De-anon from Kink Meme. Request was just the Bad Friends Trio still being friends even during wartime.
It is late at night on the 25th of June, 1940 when Prussia slips into France's room.
France does not want to see him; he tells him so, in harsh and ugly French, accent tainted by the foreign soldiers on his land.
Prussia, for once, has nothing to say, and sits himself in a chair in the corner of the room and watches with dull interest as France fiddles with the radio before finding an acceptable station. Les Deux Copains fills the room and Prussia scoffs, rolling his eyes.
"I don't understand how you listen to this crap," he says, and it's something he's said before, said often, but this time France does not argue back, does not insist that Édith Piaf is a gifted singer with the voice of an angel. He does not say anything.
So Prussia tries again. "Ludwig went to visit Spain," he says and ignores the way France flinches at the name, pretends he doesn't know why, while France wonders when they stopped referring to each other with their names. "He's doing alright; trying to stay as uninvolved as possible. Which is probably a good idea…"
Prussia's voice, usually loud and forceful and rather obnoxious, is quiet and breathless and tapers off awkwardly at the end of his sentences. He waits for a reaction from the blond in front of him but France does nothing but hum along with Édith and stare at the floor.
And so they sit, France listening to Les Deux Copains at full volume so that he can block out the arguing voices in his head - some saying, "obey", others saying, "rebel", and one, saying "fight back, you goddamned fool" sounding suspiciously like England - and Prussia, still in uniform, with his back straight and hands fisted in his lap, looking every bit the soldier he is, stays silent.
And then, with a deep breath - nerves frayed and heart beating fast, despite the fact he's in a bedroom with an old friend and not on the battlefield anymore - Prussia pulls a stack of cards from the coat of his uniform and places them on the coffee table between them. They are dirt-covered and red-stained (blood, perhaps?) and with corners bent - the cards, France muses, look like they have been through as much as the two men in the room.
"Belote?" Prussia asks, grin on his face that is not quite right, not quite arrogant or mischievous enough and just a tad bit too shy and worried to be Prussia. (And, France notes, he has suggested Belote and not Skat, which France knows he would rather play. Belote is France's game, after all.)
It is not quite an apology, but France does not believe he will receive one. And it not quite a request for forgiveness, but France knows Prussia well enough.
France takes the deck from Prussia's hands and begins to shuffle, saying, with just the slightest hint of a smile, "I believe I'm up for a game."
And now, lots of notes:
This takes place during the Nazi Occupation of France in World War 2, only three days after the Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed, which established a German occupation zone in Northern France.
Spain did remain officially neutral in World War 2, though their leader did support the Nazi Party. (Which is why Ludwig was there.) Though there were a lot of Spanish volunteers for both the Axis and Allied powers.
Belote was invented in the 1920s and is considered the national game of France. Skat is considered the national game of Germany and was invented in the 1800s.
Edith Piaf is considered one of the greatest French singers of all time, and was popular in WW2. (There's speculation that she helped with the French resistance during German Occupation also.)
Also, fail!title is fail.
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