(THROWBACK READERS) Okay, I know I have some people out there that are like "WTF are you doing?" when I'm supposed to be working on Throwback as I usually only work on one big project at a time, but, while this is a big project, it's sidelined by Throwback, which means I will be working on this, but Throwback is a main priority.
Yes, this is another of my inane ideas, it's a little out there and it is my first straight pairing fan fiction 0.o is there a problem with me? (IMPORTANT) Anyway, the beginning here has a references to Hidekaz's earlier designs of Prussia where he still has platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, before he turned into an albino, so that gets incorporated into the story as well as many other aspects of Prussia that confuse us a little bit. This is experimental and if it is not well-received I will stop work on it and put all my efforts back into Throwback and its sequel. Understand while working on this updates will come slower as I am interested in doing both.
.*.*.*.
October 7th, 1949, Berlin, Germany
Angrily, he paced in his holding cell, grumbling about the stupidity of it all, blood still stained his shirt as he allowed the open wound on his back to bleed through his torn uniform. His own brother wasn't even going to visit him before that bastard took him away? Oh, sure, why not? Forget about the nation you dismantled, the nation that cared for you as a child, the nation that fought along side you in your blood lust in your mission of suicide; the nation that loved you!
Feeling as though a hand had squeezed his heart, Prussia dropped down to a bench sitting in the cell, twiddling his bare and bloody hands. Well, the blood on them was dry, cracking and flaking off, but it was still there.
"Sir?" Prussia's faint blue eyes flicked up to the owner of the voice, sitting up straighter to appear more dignified than he felt he stared down the man he was sure he had seen before.
"What?" The bite in his voice made the human wince, he seemed very nervous to be here in the first place. "How did you get in here anyway? You look like one of my brother's boys…"
"I am, sir…And I told them I had special news from your brother, he was just too busy to deliver it in person."
"True enough. Too busy for his brother which he has condemned to death." Prussia stood and looked out the small window behind him. "If you really do have a message from him, I have no interest in it. Now let me wallow in my own misery in private."
"Sir, it's not from your brother."
Prussia turned on him, indignant that a human wished to address him without need, he growled, "Then why would I want to listen to you. You arrogant fool?"
"It's important sir, concerning your… Death…"
"I am not dead yet you idiot! I have just been moved to the territory of someone that will be the death of me. What could a pitiful little creature like you do to lessen this horrible event?"
"Sir, I know I may be speaking too freely, but you are hardly in a position to be complaining when someone offers to help you." Prussia didn't respond and just sat back down, holding back a wince as his beaten back touched the cold cinderblocks of the wall. The weary nation waved him on to continue. "Thank you, sir. You mentioned that the man whose possession you are falling into is going to be the death of you…"
"Yes, and?"
"Well… You do know that some day Germany is going to be reunited again…" Prussia quirked an eyebrow at the human as he looked nervously around the room. "It is, once the Allies can be sure that your brother won't cause anymore trouble, it's the way it's going to go… And… As you are going to be East Germany…"
Prussia looked away, thinking, "You are saying that my brother shall kill me yet again, correct?"
"Yes, sir. When you are finally reunited with your brother, you will be the one to die. Again with my free-speaking sir, but you got lucky that a new nation needed to be created soon after your dissolution. There won't be a next time."
"And so, you're here to remind me of this? Remind me that the ungrateful little snot I raised as a father and became a brother to will repeatedly betray me and kill me! Is that what you're here for?" Prussia's voice had slowly risen to a furious roar, the human backing up and pleading with him to settle down.
"No, sir… That's not why I'm here… I'm here to offer you something."
"Oh? And would could a human offer me?"
"Russia will be the death of you, sir… And you will live." The human said, reaching into one of his back pockets.
"What?" Prussia narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him, wishing he had a cigarette as he was rubbing his hands together in a fidget.
"I can offer you this, sir." The vial the human pulled from his pants contained a purple liquid within. The liquid swirled around in the vial, it looked mostly like curdled milk with a bit of food coloring added, hardly something that could save his life. Warily, the once and soon-to-be nation stood, pacing slowly and dubiously forward, towards the human standing at the other side of the bars.
Hmph, bars. Prussia's inner monologue snorted, he could break out of here with the flick of his littlest finger, but he was hardly in any position to try to escape. It wouldn't change the flow of politics and his efforts would be wasted. "And, what is this?"
"The only remnant of the discontinued Project Litchfield experiments. There was only enough time for one of these to be produced and I, the only one trusted with it, am asking humbly for you to take it, sir."
