Ack, I am SO SORRY for the delay! I'm one of those horrible people who write several stories at once. Sorry, this chapter is a bit short...but I hope you enjoy!
Sleep was impossible. Natalia's entire body trembled, her teeth clattering and breath coming in small puffs of vapor. She could barely feel her fingers or her toes, and her hair hung in mangled wet strands around her face. The only sound was the incessant clack clack clack of the train tracks and the whistling tundra wind from outside.
Arms stiff from the cold, she pushed herself up from her seat to glance down the aisle. Locating Prussia was easy – his white tuft of hair stood out in the darkness. He had cocooned himself in a thick woolen military coat, the fabric rising and falling with each breath. Sticking out from the coat was the barrel of a rifle, and Natalia could tell that his arms were wrapped lovingly around the weapon. She curled a lip in disgust. How could he cradle a mechanism of death with such care? She glanced the opposite direction, squinting into the darkness to make out the figure of the German soldier slumped into one of the coach seats. His pointed helmet was tilted forward just enough to cover his eyes, and his shoulders rose and fell with the slow deep breathing of slumber.
Like the light of dawn peeking over the horizon, Natalia began to see her opportunity. She knew that escaping the train was impossible, but perhaps if she managed to slip into a different car, she could get off at the next stop and board another train back to Minsk.
Natalia grimaced as she forced her frozen legs to move, sitting upright and gripping the chair for support. She slipped off her heels, wiggling her toes to try and get back some circulation. Natalia slowly rose, delicate fingers clenched around her heels as she crept down the aisle towards the German soldier. She froze at every creak of the train, eyes darting first to the soldier and then back towards the slumbering nation of Prussia. As she neared, she saw that the soldier's rifle was leaned against the chair closest to the window. Natalia studied the man intensely, searching for any sign that he could be faking. After deciding that he was indeed sound asleep, she leaned across him and carefully curled her free hand around the rifle. Eyes never leaving the face of the soldier, she slowly drew the weapon out. It reached the soldier's face, when suddenly his chest rumbled with a deep growl.
Natalia's blood ran cold, her eyes widening in horror.
"Mmm… Schokolade… Es war eine so lange Zeit…"
The soldier's lips curled into a smile, and with a wave of relief Natalia realized that he must be talking in his sleep. She quickly drew the rifle back, slinging it over her shoulder and tip-toeing to the coach door. She stepped back into her shoes and straightened her back, taking a shuddery deep breath.
Opening the coach door would let in a whirlwind of frigid air, one that was sure to wake up her captors. But if she could scamper across the coupling fast enough, they might not be able to catch her before she disappeared into a different car. Natalia had no idea what would meet her there – wounded soldiers perhaps, all with rifles, all who would be wondering why a young woman in a dress was racing through the aisle. Natalia would have preferred to act natural, to pretend as though she belonged on this train and if any soldier dared look at her the wrong way they would be shot in the face. She had long practiced this façade, and was a professional at blending into places she didn't belong. Men were easy to manipulate, especially soldiers who hadn't laid eyes on a woman in months.
But there was no time for that here. Natalia knew she was taking a risk, but anything was better than being held captive by that disgusting Prussian. She was used to getting what she wanted, and she was did NOT want to be stuck here in this ice box with an obnoxious, egotistic, red-eyed asshole.
Natalia took a deep breath, clutched the rifle like a lifeline, and unlatched the coach door.
The wind was like a raging river of ice particles ripping into her entire body. She closed her eyes and shielded her face with an arm, taking a quick step out into the freezing air before slamming the door shut behind her.
Natalia couldn't see, couldn't feel anything but the stinging claws of the wind on her face. The platform was less than half a meter wide and coated in a thick layer of ice, tracks whizzing beneath it in a deadly blur. Natalia gulped and darted her eyes to the door of the next coach. It rattled with the train, the clack clack clack and the roar of the wind making it impossible to hear anything else.
Natalia took a first shaky step. Her heel slid on the ice, but she kept her balance and brought forward her other foot. Biting her lip in concentration, she carefully put one foot in front of the other, scooting along the platform as her skirts and hair whipped around her in the shrieking wind.
