#uuugh now i remember why i hated tagging hetalia... now with the hws tags its somehow worse

[nie7027]

So because I'm in the mood for spooky stuff I'm once again here posting an idea for a supernatural fic but this time I'm making it Hetalia (YAY LETS GO BACK TO THE ROOTS)

I came up with this like months ago (in June) when I was barely getting back into hetalia(because of PRIDE) but left it there until I realized Hey this is perfect for the season and also who I am kidding this research paper isnt getting written anytim- ANYWAY HERES MY FIC IDEA JUST AS I TOLD IT TO MY BESTFRIEND!

For reasons Italy and Germany (it's important that Japan isn't with them) are playing with sobrenatural stuff and Veneziano ends up accidentally breaking something that triggers some kind of guilt curse and becomes haunted by the ghost of HRE seeing him sneaking around and of course freaking the hell out.

It's most probably Japan's old stuff they are fucking around so it makes sense its magic/spiritual and that they want to keep it a secret. (Also guilt onis are very in tone with japanese mythology).

Italy being Italy doesn't talk with anybody about it (HE WONT DARE TOUCH THAT THEME) and just gets scared outta nowhere and whimpers and cries and is miserable to the point he isolates himself in his house.

Nobody knows what's up with him.

Nobody except Germany.

Germany of course gets worried and suspects it has something to do with they thing they did as it was then when everything started but he's not surewjy or how so he tries to reach out and eventually goes to Italy's house to drag him out himself...except...

Except when he gets there he sees a child.

And not just any child. Lol nop

He sees a child version of himself.

Germany is rightly confused.

What is a child version of himself doing there???

He tries to chase the boy but he is unable to catch him and also Italy still doesn't answer to him so he decides to keep coming both to try to talk with Italy and to figure out what's up with the kid.

And finally on one of those days he goes he hears an interesting conversation...

Roderich (Austria) and Erzebeta(Hungary) being the closest thing Italy has to guardians strong arm their way into his room (obviously Hungary is the one who does most of the work) and force him to talk to them so Italy reveals he has been seeing HREs ghost

Hungary and Austria are like 'BUT THATS IMPOSSIBLE ITALY! YOU KNOW HES..." and yeah he knows he's dead. He knows France himself killed him (Austria and Hungary looking super uncomfortable during the whole conversation) but he's there, following him and everytime Italy sees him his heart constricts and he can't bear to look at him.

Austria and Hungary get outta there believing Italy's is having some kind of late response to repressed trauma. That he's having hallucinations.

And it makes sense!

Of course they know the boy has been developing feelings for the German and they also know how much he loved HRE... It can't be easy to fall in love again after going throught something like that

And OH GOD THIS WAS LITERALLY THE FIRST TIME THEY HAD EVER ACTUALLY TALKED ABOUT HRE WITH ITALY AFTER HIS DEATH* AND FUCK THEY DONT EVEN KNOW HOW HE KNOWS HE DIED....

Of course Italy would try to find out, of course he would do his research... canonically-sh it was France who told him but italy also has his own historians and he looked into it until he couldn't anymore and FUCK THEY CANT BELIEVE THEY REALLY FELL FOR ITALYS CHEERY FACADE AND HAPPILY LET HIM DEAL WITH THAT ON HIS OWN.

THEY WERE YOUNG YES BUT THATS NOT AN EXCUSE

No wonder Italy is having issues...

Especially when taken into account that Germany...

..they never were sure... and-

NO ERZEBETH

THE PAST IS IN THE PAST.

THERES NO POINT IN DIGGING UP OLD CORPES.

HRE IS DEAD. HE WASNT THERE TO HELP HIM AND THATS ALL THERES TO IT -Roderich argues, practically screams, the guilt still gnawing him in his insides

All they can do is help Italy go through his issues now.

Germany of course only hears the last part of Italy's conversation with Hungary and Austria before he has to hide so he only learns that yes its the kid, his child self, the one that's causing Italy to suffer so much and

FUCK

Fuck

He knows

(Kinda? )

He knows he had a troubled childhood but he really wasn't expecting just the sight of him could cause Italy so much grief...

In fact... why is his child self even haunting Italy in the first place? Shouldnt he be haunting himself?

Germany tries to confront the child, he chases and chases the child and it's not until he corners him and orders the child to get away from Italy that he gets a reaction

"ITALY IS HIS!" The child screams with all his might

"He won't ever leave Italy!" and "Who does he believes he is to try to separate him from Italy?!" are some of the things the child keeps screaming

And boy Germany might not remember much of his childhood but he's pretty sure Prussia had never told him he was such a brat

But at least this brings a little more of light on the issue.

