Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia, only the story idea.

Chapter 2

The man's stare widen and he pulled against Matthias's grip, trying to escape again. He could see obvious fear leaking into the figure's eyes, making him look like a caged animal. Matthias didn't release him and instead pulled him further into the house, closing the door.

Once the door was fully shut and he was sure the man couldn't make an easy get away, he let go of the wrist. Immediately, the man jumped away and looked wildly between him and the door.

Matthias rose he hand gently, copying the movement he did when he first saw the being, and spoke in a soft voice. "Shh, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just a little curious."

The figure stared at him with unflinching eyes, but his body remained tense and his movements were jumpy. He stood as far away as he could from him too and never let him out of his line of sight. They stood like that for a few minutes, until Matthias was fed up with the stare-off.

Matthias sighed and unceremoniously sat down of the floor. He carefully kept himself in path to the door, but tried to make himself as least threatening as possible. Sitting was definitely less scary than standing right? At least, he hoped so. The tactic worked a little bit because the being lowered his guard, just a smidge, and braved a few glances away from Matthias. Eventually, the man must have begun the feel bored too because he also sat with his legs elegantly folded under him. They continued their stare-off, but the figure's glaze was slowly becoming less fearfully and more curious.

"I told ya I wasn't going to hurt ya." Matthias broke the silence. The man's face immediately tightened and his eyebrows quirked with disbelief at Matthias's little statement.

"Well, I haven't hurt you yet have I?" another look incredulity flashed.

He pouted and put his chin on his hand, leaning forward. His mind searched for something else to say.

"What's your name?" he asked, deciding to start simple rather than question whether the man was human or not.

The man's face narrowed in mistrust and curiosity and he seemed to mull over whether or not he should answer.

"Lukas." He finally said in a voice that seemed to settle in the air.

"Lukas," Matthias repeated, feeling the name on the roof of his mouth and tip of his tongue. It was light, airy, a caught whisper, just like the man himself. Now his savior had a name, a very human name. Why did Matthias ever question his humanity in the first place? Of course he was human! There wasn't any way he couldn't be. Magical creatures didn't exist he knew that.

"Why will you not let me go?" Lukas broke the pause, startling Matthias with his question.

Why didn't he let him go? The man had saved him after all and now Matthias was holding him captive for no reason.

"I guess…" he started. "I guess I just wanted to know who you are?"

Lukas's more relaxed expression immediately became wary.

"You did not ask who I was when you grabbed. You asked what I was."

A shiver ran through his spine and he thought he felt the temperature dropping slowly. The atmosphere of the wooden cabin was getting tenser by the minute and warnings in the back of his head were beginning to fire one-by-one.

"What do you plan to do to me?" Lukas said. His eyes burning, his voice frigid.

Matthias couldn't help the fear catching in his throat or the tightening of his stomach. "Please, no, you have it wrong." He held up his hands, like that would prove his innocence. "I haven't planned anything! I don't ever plan, I promise!"

Lukas's head tipped to the side ever so slightly, but his menacing gaze remained fixed. "Then why do you ask what I am?"

Matthias ran a hand through his hand and looked at the ground. "Well, it's just…" He sighed, thinking about how stupid he was going to sound. Then hesitantly, he brought his gaze back up to meet Lukas's. "I didn't think you were a human."

He was surprised when Lukas didn't burst out laughing or at least scoff at him. He had expected to be called an idiot, but Lukas didn't make a sound. He didn't look the least bit surprised or offended, either. He just looked anxious, wary and curious enough not to run away.

"You aren't human, are you?"

This time Lukas didn't tense; he just gave him an uncertain look, before slowly shaking his head.

Matthias was silent. He couldn't find words to say and he wouldn't even he dared say anything. The man, his savior, Lukas wasn't human. His brain processed the information, unable to wrap itself around the fact. He wasn't human. He was not human. That meant he was something else, something else that wasn't supposed to exist. Something else that could be dangerous.