"What will it do to me?" The ancient nation held out his hand to him, silently asking for the small glass vial.
"You will die, but you will not."
"What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like." Curiously, Prussia spun the vial around his index finger, making the human nearly squeal with worry over the product. "O-Of course, sir, the effects are not immediate, one must die first…"
"So, it lays dormant for a long time then?" Quickly this little vial was looking more and more intriguing, it was worth giving a try… Besides, he doubted he'd even remember it by the time he died and he wouldn't be disappointed in the afterlife when it didn't work. What was the worst that could happen?
"Yes, that's correct, sir… It worked that way with our test subjects." Prussia wasn't even going to bother pointing out the fact that all their subjects were humans.
"Interesting… I believe I shall give it a try…" Pulling the stopper from the vial, the human squeaked again and frantically tried to get something out before Prussia drank it, "P-Please, sir! One moment! There are some nasty… Side-effects…" It was too late, Prussia had already downed the entire vial and was now looking curiously to the human.
"Your test subjects were but measly humans. A nation is different. I might not even have the side-effects, but that could also mean that the serum won't work period." Prussia's company nodded and shrugged.
"I've done all I can… I hope things go well for you. I am getting the feeling I will be dead before much longer. I hope the serum never has a need to come into play."
"Don't we all?" He nodded and Prussia bid him farewell, tossing the vial to him as he left. The Prussian smacked his lips and cringed at the awful aftertaste of the stuff, hopefully it wouldn't leave him with some nasty breath.
"Oh comrade East Germaaany!" And Prussia shivered, his new name sounded horrible, that voice was horrible and when put together just made him want to vomit.
"Vhat, you giand Hindenburg?" he hissed at the large nation that sauntered into view.
"I'm here for you! All ze meetings are over, da! You are mine now, ve vill have so much fun togezer." The sickeningly sweet smile on Russia's face made Prussia nearly vomit, if it were not for the serum in his stomach that ached so reminding him what it could do for him, he would have. He settled for taking a deep breath and shuddering instead. There was the grotesque squeal of metal as Russia opened his cell door and offered an arm to him. "Come to me comrade and ve may go." Prussia stood his ground against the giant, glaring at him hatefully. "Don't you vant to get out of this var-destroyed piece of rubble?"
"Id's my home. Noh."
Russia's face darkened and it was enough to nearly make the diminutive nation piss himself, "You vill come over here now or you vill not like the consequences." His primal urge of self-preservation kicked in and Prussia took a begrudging step towards him then another and then another; all the while knowing he was feeding himself to a pack of hungry wolves. What happened from here on out, he was not Prussia, he wasn't even East Germany, he was a slave to this sadistic man. It didn't matter that he was nation except the fact that he was more durable than any human ever could be. He knew deep down this man would crush him entirely, crush him physically and mentally until he was little more than a screaming pile of meat on the floor begging for his master to stop beating him.
At first, he had hoped that these feelings in his gut would prove to be false… How unfortunate for him that this turned out to be everything his life was and worse for the duration of forty years.
Forty years of pain and humiliation, if he did die and the serum did work… He figured he would just kill himself again.
*.*
At the fall of the Berlin wall, Prussia attended, at hearing that it was going to be chipped away, Prussia immediately became the best little house slave around. Cooking for Russia, screaming when he was dominated, seeing to his every whim.
But, attending hadn't been as joyous as he had hoped it to be. Yes, his brother was there, yes it was the first time he had seen him in so long and he still loved him so after all these years… But he couldn't muster any enthusiasm at all. The shine to his blue eyes was gone, his hair had turned silvery-white with stress and heavy abuse of his scalp. Ludwig was still his brother, but he was no longer Ludwig's brother.
"Gilbert, why don't you smile? Are you not happy to see me?"
Oh god! Never say that! I'm always happy to see you! I missed you! Please don't look at me like that… Please… "I am merely tired, West. Give me a few weeks and I will be fine." Unfortunately, he knew that he wouldn't have much time left in the world. He could die in a few weeks with Germany reuniting… As much as he loved Ludwig, there was one person he knew he had to see before it was all over. "Ludwig, may I see Elizeveta?"
Ludwig's eyebrow climbed up his forehead, he was asking, well… By the looks of his brother and the generally dead look in his eyes, he couldn't even begin to imagine what Russia put him through, "Of course, she is here somewhere, along with Roderich."
