Misunderstood Misunderstanding - microfill 1/1
anonymous
October 29 2010, 03:35:15 UTC
Never did Estonia think that he would ever see the day when Prussia acted gentlemanly.
Or blushing.
Or doing so on Estonia's doorstep while holding a bouquet of roses.
"Are you drunk?" was the first thing he could think of to say.
Prussia started, almost dropping the flowers. "Uh. Nein. I mean no. Dammit..." He tried to avoid eye contact, his red eyes dancing around every which way in their sockets, but Estonia somehow found a way to lock them in.
"All right, so then... are those flowers for me?"
Prussia seemed content to let Estonia guess his motives. Correctly, of course. "S... sure. Yeah. Yeah, if you want 'em."
Now Estonia was confused. "I haven't really done anything remarkable lately, though..."
He soon regretted saying it after seeing the anguished look on Prussia's face.
"J-just take 'em already!" The former nation shoved the bouquet into Estonia's arms, almost knocking him back in the doorway. "And... and quit screwin' with my... feelin..." (No way in hell was he going to say "feelings", it just wasn't going to HAPPEN.)
(Estonia figured it out, anyways. As usual.)
"This... this is about those flowers I gave you the other day, isn't it?" Prussia nodded fervently, trying not to allow that memory to resurface. The clear blue sky, and just how damn happy Estonia looked as he handed him those daffodils and sunflowers and fucking baby's breath, all wrapped up in pale blue paper so thin he could see the little white veins if he held it up to the sun.
Needless to say, those efforts didn't work.
Realization couldn't have crashed faster over Estonia if Italy had brought it while fleeing from England's cooking. "Oh, Prussia, I'm sorry, but those flowers were supposed to be a congratulatory gift. You know, because you managed to drink all those beers consecutively without passing out. I thought it was very impressive, so..." He trailed off, hoping that Prussia would understand.
"So you weren't confessin' your feelings for me or anything sappy like that? Because that would be great." Evidently he did.
"No. I didn't know that giving flowers was so... sacred to your culture. I honestly didn't mean to imply anything."
"Ah. Well then. That's cool." Prussia let out a pent-up sigh of relief. "You can keep 'em, y'know. The flowers. Not really anyone else to give 'em too who'll appreciate 'em, yeah..."
The roses! Estonia almost forgot. "Just a quick question... why did you feel the need to return the favor, if you thought that I was confessing my love to you?"
Prussia turned pale, then red, then turned around and ran away without saying another word, but mumbling curse words under his breath in German.
Estonia shrugged, and counted the number of roses in his new bouquet.
There were exactly nineteen. Prussia had even gone to the trouble of not making the mistake of adding or taking away an extra one to make it even! Or, perhaps it had been a lucky mistake. Well, whatever the reason, they would look nice on his dresser. Estonia had been saving a vase just for an occasion such as this, if one ever arose.
From then on, every week, Estonia would recieve a bouquet of flowers on his doorstep. And, whenever he answered the door, all he could hear was the sound of footsteps running away, and all he could smell was flowers mixed with a faint trace of alcohol and something else that he couldn't identify.
Really, considering how smart he was, it was shocking that Estonia didn't realize who his mystery admirer was sooner.
The even number of roses-thingy is from a Russian tradition that, if you give someone an even number of roses, it's supposed to symbolize sympathy for a loved one's death or something like that. I figured that even if it wasn't a tradition in Estonia, it would have rubbed off on him personally. Or I was just too lazy to search through Google to find it.
Yeah, this is an unlikely pairing, and yeah, the ending sucked, but... I have no excuse. I just wanted to fill this very quickly. I hope someone else does a better job!
Re: Misunderstood Misunderstanding - microfill 1/1
anonymous
October 29 2010, 05:55:05 UTC
This was soooo cute! Aaw Prussia ... this story really made me love him even more. And since I'm Estonian ... of course I was very happy to see my beloved Eduard here :) Great job !
And you did right not to let Prussia give Eduard even number of roses. We do consider it rude if a person gives an even number flowers for a birthday or any other occasion (except for funeral). And it's not only roses. It's every flower ... if you give a person even number flowers for birthday it's almost as if you wish for him/her to die.
