Yellow Brick Road - Ch.1

Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia

Warnings: Many historical inaccuracies. I was not alive during the 60's/70's/Cold War era, nor am I an expert of the history during that period. I will do as much research as I can, but there will be inaccuracies. There will also be many grammar/spelling mistakes. You are more than welcome to point them out.

Some scenes may be tear-jerkers. There's also possible trigger warnings for homophobia and bullying throughout the story, which I will warn at the beginning of each chapter. Otherwise the only really explicit content is swearing.

Finally, there are characters that are sort of OC's. This is mainly because I didn't want to completely vilify any of the canon characters in fear of offending someone and their main purpose is to be completely unlikable. The only exception may be Lukas' mother, who technically is an OC as well, but she's not featured very prominently and is only there to push the plot along.

Pairings: DenNor (main), and knowing myself, there will be a good dose of SuFin too. There might be others as well, but it won't be focused on too much.

September 2015, The Outskirts of San Francisco, USA.

Someone was at his porch.

In all honesty, the man in question couldn't be bothered enough to answer the door. Except the insufferable person on the other side had been persistently ringing his doorbell for the past minute and it seemed they had no intention of giving in, anytime soon.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," muttered the stoic Norwegian, when the noise had irked him just enough to pull himself away from his seat. He winced, as a wave of pain shot up his leg from the endeavor. Clutching his cane, he maintained his balance again by exerting his strength on the metal stick.

Even with the help of his trusty cane, walking was still a struggle. Mentally cursing, the man staggered with each step. He was much too old for this nonsense.

It took an exuberant amount of effort to simply get to the other side of the room, where the front door was located. Eventually, he succeeded through small, wiffle movements.

"Good morning, sir. Are you Lukas Bondevik?" He was greeted by a strange man who dressed in all black. Every item of clothing he wore - from the top of his head to the soles of his shoes were the same obsidian color. On his face, a pair of sunglasses obscured his eyes.

"So what if I am? What is it to you?" The Norwegian responded to the man, whom he dubbed Mr. Black.

"I have some important matters to discuss with you, Mr. Bondevik. If yo-."

The faintest hinge of a scowl crossed his impassive expression. "I already agreed that I will be moving out this afternoon. You can tell that peevish landlord to get the fuck off my back." He turned away grumbling about the aggravating waste of time. It was then, a strong grip haltered his attempt to slam the door shut.

"Wait! Mr. Bondevik! This is not about your impending eviction. If you will just give me a second to explain my offer, please."

Irritated by the persistence, he conceded. "Fine. This better be important then."

The dark-clad man cleared his throat before continuing. "Mr. Bondevik, I am an agent of the United States Government. It is my pleasure to inform you that you've been selected to participate in our new experiment."

"I'm sorry." he redressed, although his tone was devoid of any apology. "As you can see here, I'm not very well and lack the time and energy to participate."

His companion didn't seem tethered by the response. "That's no problem at all. In fact, we are looking for someone exactly like you, Mr Bondevik. In compensation for your participation, not only will you be well paid, all your medical expenses will also be taken care of."

Lukas wasn't sure what exactly possessed him to follow the man. It certainly wasn't the insistence, or perhaps huge bluff, that he was given a once in a lifetime opportunity to partake in an experiment so extensive and tremendous, it had the potential to alter the entire course of human history. Truthfully, he had stopped caring about such matters years ago. The mere thought of it made him inwardly scoff. Society had never been kind. His whole life, as far back as he could remember, had been a struggle. It was a ceaseless battle of trying to make ends meet, as well as the subject of constant ridicule and prejudice. In return, he could say without the faintest hinge of hesitation, that he did not give a single damn about what happened to anyone or anything around him, and quite frankly, he couldn't care less about the human race or the entire planet in general.

