AN; Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the first chapter and like this one as well. The plot will most definitely pick up speed after this chapter, and you all can expect longer chapters as well! Reviews are much appreciated!
On the day Holy Rome left, Hungary had to double up her chores to take care of the ones that Italy would miss; the poor child was so shaken that Austria had let him off for the day. This left Hungary to finish her work somewhat late, though not too long after sunset, allowing her to take a seat and relax her mind by the time the stars came out.
At the leave of Holy Rome, Italy hadn't been the only one distraught. In a different light, Hungary also felt the burden of Holy Rome's leaving for war, but in the form of childhood memories and "what ifs." Her biggest question came from observing little heartbroken Italy; what if Hungary had to lose someone like that? What if her childhood had been different and her friends hadn't survived after one of their fights? One knight in particular gave her the most uneasiness- he had always been off to war time and time again. What if he had lost one of those times? What if his power grew too much for him to handle?
Out of all the worrisome wonderings, the most confusing one was why this was still bothering her. It was true that she could have dissolved because of Turkey, but she was alive and well now. It was true that Prussia could have bitten off more than he could true, but he was alive and well too. Everything was in the past.
'What if the past had turned out differently? What if he didn't come home? How would I-'
The possibility still applied. He was still out there, still fighting, still stirring up battles. She was the one waiting on him to return. If he hadn't, she had the overwhelming hunch that she wouldn't be able to handle the loneliness that followed such a thing. Besides her own feelings, however, annoying her must be a way to pass his time when he wasn't knocking on death's door; nothing more. If she hadn't returned from one of her fights, would he be affected the same way she'd be? 'Am I nothing more to him than a cure to boredom? Is this friendship, this care, one-sided?'
Being caught up in her emotions, Hungary found no reason to believe that Prussia was any different. His arrogant attitude, obnoxious personality and narcissistic presence backed up her negative thoughts to the point where a nearby bottle of wine was looking ever so tempting. Normally she'd only drink if she were with company or in a good mood, but her sudden dillema was grasping for a cure- even a temporary one.
The bottle was half-full; she would have preferred to drink more than just that, but observing that the several other bottles on the kitchen table were empty, she'd have to deal with the limited stock. Combining with the alcohol, her feelings intensified into a "life's not fair!" type of attitude, leaving a bad air in the kitchen. Within moments, the wine was gone.
As the alcohol caught up with her system and she felt more of the effects, the window behind her opened, revealing a quiet Prussian working his way inside.
"There's a door over there," she pointed, but remembered that she was mad at him and turned away.
"What, are you mad at me? I didn't break anything this time! But since you're already upset, I may as well. Austria could use some new chairs."
When he didn't receive a response, he stepped closer.
"Come on! Not even one little insult?"
Still nothing.
"What's wrong with you tonight?! It's freaking me out!" Taking the seat next to her at the table, he tapped her shoulder to make sure she was awake, as her hair had been covering her downturned face. "Tell me why you're acting weird!"
Her hand went to her mouth to try and stop herself from making any noises, but when her shoulders shook and a couple of sniffles escaped her, it became clear that something was wrong.
"Nothing," despite her shaking voice, she attempted to pass it off.
"Ha! You're a horrible liar."
Only just now seeing the multiple empty bottles of wine on the table, he understood then that her emotional trouble must have been due to being drunk. Prussia couldn't necessarily smell too much alcohol on her, but he didn't count that as evidence against his theory.
"I get it now, you've been drinking too much! You'll be back to your normal manly self by morning." The multiple times he drank with her without encountering her in such a state didn't happen to be evidence against his argument either. Really, he just wanted to blame her troubles on trivial things that could go away easily; handling her when she was truly upset wasn't one of his strong suits. The rare times he had tried, he tended to only make things worse. Blaming everything on alcohol was easy and easily fixed.
Unanticipated was the resulting response; by trying not to make things worse, he made things worse.
"What do you care anyway?! Why should you be so curious and nosy about me and my problems? I'm just another person to bother!"
"Where the hell did-"
"You could have died!" His question was cut off by yet another unanticipated statement. "You could have died at any time, and I'd be lonely all the time because of it. You annoying dick, you wouldn't even blink an eye if I'd died! If I'd gone off to war and never came back, it would have been nothing to you."
