You Came Back to Me

Gilbert was out walking in one of the woods he used to roam back in the day. The last time he had walked the lonely, foot-paved paths of that specific forest was back when it was one of his main hunting grounds. Nothing had changed except for the fact that he was now alone. Back in the day ... he was accompanied by an amazing (though he was never able to admit it to her face), brown-haired girl who used to hunt with him. At moments they hated each other but at others, they were the best of friends and in the end things always worked out until times changed and they started seeing less and less of each other and eventually his companion, Elizabeta, married an all-too-familiar, much more sophisticated man which pretty much marked the end of anything the two had. Seeing the girl's face again in those woods was something he thought he could only imagine which was why when he saw what seemed to be just that, he was more than shocked and thought to be hallucinating. When the 'image' didn't disappear, he froze and confusedly called out the Hungarian's name. "Elizabeta?"

"Gilbert?" she called back once she noticed the Prussian. Seriously, the one day she came to the woods? What if he told Roderich? He certainly wouldn't approve of this. She was a woman, after all, and was supposed to be doing housework. If he found out, she'd never be able to go out again. She suspected he would tell since he never contacted her after the wedding, therefore he seemed to be angry with her. She didn't even talk to him at the wedding. She received a gift and saw him in the crowd but he never congratulated her or anything.

"Ja, it's me, Gilbert," he started, "but what in the world are you doing here?" He approached her unsurely and soon the two stood beside each other awkwardly. "And what are you doing wearing your old hunting clothes?" he asked, even more confused about that than anything.

"N-Nothing!" she cried. "I simply found them while cleaning and I-- uh--" She gave up trying to lie. "Just don't tell Roderich I'm here, okay?!" She stared at the floor nervously knowing she was going to regret her next words ... but she was desperate. "I'll do anything you want just don't tell him." She started to sweat as she thought of what Roderich would do if he knew where she was. He would be quite mad and maybe even kick her out.

He ignored her pleading to not tell Roderich and smirked. "Liz ... what are you doing here in the first place?" He looked downwards and wiped away his smirk before mumbling, "I thought things were much better with that stupid Austrian, anyway..." He then looked back up at her with an annoyed expression. "Not that I care about your happiness or anything!" he half shouted while rolling his red eyes. The Prussian then awaited a response to his question.

"Things are much better with Roderich," she retorted, matching his tone of voice and looking down at her hands. "Er, at least they should be," she muttered quietly, not intending for him to hear.

His eyes widened when he comprehended what she had muttered. He felt like the right thing would've just been to pretend he hadn't heard her but he just couldn't. "Uh ... what do you mean by 'at least they should be'?" His voice was much calmer now but he was even more confused than before.

"Well, I just meant that I-- uh-- I thought I wanted 'perfect' but I guess it's just not me. I'm not perfect so I don't know why I went after someone who I had to completely change myself for," she muttered, still looking down at her hands and not believing she was giving this much away.

"Well sometimes perfect's not always so 'perfect' I suppose," he said, referring to Roderich. He didn't quite know what to say. In all honesty, he was surprised that the Hungarian was revealing so much to him but he was glad at the same time... "Maybe who you truly are isn't so perfect in his eyes but I guess you never considered it being in someone else's," he muttered, looking back at the ground and away from Elizabeta.

"I guess you're right but who would want a woman who doesn't like cleaning or doing womanly things...? No one would want me which is why I changed myself so that someone would... I guess it's backfiring on me now, huh?" she said, thinking about when Prussia had found out she was a woman. She realized she couldn't pretend any longer and wasn't exactly quite sure when she found out herself but hid it as best as she could when she did.