I think with this one it's best to just read, and answer questions later. :-I
Gott, he felt like such an idiot.
... but he had to know.
"How do I..." Ludwig gestured vaguely at the tank, his cheeks reddening. Arthur sighed and handed him two boxes, one decorated with his own banner, the other, Ghana's. The taller man nodded and thanked him, eyeing the creature in the water in front of him.
The octopus looked back with its long, bulging eyes, tentacles curling in a relaxed manner.
He was asking a mollusc for a football prediction.
But he had to know.
"In your own time," muttered Arthur, arms crossed over his chest. "None of us have any games to watch or anything."
"I'm going," answered Ludwig sharply. He didn't like being rushed! The octopus gave a strange, knowing blink, and the German put the boxes in the water, where they fell in slow-motion before settling.
The octopus looked at him, but didn't move.
"Why isn't it working?"
"Because he's bloody tired. We all knew you would beat Australia. It was uncalled for to aggravate him."
"How often did you ask him if America would win?" muttered Ludwig under his breath, watching the mollusc closely, waiting for it to just inch to one side...
Arthur frowned and stood in front of the tank. "If you're going to be ungrateful... Paul and I have a group stages final to predict-" (He tapped the top of the glass box) "... so I'll be taking him home."
"Ja, ja, just a minute... look, he's opened the German box..."
"You're fine then," commented Arthur, producing more boxes with the flags of his opposing teams on them.
Ludwig didn't want to stick around, and he didn't quite know how to thank an octopus for its time, so he left.
Gilbert cheered when the final whistle shrieked, and took the last swig from his bottle.
"Through we go, West!" he grinned to his brother, who was on the couch across from him. He raised his empty bottle. "To Arthur and his messed-up octopus!"
And Ludwig raised his beer and agreed with something he never though he'd say.
"To Arthur's octopus."
Yes, so. The German team apparently went to an English octopus named Paul to predict the outcome of thier games... and it guessed correctly. XD Isn't that beautiful?