Work Text:
Moscow 1873
If you asked for Hungary’s opinion, the battlefield was always simple. Find your target, make a plan, and attack. But political and social stratagems? Impossible. The real battlefield was tight dresses, crowded halls, and polite conversation. Hungary was an expert in swords, battle axes, archery, you name it. But words? Words were never quite her strong suit. But alas, Roderich insisted it was vital for her to attend the ball in honor of the alliance with the German and the Russian Empires. The Austrian emperor had recently secured an alliance with Tsar Alexander II and neither her nor Austria’s boss wanted to mess this up.
Hungary was also still getting used to working so closely with Austria with these sorts of affairs. Their “marriage” was still new and while the terms of the agreements between their bosses was all laid out in writing, and her and Austria had been friends for a while, something like this does change a friendship of course. Their recent union was a purely a political one and neither had a problem with that. Many marriages in this day and age were never founded on feelings but instead getting a strategic match. She had to admit they made fantastic political partners and even better friends; she made up in the military ability and he, his ability to charm.
Which brought her to her current situation. Standing on the edge of a ballroom alone with nothing to keep her company but her flute of champagne and fan to try and cool her off in the hot and crowded room. Austria had left a while ago to go chat with some noble or another but Hungary was weary and growing tired of the stilted conversation. It had to be getting late by then and Hungary wondered what was the earliest that she could leave without upsetting anyone, wandering in search of a clock. She eventually spotted one on the far edge of the room. 10 o’clock. Damn. People generally did not start leaving until midnight at the earliest. Last weekend, her and Austria had been roped into staying until 4 am.
Hungary sighed, downed the rest of her drink, and went off in search for her friend. She briefly glanced at the large group of dancing couples but Roderich generally only danced with her, so she hardly even tried to look for him in the crowd. She was a little awed by the grace that many of women had on the dance floor. All of those pounds of heavy fabrics and yet they glided over the floors in the arms of their partners like they were dancing on clouds.
Eventually she found that familiar crop of dark hair and glasses and made her way over to Roderick. As she walked over she noticed who he was talking to. The tallest man there, oh my, he had to be an entire head taller than Roderick, she recognized as Ivan Braginsky the Russian representative. As tall and intimidating as he seemed, the small smile and pleasant expression softened his look immensely.
Standing next him though was a much shorter woman with long blonde hair and a serious expression. When Hungary’s eye landed on her, she swore her heart had to have skipped a beat. While Hungary had spent most of the evening watching all of the beautiful women in the ballroom, this one immediately stood out.
“Erzsébet, this is Ivan, who I know you’ve met, and his younger sister, Natalya,” Roderich told Erzsébet. She hardly even noticed she had finally made it to his side.
Ivan smiled as her which she returned. And then her eyes met Natalya’s. The girl hardly met her eyes but gave her the smallest smile. Erzsébet could feel her face heat and her bones turn to jelly but kept her composure enough to return the greeting.
“It was good to see you again Erzsébet but please excuse me and your husband, our bosses are having a quick meeting,” Ivan said next to them. Hungary looked to Austria, silently asking if he wanted her to join them.
“No it’s fine, enjoy yourself and I’ll catch you up on what we discussed later,” he told her quietly. He quickly glanced at Natalya and gave her a meaningful look. Oh god, was she really that obvious.
The two men left, leaving Hungary and Belarus alone. Hungary search desperately for something to say but as always, the words escaped her as they often did when she got nervous.
“Congratulations on your union,” Natalya said beside her, breaking the ice first. Hungary barely noticed that she had spoken at first but smiled when she realized what the other woman said.
“Oh! Thank you very much. Our bosses seem to be very happy at least,” Hungary forced out a laugh trying to make the other woman smile.
“He seems to like you at lot,” Belarus said. Still not quite meeting her eye.
“We’ve been friends for quite a while now, it was at least a convenient match,” Hungary told her.
“Convenient?” Belarus asked, now finally looking at Hungary fully. Hungary was struck a little by how beautiful her blue eyes were. A thousand lines of cliché poetry concerning forget-me-nots and frozen ice flew through her head.
“Well, we at least already liked each other so a political match was hardly a painful decision.”
“Oh. It’s wasn’t a love match?” Belarus asked. Something about her expression softened and Hungary was wary of putting too much stock into the change. It would be useless in getting her hopes up for nothing.
“Oh dear no!” Hungary had to laugh at that a little. Most people always assumed their relationship was something much more than it was, but this point she couldn’t imagine feeling that way about Roderick, or really any man, and she was almost certain he felt the same way about her. Both decided early on that they were allowed to pursue relationships outside of the marriage as long as they let the other know and generally kept it out of public eye.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed,” Natalya said her voice getting quiet again. Hungary felt bad.
“No please don’t apologize, everyone makes that mistake. We’re just really good friends is all. I can’t imagine do that with him,” Well here goes nothing. She lowered her voice a bit. “…Or any man frankly.”
Natalya looked at her again surprised, her cheeks were growing pink. Honestly, they may have been the prettiest shade of pink Hungary had ever seen.
“I’ve always been lucky. My brother has never pushed me to marry,” Natalya leaned in a little more closely to Hungary, looking her in the eye.
This better be a sign.
Hungary smiled at her and said, “Would you like to take a walk with me outside? It’s getting a little hot in here, don’t you think?”
Belarus smiled at her and they made their way through the ballroom heading towards large doors that would lead into the sprawling gardens outside. The weather outside was a bit cooler than Hungary was used to for late spring but it was very welcome.
“Would you like me to show you around?” Natalya asked her and Hungary nodded.
“I would love that,” Hungary responded and marveled at how the Belarusian woman was even more beautiful in the light of the full moon. It was so bright and the moon was hanging so low that they could see perfectly clear.
They walked and talked for what seemed like minutes but was probably hours. They walked arm in arm as Natalya told her all about the history of the gardens and the palace they were at. Whenever she offered to spare Hungary of the gory details of battles, Hungary only egged her on, happy they shared a similar morbid curiosity. From then on, they talked about everything. Natalya’s relationship with her brother and sister, Erzsébet and Roderich’s friendship when they were young, the books they both liked to read, politics, everything. Despite Hungary’s nervousness earlier, the words always flowed freely, and even when they lapsed into brief silences, taking in the beauty of the night, Natalya seemed more than content with the quiet.
Eventually, they made their way back to the patio near the entryway back into the palace. Someone had opened the doors and music and light flowed out into the night surrounding them.
They made it to just outside the edge of illumination from indoors just as the last dance of the night was playing, a slow waltz.
Hungary turned to Natalya and held out her hand and lowered into a small bow.
“May I have this dance?”
Natalya smiled and took her hand. They fell into step with ease. Hungary never really got the hang of being the follow in waltzes after marrying Roderick but Natalya let her lead. They swayed and moved gracefully around the patio, never wanting to let go of Natalya even when the dance required her to. Hungary thought back to the women she had watched dance earlier in the night and understood. It doesn’t matter how good a person can be at dancing, or how terrible, when you are dancing with someone you care about, your feet will always glide and even if you get the steps wrong, it’ll feel like you’re dancing on a cloud.