LAST ONE. I SWEAR. THEN I WILL GO BACK TO FINISHING 26 LETTERS. Hopefully.

Let's just remember, in this story EVERYONE HAS A NAME. Liechtenstein will be called Lili (Tekken, hooray,)Ukraine Katya, Belgium Bella, Hong Kong will be called Hong, and Taiwan Mei. Whee~

Warnings: Mention of GerTalia, love triangles, a drunk Lovino ,a magical world where everybody is perfectly fluent in English, and OoC Prussia. YES. Other than that…nothing, really.

I do not own Axis Powers Hetalia.

moonlit reverie

Gilbert would not like Ludwig to know about his soft side.

His soft, daydreaming side – the side of him that twists the world to his wants, who projects his wants to his mind. His dreams.

And tonight, he is dreaming again –of the past, this time.

Tonight he dreams it is a beautiful night, at a celebration held by one of the other nations – what is the celebration anyway? Perhaps it is Feliciano's birthday, or Natalia's, or even one of Vash's three goats (hell, he knows Lili would beg for a celebration) or some anniversary he doesn't know about. Whatever it is, it had a lot of food, lights, Nations, and the beautiful full moon above them. And he is sitting there at a table, with his brother and Feliciano – perhaps he is the celebrant, after all, what with his happier-than-usual face – watching the guests like a hawk – he can see Kiku with his phone talking to somebody, and Alfred arguing with Arthur, as usual – Matthew seems to be the mediator this time – and Natalia – calmer than usual, smiling even, maybe she is the celebrant today, seeing as Ivan seems calmer also –

(no sign of Vash's goats, though)

He can spot her as soon as she enters the balcony – after all, who wouldn't, what with all the beauty of Elizaveta Hedevary's face, twinkling emerald eyes matching perfectly with an equally green evening gown. A smile is on her face, the usual pink blossom in her long brown hair, and Gilbert's eyes trail down her slender gloved arms – to find her right hand enclosed in someone else's left.

Gilbert tries to hide his uncomfortable face, even when it is apparent to even his brother, who asks "Gil? Is something wrong?" Instead of replying he bites his lip and stares at the current object of hatred.

Roderich seems oblivious to his stare of death, chatting amiably with the reason for Gilbert's stare of death. Elizaveta seems to be enjoying his company, as she is smiling and nodding to his every word.

Gilbert wants nothing more than to go over to them and tear Roderich away from her.

And he realizes he doesn't have to, after all, as he sees a Swiss man approach the two of them, and Gilbert smiles when he sees Vash whisper something into Roderich's ear, and leads him away, leaving the Hungarian woman alone at the table.

Carpe diem, Gilly. Remember that you are awesome.

He whispers something to Francis, who is for some reason in charge of music for tonight – Gilbert usually can't stand his mushy ballads, but right now he is thankful for them. The Frenchman nods and winks, and a slow, romantic song floats over the party.

He sees Roderich flush and try to make his way through the crowd of Nations towards Elizaveta, but oh no Rod dear Gilbert is getting there first.

"Hey, Liz."

She looks up, and that big smile she has on her face is evidence of the fact that she was expecting Roderich, but as she sees Gilbert's face her smile dies down to her usual one, the one she wears to world meetings, to birthday parties – the smile she wears when Roderich isn't around.

Gilbert doesn't mind this and considers it an honor that she's even smiling for him in the first place, and, extending a hand, asks her, "Would you like to dance?"

A hint of shock, then a smile of acceptance. "Of course."She extends her gloved right hand for him to take, and he's happy that she's agreed to dance with him just this one time on – seriously, what is the occasion today? Gilbert still does not know.

But, he thinks, it does not matter – he is on the dance floor with Elizaveta, and they are dancing a European waltz under a full moon, and he kisses her fingertips and they move perfectly with each other, movements like water - flowing, graceful –

He misses these times, long ago, when it was just him and her.

Not Roderich, her, and him.

But he will treasure these moments alone with her, right now, before Roderich comes to claim her again. These times when she is happy and smiling and the moon is above them and the effervescent lights in the background are there and they are spinning, spinning, spinning–

There is a change of partners suddenly – was this even in the dance? – and Elizaveta is swept away from him and he is left with Natalia, who does not talk until it is time to change partners again, when she leaves him with one comment:

"I am sorry for you. Elizaveta – "

