Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia: Axis Powers, Teen Wolf: The Series or Twilight.

Chapter 14: Lovino The Night Guard

They had just fought a werewolf, who had apparently not had a pack with him.

A werewolf attack was the hardest to contain without silver bullets. Wolfsbane protected you from being touched, but did not kill werewolves on contact and fire slowed them down. Their only other weakness was decapitation in human form.

They were now sitting with their backs against a tree, waiting around for another attack as it neared later in the night. Natalya had been helping Arthur for three weeks at this point.

Arthur's head was resting against her shoulder, his blonde hair tickled her skin. She wondered just when they had gotten comfortable enough to be like this.

"I've seen the most casualties when fighting werewolves," he said suddenly.

"You don't save everyone?"

"I'm afraid not. You can imagine how scarring that was for a twelve year old."

Natalya blinked, "Hmm. That explains a lot."

*What is that supposed to mean?"

"We've had this conversation before. You're guarded and angry because deep down you're still a scared little twelve year old boy."

"I'm not scared of anything!" He shrugged, "I'm just warning you, don't be alarmed if someone dies."

"Death does not scare me."

"Do you always pretend that you're as tough as a man?" He looked up at her.

"I do not pretend. I am." She looked down at him.

"Well don't come running to me if you're scared." He frowns, salmon color dusting his cheeks.

"I won't." Natalya said, crossing her arms.

"Fine! I don't—!" He stopped before he raised his head, looking deep into the woods. Then he stood up, still staring into the darkness, cautiously approaching it.

"Arthur?" Natalya was a little unnerved.

"Come on, Lovino needs us." He knelt down in the position as though he were going to carry her piggyback.

"I can teleport us to El Paso. It is not necessary–"

"He's not in El Paso. He's around here somewhere. Hurry before I lose the trail of his voice."

At this moment he was wearing clothes. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he hooked his arms under her knees.

And then they were off weaving between trees in the forest, Natalya still unable to hear Lovino's voice. The scenery was passing by them in a blur as they were going deeper into the woods. It was so dark without her lantern.

Natalya could hear screams as they got closer and closer to where Lovino presumably was.

And soon they were on a dirt road just by the edge of the forest and the start of the river. Arthur stopped, as werewolves had surrounded a wagon that was foul smelling. It smelled like meat of some kind, like something close to a dog.

"How dare you!" A werewolf had turned into their human form, it's eyes blue, and seemingly to be a woman. At her bare feet were a few slabs of the strange smelling meat, she was at the back of the wagon.

"Oh but when you eat humans it's ok, huh?" Lovino had his shotgun pointed at the werewolf right in front of him.

"I-I wouldn't provoke them." A smaller raven haired boy with bi-focals said from his place right beside Lovino.

"It's not the natural order of things! We feed on humans because we have to."

"Che. Sure. At least it'll be cooked when the customers eat it down." Lovino shrugged.

The werewolves growled, and Lovino fired his gun causing the werewolf in front of him to fall over. Natalya yelled "Protiatis Spiritictus!" Just as the other two werewolves pounced on Lovino and his companion, only to be held back by the shield she conjured.

Arthur let her down, the shield would only last for a few minutes as the werewolves continued to push against it.

Natalya took out her knife, her sights set on the untransformed woman. She heard cracking sounds, as she approached the back of the wagon where the woman was in mid transformation.

She stabbed the werewolf in the back, still fleshy and pale, and it screeched. Natalya pressed the wolf's bane onto the newly formed wound. The werewolf howled, its fur going back into its body, and its nails shortening. The werewolf in its complete human form ran out of her reach, before turning around to face her.

That would only keep her from transforming for a few minutes or so.

Natalya aimed to stab her in the neck, but the werewolf evaded her swings before knocking its head against hers. Natalya stumbled back before receiving a punch to her nose, knocking her down. Her vision was blurry as the werewolf approached her. Natalya kicked at the werewolf's ankle as hard as she could, hearing a snap. The werewolf howled as it stumbled to the ground.

