Summary: The earliest days of Ukraine's life had the most profound effects on her as a person and as a nation. Rather than going straight into being a nation fate had an unexpected detour for her that changed her existence. Part of the "Colors of the World" series but can be read alone. Complete.
Warnings: Character deaths, OCs
Pairings: Ukraine/OFC (Platonic), OMC/OFC
Disclaimer: Still don't own.
A/N: What's this? Another story? So soon? Yes, yes it is. I hope you enjoy it! I may or may not have taken some creative license with history and a little bit of hetalia canon. Not much but some if you're savvy.
Just a quick heads up, Ukraine will be going by her human name for most of this fic. Since there is no one official name I decided to pick one from amongst the possible three.
Light Blue, The Color of a Winter Sky
The earliest days of Ukraine's life had the most profound effects on her as a person. During her earliest years of life, she was raised as a human with no guidance as a fledgling nation. She was formed just before Kievan Rus united and the Khazars power in the region was waning, as is the birth of many nations, trade had continued and brought new peoples together into a new nation. Unlike other new nations, she did not become readily apparent to the rulers of her new land for many years.
The day she came to be had been a cold winter's day. Barely opening her eyes for the first time, she seemingly began to wander at random. Instinctively, like all new nations, she started towards where her capital or parent nation would be though this was unknown to her. However, this particular winter General Winter had exceptionally vicious plans. Even moving on instinct it is easy to get lost in a completely white world, especially when you have nothing else to compare it to. The whiteness was a void, a blank slate for a new beginning, and an opportunity for a young nation to get lost to fate.
She tried for many hours to find somewhere, anywhere. She felt she had to be in a particular place but she couldn't seem to remember where, or even why. She didn't even know her name! As hours passed with no signs of anything beyond the white void she started to lose hope of ever getting out of the woods until she heard a voice call out.
"Who goes there?" It was a deep rumbling voice.
She looked around frantically, panicked and unsure of what she should do. Her eyes finally landed on a rather rough looking man. He was tall and dressed in a rather large fur lined jacket that went to his ankles. He had harsh eyes that softened when they finally found her and realized she was just a small child. She couldn't possibly be older than three or four.
"What are you doing out here in this storm child? And with no coat at that!"
He knelt down in front of her and she blushed, shy at meeting someone for the first time.
"So what's your name? Where are your parents?" He asked gently. She didn't have an answer and just shook her head quickly. As far as she was aware, she had neither. She didn't even know she knew the language he spoke until she heard it! She didn't know that as the personification of the land she would inherently know her people and their language. All she knew in this moment was she felt familiar with this man and she knew what he was saying.
"Not much of a talker, eh?" He said amused with the small child. Weren't children at this age supposed to be impossible to silence?
It was clearly a bad situation she was in but she seemed no worse for wear for however long she had been out here alone and he was here to help her now. "Well, I guess I'll just have to give you a name then. How about we discuss this on the way back to my home? It will be dark soon and my wife will be worrying about me."
She just nodded her assent and was only briefly startled when the man picked her up and hid her in his coat as best he could. Seeing her wide eyes, he explained that he couldn't just let her freeze without a coat and this was the best he could do in a pinch. Truly, it was a miracle she hadn't already frozen to death in her seemingly thin dress. As a nation born in the height of one of General Winter's tantrums she was fairly immune to the cold. However, she took the kindness as it was meant and burrowed as deeply as she could into her first embrace.
As they headed to the man's home he listed several names but none of them sounded right to the small girl and were summarily rejected. After a while no name was settled upon and he moved on to talk about his new wife and the home he built for them. The home was close enough to the village and trade routes that he could sell the furs he caught and the grain his wife grew but it was far enough away that not many people bothered them. He talked until a small house came into view. Soon they could make out a small figure moving through the snow to gather firewood from their stores.
As they got closer the small figure turned out to be a woman. The moment she came into focus the man heard a sharp gasp from his young companion. She started to squirm trying to get down. The instant he let her down she shot towards the woman, his wife. As he shouted out for the young girl to be careful his wife looked up, only to still at the sight of a young girl running towards her.
The young girl leaped the last few feet towards the woman and was caught in her open arms and into a warm embrace. The woman was smiling as if the sun had finally shone after this seemingly endless winter storm, the white nightmare had come to an end.