Oh, fuck, Austria was here too? Ah, why not? He hadn't seen the bastard in so long. Throwing an arm over Ludwig's shoulders they walked over to a congregated group of nations. France grinned widely and greeted him in French, a language Prussia was so rusty in he was hardly able to muster a response. Antonio was the next to greet him, throwing his arms enthusiastically around him, Ludwig was easily able to throw him off and then Italy did much the same and this was met with the same result. He saw the young boy Canada that no one noticed and patted him on the shoulder, everyone suddenly jumped as they noticed the blonde and he moved on, America just glaring at him. Romano yelled something none to flattering to him and he didn't respond. No one had seemed to realize yet that he was watching all this as if he were not a part of his body. He had no desire to see any of these people, even Ludwig, he didn't want them to be here, there was only one he wanted and she had yet to come forward.
Continuing to shoulder through the crowd, he first saw his old bespectacled enemy. But he didn't look so much like an enemy anymore, he just looked sympathetic… And happy to see him. He even opened his arms as a friend would to welcome him and pulled him close, Ludwig almost didn't allow it but Austria released him after long at a protective look from said German man.
"Elizeveta?" Prussia asked Austria quietly.
"She's over there somewhere." Austria jerked his head in the direction of the joyous humans, well fuck… "You should sit down though, I'll go get her." And Roderich spun on his heels, heading for the crowd to find the woman of his affections. Everyone circled him once again as Ludwig managed to get him to sit down on a bench, him next to him.
"Is Gilbert feeling alright? Italy is worried about him…" Italy childishly whined, putting his arms around Gilbert's neck and clinging to his face at the same time, somehow.
"Italy, off." Germany ordered and the small boy whined again, detaching himself from the man he had missed so much over the years. Instead, he latched on to Germany in the same way and the blonde sighed.
"I ahm fine." Was all Prussia said, the tone of his voice seemed to tip everyone off that he was in no mood to listen to what any of them had to say or talk to anyone. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to Canada's nervous smile. Tipping his head to the side he wondered what the boy could possibly have to say that would make him feel any better.
"I-If you ever need anyone, eh… You know, to just rant at…" Prussia nodded and returned the pat to Canada's shoulder, everyone jumping again when he magically popped back into view. Prussia noticed the sigh and Canada just wandered off… Interesting lad…
The crowd of nations suddenly parted as Austria walked through with Hungary at his arm. Their fucking marriage had broken up so long ago, why were they still together!
"Hello, Gilbert. Roderich said you wanted to see me?" Hungary said brusquely and slightly surprised, she obviously hadn't expected him to look as bad as he did. Prussia nodded and looked around to the rest of the present company. They all felt the tension in the air and just chose to give him what he wanted… Of course, with the exclusion of Germany and Austria; both for their own separate reasons.
Looking around curiously Hungary noticed Prussia's angry glares at his brother and Austria. She smiled confidently and asked Austria to leave. Hesitating for a moment, Austria eventually did as she asked and motioned to Ludwig to follow. When the blonde didn't' stand Gilbert sighed tiredly, "I'm a cripple now… What am I going to do?" Clicking his tongue, Ludwig sighed and stood, standing protectively over his half-dead family, mussing his hair.
"Shout if you need me." Gilbert nodded and looked to Elizeveta. She smiled simply and dropped down next to him.
"So, Gilbert, how have you been?" She started, kindly.
"Like schid." He chuckled weakly but ended up coughing and nearly hacking up a lung later. "Dammid." His whole body cringed at the look of pity in her eyes. He didn't want to be pitied, he wanted to be respected, on second thought, maybe letting her see him in his pitiful state was the worst idea ever. But… When it came to the slope he was heading down, he knew there would be no more good days. And sadly, today was going to be one of the good ones. "Bud, enough aboud me, vhat aboud you?"
"Oh, God, I think I feel a little faint."
"Vhat's wrong?"
"You just said that you wanted to hear what I had to say. Usually you just monopolize the whole conversation with what you have been doing." Immediately Hungary hated herself, Prussia's eyes were dead enough, but adding the film of disappointment over them just tore at her heartstrings. "I'm sorry, I'm only trying to be-"
"Noh, noh, I unterschtant. Id's nod a problem." They sat in silence then, neither knowing really what to say. Gilbert needed to tell her soon though but how does one just come out of the blue and admit they have feelings that they denied having for centuries? Feelings in general, not the specific ones he felt for the wonderful, beautiful woman sitting beside him right now, putting her hand on his leg. "You know… Elizeveta… You know vhat's happening to me, righd?"
