venting. "My Ita-chan! What if he's kidnapped?"
"He's not kidnapped; he's probably gone to the store. Let's wait for him," Roderich explained reasonably.
Elizaveta crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. But if he's not back in the next hour I'm calling the police."
~ Hetalia! ~
Italy saw a few boxes and sat down in front of them. He peered though one and opened it up. And he saw. . .
"The dresses Hungary gave me!" Italy exclaimed happily. "I can't believe she kept them all of this time."
He dug through the box even more. "And there's the dress I wore as a newborn! What's it doing here?"
Italy's question was unanswered as he looked through more boxes. One box contained a bunch of old photos, including a few pictures of that Italy drew. But he ran across a drawn picture, a sloppy bunny drawn on. Italy had no idea why his heart felt heavy as he looked at the picture.
Italy only looked away from the picture when he felt tears spring up.
Why does this picture look so familiar? Italy thought, carefully putting it back along with the others.
Yawning, Italy stood up, thinking he looked through enough boxes. Besides, it was almost siesta time. His siesta senses were tingling.
As he pulled on the door knob handle, Italy found out something:
He was stuck.
~ Hetalia! ~
Hungary was pissed, towards Austria, the kidnappers who stole Italy (she just had a hunch he was kidnapped), and even at Italy's house. She wasn't even furious at Italy, just at everyone else . . . and his house.
"Roderich, I'm calling the police!" Hungary lunged for the phone by Roderich's side, but was pulled away from it by the Austrian.
"Elizaveta!" he scolded, "You know better than to act like a child. The police wouldn't even help us."
Elizaveta just pouted. "OK, I won't call the police. I promise! Just give me the phone."
Looking at her suspiciously, Roderich still did not give the phone over. "Why do you want the phone?"
She swayed around, towards the phone. "You know, to see if anyone left Italy a threatening message, to call Germany. . ." She quickly tried to grab the phone, but Roderich got to it first.
"Are you crazy? Do you know what Germany will do when he hears that Italy's missing? That's suicide! He'll blame us." Roderich held on to the phone tightly. No way was he going to die just because Italy was lost!
"As cute as Germany getting all protective about Italy is-" Roderich gave his girlfriend an appalled look. "Germany will not blame us for Italy, but we still need to tell him!"
Hungary frowned as Austria shook his head. Austria was acting unlike his usual self! He would have agreed to tell Germany. Granted, he did know Ludwig better than she will ever know . . . but that didn't give him a right to not tell Ludwig!
"It's been over an hour, though!" Hungary argued again, obviously not satisfied with Austria.
Austria thought for a moment, and then said, "Fine. We'll call Germany when we get back to our house."
Hungary was about to start arguing, but was silenced by a look of Austria's. She opened the door and slammed it on her way out, leaving Austria to scramble after her.
~ Hetalia! ~
Italy jiggled the doorknob, pulling on it, doing everything he could think of to open the door.
"No!" Italy yelled. "It can't be stuck!"
He sat down on the floor, looking for something that can help in get out. He yawned, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
I'll just take a siesta for now, thought Italy, lying down on the cold, hard ground. I hope Austria and Hungary will be here later.
Without a thought longer, he drifted to sleep.
~ Hetalia! ~
Germany was not in a good mood. He and his boss had discussed plans all day, had not seen his Italian lover in a few days, and all he wanted to do was cuddle up with the Italian and relax.
He couldn't even ask for a simple request.
What Germany did not expect was a phone call from Hungary.
"Hello?" Germany asked as he picked up the phone.
"Hello, Germany." He heard Hungary say in a bland voice.
"Oh, hello Hungary," he answered politely, noticing nothing about Hungary's monotone voice. "Is Italia alright?"
Germany heard silence for a few seconds and some voices arguing. "Uh, about that. . ."
Pausing, Germany held his breath. "What's wrong with Italia?"
Hungary gulped. "You see, Italy wasn't there when we came, we waited more than an hour for him, but he never came."
Silence. Germany almost dropped the phone out of shock.
"Germany? Hello? You still there?"
Germany turned back onto the phone and said calmly (way too calmly for Hungary), "Give the phone to Austria."
"Wait, wh-"
"Give Austria the phone!" he yelled.
Germany waited until he heard a meek "Hello?" from Austria.
"Where. Is. Italia?" Asked Germany with an angry and worried tone.
Austria cleared his throat nervously. "We have no idea."
