Of Legos, a Mermaid and Fairyland.
Pairing/Characters: Denmark
Warnings: Flying lego pieces, and historical inaccuracies?
Summery: Huddled in a forgotten room during the middle of WWII, Denmark would build cities out of lego pieces. Takes place after the German Invasion of Denmark
A/N: The Copenhagen mermaid has been damaged and defaced many times since the mid-1950s for various reasons, but has each time been restored.
Legos were invented during WWII, and was coined from the Danish phrase 'leg godt', which means "play well". The name could also be interpreted in Latin as I put together" and "I assemble" and even as "I rebuild".
He was sprawled on the ground, fixing small statues of people. They were made simply, of three pieces each. A four-holed piece, upon two leg-like pieces, and then another four piece on the very top for the head. They had no faces, but he knew that they would be smiling down at him. They were shouting his praises instead of boarding boats to leave, to escape to nearby Norway. They would stay, instead of cry to the world how there was no hope anymore. No hope for Denmark. "No hope at all."
He wished that they wouldn't leave. Wouldn't board trains, ships, and ferries to the nearest free nation. They were once his people after all, and no Nation wanted to watch their citizens leave, taking hope along with them. He would wish them well, pretend to smile, and beg them to come back after the war was over. And then walk away after the ferry pulled from the docks, and watch silently, sometimes there would be tears in his eyes. He would miss them so much.
He willed that thought away, staring at the brightly colored pieces that he pretended were his citizens. Nobody was missing, everybody was smiling.
They were smiling at his perfect world, asking him to create a place where a statue, a statue of a beautiful maiden, would not be melted for lead for bullets, a place where the buildings didn't tumble like lego blocks when they fell, down, slowly, hurridly. When the bombs never came and the planes never arrived. And a place where his people would declare their love for him, happy that he was so strong, instead of the cries of betrayal, of anger, of why he had given up so easily.
He didn't mean for anybody to hate him so.
Inside the gloomy house, the only person inside was a tall, blond man, sitting in front of an empty podium. There were broken pieces of granite, sharp pieces of glass in the room, in the middle was a table that once had held his precious mermaid, his pride and joy, which was taken away from him for extra lead to be melted into bullets, bullets to be used in wars, and in wars to be used to kill and destroy other works of art.
He had tried to plead with them when they took away his statue, he had promised that his people weren't going to rebel, just as long as they allowed him to keep the mermaid, but the men in the hateful Nazi uniforms only smirked at him, and picked up the statue. They had walked a few paces, and he had grabbed for it, and fought for the statue, he had bruises, cuts, and he could feel blood seeping down his blond hair. But he only continued to fight, it was his mermaid, and nobody was going to take that away from him.
But then a man walked past, eyes widening at him. He smirked, and the man glared at him for a few minutes, he looked back with unhidden, unsoftened hatred. The man looked at him again, and then looked away. He spat on the statue, the blond glared at him angry, and he walked off, leaving the blond there, eyes wide, mouth twisted into a grimace. He carefully wiped the spit off, muttering words of endearment towards the statue.
"I'm going to keep you safe, I promise." he whispered, kissing her copper lips. She felt cold against him, and he wrapped her in his arms. He gently carried her, with super-human, strength to the nearest building. It was empty, the occuphants had already escaped a year ago, and so he knew that she would be safe, safe and waiting for him. Now he bowed before her, an excited child showing off his creation. He wanted her to watch as he work. He wanted her to know that he would always be there, always rebuilding, he wanted her silent approval.
She was illuminated in candlelight, he didn't care that he was wasting candle-light for a simple statue, but the glow of the candle, amid the darkness and monochromatic gray of the room gave him some comfort.
He wanted more then her approval. He wanted all of Denmark's approval, and so standing up, he lifted his creation up to the podium that used to hold. She silently, motionlessly watched him from her corner, the corner where, sunshine, when the sun was out of course, would shine on her, and she wouldn't be so cold anymore. She was squatting on tiles, and he knew that she wanted to be free on her perch by the sea. "Later my dear, later when we are all free." he promised her.
Then he turned away from her for a moment, and addressed an invisible audience.
"My people!" he exclaimed in a joyful and loud voice. "I made it for you." he says out loud, in front of him was a broken pillar. He pretended that it was a podium, where his mermaid had once sat. An thin layer of dust surrounds the statue, the rock where a beautiful nymph once perched, head turning towards the west. Towards where it was warmer. Where the sun always shone, and the leaves were always green. Where his people were safe.
Pieces of granite littered the ground, and he reached for another lego piece. It was black. A deep, dark black, it reminded him so much of the shrapnel that he threw it away in disgust. The lego fell, across the pavement, falling slowly and reached the ground, where it laid lifeless, a simple piece inanimate piece once again. He looked at it with child-like curiosity, a grown man squatted around pieces of plastic. Plastic won't hurt. He knows that already, and the relief from it made him laugh.
