At the moment, I wasn't that concerned for myself. I was more worried for Latvia. Despite the many years he's lived here, Latvia still couldn't manage to get things right. It was very hard to sneak out of Russia's house, much less sneak in. Russia had a strict no visitor policy. Anybody who came was expected to stay forever, except for one major exception. The one exception Latvia let into the house.
"Lithuania, I am so so sorry!" Latvia's words were shaking as he rushed to catch up with me.
"Just tell me where Estonia took her, and we'll get rid of her," I said.
"I think they're over by his office." Latvia pointed the way to the left of the hallway. We could hear them before long, so I picked up the pace.
"Please don't kill me!" I could hear Estonia beg. It wasn't very manly, but all forms of masculinity were abandoned when it came to Belarus.
"Where is he?!" Belarus growled out.
We quickly went through the door to find Belarus cornering Estonia against a bookshelf. They both turned to look at us. They both looked happy to see me and not in the good way.
Estonia looked relieved as Belarus finally backed off. He became pretty much a useless pile of goo. I'd have to stall until he was able to be helpful again.
"Ah, Lithuania, you're here." Belarus adjusted the grip on her knife as she came towards me.
"I'm tired of dealing with complete idiots." She have me a smile. "You're not an idiot. You'll tell me where my brother is. You wouldn't dare stand between me and my wedding day."
She was right, I wasn't an idiot. If I let her get Russia, I'd get pain twofold for the rest of my existence. "Belarus, I don't think..."
"Don't you lie to me, Lithuania." The thing about Belarus was that she was sporadic, chaotic. She gave pretty much no warning sign. The tip of her knife dug into the side of my stomach. I cried out in pain. She flexed the knife up and down, releasing some of the blood to stain my uniform and cutting deeper with each movement. "I know you know what I am prepared to do to be reunited with my big brother. We are meant to be together, and no one has the power to stop us."
"And I wasn't trying to." My voice was strained. "I just wanted to tell you that I don't think Russia is here now."
"What?" There was a bit more pressure on the knife. I held my breath through the new wave of pain.
"According to Mr. Russia's schedule, he should be discussing political issues with China and ways that their governments might be able to work together in the future," I breathed out.
Her knife flicked away, and I immediately pressed my hands to my wound. The most important thing was to keep applying pressure. "That wrinkly old whore!" She scrutinized me. "But Latvia said Big Brother was home."
"Most of the time, Latvia doesn't know what's going on. Mr. Russia doesn't like to tell him his schedule."
Latvia looked at the ground. What I said was a bit harsh. Latvia did know Mr. Russia's schedule. He just couldn't apply it to the right situations. His feelings weren't exactly the most important thing at this time. We needed to get Belarus out of here.
"What about Estonia? He said Russia was here as well. Are you saying he was lying?" Belarus was looking more and more skeptical by the minute. This could get really bad. Someone could die, and that someone would most likely be me.
"Es-Estonia just got back from a trip. This plan was last minute from the meeting so..."
"That's right!" Estonia recomposed himself to back me up, quite possibly saving my life. "I missed the meeting this morning, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I only said we'd have to look for him."
Belarus yelled out in frustration. She cleaned my blood from her knife unto her apron.
"I'm going to kill him!" With that, she rushed out of the room. None of us relaxed until we heard her slam the front door shut.
"Lithuania, are you okay!" Latvia exclaimed. He was staring at the growing spot of blood on my shirt. He wriggled his hands, not quite sure what to do.
"Don't worry about it. She didn't cut me very deep. I've had worse. Where is Russia?" I tried to reassure him.
"In that room," Latvia said. He shivered at the thought.
This was what I had feared. He was in the secret room hidden away for times like this. Everything always got worse when Russia drank his vodka, which was pretty much all the time, but he pretty much chugged it when he was scared. It was rare the times he was scared, but not rare enough.
"I'll go inform Russia. Makes sure no one else comes in," I said.
"Are you sure? I could..."
"Come along, Latvia." Estonia pushed Latvia out the door. "You don't want to stick around for this."
