It was weird, how cold could feel so comforting… so burning hot when it stayed there for a long time, how it could make you feel warm, when you perfectly knew you weren't. It was weird how you could feel the burning warmth slowly turn into cold, as soon as you realized you had taken your last look at the world, and what a cold place it was. It was weird how this was how you would die… trapped under the ice in a river, sinking slowly, so tired and ready for it. It was weird how you just minutes ago had fought against the streams, thought of your friends, how they would never forgive you if you died, and now just wanted to sleep; how you now just wanted to lean against the darkness, look upon the last beams of light coming through the ice, and close your eyes. How you now just wanted to fall asleep let the cold surround you…and never wake up.

Seeing the light turn into darkness over him Denmark blinked… or was it his eyes that blackened? He didn't know. All he knew was that he wasn't choking anymore. That his existence was going to end, and that he couldn't feel anything anymore. The last thing he saw before he passed out and felt the life leave him, was a single beam of light break over him. Then, He felt something, the darkness, surround him, and finally, he let go.

Sweden haled the lifeless body onto the ice and threw himself over it. He felt for the Dane's pulse, but when he found none, he felt himself get more stressed. There was no way Denmark was dead, he wasn't dead. He had to be alive. He checked for the pulse once again, but he couldn't feel any sign for a heartbeat this time either.

"No, no, no, no, no. this isn't happening, what do I do!?"

Sweden franticly tried to wake Denmark up, but Denmark didn't respond. The cold Dane was just as pale as the sow, and his hair was already starting to get frozen. Feeling his own fingers turn frozen from the ice cold water, Sweden laid Denmark over to the side, hurried to the robe he had taken off before he jumped out in the river, and covered the lifeless Dane with it.

He tried to warm Denmark up with friction, rubbing him quickly in hope. There was no way Denmark was going to die, not today.

"Denmark com'on, you are not leaving me today! I promise!"

Suddenly remembering an old technique he had used several times before, Sweden stopped rubbing. He took the unmoving body in his hands, and bore him away from the dangerous iced river. The lifeless Dane was just about as heavy as he had expected, but it didn't matter. No friend of him was going to die of cold or drowning.

As he found the snowless spot under a tree they had their belongings, he carefully lied the Dane down and undressed him and himself, covered him with all the furs and blankets he could find and pressed up close to him. He hugged him, and carefully swayed forth and back. Body warmth was said to be the best way to avoid things like death when you had fallen out in the ice cold water on the winter… but why didn't it work?

Sweden felt a single tear slide down his cold cheek. Denmark was just as cold as the Snow he had walked on earlier, just as cold as the water he had pulled him up from… and just as cold as a dead person.

"Denmark, please. You're not leaving me today… wake up, please"

Sweden lulled the lifeless Dane in his arms, feeling his eyes get wet with tears.

"Please…"

As minutes passed, he got no answer from the Dane. It had gone thirty minutes since Denmark had fallen through the ice now, and Sweden was starting to lose his hope.

"You're not going to wake up, are you…?" Sweden whispered to the Dane after a few seconds, exhausted after pulling him up from the river, and exhausted from carrying him. He felt two more tears trill down his cheeks, following the tracks of the first one.

How could he ever forgive himself? Denmark was dead because of him. Hadn't he told the stupid Dane to get away from him, he would have never tried to cross the river. He remembered the stupid argue they had had earlier. He had told Denmark to leave his side of the forest, and cross the river…just because of an argument. To make sure Denmark really was leaving he had followed him to the river and watched as the unthinkable had happened.

Sobbing, Sweden held Denmark tighter in his arms.

Denmark had stepped on a particularly thin spot on the ice, and then he just disappeared under the ice, with nothing but a scream left of him on the surface. In a hurry he had ran down to the river, forgetting everything about an argument, and tried to spot the Dane. Not before a good fifty meters down the river the ice opened again, and he had stood there, searching for a glimpse of Denmark's red robe. The stream was slower down there, and seconds later he had seen something red floating deep down under the water. He had thrown of his own robe and taken a deep breath before he jumped out, in the stinging ice cold water.

Sweden whispered a sorry once again. Exhausted and crying he held onto the lifeless body that had once been his living friend.

What would Norway do when he found out? What would he do when he told him the reason Denmark had fallen through the ice was because of him?! What would the others do when they found out Denmark had died?

Sweden hugged Denmark tighter and raked his cold fingers' trough the Dane's frozen hair. He could never forgive himself after this, never.