Nothing! Absolutely nothing! After walking around for hours in this... this multicoloured space I found nothing but a small rock. What was a rock even doing here? Where had it came from? It honestly didn't make any sense at all; not to me, at least! With a despaired sigh, I flopped on the ground.
"Where did you came from?" I asked, looking at the rock that laid on my palm; that same moment was when something more than unexpected occurred... The stone shot out flying out of my hand and into the pavement. Surprised, I blinked my eyes, observing that the object had failed at creating a hole in the floor even though it had indeed disappeared into it. Then, suddenly, the ground started to shake violently, stone walls started to raise from the floor taking the form of rudimentar buildings, the multicoloured sky dissolved into a familiar shade of blue, the violet and pink pavement turned into dirt.
Before I could realize, I stood in the middle of a village, but not just any village: most buildings were on fire and the expected panicked yells were anything but present. My first thought was: 'I have to get out of here!'
Following my mind's wishes, I took off running, but something, or rather someone, cut my way. Instinctively I looked up to see a viking, a very big viking looking down at me with dark blue eyes.
"A life for a life..." he stated; my eyes widened as my mind registered the words. Turning around, I ran the opposite direction. Once again, a viking blocked my passage, but this one had dark yellow eyes.
"A time for a time..." I tried to run away yet again, but an icy-blue eyed viking stood on my way.
"A memory for a memory..."
Finding myself with no other street to run down, I entered a burning building. In my mind, I couldn't have done anything worst; the three vikings entered, each one endlessly repeating his words; I had been cornered, I had absolutely no escape. My primal instinct was kicking in, I was preparing myself to fight, but the echoe of a new voice stopped my actions.
"A life for a life, A time for a time, A memory for a memory... This is how the world works, to gain something, you must loose something. A lot of trades can be made, you know what the ultimate is?" chanted an old man, emerging from the middle of the large warriors. His hollow eyes turned to me and he repeated the question:
"Do you, young one?"
Fearfully, I shook my head negatively.
"Is the one you are about to witness and suffer..." he clarified. "A WORLD FOR A WORLD!"
His hollow eyes emitted a strange and sudden light, I felt myself being pushed backwards and into the fire. My last thought was about how I was going to be burnt to death, but instead of being thrown at the fire, I had been thrown into a vortex that swirled with the colours of dark blue and yellow.
Inside the vortex, an icy-blue light enveloped me, cleaning me of all food remnants and morfing my clothes into a (f/c) jacket, scarf and boots and (s/f/c) shirt and trousers. I got distracted with the sudden change and, before I could notice, I had been spitted towards a rocky pavement covered in snow.
My landing wasn't all that graceful, meaning I ended up with a good share of scratches and small cuts, but, unlike I initially had thought, I had two more injuries... As I tried to stand, my legs broke down; my right ankle was dislocated and my left leg had a particularly large bleeding gash. To put matters worse, a grunt that I had several times heard via television but never witnessed in real life was heard from somewhere behind me.
Slowly, I turned my head to see a large grizzly bear approaching me one step after the other. I refrained myself from producing any sound; in my mind I knew I should stay put and not move until the animal had left, but, out of panic and with my veins pumping adrenaline, I got up and started running, forgetting about the effort each move required and the pain it caused. I kept running for god knows how long, until I reached a small cliff; even though it wasn't very high, the rocks on the way down could be the death of me. Unfortunately, distracted by the new danger, I completely forgot about the gigantic beast following me. I turned on my heels as a thumping sound reached my ears. Out of fear, I closed my eyes, and turned my back to the bear. A heavy blow pushed off of the cliff. On my way down, I could feel the burning of the gashes left by the animal's claws in my back, I could feel my body aimlessly hitting the proeminent rocks, I could not feel my right foot, I could feel the pain spreading through my left leg, I could sense my consciousness slipping away... Soon, I blacked out!
(3rd person's pov)
Happily, a young boy named Peter skipped across the forest floor, always under the surveillance of a tall blond suede and a violet-eyed finn. The three had gone out for a walk with the intent of relaxing a bit; what they didn't expect was the abrupt end of their calming trek.
From the corner of his eye, Peter caught an abnormally big puddle of red; being a curious child, he approached to catch the sight of a female body covered in blood. Scared, the boy ran back to the adults and glued himself to the finnish man.
"What's wrong, Sealand?" wondered Tino, as was called the finn.
