Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or its characters. I thank Himaruya Hidekaz for letting me play with his characters.
Acknowledgements: Thank you to all those who have reviewed, alerted, favourited: I am Sweden, Elizablue, Cathrag, Arkanhari, ScarheartofDarkclan, xxcatxx, NightshadeHetalia, Becky999, .me.1, fire hores is awesome, Lani Carmine, xxEu-chan, ChubbyCubby23, AFreezingFlame, Animechic420, White eyed fox, Furret the Sparrowsong, rubyredroses1, PhantomPrussia, Art and Soul, Starchacer296, GirlLoki, FiresCreek, JustAGirlWithAPen, SchrapnelGirl, GermanyIsAwesome-NotPrussia, iTorchic, kakashailuckyblackcat, , Xou, alexf801, chattie98, Myrna Maeve (and Romania!), ThatPurplyThing, Forever Halfa, WinterLake 25, Frustration, Ankhasia Riddle, Kitty the Dinosquirrel, envysfangirl, PikoPiko-Chan, Silver FoxWolf, citrine sunflower, Canyon's Rose, chickenkitty, ZeroLuver567, Lady Sandra of Sealand, Tamarutaca, 101Icestormxx, VengefulCat (my beta reader) and all my anonymous readers.
Warnings: Angst, history and stupidity
Chapter 29 – Rescue Me
"Right ... to the bank... get this outfit on, Arty dude... Russkie dude you can wear that Darth Vader gear and ... oh there's no Tony... I suppose Francy pants is Supergirl?" America was yelling, completely ignoring the fact that they were now facing an irate Austrian government official and Austrian security services for destroying half of a leading toy supermarket.
"This is, like, brilliant, Liet," Pol whispered to Toris, his eyes shining. Toris did not agree, it was not brilliant. They were hiding behind a large dumpster and watching the proceedings.
Russia was still holding a very bloodied Mr Pipe and was scouring the remaining aisles of Babys R Us looking for Latvia. He was getting increasingly worried and felt a horrid clenching in his gut.
"Are you not aware that Switzerland has been taken to hospital?" Austria pointed out. In truth he was quite worried about his old sparring partner. He sincerely hoped he was going to be alright.
"Haha! You kill me, Papa Austria!" America yelled.
"Don't call me that..."
"You're not my father, are you?" America suddenly asked, in all seriousness.
"Nein, I am not!" Austria said, looking absolutely appalled at the idea.
"Why was it kept a secret?" England asked as they got into a police van. Or should one say, thrown into the police van.
"Eet iz a beeg secret between zem, oh yes... Vash took her in after ze war..." France started to explain.
"How the bloody hell do you know?" England asked.
"I know everyzing!" France said with a horrid leer.
"Yes, you knew about Germany and Holy Rome, didn't you?" England said with a frown. His hand found Belarus' and he squeezed it gently.
"As did Austria... we have many secrets him and me..."
"You can shut the bloody hell up!" Austria all but screamed and then managed to regain his composure. "It was a long time ago..." he began.
America made sounds of 'snoring' from the side of England and shook his head, already bored.
Vienna Hospital
The doctors were puzzled – to say the least. Vash was alive, his thousand or so year old heart was beating, and he was breathing but he was frozen – his face stuck in a kind of grimace as if someone had just taken his wallet and emptied it over the streets of Berne. He still held his rifle in his right hand and in all aspects he looked like a life-size statue of a very angry Swiss guard.
Lily held his hand, he may not be her brother, but he'd just about brought her up and taken care of her and she now regretted her actions earlier. No wonder he'd had some sort of fit, he obviously had thought she was about to run away with Russia. She closed her eyes and prayed.
Hungary sat beside her and held her other hand, "He'll be okay. He's tough," she whispered carefully. But knowing she really had no right to be there.
"What happened?" Lily asked.
"Well... I reckon the shock of seeing you kiss Russia... hahaha his face was a picture... honestly, Lily what a great idea... of course kiss Russia and he'll accept the better option... Icy is lovely..." Hungary filled the awful silence by twittering.