She nodded, feeling tears in her eyes, she thought she would be fine as long as he didn't bring up his impending death. Too bad that was exactly what he had intended to do, "Yes." Elizeveta answered in a small voice, gripping Gilbert's leg a bit tighter. He laid one of his large hands on hers and leaned back onto the bench, too tired to attempt sitting up any longer.
"You know id's only going to ged vorse… Und in a few monds…"
"Can we talk about something else?" She suggested, shoving back her tears and gripping his leg again, hurting a healing wound he had. Realizing the pain he was in, she quickly released his leg and took her hand back, folding hers in her lap. "I don't want to talk about having to say goodbye…"
"Vhat else ist dere to talk aboud den?"
"I don't know… What I've been doing the past forty years?"
"Okay, zoh, vhat hef you been doing? Oder dan political schtuff?" She was silent and Prussia groaned in response, knowing that was all he was going to get. "Zee? Dead ist de topic of de day."
"Well, we can talk about when we were younger?"
"Zomeding along de lines of a fry-pan comes to mint." Prussia pessimistically grumbled, earning himself a glare from Elizeveta.
"Well why did you want to talk to me then? Huh? You just wanted to tell me you were dying? Is that it? Don't you think I can see that? Do you think I want to see you like this?" As quickly as he could (which wasn't very) Prussia raised a hand for her to stop, eventually putting it on her shoulder.
"I ahm zorry, I dit nod mean to upzed you." Giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze she smiled, taking his hand in both of hers and playing with its rugged surfaces.
"I know. Was there something else you wanted to talk about though?"
"Yes… Acdually…"
"Oh?" With the twitch of a finger he beckoned her closer and, a bit dubious, she scooted closer to him in the cold air. "What?" When he requested he have his hand back, she gladly released it, him moving his warm palm up to her face. It reminded her almost of the long-absent sunshine in the cold months.
"Ich… I…" Careful not to set himself off balance, he moved his face closer to hers, making her think he was going to try to kiss her.
"What is it?" Her heart was beginning to pound, what would she say if he said… Could she say it back? Would she even want to? Loving a dying man certainly did have its drawbacks. Such as the heart-rending terror that the day they had would be his last. Or seeing him slowly fade from life as he gradually willed his own misery away.
"I lof you." Damn it, he had said exactly what she was hoping he wouldn't and just as before… She still didn't know what to say. When he tried to lean in to kiss her, she had to stand, knocking him away. He just stared despairingly at the dreary ground as she looked down at him. They both were silent, neither needing the other to say a word.
Elizeveta felt more tears in her eyes and she couldn't bare to look at the horrendous, dying thing that once was her friend. So, feeling like a coward, she turned and ran to hide her face from him. She couldn't answer him, wouldn't answer him…
So, there Prussia sat in the cold, all alone. Still feeling the warm touch of Hungary's skin in his hand. Fuck his life… From his wonderful angle of staring at the ground, he saw a pair of boots walk into view, he didn't want to see whose they were though. The person sat down next to him, not even making the wooden bench creak, Canada.
"You zait vhen I neetet zomevon to rand to?" The boy jumped in surprise, seemingly amazed that he had been noticed by someone.
"Y-Yeah, eh…"
"Vell, vhat's your number?" Prussia held out his hand, asking for a slip of paper with a bit of graphite or ink on it.
"Uh-uhm, w-would my business card work, eh?"
"Anyding ist fine."
Reaching into his pocket, Canada extracted a card and put it into Prussia's hand. Taking the card, Prussia looked at it and tweaked an eyebrow curiously, "You're a tea aficionato?" a smirk came to his lips, it burned his face, but he managed.
"Y-Yeah… I work in a tea store in Ottawa, eh."
"Oh… Boring cofer." Canada nodded, not that Prussia could see or anything, but he imagined that must've been what the boy was doing. "Dank you."
"N-Not a problem…"
"Westen!" With that simple utterance, Germany appeared out of the thin air and loomed over him once more. Canada nearly squealed with surprise as he looked up at the towering nation, glaring down at him for the younger blonde to get lost.
"U-Uhm, right, uhm, Prussia, just call me whenever you need me, kay?"
"Ja." And Canada made himself scarce in a hurry, not even sparing Germany a backwards glance.
"Leds ged you home." Ludwig helped his brother to his feet and let him lean on him once more.
"Did everyone leave?"
