22 January, 1719
"Austria, I've said it once, I'll say it again… Your hovering over me is not going to make this baby be born any faster! By Saint Stephen, my own mother didn't even worry about me this much!"
"But it should have been born last month!"
"Well it wasn't, so it clearly wasn't ready to come out yet!" Hungary retorted heatedly. She loved Austria, but the way he'd been fussing over her for the past month was simply suffocating.
"Well, it clearly is now!"
"Austria, I just started having labor contractions and this is my first child, so it might take an entire day for it to be born; you of all people Mister I-marry-off-so-many-of-my-Habsburg-children-that-I -have-a-motto-for-it should already know that the first child usually takes the longest."
"Hello, sorry, may I cut in and say something?" Southern Netherlands asked, having been standing there watching the two bicker about this for a while now.
"I'm sorry. Yes, Snether, what is it?" Hungary said, pointedly-ignoring Austria who was fuming.
"Well, the contractions seem to be going slow enough that it'll be awhile before the child is born, so in the meantime, you just take it easy until they start coming much faster and harder. When that happens, then somebody needs to come get me."
"I'll do it! I'll do it!" Italy piped up excitedly from beside her now that he was no longer concerned about his Mamma since learning that she was just experiencing birth stuff. "I can run really fast; I'll find you super quick!"
"Excellent. I'm not planning on doing anything too tedious today myself either, since I don't want to be caught up in the middle of something when it's time," Southern Netherlands said and laid a hand on Hungary's shoulder, offering her a comforting smile, "I'll see you later then. Hang tight, you're almost done. Just got several more hours left of this Hell, that's all. And you, Austria, try not to bother the woman too much or you might find her particularly unpleasant to you after the delivery seeing as how it's your fault and everything."
"That hardly seems like a fair accusation given that it takes two to even make a baby," Austria said with a frown.
"Well, Herr Österreich,when you get pregnant, then you'll be eligible for us to discuss the fairness of it," Southern Netherlands retorted with an amused smirk dancing across her features.
And for some reason that Austria did not fully understand, by 'not bothering the woman', what Southern Netherlands had really meant was Hungary didn't even want to see him in the same room as her because he simply 'got on her nerves for the time being'. Flustered and anxious for many reasons, Austria was forced to resign himself to the fact that he was just going to have to wait… like he'd already been doing for at least a month now. Focusing on work wasn't possible, he was too distracted. And when he was distracted, there was really only one thing that he could focus on. Austria was almost surprised that his feet had taken him to exactly where he wanted to be without even thinking it: his precious music room.
Stepping into the room, Austria first went over to his harpsichord positioned precisely in the center of the room in all her resplendent glory, but he did not sit down. Instead, he pressed a key, a G note, and it sounded as it should to his ears. He'd suspected so; he'd already tuned it recently and the clavichord too. Thinking of the two instruments only served to remind him of his desire to acquire a pianoforte and he frowned slightly. It was superior to both the harpsichord and the clavichord, but then where would he put those two when he did acquire the pianoforte? He still hadn't answered that problem and he couldn't very well have two instruments of similar build occupying the center; it would look tacky and ruin the artistic composition of the room.
Still unsure of what to do about this serious matter, Austria decided to dismiss the thought for the time being and instead walked over to one side of the room where some of his other instruments were stored and pulled out a violin case marked with a J. Stainer written on the side in his own handwriting. He smiled at the name and opened the case to remove the violin lying within. He pulled the instrument out of its protective case and cradled it in his arms, running a gentle finger over the smooth wood. By human standards, this was an old instrument, but to him, it was still quite young, only having been built in 1648 when the Thirty Years' War finally ended and it was on this splendid little darling that he'd first openly-expressed the sense of failure and the anger at himself for having lost his youngest brother during that time. As a musician, he could not deny that Stradivari's violins were superior to Stainer's in terms of projected volume, but such a volume was too loud for chamber music, and of course Austria was biased in preferring the violins of the one famous and well-known luthier that had come from his own home. He knew that he would probably end up getting another violin eventually when they produced a sound he liked that was impossible to make on any of the ones he had, but until then, he knew he would continue to use this one for a long time yet.
"That's one of Stainer's violins, isn't it?"
