Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or its characters. All rights belong to its creators.
The Tumblr Prompt for day 9 was Siblings. I thought I'd share the story here although it's past Halloween.
Took inspiration from the Geico Commerical: Life in a Victorian Home.
Down The Victorian Rabbit Hole
Finally, Natalya Arlovskaya had put a down payment on her own home. After living with her sister Irunya for a few years she had finally saved up enough to invest in a house that was actually going for cheap. Apparently, some Victorian era family died in the house and people were too scared of the ghost that haunts its walls.
Tolys, her childhood friend, offered to help her move her things in. He was actually quite strong so having his help would be beneficial. She had invited her brother Ivan, but he did not want to come, and Irunya wasn't good at lifting things, her chest already putting a strain on her back.
"That box should go upstairs; I'm claiming my bedroom as the one right across from the bathroom."
"Ok I will take this one upstairs."
Natalya brought in a box she marked as appliances and placed it onto the counter of the kitchen. Apparently there was a library in here somewhere, most of the books were cleaned out though. She'd have to do a little more exploring when they were finished moving in her things, there were so many rooms in the house, and the attic had to be cleaned.
Natalya and Tolys took about seven trips each to bring in all of her things. The movers had already moved in the heavy appliances in addition to her dressers, chest of drawers, and couch.
The last thing they moved in was Natalya's kitchen table which they moved into a dining room of some sort.
Tolys wiped sweat off of his brow after they set the table down. Sweat had dampened his shirt and it was clinging to him.
"Do you need help unpacking?" Tolys asked, giving her a kind smile.
"I'm probably not going to do any unpacking today."
"B-but when you do, you'll call me?"
"Maybe." She muttered.
Tolys stood, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I-I could stay overnight too, just until you get acclimated." His cheeks were a light pink color.
"Go home Tolys." Natalya's tone was sharp.
The man gave her a nod, and she walked him to the door.
"Don't hesitate to call, I'm willing to help you with whatever you need."
Natalya rolled her eyes and shoved him out of the open door.
"Goodbye Natalya."
"Bye." To which she slammed the door shut. She thought Tolys was attractive but really annoying, and really couldn't stand being in his presence for too long.
It was later in the day, just past dusk, and Natalya had ordered beef lo-mein takeout. She was slurping her noodles as the light flickered above her, she was sitting in the dining room.
Old bulb probably.
Then Natalya felt a rumbling sensation under her feet. The table started to shake, and she grabbed her carton of noodles so it wouldn't spill.
Just then the bulb exploded, pieces of glass littered the table. Natalya sighed; I'll get it tomorrow. She finished up her noodles before walking to the trashcan and throwing it in.
Natalya looked through a box to find a towel and some soap. After she pulled out the necessary items for her shower the box flipped over. She huffed up righting the box again.
Then she made her way upstairs to the bathroom. Natalya took a quick hot shower to wash off today's sweat.
When she stepped out, her mirror was foggy, but it seemed as though someone had written, "Sweet Dreams" in the glass.
"Thank you, I guess." She muttered before going into her room and slipping into her nightgown she pulled from her suitcase.
If this was the ghost everyone was scared of, Natalya was unimpressed. She was often described as apathetic and wasn't fazed by occult happenings. So, she'd like it here if that was all she'd have to worry about.
She snuggled under the covers, closing her eyes.
0000000
At some point in the night, she was startled by the creak of the hinges of her bedroom door. Seeing nothing she rolled over to try and get back to sleep.
Then she felt a sensation as though something was near her, something cold tickling the sensitive skin of her ear, and then she heard it.
"Wake up darling." A feminine voice whispered to her, and Natalya bolted upright.
"What the fuck do you want?" Natalya asked to a seemingly empty room. She was trying to sleep, she'd had a long day, and now this ghost won't leave her alone.
"No need for such foul language."
"Fuck you bitch!" She frowned at the ghost, wherever it was in the room.
"How uncouth. A miniscule favor is all I ask. Down the hall and to the left is a door I'd like you to go through."
Natalya let out a loud groan, then she threw her covers off of herself and slid out of bed. She slipped on a pair of slippers.
She saw a trail of rose petals and followed that to the hallway, and then to the wooden door the ghost was talking about. She gripped the knob that had a keyhole that looked to be from the 19th century.
"And what will I find when I open the door?"
"You'll see."
Natalya turned the knob, hearing it click, before opening it and seeing soft fresh green grass and the bright sun.
Hesitantly she stepped through, and she could feel the warmth of the sun on her skin. The blades of grass tickled her bare ankles. She could see the clear blue sky above. Just ahead she could see a house, one that looked to be the same size as this one.
