AN: My first Hetalia fic! Good spelling and grammar are promised.
Before anyone says this is incest, I figure they aren't really related, he just found her lying around. She was actually Austrian to start. Their paring would be weird if they were the same age as in the anime...that'd be pedophilia. I picture it like Padme and Anakin from Star wars...would've been weird in the first movie where she was 14 and he was 9...but it wasn't weird in the second one when he was 19 and she was 24. Lolz.
Warning; some bad language. And I'm sorry if I got the ages wrong or whatever, I had to adjust them to fit the story. Also, my computer says you spell Lichtenstein like this. If it's Leichtenstein, I apologize.
Please review; flames welcome. Anything to improve!
I should update pretty regularly now that summer has come.
Enjoy this Bildungsroman (coming of age tale)/cute romance between these two!
Summary:
"Get married in a week or it's over." Vash can hardly comprehend the order from his boss. He's always loved Lili, but does he love her THAT way? Well if he doesn't, or she doesn't, Vash will be forced to evict her from Switzerland. He has seven days to marry Liechtenstein or get rid of her.)
Chapter 1: New Kinds of Feelings
Switzerland sighed as he pushed the shopping cart through the ghostly aisles. It was a late night and no one was at the supermarket, it seemed; this was his sixth night in a row doing this. Lichtenstein had wondered why he had been so exhausted in the mornings lately. The trouble was, he couldn't find the perfect gift for her.
She was always making him gifts, and he loved them, no matter how ridiculous they were, and she always put her heart and soul into them; he wanted to do the same for her, but he couldn't find anything appropriate. The truth was, he was desperate now because tomorrow was her birthday, and he still couldn't find anything for her.
He tried to walk in upright, alert form, but he was very tired and swayed through the aisle, eyes drooping. Suddenly he felt his cart stop abruptly and heard an annoyed, "Hey, watch it!"
Vash opened his eyes, startled. There, on the floor, where he had been knocked over, sat Austria. Switzerland's eyebrows furled.
"What are you doing here?-!" demanded Switzerland. Austria puffed indignantly.
"You knock me over and then say that? I'm buying medicine for Hungary, she's sick."
Switzerland softened. "Oh." He remembered that Hungary had bought Lili a gift for her thirteenth birthday...a gift that changed everything. He tried not to show emotional weakness in front of Roderich. Switzerland hated being emotional like this; he'd never been emotional before. All he'd really cared about for ages was keeping the surrounding, quarreling Euro trash off his land, and making good investments. Lili had brought a new sort of emotion in his life; he cared about her considerably and became very defensive of her. She was indeed the little sister he never had; he enjoyed watching her grow, her funny antics, and her unwavering affection for him, though he really hadn't done all that much. He'd taken her in; what else could he do? Leave her there to die? And she was so eternally grateful just for that. Such a perfect little sister.
But now a new kind of emotion was surfacing in him; and it had all began with Hungary's birthday gift.
"What does she have?" asked Switzerland, his mind somewhere else.
"Cold."
"Hm. Give her my regards," he muttered, and continued to walk down the grocery aisle. Austria stood up and brushed himself off.
"Hey, what are you doing at this hour anyway?" asked Austria, adjusting his glasses.
"It's none of your business."
"Buying a gift for Lichtenstein?"
Vash stiffened. "How the hell do you know that its her birthday? Are you stalking her?" he said, turning around and growing defensive. Austria didn't even flinch.
"I just remember her coming down and thanking Elizaveta for a birthday gift about this time of year, a few years ago. And she does live with you, though God knows how she stands it."
Switzerland turned away. "You did once too."
Austria rolled his eyes. The military man obviously knew nothing about women, and probably had no clue what to buy little Lichtenstein. She wasn't so little anymore, right? She'd be wanting more than candy and ribbons.
Switzerland thought for a moment. Austria...he was so different than Lili! Vash had always taken care of Austria too, but they were more like 'friends,' when they had been together than family. Maybe it was because they had been boys; maybe it was because they were the same age. Either way, he never had really loved (in a familial way of course) Austria, though he really cared about him once, long ago, in a galaxy far far away... but realized now that he really truly, deeply loved Lichtenstein. In a brotherly way at least, if not in another form.
