It has been a while since I updated under Inspired but here we go. This piece is inspired by Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye.
Somebody That I Used To Know
Canada curled up on the chesterfield and wrapped his arms around his knees. His eyes were wide and staring and dried out, even though he felt like sobbing, as the crashes came from the kitchen in stops and starts.
He cringed as a pan was slammed against the tiles.
He had known what he was getting into when he married Prussia but that did not make it easier. It was heartbreaking to stare into the eyes of your spouse and see a stranger looking back. It was a side effect of existing as a forgotten nation that he, too, forgot sometimes. He forgot who he was, who he used to be, and even who Canada was.
Prussia screamed in the kitchen and shattered a teacup on the countertop. He could see him through the doorframe across the corridor as he picked up pieces of their life together and smashed them against the tiles.
It hurt.
"You! You did this, you son of a bitch!" Prussia was pointing at him now from across the corridor.
"I did not," Canada mumbled.
"You did too! You're the only one here!"
His eyes were burning but he swallowed the emotions and hardened his heart. It was not his fault that Prussia forgot who he was. It was not.
Prussia stalked through the kitchen, the corridor, and into the den. He grasped Canada at the shoulders and shook him twice, hard, so that his head snapped forward. Canada sneered and brushed him off.
"I did not," he repeated.
"What have you done to me?"
Canada frowned up at him through the fringe of his curls and the stranger scowled. Prussia raised his fist, hesitated that fraction of a second that reminded Canada his spouse was still in there somewhere, before punching him.
His wedding ring smashed against his cheekbone.
Canada rocked with the motion and bit his tongue. He turned his head in stages, the rage inside bubbling to the surface, to face the laughing stranger and spit the blood in his face.
He stopped laughing.
Canada jumped on him.
The two of them rolled over and over each other, crashing into the furniture and tangling in the curtains, punching and biting and scratching. Canada wanted his husband back, Prussia wanted to know where he was, and both of them used the other as an excuse to hurt someone.
It never lasted, this amnesia, and that was what made it bearable. It might last an hour, a week, even a month, but he would remember… Sooner or later… Canada just needed to keep reminding himself that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
"This is your fault! You did this!"
"I did not!"
"You did!"
"No!"
Canada kicked him in the stomach and he bounced into the window, cracking the windowpane. Prussia coughed and growled before lunging at him again. He wrapped his hands around his throat and Canada knew there would be bruises in the morning.
"Who are you?" Prussia tightened his grasp as Canada plucked at his fingers. His eyes were wild, and confused, as he sat across his chest. Canada knew that these episodes were just as difficult for the other nation. "What do you want with me?"
I want my husband back.
He could not breathe. He reached over and tugged on his hair, hard enough to tear the silver strands, and knocked Prussia into the bookcase. Prussia coughed again as a dozen novels toppled off the shelves and landed on them. Canada used the distraction to snatch his wrists and pin them over his head.
Prussia bucked against him and gnashed his teeth. Canada sat in his lap to keep him in place as he thrashed. The one advantage he had was that this stranger knew none of his weaknesses whilst he knew all of his.
He twisted his left wrist and tugged it upwards. Russia had snapped his wrist in 1988 and the bones were gnarled and arthritic. Prussia hissed but stopped struggling and watched Canada with a new wariness.
"Stop it," Canada panted, his voice cracking. He searched his eyes but no one he knew was looking back. Prussia frowned.
"Let me go."
"No, you'll just hit me again," he snorted. "You always do."
"I will not, I promise."
Canada laughed outright this time and settled further into his lap to wait out the amnesia, or at least this session of violence.
"You never keep your promises."
Prussia shrugged his shoulders, or tried to, but it was difficult with his hands above his head. He leaned against the bookcase and Canada needed to lean forward with him.
"True."
Canada continued to search his eyes for some flickering of his spouse but the stranger lacked the depth of his spouse. He lacked the nuances of character and eccentric habits and, most of all, the kindness that he had acquired in the later centuries of his life.
Canada sighed in resignation.
It might be an hour, or a week, or even a month, but he would remember. Canada just needed to wait for this stranger to leave and his husband to come home to him.
He tightened his fingers on his wrists while Prussia raised a challenging eyebrow and bucked his hips once, twice, against him in a slow, sensual motion. His expression was half teasing and half calculating and Canada had seen it too often not to recognize that it would be an interesting evening of avoidance.
He almost preferred the punching.
Author's Notes:
I do not think that Canada would 'cheat' with the stranger but I do think that this Prussia would attempt to woo him in some fashion to gain the upper hand. It is more of a control issue.
This piece is inspired by the song, and also by a few stories I have read where Prussia forgets who he is for one reason or another. These stories are always interesting and often sad. Uhmmm… I guess I should post a happier piece sooner rather than later before someone murders me. I have a lot of these Inspired pieces kicking around but I do not post them as often as I should.
Please leave a review and feel free to offer opinions, advice, or criticism. All are welcome. You are free to leave an anonymous review; I do not mind. Please just let me know what you think of this piece.