Magnet (Hetalia x Reader)

Conflict 5: Lies

Do you know that feeling you get when your order finally arrives after what felt like hours of waiting on your table as you watched the other customers in the restaurant eat as though mocking you?

That was what Name used to feel whenever she saw Francis back when she was still dating the Frenchman while she was in college.

Name was only living in Paris for several months as an exchange student. Francis was a guest at the college Name was attending. She didn't really know why but he would occasionally teach in many fields such as French, culinary arts, and painting.

The female students and teachers alike (and the occasional guy) would flock over his shoulder-length honey tresses and sapphire eyes. Name would've been lying if she said that she didn't have a crush on him but she mostly ignored him.

They would bump into each other occasionally but all they ever did was exchange small smiles and that was it.

But then Francis accidentally walked in on Name changing in the men's room wearing a relatively revealing bartender uniform. That's when he found out that she works part-time to pay for her tuition fees and other necessities, but she kept that a secret because the particular university she was studying in was notorious for rich alpha bitches and she wanted to live her life in peace. After that incident he started teasing and flirting with her both in and out of campus, but nothing too extreme.

She found him insufferable and perverted and was well aware of his womanizing ways.

However, Name got sick one night while working and was almost attacked by a bunch of drunkards but of course, as always, a certain someone came to the rescue. She fainted while her knight in shining armor was defending her and eventually woke up on Francis' bed in his hotel suite.

She was surprised when she found out what he did, and out of gratitude finally agreed to go out on one date with him.

He first took her out for dinner. She was taken aback by how she found herself actually liking him and one thing led to another and next thing she knew, they were a couple. However...

it was only a fling, a one-time thing. They both knew it from the very start.

When fall became winter, it was time to say goodbye. Name spent the night before her departure crying herself to sleep so that when it was time to part with Francis she would show him she wasn't some little girl he hooked up with while she was in Paris for a few months, but a woman who could handle herself and took full responsibility for her decisions.

The following day however, Francis never came to the airport. But Name found herself sighing with relief despite what should have been disappointment.

She always hated goodbyes.

To spend such a long time looking at a person's face, inhaling every feature there is to take in; from the crinkles of their eyes to the curl of their nose, and trying to savor it, to remember it. Only for them to walk away and with the last thing you see is their back turned to you.

She comforted (or perhaps the more proper term was tortured) herself with the thought that she knew that this was bound to happen, so she should just suck it up and move on. But it's hard to move on when you've never really let go.

Because deep inside she knew something important; for a *perfect love story when you have chemistry all that's left is timing.

But timing's a bitch.

Take now for example. After years of self-deception and engrossing herself with her studies instead of love, Name came face to face with the man she managed to convince herself that she would never have to meet again.

Francis Bonnefoy.

He whispered her name almost absentmindedly, and the two gaped at each other out of marvel, out of disbelief.

Name was the first to return to her senses and stuttered, turning around, "I-I have to go"

"No wait" He grabbed her wrist and gently spun her to face him, "I can't believe it, it's been so long..."

"Better believe it" She coughed out a laugh.

"W-what—Why are you here?"

"Very nice, Frenchie, 'Why are you here'? You sure do know how to greet a woman after years of not even seeing each other" She responded sarcastically. Her voice came out more venomous than she intended.

"You're right, you're right. I'm sorry, it's just that..." He squeezed her shoulders, "I missed you so much"

Name was taken aback. Not because of what Francis just said, but because of the satisfaction she got from his words.

'Have I always been hoping?'

Francis leaned down, his hands still on her shoulders.

'All this time...'

His lids fell over his eyes.

'... I've known it all along'

His face got closer by an inch. A centimeter.

'I've been lying to myself'

Their lips were almost touching.

'I've never really let go'

She clenched her fists.

'It never stopped hurting...'

THUD

Francis flew down to the concrete pavement on his rear. He groaned, not really hurt, but shocked.

Name was against violence—on either sexes, but everything happened so fast and her reflexes were faster than her mind.

Instead of a pair of familiar lips, Francis had felt angry hands on his chest.

'I just let myself indulge in my own sweet lies...'

Name glared icily at the man lying on the ground. She didn't say anything though, letting her face do all the talking. All the pain and tears that she kept under lock and key, after such a long time, they all transformed into resentment and rage.

After a pregnant silence, Name finally spun on her heels and wordlessly walked away from her former lover.

'Desperately hoping that they'd become the truth'

*HIMYM reference