11 for england, and anyone you fancy alongside >:)
11- "You're going to regret that."
:D I went less feral than last time and forgot this in my drafts for a few months enjoyyyyyyy
(please comment por favor.)
(TW gore, cannibalism, romes shitty parenting)
Why did he have to fight?
Rome had named him Antinous, no one called him the name his mama gave him. He had all but forgotten it too, trying to find it was like slogging through a deep mire and it was not worth the trouble.
He hated fighting on orders. He had no choice though, he would not be fed if he lost, and he couldn’t stand hunger as well as he should do. Rome said his mama had spoiled him rotten, that was what he was told, but now he was strong because of it. Yet he always felt bad attacking that scrawny little runt from Britannia.
He was so small, and because he could never win, he was never fed, grown smaller, madder. Less and less human by the day.
And thus it repeated, it was growing impossible to lose against him, small, blonde and feral, all sparrow bones and gnashing teeth with very little substance behind it, Rome had tried and to an extent succeeded in civilising him. He had failed with the runt.
The thing still bared its teeth when scared, or angry, they were sharp little things, he looked like he carried illness, it was not hard to fight him, he was small and weak, and utterly battered by hunger.
Yet a mad little thing, it was a head and a half shorter than Antinous, but older, allegedly at least, practically a mute because his Latin was not good and was beat if he spoke in much else, he tried not to look at its eyes for too long.
Mouse had a brother, taller, stronger and older, but only barely, the runt only spoke with him in hushed whispers. He could beat the bigger one with ease too, neither had been given names yet, they had only been here for a short time, but long enough to be named surely?
Rome could not be that indifferent to their existence, that was not wise, to ignore his most recent charges would be foolish. But as of yet he called the smaller one runt, because he was more mouse than man, a creature, afraid and skittish, ready to bite and snarl at the slightest touch.
Rome was watching now, he took some type of joy in watching them fight, he already knew the winner of course, it really was impossible for Antinous to lose, the runt could barely hold his gladius correctly and looked ready to collapse out of fear and exhaustion, Antinous was good with a gladius, the sword came from his people and all, he knew how to wield it.
It was insulting how little the runt even tried against him honestly, bared his belly and let Antinous do his worst, no doubt he would escape and go off to lick his wounds in the dark later. Like a frightened little puppy.
He hated such cowardice, he was not going to have his half-bred bastards to be cowards and weaklings, rolled over and took the blow, if he thought it would get him any amount of pity he was wrong.
It wouldn't, not if he was here, he could not afford to raise cowardice or pity. Antinous hated it for something different, he couldn’t bring himself to hurt him if the runt couldn't bring himself to fight.
No no no, he would not have this.
He almost squeaked when he was lifted from his side like an unruly little creature, there was some improvement in him, Rome noted, very little, but there was some. When speaking to him, he no longer snarled and just stayed quiet. Good, he had to learn obedience or he would not survive in such a world.
“Boy, why do you not fight?” He did not expect much of an answer, he only spoke his barbarian language readily, but he got an answer in Latin. Slow and heavy like cold honey.
“H-Hungry, no food.”
“You will only be fed if you win.” Flat, be all and end all “Antinous can attest to that.”
Rome turned over to him, blank-eyed and covered in mousey blood, he still needed training, and yelled “Don’t you, boy .” There was menace beneath those words and he almost bolted, he did not want to be here to witness whatever Rome was about to do to the mouse. But didn’t. He was not a coward.
“He can fight and is fed. You need to stop being a coward and fight." Rome knew it understood very little of what he said, too scared and starved and ill to even try. Once more he set him down to fight. Barely sinking into the sand under his feet.
He went in for the blow, and paused halfway through, no, he couldn’t. The mouse was standing now, but barely, a head shorter and so much thinner, how could he fight someone so much weaker than him? He had a heart yet, and it screamed at him that this was not right.
So much weaker, it wouldn't even be good training for him. He could spare him. He could, he should, it was not worth a death, dying hurt, regenerating hurt more. And you needed food to regenerate. He was always utterly starved after he had to regenerate, and the mouse had no food.
He would be more starved than before, and then he would lose more fights, and then he would be fed less, and over, and over, and over….
It was not right, no.