"They all thought you'd had enough excitement for the day." Prussia nodded in agreement and let Ludwig guide him back to their home. Their home, not Russia's cold, hard house, but their home. "I love you, West…"
"I love you too, East."
*.*
"Id's colt hier." Prussia moaned into the phone. His body was healing and a bit of his irritability was starting to return after a few months; but his sickness was progressing. He hacked a bit of bloody phlegm into a nearby rubbish bin and started coughing again, unable to quell his hurting body. And even if he was healing physically, everything ached constantly. And not the things he expected would be. His joints felt like they had broken glass in them, all of them, his limbs were as heavy as lead when he tried to move to make this worse and he was hungry all the time. Only issue with the last one was, whenever he ate something, it felt empty to him, it did nothing to satisfy him and he would go for another few hours without eating, the pain getting progressively worse. The one time he let himself indulge and ate until it slaked some of his hunger, his stomach was so round and distended he couldn't move.
So was his life, always hungry, always tired, always in pain. How much longer could he stand this? As if just to make all of this so much worse, Hungary had refused to talk to him the last time he called her. Had refused every other time as well, it was far more likely for Austria to pick up the phone than her and he listened to her like the faithful dog he was. No matter how much pleading the sick and rotting man did, Roderich never listened to him. He offered his condolences and hung up every time.
So, he called Canada as often as he could for he, more often than not, found he had things to complain about.
"My nation is like Russia's, how do you think I feel?" Canada replied on the other end of the line, a slight bit of humor in his voice.
"Nah, anyvhere ist varmer dan Russia. Trusd me." Prussia shifted on the couch he was laying on, wincing when his elbow and knees moved slightly.
"Well, Antarctica is probab-"
"Nod possible." His voice was more forceful than need be, but it was mostly to bare the pain.
"Okay, okay, sorry, eh." There was some clicking on the other end of the line and Prussia imagined the young man to be knitting.
"Ahre you knidding?"
"Uhm… N-No…?" A laugh escaped Prussia and he tossed his hair out of his eyes. He had been rather surprised to see that his hair was no longer growing in white; in the last few months, his roots were showing to be a pleasant shade of his once blonde. Of course, it wasn't as dark as it used to be, but it was definitely blonde. Ludwig had told him this was a sign that he was getting better, but they both knew in their hearts it was just an anomaly.
"Panzy boy."
"Hey, you like cute and fuzzy things too."
"You cahn'd zee id bud I'm schticking my tongue oud ahd you." And so he was, making Canada giggle on the other end of the line. "You zount like a liddle girl."
"Yeah and you sound like a human in his eighties, we're even."
"Hartly." He said in a near growl of a voice. Matthew only laughed again.
"You know Gil, if you could find a way over here, we should hang out. I have a couch and a television for you to laze on and in front of."
"Zorry, you know how Westen ist. Und… I don'd know if I't be able to ged ofer dere anyvay…"
There was a frown in his voice when Matthew spoke again, "I know… I'm sorry for bringing it up. Well, I can drop by later if you want me to."
"Westen again, he zays he doesn'd vant me hefing fisidors today."
"He's suffocating you."
"Noh, I belief my boty ist doing dat ahll on ids own."
"Don't be so negative."
"How cahn I nod be vhen I'm clearly-"
"No! I don't want to hear it." Gilbert hated it when people did that. It wasn't like denying his death would make things any better. But, he supposed Matthew had more right than any of his friends to want to deny it, Gilbert was one of the few people he could call friend. And it really sucked for him because out of all of Gilbert's friends, Matthew he had known for the shortest of time. They had only become friends as Gilbert began to die. "I'm sorry… I-I know, eh. I just wanted this to be a light conversation."
"I know." Gilbert moaned as he had to shift again and Matthew made a sympathetic noise from the other end of the line. "If you're pidying me, schtop id righd now."
"It's hard not to when you know someone you love is dying."
"If you loft me, you voultn'd pidy me."
"It's an unconditioned response, I cannot help it." Prussia nodded, supposing he saw logic in what Canada had said.
"I zee."
"Osten!" Both of the parties heard from somewhere in the house. Ludwig had practically become a mother hen to Gilbert and it was beginning to make him sick. Seeing how much forty years changed his brother from a bloodthirsty maniac to the world's best caregiver rubbed salt in old wounds. He had been a better person without Prussia around.
"I'm only on de phone Westen!" He called back to his brother who walked into the room and looked him over to see how he was doing.
