Dear Italy
Lieber Italien,
How is freedom? How are you? Is Romano treating you alright? He's not giving you a hard time is he? They took Gilbert away yesterday, by they I mean Ivan and Natalia, she's an evil bitch I tell you. I can still see them dragging him off, bound by hand cuffs forced to join the Soviet Union. Francis protested their treatment of him the whole time. It's nice to see that someone still cares about Bruder. He feels so alone sometimes.
Ludwig sighed putting down the black ball point pen onto the metal desk. How pathetic he was, he hadn't even been imprisoned a week and he was already writing to Felicino. Though it had been many years since he had spoken to the Italian, since 1943 in fact, that was two years. The separation was starting to get to him, he was sure that Felicino wouldn't visit him in prison, no he wouldn't want the happy Italian man to visit him while he was like this. Guarded day and night, he was spit on by some of the guards. It was humiliating for the proud nation. "Oi, Nazi bastard," his current guard said with an American accent. Ludwig shook his head, he wasn't a Nazi, he had never been part of that party, as a rule countries tried to avoid taking political sides when it came to internal politics, though Ludwig had to say, he hadn't been fond of the idea of being communist. He never once wore the swastika on his arm, though Ludwig wasn't sure how many times he had said Hail Hitler, but then he wouldn't wanted to have faced the consequences of not saying it to the cowardous bastard. Hitler had been one hell of a boss and he hadn't cared at all what effects those camps had on Ludwig mentally or physically. He had visited one, Dachau, it was in Germany, and he had wanted to know what exactly was causing him all the pain. He still had nightmares of the place. The thing was he wasn't the only one who had suffered from those hells either, Felix, Rodriech, Elizaveth, Gilbert, Lars, Belle and Francis had all suffered from their people being killed there as well.
"Was?" Ludwig responded irritated with the man, he hated this guard. He was especially rude to Ludwig, and often rubbed it into the nation's face which side had won the war. As if everyone else wasn't doing that. And to make matters worse, the guard had somehow found out that Ludwig had a soft spot for his former ally, Italy, and made sure to make fun of the soldiers he had tried to train during the war.
"You have a visitor." The metal door to the cell the blond now called home swung open and a honey haired, bespectacled, blue eyed man with a hero complexion walked in. He looked more tiered then Ludwig had ever seen him look before, Alfred always seemed to have an infinite amount of energy and a smile that sometimes got irritating if you looked at it too long. But the American was devoid of that smile today, his brown uniform looked dirty and his aviator jacket had tinges of burn marks on it.
"Alfred," Ludwig said curtly nodding to the man whose blue eyes looked down at the cement floor below him. Ludwig frowned, something was definitely wrong, the blond was always talking. But why had he come to him, the loser of the war and not to Arthur or Francis who had won the war with him.
"I deserve to be locked in here too." Alfred whispered so quietly that Ludwig had to strain to hear him. "I wasn't a hero today." Ludwig wasn't sure he'd ever seen Alfred like this, maybe he had been after Kiku attacked him at Pearl Harbor, though Ludwig doubted it. He probably coughed up a lot of blood due to Pearl Harbor. Ludwig hadn't been pleased with Kiku's idea of attacking America; he had wanted to take on the energetic nation as a team after first defeating Europe and Asia. But none of that mattered now, as the nation stood in front of him looking as if someone had finally told America he was the villain and not a hero.
"What did you do?" Ludwig hadn't meant for his words to come out so harshly, but he was irritated with his lot in life at the moment and to see Alfred looking so depressed after watching the man invade his home, kill his people, imprisoned him, Ludwig just wasn't feeling so sympathetic to him.
"I dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese of Hiroshima, the reports are estimating forty-five thousand dead and the numbers are going up by the thousands." Alfred sounded haunted as he voiced what was eating him up inside. "My boss wants to drop another one in a few days because Kiku hasn't surrendered yet. He was in so much pain and there was so much blood," Alfred shivered from the memory his arms wrapped around himself. "And I know where Mr. Truman is coming from with dropping these bombs, but I'm afraid of what the effect they'll have on the world will be. Especially with Ivan, he's so difficult to understand sometimes. I don't trust him. I don't like the fact that he didn't honor some of our decisions at our conferences. He wasn't supposed to keep control of Ukraine, the Baltics or Belarus." Alfred's voice became more hardened as he spoke about his comrade.
