Time for Chapter 2, enjoy!

Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya!

Crazy Little Thing Called Love Pt 2

Sergei had not visited Natalya often and only did so at the 'urging' of General Arlovsky because the last time he came to see her, she cursed him and tried to attack him, wishing him dead so he was no longer her soul-mate. So it came as a surprise when he got a message that she wanted to see him.

Natalya was waiting for him in the visitor's room at the institution, watched over by an orderly and nervously pacing the space as she anticipated his arrival. She had not reached that place that she was willing to fall into his arms and declare her undying soul-mate love but she was aware that he was not to blame for anything and she felt that she should apologise for her behaviour as her psychiatrist suggested, to face everyone she had wronged.

She had written a letter to Captain Maurier's family, expressing her heartfelt regrets at her actions and how she would carry the guilt of his death for the rest of her life. She said she did not beg for their forgiveness as she did not expect them to be able to forgive her. They did not reply and she did not expect them to.

She turned as the door opened slowly and Sergei came in with an expression on his face like he was expecting anything and everything to happen and Natalya did not blame him. All previous visits had ended in attacks and death threats and even the orderly looked ready to jump in if she made the wrong move.

"Thank you for coming," she said as Sergei came closer and they sat down in chairs opposite each other. There was an awkward moment in which neither said anything.

"I was surprised to get your request," Sergei finally broke the silence. "I was under the impression that you didn't want me anywhere near you." Natalya looked down at her lap as she remembered everything that she had ever said to him, none of it very pleasant.

"I know," she replied. "And I can imagine I'm the last person you want to talk to, after everything I've done and I'm surprised you even came. I've written a letter to Ivan but he hasn't responded, not that I blame him! I tried to kill his soul-mate and almost succeeded, why would he want to have anything to do with me?"

Sergei considered Natalya carefully. She seemed to finally recognise that what she had done was off-the-charts bad and was showing remorse for her actions. Problem! Was she serious or was she just telling him what she thought he wanted to hear?

"My psychiatrist has suggested that I apologise to everyone I hurt," Natalya continued. "As part of my therapy. That could take a while, I harmed a lot of people. My brother's friends, Saskia, Yao and Li Xiao, Katyusha, not to mention everybody on that plane and the pilot. Katyusha forgives me but I don't think I deserve even that much. I know Eduard doesn't."

"That's understandable," Sergei replied. "Katyusha is his wife and soul-mate but he'll forgive you eventually, if only for Katyusha's sake."

"I'm not asking for forgiveness," Natalya said. "Because I know there are some that can't give it. What I want is to tell everyone how sorry I am for everything that I've done and do what I can to makes some kind of amends which is why I asked you to come here." Natalya stopped for a moment to take a breath.

"I wanted to give my apologies to you," she said. "You had to chase me all the way to Canada and I was so very vile to you and even wanted you dead when my heart started beating when I saw you. I want to release you as my soul-mate because you can't possibly want to be stuck with someone as mentally broken and pathetic as I am." Sergei did not know what to think about that. Yes, Natalya had done some truly terrible things, things that even he found repellent but being released was not an option anyway. Soul-mates were for life but if this version of Natalya was real and not some trick, it might not be so bad.

"Thank you for the offer," he replied. "But it doesn't work like that. We're soul-mates and that can't just be cancelled and besides, I don't think your father would let us off the hook so easily. We need to find a way to make this work, if you're willing."

"But what if I slip?" Natalya said. "What if I regress and go back to being murderous obsessed with Ivan again? I know it's wrong now but I'm taking medication to managed my condition so what if I forget to take it? Or adapt to it so it's no longer effective? I may have to take the medication for the rest of my life."

"I'll make sure you take it," Sergei replied. "And the doctor will be watching for signs of immunity to the medication. It's going to be a part of your life no matter what happens, Whether I'm in your life or not."

"Why would you want to be a part of my life?" Natalya looked down in shame. "You can't possibly like me."

"I didn't like the other Natalya," Sergei said, honestly. "The one in front of me, if she's real, I think I can deal with." Natalya let the hint that she might be pretending slide. After all, it had been one of the weapons in her arsenal when she was escaping her father's custody to pursue Ivan to Canada so it was reasonable that everyone might believe that she was merely pretending to be what they wanted her to be in order to get away from them and go after Ivan again but she was not pretending. As much as she hated being on constant medication, it had cleared her head and the therapy sessions had picked through the complicated threads of her mental state and shown her the truth of everything in her life. She had been obsessive, monstrous and murderously dangerous and she never wanted to go back to that but there was one thing that bothered her.

"Could you ever want to spend your life with someone you don't and can't possibly love?" she asked. Sergei lifted her chin with his hand so he could look in her eyes.

