Short disclaimer is short! I do not own Hetalia nor its chacters but I do own this story, so please enjoy!
….
One early morning, like every early morning, Cheng Li Xuan woke up the sleeping men who lived in a shack adjacent from his shop. With water and ladle, a grin on his face, he doused them with the icy droplets. The men, like every early morning, got up with groans and protests for more sleep.
"Get up you lazy blond oxen, I have a promising job for you - Emil has come down from the Bondevik Estate! It seems that Lord Nikolas has now deemed the perfect time for tending the bulbs and planting the flowers in the thawed ground - they shall like to have everything lovely for the wedding engagements. Now, get up - get up!"
At once the men straightened themselves from their cots. With fumbling hands they eagerly dumped the offending pail of water that their boss had used to rouse them from sleep into a wash tub. Splashing water about their faces, they ran the coolness of it through their hair in an attempt for their locks to look presentable while they shaved and lathered their faces.
As they got ready for the laborious and surely terse day Cheng Li Xuan listed off all the orders of flowers that Nikolas had requested for planting, the boys running it through their head as they buttoned up their shirts and placed vests of wool over their bodies, caps tight over their head. If they ground their teeth or growled out through their lips at the paying customers of today's tasks, Cheng Li Xuan didn't choose to notice. Once the order had been read and understood, the two Scandinavian born men came round the front where they instantly saw and recognized the youngest member of the estate, Emil, chewing on a paper rolled cigarette that had been unlit, his fingers playing with the petals of a bushel of pink peonies at the front of the clerks desk.
"Li Xuan, I must have some of these - what are they?"
"Peonies from Hong Kong, Lord Emil - expensive are they." He mused, not bothering that to most his words would sound offending and scornful. Emil knew better than to be insulted by the wonderful gardeners words.
Emil sighed in silent agreement and nibbled at his lip, cigarette bobbing.
"Well, perhaps another time then - right now I must have that order filled or Nikolas shall have my head." He huffed. He pretended to brush ash off the tip of the cigarette, though they both knew it was unlit and had been for many a days, stale as it was.
"Oh, I meant to ask, how are the wedding plans looking for young Nikolas and Tino? Have they found a pair of brides to wed?"
"Ah, you are referring to the marriage proposals? The task that Nikolas has placed in the Sunday papers for his and Tino's hand?" Emil yawned, scratching the back of his paled head, a dissatisfaction lingering behind his eyes that Lu Xuan was quick to observe.
Berwald and Mathias huffed with annoyance at the clerk tables right side, distress swimming like hungry acid and bile in their gut as they tried to hear the conversation, only to be shooed out the shop by Li Xuan with the end of a broom stick.
Li Xuan, assured once again with the secluded availability of the conversation, nodded as he began to snip at some ribbon with silver clunky scissors.
"They are good - slow, but good. We have every eligible person guessing and growing flowers to please the grooms, each one desperate to come up with the fee of proposal." Li Xuan watched as Emil's teeth seemed to bite hard into the paper of the cigarette.
The black haired man behind the counter only smiled softly and thinly, before allowing a worried look to waver on his bushy browed face.
"Are you quite sure you wish for Kohler and Oxenstierna to work at the estate again? Surely you must know the rumors about those two and your family. It could ruin your name and chance of a prosperous wedding."
Emil snorted and lit his cigarette finally, striking a match at his shoe. It was a desperate maneuver and it made Li Xuan frown deeper.
"My dear friend, our family name is already ruined, no wealthy marriage could save us, that is what I believe - haven't you heard? Our father has gambled away all our money and inheritance, why, we haven't a speck of a skilling left!" He sounded far to amused for Li Xuan's taste.
"What shall you do then if Tino and Nikolas call the plans off?"
Emil took a drag from his homemade cigarette before blowing the smoke out from his lungs.
"Well, the way I see it, we have two options, my family and I. We could sell the estate to our German cousins and live in a tiny little village somewhere, or have Tino and Nikolas get married to wealthy ladies of society that they do not love! I should hate to perform the latter. " He smiled then, a laugh erupting from his throat.
Li Xuan hummed gravely.
"Why do you laugh, is this not serious?"
"You know as well as I do that Nikolas and Tino only have eyes for poor poppers who are entirely the wrong gender - at least that's what our society says." He mused.
Li Xuan only nodded and looked to the two Scandinavians who were busy carrying crates of flowers to the buck board wagon waiting patiently still behind the hitched mules.
Li Xuan knew quite well what Emil was talking about, as Nikolas and Tino's sexual orientation was secretive and ludicrous at best. But, Emil had entrusted it with Li Xuan a long time ago out of friendship - for it was the Bondevik's who gave Li Xuan's family the loan of money for their flower nursery those many years ago. He was grateful to find such friends in their family, even if they had a crushing secret that could ruin them.
"Then take the poppers and dress them as big burly women, with powder on their cheeks and red on their lips and flowers in their hands." The store owner mused.
Emil snorted a laugh once more, imagining the subjects of his families attention dressed in pearls and shawls and petty coats. He soon whisked that thought away, though, not wanting to touch that image with a four foot cane.
