The gay Duke



Author: wanderingsmith
Started sept 2021
Summary: René huffed, grinning and immediately feeling quite fond of the old woman, "I expect that made your mother's family even happier."
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd be daft enough to pay me for this. As it is thought, so let it be said; you make the toys, I play with 'em..

AN: “We like people for their qualities, but we love them for their defects.” In writing this line I meant to say that we must not simply “accept” imperfection when it is revealed to us – we must celebrate it. This, I assure you, is the true sign of friendship.”
— Ron Perlman (many years after ww2, to be honest. so he must have heard of Hubert saying it...-blinks innocently-)



Refilling the glass he'd just drained to 'celebrate' that Edith had stopped 'singing', René watched the undertaker kissing her hand and raving 'In every sense' about her performance. Fool would convince her to sing again if he did not shut up! Taking a fortifying sip, he muttered without turning his head to the man who had stayed by the bar after getting his cognac 'Likely to get away from the 'singer' that had been by the piano' "Love is not only blind, it is deaf."

René had time to take two more sips, and Alphonse to convince Edith to sit besides him, giving them all a reprieve, before he heard a strangely quiet murmur, "...You might find this hard to believe, René, considering my comments on marriage, but... love... is not something I doubt the existence of."

René tensed, reluctantly turning his head and expecting to find the lieutenant giving him a lovelorn look. Instead he found Gruber staring at Mr. Alphonse with... something like understanding.

René finally shrugged, "He is rich enough, he could pull a pretty widow wanting security for her children. Or a young thing wanting security for herself. Why..." he nodded at the scene playing out before them.

Gruber turned to him with a steady look, "My mother could have married a prince. Instead she insisted on waiting until she fell in love. And never hesitated when it was with an illiterate Russian. I remember she would laugh that he couldn't even drink her under the table. And would never stand up for himself." Gruber's eye turned wistful, stroking over René's features just as he'd feared they would, earlier; though to be honest it bothered him less right then... "She liked him for the skill of his hands, for allowing his wife to teach him to read, for his loyalty to his family and to her. But she always told me she could not help but love him for being a grouchy, emotional bear and for refusing to fight." he grinned for a moment, "And for gloating after beating grandmother at chess."

Ignoring the implications he was quite certain he heard in there, René let himself smile a bit at the distant fondness in the words, remembering the little boy in that camping picture, "...I don't suppose her family shared her affection."

Gruber snorted, his lips twisting with faint bitterness, "No. No they did not. They outcast her. Which I'm just as glad. From what I've heard of her mother and sisters, we would not have got on," René winced at the acidic tone, reminding himself not to bring up grandparents to the lieutenant. At least unless the man truly infuriated René. Gruber's expression finally lightened after taking a sip of his drink, "Uncle Max was the only exception."

René blinked, arrested, "The one..."

Gruber grinned, "Yes. He would visit us when he could escape his duties, but he almost always found a way on Shrove Tuesdays."

Able to chuckle at the image, now, René tipped his glass at the man, "Well, it does explain your princely arrogance."

Gruber's mouth dropped open in unfaked shock, his glass clacking sharply on the counter, "My... princely... arrogance?"

René gave him a dry look for the shock; he had really thought the lieutenant more self-aware than that, "Yes."

Gruber cleared his throat, carefully sipping his cognac for a moment as though at a loss for words, finally muttering, "She was not really a princess. Even uncle was only a duke, really." It was René's turn to have his mouth drop, "And the last such, in any case." He finally met René's gaze apologetically, "I... thought I tempered it better."

Giving himself a shake for caring about such useless things as titles, René shrugged, "You have your moments." Which usually amused him 'Something he was rather grateful for, really.' But he knew others reacted quite differently to the unfortunate imperious upturned nose.

Gruber gave him a twisted smile, "Yet my babushka was born a serf."

René huffed, grinning and immediately feeling quite fond of the old woman, "I expect that made your mother's family even happier."

"Indeed."

René poured them both another drink, trying to ignore the piano starting up again. It was much more pleasant to imagine a snooty old German lady being stared down by her unaccountably cheerful daughter and her silent Russian boyfriend; while her brother silently cheered for her from the wings. As a pancake girl. "Is Gruber not a German name?"

Gruber's eyes dropped to the swirling alcohol he held before looking up with faintly mutinous pride, "My father was Bayr Solovyov." Then his shoulders eased and he smiled, "Gruber is *very* common in parts of Germany. Uncle had my name changed, some years after my father died, so that I would have an easier time through the schools he arranged to send me to." Gruber's jaw twitched and his eyes narrowed with an old irritation, "And through the army, after he convinced me that a time was coming that my not having a career would be a problem, and that I should use that education to have him acquire me a commission."

René only caught himself examining the lieutenant's features when the man raised a curious brow at him, and he could only shrug, "Your eyes. They always seemed.. more... eastern than most Germans. I assume this is why?"

Gruber rolled those slightly flat eyes, "Three quarters Russian, though babushka mutters we were once known as Kalmyk; and father did not look like most of the Russians I've encountered, including what pictures I've seen of mother's family. Almost certainly *more* than three quarters; mother did not waste my time making me memorize her history as some of my fellow students at Heidelberg had to, but I've heard enough bits and pieces to know her mother was not the only Russian aristocrat in it."