"I can't say I love you now," he said, candidly. "Because I don't and you can't say you love me right now but I make no promises for the future. We're soul-mates that haven't had the best start together, if fact we've had one of the worst but we are soul-mates. Who knows what our future feelings will be so we have to work with the hand we're dealt and see what the future holds for us."

"You seem willing to take that chance."

"It's take that chance or be alone," Sergei pointed out. "And alone isn't what I want. Do you?" Natalya impulsively wrapped her arms around Sergei and held him tight.

"No," she replied as Sergei put his arms around her.

"Then let's see what the future has in store!"

Natalya was glad Sergei had taken the chance, not that he seemed to believe that he had had much choice but, as time went on and Natalya's saner and real self emerge, she saw Sergei for what he really was. He had a ruthless streak but that was a given, working for her father did that to a person because they were required to do some questionable things sometimes, soldier, part-time assassin when required, and make some hard choices but he had a softer side that he rarely showed but he had shown it to her as they got to know each other and Sergei had seen the woman Natalya might have been if things had not gone so wrong for her. As she recovered more and more, she began to help care for the other patients in the institution, showing that she had a caring soul and had a great capacity for love, although her mental condition had twisted her love for her brother into something immoral and obscene. He felt sorry for her because she still loved her brother but now it was the kind of love it was meant to be but Ivan would not come close enough to see it, understandable under the circumstances, giving what Natalya had put him and his family through but still, it was sad.

Love had grown between the two and Natalya was happy for the first time since before her mother died and finally, she was declared sane enough to be released from the institution. It had been hard for her to readjust to being back in her home after more than a year in mental care and she had missed so much. Her brother's wedding for one (not that she had been invited, even if she had been able to leave the institution). She was still in her delusion of Yao being some black-hearted sorcerer with her brother in his spell then so it was just as well that she could not go. But with the help of her father and Sergei, Natalya had settled into a routine and back into public life.

Then, finally, Sergei proposed.

He had taken her to a nearby park on a day that was pleasantly warm and children were running around with their parents watching over them. A breeze kept the tree swaying and flowers were blooming, casting their scent around as Natalya and Sergei passed, filling Natalya with a calming, content feeling of a normal day, unaware that it was not going to be a normal day for very long.

Sergei steered Natalya on to one of the paths that lead to secluded walks, usually for courting couples or those that just wanted to be alone and they strolled until they came to an bench beside a fountain and sat down. There were no people around and Sergei decided that this was the time.

"Natalya," he said. "There's something I want to ask you. Given the rough start that we've had and everything you've had to go through to get to this point, you might have reservations about this but ….." He stopped and took a velvet box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a gold ring with a large blue sapphire, surrounded small white diamonds that glinted in the sun-light. Sergei was worried about Natalya's reaction. He wanted this now, more than anything but she was still unsure about how she would be in the future so maybe he should have waited but he had begun so the only thing he could do was finish what he had started and hope for the best.

Natalya's eyes widened when she saw the ring and she brought her hands up to cover her mouth stop herself from squealing and tears filled her eyes.

"Natalya Arlovskaya," he said, presenting her with the ring. "Will you, my soul-mate, do me the honour of being my wife?"

By this time, it had been the one question Natalya had been wanting to hear, although Sergei had to convinced her that he was asking of his own accord and not because her father was encouraging it but once he had, she said Yes at once.

Which had lead to her sister now helping her into her wedding dress, a simple elegant affair with just enough decoration and trimming to stop it from being too plain. Katyusha then changed into her bridesmaid dress which was a light blue and began putting the finishing touches to their hair and make-up. Just as Katyusha was setting Natalya's veil into her hair, General Arlovsky came to say that the wedding car had arrived.

Dmitri stared at his daughter with wonder and a little bit of pride. Wonder because Natalya resembled her mother, just as Ivan did but Natalya even more so while his step-daughter resembled her own father, and pride because of how Natalya had battled her illness, was still battling it and winning, like a true Arlovsky. Of course, there was always the chance of relapse but, right now, Natalya's mental state was as close to normal as it could get and Dmitri loved her as she was now.

"You look so much like your mother," he said with a hint of softness, rarely heard in General Winter's voice. Although Natalya and Ivan's mother had not been his soul-mate, he had loved her very much and he had hidden his aching heart when her mirror image's mental health began to decline. It was in memory of his late wife that he had been reluctant to commit Natalya to a institution as she got worse, a mistake he fully admitted but now Natalya was better, he could see traces of his late wife's personality in Natalya, considerate and caring of those around her and knew that this was how Natalya should have been all along.

"Spasibo, Otets, (Thank you, Father)" she said in Russian. All the General Arlovsky's children could speak Russian Ukrainian and Belarusian. Katyusha's father had been Ukrainian while her, Natalya and Ivan's mother had been Belarusian but Natalya chose to answer her father in his native language.