I pressed a hidden button under Russia's desk. The opening of the heavy door was nearly soundless. I ducked under the desk and through the small revealed opening.
There was a cracking sound as I landed. I braced my hand on one of the shelves to prevent myself from falling on the broken glass. There was darkness, cold, and only the sound of my breathing. The adrenaline was really pumping through my veins now.
There was a crash not to far from my ear. I held my arms up to protect my head and neck. I felt a bit of sting on my neck from tiny shards of glass.
"Russia, it's me!" I pleaded.
His hand was at my throat. His large fingers clutched and crushed my airways. What light that came from the door above glinted off of the broken vodka bottle and his wild purple eyes.
"She's...gone..." I choked out.
"Did you kill her?" he asked in a calm low voice.
"No..." I gasped out.
"Pity."
He let go, and I fell on to my knee. The glass cut into where I caught myself. My knee and hand felt warm as my blood made them sick. My breath came in small gasps.
"We made her think you went to China. She shouldn't come back for a while. By then, we'll be better prepared to keep her out." I tried to get back up. I couldn't stay down.
Russia clutched the hair in the back near my neck to pull me up. He stared into my eyes, so it was impossible to look away despite my shaking.
"You better be. It's a good thing I have you, Lithuania. You always look out for me." He let go of me and patted my shoulder. He smiled his small creepy smile. "I don't think I'll ever let you go."
If only he realized how horrible that sounded. But I didn't have the courage to tell him I wanted to be anywhere but here. I held my tongue as he climbed up the ladder on the wall to get back to work. Or to torture someone else.
He didn't stay at his desk, so I climbed back up after I collected myself a bit more. Everything hurt. Estonia and Latvia were nowhere in sight. That's okay. I could take care of myself like I always did. I was breathing heavily as I got out into the hallway. The closet with the first aid kit wasn't too far away. I'd just sew myself back together like I always did.
I found the right closet and rested my hand on the doorknob. I sighed and turned it slowly to the right. I opened it just a tiny bit and a hand reached out for mine. I let out a small yelp as it pulled me in.
The closet was dark after the door closed. I heard the click as the other person pulled the little chain in order to turn the light bulb on. The soft light revealed a nervously smiling Canada in front of me.
"H-hey!" he said quietly.
"Canada!" I whispered in exclamation. "What are you doing here? How did you even get in?" I grabbed back his hand and felt for the knob to get out. "We need to get you out of here." His hand felt nice and warm and gentle, even as he pulled me back closer to him.
"Wait! I really needed to tell you something." The sudden shift made me wince. Canada's eyes finally adjusted to the light, and he finally got a good look at me. His eyes went wide with concern. "Holy maple, you're hurt!"
"Yeah, but I can wait. You need to be out if here before Russia finds you," I insisted.
"Where's the first aid kit?" Canada asked.
"On the shelf to the left above you, but Canada..."
He ignored my warning and got the big case down from the top shelf. It made a bit of noise as it clunked to the flour. He pretty much tore off the latches to get it open.
"I can't leave now. Not with you like that. Please sit down."
I searched the room for a place to sit. I sighed. I found a collapsible stool leaning against one of the shelves. I unfolded it and sat down.
Canada approach with all different sorts of bandages. I was surprised when he came down to eye level. He seemed a bit surprised to. Hs cheeks went pink and he averted his eyes from looking directly into mine.
"You've got some...little cuts...on your face."
I nodded. He looked just to the right of my eyes as he cleaned them and stuck a few bandages on. It stung at first, but his soft fingers soon made me forget the pain.
He worked in silence. After he was done with my face, he went to my knee. He cut away uniform trousers so he could get to my knee more easily. He used a set of tweezers to pull out the little shards of glass. He cleaned it a bit and wrapped a bandage around my knee.
"Is there anywhere else with glass?" he asked calmly.
"Yeah...my hand." I stuck my palm out to him.
The silence got a bit more awkward then. His fingertips gently pulled at my palm. My fingers twitched with every piece of glass he pulled out.
"Am I hurting you?" he asked.