He decided to change the weighty subject.
"My, I get tired just watching them work." He laughed, walking outside with the last of the crates, flicking his cigarette to the floor as Li Xuan followed with a quiet yawn on his lips.
"Like Oxen they are, dumb blond oxen." He chuckled.
"Hey - these dumb blond oxen have ears you know!" Mathias barked with slight annoyance as he and Berwald lifted the last of the crates into the wagon, the mules making a fuss at the weight.
"You shall need help with these flowers beside transporting them - my apprentices, rusty from lack of work in winter, but they shall be good help with the planting?" Li Xuan suggested to Emil.
"Hmm, yes, Nikolas shall get a kick bossing them around like the good old days and Tino would be delighted to see Berwald again - what say you boys? Care to help plant these flowers and shrub?" Emil grinned solemnly.
Berwald swallowed as he climbed over to the wagons seat, Mathias riding in back to keep a watch on the crates of damageable plants.
"Shall your brother and cousin be there to help us plant? Or will they just watch from their silly little balcony from their rooms looking at wedding plans?" Mathias asked with a snarl that was aggressive and angry, his grip on the worn wood of the wagon hard and unrelenting.
Emil snorted a laugh. "You do not know my family, dear Dane? Spoiled and pompous we are, but gardeners we shall forever be." He winked as he sat atop his own horse, a lovely dappled grey and set off to ride ahead to the estate.
Li Xuan stood out into the cold morning street as he watched them go, a weary look on his face.
"Be careful my boys, be good. For the roses that bloom so sweetly at the Bondevik estate are beautiful yes, but sharp and full of thorns. Be weary, my boys." Then he went inside to escape the damp sweet air of early spring.
…
They pulled up to the estate, with rolling rich lawns and the sweet smoke smell of the train tracks a mile down and the soft twitter of birds that roosted in the pear trees at the entrance.
As they drove the team around the oval rounded front they noticed the dead plants from the harsh winter before - spring planting would be tough this season with the ground so cold, but they could manage it. They were always able to.
Atop the balcony they caught movement, Tino waving his arms madly in welcome, Mathias and Berwald smiling up and laughing as they waved back, glad to see smiling faces again. Berwald the happiest, thankful that Tino had not yet forgotten their love for one another. Yet before the laughter could continue, Nikolas came through the glass French doors and yanked Tino back with a chastising gaze, telling the Finn to calm down, that such a greeting was in no way gentlemanly.
The Finn who was still young - twenty two since last winter, only grumbled and made his way down stairs. Nikolas preened his gaze over to the two men who began to lead the mules to the right of the estate where they could place the crates down and not damage a single bud or stem.
Mathias winked to the eldest of the Bondevik's, Nikolas tightening his shoulders and huffing out with indignation as he stormed off the balcony.
"I think he's sweet on me." Mathias grinned to Berwald who only shook his head in disbelief at his coworkers behavior.
At least Berwald was more careful about his affection for the Finn, bidding his time before he could have a private word with Tino about this damn marriage proposal.
Berwald soon whistled for the team to stop, Mathias holding the crates tightly as the carriage lopped forward, back again, and then stopped with a squeak.
The Dane and Swede immediately began to lift up the crates of the hearty spring plants that would be pressed into the thawed dirt.
Soon, after the last of the four crates was crunched on top of the frosted over gravel, Nikolas and Tino appeared down from the front steps of the mansion. Nikolas in his somber plum black frock, Tino in his brown tweed vest and pin tie, his nose flushed red from the cold that bit against him.
"Berwald! My, it feels like months!" Tino exclaimed with exasperation.
"More like years." The Swede mumbled with a pleased sigh at the sight of the Finn. Tino laughed with happiness as he reached out for the Swede, about to hug him before Nikolas cleared his throat, warning the Finn that such affection would not be tolerated.
"Oh, honestly, Nikolas! It is not as if they have the plague!" Tino snapped at his cousin, grabbing at the Swede's arm. Mathias watched quietly from near the mules heads, adjusting their throat latches and such. He would have to bring the team in, their legs would become ruined in this frost and cold.
"I know they are of good character, Tino. But please - it will hurt more, trust me!" Nikolas hissed as he wrenched Tino's arm back.
"It's about the marriage proposals, ain't it." Mathias gruffed, eyes narrowing at Nikolas.
The Norwegian pressed down his rumbled coat.
"I do not have to explain myself to you." Nikolas' words hardened as he looked to Mathias.
Berwald, sensing a fight about to erupt that would result in Mathias sporting a black eye, nudged his co-worker in the shoulder.
"Perhaps ya' should take th' mules ta' th' stable, I'll begin ta' uproot th' dead plants." Berwald mumbled in his coarse tongue - his Norwegian was barely advancing.
"Take ah' bit ta' cool down." He whispered to the Dane, leaning against the mans shoulder to reach his hide gloves nestled at the box seat of the wagon.
Mathias only huffed out with anger before he led the two mules away, Emil following him silently to put his own horse back in his stall.