"You have made me proud, this last year," he said and kissed her on her forehead. "You've had your demons to fight and you've fought them well, like a true Arlovsky. The sad part is now you'll soon give up that name but I am very, very proud."

"I'll always be an Arlovskaya, Otets," Natalya replied, touching her heart. "In here." Dmitri smiled and hugged his daughter, careful not to wrinkle her dress and when they part, Katyusha, also smiling, gave her her wedding bouquet of white roses, glittering with crystals and dotted with Baby's Breath and small, pale blue cornflowers to match Katyusha's dress.

"Time to change your name," Dmitri said, holding out his arm to Natalya who took it and they left the family home to the wedding car with Katyusha following, with one question in Natalya's head.

Will he be there?

Sergei stood at the end of the aisle near the altar with Eduard in charcoal grey wedding suits and people were filling up the pews, distant family, associates, a few friends as, in Sergei's profession, it was rare to make friends and Natalya's situation had driven most people away but enough people attended so the church did not look empty.

Sergei kept looking around at the people coming in and it amused Eduard. Was he hoping or dreading Natalya coming through the door? Eduard knew he should stop being so hard on Natalya, for Katyusha's sake at least, after all Natalya was ill at the time, but every time he saw Natalya, he saw his soul-mate and wife lying on the floor of Ivan's home with Yao trying to stem the flow of blood from the bullet wound in Katyusha's shoulder and he could not bring himself to show any kind of warm feeling to Natalya. Hopefully, it would get better with time.

"Ready to run for the hills," he said to Sergei, teasing. "I know Ivan did." Sergei turned to Eduard to stare at him for a moment and then walked to a side door and out of the church, to the astonishment of his future brother-in-law.

"I was just joking," he said.

The car arrived at the church and General Arlovsky left the car first when the driver opened the door, turning to help Natalya out with Katyusha helping her with the skirt of the her dress, making sure it did not get caught on anything and potentially tear and then she followed her little sister out of the car to straighten the skirt up and pulling the veil down over Natalya's face. When Katyusha was finished, Natalya walked into the church on the arm of her father, followed by Katyusha, praying that he would be there.

Inside the church itself, the first chords of the music to which the bride enters was sounded and Natalya and her father began to walked down the aisle as she looked around. Where was he? There was no sign of him. Natalya's heart dropped as she realised that he was not there.

She and her father finished the walk to the end of the aisle where he handed her over to Sergei who was stood next to Eduard waiting for his bride. Natalya gave a small smile under the veil at her fiancé, soon to be husband as he looked down at her with an encouraging smile.

The ceremony began but Natalya could not have described any of it, despite giving the right responses in the right places but the one thing she remembered was saying 'I do!' and officially became Mrs Mikhaylov. Sergei lifted Natalya's veil and bent down to kiss his bride to the applause of everyone in the church. As they made their way back down the aisle, Natalya noticed some people who had not been sat there when she walked down the aisle.

Ivan sat in the back pew with his husband, Yao who looked at her, warily as she came toward them, understandable considering their history and beside them sat Li Xiao, who looked less than thrilled to be there, with a young Asian girl with brown hair, decorated with pink flowers to match the pink top she wore with a long white skirt, his soul-mate, Mei who he had met at college. Sergei smiled at the little family, remembering his last minute phone call to make sure that Ivan was coming after all the hard persuasion everyone had put in to convince Ivan and Yao that it was safe to attend the wedding and, even at the last minute, it was touch and go but the Braginski family unbent enough to take the risk and Ivan could see what his sister had become now and the look on Natalya's face said it all.

Natalya's eyes had filled with tears of joy at seeing Ivan at her wedding, at the fact that he had forgiven her enough for this and she hoped for the chance to prove to him that she could be the sister she always should have been but, for now, this was enough.

Her brother had come to her wedding!

Ahhh! I didn't want to leave Ivan and Natalya at odds and I had fun toying with the idea that it was Sergei that Natalya was worried about not being at the wedding when it was really Ivan (I'm Evil, I know! XP).

Aqua : Happy to make your day better :) Writer's Block really sucks when you know what you want to write but you just don't know how to put it into words. I'd had small bouts before but this one was really bad but I'm coming out the other side now (fingers crossed) and, hopefully more stories will be coming your way. And the Hasta la Pasta is back!

I'm hoping to finish a few other stories that I started before my brain melted and my young niece, who is into Miraculous: The Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, wants me to write her a story of that so a few projects there and, hopefully, I'll have something else upload soon but until then,

Hasta la Pasta!

P.S. Sorry about any spelling or grammar errors, I was rushed :(