Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. It would be so much more depressing, then, so let's be thankful I don't own it.
Rated T for some language, and the fact I'm a teenager and I don't know what's going to come out of my head.
I hope you enjoy!
The army marched through the small town in perfect timing.
As he marched, a soldier watched the faces of the townspeople he marched by. They all showed fear and pain and hatred. Face after grubby face glared at him from their doorways. It was reasonable. The army had taken so much from them. They had killed their young men, burned their cities and farms and finally taken their nationality. Many of these families had a short future ahead of them. With their farms burned and their men dead, they had nothing left to live on.
He marched on, the only sound the boots on the dirt road and the occasional sound of a child's whimpering. Everyone was required to watch the army. The fear it instilled in them was necessary for a successful occupation. Every man, woman and child that this town still held watched the army process. As he caught the eye of a young woman carrying a child but one year old, his thoughts began to stray.
Was it right to make people watch them?
Was it right to even make these people suffer?
He knew it was for the best of his country, but was the glory of a country more important than the innocence of a child? More than half of the children watching him as he marched would grow up fatherless, if they even had the chance to grow up. A half of those children would die before they would even understand what had happened.
He felt guilty. The men he had shot down. Had one of them been the father of the little boys in that house? Had one of them been the son of the woman crying in her doorframe?
His thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of what sounded like a young girl a couple houses ahead.
"Bastards! You killed Papa! Potato-eating bastards, all of you!"
The girl in question stood with her sister at the edge of the street. They were in grubby children's dresses and their hair was pulled back in messy braids. What seemed to be the younger one clutched her sister's hand, tears running down her face.
"Lovi… Papa doesn't like it when you say that. .."
"Papa is dead. And it's the fault of these… these… evil, God-damn bastards!"
The younger one just cried as the elder child continued to yell. The soldier looked at the two of them, and felt even worse. What if he had killed their dear Papa? His hand strayed to his pocket, where he kept the picture. He had taken it from the body of a dead man, feeling it necessary to return. The picture had the images of two young girls and their mother. The elder, dark haired one held hands with their mother, and their mother held the younger one in her other arm.
Two girls…
The same?
The soldier took it out of his pocket and held it in his hand, rubbing it between his two fingers. He should give it back to the family to which it belonged. But the line kept moving. Right then left then right again. He stole another glance back to the girls and made a decision.
He stepped out of the line.
The soldiers around him raised their eyebrows, but kept on walking. They were not going to get in trouble because of him. The townspeople held their children tighter. What was this soldier going to do? What could he do?
As he walked towards the two girls, the little one began to wail, but the elder one stood there firmly.
"Don't you touch my sister, bastard."
He shook his head. "I have no intention of harming either of you."
"Then what do you want?"
"I'm… I'm sorry."
The elder girl snatched the picture from the soldier's outstretched hand before he could do a thing. After looking at it, her bottom lip began to quiver. "Bastard," she whispered.
Looking up in to the soldier's blue eyes, she screamed. "Bastard! You killed our Papa!"
"Lovi," the little one said again, "He said he was sorry. God forgives him, why don't you?"
The girl who seemed to be named Lovi looked down. She didn't apologize, but she didn't seem antagonized towards him. "He's still a bastard…"
The younger girl looked up at him. She held onto her picture, and looked through his clear blue eyes with her own amber orbs. "I hope that you don't kill anyone else's Papa. God doesn't like murderers. "
The soldier nodded. "I must do what I am told…" he trailed off, due to lack of a name.
The younger girl supplied it, "Felicianna,"
"I must do what I am told, Felicianna."
"God tells us not to kill."
The soldier opened his mouth to respond, and closed it due to lack of response. He looked Felicianna in the eyes, holding her hands.
"Let me tell you something. The world does not always run as it should. God tells us not to kill, but we go around, killing. Just because God says we should does not mean we do. No, this is not an excuse, but when someone is killing you, are you just to sit there? In theory, yes, but would you? I am told to kill for the glory of my country. I know it is wrong, but I must. I cannot say that I enjoy it. I know that every man I kill is a son or a father. But I must fight. I am told to fight, and the people who tell me to do so give me money to feed my family. Who am I to tell them, 'No, I wish to starve.'? Yes, God hates me when I strike a man down, but I must. Do you understand?"
Felicianna looked down. "I understand that you feel bad, but I do not understand why you continue."
"In all honesty, I would rather not. But my country and my family need me to. I cannot stop."
Felicianna nodded. "Yes. God and I wish you would, though."
Glancing down at the ground the soldier nodded. "God bless you, Felicianna."
"God bless you…"
"Ludwig Beilschmidt."
"God bless you Ludwig Beilschmidt."
The soldier ran back to his place in line, his hat hiding his face so that you couldn't see the lonely teardrop rolling down.
A/N: In case you didn't really get it from the story, the army has taken over the place Felicianna lives, and the people are forced to watch the army march so they don't rebel.
I plan to write other AU war short stories and publish them as other chapters, but this story in itself is complete.
I hope you liked it enough to spend a minute to review!
The Princess Astrella