An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Sequel to “Diamond in the Rough.” On his way to escape to West Germany, Prussia is captured by a high-profile MGB agent. Back in WWII, Prussia’s disappearance leaves Belarus at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. After the war she recovers in Moscow, but is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing. Belarus returns in 1953 with dubious allegiances, a secret plot, and a detective hot on her trail. Can the other nations stop her before it’s too late? Or should they?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Sequel to “Diamond in the Rough.” On his way to escape to West Germany, Prussia is captured by a high-profile MGB agent. Back in WWII, Prussia’s disappearance leaves Belarus at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. After the war she recovers in Moscow, but is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing. Belarus returns in 1953 with dubious allegiances, a secret plot, and a detective hot on her trail. Can the other nations stop her before it’s too late? Or should they?
I had already written this, and for some reason I want to post it now. I know Ruspol is not everyone’s cup of tea, but to be clear this is in my Pottertalia universe, where Ivan and Feliks are both trapped in the wizard underworld, as gay men whose value is tied to producing heirs. Also Toris’s kids grow up calling Feliks their ‘Uncle’ but he’s not related to the Braginsky’s at all, his family is Polish and he’s connected to them through the business.
Trigger warning for major character death (mention)
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“I thought, ‘what am I here for?’”
Feliks’s voice was empty and scratchy. He sat with his hands on his knees, staring past the wooden table filled with bottles of vodka and empty glasses. His eyes stung from hours of crying.
Across from him sat Ivan, his unlikely companion for the night. Feliks felt this whole household was collapsing, and there was nobody to lean on, so comfort came from strange places. Natalia had been in hysterics when the investigators brought Toris – no, Toris’s body – back to the house. And being the only one composed enough to do it, Ivan held his little sister while she wept and screamed and shook Toris and begged for him to wake up. He even had to pull her away so they could take the body to the coroner…
Ivan may not have been as close to Toris, but Natalia was his entire world, and it must have shaken him to see her in such a state. And so it was that Feliks and Ivan found themselves drinking together after the twins had been put to bed, although Feliks doubted anyone would be getting sleep tonight.
“All my life, I thought my entire reason for being was to protect him – to prevent this from happening. But now that he’s gone…” Feliks shook his head and smeared a hand across his face.
“But looking at those kids, I know he would be disappointed if I left. They can barely fucking read and they just lost their father. They need… they need me to – Liet needs me to look out for them.”
The tears came again, and Feliks lifted a shaking hand to his mouth. Exhausted from emotion and hazy from the alcohol, he admitted something to Ivan he hadn’t breathed to a single soul:
“I loved him, you know.”
He didn’t care that Ivan knew. Nothing mattered anymore, anyway.
“Like… really loved him.”
“I know,” Ivan said softly.
Feliks looked up in surprise. “You… do?”
Ivan shifted uncomfortably and stared at the floor. “I… I know what it’s like.”
Feliks let out a hollow laugh and reached for another glass. What a tragic pair they were, trapped in this business which somehow demanded heirs and death at the same time.
But then Ivan stood up, and to Feliks’s great surprise came to sit on the couch next to him. He had a strange look in his face, sad and yet gentle. His form was huge, and he smelled like cologne, and Feliks sensed a distinct shift in the atmosphere that made his hands unsteady.
Feliks set down the glass and turned nervously towards the huge man. Ivan was in his upper twenties now, he was impossibly broad and muscular and his presence felt overwhelming.
Feliks stared up at him, observing Ivan’s face more closely than he ever had, and it shocked him cause he had never really paid much attention to the strange violet color of his eyes. Then something froze him in place as Ivan leaned close, too close, and a hand came to brush his cheekbone as a soft kiss was placed on his lips.
Ivan pulled back, still staring at Feliks, whose heart was churning rapidly in his chest. He had never been kissed by another man before, that had been…
By some miracle Feliks found his voice. “Wh…what was that for?” he croaked.
