Duet (France, Germany)

[ellamequiere]

Title: Duet
Warnings: Dark sex
Summary: “I thought,” whispered Germany, anger and heat making his voice hoarse. “that you didn't fuck on the floor.”
Characters: France, Germany, Italy in absentia
Year: 1925
Related fics: Sex Talk (prequel),  Duet, Epilogue (sequel)

Comments

[kayoshybrid]

I just finished reading 'Sex Talk', and intense curiosity took over to read on -- and I'm bloody glad I did.

Your writing is so powerful, your characterisations SURPRISING. I always saw France x Germany as the confident, l'amour, delicate France stalking and nurturing an insecure, easily-embarrassed but hungry Germany. Always more fun because of shameless France and spluttering Germany, and more slow intensity than anything.

But this dynamic took me completely by surprise, and I LOVE it. I love how you clearly set a divide on France and Germany as seperate lovers, having completely different techniques and tastes and rhythms, and that dynamic clashing in front of Italy. That France is all about slow deliberation, exploration and passionate lovemaking, while Germany is about stimulation, sensation, fast, hard and dirty. I was also surprised by just how biting France was to him! The constant down-trodding, taunting, endless comments to break down his confidence! I was pretty speechless, and so amazingly built up and lasting over all the scenes. How it went from a playful to a venomous kind of degradation.

You certainly made it a very powerful love/hate, and it has all kinds of senses tingling. Certainly both fics are very erotic, but its Germany and France's interactions that fascinate me the most. I hurt for Germany being downtrodden so much in front of Italy, but still trying his best to be a good lover, even while France is insinuating constantly he doesn't know anything about good sex. The fact is highlights his kinky, rougher needs as crude and wrong, which adds a whole new spectrum of shame to the entire experience. And all the while he just loves it anyway. It's very intense. The poor man. The intensity of shame and hatred in the morning...

But the last scene (though I want to say its the best, it's not, it's just the absolute perfect, high-quality conclusion a person could ask for. The entire fic is the best) was, wow. That Germany is having to deal with all of this shame and hatred and uncertainty clashing against raw desire, memory-flashbacks, and a victim-like need to be treated this way. The whole sentence about the scratches and bruises being the evidence of love, or tenderness, was heartbreaking. (Afterthought: The contrast of such a powerful, meticulous man having such a rough, raw but needy person underneath, wow)And after everything, still does exactly as he's told. Gosh.

Again, taken completely just surprise when France just takes him into his lap and does a huge 180 degree turn. I can imagine being treated like that, wanting and needing so much, then being treated with absolute kindness (even if pseudo) would be so torturous, awful and hurtful in Germany. Because he wants it so much, doesn't ever get it, especially a big change after what he'd be subjected to. Amazing scene, I can see why he's so choked up.

Suddenly being held so softly, considerately, hurting and eyes averted and head bowed and gathered into someone, curled into. Being ssh'd, oh my god. Seriously I am just shocked over and over to read it, in an amazing way. That even in the end, Germany is still allowing himself to be subjected to this fluctuating treatment, even without Italy to sooth or protect. After everything, he'll still do exactly what he's been given, sit in France lap and allow himself to be brought to climax quietly, in secret, with just France, in another room and near sobbing on the couch in the candlelight.

Then going back to Italy. To face his glowing smile in the morning, to hear what he thought about last night, to tolerate the concerned looks at hsi cuts, bites and bruises littering his body, only to deepen his sense of loathing. But all the while, he is still going to comfort him, humour him.

-collapses-

I want this on paperback. |:

<3333

[ellamequiere]

Ok, and now a reply for real!

It makes sense that you found France and Germany most interesting here, since I wrote Italy as a sort of cute, comic-relief placeholder... but more than that, I love writing France/Germany. Their shared pre-Roman/Carolingian roots... Then, Germany as a modern nation coming into existence in the middle of France and Prussia's little dick measuring contest, just in time for Versailles... Super duper WWII angst to the max... and now happy EU times. It covers just about every extreme, doesn't it? A lot of the biting/nastiness from France comes from when this thing is set (between the Wars). I could see a France/Germany sixty years in the future being a lot closer to what you described.

It's true, Germany does have a little bit of a situation about sex. He wants to want the kind of sex that France has with other people-- slow, sensual, loving-- but at this point in his history (he's still very young; he only formally came into existence about half a century ago) he hasn't had much of a chance to experiment with it, and he feels uncultured and embarrassed. Add the fact that he's pretty embarrassed about sex anyway, and worse, that he finds the shame element arousing... and he has no idea what do to with the whole thing, which in large part explains why he's willing to go along with what France suggests. And it's an easy target for France, because he himself is so uninhibited about sex.

(Yeah, Germany as maso/bottom always has the potential to be really, really good-- it's about control, and shame, which are both really huge for him, I think).

...I don't think the kindness from France was pseudo. I think he just ran out of anger. I don't see him as a particularly angry person, or a natively sadistic one, so in the end, he fell back on the kind of sex he was comfortable with. It was sort of accidental that it's the one thing that could really break Germany.

Anyway, thank you! This review is the sort of thing fanfic authors' dreams are made of. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, but <333.