"No," I replied. "I'm fine. It feels nice."
It feels nice? Get it together, Liet! Of course it couldn't feel nice! He's going to think I'm some sort of masochist or something. He started to wrap the bandage around my hand. I sort of missed his fingers.
"So, uh, Canada, what did you have to tell me?" I said trying to distract him.
"Lithuania, I need you to take off your shirt."
I could feel myself panicking again. Canada was only trying to help me. He had already seen the worst.
I sighed again and started to undo the buttons. I closed my eyes and left my shirt open. I tried not to look at him or anything. I just wanted to forget.
But I couldn't. I could feel his fingers over my ridges of scars. It sent shivers down my spine.
"I'm sorry if my fingers are cold," Canada said.
"No. They're not."
My stomach flinched as he sutured my knife wound closed.
"Did Russia do this to you?" Canada asked slowly and softly.
"No." I said simply.
"None of it?"
I couldn't answer that one. He could see them. All the scars collected over the years. Most of them not as clean as Belarus' simple knife. I wasn't as skilled as Canada. I couldn't patch myself together so nicely. In fact, I was falling apart at the seams.
I heard the sound of heavy footsteps from the hallway. I flinched to alert and stared back at the doorway.
"Don't worry. We'll be safe in here," Canada said. He took my un-bandaged hand.
"You really should get out of here," I smiled weakly. "What did you have to tell me?"
"Right. I should just say it, shouldn't I?" He fidgeted with my hand a bit before he let go. "I should have just told you when I first noticed. It would have made things a whole lot less awkward. I guess I was just scared I would offend you."
My breath caught. "Have I really been that transparent?"
"Eh?"
"I am so sorry, Canada." I got up from my stool quickly and headed for the door. "I'm so so sorry. I'll just get your hoodie, and you'll never have to see me again."
"Lithuania, I..."
"I couldn't help myself, really. You were just so nice. Nicer and more caring than anyone I've ever met before. And...and I just couldn't help but fall in love with you. And I know it's weird and strange. I can't quite fathom how it happened either. I just..." It all came out in a rush.
"Lithuania!" Canada said loudly. It was so strange to hear him like that. I'd never heard anything louder than a soft gentle voice from him. It was still gentle, but definitely not soft, though it drove me to silence.
"I came to tell you...that I love you," Canada said in his normal sweet soft voice.
I was trying to sort it all out in my head. "So...we...we like each other?" I was still so confused.
Canada nodded happily. "Yeah, I guess!" he laughed out.
But if we liked each other, that means I could...
I just had to try. I brought my bandaged hand to his face. Canada smiled happily and rested his hand over mine.
"Lithuania, can I kiss you?"
I was stunned, but I nodded slightly. My hand moved with his face as he brought his lips to mine. It was slow and soft and incredibly sweet. Everything I could have possibly dreamt it to be. And that's why it hurt so much more when we parted.
"Lithuania, why are you crying?" Canada wiped the tears from under my eyes. "Was I being too rough? I'm sorry..."
"Canada, I can't do this. I can't. I'm just...I'm just so weak. You saw them. You saw all of those scars. I'm weak. I'm pathetic. There's no reason why I should be alive. I can't leave. As much as I really want to. As much as I really want you. I can't leave this place. I'm not strong enough. I'm too weak. I just can't..."
"Lithuania, you are not weak," Canada said. He took my face in his hands to try to stop the shaking. "I have never thought that. And you know what I thought when I first saw you? When I first saw your scars? I thought, wow. This person, this stranger in my brother's house is truly amazing. Those scars show how much you've been through. How strong you are. They're proof that you can live through anything. I thought how lucky I would be to find someone as brave and strong as you."
It didn't take much for me to close the gap between us and kiss him again. I couldn't be as gentle as him. He matched me with the same intensity and enthusiasm. He held me close around my lower back, but was still mindful of my wounds. With one hand, he smoothed away the hair from my face after we parted. "You are the one person I never have to be afraid to be myself. You always saw me for who I was anyway. And now that I have you, I know I can never let you go."