Author's Note: Alright! Finally, I've had this idea in my head for months and I finally got around to finishing it. I also apologize for being inactive for a while. I'm not sure what to put for the second genre. Let's get on with the story! But first...
A big thanks to brilliantpanda for proofreading this for me.
Happy Birthday to VoicesoftheSoul! I'm dedicating this story to you for being an awesome friend, author, and inspiration.
I don't own Hetalia.
Warning: Rated T for language, character death and violence in later chapters. There are some OCs, but they're human or relatives of the Hetalia characters. Human names are used.
EDIT: I finally finished re-writing the chapter! Woo, 5,000 words. I didn't think that I could do it. But I did! Anyways, here's the update. Enjoy!
Chapter One: The Library
He glanced towards his fallen comrade and noticed a white flag. Half of it was soaked in blood. Toris stumbled towards it and snatched it up by the pole it was attached by. Toris' horse never left his side when he dismounted. He climbed up again, raised the flag, and raced towards the top of the hill to claim it. Reaching the top, he set the end of the pole on the ground. It was tall enough that it reached a little over his head. Toris surveyed the ongoing carnage. Far below, he noticed a figure on a pale horse. The figure was staring at him with cold eyes he'd recognize anywhere. Ivan gave a small, sad smirk. He was either disappointed to have the battle end so soon, or to have had manipulated Toris. They both knew what had happened, and Toris, quickly piecing together who the killer was, was beyond furious. He was pissed. The rage boiled inside of him, threatening to spill over with a cry of rage and charging towards Ivan. But he kept his cool and only glared at him. The so-called king turned away.
"Retreat!" Ivan ordered. The purple bannered army followed his command.
Toris burst into tears.
Toris shivered from the wind coming through from the open windows of the library, and shut them; the rich red curtains fell back into place beside them. Settling down with a good book would be nice, he thought. The faint glow of a few candles proved him just enough light to see in the dark room. The pale silhouette of the intricately carved marble fireplace could be made out. Trinkets and other things of sentimental value of the royal family gathering dust were set on it. Toris walked over, picked up, and held a candle close enough to be able to see the lovely face of Queen Iryna in one painting, and the beautiful portrait of Princess Natalya in another frame. They were known to have a history of not agreeing on certain silly, often insignificant, things, however they both agreed on the good of their people. Toris turned around, and tripped over the end of one of several chairs gathered around the fireplace on the cold night. Saving himself, and the library, from being caught on fire, he quickly regained his balance and inspected the recently dusted shelves. He started from his left side and glanced down the row and a book caught his eye. Being a book on the history of the three kingdoms, he snatched it off the shelf. Inspecting the other shelves, only three other books grabbed his attention. He added to the history book, along with three others, to joining the growing stack in his arms. Toris sat the stack down on a little table in between two red armchairs. He sat down in one of the chairs, leaving the table to his right. Pulling up a blanket from underneath the chair, he picked up one of the books, the history one, and started reading it.
"Hey-o," a voice called, "You should totally clean in here, it's totally getting all dusty and gross." The voice's source appeared next to Toris' side.
"Feliks-," Toris started.
"Oh, and you've been staying up too late reading all the time."
Toris took a breath before beginning to speak, but was cut off once more by his friend.
"Your hair is getting too long. We need to chop that mop off your head."
"Feliks, may I speak?"
"You just did."
Toris sighed, "So, are we going to speak with Elizabeta?"
"Changing the subject, are we?" Feliks asked, "Never mind that, yes we are. Now hurry your butt up."
His friend grabbed the blanket, swiftly folded it, and tucked it away underneath his chair. Toris got up and grabbed his books. They then set off going around the room and blowing out the candles.
"Let me guess, you're going to stop by our room and drop those off?" Feliks snatched his friend's sleeve and pulled him along.
"No, not all of them at least. I found one that might help us-"
"Gotcha," he said and pushed open the door. It shut with a soft click.
They went left and down, heading quietly towards the kitchen. Elizabeta was busy scrubbing a mountain of dishes in a tub. Her long hair was pulled out of the way, as she was cooking them a small meal at the same time. She hung up a few pans and pots along the wall rack, and grabbed their plates of food, before sitting down at a table. The two young men followed her lead. They dug in.
"So, I'm assuming you two are hear to talk to me about something?" she said. Feliks made a muffled noise through his mouthful of food. Elizabeta sighed and muttered something about swallowing before talking. Toris just nodded his head.
"What should Ivan know, and what shouldn't he know," she said.
Toris swallowed and said, "Well, he shouldn't know that we've been messing around and doing nothing useful."
Feliks states, "Thank you Captain Obvious."