"How old is she this year, thirteen?" asked Austria.
"She's fifteen, you nosy bastard."
"And you are what? Twenty One?"
"Twenty. What do you even care?"
Austria chuckled. Only five years apart...he sensed trouble in the future. He remembered that Elizaveta had lived in his house many years before they were married, and that they were four years apart...
"Do you know what you're getting her?"
Switzerland wanted to scream in irritation, but thought for a moment. Roderich had more experience than him at this sort of thing...He'd been living with Hungary forever, so he had to have bought her gifts before. Lili was becoming a woman, he knew...he wasn't sure whether he was sad about that or not...and she probably needed a better gift than a new hair ribbon.
"...no, not really, actually. I'm kind of unsure what she would want."
Austria clapped a hand on Vash's shoulder, which made him frown in irritation.
"Come along, stupid, I'll show you what a woman likes for a birthday gift."
"Bastard, I don't need your help!" he said, annoyed by the aristocrat's rudeness.
Austria chuckled.
"You forget Lili was once mine," said Austria. Something the equivalent of a low growl came from Vash's throat. She was his, no one else's, especially not that Austrian bastard's!
"She was never yours," he said menacingly.
"Don't get all defensive now... You forget that she was once an Austrian princess. Of course she was only two or three at the time..."
"Then you abandoned her! And left her to die in the rain!" thought Switzerland, gritting his teeth.
"...But no matter," continued Austria, "...come along, I'll find you a good gift."
"I don't need your help," Vash repeated in a low tone.
He followed Roderich anyway.
...
Lichtenstein turned over in bed and sighed when she heard the door open downstairs. He was home. Why was he always out so late? She hoped nothing was wrong.
Lili felt very uncomfortable; she kept having strange feelings, and was thinking of old memories.
It had all started the day she turned thirteen...
She had always loved her big brother, unconditionally. He gave her everything, and was always extremely cheap except for when it came to her. She knew saving money was of paramount importance to him, yet he kept sustaining her, and spending time with her, though he was busy. She'd always adored him, always wanted to be as much like him as she could.
And then...
She remembered that hazy morning. She'd gone out to dinner with brother, and he'd actually taken her somewhere quite nice, because the following day was her birthday. In the morning, she'd overslept because they'd stayed up so late.
That was the first time it ever happened; that strange sensation all over her body that felt like nervousness, but...pleasant nervousness.
She'd heard brother's voice and been woken up by his face. For the first time, she noticed how handsome brother was.
She cherished his gift that year with so much happiness.
But then there had been the gift from Ms. Hungary...
It had come in a little bag, with a bow on top. It was a stick of eyeliner, a mascara roller, a tiny foursquare of eyeshadow with a brush, and a pot of rouge. She recalled thinking to herself that she didn't really like makeup that much and wondered how she'd bring herself to use it.
That year her feelings toward brother changed. She hated it at first, this sensation she got every time she saw him, the tingling all over her body, the jumpiness of her heart...she found herself staring at him for long periods of time, just adoring his face, and he'd give her a funny look. But after a while she embraced it, and found herself falling down a slippery slope very quickly.
Why had she called him "bruder," to begin with? Well, Lichtenstein decided after their first month of living together, that she loved Mr. Switzerland. She pondered what to call her beloved; and the perfect word of endearment, the way she felt she loved him, was brother. The first time she used the word, Switzerland had paused for a second, then smiled, and taken her hand in his. She'd felt so happy.
But during her first year as a teenager, she longed to call him something else; however, she could not think what exactly she should call him, or how to break her old habit of saying "bruder." She noticed how none of the boys ever talked to her, and how her hair was a little too short. She liked that it looked like his, but she remembered that he thought it made her look like a little boy. She remembered constantly biting her lip in anxiety...and she remembered staring at her chest sadly. It was so small, she realized...she was so plain, so boring! She wanted Vash to say she was beautiful, but she never once heard it from his lips. How many nights she had spent crying all alone in her room; Switzerland had even found her crying once and had been very concerned- but she couldn't tell him what was wrong, and he'd left her room confused. She didn't even know entirely what was wrong.