A little wooden ball bumped against her foot and a woman in a large Victorian style dress: collapsed sleeves, a full skirt, a V-shaped bodice, and low neckline, approached her. It was colored royal blue except for the white ruffles in the skirt. The woman was wearing a blue brimmed hat with white feathers. Her face was blemish less, and she had dark cobalt blue eyes.
"Alice! There you are. Your sister has been looking for you everywhere." The woman gripped her arm, placing her little wooden mallet under the crook of her arm.
There were two more women a ways back, with similar dresses and hats. One with caramel skin, green eyes, and a mint green dress and another pale one with ruby red eyes, a bonnet and a black dress. They had little mallets as well as they watched herself and the woman talking to her.
Alice? Like the Disney story?
"Come on. Back to the house." The woman let out a chuckle, "Ohonohon, this little dinner party is overwhelming, non? I knew you all had bitten off more than you could chew."
Natalya let the woman pull her along and upon seeing the house up close, it was the one she'd just moved into.
What the fuck is going on?
She stood at the porch of her own house and looked back to see the woman make a shooing motion toward her.
Beyond the large grass filled backyard was a gate but no door. The door she'd gone through had vanished.
Natalya walked up the steps, turned the knob to go through the door and was surprised to see not her own possessions but ones much nicer. Paintings hung of what looked to be Kings or Lords, or maybe Earls, were in the hallway. The floors looked freshly polished, and the walls painted with no cracks or chipped pieces.
Natalya made her way down the hall, lined with red velvet rugs but not before she passed a mirror. It was large, decorated in gold trimming but what made her pause was her reflection. It was not her own.
Natalya approached the glass, delicately reaching out a hand to touch it.
The face in the mirror had freckles, emerald green eyes, and thick bushy eyebrows.
Instead of her straight platinum blonde hair it was golden in curls piled high, with two framing her face. She had on white gloves that reached to her elbow, and she was wearing a pink dress similar to the women outside. Her fingers were now small and delicate as though they'd never worked a day.
When she looked down at herself, she was still wearing her nightgown and her slippers, her bust was fuller than whoever was in the mirror, she visually compared. Apparently, they could only see who she assumed was named "Alice."
"You're back inside." Natalya turned at the sound of another feminine voice.
She was met with two women who were taller than her. One was a brunette with green eyes and thick bushy eyebrows. Her hair was pulled high with curls and her dress was a dark emerald green, large, wide skirt and all. She wore a scowl. Another was a redhead with the same eye color and eyebrows although freckles were sprinkled on her cheeks. She was wearing an emerald green bonnet with a matching dress.
"Danielle is distraught. We said we wanted nothing to do with this dinner party she's throwing, and we're leaving now that things seem a bit bleak." The redhead said, and the brunet nodded.
"She won't listen to reason. Maybe you can talk sense into her." The brunet said as she made her way past Natalya.
Great.
If Alice wasn't a ghost Natalya would have slit her throat, putting Natalya into some kind of family melodrama because she didn't want to deal with it.
Or had she already dealt with it?
Natalya didn't like fixing other people's mistakes.
Natalya continued walking through the hallway until she heard sniffling and turned a corner. She walked past a few rooms before she made eye contact with a young blonde girl with similar green eyes and eyebrows, she had a rounder face and chubbier cheeks. She was on the bed, skirts bunched around her, white stocking clad legs visible. She was dabbing her eyes with a cloth, a handkerchief probably.
"Sister, everything is ruined! The food isn't what I envisioned! The Janssens, their dinner parties feature exquisite dishes, and ours look terrible in comparison!"
"It can't be that bad, sister." Natalya said, she sounded different as well.
"It is! Look!' The woman slid down from the bed and gripped Natalya's wrist. She was dragged into the dining room. On the table sat an array of food.
A whole head of lettuce?
Was that desert burnt? What is that supposed to be?
That just looks like grey mush.
A basket full of potatoes?
The only presentable part of the meal was the roasted pig with an apple in its mouth, under a platter of fresh greens.
"You are right. It is terrible."
Danielle put her face in her hands, sniffling even more.
Natalya wasn't the cook of her family, she scraped by, but Irunya and Ivan were the ones usually making large home cooked meals.
"When is the party?"
"In an hour."
"Gather your…um our cooks and tell yo–our maids or butlers or whatever to clear the table and throw everything out, except for the pig, it's good. Oh, and the potatoes and lettuce."
Danielle looked at her with wide eyes, "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going save y–our fucking party."
Danielle gasped before she giggled.
"Go, go!" Natalya said, shoving the other blonde out of the room.
"Alright, alright." She could still hear Danielle's giggles as she went down the hallway.
0000000
Before her stood about five men, apparently, they were the chefs of this upper-class family. How they managed to put out that poor excuse for a buffet was beyond her.
She thought back to when her mother made meals for all of them, she'd always tried to make Natalya feel welcome even though she was the product of an affair. Maybe she felt guilty, it was hard not to when her stepfather kept pointing it out, but her siblings didn't seem to mind.
