Hetalia One Shots!

"Don't Go" PruHun

  Gilbert awoke with a start, sitting up in his bed quickly. He threw his blankets off and hugged his knees. His heart was beating erratically. He took a couple of shaky breaths, sighing, he placed a hand on his forehead.
  He was heating up, like a furnace. Gilbert felt sweat drops rolling down his face, but he also felt tears. Oh great. He scoffed to himself.
  Those dreams were horrible.....Gilbert dreaded sleep, simply because of them. They left him feeling empty inside, his stomach tied into knots, lined with sorrow. He felt as if he were falling deep into a bottomless pit, though he couldn't tell how he'd fallen in.....continually spiraling out of control.....He was always so powerless in them. That was the thing he hated most. He was powerless to do...anything.
  He glanced down at his arms, and smiled slightly. They weren't see-through. He was there.....For now....
  The unexpected sharp knock on his door startled him, making him scream girlishly and fall off of his bed with a thud.
  "Prussia?"
  It was Hungary. Gilbert felt as if he should be annoyed, but someone, anyone, was a comfort right now. He didn't want to have to think about his insecurities. He needed a distraction.
  Gilbert scrambled to his door and opened it surprisingly fast. Well, he didn't think he had, but the look on the other nation's face told him that he had.
  "I heard you scream." She slouched lightly and placed a hand on her hip sassily. "So I came to see if you were okay."
   He looked at her, mildly confused. I must've screamed when I woke up.... Gilbert examined her face, and was filled with another emotion. They'd grown up with each other, and though in recent years they'd grown apart, he knew her very well.
  He could close his eyes and see how she looked perfectly. Like a photograph. Gilbert would always remember her. Her green eyes, filled with childish amusement, that would quickly flick to annoyance when he spoke. Her long brown hair that had often been pulled back into a ponytail. Her boyish physique, though even with dresses he couldn't forget for how many years he hadn't.......Could she see him like that? Would she be able to know what he looked like perfectly without him being there?
  He knew all of her emotions. Gilbert had seen her happy, definitely annoyed, angry, confused, grateful, and even sad. Did she know all of his? Would she remember the expression on his face when he was happy, even when he wasn't there? Like a photograph?
  He would remember hers. Gilbert didn't know how to feel. Did she pay attention to all of these little things? Would she know....would she care.....would she be sad when these little things were gone? When she wouldn't see him laugh anymore? When she wouldn't see him anymore? When he was gone?
  Would she remember him?
  He could feel the scars on his back seeming to cut deeper..... Did she know about them? Did she know that he cried about them? Did she know that he cried because he could never tell her? Did she know that he......
  He was overcome with a strong, almost animalistic, urge to keep her close to him, to make her know. To make her remember him. Because soon......
  He didn't want everything he'd done to be in vain. He didn't want these scars, the pain he'd gone through, to be forgotten. To be left as a relic, lost to the clouded hands of history.
  He didn't want his love to be lost.
  Without any words he grabbed both of her hands in his.
  "Pruss-....Gilbert." Hungary used his human name, only because of how serious the look in his eyes was. "What's wrong?"
  He stood there, silent. His hands were shaking as they held hers. Prussia opened his mouth to speak, but the words didn't... couldn't seem to form.
  He knew what he wanted to say....Why wasn't it working?? Why was he failing??
  "Gil?" Hungary tipped her head, annoyance slowly crawling into her voice at his antics. She looked at her wristwatch, frowning when she realized how late it had gotten. "I should probably go back to bed now."
  He was just looking at his shaking hands, his normally vibrant red eyes were glazed over with a sense of confusion.
  She sighed. Maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep? That idiot had to take better care of himself! "Uh...Goodnight?" Hungary began to walk away, but he held her hands tight. So tight in fact, that she nearly fell over and came to a halt.
  "Gil." She grumbled angrily. "Let go!" She pulled, but to no avail. His grip was like iron.
  After attempting three more times, she decided just to pull him with her. She got into a fighting stance and pulled with all of her might in the opposite direction.
  "No!!"
  Hungary stopped mid-step. That voice... It sounded weak, broken, sad.... That wasn't.... That couldn't have been...