"Are you hungry?" Germany asked, tweaking his brow and motioning to the phone.
"Id's Canada, und vhen ahm I nod?" Nodding the German left the room to go prepare something for the both of them to eat, not totally sure who Canada was… "I neet to goh, Westen vill ged pissy if I'm schtill on de phone by de time he's done cooking." Prussia rolled his eyes.
"Ah, okay, I'll go then, eh. Call me any time. Bye!"
"Tschüs." They both hung up and Prussia was left bored, once again. Taking a deep breath, he sighed, could life get much worse?
*.*
Too bad for Prussia, it was possible for things to get worse. September of 1990 rolled around wheezes and coughs were the standard form of breathing. His skin felt tight and itchy, beautiful, blonde hair falling out in great clumps, bags having found a permanent home beneath his eyes.
Heaving himself up from the couch, his nerves all screaming and his muscles protesting against any movement. He knew today was his last day. It was the day he was going to die and he couldn't have been happier. It had been nearly a year and Hungary still never spoke to him, Francis and Antonio had stopped visiting two months ago, afraid of what they might find on their next visit. Maybe when they turned up at Germany's door to say hello they would hear that Prussia was no longer in.
Canada still said hello every-now-and-again, but he preferred not to be reminded of his dying state. At least he still called at least once a week, he could no longer stand to visit, though.
Growling and managing to grope his way to the door of the house, Germany was out at the meeting that would lead to his death… Like hell was he sticking around this house and waiting for it to happen. If he was going to die, he was going to die in a place that he liked.
Getting out onto the street was the first step, getting out of Berlin was the second. The first (though shakily executed) went well, the second, not so much. There was much tripping and vomiting of blood. Of course the latter scared many people and he ended up having to quicken his pace to avoid an ambulance.
After Berlin, he wandered into the countryside, knowing that each step he took could possibly be his last. So, he headed for a town, a small one, the country had always called to him with its open spaces. The small towns reminded him of simpler times, times when he could kill and have fun, when he didn't have to worry as much… What a perfect place to die at.
Another of his long-absent smiles curved his lips as he walked into the town limits of a small town, unfortunately, it was short-lived. He felt his heart skip beats and his muscles stiffen even further. Determinedly, an angry growl started deep in his throat as he screamed internally for his fucking body to work. Getting to an alleyway between two buildings, he slid down the wall, panting as he felt his body giving out on him.
Letting his head loll back, he stared up at the beautiful sky, it was too bright for his eyes so he had to squint, but it was a wonderful last memory of life. One last smirk curving his lips, his breath left him, along with heat and movement, his corpse going slack.
*.*
"Hey, who's this unlucky bastard?" A human youth with his friends asked, poking the body of what seemed like some kind of hobo. "Ugh, disgusting, must be dead." He looked around the dark alleyway, how long had it been here? It reeked, so it had probably been there since midday, well, it was midnight now…
"Looks like it." His taller friend said, peering over his shoulder at him. The other in their group just stayed back. It was bad luck to mess with the dead. "Want to see if he's got any money on him?" Grinning, the first human began to lean over to pick him up and rifle through his clothes, the last spoke up, however, "Why don't we bury him?" The two turned around and gave him a look of "what are you smoking?"
"Do we look like undertakers to you?" The second hissed, motioning to the corpse their friend was beginning to search.
"It's bad luck to desecrate the dead… Plus, do you even know what kind of diseases there could be on that thing?" His friends looked to one another then, the first dropping the dead body back to the ground. "Come on, let's just bury it. No one around here has gone missing so it's no one we know…" All looking around and shrugging to each other, they decided that was their plan of action.
Grabbing the cadaver's sleeves, the youths dragged it out of the alley and into a nearby field. After arriving there, however, they noticed that they lacked a crucial element to this plan… A shovel.
"Ah, damn it, I'll go get my shovel, be right back." The third human said, running off for his house and leaving his less morally-inclined friends with the body.
"So, who do you think this guy was?" Human number two asked, looking over its faded, balding hair and expensive military clothes.
"Don't know, don't care. Let's get his shit before Luka comes back." Both of them grinning, they proceeded to strip the dead one's clothes down and search through his things. Pulling out a wallet, the second human looked through it, removing the marks therein, stopping to look for an ID of any sort. He made a quick "humph" noise at finding none and putting it back into the jacket pocket.
"This guy must've been somebody, I got nearly 500 out of his wallet." The second human told his friend as he cut the gold-plated buttons off his coat.