Halfway through the year she became aware of the little gift bag from Ms. Hungary. The makeup. She ravaged her room to find it, and spent nearly an hour putting it on, so that she wasn't wearing too much and that it looked natural, but enough that she actually looked like a woman. She wanted to be a woman in his eyes now, not just a troublesome little girl!
She was glad Ms. Hungary had such good taste; she'd picked perfect colors for Lili, colors that brought out her green eyes and blonde hair; they weren't too dark and made Lichtenstein truly look like a princess. A grown up princess.
She remembered flying around the house for the rest of the day, humming and singing, waiting for Vash to come home...he'd finally call her beautiful, he'd finally see she was growing up.
She'd started calling him Vash in her head lately. He'd never told her his name; she'd just seen it printed on the mail and such. Vash. What a nice name he had...
As she looked in the mirror one final time, she decided it was true. She'd come to terms with her strange feelings.
He had taken care of her, raised her, trained her and protected her. Yes...she'd realized since their first month of living together that she loved him; but now she realized that she loved him in a new sort of way, and not as a brother.
They never had to be siblings, she realized. Ms. Hungary and Mr. Austria lived together, and they certainly weren't siblings. It was because she'd called him brother that they were like this; maybe...maybe if she started looking more grown up, and stopped calling him that, he wouldn't think of her that way.
Her heart had jumped with excitement when she heard the lock unclick and Vash walk through the door. He hung up his coat and Lichtenstein went to collect the groceries he'd bought and put them away.
Lili winced, closed her eyes tight, and scrunched up the covers as she recalled the painful memory.
"Hello, big bruder," she'd said.
"Hello, Lichtenstein. I was thinking that if you wanted to we could have a picnic later, since I have this afternoon-" he broke his sentence off.
She remembered those ten seconds he'd stood speechless, dropping what was in his hands and staring at her.
"He likes it!" she thought with glee. "He thinks I'm beautiful!"
But he kept staring, speechless, and those ten seconds began to feel like ten hours. His expression never wavered and suddenly Lili was very nervous. Her heart plummeted when he finally drew his eyebrows in a line. He looked very angry.
"Lichtenstein, what were you thinking!" he shouted at her. Her mouth dropped in surprise.
"Do...do you like it?" she asked feebly. He grabbed her chin and turned it upward so that he was looking directly in her face. She'd never seen him so angry and she felt hot tears bubbling up.
"Makeup? Lichtenstein, no! Absolutely not!" he shouted. "It...it's so..." he stumbled, looking unsure of himself..."it's so wrong on you! Take it off right now!"
She exploded into tears and began to sob. No, no! It was all ruined now, he hated it! Switzerland stepped back in shock; apart from the day they met, when she was half dead in the street, he'd never seen Lili cry like this. He'd caught her once in her room, but that was it. She was always so sweet, so kind; but now she bawled openly in front of him.
She remembered him putting a hand to his mouth and saying he was sorry, but she ran away and hid.
He'd come to her room two days later and sat on her bed. She hadn't left since.
He'd said softly, "Lili..."
That had caused her to jump a little. He never called her Lili. Always Lichtenstein.
"I don't know what got into me, Lili. I think...I think you just surprised me. You looked so grown up...it sort of scared me. You've always been my little sister," he began. Lili bit her lip.
"But I was wrong," he said, swallowing as if it was painful. "You-you're growing up. You're a teenager now. I need to accept that...it just was a shock, I'm sorry."
Lili sat up and smiled a little.
"Don't worry big bruder." She noticed that he stiffened at the word. That was odd; he'd never done that before.
"I won't wear it ever again," she said softly. Vash shook his head.
"No, Lichtenstein...Lili..." her heart jumped at her own name. He was so kind, big brother! Thinking of her like this...
"I want you to wear it. You look so pretty when you do." Her heart raced. Yes! This was what she had wanted. He stuttered awkwardly.
"You know...Lili, I think you're very pretty without it too. Just do what makes you happy, okay?" She was crying again, but now out of happiness.
"Thank you big bruder!" she cried, and nearly tackled him with a hug. She remembered him wrapping his arms around her, firm and strong, and her heart beating very quickly.
