Memories of Old

Chapter 10: General Winter

Chapter 10—General Winter

Romano was the first to notice my distress. "Felice? You okay?" His question drew the attention of the others. Romano then sighed as he wrapped his arms around me. "Idiota. They won't reject you for that..." He said softly.

"B-but... they'll be sickened by me! I know it! I'm a murderer, after all! The blood of millions of humans! On my hands!" I cried out, making the other nations flinch back in surprise. The surprise turned to horrified shock as my words registered.

You're not just talking about your Powers, are you?

What do you think?

"Itary-kun? What do you mean?" Japan asked gently, not sure whether or not to believe my words given my current state of mind.

"Don't listen to him." Romano said softly, though everyone heard him.

"Idiota..." He said to me. "It's not your fault. You can't control it... you can't stop it. You'd be dead right now if you didn't have that power..."

"But... I'm sorry fratello, you're right... I... I just..." I sighed, not wanting to sound ungrateful, but at the same time the guilt was nearly overwhelming. Romano's face also shone with guilt.

"I'm so sorry, Felice... I only did what I had to... I regret nothing." He said firmly.

"I know, Vino... I'm not mad at you... I never have been. I'm grateful for my life, really I am!" I said, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. "But... it's hard sometimes, you know? The guilt never goes away..." I looked at my hands. For a moment, they dripped with an endless amount of blood. What sickened me the most was that the blood belonged to not only humans, but children and my friends, too. "The blood is still there..." In more ways than one....

At least the Time-Shards are gone?

Sure. But the hallucinations aren't.

They're alive, though. That's what counts.

Romano wrapped his hands gently around mine, and kissed them. "But you've also saved many lives with these hands. Surely, that counts for something?"

The next memory finally popped up, as the travel scenes that'd been showing finally teetered off to show the four of them—Asher now grey around the muzzle—in another house.

"We'd been living in this house for about 2 years or so by this point. We're 45 in this memory." Romano explained.

There was a thick layer of snow outside, covering the forest in a blanket of untouched white. Many of the nations sighed as they were reminded of older, simpler times.

Lovino, Feliciano, Asher, and Emma were huddled up together around a fire. They all looked thin and tired.

"Momma? I'm hungry... Can Vino and I go hunt?" Feliciano asked.

"Hunt? You hunted?" Canada asked, mildly surprised.

"Si... Vino and I had started learning how to hunt when we were 30. We were quite good at it, too... Momma was too old by this point to hunt, and the cold hurt her joints... She was aging so quickly..." I sighed, but shook my head. "This winter was particularly harsh. We had little-to-no food, and the village didn't take too kindly to us. They didn't have a good harvest that year, so they weren't too generous with donations. We were also low on money, so it was bad all the way around." I concluded.

"Alright, but be careful. Be home before dark, a storm's supposed to roll in tonight. See if you can catch something, but don't push past dark." Emma warned, as Feliciano and Lovino grabbed their bows and arrows, specially made for their size.