A/N: Hi guys! :D This is my first fanfic so please don't be mean! Disclaimer: I don't own nothing about Hetalia!

Carving out Courage

Chapter one

Tina felt warmth of the early morning slowly creep through the open apartment window and onto her sleepy face. She saw red behind her closed eyelids before groaning from the sunlight. Her eyes hesitantly flittered open, looking numly apon the apartment room. She sat up groggily, letting her bedsheets fall hopelessly to the floor. Tina looked over her shoulder to where her alarm clock sat, and silently read the numbers: 8:35.

" I'm going to be late for school!" She said, realizing the time. Tina jumped out of her bed and ran down the room in panic. She was caught by suprise when she felt her foot step in water as she was reaching her bedroom door. Tina slipped, ending up in an akward position where her toes were touching the doorknob, and were one foot was caught under the door. Her head was hit by the hard floor when she had tripped. Tina winced and picked herself up, still concerned about the 8:35 she'd read on the digital clock. What would she say if she were late for school? That she slipped and hurt her head so hard she just couldn't be there? She shook the thought off and hit her head once more on the door before finally opening it.

Tina went into the laundry room and opened the dryer that was on all night, to retrieve a pair of slightly damp clothes. She stripped off her old ones and quickly slipped on the 'clean' garments. Tina found that after a minute or two of struggling her skirt over her hips, that she hadn't unzipped it before putting it on. She blushed at her own stupidity, putting the skirt on the right way and reaching for a hairbrush that was resting on top of the washing machine.

After she'd thoroughly brushed out her blonde hair, she pulled a hat from the sock drawer and placed it on her head. 'Wait, what's my hat doing in the sock drawer.' Tina thought, giving a face as a couple pairs of stockings landed on her head with the hat that was put on a milisecond before. She took off her hat, letting the socks fall from her head, and put the cap back on. She examined herself in a mirror, deciding that she looked fine enough for school and raced to the frontdoor.

She grabbed the keys to the apartment while running to the door, and put one of them into the lock. Tina twisted it franticly, hoping school hadn't started, and turned the doorknob only to discover that it wouldn't budge. She turned again, jiggling it hard. It still wouldn't move. Tina pulled at the doorknob harder and harder with every second that her time was wasted. She tugged at it hopelessly a few minutes more, and gave one final pull. The door's handle came right off with that last tug and she fell to the floor with it in her hands. The door flew open when the knob came off and she rushed out the quiet apartment.

When Tina attempted to close the door, it only came up most of the way and stopped. She pushed on it and sent the door flying back in her face. It hit her forehead really hard and she fell over from the sharp impact. Tina looked at the door with tears, half because of her throbbing head and half because of the mean door that had hit her. As she stared at the door, she spotted a tiny metal cylinder sticking out from the door's side. Tina stood up and examined the cylinder, when she realized that that was the thing that locked the door. So when she had put the apartment keys into the door, she really locked the door rather than opened it. Her face drooped at her great lack of intelligence. 'I could be the stupidest person in the world...' she thought to herself, before returning to realitly. She glanced at her wristwatch which read: 8: 57, and was instantly charging towards her school like a mainiac.

O0..XxX..0O

" Girl, where were you again?" Feliks asked in his 'like totally' fashion. Tina just stared at her lunch, not really knowing how to answer without blurting out every detail about what happened that morning. So, she tried to think of a way to respond without lying.

" I was...well...I overslept." Tina juggled with the words until she found that excuse. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't exactly the truth either. But at least it was something to answer his question.

" Like, you totally need to get a new alarm clock, girl. Because this is like the fifth time you 'overslept'." Feliks said showing off a manicured set of finger nails. Tina looked up at him for a second before closing her eyes and sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. Uneasy slight laughs escaped from her mouth until they heard the usaul bickering coming from French and British accents, echoing from the other side of the lunchroom...

" Well..., you're so fat-that-that you block out the sun!" Alice shouted back to an angry Marie. As they passed the fat jokes to each other, Tina could feel the tension between them so much, that she saw a streak of lightning cross their faces. The two stuck stubborn tounges out at each other and went to sit at a lunch table. Tina sighed at this act she'd watched so many times. Marie and Alice always seemed to be in odds with eachother...

" I just wish that they'd get along..." An akward Tina said to Feliks.

" Totally." Replied Feliks with a mouth full of gum.

Tina waited till the lunchroom was clear and sat down at a lonely table to eat her sandwhich. She bit thoughtfully as the minutes passed by, looking down at her feet. She found that she just couldn't eat after awhile because of the hardships she was going through at the time. Tina inwardly frowned, putting her lunch aside and gazing up at the cafeteria ceilling. She thought about how she wasn't getting paid enough to have food on her table and pay rent at the same time. She was falling behind in her studies to make matters worse, and bearly saving any time for sleep, which was why she'd been sleeping in lately.