"You are so beautiful, my child," The woman whispered into the girl's silver blonde hair. She held the child tightly as she felt her bury her small face into her neck.
The small girl felt so safe as she clutched on to this woman. Her world, the one she barely entered, had changed so suddenly and now she truly felt at home. Was this where she was tumbling to in the woods? Is this where she was meant to be? For now, it was.
"What is going on Ekaterina?" The man asked his wife as he finally caught up to the pair.
"Petro, love, she is mine. She is ours." Her voice was filled with tenderness and her eyes were brimmed with joy. They had been trying for children and the look on her face was just as he pictured her holding their first born child. She was stunning.
"I found her in the woods without any parents or name she could call her own. I suppose keeping her should be fine. What shall we call her?" He was honestly a bit confused at all that was happening but his wife was happy and the little girl did need a home.
"Her name will be Sofia. Is that alright with you?" She looked down at her soulmate in her arms to get her permission. Her wide eyes shone with happiness as she nodded her assent.
"Yes, mama." Those were the first words the young child had spoken to her soulmate and in her new life.
"I'm glad. Let's get you inside and we'll figure our everything in there. Come along husband, and bring in the wood," She said imperially as she lifted Sofia to her hip and went inside.
Petro chuckled at her tone and followed the two inside after grabbing a bundle of wood. He had heard the stories of those souls who connected instantly and the color it would bring to their lives. He was grateful that while he couldn't see them he was not holding his wife back from them. He was also immensely grateful that his wife was happy and now he also got to have a daughter with her.
The day Sofia was discovered marked a turning point in the seemingly endless winter. Soon the sun broke through the clouds and spring came, bringing with it an entire world filled with color for the mother and daughter to discover.
As the winter quickly passed for everyone, Petro would go out occasionally to see to his animal traps and collect anything he may have caught for their fur. He would often bring his daughter with him so as to acquaint her with the land and settle her seemingly endless energy. He taught her what he knew about navigating in the woods so she would never be lost again and how to hunt and survive. While that may not be what was traditionally taught to women he wanted his daughter to have the skills to survive if she was ever lost in the woods again. He loved his child dearly and she loved him.
When Sofia was not out with him she would be at home with her mother, basking in the company of her soulmate. Ekaterina taught her household tasks such as cooking and sewing. In their leisure time they would find new colors to look at and gave them silly names they thought they may be called as they didn't have anything to compare them to. Their time together was the happiest either had ever known and they loved each other more than anything.
In the spring Sofia's parents taught her how to farm and tend the land. They taught her the importance of hard work and patience. They taught her how to live an honest and fulfilling life. She took these lessons to heart and worked as much as her young body allowed. She wanted to make her parents proud and they were.
As time passed and a few years went by it became apparent that Sofia did not age as she was meant to. This revelation changed nothing except for the lessening of bringing her into town.
The only change came when six years after she was found her mother gave birth to a little boy they named Ivan. He had his mother's light purple eyes and his father's light hair. He was beautiful and she knit him an overly large scarf he would always be able to wear to keep warm. Admittedly, her small hands couldn't knit much for long so her mother helped her with most of it. It was a labor of love by both of them.
Ivan was a happy child. He was always smiling and loved playing in the flowers their mother planted every spring since finding Sofia to admire their colors. They were happy for three years before another terrible winter struck and a fever had taken him. Ivan died during a storm much like the one that born Sofia. She kept the scarf she had made and refused to ever take it off.
In their grief they found that Ekaterina was pregnant once again. This time they welcomed a little girl named Irina into the world. She looked much like her father with his blue eyes but her mother's light brown hair. Her birth, while bittersweet, was a joyous occasion. The family continued on and as their grief was ever present it was slowly dulled and joy overshadowed it. Irina grew up to be a beautiful and spirited woman while Sofia seemingly remained the same, her aging so slow that it was barely noticed. Despite this though the sisters were very close.
When Irina was sixteen she caught the eye of a wealthy townsman. Before the year was over they were married and expecting a child. Irina had confided in Sofia that she had hoped her baby was a girl so she could name her Natalia. Her husband wanted a boy so he could have an heir but she wanted a daughter. Unfortunately, both died in childbirth. The child would have been a daughter named Natalia with her mother's coloring but with Ekaterina's and Ivan's violet eyes. Another snow storm hit and Sofia was beginning to hate the snow and the white void that it brought with it.