But orders had to be followed or he would end up on the wrong side of the sword, he was not noble enough for such a thing, to die for someone like that, some thing rather, orders would have to be followed, it was best to not think of him as a boy, and think of it as a creature. He had fought many animals, this would be no different.
Thrust the sword and tore a hole, slashed and cut at his skin, his gladius went through like a hot knife through butter, he knew it would be easy, it always was. Yet it was always a surprise how little substance the mouse seemed to have to him, paper-thin skin and sparrow bones, no fat and barely enough meat to feed a stray mutt. Blood spilling onto the sand, and both of them wrinkled their nose, even Rome had to admit blood should not smell like that, dipped his fingers in the hole, and tasted the blood, it tasted wrong too. Human blood should taste like iron. This tasted bitter. Already rotting and he had been dead barely a moment.
Rome knew the boy could have spared it he knew that, but his mutt would not be falling with such a pathetic creature, he was better than that
Yes. The mouse was pathetic, Antinous would keep telling himself that, over and over in his head till he believed it.
But it didn’t feel good, bile in his throat and a shiver in his hand. He felt powerful, yes, but the feeling made him ill and light-headed. Was this what being drunk with power felt like? How did Rome like this? It frightened him.
It was an odd feeling, terrifying, intoxicating, a dizzying concoction. Rome looked at him like he was a dog, his dog.
To make up for it today he decided to share his hard-won food with the runt once he was revived, Rome would not be pleased, but he would not kill him for it, hopefully.
Rome knew the boy lived for praise, like a dog, he didn’t often have to punish Antinous, a pat on the head and some food tamed him, a simple creature. He wouldn’t rebel, standing off to the side, covered in blood with a haunted look in his eyes. No matter how strong he was you could only be as ruthless as your heart let you, and the boy was still soft inside.
Looking down at the dead little mouse, gored through the abdomen, called Antinous over, forced him to look down at what he had done, his power “You will do great things, boy.”
“As you say, Master.” He could hear him swallow thickly, he didn’t cry, he was not a child.
He continued, staring down at the runt’s body, decaying faster than it should "You should have no place in your heart for pity, especially not for the weak.”
He could see the boy wrestling with his mind, mouth slightly open before snapping shut again and thinking longer, fingers entwined and wringing, it wouldn’t wring out the blood, it had started to crust, mouth open again, Rome wanted to see if the boy was stupid enough to try and speak.
And he was, it was not his brightest moment “Forgive me, Master, but why do you make me fight the mouse, he is not well and if he keeps dying he will only get smaller and weaker. Why do you not feed him.”
Still soft in the mind. He looked at the child coldly, and then to the bleeding corpse on the ground.
Always such a sight to see the small one heal, he was so fast, decaying faster than most, skin rotted fast and fell off in thick black clumps, blood dried and flies swarmed almost at double speed. Brittle bones bared themselves before he started to stitch himself back together, faster than the others too.
Flesh over his bones wove like a loom, thinner and weaker. But alive.
Painfully alive
He didn’t have it in him to get up and curled up in a pained little ball instead, licking his wounds surely, if he was to act more beast than man then he would be treated as such.
It made Antinous feel a little sick, to see the little thing shiver and suffer solely because he was just following orders, because he was too scared to do otherwise.
Rome’s eyes were cold “He is weak, yes, and he is sick, but why be soft with such a thing.” He was looking directly into Antinous’ eyes, “Would you rather he suffer now or suffer forever, finish him off now and he will not have to live like an animal.”
Antinous could feel Rome’s hand on his shoulder, it was a gentle grip yet.
“Besides, he is more animal than human, he is not like us. You are not like him. Pity is for the weak. Are you weak?”
He could feel the grip on his shoulder tightening, he could taste blood and he didn’t know why, swallowed thickly, he should not be afraid of his Master, but he was.
Rome could see the thoughts whirring in his head like a storm, “Then why don’t you name him?”
“Do you think he warrants a name, do you think he is enough of a person to deserve one.”
He felt his cheeks flush red, he should have kept his mouth shut…but well…he had already started to talk, what harm would a bit more be?
“Yes. He does. Sir.”
Rome did not expect such disagreement, not out of Antinous of all people, tightened his grip on the boy's shoulder till he heard him hiss in pain, he could draw blood, but chose against it, spoke so close to his ear that Antinous could feel his breath on his neck.
