Still Cold

[pyrrhiccomedy]

Title: Still Cold
Originally posted: Here.
Length: 1,500 words.
Characters/Pairings: Russia/America.
Premise: Russia/America...fluff? Sort of?
Time period: Modern.
Smuttiness: 1/10
Funnyness: 0/10
Wrist slashiness: 3/10
Lolhistoryness: 3/10
Violence: 1/10
Would I like it?: Well, I don't. There was something about their relationship that I was

Comments

[nittle_grasper]

Wow, you did a great job in portraying these two. It's one of those things I've often thought about, the fact that they've become so similar and yet still antagonize each other...like they're each other's familiar distractions from bigger, more daunting problems.

Also, the "America could never say, for example: What the fuck do you all expect from me, anyway?" part. EXACTLY. Thank you. Europe really doesn't have the right to criticize us when they were the ones who forced us out of political isolation in the first place =( All we wanted was to trade and blockade-run.

[cleartempest]

There is so much THIS here, really XD and I liked how..subtle everything is between them. What with their similarities, I guess they would just naturally understand each other anyways, and your fic showed this quite nicely :3

[pyrrhiccomedy]

Thank you! Like I said up top, I'm not really happy with how this turned out, but it's very gratifying to hear that the meaning managed to muddle its way to the surface anyhow. =D

[minuiko]

Guh. I think the thing I love the most about this fic is the unity of it. How the pirozhki is mentioned somewhere in the middle and is mentioned again near the end, how what the two nations do NOT say is so important (and there are so many lines like that). I really loved their subdued "I understand what you're going through but I can't say it" relationship, and how (in all of your Hetalia fics, really) it's so historically relevant. And the writing! Your writing style is just fantastic (I'd be jealous but I'm too busy admiring). Great job, again.

[pyrrhiccomedy]

Thank you! Even though I do see it as a passionate, at each other's throats kind of relationship, I think there's a quieter subtext to it, and I (maybe inadvisedly) wanted to poke at that. I'm glad you liked it!

[thecurtain]

I think I basically wanted to say what the first three people said, only they said it better than I ever could, so I'm just going to go with

THIS.

And tell you how awesome you are for writing this, and to thank you for sharing, and to beg you to continue to do so.

♥

[pyrrhiccomedy]

This fandom is so pimp. I couldn't stop now. ♥

[_keepthebeat]

mmmmph. ♥

Can I please just say that America's little shpeal, the one that begins "What the fuck do you all expect from me, anyway?", is really the first of its kind I've seen written for Hetalia fandom in addressing this whole way-the-world-perceives-America issue. The usual interpretation is to make America (adorably, idiotically) blind in his self-righteousness -- which definitely has its support in canon. But I think this interpretation does, too. And I like it. I like it a lot.

Constitutes a real-world view, too, which makes it doubly interesting.

[pyrrhiccomedy]

I honestly felt a little uncomfortable writing that part down, because it's such a controversial real world point of view--but I think of it as fairly integral to Alfred's character, even if he can only admit it to himself after he's had a few drinks.

I dislike interpretations of America that show him as generally clueless. Brash, yes; inconsiderate, yes; terribly prone to getting caught up in his own momentum and missing important details, yes. But I think it's a lot more interesting to give him a bit of credit. I think America is clever, and very sensitive to changing moods around him, but due to a variety of character traits (optimism, overconfidence, idealism, repression, etc etc etc) acts like an idiot anyway. There's just more to play with that way.

[windy_lea]

I actually really love that about this fic. It is a little uncomfortable to put down, and obviously it's not the whole story, but then, leaving him as a hopelessly clueless character would REALLY not be the whole story either. America has plenty of dirty laundry, I think we can all acknowledge, but then, it's the most visible dirty laundry in the world, so... America's leaking inner monologue on that point was more than appropriate.

When I first saw this fic, I went out of my way to save it in word, which I so rarely do just because even when I like fics, I don't reread them very often. And I'm not even much for Russia/US (although you're leading me that way...) The dynamic was excellent, really.

/rambling

[pyrrhiccomedy]

Thank you, then--I'm really flattered.

omg Kyouya \o/