Re: Misunderstood Misunderstanding - microfill 1/1
anonymous
October 29 2010, 05:59:16 UTC
Estonian!anon here again ... I just wanted to add that in my country even number flowers for any occasion other than funeral can also be taken as a wish of bad luck ... at least that's what I've been told ...
Re: Misunderstood Misunderstanding - microfill 1/1
anonymous
October 29 2010, 11:26:11 UTC
op here! <3 I actually love Prussia/Estonia/Prussia! An unlikely pairing but one with a lot of history that gets overlooked~ >u< It was absolutely cute and I couldn't have hoped for such an awesome fill!
Very nice reason to give flowers to him, oh, Eesti... xDDDD It was adorable! Much love <33333 Excellent job!
Re: Misunderstood Misunderstanding - microfill 1/1
anonymous
October 30 2010, 01:12:42 UTC
Eee~! It's so cute! ♥ And I LOVE seeing more fics about Estonia that are actually based on real life Estonian stuff. All too often he's just used when a nerdy guy is needed or with the other Baltics or Finland, rarely for himself.
Prussia is totally adorkable too. <3 I just love him. And the anon above is right, there is a lot of history between the two... (Even though I'm not sure how positive it actually is? ;;; ) Estonia used to belong to the Teutonic knights, didn't he? And there was a German-speaking nobility for ages there because of that, iirc.
Misunderstood Misunderstanding - 2/?
anonymous
October 30 2010, 04:02:37 UTC
A week and a half later, Estonia found Prussia on his doorstep once again. This time, he came neither awkward nor bearing flowers.
“Yo, what’s up, Este?” He flashed a toothy grin, revealing surprisingly well-cared for teeth, considering the amount of beer he consumed on a regular basis. “Still using those groom-thingies?”
Groom-thingies? What in the name of bananas was Prussia talking about? “… come again?”
“Y’know, money! You haven’t switched over to euros yet, have you?”
Oh, right. Estonia had almost forgotten about euros. “They’re not groom-thingies, they’re called kroons. Ugh, is the EU bugging me about it again? I’ve told them so many times that I’ll switch over in January, so why are they still pressing the issue?”
Prussia looked abashed for a spit second before reverting back to his usual demeanor. “Nah, I… I was just curious. West doesn’t exactly inform me of everything goin’ on, since… y’know.” He didn’t need to say “since I was sacked as a country.” It was something that he preferred not to talk about.
Before Estonia could think of something to say to break the awkward silence that ensued, Prussia unexpectedly did it for him. “Hey, can I see what they look like? The… the kroons? Don’t look at me like that, I won’t steal ‘em or anything! No matter what West says at those meetings of yours!”
“Uh… sure, let me just see if I have some, I think I had a bit of spare change in my pocket…” Estonia chose not to comment on the fact that he had never “looked like that” at Prussia (at least not intentionally) or that Germany rarely even talked about him at meetings. Unlike Prussia, Estonia could often tell when was a good time to hold his tongue.
Fortunately, Estonia did have a few of the coins in his pocket, along with a semi-crumpled up bill for five krooni. It took a bit of digging to pick it out from the little pieces of torn-up and forgotten Post-It notes stuffed in there, but soon, Prussia was ogling over the currency in Estonia’s hand like it was the best thing since the invention of the word “awesome.”
“These are so much cooler-lookin’ than these boring old euros we’ve got,” he said appreciatively. “I mean, the coins are kinda meh, but that bill is just… wụnderschön.” He tentatively reached out a gloved hand to touch it, as though afraid that he might tear it and render it useless. Estonia gave the slightest of nods, and soon Prussia was turning it over again and again in his leather palm, like he had never seen anything like it before.
“Those buildings on the back are Hermann castle and Ivanorod fortress…” Estonia decided not to finish the sentence, instead allowing the significance of the names to sink in as Prussia recalled them; of purchasing the castle for the Teutonic Order (a year after that, Estonia had been ordered by Denmark to work part-time for Prussia, with one of those jobs being to refurbish the castle) and of the more sinister purposes that he and Germany had used the fortress for during World War II (if he walked through its halls at night, sometimes Estonia could still hear the screams of his people, smell the blood and sweat on the walls.)
“…ja, I remember those.” Apparently, Prussia felt as uneasy as Estonia did, so the latter country decided to change the subject, taking the bill out of his hand and flipping it over to reveal a serious-looking man with a hairstyle not unlike Germany’s.
