"Too slow!" a young Prussia, or The Teutonic Knights, exclaimed as he ran past a dark blonde haired girl, that looked at him with widened eyes.
"Get back here, you!" Livonia, or The Livonian Order, hollered after him playfully and ran faster than before.
"No, 'cause you can't catch me!" Prussia hollered back and broke out into loud, heartfelt laughter.
"Oh, yes I can!" Livonia said and sprinted full force, tackling Prussia from behind. He was knocked to the ground, face first, but was shortly turned around and made to face the shining, deep-blue eyes of his fellow Order.
"Not awesome!" he shouted and wriggled under Livonia, her grip on him tight.
"Way awesome," Livonia replied and after a few seconds got off Prussia again, holding out her hand for him to take.
"Hey, you can't tell anyone about this, you get that?" Prussia demanded sternly as he took the girl's hand and she smiled at him.
"I solemnly swear on my honor not to hurt all one of your manly feelings," Livonia said teasingly and put a hand to her heart. "Or wound your pride."
"Hey!" Prussia exclaimed and Livonia at once began running again.
"See if you can catch me, Pru," she shouted at him teasingly over her shoulder as she kept running.
"You can bet your unawesome behind I can, Liv," Prussia shouted back and ran after his friend.
-Years later-
"Marriage?" the two teen Nations asked in unison. Their bosses nodded their heads at their respective representative, and the brows on both of the young'uns creased.
Neither Prussia nor Livonia was too confident about the entire affair. Marriage would mean one of them had to be absorbed into the other, which gave more power to the one that came out on top, and in this day and age, it would have been the husband, ergo Prussia. And Livonia was not a fan of letting someone else control her, especially not an egomaniac like Prussia. And Prussia had just never been one for marriage, for settling down, so it was not in his interest either, especially not if it was that loudmouth of a woman standing beside him.
Lately, the two of them had been on edge with each other, not war-like on edge, but they weren't exactly friendly either. Each found the other an extreme nuisance and a waste of space and air, a waste of everything really. Neither of them understood how they could have tolerated each other as children, much less had fun together. Okay, beating Russia up together had been fun, but how they lived side by side on a daily basis besides that was beyond them.
To say they didn't want to get married was an understatement. They'd murder to avoid it. And they would murder someone; the idiots that came up with this idea in the first place.
"I'd rather wed Russia," Livonia said as she crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air.
"Then I'll take his little sister," Prussia grumbled and stuck his hands in his trouser pockets.
"Who? "Creepy Bela"?" Livonia turned to him angrily. "Do you really think I'd be that horrible?"
"You were the one that started with Russia," Prussia pointed out and turned to Livonia, butting their foreheads together.
"At least he has a cute face," Livonia hissed and stared square into the blood red pools Prussia called eyes.
"So does "Creepy Bela"," Prussia spat in reply and attempted to bore through the midnight blue eyes of Livonia.
The two were so close to each other now that they could feel the warmth of the other, and both of them couldn't help but think what the other might feel like to hold or to kiss, even. Of course, both of them had too much self-pride to ever admit it to the other, or even to themselves.
"Please, you two," Livonia's boss spoke up, "it is for the best."
"I AM NOT GOING TO WED HIM/HER!" both Nations shouted in reply and stomped out of the room, out of each their door.
…
Regardless to say, they got married in the end, however reluctant.
-A couple hundred years later-
It had taken a while, a long while, but finally both Prussia and Livonia were somewhat comfortable when saying they were married, though they seldom said who it was to. By now, Prussia had grown into a large and strong kingdom in mid-Europe, and Livonia quite a busy merchant Nation bordering to Finland, Poland-Lithuania, Russia and Prussia (these being the most important).
Both had grown into beautiful young adults in their own right.
Prussia had become a very handsome, confident man, with a well-trained body and exotic looks, his hair staying silver as the moonlight and eyes as red as ever, though they became closer to crimson with time. His ego never left him though, which some found regrettable. Many places in Europe he was considered the best looking man, which upset his neighbor, France, quite a bit.
Livonia had turned into an honest, hard-working woman, with an ideal body for any woman (except she thought she had too many curves). Her face was beautiful as well: round, but not plump and slim enough to show she had lived her life well out. Her eyes struck as sharply as ever, as did her tongue when provoked, though she personally meant she had become softer with age. Her beauty had earned her the nickname "Pearl of Eastern Europe", one she didn't really care for.
Nowadays, the two seldom met, seeing as Prussia was busy with politics and Livonia had her trade stations to look after, so the two never really thought about their marriage agreement so long ago. It was honestly unimportant. Livonia also had two younger Nations to take care of, so times for personal peace were truly few and far between. But one thing she still enjoyed, was when others attempted to invade, for she was still a warrior at heart and loved battle as much as her "husband".