Natalya got up and stomped as hard as she could onto the werewolf's neck, before hearing a loud snap! Shots rang out, branches snapped, leaves rustled, and the other two werewolves were gone from the clearing. Natalya looked over to see Lovino crouching down by Arthur who was laying down in dog form.

"Blondie, you're gonna be ok, alright."

Natalya walked over to where they were, a short distance away from the wagon and by the river.

Lovino was ripping his shirt sleeve off.

"What happened?"

"I shot him by accident. Those damned werewolves were blond too, and they were so close."

Arthur made a few whining noises. She'd never seen him look so scared before, granted she'd never seen him shot before either.

"You probably shouldn't have taken the shot."

"Well I know that now! I just grazed him so it's not something he'll have to worry about."

He was bleeding from his left leg on his thigh, an open pink gash was visible underneath the fur. Lovino was crouched over by the river and wetting his makeshift rag. Natalya decided to crouch down too, and she ruffled the fur on top of Arthur's head.

"Veenyo says you'll be ok. If not, I could use that spell I learned to put blood back into your body if you lose too much."

He turned to stare at the open gash, and the blood running down his leg before covering his eyes with his paws. He made more whining sounds.

"I made it worse. I'm sorry." She tried petting him more but it didn't calm him down. Lovino cleaned the wound with his rag.

"Lovino

Veenyo, you're back to being a coach driver?"

"Oh! I forgot to fill you both in. I'm a guard now! The upper folks of society like to eat werewolf meat as like some kind of rare delicacy and pay an enormous amount of money to get some. My boss packages the meat and that kid over there delivers them. I have to protect him." Lovino had a smug expression on his face.

Natalya cut off part of her dress for Lovino to use to wrap around Arthur's thigh.

"Werewolf meat? I didn't know we could eat that."

"Well we can and some people do! This is my second delivery so far. Grandpa is proud of me, and I feel like I'm making something of myself."

"I told you they would recognize your talents."

"Tsk. My parents still think I'm not going to amount to anything, but I don't care about those bastards." Lovino said standing up. "What about you and Blondie? Did he turn you into a weredog too?"

"No, I am just helping him with the night watches until he turns someone else. I have not found a job as of yet."

"Oh. You need a place to work? What did you do before."

"Clothes washing."

"My boss is looking for someone to do some light housekeeping. You'd be willing to come to El Paso?"

Natalya nodded, "Yes. Thank you."

"I'll ask him for you." Lovino said, walking back towards the wagon. "If we bring some more meat, I'm sure he won't mind us losing a few slabs." Lovino motioned for the other boy to pick up the dead fully formed werewolf.

The raven haired boy seemed to be struggling with lifting the werewolf, but managed to get it in their wagon anyway.

Arthur was back to standing on all four of his legs, the bleeding had stopped.

"I'll teleport us home. I do not want you to hurt your leg more."

Lovino turned back towards her "I'm sorry this reunion had to be brief Natalie. I'll see you at a later time. Sorry about that again Blondie." Lovino tipped his hat and got inside the wagon.

"Thank you, and your dog for the help, Miss." The raven haired boy said as he got back on his wagon, grabbing the reins.

"We're already running behind! Come on, let's go!" Lovino said from inside the wagon and the boy whipped the reins. The horses neighed and the wagon sped past them on the road.

Natalya teleported them back to their stretch of the woods.

Arthur turned back into a human, he looked angry, but did he not always? "We helped him and as a thanks, I got shot."

"Veenyo didn't do it on purpose."

He huffed and re-wrapped the fabric of her dress around his thigh before realizing it wasn't enough. He looked up at her, cheeks salmon colored, "Would you mind sparing a bit more fabric?"

This was the second dress she had to tear. She'd look through her spell book later to see if there was a spell to repair her dresses.

Natalya sighed before cutting another strip from the bottom of her dress and kneeling down to fashion it to the previous strip. She started to rewrap his wound.

"R-really you don't have to. I could–"

"Nonsense, you are hurt."