The generous paycheck did somewhat help draw him towards the offer. For Lukas however, it was less of a motivator than perhaps compared to any other individual, who would have leapt at such a substantial amount of money. Contrary to his rationale, Lukas couldn't even pretend he wasn't treading in deep water and in desperate need for such funding. The root of his apathy stemmed from the fact that at the current state of his decrepit life, he would much rather allow himself to wither away peacefully, without the stress of further work or worries.

What solidified Lukas's decision was the realization of just how miserable and lonely he had become. He would bet that had this Mr. Black turned out to be an axe murderer, bent on leading him like a defenseless sheep to his ultimate demise, not a single soul on earth would notice his absence - and if his body were to ever be found, nobody would know or care enough to come to his funeral. No, he didn't have a single being he could even call a mutual acquaintance, yet alone a friend. The last person to show any interest in his wellness was Emil, which reminded him that it would be an excellent time to pay a visit to the cemetery, as it neared the seventh anniversary of his brother's death.

'How pitiful' Lukas thought to himself, recalling the events of his deplorable existence as he watched the local scenery zoom past his vision. Lukas found himself being escorted to the other side of town. The feeble van he resided in, rocked turbulently as it sped down the road. For the alleged important government official Mr. Black was, his choice of transportation couldn't be more inconvenient.

The windows were rolled down, which made Lukas wonder if the mangled vehicle even had air conditioning. He had to admit it was quite pleasant outside. On a lazy Sunday morning, the local park abounded with couples, ranging from all ages and ethnicities, enjoying the fair weather together. A particular pair caught his attention. Both participants were male and at the height of their youth. Likely, they were in their teens, but no older than early twenties at the most. From their gentle gestures and affectionate body language, it was obvious they were much more than friends. No one batted an eye. The couple mingled perfectly with the other lovers, almost like a small piece on the mosaic of diversity.

Watching until the couple were no longer in view, Lukas couldn't help but feel a sense of longing. It baffled him how quickly social norms could change in the matter of a few decades. Had he dared to convey romantic feelings for another man at the same age, he would have been met with nothing but disdain and ridicule. Furtively, he was jealous at their right to express such unshrouded intimacy - not that it mattered anymore. The last time he had anything remotely close to a boyfriend was over twelve years ago, and to further rub salt in the wound, it ended disastrously with the prick running off with a much wealthier suitor.

"And we're here." Mr. Black's voice interrupted as the vehicle came to a screeching halt. Lukas gave a nod, as he was assisted outside. He rubbed his eyes a couple times to ensure that they weren't playing any tricks. The headquarters resided in a desolate part of town, with nobody thing but empty grassland on either side. It was rather bleak. Most of the windows were broken and carelessly fixed with a layer of tape and plastic. The walls were weathered, moldy and seemed as if they could crumble with a slight push. When Lukas gave the building a careful glance over, it seemed more like the remnants of an abandoned factory, if anything.

"Not as fancy as you thought, hmm?" Mr. Black ratified his speculation as he punched in a series of numbers on the keypad nearby. "This project is perhaps the most well-guarded secret of the country and things have to be kept discreet."

"Hello. I am Dr. Plushenko" A raspy voice greeted, upon his entrance. It belonged to a wheelchair bound man, whom Lukas reckoned was at least a decade older than himself. The man's condition resembled that of someone extremely sickly. He spoke through a ventilator and like the walls of the building, insinuated that he could collapse at any given minute. "Welcome to my greatest invention."

The inside was not half as shabby as the exterior. There were at least a dozen more "Mr. Blacks" who surrounded the elderly man in a circle, with their hands behind their backs. For a moment, Lukas thought they were all statues, until one moved to scratch his nose. They then seemed more like clones.

It was practically the only thing orderly about the place. The floor was littered with pieces of scrap metal, various tools, and broken machinery. Everything appeared to be defective, except for one conspicuous item in the center of the room. Lukas couldn't get a clear view of whatever it was, but could make out that the item was small, with a circular shape and silver luster. It wasn't anything too impressive, but somehow he had an eerie hunch that it was much more advanced than the common technologies of this day and age.