“And that’s Paul Keres. He was one of the best chess players in the world, you know.” Estonia felt himself filling up with pride just thinking about him. “I remember playing against him once… it was like playing against a supercomputer, he was so good! I was in checkmate before I knew it!”
“Chess? Oh, yeah!” Prussia’s face lit up as he discovered that yes, he could make intelligent conversation. “Germany’s got this really awesome software company called ChessBase, and they make TONS of these cool computer chess games. It’s completely mind-blowing, the things he’s done with that. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, since he pretty much sells ‘em just to America, but you’re such a computer nerd - and I’m sayin’ that with all the kindness in the world, really - I was wonderin’ if maybe you’ve heard of it.”
Misunderstood Misunderstanding - 2.5/?
anonymous
October 30 2010, 04:04:55 UTC
ChessBase. Now that he mentioned it, Estonia did recall America showing him this “really cool chess game Germany sold me, but don’t tell anyone else about it, ‘cuz they’ll think it’s weird that I’m into chess. And it’s kind of a dorky game, right? It’s just so addicting, though, you have GOT to try it.” He did, and, quite honestly, he thought that it was one of the most interesting chess programs he had ever encountered. It strongly reminded him of playing against Paul Keres; he could almost hear the clack of pieces on wood as his pawns, rooks, and knights were picked off one by one.
“I have heard of it, yes.” Estonia smiled, glad that Prussia, too, seemed to be into chess. “Have you ever worked on any of the programs?”
Prussia stalled a little bit. “Uh. Sorta. I mean, I worked a little on the Fritz, but mostly I just came up with the name and tested it. Buncha programming that I didn’t understand… I mean, I’m no idiot, I can use a computer, but I can’t make a computer, y’know?”
Estonia had figured as much. After all, when you got right down to it, Prussia was more of a doer than a thinker… not that he was a Neanderthal; he just preferred to run straight into the battle and win as opposed to sitting down to carefully plan his strategy to win. That was what his bosses and Germany were for.
“So do you actually own the program?” Estonia asked.
“Yeah, yeah! I mean, if West would let you use it, you could… wait, verdammt, that wasn’t what you asked, was it? Or were you gonna ask it, and did I jump ahead of your train of thought before it left the station? Not that you train of thought even has to leave, you’re pretty damn smart, it’s probably runnin’ all the time, 24-hour schedule… Ah, I should probably just quit talking while I’m ahead.” Prussia held his hand up to his face, looking as though he was about to go crack a beer bottle over his head and hope that he’d pass out from the pain, which was nothing compared to the internal humiliation he was experiencing right now.
Estonia, ever-helpful, decided to try to nudge Prussia out of his mental corner of shame. “Yes, it would be nice to have someone who knew the program from the beginning show it to me. I could get a different perspective... you’re not a critic who played the game at the end, you’ve played it from the beginning! Do you think that you could bring it over to my house sometime?”
Prussia leapt out of the corner. “Ja, that’d be awesome! For you, I mean, you know, so you could get that new perspective you were talking about. And yeah, what better person to get it from than someone who’s beta tested it, like… you know, me! Yeah, that would be pretty fun. So, when do you need me? Wait, not ‘need’, because that sounds kinda wrong, or… ah, you’re looking at me like I’ve got something coming out of the back of my head again! Just-“
“How about Thursday?”
“… huh?”
“Thursday at noon. We could get something for lunch, and then come back here. Is that okay?”
It took a few seconds for Prussia to come back to his senses. When he did, he found himself nodding fervently. “Yeah. Thursday. Thursday’s great. I’ll be there. See you then.”
Estonia beamed, and as Prussia left, he called out, “Don’t forget to bring the program!”
“No way in hell!” was the reply he got. Head still buzzing with anticipation of learning about the Fritz program hands-on, Estonia closed the door and went to go water his flowers. He had accumulated quite a few of them, and needed to make sure that they stayed healthy for as long as possible.
Estonia didn’t receive any flowers that day, but on the next, he could barely see the doormat for all the asters and gardenias arranged on them in an almost-perfect replication of his flag. And - sure enough - when he counted them, there were exactly thirty-five.
