Work Text:
Moscow, 1816
Go make us some tea, Litva.
That was what Russia had said, casually, dismissively, the moment their guest had made his way into the salon. He hadn’t even looked at Lithuania, already certain that his order would be obeyed anyway.
And well, it was being obeyed right now, Lithuania thought bitterly as he filled the samovar with water.
A part of him had considered ignoring Russia right then and there because don’t we have servants for that? But if there was one thing he had learned in the past twenty years, then it was that Russia didn’t appreciate being challenged, especially not in front of his guests. And especially not when that guest was Prussia.
So Tolys had learnt to pick his battles. And that meant that he was not going to waste precious energy arguing with Ivan about tea. Instead, he had merely nodded, ignored the heat in his cheeks and the coil in his gut, and trodden off into the kitchen.
It wasn’t the first time Russia ordered him to do things for him. Usually, however, these tasks included helping out with paperwork, organizing meetings and visits, accompanying Ivan to soirees and other public occasions he didn’t like. Tasks that still allowed Lithuania to feel important, even though it was painfully clear to everyone involved that nothing was left of his previous power and status.
But still, this was what Ivan expected him to do, usually. Not household tasks. Especially not tasks that any human servant could have performed equally well. And not in this tone. Go make us some tea. As if that was all he was now, someone to be bossed around, talked to the way Ivan talked to his servants.
Lithuania scoffed and reached for two teacups, physically restraining himself from slamming the delicate porcelain onto the counter. Floral design with gold accents. Expensive. Allegedly a gift from the late empress. (Or maybe Ivan was lying about it, and they were completely ordinary goods, Tolys would not put it past him.)
Put the cups onto the tray. Pour in the tea, add water. It wasn’t the first time he had made tea, after all. But usually, he made one for himself and Ivan, because Ivan liked to sit with him in the evening in his study, drinking tea and talking about his day while they practiced Lithuania’s Russian pronunciation.
Letting out a slew of curses when he burned himself on the searing hot steam, Tolys forced himself into focus again. Russia would freak out if the tea didn’t arrive safely because Prussia was here and when Prussia was here, everything had to be absolutely perfect because what if he thinks we’re uncivilized, Tolyshka? Everything’s so neat and tidy in his home, after all.
Tolys rolled his eyes as he lifted the tray, careful not to spill anything. He did not understand why Ivan seemed so fond of Gilbert. Surely he knew what a plague upon mankind he was, right? Ivan may not have much taste, but it had to better than this.
Said plague upon mankind sat next to Ivan on the sofa in all his self-appointed glory when Tolys entered the salon, his legs crossed while he answered Ivan’s questions. And even though it physically pained Lithuania to admit, he did look good in his black hussar’s uniform, although he also genuinely didn’t understand why Prussia had felt the need to wear it for an entirely private visit.
Probably to show off, Lithuania thought irritatedly.
The two were deep in conversation in perfectly fluent French, and hearing the language spoken again immediately reminded Lithuania of the absurdly expensive Parisian tutor Poland had dragged in all these years ago to teach them the language.
Ugh, he’d said when Lithuania had complained, rolling his eyes. Everyone’s speaking French nowadays, Liet. It’s, like, really en vogue, you know? Also, isn’t it so fun to learn a new language?
Lithuania had swallowed down his bitterness then, just like he did now.
For you, maybe, he’d responded sharply. I have to do it all the time. After all, it hadn’t been Feliks who had been forced to learn and speak a foreign language, to the point he started to think in Polish, just so that he could seem cultured and civilized. It hadn’t been Feliks whose language had been decried as a peasant’s language.
Tolys had not listened much to the tutor back then, but now he wished that at least something had stuck. The ease with which both Ivan and Gilbert conversed in the language was hard to follow, making him feel locked out of the conversation.
Just two superpowers among themselves, he thought and clenched his jaws. Discussing things that I don’t need to overhear.
He forced himself to put on the most neutral expression he could muster and approached the table, carefully balancing the tray.
Prussia broke off the conversation to meet his gaze immediately, his grin widening.
“Lithuania,” he greeted in heavily accented Russian (when had the bastard learned Russian, Lithuania wondered), his eyes gleaming dangerously, as if Lithuania’s humiliation brought him joy – which was most likely true.
Now Russia turned around as well.
“Ah, the tea. Put it here,” he gesticulated towards the small table in front of the sofa. “You like tea?” Ivan asked in Prussia’s direction, clearly excited to find that his guest could at least rudimentarily understand his language.
Gilbert shrugged. “If you don’t have anything else.” He reached for his cup anyway, however.
