A slightly late Independence day fic. I noticed there are not a lot of English NetherNesia fics so, I decided to add a color to this corner of the fandom. There is a reference to a historical event in this fic. For those who don't know, it'll be explained in the note at the end. I don't care what happened between Indonesia and Netherlands in 1964, I am altering history becuase this is my fic and I can do anything with it. English is not my first language so I'm sorry in advance for my mistakes. Enjoy~
Hetalia belongs to Hidekazu Himaruya
Indonesia hummed happily to herself. So far, independence day was a blast. Well, she didn't exactly enjoy standing in the sun for probably two hours during the flag ceremony earlier that morning at Istana Negara. Though, it was hard not to feel proud of her people's strong patriotism. She was mostly waiting for the events after the ceremony which included bazaars, competitions, and of course colorful banners everywhere, mostly in the color of the national flag. After stuffing her face with sweets and food in general, she decided to spend her evening at home and pedaled her small, but festively decorated, bike home.
She unlocked her front door to a loud surprise by her younger, close enough to be considered her siblings, neighbors, Singapore and Malaysia. Though, she wasn't that surprised to find a really appetizing looking dinner ready at the table. And so, they ate together, chattering and laughing and basically mimicking the festive atmosphere outside. While enjoying their after dinner tea in surrounding a small coffee table, a loud knock startled them. The other two nations gave her confused looks that asked, "Who is there? I thought we didn't have any new neighbors.." She could only fidget nervously.
More knocks were heard, much more demanding than the last time, waking them from their confusion.
"I'll get it.." Singapore, the youngest, offered. They watched as he left to answer the door, Indonesia feeling bad not opening the door for a guest that was most likely hers.
"Uhh.. Nesia, you.. have a guest," Singapore announced reluctantly, walking back in the room. Then, as if on cue, the Netherlands walked in right behind the nervous young nation. The height difference between the two was amusing, but Indonesia was too shcoked to care about that.
"B-Belanda!" She jumped up from her sitting position, pushing the coffee table much to Malaysia's annoyance. The silence that followed just caused her to stutter incoherently. She sent a look to Singapore and to her relief, he understood.
"Uh.. I guess we'll give you guys some time. Come on, Malay.." Singapore said, sending pleading looks to Malaysia asking him to leave the room with him. The grumpy nation finally nodded, albeit reluctantly, and left with the other nation, Indonesia giving them an apologetic smile.
She was quite confused on how to treat Netherlands. He wasn't his boss slash owner anymore but he wasn't a friend either. When she declared Independence he kept meddling too much with her and left because he was forced to by the League of Nations. So, should he be considered an enemy?
With a small sigh, she finally chose to follow the rules of pleasing a formal aquaintance. "You can sit down anywhere..."
As if to torture her with her own nervousness, he slowly sat down one edge of the long sofa-bench-thingy (she wasn't quite sure what it was called) surrounding the still off-position coffee table, all the while keeping a stoic yet serious look plastered to his face. To her embarrassment, the mugs she, Malaysia and Singapore used to drink tea were still scattered on the table. She decided to take this opportunity to offer him a drink.
As she stacked the mugs, trying hard not to shake too badly from nervousness, she softly asked if he would like to drink anything, despite knowing what the answer would be.
"Coffee," he answered as anticipated, eyes scanning her every move, making her feel more uncomfortable than she already was. She nodded and quickly walked to the adjoining kitchen with the mugs, still feeling his eyes boring into her.
Why? She inwardly cried, putting the mugs in the sink. Luckily, earlier that day, she had a feeling she needed to grind the coffee and keep the hot water in a thermos. Of course, even though it was a bit puzzling as to why she needed to do that, she trusted her instincts and did as her mind told.
As she was brewing the coffee, she couldn't help but feel small under his very persistent gaze, remembering what it felt like back when she used to (read: was forced to) work for him. Before his arrival, her people were already fighting against each other and when he did, it was a freaking mess. He meddled into one of the many kingdom's business once and caused a huge ruckus causing the said kingdom's demise.
She poured the black, bitter liquid in a mug, remembering that he didn't like anything added in his cofee. Sighing softly, she walked back to the living room, set the mug on the table and sat down on the opposite side of the sofa-bench-thingy. He analyzed the drink for a moment before picking it up and taking a sip. She sighed again, in relief, when he hummed monotonously in approval, which she knew always meant /Just the way I like it/.
She couldn't say she disliked the slightly comfortable silence that ensued after, but she needed an answer.
"Why?" She asked, causing the blonde's head to jerk up a little, "It's been 15 years. All this time, I've been wondering.." She continued, avoiding his gaze.
"What am I to you? Am I still just that thing that worked for you for 350 years? Or do you finally acknowledge me as a nation, strong and independent?"
His eyes widened, visibly surpised by the straightforward question. She noticed him shifting his position, fists clenching. He looked like he was searching for something to say. Something he hadn't said to her yet. Something she hadn't heard from him yet.
"Indie..." He started, pausing a moment before continuing, his gaze moving downward to avoid hers, "I.. I'm sorry.."
She smiled at the apology. Yes, he never apologized to her and she did want to hear an apology come straight out of his mouth, but she wanted to hear something else. Wierdly, she didn't know what she wanted him to say, what she wanted to hear.
