#dw needcake imma answer the other one too

[rein-ette]

Prompt: mid-day sun and/or fresh bread

Any character or pairing you want

Hanover reminds me of the mid-day sun, so that's what this is.

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England lands at Hanover at 2 PM on the dot, though it takes him another good thirty minutes to find his way through bag check and customs. When he finally emerges, blinking, into the sunlight, he already feels a little worst for wear. His mask keeps getting caught on his Airpods and the backings of his silver studs — he would take them off, but he's meeting her today and thought it'd be a nice touch—

I love it when you wear earrings, Arthur. They suit you.

He cannot help but smile at the memory. The warmth of her voice touches him so easily even after all these years, and as he searches the rows of cars lined up outside the airport he cannot help his growing nervousness. Will she be the same? Are any of them the same? They first met here in the marketplace of some dirt and wood village, on the banks of a muddy stream — and now he is watching thousands bustle through this international airport as he asks Siri to check for missed messages. Their paths have led them both further away and closer to each other than ever before, and for a moment his fears that his friends believe he neglects them because he looks down on them wells up again in his throat.

He spots the car before Hesse gets out of it, a large black BMW idling beside the baggage cart drop-off. He's in slacks and a simple white dress shirt, looking for all the world like some middle-aged pencil pusher. But his eyes are the same — stormy grey-blue like the surface of the North Sea — and so is his hair, tied back in a neat ponytail, and his scar, the same familiar crescent England had once mapped with his own fingertips. He raises two fingers in greeting as he makes his way towards him.

Then the passenger door opens, and Hanover steps onto the sidewalk in a flurry of long almond hair. She, too, is both different and the same — different clothes, different shoes, a different ring on her finger — but when she flicks her hair over her shoulder and opens her arms to England for a hug, the affection that warms his heart could not have been more dear.

When she calls him "Herr Kirkland!" he laughs, and hugs her close.

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And now, lots and lots more historical notes and hcs cuz i went too deep into this

In my mind Hanover and England go way back, even before they were married. The Free City of Hanover was part of the Hanseatic League, a group of cities/duchies/whatnot that dominated North Sea trade in the 13th to 15th centuries. London was a major port and England was an involved player as well, so they probably met when they were both quite young! My idea of their relationship is that she kinda looked up to him in that older boy next door, my family knows his family way.

So when they were married, it was def kinda romantic in the "boy becomes famous rich person but comes back and marries his childhood sweetheart" kinda way. I don't see their marriage as being loving though -- it was a union that had political and personal benefits for both of them, including not being harrassed by humans to "marry" anymore, and hey, if the other party was someone they already knew and liked, all the better. Her older siblings def saw Hanover as the one who "made it", though -- cuz I mean, for small German states like Hanover, there are certainly worse fates than being the wife of an empire, that's for sure.

I really think these two are connected somehow through fate though, because during the Allied occupation of Germany Hanover was once again in British quarter. Eventually, it was consolidated with some other territories into the modern German state of Lower Saxony (not to be confused with Saxony, which is a different state and actually more south :|).

Hesse actually appears in canon, and I. Just. Fell in love? He's soooo pretty, and I immediately needed England to fuck him because own of my hcs for Arthur from Day 1 was that he's super into twunks with long hair (ahem). So you can imagine my utter joy that Hesse and England actually do interact in the manga, because allegedly the English used Hessian mercenaries a lot in their wars (it was actually Germans from many different areas, but the Americans called them all Hessians). Besides this mercenary link I couldn't find much in the ways of historical ties between England and Hesse, but since the Duchy of Saxony (medieval duchy roughly covering the same area as modern Lower Saxony, not to be confused with the electorate or kingdom or god knows what else of saxony) contained areas of modern Hesse, I figured Hanover and Hesse probably would be close. Plus, you don't need ten billion years of shared history to make friends, you just need to be nice and talk to them :)

Personality-wise I think Arthur and Hesse fit well, too. Despite being a career military man, I think Hesse is the type of guy who's actually quite relaxed. He likes literature and listening to Bach fugues, and going for long drives at night. He's gotten so many random medals of valour and other military knickknacks that he's developed a habit of trading them with soldiers he meets, so he has a collection of badges, medals, epaulettes, pins etc. from many different countries. His scar seems cool but it was actually just a regular sword injury from some campaign long ago, nothin too special though everyone asks him about it. Nowadays he still pays his bills with his army commissions as a reserve officer, and goes in to help out with his state gov or Ludwig when they need him. Otherwise he generally minds his own business and lives his best life :D