Hello~ JakeTheCat here with my first ever Hetalia fic! -happy dance- For my fans who have read my other stories, don't worry my others will be getting updated still, I'm not abandoning them. I've just fallen head over heels for Hetalia and couldn't help but write something for it. I'm not sure how long this will be, but it's safe to assume that it will be over fifteen chapters (if my brain doesn't quit on me). Also, this story is going to be based around music (duh, it's Austria) but it's not a songfic, I promise. Just certain events will be inspired by music. I even listed the first song at the beginning of this chapter to give you guys a hint as to what the story will be like (there won't be a song for every chapter, in fact this song isn't even related to this chapter). Ok, I think that's it! Hope you like it!

Flower gleam and glow,

Let your power shine,

Make the clock reverse,

Bring back what once was mine.

Heal what has been hurt,

Change the fate's design,

Save what has been lost,

Bring back what once was mine.

What once was mine…

"Healing Song" from the movie Tangled

Chapter 1

"Gilbert, I swear, if you don't give that back right now –"

The woman was cut off as the white-haired man dropped her bag down on the snow in front of her, a huge smirk forming on his face. His cheeks were flushed, not only from the cold but from the thrill of tormenting his childhood friend. Well, at least he liked to say they were friends.

He received a scowl as the young woman bent to pick up her bag, mumbling something to herself angrily as she gathered the sack that carried her groceries. It was bad enough having to go to the market in this weather, but running into Gilbert only made things worse.

"Come on, Lizzie," he groaned as she straightened up, "You know I'm just messing with ya."

"It's Elizabeta," she snapped, "And I'm not exactly fond of you being a jerk to me all the time."

The albino rolled his eyes as she pushed past him, beginning to head back to her house. He swung himself around and began following her, putting his hands in his pockets and grinning to himself when he saw Elizabeta's back hunch over with irritation.

"What am I going to have to do in order to get rid of you?" she sighed.

"Let me take you on a date," he answered smoothly.

"Something realistic, please."

Gilbert didn't mind the shot to his ego. She'd been dealing these blows at him for years, but he still refused to give up; he was a rather persistent bastard. When he set his eyes on something he went after it until he got it. The only problem was that Elizabeta was rather difficult to catch.

"I think that's realistic," he pointed out.

"Don't make me get Vash over here to blow your brains out," she snapped.

At that, Gilbert did hesitate slightly. Elizabeta's Swiss roommate was rather intimidating with his never-ending supply of firearms. But the man was more protective over his little sister than Elizabeta, so he wasn't too threatened. He knew that he could beat the guy up any day if it came to it, but his skill with a gun was what made Gilbert keep his distance.

Still, he continued to follow after her, unwilling to let her win today.

"I think Vash is more worried about the new guy," Gilbert said as he walked up closer to her, "I mean someone's actually moving into that old death trap of a house? Whoever it is, he's gotta be nuts. And it's not like Vash to have any crazies anywhere near Lilli."

Elizabeta rolled her eyes and clutched her bag tighter to her chest. That was the whole talk of the town recently. Someone was going to be moving in to the old Germanic mansion at the edge of the town.

The story was that the last owner had gone missing and was never seen or heard from again. That'd been decades ago and now the old house was rotting and covered with ivy. Elizabeta simply thought whoever was moving in would make improvements and the mansion would look normal again, even amongst the other houses. She didn't see what the big deal was.

"Vash is actually very curious to meet our future resident," Elizabeta informed him, "And he's hoping that there will possibly be someone for Lilli to play with."

"As if!" Gilbert snorted, "I'm telling ya, it's gonna be some crazy that's gonna drive this town insane!"

"As credible as your words of wisdom are, I highly doubt that. Now just… go away! I need to go home and make dinner."

With that, she shoved him to the side, catching him off guard and sending him falling into the snow. She allowed a satisfied grin to form on her lips before walking away curtly to her home, leaving the man swearing in German after her.

"Vash, Lilli, I'm home," Elizabeta called as she stepped inside the house.

"Welcome home!" Lilli's familiar sweet voice cried.

Though the house was small, Elizabeta couldn't see either of her housemates. They were most likely in the parlor, which was all the way in the back.

