Advanced warning: This fic touches upon the very politically-charged subject of the Holodomor in Ukraine and yes, my opinion on the matter might be implied in it. I have tried to treat the event with a great deal of respect, and mean no offence by using it in this story.
----
#01 - Motion
Their first few days of romantic interest in each other were curious ones, ones where Canada decided he enjoyed the sight of Ukraine breathing -- admittedly partially for the sight of her breasts rising and falling -- but mostly for the beauty of the movement.
#02 - Cool
Sharing a bed with Canada was a lovely experience, Ukraine concluded after a year of hand-holding and shy glances as they worked together, but it was less pleasant in the winter when his territories were ice-cold.
#03 - Young
When they wandered hand-in-hand across Prince Edward Island for their last few weeks together an old busybody woman saw them and smiled understandingly, sighing, "Young love."
#04 - Last
They held hands and exchanged quick, gentle kisses at the dock, and it was 1905; the last time they would see each other for decades.
#05 - Wrong
It's not right, Ukraine thought when she saw him at Versailles, Canada should never look so tired and sad.
#06 - Gentle
After the war she hated thinking, even for one moment, that her people had been persecuted by her sweet, soft-spoken Canada, even though she had felt it happen.
#07 - One
The Baltics and her best friend Poland left Russia's home in a hurry after the treaties were signed, but she stayed with him despite her desires to go out-- someone had to remain together with him in this difficult time, after all.
#08 - Thousand
Canada found it hard for a little while after the war, seeing his boys reunited with their girls while he discovered a thousand ways to long for his own.
#09 - King
Everywhere it seemed all Ukraine could see was red (that's the colour of his flag, isn't it?) and all at once everything came tumbling down around her and her family, her dear brother smiling desperately through it all.
#10 - Learn
The word "revolution" stopped Canada's heart, first for fear of communism, then for fear for Ukraine.
#11 - Blur
The years passed far too quickly for her, marked only by times she felt somewhat better or worse and the occasional lonely looks she sent towards the West and her friends there.
#12 - Wait
Canada was busy, there was no doubt about that, but every so often he'd stop and count the days he'd been waiting to see her again.
#13 - Change
Ukraine preferred to be with her people whenever possible, but she was with her brother in relative luxury when she first realised she was losing weight.
#14 - Command
In the years that passed people would learn what had happened, but while she was starving to death Ukraine thought those orders would keep her trials unknown forever.
#15 - Hold
Ukraine ran straight towards Canada, and he opened his arms happily to greet her after so long, only to awaken before he could embrace her.
#16 - Need
The Second World War reawakened Canada's desire to see Ukraine again -- even if it had to be across a battlefield -- when he realised that Russia would never allow her to fight when he could protect her.
#17 - Vision
All traces of optimism were gone after WWII, now that Canada could see there was no chance of reaching Ukraine while the USSR stood.
#18 - Attention
Russia's focus was often diverted in those days, fiercely trying to outmanoeuvre and stare down the world's fastest rising superpower while keeping himself whole and well; he hardly noticed now that his elder sister would disappear for days at a time, only that she was returned safely soon after.
#19 - Soul
Austria was the one who lead Canada to the fence that separated him and his own beloved, and while it hurt to be separated even now, his soul was in his eyes when Ukraine appeared with Hungary in the distance.
#20 - Picture
The picture was old and tattered and black and white, but it didn't matter, because now Ukraine could see herself and Canada standing side-by-side on an island with red roads whenever she wished.
#21 - Fool
When Canada approached Ukraine at one of her rare appearances at the UN, her heart beat fast and she had to berate herself for forgetting that in public she was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, not his friend.
#22 - Mad
America thought his twin was crazy when he expressed how much he missed Ukraine, but that was to be expected; he was surprised that England and France both thought he was insane for saying so as well.
#23 - Child
She sat and watched her brother and Canada negotiate softly, the former self-assured and suspicious, the latter treading lightly as he tried to avoid getting caught in the middle of an all-out war, and Ukraine hated being treated as a child.
#24 - Now
The world seemed on edge of nuclear war, and while Ukraine was afraid for herself and her people, she found herself even more frightened for Canada, who was standing between her brother and his own.
#25 - Shadow
Even as the missile crisis fell apart and the world breathed a sigh of relief, Canada realised he was exhausted constantly living under the shadow of fear for himself and anxiety for Ukraine.
#26 - Goodbye
The USSR fell, and while Ukraine was glad be going to her own home again without the looming presence of her brother, bidding him goodbye and leaving him almost alone in that horrid, empty house was almost too much to bear.
#27 - Hide
Poland had congratulated Ukraine on her independence very quickly, and since they were both tattered and filthy and tired, she had accepted the words warmly; now that a wealthy, powerful Western nation had come to see her, she felt the urge to hide herself and her poor state in shame.
#28 - Fortune
But Canada did not care about her unfortunate condition, and thanked whatever might be listening to him for giving him the wonderful gift of seeing and holding Ukraine again.
#29 - Safe
Those first few nights Canada slept apart from her, in her front room with stacks of blankets to keep the cold at bay, until she awoke from a nightmare to find him holding her gently, assuring her it was finally over.
#30 - Ghost
Canada eventually left and sometimes Ukraine would feel her heart pound fast and hard and sometimes, on the very coldest, loneliest nights, she would feel her brother still standing behind her.
#31 - Book
January in Ottawa was bitterly cold, so instead of walking hand-in-hand as they used to they sat curled together with novels (English for him, Russian for her) and said nothing at all.
#32 - Eye
It'd been so long since they kissed, maybe they'd forgotten how to, but then Ukraine found herself wanting to see exactly what shade of purple Canada's eyes were and for a second, their lips touched.
