Yay an update~ It hasn't been too long, at least I don't think. Hey I mean at least we're progressing, right? Sorry though, over break I was kind of busy and there was a convention and yeah. But I hope you aren't too mad at me. Well I don't have too much to say here except that I hope you enjoy!


I'm in love with a fairytale

Even though it hurts

'Cause I don't care if I lose my mind

I'm already cursed

- "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak


Chapter 10

"Tired," Feliciano moaned.

Elizabeta looked down at the child in her arms, trying to get comfortable while on horseback. The boy was notorious for always being sleepy or hungry or both, but it seemed now the reason was legitimate.

They'd been riding for hours along the many roads that wound through the German countryside, following any signs that might point them in the right direction.

Roderich had informed her that his former home was past the border of Austria-Hungary, somewhere in Vienna. Once they found a city and a hotel to stay in, he promised they'd rest and then board a train to his home.

To be honest, Elizabeta wouldn't mind staying in a small town, but so far they had hardly come across anything close to civilization.

"I know you are, dear," she sighed, "But we'll be there soon. I promise…"

A yawn caused her to stop her sentence, Feliciano quickly mimicking her.

Roderich, who was riding behind the two, had Prinz trot forward to catch up and join them. Elizabeta turned and gave him a weak smile, which he returned.

Suddenly, he reached over and took the reins from Elizabeta's hands, looping them over Edelweiss' head to hold them himself.

"What are you doing?" she asked confusedly.

"Get some rest," he said simply, "I'll make sure she stays steady."

"But what about –"

"Goodnight, darling."

It was clear she didn't have much choice in the matter. Roderich was a gentleman, and a stubborn one at that. Complying was probably the best option at this point.

Before she could even try to object again, her lids had fluttered shut and her breathing was soft and light as dreams flitted in her brain.


It didn't feel like it had been very long when Elizabeta opened her eyes again, though the setting she was in was far different from the one she'd fallen asleep in.

For one, she was laying down on something, not sitting up uncomfortably on the back of a horse. Granted, whatever she was laying on was rather stiff and not very comfortable, but it was something. On top of that, some kind of sheet covered her that seemed to attempt to act as a source of warmth.

She looked a bit more and saw Feliciano's small form lying beside her, his breathing deep and even in his heavy slumber. Well, at least he was here. But that didn't answer what was going on.

After a moment of consideration, she decided to sit up and take in her surroundings. They appeared to be in some sort of a small room, but that wasn't what she noticed first.

There was a body sitting at the edge of the bed (she assumed she was on a bed judging by the pillow and sheet), their bare back the only thing she could see. At first she wondered why the back was wet, until she noticed the person had a towel in their hands and was furiously attacking their hair with it. Once the towel was out of the way, she could see that one resilient piece sticking up, even when wet.

At least it was Roderich.

But with that realization, things only became worse. Roderich, the man she loved, was sitting shirtless at the bed she was laying in. It was safe to assume he had just bathed and to be honest, from the angle, she wasn't sure if he was wearing any clothing at all.

An enormous amount of blood rushed to her face, her nose in particular, and she couldn't help but make an embarrassed squeaking noise.

Roderich jumped at the noise and craned his head to look at the cause of the noise. His violet eyes widened at the sight of an extremely embarrassed Elizabeta, which in turn only made him more embarrassed.

"Elizabeta!" he said quickly, standing up and turning to face her.

Fortunately for her, Roderich was wearing pants, otherwise she might have fainted. Despite this, now she was face with his bare chest, which only made her produce a noise that sounded far from human. He looked down and realized this as well, his face possibly becoming redder than Elizabeta's.

"Scheiße!" he hissed as he reached down to grab his shirt he'd left on the floor.

He turned around as he slid it on and began to button it, almost mute with embarrassment.

"Such a s-sight is i-i-inappropriate for a l-lady," he stammered.

She could hear how humiliated was, which made her embarrassment fade away to be replaced with hysteric giggles.

"We kind of are lovers, you know," she teased.

Roderich almost choked on air.

"Not in that c-context! Not yet at least, I mean… We don't… do that sort of thing."

This only made her laugh harder. It really was adorable to see him flounder for words like this. Only a proper gentleman would do such a thing; any other lover would have used it for further advances. But that was what she loved about him. That and pretty much everything else.

"Well I'm not going to try and get into that, as much as I would enjoy that sort of thing," she sighed, causing Roderich to nearly hack up a lung with his mortified coughing fit.

"Rather, I would like to know where we are exactly."

After a moment of composure and making sure that all his buttons were securely fastened, Roderich turned around to give her an answer before pausing and chuckling a bit to himself.

"What?" she demanded.

"You're not the most… graceful it appears when it comes to waking up."

She reached up and found that her hair was tangle and frizzy, her clothes rumpled, and her eyelids felt like they were drooping to her chin. It was probably safe to say that Roderich's accusation was correct.

"Oh, hush," she hissed, throwing the sheet off of her and crawling down the length of the mattress.

Roderich had sat down by now and eyed her curiously as she sat up on her knees behind him and draped herself over him. She rested her head in the crook of his neck and sighed.

"Can you tell me where we are now?" she repeated.

