CHAPTER TWO

Two weeks after Gilbert had gone back to Berlin, Elizabeta was going to go home as well. Back to Budapest. Back to Roderich. Back to her own schedule. Back to everything she had once had taken away from her. It was all going to be her's again. Her mental list of things to do when she got home was fairly short.

1- Get off of this God-forsaken train.

2- See Roderich.

3- Go home and take a shower.

4- Get into new clothes.

5- Sleep in my own warm bed.

She smiled when the train came to a stop. Stepping onto the platform, Elizabeta Héderváry, the proud personification of Hungary, and looked around for Roderich Edelstein, the personification of Austria and the love of her life. If there was one thing she knew, it was that he'd been waiting for her.

Out of nowhere, the very man she'd been looking for found her. Sweeping her up into his arms, (something Roderich couldn't do before. She was currently much thinner than the last time they'd been together) Roderich started crying.

One and two were mentally checked off and Elizabeta started crying as well. No words were needed, they both knew what the other was thinking.

I'm so glad to see you. It's been too long. I love you.

The two stayed like that for a short lived eternity.

Roderich slowly pulled away, nervousness in his dark blue eyes.

Are you still the woman I loved? His eyes seemed to ask.

Elizabeta looked back with broken, but hopeful, green eyes.

I'm still her. Her eyes answered.

"I can't wait to go home." She said.

Roderich nodded.

"I need to ask you some things when we get home."

Elizabeta nodded this time.

"Of course. I'll answer them."

Well, there goes the list.

~HETALIA~TIMESKIP~HETALIA~

Roderich had wanted to jump into the questioning, but Elizabeta needed a shower and fresh clothing. While she took a shower, he busied his self with making a meal for the two of them.

'She probably hasn't had anything to rich in awhile, jugging by the way I could feel her bones poking out when I picked her up. I'll just make some soup and tea. Does she still like tea? We haven't seen each other in so long, and she didn't have any way of communicating with me like Gilbert and Ludwig did. That stupid bird would always have a letter for Ludwig, but never for me.'

Taking a deep breath, Roderich continued to cut the vegetables.

'Gilbert probably wouldn't let her use that stupid bird. Right. That must be it. She probably wanted to send me letters, but couldn't. That must be it. It must be.'

Elizabeta had just come back down when dinner was ready. Two bowls of simple chicken and vegetable soup, and two cups of green tea waited.

She smiled. "This is the most food I've seen in years. And I'm not the one who made it. Thank you."

Roderich nodded. "Of course. I just hope it isn't too rich and you get sick."

Elizabeta took a spoonful. "Even if I do get sick, it won't matter. This is worth it even if I do."

The two sat in a comfortable silence, just eating soup and drinking tea.

After dinner, Elizabeta rose to collect the dishes.

Roderich touched her arm. "Just leave them for now. I can get them later. I want to talk to you."

He led her over to a plush couch in the living room. Elizabeta barely sank into the soft forgiving cushions for there wasn't that much of her to sink with.

Roderich asked the question that was eating him alive.

"I was wondering, why didn't you send me any letters? I was left to worry about you for years with out any comfort in your hand writing telling me something. Anything."

Elizabeta sighed.

"You would have worried more. There wasn't a single good thing in that house. I was a maid for a psychopath. Gilbert stayed in isolation. Tino was in constant fear of everything. The Baltics took it the worst.

"Ivan seemed to get a kick from making poor Raivis squirm by making the boy sit near him at meals. Eduard's work on files is perfect one day, and then violently torn apart the next. And Toris was beaten almost everyday. We could all hear the screams.

"Little Raivis would come to me when Toris wasn't in the room with him and Eduard. I didn't send you letters because I couldn't think of any comfort I could manage to give you. All of my comfort was going to the other residents of that house.

"I wanted to talk to you, to see you, to tell you everything was fine, but I couldn't. I tried to run away. I tried my damn best. I'm so sorry that you worried. I truly am, but I'm still worried about the others. The scars on those three are awful."

Roderich sat there, mouth slightly open.

"I'm such an idiot."

"No. Your not an idiot. You were worried. I appreciate that. I wish I'd come back sooner."

"Do... Do you have scars?"

"...Yes. We all received some. They hurt a bit, and make leaning against something hard to do, but they will fade into little white marks."

"Is it alright if I see them?"

"Of course."

Elizabeta turned to show her back to Roderich, and pulled her shirt up to her shoulders reviling her back to the wide, unbelieving eyes of her boyfriend. What seemed like hundreds of deep red welts to Roderich (in reality were only forty or so) littered his only love's back.

Without thinking twice (or even once, for that matter), Roderich reached out and started to trace a large scar, one that reached from Elizabeta's lower left back to her right shoulder.

She winced at the contact, but soon felt herself ease back into the gesture. Years of pain and neglect came flooding to her eyes making tears, and for once, she had no reason to hold them back.

Roderich pulled down the shirt from Elizabeta's shoulder. Once her back was covered, he pulled her into his lap. The two were crying freely.

Elizabeta was crying because she was happy, hurt, scared, hopeful, sad, grateful, all at the same time.

Roderich was crying because he didn't know what else to do. But it was all okay. The two somehow got to their shared bedroom, or at least the room they used to share all those years ago. Before everything fell apart.

But, it didn't seem to matter. Number five was mentally checked off, and the two were together again, and that must count for something.