Author's Note: Jeeze, I REALLY procrastinated while making this chapter. Like, seriously. Every time I even thought about doing more of this, I would think, "Ehhhh, I'll do it later." ...I really need to work on that. xD Anyway, this chapter was a tough edit. If you had seen the original RP, you would see how difficult it was to focus more on one person and to correct errors. MEH. But I hope you like it. :D I'm not perfect, so I make mistakes! If you see I make a spelling or grammar mistake, let me know so I can change it! That's all for now, and I hope you enjoy! SAPPHIRE OUT!

Warning: Mild language, OCs, or genderbends will be used! Don't like, please move along and don't read~

Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia (though I wish I did xD). It's just fan stuff! :D

Guest: Teehee. C: I do enjoy making people squeal! Yeah, RomaCan is such a rare pairing. :c I've never actually seen a story other than mine with Romano as the girl. DX IT MAKES ME SHO SAD... Epic? Really .-. I don't consider myself a good writer at all xD

Chapter Three: Danger on the Horizon

Lovina straightened herself with a smirk still present on her face as she moved towards the kitchen, bringing out a pot. After she had put water inside the pot, she let it boil, then proceeded to drop the yellow flowers she had had in her hand inside.

"Yes, I know. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. However, Your Majesty, how did you get to be so far away from your kingdom?"

"I ran away," Matthew said simply, "It was the Choosing Day. I knew what would happen, but I did not want it to. Besides, if they give up their search on me... My father will be a lot happier with the choice. He always favored my brother anyway." He clenched his fists at the thought. It had always been Alfred that his father cared about, never him. He was just invisible to him.

"You have a brother?" Lovina asked, patiently examining Matthew's facial expressions. It was clear that she was trying to break through his poker face, but the prince would only allow her to see so much.

"Yeah," Matthew muttered and scratched the back of his neck, "An energetic, stubborn, crazy, and egotistical twin brother. His name is Alfred. I know who would have been chosen to become king. Everyone knew who the staff would choose, even my father, but... I refuse to become king. I cannot."

"Why not?" the female asked in confusion, obviously feeling as though she was missing something in this strange puzzle.

"Not only do I hate the idea of arranged marriage and the overwhelming responsibility that comes with being a king, but I hate the idea of what the people will want. They are calling for war and I do not want to start the mass loss of life, no matter how much I hate humans," he explained. He let out a dry chuckle and ran a hand through his hair. "Why am I telling you this at all? A human, no less... I do not understand it."

A tinge of bitterness hit Lovina with surprising force at that statement. She snorted indignantly and quickly went to go mash up the other items she had brought with her inside and added a drop of purple liquid into it, liquefying the entire solution. After this was done, she angrily poured the strange liquid into a mug, then thrust it towards Matthew irritatedly.

"Good point. What would an idiot human like me know? Here, this should help with your cold. Sorry for disturbing and trying to help you, Your Majesty," she spat the words out as if they were poison, her voice thickly laced with sarcasm. She stormed out of the room, cursing the Fae out under her breath as she did so.

Matthew was left flabbergasted in his seat with the strange medicine in his hands. After a few seconds of processing what had just occurred, he felt the most unexpected feeling twist uncomfortably inside his chest. For the first time in his life, he felt truly guilty for upsetting a human. He had to think for a few moments on why he was having such a feeling, then he had a simple, yet almost unthinkable thought. Maybe, among everything, the humans were not the only racists on the planet that they inhabited. He had assumed that every human was a horrible, ignorant tyrant who only cared for themselves. He had never stopped to think that, perhaps, there were good humans out there.

His shoulders sagged in realization and he stared down at the mug that had been given to him, his large violet-blue eyes full of regret. Lovina had not done anything to deserve this hate. How could he have been so stupid and blind to the truth?

"I am such an idiot!" Matthew growled to himself, taking the medicine in one gulp. The moment the violet liquid had touched his lips, he immediately felt all symptoms of his cold melt away. The sniffling, coughing, and oh-so irritating sneezing had actually stopped. He felt his body melt into its normal temperature, the heated flush on his face disappearing. His long ears twitched upward in surprise, before guiltily drooping back downwards in an almost comical fashion. Staring at the now empty mug, Matthew immediately knew that what he had drank was a potion... And not a shabby one, at that.

"She is quite good for a person who has had no real magical training..." he noted quietly.

"D-Do you think you could teach me blood magic and how to find your elemental affinity?"

He suddenly had an epiphany, causing his ears to perk up again. "Maybe that is how I can make it up to Lovina... I can train her," Matthew thought excitedly. He had made his mind up. He was going to train Lovina, but first... He had to apologize, which meant he had to somehow make his way to the female without falling like he had earlier. He grimaced at the difficult endeavor he was about to undergo, but knew he had no other choice.

