I have a little bit of an obsession with Norway and Iceland's brotherly relationship... Or just family stuff in Hetalia in general...

Anyways, as the summary says, this is how they see the events roughly from 1905 to present day. I am not exactly following Hetalia cannon, but I will try to stay as historically accurate as I can. Unfortunately, the history curriculum where I lived stunk. I got two years of world history out of twelve, and one of those mostly focused on ancient civilizations. Luckily, the internet exists.

This story will probably end up being pretty long. I have the chapters set up in arcs in my mind, and there are quite a few of them. I will do my best to not take forever to update, though. I apologize in advance if I don't update for a while.

NO PAIRINGS. This is about brotherly love, not romantic.

The title is Icelandic for "I am Here".

Human Names:

Norway- Lukas Bondevik
Iceland- Eiríkur Steilsson
Denmark- Mikkel Køhler

Any others will be added as needed.

NOTE: I changed Denmark's name from Magnus to Mikkel.

Ég er Hér

Chapter 1: Letters

June 7, 1905

A young-looking boy with silvery white hair walked along a fairly deserted road late in the day. The few people he passed gazed at him curiously, wondering why what they thought was a twelve or thirteen year old boy was wandering Reykjavik's streets by himself, though the boy kept his head down and seemingly didn't notice. Some even wondered how he was able to not run into anything, not knowing that he had been walking around the Icelandic capital since it had been created.

He kept walking, the roads getting progressively more deserted, until he finally reached a house about ten minutes' walk outside of the city. He opened the door, not having locked it before he left earlier. Looking around the living room, he sighed, not finding anyone there. It wasn't like he had honestly expected his brother to be there, and he wasn't even completely sure he even wanted him to show up.

Pulling out a sheet of paper from his pocket, he unfolded it and read it again, skipping over the many pointless paragraphs until he got to the part he wanted.

Norge is apparently going to hold some kind of referendum for independence or something in June. I think it was the… 7 or something. So Lukky might come back soon! Aren't you excited, Icy?

First, would it kill the Dane to call him Iceland, his nation name, or even Eiríkur, his human name?

Annoying Danish personifications aside, Eiríkur didn't know how he felt about Lukas coming back. He was happy for the Norwegians that they were most likely going to be free after over 500 years, though he was jealous- he couldn't even really remember being completely free, not under the control of another government. On the other hand… Lukas hadn't even attempted to contact him since he was forced to accept the union with Sweden. Even if he hadn't been allowed to visit him, he still could have sent him a letter to let him know that he was alive. And he could have- he had never met someone more talented with magic than Lukas. And that included the fey.

He sighed, dropped the letter on a small table and headed to his room at the end of a short hallway, not wanting to think about it.

Upon opening the door, he heard a high-pitched squeak and barely caught a glimpse of a fairy next to a small box before it disappeared. Eiríkur stared at the space where it had been, confused at what it had been doing in his house. He hadn't seen any fey for at least a decade, and couldn't even remember the last time he had talked to any so-called 'mythical creature'.

The Icelander knelt down to pick up the box and opened it, seeing several sheets of folded up paper inside. He pulled one out and unfolded it, nearly dropping it in shock upon seeing the ink.

It was Lukas' handwriting. And what's more, it was written in Icelandic.

Not able to stop his trembling hands, nor really making an effort to, he read what it said.

Eiríkur,

I am not even sure why I am even bothering writing these letters. It has been 93 years and I have not sent a single one. And if I did now, it would not change anything.

You probably still blame me for leaving. Honestly, I still blame myself. Why did I not try harder to leave the Kalmar Union? Maybe Denmark's military was too strong, or maybe I was too afraid of being under Swedish rule, though look at what has happened now. Or maybe I was just weak. Yes, that is probably the answer, I will admit. I was far too weak to stop this.

Whatever happened, I wish that I was able to keep you with me. I do not believe that Mikkel will mistreat you, Eiríkur- he should have no doubt that I will find a way to permanently kill him if he should do anything I may even slightly disapprove of. But you are still my brother by blood, the only other child of Scandinavia. Nothing will ever erase that fact, even if you do not remember her or those early years before your land was officially settled, when it was just the two of us.

You have probably grown some more, considering that you have been gaining more and more independence. Though I will always miss those days when you were small enough that you would always beg me to carry you and I could never deny you, it will be nice to see you growing up, and finally fully becoming your own, independent country.

…This letter sounds horribly sentimental. Though maybe it is because of what is happening in my land now. My people are calling for independence, and I believe- no, I know it will happen this time. I do not know how I know this. It is a feeling that I cannot describe. I am sure that when you gain full independence, you will know. You may think that day is a long way off, but I have a feeling that it will be sooner than you expect.

I doubt I will be able to see you immediately after I declare my independence. I will have many things to take care of, like actually getting a house that is not falling apart and helping the new government. I will also probably be drowning in paperwork for a while, which is literally the only thing that I am not looking forward to. But I promise to you, even though you may never know it, I will find a way to see you before the year out. 93 years may seem such a short time to ones as long-lived as us, but it is still far too long to never be able to see one's brother, younger or older.

I only pray that you will feel the same.