“For Toris.”
The answer was simple, but there was so much more behind it, and Ivan’s cheeks were tainted a light red. “I-I’m sorry, I’m drunk, I shouldn’t have —”
“Don’t apologize.”
Feliks was confused by how he felt, what he wanted. Not knowing what else to do, he picked up another glass and downed more vodka. Ivan didn’t move from his spot on the couch, looking away awkwardly.
Once Feliks felt he had enough alcohol in him, he dared to look back at Ivan, and Ivan looked at him again, and Feliks was never sure who leaned forward; maybe they both did, but they were kissing again. It was almost desperate. Feliks reached up with shaking hands and pulled Ivan’s face towards his, hot breath spilled over his skin as he let out a desperate, high-pitched sigh.
It lasted a good long few seconds before they broke away, but they didn’t pull away completely, and Ivan’s nose and lips still brushed against his as they breathed hard in each other’s faces. And then Ivan kissed him, softly, two more times, before Feliks pulled back in a daze.
Feliks felt like he had taken some kind of bewitching potion. His heart still roared, and he wanted more of whatever that was more than he had wanted anything before.
But Ivan stood from the couch and swiped up a vodka bottle. “I’m… going to bed,” he said awkwardly. “Good night.” And Feliks could only nod in a stupor, aware that his face must be flushed red as he stared at the table and listened to the faded footsteps of Ivan disappearing down the halls.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Sequel to “Diamond in the Rough.” On his way to escape to West Germany, Prussia is captured by a high-profile MGB agent. Back in WWII, Prussia’s disappearance leaves Belarus at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. After the war she recovers in Moscow, but is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing. Belarus returns in 1953 with dubious allegiances, a secret plot, and a detective hot on her trail. Can the other nations stop her before it’s too late? Or should they?
I’ve been thinking about what the Hetalia nations’ jobs actually are in terms of how they function in government offices and the potential army of people who make their jobs and their secrecy possible. I also based this a bit on my study abroad scholarship.
(This headcanon is based off the premise that Raivis served as Russia’s personal assistant abroad for about 30 years during the USSR)
Word count: 1800
As I’ve mentioned before, Raivis loved his job as Ivan’s assistant for a lot of reasons, but two of them were 1) it taught him a lot about politics and he got interaction with powerful nations that he wouldn’t have had otherwise and 2) it got him weirdly invested in how the USSR was doing on the world stage, even if he hated being a part of the Union itself. Part of Ivan’s motivation for assigning Raivis to the position was for propaganda purposes – to make Raivis feel he was on a “team” and to emphasize how the “bad” Western nations were to be avoided and feared. And… it partly worked. Raivis certainly did not take well to Arthur or Alfred trying to corner him in the hall and glean USSR state secrets. I.e, Raivis started seeing Ivan as the good guy, regardless of how he felt about the government’s involvement in Latvia.
Raivis also saw how beneficial the position was to Ivan. He prepared Ivan’s notes, could rush off to get Ivan lunch or a coffee, and was able to make observations about the other nations or their leaders that Ivan might have missed. This freed up Ivan to be much more effective in his delivery at conferences. He never looked flustered or unprepared cause Raivis was there to make anything he needed materialize into the meeting room, from a key statistic, to a speech he had written, to a hypocritical sentence Alfred had said the day before. Raivis was Ivan’s secret weapon at these meetings, and with Alfred largely operating on his own with maybe one secretary or assistant who wasn’t nearly as savvy in politics or prepared, he couldn’t even compete.
Fast-forward to the early 2000’s. Raivis has finally settled into his independence and the new free market. He’s finally found his place at the table with other nations, now not as an assistant, but as a representative of his own country. But he’s having trouble getting other countries to respect him. They see him as just a kid, new to the international stage. He certainly never got the credit for Ivan’s wild success at international meetings.
