Moving is hard.

It's hard to leave a place you love. It's hard to leave friends and family. It's hard to find an apartment and sign the lease when you know for a fact that you currently have no way of paying the first payment. It's hard to find a job in your second language. It's hard to make new friends. It's hard to settle into a comfortable lifestyle.

It's hard.

And Elizabeta Héderváry would be the first to admit it. That is, of course, assuming no one else had ever admitted it, but she was certain they had.

She missed her friends and family in Hungary, of course, but she Skyped with them regularly. And it was nice when she did. It was good to get away from German, her second language, and get a chance to speak Hungarian again. And her job, when she finally got one, wasn't bad. And the pay was decent. Her coworkers all seemed to like her and, for the most part, she like them too.

Then there was Gilbert, whom she merely tolerated.

He was there, every day, without fail. He leaned against the water filter as she walked through the door into the staff room with a smug smile on his lips. Admittedly, she had him to thank for getting the job in the first place, considering it was by chance they had met, and by chance he had walked in on her job interview with his brother who was, apparently her boss. It was by chance (so Elizabeta told herself) that Gilbert put in a good word for her with Ludwig.

…She could've gotten the job on her own if she'd had to, thank you very much. She definitely did not need Gilbert's help.

But because she'd unwillingly contracted it, he was under the delusion that she owed him something. At least, that's how it seemed to her.

So every morning, when she looked into his red eyes framed by pale skin and graced with white hair, she disregarded all formalities that she saved for everyone else in the office. And as she poured her steaming cup of coffee into her favourite 'Jó reggelt. Látom a hibát' (it was her favourite because it was in Hungarian, so no one knew what it said except her. Plus, she felt it applied specifically to Gilbert, considering it meant, 'Good morning. I see the assassins have failed') mug, she directed the words to point at Gilbert, as if willing her imaginary assassins to return and finish their job.

And Gilbert smirked as he waited for her to finish. Then, as she passed by him into the office, he would follow her, a sly German greeting on his lips.

But sometimes, he decided to be unpredictable and would greet her in English, his second language, her third. And it was his favourite taunt since he had learned she spoke it because he spoke it better than she did.

And today was one of those days when he just felt like being extra annoying.

"Good morning, Eliza," Gilbert greeted.

Elizabeta sighed, "good morning, Gil."

"Are you ever going to tell me what your mug says?" Gilbert asked.

"No," Elizabeta replied, "why would I do that?"

Gilbert shrugged, "because I want to know."

As much as Elizabeta wanted (read: didn't want) to indulge in his game, she didn't know how to say what popped into her mind next in English, so she switched to German as she continued, "if you want to know so badly, just look it up online."

Gilbert continued in English with a smirk, just to taunt her, "but I want you to tell me. Looking it up requires doing work."

"Asking me requires doing work," Elizabeta reminded.

"Ja," Gilbert agreed, "but it requires less."

Elizabeta, who had arrived at her cubicle, huffed as she sat heavily in her chair. She set her coffee mug down and resumed work where she had left off the night before.

Gilbert took the hint that he wasn't wanted, but hung around anyway, leaning against the side of the cubicle. At least when he spoke, he switched back to German, "are you busy later?"

"Well, I'm at work, so I'll be busy all day," Elizabeta replied snarkily.

Gilbert chuckled, "let me know if you're free." He winked and walked away.

Elizabeta couldn't hide the smile that slid onto her face. As much as she told herself she hated him, as much as she told herself he was annoying, the highlight of her day, every day, was seeing him waiting for her, leaning against the water filter.

He was handsome, he was clearly very bright, he could take a hit, he was fit.

Every once in a while, Elizabeta would let herself indulge in these thoughts shamelessly. It's not like he could read her mind, after all. Then, she would remember who she was and what she was doing, and that she still had a powerful amount of chaos in her apartment to sort through when she got home (that she had put off a hundred times because she consistently came home exhausted), and she would get back to work.

The day proceeded normally. She conversed with her peers, had lunch with a few of the people she liked better than the rest, returned to work, got extremely bored, fell slightly behind, and decided to stay late just to finish up one little thing. It wasn't uncommon for her to stay late. She got paid extra to do so, after all, and she hated leaving things half-done (speaking of which, there was still the matter of her chaotic apartment…).

When she finally did manage to finish, Elizabeta went through her usual routine of leaving work, then headed for the elevator.

…Only to run into Gilbert.

"So, you're working late tonight, too?" Gilbert asked with a smirk as he pushed the button that would take them down to the lobby.

"Something like that," Elizabeta replied.

"What does your mug say?" Gilbert asked suddenly, out of the blue.

"Why does my mug concern you so much?" Elizabeta asked.

"Because I don't know what it says," Gilbert responded.

"And that bothers you?"

"A little."

Elizabeta smirked, "then I'm definitely not telling you now."