As she set her bag down in the kitchen and put away groceries, she could hear the others' footsteps as they came closer.

"Hello, Liz," Vash said warmly, "Find everything alright?"

"Yep," the woman replied, "Dinner should be ready soon."

"Can I help?" Lilli piped up.

Elizabeta smiled and nodded. The girl was adorable and it was practically impossible to say no to her. So, since Lilli was helping, all three of them helped to prepare dinner. With all of them working together, it was ready quickly and they all dug in.

"So did Gilbert give you a hard time today?" Vash asked after he swallowed his bite.

"Unfortunately," Elizabeta grumbled, "He won't leave me alone. And then he went off about the new neighbor that's supposed to be moving in soon."

Vash looked at her puzzled at the last statement.

"Why'd he bring that up?"

"I don't know. He thinks the person's going to be a loon who will drive us all mad. I don't know where he comes up with these stories."

"Neither do I. Gilbert's always been an odd duck. Though, you must admit, his pursuit of you is quite sweet."

The woman almost choked on her mouthful of food. Sweet?In what way on this planet was Gilbert sweet?

She coughed and pounded her fist on her chest once to make sure the food went down before speaking.

"Are you insane?" she asked, "That guy's so rude! How is him making my life miserable sweet?"

Her roommate simply took a swig of his water and shrugged his shoulders.

"He's been after you for so long," he explained, "To not give up… it's rather admirable."

Elizabeta shivered with disgust. Ugh! Since when did Vash like Gilbert? Was there something in the air that was making everyone lose their minds?

She excused herself from the table, declaring that she was going to go on a walk. In all honesty, she just wanted to be alone with the one sane person she knew: herself.

Even though the wind had picked up and the snow was starting to whirl around her, Elizabeta carried on down the long road that practically every house and store in the village resided on. In actuality, there were only a few places not on this road, such as a sawmill and a couple of farms. Other than that, only the mysterious empty mansion was the only structure not on this lengthy path of dirt.

Elizabeta kicked at a piece of snow with her boot, sending it crumbling forth around her leathered foot. She'd never been a lover of winter – it made everything cold and dead. But she'd just have to wait for spring, where the sun would bring back life and promise of happiness. Until then, she'd just have to suffer like the rest of the living creatures she shared the world with.

Something, though she didn't know what exactly, caused Elizabeta to look up and realize she'd strayed from the path that set her course, but had instead wandered on the small road to the old mansion that the village's newest resident would live. In fact, she was basically standing at its gates.

She came to an abrupt halt, not wanting to run into the rusty iron bars before her. Or the boy standing behind them.

He'd probably seen her walking over and wondered what the hell her problem was and came over to investigate. There was no way he could be over ten, proven by both his height and the innocence in his hazel eyes that seemed to look directly through her.

For a moment they just stared, her at him and him through her.

"What are you doing?" he suddenly asked in a high pitched voice, causing the small amount of intelligence she sensed in him to evaporate.

Again, she stared. His reddish hair was kept short and nicely, despite one unruly piece that curled out of the left side of his head like it was begging to be noticed. His head had tilted to the side in curiosity, those orbs still going right on through.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment, "I was just walking and happened to come this way for some reason."

"Oh."

He seemed much more innocent now, a smile forming on his small lips as he seemed to glow with the happiness of encountering a new person.

"I'm Feliciano," he said cheerily, "I work for Mr. Austria here, but he's working right now so I came out to make snow angels!"

Elizabeta followed his finger as he pointed at an area in front of the house, several sloppy snow angels sprawled out in the snow, hastily jumping all over the ground. She smiled at the sight, remembering her own childhood when she did such things.

She thought about what the boy had just said. He worked for the person living here? Was that even legal? And he'd called him Mr. Austria. Was he a diplomat from the country or something? Or would the man not give his name away?

"What's your name?" the boy piped up, pulling Elizabeta from her thoughts.

"Oh. I'm Elizabeta."

"Neat! You have a long name like me, too! Mr. Austria says his name isn't hard to say, but I think so!"

So the man didhave a name; the boy just didn't like saying it. That was certainly interesting.

