HETALIA IS A MANGA BY HIDEKAZ HIMARUYA
The Baltic nations suffered undescriptively before their hearts stopped beating and all feeling ceased. And while that happened, Tomas Neikus and his now wife Olympia tried chocolate fondue for the first time at the hotel of Paris they celebrated their honeymoon in. They ignored the rush of the countries' friends, their concern, their fear.
The bodies—if they could be called that way—were found, the hopes of the group were crushed. They had come as soon as they could but it was too late. There was nothing that could be done for them. They were already gone. The three of them were hugged, as if the last thing they did was to try to protect each other. When they touched them, what remained of them turned into dust. In the meantime, Tomas praised Olympia's eyes. That night they shined like stars, he claimed. And she remembered why she had married him and hoped he would stay the same for the rest of their lives.
Was it late, really? He had to try. It seemed like nothing would be lost trying. So while the others were trying to assimilate what they were seeing and those who did mourned, he kneeled down in front of the remains to mutter the words, his fingers touching what was left. Thousands of miles away, the words coming from Olympia's lips right into Tomas' ear were completely understandable, and made her husband blush.
But he was interrupted by a series of cries. They were coming back. They probably knew the cries for help from the Baltics would attract them and took the chance. They had to move. He hesitated. The ritual had to be completed; interruptions could be fatal when dealing with magic. But they started shooting and it was time to go. The Neikus had a nice stroll around Paris at night, and they had to run for their lives. The chase was savage. A couple of nations almost got cornered like those three poor unfortunate guys and were lucky they didn't end up like them. The remains of the three Baltics were left there to rot, to be profaned and ridiculed by their killers.
That night was the end of three lives and the start of a new one.
Nine months later, back home, Olympia gave birth to a baby boy they agreed to call Toris. Even right after being born, family and friends said he looked just like his mother; when he opened his eyes for the first time it could be seen he had his father's eyes.
The Neikus didn't think of having another child until it just happened, when Toris was one year and a half. The little surprise was welcome, though. It would be good for Toris to grow up with siblings, Tomas read that in a magazine. So soon another boy was born. He was named Eduard, because that was a nice name. The new member of the family bore a striking ressemblance to his father which accentuated with the years. Tomas was so proud.
Two children were a lot of work and many parents would have been satisfied, but Olympia just loved the feeling, and thought three was her lucky number. It took a lot of convincing but Tomas finally agreed. When Raivis was born, Toris was four years old and Eduard, two. None of them were jealous of their little brother, even if he got everyone's praise because he looked 'like a cherub'. Olympia would often tell that Toris wanted to hold his baby brothers in his arms and started bawling when his parents tried to take them away from him. He would be one heck of a big brother, they were sure. And they were not wrong.
Years passed and the three brothers grew up. They experienced a peaceful childhood, with lots of games, implying their poor parents, who barely had some energy left after work but always tried to oblige; went on vacations as much as they could, made lots of friends, had their quarrels and fights among each other but everyone who messed with their brothers would pay for it; fell in love, had their disappointments, but it seemed Toris had found a good one and there was hope for Raivis. They slept in the same room because the house was small, and their parents said it was a bad idea, because they were making noise late at night and it was always a mess. Raivis was now deep into puberty and Eduard and Toris approached adulthood. Now all ressemblances were evident, there was no doubt Toris took after his mother, Eduard was a carbon copy of his father except the glasses he was forced to wear and Raivis looked a lot like his mother's father but had the mannerisms of his father.
None of them would have ever suspected their physical looks would get them into that mess.