Updated 7/6/17. Reason- Increased legibility by breaking up paragraphs.

Some Explanation:

So I spent yesterday making my plan to fix and finish my so far longest piece. I thought that it would be a good one to fix first because I already had flushed out some major plot points and it shouldn't take too much work to fix it based on what I reread.

Anyways, part of my plan is that I have to get back into how these characters think, act, and breathe if I actually want to make a somewhat believable story. Today was spent focusing on Germany's character. So the questions going through my head were who was he, what does he want, why does he want that, how does he move as he goes through a day, and how does he actually say what he thinks. In doing this I thought that it could be good to try out my thoughts with a short story that focused just on him. So here is a quick one-shot that I hope conveys the character well. Let me know what you guys think in the comments, it really helps to know where I went wrong and what I did right.

To EllaAwkward, Thank you for the feedback! (I apologize to the rest of the readers who did not get to see the full conversation. I can only reply directly to reviews through comments or by leaving a separate review. I do not like messy comment sections, so since I cannot leave a response in a thread, I use the PM system first.) I hope that this version's paragraphs are better divided.

Obligatory disclaimer so that I don't worry about this: I do not own Hetalia (shocking I know)

There was a beautiful meadow spreading out, reaching as far as it could in its struggle against the forest. The fight between a stunning emptiness and seeming vastness that was so… simple. A meadow could just keep consuming, keep spreading… it could stretch itself so far that it became a field, a plain, as far as the eye could see.

Oh, but the darling forest… such a sturdy creature. A life lived and so many lives unlivable without it. For how can the birds make nests, if there was no tree to call its home? But a horse… well, such a creature cares for both. There is so much challenge to running between trees, what is life without the challenge? Where is the fun if you don't fall down and get the chance to laugh once you push yourself up from your new triumph over failure?

Neigh, then again… there is a danger to the challenge. It's far safer to stay in the meadow… on the plains where all obstacles were removed and where danger was easy to see. Much easier to run when there aren't constant things to dodge.

Just run. Stretch out legs. Feet hit the ground. Bend the knees at the impact. Push off again. Stretch it out. Bend the knee and swing it through and back again. Again. Keep going. Keep pushing. Strain to push so hard and go so fast that your feet never hit the ground gain. Blur into the wind. Fly away on the breeze.

What's that on the breeze? What's that sound rolling in unprompted? „Hast Du etwas Zeit für mich?" Where was that coming from? Why... „Dann singen ich ein Lied für dich" What... „Von 99 Luftballons…"

The next line never came as a hand slammed down on the alarm next to the bed. The torso it was attached to followed and shot itself up as another car rolled by down the cobblestone street. 'Huh, funny how a car can sound like a breeze.' The tired thought was dismissed as blue eyes came into focus on its surroundings.

His body moved without the need for sight though, swiftly picking up the planner hanging from the dresser on the left and then shuffling towards the bathroom. Any previous thoughts from his dream were forgotten as the man went about his morning routine. Blue eye finally took in the agenda as calloused hands flipped to the correct page. Reading glasses sat on the sink counter waiting to be picked up as the man passed 'ok, what's on today's plan.' And suddenly the man stopped mid-step as if he had nearly walked into a wall. The sound of blinking was all that came from the man as he slowly lowered his foot back to the ground. Mental gears that had just started running suddenly sped up as he attempted to process the information on the paper written in front of him. 'A prank?... no that's my handwriting… why then…?'

"Scheiße." The agenda snapped shut as the man marched back to his bedside table, walking loudly in his haste. The agenda was put back on its holder as the other hand reached for the phone. No time to do one task at a time or to use the hand on the agenda. He punched the speed dial for the first number right after picking the phone up from the cradle. The phone was to his ear as soon as the other returned to his side. The first ring was expected, the second was disappointing, his hand tightened on the phone as the third ring was about to begin, but fortunately, he soon heard a voice from the other side, "Was ist es? What's the emergency?"

