Author's note: Hello! Here's the fourth chapter! Also, I'd like to apologise for dragging Ivan's backstory. I think I got a little too carried away with it, because after all he's not exactly the main character and I have yet to introduce the other kingdoms, much less bring the disease in for the Kingdom of Clubs. :( So I'm terribly sorry for the slow-moving plot; I think I tend to get caught up in backstories a lot, like the time I had to write an essay in school and I wasted around six pages on the character's backstory instead of the prompt that was given and failed as a result. Hahahaha.

But anyway, I digress. I promise I will get back on track soon, and I'm sorry if Ivan's past sounds too melodramatic or if I failed to word things right gah I'm still trying to improve on writing so yeah. I think I made Katyusha a bit OOC, because I wanted to portray her as a changed person after The Accident, and how she became more hard-hearted because she failed to protect her younger brother. But then again, I feel that if I were to touch on that I would end up going off track from the plot again so I shan't go too much into Katyusha's character. Also, in my mind I've always thought of Russia as someone who has two sides to his personality and he can be ruthless if he wants to because of his past, though he's actually really sweet.

Anyway! Thank you for reading, and I would really appreciate it if you could review, follow or give me a favourite if you like my story! Enjoy!

For old readers, in case you're confused about the change in order, I apologise for the mess-up of chapters! One very helpful reviewer has kindly pointed out the really bad structuring, which I have amended and hopefully it's better now. :) I have changed the order such that the story opens with Lovino first, and then goes around the other Kingdoms so as to give you readers a clearer idea as to how the other Kingdoms are run (haven't touched on the Kingdom of Hearts yet though) and also the backstories of the Royals.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia. All rights belong to Hidekaz Himaruya.

The days that were spent in the sunflower fields soon faded, and made way for nights filled with the smashing of glass and the slamming of doors. Even the neighbours knew better and minded their own business. Once, the woman staying next door came over and told their father to stop, but ended up with her face cut by a bottle thrown at her. Their father returned home drunk daily, and soon became unemployed. He blamed his children for Mariya's death, especially Ivan, because he knew somehow, that Mariya was always a tad bit more loving towards the boy. He would corner Ivan, the vodka bottle in his hand as he wavered on and off balance.

"You!" he would spit, and Ivan would flinch from his father's putrid breath, yet not daring to wipe the saliva from his face. He would merely back further towards the wall, his hands scrabbling for support on the wood but finding none and his breath coming out quick and unsteady. He grew to fear his father, and suddenly all memories of him ever being a fatherly figure, those memories in which his father read them bedtime stories of dragons and knights and how he often let them sit on his lap as they observed the sunset together outside the house disappeared, and the image of his father's affectionate smile transformed into one of his menacing scowls. The first few nights Ivan cried, but when he realized that the more he cried, the harder his father hit, he learnt to be silent and he would bite his lip whenever the belt came down onto his back. Initially it would hurt when his lip split and the coppery taste of blood occupied his mouth, but as the days went by Ivan grew accustomed to the pain, and every slash his father made across his body became only "one more".

Katyusha and Natalya were helpless towards their brother's plight, for their father often locked them in their bedroom whenever he decided he wanted to punish Ivan. It wasn't every night that their father let loose his wrath, and later on he simply returned home and collapsed onto the floor for most nights, but all of his children were afraid of him and dared not approach him at all. It was only when Ivan was sixteen and had just undergone another beating that Katyusha paused in the midst of bandaging his wounds like she had been doing for years and suddenly called his name sharply.

Ivan had remained staring at the floor and had only looked up when he felt Katyusha's hand on his shoulder. Katyusha had on one of those serious expressions again, those that she wore a lot more often ever since The Accident. She was chewing on her lower lip in thought and she swept her short hair behind her ear impatiently. "Ivan, this can't go on anymore. Leave with me now."

Recently, when their father had been out on another of his drinking escapades, Katyusha had told him about her plan. She had found a farm in the rural area of the Kingdom, far away from their current house but not too far away from town, and had managed to negotiate a deal with the farmer. He did not mind cutting down on the rent if they worked for him, and Katyusha explained that she had counted her and Natalya's savings and it was enough for the first month at least.

"Let's run away, Ivan. You don't deserve to be treated this way," she had begged, taking both of Ivan's bigger hands in hers. Now that Ivan had started going through puberty, his body had grown much taller and he soon towered over all the other boys his age. Yet he had shook his head at his sister, responding that then there would be no one to take care of their father.

