''And this is how Operation Birke would be used when the time comes, especially when Soviets invade Finland.'' A German officer had finally taken his finger that was pointing at posts off a map and with these tense fingers, he took a cigarette, lighting it and in a moment that cigarette was decreasing the quantity of air in that room, replacing it with smoke like other dozens of cigarettes were doing.
Germany tried to ignore this fact and he concentrated to look at the map's marked spots, leaning over a table and he had to squint his eyes when another cloud of smoke hit his face.
''Petsamo...'' Germany gave a few firm taps on its name on the map, pronouncing it in a numb and confusing manner, but everyone understood what he meant and turned to look at the map. ''We have to place at least one post here to ensure nickel for industry.'' He straightened his back and gave a small look at the same officer who had now picked a pen and was marking a new spot on the map.
''We're going to reconnoitre these locations in advance, so we'll have to...'' Another smoking officer was reassuring about this operation's chance of success, but someone's loud question interrupted him.
''Reconnoitre? What about Finnish civilians... They might run to talk about our movements to government and...''
''We will lie about it, now calm down.'' The officer glanced at this person, irritated by this doubting.
Everyone gave approving hums, nodding their heads and some of them went to get a quick drink and relax a little bit before another fight would begin about plans and tactics. Germany stayed beside the table, leaning on it and still looking at the map.
''Let's hope that we won't have to use these plans.'' Germany said silently, crossing his arms over his chest and those who were nearby him, heard what he had said even when there was people talking to each other.
''Mr. Beilschmidt? Do you really think that soldiers should stay longer in Finland?'' One of high ranked officers inquired him soon as he got a chance and Germany wanted immediately to take his words back.
''Finland is at least a peaceful country...'' Germany said, clenching his jaw and looking forward with firm eyes. His words had spread around the room, making everyone to give him odd looks and they started recounting complaints that they had heard about Finland.
''Winters might be tolerable, but it's still too cold to live there.'' One nearby Germany said and soon another one commented on this. ''You're right! Still, it's the worst moment when a summer comes, because those mosquitos are everywhere and their roads...''
The room was now filled with complaints, one saying how Finland's nature was same as Sweden's and another said how their food was bland and tasted like water, but Germany was still looking at a wall, trying not to order them out of this room.
Soon an officer came beside Germany, patting on his shoulder, waking him up and shouted on Germany's behalf. ''Silence!'' Everyone's mouth closed immediately and looked at him like he was the leader himself. ''We'll start now planning an another operation that is designed to happen in Finland.'' He continued and the table was again surrounded by officers.
Finland got finally a chance to sit in his room without a war to think about and it was all because Soviet Union left him in peace after a contract they signed up. Soviet Union had still applied harsh terms in it and one of them was to evict the German army out of Finland, which could be looked as a defection towards Germany and it was hard to accept that term when Germany had assisted him to win the civil war. Was this how he would pay their helping hand - Evicting them from Finland, selfishly securing Finland's future, without thinking what would happen to German soldiers.
''You have to get Germans out of your lands, or you'll be the next one to meet the Soviet Union's wrath.'' Russia, now better known as Soviet Union said and smiled convincingly enough for Finland and its nation to accept everything they had written on the contract.
Order of evacuation was sent immediately when guns were lowered on a battlefield and peace was achieved between Finland and Soviet Union, making Lapland a main location where the evacuation would occur. Lapland depopulated slowly, people moving out of there with their livestock or without any property of theirs, but they still had a problem with evacuees. Karelian evacuees had already adjusted to Finnish society and culture when Soviet Union took their lands out of Finland's control, but now there would be more evacuees in southern parts of Finland.
''I have to ask Sweden...'' Finland muttered, looking at the paper's long numbers and soon he put the paper down.
Moving his gaze to a window and looked outside to see how the sun was rising. ''Let's see what happens... I can't hope for anything else...''
Germany suddenly stood up from his bed when he heard a ringing coming from his nearby office and with few stumbles he finally found his way to the office. As soon as he got to a telephone, he turned a desk lamp on and took swiftly a receiver up, waiting for bad news to come.
''Mr. Beilschmidt, Finland has made a contract with Soviet Union, they're no longer at war.'' A voice of male carried out of the receiver and soon this information hit his thoughts, sinking deeper and deeper in there. Germany was speechless, so he moved his hair off of his forehead and held his hand on top of his head, his hair now slicked back.
''What?'' Germany asked loudly, doubting this man's words and he began to look for a piece of paper and pen to write the information down.
''Our relations as ''Brotherhood in Arms'' has been voided and the German army must leave Finland before September 15th.'' The man said, his voice telling how he has also a small panic about the situation, but Germany wrote the date down and felt how every bit of sleepiness had gone with the man's words.
''What has war management said about this?'' Germany dropped the pen carelessly on the desk and raised his hand to look at a watch that was supposed to be on his wrist, but he had left it on a table near his bed.
