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blood_wingedTitle: Oświęcim
Genre: General
Word Count: 1030
Rating/Warnings: U, sensitive material.
Summary: Alfred and Arthur take a trip to Poland.
(A/N: I wanted to go somewhere different with this since I've done so much fluff lately and my grandparents recently got back from Poland. The idea wouldn't leave me be.)
It didn’t matter that the sun was shining. It didn’t matter one bit that the tour guide was so cheerful or that it had been so long since this place had been liberated. They could have been in the middle of a Siberian winter for how much Arthur could feel the sun’s warmth and he held back the urge to shiver as he walked beside Alfred. The young American nation had his eyes fixed on the path ahead. Since the introduction video showing the liberation of the Auschwitz camp he had been quiet, and Arthur had seen the muscles in his jaw tensing and the way his fingers clenched on the knees of his jeans as he’d watched. Although the video itself hadn’t affected Arthur quite so badly, it was the grounds themselves that were bothering him. It had been so long since either of them had been here, but the smell of death was still on the place and Arthur could feel it crawling on him like something tangible.
He took a deep breath, glancing around. They’d cleaned the place up to make it more appealing for the tourists, but it didn’t matter to him. Arthur could still see it the way it had been… back then.
“Arthur,” Alfred said softly, his voice snapping through the rushing sound in Arthur’s ears and pulling him abruptly out of his thoughts. He looked up, finding the younger man gazing at him with a concerned half-smile on his face. For a moment, Arthur could feel the sunshine and how much better it made him feel was astonishing, as if the warmth eased away the recollections of all those years ago just for a heartbeat before that chill washed over him again. “You okay?”
“Yes, I’m quite alright.” Arthur cast a quick smile up at Alfred and glanced down as his hand was taken. He ran his thumb over the light calluses on the others' knuckles and sighed softly, moving along the wide path.
It had made sense to come here last, so that the memories of the place didn’t weigh too heavily on them while they explored Kraków, a feat which had taken them the entire week previously and they still didn’t feel as if they’d seen all of it. Feliks had been a more than willing, somewhat giddy tour guide for the first two days until business had called him away, and they had seen a great deal more of the old city than most tourists would. Wawel Royal Castle had been an interesting sight despite the fact that Arthur had been there many times before. It was always intriguing to see a place that had once been used solely for official functions turned into a tourist attraction. Arthur had been rather glad that they had both thought to bring their cameras as both had quickly filled up when Feliks said he would allow them to take photos of anything they liked (so long as he could be in a few of them).
Feliks could certainly talk when he was no longer shy of his company and although Arthur knew and indeed remembered much of the things he spoke about, Alfred did not and hung on the smaller blonde’s every word – something that the Polish nation enjoyed immensely. Arthur didn’t even have the heart to correct his embellishments and exaggerations as almost everything seemed to be linked to some kind of battle and Alfred had always loved war stories.
After Feliks had been called away they had spent an interesting day spelunking in a few of the caves of Ojców National Park, again with special permission as Feliks seemed to wish them to enjoy every part of his country. The moment that Alfred realised there were bats in the caves it had been near-impossible to make him leave, and under his (persistent) insistence they had sat outside a cave network as night had fallen and watched the creatures emerging to hunt.
They hadn’t told Feliks that they were coming here. It was just one of those things, out of a sense of courtesy, it simply wasn’t mentioned if you were visiting such a place within another’s country.
A guide hadn’t been needed. Alfred knew the layout of the place like the back of his hand though neither of them had mentioned the fact. What was disturbing Arthur the most was the things he kept seeing out of the corner of his eye. The pale shadow of a uniformed Kommandant stood at a corner that disappeared the moment he looked. A group of shadowy, skeletal figures shuffling into a building. He gripped Alfred’s arm and clenched his teeth together, the words of that damned sign echoing around in his head, in Ludwig’s voice though he had never heard the man say them.
Arbeit Macht Frei.
It hadn’t really been the idea of either of them to come here. Sometimes, there were just places that you were drawn to when you visited a country and the both of them had been drawn here.
Arthur could deal with most of it, with the occasional glance up at Alfred who was becoming steadily more grim-faced as they moved around the camp, but it was when they left Block 10 and rounded a corner that it finally became too much and Arthur stopped dead in his tracks.
“Arts?”
The English nation was silently thanking god that Alfred couldn’t see what he could see, feeling something hot and uncomfortable rising up in his throat and he grabbed Alfred’s hand so tightly that it made the younger man wince.
“Arts, what is it?”
“I can’t do this anymore, we have to leave.”
“… Okay.” He didn’t even have to pause to think about it or ask why. Alfred put his arm around Arthur’s shoulders and turned them both away from the gallows and Block 11 at the end of the long avenue, and Arthur did his best to hold back the urge to shudder as his companion lightly squeezed his arm and turned his head to press a kiss to his temple. “Let’s get out of here. Feliks might be back, yeah? We can go to Warsaw.”
“Sure.”
Genre: General
Word Count: 1030
Rating/Warnings: U, sensitive material.
Summary: Alfred and Arthur take a trip to Poland.
(A/N: I wanted to go somewhere different with this since I've done so much fluff lately and my grandparents recently got back from Poland. The idea wouldn't leave me be.)
