Because all the Germanics are screwed up. It runs in the family.

So, this is somewhat of a sequel to Sammen Igjen, though you don't necessarily have to read it to understand this story. (It would be nice, though.) The title means "Moving On" in German.

The time frame will mostly be the 1950s. This will mostly be about Germany being forced to overcome his massive guilt complex after WWII, Denmark and Sweden trying to start acting like brothers again, and Switzerland doing his best not to shoot them. Austria and Liechtenstein will show up at some point too.

It doesn't follow Hetalia canon 100%. For example, Denmark is one of the Germanics in this, and apparently Sweden is the only Nordic that is. I blame all of you people that make the two of them related in some way. There will be others, don't worry.

For pairings, there will be Austria's angst over Hungary and the fact that Sweden calls Finland his wife, but the first will hopefully not be too noticeable and you can interpret the second however you want to.

Oh, and while it's not really relevant, I support the Germany is HRE theory, which is why he's considered their brother unlike Liechtenstein.

The Germanics from oldest to youngest with human names:

Prussia- Gilbert Beilschmidt
Denmark- Mikkel Køhler
Switzerland- Vash Zwingli
Sweden- Berwald Oxenstierna
Bohemia/Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic- Aneta Cech
Austria- Roderich Edelstein
Germany- Ludwig Beilschmidt

Also relevant:

Liechtenstein- Erika "Lili" Vogel
Hungary- Erzsébet Héderváry
America- Alfred F. Jones
Norway- Lukas Bondevik
Iceland- Eiríkur Steilsson
Finland- Timo (can't spell his last name and am too lazy to find it)

There will be more. And a few of those characters obviously won't be showing up for a while due to the time period.

Finally, I speak English, am learning Norwegian, and fail at French. I know no German, Danish, Swedish, or whatever other languages may show up. If you speak one of those four languages and notice I got something wrong, please tell me. I won't get mad. In fact, I will thank you.

Disclaimer: This would be canon if I owned Hetalia. Please tell me if it ever does so I can collect the money.

Bewengung Auf

One: Finding Out

Vash muttered under his breath in German, French, Italian, and Romansh about how much he's had to pay for gas as he slammed the door to his car.

Why did I have to be nice and let Lili go visit Roderich? The image of when he had seen the Austrian at that meeting came to mind. ...Never mind. If having her there will help him actually... what's the word... function, that'll be good. Not that I care, he backtracked as he knocked on the door. Roderich just shouldn't look like a hobo, that's all.

Ignoring the voice that said he cares about his second-youngest brother, Vash knocked again. After a minute, he got annoyed and yelled, "Oi, Ludwig, open the door! I better not have driven all the way for nothing! OPEN THE DOOR!"

Thankfully, before the Swiss man finally just kicked the door down, it opened, revealing a tall blond with gravity-defying hair. "Hej Vash! How's it going?"

Vash blinked. "Mikkel? What are you doing here?"

The Dane's smile fell from his face, though he made a valiant effort to place it back on his face to fool his younger brother.. "Um... you know... I was in the neighborhood..."

"Copenhagen is nowhere near Bonn. Don't give me that crap."

Mikkel deflated. "I'm worried about Lud, okay! He apparently hasn't left the house for anything other than meetings with his bosses for years, and he's resisted every attempt that I've made to change that!"

Vash frowned. He knew his youngest brother had been having issues lately (understatement of the millennium), but something in the Dane's voice made him realize that it was worse than he had thought. "I didn't think it was that bad."

"You don't know the half of it," Mikkel said, stepping back to let him in.

The Swiss man walked in, but stopped dead upon entering the living room. "My God..." he whispered, shocked at the sight before him.

Usually, the German personification's houses were spotless, not one speck of dirt or dust anywhere to be found. That was definitely not the case now. Instead of the coffee table being stainless and having every little thing in order, there were magazines carelessly thrown on it and what looked like a beer stain on the wood. The couch wasn't much better. The throw pillows, usually carefully placed in the proper positions, were either missing or thrown carelessly on the floor. It looked like there was paint peeling from the wall, and nothing had been done to either stop or fix it. To top it all of, there were broken beer bottles thrown around everywhere.

"It was worse when I got here," he heard Mikkel mutter behind him in Danish.

The Swiss man just turned around to stare at the Dane in horror, unable to find words to say what was on his mind.

After a few minutes, he finally asked, "Where is Ludwig?"

Mikkel hesitated for a moment, saying, "Um, you sure you want to see him?"

"That is what I came here to do."

The Dane sighed before saying, "Don't say I didn't warn you," and gesturing for Vash to follow him into the dining room.

As Vash followed him, he realized that they weren't the the only two making noise in the house. He could hear someone choke out "Warum?" over and over again, voice full of guilt and remorse.

"Why?"

As he had thought, it was Ludwig. Seeing him, disheveled, hair not slicked back and hanging loosely in his face, hands clutching onto a bottle of beer for dear life... it made Vash feel like tearing whoever did this to his brother apart.

Mikkel didn't pause like the Swiss man did, probably having seen him like this too many times to count, instead walking over to their youngest brother, placing his hand on his shoulder, and saying, "Hey, Lud? Vash is here to visit."

Instead of looking up, Ludwig shook his head, saying, "No, he's not."

"I am," Vash said awkwardly, not having any idea about what to say. "Look... I don't know what to say that won't seem like I'm going to yell at you."

