Like A Canvas

A Hetalia story.

The World Academy was buzzing with life a fine September morning. Friends greeted one another with hearty smiles and awkward hugs, catching one another up on the events that happened over the summer. The autumn trees were slowly wilting away their colorful leaves, making the grounds a massive pool of beautiful golds and reds and oranges. The sun was shrouded oh so conveniently with a bunch of stray clouds, depleting the light from the earth's surface. Many students scurried to their various classrooms in search of their locations, many of them being young countries. At the World Academy, age knew no boundary. Even the youngest of countries, not even even with many older countries knees were required to attend the school.

This is where you would find the blossoming empire of Holy Rome, walking the hallways with the upmost confidence that could only come from his overly prideful brother.

He had managed to lose him back in the Autumn Grounds as it was referred too. Luckily, Prussia's girlfriend, Hungary, stopped the older country and demanded the ritual good morning hug and kiss. Holy Rome used this convenient time to sneak away as fast as possible, knowing full well that Prussia would swoon over his first day at the Academy. The former Teutonic was very reluctant to let his brother go to school. It was a sign he was growing older, and Prussia did not like this one bit. He didn't like it to the point that he sabotaged his brother on several accounts this morning. First was the fact that he changed the shampoo to glue. Sadly, Holy Rome had taken a shower the night before and had no reason to repeat it. Prussia hid every shred of food from him, but that didn't faze the young Empire. He simply shrugged his shoulders. His older brother even went as far as to cutting little holes into all his clothes. He was not prepared when the co-owner of their house, a musician by the name of Austria, just happened to know how to mend them.

Despite his cockiness and overall attitude, Prussia is a very, very clingy person.

Holy Rome paused for a moment to look out onto the Autumn Grounds. The colors bleed together into a beautiful harmony of the warm tones, contrasting against the well-kept grass. The crimson red, the copper, the blood orange, and the amber all swirled from the trees like individual birds, trying desperately to fly again before they settle on the ground. The wind has yet to grow harsh like it did in the winter, killing the vibrant colors from the leaves.

The Autumn Grounds would eventually turn into the Barren Grounds. Holy Rome did not like the idea of the Barren Grounds. Prussia recalled many times when students slipped on a patch of black ice and broke some kind of bone. There was even a death uttered once. In the middle of the Autumn Grounds, surrounded by the lush trees and the school itself is a clear pond, one which you can see the clouds pass across as though as it was the sky itself. Prussia had claimed that a student had tried to ice skate, and the ice cracked around him. Unable to swim, the rather young student either drowned, or froze to death. No one really knew. The story gave Holy Rome the chills, to the point that Austria had to scowl Prussia for being so ignorant of my age.

The Autumn Grounds were a bright, warm, uplifting place. Holy Rome very much enjoyed bounding across it with his brother before he got distracted. He didn't want to see something beautiful disappear. Harshly, his memory reminds him he had already done such a thing, to someone long ago. Hastily, the empire quickly walks away from the window as though as he could escape the very memory itself. Even more depressing than the Barren Grounds will be its reincarnation, dubbed the Meadow. That's when sprouts of flowers appear, decorating the ground with blues and reds and yellows. The trees would recover from their freeze, supplying their limbs with ripe leaves. The pond would glitter and gleam, but to Holy Rome it would not be beautiful. It would be a bitter reminder of the meadow he used to traverse daily in order to meet the girl he had fallen so deeply for. Holy Rome had left her suddenly, following in his brother footsteps as he moved somewhere else, trying to escape the countries duties for only a little while. There was a short kiss and abrupt goodbye and he was gone.

She cried out that they would keep contact.

He had failed to do so.

The first few months she sent letters weekly, then they turned daily. At one point he even received two letters on the same day. She was desperately waiting for a reply, which Holy Rome did not give. Prussia urged the young empire to do so, but the stubborn boy had refused. All along, he had been trying to deny having feelings for another country. He knew it could turn out bad. Even though he was surrounded with prime examples of how that was not so, he still did not believe it would work out. The letters piled up in his bedroom until the ceased to come.

Funny thing is, Holy Rome never considered seeing her at the World Academy. He was too busy trying to avoid his brother at the moment.

This was also, another downfall. Holy Rome had never attended school before; therefore he didn't have a clue where the other classes would be held. He just wondered aimlessly, occasionally glancing out the windows to spot variations in the Autumn Grounds. As a custom, students would arrive an hour early on the first day of school to greet on another and show new faces around. That meant Holy Rome was stuck roaming the hallways for a good hour, give or take the minutes Prussia took to find a parking space that wouldn't quote 'mess up his ride'.

Nearly at the point of frustration, Holy Rome exited yet another school building, deciding that maybe his brother's guidance would be useful after all. Finding the social nation was easier stated, then carried out. The empire was well aware that he was most likely chatting away with his two best friends, Spain and France.