René tried to picture the lieutenant's father and frowned as he found he could not remember his features at all. Surely he would have noticed, and remembered, if they had been so 'different'. "That picture you showed us the other day of yourself as a little boy, why can I not remember your father's face?"

"Because he was turned away," Gruber swallowed, looking tired suddenly, "The only pictures I carry of him are ones where his features do not show. The rest I left with babushka." René watched him suddenly go still and take a deep breath before looking at René very seriously, "All of this... is not information anyone living knows. Other than my babushka."

"...And me."

Gruber watched him steadily, "And you, René."

René held the gaze for a few moments longer before huffing a breath and waving a hand at him with a reluctant smile, "At ease, lieutenant. I will not give you away. We each already have deadly secrets on the other," Gruber tipped his head in agreement to René's significant look, "What is one more. And surely less deadly, at this late date, than the rest we share."

"Perhaps."

They each grimaced and took a large swallow of their drinks as Edith finally ended her performance, and René was very relieved to see her head for the kitchen rather than hang about tittering and waiting for an excuse to destroy everyone's hearing some more. Turning back to the erstwhile Duke's grandson 'gracing' his café, he frowned in curiosity, "Would being a Duke's nephew not put you in nicely with the general, considering his fondness for the Kaiser?"

Gruber winced, looking pained, "I'm quite afraid not, René. Uncle... Well, not that he chose the part he had to play, but suffice it to say he did not endear himself to Kaiser Wilhelm."

René's lips quirked, amused at the foibles of the titled, "Endear?"

The lieutenant gave him a rare dry look, "He was the one to force him to abdicate."

René's eyes widened and he took a bit of a sharp breath before huffing with choked amusement, "Ah. So definitely best kept a secret."

"Yes please, René," René braced himself as the man's posture suddenly eased and he seemed to flow further across the bar, an oh so familiar offer starting to glow in those hazel eyes, "I would be *most* grateful..."

AN:References:
Bayr Solovyov = Joy nightingale
https://www.justrussian.com/news/article/russian-surnames.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmyks
https://name-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Kalmyk_names
the things one finds... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Kalmyks

Gruber is a German surname from Bavaria, referring to a person from a geological depression, mine, or pit. It is the most common surname in Austria
handy to pass unobtrusive. like using smith as fake name

if babushka was 91 in 43 (and so could still be alive as he says in s7e10 that would not be easy, René, she's not dead), then born in 1852 (serf), freed in 1861 at 9, have father at 18 so father born 1870
yes, I'm that anal about silly things...

so, in my defense, when I started down this road (ie, Gruber's mom's family having a title -and don't go blaming *me* for that! Gruber was the one to suddenly announce it in a scene!!(in my head)) I was thinking like a viscount or something equally 'low'-level. but I could not for the life of me find ANY other title in Baden. did German dukes not have vassal lords to do their dirty work???
..but then I came across the line that Max was gay and.. well, I mean pancake girl.. I couldn't just ignore that....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William_of_Baden_(1829%E2%80%931897)#Marriage_and_issue
I pretend they have 3 more girls, last of which Amélie christina Anastasia born 1878 (Amélie: hardworking and industrious) aka, mom s5e12 take your boring mother with you

and they meet in 1902 (32 and 24), gruber born Hubert Solovyov in 1905

uncle Max (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Maximilian_of_Baden 1867)
- received a humanistic education at a Gymnasium secondary school and studied law and cameralism at the Leipzig University. In 1900, in spite of being homosexual,[2] he agreed to marry Princess Marie Louise of Hanover (1879–1948) at Gmunden for dynastic reasons
- David pushed for Max to be appointed Chancellor in July 1917
- On 7 November, Max met with Friedrich Ebert, leader of the SPD, and discussed his plan to go to Spa and convince Wilhelm II to abdicate. He considered installing Prince Eitel Friedrich, Wilhelm's second son, as regent;[7]:76 however, the outbreak of the revolution in Berlin prevented Max from implementing his plan. Ebert decided that to keep control of the socialist uprising the Emperor must abdicate quickly and a new government was required.[7]:77 As the masses gathered in Berlin, at noon on 9 November 1918, Maximilian went ahead and unilaterally announced Wilhelm's abdication of both the imperial and Prussian crowns, as well as the renunciation of Crown Prince Wilhelm.[7]:86
s2e06 I had an uncle with the same leanings. every shrove tuesday he would dress up as a pancake girl
s2e07 the general is related to the kaiser and quite proud of it
s7e05 this is me with my father

grandmother (NOT babushka!!)

-After his death, Maria founded a new organization, called the German Anti-Immorality Association. Its purpose was to suppress "vice among the upper classes".[16] Maria, with the help of Grand Duchess Eleonore of Hesse and Queen Charlotte of Württemberg, set aside a fund meant to produce pamphlets persuading both female and male royal figures that their prominent roles in society meant they should be examples of moral purity.[16] They also sent a missive to their family and friends asking them to "abstain from immorality" for one year.[16]
I'm betting, by the mores of the time, that means she did not approve of her son's leanings and would not have of her grandson. 

s7e06 oh dear, I'm sorry, colonel, I seem to have checkmated you again
cause if you're going to write fic for a show based on stereotypes.. you can't just ignore the ones they hand you even unacknowledged...



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