Why she was going off about that, Prussia had no idea, but a vague sense of guilt was starting to hit him. He had snuck inside after dark for a reason, but that reason was now lost to a more immediate matter he knew he wouldn't be able to get out of.
"And more," her hand slammed on the table, "you keep going, and going, and going. The only time you visit me is when you're not fighting. God knows I'd be fighting if I could, but Italy needs me, and Mr. Austria needs me, and I have to get back on my feet. Do you know how much thinking I can do with all this time working instead of fighting? What life means to me..." she grew quiet. 'I'd be devastated if you never came back,' she wanted to tell him, but the words didn't form.
Prussia saw it coming. Her expression was easy to read. In fact, she looked about ready to keep talking about it, so he stopped her with his hand over her mouth.
"You clearly don't know me as well as I know you. So hurtful! Here I thought we were friends-"
Again, he managed to do the opposite of improve the situation. A sigh escaped him and he moved his hand to hold hers on the table in a loose attempt at comfort. "I'm always so awesome when I'm around other people, but the minute I try to make you feel better, I make it worse. You're an unlucky charm."
She couldn't move far past the fact that he was holding her hand, but was at least able to tell that he was only teasing her about being unlucky.
"You're the idiot that keeps coming back. And for the record, I only drank half a bottle of wine. The other bottles were already empty." Under his skeptical gaze, she changed the topic. "I thought you made things worse on purpose."
"How screwed up do you take me for?! I mean sure, I break shit and annoy you, that's on purpose, but that's what we do! It's not like I seriously hate you or anything!"
Hungary couldn't reply for a long minute. She felt both relieved and guilty at his answer: relieved that he was making an effort and guilty that she doubted their friendship.
Feeling restless at her lack of a follow-up, he stood and paced from the sink and back to his chair several times, only stopping when she spoke again.
"Did you come by because of your promise?"
"Duh. Only lame people make promises they don't plan on keeping. Besides, I came by all the time without having to. I told you before, my friendship skills are awesome."
She felt like a child as she wiped away her drunken tears; standing to her feet, she made her way over to Prussia. The embrace she pulled him into was much warmer than the chair.
He tried his best not to freak out despite how flustered he was getting. "Are you sure you didn't drink that much?" He didn't get an answer. "Hey, are you-"
Her arms loosened around his torso. Asleep. With no other choice, he picked her up as gently as he could manage and carried her away to her bedroom. His face only reddened so much on the trip there- having her in his arms managed to fluster him for the first couple of minutes, though it was something he was willing to get used to.
'There she goes again, getting under my skin, and she's not even awake.'
The night had turned cold during their time in the kitchen. Even colder was Hungary's room, which had been scarcely furnished, leaving Prussia to worry about how uncomfortable it would be to wake up in the middle of the night shivering, or waking up without feeling your toes or fingers. Common sense told him the extra blankets must have been in her closet.
He had to move a few hanging dresses from their positions to get to the pile of blankets in the corner. Among these dresses was a single coat that stood out from the rest, with it's familiar dark blue color-
"Oh."
Why she had kept the coat he gave her after so long left him wondering about what she said. She'd gone on and on about life and death and war and fighting. About losing him. It was almost annoying how serious he had to be to even think back about it, and he wondered aloud, "Off to war a lot? Why do you always get so serious when I drop by?"
Reguardless, he continued on to cover her with the blankets from the closet, feeling a sense of satisfaction when she wriggled into it, the most obvious look of comfort on her face.
"I guess you're not too unlucky. While you're asleep, at least."
He somehow found his warm hands covering her smaller, colder ones. Cold fingers were even more frustrating than cold toes; that he knew from experience.
"I was going to tell you something today, but I guess it'll have to wait until I come back. Can't have you sleeping through my awesome news."
With that, he left, and Hungary dared open her eyes back up from "sleeping." Her hands were warm. She could still smell a vague hint of the knight lingering on her blankets and her collar, where his arm had been holding up her head while he carried her. What exactly was she feeling? She had only wanted to see what he'd do in that type of situation; besides feeling reassured that he thought of her as something more positive than a rival, there was still a lingering restlessness from something else she couldn't identify. Was her uneasiness stemming from their friendship, or something else? Was she confused or in fear of something less platonic? Moreover, was this fear from the thought of her feelings being unrequited or mutually shared?