Austria was startled out of his reverie by the unexpected question, but he didn't even need to turn around to see the woman to know that it was Bohemia who'd asked the question.
"Indeed it is; I'm impressed you could tell from such a distance. He built it in 1648 sometime during the five months that the Peace of Westphalia was being signed," Austria informed the Czech woman.
He could hear her 'Tch' of irritation and he knew it was because of his having brought up the Thirty Years' War; she was still sore about it. Austria half-expected her to say something in retaliation by bringing up some old instance when she'd forced him to work for her or when he was living with her older half-brother, Bavaria, but instead she said, "You make no sense to me, Austria."
Only then did he frown in puzzlement and turn to look at her; she was leaning against the door with her arms crossed and her dark blond hair pulled back into one long plait this time. Her olive green eyes were gazing down at him with a kind of bored annoyance. He stood up slowly and deliberately, the violin still in hand and though the great distance separated them from where they stood, he was at least looking down at her now (he saw her left eye twitch at this).
"And what exactly have I done this time to make you say such a thing, Königreich Böhmen?" (1) he asked as he strode purposefully over to her until they were a respectable distance apart from each other.
It was not hard to catch the signs of her increased anger from the clenching of her hands into a tights fists to the glowering of her eyes and the grinding of her teeth against each other as she struggled not to snap "České království!" (2) in retaliation for his saying her name in German. She was a very proud woman, he knew this, and yet he continued to derive a perverse pleasure from seeing her get so passionately riled up whenever he made verbal slights against her.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about," Bohemia bit out angrily, but she was forcing herself to calm down and get control of herself, and when she took a last deep breath, she'd restored her almost-icy composure that was so disconcerting with those large eyes of hers. "Whenever Italy had tried to rebel against you in the past when he was a child, you squashed his little almost tantrum-like rebellions without batting an eye. When I've rebelled against you, you've been similarly ruthless and uncaring and though I still despise you for what you did to me in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, even I must concede that your actions in handling the affairs of an empire are not so different from what I would do if I was the one in charge."
Austria's indifferent expression nearly slipped into one of surprise. Was Bohemia actually… complimenting him?
"But then with Hungary, you completely lose your head when dealing with her and even the excuse of you loving her is a shoddy one!" Bohemia shouted suddenly, her coolness gone again to be replaced by confusion. "When I rebelled against you in 1618 in the Defenestration of Prague, you brutally-repressed my fighting strength which is a perfectly acceptable thing for the head of an empire to deal with a troublesome element, but then when she rebelled against you during the 1670s, all you did was argue – granted it was some ferocious arguing, but still! – and then once she left in 1681, you fought to get her back! Okay, I suppose I can give you a bit of leeway there since following her rebellion, Ottoman Empire attacked, you got put under siege by him again, but then you beat him back and you ended up acquiring most of Hungary's territory, so you were in a bit of a euphoria when you granted the rebels their amnesty excepting that Thököly guy, but then when some of her people rebelled against you again in the beginning of this current century, you hardly punished them! I mean, Austria, it's not consistent at all!"
"As you so kindly pointed out yourself, Bohemia, how I run the empire and the Habsburg lands is my concern, not yours."
"Yes, I know that Austria!" she said with a loud groan, "You've always treated Hungary differently from everyone else, but loving her doesn't make any sense for you either! She beat you senseless all the time when we were kids, I remember laughing about it with Bavaria, and yet you wanted to live with her since… when? Three centuries starting from when you two began living together under Albert II's rule? I mean, that's got to be some kind of stubborn desperate you've got right there; why on earth would you fall in love with a woman who's given you all kinds of trouble like that and including all the stuff she put you through in the latter half of this past century?"
"Don't sound so naïve, Bohemia, you're too old for that. How am I supposed to answer that question? We're both old enough to know that it's not possible to explain love in words. Instead, ask yourself this so that maybe you might understand what exactly you asked me. Why on earth would a man fall in love with a woman that he lived with since birth who abandoned him in a moment of weakness in his early childhood and had hardly any contact with him for several centuries, despite being neighbors, and whose departure eventually resulted in his reaching such a low point that he could not even represent a specific piece of land anymore and could only continue to survive by taking on the name of and becoming the direct representation of his people like in the tradition of our parents, grandparents, and ancient tribal ancestors of old?"