But she had calmed down a bit, become more domestic, much like Hungary – that had turned out to be a woman – though not as much. As much as Livonia enjoyed walking along the docks and marketplaces, she missed the sounds of battle and the look of battlefields after it was all over. Even the thoughts sent chills down her spine and spread a smile on her well-formed lips.
Prussia on the other hand hadn't had time to calm down nearly as much, and he was still as sharp and brutal as he had ever been, or perhaps even more so. His army was one of the most revered in all Europe, and everyone, from the farthest south to the highest north, from the coastal west to the landlocked east, knew his name, and who he was. Needless to say, he had been busy.
And he in fact owed much of his success to his "wife". Livonia had in the beginning contributed with strong, well-trained and experienced soldiers, that in the end had helped Prussia in conquering his first true piece of land, an area Livonia previously had recognized as her own. After that, things had only gotten bigger for the former Order. He soon conquered more land, spreading further to the west, and a bit more to the east. Soon, he was no longer an Order, but a Duchy: the Duchy of Prussia. In his time as a Duchy he was said to be relatively well behaved, and politics had begun to play a bigger role in him further expanding. He was soon enough merged with Brandenburg and became the kingdom he was today. To say he was the superpower of his day wouldn't have been far from the truth.
So he was busy as well; busy with politics, old alliances broken, new ones formed in their stead. Constant borders to defend and sometimes expand. Not much time for quality husband-and-wife time there.
Which wasn't really a problem for any of them, they were content with the way they lived their lives, though thoughts of the other did strike them every once in a while. Especially at night, before they had to go to bed. Both of them thought about a lot of things at that time of day. It was the only time they really had to think about such things. They thought about everything from their childhood years together, to the day they had to marry (unwillingly) and all the way up to the most recent memories. All of these thoughts put smiles on their faces and if anyone was there to witness it, the reply to what the two were thinking about would always be "an old friend".
They lived good lives, the two of them; different, but good, but sometimes it got lonely, and the last things they thought about before going to sleep at night would be each other.
-1860's-
"Come here, you little rascal," Livonia said playfully as she chased a little blonde haired, blue-eyed boy around the great garden of the palace. The boy was laughing uncontrollably as the woman he every so often called his mother attempted to catch him, though she could have easily done so. Livonia enjoyed playing around as much as the boy did and this made a duo that you could almost not tire out.
Meanwhile, on a porch not too far from where Livonia and the boy played, Prussia sat quietly with a smile on his face as he watched his brother and "wife" enjoy themselves. He would have loved to join them, but due to a recent war his knee had been injured, and he had been forbidden from overexerting himself. He scoffed at the remark, but did as told nonetheless. Though the war had yielded a good result: he had expanded his territory, once again. The territory that would one day become his little brother's.
Prussia frowned just the tiniest bit as he thought about this. All the land he had worked so hard to gain, whether it be through war or through political debate, would be handed over to the little boy that was playing around in this very moment. Oh well, until the boy grew up Prussia would most likely be in charge, so there was nothing to fret, for now.
"So you think you can escape The Great Warrior of the East, do you?" Livonia asked teasingly as she snuck through a few bushes looking for the little boy. He wasn't all too hard to find, his giggling made it too easy. She snuck around for a bit longer, purposefully avoiding the spot where the boy sat. Suddenly she sprinted silently behind the boy's chosen bush and lay in waiting for a while.
The boy stopped giggling for a moment and Livonia heard twigs snap and leaves rustling. She stayed put to see what the boy would do next, and she wasn't surprised to find that he ran straight back to the porch his brother sat on. She followed after the boy silently and heard him in a panicked voice tell Prussia that he thought she had gotten lost. Prussia shook his head and chuckled quietly. He slightly ruffled his brother's hair as he told him that she was a big girl and wouldn't get lost in a few bushes; she was used to navigating through entire woods.
The boy widened his eyes at these words and excitedly asked if it was true. Prussia nodded with a smile and began to tell about a time he and Livonia had to navigate through a forest so large it would have put all of his land to shame.
"I always was the better navigator," Livonia said with a crooked smile and came out from her hiding spot.
"You're alright!" the boy said happily and ran towards her. When he was right in front of her he jumped up and Livonia caught him with ease.
"Of course," Livonia said and rubbed her nose gently against the boy's, "I'm used to entire woods, after all."
"You have a leaf on your head," Prussia said and stretched out a hand to grab said leaf. The little boy giggled as Livonia closed her eyes and opened them to see a perfect oak leaf between Prussia's forefinger and thumb.
"What will be next? Mice?" Livonia asked rhetorically and laughed a bit, bobbing the boy once to put him in a more comfortable position.
"For you, dear lady, no less than a squirrel would do," Prussia said and bowed fancifully for Livonia and his brother.
