I do not own Hetalia or the characters! Also, I'm sorry for how short this chapter is!

6

I wasn't exactly sure what had woken me in the middle of the night. I felt like it had been a noise. The door creaking open, maybe? A jolt of fear went through my body at the thought. I tried to steady my breathing and closed my eyes; pretending to still be asleep.

"A-arzur…are you réveillé?" I heard a small whisper and my body instantly relaxed

I turned over to face where the voice came from and quietly replied "I am now. Why are you waking me up at three in the morning exactly?"

"I cannot zleep…. I-I 'ad a nightmare…" He said, obviously embarrassed of his somewhat childish behavior

"Get in," I replied with a sigh, opening the comforter to invite him in

The taller boy crawled under the blanket and pulled me close to him. He tucked my head under his chin and wrapped his arms around me. His smell and warmth were lulling me to sleep but I figured I needed to ask him about the dreams.

"Do you want to talk about the dreams?" I asked softly

"Ze dreams were everyzing zat 'appened," he sniffled quietly into my hair "'e is zere all over again… I am trapped wiz zem…"

I rubbed circles into his back, fighting the feeling of guilt with the thoughts of that he came to me for comfort "Not anymore though, love. They can never hurt you again. They're gone, for good."

"Every time I cloze my eyes zey are zere again. I am still stuck zere…" he breathed, throat hoarse with emotion, "Zey are doing zoze horrible zings to moi. Over and over again… It 'urts Arzur… It 'urts all over again and I feel zo afraid…"

Francis broke out into rambling French I couldn't understand. I pulled myself up so our noses were touching. His face was wet with tears and I nuzzled our noses together shushing and whispering to him. I cupped his cheeks and gingerly swabbed the tears from his face with the pads of my thumbs as he tightened his arms around me.

"Ssh, ssh… It's okay now." I soothed quietly

I circled his shoulders in my arms and he pressed his cheek to mine. We fell asleep like that, cuddled into one another. It was calming, falling asleep to one another's breathing. Feeling Francis so close to me. He smelt softly of baking, like powdered sugar and vanilla. He also had strong hints of lavender, and something that was so distinctly Francis it couldn't be described as anything else. I loved that smell. So perfectly opposite of the smell of blood or cigarettes or anything from that night.

Translations:

Moi - me

Réveillé - awake