Benelux picnic
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Hetalia. Nor the countries, unfortunately.
Belgium organizes mandatory sibling bonding activities once a month. Luxembourg thinks this is a fantastic idea; Netherlands puts up with it. This month the Benelux siblings, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, are going on a picnic.
Noon finds all three siblings on a single, one-person bicycle. Belgium is sitting on the handlebars; the bottom of her pink dress is gathered up and in a pile on her lap. Netherlands is in the middle, peddling, and Luxembourg is sitting on the back bike rack, holding their picnic basket.
"It's a lovely day for a picnic isn't it, Brothers?" Belgium asked, turning around slightly so she could see her two siblings behind her.
"Yeah!" Luxembourg agreed readily. He then winced when there was a bump in the road, "But I still don't see why we couldn't all just take a car…"
"We can't get to the dyke by car," Belgium giggled.
"If you don't like sitting in the back, you should learn how to ride a bike and ride by yourself next time," Netherlands responded in his usual serious tone.
Luxembourg grumbled. He was the only one of the Benelux siblings who couldn't ride a bike (he much preferred his cars), and his older siblings were never going to stop teasing him about it. Belgium could have taken her bike, but she enjoys the rides they take together on a single bike.
There aren't any real hills in the Netherlands, but if you climb up a man-made dyke by the ocean, you can sit on top and see waves on one side and a field of tulips on the other. Two weeks ago, Belgium had declared that this would be a perfect place for a picnic. Luxembourg had jumped at the idea for more sibling bonding time, and Netherlands agreed without too much protest. He was used to Belgium insisting on mandatory family activities.
Belgium looked out on the tulip fields around her; on the left was a field of red and on her right a field of white tulips. The flowers reminded Belgium of Canada, her brothers semi-secret boyfriend "By the way brother, how did your date with Canada go? Did he like the tulips you got him?"
"It was fine. He liked the flowers," Netherlands responded curtly.
Belgium was used to her brother being brief, especially when it came to emotional matters. But usually when Netherlands talked about the shy maple syrup loving American he blushed a little, hid the tiniest of smiles, or looked away in embarrassment. This time he didn't. Belgium frowned.
Before she could ask about the strange seriousness of Ned's tone, her other brother chimed in "Did you guys make out?"
Belgium rolled her eyes. Luxembourg was a complete gentleman most of the time, high class and refined, but he had the maturity of an eight year old when it came to romance. Perhaps when he actually dates someone, he'll learn some manners.
"We've been dating for over fifty years, Lux. We did a lot more than make out." Netherlands commented bluntly.
"Like what?" Came the enthusiastic question from the back of the bike.
"We had a lot of sex."
"Netherlands!" Belgium scolded, "You are not allowed to discuss your love life with your siblings. It's uncouth!" Netherlands rolled his eyes.
"And Luxembourg," Belgium continued, "You should know better than to ask such questions." Luxembourg just laughed. Honestly, sometimes it felt like she was the only one of her siblings who had any decorum.
"We also went ice skating," Netherlands offered as a safe topic of conversation. Belgium knew how to recognize an olive branch when she heard one.
"That sounds nice. Did you hold hands?" She imagined her brother on a frozen pond under the stars, skating side by side with a blushing Canada. They would be holding hands and smiling.
"No, we played hockey." Ugh. Men.
"Who won?" Lux asked. As if winning was relevant when you're on a date.
"Canada. He beat me 10-1."
"Ha ha, you suck at hockey Ned!" Lux grinned.
Netherlands swerved slightly, so the back wheel of the bike hit a bump in the road. It sent Luxembourg about two centimeters up into the air, causing him to crash back down onto the metal back seat of the bike. "Ow!"
"I'm sorry, were you saying something?" Netherlands asked with a devious smirk on his otherwise impassive face.
"You and your stupid, bloody bikes," Luxembourg grumbled, tightening his right hand's grip on the back of Netherland's shirt. His left hand still clutching their picnic basket, "Cars are way better."
Netherlands let out an amused huff, "Canada and I also had a speed skating contest, which I won hands down." Ned always was good at skating quickly up and down all his frozen canals and waterways. But Belgium was hardly going to give him the satisfaction of commenting on it.
"Did you two do anything other than compete? Honestly! It was supposed to be a date," she grumbled.
