~Chapter 4: Bittersweet~

A/N: I think this is my favorite chapter yet. Enjoy! Again, if anyone gets the reference of the song related to this chapter (no, it's not the title!) they get a preview PM'd to them! (x

~x.X.x.~

Natalya didn't show up at the next meeting.

Neither did Gilbert.

It worried the hell out of Elizaveta. After she and Gilbert had went to dinner, they both woke up the next morning with roaring hangovers and no memory of what happened.

It was like that..which American movie? Hangover?

When she checked Facebook, she was surprised to see her notifications at 999 and many photoshopped pictures of Alfred and Natalya.

..She made a note to ask Kiku about his marvelous photoshop talent.

She was even more surprised to see that she and Gilbert had posted in their statuses, multiple times, about Alfred and Natalya.

"Ah, shit!" Elizaveta had moaned when she saw the statuses.

"It's okay." Gilbert had reassured her shakily. "It's not like...Natalya and Alfred will...oh."

"We just have to watch our backs for now, okay?" Elizaveta replied, mind racing.

"Right...well, I'll go back to my hotel now. The awesome me and you will be okay."

That morning was the last time Elizaveta saw Gilbert.

~x.X.x.~

Natalya and Gilbert hadn't returned any of Elizaveta's calls and now at the meeting one week later, she nor Gilbert had appeared.

The Hungarian couldn't help feeling guilty as she watched Alfred, who was seated for once in the meeting, quiet as could be. Instead, Francis and Arthur were "leading" the meeting by yelling at one another.

Elizaveta barely noticed the meeting being called to an end. As she stood, someone tapped on her shoulder.

"Hm?" She turned and nearly jumped. "Ah! Ivan!"

"Hello, Elizaveta. I trust you are well, da?" Ivan asked, a cheeky smile planted on his face along with closed eyes.

"Yes, I am." She regained her posture and stared straight at him.

"I see you and Prussia have shamed my sister and the American." He murmered and opened his lavender irises. "You've wounded my sister's pride so much that she refuses to speak or see anyone, even myself and her sister."

"I..I'm sorry." Elizaveta said, her hands balling into fists in case things got heated.

"You have a week to get her back onto her feet or else bad things will happen to Budapest and ah..Gilbert."

"Where is he!" She hissed, glaring at him.

"I know not." He replied innocently and turned away towards the door. "One week."

~x.X.x.~

Gilbert.

That Russian sadist had GILBERT.

Elizaveta blindly ran out the door into blonde, screaming her rage.

After he calmed her down, she quietly explained about Gilbert and Natalya's disappearance. How Natalya was too ashamed to talk to people. She even found herself saying "sorry" repeatedly.

"Don't worry. I'm on it." The blonde replied as he helped her into her waiting taxi cab and walked away.

~x.X.x.~

She's cold and she's cruel

But she knows what she's doing

Those lyrics rang through Alfred's head as he ran to Natalya's familiar home.

~x.X.x.~

Natalya was downright ill.

Maybe it started after she stopped eating after that shameful day of spam on her phone. She had turned it off and put it on her desk, then crawled into bed.

After two days of starving, she went to Gilbert's hotel at nightfall and kidnapped him. He sat in her closet, tied and gagged to a chair.

She knew that she and Gilbert had missed today's meeting, but she didn't care. All she felt like doing was staying in bed and dying.

In the past few days, she had skipped about one meal a day, then completely stopped eating. On the sixth day, she realized how sick she was when she began pushing away her food.

Laying in bed panting, the Belarusian stared blankly up at her ceiling.

Let the fever take me already. She thought, beads of sweat on her head, as she lay listening to Gilbert's weak, muffled screams.

Natalya didn't notice a certain blonde opening her bedroom door and pulling a seat next to her bed. Her eyes shot open when said blonde started tapping her head with a hamburger.

"What do you think you're doing!" She hissed weakly.

Alfred stared at her in confusion. "Helping you get better!" He replied as if it was obvious. "Why isn't it working? First England, now you?"

"You tried this on Arthur?" She whispered, staring up at him hazily. "Thank you, but I doubt this will work."

Instead of replying, he froze and wandered to her closet. "What's that noise?"

"Alfred!" Natalya scolded and sat up, glaring at him. "Stay out of my closet-" He opened the door. "Damn you!"

"You kidnapped Gilbert!" Alfred asked, appaled, as he begun to untie the struggling Prussian. "Sorry, but as a hero, I gotta save him!"

Gilbert sprang up, screaming in German, and ran out the door once he was free.

"Y'know, Elizaveta was worried sick when he didn't show up at today's meeting." Alfred said casually and sat by her again.

"I don't care. This is all her fault anyways." Natalya replied coldly as she lay back down. "The shame..how'd you get in here anyways?"

"I always picked the locks at Arthur's when I was a kid." He said curtly. "Dontcha think you're overreacting? I mean, come on. She's scared stiff. Even your brother threatened her!"

"Big brother?" Natalya asked eagerly. "Oh, he does love me, I knew it!" She scrambled out of her bed and rushed to turn her phone on. Maybe if she was well, she would have noticed the dissappointment flashing on the American's face.

She fell and clung to her table for support, her head pounding. "Oh..."

He gently grabbed her shoulders and guided her back to bed. "Let's focus on getting you better first, Natalya."

"But he worries for me.." She whined as he tucked her in and pressed his hand to her forehead.

"You have a fever." He said, ignoring her completely. "Where's your medicine cabinet?"

"I didn't ask for anyone to take care of me!" She hissed, glaring up at the American.

"A hero's always here for people who need help."

"I don't need help!" She yelled childishly.

"Yes, you do! You're too stubborn to even tend to yourself!" Alfred yelled right back.

"I can take care of myself!" She screamed, balling her hands into fists.

He opened his mouth as if to scream as well, but took a deep breath. "Don't strain yourself. I can hear that you're losing your voice. So don't talk anymore, okay?" He plopped back down in his chair.

"Make me!" Natalya hissed, arms folded stubbornly across her fist.

"Okay." Suddenly he was leaning in.

And suddenly, Natalya found her heart pounding like a drum.

~x.X.x.~

A/N: I like this chapter a lot. R/R~