Bohemia looked away from him with a guilty frown upon her face and an obvious blush upon her cheeks. "That's not fair, Austria," she said sullenly.
"You have only yourself to blame for putting such a question to me, Bohemia," Austria said with an indifferent shrug. "We're nations. I shouldn't have to tell you that love is never a smooth-sailing ship for us, particularly when the one you love is one of your neighbors."
Austria made to turn around and replace the violin back in its casket, thinking that he wasn't going to be able to take his mind off things with his music either, thanks to Bohemia's little interruption, when he heard her sudden "Wait!" and felt her delicate hands grasp his sleeve. There was no trace of anger or coolness in her eyes anymore, not really any specific emotion either and he knew that this was the most natural he'd seen her in a long time. "I know Hungary's started having the labor contractions today and that I interrupted you from being able to distract yourself from the matter with your music," she began, "I realize that you don't play for anyone, but your family and whoever else is closest to you, but I wouldn't mind playing with you if you'll allow me. It's been a regrettably-long time since I've played on my bock after all; my skills may have become rusty and with you being the music capital of Europe, we can't very well let that happen, now can we?" she added with a bit of a playful smirk at the jibe towards his musical reputation and even he let the corners of his mouth twitch upward slightly.
"Absolutely not!" Austria said fervently, "But I'm not sure as to how well a bock would sound with only a violin. We might need to pull in Slovak to play the Hackbrett for the accompaniment. You wouldn't mind if we brought him in for that, would you?"
"Oh no! Absolutely not!" Bohemia said breathlessly, looking even more flushed than she had earlier, "Just let me go and retrieve my bock from my room and let him know that we may need him for the music we'll be making soon."
She left the room quite quickly after that and Austria only shook his head in mild amusement. If she hadn't been so careless when he was living at her place, then when he'd gotten lost, he never would have stumbled across her diary pages and learned that she loved Slovak, though it wasn't his fault that she'd hidden the pages within the folds of a map; that was a seriously terrible hiding place. The best part for him of course was that it seemed that she didn't even realize that he only knew that little secret because of said diary. Lucky him, because he was pretty sure that looking through a woman's diary was grounds to getting himself killed by its writer.
()()()()()()
23 January 1719
Under ordinary circumstances, Austria would not have appreciated being woken up in the middle of the night, but as it was, these were not ordinary circumstances and he was not at all thrilled to discover when he woke up that morning at seven that Hungary had been in the active labor stage for several hours already.
"Why didn't someone think to wake me up and inform me of this?!" Austria demanded to the only person he could talk to, Italy, since the one he really wanted to berate, Southern Netherlands, was behind the closed door and as per the common traditions, men were not allowed to be present to witness the birth.
"Ms. Southern Netherlands said that it would still take several hours for the baby to be born and she didn't want you to be exhausted when doing your work today," Italy explained quietly as he nervously tapped his forefingers together.
"And what if the baby was born while I was still asleep? What then?"
"Oh, I asked Ms. Southern Netherlands that exact same question!" Italy exclaimed with a sudden smile, "And she told me that if it looked like the baby was going to be born before you normally woke up, then I was to run straight to your room as fast as possible and do whatever I could to wake you up so that you wouldn't miss it!"
Austria gave a resigned sigh and rubbed a hand through his hair, "Well at least she was considerate enough to have a back-up plan. And she's right, I really should try and get some work done today to make up for my poor performance yesterday." He placed a gentle hand atop Italy's head. "You're the fastest runner I know. I'm counting on you to alert me of any new developments, alright?"
"Sì, Papà Austria! I'll tell you when my new sibling is close to being born!" Italy said happily and Austria beamed at him.
"Thank you, Italy. Stay out of trouble."
"Ve? Well, I'll try," Italy said uncertainly and Austria chuckled a little. Italy was still pretty high maintenance, but he had mellowed out quite a bit since he'd first started living in his house and was better about behaving too. Austria liked to think that he'd played a role in shaping him into an acceptable young adult.