"Why, thank you, kind sir," Livonia played along and curtsied slightly, smiling widely at how silly this whole thing was.
And so a functioning "family" was formed around this little boy, which had yet to be given a name. He seemed to be all the married couple needed to be united and finally live together. But as with all good things, they never last forever…
-Present day-
Prussia sat on his bed, looking at old paintings and photos. Boy, were those things old. Well, not by Nation standards, but still. He remembered some of these things as if it were yesterday and some of them seemed ages away.
But one thing that would never be yesterday was Livonia. Right now Prussia was looking at a "family portrait" of himself, Germany as a small child… and Livonia. Even on old paintings she looked so alive and full of life, not at all like an "antique" painting. And Germany looked so different. You could see he wanted to smile on the picture, but the painter had strictly said that it was not allowed. They had all been clad in their best clothes for that painting, which meant Livonia was in a dress; a beautiful, burgundy one with slight frills. Prussia was wearing his deep blue suit and Germany was in a nearly identical dark green one.
Prussia recalled how uncomfortable Livonia had been in that dress and how much she had complained that she would much rather have been wearing one of the luscious suits, in the same color though, she had fallen quite hard for burgundy. One thing she had gotten to decide for herself was her hair, and it was as usual kept out of her face by some sort of band.
Prussia chuckled slightly to himself at the memories, but there was something that stung as he looked at that painting. He had only realized it a short time – a few years, ago; he missed Livonia. Ever since she disappeared some time during WWI, Prussia had felt strangely hollow inside, almost like a part was missing. He didn't let it affect him in his daily life at first, thinking that whatever it was would go away. When it then didn't, he convinced himself that he could feel the poverty of the people that were no longer his, but his brother's. And when it then lingered until after WWII and the Cold War all the way into the twenty-first century, he sat down one day and just thought. And by the end of his thinking session – which lasted a few days – he came to the conclusion that something was missing in his life. He went out for a time and tried to find what was missing, but to his dismay didn't find anything.
Then one night when he was trying to fall asleep he began fiddling with something around his left ring finger. He brought the hand up to his face and turned on the light. What he saw was a wedding ring sitting snuggly on his finger. He studied it for a while, not really remembering how and when he got a wedding ring. He wasn't married. After thinking for half an hour he pulled the ring off his finger and looked for the date it was made. He was shocked at the date: over a thousand years old! This thing was ancient, even for Nations! And suddenly it struck him. "I AM NOT GOING TO WED HIM/HER!" Livonia…
Oh lord, how had he forgotten? Prussia put the ring back on the correct finger and stared at it emptily for half of the night, not noticing that slight tears were rolling down his cheeks.
Next morning, Germany came in and saw Prussia sleeping soundly, clutching his left hand close to himself, and mumbling something Germany couldn't quite hear. Germany had woken Prussia despite his protests of lack of sleep, Germany only thinking of them as the usual.
For months afterwards Prussia spent the most of his days looking at that ring and recalling every memory he could, some of them making him smile, but all of them bringing forth tears.
Luckily he was out of that now and acted normally: loud, boastful, and egotistical. But he still felt a little pang every time someone mentioned this new girl they had met and found her cute; especially if that girl had traits in common with Livonia, which, in northern Europe, a lot of girls had. Or every time someone suggested he go out and find a girl. Prussia had begun to consistently refuse offers of that sort, which his friends found weird, but they let it pass.
Prussia looked back down at the ring and tried to recall when it had last meant so much to him. Right after it had been put on in fact, that ring had suddenly meant the world, or the end of it at the time. Or so he had tried to tell himself. In reality he had been close to exploding in a weird mixture of pride, happiness, loathing and… love. Prussia had concluded that was what it was. It was love, even back then. Of course, he didn't know if Livonia had felt the same, she had seemed pretty displeased by the whole thing, but so had he.
He felt something warm and wet roll slowly down his left cheek and he wiped it off gently with a finger. Suddenly a new memory played in his mind: it was a few weeks after he had come back from the war over Schleswig-Holstein, victorious as he most often was back then, a wounded knee. He had watched Germany and Livonia playing around in the great garden behind their shared home. He ended up telling a short story to Germany about "the good old days" as Orders he and Livonia had shared, and fooling a bit around at the end.
"You have a leaf on your head."
What will be next? Mice?
"For you, dear lady, no less than a squirrel would do," Prussia chuckled slightly as he repeated the line.
"Why thank you, kind sir," a voice was heard in the room and Prussia looked up from his ring to see the last person he had ever expected to see again, sitting at the end of his bed looking down at her hands, a sad and crooked smile on her face.
"Livonia," he no more than breathed and she looked at him sideways.
"Hey, Pru," she said and looked back down at her hands, seeing them start to shake slightly.
"You're… alive," Prussia continued gently and didn't dare move.