"No, Mum... what happened? Why did you and... Mr Austria... Dad... let me go?" Lily said softly.
"Oh that... well... the Empire broke up in 1918 in the War. I lost so much and Rod was in a worst state... we had nothing. We could barely feed ourselves, we were starving. We tried, we really did. Our governments and the allies forced us to divorce. You were only young and we worried for your future..."
"But... Vash..."
"Yes, your father took you to Berne. But Vash and your father have never got on..."
"I remember, I was so cold... I thought I was going to die..."
"Your father was watching you... he made sure Vash found you..."
"You mean Vash didn't know who I was?"
"He didn't at first, but deep down he's a big softy. He would never admit it. Your father thought it was better like that. Vash told your father that he would take care of you like you were his sister, but he didn't want me and your father... definitely not your father... to interfere..." Hungary stopped suddenly and then patted Vash's hand – an action that would have caused much annoyance from the Swissman.
"I remember big bruder... Vash... didn't like it when we met Mr Austria... I mean er Dad... and he told me never to talk to strangers and drew pictures of Dad saying I wasn't to let him in my house..."
Hungary nodded and smiled, "Yes, they never got on. We wanted you to know who we were but by then it was too late. You were settled with Vash, he did such a good job and your father had made an agreement never to interfere..." Hungary sniffed. She'd always blamed Austria for taking away her daughter, but really now she thought about – she'd often tried not to think about it for so many years – she couldn't blame anyone. It was the price of being a Nation.
"I remember when I was little... someone singing..." Lily smiled softly at the memory.
"That was me..."
"...and beautiful music..."
"...that was your father..." Hungary wiped yet another tear away.
"...and crashing about..."
"... that was Feliciano's dusting..." Hungary smiled.
A Police van, somewhere in Vienna
"So you gave away your own daughter?" England asked quietly and then, seeing Austria's pained expression, shut up.
Russia who had just caught the tail-end of the conversation, having just got into the police van, under extreme pressure (which meant four Austrian policemen got knocked out and an Austrian Government official reassured him that they would eventually reconcile him with his 'little sunflower'), stopped waving his bloodied pipe and sighed in sympathy and then looked at America.
America shifted uncomfortably, "Alaska's fine, commie dude... you know that. I brought her up as my own. Just as we agreed."
"Dear Lord and that's supposed to be good, is it?" England retorted.
Russia considered this. America eyed the blood on Mr Pipe and swallowed. They were in the narrow confines of a police van and he doubted he could do back-flips in such a confined space.
Russia reached across, took America's hand and shook it. "Da, you did a good job... considering," the Russian said.
"Yes, considering he's an idiot..." England muttered. "Oh and another thing, Alfred. You can tell Alaska and your other kids not to call me Auntie Arty."
Belarus sniggered but then hugged England tightly.
Austria's Mansion
Prussia and Denmark looked at each other in horror at the dustbin lorry – what they could see of it – lying at the bottom of the heart-shaped swimming pool.
"Dude..."
"Dude..."
"Dude chick..."
"Shit..."
They stared in horror at each other. Both dripping wet, Denmark's hair plastered to his head – for once forgotten - as they realised that 'dude chick' was still in the truck. They'd both managed to swim to safety and left Latvia underwater.
Denmark dived in, "Copenhagen!" he yelled and swam to the truck. The door he'd wrenched open by his own awesome Viking strength was hanging by its hinges. He thanked the old Viking God Odin he was a good swimmer and tried to free Latvia from her seatbelt. Her eyes were closed and she looked very limp, she didn't thump him at all as he fumbled at her breast to unbuckle the seatbelt. Gilbert soon joined him, his red eyes looking panicked as they tugged and pulled. It seemed, to both of them, that it took an eternity to free her and she felt disturbingly limp and lifeless in Den's arms as he swam to the surface.
"Kiss of life..." Gilbert panted as they laid her down on the poolside.
"Fucking 'ell, Ivan will kill us..."
"He'll kill us if she dies..."
So, with combined ineptitude they tried chest compresses and mouth to mouth resuscitation – in between yelling "We're fucking dead!" at each other.
