So, here is the sort-of-sequel to "From Rye Fields to Dark Mansions." I say sort of because it takes place in the same time period as the previous story, it's just revolves around another character (in this case Poland), so it's not really a sequel in the traditional sense. So, even if you haven't read the other story, you should still be able to follow along with this one just fine, as it can pretty much stand on its own.
This fic takes place in 1795, after the Third Partition of Poland. I got the idea to write this fic from the headcanon of harrietamidala1691. Thanks for letting me use your idea! I might change a few things around though for the sake of the plot. I hope you don't mind.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia
"No, I don't want to!" cried out a familiar voice in the distance, causing the personification of Poland to stir from his unconscious state. "Poland, please wake up!"
The nation in question opened his eyes to the sight of his partner, Lithuania, being dragged away by who he thought was Russia. The brunet was crying out his name, desperately trying to get away from the larger man.
What is going on? Where are they going? Poland wondered.
He propped his chin up with his hand, trying to get a better view of the situation. Despite the fact that his mind still wasn't working properly yet, a feeling of urgency overwhelmed him as he saw his best friend being dragged away.
I should be getting up now, he thought. Why am I not getting up? Why am I not stopping this?
He wanted to call out to Lithuania, to tell him it would be alright, that he would help him. That's what a good friend would do, right? What Lithuania would do for him?
However, he was not Lithuania. What usually happened when faced with an unpleasant situation was that Poland's brain would latch onto something, anything else, to distract him and make the anxiety go away. And, in this case, the next thing he happened to notice was Lithuania's face. The brunet looked ridiculous, his mouth agape and his body twisting around frantically trying to escape his captor's grip. So, Poland did what he did in any situation he was unsure of.
He said the first thing to pop into his mind.
"Oh my God, your face is so funny right now!" he laughed, his head still propped up.
Lithuania then gave him a look that he would never forget. His eyes were so full of pain and betrayal, as though Poland had handed him over to Russia himself. Guilt ebbed its way into the blonde's stomach. It was a strange, yet deeply uncomfortable feeling that he wasn't used to having, and he wanted it to go away. Once again, he tried to get up, to help his friend, but felt a new wave of anxiety when his body refused to comply. So, he was forced to watch helplessly as his oldest and best friend was being dragged away to an uncertain fate. Before he knew it, they were gone.
I'm sorry, Liet, I didn't mean to… I tried, I really did.
It wasn't long before he started to feel himself lose consciousness again.
"Wake up, loser!" taunted an obnoxious voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Poland felt a boot roughly nudge him in his side, and his green eyes flew open to the sight of Prussia's glowing red ones mocking him. Next to him was another nation with dark hair and glasses, who Poland recognized as Austria.
"Is that quite necessary?" the Austrian asked, annoyed at the other's antics. In answer, Prussia laughed.
"You're just mad cause I got myself a new territory," he said, teasing the dark haired nation.
"We both got new territory, Prussia."
"Yeah, but only because of my awesome battle skills."
Austria rolled his eyes and started rubbing his temples with his index fingers. "You are such a child."
As they were bickering back and forth, it started to dawn on Poland that he was surrounded by his enemies, completely alone and vulnerable. A sense of dread filled him as he thought about what they would do with him. From the way they were talking, not to mention from personal experience, he knew his land would be partitioned again, there was no doubt about that. But what about him? Would he be kept imprisoned, maybe even killed? If he had to guess, he'd probably say so. But even if he wasn't killed, what about his people? Would he even be a country anymore? He was well aware that the two nations in front of him, along with Russia, wanted to completely wipe him off the map.
Well, he certainly wasn't going to sit around and wait for that to happen.
As the two nations continued to argue, Poland tried to slip away as quietly as possible. Since he still felt a little weak, he stumbled a bit trying to get up, then anxiously looked back to make sure that Prussia and Austria were still distracted. Once he saw that they were, he started moving.
"Where do you think you're going?"
When he heard Prussia right behind him, Poland's head whipped around so fast that he lost his balance and fell on his butt into the damp, icy snow. He felt his face grow warm in a mix of embarrassment and frustration, as the Prussian gave him an infuriating smirk. The red eyed nation knelt down and picked up the blond, throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"As much as I'd like to continue this little chat, I have my prize to bring home."
Austria gave him an incredulous look. "Prussia, we agreed to split the land, he is just as much mine as he is yours."
The Prussian rolled his eyes. "I thought we already discussed this. I won, and you suck."
It was difficult for Poland to see, hanging upside down over Prussia's shoulder, but he was sure that Austria flushed a bright red. "I demand that I get at least partial custody! Must I remind you again that Poland belongs to both of us?"
"Should I remind you that you need to get that stick out of your-"
"Hey!" Poland spoke up, annoyed that they were talking about him as if he wasn't even there. "The only person I belong to is myself! I'm not, like, some prize to be won!"
Prussia chuckled. "You keep telling yourself that." He then turned toward Austria.
"I'll hand him over whenever I feel like it," he smirked. "If you don't like it, maybe you can play a song about how much of a pussy you are on that oh-so-awesome piano of yours." He burst into laughter with Austria fuming behind him, his new territory still thrown over his shoulder.
Poland internally shuddered at the thought of living in his enemy's house, as his territory, of not even being his own country anymore. But if Prussia thought that he would be easily pushed around, he had another thing coming.
Once they got to his house, Prussia unceremoniously dumped Poland onto the floor, earning him an indignant huff.
"Welcome to my awesome house! I hope you like it, because you're going to be here forever!" Prussia laughed. Poland rolled his eyes.