"What if he ends up like Mom?" he had replied quietly, avoiding looking at Katyusha directly. He had already known the look she was giving him, the upwards arching of her eyebrows and the flash of betrayal and disbelief in her eyes. It had his heart ache, and he had quickly added a soft apology. "I'm sorry."

When he had finally looked up at Katyusha, he had noticed that her lips had been quivering and that her denim blue eyes had rapidly misted with tears. Since they were children, Katyusha had always been the one who tended to cry easily, despite being the oldest. In an attempt at comforting her, Ivan had raised his hand and thumbed the damp skin above his sister's cheekbones, sending her what he hoped was an assuring smile. "I'll be fine-" he had answered, but the next two words had caught in his throat and he had found himself choking on empty air. "I promise."

"Ivan, please." Katyusha's persistent pleading shook Ivan out of his reverie. "Mother would have wanted you to be happy."

And Ivan nodded, and before he could even come to terms with anything, he and Katyusha had snuck out and were running through the deserted streets. He could feel the cobblestone smack painfully against his feet, its roughness scraping his skin through the sorry excuse he had for shoes. The streetlights had been extinguished, and the only things he was aware of were the adrenaline running through his veins and Katyusha's determined look as she led the way. "The sooner we're out of here, the better," she huffed, sweat glistening on her round face and the yellow headband she used to pull back her hair slanted.

"What about Natalya?" Ivan asked.

Natalya had told them about wanting to join the Knights of Clubs upon turning fifteen. "I want to get stronger," she had stated simply, as if it was an obvious thing. She had turned to Ivan and something that he had failed to identify had sparked in her ultramarine eyes. "I want to be able to protect you."

Natalya had left during winter, when the Royals were carrying out the recruitment for new Knights. Since then, she seldom returned to the house and when she did she spoke little, often staring at Ivan or Katyusha flatly, though sometimes Ivan thought that if he observed her closely he was able to see a myriad of emotions shifting behind her seemingly emotionless eyes.

"She knows where the farm is," Katyusha replied breathlessly. "We're almost there, follow the stream!"

Ivan allowed himself an opportunity to look around. He realized that he had gone past the cake shop that his mother used to bring them to get pastries and when he looked back he saw the dark green sign shifting forwards and backwards in the wind, as if hurrying them. They had gone through a narrow alley and had emerged behind an old bookstore, where a stream awaited them. Ivan nodded despite knowing that Katyusha was not looking around, and under the guidance of the moon's light, they headed in the direction of their safe house.

All was well, and for three years, Ivan lived peacefully with Katyusha on the farm. The farmer was a strange and eccentric man with a large beard and beady eyes. He mostly kept to himself, only making conversation whenever the siblings asked him about farming. Yet, Ivan felt a lot better living with him than when he had lived with his father.

But again, this peace was lost when Ivan discovered the mark on his right shoulder. He climbed out of the tub and got dressed quickly, not caring about the water that splashed out onto the floor. Exiting the bathroom cautiously, Ivan confirmed that their landlord was not anywhere nearby in the vicinity before going into Katyusha's room and closing the door behind him. He then whispered to her his plight, pulling down the collar of his shirt to show her the offending mark. Ivan himself looked away, for each glance brought swift visions of what awaited in the palace: he would have to sit on the throne and command troops, and he would have a Queen – someone he might not have even met, someone he probably could never grow to love. He would have to leave Katyusha and the farm for a large castle filled with grand corridors that would only seem to make the emptiness inside him greater.

The times spent gazing at the castle from afar had been coupled with a child's imagination, but now the cold, stone building was nothing more than a prison that awaited his arrival. Ivan thought of Natalya and her job within the giant walls, and suddenly wondered if her lack of mention about how the castle was like had anything to do with how bad it was to be in there. It did strike him that he might get the chance to see Natalya more often – and heck, he did miss her – but the dread at having to rule over the Kingdom won over every other emotion and the next thing he knew he was gripping onto Katyusha and muttering over and over again that he never wanted to go.

"I can't do it," he croaked, his voice with an edge that indicated the imminent arrival of tears. He knew that he should not be crying, but even Katyusha had always said that he had maintained a childish innocence despite everything that he had gone through. He heard a small gasp as his sister saw the mark with its bold curves in its twisted glory.

"It's alright, Ivan. It's not that big yet. We'll keep it a secret."

But both of them knew that it was only a matter of time before their secret came out.