''Operation Birke must begin immediately.'' Man's voice echoed in an unpleasant manner in Germany's head and he went to stand beside a chair anxiously, wanting to sit down, but he didn't do so and his hand dropped to his side.
''What time is it?'' Germany asked, looking at the desk blankly and he didn't know a proper way to react to this new enemy's existence.
''It's a little bit over... One at night.'' The voice came out again from the receiver and now Germany was murdering a ceiling with eyes.
''Did I receive any orders?'' Germany said, reverting his gaze back to the desk and he dragged the paper and pen closer to him so he could write them down.
''You have to go to Rovaniemi and solve this situation... Nothing else.''
He wrote it up hastily and tapped the pen on the desk's surface, frustrated to ask additional information that should be told in a few sentences after the order. ''How urgent this is?''
''You get an additional information in a few days, but now it isn't time to leave for Finland. Good night.'' No voice couldn't be heard from receiver anymore after those words and he put it back in its place. He wrote something on the paper and stayed there, thinking how Finland now was his enemy.
Germany finally got to Rovaniemi through Sweden and he felt relieved when he saw Rovaniemi still standing like the time hasn't changed it a bit. If Rovaniemi was good as always, then it meant that Lapland would be also in a good condition. He shrugged the feeling off and began to walk to a destination of his, thinking deeply about this situation. When he walked past a train station, he saw small masses of people standing nearby a train and more persons walked past him to the train station. He had just gotten into Finland and he understood only now, why it was so hard to get a train from Sweden to Finland. Finland's government sent few trains to transport evacuees that didn't have any livestock, but those who did have, had to walk with their livestock out of Lapland and this whole evacuation made it hard to get a single train to transport people from Sweden to Finland. Germany looked at a surrounding buildings, seeing how people were closing their shops and houses, taking their property with them and heading to the train station, but Germany ignored them when they gave him suspicious looks, only making him walk faster to his destination.
Eventually he found himself standing in front of a building and he knocked on the door in a calm manner, but his thoughts ran like wild horses on a field and he wasn't so sure about this anymore. A young German officer opened the door, saluting swiftly and moved out of the way so Germany could go inside. Same officer led him to a room where Finland was sitting because true negotiation had already begun and now it was time to start their own discussion. A door behind Germany closed loudly and he walked silently to sat opposite of Finland, only a simple table between them.
''Tell me...'' Germany started as soon as he sat, breaking the unbearable silence. ''What really happened.''
''I have ended the war with Soviet Union... We're now enemies... That's it.'' Finland said, he was expressionless like stone and he had crossed his arms over his chest.
''I would have liked it, if you had told with your own words... But what about this war between us?'' Germany asked, looking stoically at Finland whose eyes didn't meet his because it seemed that the table was more interesting than the whole subject and the atmosphere was already ice cold.
''Let's see what they come up with... I think we could get over this without casualties, if you Germans leave swiftly and won't end up building a home here in Lapland.'' Finland said, nodding his head a few times after the words
''It'll take at least two weeks to get out of Lapland, we can't do it in a few days!'' Germany said, still looking at Finland who finally met Germany's eyes with his own expressionless eyes.
''Why? I don't want to see anymore people lying on a ground, knowing that they were shot... Especially when those deceased were from a country that helped me to win a war.'' Finland stared at Germany, freeing his arms and his hands were shown to be in fists, making Germany think about the reasoning for Finland's words.
''What I know about, here's important documents, war arsenal and whatever they brought here. We can't leave them here, It would be a great loss for the army!''
''Very well...'' Finland massaged his forehead, sighing the words out. ''I believe that the government is ready to give you few locomotives and railroad cars for evacuation.''
Germany had moved his eyes to look at a ceiling, feeling more relieved than before and his hand went to for his collar, trying to hide his relief. ''Everything has its price, so what's this one's?'' He asked, still looking at the ceiling.
''Government wants Oulujärvi's southside and its bridges to belong to Finland...'' Germany turned to look at Finland, trying to detect some sort of humor in his eyes, but he found only seriousness in them.
''That would mean Division West's move to the northside of the river.'' Germany realised after thinking about divisions' locations and Division West was right now in the southside of the river.
''You have a good memory...'' Finland said in a neutral tone, he didn't praise Germany with that sentence and Finland only began leaning his head on his hand. ''Still, there hasn't been yet an agreement... We can only wait for them to finish their little conversation.'' Finland continued and gave an uninterested stare at the table.
Peaceful retreating had been guaranteed to Germans after negotiations, but it didn't take too long for cooperation with Germans to get broken and war was now in its prime state. After a few days, Soviet Union came for a visit and demanded every battle plan and precise numbers of casualties and Finland didn't know anymore where Germany was, maybe he was in Berlin, maybe in Rovaniemi, but Finland was in Mikkeli and far away from Rovaniemi. He had only gotten a small bit of an information, mainly about telephone connections that were now unusable, so no one would call Germans and he heard also how a slaughter had begun. After the announcement, he went on a next day to Mikkeli to hear about plans for Germans and he wanted to see different opinions about the war. It was in a middle of a speech when suddenly a door opened and a Finnish officer halted his words when an unknown man came inside with a letter and gave it to the officer, leaving without saying a word.