The schoolbell rang loud and long, startling Tina. She jumped, hearing the sound that had made her train of thought come to an end. She almost instantly heard the shuffling of reluctant feet in the halls a few minutes after the bell sounded. Tina, knowing she'd have to get to her classes soon, hesitantly stood from the lunchroom table and walked out of the empty cafeteria. She closed the doors to the lunchroom slowly, before running to her math class.

O0..xXx..0O

" Let's see...algebra, history, phyisics, language..." Tina chanted, flipping the books inside her open bag as she walked down a quiet street. She sighed and adjusted her bag onto her tired shoulders. The sun was setting and she had to get home before dark, for the neiborhood she lived in was said to have gangsters roaming the streets at night. Tina picked up her pace, wanting desperately to get to her house, but after many minutes of running, she saw that she'd came into streets that she'd never been in.

' Mabey I took the wrong turn on Bexely...' Tina thought to herself, stopping and observing her surroundings. She turned about, trying to figure which road she'd taken. There were no street signs around and she hadn't been on that curb before, so she was completely lost. Tina tried not to panic, thinking back to her original course. ' Well, first I took the usaul turn, then I walked down Homignton Dr. where I usually go. Then, I...uh...' she attempted to remember if she'd taken the turn on Homington or Bexely. What ever road she took, she was suppose to go up Homington.

" Oh shoot! I went down Bexely!" Tina exclaimed, realizing her mistake and slapping her forehead in annoyance. She shook her head at her major idiocy. ' Just how stupid can I get!' she reflected off of the morning's events, and the events that just took place. Tina had always thought of herself as an idiot, but she never thought that she'd stoop to such a pitiful level. She sighed and was about to head out of Bexely, until she heard footsteps behind her.

" Hello?" She turned her head in the sound's direction. The quiet taps of shoes against the sidewalk could still be heard, but she didn't see anyone nearby. Tina swallowed hard and presumed in her walking up the street, but as the footsteps got louder, she could feel her hair standing up on the back of her neck, and she broke out into a run up the road.

" Tina, is that you, da?" A voice echoed from across the street. Tina wouldn't dare look back at the source of the sound, and began to sprint, frightened, faster up the unevenly paved sidewalk. She knew who that voice belonged to, and didn't want to stay to meet. She felt her heart pounding inside her chest, demanding to break from her ribcage, as she ran up Homington Dr. and into her apartment. Tina slammed the knobless door to the apartment, immeadiately running to the window to see if the voice had followed. Sure enough, the streets were empty, and she gave a sigh of relief, realizing that they were.

After a minute or two of breathing heavily against the door, Tina arose from the floor and put a hand over her heart. The voice that she feared belonged to her landlord, Ivan Braginski. He'd always had a crush on her and he was very cold and creepy about things such as that. She didn't like him one bit, and feared for her life whenever he called her name.

A normal way to think about crushes:" I bought you some flowers." An Ivan way to think about crushes: " Oh don't worry. I'll keep you safe and lock you in my house so that no one can hurt you except for me, da?" That was why Tina didn't like Ivan. He went for people who were cute and naive about the world, which was normal in a guy. But Tina thought Ivan a different reason for going for the sweet and innocent type. The cuter girls were somewhat vonurable to the world, and easier to lock into a house as if they were a caged songbird. She shivered at the thought and walked into her room to lie down.

When Tina reached her messy bed, she collapsed into the ruffled sheets, exhausted from school. She let out short breaths of comfort as a warm tear slid down her cheek. Oh, the tiredness she felt, and yet, she still had a long way before had to do her homework and she had to work extra hours at her job tomorrow. She glanced over at her alarm clock half-heartedly and sighed.

" 6:56." She read, sitting up in her bed. Tina sighed again and thrust her pillow onto her face. After seconds of struggling to breathe under the softness, she dragged the pillow down her face to let a breath escape her mouth. Tina figured she'd have to start her school assignments soon, and reluctantly got up from her bed to retrieve her bag full of heavy books at the other end of the room. She struggled to lift it for many minutes until she managed to drag the bookbag down to her bed and tried to put it into her bed. When she finally came to lift it off the ground, her arms became jello and the bag dropped to the floor, her being pulled down by its weight, and falling on her face. She groaned and rubbed her redddened face from the fall.

Tina finally decided to study on the floor instead of her bed, and went to work, flipping pages and scribbling a pencil through texbooks as the hours passed by. Her eyelids slowly grew heaveir and heavier as she read through her algebra lessons. Tina tapped her pencil against the pages of the book in her lap, her head lolling to the side as the drumming became rythmic. Her brown eyes strived to stay open, but effort all in vain, for Tina fell asleep on her math book that was lifted on her tired knees.

