Dear Reader,

Special thanks to my dear friend, The Silver Magician Of Chaos for the unkown author quote, and special thanks to my friend The Scheming Turtle for being my Beta-reader.

PioneeringAuthor, the pioneer with a heart for people and a thousand stories to tell ~+~

Chapter 8

"True love burns the brightest, but the brightest flames leaves the deepest scars."

-Author unknown

"It is easier for an artful Man, who is not in Love, to persuade his Mistress he has a Passion for her, and to succeed in his Pursuits, than for one who loves with the greatest Violence. True Love hath ten thousand Griefs, Impatiencies and Resentments, that render a Man unamiable in the Eyes of the Person whose Affection he sollicits."

- Joseph Addison

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One night, Belarus dreamed a terrible nightmare. She was in a field, a battlefield, completely strewn with bodies. Around her the battle was still raging. In horror she watched the scene unfold. Suddenly, a man appeared on a horse who was fighting against her people. As Belarus gazed at him, he turned. She gasped. The man looked like Lithuania… no, he was Lithuania. Her nightmare was from the ancient days, when she wasn't named Belarus, but when she was mere tribes, including the Ruthenians, running around. This was a nightmare of those days, when the Ruthenians were raided by certain Slavic tribes that were related to Lithuania.

She awoke with a start, and panted heavily. Beside her, Lithuania also awoke and asked, "What's wrong?"

She whipped her head around and stared at him, her terrified eyes meeting his. Abruptly, Her gaze narrowed. She remembered when the Communists gave some of her land to HIM, and she still distinctly remembered those tribes raiding hers long ago, and she recalled how Russia favored him so much.

Instantly, she remembered how much she hated him because of all that happened in the past, which caused her to scream, "You… YOU ARE WHAT'S WRONG!"

Swiftly, she threw back her covers and stormed out of the house, still panting heavily.

Confused, Lithuania followed her out, pondering what could have made her go from terrified to totally angry with him again.

"Belarus, what is wrong? Tell me, what happened? What did I do?" Lithuania pleaded when he finally caught up with her outside.

He didn't understand her wrath; they were getting along so well just the day before-they had watched the sunrise together, he had taken her out to a restaurant for lunch… it didn't make any sense to him. Whatever dream she had must have been horrific.

As Lithuania caught up with her, Belarus quickened her pace and did her best to ignore him.

"Belarus, wait!" Lithuania insisted while grabbing her arm, "Please, tell me what's wrong!"

Spinning around in fury, Belarus shouted back, "WHAT'S WRONG IS YOU! YOU! Long ago, remember? Your Slavic tribes? REMEMBER HOW THEY RAIDED MY TRIBES? Oh, for centuries were shared the same land, lived together even, and I was constantly reminded of those days… Then, Big Brother simply had to favor you and capture you, take you as a part of his house, and I was forced to see you once again, forced to watch him spend time with you over me, but it didn't stop there, did it? One day, my boss simply had to GIVE YOU some of MY LAND! WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS RUIN MY LIFE? YOU ARE ALWAYS THERE, ALWAYS! I HATE YOU LITHUANIA! I ALWAYS HAVE AND I ALWAYS WILL!"

With that, she pushed him back and slugged him, sending him falling to the ground.

"Belarus," Lithuania objected while propping himself up with his arms, "Not all of my tribes hurt you, and besides, I wasn't there directly; I'm only one person, I can't be everywhere!"

"I don't care! It was you who caused me pain!" Belarus insisted with a sneer.

Before Lithuania could get up, Belarus dived down and slammed Lithuania's head onto the ground, determined to give him pain he would never forget. As she abused him, she remembered how she tolerated him over the past months, and cursed herself for it. She remembered the pain his people caused her, and how much her brother preferred him over her, and she became angrier with ever second. She deflected her anger onto Lithuania, beating him profusely and cursing him in her language. Meanwhile, Lithuania cringed into a ball, waiting for her to stop.

Finally, Belarus relented, and stepped away from him, gasping for breath. Slowly, Lithuania lifted himself from the ground, aching all over. However, the biggest ache was coming from his head, so he placed one hand to his head. Feeling something sticky and wet, he lowered his hand and saw blood all over it.

Seeing the blood, Belarus gasped. She made him bleed again! Surely this time she was in trouble, and that could mean being forced to stay with him another year! She didn't want that at all. Meanwhile, Lithuania looked, and saw a patch of his own blood on the ground, with a sharp, black rock poking out from the snow in the middle of the blood stains. Apparently, Belarus had forced his head onto the rock during the abuse.

She hurt me, Lithuania realized, Belarus really hurt me.

Never before had Lithuania admitted to himself that the love of his life injured him. He turned and gazed at her, stunned by the whole situation. Belarus stood by, shocked silent.

For several minutes, Lithuania merely watched her without saying a word. Finally, he made a decision, and rose to his feet. Belarus' heart raced, fearing what he would do to her, and what her brother would do. Lithuania slowly paced over to her, limping as he went. Belarus backed into a tree, and braced herself for the worst. However, what Lithuania did was far from her fears.
Lithuania walked to Belarus, and with his clean hand, he stroked her face, and then leaned towards her and kissed her lips gently. Belarus stiffened in surprise. Strangely, a tingle went down her spine as Lithuania kissed her. When Lithuania withdrew from her, Belarus gazed at him in wonder. That was the first kiss Lithuania ever gave her.

"Belarus… I know you hate me… but I have always loved you… always…" Lithuania whispered to her as a tear of pain and sorrow cascaded down his cheek.

With that, he turned and walked away from her, unsure of what to think or say or do other than what he just did and said. Belarus watched her husband leave into the snowy forest, unsure of how to respond…
What began with a nightmare, turned into something pivotal for both of them. Would Lithuania be able to forgive her again?

HISTORY LOVERS:

Belarussian history is surprisingly intertwined with Lithuanian history, so it's hard to determine how much is Belarus and how much is Lithuania, but this is what I learned:

Between the 5th and 7th centuries, certain Slavic tribes invaded Baltic territories. Some had violent clashes with the native tribes, while others were peaceful. It seems that Belarus was attacked by those tribes, which may be considered Lithuanian.

Also, the first official state of Belarus was actually the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In fact, for about 600 years, the city that is now the capitol of Lithuania was actually Belarussian, but in 1939 Communists gave that city, Vilnius, to Lithuania, along with some other land.

By the way, Lithuania acquired the land of Belarus through military conquest and marriages of royalty for a time.
Indeed, at one time Belarus lived with Lithuania.

I harvested this information from several websites which don't show up on this website, except for this one:

wikipedia

Also, the hetalia wiki mentioned a theory that Belarus could possibly hate Lithuania because she was once raided by Lithuanian tribes, which is what caused me to research this initially.

I'm not saying that I'm 100% correct, however, I did my best, and I hope that you appreciate it.

Please, if you appreciate my research or anything else in this story, leave me a nice review, okay?

PioneeringAuthor, the pioneer with a heart for people and a thousand stories to tell ~+~