"Alright, stop it you two. We've got a letter to write."
"I'm not doing any writing."
"Feliks, could you get any lazier?" Toris asked.
"I'm so lazy, I'm not even gonna bother answering that question."
"Can we change the subject back to the letter now?" Elizabeta interrupted.
They both nodded and Elizabeta pulled out a paper, some ink, and a quill. The group of young adults sat hunched around the table for a few hours discussing and arguing over little things such as spelling and grammar mistakes. Several sheets of paper were crumbled up and tossed in the trash by Feliks. Toris was proofreading while Elizabeta and Feliks were doodling and playing games. One paper had half the page blacked out due to them disagreeing on the spelling of "necessary," which they eventually gave up on, and chose another word. Toris left at one point to go and grab more paper. Elizabeta and Feliks decided to fold the rest of the sheets into paper birds and test which ones could go the farthest. Upon Toris' return, one of them ended up hitting him in the face.
The letter eventually ended up something along the lines of how there was nothing that they learned from spying, because they didn't have a high job position required to be able to spy on them. Well, enough that they actually knew what they were up to. The whole letter was basically their excuse for not wanting to spy and being forced to in the first place.
"Right, because the entire royal family is going to come into the kitchen and tell me how well of a job I'm doing by scrubbing dishes they don't even see!" commented Elizabeta. Toris sealed the envelope and handed it to her. She sighed and took it. The three of them stared at the letter.
"Think it's good?" Toris was nervous. The letter just excused their laziness. Ivan would be irritated that they didn't collect any information.
Feliks, who could care less, said, "It's fine, don't worry about it." He switched the topic over to who was to deliver the letter to Ivan over in Zemdalie. The other kingdom from Keval, where they currently resided, was about three weeks away. Elizabeta accepted the offer.
"We'll give you a month," Feliks said as Elizabeta strode out the door, "Tell Ivan he's paranoid for me, would ya?" He shouted the last part.
"Do you want to wake the whole castle?" Toris hissed.
"Yes."
They would wait another month than expected.
The sun had started setting in the distance by the time Elizabeta had reached the border. A strand of trees divided Zemdalie and Keval from each other. Giving barely enough light under the trees already, the scarlet sun disappeared in the distance, after casting a red glow on everything. Elizabeta sat on her horse and surveyed the area. Hills to the west, in front of her, led to her destination. Already a week of travel behind her, she ventured on for yet one more.
Hunger gnawed at her stomach. One of her packs was stolen a few days before, while she was sleeping. A rustling had woken her up. She pulled out her sword, she brought it for safety precautions, and the glint of it scared the thief off. Elizabeta jumped on her horse and galloped off in the direction of the burglar. Searching everywhere, she couldn't find any sign of the pack. Elizabeta decided to continue in the direction of the stream near her. She kept it to her left and stopped at it periodically to get a drink. It didn't take her long to near a dirt road, the morning of her second day without food. The young woman emerged from the trees and headed off on the dirt road. After a while, she spotted a stone bridge in the distance. She raced toward it. On her right side, gold hills and fields sped past, the forest to the other was a blur. Her horse's hooves clopped over the stone as she passed over the bridge. The stream wandering beneath their feet. Elizabeta took a sharp left towards a small home. Toris will regret not coming, she thought.
Meanwhile, Toris and Feliks needed to figure a way to fool everyone working in the castle that Elizabeta was still there. They sat there talking over their plan for a while. Feliks and Toris glanced at the time. It was a few hours from dawn. The two of them raced quickly and quietly through the castle. Making it to Elizabeta's room first, Feliks tore open her wardrobe. Toris shut the door behind him when he came in. Feliks rummaged through the clothes, occasionally holding one or two up to Toris while he caught his breath. When he had his arms full, they dashed back to their own room. Toris flopped down on his bed.
"No you don't," Feliks said and pried Toris from his bed, "Let me take your measurements so I can adjust this."
"You don't even have fabric in here," Toris protested.
"What do you think," Feliks pulled out boxes from the side of his bed near the wall, "Is over here?"
"You can't make them longer," pointed out Toris.
"I know that much, who's the tailor here? I'm just going to make you your own!"
Toris held out his arms as his friend started measuring him. "My own dresses?"
"Wipe that disbelieving look off your face." Feliks finished taking his measurements and let Toris go to sleep. He started sewing.
"Rise and shine, princess!"
Toris woke up to a dress thrown across his stomach. "I will never get over how fast you sew."
"I'm not finished with the first dress yet," Feliks waved around his hand that held the needle.
"Then I have to wear this one?"
"It'll fit you the best out of all of them. I'm currently working on the smallest one."