The first step to figuring out what his work may be was to head to his study, which was really the most efficient way he received messages from his boss. It was much easier to simply put all the messages in one location than to constantly have a messenger looking for him. Italy might be glad to perform running-type errands for him, but he had a tendency to lose or forget messages, even the written ones and definitely the verbal ones (the probability of forgetfulness increased if the message was complicated and it was a 50-50 ratio when pasta was promised as an incentive). In short, he was a great runner, but unreliable, hence the current system.
Sure enough, upon arrival, there was a new paper placed upon the desk. It was just a short handwritten note, but it was in Charles VI's hand and there was no seal, so it was clearly unofficial; likely just a reminder. The corner of his mouth twitched into a slight smirk at his accurate prediction. It was a reminder to him that Charles was meeting with Anton Florian of the House of Liechtenstein and he wasn't required to be present. Austria smiled as he set the note down. The House of Liechtenstein… they had loyally-served him and his Habsburgs ever since at least the Thirty Years' War; he didn't know where he'd be without him. They were so tightly intertwined that it was difficult for Austria to think of previous Habsburgs without also thinking about some of the many Liechtensteins that had faithfully-served as advisors to his royal house for all these long years; Anton Florian was one of many in the long Liechtenstein history.
With the note removed from the main space in front of his desk, Austria picked up the week's itinerary that had lain beneath it and he perused through both yesterday's and today's planned work to see what he'd ignored and what he should get done to be caught up with everything. But what was Charles meeting with Anton for again today? He scanned down the list and at around nine for this morning his eyes first caught the word 'Furstentum' (3) before anything else. Focusing his entire attention upon that one word, he read and remembered now that Anton Florian had Schellenberg and Vaduz, his family could be part of the Reichtag and today, Charles was going to consolidate the fiefdom, the county, and the rest of the Liechtenstein family's hereditary lands into one under the title of Furstentum and name it Liechtenstein "in honor of his most faithful servant", allowing the head of the House of Liechtenstein the new title of Prince.
He couldn't believe it. After all this time of wondering what his and Hungary's child was going to represent and it had all been happening in plain sight. Their child was going to be born a principality! Hungary had been one briefly before she'd become a kingdom, but even she wasn't born as one. In retrospect, Hungary's diet suddenly made a whole lot more sense. Schellenberg and Vaduz were surrounded by both him and Switzerland and weren't too far from the northern Italian population either. Liechtenstein. Whether a son or a daughter, their child was Liechtenstein, their shining stone. Austria didn't know if he could get anything done in the two hours he had to wait before the new Furstentum was born.
()()()()()()
Knowing that he had two hours to wait before his child was born was the absolute worst distraction that Austria had ever encountered which is what had led to him now sitting outside the closed door with Italy and encouraging the youth to talk about the pianoforte some more. Representing the whole of the northern Italian communes and city-states, Italy would be able to easily draw on information from sources that Austria would not have access to unless he specifically communicated with the individuals that Italy was pulling his information from. That was one of the very few nice things about being nations: their potential knowledge was as extensive as that of the people who lived within their boundaries, no matter their class or religion. Unfortunately, such a discussion could not possibly drown out Hungary's pained shrieks and it didn't help that Italy flinched and jumped in his seat every time, which only served to emphasize the moments.
"I don't like this Papà," Italy said miserably and covered his ears to block out the noise in vain, "Mamma sounds like she's dying in there!"
"Don't be so overdramatic, Italy. Hungary's not a human, she can't be killed in childbirth and nothing can go wrong with the delivery either," Austria said with a sigh.
He kept telling himself these facts because they were true, so it was pointless to worry, yet despite his logical reasoning, his emotions were still getting the better of him and trying to make him second-guess these long-lived nation truths.
"Italy, where's your brother?" Austria asked.
"I don't know, I've been outside this room for most of the morning, so I haven't seen him yet," Italy replied with a shrug.
"I see…" Austria said slowly and resumed his blank staring at the opposite wall.