Now Lichtenstein was up late again, thinking about him. Tomorrow she'd be fifteen; Vash had turned twenty last month. She noticed that their conversations were much more in depth now that she was older; they were equalling each other on an intellectual level, very very slowly. She remembered Mr. Austria saying Ms. Hungary had fallen in love with him when she was twenty and he was sixteen...it could be done. But Vash...he never acted like that towards her. Was it too late? Could nothing be done? Would he eternally think of her as a sister?
And she still didn't call him Vash. She remembered that one dinner...
Switzerland had said, "Lili, you know that you don't have to call me that always, right?"
He'd looked very nervous. She didn't say anything and he continued.
"You're not a little girl anymore...we're becoming more, I don't know...friends, I suppose. You can call me..." here she could see his mouth form the letter V, trying to say "Vash," but couldn't bring himself to do it. Then noticed something else. A crimson. Switzerland turned entirely pink, his whole face flushed. She didn't know what that was all about, but simply tried to save him. He was obviously embarrassed.
"Switzerland?" she tried. The word sounded foreign in her mouth. She didn't like that name...that was what everyone called him. His next sentence made her heart beat.
"No...no, Switzerland is too formal. Lili..." here he smiled one of his failure smiles, the kind he made when be was trying to smile but was inwardly cowering. "...You're very special to me..." here her heart jumped, "Switzerland is...is...too" he stuttered.
Beside herself in joy, she interrupted, "Switzy." With her accent, it sounded like "Svitzhy." He had leaned back in relief, and she in content.
She was special to him! She was special to him!
...
Little did Lichtenstein know, Switzerland had not been scared only by her new look, but by the feeling that pulsated through him. His first thought had been, "Why is there a beautiful woman in my house? On my property?-! Where's my shotgun?"
Oh, Switzerland.
But then he'd realized it was her...little Lichtenstein! His...sister?
He was so overwhelmed by the sensation that he'd snapped. Flat out yelled at her. Thinking about it later, he realized there was no reason she shouldn't wear it, except that it had startled him. He remembered seeing her look at her fellow piers in sadness, groping her chest as if something were there, looking at her hair sadly in the mirror. And all because she wanted to look like him...it was longer now, but he knew she didn't like her hair, or the way she looked. Maybe this makeup was really important to her; he couldn't deny her of it.
He hated this feeling, hated it so, and wanted it to go away.
But it didn't. Lili never really wore makeup again, which puzzled him. Why had she cried when he wouldn't let her wear it, and then not wear it? How should he know...silly girl. He didn't know it was because he'd said she was pretty without it, so she didn't care anymore...
But from that day onward, even without the makeup, he still thought she was beautiful, and kept feeling like this around her. It pleasured him beyond belief to buy her little gifts or even useless flowers, despite how much money he was wasting. He even started to dream of her. And then there was that "bruder," business. He couldn't stand it. He really felt that she was no longer his sister, but a girl, a beautiful girl, living in his home. He knew she loved him unconditionally, but...her calling him, "bruder," was just annoying.
So he proposed a new name that one night. But when he tried to say it, tried to say, "Vash," he just couldn't do it.
Nobody had ever called him that except his mother, and he hadn't seen her in ages. He only had two or three memories of her. Even Austria never called him Vash.
The name was so personal, so tender...he'd pictured Lili walking around that house, saying, "Vash! Your laundry is done!" or "Vash! Dinner is ready," like...like she was his wife. The thought of that made him choke up and freeze...all he could see was beautiful, petite Lili running towards him singing sweetly, "Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash..."
This thought made him turn bright red and he couldn't say anything, the V stuck on his lips but unable to escape. Inwardly he was mad at himself. "This thought should disgust you, stop being a pervert!" he thought madly. "She's your s...si...sis...sis..." He swallowed.
"She's Lili..."
It had become a source of guilty pleasure for him.
He was becoming attracted to his own little Lichtenstein...
Now THAT was bad.
Thankfully, she'd interrupted him with, "Switzy!" before he could panic any further. Anything but "big bruder."
The two countries sighed as they drifted into sleep that night on the eve of Lichtenstein's fifteenth birthday. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
...
