Flowers for Balaton. An Axis Powers Hetalia/1983: Doomsday Fanfiction

(Prologue: Sweet Talkin' Woman)

Port Elizabeth International Airport, New Britain. August, 2015.

"Marcus!" A young woman tackled the Prussian to the ground, grinning from ear to ear. "…nice to meet you too, Frankie…" Marcus sighed as he was caught in his cousins' embrace. "It's been so long!" Frankie smiled as she helped Marcus to his feet. He tried to keep himself balanced as his cousin was bombarding him with questions. "There you are!" Lina walked over to the pair, with a somewhat unhappy look on her face. "You left me standing at the food court-"

Lina suddenly laid eyes on the young woman that was standing next to Marcus. "I believe we haven't met, I assume that you're Marcus's cousin, ja?" "Ja, I'm Francine, but you can call me Frankie.". "I'm Lina." The blonde smiled as she shook the other woman's hand.

Lina handed Marcus his suitcase as Frankie waited near the exit. "I'm surprised that you don't have siblings" she looked at her lover with a perplexed look. "We're pretty close. It's due to the fact that we're the only other family members that we know of, most of our other relatives are either dead or still out there and haven't been found yet." Marcus replied in a somewhat sombre fashion.

The trio walked out of the airport and to a waiting taxi. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend" Francine looked at her cousin as she helped him pack his bags into the back of the taxi. "We've only been together for a few months." Marcus blushed suddenly before replying in mangled Afrikaans. "You still can't speak Afrikaans" Frankie giggled "I guess a lot of things don't change…"

"A lot of things will change, especially for you, Herr Wright…"a disembodied voice whispered to him in a mocking tone. Marcus ignored the voice as he got into the car with his cousin...

-0-

"It's not much, but its home…" Frankie opened the door to a small house and walked inside, with Marcus and Lina following her inside. "It's still messy…" Marcus quipped, leaving his cousin with a less-than-amused look. "You're still cynical as ever." Francine rolled her eyes at her cousin. Lina looked around the small living room, the whole place was a mess, newspapers in various foreign languages were scattered across the room, photos and various notes were pinned to a small notice board that hung on the wall next to an old desk that had books pile upon it.

Most of the photos were of family members or some of Frankie's colleagues. A few photos caught the woman's attention, once photo had Francine and Marcus standing next to the Brandenburg Gate, the caption reading 'Berlin, NYE 2012', another had the pair standing near Stonehenge, with a few more photos showing other landmarks.

Some other photographs showed the pair at various parties or family reunions, one image of the pair looking somewhat drunk had the caption 'Marcus' 18th Birthday, Port Elizabeth, 2010' "I remember that night." Frankie smiled as Lina turned around to face the young woman. "I hope you've managed to keep him under control" Frankie giggled "He's got a bit of a love for whiskey." Frankie sighed "He's been having a few problems lately…" Lina was surprised "Problems?" Lina looked at her with a worried look on her face. "Is he an alcoholic or something…?"

"He isn't, but the last time I was with him, he'd had too much to drink. He was ranting about his father, how he hadn't live up to his expectations…" Frankie sighed as she adjusted her glasses. "He ended up having a breakdown and was crying into my shoulder by the end of it, I assume that he hasn't told you about it." Lina shook her head slowly "No, he hasn't"

Frankie looked at Lina with a saddened expression "That's typical of him; he's pretty good as hiding his emotions. He was bullied a lot when he was a kid; I thought he'd gotten over it…"

Marcus walked into the room as the pair had finished talking, not knowing what his lover and cousin just talked about. "Looking at our old photos, 'eh?" he smiled, looking at the photos of his younger self. Frankie and Lina looked at each other as they knew that Marcus would find out that his lover knew about what had happened to him all those years ago…

A few hours later…

"It's been a few years since I've been here…" Marcus looked around at the old tavern, the building had been there since colonization, even seeing some damage during the Civil War. But thankfully it had managed to weather through the chaos that presided over South Africa since Doomsday.

"So many memories…" Frankie smiled as she walked over to her cousin, with Lina following her. "Frankie?" a young man in his mid-30s walked over to the trio. "Herr Smith?" Frankie looked at the young man with a surprised expression. "It's been a while…"

"You-know-who is here…" the blonde haired assistant moved over to a booth. "She's in one of her usual moods…" he sighed as the three sat at the booth. "SMITH! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?" a loud voice boomed from one of the nearby booths. "Hang on one second…" Smith sighed as he walked over to a young woman sitting at the booth adjacent to the trio.