And true enough, the night their father came through the doorway of the farmhouse hollering for Ivan and Katyusha to come out was the night the remaining pieces of everything fell apart.

The farmer had told him, he growled. It had been a coincidence, they were both drinking at the same pub and the farmer had let slip about his new tenants. "Two of 'em, I say. Two girls… Hic! No…" the farmer slurred, his pudgy hands falling onto his potbelly. He frowned, tilting backwards slightly on his stool, both cheeks flushed deeply.

"That ain't right… One boy… One girl!" Happy that he had gotten his facts correct, the man clapped both hands and guffawed loudly before he was stopped by Ivan's father.

"What did you say?" he demanded, one hand on the larger man's shoulder. He had only gone through one cup of vodka and was scarcely drunk. "Do they have platinum blond hair?"

The farmer nodded, slumping towards the counter. "Yessir… Could bring you to them if you'd like," he added, then suddenly sober, slammed his free hand onto the counter and told the man who had interrupted his drinking. "But only if you pay me."

After the farmer had foolishly led their father to the farmhouse and gone off to enjoy the bottle of beer he had earned, Ivan found himself in a repetition of history as his father grabbed his collar roughly. He was pulled so close to his father's face that he could nearly count the wrinkles that had been carved near the elder man's lips and the startlingly violet eyes that Ivan also had glowered at him.

"It was your idea, wasn't it? To abandon me?" His father's voice was deadly level, and Ivan knew that he was going to get hit again. After his wounds had finally turned to scars, the man was finally back to haunt him.

However, his father's attention became caught by something. Ivan watched as the other's eyes flickered over to his right shoulder, and instinctively he pushed his father away and tugged his shirt over.

"What's that? LET ME SEE!" And before Ivan could finish reveling in the fact that he had just managed to shove his father off him, his father had reached for his shirt again and wrenched the fabric downwards to reveal the mark. It had grown much bigger since Ivan first found it, and top curve of the club was now dangerously close to his collarbone.

Ivan felt his heart stop as his father pushed him away and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You're… You're the future King, aren't you?

In a desperate attempt, Ivan shook his head but his father only advanced closer. "You're going to have me killed, aren't you? To get your revenge?" Again, his voice had lowered to an unnerving calm, and Ivan's head was screaming with terror and a voice that kept urging him to hit back at his father.

"That's right! Hit him! Look at what he has done to you!"

Stop pushing me. I can't take this anymore.

"I can't let you go, Ivan," his father snarled, grabbing the knife Katyusha had left on the table when she had been cutting fruits. "I won't let you be King."

And for some reason or another, Ivan's own internal voice stopped yelling at the world to stop and he snatched at his father's arm, placing the tip of the knife to his throat.

"Well, kill me then. It's not like I want to take the throne anyway." Ivan's voice shook with emotion, but probably for the first time since The Accident, he found the courage to look his father in the eyes.

Once again, nearly identical violet eyes met, one slightly faded with age and now wider in surprise, the other filled with fiery anger. Ivan pressed the knife further in and drew a few drops of blood. The pain was quick to come, sharp and piercing, but Ivan pushed it aside – in fact, he pushed away everything that had been in his mind, the mark, the scars and his mother – and stood his ground. His head had gone awfully silent, leaving behind a foreign tranquility.

"Can't do it? Why? Are you a coward?" Ivan taunted his father, the same man who would find joy in flinging glass bottles at the wall right beside Ivan's ear.

His father's face twisted at his son's words and he stepped forward, but then something slammed into his back and he yowled, dropping the knife to the floor. Ivan saw Katyusha standing in front of him, a rake in her hand and her mouth set into a thin line, eyes blazing with fury. "Get away from him!" she ordered, and swung the rake at her father.

"Bitch!" their father swore and leapt at her, knocking down a candle in the process. All three of them watched in morbid fascination as the curtains caught fire, and then everything happened at once. Katyusha let go of the rake and barked at Ivan to run, and they were soon darting past a falling beam as the fire spread across the wooden walls. The door was open, thank goodness, and the duo escaped the now burning farmhouse. Ivan's earlier moment of bravery had left him, and when he turned to look back at the house, his home for the past few years now being devoured in the intense inferno, it hit him that their father was still in there and he immediately made to run towards the house.

But it was Katyusha who stopped him. Katyusha, the girl whom their mother called kind and soft-hearted, held Ivan's arm and shook her head at him, her eyes unnaturally dark. "Forget it, Ivan. It's for the best."

And they watched as the house burned.

That's all for now! Thank you for reading! :)