How he was still could have been so clueless would have baffled him later on. Perhaps he just hadn’t wanted to believe it.
Why am I continuing this when I have an essay due by Monday. I have no priorities.
Re: Misunderstood Misunderstanding - 2.5/?
anonymous
October 30 2010, 05:45:43 UTC
PAUL KERES. YOU DID NOT JUST MENTION PAUL KERES, WRITERANON.
OP here has joked many a time that her otp is Eduard/Paul Keres and is in fact writing a thing where they actually play chess together and Estonia exposes the fact he's.. Estonia. ahahaha♥♥♥♥!! Right when I saw that name my face just lit up! xD <3! And the money thing in general, ahhhh ♥ I love reading things including Estonia where people have.. researched Estonia. It's rare! I'm such an estophile and I'm absolutely adoring this!
SO VERY GLAD you decided to continue this a bit! Chess! what geeks ♥ ugh I don't think I could use enough hearts in this comment to EXPRESS MY EVER LASTING JOY but.. but geez. ♥~ It's fabulous. Way, way way way way fabulous. Oh Prussia, how so very dorky in love, and Eesti, so blind~
Or blushing.
Or doing so on Estonia's doorstep while holding a bouquet of roses.
"Are you drunk?" was the first thing he could think of to say.
Prussia started, almost dropping the flowers. "Uh. Nein. I mean no. Dammit..." He tried to avoid eye contact, his red eyes dancing around every which way in their sockets, but Estonia somehow found a way to lock them in.
"All right, so then... are those flowers for me?"
Prussia seemed content to let Estonia guess his motives. Correctly, of course. "S... sure. Yeah. Yeah, if you want 'em."
Now Estonia was confused. "I haven't really done anything remarkable lately, though..."
He soon regretted saying it after seeing the anguished look on Prussia's face.
"J-just take 'em already!" The former nation shoved the bouquet into Estonia's arms, almost knocking him back in the doorway. "And... and quit screwin' with my... feelin..." (No way in hell was he going to say "feelings", it just wasn't going to HAPPEN.)
(Estonia figured it out, anyways. As usual.)
"This... this is about those flowers I gave you the other day, isn't it?" Prussia nodded fervently, trying not to allow that memory to resurface. The clear blue sky, and just how damn happy Estonia looked as he handed him those daffodils and sunflowers and fucking baby's breath, all wrapped up in pale blue paper so thin he could see the little white veins if he held it up to the sun.
Needless to say, those efforts didn't work.
Realization couldn't have crashed faster over Estonia if Italy had brought it while fleeing from England's cooking. "Oh, Prussia, I'm sorry, but those flowers were supposed to be a congratulatory gift. You know, because you managed to drink all those beers consecutively without passing out. I thought it was very impressive, so..." He trailed off, hoping that Prussia would understand.
"So you weren't confessin' your feelings for me or anything sappy like that? Because that would be great." Evidently he did.
"No. I didn't know that giving flowers was so... sacred to your culture. I honestly didn't mean to imply anything."
"Ah. Well then. That's cool." Prussia let out a pent-up sigh of relief. "You can keep 'em, y'know. The flowers. Not really anyone else to give 'em too who'll appreciate 'em, yeah..."
The roses! Estonia almost forgot. "Just a quick question... why did you feel the need to return the favor, if you thought that I was confessing my love to you?"
Prussia turned pale, then red, then turned around and ran away without saying another word, but mumbling curse words under his breath in German.
Estonia shrugged, and counted the number of roses in his new bouquet.
There were exactly nineteen. Prussia had even gone to the trouble of not making the mistake of adding or taking away an extra one to make it even! Or, perhaps it had been a lucky mistake. Well, whatever the reason, they would look nice on his dresser. Estonia had been saving a vase just for an occasion such as this, if one ever arose.
From then on, every week, Estonia would recieve a bouquet of flowers on his doorstep. And, whenever he answered the door, all he could hear was the sound of footsteps running away, and all he could smell was flowers mixed with a faint trace of alcohol and something else that he couldn't identify.
Really, considering how smart he was, it was shocking that Estonia didn't realize who his mystery admirer was sooner.
The even number of roses-thingy is from a Russian tradition that, if you give someone an even number of roses, it's supposed to symbolize sympathy for a loved one's death or something like that. I figured that even if it wasn't a tradition in Estonia, it would have rubbed off on him personally. Or I was just too lazy to search through Google to find it.