The moon shone through the window, alluminating her face with brilliant gentle light. It outlined the soft curves of her face and made her eyelashes stand out beautifully in her peaceful slumber. Her short, blonde hair, that didn't even reach her shoulders, was practicly glowing under her cute hat she always wore apon her head. No one ever really thought of her as beautiful, though. She was always the clumsy one, or the akward one, but never the pretty one. In reality, the only one who was after her was her landlord, and he was slightly insane. No man could ever see anything in her besides her derpiness and stupidity. She never received a compliment from anyone and was Feliks's best friend, which was pretty jacked up on its own, considering he was gay. But she didn't mind. She didn't really think of herself as pretty either, so why should she be expecting compliments? Tina just thought of herself as a normal human being with no special talents or looks. But she lived and breathed like everyone else, so she was no different..., right?

O0..xXx..0O

'Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-bee- ' went the alarm clock before Tina shut it off. She rolled over in the mess of books and papers that laid scattered on the floor. She cracked open her brown eyes only to see blurred pages of her math book, before she sat up franticly, grabbing her clock in panic. When she turned on the digital clock her eyes widened at the red numbers that were on the little screen.

" 9:57!" She screamed, quickly arising from the floor and stuffing her school work into the slightly ripped bag. Tina sprinted out of the bedroom, pulling her hat from the ground and slipping it onto her head along with some papers that were laying inside the cap. As she bent down to pick up a paper, though, her skirt's lock, that kept the clothing on, snapped and flew across the room. She mumbled a sarcastic, " Perfect timing..." Before running down the apartment to get a saftey pin, just before her skirt slid down her legs.

" C'mon! Pin! Pin!" She aggressively put the pin through the clothes and pinned it to the skirt attacher, dashing out the knobles door, and onto the streets.

While running, her bag was flying over her shoulder awfully against the wind. Because of the rough tugs of the wind, some of her papers slipped from her mathbook and blew across the street. Tina heard the slapping of papers against the breeze and looked back to see all of her homework soaring into the roads. She crazily ran after them, trying to catch the stubborn schoolwork in her hurried hands. She managed to grasp one in her gentle hand and reached up to catch the others.

As she retreived her papers and looked them over, she found that the most imporant one, her homework, was missing. She searched rapidly among the trash cans, where her other papers had fallen, to find that it hadn't landed there with the rest of them. Tina paused, eyeing her surroundings until she spotted a single sheet of paper stuck amid the branches of a nearby tree. Sure that it was her homework, she ran to the tree, reaching out a hand to grasp the paper. The wind picked up and blew the schoolsheet out of her reach and Tina chased after it franticly.

After many hopeless moments of attempting to retrieve her paper, Tina finally had it in her grasp. She raised an arm up in victory over the rebelious schoolwork, but was soon putting the hand of triumph down as soon as she realized that she'd run into unfamiliar streets.

" Where...where am I?" Tina managed to say, gazing at the gedo-looking houses and broken glass that trailed its way along the cracked sidewalk. She stared up at the shattered streetlight above her that was blinking dimly from time to time. Tina searched for a street sign or anything to tell her where she was exactly, but, seeing that there was no such thing, her face drooped with a bitter feeling of no direction. She was lost...

" Tina? Was that you, da?" A Russian accent flooded through her ears. Tina whirrled around to see her landlord, Ivan Braginski, standing across the street from her. She gulped in some fresh air, which she thought to be her last, and backed one foot away from the approaching man.

Ivan ran up to her and gave her one of his smiles which she'd always took as creepy. He opened his eyes and looked at her, his eyes as cold as ice, but playfully twinkling with delight. Tina stepped back another inch, making the man's smile grow wider with pleasure over her trembling knees.

" Mi-Mi-Mister landlord...Uhh... What a suprise to see you here." Tina stuttered, halfly falling to her knees. Ivan's grin grew even more, making her tremble harder and more violently. After some very still and frightening silence, the Russian landlord gripped Tina's hips and drew her in closer to him. Her hands shook rapidly and her knees wobbled as Ivan stroked her sides. He bent down close to her ear, so close that she could feel his hot breath tickle her ear.

" You ran away from me yesterday, Tina... And now, I'll force you to stay with me, da..." She could feel his hands snake up her skirt, while he pushed her against a grafittied alley wall. Tina shivered under the warmth of his hands in tramatization. Her breath came out in short gasps of imprisonment as he came in closer for a kiss. She backed up against the wall as far as she could, trying to avoid his lips, and she began to bang her fists against his chest that was closing in on her. Tina could feel a scream developing in her chest and was about to let it out, but looked to the side because of a noise she'd heard. Ivan, seeming distracted, looked to the side aswell, noticing a man standind there, no expression on his face.

Thinking that mabey the man was friends with Tina, Ivan pulled a gun out of his coat and held it close to Tina's face. She closed her eyes, waiting for the blow of death. This was it!

A/N: Cliffhanger! XD Please review if you want me to continue the story! Thank you for reading! :D