A/N: Second chapter! Yaay…? Sorry about the cliffhanger-ish ending on chapter 1, but yeah. Thanks for reading it, I guess. Remember, comments are welcomed, whether positive or negative! So here you are: Chapter 2. By the way, the lines just mean the change of the POV. I prefer to be confusing rather than simple 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia

Matthias had changed back, and felt even worse than usual. He needed to get back to the Nordic House, and apologize to Lukas. But his legs could barely support him. He didn't have much memory of what happened last night. He vaguely remembered feeling exhausted, and nodding off.

Then pain.

Excruciating pain as his body began to change. He hated the 'change'. It was awful. He always fought it, never wanting to give in to the monster as it began to stir. Some people may say it's being stubborn, but he thinks it's being protective. The longer that thing is kept at bay, the less time it has to find its way to his friends.

Panting heavily and using every tree around him for support, he eventually came to a familiar spot in the forest. Now he knew where he was, he stumbled along the route back to the Nordic House. It wasn't that far away, and he was near the outskirts of the forest.

Matthias felt close to passing out, but struggled on, determined to reach the house. If he could get there, he could quickly apologize to Lukas, say he was tired and go to bed.

But that didn't happen.

As he reached the front door, he felt his body getting heavier with every movement. On top of that, his body screamed at him with pain and exhaustion. Matthias clumsily put his hand on the door handle and opened the door. This action alone drained him of the last of his energy, and the darkness swamped him.


~Present time~

Lukas stared in shock as Matthias' heartbeat suddenly stopped. Why? He just sat there frozen, while the others picked up Matthias' limp body and carried it upstairs, to his room. Berwald did most of the carrying though, and Tino fussed over his injuries when he was settled on the bed. Emil came back downstairs to find Lukas still in shock on the floor. He shook him gently on the shoulders, and he came to his senses.

"Emil? Wh-what happened to him? Why? Why did it just…stop? How? I-it's not possible…" Lukas trailed off as he realised he was voicing his thoughts aloud.

"Lukas, you're not making any sense. What stopped?" Emil tried to calm down his brother.

Lukas looked him in the eyes, and murmured, "His heart, Emil. His heart." With that, he ran upstairs, Emil following closely behind.


Berwald and Tino both undressed Matthias to his boxers to thoroughly check his condition. Berwald felt Matthias' pulse once he was put on his bed, and was surprised to find that it wasn't there.

"Tino." He called, and Tino, who was on the opposite side of the bed to him, stopped cleaning a cut and looked up. "Has Matthias got a pulse in his other wrist?"

The question made worry flash in Tino's eyes (even more than there was already). He checked, and shook his head stiffly.

Berwald felt for any breathing, and was relieved to find a faint, shallow breath. So why wasn't his heart working? He was drawn out of his thoughts when Lukas and Emil ran in.

Lukas immediately ran straight up to Matthias and felt for any signs of life, like Berwald had. Berwald was surprised at Lukas. Usually he wouldn't panic like this. Usually he would be calm and as emotionless as possible in difficult situations like this.

But this wasn't something that usually happened.

People didn't snap suddenly, spend the night outside and come back all bloody and with no heartbeat. Sure, they'd been through a lot over the centuries, but they'd never experienced this before.

Berwald stepped back and tended to the injuries on Matthias' legs, giving Lukas some space. Emil flashed him a grateful look (which was odd because usually he's emotionless like Lukas), as his brother was too fixed on Matthias to notice.


Lukas felt tears rising to his eyes, but he blinked them down. He didn't want to cry. Not at this present moment, because if he was crying then he wouldn't be able to help Matthias.

Calming down a bit, he sat on the very edge of the bed, and took a wet cloth and disinfectant that Tino handed him, and began dabbing at a light scratch on Matthias' cheek. It wasn't the worst injury, but it was the first one he focused on. As he was cleaning the wound, he studied it. It looked like a scratch from a tree branch, as if Matthias had been running, and he'd hit a branch. But why would he have been running? Was he running from something? Or to something?

Lukas jumped as Matthias suddenly took in a deep, shuddering breath and drowsily opened his eyes. There was so much pain in his eyes when he first woke up that Lukas cringed and looked away. Then he blinked and faced Matthias again, but the pain in his eyes was gone.