A nice stew with those potatoes, some bread, and a tossed salad with that head of lettuce could salvage their disaster of a dinner spread.
"You!" She pointed to the shortest chef with curly blond hair, what was with everyone having thick and bushy eyebrows in this house?
The chef stood in attention. "Go forth and fetch us some bread. There will be no time to bake our own."
"M'Lady we have an errand boy who could–!"
Natalya frowned, she didn't know who that was or where he would be hailed from, but they didn't have time.
"I want you to do it! Hurry now! We don't have time to waste!"
The man was startled but he ran out of the room anyway. Her new voice was very commanding, she liked that.
Natalya threw off her gloves and rolled up her sleeves. She grabbed a potato and a knife and started cutting on the wooden table or counter or whatever this was supposed to be.
The other chefs stood in shock.
Right.
"Don't just stand around! One of you, get a pot of boiling water, we're going to make stew. Is there beef around to cut up?" She pointed to a brunet chef with brown eyes and bushy eyebrows, "I need carrots, onions, tomatoes and peppers. You can help me cut them." The chef nodded and left the room momentarily to gather the vegetables she'd asked for.
A pot was gathered, and the other chefs were trying to heat the stove with charcoal to boil the water in the pot. One red headed chef with freckles and bushy eyebrows was cutting a slab of beef into small pieces.
Natalya finished cutting up two potatoes and she was running out of space, she went over to the pot and slid the potatoes in. The brunet chef reappeared with the carrots, onions and peppers.
"Bring me the head of lettuce, I would like for a salad to be made!" Natalya shouted and a raven-haired chef scurried out of the room and returned with it in hand.
Danielle watched the display, amusement on her features.
"What? I need your help too, sister!"
Danielle furrowed her eyebrows, but her smile did not waver, she approached her, taking off her gloves. "What do you need me to do?"
Natalya looked around for a bowl before one was placed in front of her. The brunet chef was about to slide the tomatoes into the pot before Natalya gripped his arm. He turned to her, expression horrified as she said, "Give them to me."
He handed her the tomatoes, and she could hear a snort. She turned to meet Danielle's gaze, the woman cleared her throat, seemingly stifling a laugh.
"What is so funny?"
"Oh, it's nothing! Let's focus on making this dinner, shall we?"
The lettuce was being cut up by the raven-haired chef and Natalya slid the tomatoes in the bowl. Luckily there were some leftover carrots and she dropped those in there too. When the raven-haired chef finished cutting the lettuce, he placed the leaves into the bowl.
"You're going to toss the salad."
"With my hands? We're not even supposed to be preparing the food. I humored you before Alice, but–"
Natalya gripped the woman's hands and placed them into the bowl. They were warm and soft, she wondered briefly what lotion she used…has that been invented yet?
"Toss the salad, move your hands around."
The woman clenched her fists, crunching the leaves in her hands before she gave her a reluctant sigh, "You silly girl."
Natalya nodded at seeing her mixing the vegetables and went to check up on the stew, it seemed to be coming along nicely, the red headed chef was adding some spices and stirring the beef around to get it evenly cooked.
000000
Somehow, they pulled it off, the stew, salad, and bread were ready to serve, along with the nice pork spread and tea. The chef who had been reluctant to fetch the bread had picked out a nice white loaf that they would be serving with butter.
The three women, the blonde Lady Bonnefoy, brunette Lady Fernandez-Carriedo and Lady Belischimidt respectfully, who were outside playing croquet had come inside for the dinner party, The Janssens: Lord Henri, Lord Abel, and Lady Emma Janssens had just arrived.
As they were served, Lady Bonnefoy whispered something to Lady Belischimidt while the eldest Lord Janssens seemed to look on in contempt.
Danielle was biting her lip, unease apparent on her face, she gripped Natalya's now gloved hand and squeezed it, under the table. Natalya didn't know why their opinions mattered so much, but if it calmed the other woman to cut the circulation from her fingers, she'd allow it. I hope Alice feels this pain later.
Lady Fernandez-Carriedo grinned, before taking a sip of her soup, "Lady Kirkland, this stew is surprisingly good."
Danielle smiled, "I'm glad you like it." Before glancing in her direction.
The tension lifted and everyone began to eat, Lady Janssens commented that maybe they would bring dessert as an offering next time, something from their home in Belgium. Danielle blushed seemingly embarrassed; she had forgotten about the dessert.
They engaged in light chatter about politics, of which Natalya knew nothing about, but Danielle seemed to cover for her.
But overall, it seemed these stuffy high-class people liked the meal that they threw together, leaving with full stomachs, and grins except for Lord Janssens, he'd given a stiff nod.