Very carefully, Matthias asked the question that he been burning in his mind since he had first seen the man.

"What are you?"

Lukas looked away and his question was met with silence.

"Well, if you really don't want to tell me, then I guess it's alright. As longer as you don't try to eat me or anything." He chuckled nervously. "You won't eat me right?"

A smile momentarily drifted across Lukas's face, then like the fleeting life of a snowflake, it was gone.

It had been a small, tiny smile, but a smile nonetheless and within that smile was such emotion, Matthias had seen anything like it before. With the smile, that snowflake smile, Matthias felt his heart shatter and swell, breaking and filling, being held captive and being set free.

"You are quiet." Lukas voice cut into his thoughts and instantly pulled him back to reality.

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking." Lukas snorted. "What?"

"You do not seem like the type who thinks very much."

Matthias laughed and leaned back, putting his weight on his arms and looking at the ceiling.

"You sound like Berwald when you say that." He said lightly.

He wasn't directly looking at Lukas, but out of the corner of his eye he could see Lukas peering at him curiously.

"Who is Berwald?" he asked quietly, in his light, wispy way.

Matthias sat back up and scooted himself closer to Lukas. Lukas tensed a little, but almost instantly calmed, his weariness replaced by gentle curiosity.

"Berwald is my cousin. We grew up together, but we kinda hate each other." He paused.

"Well, hating each other isn't the right way to say it because we don't really hate each other. We fight all the time though, like cats and dogs, but when it really comes down to it we're like brothers. I know that he would do anything for me, even if he really doesn't want to do it. He's like that, always thinking of others before himself. You wouldn't know that just by looking at him, though, because he's one scary looking guy. His face always looks like this." Matthias tried to interpret Berwald's scowl for Lukas. "And he always speaks like he's mad at you, plus his accent is so thick that you can hardly understand what he's saying. But once you get to know him, ya can't help but love him."

He finished and the room fell into a comfortable silent, only interrupted by the hushed crackle of the fire. The flames still danced in their fiery home, red bodies twirling, twisting and twining together. He felt himself relaxing and reminiscing about Christmas memories as he breathed in the fire's pungent smell. Fire always smelled like Christmas to him. Like Christmas and like family all brought together to celebrate and cherish each other.

After another moment, he slowly rose and stood up, stretching his back. Below, Lukas carefully eyed him in case of any sudden movements.

"Come on, let's move to the couch. I'm sure it's a lot more comfortable than sitting on the floor." Matthias said as he offered a hand to Lukas.

Lukas carefully regarded his outstretched hand and hopeful face, before pushing himself up and pretending not to notice Matthias's crestfallen look.

They went to the couch and sat down next to each other. Lukas stared into the flames as if they were some kind of strange animal he had never seen before.

"I've never asked you, but is this your house?" Lukas looked at Matthias and shrugged.

"I do not know whose house this is. I just knew that it was here, so I brought you to it." He said nonchalantly.

"So we're breaking and entering! That's illegal."

"Perhaps it is for humans." Lukas smirked a little and leaned more into the couch as Matthias stared at him with wide eyes.

Lukas flicked his eyes between Matthias and the fire, not quite giving either his full attention.

"Do you realize that you have not told me your name? It is quite rude of you, especially since you are the one holding me captive and I have already told you my name."

Matthias looked at him blankly for a second, processing the words for a minute. Then he blushed as red as the fire.

"My name is Matthias. Matthias Køhler."

Lukas snorted.

"What? Is there something wrong with 'Matthias'?"

"It is a stupid name, but that is why it fits you."

"Stupid? It's not stupid." He paused. "I'm not stupid."

Lukas smirked a little before turning fully to Matthias and locking on to his eyes. "Do you not realize the very vulnerable position you have put yourself in? I am not human. I am not a being governed by human laws and human conscious. I could kill you in a moment if I wished to, and, trust me, I do wish to. I just have not decided when yet."

