Hetalia © Hidekaz Himaruya


Lithuania waited on baited breath for the amnesiac blond's reaction to his words. Just as her pale pink lips parted she winced and grabbed her temples. Her face scrunched up in pain and she let out a small whine.

"Are you okay?" Lithuania asked his voice laced with concern and panic. He took the finished food from her lap and set it next to the bedside beau. How he managed to not to toss the silver platter across the room he didn't know. Automatically, his hands gently landed on her thin shoulders brining the two closer into each other's personal space.

Patiently he waited for her eyes to open.

Finally after a few heartbeats, ice blue eyes fluttered open. They blinked several times before locking onto Lithuania's. Slowly her hands also lowered until they were on her lap once again. All the while she did not break contact with the concerned green eyes watching her every move.

"W-what was that?" the platinum blond asked looking at the man for an answer. Lithuania bit his lip, he was pretty sure it was from the head injury, "It's probably a side effect from the fall."

"What fall?" she asked perplexed but she noted there was a dull pain in the back of her head where the shearing pain had originated from.

Lithuania hesitated a bit before answering, "A few hours ago you slipped on the ice outside."

Before she could say anything, Lithuania had insisted on checking up on her head. He poked and prodded the back of her head. She hissed a few times when he touched the more sensitive areas. He took note of them but for the most part her head looked good. Although a purple bruise looked to have developed in the short time since her accident.

"You should probably get some rest," Lithuania said clumsily tucking the woman back into her bed. His movements were clumsy because he realized he had been extremely close to Belarus and she wasn't holding a knife to his throat. "We don't want what just happened to happen again."

"I guess so."

Quickly the man picked up the dirty dishes and hurried to leave.

"Wait!" she called out to him. He did just before he set foot out of her bedroom door, "What is your name?"

Lithuania found himself caught in a complicated situation. It was obvious that Belarus did not know she was essentially a country. What could he tell her? He could not say he was Lithuania, she would…well he wasn't entirely sure but he was sure she would not believe him. In the end he could only tell her his human name.

"Toris Laurinaitis," he said just as he closed her door. "Goodnight."

He had made it only two steps out of the room before he collapsed in the middle of the hallway.

"What have I done?" he wondered staring at the distorted image of himself on the spoon on the tray lying on his lap. "What have I done?"

His brain was far too confused to even think straight. With a frustrated sigh, Lithuania gave up trying to understand what had just happened. He instead, opted to sit staring at the end of hallway.

When he had the strength to move, he dragged himself to the guest bedroom. It wasn't until he was lying on the spare bed that the full force of his actions hit him. Like a ton of bricks.

Lithuania could not take back what he said. Belarus would hate him even more if he revealed the truth to her…if she didn't think he was crazy. He silently endured the guilt that ate away at him. His brain ran through various other responses he could have told her.

Then his optimistic side came along.

"You could change her opinion of you," it seduced him while he lay in bed. "Who knows what could happen. With her obsession with Russia gone, you have a fair playing field."

His heart eagerly jumped at the thought.

Conveniently the same voice from before spoke up, "Russia's ring."

His heart sank to the bottom of his feet.

"She was rather fond of you when you were children, before Russia," the optimist piped in again. Instantly, the Lithuanian was swept up into the memories of the past. A past long gone but was filled with memories of when Belarus lived with him. Where she gave him tiny smiles and allowed him to hug her.

But that was after he had earned her trust. Before that she acted as she did now: cold, distant, and wary.

"You did it once, you could do it again."

The two opposing sides battled inside of him, both trying to convince him to listen to them. His head spun, wondering what he should do. After several restless hours of tossing and turning in bed, Lithuania's brain decided for him. The answer was vague and made with almost childlike reasoning.

His brain's answer: it was a rare opportunity. It was a selfish answer but Lithuania could not help leaning toward what could be a high chance to win Belarus over.

"W-what's the worst that could happen?" he asked weakly even as worst possible outcomes assaulted him. He pushed the gloomy thoughts aside with the over powering help of his never ending optimism. Even the tiny chiming of "Russia's ring" present before he fell asleep did not deter him.


Ice blue eyes watched as the man from before, Toris, walked into her room. He smiled at her with a warm smile, that looked extremely sincere but…there was something there she could not place.

After he gone the night before, she was left alone with her thoughts. She had tried to force herself to remember anything but it was in vain. Each time she tried to think of her past a sharp pain stopped her. One thing had been bugging her in particular.

She wanted to know her name. She felt like a nobody, like she didn't exist because a name was an identity. If one didn't have an identity then what were they? Nothing.

"What is my name?" the self proclaimed 'nameless' woman asked when Toris set her breakfast down. He physically tensed at the question but she missed it because she was taking a sip of the hot tea the brown haired man had given her.

"Natalya Arlovskaya. That's your name."

"Natalya?" she tested on her lips, she repeated the name a few more times afterward. Strangely, it felt right but also just a bit off. She did not voice her discomfort though, it was probably from the fall, "I like it."

"I do too," Toris said looking at her with a light blush dusting his cheeks. Natalya's looked at him.

"Of course you would. We would not be getting married if you did not," that was obvious enough to her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Toris said with a timid smile. Natalya's icey eyes caught sight of something in the deep green of his eyes (again), but she still could not put a name to it. When she looked a little harder the brunette averted his eyes. Natalya didn't know what to say to that. It was pretty suspicious though.

