Thank you all!
And that's right. They could be same age too, but I let my emotions to decide and made Iceland to be much younger. And then the same emotions took hurt because I just couldn't make up any reasons for Finland to be older than that. Finland's history is a mystery and I took the year from the first known Finnish writen message because it was all I got.
This time we have everybody but mostly Denmark, Norway and Iceland. First, short part is about modern days but the rest takes a place in 16th century and Iceland is a kid again!
When Norway stepped in to room, the first thing he noticed was the sad and slightly depressive atmosphere. He stopped and wondered what could have caused that, because when he had moved in to his work room only about hour earlier, everything had been fine. Sweden had been talking on phone, Finland reading a book and Denmark and Iceland playing games. It had been quite normal, but now Norway only saw four nations all sitting on the floor and seemly being overall sad. Cautiously he stepped inside, noting that after all nobody was yelling and Finland would have break up any fights anyway so it had to be something else than a simply disagreement.
"What happened here?" he asked and got four, almost identical depressed looks.
"Oh, we were just sharing some stories", Finland said, trying to smile a bit and failing fast.
"About what?"
"About the worse Christmases we have ever had", Iceland muttered and held his arms tightly crossed.
"Ah, I see", Norway said, settling down on a free armchair, "so it went very fast to war memories and things like that, am I right?"
"Yeah."
"Wasn't so good idea", Denmark admitted sadly. Others nodded, but Norway only tapped his fingers against the armrest while thinking. This was definitely not how he wanted to spend his holiday, with four depressive nations, so he should come up with something quickly and fix the situation. He kept thinking about past Christmases and the midwinter celebrations before the Christianity even came to be, and then his glanced at Iceland. He smirked when one certain memory came up.
"Actually, I have a story to share", he said, getting everybody's attention at once again, "it was one of my weirdest Christmases but quite hilarious too."
"Well, if it is funny story too", Finland said and shrugged. He had heard enough sad stories for a while.
"I promise it is", Norway said and took a more comfortable position on the chair, tugging a pillow under his arm, "now. I think it was year 1395 or maybe 1396, but me, Danmark and Island were living under the same roof." Iceland groaned when he realized what his brother was going to tell.
"Nore, no", he pleaded, "not that story!"
"But it's funny."
"It's embarrassing." A slight blush was coming up to the Icelander's cheeks. Denmark, who had also started to think about what had happened during those years, smirked when he remembered.
"Was it the time when we…?" he asked and Norway nodded quickly. Finland and Sweden didn't know about it because they had been by their own during that time and the situation between the countries had made it quite impossible to just go and gossip about things. But now they were very interested about the Norway's story, especially after noticing the Icelander blushing because of the embarrassment and the Dane smirking.
"I think it was funny", Norway said and pointed at the two nations sitting next to each other, "and they want to hear it." Iceland was still hesitating but then he simply shrugged.
"Okay", he said, "but don't make me look like a fool."
"You were barely five hundred years old by that time", Norway reminded him, "and your body was only a 10 years old kid, it's normal to be awkward during that time."
"I almost killed your both", Iceland murmured and made the Dane snort.
"Killed?" he asked, "those people couldn't do that even if they caught us!" Finland and Sweden were very interested now, though only the Finn showed that clearly.
"Can you start?" he asked, "I'm curious."
"Sure", Norway replied, glancing at Iceland and Denmark so they would keep it down, "it started when we left Island alone for a moment…"
It was normal that Iceland wandered around the town by himself. Norway and Denmark were both sometime busy with their duties and as they didn't have any servants in the house, it was not possible to make anybody to watch after the child nation. And it wasn't needed either, because Iceland could survive by himself and he had his puffin with him too. So Norway and Denmark were not very worried about leaving the Icelander occasionally alone during the days. He would only do some house duties and after that go to the town or paint or do anything that came up in his mind. Sometime he of course followed the other two to the meetings but because his land was tightly tied with Norway's, usually he didn't need to. After they returned to home in evening, Iceland would tell them what he had been doing and they would share the newest things and everything conserving his land. It worked fine.
But then one day during his exploring the town, Iceland met the priest. The man was middle aged and smelled funny but that wasn't what took the Icelander's attention. It was the way how the man spoke. He was almost like acting, yelling things and attracting attention to himself. Iceland simply joined other people and watched, not really listening but just wondering how the people managed to be so passionate about things.
"And I tell you", the priest yelled at the gathering, "man should not touch another man like woman! It's wrong and unnatural!" People nodded and whispered something to each other. Iceland didn't have anybody to whisper with since most humans avoided nations naturally. It was just something in the way how they acted, that made people wary. Also, Iceland might look like almost normal 10 years old but he definitely wasn't and that made it a bit difficult to play with other kids.