He meant it. Words weren't needed to show his seriousness. It was evident in all parts of his tone: the pitch, the timbre, the tiny lit at the end of his sentences. The voice of the frost-laden wind on scathing iron ice.

It shook Matthias. It chilled him. Those eyes slicing into his soul as ruthlessly as the Artic night.

"Then why haven't you?" The words tumbled out. He almost slapped his hand over his mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why the hell was he questioning living? He loved living and would like to stay alive a little longer.

The being blinked, his face losing its threatening glare and the confidence in his eyes wavered. Suddenly, it all seemed to shatter like ice. The threat in his eyes, the danger in his voice, the intimidation in his body language, it all seemed to fall away at once. His tired eyes slid to the ground. He stared at the rug with a beguiled look as if he had gone into some kind of trance. Then, he spoke slowly.

"I don't know. I just do not feel like it right now I guess. I have plenty of time to do it later" He coughed out a chuckle, and kept staring at the floor.

He's lying. Matthias knew it, he could faintly see it in his eyes. But about what, he didn't know.

Matthias looked around the room again. It was still as welcoming as it had been when he first walked in. The table and chairs were still neatly in place with the tiny red candle burning steadily as if it had just been lit. Who had lit that candle anyway? The fireplace was just as beckoning. The wood kept burning, the flames forever dancing, their bodies endless bent in silent tangos. They just kept dancing. Dancing and dancing and dancing, cursed by their tiny red ember shoes. Forever.

After what seemed like hours, Lukas sighed, his voice came out like the whine of a cello, a single beautiful, haunting note. He was leaning forward with his arms rested on his knees and shoulders rolled forward. Suddenly, Matthias thought, he seemed very sad. Not a temporary sad or a hurt sad, he was a hopeless sad. A beautiful, broken, hopeless sad.

"Human," he started, then he paused. "Matthias," The word sounded strange with his breathy voice. " You can go. I'm letting you live. I'm not going to kill you tonight." Their eyes met again, navy artic night against azure day.

Matthias stood to leave and began heading to the door, but he stopped a few feet from it. He looked back at the man who had saved him. Lukas was still on the couch with his eyes transfixed to the ground. He looked beaten as if he knew the world was going to crash in at any moment and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Where was the curiosity? Where was the anger? Where was the threat? Where was anything?

"Lukas, what's wrong?" Matthias dared to ask. Lukas remained frozen. "Lukas?" Matthias tried again.

"Why do you care?" His voice cut, slicing through the homey fire glow. "I gave you permission to leave. I gave you permission to live, so go. Live. Do whatever humans do."

He was avoiding the question. "What's wrong, Lukas?" He said again, his tone a little more forceful.

Lukas raised his head and tentatively met Matthias's eyes. The great, threatening fervor was long gone, leaving a destroyed remorse in its wake. "Nothing is wrong. Everything is in order, the universe is just as it should be."

He wasn't lying or being sarcastic. He was stating a fact.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Matthias asked mostly just going along with what Lukas said.

"Yes, it's a good thing. A very good thing." Then, Lukas dropped his head again as if to say the conversation was over.

Matthias turned to the door. It wooden slates created a barrier to the outside world. Outside was the world, cold and real, cruel and beautiful. Inside, was this homely little universe, a seemingly perfect space with carved chairs, innocent blue candles, a jumping, dancing fireplaces. And this ethereal being that sat on the couch, that destroyed the laws of the universe with his very existence.

"Will you be okay if I leave?" he asked one more time, trying to coax an answer from his silent savior.

He said nothing for a long time, then breathed out one tiny syllable. "no"

A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for following up with this story and spending time on my writing! Hopefully, you are enjoying the fiction and will keep reading. Originally, I had planned to release this yesterday, but I just didn't. If you all have time, I'm shamelessly self-advertising my other writing! So please if you're interested go read it!

Thanks again and please review!

Keep Writing,

Silver