"This" Dr. Plushenko directed towards the item. "Here is the Higgs Field Emulator-Light-Refracting-Anti-Gravity-Negative Energy-Detonator." He paused for a brief moment to cough before continuing. "In other words, it's what you would call a time machine."

Lukas refrained himself from giving a loud snort. He figured from the beginning that whatever he had just gotten himself in would be outlandish but this had become more preposterous with each passing second. "That's right. After years of exploring the field of theoretical physics, I have finally gathered enough antimatter to create this beauty. Consider yourself our first lucky volunteer."

Gut intuition indicated to Lukas that now would be a great time to flight, escape, and get as far from these neurotic maniacs as soon as possible. That however, wasn't reasonably feasible. Firstly, would not get away, especially with those "Mr. Black" clones guarding the room and secondly, he lacked the physical capabilities to make a long sprint. Lukas heaved a sigh. 'What the worst thing that could happen?' At this point, he wouldn't be too surprised if he ended up dead. 'But then again' he pondered. 'It's not like there's anything left to lose.'

After all, he didn't even have anywhere to be anymore. Last week, he was abruptly replaced by a fresh-faced high school student and subsequently let go from his job, which was the reason why he was both out of work and soon, his home. 'To hell with it.'

"Listen carefully Mr. Bondevik. These instructions are extremely important and I can only tell you them once." Dr. Plushenko explained. Lukas strained his ears to hear. Now that he had been paying more attention to details, he could have sworn the man had the faintest hint of some sort of Eastern European accent. He couldn't place his fingers on the origin, however. "This machine is set to send you back fifty years in the past. When you wake up, it will be the same day and time, only it will be in 1965 instead. And you will be at the same exact age and condition as you were at that time. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Lukas shook his head in confirmation, even though he highly doubted that the machine or any of Dr. Plushenko's plans were going to succeed.

"We will require weekly checkups on your progress. More details on the subject shall be revealed later." there was a second pause, followed by another series of coughs from Dr. Plushenko. "Our first meeting will be tomorrow afternoon, three P.M. sharp at the Seaside Cafe. You'll know where that is once you get there. And by tomorrow, I mean September 3rd, 1965. Am I clear?"

"Yes." he repeated.

Lukas wasn't sure exactly what happened afterward. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed Dr. Plushenko typing something on a keypad. Then, one of the "Mr. Blacks" went to the opposite side of the room and pulled some sort of lever.

The rest was a complete blur, as the room spun, swayed and shook. It felt as if he had been caught at the epicenter of a horrendous, ten-magnitude earthquake. His vision blurred, until everything within his view meshed together, in a colorful swirl. Lukas felt his stomach churning, sending a wave of nausea through his body. In an attempt to help alleviate some discomfort, he squeezed his eyes shut. At some point, He was sure he lost balance, plummeting straight to the floor.

Then everything went dark, as his senses began fading out. He was left with an odd sense of warmth and comfort, as the last of his consciousness dissipated.

Note: I know there are many theories on time travel. The one I'm sticking with is the one where you CAN essentially completely rewrite the past and people who were supposed to die on a certain day CAN be saved and vice versa.

This was pretty much the prologue to the story. I kind of sped through this, because I want to get to the actual exciting stuff soon! Also this story will be significantly more fast paced than my other DenNor story (which is the only other thing on my profile if you're interested...I know, shameless self promotion).

If anyone is curious about the origins of this story, I had this idea for a long time, where a character screwed up their life pretty badly and is given a chance to change it. I kind of played around with a bunch of different fandoms and pairing until I finally decided on this. I'm also very fascinated with the whole Cold War and the culture of the 60's in general and I think this is a great way to combine both!

I can't really say about my update schedule for this story. I'd like to say once every 3 weeks to monthly to be safe, because real research goes into this. But if there's high demand, I will definitely update this faster.

Anyway, I really would love to hear what you guys think! Please take a brief moment to leave some comments, if you have the time :)

Thanks again for reading! And thanks to those who favorite/subscribe/review! See you next time!