The world we wanted 19/?
Prussia barley has time to recover from his horrible hangover before Serbia cheerfully drags him off to Russia.
“I have other things to do,” he protests half-heartedly but in the end Serbia being enthusiastic over how Hungary moved in with Russia sounds like bad news.
***
Hungary is wearing a dress, something no one has seen her in for years. A maid dress of all things, something Prussia remembers from before she married and divorced Austria. She still kicked ass as a maid but now she looks pretty tired.
“I love how you look in that dress,” Serbia greets her, sizing up Hungary so thoroughly that she blushes in anger.
“I don't want to talk to you,” Hungary says. “Russia isn't home, so leave us alone.”
“Russia told me I'm welcome any time,” Serbia says and walks in. “And East is practically Russia's boyfriend.”
“I'm sorry,” Prussia starts.
Hungary waves it away.
“I understand you look after your own house first. Everyone does. Poland didn't stick up for me either, no one did.”
"Uhm, I'm still sorry... Are you okay?"
"For the circumstances it's not so bad. Lithuania, Estonia Latvia are friendlier than I thought. And as far as I understand Russia is usually arguing with China, disagreeing with Khrushchev or clinging on you... All of it keeps him away from here. I hope that's true."
Serbia makes himself comfortable despite the death stares from Hungary.
“I want something to drink,” Serbia says, immune to non-verbal death threats. “Be a good maid and serve me something.”
“Can't you harass Greece instead?” Prussia wonders.
“Greece kicked me out because I feed his cats milk. He said it wasn't good for them. Have you ever heard something that stupid? Everyone knows cats like milk.”
“If I give you something, do you promise to go away?” Hungary says with a sigh.
“Sure.”
Hungary goes hunting for vodka while cursing under her breath.
“I wouldn't drink anything Hungary serves me if I were you,” Prussia says. And honestly he isn't sure Hungary wouldn't spit in his glass either.
“Eh,” Serbia says with a shrug. “I eat Kosovo's food. I'm not that sensitive. Enough vodka kills all germs. And Russia doesn't keep rat poison in his kitchen, right?”
“Stop being an ass to her. She's going through a rough time.”
“Do you know what Hungary likes to do to other nations who have it rough? Invade them or send them humiliating ultimatums. I'm glad there is no Austro-Hungary to do that anymore.”
“And you don't have a Kingdom of Serbia or a Serbia dominated Yugoslavia either anymore,” Hungary replies, returning just in time to hear, and downs the drink she was about to give Serbia herself. “All you have is a shared house with your worst enemy and another crazy communist boss. A Croatian boss no less.”
“At least I'm not Russia's or America's bitch. And don't insult my Yugoslavian boss just because he's crafty enough to stand up against Russia's bosses. Unlike yours.”
“Shut up Serbia,” Hungary says. “I have a lot of kitchen appliances laying around, all perfectly good to bash your head in with.”
She always been as dangerous with a frying pan as with a sword but Serbia takes no warning despite that Prussia kicks his leg hard to shut him up.
“And I have real weapons. But what am I thinking, I shouldn't damage Russia's property.”
Hungary's eyes narrow.
“It's funny how for all your current anti-fascist and communist posing, I remember there being a Serbian SS...”
“That was long ago!” Serbia yells, getting to his feet to try to stare Hungary down. “And I was under occupation! You're the opportunistic fascist whore here.”
Then Hungary throws the empty glass right into Serbia's face. He cries out in pain and fury but is on Hungary the next second, slamming a fist into her face to further disorient her the moment they hit the floor.
“Get off her,” Prussia hisses and kicks Serbia away from Hungary. Hungary takes the chance and begins to pummel Serbia. Perhaps she doesn't really need help but it was way too long since Prussia was in a proper fist fight. Who wouldn't take the chance to slap the smugness of Serbia's face?
Serbia is screwed when they both pin him down and he knows it, but it doesn't stop him from fighting back like crazy. Suddenly Prussia feels something shatter over his head. He lets go of Serbia and tries to turn around and face his attacker.
It looks like two of them for a moment, then it focuses into one Latvia who looks horrified over how he just attacked Prussia with a vase.
That's it, Latvia might look small but he's going to get his ass kicked. A quick glance shows that Hungary is doing fine against Serbia on her own.
“LAATVIA!” Estonia yells and throws himself at Prussia before he can hit back.
“Russia is going to be furious,” Lithuania says very calmly and yet loudly enough to be heard over the chaos.
***
The fight ends very quickly because Lithuania is right. He sighs like they are unruly children and hands out bandages. Prussia's head hurts like hell, as well as his side where Estonia repeatedly kicked him.