She was halfway across the platform when it suddenly shuddered with the slam of a door being opened behind her. Natalia crouched to keep her balance. Someone shouted something, but she couldn't understand past the roar of the wind in her ears. The platform vibrated with heavy boot steps and panic jolted through Natalia's veins. She rose to her feet and scrambled towards the next coach, but her heels slipped on the ice. She let out a shriek as she fell forward, her frozen hands grasping the railing for support. She tried to stand, but the train took a sudden turn and she skidded across the platform. Her fingernails clawed at the ice, but it was no use as she slid towards the rushing darkness beneath the train. At the very last second, her frantic hands managed to grasp a small pole before her legs swept off of the platform.
CLACK CLACK CLACK the train screamed as it whizzed over the tracks, closer, gnashing and waiting eagerly for her hand to slip. She kicked uselessly at the air, trying to catch some kind of latch. A heel slipped from her left foot and vanished into the black void rushing beneath her. There was a sickening CRUNCH as the metal wheels crushed the shoe. Natalia squeezed her eyes shut. Her entire body was so numb that she could no longer feel. She couldn't tell if her hand was slipping, she couldn't make sense of anything. All she knew was the raw fear pumping through her veins, the roar of the wind and the grinding of the ravenous train tracks beneath her.
There was a sudden jerk, and Natalia was overwhelmed with the horrid sensation of falling.
She screamed.
It was a few seconds before she realized that she wasn't dead. Natalia opened her eyes and realized she was not falling, but being hoisted up. The ice of the platform rose to meet her. Past the ice particles frozen onto her eyelashes, she managed to make out a pair of arms pulling her hand. It was a strange sensation, seeing these things but unable to feel. Someone shouted something again, but she couldn't hear past the screaming of the wind. Natalia felt in a daze, her legs trembling as she neared the soft yellow glow of the coach. She had often heard of a light at the end of the tunnel….Was this death?
The moment she stepped inside, the claws of the wind came to a halt. There was a shudder as the door slammed. Suddenly her legs gave out and Natalia fell to her knees, her lips frozen and body trembling as she stared wide-eyed at the wooden floor beneath her.
I'm alive…
Someone was shouting. Natalia couldn't hear past the ringing in her ears, the clack clack clack and the crunch of her shoe echoing again and again. The sensation of touch began to slowly come back to her, her toes and fingers painfully throbbing as she thawed. She was vaguely aware of someone shaking her shoulder.
"In…cess…. Prin…es…. Prince….PRINCESS!"
Natalia's eyelashes fluttered as she stared up into two fiery eyes. Was this the devil? Had she gone to hell?
"Princess, snap out of it! Come on, come on…. HEY, WO IST DAS WARMWASSER BAT ICH UM IHR IDIOTEN!?"
The shouts dissolved into angry German that she didn't understand. Warm hands rubbed on her arms, and in between orders she heard a husky voice whisper, "Come on Princess… Hang in there… I've got you, everything's okay…. Mein Gott, you're as cold as ice…"
All at once her mind started to pick up speed again, and like a bolt of lightning she realized who this strange red-eyed man was.
Natalia shrieked and tried to back away, but she only collided into the legs of another soldier. Her body was still slow to move, and so she was helpless as she was hoisted up by the arms and forced into a coach seat. She squirmed and shrieked obscenities in her own language, hating this man, hating this train, hating that she had allowed herself to look so pathetically weak in front of him and all of these soldiers.
"Princess, STOP! Would you just - calm down – Mein Gott – BELARUS!"
She froze at the sound of her nation name, eyes sharp and wild as she looked up at him. His hair was wind-blown from the blizzard outside, his nose bright red and lips tainted blue from the cold. They sat there for a moment, crimsons against cobalt blue, their gazes sharp and sparking in the air between them.
"Are you done screaming at me?" He snapped. Natalia had never seen such anger in his eyes, and it was frightening. "Because, you know, after I just saved your LIFE and all, I don't exactly expect a gold offering or even a thank you, but it would be nice if you would STOP SCREAMING AT ME and just – act like you at least WANT to be alive, okay? Can you do that, Princess, or would you rather me toss you off the train now and let it eat you up like a fresh hunk of cow meat?!" His voice had risen to such a volume that his it had cracked, and Natalia found herself shrinking against the back of the seat in fear. His eyes were like two burning coals, wild, untamed, passionate… scared?
Natalia did not answer.
Prussia looked down at her, waiting for a response. At last the fire died from his eyes and he let out an explosive sigh, rubbing his face with a gloved hand. "Mein Gott, Princess. Don't ever do that again. I could never live with myself if…" He trailed off, eyes now soft as he looked at her. Her skin crawled beneath that gaze and she glared at him, a silent warning to keep his distance.