He'd really only asked for conversation's sake, but he'd never been good at making conversation, especially not in moments like these when it was simply an excuse to help pass the time. He didn't know how much more time was left until Liechtenstein was born, but he refused to pull out his watch and check. It would only make the time seem to pass that much slower. Infernal device. He was better off without it. The sun's position was a more reliable clock anyway; his vater had at least succeeded in teaching him that much. It did not surprise him at all when he heard Italy murmuring a prayer under his breath moments later. Austria didn't bother to inform him of the futility of praying for Hungary's safety and good health during the delivery, because the words were soothing his own frazzled mind. He had difficulty understanding the Latin words that his Italian charge had no trouble reciting. He had once known the language as well as any of the others he was fluent in, but save for the Church, the usage was falling out of use in favor of French. But it did not matter that he did not know the language so well anymore, for it was merely noise to him now. Noise that was fluid and verbally incomprehensible, like music. He focused on listening to Italy's voice and hearing the sound, rather than the words he spewed out at a rapid rate in prayer to the Virgin Mary and whatever other saint would hear him.
Then suddenly, his heart gave a sharp, painful squeeze and he gasped. Not even a second later, it released and he grimaced uncomfortably as new blood suddenly surged from his heart and throughout his body like rapid waterfall. The amount of blood suddenly rushing through him was very numbing and he scrunched his eyes shut as if that would help eliminate the dull, throbbing pain. Very vaguely, he remembered having felt like this before at least once. His blood flow was starting to slow down and the numbing sensation dying along with it, so now he could think properly. The last time… Austria put his face in his hands and combed his long and extensive memory in search of this familiar feeling. He jolted upright! He finally had it! The last time he had experienced such a feeling that he could recall was when Holy Rome was born, a blood relative. That could only mean…! He suddenly realized that Italy was poking his arm repeatedly.
"Papà! Cosa fai tu? Il bambino è nato, non puoi sentirlo?" (4) the youth said with a worried expression on his face.
"Io sono sano, Nord Italia," (5) Austria replied automatically as he pushed Italy's fingers away, but he heard it too now that his heart rate was back to beating at a normal rate. The sound of a newborn crying.
"Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Theb aby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby's alive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive !Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Theb aby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby'salive!Thebaby's alive!Thebaby'salive!" Italy repeated hysterically with vigorous shakes to Austria's arm.
"Italy, patience," Austria said firmly, gripping Italy's arms in an attempt to get him to at least stop shaking like a leaf in a strong gust of wind, "Southern Netherlands will let us come in when she's done which can take up to another half-hour.
"Ahhhh," Italy whined as he sunk back down to the floor and started making imaginary drawings of music notes while Austria watched and memorized the music that Italy was currently 'writing' so that he could play Italy's fun little tune later.
Compared to the hours of waiting for the birth, it seemed that no time at all had passed when the door finally opened and Southern Netherlands peered out at them in the corridor, looking disheveled and a little tired with some blood around the sleeves and on the apron of her dress, but smiling happily nonetheless.
"Gefeliciteerd. Glückwünsche. Félicitations," (6) she said in Dutch, German, and French respectively, her three native languages. "Everything went well and you're a father now, Austria. Come on, come see your new baby," she said with a slight laugh as she grabbed his hand and pulled him inside, allowing Italy to follow before closing the door behind him.
Her doing this though made the room incredibly dark because all the drapes were drawn closed and there was no light save for the embers burning in the hearth fire where he could just make out Hungary's outline. She was on the ground, but sitting up and likely nursing their baby. Their baby. Liechtenstein. Austria saw her head turn from looking down to looking at him and Italy and he was sure she was smiling; he could hear it in her voice when she spoke.
"Austria! Italy! Come closer, I can't see you two so well from all the way over there," she mock-reprimanded.
Italy was like a blur of color as he rushed over to Hungary's side (Austria proceeded at a much more dignified pace) and knelt down beside her, his copper-brown eyes wide with excitement and joy, "I was so worried Mamma, I thought you were going to die!"
"Oh, Italy, you know it would take more than that to kill me," Hungary chided as she fondly parted his bangs to the sides of his head.
"So Mamma, do I have a new fratello or sorella?" Italy asked eagerly as he stared down at the tiny, tiny infant nation wrapped in old blankets and already sleeping quietly in Hungary's arms.
Hungary looked up at Austria who had knelt down beside her next to Italy and she smiled warmly at him, looking more radiant than ever before. It was directly to him that she said, "It's a girl."