“None of you are leaving before you help clean up this mess,” Lithuania tells Prussia and Serbia.
“That's not going to happen,” Serbia says. It sounds pretty pathetic when he tries to not wince in pain and keeps a piece of cloth pressed against his face to make the bleeding stop. He praises Latvia and Estonia's skills in dirty fighting and they both look rather pleased with themselves.
“I always wanted to throw a vase at someone,” Latvia happily says. “Especially that one. Now I never have to clean it again. I hope Russia won't notice...”
Prussia growls and Latvia backs away a bit, trembling again. It's damn embarrassing to get into a fight with him and Estonia and be the one worse off. But of course that would have changed if Lithuania didn't show up when he did...
“Aren't you two supposed to be allied with me?”
“I think we owed Serbia a favor,” Estonia replies. There might be some truth in that, Serbia seems to argue with Russia for the hell of it but sometimes it ends up favorably for the Baltics.
“I'm sorry I called you a fascist whore,” Serbia tells Hungary. “You can be such an opportunistic idiot but you're usually an honorable adversary when it comes down to it.”
“Apology accepted,” Hungary says. “And sorry about what I said too. That was out of line.”
The bruises starting to form in her face and on her throat upsets Prussia, it's low to hit a girl in the face.
“I don't care what you think,” Serbia says. That's obviously a blatant lie. “But we didn't always get along that badly, did we? You still celebrate one of my guys. I think you might still feel a little nostalgic about me.”
“And you threatened to come over and beat him up yourself for choosing the wrong side,” Hungary replies but she looks happy thinking about it.
“Remember when you advised me to kick Turkey in the balls if he got touchy? He beat me senseless after that and I'm not even sure if he actually tried to make a move on me or if he only tried to convince me he wasn't such a bad guy. Probably the second. Still, it was worth it to see the look in his face. It was a good piece of advice.”
Serbia and Hungary smile at each other, sharing something Prussia wasn't a part of. He hopes she remembers how he actually helped her with Turkey. She probably doesn't, as she keeps smiling as Serbia's hand brushes over hers. She lends into his touch instead of flinching away as she should.
“What the hell is wrong with you? He just tried to beat you up.”
“Right now,” Hungary says. “I prefer Serbia's company to yours. At least he's honest with how he doesn't really care about anyone but himself.”
Serbia looks incredibly smug despite that it was more of an insult than a compliment. Prussia looks around for something to throw. Shouldn't it be Hungary thanking him for helping her instead of flirting with the guy showed up to mock her?
***
Everyone cleans in the end. Hitting someone in the face is a good way to work out some frustrations and Hungary looks more relaxed despite everything.
“I think I have to stay over,” Serbia says.
“Worried that Croatia and the other guys are going to mock you for getting beaten up by a girl?” Prussia says.
“Actually, I'm worried that they're going to think 'oh, Serbia doesn't look so well, we should join in and beat him too'.”
Serbia looks dead serious about this, which is slightly awkward.
Estonia saves the situation.
“Want to join in on the chess torment?”
“Really?”
“It's the communist mastership, you obviously qualify.”
To everyone's surprise Serbia kicks Estonia's ass, even if it's more due to Estonia's severe misconception that Serbia would be just as easily distracted as Poland than Serbia's amazing skills. Poland is constantly in the bottom of the chess rankings because he is too impatient and ends up making stupid mistakes out of boredom.
“This is going to have bad effects on my ranking,” Estonia says and looks sad.
***
“What have you been doing?” Russia says when he returns home several hours later. He is a bit taken back with Hungary's and Serbia's bad shape. They both look like they lost the fight.
“I'm proving to Yugoslavia that the Warsaw pact is serious business,” Prussia says with as much dignity as possible. Which isn't much when he doesn't look much better than the two main brawlers.
“What happened to my vase?” Russia wonders. Of course he notices imminently...
“It was a necessary sacrifice to save our improving relationship with Yugoslavia,” Latvia says and only shivers a little.
“Why do you all act crazy the moment I'm out of the house?" Russia complains. "Everyone is going to think I'm a madman who beats my allies."
Hungary turns around and walks out of the room without a word.
I feel so bad for having Hungary getting beaten up two chapters in a row... But at least she won this brawl. I think Hungary would prefer when Serbia considers her a worthy opponent who is down for the moment, rather than Russia wanting to pretend everything is all nice or Prussia feeling sorry for her.
Hungary liked János Damjanich, Serbia did not... But right now they are both mostly amused over the entire thing.