"Yeah, he's got a gun too…" The first human reached into the jacket and pulled a gun from the holster around the dead man's chest. "Awesome!" They both laughed merrily as they looked over their findings, putting it all in a pile next to them.
"Really guys?" Luka said, walking back into the group, a shovel slung over his shoulder.
"Hey, we got ourselves some nice cash. And it's not like we've forgotten we're going to bury him." Human one whined, standing up and waving the gun around in his hand. Luka and their other friend took a few steps back, he was liking that gun a bit too much for either of their tastes.
"Be that as it may, it's still immoral."
"Oh and like your plan about burying him without notifying the police is any better?"
"Paul, stop being a jackass, put the gun down and let's the bury the poor guy." Paul rolled his eyes and looked to their friend, he just shrugged, looking back down to their pile of stolen money. Sighing, Luka took the shovel down from his shoulder and began to dig. Seeing his friend's hungry stare at the pile, he groaned and smacked him on the arm, "Come on Felix, I thought you were better than that."
Felix snorted and crossed his arms, "So now I'm a bad person for wanting money?"
"Not a bad person… But do you really want some dead guy's money?" Luka kept digging, Paul pacing around, his attention totally transfixed on the gun. Both were still a bit wary of him, careful to keep an eye on him at all times. He was prone to being an idiot when you put just the slightest amount of power in his hands. Their teachers at school now knew better than to put him in charge of anything for any amount of time.
"Fine, when we decide who gets what, you're not getting anything." Felix declared, sitting down next to the shimmering mound of objects.
"I don't want anything." His eyes flicking back to Paul, he sighed again, "Paul, can you put the damn gun down? You're making me nervous." The other just snorted and Felix said, "You are acting kind of creepy over there…"
"Hey, I'm a teenager, not stupid." Paul replied, sticking the barrel of the gun into the waistband of his pants.
"Could've fooled me." Felix and Luka answered in unison, Luka picking up his digging pace so they could be out of this field before anyone woke up. Their friend just growled and folded his arms over his chest, beginning to pace again, but in a much sulkier way. Both the other Germans shook their heads and Felix picked up a gold button to examine it. The man's uniform looked reminiscent of some old Nazi uniform, but he had seen a real one before. It was too fancy and he didn't recognize the seal on the buttons, they were very intricately made too, as if special care had been used on every detail. The seal appeared to be an eagle with its wings spread at the top, the tips of its feathers curving down and almost meeting a wreath of olive leaves at the bottom. Between these two symbols was a great 'N'.
Humming with curiosity, he got up and walked over to the body, flipping it over and searching its back pockets, "H-Hey! What are you doing?" Luka asked, outraged that the man was still insistent upon getting anything else from the dead man.
"Have you taken a look at those buttons? I haven't seen any insignia like that before. Paul and I didn't get a chance to check his back pockets. I'm just looking for an ID." Felix explained irritably, searching into the pockets and still finding nothing, "I can at least say with full confidence that this guy was no ordinary homeless guy. I don't even think he was homeless…"
"Well, then, what's he doing way out here?" Paul asked, walking over and taking a seat by Felix.
"I doubt we'll ever find out. His reasons were obviously his own."
"Guys, can we please just bury him before someone sees us? If this guy wasn't homeless and he had money to throw around for such a fancy uniform, there will be people looking for him. And if someone finds us with him, they're going to think we killed him." Luka stared pointedly at them, practically hearing them swallow at this realization. Felix hopped to his feet then, "I'll go get another shovel and help." And off he ran, Luka looked to Paul then as he kept examining the body. What was he trying to do?
"Aren't you at all curious how he died?" he asked, flipping the corpse over to lay on its back once again.
"Not really, I just know he's dead." Luka turned his back to Paul and returned to digging the body's grave.
"Well, if you look at him… Besides the fact that he was balding, he looks young and shows no sign of being beaten up. If anything, it looks like he died from the flu or something…"
"I told you not to touch it!" Luka hissed, Paul backing away from the dead man. "Let's just get him buried, alright? Then we can forget about this whole thing."
*.*
After Felix returned they actually got the grave dug, considering the fact that Felix and Paul had already touched the diseased body, Luka found it only right that they put it in the grave. He stood by, holding the shovels as they carelessly deposited it into the ground, throwing one of them to Paul when they had done so.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" The brown-haired human asked, looking indignant at being handed the tool.
"Cover him up. What did you really think we were going to leave it open?" Luka explained as Felix dropped to his ass next to him.
