A/N: I haven't posted in ages, I'm sorry! Anyway, my exams are over so I should be able to update more frequently now. /coughs. Anyway, I've realised that I started this fic out with the main focus being Gerita, but I think over the course of writing, it's expanded to become more of a story in itself. Oops. Hope you don't mind.

Chapter Six

The Japanese man looked slightly startled, but didn't seem that fazed as he stepped back to allow Feliciano passage, "Gomenasai, I should have looked where I was going." He apologised, not recognizing the Italian in the dim lighting.

"It's okay!" Feliciano replied hastily, keeping his voice low. His heartbeat accelerated as he walked past his ally, and let go of the breath that he hadn't even realised that he was holding. It was apparent that he had not be found out, although the man wasn't sure if he was pleased or not. The wind blew harder, bringing with it a fresh wave of snow. Soon, his footprints would be gone from the ground, and it'd be like he was never there at all. Even the human encampment was barely visible from here, with the light shining dully through the blurry conditions. Hurrying towards it before the gale grew any stronger, he tucked his freezing hands into his coat pockets. Feliciano suddenly felt lonely, very lonely indeed. It wasn't because he was isolated in this storm, but the fact that his friends were just a hundred meters or so away, and he couldn't talk to them.

And it was cold, too. Feliciano remembered once when they were fighting together in another war, a long time ago, it had been this chilly as well. He wanted to give up, to wave that little white flag of his and pull away, but Ludwig hadn't let him. The German took away his flag and set him back on his feet, driving the exhausted nation on with just the force of his words. His legs had been shaking, trembling, and only the sight of those stern blue eyes managed to keep him upright. "Germany," Feliciano whispered, the wind snatching away his words as soon as they left his mouth, "what would you say to me now?"

A day passed after that, and another week. When some people spoke of war, they spoke of never ending battles, of a chaos that got their blood pumping as fast as their machine guns. But that couldn't have been further from the truth. Those discordant moments of bloody fighting were only bits and pieces of the whole war; reprises from sitting and waiting, wondering where the enemy would strike next. Whenever skirmishes happened, they were far from camp, and the only indication they happened were the numerous wounded that were brought back in trucks, and the still bodies that followed after. In this long war, both sides suffered heavy casualties, and they were getting nowhere. Everyone knew it- they weren't stupid. This game was between the big players, and when the stakes were high like that, they were nothing but pawns- collateral losses.

"What's the point of all this?"

Feliciano looked up from rolling up some bandages and at Shi Xin, who was helping out in the first aid stations until he was fit to go back out on the field. "Ve, come again? I didn't catch you the first time."

"What's the point?" The Chinese man repeated, "Even if we win someone will be unhappy. Every man I killed out there was someone else's brother, son or father."

"Shi Xin…" The Italian frowned slightly, looking away. He didn't like war too, but it wasn't as if he could avoid them. As a nation, he'd had his own fair share of unavoidable disputes, and when he looked back at them, he couldn't bring himself to feel much pride. And yet, Feliciano told himself that they could have been worse, that so many more would have died if he'd continued fighting. "I wonder about that too. What makes people so angry that they won't listen to words?"

"I don't even know for sure why we're having this war," The man's hands jerkily wound up a strip of linen as he continued ranting, "and I don't understand why the leaders of the countries can't just talk it out like they always do? People have died! Hundreds! Thousands!" His shouting was beginning to attract attention now, but no matter how much Veneziano pleaded for him to lower his volume, Shi Xin was too angry to care or notice. "To them, we're nothing! We don't mean anything! What's the life of a couple of soldiers when you want to prove that you're the top of the food chain? I mean, they obviously don't respect us enough to tell us what we're fighting for!"

Feliciano glanced around nervously at those who were listening in, frightened by the unhappy looks on their faces. Some of them were nodding in agreement, and many more had begun muttering their own opinions as well. It had been a while since he commanded an army, but the Italian knew the beginnings of mutiny when he saw it. "Ve, please, calm down everyone." He pleaded, raising his voice a little to be heard. "I'm know you're angry, but the injured are resting. You don't want to disturb them, si?" The muttering died down a little, though it would do little to quell the soldiers' resentment. They liked Angelo Capello, the Italian medic who always had a smile and nice words for anyone who needed them, and it was impossible to completely ignore his entreaty. Feliciano sighed in relief, but he couldn't help uneasy; the pot had been saved from boiling over, but the water was still simmering inside.