And with that, Tolys became air. Technically, he did know that Ivan didn’t have to formally dismiss him. It was clear that he wasn’t needed anymore. But Ivan could at least talk to him, instead of treating him like a piece of furniture! He was still one of them, after all, even if he had lost his independence. They couldn’t just ignore him like that!
Defiantly, he remained standing next to the table while Ivan reached for his cup as well, his back perfectly straight.
“Do you like the cups?” Ivan was asking. “The late empress gifted them to me.”
Prussia only nodded, and Tolys resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Ivan’s desperate attempt to impress Gilbert.
Prussia, meanwhile, returned his attention to Lithuania and eyed him up and down, his eyebrows raised haughtily.
“Is there anything more?” He asked, his voice cool.
Tolys swallowed down his anger at his tone and shook his head.
“Then why are you still here? Do you not understand that you’re not needed anymore? I’m sure you have other tasks to do.” His voice was dripping with contempt, but his eyes gleamed sadistically. It reminded Tolys of a predator toying with his prey before finally sinking his teeth in for the killing bite.
Pushing the mental image out of his head, Lithuania turned his gaze to Russia. Are you really going to let him talk to me like that?
But Ivan didn’t even bother coming to his defense. “You are dismissed,” he said simply in Lithuania’s direction, already having turned back to Prussia.
Lithuania stared at him in disbelief. Usually, Ivan went all out in defending Lithuania’s right to be at whatever event he dragged him to, be it a formal diplomatic visit or something as informal as a tea party.
When Russia didn’t add anything, Tolys swallowed and nodded, then turned on his heel. There was nothing left to do for him here.
As he made his way back to the door, Prussia began speaking again. “Really, Vanya, you should discipline your servants more,” he was saying, loud enough for Tolys to hear. “Back in my place, they know how to behave correctly.”
Lithuania whirled around, ready for a sharp counter, then promptly decided that it wasn’t worth the effort when he saw Prussia’s gleeful gaze. He wants to make me mad so that I cause a scene, he realized.
Deciding not to give Gilbert the satisfaction of seeing him lose his temper (or the punishment that would almost certainly follow if he embarrassed Ivan in front of his favorite guest), he wordlessly turned around again and opened the door. All he wanted to do was to slip away and flee into the garden to cool down – or to maybe run away and never come back.
“Oh, Lithuania?” Russia’s voice called him back. Tolys perked up and turned around. Was Ivan going to apologize for his guest’s rudeness? Had he changed his mind and would ask Lithuania to join them?
“Yes?”
Ivan smiled at him softly, almost apologetically. “You forgot the jam.”
Lithuania cleaned the tea cups with the mechanical precision of a man that was close to losing his temper once and for all. Ivan had ringed a fucking bell for him when him and Prussia had been done with their tea. A bell. What was he, a dog?
Prussia had grinned from ear to ear when Lithuania had gone back to collect the empty cups. “That’s right,” he’d jeered in Polish so that only him and Tolys would understand. “Come running when your master calls you.”
Lithuania had thrown him a death glare and cursed his name for all eternity, then, but hadn’t dared to say what really had been on his mind. Prussia would have only used it against him later.
Now he was back in the kitchen, cleaning up after his master and his wretched, arrogant guest. Estonia and Latvia had joined him, Estonia to clean the rest of the kitchen, Latvia to attempt to steal the leftover cakes that Gilbert hadn’t eaten.
“He can’t treat me like that,” Lithuania hissed through clenched teeth while scrubbing the cups with more force than really necessary. “What am I, his servant? Has he forgotten who he’s talking to?”
Estonia looked at him for a long moment but said nothing, then continued wiping the counter. It was Latvia who broke the silence first, swallowing down his mouthful of cake and gazing at Tolys.
“Well, we kind of are, though, aren’t we?”
Tolys dropped the cup into the water and whirled around. “You are maybe. Not me.”
Latvia cast his eyes down, Estonia’s lip became a thin, displeased line.
Tolys had been too harsh, he knew that. Yet he scoffed and continued. “I was born to rule, not serve someone tea. He’s acting as if I’m below him. As if I haven’t beaten him in battle.”
He fell silent and focused on the cups again, cleaning them once more as if he hadn’t been doing just that for the past fifteen minutes. Estonia and Latvia did not reply. They didn’t understand him, not really. How could they? They’d never experienced the thrill of victory, of conquering, of being in charge. Did it really matter that much to them who they were serving? They’d never really been powerful. So how could they even begin to understand what it felt like to lose one’s status and riches and army, to go from a noble knight to whatever the fuck he was now?