"Some city whose name I forget," he replied, "Some kilometers outside of Berlin. I came across this inn and decided that it would be best to rest here. I spoke to the owner and he said that Vienna is a few days away by train. I don't know what we'll do with the horses, but a train will certainly be much quicker."

As he explained everything to her, Elizabeta just nodded and occasionally made sounds of agreement. She didn't really care where they were as long as they were together.

"I had just used the bath and wasn't expecting you to wake up when… well you know the rest."

She giggled softly and placed a kiss on his neck before sitting back upright and stretching. It really was sweet of him to act this way as it was hard to find many decent men, especially after being exposed to Gilbert for so long.

"Would you be a dear and fetch me my spectacles?" he asked, "They're on the stand by the bed."

Elizabeta was about to comply when a high-pitched voice suddenly reached her ears.

"I got them! Here, Mr. Austria!"

Elizabeta turned to see that Feliciano was now awake and had managed to retrieve Roderich's glasses, a bright smile on his face that glowed with accomplishment.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Elizabeta praised as she took them from him to hand to Roderich.

Feliciano's grin only widened until Elizabeta reached over and praised him with a well deserved hug.

"I'm going to go become presentable," she said once the boy was satisfied with his affection, "And I think I'll go out and see if I can find something to eat for us."

"I'm sure there's a restaurant or two available," Roderich pointed out.

"Are you saying you don't like my cooking?"

Roderich knew better than to reply to that (though he did love her cooking) and simply shrugged.

"Would you like me to join you?"

"I think I'll be okay. You might want to find out more about getting to Austria-Hungary by talking with the manager anyway. And someone has to watch Feli."

He looked surprised at that comment, as did Feliciano.

"You boys need some bonding time," she teased, "It'll be good for you."


He hadn't meant to do anything wrong. Mama and Papa said he was a good boy. So why was he in trouble?

The bread had just looked so delicious and Papa hadn't brought back some food in a while. His belly hurt and it just told him to take it.

Just touching it made him feel better and its warm smell only enhanced that feeling.

But now he was being chased by that big man from behind the counter, the one who spoke funny words that he didn't understand.

If the man hadn't had that big bread knife and wasn't yelling so loud, he wouldn't have run away. But his brain told him otherwise and he ran as fast as his five year old legs could carry him, clutching the loaf of bread for dear life.

He was panting for air, moving around the forest of legs that belonged to the adults that were in the street, all of whom made some sound of irritation when the boy ran past. Tears began to sting his eyes; he just wanted to feed Mama and Papa since they were both so hungry.

Something, some cruel twist of fate, decided to lash out and cause the boy to trip, scraping his elbows and squashing his prize in the process. He whimpered pathetically, knowing that the scary man was going to get him and that he'd let down Mama and Papa.

The loud yells of the man were getting closer and closer.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

The boy hadn't heard this voice before. It was angry, but not like the scary man's. It had a different tone; it belonged to a woman.

Suddenly, he was being lifted and was met with the kind face of a most beautiful creature. She was lovely, though not so lovely as his Mama, with big green eyes and flowing brown hair. Those eyes showed worry and concern for the boy, something he only saw from his parents.

Elizabeta was furious. How could this be possible? Were people honestly that cruel and horrible these days? It didn't seem like reality.

"What are you doing, chasing a little boy with a knife?" she hissed as she held him close, "Do you not have a heart?"

"He stole from me!" the man barked in words that the boy actually could understand.

"Of course he did, the poor thing is skin and bones! A little bread won't hurt him, or you!"

"That bread is how I keep my family from becoming skin and bones!"

The man had gotten increasingly angry and now appeared to be ready to strike the kind lady who'd come and saved this little boy. But Elizabeta held her ground, refusing to step down.

"You little!"

As he swung his arm down to possibly stab her with that horribly large blade, another arm shot into the picture, grabbing the man's wrist.

Elizabeta, who had closed her eyes in order to brace herself for impact, opened them to see someone much larger, much taller, and honestly much scarier had stopped the crazed baker.

He towered over all of them, he had to be taller than any man Elizabeta had ever seen, his cold blue eyes framed by glasses fixed on her. His blond hair was choppy and his lips set in a straight line, only adding to his intimidating appearance.

The boy in her arms turned to see what had happened and a smile quickly lit up his face.

"Papa!" he cried joyously.


Finally! Geez, I thought it was going to take forever to get here. But hey, I finally did it. Not sure if you all made the connection, but if you go back a few chapters, this whole ending part is connected, I promise. IT MAKES SENSE IN MY BRAIN I TELL YOU.

So yay, story is moving forward. Now all we need is... MORE CONFLICT! Ha, I love throwing in random twists so you all might want to prepare yourselves because I plan for a lot to happen from now on. It might not be right away, or all at once, but I'm gonna throw stuff at you. It might need the rating to go up to be honest. Not due to like smut or anything, just the heavy content that I plan on inserting. So just warning you now.

On that happy note, I hope you guys are enjoying the fic. I'll hopefully be updating more, but you never know, stuff might come up with my luck. Please leave a review, I love them, or you can favorite or follow the story to see what happens. Until next time!

P.S. By the way Scheiße means "shit" in German. I don't like putting up translations because most of them are one word and easy to figure out, but hey, I thought I'd give you guys a little help if you need it.