"But my brother says it's not bad", he mumbled to himself. He didn't mean anybody to hear that but apparently the priest had also good hearing accompanying the loud voice. He heard the Icelander, quickly jumped on his own conclusion and turned his sharp eyes on the kid. Iceland hadn't noticed that so he almost jumped up when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.
"My child", the priest said, looking straight at him. Iceland wanted to tell him that he wasn't kid. He was now 465 years old. They had counted it with Norway only few months ago because Denmark had forgot his exact age and during that calculations Iceland had said he wanted to know his own too. Norway had been very kind and helped him to go through the books to find his birth year or something that would be close to that.
"Yes?" Iceland asked instead, because he had been taught to be nice for people and not freak them out. Denmark liked to freak out them sometime but Norway said it was very rude thing to do.
"I saw your interest toward my speech", the priest said, "did it arise any thoughts in you?" Iceland didn't really understand the question. Of course he had questions. Like how the man had managed to get so horrible smell on himself and why he seemed to like to yell at people at the market place, but somehow the Icelander knew that those were not questions the man meant.
"What kind of?" he asked politely though he didn't really care.
"Do you know somebody who engages to act that is forbidden by God?" the priest asked and Iceland thought about what he had just heard. For him defence, he didn't know the men were not allowed to love each other during that time. He had simply also lived through the time when it wasn't so big matter and, because his brother and Denmark clearly loved each other, he had never questioned why it couldn't be possible. He had also never noted how those two kept their attraction down when they were out in public and only showed their feelings when they were alone. With Norway that would been normal since he hated public shows of attraction but seeing Denmark act like the Norwegian didn't matter more than a friend, was strange. Still Iceland didn't connect these hints together and he had no idea how much power this man held. For him the priest was just a crazy man who liked to yell at people.
So he didn't hesitate to state his opinion.
"My brother loves Dan", Iceland said, "they use lot of nice words about each other when nobody else is hearing." For some reason the priest seemed to be excited about that. Iceland didn't understand why, it wasn't his business.
"Do they, in any chance, commit physical acts?"
"What is that?" Iceland asked and frowned. This weird man had quite strange questions. No wonder Norway didn't want to kiss Denmark in public, if people liked to come and ask things like that. Iceland wondered if nobody had ever taught this man about what it meant to be rude and polite. The Icelander was quite happy that at least his education was good and the older nations had taught him all the important things.
"Things man is supposed to do only with a woman." Iceland had to think a moment because honestly there were not many women in his life. The nations liked to stay away from humans in fear of them finding out about their secrets, and unfortunately all the nations in north were male. However, Iceland had met few female nations too but he couldn't really point out if they were doing any different things than the males. They seemed all to be pretty much same. He started to wonder if he had seen any difference between human males and females. Finally after while he realized that men seemed to spend more time with leading things while women did all kind of practical stuff like cooking. Iceland didn't care about leading but food was important and therefore it had to be best to be a woman, he thought.
"Dan usually cooks for us", he said, hoping that it would be a good enough answer so the man would leave him alone, "and brother tells him what to do." Unfortunately this didn't seem to please the man so much because he frowned and asked yet another question.
"Do they touch each other?" he asked.
"Oh, all the time", Iceland replied because it was true. When they were alone they were indeed almost always touching. Mostly it was just a little, like holding a hand, stroking other's arm while passing by or leaning on each other while sitting on couch. Sometime they kissed too and few times Iceland had seen them being very, very close and so focused that they had never noticed the Icelander walking by.
"That's wrong", the priest said and Iceland frowned. It couldn't be. His brother was very serious about things and he would never do something wrong expect if he did it for saving him or Denmark. Denmark in other hand could do a lot of strange things but Iceland didn't believe he could do anything wrong to Norway. No, they loved each other too much for that.
"But they love each other", Iceland said, "we are all happy about that. Sví said it was a pain to watch them awkwardly trying to figure it out before they knew and he was getting a headache from seeing it. And because they love each other they can sleep in the same bed and stay warmer during the winter. Brother told me." The priest looked shocked but still excited. His hands were shaking when he patted the Icelander's shoulder and gave him a coin.
"Thank you for telling me, kid", he said with weirdly toned voice, "I'll come by soon to speak with your… brother." Iceland took a coin, though he didn't really have much use for it. Denmark and Norway always got him everything and they didn't really seem to have problem with money.
"Okay", he said, "but I'm not sure if my brother will like you. You are strange. He might decide to attack you and he is very good warrior. One of the best, Dan always says." The priest didn't look too worried, only mumbling something about getting the guards, so Iceland left. It was already getting dark and he had to hurry back since they were going to celebrate the midwinter in that evening. For nations, human celebrations were more like good reasons to have everybody gathering together for once. This year it was only they three and the wars kept Sweden and Finland away, but Denmark had promised that he would bring some treats from castle's kitchen and those ones were always the best. Iceland couldn't wait for the dinner and that's why he hurried at home.