The news came down like a hammer on Vash's forehead.
He'd been summoned into his boss' office quite early in the morning, before Lili was up.
"Have you looked at your accounts recently?" his boss asked. Switzerland felt like rolling his eyes. He was Switzerland. Of course he had been checking his accounts lately!
"Of course."
"You're spending too much."
"What are you talking about? We're still well in the black!"
"Yes, but you can never be too careful. You're wasting money unnecessarily, and even if you are still well off financially, we are Swiss! We don't spend money on things we don't need to!"
"What have I spent that I shouldn't?" demanded Switzerland. He'd bought a bouquet of flowers for Lili...maybe that was it...oh and he'd taken her out to dinner once two months ago...maybe that was it.
"You're spending too much money on Lichtenstein!" said the boss. Switzerland sighed. So that was it. Oh well, Lili would understand.
"Alright, I'll stop buying her flowers and taking her out to dinner-"
"Ha!" the boss interrupted. "You can buy her all the bouquets you want! I'm talking about war expenses here."
Switzerland appeared confused."You mean the money I spend protecting her?"
"Yes! Look at all the people we've sent over there! All the wasted money and wasted effort!"
Vash adopted an angry look. "What do you mean, 'wasted?'"
The boss just stared. "You need to let go of Lichtenstein."
"What?-!"
"You need to get rid of her! You spend too much time with her as it is anyway. She's growing up, that's what you told me last week, into a little woman, right? She can take care of herself. Besides, she is the richest country in the world...thanks to you of course. She'll be fine, let her go."
Switzerland was shocked. No, no! He couldn't let go of Lili...she was so fragile, so delicate...and...and he needed her around. He couldn't bear being all alone, not again.
"No! I can't let Lili go, don't be ridiculous-"
"Lili? We're calling her Lili now? Are we developing personal feelings for this little girl? Zwingli, what did I teach you? You can't become emotionally attached to any country; they'll only wind up backstabbing you-"
"Not Lili!" exclaimed Switzerland, jumping out of his chair. "Lili would never!"
The boss rolled his eyes. "That makes it official then. I knew it was a mistake letting you keep her to begin with; you've become attached to her. You must get rid of Lichtenstein by the end of the week, and that's an order."
It was as if the judge had pounded his gavel on the table and given him his sentence. Those words were so cruel, so final...Switzerland could not even think of anything to say. He stood there is shock for nearly a minute, mouth wide open. The boss continued to look through his paperwork. After a while he gave a casual look up.
"Zwingli...you can go now."
"But...but..."
"No if ands or buts! You're acting like a child, Zwingli!"
"Why can't we use her resources?-!" Switzerland gushed, desperately looking for some reason to keep her. "She's the richest country in the world, we could use her financially!" he tried. The boss raised an eyebrow.
"You know we can't do that."
"Why not?" he asked.
"You'd have to extort the money from her, and something tells me you won't do that. The only way we can use Lichtenstein's treasury is if you two were... unified."
Switzerland's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach.
"U-unified?"
"Married. And you don't want to do that, do you? Isn't she like your little sister to you or something?"
Switzerland began to pace slowly. "Well..."
Marriage. Was that really the only way out?
"Can we really not just keep her? She doesn't rack up very high expenses, I only really have to protect Prussia from molesting her-"
"No."
Switzerland bit his lip. He couldn't let her go! She'd be helpless, Prussia would surely take advantage...France was on the prowl...
The thought of that made his face contort in anger. No. He had to keep her, he wouldn't let something like that happen.
But...marriage...marriage?
"Either way," sighed the boss," you have till the end of the week. Either you get engaged or kick her out. Your choice."
"But-"
"Get out Zwingli, before I change my mind!"
Seven Days. He had seven days to propose to little Lichtenstein or let her become a toy for Prussia.
(OHHOHHHOHHO! Poor Vash. This ought to be interesting. PLEASE REVIEW. Flames welcome. There will probably be a total of nine to eleven chapters: seven more for each day of the week, and a few chapters for some after plot and conclusion. Enjoy, y'all. P.S I've already written the next few chapters, so you can expect an update in three to four days.)