Meanwhile, the Latvian population is shrinking. Many of his citizens, proud to be Latvian as they are, are moving to the UK or other EU countries where they can earn higher salaries. Raivis starts considering national cultural events not just as a post-USSR privilege, but as essential to maintaining a sense of Latvian national identity and pride, especially in the youth. Raivis realizes that inspiring his young citizens to give everything they have back to Latvia as a country is one of the most important aspects of his role as nation rep.
And so, as a result of all these things, Raivis proposes to his government an internship position. It’s a one-year, paid internship for Latvian University students to work as his personal assistant. The students must 1) be a Latvian citizen and 2) be majoring in some form of political science, or be on a career track to work in Latvian government. As part of the application, they have to write essays about what it means to be Latvian and how the internship fits in with their career path. Most of all, Raivis is looking for Latvians who want to stay.
Raivis reads all the applications himself and chooses a list of callbacks. His staff conducts the interviews, and he watches them live on a computer. At this point, all the students know is that they’re applying to a paid internship to work as an assistant to some high-ranking Latvian government official. Raivis picks three students: a finalist, and two alternates. Once the finalists are selected, they undergo a thorough background check to get a high level of security clearance.
Finally, the big day comes for the finalist to meet Raivis. They are brought into the Parliament Building in Riga, all dressed up and ready for their first day of work, with a government security badge. They still don’t know which official they will be serving, but based on all the formality, they are starting to wonder if it’s actually the Latvian President. They’re told to wait in a lobby, then the double doors open, and flanked by security, in walks…
A teenage boy.
He appears to be 5 years their junior, wearing a suit and a dark red tie, striding confidently into the room and sending them a huge smile. The intern is confused. They don’t recognize this boy at all — for all their study in politics and passion for Latvian government, they’ve never seen him on TV or even read a column or a blog about a teenager in Latvian Parliament. Raivis greets them by name, shakes their hand, congratulates them on the internship – all which would be perfectly normal and expected, if not coming from a 15-year-old boy. He then introduces himself as Raivis Galante, Latvian nation representative and personal advisor to the President.
Raivis lays out what the intern’s job will entail: organizing his schedule, preparing his notes for international meetings, accompanying him to EU, Nordic-Baltic Eight, and bilateral meetings with other “nation representatives” and world leaders. “You will be my shadow,” Raivis explains with an air of mystery. “Always in the room, but invisible to everyone else. I’ll have you memorize all the leaders and nations’ names in the room beforehand so you can take accurate notes. You’ll be the one running back to my hotel room if I forget anything.”
There’s also protocol: “You are not permitted to handle any documents that are not explicitly handed to you for reading. Any documents labeled top secret are not to be opened. There are documents to deliver, and documents for you to read. Confusing the two will lose you this internship.”
Again, it all makes sense – maybe for the Minister of Defense, but for this kid?? The intern is at this point stunned, thinking maybe Raivis is standing in for someone. They might ask, “What is your position again?” or “Who are you related to?” They also have an eerie feeling as though they are entirely comfortable, or like they’ve met Raivis before or implicitly trust him though the situation is ludicrous. And Raivis will just smile, “I am the nation representative of the Republic of Latvia. You will meet the other nation representatives at our meetings.” He then gestures to a staff member who hands the intern a fat file labelled “top secret.”
“Your only task today is to read this file. Understand your job is classified to the general public, as is the details enclosed in these documents. You’ve cleared the application and the security check. If you still want the job by the time you finish reading this, I’ll see you in my office tomorrow at 8:30.” Then Raivis spins on his heel and leaves the student alone with the security staff who clearly expect the file back.
The student takes the file in a daze, confused, baffled, wondering if they’re dreaming or if they’ve been tricked. They proceed to read through Raivis’s government file outlining his existence as an immortal being embodying the people and government of Latvia. There are dates listed from the Northern Crusades, black-and-white photographs of the same boy fighting with the Latvian Rifleman, or waving a Latvian flag among a crowd in 1918, sitting across a desk from Kārlis Ulmanis, a chilling photo of him standing next to Nazi officials in WWII. The photos turn to color, and the images clearer: the boy dwarfed by a huge man in a Soviet Uniform at meetings shaking hands with Americans, or arm-in-arm with Latvian citizens forming the Baltic Way decades ago. And it’s crazy, and it’s impossible, but somehow the intern just knows it’s true.