Her parents were crushed at such a loss. Sofia, who had barely aged in all her time with them, was now about seven physically, tried to keep the farm and fur traps going by herself as they too were nearly lost to her in their grief. It seemed as if somehow grief had manifested itself into physical illness. She tended to them and their home as best she could. In the evenings she would sit by her mother's bedside as her hair was carded by fragile hands. Their colors had been dimmed as grief echoed through their bond. Eventually, her parents were able to gather themselves enough to go back to a routine. The dimness remained.
Despite not having much money the couple started to take in stray children without a home and Sofia would help care for them. They would usually stay until they were old enough to live on their own or found a more permanent home that would care for them. During this time Sofia saw the goodness of people even in the darkest of times. She learned how to nurture those in need and protect those less fortunate than herself even if she too may not be in the best of situations.
Her parents grew old and before she knew it, they were gone by the way of Ivan with a winter fever. A winter storm accompanied her in her grief. There was not even the blue of the sky to break up the white nothing that was the snow covered world. It took her many minutes before she realized she would never see the blue of the sky again.
She ran. She ran into the woods she had been found in all those years ago. She ran from everything she had known until she no longer knew where she was. She didn't stop. She continued to run, letting her feet guide her to where she needed to be until she tripped over something in the snow.
When she looked down to see what had tripped her, it turned out to be a body mostly buried in the snow, upon closer inspection she saw that it was in fact two bodies. She undug them a bit to get a closer look. The first appeared to be a boy just barely out of toddlerhood and wrapped in his jacked was a little girl, barely two years old. Sofia quickly tried to dig them out. She felt an urgency she never felt before. When there was barely only a layer of frost on them she noticed that their skin was not the blue that was to be expected of those frozen to death but rather a pale peach color.
She shook them gently, hoping that they would wake. She heard a large intake of breath from the boy. It was the breath of life. She let let out a sigh of relief and then another one when she heard a softer intake of breath from the little girl. Their first breaths in this world.
They were not yet conscious and so she decided to clean them up a bit and take a closer look at them. When she got to their faces she nearly cried. With the frost gone the boy was almost an exact replica of Ivan. The little girl looked how she would have imagined Natalia would have looked, so much like Irina at that age. She knew that when their eyes opened they would be the same color as her mother's, as Ekaterina's.
She looked up and away as her eyes filled with tears of grief and joy. Her family was gone and yet they lived on. They would never know her mother and so she would fill that role. The sky that had been drained of color brightened slightly as her heart was filled with the love for her newly discovered siblings. She put Ivan's head in her lap and held Natalia in her arms.
She eventually noticed her brother's eyes open and look around dazed. They were exactly the color she knew they would be. Natalia opened her eyes not long after and she too had their eyes. The color of their eyes and the pale, nearly white, blue of a winter sky were the only colors she would ever see again. She stared at them until she noticed Ivan looking at her confused.
"Be at peace young one. Your name is Ivan. This one," She held up the small girl in her arms, "Is Natalia. My name is Sofia and we are your sisters. I will take care of us. Don't worry, nothing will happen to you under my watch." She would protect and raise them to the best of her ability and that would have a lasting impact on all of them.
She shifted her niece turned sister to her hip as she and Ivan stood.
"You look cold. Here, have this scarf. Me and ma-," She stopped herself. She couldn't bring herself to talk about her mother just yet. "I made it for you. Keep it safe. It is very dear to me."
"Thank you sestra," Ivan mumbled his first words.
Soon Sofia would learn what they were, and they would change, but their bond would always remain. She may now be the Kievan Rus, to be the Ukraine, but that changed nothing in her eyes. Their connection had withstood multiple lives and it would survive come what may. They were family and that would never change.
Ivan and Natalia, no matter what happened between them, would always be the last remnants she had of Ekaterina and Petro, her mama and father. They taught her how to love and be. They were a part of her soul and they lived on still every time she looked into her siblings' eyes.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading my fic! Please let me know if there's anything that needs to be fixed. Reviews get lots of cookies!
Originally Published: 4 April 2017