"Why aren't you guys doing anything?" Paul complained with whine in his voice. Luka just rolled his eyes and said, "We dug the grave, you sat around on your ass and played with that damn gun." Snorting, Paul supposed there was no way around it and started tossing dirt back into the hole.
Patting the dirt down at the end, Paul groaned and pulled a cigarette from a box in his pants, lighting up and taking a deep drag.
"Well, now that's all done," Felix got himself to his feet and brushed off, "want to go back to my place for a drink? We never really celebrated today did we?" Paul's eyes traveled to the mound of stolen goods asking, "What're we doing with those?"
Sighing, Luka scratched his head, tired from the night's activities, "Do what you want with them, I couldn't care less." Turning, he drug his tired ass from the field.
"Hey! Hey where you going?" Felix called after him. Luka just groaned and called over his shoulder, "To your place! Where did you think?"
"Oh…" Felix and Paul chuckling, they leaned down and picked up their pile and leaving the field. Paul couldn't leave before saying, however, "Thanks for the haul man!"
*.*
Okay, in his current situation, there were very few things that he knew about. One, was that it was stuffy and dark, two he couldn't really move, three, he was very hungry and four, he was supposed to be dead… Well, the first three he could live with, but that last one was a real downer. Also, it confused him beyond belief. He sure felt fine, well, other than this confining space getting on his nerves.
Attempting to take a deep breath, he realized he couldn't, hm… Trying again it was easy to assess that there just wasn't any air where he was, but that again didn't make sense. How could he be conscious if there was no air to breathe? Grunting a little bit, trying to force his way around, something fell into his mouth. It tasted like dirt… Oh fuck! Panic set in just as he realized what had most likely happened! Germany had come home and saw him sleeping on the couch! He must've thought he was dead and buried him alive!
Closing his eyes and attempting to take some deep calming breaths he was frustrated again by the lack of air to do so and just got a mouthful of dirt once more. Coughing, (somehow) he forced the wet dirt out and onto his face. Wait… Onto his face… If he were buried and the dirt was loose enough for it to fall into his mouth, he must've had some chance of digging himself out. At least the wet dirt on his cheeks told him he was facing upwards.
Managing to shift his arms into a better position, he began to claw into the dirt. Frantically clawing forward and up, he was grateful when he could finally move the rest of his body and work his way up. After a bit more clawing, he felt his fingers break through the surface, the wind caressing them. A bright grin lit up his face as he burst out of the ground and into the world above. Oh, but what a horrible greeting that was.
Taking a deep breath of the air, he found it burned his lungs and incinerated his nose, so many scents! The sound above ground was positively horrific, everything sounded like screams, a small fly buzzing by his head gave him the worst headache imaginable. Oh, God and the sun! He felt it burning his skin cell by cell, it was the worst feeling he had ever had, worse than anything he had ever felt before "dying". The light blinded him even with his eyes directed at the ground.
Roaring in frustration because of the fly that still buzzed around him, he grabbed it and thrust it into his mouth. Swallowing it immediately. Not even debating internally why in Hell he had done that.
Strangely enough, it eased the pain, but not enough for him to want to face the world. Thinking quickly, he dug himself back into the ground, covering himself and his sizzling skin, his hunger calling him to venture forth. It took all his resolve to keep himself successfully down in the ground, the pain that would assault him up there overruling the pain he felt in his ravenous gut.
Settling his breathing, as he still found it painful, he decided he wouldn't breathe any more than he would have to. Grumbling that this was the worst awakening that he had ever had, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to die once more. Before he let this happen though, something in the back of his mind told him that come night, he would be able to dig himself out again. So, wait for the night he would, just with less of a pulse.
.*.*.*.
Notes:
"Italics!"-Denotes a conversation in a different language where the majority of present parties can understand what is being said.
Litchfield Experiments-Now, if I explained this one, it would be no fun, go look it up if you really are curious J
Paul, Felix, Luka-Meet my OCs, only one will stick around for long.
Westen-West (It's Prussia's nickname for Germany, since the nickname came from a German word, the nickname is always in German)
Osten-East (Germany's nickname for Prussia)
Tschüs-Bye. (Apparently is also very Prussian, fun fact of the day…)
Accents-I care little for dissent upon them, if you have suggestions about what would sound better for an accent, go ahead. But I'm not going to get rid of them because I like them.
Okay, first chapter, took me too long write and I'm only halfway done with Chapter 11 of Throwback, ack. I feel so behind!