La Infanta [Vienna, 1506, Spain]

Takes place in 1506, the beginning of Hapsburg Spain and Vienna's first marriage to Madrid after he was appointed the capital over Toledo. Fränze is 12 years old at the time, a child bride. Let's hope I do this right \:

"It's too heavy, I don't want it."

The nursemaid smiled and adjusted the quite large mantilla back onto the head of the squirming girl. "Nonsense. You're just nervous."

Franziska scowled into the mirror, at the look of the headdress but more of her accusation. The girl didn't understand why she was here. She didn't understand what was happening that day. All she knew was that after the day was done, she would not be going home with her family. She would have to stay in this place, where she knew not the language or the culture. She was too young to wrap her mind around the fact that she was getting married that day. To a boy 5 years older than her. She was a sheltered child, and as much as her father taught her proper court manners, he could never bring himself to explain to his little princess what happened on a wedding night, or even why or what it all even was.

The little Viennese girl turned back to her nanny, messing up the few pins the old woman had set in last and getting a tired sigh in return. "Where's Vati?"

The woman answered, through pins between her lips, "He has business."

"With what?" Her father always seemed to have business recently. It didn't seem fair to her. Then again, nothing at the moment seemed fair. "Mit the boy?"

"The king," The maid answered her tersely, stabbing the last few pins in to keep her long curls from peeking out from under the veil. "And you're a very lucky girl to get this opportunity,"

Why wasn't anyone telling her exactly what this was.

Opportunity, already got that. "Ich weiss," She replied, frowning again as the woman applied the blue powder to he face (blue blood meant royalty after all) after putting red wax on her lips. "What happens when you get married?"

Then, the woman gave her an answer that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Placing a light peck on her cheek and looking at both their reflections in the mirror; the sad, confused, yet beautiful visage of Fränze, the old, crinkled up eyes of the smiling maid, the woman replied, "You become happy."

It garnered a small smile from the girl, and the woman was satisfied, pulling herself back up to stand and then walking out with a wave.

Happy. The girl smiled, fiddling with the edges of the mantilla as ladies-in-waiting stood at attention behind her.

Happy.

((DOIN' IT RIGHT. B) Would crash, but only person who might possibly attend a royal wedding is Piter. And he is not alive at this time. XD

(edit)LOL, WRONG ACCOUNT.))

((Hurrggg I knowww, if only Ami had Basque up :/ Just getting things in chronological order XD can't wait till oppy signs up with Versailles XDD))

((Sob. I wish I could post with Milan, but he didn't become a part of the Hapsburgs until 1525. /craiflail))

[[ I totally didn't forget that these guys weren't Prussian yet, derp. ]]

Why on earth was he here? Sebastian had never really been fond of anyone south of Saxony, especially not the Austrians. And really Sebastian really did have very little reason to be here, other than boredom, of course.

Since he'd stopped fighting with Pomerania, Sebastian had had very little to do. . . Apart from looking after his supposed 'children'. So he had decided that taking a breaking and coming to Spain for the a few days for the wedding, and he wasn't entirly neglecting his children either, he'd brought Berlin with him.

Sebastian yawned, leaning back against the pew. He was quite proud of himself, sixteen and already with several of his own 'children'. Speaking of which--

"Hey, Deitz. Are you--" He asked looking down at where his son had been previously only to see an empty chair. He let out a quite high pitched noise at relising he'd just lost a seven year old boy. In a foreign country. Surrounded by people he didn't like.

Scheiße. He hissed, getting up to look for him.

Deitrich however wasn't in any imminent danger, as far as he was aware and had wandered out of the main hall and into some of the other rooms in the building. And unfortunatly was now lost. Now what was he meant to do?! He felt like crying but blinked and stopped at hearing voices from one of the rooms and headed towards the sound quite swiftly.

He came to the door he had decided was the source of it and pushed open the door, having just planned to open it enough to peer in. But the door had been much heavier than he though. He scowled, giving the door one final shove before yelping as the door swung open and he fell face first onto the floor.

She heard footsteps near the door. Not a woman's. Her father's? A smile grew onto her face as she rushed to the door, almost tripping on the heavily layered white dress.

But before she could get too close to the door, it burst open and a body flew to the floor. She practically screamed-- the day was stressful enough already. Catching her breath under the tight corset, she realized he wasn't dead or sick or anything of that nature. He looked familiar, even, but she was too wrapped up in lace and organza to try to bend to help him.

"Uhm..." She began, tapping his arm lightly with her foot. "Are you alright...?"

He sat up, eyes watering a bit and holding his nose. He looked up at the woman before answering and at the other people in the room. Well, this wasnt what he'd been expecting there to be so many people and half of them were giving him clearly disapproving looks.

Dietrich's face screwed up to try and stop himself from crying in public since Vatti had said that real mean didn't do that. "J-ja," He nodded, speaking in a quite high pitched voice as he stood himself up properly, "E-es tut mir lied. . . For bursting in," he hiccuped.

Wait a second, wasn't this the girl Vatti said was getting married? "A-are you, Vienna?"

It wasn't a man-- it was a boy. And he spoke German, she noted relievedly as he spoke up, albeit with a thick northern accent.

She let out a breathless chuckle. "You shouldn't scare People like that, I almost fainted..."

Should she say who she was? Fränze usually appreciated tue grandeur and politeness but now was not the time she wanted to be distanced from people. "Ja..." She nodded. "That's me." But she still couldn't put a name to his face. That was bad for her image, wasn't it? Well, she had an excuse, but it would be the same any other day of the week. "I'm... I'm sorry... You look familiar, but..."