When she finished, she looked up to meet his eyes, his cheeks salmon colored before he looked away from her.

00000000

Natalya got a letter a week later from Lovino about his boss and the cleaning job. It was a little hard to read from the boy's messy handwriting.

Dear Natalie,

I asked around for your address. There's really no other way to contact you. I left my number at the bottom of the letter if you want to call me. I'd rather you do that, letters aren't cheap you know!

Anyway, my boss said he'd hire you if you could do some morning washing for him and a little cleaning during the day. I told him you lived in town, you can teleport yourself here by 6:00am right? He said he'd pay you $2.25 a day! Can you believe it?

You start on the following Monday, if this letter gets to you on time. I also wrote his address at the bottom of the letter. Also that little bastard Feli says my handwriting is bad. I hope you can understand what I wrote.

Sincerely,

Lovino

Natalya had no idea what her new boss's house looked like so she wouldn't be able to teleport straight there. Instead she would have to see how far it was from Lovino's home using a map.

For the past two nights Ivan hadn't come home. Natalya wasn't going to jump to any conclusions until it was confirmed he didn't show up tonight. It was possible he was coming home later and leaving earlier than she was.

Natalya stayed up and waited, and the minutes went on not hearing the sound of him returning. She was running into her night watch time. An hour or so later when Ivan still hadn't shown up, Natalya started packing a sack with her spell book, stakes, two extra dresses, a coat, and her wolfsbane.

Natalya was startled by a knock on her window. She met Arthur's green eyes before she walked over to the window to let him in. She would have teleported to his home, and them to the woods by now

"Are you leaving?" He whispered.

"Big Brother has not come home in three days," She whispered back to him as she walked back over to her bed, where she was gathering her things.

"You're going to try to catch up with him? But they would be long gone by now." He was still standing by the window.

"Yes. But I can teleport now."

"But there's no telling where exactly they are."

"I have time to make mistakes."

"What about money? You haven't been working. Do you have enough?"

"Big Brother has some." Natalya shrugged, grabbing her sack and her oil lamp. "You will have to do night watch alone tonight…and probably more nights. I don't know when we will be back." Natalya faced him and then closed her eyes.

"H-how about I come with you?"

"Big Brother does not like you. Besides, who will protect the town?"

"What about you? You'll be alone until you find him. If you find him at all."

Natalya opened her eyes, and he was right in front of her, "I found him before and I'll find him again." Natalya frowned, furrowing her eyebrows.

"If Ivan wanted you with him. He would have told you."

Natalya knew deep down that this was possibly true, but she didn't want to believe it.

"Maybe he thought my time was occupied and didn't want to disturb me. Maybe he forgot." Natalya pushed him back from her, she didn't like how he was looking at her.

Natalya closed her eyes at his silence, and took a deep breath. She started to visualize the train station at El Paso. The wooden platform, the slow chugging of the train, its steel body…

"I don't want you to leave." She felt his gaze was on hers. Natalya felt her heart beat in her chest.

…the smoke that filled her lungs and polluted the sky, the whining of the whistle, the multiple cars of the train, its screeching wheels on the rails…

"You knew this was only temporary," she said.

…and the rickety wooden benches that she would be sitting on, waiting patiently for the train to come in.

"Obliitus Noctortia," She whispered.

00000000

She opened her eyes to the night sky, and the empty rails below. She was standing on the wooden platform, sack in hand.

There were none here except for the man selling tickets, who was falling asleep. Natalya sat on the rickety wooden bench, all the while her cheeks were flush.

It was her journey alone to find her brother again. After waiting a few hours and seeing no one, she decided to pull out her spell book to fill through and see if there was a spell to locate her brother.

There wasn't anything like that in her spell book, not even to locate lost objects. Natalya closed her spell book, pursed her lips and decided to teleport herself to the stretch of the woods before Albuquerque.

Wandering around stretches of forest until she came to the river, Natalya grew more despondent as time went on and she found no signs that anyone had gone through there. Not willing to give up, she made her way towards the city.