"I think that lady is dead!" shivered the child, boldly pointing the direction of the place where he had spotted the body. Squinting his eyes, Berwald, the swedish man, strode over to the indicated location; the other two following him close behind.
In no more than a minute they reached the spot, immediately catching sight of the bloody snow and body.
Quickly approaching the immobile girl, the suede looked for any sign of life. Catching a faint pulse and an unsteady breathing, he signalled the finn: they had to take her away and tend to the wounds as soon as possible.
In the nordic household, the girl remained laid on the bed of a guest room. The other three house occupants had been shocked seeing their companions carrying an almost dying girl. After some work and cooperation, they had managed to tend to all her wounds; unfortunately, they had no means to be sure that all the gashes had been entirely disinfected, as they had no idea about how long had she been laying on the snow unconscious. One other downside was that it would be hard to make Peter forget about the disturbing vision he had had in the woods. The bright side though was that the female seemed to have stabilized after having her wounds taken care of.
A couple of hours passed and she showed no sign of awakening, even though her skin had gained a healthy shade, her breathing had steadied and her ankle had started to regain a normal size.
Night fell and soon all of the males had recoiled to their rooms and delivered their minds to sleep and to the dreamland.
2am marked the clock just as two (e/c) orbs opened to face the foreign surroundings. Startled, the (h/c) head shot up from her laying position, frantically analysing the division. After a while, she deemed the place safe and carefully got out of the bed. Her entire body ached and it was difficult to move around on just one foot, but, with a little balance and supporting herself on the wall, she managed to reach the room's door. The hall was dark and empty, signalling that it was in fact late. She walked down the corridor successfully in silence, but the same could not be said about the following obstacle. She fell down the stairs, loudly.
Alarmed, 4 males exited their rooms only to find that the already injured female had found a way to hurt herself even more.
"Are you okay?" asked the finn, helping her to stand and directing her to sit on the sofa.
"I'm... not sure..." she admitted. "What happened?"
"You don't remember?" inquired a silver haired boy, clearly younger than the other three. The girl shook her head in response.
"Strange..." muttered the finnish. "We found you in the forest severely wounded." he informed. "What is your name?"
"I... I'm (f/n)..."
"(F/n)..." he repeated. "Well, I am Tino and those are Berwald, Lukas and Emil!" he presented, pointing each of his companions as he mentioned the names. Berwald grunted in response, Lukas merely nodded and Emil muttered an 'hej'.
"And Matthias and Peter are sleeping!" finished Tino.
The clock marked 3am.
"Late." said Berwald.
"Oh!?" blinked the finn. "Yes, we should be sleeping, don't you think, (f/n)?"
"Ah, yes..." she nodded absently. No more words being said, Lukas and Emil disappeared upstairs. Carefully, the suede picked the (h/c) head up and, followed by Tino, strode over to the guest room and placed the girl down on the bed.
"Oh, one more thing!" requested Tino before they could leave the room. "Since I don't know when you usually wake up, where is it you live?"
"I live at... Well it's... I..." she stuttered, no coherent words leaving her lips.
"What's wrong?" wondered the finn.
Wrong, had he asked? What was wrong was that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't recall anything prior to her awakening in this room. No matter how hard she looked, no memory of her life was there to be found. Finally, after a few moments, she admitted with a sigh:
"I can't remember..." (F/n) felt herself sulking.
"Hm... Don't worry, that's okay. We'll figure something out!" cheered the violet-eyed man, before turning to exit the room:
"Rest now, maybe in the morning things will get better!"
Morning soon arrived and (f/n), tired had overslept even the danish occupant of the house. Tino had been too optimistic the night prior; nothing had turned for the better with the morning. No matter what type of questions they made, no matter how many times and in how many different ways they asked, her answers all lead to the same conclusion, she remembered nothing but the basic aspects about herself. She had lost her memory.
Reluctantly, they all agreed to the same thing: (f/n) would live with them for the time being until something relevant came to her mind.
Two years passed before anyone could notice. During that time, a good share of relationships were built in the nordic household.
Peter was enchanted by the girl, he almost even forgot about the finn, (f/n) was his new mother.
Emil was a shy boy with a strange liking for the fridge, but they had developed a stable friendship (even if his bird was constantly flirting with her, what was honestly creepy) and, whenever Lukas started to bother him, the icelandic would always go to her.
Tino was an absolute sweetheart. And did you know he was Santa Claus? Ehem... Anyway, he was almost like a house-wife but, once (f/n) noticed this, she started to help no matter how much the finn argued. The two had become very good friends and would always go around with Peter, being followed by Berwald, playing in the snow, playing games or watching films.
