A/N: I'll keep this short. I do NOT own the characters in this fic. They belong to Hideki Himura. Written out of boredom in school while thinking about Hetalia and Lost. Watership Down belongs to Richard Adams.
It's About Bunnies
"Whatcha reading, West?"
It was a lazy Sunday summer morning, near nine thirty four if you asked the old grandfather clock in the foyer. Gilbert Weilschmidt had awoken only a few minutes before. He wandered down the stairs of his brother's house, noting the silence and lack of aroma from the kitchen, meaning that Ludwig, his younger brother, was not making him breakfast. That irked the older man, and he was on a mission to see exactly what it was that his brother had deemed more important than the preparation of blueberry waffles.
His journey took him to the darkly colored library, decorated with forest greens, mahogany woods, and maroons to give the area a comfortable air. Ludwig's blond hair seemed to stick out like a sore thumb against the somewhat gothic looking interior design. Gilbert raised an eyebrow as he noticed his brother reading. That wasn't uncommon; the younger German was rather literate. The albino watched Ludwig turn a page before speaking again.
"West! I asked 'Whatcha reading'?" Gilbert frowned as there was, again, no reaction to his question, before walking over to the chair and leaning on its backing. Ludwig flinched, noticing his brother's presence.
"Watership Down," was the terse reply before another page was turned before his blue eyes became glued to the print once again. The Prussian shook his head. The damn book had to be good if his brother was this into it this deep. Via his faulty reasoning skills, Gilbert deduced that there were only two types of books that would hold his brother's attention like that. One was war. The other was porn. From the fiery colored cover, it was easy to tell that this was not smut.
Gilbert nodded, as if he was genuinely interested. In truth, all he wanted was his brother to get his ass in the kitchen and make breakfast. "So, it's about naval warfare, then?" the older brother guessed, getting a short glimpse of the small text on page seventy-four before his brother flipped the page again.
"No."
"Then what is it about?" Gilbert frowned, not used to being wrong, or to being brushed off. "Ships, water, and the word 'down'… it has to be about naval warfare. Unless it's smut. No self-respecting writer of that stuff would title their work 'Watership Down'. Besides, I thought you liked magazines more. No need to use your imagination and a hell of a lot easier to look at while you're jerking o-"
Ludwig coughed once, cutting off Gilbert's comments, before replying again. "It's about bunnies."
Now that caught Gilbert by surprise. His brow wrinkled in confusion and crimson eyes narrowed with thought. Pale lips pursed together as the albino tried to make sense of his brother's choice of literary topics.
"Bunnies," Gilbert repeated flatly, noting how anticlimactic the whole situation was as Ludwig nodded to confirm that statement with a nod. There was a brief moment of awkward silence before: "German bunnies?"
"No."
"Bunnies with spears?"
"No."
"Bunnies with freaking laser beams?"
"No, Bruder."
Gilbert practically threw up his hands in exasperation. "What about bunnies having sex? That has to be in there! It's not natural for that not to be in there!"
Ludwig opened his mouth to tell his brother off once more, but his expression turned thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know," he replied. "It is only natural for rabbits to mate. I will tell you after I finish the book. Will that satisfy your curiosity?"
"Actually," Gilbert said, smirking, glad that his awesome self had finally been right, "I'm hungry. Put down the bunny book, and make me some waffles or something, okay Bruder?"
There was silence again, and Ludwig gave a heavy sigh. He slipped a black ribbon in so that he would not lose his place. The blond reluctantly placed the book down on the couch and stood.
"What type of waffles do you want?" was the begrudging answer. Gilbert grinned. He loved getting his way.
"Blueberry… And I can tell if they were frozen!" Gilbert shouted after his brother, who had walked into the kitchen to make the albino the aforementioned waffles. The albino waited a few minutes before digging into his pocket and pulling out a length of Prussian blue ribbon. He picked up Ludwig's book and slipped the ribbon between the title page and page one before starting to read.
"Huh… it's about bunnies."