Somethings Magic Can't Change

Elizaveta hated being in love.

Because she was in love, her heart pounded, her breathing stopped, and she couldn’t talk.

She couldn’t hate Gilbert anymore, of course, but that was something she was going to change.

She had found the stopwatch under that piece of antique furniture Austria just got. She had been confused at first, unsure how to use it, but then she realized it turned back time.

It was a chance to turn back time to when she was love-free.

So Elizaveta thought about it some time...

And turned it back to when she broke up with Austria.

She found herself after the fight, after she had stormed out of the house. She found herself in a tiny, graffiti-ed alley. She found herself thinking lovingly and sadly of Austria.

And then she found herself bumping into a hooded man. “Oh sorr-“ She squinted. “Gilbert…?”

Here’s my chance! Elizaveta thought happily. I bet this is the moment I fell in love with him. I’ll just walk away right now.

Present-Hungary snuck behind a trash can and dialed her old cell phone number (she’d changed it once upon a time).

“H…hello?” past-Hungary answered.

“Elizaveta…” present-Hungary deepened her voice and sniffled, as though she had been crying. “Elizaveta… come home… please… I’m so sorry…”

“R…Roderich?” past-Hungary’s eyes widened and she began backing up to the colorful brick wall. “Is… is that you?”

“Y-yes… Please, come home… I still love you… I’ve always loved-“

Thump.

Present-Hungary couldn’t understand what she was seeing.

Past-Hungary’s cellphone lay a few feet away from both Hungaries (Hungaries?). Past-Prussia was seething and shouting some profanities about Austria, and how he wasn’t right for past-Hungary…

And he was down on one knee!

“I’ve loved you since forever, Liz…” he whispered, at the end of his rant. “Please don’t ever go back to Roderich… he never loved you like I do…”

“No…” Present-Hungary’s eyes widened.

“… I’ve loved you too, Gilbert.”

“No!” Present-Hungary shrieked, pressing the button that would erase the past and take her back home.

She found herself clutching the stopwatch, crying. “A-again.” She muttered. She must’ve loved him already, then. “Let’s try again.”

So she did. She tried it when they were young, she tried it when Austria and she got married, she tried it the moment they found out her gender…

“There is no such thing as love at first sight!” she shouted in her mind. “There has to be a time… There has to be…”

But none of the times of her life she tried gave her a good result.

The last time she tried it was when they first met each other. They weren’t ever going to meet, she decided. She had easily set up both past-selves and was watching gleefully, when she moved something on the stopwatch. “Wha-?”

From the sounds and the tugging sensation, she knew she was travelling in time again.

She found herself in a brilliantly lit-up church, rain pouring outside. She remembered once upon a time she had declared that she wanted her wedding to be stormy. A wedding it was. She stood in a huge, fluffy ballgown, at the oak doors, beaming.

The… future?

Wait… was she going to marry Roderich again?

Did she fall in love with him again?

But no.

The doors banged open, and present-Hungary gasped.

A familiar smirk, gloves, a tux.

She would get married to Prussia in the future…!?

It was way too much to handle.

She turned back the stopwatch, and collapsed onto her bed, sobbing and sobbing.

When was it going to work!?

“L…Liz?” Someone was on her bed. She looked up.

“A…Arthur?” she asked, suddenly suspicious. She wiped at her face. “Wha… what are you doing here?”

“I heard someone use magic. So I came here to investigate.”

“O-oh…” That’s right. He was a wizard.

“You… you found that?”

“Yes.”

“May I take a look?”

“…sure.”

He picked it up gingerly. Elizaveta knew how an expert looked at their area of expertise, and Arthur held that expression. “You… you’ve been using this?”

“Yes.” She said miserably.

They sat in silence for a while. Arthur stared intently at the stopwatch.

“You know… either way, you’ve always fallen in love with him, right?”

She looked up in shock. “How-“

“Do you want to hate him?”

“What-“

“Answer me.”

Elizaveta looked down at her hands. “… I wish I never stopped hating him. I wish I could stop hurting myself. Because he will never love me back, and that hurts.”

“Oh.” Arthur looked slightly embarrassed. “W-ell… Er… I don’t exactly know about this stuff and all… never had much experience… but think.” He looked at her, straight on. “The watch doesn’t let you avoid it… I don’t know… maybe because there is no way to.”

“What are you saying…?”

“I’m saying… er… maybe… Maybe you were meant to love him? Maybe there’s no way to change that?” Arthur sounded like he wanted to disappear. “Yeah, it’s cliché and all… but sometimes… I don’t know… there are things magic can’t change.”

“What…?” Elizaveta looked up.

But Arthur had really disappeared, out of embarrassment.

Elizaveta sat curled in her room long after midnight with the stopwatch in her hands, thinking.