She checked Inn after Inn but all were confused as to why a young maiden as herself would be out so late. They shooed her home, saying there had been no Ivan Braginsky or a traveling group of candlestick makers.

As a last resort she teleported to where the Vampire King's castle was only to find that it was gone. The entire thing had vanished, as though it had never been there at all. Only the red clay, and the cold chill of the night greeted her. If that were true then Ivan would be heading in an entirely different direction to find the Vampire King. Maybe he'd moved further west, Natalya didn't know.

But it was almost sunrise, and although it had been one evening, what Arthur said had finally sunk in. If Ivan truly wanted her with him, he would have told her.

Natalya sank to her knees, and felt a burning sensation in her eyes. Her sack and oil lamp fell to the ground with a thud. She bowed her head.

"You gave up quicker than I thought you would." She heard footsteps approaching where she was.

She looked up to see Arthur and his green eyes as tears ran down her cheeks.

"I-I mean, I'm glad you did. I would've had to keep coming here until then and what if there was a possibility I'd just missed you?"

Natalya pouted.

"I can teleport too, you know." His expression was smug.

Natalya frowned, looking back down. "Go away. I will not be doing night watches anymore."

"It's his loss really. For a female, you can hold your own. And you're my partner, remember?"

'You can find someone else to do night watches, da?" Natalya just wanted to go home, and quit everything. What was the point if Ivan didn't want her to help him?

"It's not about that. I-I just want to be…with you…for now." He said before holding out his hand presumably to help her up. She looked up to see the salmon coloring of his cheeks.

She accepted his hand and allowed him to pull her up, "Ok. But you'll have to find someone to turn eventually."

"I will. I will." He waved her off. "You're quite unseemly." He handed her a handkerchief from his pocket. Natalya wiped her tears from her cheeks with it.

"How long have you been here?"

"About 4 hours. After finishing up in the woods I came here, assuming I'd find you, or the Vampire King, or your brother. A mixed bag really. You should count yourself lucky that nothing attacked you."

Natalya picked up her sack and her oil lamp, "I am surprised that you want me around."

Arthur closed his eyes, "Believe me, it's baffling to me too."

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Natalya and Arthur were sitting under a tree waiting for the sounds of screams during their night watch three weeks later.

Natalya felt Arthur's gaze on her, but when she turned to look at him, he looked away. It happened a few more times before she caught him, finally. His cheeks were salmon colored.

"You want to ask me something or you just like looking at me?"

He wordlessly reached behind himself and presented her with a brown paper bag.

"A-A gift for you," he said. His cheeks were now scarlet.

Natalya blinked but gripped the bag anyway. What could it be?

"Thank you, she said upon opening it up, it was a pretty large bag. How she missed that he was holding it was beyond her.

She pulled out a dress that had a dark blue bodice and a bustled skirt the same color. It had wide sleeves and a dark blue bow on the collar. Two rows of buttons ran down the bodice. It was fancier than anything she had, which were basic fabrics that Irunya stitched together in basic browns and whites with lace.

"Do I owe you something for it? I can't afford something like this! Did you make a mistake?" Natalya was confused, something this expensive…why would he give her something like this?

Is it even my size?

"Since you cut two of your dresses to use as bandages. I-I thought I'd buy you a new one. It took me a while to save up enough for it."

She looked back at him, and his gaze was somewhere else, although his cheeks were still scarlet.

Natalya felt her whole face rise with warmth as she blinked. No one except maybe Irunya and her father had given her a gift before.

"I didn't know what you liked specifically. I could take it back if you don't like it. Do you like it?"

Natalya nodded, not trusting her words. She put the dress back in the bag, her heart beat rapidly in her chest. Her face wouldn't stop burning despite it being colder outside.

"I'm glad," he said, his head resting against the tree, gaze up at the stars, cheeks now salmon pink again.

Natalya copied the motion, setting her gaze to the stars as well.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Criticism Welcome.