Lukas

Eiríkur, no matter how much he would try, couldn't hold back the tears that fell from his eyes. "I didn't think that you cared," he whispered out loud, bowing his head and clutching the letter in his left hand as the right went over his eyes to try and stem the flow of tears.

He had blamed Lukas for leaving all of this time, trying to convince himself that the elder nation didn't care about him and not caring how irrational that was, had known that he hadn't had a choice, had tried to fight the Treaty of Kiel, had almost seemed to cry when they were parting, and had raised him.

Reading that letter completely destroyed any and all of those thoughts. Even disregarding the content, the sheer fact that Lukas wrote it in Icelandic meant more than anything else he could have done, when not even Mikkel, who was unfortunately still in control of his lands, could even speak it, despite the fact it was the closest to Old Norse out of all their languages.

Once Eiríkur thought he was somewhat in control of his emotions, he reached for another letter, not caring that he hadn't eaten anything for hours and how tired he had been before he had come home.

It took the Icelander most of the night to finish the letters, and he eventually just fell asleep where he had been sitting on the floor, too spent from the tears and memories to move to his bed.

As he was sleeping, he had a dream- no, he remembered a long-forgotten memory.

He was running around a large, green field. Eiríkur recognized it as his home, though something seemed different about it. He didn't have time to think of what it could be, because he suddenly heard someone shout, "Eiríkur!"

If this hadn't been a memory, he would've frozen upon hearing that voice, but as it was he didn't have any control over his body. He turned around, feeling his mouth break into a huge smile upon seeing the owner of the voice. "Big Brother!" he shouted, running towards the man that had spoken, who took him in his hands and lifted him up in his arms.

"I know you are excited, little brother," Lukas said, his normal lack of expression on his face, but a gleam of amusement in his eyes Eiríkur had always been able to see, "but please don't run off. I do not know your lands as well as you do."

His brother was speaking in Old Norse, meaning that this was most likely back in the Viking Age. What came out of his younger self's mouth confirmed his suspicions. "But I'm so excited! You said that some of your people were coming to live here! They'll be here today, and I want to be there to greet them!"

Lukas' eyes widened. "How do you know that they will be here today?"

"They sighted land not too long ago!" he said, beaming. "They'll land by nightfall!"

A real, true smile appeared on the Norwegian's face, one that only a handful of people had ever seen. "Then it looks like they are your citizens now, Iceland," he said softly, emphasizing his nation name. "I had no idea they were so close until you said something."

"Really?" Eiríkur asked, eyes wide.

"Really," he said, leaning his head down and kissing his brother's forehead. "Now, tell me where they will be landing. I am sure they will want to meet their nation."

Eiríkur jolted awake after that last word, still lying on his back by the letters. "Was that a dream…?" he whispered. I thought that Lukas didn't find me until after his people started living here… But I don't think I could have made that up…

He got up, wincing a bit- he had forgotten how uncomfortable the floor was- and glanced out the window, more out of habit than really expecting to find out roughly what time it was. It was called the Midnight Sun for a reason, after all.

Leaving the letters for now, he got up and went to his room, reaching under the bed and dragging out a small, dust-covered box. The personification dusted it off before opening it, revealing an old tome and a cross hairpin. Pulling out the hairpin, he stared at it.

"Lillebror, I promise you I will see you again. When I do, then you can give my hairpin back. Until then… keep it… to remember my promise…"

Eiríkur's hand closed around the cross. With his other, trembling hand, he reached for the tome. Lukas hadn't been able to write down all of the spells he had wanted to give him in it, but he knew that one of the first the personification put in had been a teleporting spell.

Lukas may not have been able to come see him right now, but that didn't mean Eiríkur couldn't come to him. He had something to return and questions to ask, after all, and he didn't think he could wait for the Norwegian to come to him.

93 years was too long, after all.

Yes, in my headcanon Icy can use magic and see mythical creatures. If England's siblings apparently can, why not Norway's brother? Plus Norse Mythology was actually first written down in Iceland, so there.

Translations:

Lilllebror- Little Brother (Norwegian)

Other Explanations:

-June 7, 1905: Day Norway dissolved their union with Sweden. Sweden didn't officialy recognize them until later that year though, I think. Can't remember the exact date.

-"Gaining more and more independence": 1874- Iceland got a consitution and limited home rule, which was expanded in 1904.

-Scandinavia: We'll get to her in the next couple of chapters. And yes, she's a she.

-Treaty of Kiel: Why Norway got forced into a union with Sweden in the first place. It would take a little bit too long to explain, so go look it up.

-Icelandic the closest to Norse: As far as I can tell. It's not exactly the same, though. Pronunciation and spelling are different. If someone actually speaks Icelandic and this is not true please correct me.

-93 years: Time that Norway was in a union with Sweden.

So, this is what I consider the start of part 1: Norwegian independence and reconciliation. Yeah, I didn't bother coming up with a cool title. Nor will I ever.

I don't have a beta, for the record, but I do have spell check and read through before even uploading the chapter to the site. And then after.

By the way, what time period does the DNA test strips take place in? I've never seen someone actually put a time period on it, so I thought I'd ask.

Anyway, please review and tell me if I need to do anything different and if I did anything right. Seriously, please.