"Now. Let's see what there is to be done." Berwald tried to smile as he walked to the front eaves of the estate, spying some crumbled ivy that looked like it needed to be trimmed.
…
"How can he look me in the eyes with bridled love, and yet say such cruel words to my face!" Mathias hissed as he worked at the buckles of the mules harness, the animals yawning and stamping their feet lazily, happy to find some rest in the Bondevik's stables.
` Emil sighed along with his Danish friend.
"Brother is not the best at showing his emotions, save for anger. He is angry and tired all the time, Mathias. I'm sure his words were meant to scare you away if anything else." Emil sighed as he scratched his gelding behind his ears. The horse nipped softly at his masters coat pocket.
"But why? I thought we had something?! I care for him and I thought he did for me as well!" Mathias yanked off the yolk from the first mules neck, the animal nipping at him in annoyance for his less than gentle touch.
Mathias rubbed the animal behind it's long ears in apology.
"He feels the need to distance himself from you. He is getting married you know." Emil soured.
Mathias gritted his teeth, piling some steaming mashed oats into the mules feeders. The animals ate hungrily.
"What I would give to have him not marry any of those pompous perverts!" He snarled.
Emil laughed. "And you yourself are not one of those perverts?!"
Mathias colored red. "I am a man, I have thought of it - but in the most purest of regards. I have fallen in love with him, and I know he has as well. I do not want to see him throttled with loneliness with a husband or wife he does not love."
"Well, then what will you do?"
Mathias paused.
"What can I do? I have no money for the fee - I cannot save the mansion."
"Ah, yes, but those things are silly and trivial. What you have is much better."
"And what is that?"
Emil smiled.
"The ability to love, and the ability to grow a flower."
….
After half an hour of digging up old shrubs and hacking off their gnarled twig like branches, Berwald was just about ready to start planting the new bulbs, the daffodils would bloom quite soon and they would grace the mansion with lovely colors - perfect for a wedding. Berwald sighed with a lonesome quake in his heart, quickly choosing to not mull over those thoughts.
Just as Berwald was aiming to plant some ground heather, Tino came up to him with a hot mug of tea laced with honey. The Finn tapped him thrice on the back in a most friendly manner to get his attention, though he knew Berwald always had eyes for him and could never quite let his gaze stray.
"I thought you might be thirsty, so here is some healthy yarrow tea!" Tino chirped, his voice strained more than necessary, as if they were both trying to play a part and failing miserably at it. Berwald, still slightly miserable at the whole mess of this occasion, took the cup gratefully. Tino always served him yarrow blossom tea. It had become one of their favorites together, only now he wondered if this was the last time he'd ever get the chance to enjoy it in the Finnish mans company.
As the Swede sipped at the hot liquid, Tino began to nibble at his lip, setting himself down beside Berwald.
"Beautiful thing about Yarrow - it grows most everywhere, and in all sorts of colors. Yellows, pinks, purples, reds - well, I'm. I'm sure you already knew that, but. Ah. Yarrow, yes, what a lovely plant."
"T'no," Berwald was about to speak to the Finn when Tino shut his eyes tight.
"Please, do not think badly of me, Berwald! Nikolas and Emil are the only kin that I have, and I should not like to go against them. I would like to sell off the mansion and live in quiet humbleness, but Nikolas says that will not do. I am sorry - I would sell my soul to the devil not to have to marry a stranger. I am so sorry."
Soft tears began to dot the Finn's cheeks, which startled the Swede as he knew Tino to be quite strong and cheerful in his ways.
"Dun' cry - dun' cry, beloved. Ah' wish we could belong ta' each other. I wish our love could grow." Berwald brushed the tears away with a dirty glove, making the tears stained and sop with mud.
"Oh! Ah'… Ah' am sorry, ah' didn't know what came over meh!" Berwald tried to wash the mud off with his handkerchief but only succeeded in making the Finn's cheeks even more dirty.
"Oh!" Berwald exclaimed again gruffly, but Tino only laughed and sat up, heaving the Swede up with him with his strength.
"Come, we have some linen and wash bowls in the living room - we'll get cleaned up in there."
Berwald nodded and numbly followed the Finn.
As they passed Nikolas, the Norwegian was about to inquire as to where they were going, together, when Emil came running from the stable.
"Brother! Brother! Mathias requires some assistance! One of the mules has taken to kicking at the bay foal, Mathias can't hold the brute off much longer!" He spoke with urgency, face wracked with sweat.
Nikolas growled.
"How dare he and his mutt-like animals soil that colt - that animal is to be sold for the highest price to help get us out of this mess!"Nikolas turned back to Emil, rage quickening on his features.
"You watch over the plants - make sure the crows do not pick at them. I'll put an end to this foolery." Nikolas barked as he passed Emil on the way to the brick red stables, marching with a purpose toward the livery. He did not see the grin on his brothers face as he went past.
….
So… this took a long ass time to write. Heh. I'm sorry, please don't hate me. I know I have been neglecting my stories, like, really badly. Its just college is kicking my ass. I'm sorry!
