Spring showers drizzle down, the driplets of water cascading upon me but not affecting me in the least. It's warmer than I am accustomed to, so I walk calmly through the snow-free landscape and twirl around amongst the plants, closing my eyes as the rain slowly drenches my thin blue dress. I pass by the blossuming daffodils and tulips, and dance along a broken wooden bridge above a small river, and then I hold out my arms, let my head fall back and breathe.
I feel free.
For once, I don't feel any metaphorical chains of confinement or broken bonds pulling my down. I feel almost as if I'm floating in an anti-gravity chamber, or dancing piroettes in space. I close my eyes and imagine that the beautiful white flowers are dazzling stars, and the bushes are comets or asteroids, and the trees are spaceships. There's no harships acting as gravity to pull me back down - there is only planets and stars and peace.
I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding, and fall back against the grass. It doesn't hurt as I'd almost anticipated, but instead feels as if I fell on some kind of fluffy cloud. I dig my dirty fingernails into the ground and yank up the blades of grass, unaccustomed to the feeling of it. Usually when I touch the ground, it's cold and sinks. But there is no snow today, not here. Here, it's Eden. Here, I'm free, at least for now.
"What's someone like you doing here?" someone asks, the smooth voice slicing through my trance-like state like a cold blade, or like his frosty stare. I shift my hazy gaze over to where the sound had come from, and I see someone lying beside me. I'm surprised, to say the least. It's difficult to catch me off-guard, but he'd managed to do it. My strange dream-like state has made me feel as if I'm high on sedatives or morphine, and I can't find the strength to glare at the intruder.
I stare right into his blood-coloured eyes and, as if afraid to shatter the screen of mist that fogged my mind and made everything a little less bleak and more optimistic, I whisper, "I could ask you the same thing."
The pale man beside me gives a nonchalant shrug, apparently also feeling some sense of lethargic peace. "Guess you're right," he agrees easily, and I suddenly feel his chilly hand placed on top of mine, and I try not to shiver at both the temperature and the odd sensation his touch sends through me - like an electric currant whizzing through my veins and alerting me, speeding my heartbeat up.
Ba-dump, ba-dump.
I wonder if he can hear it.
I realise I haven't taken my eyes off of him, and I notice how his lips quirk. Probably our strange sense of euphoria, I think to ease my curiosity and confusion. I blink, and I feel my eyelids grow heavy. I'm suddenly so tired, and I want to sleep. I can feel slumber's merciful hands gently wrapping its invisible hands around me, dragging me down...
Until I'm suddenly brought back into this weird reality by a pressure on my hand squeezing harder. I lift my tired eyelids, feeling my damp eyelashes brush against my wet cheeks, and the droplets that clung to my lashes break off and drip down my face.
"We shouldn't fall asleep here," that chilling voice says insistently, but tiredly. He has bruise-coloured bags beneath his bright crimson eyes, and the combination brings a morbid image of mangled flesh to my eyes. I don't flinch as I am used to such disconcerting images, although my eyelids do flutter once more. I try to pull my hand away from his, because he feels so cold, but he tightens his grip. "Don't let go," he murmurs weakly, but with a seemingly permenant smug smirk. "You'll fall asleep," he explains, and I feel I'm too weary to inform him that falling into the deep abyss of unconsciousness was exactly what I craved for at this point. As if reading my thoughts, he squeezes my hand tightly once more, and I realise that I'd closed my eyes again. "We should do something... to keep us awake," he decides, and somehow manages to find the strength to heft himself up, still holding onto my hand. He grins at me and pulls me up with seemingly no effort, and it takes all I have left in my hazy mind not to fall against him and cling to him.
He grabs my other hand and lifts it so my hand rests on his shoulder, and he puts his now-free hand on my hip. He threads our other intertwined hands together more and I vaguely hear the words, "Look up," and, for whatever reason, I do. I meet his deep cerise gaze and try not to imagine mottled corpses or splattered blood over my military uniform, and I can't help but think, Thank goodness his eyes aren't purple, at least, and immediately feel guilt swell up inside me. What's wrong with me? This place is affecting my feelings and thoughts, as well as my vision.
A strange tune suddenly invades my ears, and the white noise I'd been hearing disippates, and I now listen to the albino's humming. I recognise the tune and find myself easily falling into step with his dance, letting him lead for reasons I can't quite fathom. I feel like a marionette, as if someone is controlling me and my movements, as if I'm bound by invisible strings that render me incapable of utilising my own free will. I feel as if my emotions and mindset have been thrown completely off balance, and my brainwaves are going haywire. The eletrical currant flashing through my veins due to the man's icy touch is the only thing keeping me from falling into darkness.