He didn't even remember the weird priest man until they were all sitting at the dinner table and Norway casually asked how Iceland's day had been. They had already eaten the first course and Denmark had been explaining some things happened in the court. Apparently Norway had been working with other kind of duties during that day and Denmark had been in the court alone, because the Norwegian was also interested about the news. The Dane also included some well choice gossips that made them all laugh, and explained few newest dramas with wild hand gestures and a smirk on his lips.
"I checked the letter I got from my land", Iceland started because he actually was in contact with his people by himself too, even if he didn't really have duties, "and then I went to the town."
"All good in your land?" Denmark asked, though of course he knew everything all ready. Most of the official things were always dealt by him or Norway and they both kept the Iceland's things carefully on eye.
"Yeah, they are okay", Iceland muttered, "but there was a weird man at the market place yelling at people and then he asked me some very strange questions." Norway and Denmark shared a look over the table. They didn't look too worried, but sometime people asking questions were not a good sign.
"Which kind of questions?" Norway asked.
"He wanted to know if you are doing something bad", Iceland said, "but I didn't really understand. I don't think you are bad."
"Of course we are not", Denmark said with a smile, "did you told that to that man?"
"Yeah", Iceland said and nodded, "but he got very weird when I said you kiss and sleep in the same bed." Denmark and Norway both froze. Norway even dropped some of his food on the table but he didn't even seem to notice that as he only put the fork back down. Denmark slowly swallowed and placed his mug back on the table, focusing now fully on the Icelander.
"Was the man wearing black clothes with a white thing here?" Norway asked, pointing his collar. He was still dressed up with his official uniform so the all metal buttons and plates shimmered in the candle light when he moved and the expensive cloth made him look like a real royalty.
"Yeah", Iceland replied. Norway and Denmark shared another look.
"Is sodomy currently illegal?" Denmark asked from Norway, who nodded solemnly.
"Shit", the Dane said quietly, "how long is the sentence for that?"
"I think it's an execution", Norway replied.
"Really?" Denmark asked and looked surprised, "they kill people for that?"
"Yeah", Norway said, "it's your law."
"I didn't sign that!"
"I think they didn't ask you to", Norway noted, "we are only for serve the people, not to make their rules. So, I think we better make a plan." Iceland, who had noticed how serious the two nations got suddenly, watched them worriedly and wondered if it was his fault. He didn't want them to blame him.
"Did I…", he asked quietly, "did I something wrong?" Norway and Denmark stopped their conversation and looked at him. Denmark smiled and Norway shook his head.
"No, you didn't", he said softly, "but after his we have to tell you about some things. I think we have neglected your lessons for too long and it's time to pick up again." Iceland nodded, happy that he wasn't to blame but a bit disappointed on the fact that he was going to start new lessons. He hoped they would be about something interesting. He had really hated the taxing lessons Norway had pulled him through some years earlier, but the Denmark's dealing with royalty's lessons had been funny.
"If they come here", Norway said, speaking again to the Dane, "I'm going to say that you are the one with the demon inside and you seduced me."
"Well, that is exactly what I did", Denmark said and grinned a bit, "without the demon even!"
"Stop joking. This is serious", Norway told him, but the Dane didn't look too worried.
"They can't do anything", he said, "maybe arrest us, but it's not like the king will let them to kill us! And even if they do, we will just come back again." Norway still didn't look happy.
"You are safe indeed", he said, "but somebody might also think that this is a great way to get rid of me and Island. They are sneaky and you'll be too tied up to help us out of it." Denmark thought about it for a moment and the way how his smile waded and the stern, angry look replaced it, told them that he also ended up with the same conclusion.
"It's not a problem", he still said but this time sounding scary, "I'll just kill them all. Their blood will be on the ground before any touch you." Norway sighed.
"No", he said, "me and Island will escape to my land, they will never find us from the fjords when my friends keep us hidden, and meanwhile you will make the things work out here." Denmark looked sad when the Norwegian said they would go and leave him alone to his land but he still nodded, knowing that it was the best idea.
"When you are coming back?" he asked and hoped that Norway would say soon.
"After everything is settled", Norway replied, "in two or three years maybe? You can survive."
"Three years without you", the Dane mourned but Norway was already up and making him and Iceland to help with packing. Soon they both had a backpack full of food and other stuff and Norway checked that both had warm clothes. Apparently the Norwegian was always half prepared for a quick leave because he knew that there was a boat nearby just for him and he did all the preparations within half an hour. Denmark looked at them sadly.