The prince got up from the couch he had been sitting upon, cautiously holding onto the wall for safety as he hopped awkwardly on one leg. "Just be careful," he told himself, "and I will be fine." He hopped on his good leg and went through the doorway he had seen Lovina disappear through. He had to pause to regain his breath and balance for a moment before going along with the rest of his task. After nearly falling several times, he finally managed to find a shockingly empty library. "This is the only room that you can get to from this hallway... She has to be here..." he thought to himself with confusion. Knowing that his leg was getting very sore very quickly from standing on it, he decided he only had one option. He had to call out for the female he was looking for.

"Lovina?" Matthew said to the very empty-looking room. In response to his call, there was a sound of shuffling feet, then a loud knock! from what sounded like behind a bookcase. The sound of metal on metal, the tingling of gears, and the shifting of wood on wood rang through the library quite clearly, then, before Matthew could even blink, a bookcase that had appeared to be a dead end had moved to reveal Lovina behind it with another section of bookcases behind her.

"Yes?" Lovina asked angrily, her arms crossed across her chest and her eyebrows furrowed to show her displeasure. She did not even seem to be entertained by how startled and shocked Matthew was at the sudden appearance of another section of the library. If anything, the female seemed more irritated by the fact of his confusion. Matthew diverted his eyes at the glare being sent to him through amber eyes, suddenly feeling a sense of nervousness come over him. His ears drooped downward and his cheeks lit up slightly, his hands pulling at the other nervously behind his back.

"I-I just wanted to say that, I am... er, s-sorry. I just... there have been c-certain events in m-my life to make m-me believe that all humans are e-evil and cruel. I-I am sorry," he apologized with the stammer that was always a product of the nervousness and shyness he would feel now and again, "I-I also would like to say, that... if you d-do not mind, that is... I would like to train you."

There was an instant, radical change in the atmosphere of the room. Lovina had become stock-still, the anger disappearing from her face. Her eyes had widened to the size of saucers and obviously had a hard time processing all that she had heard. "Dio mio! Seriously, idiota?!" In the heat of the moment before she could realize what she was doing, Lovina rushed towards Matthew and hugged the Fae, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The Fae instantly became stiff when the thin arms wrapped around him. "You are welcome," He said stiffly, still not completely willing to be touched by a human, but not making any complaints. When the female had finally noticed what exactly she was doing, she blushed deep red, and backed away from the prince.

"S-So, how do we start?" Lovina asked, fidgeting awkwardly in her spot.

Matthew thought about it for a moment before answering, "First, I will have to assess your abilities and see if we can find your element. Then we can move on to other things such as training, discipline, and potions..."

"Okay, how do you assess my abilities?" Lovina didn't look Matthew in the eyes, the heat refusing to disappear in her cheeks.

"Well..." Matthew scratched the back of his head as he tried to find a solution. He found a chair placed by the fireplace inside the room, which gave the room a warm, cozy temperature. He sighed as he sat down, glad to have his weight off his one leg. "...Just show me what you can do already to the best of your ability. It does not have to be anything too fancy," he eventually decided.

"Okay..." she muttered uncertainly.

Lovina looked around the room to find something to use her magic on, then flicked her wrist in the direction of the fireplace set away from the bookcases. The burning fire was instantly extinguished within a simple blink before she made another small movement with her wrist, causing the fireplace to light again. She then sang a soft little tune and a few plants started to grow from between the cracks in the floorboards. As a final trick, Lovina raised both of her hands. She closed her eyes, straightened her arms, then murmured something under her breath. After the mumbled words were spoken, a book from the other room zoomed towards her and landed softly in her hands. She put the book under her arm then gazed at Matthew

"Umm, that's about the gist of it. I can do odd and end stuff like boiling water, transporting certain objects, creating things from nothing, and I've been working on making things disappear and reappear. Depending on the circumstances, I am able to control wind, but I mainly work with fire," she explained, her eyes anxiously awaiting Matthew's decision, though the rest of her body language looked as if she could care less, "I'm also decent with potions. You drank one of them earlier, in fact."

Matthew blinked and viewed the actions with surprise, putting his elbow on the arm of the chair and resting his chin on the heel of his hand. "Well, that certainly is a surprise... I never knew a human could be a multibeing..." the prince hummed under his breath in thought. He then clicked his tongue and continued, assuming that Lovina was unfamiliar with the word, "It means you have more than one affinity and have the ability to preform all types of magic. That is very, very rare even among Fae. I myself am one as well, but I particularly excel more in three certain types, which I mentioned to you earlier. This definitely makes your training more elaborate and difficult."

