Icy Heart and Warm Love

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"How did you come back?" Britain asked, speaking the question that seemed to have been going through all of the mens' heads out loud.

Kalda sighed a little, standing up to become the animated talker that she was.

"Well, it was weird, to be honest," she started off. "At first, I was in a coma-like state, almost in a daydream. There was this light on my right side, and a dark shadow on my left.

"Everything else around me was a neutral grey, so I knew then that I was stuck. As it just so happened to turn out, someone who had also died, probably someone from a long time ago, told me to choose between the Shadow, and the Light."

"What did you choose?" Veneziano wondered.

"It was hard to pick, so I looked through both of them," Kalda answered, not skipping a beat. "The Light showed me the good future that I had, one that I couldn't quite figure out since I hadn't paved the road for it yet.

"The Shadow, however, showed me what my true death would look like if I didn't choose the Light. I chose the Light, mainly because I want a good future. I have my whole life ahead of me, and the stranger knew that."

"Some of us didn't zhink zhat you were going to come back," France stated. "You scared us all."

"And there will be punishments for that later," Britain smirked, "but all that matters now is that you're safe."

"I guess you are a country after all because you just regenerated," Canada smiled.

"Nothing can ever kill me," Kalda grinned.

"I just vant to know vhy you did it," Prussia said, looking at her with a sad look. "Vhat compelled you to do zhat?"

"I couldn't just let one of my friends die," Kalda answered. "What kind of a friend would I be then?"

Romano suddenly put Kalda in front of him, giving her a slap on the face.

"Ow!" Kalda whined, rubbing her cheek. "What was that for?"

Everyone laughed, including Kalda, all of them knowing exactly what was happening.

"That was for sneaking into the World Meeting that Veneziano went to and starting this whole shenanigan in the first place!" Romano yelled her. "Seriously, Kalda? Didn't I teach you anything? And while I'm at it...."

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Kalda stood in front of her grave as the others tried to calm Romano down; he had started crying in the fetal position after his lecture to Kalda, and so she sighed a little as she looked at her gravestone.

My death seemed to have affected everyone today, she thought. Everyone but me.

"Looks scary, doesn't it, poppet?" Oliver asked sadly, hugging Kalda from behind and giving her a light kiss on her cheek.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she apologized. "I didn't know how my actions would affect you guys. In my head I did the right thing, but in reality I-"

"Shh," Oliver soothed her, swaying them back and forth a little. "You are okay, poppet. Yes, something bad happened, but you aren't dead, so now we can put all of this behind us."

Kalda stayed silent, still looking at her grave.

"How many graves have you seen?" she blurted out quietly.