Just follow the stream of fan girls, Holy Rome thought smugly, very familiar with the trios social standings within the school.

Maybe thirty minutes passed, he estimated, before he found his older brother lying on the slopes leading to the pond, cradling a girl to his chest. His eyes were close in a blissful sort of way, something which Holy Rome has rarely seen. His lips were quirked into a smile. Not one of his goofy, or snarky ones, but a sincere one that was also foreign to the young nation. The girl who he identified as Hungary slept soundlessly on his brother's chest, enjoying the symphony the sounds that incased the two like they were the only pair left in the world. It was a moment that should be trapped in a picture, or a canvas. Holy Rome substituted this as best as he could. Reaching into his pocket, he fishes out his phone. He quickly snaps the photo before the shutter gave him away. Hungary lifts her head up, noticing his presence for the first time. Before she could notice, Holy Rome slipped the phone back in his pocket.

"Oh hello Holy Rome." She greets.

Prussia nearly shoves his girlfriend off, scrambling to his feet as he almost tackles his little brother to the ground. Squeezing him tightly in a bone crushing hug, Prussia took a moment to shake the younger one.

"Where were you!" He demanded, as though as he was a mother reprimanding her child.

"Be nice!" Hungary swats the former Teutonic knight in a threatening way, making him lower Holy Rome to the ground.

Almost for a brief moment, the world bleeds away. All the sounds just stopped for the young nation. Holy Rome adverted his eyes to the pond, looking at the surface like it was one giant mirror. Reflected upon its surface was a face.

A face he so desperately tried to forget.

In a flurry of black, Holy Rome retreats from the water's edge, once again attempting to escape the haunting memories of his past that for some reason were starting to bug him today of all days. Today was supposed to be a good day, becoming acquainted with other countries and the Autumn Grounds he suddenly came to adore. Shaking his head, Holy Rome refocused the world around him, letting the sounds and colors leak back into the almost bleak world. All this took mere seconds. Prussia was quick to catch up with his younger brother, worried that something was wrong. Holy Rome simply brushed off the peppered questions, stating quietly that he was lost and needed help. Prussia promptly said goodbye to Hungary before leading his brother, Hungary's worried gaze burning into the back of the duos heads as they left.

The leaves crunch underneath there feet like little drum beats of a death march that on many occasions Holy Rome had heard. It was especially clear for him; the rapid tapping was, on the day of his grandfather's funeral. It was a major eye opener for the countries he had left behind.

It was true that a country could die.

Shaking his head furiously, he tries banishing the rather sour memories. His past was filled to the brink of unpleasant things that are beginning to bug him. He reminded himself strictly that it was just school. No need to work himself up and uncover some truly horrific memories. He decided instead to focus his attention on the Autumn Grounds before him, noting the different synonyms of the colors he saw. Hungary taught him that. She taught him that for painting so he could be good for-

Holy Rome does not continue this. Instead he counts each yellow leaf he saw. There was one particular one had darkened far more than the rest, resulting in a soft brown. It reminded him of her eyes-

The young nation's looked up at the sky abruptly, deeming the leaves to memorable and would just drag out more and more scenes of his past. He watched fluffy ivory pass over head like bloated balls of cotton dragging themselves across a blue landscape. He wondered vaguely what it would be like in the Autumn Grounds when the sky was painted a deep, midnight blue that stretched across the never ending sky. Glittering dots would appear within it, forming shapes and things that only she could name-

Holy Rome was growing angry with himself. Everything reminded him of her, as though as it was a fresh wound that just only started healing. It had been a good two years since he had left her. He just couldn't understand why he was feeling this way, a sort of knot being wound in his stomach that made him grow nauseous. It almost like the feeling you get when something bad is about to happen, but not quite the same. There was just a little something that differed from that feeling.

And it was the fluttering of Holy Rome's heart.

"Here we are." Prussia interrupts his thoughts, introducing a door like it was a live person.

Holy Rome's heart began pounding furiously, confusing the little boy until he realized a little too late, mid-way into the classroom, that there was a reason behind his nervousness. Upon the mat in the middle of the classroom sat a little girl, surrounded by bunched up mint colored material. Her head quirked to look at the door, to him, shaking the wayward curl protruding cutely from the side of her auburn hair.

Holy Rome takes two steps back as quick as he could, but this he couldn't escape.

"Holy Rome?" Her voice inquires, pulling Holy Rome's heart strings so tightly that it felt like he could no longer breathe.

Truth be told, he much rather be lost in the Autumn Grounds instead of facing a fraction of his past that he believed had disappeared.

He would much rather be anywhere else but here with the girl he had left almost two autumns ago.

Soooo watcha think? This story was actually supposed to be something entirely different XD I dunno I guess Liet's words just spark something.

-Soul Spirit-