"I would not have fallen if you had not come after me."
Prussia's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to protest, but he was interrupted by a shout in German. All at once a swarm of people rushed around her, nurses checking her pulse, her feet put in a bucket of steaming water. All the while she could feel those two crimsons watching her, and she tried to do her best to ignore it. Prussia spoke urgently with a nurse, after which he sighed with relief and sent her a small smile. She glared back.
At last the crowd filed out, leaving her sitting once again alone on the coach, her nails closed around the heavy woolen blankets that draped over her shoulders. Natalia sat up straight in what she hoped was a dignified posture, looking sternly out the window and refusing to glance in the direction of her captor. For a few moments they rode in an uncomfortable silence, the swaying of the train and the faint clacking of the tracks seeming to be waiting for someone to speak.
"Have you ever been to Konigsberg?"
She did not answer.
"I'll take that as a no."
Natalia scoffed.
Prussia sighed and she imagined him reclining in his seat in the way that only egoists can. "Well you're going to love it, Princess. We've got beautiful churches, and rose gardens, and these Awesome ice cream cone stands where you can get like five million flavors." His voice suddenly brightened as he asked, "What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?"
Natalia scowled. The tyrant was attempting to start friendly conversation with her, and she would not allow it. "I do not want your disgusting ice cream."
Prussia cackled. "Yes you do! You just don't know it yet! Don't worry, I'll buy you every Awesome flavor so you can try them ALL. And if you don't like them, well… More for me! Kesesese!"
At last she turned her gaze from the window to send him an indignant look. "You are conducting the most devastating war Europe has ever seen, and you are concerning yourself with ice cream."
His face split into that infuriating grin. "Life's not all blood and battles, Princess. You gotta find the fun where you can get it."
She stared at him blankly. "Fun."
"Ja, fun! Don't you ever spend time with your people doing stupid things, like drinking contests and polka dances and horse racing?"
Natalia could hardly believe what she was hearing. How had she allowed herself to be so easily captured by such a fool? "I am a nation, not a child. I do not have time for such nonsense."
Prussia's ruby eyes sparkled in the dim light of the coach. "But you're forgetting we represent the kids, too. You can't just shut yourself up in politics, Princess. Governments and borders suffer from a serious case of bi-polar disorder, but ice cream will probably taste just as Awesome today as it will a hundred years from now."
She stared at him a moment, trying to understand why the taste of ice cream had to do with politics. At last she turned her head back to the window. "You are an idiot."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
She whipped around to send him a murderous glare, but to her horror, he only winked at her. Natalia felt her cheeks burn and she quickly looked the other way. She could still feel his gaze, the silence becoming itchy.
"You know, it took some balls for you to try and escape like that."
Natalia stiffened. She knew he would warn her never to try again – he would threaten her with death, with pain, with torture.
"That was pretty Awesome, actually. Stole the rifle right under Schmidt's nose. HA! And you managed to get halfway across the platform in those heels." She sneaked a glance to see Prussia shaking his head, a small smile of wonder lifting at his lips. "You really are something."
Natalia's heart sped up in her chest and she felt her cheeks grow red again. Why was he saying these things? Come to think of it, he had been fairly kind to her this entire time. Natalia's stomach twisted with a new type of fear. She could deal with pain, but these strange acts of kindness and those smiles and the way that those eyes sparkled at her was not something she was accustomed to. She was an expert at fighting fire with fire, but his way of looking straight through her seemed to leave her disarmed and confused.
Natalia shivered and pulled the blankets tighter around her, her eyes flickering as the first church steeple darted through the window. Soon this will all be over, She tried to convince herself. She would escape, or her brother would save her, or Prussia would do something idiotic and lose the war. Anything to get her back home, away from this strange man who had the power to make her uncomfortable.
Natalia never turned her gaze from the window, but she was positive that soft crimsons watched her throughout the remainder of the night.
Translations:
Mmm… Schokolade… Es war eine so lange Zeit… - Mmm...Chocolate...It's been so long.. XD
HEY, WO IST DAS WARMWASSER BAT ICH UM IHR IDIOTEN!? - HEY, WHERE'S THAT HOT WATER I ASKED FOR, YOU IDIOTS!?
(I will correct the translations as soon as I get a response from my German translators)