He reached over, leaning to pick it up again. He grinned at the lone passerby, who gave him a look, as though he was insane. He probably was, his precious Copenhagen, his precious mermaid, all had been destroyed. He picked up another piece of lego, reassuring his 'citizens' with blank faces that all will be well again. He smiled, broken-hearted. In his imaginary world, all was well again. The bombs would stop, he would be able to rest, and they would all live in a Fairy land.
That he, the Nation, was going to rebuilt. He picked up another piece of lego again, and placed it on the first two pieces. Then another piece was built, on top again. He had a tower now, brick-red legos and clear pieces, it rose higher and higher. It finally grew to a substantial size, a tower that he set at the very center of the podium. He simply smiled, with a fondness. "There's a place for you guys to live in! See, aren't you proud of me?"
The legos made no noise. But the Nation knew that they were smiling at him, and that they were proud of him. There were so many citizens, nobody was crippled, nobody was dead. Nobody would cry, and nobody would be hurt by the Nazis. They were all beaming at him, they were all so proud of him. Nobody was gone, nobody was sent off to war. Everybody was happy, everybody would dance and eat cream puffs and drink beer. It was going to be paradise.
He continued to build, buildings rose up in mere moments, and he build even more people. He was just sitting down, giggling as he continued to play with the small pieces. He picked it up, setting the building on another piece of granite. He set another building, and set about making the plants. They were simple, just once piece of green for a bush, just two brown one-holed pieces for the trucks, and there!
His city was being rebuilt, and everything will be alright. He will save them from the Germans, he will protect them from the bombs, and he will swoop in at the last moment, like the perfect hero, always late of course, in a military suit with ribbons, and save his princess, his mermaid, and of course his people from the evil dragons. From the sorcerer, and they would be finally happy. And then the fairy tale will end with a 'And they lived happily ever after' just like how fairy tales were suppose to end. And he would smile, and wave, and get his reward and recognition from the eyes of his people.
The mermaid looked like she was smiling at him, the shadows were suddenly gone, and she shone with a bright light. Maybe the sun was out, or maybe it was just the flickering of the candles. He grinned back like an excited child. "Dearest, I have the perfect place for you!" he grinned, and used two pieces to build a makeshift statue.
And all will be right again, and he will wake up, to his perfect world, where the buildings were muti-colored, and beautiful. Where nothing was ever too dark, nor anything with bombs. He will protect his fragile city, he will make it turn out to be a fairytale ending once again. He placed another block on top of a sky-blue piece of lego, trying to make it firm, the only piece of blue in the gray building. He had ran out of gray pieces, so blue would have to do.
He tried to place another piece, this time black and shiny, the piece that he had just thrown away a few minutes ago, onto the building, he pressed to hard the piece wouldn't fit, and in his frustration he made a mistake, and the building tumbled down under the pressure from his hand. Now gray pieces littered on the table, like concrete, among the brightly colored buildings, and he just stared at the pieces.
Why couldn't he build it? The pieces seemed to tumble down, the next piece refused to stick together. He angrily tried to stick another on the gray piece, it still refused to stick on. Why did they fall like that. Was his perfect city impossible then? Why would they betray him like this? Those pieces were his, those buildings were his. Shouldn't they be helping him? He was only trying to make everything better! He clashed the pieces together again, and set it on the ground. Why wouldn't they obey him? They were legos weren't they? Why couldn't even legos obey? Why?
He felt the acid taste of bile rise in the back of his throat, he choked it down again. He was going to be sick, was his country really this...this, broken? Was his city really beyond repair, was his city really broken, and no longer his fairy tale city? Was it? "Damned Nazis, damned bombs, damned stupid pieces of legos that wouldn't cooperate!" He hissed, and in his anger, he pushed another building off the stone podium. He knew his Copenhagen Mermaid was staring reproachfully down at him, angered at how easily he gave up.
But he didn't care. He only continued to smash each piece of the lego city, colorful bits fell onto the ground like rain, and he continued to break them up. His fingers moved in a frenzy, tearing a small block of another, and then throwing the pieces onto the ground. Nobody was in here anyways. The house was deserted, and the window was cloudy, and he had the curtains, they were a dark blue color, drawn down so nobody could see inside.
He continued in his frenzy, the mermaid stared at him angrily, her face told him that she was disappointed, that that he was better then this. That he could rebuild, that he was better then that, that he was going to rebuild. But he didn't look at her, his face was twisted, and he only continued to smash cities apart with his hands.
Soon, the 'table' was empty, and the ground was littered with colorful bits and pieces. He stared down at the pieces, he had bombed them, but there wasn't any relief from the pain it brought. The pieces resembled his Copenhagen again. Broken, but repairable. It wasn't a perfect world. But he knew that, and he was going to keep trying anyways. Maybe someday, someday, after the war was ended, and the sun was shining, he would find himself in Fairyland again.
Smiling, he calmly picked up the pieces once again. It's going to be finally alright, he would rebuild, and rebuild again. And if they tumble down, he accidentally pushed another lego piece down, but then shrugged and calmly picked it back up again, then he would rebuild yet again. And finally, everything would be okay again, the planes would stop, and his people would come home, happy to have their Fairyland back.