"I hate you. What do I say, I got a haircut?"
"Yes, and you did it yourself. No one will recognize you, no one reads here anyways, 'cept for the princess. Not you, sunshine, the other one," he said in response to Toris' face.
"How do you...?"
Feliks sighed, "I'm the tailor. Which means I sew her dresses. Which means I have to talk to her about what she wants."
"Sorry, unlike you I haven't stayed up half the night," Toris said, "What about the sudden growth in height?"
Feliks picked up part of the dress he was working on, "I have shoes."
"Eyes?"
Feliks gave him a glare. "Oh I don't know, maybe look in a mirror?"
"No need to be cranky, you willingly stayed up the entire night," Toris then let his anger out in a sigh and said, "This was a bad idea to begin with."
Feliks muttered under his breath, "No shit." Then came, a little louder, "Who decided on this anyways?"
"I have no idea, what were we thinking?" The last bit of Toris' question was muffled by an apron thrown at him.
"Get dressed, you have to get working. Do you even know how to cook?"
"Of course I do, I worked as a baker for sometime."
Feliks turned away as his friend started undressing and getting dressed again. When he was done, he twirled around in a green dress that was short on him. Feliks kept a straight face and nodded once before breaking into laughter. He buried his face in his pillow and Toris turned red. Feliks held out a pair of shoes. Snatching them out of Feliks' hand, Toris put them on and attempted walking around in them. It wasn't too hard, considering that they had no heel to them.
Feliks went through a checklist in his head to make sure everything was in place. He felt that it was missing something when the lightbulb went off. The tailor smirked.
"What?" His friend asked.
"One word for you: breasts."
Whether Toris' face turned red with anger or embarrassment is still a mystery.
Elizabeta had spent a little while at Toris' house. The one with the very backyard that they used to play in together. Feliks, Toris, and her, running through the fields of rye and the rolling hills. A wave of nostalgia hit her when she wandered through the hills. She slipped off her shoes and put them somewhere she would remember. Rolling down a slope and springing up at the bottom like she used to, she took off. They would always race through the acres of land. Toris' family wasn't very wealthy, but then inherited a lot of land when a close relative died. The three of them spent their childhood exploring it all. They would have imaginary battles and befriend mystical creatures. As they got older, they began to build forts and miniature cities. Picturing themselves as soldiers returning victorious from battle or spies on a mission. Who'd have ever thought they'd actually become them?
Several forts remained. Elizabeta bent over and stepped into one. The ceiling had collapsed. She cleared an area and fell asleep to the sight of stars. It had been years since she had done this.
In the morning, the young woman hesitantly approached the castle, knowing that facing Ivan would be shortly after. The gate was opened and she was allowed inside. She quietly crept along to the almost empty throne room. Ivan sat there holding a bouquet of sunflowers. His face was concealed behind them. Elizabeta could only guess that he was either in a good mood due to the sunflowers or in a bad one and the flowers were to cheer him up. She hoped it was the former.
Ivan's head appeared. He was grinning and it widened as he saw her. "Elizabeta! You bring me good news I hope?"
"Well," Elizabeta handed over the letter to him, "By good news do you mean that nothing has happened?" She tried to stop her hand from shaking.
"Of course that is good! Our kingdoms don't have to go to war then."
Elizabeta let out a silent sigh of satisfaction as Ivan examined the letter.
"You are a bit later than usual, so I hope you'll get this to me on time. Although, if nothing is going on, then I don't need a letter. I don't need my spies getting tired of running back and forth. It would be nicer if you all were closer to home," Ivan stood up and walked towards the door. He made a motion for her to follow. Elizabeta tried to calm her nerves from causing her to shake like a leaf. She reluctantly trailed behind him.
Leading the way, Ivan wandered down corridors until he reached a room. He opened the door and allowed Elizabeta to go first. He shut the door behind them. Elizabeta stared at the empty shelves, wondering what they were. She worked out the puzzle pieces. Toris was Ivan's favorite. Toris was a librarian. Ivan lead her to a library after expressing that he wanted them back in Zemdalie.
"Ivan, there is no way that anyone is going to want to come back," realizing her mistake in her words, she quickly added, "It's not that we don't like you, of course we do! It's just that we recently got settled in there and wouldn't want to have to move back again so soon." She hoped Ivan would understand.
"Whenever you're ready. It'll be waiting here. You're always welcome to take your spot back in the kitchen if things ever get too difficult," Ivan said quietly. "Summer has just begun, I was curious as to how you would react and if you would remain loyal to your family." He left.
Elizabeta got the feeling that family meant the kingdom as a whole. Ivan himself didn't scare her. It was his anger that did. It would come out of nowhere and his rage would fall upon them like bricks, crushing them until they were no more.