She is swept into Alfred's arms before she can say anymore, and Mei is suddenly in Gilbert's arms, and she's an energetic, talkative young woman, he wonders how Yao puts up with her – but the moment she mentions Elizaveta, she notices that his step is faulty and stops where Natalia did, instead talking about isn't the moon so pretty tonight or don't you think Arthur's suit suits him? And she laughs sweetly, and he feels a little better despite the fact that oh mein gott her laugh sounds so much like hers. And when she tucks that pink blossom into a strand of her brown hair his chest hurts so much that as much as she tries to smooth her mistake over, he can't concentrate until near the end of the dance, when Mei is with Hong and Natalia is with Ivan again, and Elizaveta is in his arms once more and the world is in balance and he's twirling her around for the last time in the dance, and he is happy because things are in control –

When suddenly she gets this flame in her eyes, starts laughing madly, and starts spinning him around and around, and he gets her game and spins around with her, and it's just the two of them, Gilbert and Elizaveta, their own excited little tornado of laugh and (love?) twirling around the dance floor, pushing people out of the way, and when they are both dizzy and exhausted and bursting with laughter and giggles they collapse on the ground, weary, tired, and laughing.

He helps her to her feet, and he wonders why he's only ever seen her right hand tonight, and brushes it off as unimportant.

"Well," she breathes, excited. "That was fun." She smiles at him, the first real smile he's seen on her face that was meant for him in a long time, and he smiles back.

"Thank you, Gilbert," she adds, and is about to say something else when Francis puts another song on and he feels a tap on his shoulder. And he sees Elizaveta's face light up and the cool, friendly voice of Roderich float to his ears, "May I have this dance?"

And Gilbert can barely find the heart to croak out "Of course," for he does not want to extricate his prize, does not want Elizaveta to leave him, does not want to see the perfection of Roderich and Elizaveta twirl together on the dance floor.

But of course he obliges, and Roderich takes her right hand and they start dancing, the two of them, perfection in its many forms.

"Gilbert – "

He does not want to listen to Katya comfort him, nor does he want to meet the silent stare of his brother. Instead, he leaves for the washroom, for everything is painful to watch.

When he returns the song is over, the dance floor is deserted, and an obviously drunk Lovino is holding up a glass of wine. "A toast – to Francis, for throwing this party!"

The crowd of Nations cheers – even an exasperated Antonio, after trying to stop Lovino from drinking and failing, just decides to go with the flow. Even Gilbert starts clapping when Lovino shouts again.

"A toast to my brother and Ludwig Beilschmidt!"

Gilbert smiles as his brother turns pink from the recognition, even, from Lovino Vargas, and Feliciano just looks…happy as he hugs Ludwig – Gilbert wonders if even Feliciano is fully sober. And he can't help but look up as Lovino shouts out again.

"And finally…A toast to the happy couple!"

Gilbert's eyebrows shoot down. Happy couple? What happy couple? And then suddenly he realizes that Lovino is pointing his wine glass to ohmygoodness Roderich and Elizaveta, and then Gilbert suddenly catches a serious glimpse of her left hand for the first time all evening, and ohmygoodness a diamond ring.

And then suddenly he realizes what's being celebrated tonight, why Francis, with all his wiles and wistfulness about romance, is in charge of music, why Natalia seems to be so concerned for him, why Mei tries to cover for every time Elizaveta comes up in the conversation…

So stupid.

And he didn't even know.

He looks up to see Natalia looking at him, eyes full of concern, mouth pressed in a straighter, firmer line than usual. He hurriedly looks down, ashamed. Ashamed that he was out there acting like a six-year-old with an engaged woman as if he actually had a chance with her.

Hurt.

Hurt because his childhood crush was up there going to get married to someone else and nobody bothered to make sure he knew –

Hurt because he couldn't do anything about it.

And he looks at Roderich and Elizaveta (hell, even their names seemed to go together) one last time and it that minute the two of them seemed to belong together – they even looked perfect – Roderich with his cool manner and glasses, being patted on the back by Vash and Antonio and Francis and Alfred and Elizaveta with her sunny smile and twinkling eyes, returning thanks and congratulations by Katya and Lili and Bella and by who else Gilbert doesn't want to know anymore oh god –

He wakes up to find that Ludwig has wiped a tear from his wet cheek.

So much for keeping it from little bro, huh, Gil?

Their spinning at the end is like…think of it as Gilbert and Elizaveta: perfectly controlled and orderly, when suddenly their relationship is thrown out of control (spinning) and she, by some miraculous happenstance, ends up with Roderich.

Yeah. :|

And yes, I tried to give big old Gilly as much heartache as possible. Which is why I threw Taiwan in. Never mind how their laughs can sound remotely alike when Taiwan speaks Chinese and Hungary speaks…Hungarian. Remember, this is a magical world where everyone speaks perfect English.

Yes.

No history at all except for the Austro-Hungarian Compromise.

Yeah.