Hetalia oneshots

✖DREAM✖

"Why are you sleeping?"

"Hey, stop sleeping and wake up for once, why don't you?"

"There are other things besides sleeping that you could do, you know."

Sleep.

If anyone's ever complained about his laziness, the Greek didn't really care. The only word that his mind would register was sleep. It was the most appealing concept to him, for reasons didn't like to discuss very often. It didn't exactly matter anyways, considering the fact that whenever people would ask him, he was usually half-asleep, so it would never come through properly.

Currently, he was doing just that. Sleeping.

Or at least trying to.

He rested himself on the ancient ruins of stone steps leading to a library that had collapsed many centuries ago. Though broken, he loved this place. It was quiet, peaceful, calming. It reminded him of when he used to sit on the same steps, listening as philosophers preached their theories. It also reminded him of his mother. Ruins were the only things that made him feel... safe and loved. Without them, he would have felt alone in the world, and that's what bothered him.

He didn't instantly fall asleep like usual because there was just something bothering him. Some sort of longing. Some sort of loneliness. Sure, he'd felt this way before, as did other nations, but today it just felt worse, like it was slowly eating at him, defining his very existence. That was the very reason he'd come here in the first place. (He rarely came to the place because since he loved it so much, it was often that he wouldn't leave for days on end, which left many people and nations worried.)

However, being here only made these feelings all the more terrible.

Greece wanted more. More than to just be in this place, he wanted to be in this place the way it was before. Before disaster and time destroyed it. That was what he longed for. He just didn't know why. He also didn't know why this stopped him from sleeping.

Suddenly, he heard quiet footsteps approaching him. He was too tired to care, so he simply lied there and waited for this person to speak first. They stopped right in front of him, a calm, familiar voice starting to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

It was Cyprus.

"I should ask you the same..." Greece responded lazily._

"Well, you disappeared and that usually means that you've been crawling around in the ruins, and I came to find you. Once again, what are you doing here?"

"Skydiving."

He rolled his eyes at that statement, but he realized it was an obvious question that there was really no point in answering. He remained quiet for a while, but seeing that the Greek had not yet fallen asleep, he decided to ask,

"...Why do you sleep so often?"

He wasn't half-asleep this time, so there was really no excuse for ignoring him. This was not the first time Cyprus has asked this question, but it was the first time that Greece had ever been fully awake for it. He sighed, shifting his position so that he was turned away from him. For a second, it seemed that he was angry at the other, but he started speaking anyway.

"Well, if you really must know, it's because... it's because I feel no meaning in staying awake for this world. Not anymore, at least..."

"Anymore?"

"Ever since..." Greece cut himself off, but he knew that Cyprus knew what he meant. "Ever since that, I just... feel empty. So what's the point of staying awake just to feel nothing?"

Cyprus had never thought of his situation in such a way. He always thought that Greece was a naturally tired, relaxed sort of person, not that there was an actual reason for it.

"But if you stay like this all the time, you'll just miss all the chances to help yourself!"

"That doesn't matter. It will never be reversed. That would be too perfect... This world is only a shadow of a perfect one."

"What do you mean?"

"Someone told me. Somewhere is a perfect world where every problem is fixed and everything is wonderful. Just thinking of that, I don't want to live here anymore. The loneliness, the worrying, it's all too much. I no longer want to deal with this. Sleep is the closest thing I can get to that world. However sad it is, I don't care."

Cyprus was rendered speechless at his words. Greece had never said anything about his feelings like this. He was never a very "open" person to begin with, but this... Maybe he was half asleep after all and just couldn't stop talking.

"But you have to care, don't you? If you just don't care, then this nation will crumble and you'll disappear!"

At the mention of disappearing, Greece seemed to grow very tense. As if he were angry at Cyprus for saying such things. Even so, his expression was unreadable, his voice unwavering.

"Maybe I don't want to care. It hurts. It causes worrying. I don't want that for my people. And mother wouldn't have wanted that either. I care about her, and it hurts. I don't want to feel any of this, and I never asked for it."

Cyprus stayed silent for a while, thinking over the past few minutes. Was he really that unhappy with his life? He could think of nothing to say, except...

"Greece... I- 'm so sorry..."

Upon receiving no response, he'd realized that the tense air from the Greek had fallen away, and he seemed calmer now. That only meant one thing: he'd finally fallen asleep.

Even if Greece didn't remember this conversation when he woke up, Cyprus would. And this memory would follow him, no matter how vague it grows to be, for the rest of his existence.