Italy squeaked in delight. "A girl, it's a girl! She's so cute, Mamma, just like I knew she would be! She's so carina! Carina! Una bimba carina! (7) I know! From this day onward, she'll be my little sister and I'll be her big brother! Oh wow! I've never been a big brother before, I'm so excited! Mamma, Papà, I'm gonna go find Romano and tell him the good news; he'll want to see our new sorellina (8) too!" And just like that, Italy was up and gone from the room, with nothing but the open door left in his wake (Southern Netherlands was quick to close it again, but not before leaving with some of the soiled linens).
With Italy out there running like wildfire and having Prussia for an older brother, it would not be long before the news spread around Europe that Austria's and Hungary's baby was born even if she did represent the tiny Principality of Liechtenstein. He wanted to be irritated at Italy for being unable to keep his mouth shut for even a day since Liechtenstein was no-one's business but his and his family's, but he found he couldn't. Not today anyway. Austria turned away from the door and sat himself down on the floor beside his lover, staring silently at the tiny bundle of blankets with a confusing mixture of apprehension and joy. He… didn't know what to do.
"Did you ever find out what she is, szerelmem?" Hungary asked with a soft smile.
Austria nodded, still unable to take his eyes off the baby. "Yes. She is the Principality of Liechtenstein."
"Aha, Vati's little princess," Hungary said with a slight laugh and drew their daughter closer, "Liechtenstein, my darling daughter, you shall live a very different life from that of your Mutti and Vati (9) when we were children. You're a born Principality, Liech. Even I wasn't born with such a high rank. Austria, do you want to hold her?"
The question caught him completely off-guard. "What? I, well- That is, uh… what if I hurt her? She's so tiny, I'm afraid I'll break her if I even touch her…" Austria trailed off, looking slightly worried.
"Oh, Austria, don't be silly," Hungary chided him the same way she had to Italy earlier with a hint of a playful smirk, "I've been holding her for less than an hour and she hasn't broken yet. Besides, I've seen you handle far more delicate and less precious things. I know you'll be careful. Just be sure to support her head; her neck's not strong enough to hold it up yet."
Hungary had slowly risen to her knees and twisted around to optimize the transfer of the baby nation from her arms to the father's and Austria was completely speechless as Hungary placed their Liechtenstein into his arms and he cradled the baby against his chest. For Austria's sake, she tried not to laugh, but he was just so adorable and happy and terrified all at the same time as he held their Liech as though she was a priceless, irreplaceable treasure.
And she was. She was so tiny and fragile like a songbird, and it would be so easy to hurt her by accident. Most human babies born this small often didn't survive, but Liech would because she was a nation. But it wasn't her nation heritage that made her irreplaceable, she was his baby and not in the same way as the Habsburg children. They were his, but they were not his. He had held infants before, but in his arms now was his own precious child. His daughter that need not worry about family inheritance or marrying into a good family to do well in life and in that moment, he saw so many opportunities for his little girl. She was limited by what she would be able to do since she was a nation, but there were so many other opportunities awaiting her that would never have been accessible to her if she was a human, and he and Hungary would raise and teach her the way they felt best to become a nation that would best be able to handle a changing world and do well for herself, even if she never became self-sufficient. It was impossible for countries to rely completely on themselves for everything they needed, but if they could teach her how to handle such needs, then Austria would consider his daughter's teachings a success.
So many futures, and this precious baby Germanic nation was his. His to love and to cherish with all his heart, to lead out of danger as best he could, and to protect her with all his might, because he was her father and he loved her and he knew he would do just about anything for his daughter. Was this feeling what they called a father's love? This was all that Austria was consciously aware of as he gazed down at his daughter's sleeping face, but there were so many more emotions. Emotions both warm and light that he couldn't even begin to describe, but it only made Liechtenstein all the more precious to him. Did his vater experience these same emotions when he and his brothers were born? It seemed so unlikely… So intent was he upon the tiny child in his arms that he didn't even notice that he was crying until he felt Hungary's hand on his cheek wiping the tears away and she was laughing lightly as she did so.
"My dear Austria, you're so cute when you get like this," Hungary teased, "You're acting like you've never held a baby before."
