Sometimes when Italy would sit in Germany's library and he thought he was alone he would let his usual happy mask slip and while he still had a smile on his face, if smaller, tears would well up in his green eyes and generate small quiet sobs from him. When Germany first saw this he rushed into the library but as soon as his friend heard him he instantly reapplied his happy mask and started babbling on about pasta and pizza. After multiple times of attempting to find out from Italy what was wrong and his friend playing 'the dumb blonde' Germany gave up and left Italy be.
Soon after this, Germany was cleaning the house and while vacuuming Italy's room, really the guest room, he accidentally ran into Italy's bed, causing a small hidden draw to spring open. To Germany's surprise, when he opened the draw there was only a small pirate style hat with gold trim and not being one to pry he placed the hat back in the draw, closed it, and left the room. Germany never mentioned it to Italy and Italy never let on if or if not he knew about Germany's findings, and they were fine that way.
The third and final strange occurrence in Germany's house was when he went into his storage closet to look for one of his old uniforms. His boss had recently asked if he was a spare uniform that a museum could use or have, donated anonymously of course. It had been years since he had entered this particular closet, as he would rather let WWII be forgotten, and while rummaging he found an old creaky push broom with a small white bonnet tied around the handle. Strangely enough, leaning against the wall besides the broom was a child sized sword that looked as if it had long since rusted. Since Germany had certainly not fought in any wars when he was, by the size of the sword, 8 – 9 years old and Prussia had never mentioned anything this was quite strange indeed. None the less Germany grabbed the spare General's uniform he had seen out of the corner of his eye and head out, and all the way he silently promised himself he would ask Prussia about the sword when he next saw him.
It was days later that Germany was finally able to corner Prussia and ask him about the child-sized sword he had seen. After maybe 20 minutes of Prussia trying to dodge questions Germany snapped and yelled at Prussia to answer the question and with that Prussia sat him down and said…
"Germany, I think it's time I told you about our big brother and how he knew Italy. Yes, that Italy…"
And so Germany learned of how he and the personification of Holy Roman Empire were related. He learned of the war his big brother had fought and lost, being officially dissolved in late 1806. Not only that, he also learned of the cheerful young maid his brother had met and fallen in love with and how the young maid had fallen in love with his brother. Germany heard of his brothers adventures with the maid and his resolve to come back to her (him) after the war had ended. After a bit of threatening on his part he learned about how when his brother had left for the war his love had given him their push broom and bonnet and how his brother had given her (him) his hat in turn. He learned of how Prussia had found their brother in a pool of his own blood with a sword through his gut, clutching a still white bonnet. Prussia told him of how he had hidden the push broom in an old storage closet with the white bonnet tied around the handle. Finally Prussia gave his last bit of history, the young maid that Holy Roman Empire had loved and thought to be a girl was really a boy. That boy's name was North Italy and to this day North Italy still mourned his lost love.
When Prussia was finally done Germany stumbled upstairs and into his bedroom before finally lying on his own bed, not sure what to think. After twisting and turning on his bed for hours Germany finally succumbed to the urge to sleep and let his dreams take him.
The next day when Germany one again found Italy in the library silently crying he left him to his mourning for his long lost love, but not without new appreciation of how strong his friend actually was. Before Germany left from the doorway of the library he glanced at his best friend and silently made a promise to his brother he had never known; I promise I will protect him, for you and myself. I can promise you that Holy Rome. With that he left the library, returning to downstairs to finish cleaning the dishes he had neglected the night before.
Far above Germany, resting softly in the clouds with the other former nations Holy Roman Empire sat quietly watching his love, content to wait for him to join him in eternal paradise. With a sigh the former nation stood up, brushed off his pants, and left to find Ancient Rome, all the time silently thanking his younger brother in his head…
"Thank you, little brother"