"There has been a mistake," his body sprung into his ridged attentive stance as if he was at roll call on an early hazy morning waiting for his commander to come down the line.

A dry laugh floated through the phone as the voice went from concerned to aggravated, "Ludwig. This better not be about what I think it is. We went over this yesterday. And the day before that. I'm pretty sure we have gone over this for the past week."

"Ja, but-"

"Don't even finish that sentence." It was very tempting to do so anyways, but orders were orders.

There was a pause before Ludwig slowly spoke, "Well if you are sure that you don't require my services…"

"Perfectly certain, Ludwig. Now go on and relax."

That was an opening he might be able to use, shouldn't leave yourself open like that boss, "Well then I will just come in and answer a few emails to put my mind at ease."

A sigh came from the other end of the line, "Not every conversation should be treated as a battle, Ludwig."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean boss," he stood up just a little straighter thinking that victory was nearly his.

Another irate sigh had him on edge waiting for the reply, "You know exactly what I mean." His boss took a deep breath and put on the most commanding tone that they could, "Listen up Germany. Here are your orders for the day." Ludwig stood at attention thinking that she realized that it was better to have his help, "You are not permitted to come into work. You are not permitted to check, reply to, or send any work related emails today. You are not to make any work related calls and Gott im Himmel you are not allowed to work in your study at home. If I determine that you have done any work today you will be banned from work for the next week, do you understand?"

He shuddered at the thought of not working for a week, "Ja. I understand"

"Good. Cheer up Ludwig, it's a scheduled absence. Surely you wouldn't want to ruin a schedule," it wasn't a question. The line went dead after that last reminder. It took a moment for Ludwig to put the phone back into place as he thought over the conversation looking for any plans to get around the commands he had been given, but the more he thought it over the more his head started to hurt. He finally gave up and returned to at least finish the first part of his morning routine.

Despite having a day to himself he found himself getting ready quickly for the day. He paused once he got out of the shower staring down the suit that he had planned to wear for work that day. 'I could still wear it now. There is nothing wrong with it,' he stared at it a little longer, 'But, if I've been banned from working then maybe I should train… wait, no. My boss might consider that work.' He frowned, 'Well I could argue that it isn't technically work… I should ask for clarification.' Ludwig went back to the phone and considered calling his boss again, 'but Boss forbid work related calls…,' his hand fell back towards his side, 'well I could text her.' He was about to turn to grab his cell phone from on top of his dresser when he let out a growl in frustration, 'Nein. I can't do that if a call is considered working and an email is considered working, then a text would be too.'

He felt like his head was going to explode as the frustration set in. To calm himself he did a few squats and forced himself to take them slowly, letting himself focus on the control he had over his body as he moved. 'I'm fine. This is fine. This isn't hard enough to be called training… Boss did say to relax, so it's fine.'

Once he felt like he was back in control, he stopped and considered what to do with himself. Even if he didn't have work today, he was taking too much time to get ready this morning. He let the suit go for the moment and went over to his dresser to find some more casual clothing that wouldn't make him think about work. Ludwig looked down at the assortment of button-down shirts in every color from dark blue to forest green, oh look and some light seafoam green, as well as black and that one purple one that Feli insists he should wear in order to "show off his eyes." Well, Feli was supposed to be busy working today and not wanting to be an excuse for him to slack off, Ludwig hadn't told the bubbly Italian about his free time. Right, back to the outfit, 'Well, if it's just me and Bruder and it is going to be warm today then I suppose jean shorts and a black tank top will do just fine.'

Once Germany was dressed he debated on gelling his hair back. 'Well it's not like anyone should be here today except for Bruder so no one will think anything of it if I don't.' Satisfied that he was dressed and finally done with preparing for the day he left his room.