Austria smiled at her through his tears, taking her teasing good-naturedly, "She's so beautiful and perfect, Hungary, just like her mother. But she's also so young and so impressionable; I fear the worst for her, liebling. It's not easy being a nation."
"Nobody ever claimed it was, love, but worry not. I'm still here with you to raise her and I'm not planning on going anywhere for a long time yet. Now would you please stop crying? It's embarrassing," Hungary snickered, the serious moment having passed them over.
"I can't seem to stop," Austria protested hopelessly, "but we can give Liechtenstein her human name while we wait for Italy to bring back Romano and probably every other nation living here. Remember, we decided that you would pick her first name and I would provide a possible surname in case she… can't use mine for whatever reason."
Hungary frowned slightly. "That's a depressing thing to say; that there may be a day where it would be impractical for our daughter to use your last name."
"The future of a nation has always been an uncertain thing," Austria said with a grimace, repeating the exact same thing he'd told her when he'd first brought it up.
"I know, I know," Hungary sighed and said, "If our Liech had been born a male, I was thinking of naming him Albert after the man that brought us living together in the same house for the first time, Albert II."
Austria smiled a little at that. He remembered those years very well because of how happy he'd been living with Hungary, even though everyone, including herself, had thought she was a boy at the time. Only when she had gone had he realized how much he'd missed her and had made it part of his governmental policy for centuries to get her back living with him. In retrospect, it was probably during that time that he started falling in love with her, but he certainly didn't know it at the time.
"But because Liech is a girl, I want to name her Elise, after Elisabeth," Hungary said with a self-assured nod.
"Which one?" Austria asked with a wry smile. There were so many Elisabeths all over Europe. And Marias too.
"One of yours, the one who married the French King Charles IX," Hungary replied.
Austria raised an eyebrow in amusement. "You mean the one who was, in turn, named after Saint Erszébet of Hungary?"
"The very same," Hungary confirmed without shame. "Both girls were very sweet and caring to a fault, and as precious to me as our baby Liechtenstein," she said as she leaned against Austria's shoulder and peered down at the newborn. "So what shall her alternative last name be, kedvesem?"
"It didn't actually come to me until just now," Austria confessed, "but seeing her right now for the first time, it suddenly came to me. I want her last name to be Vogel."
"Vogel?" Hungary repeated, "It means 'bird' in your language; why do you want to choose that for a last name? It's certainly not a common name by any stretch of the imagination."
"Look at her, Hungary. She's so tiny and frail and completely dependent on us; a new song to add into our two-part harmony."
"You are such a poet, kedvesem," Hungary teased.
"No, I'm a musician," Austria corrected.
"And both are artists," she added as she nuzzled even closer to her lover and reached out to gently lay her fingertips against the baby principality's cheek. "Furstentum Liechtenstein…" she murmured softly, "With your birth, we now begin the creation of our family's three-part harmony."
There was a light knock on the door and Southern Netherlands's voice echoed from outside, "Austria, Hungary, I'm coming back in. Also, Italy's back and he brought Romano with him."
The door slowly opened and Southern Netherlands came in first, giving the two of them a quick lookover to be sure everything was sound before letting the two Italian nations enter first Italy and then Romano.
"Mamma! Papà!" Italy whisper-shouted as he fast-walked over to them, "I found Romano to show him our new sorellina! Look-see fratello? Isn't she the cutest?"
Romano was by now standing next to his little brother and peering down at the baby nation and it was a testament to how adorable she was that he did not even bother yelling at his brother for saying such wussy things or even appear to acknowledge him save for a jerky nod. He was completely silent for a good long minute, his lips pressed firmly together as though he didn't trust himself not to swear in front of the infant if he opened his mouth.
However, when he did open his mouth, his words were completely clean, despite his acute embarrassment as he quietly asked, "What's her name, Mr. Austria?"
"Her name is Liechtenstein, Romano, but we'll probably end up calling her Liech most of the time as a nickname," Austria answered.
"Oooh, Liechtenstein!" Italy cooed and leaned against Austria's other arm so that he could look at the baby better, "Can I hold her, Papà?"
