Too

Erzsi is too old and too pregnant for this today. She's no energy to move from where she's half-laying on the couch because without even making any kind of effort, the heat of the day already has hair sticking to the back of her neck. Instead the Hungarian sighs heavily, watching Hajna talk quietly to her doll, holding it close when Ferdi comes by with his toy to show her.

"May I see too Ferdinánd?" and at his mother's request the little boy runs to her, holding it up for her to see. "Very nice. Did Onkle Lutz buy you this?" Ferdi nods happily.

"Mama?" By this point Hajna has climbed onto the foot of the couch, laying between her mother's legs, doll clutched to her chest. "When is the baby going to get here?" her son asks.

She kisses his cheek and laughs, running a hand over her large stomach. Ferdi hadn't turned two yet when Hajna was born; now her children were old enough to perhaps understand just a little of what was going on.

"Soon, kicsikém. The baby will come soon, when she's ready."

Staring at her stomach Ferdi makes a face before taking a deep breath and asking, "Are Vati and Onkle Gil almost done? I want to play with Vati." Hajna, at her feet, nods.

"Vati! Vati!"

All Erzsi can do is sigh and smile despite not feeling it in herself. The economy had taken a turn for the worst pretty much everywhere, and Ludwig was being pulled in six different directions at the moment, the only one who could really help them. So Gil had come out instead, meaning he and her husband had been arguing for most of their meeting; still the Hungarian had to hold out hope that this would end well.

She's too old and too pregnant for this today, for it to end any other way.

"How about we go get in our swimsuits and wait for Vati in the pool?" Immediately her children's faces light up.

On the second step she sits with Hajna beside her, the little girl on the first step slapping her hands against the water surface and giggling when it splashes. Ferdi, being braver, moves further into the half-a-meter-deep section and shows off how good of a swimmer he's become for his mother. Erzsi claps.

A hand on her shoulder signals that someone is behind her, turning to find Roderich bending down. "Vati!" Hajna says happily, kicking at the water, and she receives a kiss to the head. Ferdi waves, shouting.

"Vati! Vati! Look what I can do!"

"Very good," the Austrian says proudly before turning back to his wife.

"Will you be joining us?" Erzsi asks. "The day is still hot and you cannot look any more ridiculous in your swimsuit than I do." She gestures to her large stomach.

"Nonsense, you are beautiful," and the way he smiles is stunning, making the Hungarian nation blush. "Ferdi, how about if Vati joins you?"

"Yeah!" Their son comes to the steps to anxiously wait as Erzsi lazily watches her husband pull off his undershirt, shorts, and shoes. He'd clearly changed after the meeting; she'd have to ask later if that was because he was hot or because Gil had thrown something at him, staining his clothes. The man is as lanky as ever with a little more definition from chasing after their children, lifting them high or carrying them when they were hurt or frightened. Roderich dips his feet into the water by Hajna before handing his glasses to Erzsi.

"Going for the big one?" she calls out and he shoots her a mischievous look as he heads for the other end of the pool, Ferdi coming to sit beside his mother to watch. With the sort of elegance only Roderich Edelstein possess he steps out onto the diving board, testing how springy it is, before diving gracefully into the pool and splashing water everywhere. The children scream in excitement as he swims over to them.

"So cool Vati!" Ferdi's eyes are wide.

"Vati is the best!" Hajna shouts, throwing her arms on her mother's stomach.

Roderich emerges before them, blinking and wiping water from his eyes before taking his glasses back. Erzsi only smiles wide, holding the little girl close. "Alright, Ferdi," Roderich laughs, "what now?"

The day quickly cooling off their children lay on two deck chairs fast asleep under their parents' towels, the couple still swimming. Roderich pulls Erzsi further into the pool, careful to get neither his glasses nor her hair atop her head wet.

"Feel better?" he whispers, a hand rubbing her stomach underwater. She'll give her Austrian husband that he's only ever been as considerate as possible about her during her pregnancies, obsessed with making sure she's taken care of. This sudden late-April heat wave had greatly upset him for the effect it might have on his precious wife.

"Um hmm," and Erzsi wraps her arms around Roderich's neck, kissing him sweetly.

They twirl for a bit, enjoying being back at their house just outside Vienna, the house they built and loved after the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved and they couldn't bare to stay in the city any longer. It's been updated, slowly, over the years; the two biggest renovations of late had been when they were married and before Ferdi was born. Electricity, air conditioning, heating, it had all been put in much to Roderich's chagrin, his preference for the old ways losing out to his love for the Hungarian. At least he had never argued about having a pool replace the larger of the two ponds.