Danielle embraced her tightly when everyone was gone. "Thank you. It was very nice of you to help out." Then she pulled away.
"It was nothing, what are sisters for." Natalya waved her off.
"Oh, dear you don't have to keep pretending. I know you are not my sister."
Natalya's breath hitched,
"My sister has done this more than once, convinced somehow that someone else could fix this dinner party. I usually go along, no one's ever really succeeded, they usually get distracted or decide to cancel the evening."
Danielle sighs, "I've been meaning to have a talk with her. She's usually so stubborn, but maybe she will listen now that things have gone a different way."
"So, how do I get home?" Natalya asked.
"Oh! I can do that for you." And then Danielle pushed her palm forward as if she was going to hit Natalya square on the chest.
Natalya felt a hard push and she was flung backwards out the door, but it was as though she was having an out of body experience. She flew backwards past the front yard and through the gate before she fell back onto the hardwood floor of her room.
Natalya looked down at herself, seeing that she was not in her slippers and nightgown but her black Mary Janes, tights, and blue pencil skirt. She was also wearing a white button up.
"You're back! How did it go?"
She heard somewhere in her room as she got up off the floor.
"I fixed your sister's stupid dinner party." Natalya frowned.
"Really? Well, that's splendid. I suppose this means I'll be going to the great beyond."
"She said you should talk to her because she knows you've been doing this for a while."
"She's never satisfied with anything is she? I finally fix her stupid dinner party, and she's still complaining."
"Fix your own mess," Natalya crossed her arms. She looked around the room to see her bed made, and her clock on her nightstand. She wandered to the closet to see her clothes hung up. Hmmm.
"I thought this would fix it." The ghost sounded downtrodden.
Natalya left the room, seeing the sun rays peeking through the blinds as she walked down the stairs.
"What else should I do?"
Natalya walked past the dining room to see four chairs around the table, each with floral pattern seat cushions. She walked in the kitchen and opened up the cupboards to see her plates, cups, spices and teacups stored.
"I unpacked for you while you were gone." She still sounded miserable, and Natalya was happy she wouldn't have to unpack anymore.
"It was the least you could do." Natalya said before she took out a teacup and put on the kettle.
Natalya drummed her fingers against the countertop, "Have you ever tried making the dinner yourself?"
"I beg your pardon? I'm a lady of noble blood, I have chefs and servants to do those things. I wouldn't think of touching the cutlery lest I hurt myself."
"That is what I did with your dainty hands, and we had a nice dinner. I'm sure you've run over how to fix the party many times in your head."
"I have, but I figured someone else could do it better. I'd convinced Danielle to cancel the dinner party lest she make a fool of herself, but it has bothered me ever since that we couldn't have made it more presentable."
Well, if Natalya made the dinner and nothing changed then maybe the dinner wasn't the problem.
"Talk to your sister. Go through the door yourself." Natalya said before she stalked down the hall to the door with the old fashioned keyhole and knob. She pushed it open.
"You don't have to be so boorish. I'll go!" Natalya felt a cold chill bow right past her and then the door was slammed shut right in her face. She jumped, startled.
She waited a moment before she opened it again to see that it was now just another empty room.
The kettle whistled and she went back into the kitchen to pour herself a cup of tea. Maybe she'd call Irunya and Ivan, and they could come over for dinner one evening; she knew just what to make.
00000000
"Alice?"
Alice had just slammed the door, upon her sister's request that she dissuade Danielle from the dinner party. The spread was a disaster, and she was the only one who could talk her out of embarrassing herself in front of their noble counterparts.
She turned to see her sister had been crying, makeup running down her cheeks as she dabbed her eyes.
She'd been through this situation only once before, although various tenants of the house had seen this situation play out countless times through her eyes.
"Is it really you?" Danielle spoke. Alice was going to say something but suddenly words were lost as the air left her lungs. She plastered herself against the door, fear washing over her like a sheet, the secret had been let out, and neither were hiding behind their roles in the little play Alice made for them.
"Are you upset with me sister?" She asked.
Danielle smiled at her warmly, and shook her head, "You were always so stubborn."
At that Alice felt sadness overtake her, tears threatened to spill. "I'm sorry that you weren't able to have your dinner party. I shouldn't have discouraged you from doing it. To hell with what The Janssens would have thought, that's just who we are, and if they didn't like it, oh well."
Hot tears ran down her cheeks.
"Oh Alice, it was just a whim I had. I didn't know it stuck with you." Danielle slid off of the bed and approached her.
"When our relationship became strained, I thought that maybe–"
"Our relationship became strained because you didn't talk to me anymore. I'm not telepathic, you know." Danielle gripped her shoulders.
Alice frowned and averted her gaze.
Danielle embraced her, "But you're here now, and that's all that matters." Alice returned her embrace, finally at peace.
A/N: Thank you for reading!