"Oh..." Lovina looked at her hands as if something about the statement had surprised her. After an onslaught of emotions had appeared in her eyes, she refocused her gaze back on Matthew, staring into the Fae's violet-blue orbs. Wonder and curiosity were evident in her eyes, though, once again, her body language appeared to be tense and uncaring.

"So how do you teach me?" she asked softly.

"I will have to instruct you in each type... Maybe even Blood, if you are extremely good," Matthew managed a small, unsure smile that he hoped did not look too awkward as he replied, "It will not be easy. It is going to be tough and you might get hurt along the way. Still up for it?"

"Yeah, definitely!" Lovina said a bit too quickly, showing how excited she really was. Matthew's smile became at least a little more certain at that, his smile soft and a little shy. Despite the show he had been putting on, Matthew was actually a quiet, gentle, and practical person.

"It feels so strange when I reveal my more quiet side to Lovina," Matthew thought, "Not bad, just... different. I wonder how it will take me to get used to this? A Fae befriending and training a human, that sure is something." He chuckled slightly at the thought before continuing on with his conversation.

"Wonderful. Now, you have told me that you are more at home with fire magic, but what about ice magic?"

"Hmm..." Lovina hummed as she thought for a second, then, furrowing her eyebrows, she looked at the glass of water on a nearby table that she had brought down earlier. She reached her hand toward the glass, causing frost to spread over the container and liquid. This continued at a slow pace until the water became partially frozen, but not quite frozen completely. Suddenly the frost began to freeze out of the female's control, eventually spreading over the table, only to stop when Lovina quickly retracted her hand.

"How's that?" she asked, knowing what the answer was before Matthew even spoke.

"You are not controlling it. Watch," He chided lightly. The prince simply turned his gaze onto the frozen table and glass, making the water immediately unfreeze within an unbelievable second, then, almost instantly, he made the water in the glass completely freeze as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"See? Completely solid and did not affect the table," he stated with a smile.

Lovina stared in amazement at the action, her jaw hanging open in shock. She closed her mouth and swallowed in an intimidated manner, attempting to make a confident smile, "O-Okay, let me try it."

She returned the water back to normal, then, biting her lower softly, slowly reached her hand out towards the glass as she had done before. Sweat appeared on her forehead as she tried to control all of the magic coming from her body, the frost delicately touching the very tip of the water. After what might have seemed like an hour, Lovina had successfully frozen the entire cup, the frost only gently licking the wooden table. She finally lowered her hand and, gasping, turned to Matthew.

"H-how's that...?" she asked, her voice laced with exhaustion.

Matthew nodded his approval with a small tug pulling at the edges of his lips. "Good, good! The main thing about ice magic is control. Keep a steady head. You are doing extremely well, since it seems to be one of your weaker forms of magic," he replied before his happy exterior was suddenly replaced by a forlorn and irritated one, letting out a heart-wrenching sigh, "If Kumajirou was here, I could teach you about familiars... If only I had not left him behind..."

"Kumajirou?" Lovina asked with a frown, the word obviously strange on her tongue, "I've heard a bit about familiars, but not much..."

"He is my familiar," Matthew said, his pointed ears drooping at the thought, "It is a funny thing to say, but he was my closest friend, even if he could not remember my name. Still is my closest friend. When I left, I did not have time to grab anything, so I had to leave him behind."

"What was he exactly? In fact, what is a familiar?"

"It is hard to explain without him here, but... Kuma looks somewhat like one of your northern animals. I believe you call them polar bears. He is just... a lot smaller. And he talks," Matthew clarified, his fingers moving over his locket, which he had returned to its true position around his neck, "Familiars are magical beings that act as a mage's, or in your case, witch's eternal companion. They protect the person they bond with and boost their magical abilities to a phenomenal rate. Most are summoned. Only a few will meet rarer breeds of familiars, such as myself, and simply find them instead of summoning. However, for you, you will have to summon. The rare breeds will only meet their companion when the witch is very young, a mere child."

"Dio mio! That sounds amazing! Let's summon me a familiar!" Lovina said excitedly, doing a sudden emotion flip.

"Hold on there, young witch," Matthew chided with a chuckle, "You cannot just summon a familiar with a flick of your wrist. You have to be more experienced, at least into your intermediate stage of training. You have a long way to go before then, since you are still a beginner."

"Okay..." Lovina sighed a bit dejectedly before correcting herself, "Since I'm not skilled enough, let's change that. Train me so I can have a familiar!"

Matthew put a hand to his mouth to try and muffle the snicker that wanted to be released, "Okay. I think I can help with that. Next we are going to give magic a rest and talk about-" He was cut off by creak, that was so quiet and small in the sound that it could only be picked up by Matthew's ears. He froze and put a finger to his lips, signaling to Lovina that she needed to remain silent for the time being.

"There's someone in the house..." He whispered softly, his voice barely audible.