Even If…? (Austria & Spain)
Austria glanced quickly at his watch and suppressed a sigh. There was still plenty of time before the world conference started. As always (often, often, not always, he chided himself), he had accompanied Germany, who had arrived way too early. Sadly, the hotel most of the countries were staying in didn't provide access to a piano for its guests and he hadn't brought any of his musical instruments. At least, it offered free access to newspapers from almost all countries of the world in the lobby, so he could pass the time reading.
After a while, Spain consorted with him and started to read as well. By his standards, he was surprisingly early for the conference, but Austria questioned neither his presence nor his behaviour. They didn't even so much as greet each other—Austria considered it unnecessary, and apparently, Spain thought the same.
"Rodrigo?" Spain addressed him after a while.
"Hm?" was Austria's only response. He didn't even look up.
"If the circumstances warranted it, would you remarry?"
"Pardon?" Austria nearly dropped his newspaper. After recovering from his initial shock, his natural sarcasm kicked in and he replied: "You see, when our marriage was annulled, I lost my position as a militarily successful imperial estate, and when my marriage with Elizaveta was divorced, I lost most of my empire. At the end of yet another marriage, I'd probably cease to exist. So no, thank you very much, I wouldn't marry ever again if I had any say in that."
"Even if it wasn't for real?" A tiny smile lay on Spain's lips when he showed Austria the Spanish-language newspaper he was reading.
"Falsas bodas—fake weddings?" Austria blinked.
"Yeah. Seems like the young don't marry any more at Argentina's, but they still love wedding celebrations. So some decide to revel with all due pomp and circumstance, just skipping the actual marriage vows. This is becoming increasingly popular, the article says." Spain smirked. "Getting the marriage ceremony, but not another wedding band—wouldn't that be the ideal solution for you?"
Austria laughed, even if it was mostly out of relief. Then, he replied curtly: "No."
"No?" Spain was crestfallen.
"No," Austria repeated. "I'm afraid neither you nor me nor any other country have spare money to waste on a that sort of charade. Also, a fake wedding doesn't make any sense from an economical point of view, except for the people who gain money in this way."
Spain pouted. "You're so unromantic! I can't believe there are still people who seriously wonder if you and Switzerland are blood relatives."
Austria shrugged nonchalantly and read on.
Notes:
Once again, I took the information about the fake weddings from the German TV programme "Weltspiegel" (ARD, 20.12.2016). Imperial estate refers to the "states" of the Holy Roman Empire.