Splintered

Trust Her

Kööpenhamina/Finland

“Tino, I love her so much,” Denmark said over coffee and cake.

“I know, Mathias,” Finland said reassuringly.  “She loves you too.  She always has.”  He smiled and shook his head.  “Seeing the two of you sleeping in each other's arms, watching you teach her knots, braiding her hair, you dancing with her when she became a state--all those things, every single one of them, pointed to you one day claiming her.  Norge was right.”  He paused and then added,  “She told me right after she first met you that she had found her only.  I knew that she meant you.”

Denmark's eyes smarted with tears.  “I should have taken her the night before, Tino.  I knew it, but I promised you.”

Finland’s gaze was warm.  “Mathias, if you had done that, she would have been carrying your little ones when Prussia attacked her,” he pointed out. “She may have been forced to miscarry.”

Shuddering, Denmark shook his head. “That fucking cruel bastard.  She told me he...she told me that he used his sword and dagger to...to cut her sometimes while he was...raping her.” His voice dropping to a whisper, he looked at Finland with torment in his eyes.  “How could he do that to her?”  He noticed that now Fin wouldn't look at him.  "Tino?  Did you know about that?"

Finland sighed deeply.  "I meant never to tell you, because Amerikka asked me not to on her behalf.  She began hurting herself when we lost her, Mathias.  She would break pottery or glass and
use the shards to cut herself until she bled entire pints.  Amerikka told me that he had to keep all the knives in his house locked away, but she learned how to pick locks, didn't she?"  He closed his eyes and shook his head sadly. "It became a way for her to cope."

"How could I not have known?" Denmark's eyes went from tormented to haunted.  "All the time I spent with her!  How did she manage to hide it from me?"

"Ivan knew," Finland said, his eyes full of sorrow.  "He knew all along; he does the same.  He tried to warn Amerikka that it hadn't stopped, but Amerikka believed her when she swore that she was fine.  And she is like her father; she is a master of deception."  He smiled crookedly.  "When she was with you she had no need to harm herself."

Denmark now looked thoroughly miserable.  "That brings me absolutely no comfort," he declared.  "I can't be with her all the time.  Amerika won't allow me to do what I want and marry her.  You know the States are off limits for that."

Finland hummed softly and sipped his coffee.  "That is true right now, but you must remember, things are happening now that are shaping the future, and Katriina did things over the past four years that point squarely in the direction of--"  He broke off and cleared his throat, catching sight of someone over Denmark's shoulder.  "What is it?"

"I really don't mean to interrupt," Amerikka began, "but I need to ask you something."  He pulled up a chair and sat down.  For a moment he stared at the table and then he looked up, and Finland was struck by the youthful fear on his face.  "Is it really so obvious, Tino?" he asked, his voice barely audible.  "Can everyone else see that she never wanted to be part of the family?"

"Alfred, she fought fiercely for the Allies," Finland began, but he knew that Amerikka was right to worry.  "She has never pretended to want to belong.  We understand.  It is not always a choice."

Amerikka laughed humorlessly.  "I'm losing her, Tino.  I began losing her the minute she let go of Ivan's hand that day I took her from you."

"What?"

"She has a form of power that I don't," Amerikka insisted.  "The bombs would never have been possible if she hadn't agreed to develop the components.  And she's threatened to leave if I don't let her d...deliver them."