Meanwhile, Toris' days were embarrassing at first until he learned how things ran. Feliks eventually finished the dresses and they were more comfortable than the others, dare he say it. Feliks went to repairing the ones Toris had ripped, scolding him while he did it. At first he needed excuses as to why he was suddenly taller and why he wasn't doing as well. He had to learn to respond to Liz's name. Soon Toris was able to fly around the kitchen, whizzing here and there with plates and trays. He worked hard, and it payed off with several promotions. Toris also found time to maintain the library if he had days off.
Twice, Princess Natalya made an appearance. Their first encounter happened one day when Toris was organizing the counter. Stacks of paper were neatly filed into cubby holes on the wall behind him. He was rolling up one when the door creaked open. Natalya walked in. Her hair had a sort of braid going down her back.
"May I help you?" Toris asked after bowing. He was careful not to hit his head on the counter in front of him.
"I'm looking for a book."
"What kind are you looking for?" Toris tucked the paper away.
"Well I," she lowered her voice, "I was looking for one on knives, if you have any."
Toris was slightly shocked that the princess would be interested in such things, but he lead her over to a shelf anyway.
"Here we have one on their medical uses, this is one on the history of knives, that one over to your right a bit would be on them in general," he rambled off titles and contents of books as he pulled them off the shelves.
"Do you have some on any enchanted blades?" she quietly asked.
Toris quickly shoved his stack of books back on the shelf and pulled out two. He handed them to her and led her back to the counter. He recorded that she had borrowed the books.
She muttered a thank you and quickly left.
Their second meeting was about a month after when the princess returned and gave the books back to Toris. She quietly left. Toris scribbled that she turned the two books back. He capped the jar of ink and put it away along with his quill. He walked over to the shelf and put the first book back. When he turned the other one vertical, he noticed a slim piece of paper sticking out. He thought it was a bent page and opened the book to fix it. However, inside was a note that Princess Natalya had written, and accidentally left it pressed between two pages, never meaning for it to be found. He took the note and read it.
Dear Whomever find this note,
I would like you to at least know that I as a person do not want to have an arranged marriage.
-N
Toris went over to the counter, pulled out a scrap of paper, and scribbled a reply. He let the ink dry so that his note wouldn't leave this imprinted on the page:
Dear N,
Arranged marriages are horrible as they often force someone to marry a person they don't love.
-T
He hoped that she didn't know his name, that could've ruined everything, but he did it anyways. He slipped it in between the exact pages and left it there, secretly hoping she'd return and borrow the book again.
About two months full of worry and anxiety later, Toris sat exhausted in the library. He had flopped down onto one of the chairs, pulled up a blanket, and watched out the window. It was getting late and the stars were just starting to pop out. The blurry, but dark, outline of the dense trees was visible in the distance. Closer up they were scattered here and there, like the houses. The closer to the castle the houses and buildings got, the more crowded it became. Most were inside at this time of night, but there were quite a few people out drinking.
At one moment, Feliks waltzed right in and plopped down in the chair adjacent to him. He started blabbering on about something while Toris was zoned out. He had given up on ever waiting for Elizabeta to come back. He still kept doing her job though. Feliks kept giving him hope. Silently chiding himself for not being a better friend to him lately, he focused on something in the distance that approached nearer. Toris jumped up as he realized who it was. Feliks stood up and followed his gaze. They turned, looked at each other, and grinned.
Of all the people Elizabeta has run into in the middle of the night, which was no one by the way, she hadn't expected it to be a white haired, red eyed old friend of hers. She hadn't seen him longer than she hadn't seen the fort that she spent the night in.
"Gilbert," she whispered.
"Liz?" said an awed voice from under the hood of a cloak.
"Where in the world have you been lately?" she asked.
"Shhh, don't you have anywhere that we can talk in private?"
"There's the kitchen, come on," she started walking in its direction. Gilbert's muffled footsteps followed. She opened the door and walked inside. Lighting a candle, the door opened again and two very tired, and very relieved people walked in.
Feliks ran up to Elizabeta and gave her a giant hug, "I almost thought that you had, like, died!" He let her go and tsked at her messy hair.
"I'm glad you survived without me."
Gilbert cleared his throat. "What is going on?"
Toris proceeded to explain the contents of the last two months. Feliks interjected occasionally with a few witty comments and mentioned the dresses.
"I can't believe you didn't just make up a lie!" Elizabeta hugged her sides. They all were laughing.
Gilbert shouted in disbelief, "You had to wear copies of her dresses and act like her for two straight months?!"
