A/N: This is my Hetalia fic and also my first prose fic. How exciting! Updates should be fairly regular, as I am doing this as a challenge for NaNoWriMo. I'm planning on it being about 50, 000 words. though this seems a little ambitious to me. But now I'm just babbling. On to the story and thank you for reading! :)

Chapter 1

Tino swore loudly as he clutched his nose, attempting to stem the heavy flow of blood now gushing from it. The impact with the tree had luckily not been lethal, but it had been enough to propel his face into the steering wheel with painful force. He cautiously checked his throbbing nose with his hands. It didn't seem to be broken, but damn did it hurt.

Tino swore again, rummaging through the mess of his car. The boxes in the back had been jostled, and one had fallen over, dumping a load of light summer clothes over the back seat. With his bleeding nose and spinning head, this turned out to be quite an obstacle as he groped around for his winter coat and hat.

Why do these things always happen to me? Of course my rental car has to crash! And of course it has to be in the middle of nowhere during a blizzard. Always! Why?

Finally, after a significant effort and an even more significant amount of swearing, Tino's coat, hat, and phone were in his possession. The phone had no service in this abandoned wasteland (of course!), but Tino grimly supposed that in the more than likely event that he got lost and started to freeze to death, he could use it as an emergency beacon.

As soon as Tino stepped out of the car he was hit with an icy blast of wind cold enough to cut through the wool of his heavy winter jacket. Perkele perkele perkele! What am I going to do? Tino stared helplessly at the twisted wreck that had been his rental car. It would be impossible to stay in that. The windshield had been blown out in the impact, and snow was already beginning to shift over the dashboard and seats. If he hadn't been so worried about whether or not he would be alive in the morning, his head would have been full of the enormous fine he would have to pay to the rental company. But with the snow already accumulating on his shoulders in powdery heaps and the still-oozing blood from his nose freezing slowly on his upper lip, Tino had more important things to worry about. Like how to not die.

He squinted into the thick flurry of snowflakes around the crash site. Nothing. No lights, no houses, no other cars. He didn't even know were he was. When was the last time he had passed a gas station? A house? Another human being? He couldn't remember. What if he could find service for his phone? Who could he call? No one he knew would be able to reach him in this gale, and he doubted that even rescue workers would be able to find him until after the winds stopped, and before that would happen he would be...

Tino slowly sunk down into the fetal position, with his hands over his head, fighting back tears.

Voi Luoja, what am I going to do? There's nothing out here, I can't do anything! I'm going to die, I'm going to die!

He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, trying to see a way out of his desperate situation. He couldn't think of anything.

It was as the first real tears began to fall, mixing with the blood on the snowy ground, that he saw it. A flash of light. He immediately sat up, his crying stopping abruptly at the prospect of salvation. For a moment he thought the light had been a hallucination, a result of his panic and injuries from the crash. But... yes! There it was again! Flashing through the thrashing branches of a pine grove. And it was definitely a human light, shining strong and steady through the darkness and falling snow.

Tino staggered into a standing position with difficulty. He was frozen, injured, and dizzy from the blood-loss, but he didn't care. He didn't know how far it was to the light, his one beacon of hope, but he didn't care. All he thought of as he began to hike resolutely through the snow was a warm house, a phone with a connection, and something to stop the growing pain in his head.

It was a jarring sound. It echoed through the house, disrupting the usual reigning quiet. Some one was knocking on the door.

Though he'd never admit it, it startled Berwald so much that almost fell out of his chair. After years of living in isolation, the sounds of the nature outside had become a part of the quiet. The sighing of the pine needles, the whistling of the wind, the light scrape of branches against the tin roof of the shed, even the howling of a winter storm. These things had become common place sounds for Berwald, a part of the peaceful background noise that permeated his world. Nothing like the humming and honking of cars and the shouting of people on the street. No. His was a sacred silence.

But the soft knocking on the door violated this holy ground. He could tell it wasn't just the wind from the blizzard rattling the windows. There was just enough rhythm, just enough hesitancy, to make it human.

Human. He thought, as he collected himself from his initial fright. He stood and walked, not without trepidation, towards the front door of the cabin. He knew he would have to let whoever it was in. There was no way he couldn't in weather like this. But he'd be lying if he said he wanted to.

In fact, he really didn't want to. Save for the monthly hassle of restocking his fuel and food stores, Berwald had had no real contact with people for years. Deep down he feared the mysterious person on the other side of the door, the person whose knocks were getting progressively weaker as Berwald stood conflicted in the middle of his living room. He didn't want or need another voice, another presence, invading his sacred alienation. He didn't want to open the door.

But that wouldn't be right, he concluded. He had to face this mysterious person, he had to let them in. Steeling himself for whatever might face him, Berwald covered the final few steps with long strides, turned the handle, and wrenched the door, his last barrier against the rest of humanity, open.

Like it? Should I continue? Reviews would be appreciated, but I won't summon the devil if you don't. Thank you for reading!