The Austrian police managed to get the Nations to the police station, but unfortunately – or fortunately whichever way you happened to look at – they didn't keep them there for long. Herr Schnifflehoffen ( a made-up name if ever there was one, Arthur thought), the Austrian Government's official who dealt with Austria the Nation, managed to provide bail. Unlike other Nations' envoys/officials/intermediaries (i.e. Russia's, France's, America's) Herr Schnifflehoffen was not used to visiting police stations in his duties as special envoy, the opera, the theatre yes...
Russia was waving Mr Pipe around and getting very agitated. He was seriously worried about his little sunflower and was wondering where she was. Belarus was no use and just shrugged, he had an awful thought that Belarus and 'Natasha' had had something to do with Latvia's disappearance. Also Russia's usual calming influence – Toris – had managed to escape the police round-up, with that arch-expert at avoiding trouble – Pol.
Another Nation missing was Antonio (or as America yelled "Where's Tony dude?"). Antonio was, at that moment in the boot of a car owned by an Austrian family who thought they'd bought the latest in life-size animatronic toys.
So the Nations stumbled out of the police station, all geared up to break more laws. As America said, far too loudly for Austria and England's comfort, "Hey let's go break into that bank!"
"I need to find my little sunflower," Russia said quietly. Much as he would have liked to break into a bank and beat up more people, he felt seriously worried about Latvia.
"I need to find Lily and Elizaveta," Austria said.
"I need to find my sex appeal," France said – a feeling not shared by anyone else.
"I need to vomit," Belarus said.
Austria's Mansion
Another person who needed to vomit was Latvia. Whether it was Prussia's inept chest compressions or more likely Den's beery kiss of life – the alcohol content in his breath alone would have made a normal person drunk – she leaned over and threw up a large amount of chlorinated water.
"Yay!" Den yelled and was hit, albeit weakly by the small Latvian, who promptly collapsed again.
"We need to get her to a hospital before fat commie dude turns up and beats the living shit out of us," Gilbert said, rather wisely.
"Nah, man, she'll be okay... if we dry her off and..." Den was shaking her desperately.
Gilbert ignored him, jumped up and ran for the mansion, hoping the phone worked and 'specs' hadn't had it cut off for not paying the bill.
Den blinked away tears, Vikings did not cry, he thought. He even ignored his flat, wet hair - it was that serious and held Latvia. Since vomiting she'd coughed several times and then lost consciousness again. She was breathing – but it sounded horridly shallow and she looked extremely pale and felt very cold. Denmark quickly took off his jacket – which was wet and wrapped it around her and hoped to God that the ambulance would arrive fast and that Russia didn't turn up.
Den picked her up as gently as he could and hurried towards the mansion, if they could dry her, warm her up, she'll be okay won't she? Russia need never know - he didn't really want to end his awesome long life embedded in the bonnet of a dumpster truck at the deep end of Austria's new swimming pool. How un-awesome would that be?
Gil ran out and, cementing the absolute certainty that neither Nation should ever be paramedics or in any profession requiring responsibility, ran straight into Den.
"She dead?" Gil asked in a horrified shriek – he would later be deeply embarrassed by that 'shriek'.
"Nah, man. Not good, though," Den said and carried her through to Austria's dining room and laid her on a flat airbed.
Gilbert almost collapsed with relief, "Ambulance on its way, dude."
Denmark nodded and wrapped a sleeping bag around her.
"That ambulance had better hurry up," he whispered.
Author's Notes:
The Austria-Hungary Empire was dissolved in 1918 just before a military defeat against Italy in the first world war. Hungary lost around 74% of its territory, Austria as a country barely survived as it was allied with the Hapsburgs. I think in the anime Liechtenstein is shown as a young girl being 'found' by Switzerland and taken in – it's a bit vague when this is – but I'm taking it as at the end of the first world war when a lot of the European countries were struggling. I also think the drawings that Switzerland does on the board in one of the episodes, showing 'strangers' and who not to talk to looks like Austria.
Don't worry I won't keep you hanging on – quick updates promised.
Next Chapter – a bank robbery goes horribly wrong, a character death, hospital angst.