Over in the other camp, things weren't going too smoothly as well. The nations had called another meeting to discuss their strategy to try and alleviate their losses, but as usual, nothing much came out of it. The only thing that it seemed to accomplish was to darken everybody's spirit and plant a lingering seed of discontent within them. So it was understandable that when one of their officers announced the arrival of a visitor, each of them pushed away from the table with too much eagerness. To their surprise, it was someone that they hadn't expected at all.

Katyusha stood at the entrance to their meeting room, feeling a little out of place despite having fairly good relations with most of them. Her coat was slightly skewed to the side, and the buttons hadn't been done up properly, so it was rather obvious that she had come in a rush. She regarded them a little hesitantly but gathered what confidence she had around herself like a cloak as she said, "Please, I need to say something." Despite many disagreements in the past, this one decision was made in a flash of an eye, with everyone nodding consent. A most disconcerting sight indeed. "It's not what you think it is," Katyusha began, clasping her hands nervously in front of herself, "I know it looks really bad, but Russia's intentions are not what they seem to be." There was some murmuring at this, but they let her continue. "I have watched him grow up; he has known little kindness or friendship as a child, and I think that's why he is the way he is now."

"What do you mean? I'm confused." Alfred piped up, only to earn an elbow jab from Arthur who sat beside him.

"Have some bloody manners and don't interrupt her," He hissed, ignoring the fact that he was doing the exact same thing. "Sorry about that. Do continue."

Katyusha looked slightly confused and mildly stunned by the exchange, but she pressed on at the Englishman's insistence. "He grew up alone most of the time, so he doesn't know what it is like to have fr- no, how to express his affection. All he knew was that those around him kept trying to take his lands by force. I tried to help him, but I wasn't able to guide him as much as I would have liked to because of… reasons." At that point, the woman fidgeted slightly, her guilt and regret evident in her eyes. Everyone knew why, though they were too tactful to say anything about it at this point. Her boss wanted her to form stronger ties to the European countries, and wanted her to have nothing more to do with Ivan, so she was forced to turn away from him as well, leaving him more alone that he already was. "I think he might have felt better when you were all in alliances, during the wars and such, but inside he's still lonely and a little confused. Don't you see? Because of his childhood, he doesn't know kindness, he doesn't know friendship, but he does want those things because don't we all? He only knows war and hardship, so it is only through those that expresses he desire for companionship. I beg of you, when this whole thing comes to an end, remember that underneath all that he seems to be, Russia is just a scared, lonely little boy."

Following her impassioned entreaty, of all the countries present, none could say a single word.

The meeting broke up soon after that. They offered Katyusha a place to stay, but she declined and soon left after, not wanting to linger on the battlefield any more than what was necessary. Yao excused himself from dinner, and wandered near the fringes of the camp. He had had his suspicions for a long time, and what Katyusha said only served to confirm them. The Chinese thought back to their old alliances, to the time they spent together under the Soviet Union, and wondered if things would be different if he had been kinder to Ivan then. Isolation and loneliness was inevitable at some point, especially since they were countries, but the pain of those were often washed away in the company of others. "Aiya," Yao sighed, running a hand through his hair tiredly. "Kids these days."

"What about us?" Yi Ling spoke up from behind him. She offered her old teacher a small smile as she fell into step beside him. "I've been thinking, from what Ukraine says, Russia only acts this way because of the way he grew up, right? Then what about you? You grew up alone too. Why aren't you like him?" She stared questioningly at Yao, whose smile had faded in the course of her words.

"That's different." He murmured, looking away from her. "I was alone for a very long time, because all the other countries were so far away. Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, I didn't get to see them very much. I was alone like Ivan, yes, but I didn't have people attacking me all the time." In fact, most of his troubles back then only came from within, with all the small groups of people warring for power. "I was alone, and it was okay because I never knew anything else."

"Oh." Was all Yi Ling could seem to say, "That's sad."

Yao fixed her with an unreadable expression, "Is it?" But just as it came, it was gone. "Anyway, it's getting really cold, aru. Let's head back to camp and see if there's any more food left!"

And so they did.