I wrote this fic one atfernoon in Starbucks, inspired by the sweet aroma of coffee and the sweeter reverberation of sufjan stevens.
Disclaimer: neither hetalia or grandpa rome belong to me. hira, however, was fashioned out of my blood and my tears and is a part of me, given life by my soul. thieves will be hung, drawn and quartered
The Darkyst of Nations
Damion Hirashinosuya Vargas knew he was no ordinary boy. He thought of this as his violet gaze swept over his etherial companions. The fact that he could see them at all was proof that he wasn't like the rest. They were odd little creatures, sporting wings and wands and fangs, yet the whole world was blind to their very existince. And yet, Hira never found their presence to be unsettling. After all, they had been his closest friends all his life. They stuck by him, helped him through the rough times, almost coddled him.
So why did he feel so alone?
He looked past his friends, staring across the wasteland that seemed to stretch until the ends of the Earth. Something in him cried out to that horizon. He could not help but feel drawn to the mysteries beyond there, despite all warnings from his friends and his grandpa. He had wondered about it for years, wondered what he had to stay away from. Was it dangerous? Would he never come back?
"Hira-sama!" a familiar voice called. "HIRA-SAMA!! It's time for dinner!"
"Coming, ojiisan," Hira said in his usual deadpan voice, just loud enough for Grandpa Rome to hear. He pushed himself to his feet and walked into the dusty house, his friends floating behind him.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Hira stared into the meal lying before him. Just like the rest of this land, it was dead. Dusty. Decaying. But Hira somehow knew, knew there was something more, but where? He had a feeling that it lay beyond that fasinating horizon. He saw it, in his dreams. Green grass, blue skies, and beautiful juicy round fruit that was green and red like blood, the blood that pumped through his veins. The blood that made him so different from everybody else here.
He had asked his grandfather about what lies beyond the horizon many times before, and every time, Grandpa would shut it down. Just stay here, it's not worth it, there's no need to think about it, just stay put and do your work and quit entertaining such crazy fantasies. The last time Hira tried to prod an answer out of him, Grandpa simply stared him in the eyes and told him not to ask about it anymore.
Never. He could never get it out of his mind.
"Hira-sama," Grandpa Rome said, taking his seat across from Hira. "You do remember what day it is today, right?"
"Ojii-saaaaaan." Hira sighed. He was tired. Tired of grandpa Rome's ridiculous questions, his ridiculous behaviour, his rediculous life.
"You know, I still remember when you were only a child." There he goes, rambling about the past like an old man. Typical. "Now you're eighteen years old." He shook his head. "Eighteen whole years. You're becoming a man, now, Hira-sama."
He dropped that train of thought while he focused on his meal, letting several awkward moments go by.
Hira could have sworn he was eating at a fast pace, but the bowl in front of him never seemed any closer to emptying. No matter what he did, nothing seemed to change.
"Onii-san." he said, quietly, but grandpa rome could hear the suppressed anger in his voice. "If I am now a man, perhaps I can go out into the world, now? You always said before I was too young, but now there's nothing stopping me, right?"
Hira finally looked up from his plate and into the cold, dangerous glare of the old man. But he refused to be intimidated, and glared fiercely and determinedly back.
Grandpa Rome allowed the question to hang, chewing his food and giving him the same hard stare he had given him for years now, every time Hira decided to strike up this conversation. And, like many times before, the grandfather shook his head.
"I told you that we weren't going to have this conversation anymore," he said, his gaze steady. "Why can't you just accept my answer, Hira? You start this conversation with me every time we talk, and it has never changed, not once. Why can't you just stay here, where you belong?"
"But that's just the problem! I don't belong here!!" Hira yelled, punching the table with enough force to break it's rotting wooden frame in two. "I'm not like you lot and I don't want to be like any of you, you're dead- but I want to live, I know I can live, I've seen it and I know I can be a part of it! Why do you insist on holding me back!?"
With that, Hira left behind the fiercely spluttering Rome and slammed the aging door behind him. For once in his life, a sweet feeling of satisfaction coursed through him as he walked away from the house. The feeling motivated him, and he increased his pace until he was running.
His eyes fixed on that endless horizon that had mocked him for so long, the forbidden fruit that had always stayed just out of his reach, and he ran towards it as fast as his skinny legs could carry him, his feet pounding against the dusty earth like drums. His friends flew in front of him, waving their arms and shaking their heads, but Hira didn't see them. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Nothing but that beautiful horizon.
Minutes passed, and after a while, Hira became painfully aware of every second. His whole body protested, begging for rest, but his mind kept him moving forward. Foward, forward, forward, and down—
He slammed against the ground, his head bouncing back from the impact. Taking a moment to register the interruption, he turned back and grumbled over the offending rock sticking out of the ground like a sore thumb. Examining the vast plains he already covered, he rubbed his jaw. He couldn't even see that vile house anymore. Shakily hoisting himself to his feet, he scanned the area around him and found his eyes drawn towards a small pond several feet away.
Finaly away from that place he so despised, Hira decided he deserved a break. He sat by the edge of the deep waters and stared at the pond's reflective surface. In there was a stranger, a tired runaway, a mere boy, a nobody. Hira seized a rock from the side of the pond, and smashed it through the all to familiar image.
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