And then Germany exploded on the phone. "What do you mean you don't know where he is? He was supposed to be there the whole day!"
"Germany, calm down," Austria tried to reason.
Germany counted to ten in his mind in German, Italian, and English.
"Just where are you?" Germany asked, calmed down.
"We're at our house. . ." trailed off Austria.
A vein popped out on Germany's forehead, voice rising. "You knew for hours that Italy wasn't at his house?"
"We'll see you at our house Germany, good bye!" Austria rushed off and hung up the phone.
Germany stared at the phone in his hand. Where was his Italy?
~ Hetalia! ~
Italy woke up yawning. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. His back was in extreme pain from lying on the floor, and rubbed it soothingly. Looking around, he momentarily forgot where he was.
Oh, I'm still in the attic, Italy thought, quite sadly.
Italy stood up from where he was sitting, his back aching as he did so. He tried to yank the doorknob again, to see if it would let him out. Here's a fun fact: It did not.
Since the mean old doorknob wouldn't open, Italy decided it would do good to look around again.
A large chest was drawn to Italy's attention. How he never noticed it before, we'll never know.
The chest was very dark brown, dusty, nothing special about it, but Italy loved the design of it. Silver handles that would be shiny if they were cleaned, designs that reminded Italy of waves washing up on a shore. It was a gorgeous sight for him.
Excitedly, he opened a drawer to find nothing inside. He opened the other two drawers, but nothing were in those, too. Disappointed with his discovery, Italy closed the drawers.
Italy turned back to look around more, but saw something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly turned around to see there was something behind the chest.
Trying to push a chest is hard work, Italy thought as he tried to do exactly what he thought, but failed miserably. Instead, he settled for just trying to pull out whatever was behind there.
As Italy pulled harder he managed to actually get the object out, which turns out was a box.
Staring at it, Italy saw the words "Do not open!" written sloppily across a side.
Ignoring the warning, Italy opened the box to something that made him gasp and tears flow down his cheeks.
~ Hetalia! ~
Germany walked to Austria's front door, deciding whether to knock it down in anger, or politely knocking on the door. He settled for knocking.
Hungary answered the door a few minutes later, looking terrified. "Hi, Germany. How are you?"
"We need to find Italia," answered Germany bluntly, walking in without being invited in.
Nodding in agreement, Hungary led him into the dining room where Roderich was sitting down on a chair, playing with his fingers.
Without even looking up, Roderich said, "Hello, Germany. How are you this evening?"
"Do you really need to ask me that question?" said Ludwig, not bothering to hide his anger.
Shaking his head, Austria replied with a no.
"Are you thirsty?" Hungary asked considerately.
"Can we stop avoiding the real subject? We need to find Italy," Germany replied, controlling his urge to yell at the couple.
Hungary nodded her head fast, while Austria decided to look up and quirk an eyebrow at Germany.
Resisting slapping Austria, Germany sat at the table. "I need to ask you guys some questions."
"Yes, what do you need to know?" Hungary decided to sit down at the table as well.
"When did you come at Italy's, things like that," Ludwig replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well. . ."
~ Hetalia! ~
Italy couldn't stop the tears overflowing as he stared at a black cap.
No, not just a black cap, but Holy Roman Empire's cap.
He hugged the cap closely to his chest, not yet sobbing, but close to.
Tempted to put the box back, Italy found out he couldn't as he saw crumpled papers in it. Wiping away his tears, Italy took out a sheet and straightened it out. What he read broke his heart even more and sob loudly.
"Dear my most darling Italy,
I'm writing this letter to you because I'll be gone tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll be back soon.
You've always been special in my heart and always will be. There's no way for me denying this and there's no easy way around it:
I love you. Since the 900s and will forever, even if I won't come back; you'll always be loved by me. Now, forever, and always.
Whatever decisions you make, I'll be supporting you: 100%. Please don't ever cry for me Italy, I'm no use of tears.
Loving you,
Holy Roman Empire"
He hugged the sheet of paper to his chest with the cap again, too. Sobbing uncontrollably, he straightened the other papers. They were full of the same emotion, just different words.
Italy had known Holy Roman Empire loved him, he confessed it, and Italy loved him. He just had no idea that Holy Roman Empire loved him this much.
Being so sad reminded Italy that he was hungry and stuck in an attic for probably forever until he dies in it. It made Italy sob even louder, not hearing footsteps from the stairs.
