After getting dressed, Hungary went into the living room and sat down on the sofa. She got deeply in her thoughts but found no answer for her wonderings. How could tinnitus suddenly turn into deafness? And would Austria be deaf forever? Hungary had no idea if there was anything that could cure deafness, not even the doctors knew. Hungary would do anything to make her husband happy again; even if she had to sell her soul to God if that could make him retrieve Austria's hearing. If Austria never got his hearing back then many things had to be done. Austria had to drop out from the orchestra, Hungary had to learn sign language, the house had to rearrange alarms and such so deaf people would be aware whenever the alarms went… Hungary knew Austria would hate all this, she hoped his hearing would come back. Hungary got up from the sofa and looked for Austria. Hungary could at least comfort him without the need of sounds. She could hug him tight, rub him and give him kisses, after all some actions spoke louder than words. But there was one problem: She couldn't find him. Hungary looked around everywhere, high and low, in the house.

"Roderich! Roderich!"

Hungary had no idea why she called his name, he wouldn't respond to it. She seemed to not care as she just kept on calling his name and look for him as her worry rose. But there was no use, he was gone. Hungary grabbed her coat and cellphone and rushed out of the house. She looked desperately around as she was dialing hers and Austria's friends numbers.

"Oh drágám, where could you have gone?" Hungary said inside herself.

"

This was unnatural in so many ways. After walking out of the house completely absentminded, Austria ended up at the market. He didn't plan to go there, well, he couldn't even if he wanted since he had no sense of directions, but this was the place he randomly ended up to. He remembered he used to complain on how much commotion there was at the market whenever he and Hungary went shopping. It was much worse to be at the market with no sound. Austria could see all the lively movements, salesmen yelling at each other both happily and angry and some people playing with loud instruments. Seeing all this but not hear anything was so wrong. Austria felt as if he was trapped in a soundless bubble and was shut out from all sounds. Even though it was hard, or practically impossible, Austria tried to remain calm. The visually vulgar but completely silent market made his heart beat faster of anxiety. Austria dug in his pockets and picket up some piece of paper which was a 50 euro note. Austria looked around. Maybe if he shopped something he would get his mind on something else. Usually he was pretty frugal, but he didn't think of it or care about it now. There was more show at the market today than many things to buy. Austria got his eyes on a liquor store. He wasn't really fond of alcohol, many of them used to burn his throat when he swallowed it. But maybe that could be a solution, feel another pain so you would be distracted from the current pain. Austria went in to the liquor store.

There were many selections: Wine, champagne, rum, vodka and much more. Austria wanted to find something that he knew tasted really awful. But that was not hard to figure out what: Beer. Oh my, how Austria hated the taste of beer! He remembered Prussia invited him and Germany out to go drink at a bar once. Austria took one sip of a glass of beer that Prussia gave him and spat it right out at Prussia as the liquid came in contact with his tongue. Austria picked up a six pack ring of beer. He didn't know what kind or what the name of the beer was, but beer was beer to him. Austria put the six pack on the counter to pay.

"You want this?" The salesman asked.

Austria saw he was speaking but had no idea what he said. He just nodded.

"Alright, that will be 22 €" He said.

Austria knew he said the price but he couldn't hear how much, but 50 euros was more than enough for a six pack of beer. Austria handed him the 50 euro note.

"Oh my, that is quite a lot! You're a millionaire or something?" The salesman said in a humorous tone.

Austria saw the salesman was laughing and joking. Austria was not so fond of hearing jokes from people who was supposed to work, but the soundless version was worse.

"Please stop talking. I can't hear anything, I am deaf" Austria said sternly and pathetically.

The salesman shut his mouth and handed over the six pack of beer and the change. Austria walked towards the door with his eyes on the ground.

"Hey, watch where you are going!"

Austria bumped into a big scary man with tattoos and piercings. Austria looked up at him confused as he saw the man yell at him.

"What's with that look? Are you deaf or something?!" The man yelled even louder.

"Yes, he is" The salesman said from his counter.

The big man also shut his mouth and moved to the side so Austria could walk out of the door without any problems. Austria got even more confused. How come the man was angry at him and then he suddenly became polite and empathetic? Austria hoped he wouldn't meet up with any other people while going away from the market.

With his no sense of directions, Austria ended up near a bridge. Austria was tired of walking with a six pack of beer in his hand, so he went down under the bridge. It was actually a nice place. It was all clear with no people or other things that caused commotion; it was only grass and a lake in the middle. Austria laid down on his back to the ground and looked up at the sky. Even alone without any people or soundly things, hearing nothing was still torturing. Austria turned his head and looked at the beer bottles. Austria sat up and took out one of the bottles.

"Here I go…" Austria mumbled.

He opened the cork of the beer bottle with a little rock, put the edge to his lips and started drinking. Austria almost spat it out as a reflex but managed to chug it down. It worked! The awful taste and the force drinking helped him to get his mind of that instead of his deafness. The blissful, and at the same time awful, moment didn't last long as he drank up the bottle. He took another bottle of beer and then one more after the other as he chug them all down. Austria felt as if he was going to throw up. His stomach felt very twisted and he was also very woozy from the alcohol. He couldn't see clearly, everything was spinning. It was spinning and soundless as Austria became aware of his deafness again. In the state of deliriousness and even more despair, Austria smashed one of the empty beer bottles to a big rock nearby. He picked up the biggest piece of glass and started to cut his arms. Austria could barely feel anything. Even though he cut himself very deep, it felt as if mosquitos were biting his arms. In his mind it was only mosquito bites, but in reality he was now covered in blood by the massive open cut wounds. Out of more and more blood loss, Austria collapsed.

The fogginess around him was getting darker and darker.

"I guess it's all over for me…" Austria said quietly before he completely lost consciousness.