"There you are!" she grinned, looking very intoxicated, with numerous beer glasses piling up on the table. "Be a good boy and get me a few more beers~" she grinned, patting Smith's shoulder. "Will do Ms Kirkland… Will do…" the man walked over to the bartender, who'd anticipated the woman's large bar tab and had put aside a few glasses. "Bitte, I'll help" Frankie walked over to Smith and grabbed some of the glasses.

Smith looked at the young woman as he grabbed some of the glasses. "Danke…" the pair walked over to the intoxicated woman. "Here you go, Ms Kirkland" Smith put down his set of glasses as Frankie did the same thing. "Dankie" the young woman grabbed one of the glasses and chugged it down.

"Is she always like this?" Frankie sighed "Not always, but you know, Friday night is when she goes on a pub crawl…" Smith gloomily noted. "I see that you've brought your cousin along, how's he going?" "He's fine; apparently he got called away to the Alpine Confederation a few months ago…"

The pair then walked back to the booth that Marcus and Lina were occupying, although the latter had disappeared, she'd probably gone to bathroom…. "Sorry 'bout that…" Smith sighed "Ms Kirkland can be quite a handful…" Marcus raised an eyebrow "Ms Kirkland?" Marcus raised an eyebrow. "I know that name…"

Marcus was too busy thinking about where he'd heard the name when he suddenly felt a hand slam onto his shoulder. "Hello there~" a feminine voice with an odd British/Afrikaner accent whispered. "Shiße!" Marcus nearly spat out his drink in surprise. Frankie facepalmed upon seeing who'd decided to grace her cousin with their presence.

The voice in question belonged to a young woman with blonde hair in twin ponytails. She wore a dark brown Paratrooper's uniform with a few badges sewn on. "Tell me… Why are you here~?" the young woman giggled ash she drunk another glass of beer. "I… umm…" Marcus stammered, knowing what Lina might do to him should she see what was unfolding. "Hopefully she won't give me a good whipping…" he thought to himself.

"You're a silent one~" the woman put her arm around Marcus's neck, who's face had gone bright red from embarrassment. "Leave him alone, Alice…" Frankie sighed as she sipped her own glass of beer. "I'm just having a little bit of fun~" she grinned, chugging another glass of beer. Frankie continued to drink her glass as Marcus was trying to ignore the drunken woman.

"SMITH!" Alice yelled at the top of her lungs "A few more glasses would be nice~!" "Ja… Ms Kirkland…" Smith sighed as he went over to the bar to get some more beer. "You're a Nation, aren't you…?" Marcus looked at Alice with a curious look, his blushing had since subsided.

"Yep, Alice Kirkland, or as you would know me, New Britain" she grinned at Marcus. "How am I not surprised… You're just like Herr Beilschmidt" he sighed. "Prussia? You know him?" Alice looked at the young man in a more serious tone. "You drink like him, that's for sure…" Marcus deadpanned as he drunk another shot of whiskey.

"Sorry 'bout that…" Lina walked over to the pair, initially not noticing that Alice was sitting in her spot. "I just had to-" Lina then noticed the young woman. "Guten tag…" was all she managed to say. "Marcus..? Who is this?" Lina looked at her lover; one of her eyes was twitching as she gave him a disturbing smile.

"It's not what it looks like!" Alice looked at Lina with a sincere look on her face. "I'm Alice Kirkland… New Britain…" Lina suddenly realised who she was talking to, as she awkwardly saluted the Nation.

"Sorry. I get a little bit overprotective of Marcus…" Lina sighed as she sat next to Frankie. "I didn't know that you were one of them…" Alice noticed the young woman's peculiar Swiss German accent; she must have travelled all the way from the Alpine Confederation. "Maybe she might know Vasch" she thought to herself.

"Who's up for some more beer~?" Smith walked over to the group with a few more glasses of beer, although it looked like that he'd had too much of it himself. "Dankie" Frankie smiled as she took the glasses from Smith.

Alice smiled as she chugged down another glass of beer. She glanced out of the window out of drunken boredom, but momentarily snapped out of her drunken haze as she thought she spotted a familiar face in the crowd of people near the tavern. "Rus in vrede , die vader ..."