“Then what would you like to call him?”
Antinous had not genuinely given this thought, he hadn’t expected Rome to humour him, and now he was at a loss for words. Rome dug his fingers deeper into his shoulder, Antinous could feel the skin puncturing, it would have healed rapidly too, had Rome not kept the wound open.
Between the pain, he managed to hiss out “Ask him about it, Master, ask him his name.”
“He does not speak to me, if he wants to play a mute then why should I coax him out of it.” He withdrew his hand, Rome could see the blood stain his shirt. “He is mine as you are mine, and did I ask for your name?”
He did have a point there, a nasty little point it was, but a point nonetheless.
“You did not.”
Rome was looking through him, he didn’t know why.
"You will regret asking that. Boy." His eyes fixed somewhere behind Antinous.
"Regret what?"
He found out when a sword bit into his throat and the world faded to black, the last thing Antinous saw were eyes greener than they should be.
Greener than any gemstone, any leaf, and they were as mad as they were green. Hungry
Antinous knew he had let his guard down, but could you blame him, he had thought he had disposed of the mouse, it hadn’t even tried to fight, he was now.
To Rome fighting wasn’t the right word, attacking, desperation perhaps, he had indulged in human flesh plenty before, the feeling of warm flesh under your fingers, blood pooling and desperate writhing was a feeling you could not match. But this was different.
Simply put this was gluttony, animalistic gluttony, the mouse gutted Antinous barehanded, holding up his heart to the sun like a spoil of war to Mars.
Before biting into it.
Oh, the sweet joy of satisfying hunger left to fester for too long. He made such a pretty noise with his sharp little elbows buried in Antinious' chest. Rome would like to remember that sound.
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Fic Writer Questions
Thank you for the tag :D @spinyfruit
1.) How many works do you have on AO3
34! they're mostly Oneshots and drabbles.
2.) What’s your total AO3 count?
208,218
3.) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
Just Hetalia
4.) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
1. I call it a draw (Rochu/ Amechu)
2. Nerium Oleander (rusamechu)
3. We need to talk (Rochu)
4. Secret (Rochu and one sided Rusame/ Amechu)
5. Western pleasure (Rusame)
5.) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
It's either Together (rusamechu) or I'll come back to you (RomeChu)
6.) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?
Sublime since Itapan is my comfort ship I usually write fluff about them
7.) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?
I haven't done this o:
8.) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yeah, I have a couple of Oneshots and Nerium Oleander has smut too. I guess they can be described as explicit m/m, tough I think it's mostly Rusame or Rusamechu smut
9.) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I try to, sometimes I forget or just don't know what to say. I think it's nice to reply, as a reader I get happy when an author replies so...
10.) Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Not really
11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Nope
12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes! Three of them. Nerium Oleander, I call it a draw and I'll come back to you were/are translated into Chinese ( ≧Д≦)
13.) Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Not yet
14.) What’s your all time favorite ship?
The black triangle trio (rusamechu) and whatever pair comes out of it
15.) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but you don’t think you ever will?
We need to talk, idk I've reached the point of not knowing what's next in the story. It's probably the only fic I didn't really planned before hand, and it wasn't supposed to have multiple chapters haha
16.) What are your writing strengths?
I like to think that descriptions when it comes to settings and like the overall mood of the chapter/story is what stands out. Also I think I'm getting better at foreshadowing :D
17.) What are your writing weaknesses?
Probably pacing, I struggle to move forward certain parts sometimes, I don't usually plan or pay attention to the time within the story so it's pretty much vague.
18.) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?
I think it's pretty common in Hetalia fanfics, I did it a couple of times too. I think it's fun and it's a nice touch for a character who's native language is not English but as a writer I find it it's difficult to add it without butchering a language or getting overwhelmed by adding footnotes with the translation haha. If I were to write characters like Spain more often, I would totally do it.
19.) What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Hetalia
20.) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Ahhh this is a hard question
I will say that Nerium Oleander because I am focused on finishing it and it's been very rewarding.
But White Flame is also my favorite because it's just me having a bunch of fun with words and world building.
Tagging:
@darcymariaphoster @crumpled--notes @magictrio1118 @fireandiceland @koolkat9 if you want to~
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