Germany isn't dumb, he knows himself.

He's aware of his... complicated feelings towards the italian. The memories of a failed valentine date coming to haunt him...

BUT

He also knows he can be a little too selfish and ambitious.

A war mongering state fully capable of starting wars just to get what he believes is his.

A fact he isn't proud of himself

Fully capable of hurting others.

A fact that causes him a lot of guilt to this day.

So, he concludes, his child self somehow became aware of his own feelings for the Italian, latched onto them and is doing what he knows best.

Chasing after the Italian. Unwavering, unstoppable. Hurting him in the meantime

But what's he's supposed to do now?

The child won't leave Italy's side.

He doesn't know how to get rid of him.

He could try distancing himself from Italy.. see if the child somehow also senses this and gets away from the italian... but he isn't sure.

But he can't think on any other option

Now Germany believes he's the one being haunted and that Italy's suffering because of him.

In the meantime Japan as all the other countries is confused as to what the heck is happening.

Suddenly his friends started acting strange with Italy locking himself in his house and Germany looking more and more stressed every day

Of course he found the broken vase in his house, the one talking about a guilt oni.

But canonically Japan doesn't remember magic was an actual everyday thing in the ancient times.

To him is just another of his many relics.

The only thing that made special this case was how well preserved it was despite it being really old, back from his young days he barely remembers

From when he was still under china's care.

But Japan doesn't have any other clue.

All he knows is his friends started acting strange after they visited his house and that the vase is somehow related so he has no choice but suck it up and go ask China.

China whos ancient and remembers everything, even the times when magic was real, immeditaely recognizes the vase and goes OH NO.

"So... Who did you say was closest to the vase when it broke?" China nervously asks.

"I don't know. I wasn't there when it broke" Japan calmly responds, unsure why that would be important. "It could be either Germany or Italy. They both were there."

China who knows he's is in front the remnants of the broken guilt oni container yelps: "Germany?! FUUUUUUUCK"

China also isn't very willing to talk about what's happening with Japan.

Talking about the jar would mean talking about magic with Japan, and THAT would mean talking about old times they both would rather ignore ever happened.

China knows this is also part of the guilt oni doing but fuuuuck he really doesn't want to talk about this.

And because the guilt oni/curse spreads like an illness, infecting everybody that's gets close with guilt and feeding from it, growing and growing until there's no more...

There's another player in this.

Prussia

Prussia who doesn't regret what he did.

Prussia, who, if he were put under the same circumstances would do it again and again. 1000 times over if it was necessary.

Prussia whose only regret is knowing it would break his little brothers heart (and maybe even more) to learn the truth

Prussia who one day comes home to find his little brother clearly trying to hide how much he's freaking out and after hours and hours of pushing and poking finally manages to get him to spill the truth

And when Prussia hears from his brothers lips that Italy is being haunted by his child self he's running out the house as if being chased by the demon himself screaming about ghosts and how super scary that is.

And don't be mistaken.

Prussia isn't a bad brother.

He's an awesome brother who will support his brother in his time of need but first....

This is too risky.

WAY TOO RISKY

As much as he loathes the idea of poor little ita chan suffering he loathes more the idea of what could happen to his brother...

No way I'm hell he was going to take that chance.

He would rather never see Italy again than to lose his brother.

If he couldn't do anything back then when he was powerful much less now than he is barely more than a mere mortal/a shadow of his former self.

And here Gilbert/Prussia is exaggerating.

As much as it would break Germany to know he wouldn't disappear, he's too solid of a state for that...

But Prussia was there.

Prussia saw the last days of HRE. He watched him agonize and no way in hell he's going throught that again.

No way in hell he's abandoning his brother. (No way in hell My boy doesn't have trauma over this)

No, Prussia will deal with this on his own.

He will fix it, just like he has done before.

He will fix it before anything happens and he will be there for his brother once all this is over.

But first he needs information

So, knowing Erzebeta and Roderich had been able to speak to ita chan, he goes and sneaks in Austria's house and has his worst fears confirmed when he hears ita chan has been hallucinating with HREs ghost.

Except now he's the only one who knows that that isn't an hallucination and that both Italy and Germany can see him.

And if Hungary catches him sneaking around and demands to know what he's doing there he will only say that that he was there to execute a surprise attack on the uptight austrian.

And Hungary tries to bring up the card of long formed warrior bonds to get him to talk about that , that that shall not be talked about and he would divert the theme and laugh to her face

Because this is something he is planning to take to his grave.

And that's what I got so far.

