Germany was sitting at his desk doing paperwork. Again. He had to do a lot of paperwork recently, seeing as how he was financially supporting a few other nations. Rubbing his temples in exhaustion, he picked up his pen again and went back to reading and signing and filling out the various fifty page packets on his desk. He was engrossed in his work, and therefore didn't hear the door open. He did, however, hear the rather loud and rambunctious Italian that came THROUGH the door, and he turned around, grimacing as he changed positions. He had been sitting down for much too long, and his body was protesting the sudden change in level of activity.
"Vee~ what are you doing?' The Italian was clueless as always, and Germany wondered what part of the mountain of paperwork Feliciano was missing.
"Paperwork. What do you need?"
"It's nice out today, we should go to the park! We can roll around in the grass, eat pasta, have a water balloon fight…" Italy spoke in his naturally airy way, waving his hands around as he spoke. Germany watched for a moment, then turned back to his paperwork.
"I can't. I have too much to do today."
"O-oh. Okay. I'll go play with Prussia, then!" As he walked out of the room, humming, Germany felt his stomach drop. He sounded disappointed. Ludwig really did have a lot to do though, and pausing now to go have fun would only create another situation where he would have to stay up all night to work on things. Sighing dejectedly, the blond nation turned back to the miserable piles of refined and pressed tree pulp ad continued his day.
In the hallway, Italy had abandoned his cheerful guise. Germany was always too busy nowadays. This wasn't the first time, and this wouldn't be the last time, that the Italian had walked in to find him surrounded by towers of paper. It hadn't used to be this way- nations were proud, revered. They fought as soldiers, debated over global warming… They still did that, but more and more they were called upon for the most mundane of tasks. Italy descended the concrete stairs that led to Prussia's room, located in the basement of Germany's house. Prussia was never busy, seeing as how he was no longer a country. He spent most of his days drinking beer, partying, and sleeping. The sound of Italy's knuckles contacting the door was miniscule next to the blasted American rock coming from the most likely surprisingly immaculate room that was the dwelling of the albino country, but somehow Gilbert still managed to hear it. He opened the door, swaying to the music.
"Hey, little dude. Sup?" His hair was unusually messy, likely because he was too lazy to brush it.
"Germany is too busy to play," Italy said miserably.
"Whoa, man, cheer up! The awesomeness that is me can totally cook something epic up for us to do! Just let me shower first, I smell like one of west's dogs." Gilbert then waltzed off, presumably to bathe, and left the door open. Italy mentally facepalmed and walked inside. The basement was surprisingly clean, most likely because both brothers were OCD and could not tolerate mess. Posters of various rock musicians adorned the wall, and an iron post bed sat in the corner. A pool table, a couch, and a large television with massive speakers took up the rest of the room. Prussia definitely had a lot of space to spread out, which was good because he tended to have a lot of parties. Germany had recently added a door to the outside in order to keep the party guests out of the rest of the house. Gilbert may be a neat freak, but most of his friends were not. The sound of running water sounded from the bathroom, along with Prussia's singing. Rolling his eyes, Italy walked over to the couch, sat down, and turned the TV to the cooking channel. He fumbled for the remote as "classic Italian cooking" began to blast through the speakers. It was a wonder that Prussia was not completely deaf yet.
The sun was smiling down on the park, and Italy was hiding behind a corner with a large water balloon, grinning maniacally.
"Little dude? Yo, where'd you go?" Prussia got closer… and closer… and…
Italy threw the water balloon at a very surprised Prussia.
"Oh, it's ON now." Grinning through soaking wet hair, Prussia made a grab for Italy, who nimbly darted away, giggling hysterically. Prussia chased after him for a while, never really catching up to him. Finally, Italy reached the bush where he had hidden his stash of water balloons. They were gone, with nothing but an empty bucket.
"Oh… where'd they-" It took Italy about half a second to realize what had happened, and he turned around just in time to be hit in the chest with two successive water balloons thrown by the grinning albino country several meters away.
"I've got you now!" Italy squealed and jumped into the bushes, grabbing his secret weapon. "Dude, not fair, now I can't pelt you with-" Italy popped out of the bushes, grinning maniacally and holding a garden hose. Prussia's eyes widened, and he tried to run away, to no avail.
"GAHHHHH! COLD! I ALREADY TOOK A SHOWER! NOT AWESOME, NOT AWESOME!" Italy fell down laughing and turned off the hose.
"Do I win?" Italy looked at the shivering Prussian in amusement.
"Yes," Prussia looked down at his drenched clothes. "You win this time, but you gave me an awesome idea…"
Germany looked around in despair. So much to do… it seemed almost like he somehow had made no progress despite the amount of time he had put into all this. He looked down at the paper he was holding and the letters swam around. For all he knew, it was in Sanskrit. At least Italy was out having fun. Prussia's music downstairs had ceased, meaning he had probably gone out with Italy. It also meant the entire hose was completely silent and there was nothing to distract him from his work. Whether that was a good or bad thing, Germany was not sure. Looking at the paper again, Germany sighed and realized he had better focus or nothing would get done. He reached for his stamp, which he would use to officiallize… whatever document this was. He never had the chance.
Prussia and Italy somehow managed to get behind Germany without him noticing, partially because the door made very little noise when opened slowly, and partially because he was so engrossed in what he was doing. They lifted the bucket in their hands, and freezing cold water gushed all over Germany and the papers he was holding. He turned around slowly.
"What…"
"Old man, get up and come outside before you grow roots."
"I'm your younger broth-"
"Vee~ you're still old."
"…"
The silence was both awkward and eerie. Prussia and Italy had been expecting refusal to cooperate, along with being chide for ruining whatever it was he had been doing. Finally Germany laughed.
"Well, alright. I have been sitting down a little long. Some exercise would do me good." Italy squealed and led Germany into the hallway, and Prussia picked up the soggy mess of papers on the floor.
"Dude, this looks boring and totally not awesome. How do you stand it? I'm getting rid of this, as far as you know it never existed." Throwing the sopping wet mess in the garbage, Prussia followed them into the hall. "Now let's go have some fun."