"Another lifetime, another pHOtOgRaPH!" I sing to myself while completely unsure whether to be happy for them or crumbling at this tragedy. Somehow, the objectivity of this being an actual historical event makes it sting less. That and the fact that they are both just horrible. It really was the day for them to talk out their butts for a little while, wasn't it? After all, butts don't have eyes. They don't see when the other person is clearly just as uncomfortable and overwrought. They just came out of a war, too. Roderich feels like a toilet. No, she's not going to the enemy after this, and she didn't come in spite. Leave it to Ostrich and his suspicious glares to spark something nasty. (Ah, isn't it great to learn human social patterns through writing?)
They managed to de-escalate it, thank goodness! The story finally ended, and a bittersweet note is better than an angry, heartbroken one. She gave him his last kiss and said goodbye. There's HOPE there! Hope for civility and friendship, if not love. The experience was hurtful, but not a total waste. But yeah, goodbye toilet house.
Thanks for writing!

"Bold of an expert in bedroom diplomacy to throw accusations of whorishness around."

Ouch. That one felt like a targeted stab at the male ego. You know how sometimes you see a fight and are like, "Aw, yeah! Pass the popcorn! Dis gonna be gud."? And other times you see a fight and it gets visceral, intimate, and ugly. How it's not fun to watch, you don't care who wins, you don't care who started it, you just want them to STOP? This straddled the line between that, invoking that competitiveness of the former and the pathos of the latter. Part of it is them trying to score cheap shots against each other, while the longer the argument goes the more it becomes just about hurting each other. It's a testament to their maturity and whatever love they once had that they're able to pull back from that after the perfume throwing.

The setting and atmosphere fully captured that feeling of a dead marriage. It's cool how you put regret and anger into something as simple as a room description and Hungary packing her things.

And speaking of Hungary, I liked how while Austria has his human name used throughout the story it's when she's most angry, when she's filled with righteous fury, that she goes from being called Erzsebet to being called Hungary. Bringing the totality of her feelings as a woman and a nation to bear. It was a neat way to bring that dual nature of these nation-states/people into perspective.

Kudos to you! So glad I read this!