FIC: Hither Lies Our Fated Way
Fanfic masterlist here.
Title: Hither Lies Our Fated Way
Length: 44 595 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Rough sex, angst
Genre: so srs, woobie, SEX!
Characters, Pairings: Spain, Austria || mentions of Hungary, England, Holland, Turkey, France, North Italy, South Italy || OCs Portugal, Malaya, Peru || Austria/Spain
Summary: By this most holy of unions do we join the Kingdoms of Austria and Spain that they shall ever more find longevity and, within each other, ultimate peace. This story is writ to chronicle these two hundred Habsburg years.
Notes: Filled for the Hetalia Kink Meme. Spain x Austria! after all they were kind of married for centuries. Chapter 1 (Come Dew, Come Rust) & 2 (Earth and Moon) originally here and Chapter 3 (Dark for All of Me) originally here.
Reading
So! First thing's first: I don't actually have the fic posted here per se. This is the resource page for this fic. It's been compiled in a pdf and uploaded to scribd.
You can download it here, or read it on this LJ post where it's been embedded. Alternatively, download it from mediafire (link updated 26 March 2011).
Update
The pdf has been updated as of 26 March 2011 to clean up some paragraphing and grammatical errors. There should be a total of 122 pages in the new pdf file.
You may need to install the Carmencita font for optimum view (which is the typeface used for ACT I, ACT II and ACT III)
Please keep all comments/reviews on this post.
Resources
House of Habsburg History Notes
All notes collected throughout the writing of the story is located here. Please keep in mind that I researched as I wrote, so I never had a clear idea of the details in the plot until I came across them on Wikipedia (I just knew the basic progression). Also, I was absolutely clueless about European history beyond WWII. So this has been a very engaging experience.
Battle of Rocroi, Thirty Years' Wars, Portuguese Restoration War, Catalan Revolt and Franco-Spanish War
Everything that refused to fit in the main notes. Also a bunch of simplified timelines for quick reference.
Supplementary Notes
Things not directly related to the story (i.e. regarding Malaya, Holland, Portugal; regarding the present circumstances of the involved countries; miscellaneous information).
Research
Links to nearly all my source material that I used to research this story.
On the OCs: Portugal & Malaya
Some of the brief character and history notes I made regarding them.
Appendix fic:
Nigh Comes The Tide
Portugal and Malaya immediately pre-Portuguese Restoration War during Dark For All Of Me.
Regarding Spain's Behaviour in Act II
To put it simply, within this story, if the economic status of a country determines whether or not a nation-character is physically healthy, social phenomenon (in this case, the conquering of foreign countries in the New World) affect mental/social health. The 'blood fever' was supposed to be the result of the genocide and mass killings of the indigenous in the New World and the 'relapse' was caused by the Inquisition in Spain. Other countries may or may not experience this particular brand of 'blood fever' but Spain does in a very extreme manner because he represses his emotions, leading to a borderline bi-polar disorder.
Austria's characterisation
Not to sound condescending, but I really must emphasise that you read beyond the scene. I understand that this was written for the kink meme and the slash is a gigantic part of the reason why you began reading this, but it's not so two-dimensional that some of the commenters can slap conclusions onto the characters as a result of the scene they had just read. Yes, Austria is a gigantic asshole. Yes, he is a ruthless aristocrat. Yes, he displays a large amount of emotional cruelty. However, have you considered the progression of his character throughout the entire story? There is a consistency in every arc, and that consistency is the façade that masks his true emotions.
From the very beginning of the entire story, Spain comments on Austria's "arrogance", and it consistently resurfaces in each chapter, only it comes across with different intensities as a result of whatever event is occurring. Austria is written here in a very Machiavellian context - he is ruthlessly efficient and separates his personal life from his professional life (though not necessarily his political life), prioritising his duties to his feelings. This is why he says, from the outset, that he accepts his fate of constantly having to marry. He is completely fine with it.
So he says. I've never, ever mentioned this explicitly, but the characters do lie in the stories I write.
Austria lies more frequently towards the latter half of chapter 3, and it is at least more obvious because he becomes more cruel then. His cruelty is the biggest lie of them all. He doesn't want to be cruel because the truth is that he does hold a great deal of affection for Spain, but as per the roles he has play, he pushes his personal feelings away and immediately tries to deal with disassembling their relationship so it won't interfere with the future relationships they will have to cultivate. This is highlighted in the final version through his obsession with toppling France for Spain's sake, without realising that as a result, he shuns Spain. Because both of them are teenagers and still extremely prone to sentimentalities and romanticism. Since Spain wholeheartedly embraces these traits, Austria has to be the one to sever their ties because he is fully aware that if they have a completely reciprocated relationship, their personal relationship will completely discredit them as nations in politics.
I like to think that the nations are polyamorous. However, in the context of something as long lasting as a union, they will develop a much closer relationship with each other. Furthermore, much earlier on in history, nations were a great deal more religious, hence the reasoning behind monogamy and consummation and political marriage in this story. I will say that any romance between them is far more subtle than is portrayed.
What about the confession of love in chapter 1? Austria wasn't lying when he said it was pillow talk, but there is truth in the lie. That's all I have to say about that. This, I leave up to your interpretation.
At this point, neither Spain nor Austria have the maturity to develop a personal relationship independent of politics (Austria will, much later on, with Hungary as canon dictates) but he will eventually realise it and make amends with Spain in the future.
How will they makes amends? Will they have lots of gratuitous sex? Sure! Why not? Dudes guys it's Hetalia. It's a crack-based medium. Imagine whatever the hell you want.
Was he in love?
Yes. A lot more than he wished he was.
Final thoughts
I need to get this out of the way - Spain/Austria is not my OTP. I think they're cute together and I may write more stories on the pairing, but I honestly never expected a simple kink meme request to turn into a short novel (and it freaks me out to think that I'm willing to put this crazy amount of effort into a pairing I'm so-so for). I never even thought they ever had anything to do with each other. There are a bunch of people who've told me over and over again that Spain and Austria weren't married in Hetalia, and this is my response:
I don't give a fuck.
It's fan fic. Not canon fic. I don't care if they were or weren't married - if I choose for them to be married then whoop-dee-doo, chalk it up to personal fanon or AU or whatever shit. An anon on the kink meme wanted a fic of them married and I delivered. If your panties are twisted in a bunch then, seriously, get a life.
Another thing I really don't give a fuck about is how to spell Habsburg. I stick to one spelling for consistency (and because wikipedia used this spelling before I realised Hapsburg was more historical), but if someone else uses Hapsburg, for god's sake, there is nothing wrong with that. Lighten up.
On that note, holy fucking HELL this story spiralled way out of control and was a major pain in the ass to write. The amount of reading I did for this was staggering; I put way too much effort into something that was just for shits and giggles. The comments I got have always been very positive and constantly cheered me on and somehow we managed to make it through an entire year. That's pretty amazing to me, personally. I know I always looked forward to the nice long comments that picked the story apart, and the lurker anons who only let loose ONE review, but a super long one that articulated all their feelings regarding the story. I'm happy what I've written has given lots of people the option of enjoying something new/different, like Habsburg history or even the pairing itself. Again, though this isn't my OTP and I don't know if I'll be writing this like a hurricane, I did enjoy the entire process of writing the story. I'm glad there are people who have gleaned entertainment off it as well. That's pretty much it from me.
Oh, and before I go, here's a line I heard over and over again and I lol:
"It's the beginning of the end, isn't it?" So negative, anons.
Forward ho, chaps. Feel free to agree or disagree with me. Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know if you read and/if you enjoyed the story!
Have at you.