"I didn't know anyone had moved in here yet," she remarked.

"Mr. Austria didn't want to tell anyone yet," the boy explained, "He said he wants to get settled in before meeting anyone."

"Isn't meeting people a part of settling in?"

The boy tilted his head again curiously, thinking.

"I think so," he said after a moment, "But Mr. Austria likes his work better than people it seems."

Sounds like a real exciting person,Elizabeta thought. Another stuffed up man who only wanted money and not relationships or friends.

"Well, I need to go," Feliciano chirped, "I need to get to work on my chores! Bye Miss Eliz-afante-eta?"

Elizabeta laughed and said bye as well, watching the little boy hurry off to the house and rushing inside before he was scolded for talking to strangers.

He seemed sweet enough, but from his description of the master of the house, Elizabeta wasn't too thrilled. This village already seemed claustrophobic; a stuffed up geezer like him probably wouldn't help enhance the atmosphere.

If anything, he wouldn't do anything. He'd slip right through the cracks unnoticed and never brush a hand over Elizabeta's life. And truthfully, she didn't give a damn.

Feliciano really hoped that Mr. Austria wouldn't be mad at his encounter with the pretty lady at the gate. He'd only seen her and gone over to shoo her away, but she was so pretty and didn't seem mean. Despite her complicated name, he liked her and hoped to see her again once Mr. Austria let them go out in the town.

He hoped he'd be able to sneak in the kitchen and start his chores without being noticed, but his hopes were dashed.

"Feliciano," the familiar voice called, "Kommen sie hier."

The young boy reluctantly made his way to his master's study, finding him sitting as his desk, his gloved fingers stroking its keys softly.

"What were you doing outside?" he asked.

Oh no, this was it. He was going to punish him. Make him clean the whole house without any lunch. So cruel…

"A woman came to the gate," he replied meekly.

"And?"

"And I spoke to her… she was pretty and nice so I don't think I did anything wrong."

"You didn't. I'm glad you were honest. Now if you could go get me some tea, I'll play you that song of yours."

Feliciano's eyes lit up. Not only at the mention of being let off the hook, but at the opportunity of hearing his master's favorite piece of work.

"Sì!" the boy replied happily and shuffled off to make the drink.

The man smiled after him, removing his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose gently.

He honestly hadn't minded Feliciano's encounter with the woman, who he assumed was a resident of the village. The boy was a social butterfly and it was good for him to meet plenty of people. He just hadn't wanted to introduce themselves to the village yet, not when they weren't completely moved in.

For some reason he felt like he had to be prepared to present himself to the village upon introductions, which included making his house nice and tidy. That's just how he was.

"Mr. Austria!" the squeaky voice cried, "I have your tea!"

The little boy came scurrying back in the room, a tea cup sitting on a saucer in one hand as the other waved around animatedly.

"You know my name is Mr. Edelstein," the man sighed as he was handed the drink, "Or even Mr. Roderich."

"Sì, but they're both so long and I forget. And since you come from Austria, it's easier to call you that."

Roderich just rolled his eyes and took a sip from the cup.

He remembered how the boy's parents were worried that he was too carefree and wouldn't grow up to be an adult with a realistic concept of the world. To solve this, they'd sent him off with Roderich, a cultured gentleman who would be able to teach him etiquette and how to be an adult.

Still, the boy was hardly eight and Mr. Edelstein didn't want to put too much pressure on him. So for now he was more of an errand boy and a housekeeper until he got old enough to learn the proper ways of becoming a man.

"Will you play that song now, Sir?" Feliciano asked hopefully.

Roderich set the cup down and gave him a nod in response, patting the spot next to him on the bench. The boy eagerly jumped up and sat next to him, anticipating the lovely noise that was about to fill the air.

So, in order to keep the boy from breaking something with the anticipation he had bottled in, Mr. Edelstein began to carry out his work.

So that's it for now! Hehe, I love Chibitalia~ I also notice that I have a thing for guys with glasses (Austria, America, Sweden, etc.) so expect a lot of them sometime in the future.

I don't have much to say since that's the first chapter other than to please review. That's what keeps me updating so the more the merrier~ Okay then, see you guys later!