Gilbert almost seemed impressed by her humour. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a sudden jarring sound and the shaking of the elevator. Elizabeta lost her balance momentarily and regained it only to find herself being supported by Gilbert, who was pressed into one corner of the elevator to support himself, and looking around confusedly.

Elizabeta quickly picked herself up and dusted herself off, "what was that?"

"I think…the elevator just stopped," Gilbert said slowly, still looking around. He didn't seem to have noticed he was no longer holding Elizabeta.

"What?" Elizabeta whirled on him, "oh, yeah right. Stop messing with me, Gil."

Gilbert turned his red eyes to her and said, with all seriousness in his tone, "I'm not messing with you. I think the elevator's broken."

Elizabeta took a moment to let the words sink in, then stepped toward him, "you better be damn sure about this. If I find out you're pulling my leg-"

Gilbert put his hands on her shoulders and held her back, cutting her off, "believe me. I would be the last person on earth who would ever tease you about being caught in an elevator." He released her and sank slowly to the ground.

Elizabeta blinked, surprised at this sudden change in character, then sat down next to him, "um…forgive me if I'm being forward, but…why?"

Gilbert sighed and leaned his head back against the elevator wall, "I got stuck in one when I was little. It's one of those things you never quite recover from, you know? I know it sounds silly. Someone like me could be traumatised by something as dumb as an elevator, but-"

It was Elizabeta's turn to interrupt, "no, no. I get it. I mean…you can't really control what happens to you as a kid, right? And because of the whole psychological implications behind it, you never really get over that kind of thing unless you have counseling for it. And, because most of them are simple things that you don't actually encounter that often in real life, most people never truly get over them."

Gilbert swallowed hard, "please don't stop talking. Talk about anything. Anything so I don't start panicking."

Elizabeta cocked her head at him. This truly was odd and unexpected, but she adhered to his wishes, "okay, uh….well, as you know, I just moved here from Hungary a few weeks ago."

"Right," he replied, "you were born there, weren't you?"

"Yes," Elizabeta answered.

"How did you learn German?"

"I attended a boarding school in Austria. And what about you? How did you learn English?"

"I attended university in Canada."

"Really? I have a hard time believing you attended university at all."

A glimmer of the old Gilbert seeped into this strange new Gilbert as he smirked at her joke, "I didn't learn anything. I just attended."

"So you were the student that never showed up to class?" Elizabeta asked.

"Yes," Gilbert answered simply, "do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Elizabeta shook her head, "no. I'm an only child. What about you? Besides your brother, I mean?"

"Just my brother and my brother-in-law," Gilbert replied.

"Brother-in-law? Wait, you don't mean to tell me that-"

"Ludwig is gay?" Gilbert chuckled, "he's about as straight as a curly fry. He's married to this little Italian who is literally the exact opposite of him."

"Well, they say opposites attract."

"No. You don't understand. They're complete opposites. You'd probably really like Feli, though. He's pretty cute. Harmless little guy."

"Wait, Feli? That's his name? Not short for Feliciano, by any chance?"

Gilbert looked over at her, "yes. Why?"

"Feliciano Vargas?" Elizabeta asked.

"Yes. Do you know him?"

"Yes! I attended school with him. He has a brother, right? Lovino?"

"Ja," Gilbert replied, "wow. Small world, I guess."

"Well, you're right. I do really like him. We were best friends back in school."

"Wait…you're not the one who dressed him up in girl's clothes until he hit puberty, are you?"

Elizabeta blushed slightly, "he told you about that?"

Gilbert laughed uproariously, "no way! That was you? I totally didn't have you pegged as that kind of girl!"

Eager to change the topic of conversation, Elizabeta asked, "so, what about Feli's brother. Lovino, right? How's he?"

"Grumpy," Gilbert answered simply.

"Oh. Then nothing's changed," Elizabeta replied.

"He was like that back then, too, eh? Well, anyway, he's actually with one of my best friends now. They've been dating for a few years. It's pretty serious, but they're not married. Not yet, anyway. I think it's because Toni wants a huge, romantic wedding that involves both their cultures and Lovi just wants to pop in to see a judge and sign some papers. It's only a matter of time before I get an invitation to the wedding as the best man, though. Or at least one of the groomsmen. Lovi never wins against Toni. They're living in Spain now."

"It's too bad that you live so far from your friend, then," Elizabeta commented absentmindedly.

"Not really," Gilbert replied, "he and I and our other friend from college still get together and drink all the time. Sure, we do it online, but it's better than nothing."

"That's fun," Elizabeta said, "sounds like you have a good system going. It makes me miss my friends and family in Hungary."

"You don't Skype them?" Gilbert asked.

"I do, but sometimes it's not enough. I really miss them and I want to visit them, but I can't just leave this job so soon after getting it. That wouldn't look good at all. Besides, I need to figure out my life here."