~ Hetalia! ~
Germany listened as Austria and Hungary explained all they knew about Italy being gone, how they got there, waited for an hour, and Hungary blaming Austria for not calling him right away (which Austria refused ever happened as Germany planned revenge). Then he heard a quiet noise, sounding as it came from upstairs.
"Be quiet!" he yelled at the two, who were arguing. "It sounds like there's something from upstairs."
They immediately zipped their mouths up. All concentrating hard on the noise, Germany recognized the sound.
"That sounds like Italia!" shouted Germany. The trio had no haste in running up the stairs.
"Search every room!" commanded Germany, listening as to where the noise was coming from. He found it was strongest sounding from the door at the end. Calling Austria and Hungary over, he told them it was coming from their room.
Austria couldn't believe that the German was telling him that Italy was in their room, but quickly went into the room. The noise sounded right next door, so Austria craned his neck to look at the attic door.
Germany and Hungary rushed to the door, Ludwig yelled out, "Italy!"
The noise, which Austria could not identify what it was, quieted down a bit and heard Italy say, "Ludwig?"
"Ita-chan!" Elizaveta yelled out.
"Hungary! I can't open the door," Italy yelled out.
"Don't worry, Feliciano! We'll get you out!" Ludwig shouted back to his lover.
"OK," said Feliciano from the other side. Feli didn't sound right, which worried Ludwig.
Roderich scoffed, which Ludwig growled to. "That door's been giving us trouble for a long time. Let me just get this." Roderich went over to a drawer and pulled out a bobby pin, tossing it to Ludwig. "Here, use this."
Ludwig caught it and stuck it in the lock, the door slowly opened with a creak. A sobbing Italian immediately clung onto him.
Ludwig rubbed his boyfriend's back slowly.
"Ita-chan? Are you OK? How long were you in there?" Elizaveta bombarded him with questions. Ludwig almost glared at her, but was preoccupied with the sobbing mess in his arms.
Catching Roderich's eye, he looked at the bed and then back at Roderich. Roderich just nodded back.
Pulling the Italian with him to the bed, he sat him down on his lap, wiping away his tears.
Feliciano started to calm down and answer Elizaveta's questions. "I-I'm OK. I was-s in t-t-there all day."
Roderich decided to ask a question. "Italy, why did you come into our house? And more importantly, why our bedroom?"
Glaring with all the anger she could muster up, Hungary lightly hit Austria on the back of his head.
"Ow," he said, rubbing his head.
Italy didn't notice and answered. "I was b-bored today, s-so I wanted to surprise you by v-visiting you. When I knocked on the door nobody answered, and I w-was g-going to leave w-when I tripped and accidently o-opened t-t-the d-d-door. I went in and I found nobody, so I went upstairs, I looked in your room and I found a door in here. I went in and I g-g-got stuck."
"See Roderich? You didn't have to be so mean," said Hungary, lightly pushing him.
Roderich was going to reply back, but Feliciano interrupted.
Feliciano leaned against Ludwig's chest. "I'm hungry."
Elizaveta nodded curtly. "You should be. You were in that attic all day. I'll make you some pasta."
Shockingly, Feliciano did not move from his spot. Ludwig ended up carrying him downstairs and through the dining room, seating him down at a chair, waiting for Elizaveta to make the pasta.
~ Hetalia! ~
Later, when Feliciano and Ludwig were at Italy's place, cuddling in the bedroom, Ludwig dared to ask a question.
"Feli?" Feliciano snapped his attention to the blonde haired man, waiting for him to go on. "Why were you crying earlier?"
Ludwig waited for the Italian to talk. "Oh, it was because I was in there all day and hungry."
Italy was horrible at lying.
"Tell me the real truth," Ludwig said.
Feliciano thought for a second, and gulped. "I saw something in the attic that reminded me of my childhood of someone I missed."
Ludwig took that answer, but felt there was something the Italian wasn't telling him.
Feliciano cuddled into his boyfriend's chest. "Love you, Ludwig."
"Love you, Feliciano," Ludwig replied back. Some other day he'll ask Feli the real truth.
End.
Aly208: How was that as a first story for Hetalia? Love it, hate it? Tell me in the reviews. Also, if you have any criticism or anything, write that in the reviews, too. I'd really enjoy some way to make my writing (in general and Hetalia) better. Thanks for reading!