Toris nodded, remembering that it was to keep the royal family from being suspicious, Ivan's orders.
Feliks even went so far as pulling out some of the dresses. Toris protested when they requested he model them. Elizabeta made some food while they chatted. They caught up with Gilbert as they conversed over the delicious soup.
"So you actually had to learn how to cook?" Liz asked.
Toris swallowed and said, "Well, some of the stuff I had already known previously, but I had to learn quite a bit along the way. Thankfully I work in a library with cookbooks."
They parted after a while. Gilbert headed off with Elizabeta. He took the floor while Elizabeta hogged the bed. She gave him a blanket, however. Feliks and Toris scurried away to their room. For once in two months, they all went to bed with full stomachs and no worries.
Earlier that day, sometime around dinner, the royal family sat at a long table. No one else was present tonight except for a few servants who stood ready for any commands. Natalya sat at one end and Iryna at the other. A plethora of food covered the length of the table. The princess stabbed at her vegetables with her fork. Queen Iryna buttered a roll.
She set the butter knife down and said, "Natalya, I hate to tell you that you must have an arranged marriage. I can't run Keval on my own. It's tiring me out and my back pains aren't helping. Please, sister. You could get the most handsome young man in all of the three kingdoms."
"I won't take pity on you. I'm not going to marry someone who I don't even know, let alone love! How could anyone do that to me?" Princess Natalya raised her voice, "I refuse to marry someone just for their money or their looks and remain miserable for the rest of my life. I'm not going to let anyone dictate my life! I'm a princess, and I won't be ruled by anyone! Let alone you! I'm not doing it!" She stood up and threw her fork at the wall behind her sister's head. Close enough to make it look like she had aimed and barely missed. Iryna knew better.
Also standing up, she slammed her hands down on the table and shouted back. "You're acting like a child! It's time for you to grow up and marry! You're a beautiful young woman. If you can't find a husband on your own, we'll throw a reception! We'll invite people from Terflera and Zemdalie, as well as Keval. You'll be the most gorgeous young lady around."
"I don't want anyone marrying me for my looks. Just as I won't marry them for theirs." She turned around and left.
Iryna sunk back into her chair. She folded her arms and set her head down on them. With difficulty, she held back a sob. The queen was torn over caring for her people or caring for her younger sister.
Princess Natalya stormed back to her room, slammed the door shut, and threw herself down on her bed. She opened her book that she borrowed back up. Wholeheartedly, she agreed with the note inside. She got up and quickly formed the note in her head. Searching through drawers, she found ink, a quill, and a scrap of paper.
Dear T,
I honestly didn't expect a reply so soon. Your note was understanding, unlike the person who wants me to marry. How could I remain miserable and married to someone I hate for the rest of my life?
-N
She tucked the note away in between some pages, a little bit of the edge sticking out so that T could find it.
A few days had passed since Elizabeta's return. Feliks had to cut her hair short so that it resembled Toris'. She was okay with the short haircut and having to grow it back out again. Gilbert was still hidden in her room.
Toris was reminded of when they were kids and Elizabeta had originally dressed as a boy. She grew out of that when she was a teenager. Liz had appeared on their doorstep one day in a dress, after a couple months of disappearing. She'd been worried that they wouldn't want to be friends with her anymore since she was a girl. Honestly, they didn't really care. They had then spent that day running along the valleys in between the hills. They found a hill with a little dent in the side. They dug into it and made a little fort. They made chairs out of dirt and stared at the hills. The midday sun beat down, and the dirt was cool and damp. They talked for a bit about what had happened over the last few months. As the sun started its descent in the middle of the afternoon, the trio raced their way back to the house. Elizabeta won. Toris and Feliks still raced at their normal speeds. They sat down with Toris' family and ate dinner before going back out and playing. This time they headed left, towards the woods. Navigating their way to a clearing, they sat down. The only bugs that were common were fire flies and glowed green among the wild flowers along the edge of the trees. They laid down on their backs and observed the little bugs. Feliks had one land on his nose at one point. He went cross-eyed looking at it, and caught it. It glowed through his hand. He eventually let it go. The stars appeared and were the spotlights for the fire flies dance. More and more appeared and flew around. They laughed. Not necessarily at the bugs, but for the bugs. They watched their dance for a while longer before going back indoors. Elizabeta and Feliks stayed the night. When they thought they were almost asleep, someone would make a goofy comment and they'd giggle for a minute or two. Toris' mom got fed up and whisper yelled at them to to go sleep. Despite being admonished, they continued giggling.
When they had gotten up that morning, they had found out that they had kept Toris' brother and sister up all night. They were forced to apologize and Toris' friends left. They came back later that day and did it all over again.