The suspicion lessened when the man tripped over his own feet. She noticed he did seem a tad..okay more than a tad…weak. Since the moment she landed eyes on him, she knew he was a pushover. He stuttered, he tripped, he avoided prolonged eye contact, and was hesitant. There was no way he could do anything devious, she was sure of that.

"I want to take a bath," she announced after finishing her breakfast.

"Oh okay," Toris said his hand pointing to their left where a door Natalya hadn't noticed before was, "Your bathroom is there."

She nodded to him before he scurried out of her room. She threw off the covers and gathered a clean set of clothes from the dressers on the right side of the room. Once in the bathroom the platinum blond stripped out of her wrinkled clothes and stared at herself in the medicine cabinet mirror. It was the first time she had seen a clear image of herself. She touched her face it looked pretty tired. There were slight circles under her eyes and her skin was very pale. Everything about her seemed pale along with her platinum hair and light blue eyes. She also noted she seemed a bit thin. She wondered why.

The ring on her left finger caught the light and she brought it to her eyelevel. That man, Toris, was her fiancé. She still found it a bit odd because of how completely opposite he seemed to be compared to her. How could a man like him, be her fiancé? Although the ring he wore was identical to hers. For some reason the ring spoke volumes to her and she felt she should not question it. That and another spike of pain thundered in her head, forcing her to stop her thoughts on the matter.

With that dead end, Natalya decided she'd much rather take a shower. After she was done, she placed on the clothes she had decided to wear. On her body was a simple square neckline navy dress with short sleeves that ended at her knees. The bottom of the dress flared out due to her wearing a petticoat under it. Her legs were also covered in black thigh high socks that led into her the pair of black ballerina flats. She felt like something was missing when she stared at her reflection. She just couldn't place what it was. When another shot of pain appeared, she gave up with an angry huff.

When she walked back into her room she was surprised to see Toris, she couldn't bring herself to say fiancé just yet, opening several suitcases on her bed.

"What are those?" Natalya asked once Toris took notice of her.

"W-well we should really start packing. W-we've lost so much time already," he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

Natalya gave him a confused look, "Packing, lost time?"

"We're moving in together and you needed to take some stuff back to my house," he said steering her over to her drawers.

"We're barely moving in together and yet we're already engaged?" the blond questioned skeptically. Wasn't it the other way around? She was pretty sure couples lived together before they became engaged.

"Um, you're a very strong assertive woman," Lithuania supplied as she began to absentmindedly transport her clothes to the open suitcases. Natalya nodded slowly. That did sound right; she doubted she was a pushover sort of woman with the way she had a tendency to glare and speak what was on her mind. She asked no further questions as she continued to fold several sets of clothes and other necessities.

"Where do you live?" she asked after a small silence.

"In Vilnius."

"Where are we now?"

"Outskirt of Minsk."

"Oh."

It was silent again. The only sound of the two scurrying around the room and the rustling of clothing being folded. Natalya snuck a glance at the man besides her closing a full suitcase. Something else had been bothering since the night before. She didn't know why but she felt she needed an answer. While only moments ago she had prided herself on speaking her mind, what she was thinking of was a delicate subject. She looked back down at the clothes she was folding trying to put her thought into a question, even if it was a little awkward.

"Where did you go last night?" she asked after getting the nerve up to voice her concern. They had finished packing and were now at the front door. They both held a suitcase; the one Toris had was obviously bigger than the one in Natalya's hand.

Toris paused and looked at her confused, "What do you mean?"

Belarus hesitated before answering, "We are going to be married soon but you did not sleep beside me."

It was pretty amusing to Natalya to watch Toris' face turn an intense shade of bright pink before a sheepishly embarrassed looked crossed his face.

"W-well," Toris began, "you..I…I'm pretty much a stranger to you now right?"

Natalya nodded so the brown haired man continued.

"I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, so I stayed in the guest bedroom."

Natalya nodded again. His explanation did make sense. Now that she thought about it, it would have been extremely awkward for her if they had stayed under the same covers. She could act like it didn't bother her, but on the inside she would be freaking out. She would constantly think of 'what if' situations. The most important would be: what if he wanted more than she was willing to give?

Luckily, he had saved her the trouble of not having to go through that. She felt relieved. It seemed the man she was marrying was a considerate one.

"Okay."

Thinking their conversation was over; Toris began to walk back down the concrete steps. Natalya didn't know what came over her when she reached out a hand to grasp one of his. The effect was instant because no sooner he stopped in his tracks. He turned his head around to see the blond woman's hand entangled with his and a blank look on her face. The effect of aloofness she tried to pull off wasn't perfect. The tiny dusting of pink on the apples of her cheeks ruined the effect.

"You can hold my hand," she muttered, "I just don't want to fall…again."

"Okay," he said and Natalya was momentarily blinded by how utterly happy he looked at the small gesture. They began to walk again and Natalya felt the brunette lightly squeeze her hand. It was like he was assuring himself she was there and communicating how happy he was that she was. It brought a small twitch to the ends of her lips.


A/N: Soo...what do ya think? Is it moving too fast? I just thought it'd be hard not to feel something for somebody who seems to appreciate you just for being there y'know? Especially now that Russia isn't on her mind 24/7. Okay well the next update may take alot longer, just so you know.

Thank you reviewers:) and everyone who takes the time to read this!