''This will take a moment.'' The officer said, walking away to a more secluded area and people immediately began their discussion about a confrontation in Pudasjärvi, trying to get Finland to join their little chat by asking his opinion, but he sat there and only nodded a few times, staring at the officer who was now reading the letter.
He waited for a reaction from the officer, but in the end, he just turned the letter over and read the backside of it. Finland felt a small disappointment in him when the officer didn't react at all, but soon he found the officer looking at him and beckoning him to come closer which he did immediately.
''For you... From Germans...'' The officer gave him the letter with an envelope and said it silently as he could, not wanting to disturb others and left him to continue his speech.
The letter was from a German commander, time tables within the envelope and he found out it to be a request to continue their contract. Still he turned the paper over, seeing a text there that made him understand why the officer wanted him to read it.
''Bad way to end a dark past, but a good way to start a bright future.'' He read the text quietly even though his voice already drowned under the officer's voice and he saw Germany's initials under the text. ''I don't understand this world anymore...'' Finland muttered, putting the letter in a pocket and turned to hear the speech.
When Finnish troops finally got through large minefields, they arrived in Rovaniemi which from far seemed to be grey as ashes and somewhat black like soot. The soldiers wandered around Rovaniemi with painful feet, march taking obviously its toll and they found out how grievously the town had been damaged - Mainly fireplaces and their chimney's were still standing, but other parts of the houses were ashes and only robust buildings were up, covered in soot.
''It looks like Rovaniemi has been through a bombarding...'' A Finnish soldier stated for no one particurlarly and kicked rubbles of bricks out of the way. One soldier went to a wall which was still standing, running few of his fingers over its surface and looked at them.
''You're wrong... This is soot, Rovaniemi has gone through fire, not a bombarding.'' The man said, cleaning his fingers on his trousers carelessly and turned to look at Finland who was lacking behind from soldiers.
''Hey! Come now, there's no time to stay here!'' The man shouted and Finland halted his thoughts, only to look at the man like he had just set his foot on a mine and was now dying. ''What is it now...'' The man walked swiftly in front of Finland, took a tight grip on his forearm and began dragging Finland to a direction where they were walking.
The soldiers gave him passive looks, thinking what they were trying to achieve with this war and Finland thought about the whole war. Finland didn't want to go any further in Lapland if it was in the same state as Rovaniemi, burned cities' and villages' names were already agonising to see on a paper and it was killing him inside to see them in front of his eyes, burned and destroyed. They can't do nothing to save Lapland, mines had killed and wounded dozens of soldiers, bridges and roads were destroyed and Germans were marching away from them, but they couldn't catch them when the roads were nothing but mud.
''They don't deserve to live, if they're going to burn whole Lapland.'' One soldier muttered, a few others joined him by nodding their head and the man was still dragging Finland who still looked at the surroundings.
''Nor should us, if our crimes would be brought to light... Soldiers only execute orders, so blame leaders silently if you don't have anything better to say.'' Finland spoke, freeing his arm from the man's grip and followed soldiers to a destination, his eyes nailed to a ground throughout the way.
Germany sat in a plain room, waiting for a visitor who should already be here, but he was calm and waited patiently. Now former Axis Powers lost the war and soon Germany followed how the land was divided and his brother ended up behind a wall, but now he had to talk about past again. Soon a door opened and Finland stepped inside, nodding his thanks to a man who closed the door. Finland was already exhausted, he had traveled to Berlin and he had negotiated with Prussia about the same subject that they're now again bringing up.
''How's life?'' Finland asked swiftly and sat on a chair. Germany was surprised when he saw Finland look at him and when he heard his apologetic tone, not understanding why Finland was sorry for his mistakes.
''As always... Nothing hasn't changed.'' Germany said and moved his eyes off Finland. ''I'm sorry about Lapland... It just...'' Germany said silently and tried to explain, but he didn't want to see Finland's reaction, but still he heard how he sighed and shifted his position.
''Germany, I came here to talk about it and if you still know good manners, you'll look at me when we talk about it.'' Finland said and Germany raised his head, giving Finland a sign to continue. ''Well... This is unofficial, but I think we can still improve relations between us...''
Notes
Edit - Big thanks for TheResultOfMyBoredom, who reviewed this story and told me about the mistakes in this story!
This one was hard to write, but now is time to take a break.
Hetalia and characters are made by Himaruya Hidekaz
[I didn't live at that time and I had scarce information about Lapland War, so don't use this as an information for exams]
I own only the plot
I don't mean to offend you, your country, beliefs, religion etc.
You can tell me how I can improve and I try my best to change it.
[This oneshot is also on Deviantart]