Yeah, this is an unlikely pairing, and yeah, the ending sucked, but... I have no excuse. I just wanted to fill this very quickly. I hope someone else does a better job!
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And you did right not to let Prussia give Eduard even number of roses. We do consider it rude if a person gives an even number flowers for a birthday or any other occasion (except for funeral). And it's not only roses. It's every flower ... if you give a person even number flowers for birthday it's almost as if you wish for him/her to die.
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Very nice reason to give flowers to him, oh, Eesti... xDDDD It was adorable! Much love <33333 Excellent job!
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Prussia is totally adorkable too. <3 I just love him. And the anon above is right, there is a lot of history between the two... (Even though I'm not sure how positive it actually is? ;;; ) Estonia used to belong to the Teutonic knights, didn't he? And there was a German-speaking nobility for ages there because of that, iirc.
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“Yo, what’s up, Este?” He flashed a toothy grin, revealing surprisingly well-cared for teeth, considering the amount of beer he consumed on a regular basis. “Still using those groom-thingies?”
Groom-thingies? What in the name of bananas was Prussia talking about? “… come again?”
“Y’know, money! You haven’t switched over to euros yet, have you?”
Oh, right. Estonia had almost forgotten about euros. “They’re not groom-thingies, they’re called kroons. Ugh, is the EU bugging me about it again? I’ve told them so many times that I’ll switch over in January, so why are they still pressing the issue?”
Prussia looked abashed for a spit second before reverting back to his usual demeanor. “Nah, I… I was just curious. West doesn’t exactly inform me of everything goin’ on, since… y’know.” He didn’t need to say “since I was sacked as a country.” It was something that he preferred not to talk about.
Before Estonia could think of something to say to break the awkward silence that ensued, Prussia unexpectedly did it for him. “Hey, can I see what they look like? The… the kroons? Don’t look at me like that, I won’t steal ‘em or anything! No matter what West says at those meetings of yours!”
“Uh… sure, let me just see if I have some, I think I had a bit of spare change in my pocket…” Estonia chose not to comment on the fact that he had never “looked like that” at Prussia (at least not intentionally) or that Germany rarely even talked about him at meetings. Unlike Prussia, Estonia could often tell when was a good time to hold his tongue.
Fortunately, Estonia did have a few of the coins in his pocket, along with a semi-crumpled up bill for five krooni. It took a bit of digging to pick it out from the little pieces of torn-up and forgotten Post-It notes stuffed in there, but soon, Prussia was ogling over the currency in Estonia’s hand like it was the best thing since the invention of the word “awesome.”
“These are so much cooler-lookin’ than these boring old euros we’ve got,” he said appreciatively. “I mean, the coins are kinda meh, but that bill is just… wụnderschön.” He tentatively reached out a gloved hand to touch it, as though afraid that he might tear it and render it useless. Estonia gave the slightest of nods, and soon Prussia was turning it over again and again in his leather palm, like he had never seen anything like it before.
“Those buildings on the back are Hermann castle and Ivanorod fortress…” Estonia decided not to finish the sentence, instead allowing the significance of the names to sink in as Prussia recalled them; of purchasing the castle for the Teutonic Order (a year after that, Estonia had been ordered by Denmark to work part-time for Prussia, with one of those jobs being to refurbish the castle) and of the more sinister purposes that he and Germany had used the fortress for during World War II (if he walked through its halls at night, sometimes Estonia could still hear the screams of his people, smell the blood and sweat on the walls.)
“…ja, I remember those.” Apparently, Prussia felt as uneasy as Estonia did, so the latter country decided to change the subject, taking the bill out of his hand and flipping it over to reveal a serious-looking man with a hairstyle not unlike Germany’s.
“And that’s Paul Keres. He was one of the best chess players in the world, you know.” Estonia felt himself filling up with pride just thinking about him. “I remember playing against him once… it was like playing against a supercomputer, he was so good! I was in checkmate before I knew it!”