"As I said before, we also had a lot of—"
"Koningkrijk der Nederlanden!" Belgium scolded, using his full name, "Don't you dare finish that sentence."
Luxembourg burst into a fit of giggles.
"We're here." Netherlands said, slowing his bike to a stop at the bottom of what looked like a steep, grassy hill. Her brother was nice enough to hold his bike straight and steady as Belgium hopped off the handlebars and Lux slid off the back.
Belgium and Luxembourg chatted as they walked up the concrete stairs to the top of the dyke. Netherlands lagged behind to lock his bike up.
The view from the top of the dyke was spectacular. She'd seen the tulip fields as they biked through them, but at the top of the dyke you could see much further across her older brother's (very, very flat) land. There was a windmill in the distance pumping water out into the sea, and the tulip fields had so many different colors! Reds, oranges, white, purples, lilacs, yellows. On the other side of the dyke was the ocean; the ocean was two meters higher than the tulip fields. The sun reflected off its waves, making them sparkle and shine. It truly was a beautiful spot.
One hour later, after they had eaten their fill of cheese sandwiches, wine, and chocolate covered strawberries, Belgium was finishing repacking their stuff, Luxembourg was dozing on their blanket, and Netherlands was sitting on the edge of the dyke looking out across the ocean. Pausing with her work, Belgium walked over and sat down next to her older brother.
"Did something happen?" She asked carefully, "Between you and Canada, I mean."
Netherlands was quiet for a while. He preferred to keep his emotions to himself, so he could deal with them without making a fuss, but he let his little sister in when it was important. Belgium appreciated that.
"I asked him when he was planning to let his family know about us." Ned finally responded.
Oh.
A delicate subject.
When they started dating ten years after world war two ended, Netherlands had agreed to keep their relationship quiet if he could tell his siblings about it. At the time the world was still recovering from WWII, and the cold war was in full swing, so no one wanted to rock the boat unnecessarily with cross-Atlantic relationships. Homosexual relationships in general were still looked down upon and illegal back then too.
But that was over fifty years ago.
In 2001 Netherlands became the first country to legalize gay marriage, and the country as a whole is very approving and open to homosexuality. Canada quickly followed, legalizing gay marriage as well. (Belgium and Lux too of course!)
Belgium knows that Canada loves his family a lot. He spends a lot of time with his brother America, and though he may be independent now, Canada still values the opinions of UK and France highly. France wouldn't care who Canada was dating, but the US and UK are more difficult. The two still don't even fully accept gay marriage as legal, and Alfred is constantly calling things he finds stupid or effeminate "gay".
Not to mention that they both do not approve of Netherland's habit of smoking marijuana every once in a while (Belgium didn't necessarily approve either, but she'd given up that argument a long time ago). They blamed Netherlands when Canada legalized weed.
"Do you think Canada will ever stop being ashamed of me?" Her brother asked calmly. Belgium's eyes widened.
"No one could ever be ashamed of you, brother," Belgium put a reassuring smile on her face, and reached out to hold her brother's hand. "You know Canada, he's just shy. And his family can be pushy. He probably just wants to keep you all to himself for a little while longer. But don't worry, he'll tell them soon, you'll see." Her hand shook slightly.
Netherlands smiled a little, and leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead, "Bedankt België."
With a final squeeze of her brother's hand Belgium went to go finish packing up their stuff, waking Luxembourg when she pulled the blanket away from him. He grumbled but she shushed him, "You need to wake up anyway. We're about to take a walk through the flowers, it'll be fun!"
As his sister started folding the picnic blanket, Luxembourg wandered over to sit next to his older brother. Netherlands was looking out across the ocean, smoking.
"Luxembourg," Netherlands acknowledged, "Did you know Belgium's hands shake when she lies?"
Lux yawned, stretching to wake from his doze. "Yeah I know; she lies to me every year about where she hides our Christmas presents. They're always under her bed. Why?"
Netherlands blew out a breath of smoke and let the wind carry it west, across the ocean. "No reason."
Author's notes:
Netherlands is called Ned because it's short for Nederland (the Dutch way of spelling Netherlands). Luxembourg is called Lux.
Bedankt België. = "Thank you Belgium" in Dutch and Flemish (Belgian Dutch).