"Yea, pretty much," Livonia responded and her shoulders dropped a bit.
"Where have you been?" Prussia asked carefully and put the painting on his lap to the side gently.
"You know, here and there," Livonia said and gestured her head from right to left. "Seen the world again. It's changed a lot in a short while, huh?"
"I suppose," Prussia said and slightly scooted closer to the woman that still had her gaze locked on her hands. "You know-"
"I've missed you," Livonia beat him to saying it first and left him slightly surprised and wide-eyed.
"I missed you too," he responded quietly and moved even closer.
"It's funny, isn't it?" Livonia said and lifted her midnight blue gaze to look into Prussia's crimson pools. "We used to hate each other's guts and now we miss each other."
"It's what you nowadays call a "frienemy"," Prussia said with a slight crooked smile as he sat down right besides Livonia.
"So they finally have a word for us," she said and leaned her head on Prussia's right shoulder.
"Yea," Prussia replied and put his face in Livonia's soft hair. It still smelled like it used to: of pine trees and fresh soil with a slight hint of hay, from all the time spent in the stables.
"You even smell the same," Prussia said through a sad chuckle and wriggled further into her hair, bringing his arms around her.
"I'm not the only one," Livonia replied and leaned into his hard and warm chest. He still managed to smell strangely of weird meets and rainy, autumn days, now often complemented by cologne of some sorts.
"You don't even realize how much I've missed you," Prussia mumbled into her hair, but she registered every word.
"I think I do," Livonia replied and closed her eyes, sighing sadly.
"You're not here to stay, are you?" Prussia asked suddenly but quietly and lifted from Livonia's hair.
"No," she shook her head in response and both their attitudes and hearts fell a little further down, which meant near rock bottom.
"Then there is one thing I have to do before you go," Prussia said and looked determinedly at Livonia's fallen face. "Promise you won't stop me, please?"
"I won't stop you," Livonia said and leaned her forehead against his. "I swear on my honor."
"Good," Prussia said with the smallest of sad smiles and leaned down a bit as Livonia stretched up.
They met in the softest of kisses, so soft, neither of them were sure if they really felt it. They said nothing, no moans, no shaky breath; nothing of that sort escaped them as their lips softly touched. They stayed like that for a while before Prussia gently pushed his lips forward a bit. Livonia responded slowly by pushing back and parting her lips ever so slightly. Prussia carefully and tenderly let his tongue brush every part it could reach; really trying to savor each square centimeter of her he could get to, afraid she'd just slip away from him. Still no sounds escaped them, and they both for once enjoyed the silence as the slow, gentle kiss went on, for what felt like forever… yet forever wasn't long enough.
Livonia slowly pulled away as she felt something painful churning in her stomach. She winced in pain and held a hand to her stomach. Prussia quickly noticed and put a hand down there as well.
"It hurts," Livonia whispered and leaned her head on Prussia's left shoulder.
"Shh," Prussia hushed quietly and kissed the top of Livonia's head tenderly. "It's alright, it'll go away."
"Not before I leave," Livonia said without lifting her head. Prussia's expression changed dramatically and he stiffened for a second. He relaxed again quickly and gave Livonia another soft kiss in the hair.
"Then go," he whispered. "Don't linger too long, it's not healthy."
"I realize," Livonia replied and lifted her pained face from Prussia's shoulder. "But I don't want to leave."
"I don't want you to leave either, but if it won't stop hurting until you're gone then you have to go," Prussia said to her, sternly yet lovingly.
"Suddenly the voice of reason," Livonia said with a humorous crooked smile that made Prussia smile tenderly.
"Only when I have to be," he said and planted a loving kiss to Livonia's nose. "Now go, to wherever it is you're headed."
"Then I hope I'll see you some other time," Livonia said and stood up painfully. "Perhaps when I have more time."
"That would be wonderful," Prussia replied but stayed seated.
"It really would," Livonia no more than breathed and was suddenly gone.
Prussia was once again all alone in his room, a sad, loving smile on his face, as he watched the spot Livonia had stood not moments ago. New tears began to roll down his face, tears mixed of joy and grief. He had seen her one more time, alas that one more time had to end and he now felt emptier than before. He had kissed her, felt warm, gentle lips against his own, but the kiss left him wanting more of them.
Prussia was a whole but broken person at the same time as he sat there, the smell of his beloved Livonia still clinging to the air and slightly to him. He would make sure never to forget this and he slowly brought up his wedding ring to put his lips to it softly.
That night, when Germany came to check on his brother he found him asleep with his head resting where Livonia had sat, tears staining his pale cheeks and the white covers. Germany sighed and went over to gently lay his brother down correctly.
"I don't know what happened to you," Germany whispered as he tucked Prussia in, "but whatever did, must have meant a lot."