He was only on the second step when he saw a few furry shapes bounding towards the stairs. He chuckled at the sight of his furry companions at the bottom of the stairs. "Berlitz, you sure are excited to play this morning," he turned first to the golden retriever who's body screamed play with me as he jumped around, tail wagging excitedly, whining to try and contain his excitement. "Look at you Blackie. I'm sure Feli would spoil you if he were here," he asked the German Pinscher who had decided to flop onto his side begging for a belly rub. 'Sometimes I swear that dog is more Feli's than mine', he stared at the puppy eyes for a moment before turning to see his last dog. "Aster, what is on your back," he looked at his German Sheppard confused for a moment as to what that grey lump was. As he continued down the steps he recognized it instantly, "Ah I see, too lazy to walk to meet me there Sargent?" He could've sworn the cat purred at that title.

Stopping on the bottom step he took a moment to sit and pet the excited animals in front of him. It was pleasant to not need to rush past this part of his morning, he was a bit of a sucker for puppy dog eyes. Eventually, he got up knowing that the dogs would need to be walked soon, "Hey Berlitz, go grab the Frisbee," he watched as the retriever bounded off barking happily to find the disk that was somewhere in the toy box he left near the dog beds.

While Berlitz searched he went towards the kitchen and grabbed some fruit for breakfast, Aster and Blackie followed him in and waited patiently by their food bowls. The grey cat finally got tired of nearly sliding off of the Sheppard so it jumped to a kitchen chair to observe the room, almost like he was trying to make sure everything was in order. Berlitz returned as Germany started packing a small lunch bag with a sandwich and a drink, "Good job Berlitz." He filled the dog's bowls and set some food out for the cat and went to grab the leashes. 'Well might as well take the dogs to the park if I can't train'

Ludwig took his time with his dogs that morning to try and distract himself from his ban from working. By the time that they got back his dogs were exhausted, but their owner was still looking for something to do. His dogs had distracted him for a little while, but he felt anxious not following his usual schedule. 'What sort of role model am I for my citizens when I am not at work when I am perfectly capable? I should be taking care of them,' the guilt was slowly eating at him, but this time he wasn't sure that any amount of squats would help.

At a loss for something to do, he let himself wander and found himself back in the kitchen staring at the cat that was rubbing up against his legs. Once the cat had his attention it gave him this odd stare as if it was trying to get him to follow it. Well, that seems odd, but Ludwig really didn't have anything better to do so he followed it. 'Huh, a short trip I guess,' the cat had stopped in front of the stove and sat itself to face him. "You are an odd little thing, but I guess I shouldn't have expected a magical journey or anything from following a cat," he chuckled and picked up the cat, "so you want me to cook hmm?" The cat meowed at him, "it's too bad you can't speak German little Sargent. Well, cooking is better than doing nothing I guess."

Surprisingly, or perhaps not as it is was a cat that he was holding, the feline managed to get out of his hold and jumped onto the counter making his way towards the cookbooks, which caused Germany to nearly jump out of his skin at the thought of fur on the counter. Swiftly picking up the cat, Ludwig proceeded to get cleaning supplies to get the germs from his counter top, "Cat, don't push your luck. You know that you aren't allowed on the counter."

Being a cat, the creature didn't care about what his human had just said and was trying to get back out of his arms again, "Alright, just a second cat. You are so demanding." Thinking that all the creature wanted was to be back on the ground he set it on the floor to clean the counter.

To his surprise, it looked as if it was going to try and jump back onto the counter as soon as it was free so he stepped in front of the fur ball before it could, "Enough with the counter. Nothing up here is for cats."

Again, being a cat, the animal did not care and tried to find a way around him. "What is it up here that you want? All there is over here is cookbooks."

It meowed.

'What a strange thing this cat is,' he seemed to have a brief staring contest with the cat before he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh, "would you stay off my counter if I move the cookbooks?"

Surely today was just a bad day for the German because he could have sworn that the cat nodded. "Alright then. Sit there and wait," much to his surprise it seemed that the cat could follow orders and here he thought only a dog could learn a command like sit, but here he was staring at a cat that had sat itself down as if it were imitating Aster. With the shake of his head, Ludwig turned to clean the counter before he grabbed a couple of the books off the counter and bent down to hold them in front of the cat. "Alright, Sargent, which book did you want so badly?"

