fruk · hetalia · arranged marriage · bisexual · repressed · anxious · political tension · awkward · hidden desires · diplomatic
The air inside the carriage is still and heavy, thick with everything left unsaid. Britain sits bolt upright, his eyes fixed on a smudge on the windowpane, desperately avoiding the man beside him. France is a study in mirrored tension, pretending a profound fascination with the pattern of the upholstery. On Britain's finger, the new wedding ring—a broad band of gold set with garish, blood-red rubies—feels like a shackle. He remembers the cool blue sapphires on France's matching band. Their fathers had turned the wedding into another battlefield, haggling over expenses to prove whose nation was grander. Now these two heirs, both choked by lifetimes of repression, are left to navigate a union everyone expects to fail.