[Fanfic] The World Is Not Enough
Title: The World Is Not Enough
Author/Artist: kainoliero
Prompt: Norway, Sweden - Omens [Optional time period: 1600s or 1800s]
Other characters: Finland and Denmark get a mention
Rating: R
Content notes: This story is closely linked to the first one I posted. The pairing is, for most of the time, Sweden/Norway. The fic features non-con themes but is not graphic.
Summary: Norway knew they were doomed, all along. The fic happens during the Kalmar War.
The World Is Not Enough
The door closes with enough vigour to shake the very walls around him, sturdy as they are. He hears the footsteps snap angrily down the length of the corridor and although it's a long stretch he won't stir from his position until even their very echo has died out. Instead he stares at the candle, not moving his eyes away even though the small flame burns ghostly images so deep in his eyes he knows he'll be blind when he finally looks up. But this is probably for the best. He knows his room well and knowing what game the shadows will be playing on his walls he'll likely be happier not seeing it.
Norway props his chin on his hand and ruminates on the big mystery that Sweden just presented him.
What does he, in fact, really want?
The wars are going badly for Denmark and therefore for Norway as well. Lately Sweden has decided to keep Norway under his watchful eye at every moment that he can and no wonder, he's Denmark's closest ally and he's given Sweden trouble now for how many years? Over a hundred? Norway knows he could easily remember if he only tried to but the topic annoys him. Yet, much as he hates the situation he's in he cannot find it in himself to hate Sweden for what he's done any more than he could fault a lion for biting someone who walks in front of it and slaps it on the head.
He imagines his eyes must be growing more and more opaque every passing day, so desperately he wishes to keep his inner thoughts to himself. Sweden visits him in the afternoons and he greets him politely, subjecting to his every wish. It is after all the only thing he can do. Resistance would only serve to anger the lion further and besides, as he can admit, the time spent with Sweden isn't all that futile - not all that wrong -
Norway leans back in his chair, keeping his eyes on the flickering light. Sweden's power over him is alike owner's power over a slave. It cannot be questioned neither refused, and Norway does not find it unfair either. This is the way thigns go for men who make an open stance against a foe much stronger than they are, this is their well-deserved fate and their rightful place from which they can only rise once they've proven themselves worthy.
Norway tilts his head back and finally he closes his eyes. Tiny flames dance across his eyelids and he lets his hands fall down on his lap in one deliberate, sensual arc. This punishment he's now receiving is well-deserved, he repeats, revelling in the strange glow the thought rises in him and grabs himself through the fabric. He collects up the hem of his log shirt almost lazily, holding it up with his mouth, takes a more comfortable position in the chair and slides his fingers up and down on his bare skin.
No, he does not detest Sweden for the things he does to him. Instead he welcomes him as a distraction and a source of companionship, no matter how twisted it all is. At the same time he detests Sweden from the bottom of his heart but for reasons completely his own.
And now he looks up -
That big idiot does not know what he has and what he could be having instead of spending his time and energy on Norway. Any fool could see where his heart really is, and that whatever else goes on is but a substitute to something else, something real. Sweden could have what he wants any time and yet he does not simply go and get it, instead he concentrates on someone else... and that iswhy Norway bites the corner of the pillow lying under his weight at nights. Those are the moments when he truly knows how worthless he is reduced now that he cannot even be used as himself.
Finland is ever oblivious to how things are even when openly called “wife”. Norway feels the tears pool in the corners of his eyes, his hands move relentlessly. A sudden memory of a servant girl who looks so much like Finland she could pass for him in dim light pops into his mind.
She was inexperienced, naiive and uneducated too, just like Finland. Norway thinks he knows why Sweden decided to include her in his service in the first place and remembers how easy it was to lure her into his room. Obedient she was too - it was clear the first time of sleeping with a man distressed her but more than that she was afraid of him, and meekly did exactly as she was told.
Thinking back on it now, Norway has no idea why he did what he did, except that perhaps he had wanted to take something important away from Sweden. It didn't even matter in the end. She was not Finland and as she slipped out in the morning Norway had already seen in her shadow that she would not see another full year of life. The humans were fragile things and they passed quickly like leaves on trees and still there were more to come, always more humans no matter which way they were being killed away in the wars between nations.
The question remains, what does he really want, and Norway sighs so deep he accidentally blows out the candle. The only answer he can give is that there are two things that he wishes dearly were his to get: to have what he cannot have and to be able to not want what he wants.