"Not unless you can prove that you can go a week without breaking something," Austria said instantly, having this sudden horrifying image of Italy dropping his little girl the way he did with the dishes and other things sometimes. "The same goes for you too, Romano," he added shortly because if he thought Italy was bad about breaking things as a child, then Romano had been ten times worse.
Italy looked a little sad at his request being turned down (though he brightened up quickly again with just one look at Liech) and Romano looked a little more sulky and grumbled some incoherent Italian under his breath, but otherwise did not protest. At least they were aware of their tendency to break things and didn't want that to happen to Liechtenstein too.
"Excuse me, everyone. Post-birth midwife stuff happening now," Southern Netherlands said suddenly as she came over and knelt down in front of Hungary, staring at her intently. "How are you feeling, Hungary? Be honest."
"Well, if I must be honest," Hungary started with a teasing grin, "I'm sore, tired out, and hungry, but very… very happy. Euphoric even."
Southern Netherlands smiled reassuringly, "That's good. I'll see what I can do about getting you some food, but you're definitely going to need a nap today. For at least the next week though preferably the next month or so, I recommend that you take it easy and not overwork or overstress yourself, alright? Midwife's orders."
"If you say so Snether," Hungary allowed with a mock reluctant sigh.
"Excellent. Now…!" she declared as she stood up, "if there's nothing else, I shall take my leave and get along with cleaning up in here. You can leave this room if you want, though I wouldn't considering it's probably one of the warmest in the entire palace right now…" Southern Netherlands said with a tinge of envy in her voice and made to leave.
"Actually, there is something that I would like you to do for me, if you're up for it," Austria said suddenly, a thought just occurring to him. The blond woman turned slightly, her expression expectant. "I would like you to find Charles and inform him of Liechtenstein's birth. He should know what to do, but if he doesn't, have him summon Anton Florian von Liechtenstein if he's not already with him and tell him that this order is from me. Anton Florian already knows about us, so it won't be too much of a shock for him, but he still needs to be made aware that his new principality composed of the Liechtenstein hereditary lands now has a human personification that he is at least partially responsible for."
Southern Netherlands gave a smile and an amused nod. "I'll see that the message gets passed along," she agreed and left the room whose remaining occupants were the little multi-national family all fawning over the tiny new Principality of Liechtenstein.
(1) Königreich Böhmen (German) – Kingdom of Bohemia
(2) České království (Czech) – Kingdom of Bohemia
(3) Furstentum (German) – Principality
(4) Papà! Cosa fai tu? Il bambino è nato, non puoi sentirlo? (Italian) – Papa! What are you doing? The baby is born, can't you hear it?
(5) Io sono sano, Nord Italia (Italian) – I'm fine North Italy
(6) Gefeliciteerd. Glückwünsche. Félicitations (Dutch/German/French) – all of them mean 'Congratulations'.
(7) Carina! Una bimba carina (Italian) – Cute! A cute [female] baby
(8) sorellina (Italian) – little sister
(9) Mutti/Vati (German) – Mom/Dad
Adorable little baby Liechtenstein! ! ! ! XD Omigosh, she's the cutest thing ever!
Now for more history and other stuff:
Alright, so a luthier is a person who makes/repairs stringed instruments (and this includes violins) and most of the best of them were Italian, so I'd imagine that Austria would have an affinity for the creations of the one famous luthier that was Austrian. The bock is basically bagpipes and Hackbrett is the German word for a hammered dulcimer (which is kinda like a big xylophone).
And Bohemia…! You know, I think this is the first time I've actually written her in a scene rather than just mentioning her in passing. She's kinda stuck-up because she was born as an Empire and when you start out your life as an empire, I'd imagine that puts a bit of a chip on your shoulders (and I would say that she and Austria have a push-pull kind of relationship). I figure that Bavaria is her brother to some degree because both the word Bavaria and Bohemia derive (at least in part) from the tribal Boii, a Celtic group that was living in the area.
Aha! I finally explained how Liechtenstein would be born in 1719 even though the Liechtenstein family has been around for longer! I'm happy that I finally got to mention that because it ties up a few other possible nation questions very nicely if they don't necessarily have to be born the very day that something related to what they will be is created. Oh, and just like the last time I created Italian sentences, I made them all myself with only limited use of Google Translate, and I'm very proud of myself for having done so.