As time here went on, would she forget everyone?

He sniffed, but was a little reassured by the other's chuckle. It looked as though Dietrich wouldn't be in too much trouble. . . Hopefully. IT was pretty wishful thinking since Sebastian was already freaking out looking for him in the hall and would probably ground him for at least a year. But for now, he was mostly off the hook. "I-I'm sorry. I just got lost and I heard voices over here. . ."

She. . . Didn't remember his name? It seemed no one did, his face turned to a clear pout for a moment. Well . . . He should make this a good first impression!

Dietrich beamed at the woman infront of him, putting his hands on his hips, "I'm Berlin! But my dad calls me Deitz. . . You can call me that too, if you want." He'd have to make sure that everyone knew his name in the future and make his Vatti proud.

She may have been about to get married, but she was still very much a child. Seeing his sniffle reassured her as well, that not everyone there was immune to the confused, scared feelings of a child. "I'm sure I would get lost too if people didn't escort me everywhere..." She mused. "Well, i still don't know quite where I am when they do, so I think it's the same feeling. You can stay in here with me until they come to get me again." It almost sounded like a plea.

Berlin, that was it. Not a very notable name yet, but one she remembered. She smiled back at him. "Danke, Dietz. Franziska. ...My father calls me Franziska."

Perhaps Dietrich and his father were closer to each other than she and her father. That couldn't be possible.... this Berlin wasn't much of a place, his father shouldnt care that much about him. She felt a pang of jealousy at his proud smile. She had never smiled like that.

((lmao this is before she became a total B. XDD))

Detrich simply nodded and smiled, not picking up on how it seemed that she was nearly begging, "Okay!" Even if he'd said no, he'd have only wandered out and gotten lost again, so this was really the best thing for him to do and it didn't seem like she was going to complain.

"What do they do when they find you?" He asked, blinking, "Do you get grounded too?"

The boy's brows furrowed at hearing her name. "That's so long. . . Hey, where is your house? I'm not good at reading maps yet." He'd been told that it was somewhere south of where they lived which. . . Didn't really help when you lived in the north. From what he'd seen on the map there was A LOT below them. How was he supposed to pick out a specific spot when given so much choice? "And who are you getting married to?"

Relief flooded through her when he said he would stay. But... Did he not know why he was there?

Looking at him questioningly, she replied, "Not exactly..."

She frowned. This was her house now, well, soon at least. The thought scared her yet again. But she still had time to claim she didn't live here and that she didn't belong to anyone. She walked over to the vanity and pulled out a wrinkled map someone had given her to show her the route they were taking. She pointed to her city first. "I'm from here," She began, "Where the emperor lives. But..." She shifted her finger on the page to the middle of Spain. "I live here, now..."

Then she cast a glance behind her at the large portrait of a haughty looking boy. "...That's who I'm marrying." She didn't seem too enthused.

Dietrich paused breifly as the locations were pointed out, he could clearly see his house on there, before she'd even pointed her own out. When he had pointed out the home of the emperor as well as her new place of residence. His brows furrowed lightly. Sebastian had pointed the places out, but had yet to tell him about how scale worked.

"Is. . . That far?" He asked, looking at her before pointing out his own home, "How long would it take for me to get from my house to your house?"

He directed his head over to the portait, his instant reaction being, "why does he have girly hair?" He asked with genuine curiosity as he looked back at the girl. Al though she was only four years older than him, he was still older, so she must know the answer.

She hadn't ever been outside of her own home much. Hardly at all. So his question boggled her, too. "Ich weiss es nicht..." She mused aloud. "Vielleicht... A few days? Right?" Fränze looked to him inquiringly, waiting to see if he would agree. She wasn't about to admit she had zero idea, she was the center of the holy roman empire. It would look very bad.

And she wasn't the only one who thought that about her fiancee's hair? She burst into a fit of light relieved giggles hampered by her cinched waist, then incredulously, "You can't say that too loudly, he's a king...!" Although she had been waiting to mention it to someone for some time, but everyone here waited on him hand and foot like he was Christ himself. "But... He does." She faced the portrait too. "I don't think I like him very much." She glared at the picture for a moment as if it was really him. But she knew she would be afraid to say what she truly felt about him to his face.

Wait-- She was asking him? He didn't know, why would he have asked if he did? But then. . . Her guess was as good as his, but since she was older, even her guess was probably more likely than him, "Ja, that seems. . . right." He nodded slowly, now wishing that he'd paid attention to how long it had taken them to get here at this point.

Deitrich hd yet to become accustomed to the term of king, seeing as it was usually either 'Margrave' or 'Emperor' that he had to call people. He did remember Sebastian saying that he wantde to be a king but they wouldn't let him, but other than that it rarely came up. He also had very little clue about marriage, but he did know that you were meant to at least like them.

"Why are you marrying him if you don't like him?" He asked, head falling to his shoulder as he thought.

He agreed, she noted with relief. That was a close one.

Exhausted already from toting around all the extra weight in fabric, she tried as best she could to fall onto the couch under the portrait without missing up the dress. She could make a list of all her grievances at themoment-- she was hungry. Thedress was making it about 5 degrees hotter than it should have been -- and summer in Spain was no walk in the park already. She was scared, to say the least. And she was sad.

"That's not howmarriage works," She instructed, grateful something didn't confuse her. "You don't like them at first. Then you marry them. Then you're in love."

So maybe she didn't really wholly believe it, she realized as she rubbed the wrinkles from the map. But everyone was telling her this, so she did believe it. "You'll learn soon."