  "Please....."
  Hungary carefully turned around to face Prussia, and nearly fainted in complete shock.
  ........He was crying......
  Large tears streamed down his face, something Elizaveta hadn't seen before.
  Sure, she'd seen him have tears in the corner of his eye from pain, certainly from laughter....
  But....this... This was different.
  He raised his head to meet her gaze, his eyes filled to the brim with an undistinguishable, but noticeable, emotion. "Please don't go....Don't leave me...."
  Elizaveta gasped, surprised beyond all belief. Part of her wanted to make a joke, "What? Prussia said 'please'?", but it didn't seem right. Now she was the one at a loss for words.
  He swallowed his saliva, breaking the awkward silence. "Promise me."
  Elizaveta barely found herself able to nod. She yelped when he suddenly let go of her hands and hugged her, burying his head in the crook of her neck.
  He began to sob, his hot, ragged breath was steaming up her skin. Gilbert felt so foolish, so weak, so broken.
  If this had been any other situation, she would've pushed him away, then swiftly punched him....
  "I don't want to be alone...With my thoughts......Elizaveta....."
  His words were coming out choppily, he had to take breaths every other second to simply speak.
  "Wh...What thoughts?" She asked shakily.
  "Many....many thoughts..... My back....."
  My...back? She wondered what he could possibly mean.
  "Feel my back...."
  Her face went red, and the common impulse to smack him rose up in her mind. Elizaveta sighed, calming down and only now realized that he was shirtless.
  Of course, he doesn't sleep with a shirt on. It was actually the first time she'd seen him that way since they were kids, and the sight of his back did not need to be felt for her to get the message.
  His pale back was covered in scars. Long, thick scars that ran all the way down and across his back. Some of them almost seemed new...Though she doubted it.
  "Where....Who did this to you??!!" She exclaimed, heating up with rage. ((And totally not because of the shirtless guy clinging to her 😏))
  "I...I've been occupied many times...I've been tortured..." He looked up at her, his face red from crying so hard. "I'll wake up screaming... I sometimes think I'm still there, hearing the crack of the whip....That sound is as common to me as that sound of my own heartbeat...."
  "Gil...." Elizaveta was barely able to whisper, now she was crying. "I....." She glanced over at his back again, unable to meet his eyes. "I never knew....Did...Does Ludwig know?"
  "No!" He shouted.
  The sudden change of tone startled her, a slight yip escaping her lips.
  "This is why I didn't tell anyone!!!" He stood up and faced her now, wiping away her tears with a shaking hand. "I wanted to be strong...For you, for Ludwig, for Roderich... I wanted you guys to know someone strong, indestructible was there for you...." He began to tear up once more. "I didn't want to see you cry...."
  He paused and looked back down at the floor.
  She wanted to comfort him, but she couldn't find the words nor the actions to do so.
  "I smiled, told you guys that I was doing awesomely... So you guys wouldn't worry about me!! So I wouldn't bother you...I didn't want to be a bother to the ones I loved most in the world....Besides, I chose to be tortured so Ludwig wouldn't be....Why would I bother him with my own choices??"
  "Gilbert!!"
  He looked up at her with pain clearly on display.
  She hesitated, still not used to seeing him this way. Elizaveta laughed, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. "You're so stupid!!" She laughed even harder. "We love you!! You wouldn't be bothering us by telling us!!! That's what people who love you are for, so we can comfort you when you're sad!!" Elizaveta pulled him into a hug.
  He smiled and patted her back, but she heard him sigh sadly.
  "What is it?" She pulled away and saw him even more depressed than before.
  "I told you this for a reason, Elizaveta...."
  She cocked her head and began to wonder how much heartbreak she could take in one night.
  "I keep having this dream...Every night....In this dream I'll be doing something normal when all of the sudden, I'll collapse to the floor. My legs will just give out...I'll be so....weak...." He cringed at that word. "I become see-through, and shortly, all of my limbs are gone. I cry for all of you, but you guys don't even notice. I die....and you guys don't even notice!!"
  Gilbert was yelling now, his hands clenched into fists. "And shortly after those dreams started, I began to feel weaker....Like my energy is being drained. I have circles under my eyes, my arms and legs are shaky....I feel sick, but worse...."