Admittedly, the house was rather impressive- definitely on the larger side. To the Polish man's surprise, it was actually quite organized as well. With his callous personality, he always assumed Prussia would be a total slob.
"Yeah sure whatever. Where am I, like, supposed to sleep?" he replied, looking down at his nails, trying to sound as bored as possible.
Slightly disappointed by the Polish man's blasé attitude, he roughly grabbed him by the arm and yanked him up to his feet, perhaps with a bit more force than necessary. They walked downstairs and stopped in front of a doorway. With a smirk, Prussia opened the door to reveal the room, and Poland balked.
The room was so tiny that it could've been considered a closet. Not only that, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in quite awhile. There was a pile of what looked like trash off in the corner, and… was that a mouse?! Poland jumped back a little, earning loud, booming laughter from the Prussian beside him.
"You can't be serious."
"What were you expecting, a luxury suite?" Prussia retorted. Poland shot him a glare.
"This totally isn't fair! You got this big house with all these rooms, and you're making me sleep in here?"
"Mein Gott, you're even more of a priss than Austria," he said, looking down at the smaller nation. "Besides, I'm not the one who lost the right to call themselves a country."
Despite himself, Poland flinched at the statement. He then inwardly berated himself for looking weak in front of the enemy. Prussia smirked.
"You should see your face right now. It looks hilarious." Prussia laughed again, causing Poland to flinch once again.
That was the last thing I said to Liet before we were separated, he thought. I bet he hates me now.
"Now, since you'll be living in my house, you have to do everything I say. I have some dirty laundry that needs to be done. There's a bucket, soap, and washboard outside waiting for you. Then, you can make me and my little brother dinner. If you're good, I might even let you have some."
Poland gawked at the Prussian. "If you think I'm going to be touching your totally disgusting laundry, you have another thing coming." Just then, something registered in Poland's mind.
"What do you mean your little brother? Holy Rome? Isn't he, like, off fighting a war or something?" Behind him, Poland heard footsteps. He turned around, and sure enough, it was the empire in question.
"So, this is your new territory?"
Even though Poland had only met the empire a few times, he could tell that he was hardly in the best shape. His was sallow-faced with dark circles under his eyes, and his short, blond hair was sticking up in all directions, looking like it hadn't been washed in quite awhile. He also looked much thinner than the Polish man remembered him last. To Poland's surprise, Prussia gave the small blond a stern look. He didn't think the Prussian was capable of looking stern.
"You should be in bed, brother, it is very important that you try to build up your strength. You know what will happen if… if you don't get better."
Holy Rome gave his brother an annoyed snort. "I think I can handle getting up for a few minutes to welcome our new house guest." The empire then turned to face Poland.
"It is nice to see you again, even if neither of us are in the best shape currently." He looked at Poland, and how he still had a few visible bruises and scraches on his face and arms.
Just as Poland was about to respond, the empire let out a violent cough, covering his mouth with his hand. When he removed it, his palm was red with blood.
"W-What happened to you?!" Poland asked, horrified. Concerned, Prussia rushed over and scooped up his brother into his arms.
"That's it, you're going back to bed now. I don't want to see you up again, alright?" Despite the empire's insistence he was fine, that he was still the mighty Holy Roman Empire, and really didn't need to be carried around like a helpless child, thank you very much, Prussia took him back to his room.
Poland continued to stare in the direction the two brothers went off in, still in shock at Holy Rome's state. Was he dying?
After a few minutes, Prussia was back, a melancholy expression on his usually mocking face. Poland looked at the man for a moment before getting up the courage to ask.
"What's wrong with him? I thought he was off fighting France or something. Is he, like, you know…" Poland stopped when he saw the fire in the Prussian's eyes.
"He has started to grow… weaker recently. His men forced him to come home, because if something happens to him, then the whole damn empire falls apart." He then moved closer, so he was less than a foot from the blond.
"You listen to me, if you don't work, that's up to you, but I refuse to feed freeloaders, especially when I have my brother to worry about. I warn you, if you get in the way of his recovery in any way, shape, or form, I will end you right then and there, you understand?"
Despite himself, Poland backed up a bit, barely suppressing a gulp. Though he would never admit it out loud, Prussia could be really intimidating when he wanted to be.
"Okay, fine, I won't mess with your brother. But I'm still totally not touching your dirty ass clothes." He said, as casually as possible.
Prussia rolled his eyes. "Fine, starve for all I care. If you aren't going to be useful, stay out of my sight." Prussia shoved the smaller nation into the tiny bedroom, shutting the door.
As Poland sat in the dark, dirty room, everything that had happened that day slowly started to sink in. His country was dissolved. He had been separated from Lithuania, who probably hates him now. He was taken and forced to live under his enemy's rule. He would not be eating dinner tonight, and probably wouldn't be eating at all until he either gave in to Prussia's demands or, more likely, could find a way to sneak something when no one was looking.
Bitter tears fell down his cheeks as he waited for sleep to overtake him, his aching, empty stomach growling.
I tried doing as much research as I could on the Third Partition of Poland for this fic, but I'm still not sure if everything is completely accurate. If I got anything wrong, especially if its something big, please tell me and I'll try to fix it. Also, I haven't really written for either Prussia or Holy Rome before, so if either of them seem off, please let me know about that too.
The second chapter is currently in progress, and while I'll be pretty busy this week, I'll try (key word try) to have it out sometime this weekend.
Last but not least, special thanks to my beta reader Midna3452 for all your help! Thank you all for reading, and feel free to leave a review! Feedback helps me become a better writer, and keeps me motivated to continue writing :)