*****
It didn’t matter that the sun was shining. It didn’t matter one bit that the tour guide was so cheerful or that it had been so long since this place had been liberated. They could have been in the middle of a Siberian winter for how much Arthur could feel the sun’s warmth and he held back the urge to shiver as he walked beside Alfred. The young American nation had his eyes fixed on the path ahead. Since the introduction video showing the liberation of the Auschwitz camp he had been quiet, and Arthur had seen the muscles in his jaw tensing and the way his fingers clenched on the knees of his jeans as he’d watched. Although the video itself hadn’t affected Arthur quite so badly, it was the grounds themselves that were bothering him. It had been so long since either of them had been here, but the smell of death was still on the place and Arthur could feel it crawling on him like something tangible.
He took a deep breath, glancing around. They’d cleaned the place up to make it more appealing for the tourists, but it didn’t matter to him. Arthur could still see it the way it had been… back then.
“Arthur,” Alfred said softly, his voice snapping through the rushing sound in Arthur’s ears and pulling him abruptly out of his thoughts. He looked up, finding the younger man gazing at him with a concerned half-smile on his face. For a moment, Arthur could feel the sunshine and how much better it made him feel was astonishing, as if the warmth eased away the recollections of all those years ago just for a heartbeat before that chill washed over him again. “You okay?”
“Yes, I’m quite alright.” Arthur cast a quick smile up at Alfred and glanced down as his hand was taken. He ran his thumb over the light calluses on the others' knuckles and sighed softly, moving along the wide path.
It had made sense to come here last, so that the memories of the place didn’t weigh too heavily on them while they explored Kraków, a feat which had taken them the entire week previously and they still didn’t feel as if they’d seen all of it. Feliks had been a more than willing, somewhat giddy tour guide for the first two days until business had called him away, and they had seen a great deal more of the old city than most tourists would. Wawel Royal Castle had been an interesting sight despite the fact that Arthur had been there many times before. It was always intriguing to see a place that had once been used solely for official functions turned into a tourist attraction. Arthur had been rather glad that they had both thought to bring their cameras as both had quickly filled up when Feliks said he would allow them to take photos of anything they liked (so long as he could be in a few of them).
Feliks could certainly talk when he was no longer shy of his company and although Arthur knew and indeed remembered much of the things he spoke about, Alfred did not and hung on the smaller blonde’s every word – something that the Polish nation enjoyed immensely. Arthur didn’t even have the heart to correct his embellishments and exaggerations as almost everything seemed to be linked to some kind of battle and Alfred had always loved war stories.
After Feliks had been called away they had spent an interesting day spelunking in a few of the caves of Ojców National Park, again with special permission as Feliks seemed to wish them to enjoy every part of his country. The moment that Alfred realised there were bats in the caves it had been near-impossible to make him leave, and under his (persistent) insistence they had sat outside a cave network as night had fallen and watched the creatures emerging to hunt.
They hadn’t told Feliks that they were coming here. It was just one of those things, out of a sense of courtesy, it simply wasn’t mentioned if you were visiting such a place within another’s country.
A guide hadn’t been needed. Alfred knew the layout of the place like the back of his hand though neither of them had mentioned the fact. What was disturbing Arthur the most was the things he kept seeing out of the corner of his eye. The pale shadow of a uniformed Kommandant stood at a corner that disappeared the moment he looked. A group of shadowy, skeletal figures shuffling into a building. He gripped Alfred’s arm and clenched his teeth together, the words of that damned sign echoing around in his head, in Ludwig’s voice though he had never heard the man say them.
Arbeit Macht Frei.
It hadn’t really been the idea of either of them to come here. Sometimes, there were just places that you were drawn to when you visited a country and the both of them had been drawn here.
Arthur could deal with most of it, with the occasional glance up at Alfred who was becoming steadily more grim-faced as they moved around the camp, but it was when they left Block 10 and rounded a corner that it finally became too much and Arthur stopped dead in his tracks.
“Arts?”
The English nation was silently thanking god that Alfred couldn’t see what he could see, feeling something hot and uncomfortable rising up in his throat and he grabbed Alfred’s hand so tightly that it made the younger man wince.
“Arts, what is it?”
“I can’t do this anymore, we have to leave.”
“… Okay.” He didn’t even have to pause to think about it or ask why. Alfred put his arm around Arthur’s shoulders and turned them both away from the gallows and Block 11 at the end of the long avenue, and Arthur did his best to hold back the urge to shudder as his companion lightly squeezed his arm and turned his head to press a kiss to his temple. “Let’s get out of here. Feliks might be back, yeah? We can go to Warsaw.”
“Sure.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-19 11:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-19 11:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-19 12:12 pm (UTC)Ironically, Warsaw might not be the best option for Arthur if he doesn't want to see ghosts; after the Warsaw Rising in 1944 the place was a pile of debris, with over 200,000 civilians killed.
You chose a very difficult topic in this fic but I think you handled it very well.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-19 12:15 pm (UTC)Thanks, though. I was a bit iffy about touching on it but I felt like I needed a break from the fluff.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-19 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-19 02:40 pm (UTC)I kind of like, at least when they're in an established relationship, Alfred being somewhat accepting of Arthur's 'abilities'. :)
Thanks <3
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-20 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-20 08:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-20 02:52 am (UTC)Reading this almost brought that feeling back, but it's muted in light of the relationship between them. Very well handled subject (but I won't sleep anyway).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-20 08:02 am (UTC)