Seeing as how she was too comfortable to get out of bed, sleeping seemed more and more lovely in each second she kept her eyes open. Her last thought before shutting her eyes for the night was Prussia. Whatever his news was, she was anxious to hear it.
The next morning, just as Hungary gets ready to clean the breakfast dishes, a knock at the door accompanied a familiar, "Be a good host and open the door, Austria! Just because I always beat you up doesn't mean you have to hold a grudge!"
A certain hunch gave the hint that Mr. Austria would probably keep Prussia from coming inside. Knowing that he had something to talk about with her, she rushed to the front door just in time to keep him from having the door slam in his face.
"I'm sorry Mr. Austria, I must have forgotten to tell you I was having a guest over."
This caused the both of them to quickly forget what they were about to say to each other, though Prussia went with it, offering Austria the cheekiest smile he could manage, and strutting his way inside without a care in the world. Hungary ruined his walk of arrogance by gripping his collar and dragging him into the kitchen, throwing another apology at Austria before either of the countries could protest.
Once in the kitchen, Prussia managed a haughty laugh towards Hungary's direction. The only thing she offered him in response was a cup of coffee.
He watched her clean dishes for at least ten minutes, enjoying the coffee and the face she made Austria make at the notion of having him over as a guest. The quiet was getting unnerving to him, however, so he did his best to cure it.
"Sleep alright?"
She'd blushed at remembering how nice his warm hands felt on her own last night.
"With so many blankets on me, how could I not?"
It was Prussia's turn to redden at the thought. 'She did look comfortable by the time I left...'
"That was the point," was all he muttered. Giggles came from Hungary, but before he could ask her why she laughed, another little guest came into the room.
"Miss Hungary!" Italy came into the kitchen with red eyes and a sad look about him.
"I'll clean upstairs today. Can you tell Mr. Austria?"
"Of course I can!"
After Italy left the kitchen, Prussia questioned if Italy was what reminded her of the past, which she confirms without the animosity she held last night.
"Italy isn't very strong, so he doesn't react well to war. He's just a kid, too."
"When we were just kids, we kicked a lot of ass."
Hungary gave a wistful stare out of the window, nodding. "It was so normal to us. Fighting wasn't much of a problem."
"What's that look for?! You lost plenty of battles-" a stiff punch to the shoulder set him quiet. 'I still manage to get on her bad side!'
"No, I'll bet you're remembering all the fun times we had," he teased.
"Maybe," she nodded again, but he quickly argued.
"I was just joking!"
"Were you?" she raised an eyebrow and met his eyes. "Because you held my hand twice last night, carried me to bed and made sure I wasn't cold or uncomfortable."
"You faked being asleep?!"
"...I'll admit it was foolish, but doing alll of that for someone who's just a friend seems a bit much, don't you think?"
"What are you getting at?"
"I'm more than a friend to you! Hah, I can see you right now, your face saying 'I've been caught!' so don't even try and argue with me!"
"This isn't something to talk about this early in the morning!"
Forgetting all about her plan to get him to talk about what he meant to say the night before, she continued on with the matter at hand.
"At least we're on the same page," her expression was calm and contrasting with the bubbling excitement underneath a first glance. "You should go, though. I have a lot of work today since Italy can't do as much, and you'll only distract me by sticking around for too long."
Dumbfounded. Prussia's expression revealed every amount of shock from the short encounter as one would expect. His lack of upbeat extroversion was foreign to Hungary, but so strange and entertaining that she almost lost her cool front to laugh. Halfway out of the kitchen he turned and straightened his collar.
"I'll, uh...be back tomorrow."
When he left the house, every overwhelming amount of excitement and happiness spilled out. She stayed like that the rest of the day, even facing a bit of giddiness thanks to her impatience for the next day to come. Prussia was giddy as well, though for a different reason; his news would have only spoiled the good mood she put them both in. It'd have to wait until the next day.
If either had known the severity of the situation, they might have re-done that day, or possibly even those before it. No matter how much they wish for it, however, the past can't be undone, and certain things can't be avoided. Through the adversity, both will gain the ability to see through the masks they've worn for centuries around the other, and their put-away secrets rise to the surface until they cry out to be heard.