Lukas was a mysterious person with a love for fantasy, magic and fairy-tales. (F/n) really liked it when he told her stories she had no idea existed and she loved to join him when Arthur and Vladimir came over in order to see them practicing actual magic. There was something annoying about him though; his eyes were dull, almost never showing emotion, and he almost never smiled, it was so hard to make him even crack.
Matthias, the stupid dane as Lukas liked to put it, the King of Northern Europe as he liked to call himself; he was a fun person, it was certainly never boring to be around him. Even though he was a troublemaker that fully enjoyed annoying the other nordics, especially Lukas and Emil, he was a nice and caring person and (f/n) would regularly step in whenever the norwegian tried to strangle him.
There was one time though when she honestly thought the danish wouldn't survive: Emil wasn't home and Peter was playing outside in the yard on his own; Matthias and (f/n) stood in the kitchen and the dane, drunk, might have blurted out a secret about the six of them being immortal and personified countries instead of regular humans. Tino, Berwald and Lukas entered the division just as the words flew out of his mouth. Norway snapped and Sweden carefully lead the (nationality) out, leaving Finland to calm the norwegian down and reprehend the dane.
And then we had Berwald. The suede was gigantic and, even though he might appear to be mean and intimidating, he was actually very gentle and a sweetheart. He was caring and attentive and never left things at chance. (F/n) generally kept him company when he was working in his workshop, it never ceased to amaze her the sight of how the suede could create such beautiful things out of wood. She had become a great friend of all of them, but not everything was destined to remain that way.
Light blushes, embarrassed stutters, accelerated pulsation, nervous fidgeting, everything intensified as time went by; the first times it happened, they believed she had caught an illness but, seeing as her state worsened everytime a certain blond approached, more attentive eyes perceived something different: (f/n) had begun to harbour feelings for the tall country and, unknown to everyone except for Finland and Sweden himself, said male had begun to retribute those same feelings, even though he had no clue about to demonstrate them due to his reserved nature.
But not everything was a bed of roses... There was a worrying factor: a factor that had came to be due to the situation in which the scandinavians had found (f/n) for the first time. She had been severely wounded the day they found her knocked out in the snow, but the real problem was that, although everything seemed to be okay and even the doctors thought her to be healthy, she never recovered from some of the wound infections that the nordics had failed to heal; quite on the opposite, the occurrence caused her organism to develop a strange weakness, though it was only acknowledged two entire years after (f/n) had joined the nordic household. It was something foreign to everyone; her immunitary system was working just fine, her organism looked to be healthy inside, but her bones lost both strength and resistance, her skin turned pale, she became thinner and thinner; even though her insides worked wonderfully, the least of things could break the fragile being she had become. The nordics were honestly worried about her condition, especially the swedish man; they kept her constantly under surveillance and never let her do anything that required a little more strength or any rushed movements, in fear of seeing her actually break.
Returning to the unfolding events...
Morning came and, as usual, (f/n) joined the five males in the dining room for breakfast; on this day though, she noticed something unusual: Sweden was not sitting on his spot, nor was he helping Finny placing the food on the table.
"Where's Berwald?" she asked.
"He went out to cut some firewood for the fireplace!" informed Matthias without even thinking.
"Oh..." muttered the girl, right when her eyes spotted an all too familiar coat. "He didn't take his coat!?"
"Heh, Sve's a tough guy, he can handle the cold!" stated the dane.
"But he might get sick!" argued the (nationality). "I'll take it to him!" she decided, suddenly getting up and grabbing the large piece of clothing before striding towards the back door that lead to the place where they had the axes, swords, tools and the barrack where wood was guarded.
"Don't forget to cover yourself with a warm jacket, a scarf and a pair of gloves!" warned Tino, bolting out of the kitchen.
"I won't forget, don't worry!" assured the (h/c) head, already doing as the finnish had instructed her.
Grasping once again Sweden's coat, she ventured outside into the freezing Winter air.
The floor, the trees, the plants, the house, everything was covered in snow; looking around, pure white was the dominant colour; the landscape was beautiful!
"Berwald!?" called the girl, looking around until, finally, she caught sight of the suede cutting small trunks with an axe; without anything to seclude him from the cold weather, just as she imagined. A smile crossed her lips.
She didn't remember her condition, she didn't even think when she started running. It probably wouldn't have been a problem, had the season been Spring or Summer; unfortunately, the thick snow was somewhat of an obstacle; she fell and her knee fell out of place.