The German finally looked up at him at that, some hope appearing in his eyes, though it looked like he was attempting to dispel it. "You're not?"

"I..." Vash began, biting his lip before sighing and saying, "Look, I wouldn't pay all that money for gas just to yell at someone. Such a waste of money, if you ask me."

He wished that he could say what he really meant, but Ludwig seemed to understand that that was Vash-speak for "I'm not going to yell at you because I have nothing to yell at you for" and let his lips rise a few millimeters, giving something like a smile.

Mikkel smiled. "See, Lud? I told you that me and America weren't the only ones!"

"Yeah... you did..."

Vash gave the second-oldest Germanic a questioning look, confused at what he meant, but didn't get an explanation.

Instead, Mikkel asked, "Hey Vash, how long are you staying?"

The Swiss personification shrugged, asking, "Why?"

"Well... I'm heading to Svalbard and was wondering if you were going to stick around for awhile."

In other words, you're begging me to watch him for awhile and attempting not to let that on, Vash thought. He sighed. "I don't have any meetings, so I can probably stick around for a couple days, I guess." Another part of what he had said occurred to him. "Where's Svalbard?" The name sounded somewhat familiar, like he had heard it in passing at some point.

"It's part of Norway..." Mikkel said. Vash stared at him, an eyebrow raised, wanting to know why he was going there. "I'm meeting the other four Nordics there 'cause my boss wants us to have better relations. Anyway, I wish I could stay, but I have to catch the boat to Bergen. I'll see you guys later!" After giving them tight hugs, the Dane left.

A minute later, Vash stated, "'My boss wants us to have better relations'. Yeah, right. It was your idea."

Ludwig nodded in agreement.

The awkward silence that ensued was thankfully broken by the phone. Vash looked at the German and asked, "You going to answer that, or should I?"

Ludwig just gestured for him to.

The Swiss got to the phone and answered it just before the last ring died. "Ja? Who is it?"

The person who answered was quite possibly one of the last people he had expected. "Switzerland? What are you doing at Ludwig's?"

"America?"

"Yep, the one and only!"

Vash shook his head in wonder. "I'm visiting. Why are you calling?"

Silence. "I'm worried about him," the American finally said. "Mikkel said that he was going somewhere and I wasn't sure when he was so I called to see if he was here and maybe talk to Ludwig."

"Since when are you on first name basis with the two of them?"

"Mikkel and I got drunk together and I heard about everything from him. He suggested that calling Ludwig by his human name might help me get through to him a bit."

"Has it helped?"

"I wish."

Vash sighed. "Look, I really don't want to ask, but... is there anything I can do to help?"

The neutral nation couldn't believe that those words had come out of his mouth. Was he seriously asking America for help?

However, the American jumped at the chance to help. "Well... I haven't been around him much, but from what Mikkel said, he has nightmares. And they're bad."

"What kind of nightmares?"

"...You can probably guess..."

He could, and he didn't like it. "How often?"

"Um... pretty much every night, from what he said."

Vash cursed. "Great. How am I supposed to deal with that? I can't comfort people!"

"Well, usually when one of my st- I mean Mattie has nightmares, just someone being there for them can help."

"I doubt that will work."

"You never know. Anyway, I have to go. If you need anything, just ask me."

"Sure, whatever." On that note, he ended the call, sighing and sitting down on the couch.

What was he supposed to do? He couldn't even comfort Lili when she had nightmares and those weren't anywhere close to common. America's suggestion was somehow the best he had gotten, and he wouldn't be able to keep that up unless he brought him home with him.

Vash paused. Why don't you do that? a part of his mind asked.

That would just make things worse.

Things can't get worse.

The Swiss man sighed. It really couldn't.

As much as he tried to pretend otherwise, he cared about his family, even Roderich. He wouldn't have let Lili go stay with him for a while if he didn't deep down.

Mikkel said he couldn't get him to leave? Well, he wasn't trying hard enough. After I get in touch with his boss, Ludwig is going to Bern whether he wants to or not.

Translations:

Hej (Danish) - Hi

Warum (German) - Why

Ja (German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian) - Yes

Yeah, this really was just more of a prologue than anything.

Note: Bonn was the "temporary" capitol of West Germany, since having your entire government meeting in West Berlin might have caused problems. I can't remember if it was like this in 1951, when this chapter takes place, but whatever.

Fun fact: while Copenhagen isn't really close to Bonn, it would probably take less time to get there than it would for me to get to the beach. The US is bigger than you think.

Some of you probably think that Vash is out of character. He might be, to be perfectly honest. However, I see him as someone who really does care for his family but won't/has no idea how to show it. I mean, look at his relationship with Lili. Someone that truly hates everyone wouldn't take her in, especially if he had been going through tough times.

I also don't think Mikkel is a complete idiot, and he does realize what's going on with his family and friends and tries to do everything he can to help them. I also think that the years he's fought with Berwald has taken a toll on him, which is a major part of Sammen Igjen and this story.

And let's face it: Ludwig was a mess after WWII. There's no real way he wasn't.

Don't worry, things will look up for them. Eventually. It'll take awhile.

On a completely other topic, anyone want to explain what exactly "Romansh" is? I know it's one of Switzerland's four official languages, but other than that I know nothing, and I don't want to go look at Wikipedia.