He straightened out his back and clenched his jaw. “I could do it again, you know? Fight him,” he said into the silence, voice sharp and angry.
No one responded.
“No really, I could.”
“You could what?”
Russia’s voice from somewhere behind him made Lithuania freeze up and whirl around. How much had he heard?
He turned to properly face Russia while Estonia and Latvia quickly scurried out of the kitchen, obviously not willing to become collateral damage of whatever outburst would follow.
But Ivan didn’t appear particularly threatening. He angled his head to his side inquiringly, his eyes round and curious. Maybe he’d heard nothing except for the last sentence.
Lithuania let out a sigh and forced himself to keep Russia’s gaze, relaxing his muscles so that Ivan would not immediately spot his anger.
“Nothing,” he answered evasively, hoping that this was not some kind of test of his honesty.
When Ivan’s expression didn’t change, he decided it was safe enough to turn back to cleaning the cups. If he wanted to explode, he already would have.
Ivan did neither move nor speak for a few moments, but Lithuania would be lying if he claimed he didn’t like the silence. With Prussia finally gone again, it was nicely quiet in the house.
Unsure of what exactly to do, he simply continued cleaning the cups for what must have been the hundredth time. He hoped Ivan did not notice his dismay. It was hard to predict how he would react to it, and Lithuania was not in the mood to be questioned. In fact, he would have much preferred to be left alone now.
But Ivan could not read his mind. His heavy steps sounded behind Tolys, then two strong arms wrapped themselves around his waist and pulled him against Ivan’s body. Ivan rested his chin against Lithuania’s neck.
“It was nice that Prussia visited us, no?”
Is this some test or are you really that dense, Lithuania wanted to reply but bit his tongue. Ivan had little tolerance nor understanding for snide remarks, he had learnt that the hard way.
Instead, he just gave a noncommittal shrug and stared into the dishwater, watching hands rough from years of holding a sword handle the delicate porcelain with care.
Ivan sighed. “I know you’ve never particularly liked him,” he began softly. “But…” He trailed off.
But I do, and that’s all that matters, so I expect you to swallow all of your pride and behave the way I want you to, Lithuania mentally finished for him.
Ivan pressed a kiss to the back of his head. “He’s a valuable ally,” he began again, his grip on Lithuania’s waist tightening. “Try to be more polite towards him.” His voice was still velvety and sweet and Tolys was sure that no one but him could hear the carefully concealed edge beneath it.
“He could try being more polite to me, first.” A challenge. Useless, stupid and completely in vain. But still a challenge.
“I do not remember him being impolite,” Ivan replied defensively, his tone curt. He paused, then his voice softened again. “This is just the way he speaks to people like you. You shouldn’t take it so personally.”
“People like me?” Tolys echoed, voice sharpening.
Russia sighed once again. “You know what I mean,” he replied dismissively, as if scolding a child. “He is rather… assertive with his own servants as well.”
Lithuania opened his mouth, ready to point out that he was not Prussia’s servant and that his former vassal had no business seeing him as one. But before he could, Ivan spun him around and pressed him against the counter, his hands moving from his waist to cup his face instead.
“Let us not speak of this anymore,” Russia mumbled and kissed his lips right when Lithuania was about to speak. “You have too much of a temper sometimes,” he continued between kisses. “That is going to land you in trouble sooner or later.”
Lithuania resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead let himself be kissed as he felt his resistance slip away, allowing Ivan to press himself closer against him, feeling his hands roam over his body.
“You’re so tense, you need to relax. Come to the bedroom with me,” Ivan whispered in his ear. “Someone else can clean the cups.”
Tolys hesitated for a moment, torn between not wanting to do servants’ work any longer and wanting to make his own decisions about what to do and when. It was an attempt at distracting him, obviously. But how could he resist Ivan’s gentle touches and kisses that promised to make the day’s frustrations up to him? Russia held him in high regards, he knew that of course. Ivan certainly did not take his servants to bed, after all.
“Okay,” he whispered back and pulled Ivan in. He did not want to get on Ivan’s bad side, and he’d rather take this distraction and maybe even something resembling an apology from Ivan later on. “But please promise me to never let this man into your home again.”
Ivan sighed. “Our home, dear. And I can’t promise you that. Now come.” He tugged at Lithuania’s hand expectantly.
Tolys bit his lip and considered bringing Prussia up again, then dismissed the thought. It would be useless anyway. He had to save up his energy for the important battles. With a sigh, he followed Ivan to his bedroom without resistance, promising himself that he would assert himself more in the future. When it would really matter.