“Chess? Oh, yeah!” Prussia’s face lit up as he discovered that yes, he could make intelligent conversation. “Germany’s got this really awesome software company called ChessBase, and they make TONS of these cool computer chess games. It’s completely mind-blowing, the things he’s done with that. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, since he pretty much sells ‘em just to America, but you’re such a computer nerd - and I’m sayin’ that with all the kindness in the world, really - I was wonderin’ if maybe you’ve heard of it.”
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“I have heard of it, yes.” Estonia smiled, glad that Prussia, too, seemed to be into chess. “Have you ever worked on any of the programs?”
Prussia stalled a little bit. “Uh. Sorta. I mean, I worked a little on the Fritz, but mostly I just came up with the name and tested it. Buncha programming that I didn’t understand… I mean, I’m no idiot, I can use a computer, but I can’t make a computer, y’know?”
Estonia had figured as much. After all, when you got right down to it, Prussia was more of a doer than a thinker… not that he was a Neanderthal; he just preferred to run straight into the battle and win as opposed to sitting down to carefully plan his strategy to win. That was what his bosses and Germany were for.
“So do you actually own the program?” Estonia asked.
“Yeah, yeah! I mean, if West would let you use it, you could… wait, verdammt, that wasn’t what you asked, was it? Or were you gonna ask it, and did I jump ahead of your train of thought before it left the station? Not that you train of thought even has to leave, you’re pretty damn smart, it’s probably runnin’ all the time, 24-hour schedule… Ah, I should probably just quit talking while I’m ahead.” Prussia held his hand up to his face, looking as though he was about to go crack a beer bottle over his head and hope that he’d pass out from the pain, which was nothing compared to the internal humiliation he was experiencing right now.
Estonia, ever-helpful, decided to try to nudge Prussia out of his mental corner of shame. “Yes, it would be nice to have someone who knew the program from the beginning show it to me. I could get a different perspective... you’re not a critic who played the game at the end, you’ve played it from the beginning! Do you think that you could bring it over to my house sometime?”
Prussia leapt out of the corner. “Ja, that’d be awesome! For you, I mean, you know, so you could get that new perspective you were talking about. And yeah, what better person to get it from than someone who’s beta tested it, like… you know, me! Yeah, that would be pretty fun. So, when do you need me? Wait, not ‘need’, because that sounds kinda wrong, or… ah, you’re looking at me like I’ve got something coming out of the back of my head again! Just-“
“How about Thursday?”
“… huh?”
“Thursday at noon. We could get something for lunch, and then come back here. Is that okay?”
It took a few seconds for Prussia to come back to his senses. When he did, he found himself nodding fervently. “Yeah. Thursday. Thursday’s great. I’ll be there. See you then.”
Estonia beamed, and as Prussia left, he called out, “Don’t forget to bring the program!”
“No way in hell!” was the reply he got. Head still buzzing with anticipation of learning about the Fritz program hands-on, Estonia closed the door and went to go water his flowers. He had accumulated quite a few of them, and needed to make sure that they stayed healthy for as long as possible.
Estonia didn’t receive any flowers that day, but on the next, he could barely see the doormat for all the asters and gardenias arranged on them in an almost-perfect replication of his flag. And - sure enough - when he counted them, there were exactly thirty-five.
How he was still could have been so clueless would have baffled him later on. Perhaps he just hadn’t wanted to believe it.
Why am I continuing this when I have an essay due by Monday. I have no priorities.
BUT IT'S FUN NOT TO HAVE PRIORITIES. *shot*
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YOU DID NOT JUST MENTION PAUL KERES, WRITERANON.
OP here has joked many a time that her otp is Eduard/Paul Keres and is in fact writing a thing where they actually play chess together and Estonia exposes the fact he's.. Estonia. ahahaha♥♥♥♥!! Right when I saw that name my face just lit up! xD <3! And the money thing in general, ahhhh ♥ I love reading things including Estonia where people have.. researched Estonia. It's rare! I'm such an estophile and I'm absolutely adoring this!
SO VERY GLAD you decided to continue this a bit! Chess! what geeks ♥ ugh I don't think I could use enough hearts in this comment to EXPRESS MY EVER LASTING JOY but.. but geez. ♥~ It's fabulous. Way, way way way way fabulous. Oh Prussia, how so very dorky in love, and Eesti, so blind~
I love this. a ton. <3!
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Is so awesome and cute that I have no other ways to express my love for it other than just squeal and melt~~~~
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