"Why are you telling me all this?" Ludwig asked not sure how to feel, he understood Alfred's guilt about Hiroshima but he couldn't sympathize with him, not when he had hurt his friend.
"Because, I know Kiku will surrender after the next bomb. Because I'm going to fix him and make him better. Because I want to help you too. I believe you deserve a second chance. Arthur disagrees of course, but he's still sore about London. I'll make you a deal, I'll help you get through the next couple of years with your economy and military and stuff if you agree to always allow me to have a military presence in your country and always to be my ally." Ludwig blinked at the American, this proposition Alfred was proposing was unheard of. In every other war the losers were left to their own devices and the winners gloated about their victories, Alfred was no different. Then you had situations after World War One, Ludwig didn't want to have suffer from that kind of humiliation again. And Alfred had yet to lose a war, not even against himself, being allies with him would definitely be an advantage for him and maybe he could be seen in a different light. Why should the decisions of one mad man affect his countries future?
"How long would I have to stay in here?" Ludwig asked not wanting Alfred to know how close he was to taking him up on his offer. He couldn't make decisions without his government, and right now Ludwig wasn't even sure if he even had a government.
"Er, that would be something Arthur and Francis would have to help decide on. Don't worry I'm sure they'll agree. Right now our people have been working to help your people create a new government and find all of those in charge who need to be put on trial." Alfred said a ghost of a smile appearing on his face. "I could see if Felicino could come visit you."
"Nein!" Ludwig barked abruptly, Alfred looked a bit taken back. "I don't want Italien to see me like this." The honey-blond nodded
"Francis couldn't stand for weeks, after we reoccupied him, to have Arthur look at him. He was ashamed of-" Alfred went silent, "Sorry that was thoughtless, Arthur says I have to work on that. But I was isolated for so long from other countries and I don't like to be alone. I mean Mathew was good company and all, but having only one friend isn't so much fun. I didn't mind being alone at first because I had so many new lands to discover and I killed so many natives. I feel so alone still because you guys have been around each other for thousands of-" Ludwig put a hand over his mouth to silence him like he often had to do with Felicino. Though, when Alfred went on long rants it wasn't as whiney as Felicino, but just as annoying.
"If you can convince Francis and Arthur to let me out of here, then I'll take you up on your offer." Ludwig said all but pushing Alfred out of his cell. He needed to think and it was obvious that the American wasn't going to let him do that. Alfred nodded making his way out of the cell. "Oh, and Alfred, I don't think you belong in a cell. You are a hero to a great deal many people and we all make tough choices that cost lives. Realizing that and moving on from that, that is how we grow as nations and as people." He saw the outline of a smile on Alfred's face as he walked out of the cell the door clanging shut behind him.
"Guard," Alfred said to the annoying brunette who had walked off so the two nations could speak in private.
"Yes sir." The guard responded, Ludwig shook his head, what a suck up.
"I don't think we'll be requiring your assistance with guarding Germany. I believe you can join your comrades upstairs in the mess hall." Alfred said, Ludwig wondered maliciously what the guard's face looked like as Alfred told him that he couldn't torture the country anymore.
"But… but Commander Kirkland said-" the man started before being cut off
"I'll speak to Commander Kirkland." Alfred said sharply and Ludwig heard the sounds of boots going up the steps near his cell. The same steps Ivan had dragged his brother up yesterday and only God knew when he would see him again, if ever. Ludwig turned back to the desk where his abandoned letter to Felicino and the black ballpoint pen he was writing it with lay, discarded. Sitting down on the metal seat, everything was metal and bolted to the floor in the cell, Ludwig picked up the pen to start writing to the Italian again.
Alfred just came in and told me the news about Hiroshima. He was really upset about what he did, he wanted to join me in one of these cells they have me in. He's really something you know. He reminds me a lot of you and I miss you. But right now I'm in no shape to be seeing anybody really. He gave me a proposition that I think I'm going to take. It'll benefit us both in the long run. He also said something about making it as well with Kiku, so don't worry about us. We'll be okay. How's that new constitution coming? I hope Lovino isn't giving you any trouble. The next time I write I hope to be out of this cell, Alfred talking to Francis and Arthur about it.
Ludwig
Ludwig sighed and leaned back on his chair stretching, it had been a long couple of months and he needed to get some sleep and wait to see where tomorrow would take him.