"Why I can't come too?" he asked.
"Somebody has to take care of this kingdom", Norway noted, "you will survive few years by your own."
"No, I don't", the Dane argued. Norway decided that they were ready for the travel and he turned to the Dane, taking his head between his hands and kissing him quickly for goodbye.
"It will go fast", he promised with whispering voice, "I'll miss you too." Denmark nodded and murmured that he loved the Norwegian. Then he looked at the Iceland and gave him a smile.
"Be good, Is", he said, "remember to piss off Nor few times, he likes that."
"Really?" Iceland asked, because he was sure his brother didn't like it.
"Don't listen him", the Norwegian said, guiding him to the door, "goodbye Dan, I love you."
"I love you too", Denmark replied again and looked after them from the window until they were too far to be seen anymore. Norway moved quickly, helping the Iceland to stay in his pace. Iceland still felt bad and it made the situation even worse when he noticed how sad Norway was. He was even forcing himself not to look back. Iceland saw it from the way how his brother kept staring forward and held his hand tightly.
"I'm sorry", he mumbled when they got in some distance from the house.
"Don't be", Norway replied, "it's okay. I honestly thought someday this would happen anyway. Dan is horrible with hiding things and there have been few too close calls. Maybe it's better this way, at least now nobody caught us from the bed or anything and we will be more carefully."
"I still feel sorry", Iceland said.
"It's not your fault", Norway kept telling him until they stopped by the shore, "the humans had some very strange customs. This would have been completely normal some time ago but sadly they decided that now it's not." Norway found his boat right where it was supposed to be and quickly dragged it to the water. Iceland climbed up on the boat and Norway pushed it over the thin layer of ice before getting on board too. Most of the sea was free and the ice covered only the shore. It was no problem for the Norwegian to navigate them to open with an oar.
"Why they decided so?" Iceland asked.
"I have no idea", Norway murmured, "but I hope they decide otherwise soon. This is ridiculous." Iceland was sitting at the pit of the boat and holding a lantern while Norway rowed. He wondered if he should offer to take a rowing turn too, but Norway seemed to handle the duty easily with old experience. He wasn't even looking like he was growing tired or not sure where they were going.
"Nore?" Iceland asked after a moment of silence.
"I already said, it's not your fault", the Norwegian said, "and it's actually a high time that I visit my land. Maybe we can visit yours too and check on things. It's never bad idea to go to have a look." The idea seemed to cheer up the Icelander a lot and he smiled at his brother.
"That would be nice!" he said happily, wondering how much things had changed in his land. It has been few decades when he had visited last time. The time just went by so fast and there was so many things happening that sometime he forgot to ask Norway or Denmark to take him there. They didn't want him to go alone because there were some nations who would have happily kidnap him. Iceland had never met such nations but he trusted his brother.
"I think so too", Norway replied.
"But Nore."
"What?"
"We didn't get any treats", Iceland said, remembering the treats Denmark had promised, "and the midwinter dinner was ruined." Norway pushed the oars once more and then he took them back on the boat, letting the vessel to float freely on the water. It was quite calm day so the waves barely moved them.
"I packed some with us", Norway said with a slight smile and reached for the backpack, picking out a small pack of those sticky treats made of nuts, dried apples and syrup that all kids loved. He threw the pack to the Icelander who happily opened it and took one piece. He offered some to the Norwegian, who declined and instead started to bit a liquorice root that had also been in the backpack.
"Did you leave any to Dan?" Iceland asked and Norway nodded.
"Of course", he said, "and it's not like that man doesn't sneak in the kitchen all the time to get snacks."
"Okay", Iceland muttered. Norway looked at him and then reached over, stroking his silvery hairs.
"God jul, Is", he said with a small smile on his lips.
"God jul, Nore", Iceland replied and happily munched the treats.
It was strange to write this priest person, but things were more like that during that time. I have read some things abut vikings and pre-christian Scandinavians being much more tolerant toward same-sex couples.
Also this was a very good excuse to write how I think the personifications saw their relationships during those times. They didn't care because they had simply seen so many things change during their lives and if there is this one thing that doesn't change you hold on it tightly and love whoever you want damnit.
Tomorrow: A friendly game of icehockey between the nations (All + Canada as a special guest)
p.s I have lost one Christmas song I really like. It's Norwegian and I can only remember that it was about nisse (great hint, right?) and the name was a question (hvem? hvor? hvaaaad?) and it was annoyingly happy song. I had it on CD but because I left Finland for Sweden so suddenly and then Sweden for Denmark even more suddenly (heh he) I didn't even had time to think about Christmas CDs and my "great" googling skills failed me this time. The melody got stuck in my mind today but it's so annoying when you don't remember the lyrics.