HREChibi. Hetaverse. Written for the 100 Themes Challenge: Love.
The young man sat outside his tent, his knobby knees drawn tightly into his chest. High above his head, the stars filled the black velvet sky like tiny diamonds, glittering down upon the bloodstained Earth. All around him, the groans of the wounded floated on the wind, haunting the otherwise peaceful night.
The pain of his children settled into his bones, weighing him down until he could barely walk without stumbling over his own feet. He knew they were dying, that he was dying, but somehow, he still had the strength to stand and the will to fight.
Closing his eyes, a smiling, well-loved face drifted through the dark, gazing back at him with kind, amber eyes. She was waiting for him to come back, and he didn't want to let her down. He loved her.
As a child, he'd studied texts and writings from all over Europe, but now, so many of them made sense. Love. The feeling was almost intoxicating, sending him reeling each time he laid eyes on her. His pounding heart and burning face were symptoms of this love sickness he'd heard about but had never understood until recently. Just thinking about her like this nearly drove him mad, knowing that she was out there, but being unable to speak to her, to touch her, to listen to her laugh…
"I love you, Italy." He mouthed the words, whispering to the sky. For a moment, he let himself believe that the heavens would carry on his message, delivering his words to her pretty ears, but it faded quickly, leaving him feeling foolish and sentimental.
Even so, he imagined her staring up at the stars – her beautiful eyes reflecting the night sky as she studied the constellations –when, suddenly, she smiled. Somewhere, hundreds of leagues away, his Italy was staring up at the same sky, mouthing the words, "I love you, too."