*it's my head canon that HREs death became something of a taboo topic in the house. Everybody knew but nobody dared to speak about it. Hungary and Austria never found the way to sit down with Italy and talk with him and Italy while he was still in Roderich's house never asked them not wanting to hear it coming from their mouths, preferring to be in negation and pretend he's still waiting for him to come back even though he knew it wasnt going to happen

Eventually the truth will have to come if they want to get rid of HREs ghost but aint no way in hell Prussia will reveal it so Italy and Germany (and others) have no choice but to face the demons of their past and discover it themselves

The whole every country has a deep seated guilt and the guilt curse will spread like an infectious illness was a nice surprise for myself.

They way it touches on everyone ...

Italy and Germany dealing with the ghost (the lover Italy lost, the reminder that Germany really know who he is and what he is capable), Austria and Hungary's not being able to save HRE nor help Italy. Japan and China having to deal with their broken relationship...

PRUSSIAS EVERYTHING.

God just thinking about Prussia also facing HREs ghost, the failure to save him, to what could happen to Germany if the truth comes out... the ANGST IS SO GOOD in this one.

Even France and Romano (and therefore Spain) could enter into the game with Romano feeling guilty with not knowing how to help Italy despite being his brother and heck even the potato dumbas seemed to know more about what was going on with his brother, as always romano being the last to know his own brother... and Spain is just there watching romano suffer knowing he's partly responsable for the distance between the Italy brothers and once Hungary and Austria learn it was France who told Italy about HREs fate they will eat him alive.

Except France won't stand for that.

1 it was centuries ago when France told Italy that! It's not his fault what's happening to Italy now and 2 Italy deserved to know! He loved him! They loved each other! He wasn't going to stand there and keep quiet for centuries just like Austria and Hungary did.

He wouldn't stand for such disservice to love .

And Frances is obviously being dragged down by the guilt of causing HREs death. France might be Prussia's best friend but i highly doubt Prussia would let him know what really happened with HRE considering the circumstances... Then again even if it hadn't been Frances fault it really is the thing Prussia is the most secretive about.

He himself could have told France that HRE died. Specially because if HRE was super weak and had too many enemies that wanted him dead it would be convenient for him to spread the rumor of his death and who better than France, who both had struck the fatal blow and was connected to every part of the world and had such a stronghold on knowledge after his revolution, to do it.

Once the truth comes out i really need a scene of Germany approaching Prussia and asking him to tell him how was he before... when he was... How was he back then?

And Prussia who has never talked about this with anyone.

Prussia who for centuries kept all that happened to himself.

A burden to never share.

Who even now that the truth is out still doesn't want to talk about it relents.

Because it's his brother who asked. And he will always do whatever Germany asks him

"Truth be told he isn't that different now from how he used to be" he says his heart breaking a little when he sees the brief glimpse of desolation crossing Germany's features.

"He isn't that different but he enough for it to matter. To be another person" Prussia ammends quickly. No way he isnt aware of Germanys identity crisis.

"He has always been serious. Too dutiful for his own good. But... he wasnt as guarded as he is now. It was easier to know what he was feeling.... Even the foot soldiers knew about his crush on little Italy" Prussia says snarking while recalling the last part

And yeah that.

Germany is really surprised to know it turns out he has loved italy his whole life... Then again if he thinks about it it isn't really that surprising. It makes sense

It makes sense even if he's now avoiding the Italian as much as he can since the truth got spilled.

Germany can't help it. He doesn't think he would be able to tolerate it if he sees disappointment in the italian eyes, yearning for a person who doesn't exist anymore.

"Try as he might he wore his heart on his sleeve... And that was part of the reason for his downfall." Prussia keeps saying, wondering not for the first time if Germany had unconciously developed the way he had as a defense mechanism. "More feisty, easily flustered."

"Unlike Germany who was a well behaved boy, HRE wouldn't listen to Prussia... Not in the sense that he would ignore him/dismiss whatever he said but rather than unlike Germany who did whatever Prussia asked him to do without question HRE would have to ponder it. HRE would have to consider all the options and act according to what he deemed best....He had to. He was the head of the empire. He was in charge of all of them... Highly capable and yet so weak. A fragile constitution" Prussia says with finality.

They were nearing on hard topics he really REALLY didn't want to talk about. The brief talk already taken it's toll on him and as much as he owe it to Germany he had already pushed himself too far in one day.

Germany understood it. They had time.

Despite Prussia's worst fears that have been proven wrong... they had time after all.

A huge relief washin over prussias entire being, the relief of putting down a burden he had carried for so long.

They could keep talking about it later

And here the mic drops.

So... how do you like it?

It's good to be back 😎