"…Lu…kas…" Matthias struggled to say his name. It was quiet, more of a whisper, but Lukas heard it loud and clear.

"You're awake! Don't talk!" Lukas jumped up, surprising the others.

"…I'm…so…rry…" he forced out between gasps for breath.

Then he blacked out again.


Tino had been cleaning a deep gash in his friend's side when he saw Lukas jump up and tell someone not to talk. He glanced at Matthias, who had his eyes open, gazing at Lukas. In his surprise, he dropped the open bottle of disinfectant on Matthias, and caused him to quietly hiss in pain, before he continued what he was saying. Tino heard the words 'I'm sorry', and watched as his friend promptly passed out after.

Tino honestly didn't know what to do. Lukas was frozen on the spot, and Emil and Berwald watched in surprise. Then he began to clean up the spilt disinfectant and started on another wound (there were a lot).


~Time Skip~

Matthias slowly cracked his eyes open. The light flooded into his eyes and he squeezed them shut again. He heard voices, then scuffles, and the light he felt on his eyelids dimmed. He tried to open his eyes again, and found the light dimmed. Eyes open fully, he saw his friends around him. Where was he? It felt like he was on a bed, and the room looked familiar – then it dawned on him.

It was his room.

Lukas looked at him with concern in his eyes, which was rare. Berwald's stern façade had cracked a bit, and Tino had stopped whatever he was doing before. Even Emil was there.

But Matthias felt cold. Shivering, he craned his neck to look down and saw he was stark naked, save for his boxers.


Lukas saw Matthias shiver as he finally woke up after blacking out on them before. It was nearly 4:30 PM. He brought the covers out from under Matthias as gently as he could, and covered his friend. He relaxed a bit and stopped shivering.

"Are you okay now?" Emil asked cautiously. Matthias glanced at him before slowly nodding his head. Then he started to space out, deep in thought. Lukas shook his shoulder to snap him out of it. Matthias blinked a few times before raising an eyebrow in question.

"Why did you apologize to me?" Lukas asked.

Matthias frowned. When did he do that? "What do you mean?"

Lukas shook his head. "Doesn't matter. But I've got a couple of other questions for you. First, wh-"

But he was cut off by Emil placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head. He mouthed 'not yet' and released Lukas.

But Matthias saw what Emil mouthed and protested. "No, I can answer your questions." He sat up, wincing, and leaned heavily on the headboard. Panting slightly from the effort, he flashed a weak smile and made a hand motion for Lukas to continue. Emil exchanged glances with Tino, but stepped back and let Lukas speak.

Lukas arranged his thoughts quickly. Which question should he ask first? Then he thought of one that was really bugging him. "Why did your heart suddenly stop? Wait-" Lukas stepped closer, removed the blanket and put a hand over Matthias' chest.

He could feel a heartbeat. Relief washed over him and he lifted his hand from Matthias' chest, replacing the blanket as well.


Matthias didn't know how to answer the question. He knew exactly why his heart stopped, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. If he stuck to basic facts, they'd want details. Then he'd have to tell the entire story…he mentally shook his head. No. He couldn't tell them the story. It was bad enough what happened yesterday, but he wasn't ready for them to know. He didn't want them to know. Especially Lukas.

"It's a long story." Matthias eventually answered. Lukas narrowed his eyes with suspicion, while Tino's widened with surprise. Matthias guessed that they would want to hear the story, so he looked down and mumbled, "Plus, I don't want to tell you."

A heavy silence fell upon the room after that, until it was broken by Berwald.

"Why were you horrible to Lukas? Why did you hit him? You've never hit us in a simple argument. Sure, in a full-on fight, you do, but not in an argument. Also, why didn't you come back until this morning? On that note, how come when you come back, you were unconscious and injured? What's with your odd behaviour as well? What is going on with you?" His voice grew louder on the last question.

All those questions that would lead to the truth.

The truth that would make everyone leave Matthias.

The truth that would make him completely alone in this world.

But Matthias knew that they were too suspicious. They would find out eventually. He couldn't keep it a secret, bottled up inside of him. He had to tell them.

He took a deep breath. Everyone in the room leaned forward to hear what he was going to say. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be blunt." He exhaled loudly, and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I'm a werewolf."