  Elizaveta covered her mouth.
  "Yeah. I know what that means.....And under some light, you can see right through me." He examined his hands and chuckled darkly. "Like now."
  Elizaveta felt sick. Sure enough. His arms were just faint outlines. "No..." She mumbled and tried to grab his hands.
  .....She felt nothing but air......
  She fell forward, falling through his hands and smacking his chest awkwardly. "No!!" She began pounding her fists on his bare chest. "No!!!"
  "Please stop, Liz..." He whispered sorrowfully. That mere sight made him choke up.
  "Tell me you're lying!!!" She looked up, deep into his usually vibrant eyes.....They were dull now. "Tell me this is a joke!!!!!"
  Gilbert just glanced away. I must be strong..... He felt more tears pricking his eyes painfully. Don't cry.... His face clenched up.
  "I'm not lying....."
  The look in her large green eyes was one that could melt your heart. Pure despair.
  "The worst part of my dreams is not that I disappear...."
  She was intently staring at him, searching him with every fiber of her being to see if he was lying. She was the one lying though, pretending as if he wasn't saying these things, as if she wasn't hearing them. She clung desperately onto every one of his words...looking for any sign of a cruel joke.....
  There was none.
  "The worst part is that the world forgets me......YOU forget me, Ludwig, Roderich..... You all forget me. All I've done, the scars I've gained.....They're all forgotten......Please......." He couldn't be strong......and the dam broke once more.
  Gilbert began to cry again. You're so WEAK "Don't go!!! Don't go your way and forget me!!!! MAKE THEM REMEMBER ME!!!!!!" He was sobbing, holding his head in his translucent hands that were only solid to him. "I act over the top, crazy, so that you all think I'm fine. So that you'll remember me as always being happy. Even if I ended up being annoying..... I'd still be remembered...    R-r-right??" He stuttered. "I'd be remembered as annoying, but I'd be remembered....."
  "But if you didn't want to be a bother.... Why would you be okay with being remembered as annoying? " Elizaveta asked, evading the reality of it all.
  "Because you'd have to deal with a bother....An annoying person, well, you could ignore them.....I guess I would be forgotten either way with that logic....."
  "Gil....I....I won't forget you! Neither will Ludwig. Or Roderich!! HOW could we forget you??!!!??"
  Gilbert felt a sudden pit in his stomach, a startling feeling..... This was it. His time was limited now....He had to act if he ever wanted to....
  He laughed. "Yeah. That's right. You won't."
  Elizaveta just stood there, unsure of what was happening or what to do.
  "I'll make sure you won't." He leaped at her and grabbed her roughly, barely giving her enough time to breathe before kissing her hungrily.
  She yelped, and the opening of her mouth gave him a new opportunity.
  He shot his tongue in, furiously biting her lip and dominating her mouth.....
  His legs gave out, and the two of them fell to the floor with a thud.
  In the blink of an eye, Elizaveta felt no one on top of her at all. Her eyes shot open and blinked around the room furiously.
  Where was he??!!
  "Gilbert!!!" She cried, hoping that this whole thing had simply been a nightmare. "GILBERT!!!!!!"
  She was left sitting there, alone, hugging herself pitifully. Why did he leave her now?? She'd always felt feelings toward him, but didn't know that he'd felt that way....
  And now that she knew, he was gone. Just like that. She'd always thought he'd been the kind of guy that would have a one night stand, but they hadn't even gotten that far....
  Her heart hurt, her head hurt......A wave of sadness shut down her system as she collapsed onto the floor in an eruption of tears.
  What would she tell Ludwig??
  She'd never known about his scars, about how he felt about her, any of it. And now she desperately wish she had. His life would've been so much better.....
  "Gilbert...." She whimpered. He was gone. He was gone........Elizaveta almost had to laugh at how cursed fate was....
  But she swore that she heard a voice...Not a voice.... Gil's voice!!!
   His laughter, then, "I'd always wanted to do that...."
  She leaped up and half called his name, for her voice had left her too. Elizaveta felt more tears fall as she placed her hands on her heart..... and felt it beat.
  " ......I love you too, stupid...... "