A pained cry caught the ex-viking's attention; he turned around to find a small familiar (h/c) laying whimpering on the ground. Instinctively, he released his grip on the axe and ran up to the injured girl, kneeling down next to her and helping her to sit up.
"What happened?" he asked, once her back was securely held up by his hand.
"I-I'm sorry, Ber..." she sniffed. "I got careless." she informed, then adding in a whisper as she held the large article of clothing tightly to her chest:
"I only wanted to bring you your coat so you wouldn't get sick..."
Unnoticed to the girl, a soft smile ran through the male's lips, but it was almost immediately replaced by a frown as he inquired:
"Can you stand?"
"I-I... I don't know..." she admitted.
With a nod, the swedish took a hold of her arm with one hand, his other hand remaining as a support on her back. Slow and carefully, he began to pull her up with him; everything seemed perfect, until they arrived the point in which she had support a part of her weight on her right knee. Her balance was lost and she would have had a violent fall, had it not been for Berwald supporting her, her body was carefully lowered back down until she was once again sitting on the floor.
"You can't walk." stated the swedish. Kneeling down, he supported her back with one arm and her legs with the other, only then lifting her much smaller form up and starting to head back inside the mannor. (F/n) comfortably laid her head upon the swedish's chest, though her hands and arms never released the grip they had on the large dark blue coat.
As the two entered, Finland's eyes were the first to catch sight of them.
"What happened? Are you okay, (f/n)?" blurted the finn, rushing to their side; only then did the other three men notice the (h/c) head being safely held in Sweden's arms.
"Her knee's hurt." informed the tallest of the males as he carefully laid the girl on the sofa.
"Her knee, you say?" wondered Finland. "Do you mind if I have a look at it?"
Obtaining the female's permission and after being told which knee was the ex-viking referring to, the finish kneeled down and took the liberty to meddle with the girl's knee.
"Ouch, Tino stop it!" whimpered the (h/c) head, shooing the sniper away; the finn frowned after realizing what was wrong.
"It's broken..." he said. "How did you do that?"
"I just tripped, nothing much..." she muttered, shifting uncomfortably under the nordics' gazes.
"I'll call a doctor." offered Emil, quickly disappearing on the doorway with his puffin.
"You shouldn't have gone outside on your own!" Norway reprehended, then turning to the danish beside him. "You let her go alone." hence a not so unusual pursuit started.
"Why?" inquired Sweden.
"Why what?" echoed the (nationality).
Perceiving the tension, and knowing about some of Berwald's secrets and (f/n)'s secrets, Finland excused himself out of the room saying that he needed to keep an eye on the food.
"Why did you go?" he reformulated.
"I wanted to give you this..." muttered (f/n), delivering him his coat. "I didn't want you to get sick!" she clarified, answering his questioning look. "B-because... I really like you, I mean, you're a very good friend and I think I've started to like like you, but I don't know if you like me or if you like like me too and Finny knows but he won't tell me anything, he just says I'll know when the time comes but I can never be too certain about the time, because you know I'm distracted and all that; either way, even if I don't know if you like like me or if you just like me, I didn't want you to get sick. And I know you're a country and you were a viking and you're very resistant to cold and all that, but I can't get myself to stop worrying, of course I worry about the others too, but when I saw your coat and Matthias told me you were outside, I had to bring it to you, and I... I'm sorry..." blurted confusedly the girl. "This wouldn't have happened, if I only hadn't been so stupid..."
"Nej, it's fine!" assured Berwald, placing his heavy hand on top of (f/n)'s head and starting to pet her hair soothingly. "It is not stupid to worry for the people we hold dear. Like I worry for you, it's not stupid!" she smiled softly, hearing his last words.
"You know, Ber, it's been a long time since I last heard you talk this much!" half-joked the female; both chuckled. "But I have a doubt about what you said..." added the (h/c) head.
"Hm...?" he grunted, suddenly returning to his silent self.
"Just..." she started, a dark blush spreading across her cheeks at the thought of what she was about to ask. "How much do you worry... about me...?" it was now Berwald's turn to have a blush taking over his face, though his was much lighter than hers, barely even noticeable.
"Enough."
"And... what exactly does that mean?"
"Enough to say..." he started, tilting her chin up and approaching his face so that their foreheads were touching. "Jag alskar dig!"
(F/n)'s blush darkened even more and her eyes widened, closing at the feeling of the man's lips touching hers.