The cat head-butted one of the books out of his hands in Ludwig's relaxed and amused state. Once the book was on the floor the cat sat at the left end of the book and used its front paws to pull the edges of the right-hand pages to himself. Somewhere around the middle of the book the cat stopped at a page and moved to sit above the spine of the book so he could stare at Ludwig. All Ludwig could think was, 'What kind of spell has England put on this cat? Gott, he needs to stop playing around with that stuff, he's going to hurt someone one day.' Since the cat was only flipping through a cookbook, Ludwig figured the cat couldn't be too harmful, 'It would almost be amusing if this wasn't a spell, but rather the cat having tried some of England's food and figuring out how to tell other people how to cook,' Ludwig chuckled at the image of a cat having such a bad reaction to English food that it figured out how to ask for food from others.

Obviously, the cat wasn't as amused and swatted Ludwig to get him to focus, "Sorry Sargent, my head is not as clear as usual today. I told my boss that changing my schedule was a bad idea."

Having had enough of human antics and having accomplished his mission, the cat just got up and walked away.

'That was odd.' Dismissing the cat for the moment, Germany turned back to the cookbook and looked at the recipe. 'Donauwelle… well, I guess I would enjoy doing some baking.' He turned to get his apron and was greeted by the sight of what had to be a prank in waiting. Normally Ludwig would don his professional grade white apron, but instead hanging in its place was what looked like a dress at first glance. 'Oh Gott, what did Gilbert do.'

Stalking over to look at the item he noticed that it was in fact not a dress, but an apron made to look like one. It had wide black and white checkered shoulder straps that wrapped around to the back of the neck and were tied into a bow. The straps lead into the top of the apron, which was covered in ruffles that matched the shoulder straps. The ruffles covered the edges of the top so that the material looked as if it had rectangular edges at the top. The pattern for the rest of the apron itself seemed to be a pink rose on black motif aside from the decorative ribbons that sat on each side slightly below waist-level while the middle of the apron was held shut at the back using another ribbon that tied around the waist and came together into a large bow at the back. Perhaps worse is that the skirt had a very obvious petticoat that caused the bottom to flare outwards. Upon closer inspection, Ludwig found a note sticking out of the semicircular pocket that sat slightly below the ribbons on the skirt. Taking the note in hand he expected to find some snarky comments from his Bruder, but to his surprise, he found a note written in Italy's handwriting with a few "explanation drawings" on the sides.

It took a few moments to decipher what on earth the note actually said as it looked hastily written, but eventually Ludwig arrived at the conclusion that the note basically said, "Ludwig, I'm sorry I borrowed your apron, but I needed it for a little bit, but it's ok because I left you this really cute replacement in case you need one before I return the other one," or something like that. 'Well at least this doesn't look like a prank from Bruder, but I don't exactly want to wear it… Then again, better to get an apron dirty than my own clothes right?'

After tossing the idea around for a while, Germany finally caved and hoped that he would finish before his Bruder saw him. As is always the case when Germany is baking though, at some point he becomes relaxed enough and focused enough in the cake that he stops paying as much attention to what everything except his hands are doing. At first, it is tiny things like humming or whistling while measuring out ingredients. Maybe it will start with a little foot tapping as he hits a rhythm while stirring.

Today Ludwig was in a fairly good mood after spending time with his dogs, so it didn't take long until he was waltzing around with the batter as he mixed it and humming an old tune. It was in moments like these that he could zone out a bit and let himself just enjoy the feeling of creating something because he wanted to and not because it was desperately needed. It wasn't often that Ludwig could find the time to be alone enough to feel comfortable baking, but when he did it was easy to get lost in the moment. Recipes were easy to follow and he had control of every detail of the dish.

Unfortunately for him zoning out like this did have one unexpected result. If only he had noticed the peculiar laugh sooner… And that is how Prussia got his new favorite piece of blackmail- er rather, his favorite new wallpaper.