"I already forgave you. The very day you acknowledged my independence, Tuesday, 27 December 1949," forced to by the LN she said, keeping the last part to herself. She could tell he wasn't expecting her to say that as he froze, still averting his gaze.
An awkward silence washed over the two nations, Indonesia's eyes never leaving the somewhat pressured Dutch man. The five minute silence seemed to last forever and she couldn't take it anymore. It was making her sick.
"Sometimes, I wonder if you ever wondered what you are to me," she remarked more than asked as she sent him a scrutinizing look.
He took another sip. She knew she wouldn't answer her. But, of course, with him always playing the mysterious, unpredictable man (at least in front of her), he did what she never thought he would do. He asked back.
"I do wonder sometimes, Indie. So, tell me, what am I to you?"
It was her turn to freeze. She asked him at the spur of the moment, and honestly did not expect him to answer, let alone ask back. What is he to me?
"I... don't know" She started, arranging all her jumbled up thoughts into a string of words. "I don't know what you are to me anymore. I always thought of you as the person who I worked for. But, now I know that's not the case anymore and... honestly, I have no freaking idea..." she continued, trying to keep the tears from falling as he sat there, arms crossed, listening to her, his cold, green eyes like knives against her skin.
Not being able to do anything about it was, in a way, torturing her. And in the situation she was in did not make it any better. She couldn't take it anymore. She just wanted to cry. So she did.
But, until now, she never realised that her inner conscience secretly wanted to do so in /his/ arms. That just made her want to cry even more. She just wanted to curl into a ball in the corner of her bedroom, bawling her eyes out, listening to sad love songs on the radio.
She looked away, wiping her tears. S-Stop! You can't cry! At least, not in front of him! She encouraged herself, but to no avail, as the taers just kept flowing out, her face flushing in embarrassment and anger.
And once again, he did what she never thought he would do. She flinched when the blonde's fingers made contact with her cheek. Reluctantly, she slowly relaxed at his touch, as he carressed her wet heeck, slowly turning her face so he could look her in the eyes.
His face held an expression she never saw on him before in all the centuries she has been with him. His eyes were softer and warmer, yet the emotions in them still pretty much unreadable. Even so, she felt like she was melting, like she was getting lost in the thick forest that was his eyes.
"Indie," he began, the corners of his lips tugging into a slight smile, much to her surprise. She stayed quiet, trying hard not to gasp in surprise, being the spontaneous person that she was, and willed him to go on.
"To me, you are a nation. A nation strong enough to go through hundreds of years of abuse and still find the strength to fight against it," he continued, rendering her speechless as their bodies unconciously inched closer to each other.
"You are a wild card. Sometimes a bit bipolar and, most of the time, unpredictable." She giggled at his remark, causing his smile to widen a fraction.
"You are rash and your favorite battle strategy is guerilla, which makes you a little scary." She pouted at this, but signalled him to continue.
"I was to see the strong and independent nation in you. But most important of all, to me, you are a warm hearted and beautiful, both as a nation and an individual." It looked like he wanted to say something else, but he quickly shut his mouth.
Why am I still not satisfied? She thought, not realising that her thoughtful frown was making the other nation quite worried.
"W-what's wrong?" He stuttered, his cheeks tinted a light pink. She inwardly giggled, thinking that stuttering was out of his character.
"There's one more thing..." She said, more to herself than to him, "A few more words..." She still didn't know what she so craved to hear, but she had a feeling it was what Netherlands prevented himself from saying earlier. And, of course she always believed her intuition.
"You're so hopeless," He chuckled, making her blush. She had never seen him look even slightly amused, but out of character-ness happened multiple times today, and she is not used to it, to say the lesast.
Her light pink blush turned crimson when she realized he was leaning closer to her, making her subconciously lean towards him as well. He suddenly stopped, lips ghosting over hers and finally, she figured it all out. /He doesn't have to say anything if he would just ki- wait, what am I thinking?/ If it was possible, her blush got darker. Though, she did wish he would cut the crap and get to the point.
He stared into her eyes from that impossibly close distance, leaned in closer and finally their lips met. She was quite overwhelemed by it all, but kissed him back anyway, their arms slowly pulling each other into a tight embrace. They stayed in that position for what felt like forever and when their lips finally parted, the fireworks started, lighting the now dark night sky.
"Feels like the ending to a cheesy soap opera," she giggled and he nodded in agreement. To other people, this situation is perfect. But she thought there was a little something missing and she pouted when she realized what it was. "You still have't congratulated me.." She said, earning another amused chuckle from him.
"D-don't laugh! Just say it already!" she blushed for the umpteenth time that day, he just laughed, leaned in and stole a kiss, making her cross her arms and pout stubbornly.
"Happy birthday, Indonesia."
Yayy, cheesy ending is cheesy and OOC people are OOC! Anyways, thank you for sticking to the end! It turned out quite longer than I expected, though I kinda hate how this turned out. Ah well, what's written is written.
27 December 1949 is the day when the Dutch signed the recognition of our sovereignty (as Nesia said, forced by the LN). We declared our independence in the 17th of August 1945. But the Dutch still hasn't accepted the fact and came back with troops and weapons and all. I think they missed us(?)
Oh, and Istana Negara is like Indonesia's White House.
Thank you once again for reading, review please! Cookies for everybody~ And to my beloved Indonesian friends, I love you guys~ Selamat HUT RI ke-68! ~(^O^)~
Ja nee~
*OrdinaryXtreme