Author/Artist: kainoliero
Prompt: Norway, Sweden - Omens [Optional time period: 1600s or 1800s]
Other characters: Finland and Denmark get a mention
Rating: R
Content notes: This story is closely linked to the first one I posted. The pairing is, for most of the time, Sweden/Norway. The fic features non-con themes but is not graphic.
Summary: Norway knew they were doomed, all along. The fic happens during the Kalmar War.
The World Is Not Enough
The door closes with enough vigour to shake the very walls around him, sturdy as they are. He hears the footsteps snap angrily down the length of the corridor and although it's a long stretch he won't stir from his position until even their very echo has died out. Instead he stares at the candle, not moving his eyes away even though the small flame burns ghostly images so deep in his eyes he knows he'll be blind when he finally looks up. But this is probably for the best. He knows his room well and knowing what game the shadows will be playing on his walls he'll likely be happier not seeing it.
Norway props his chin on his hand and ruminates on the big mystery that Sweden just presented him.
What does he, in fact, really want?
The wars are going badly for Denmark and therefore for Norway as well. Lately Sweden has decided to keep Norway under his watchful eye at every moment that he can and no wonder, he's Denmark's closest ally and he's given Sweden trouble now for how many years? Over a hundred? Norway knows he could easily remember if he only tried to but the topic annoys him. Yet, much as he hates the situation he's in he cannot find it in himself to hate Sweden for what he's done any more than he could fault a lion for biting someone who walks in front of it and slaps it on the head.
He imagines his eyes must be growing more and more opaque every passing day, so desperately he wishes to keep his inner thoughts to himself. Sweden visits him in the afternoons and he greets him politely, subjecting to his every wish. It is after all the only thing he can do. Resistance would only serve to anger the lion further and besides, as he can admit, the time spent with Sweden isn't all that futile - not all that wrong -
Norway leans back in his chair, keeping his eyes on the flickering light. Sweden's power over him is alike owner's power over a slave. It cannot be questioned neither refused, and Norway does not find it unfair either. This is the way thigns go for men who make an open stance against a foe much stronger than they are, this is their well-deserved fate and their rightful place from which they can only rise once they've proven themselves worthy.
Norway tilts his head back and finally he closes his eyes. Tiny flames dance across his eyelids and he lets his hands fall down on his lap in one deliberate, sensual arc. This punishment he's now receiving is well-deserved, he repeats, revelling in the strange glow the thought rises in him and grabs himself through the fabric. He collects up the hem of his log shirt almost lazily, holding it up with his mouth, takes a more comfortable position in the chair and slides his fingers up and down on his bare skin.
No, he does not detest Sweden for the things he does to him. Instead he welcomes him as a distraction and a source of companionship, no matter how twisted it all is. At the same time he detests Sweden from the bottom of his heart but for reasons completely his own.
And now he looks up -
That big idiot does not know what he has and what he could be having instead of spending his time and energy on Norway. Any fool could see where his heart really is, and that whatever else goes on is but a substitute to something else, something real. Sweden could have what he wants any time and yet he does not simply go and get it, instead he concentrates on someone else... and that iswhy Norway bites the corner of the pillow lying under his weight at nights. Those are the moments when he truly knows how worthless he is reduced now that he cannot even be used as himself.
Finland is ever oblivious to how things are even when openly called “wife”. Norway feels the tears pool in the corners of his eyes, his hands move relentlessly. A sudden memory of a servant girl who looks so much like Finland she could pass for him in dim light pops into his mind.
She was inexperienced, naiive and uneducated too, just like Finland. Norway thinks he knows why Sweden decided to include her in his service in the first place and remembers how easy it was to lure her into his room. Obedient she was too - it was clear the first time of sleeping with a man distressed her but more than that she was afraid of him, and meekly did exactly as she was told.
Thinking back on it now, Norway has no idea why he did what he did, except that perhaps he had wanted to take something important away from Sweden. It didn't even matter in the end. She was not Finland and as she slipped out in the morning Norway had already seen in her shadow that she would not see another full year of life. The humans were fragile things and they passed quickly like leaves on trees and still there were more to come, always more humans no matter which way they were being killed away in the wars between nations.
The question remains, what does he really want, and Norway sighs so deep he accidentally blows out the candle. The only answer he can give is that there are two things that he wishes dearly were his to get: to have what he cannot have and to be able to not want what he wants.