"When I see your smile," I hear his wonderful but grating baritone voice sing, loud enough to hear but low enough so that only I could hear it. Not that anyone else would be able to listen to his voice - the warm rain was like a smothering blanket, and his voice was impossible to hear inside of it, unless you were exceedingly close. Besides that, it appears as if he and I are the only two people in this quaint, calm place. "Tears run down my face I can't replace." My eyes widen a miniscule fraction, and I realise he really his crying. He's shivering, too - I can feel the vibrations through my hands, and the electricity is waving sporadically, and I feel his heartbeat speeding up against mine as we're suddenly flush together. "And now that I'm strong, I have figured it out - how this world turns cold and it breaks through my soul..." His grasp tightens before becoming even weaker than it previously was, and his eyes are half-mast. "And I know," he whispers, slumping slightly and placing his head on my shoulder as we slow dance across the damp grass and through the shield of drizzle. "I'll find deep inside me, I can be the one..." He pulls back slowly and twirls me, and my dress flutters in the gentle breeze that suddenly makes me shiver. I fall back against his chest, and he wraps his arms around my waist as he falls back again, still holding me close as he whispers tiredly in my ear, "I will never let you fall... I'll stand up with you forever." He grasps my hand tightly. "I'll be there for you through it all, even if saving you sends me to heaven, 'cause you're my... you're my... my true love... my whole heart... Please, don't throw that away. And I'm in here for you... Please don't walk away and please tell me you'll stay."
He places a light butterfly kiss on my jaw, on my cheek, my forehead, and on my lips, and he grins at me as his bloody eyes drift shut. He suddenly looks so frail, and his grasp on my hand is so weak. His wet white hair frames his white face and he looks like an angel.
"Natalia," he whispers tiredly, his cold breath ghosting across my face, and I blink in surprise at the use of my real human name. "Don't fall asleep..." He strokes me face softly with his free hand and squeezes my hand he's holding. "Someone's... coming for you." I'm confused... so confused, and so tired. Why can't I sleep? "Natalia, stay awake... This place isn't real... You're barely conscious in the snow... There was an avalanche... Natalia, don't fall asleep... You'll die."
My eyes drift shut despite his words. "But I'm tired," I hear myself say. "I want to sleep."
His cold hand squeezes mine with as much strength as he can muster. "Try to stay awake... just for a little while longer, Natalia..."
I look up weakly and see his exhausted eyes peering down at me pleadingly. Giving a frustrated sigh, I give the smallest of nods. "Fine," I murmur. "But usually... I do not take orders from one such as you, Gilbert..." His name tastes strange on my lips - foreign, but not bad, and I suddenly wonder how his lips will taste. His earlier kiss was fleeting and innocent, but now, barely an inch from constant unconsciousness - from death, I find myself crawling closer, brushing my lips against his blue ones. "Gilbert..." I whisper, and press our lips together forcefully, clinging onto him numbly, shivering violently as the freezing kiss deepens.
I lean my head against his chest with Ivan being my last passing thought.
O-o-O-o-OAxis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.
Before you go all WTF on my arse, let me explain that this was not my fault! Ochotama and MerryxMaking decided we should participate in a crack!fic challenge. XD We wrote country's on tissues and tore it up, and then picked at random. I had to pick three times because my first two weren't "cracky" enough - I'd got Prussia and North Italy, followed by Prussia and Germany, and then finally got Prussia and Belarus. I'd intended to end it on a lighter note, but hey, angst is good sometimes.
I'm slightly petrified of Ochotama's - she got Russia and England. And yet, the masochist in me is screaming, "MUST READ NOW DO WANT." -pulls hood over head to hide face- Tch! Darn them. -huffs-
Despite saying that, this was surprisingly really fun to write. XD In case my drug-induced (not really, it just reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, so I thought of being high on crack or something... literally) ficlet made no sense whatsoever, the plot is basically that Belarus was going to visit Russia when there was an avalanche. Prussia, having scheduled a meeting with Russia for business purposes, was also walking along the same sort of trail. You're probably aware that if you fall asleep in the snow, you die. Before that, they were hallucinating. Belarus just wasn't aware that it wasn't real at first. D:
And thus my attempt at light, fluffy humour turns out as angst and character death... double dose. Le sigh, I am hopeless. Can you blame me? I am England amongst my friends and as such have to be... a bit bleak. -glances at rain outside in annoyance- Bah!
Thank you for reading! It means a lot. :)