The Austrian shifts so that he's holding Erzsi flush to him, his bare chest pushing into her tense back. His kisses fall up and down her neck and shoulder, his hands running lovingly and possessively over and over their unborn child.

"Liebling?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you." She kisses his wet cheek. Roderich smiles, stealing a kiss of his own and gripping her tight.

"I love you too."

In the bathtub her stomach peeks out just over the water, Erzsi staring at it as Roderich brushes his teeth. "What are you doing?" he asks, turning, toothbrush in his mouth.

"Marveling at how big I am."

Spitting her Austrian murmurs, "You look good pregnant," before coming to kneel beside the tub, a hand rubbing her exposed skin.

"And what exactly does that mean?" He shrugs.

"Some women look horrible pregnant, like they really should not be having children or like they are the size of a building. You on the other hand, drágaságom, look like the pinnacle of femininity and it makes me love you more than I ever thought I could." When Roderich smiles so sweetly at her with a sincerity and seriousness that's all Austrian, Erzsi can almost believe that she is beautiful and not some fat cow.

"Thank you."

"Any time."

Gil is running around with the children in the yard, allowing himself to be constantly knocked over by Hajna while simultaneously saving Ferdi when he's knocked over by one of Ludwig's dog. The German nation in question sits beside Erzsi, an arm around her shoulder holding her close, his other hand rubbing her belly. They look out with unfocused eyes on the sight.

"I never thought life would be normal again," Ludwig finally admits in a low, sad voice; Erzsi knows he means while they sat in prison after the second world war, four cells for four once-powerful nations. He presses his hand further into her swollen bump when the baby kicks.

"Me neither," the Hungarian sighs, letting her eyes slip closed and her head rest on her little Lutz's shoulder, the German not so little anymore. The sound of Ferdi's laughter could easily have been Lutz's from over a century early.

"Maybe," he starts with hesitation before continuing, "maybe it's proof that family– family always comes back together, in the end, if that family loves each other."

Erzsi smiles into his skin.

In Vienna Hajna claims Ludwig as her buddy, Ferdi Gil. The parents enjoy watching the two Germans struggle to keep their children calm and behaved as they walk up and down the streets on their way to lunch and then the Hofburg.

Seated, Hajna between Ludwig and Erzsi, Ferdi between his father and other uncle, they order their food, coffee coming for the adults, water for Erzsi and the children. "Miss it?" Gil asks, gesturing to his mug.

"Not as much as I always think I will," the woman answers. "Roderich has always been the big coffee addict in our house, not me; I'm just a casualty drinker myself because of it."

"Can we get dessert?" Ferdi asks, tugging on the sleeve of his father's jacket.

"Well lets just say I did not bring you all the way out to Hotel Sacher to deny buying you a slice of torte," Roderich replies proudly, running his hand down the back of his son's head. The boy smiles wide and Erzsi laughs because perhaps their children will never understand how fine the things their father gives them are.

She always pauses before this case in the Hofburg Treasury, taking in the necklace and earrings that once adorned her skin. Roderich had bought them for Erzsi, centuries earlier, as a gift for his favorite mistress. The baby kicks.

"Admiring your things?" someone whispers in her ear, Gil coming to stand beside the Hungarian.

"Not mine anymore," Erzsi sighs. "It's like they're teasing me. I don't even know that I'd still want to keep them, all for myself; I'd probably have donated them to the museum anyway."

"But they were taken, after the war," the Prussian points out. "That makes it different, I get that. Like it was stolen." Erzsi nods, turning her back on her once-beloved jewelry to see Hajna hanging off Ludwig's back, the German lifting Ferdi with little effort to see something better. Roderich is sitting on a padded bench.

"At least we'll never change, on the inside," and the Hungarian laces her fingers through Gil's. The Prussian laughs.

In bed Roderich curls up around her back, holding his large wife close and kissing her exposed skin. Erzsi had announced it was too hot for the sheets and her husband hadn't argued. Then she'd announced it was too hot for him to be wearing a nightshirt, and for her to be wearing pajama pants. If anything Roderich had smiled at that.

"Are you trying to have sex with me?" Erzsi demands, eyebrows knit together. The Austrian's quiet laugh vibrates her body.

"Do you want to have sex?"

"How could you want to have sex with me now?"

"Why not? You are beautiful–" his hand runs down her thighs "–and sexy–" then runs up over her stomach to cup a breast "–and having my child." The hand finally rests on her stomach as he kisses her cheek, their eyes meeting. "I will always want to make love to you."

"Too hot," Erzsi complains.

A little disappointed but also a little amused Roderich sighs, "Too hot indeed." He lays back down, resuming kissing her skin. "I love you Erzsébet."

His wife smiles.