"The chaos of moving?" Gilbert guessed.

Elizabeta nodded.

"Yeah, I've been there. It really sucks."

"Tell me about it. Relocating your entire life when you're actually living it for yourself is totally different from moving back and forth between home and boarding school."

"I bet. Tell me, Eliza… if I could grant you any one wish right now, what would it be?"

Elizabeta thought for a moment, though she immediately knew her answer. She spoke slowly, "…I would wish…for one thing in my life that just…consistently made sense."

"…Okay," Gilbert replied quietly.

There was a moment of silence.

"Okay?" Elizabeta suddenly asked, "that's it? Here we are, having some heartfelt conversation like some scene out of a movie while we're stuck in an elevator-"

"Don't mention the elevator," Gilbert complained.

Elizabeta ignored him, "-and all you can say to that is 'okay'? What kind of a response is that?"

"I wanted to know," Gilbert replied.

"Why? You could have at least had a better response prepared."

"What am I supposed to say? That I would grant your wish if I could? That, if I had any one wish, it would be that your wish would come true? That I wish I could be the thing that consistently makes sense in your life?"

Elizabeta paused and looked at him. She looked deep into his eyes and saw nothing but sincerity.

"Oh my god," Elizabeta realised suddenly what his words meant, "y-you actually-"

"Those times I asked if you were doing anything later?" Gilbert began, "those were me being too stupid to ask you out the way I should have. That was me chickening out at the last moment. Every day I was too much of a coward to just ask you outright."

"But you…barely…know me," Elizabeta whispered.

"Yeah. That's the point. I want to know you better."

Elizabeta suddenly realised her hand was in his, but she made no motion to pull it away. Nor did she bother moving away when she realised she was slowly moving closer to him.

"Let me be the thing, the one thing, in your life that consistently makes sense," Gilbert pleaded.

"But you don't make sense," Elizabeta said quietly, her eyes fluttering shut.

"I will. For you," Gilbert softly replied, his breath tickling her lips.

"Okay," Elizabeta whispered.

Ah, it felt good to write this.

In case you didn't know, I just moved. From Ecuador to Canada. So my life is pretty crazy.

A/N stuff people care about:

I got the Hungarian phrase on Elizabeta's mug from an online translator (I may be half Hungarian, but I don't speak the language) so sorry if it's wrong. I didn't use Google translate, so hopefully it doesn't suck too badly. Even so, if anyone out there speaks Hungarian, feel free to correct me. I will edit it as needed.

A/N stuff people don't care about:

Fun fact: Elizabeta isn't actually the Hungarian version of Elizabeth. I know that because I have a Hungarian great aunt whose name is Elizabeth and I grew up calling her 'Aunt Elizabeth' in Hungarian. (I don't know how it's spelled, but it's pronounced 'AH-jeh-kah-nei-nei'. That means Aunt Elizabeth. 'AH-jeh-kah' means Elizabeth.) So, yeah. Just one of those things…

Anyway, while I was talking to myself earlier tonight, I thought, if I could have one wish, what would it be? And I figured that it would be to have something in my life that consistently made sense. Considering the rest of my life is turned upside down, I think that's a pretty reasonable request. So, I somehow got from that to the topic of a boyfriend and I was thinking, 'how sweet would it be if I ever told that to a guy and he wanted to be my boyfriend and grant that wish?'

…Then this happened.

The hardest part of coming up with this story was coming up with the pairing I wanted to use for it. I considered using USUK (and I still think Alfred would have been the perfect choice for Gil's part) but I couldn't justify using Nyo!England for this (I see Nyotalia as a completely different set of characters so I don't actually ship USxNyo!UK, no matter how hard I ship USUK. This is pretty common among Hetalia writers), but I desperately wanted to use a girl for that part (as sort of a representative of myself). So, I went with the next best thing: my favourite straight couple from Hetalia.

I'm impressed if you're still reading this because I ramble a lot and I highly doubt anyone actually cares. If you are still reading this, have a cookie! *hands cookie* :3

Then I was thinking, how can I get this to work, and working overtime then getting caught in an elevator seemed to fit the bill. Gilbert's elevator fear was literally completely spontaneous. When I first started writing this story, I had no idea that would happen. Then it just…happened (writers will understand my plight). I'm also a sucker for weaknesses and I love seeing the big, strong, arrogant guys come crumbling down and having a soft, weaker side (England is the perfect tsundere character, in case you didn't know. Another reason why I wanted to use USUK).

So, that's how this story happened. Have another cookie if you're still reading this, because it just keeps getting longer and you probably still don't care. *hands another cookie*

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! :D

Until next time!

~Maya

P.S. I got a new phone! It's a Samsung Galaxy SIII and it's pretty much the best thing to happen to me since I learned how to write! XD