#33 - Never
There was no dramatic kiss or embrace when they went their seperate ways again, Ukraine merely asked, "Did you ever forget about me?"
#34 - Sing
As Ukraine was met with the sight of her homeland again (free, she thought) she found herself softly humming her unofficial anthem.
#35 - Sudden
The new workload seemed to come out of nowhere as nations across the globe began to acknowledge her, but Ukraine was pleased with these new jobs for her to do.
#36 - Stop
Ukraine was born to work, and she loved it, but when her friends, new and old, arrived to visit her she enjoyed slowing down, and time all but stopped when she saw Canada.
#37 - Time
For a long time after Ukraine achieved her independence she and Canada did not make love, content with the way they were, and when they finally did once again it was slow and tender, placed somewhere outside of time as they reacquainted each other with their bodies.
#38 - Wash
Canada knelt on the bathroom floor and carefully, gently ran the warm facecloth across her tear-soaked cheeks with only a slight flush on his own.
#39 - Torn
Canada described it as the feeling of being pulled in too many different directions, Ukraine felt the pull of opinions between East and West so powerfully she thought she would tear in two.
#40 - History
"My brother was supposed to stay out of my affairs," Ukraine told Canada over the phone through the beginnings of distressed tears, "not try and repeat history."
#41 - Power
Ukraine utterly refused to allow that man to become her boss, not when she felt and saw her people demanding Orange, not when she was down among them demanding it as well.
#42 - Bother
"I-I don't want to be a bother, Ukraine, I know you're independent but I want your people to get what they want and give you help, if you don't mind me, of course..." Canada rambled when she came to see her in a suit and orange tie.
#43 - God
It was an embarrassment to her brother, and she felt a little sorry about that, but Ukraine thanked whoever was listening to her that she would be Orange after all as Canada spun her into a hug.
#44 - Wall
They knew they loved each other deeply, but it seemed when politics wasn't getting between them, geography was.
#45 - Naked
They were together so little that they, like most nations, took every little moment they could, even if it meant getting half-naked in an unused meeting room during a lunch break.
#46 - Drive
One fine afternoon the pair took a car out under the unobstructed sky and lay on the ground together, reciting the Treaty of Friendship they'd signed and then renewed four years ago.
#47 - Harm
When Canada recited his "road map" for their political relationship, he stumbled over the discussion of the military and settled with taking Ukraine's hand and saying, "I swear I will never allow you to be hurt if I can help it."
#48 - Precious
A free trade agreement would be mutually beneficial, Ukraine thought happily, but mostly she was glad for this simply because they she could claim an even closer tie to her dear Canada.
#49 - Hunger
It was more than a century ago when Canada and Ukraine had timidly blushed at the thought of doing anything more than wandering Prince Edward Island together holding hands, and when she saw that want in Canada's expression Ukraine would be thankful those days were long since behind them.
#50 - Believe
They walked hand-in-hand on a little island with red roads and spoke quietly with each other, content to know they were in love and believe they would always have that.
----
Guess whose birthday was on the 12th? That's right, my friend crimson-obsidian-rose! This was posted on the special_sight community on LJ as a present for her, and I finally got around to posting this here, now with more edits/additions, to celebrate Christmas. The prompt list was stolen from the 1sentence community on LJ.
Skippable (over-simplified) historical/cultural notes:
-1905 was the year when Russia had the first of his many main revolutions (this one was the Decembrist Revolution) and, of course, a great deal of present-day Ukraine was Russian territory at the time.
-Yeah, Ukrainians really were persecuted during WWI and treated horribly by the government and society that once welcomed them. Canada was rather xenophobic in general until 1972, when the policy and recognition of Canadian multicultralism came up. (Edit: The brilliant Red Serge reminded me that Canada has also had some very bright spots of foreign policy, and while Canada was not the shining example everyone seems to think he was, he certainly wasn't a complete jerk, either.)
-I don't think I need to explain the Red Scare and Bolshevikism, right?
-Speaking of red, while Canada's flag nowadays is indeed mostly red with some white, the flag Ukraine is thinking of in #09 is the Red Ensign, Canada's original flag.
-The Holodomor. I don't want to explain this one, but I will. Basically, either on purpose (which would constitute this as a genocide, both Canada and Ukraine's official view of it) or through good old human stupidity, Ukraine ended up with bumper crops of wheat in 1933 and her people were basically robbed blind of it through very heavy demands from the Soviet government, which resulted in an extreme localised famine in the Ukraine. Millions starved to death, but the actual numbers are unknown due to the fact that the whole event was kept very hushed up by the government for a long time. To this day, Holodomor denial is considered on the same level as Holocaust denial in Ukraine.
-Ukraine was technically a "sovereign" entity known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and she really did have her own representation at the UN, but it was pretty much purely symbolic.
-Ukraine had a referendum for independence December 1st, 1991, where in some areas the vote for independence was over 98%.
-Canada, of course, recognised Ukrainian independence December 2nd, 1991, actually before Ukraine had legally made a declaration of independence. This makes Canada the second nation to recognise Ukrainian independence, after Poland, and the first Western nation to do so.
-Official relations were established in January 1992, by October they had embassies in each other's captials.
-Orange is a reference to the Orange Revolution that occurred in Ukraine in 2004 after a very controversial election took place. Most of the Western world sympathised with the Orange group, which now comes to represent the pro-Western movement in Ukraine. As could be expected, Canada rather digs orange in Ukraine, and in fact many Canadians were part of the international team sent in to supervise Ukraine's elections immediately after the Orange Revolution.
-Yes, there are discussions for a Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement (which started in September 2009), which would be mutually beneficial, particularly in the medical sector.
Thank you very much for reading!