At this point, they have a choice: serve as an assistant to a supernatural being with national secrets at their fingertips, or go back to life as it was. Some can’t handle the pressure and decline. Others show up to work the next day, treating Raivis with a kind of fear and awe as he smiles and shows them to their designated desk.
The other nations have some staff, but none seem to work as closely as Raivis works with his interns. He treats them almost as equals, bouncing ideas off of them before meetings, venting to them about meeting results, taking them out to lunch to get to know about them and their families. If asked, he’ll tell stories about Latvian history. It doesn’t take long for the sense of fear to fall away, and the interns are comfortable laughing and joking with Raivis, with the strange comfort that one can only feel in the presence of their nation.
Other nations grow to expect Raivis to never be alone; always trailed by a stressed college student trying to avert their eyes and not gawk at the other immortal people filing past. Raivis only ever speaks Latvian to them; although most of them speak English, they never speak in meetings except to him, also in Latvian. This creates the effect of Raivis having a constant advisor at his ear; whispering comments from his notes, or him sending them off to run errands, which none of the other nations can understand. Simply by the visual effect of having a clipboard, briefcase-carrying assistant ready to take orders and provide him anything he needs, Raivis automatically commands more respect in a room. It’s a simple mental trick that he learned from all his years serving Ivan.
Meanwhile, the intern gets to do one of the most fascinating jobs of their life. They watch in utter fascination as Raivis catches up with the representative of Estonia, and the two speak as if they’ve known each other for centuries. They note Lithuania’s quiet wisdom and Poland’s unmatched energy, the ancient stoicism of Sweden and how Denmark’s bright smiles are sliced with scars of the past. They watch their nation – who for some reason looks a decade younger than everyone else and is easily heads shorter than all of them – navigate the political landscape with experience and class. They watch him mutter about Germany, negotiate with Finland, and tease Russia about hockey. They hear him excitedly talk about his “Birthday” plans – Latvian Independence Day – with the other Baltic States.
And they realize that none of the other nations around that table get to hear his thoughts – in his own language, uncensored, but most of all, by and for Latvians. Only them. Because he is Latvia. He is the “good guy.” And they are on his team.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Sequel to “Diamond in the Rough.” On his way to escape to West Germany, Prussia is captured by a high-profile MGB agent. Back in WWII, Prussia’s disappearance leaves Belarus at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. After the war she recovers in Moscow, but is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing. Belarus returns in 1953 with dubious allegiances, a secret plot, and a detective hot on her trail. Can the other nations stop her before it’s too late? Or should they?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Sequel to “Diamond in the Rough.” On his way to escape to West Germany, Prussia is captured by a high-profile MGB agent. Back in WWII, Prussia’s disappearance leaves Belarus at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. After the war she recovers in Moscow, but is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing. Belarus returns in 1953 with dubious allegiances, a secret plot, and a detective hot on her trail. Can the other nations stop her before it’s too late? Or should they?
Rating: “Mature” for graphic depictions of violence, abuse, and manipulation.
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Characters who make their first appearance in this chapter: Eddy! Raivis! Katya! and Feliks! Also Natalia and Austria interacting which was just so much fun to write.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: Sequel to “Diamond in the Rough.” On his way to escape to West Germany, Prussia is captured by a high-profile MGB agent. Back in WWII, Prussia’s disappearance leaves Belarus at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. After the war she recovers in Moscow, but is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing. Belarus returns in 1953 with dubious allegiances, a secret plot, and a detective hot on her trail. Can the other nations stop her before it’s too late? Or should they?
