AN: Fastest update you'll be getting, a two-for-one to kick this thing off. Apparently, the prompts want to make this sad quickly. So, my fav (and so far only) pairing is up for its debut, in some ways songfic but not totally on Mad World by George Jules.
2. Broken
Roderich, the personification of Austria, sat at his piano. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. Normally, he can be found at his piano if he's not working or making cakes. What would be weird was the fact that he was just staring into space without playing. Why? No particular reason, unless you count complete mutilation of his heart. The complete annihilation of his reason for existing.
Which, he had to admit was rather foolish. He and his wife, Elizaveta, had been separated for several decades now. There wasn't any reason for him to mull over this again. It was done. Yet he couldn't quite keep from thinking of her when he saw familiar faces and now worn out places, couldn't quite bring himself to hide the pieces of her that were left from her rapid, forced exit. The pieces of cloth she would mend her and Italy's dresses with, the bow she had forgotten to pack and been too hurried to come back for, the picture from their wedding…
This was what he was thinking of, unaware of the tears starting to come from behind his glasses. In it, Hungary looks like the beauty she is beneath all of the warrior ways. No one could understand that he loved for the fact she made up for what he lacked. She was his opposite, but they balanced one another. Did they argue? Of course. That didn't mean he didn't love her. It never meant he thought he'd send her away. She was his muse, the reason he composed so well on his piano in bright, happy pieces. She made his existence a life. Without her, there was no life in him or his heart. He was just a broken string of discordant notes without purpose or sense.
His hands came up to block his face from view. He tried to block out the pain, to make it seem like he had adjusted fine when the exact opposite was true. There was no crueler fate than having to watch the love of your life seem to move on without you and having to pretend like you could care less. He'd attempted to drown his sorrows, but it only made it worse.
There was another cruel irony to this: After their marriage was forced apart by the World War, his dreams had altered as well. What he found funny, yet sad, at the same time was that the dreams where he was dying were the best he ever had. A perverse logic ran through them, that he was already dead so being the real thing could only be an improvement. He had seen Prussia around her. He knew how he was; he had been forced to grow up with him. He had always gotten what he wanted, whether it was by force or just annoying you until you gave in. He had always been Germania's favorite, unlike weak, pitiful Austria who could only play his instruments, the one no one really knew or cared to know. Once he got Hungary alone, that was it. Game over, do not pass go do not collect $200. Who'd want a broken, weak aristocrat when they could have a confident, strong Prussian? He couldn't handle being there and having to fake neutrality as she fell for him, much less having part in her new marriage, or new life.
Again, it was funny but sad that any dream of dying was the best he ever had. Probably because in reality no one would care that he was gone. He wasn't an important nation; most people didn't even know he existed. How hard could it be to die anyway? The only thing thawing him from that thought was the fact that suicides didn't go to Paradise. Hungary was someone he needed to see again. If he died at his own hand that would never happen. Besides, he was a nation. Not only would his people suffer, there was no guarantee that he would die. Nations were mostly immune from mortal harm unless there were other circumstances involved.
Still in this train of thought, Austria got up and found his viola and then began to play a haunting tune in minor, the dark and somber tones matching his thoughts exactly. The only problem being there was no one there to hear it.
