I've been listening to Goldfinger's version of Nena's '99 Luftballons' (In this case it'd be '99 Red Balloons', though…), and obviously it's quite fitting for Germany and Prussia.

So I went to go find something to read involving it.

To my great shock, there wasn't anything (at least, not in the Hetalia fanbase on this website). So I wrote my own (instead of studying for my SOLs. But I've never studied for them before, why start now?). Hopefully it doesn't suck.

I'm not calling it a true song-fic, because – as far as I understand it – it isn't, because I didn't use the lyrics. I think. Uh… correct me on that if I'm misunderstanding it. ^^;

(I'm totally neglecting Thief of Hearts, and I admit it. But I've got half the third chapter done; it's just a boring chapter so it's taking me a while to write it…)

Warning: This is semi-historical – don't expect everything to be totally historically accurate, because it's OBVIOUSLY not. Also, being a semi-historical story about this particular time period, it's going to be sensitive material. If you know that you're going to be offended, for goodness's sake, don't read it! If you do read it and find something that offends you, feel free to tell me. Just know that I DID warn you, and be nice. ALSO, THERE'S KINDA IMPLIED SHONEN-AI IN THERE IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IT. BUT IF YOU WANT TO VIEW IT AS FREINDSHIP, THAT'LL WORK TO.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia Axis Powers, nor do I own ANY version of the song 99 Luftballons, 99 Red Balloons, or whatever else you want to call it. I only wish I was that talented.

What little bits of probably-I-really-hope-accurate-history I've bestowed upon you / referenced in this can be found at the bottom. Please enjoy.

(Oh, and as usual, if you find something wrong – spelling, grammar, languages, anything, please say so. I hatehatehate being wrong… though that doesn't mean I'll change whatever it is right away, it's still good to know for next time, yes?)

***##***

Germany sighed. It was almost that day again. Just a little over twenty four hours until…

Until the Anniversary… his traitorous mind filled in the words he tried so desperately not to think of. Not that he ever succeeded at doing so. Nor did he ever get used to it, no matter how many years went by.

"Ve~ Doitsu seems sad. Why?" Only Italy could make the question seem so innocent at this time of year. Only Italy would ask the question in the first place at this time of year. He realized, though, as he opened his mouth to give a non-committal answer (Japan had some very good advice about those), that he didn't want to destroy that innocence, but neither did he want to lie to the smaller man.

So he gave a summarized, mostly-PG version.

"I miss bruder. He's annoying as hell when he's actually around, but… He looked so small, walking off with Russia. Not like his usually does. I… I guess I worry about him."

"Mmmmm…" The auburn-haired nation nodded, stray curl of hair bobbing gently as he considered the problem. "Prussia-nii probably misses you, too. Ve, Ludwig! I know! We should send him something!"

"That's a nice idea, Feli, but how? Russia won't let anything across." The last two words of the sentence hung unspoken in the air.

'The Wall.' How he hated that thing. It was simply there, cutting off his bruder, letting nothing in or out. He hadn't heard anything out of Prussia in years. It was almost hard to believe that once it had been difficult to get rid of him, that he'd considered him an idiot who only hung around to tease him. He wanted that presence back, now that he didn't have it.

You could grow used to the strangest things. You could also love the strangest people. It was all just a matter of time, and all of the sudden you were expecting to be woken up at odd hours in the morning by your older brother shaking you and babbling on about some new "Awesome idea I just had, Westen, you have to come see…"

"Ve…" Italy's brow wrinkled quite adorably as he considered the new setback to the issue. After a few minutes, his eyes lit up with excitement. "Perfect! C'mon, Doitsu, I know what to send Prussia-nii!"

***##***

Bemused the blonde examined the package Italy had insisted they purchase from a local toy store. Just a simple plastic bag, decorated in bold primary colors, and seemingly filled with scraps of red plastic.

"Italy… What is this?"

"For Prussia-nii! See?" He took the plastic bag from the taller nation and carefully opened it, pulling out one of the pieces of plastic.

Germany watched as the other attached it to a nozzle on a silvery canister. As the red started to swell, he suddenly realized what it was.

"A… luftballon?"

"Yep! We'll send them over the wall for Prussia-nii! Isn't it a great idea, Ludwig?"

Still slightly mystified, he watched as Feliciano tied a string to the balloon and gently let go, watching it drift up and Eastward, carried by the breeze to his brother.

"You know, Feli… it really is."

They were there all afternoon, inflating red balloons, and releasing them. Germany counted every one.

99 balloons they set free. 99 balloons to tell his brother that he cared. 99 balloons to remember. 99 balloons to carry the dream of being together again.

***##***

Prussia sighed, gazing out the window of the house. It was roomy and fairly nice yes, but it wasn't home. There wasn't any Westen to bother, no Italy to play with. No France or Spain to talk to and/or goof off with. No Austria to interrupt, no Hungary to tease. It was so lonely without everyone.

It wouldn't be so bad if he could call or write or something, maybe. But Russia had cut off his communications.

The Awesome Prussia was very un-awesomely… lonely.

The date wasn't helping. Every year, he tried to forget, but every year, he would glance at the calendar, or see something that reminded him of Westen, and it would all just flood back.

He blinked as there was suddenly something in the blank, grey slate of a sky. A spot of color, barely large enough to be seen, but growing. After a moment, he realized that it was drifting closer.

Curious, he walked out of the house to get a better view.

The dot of red soon turned into a blob of red, carried by the winds. And then another joined it. And another. And another.

The first red orb eventually drifted closer to reveal itself as something he hadn't seen in years.

Prussia laughed - something else he hadn't really, truly done in years – gazing with up into the sky with eyes the same color red as the luftballon.

His bruder had sent him children's toys. Gotten around the barrier that Russia had put up all those years ago, just to say that he remembered.

Of course, it had to be Italy's idea. There was no way Westen could think of something so childish (and surprisingly awesome). But it had worked, and it was almost as awesome as anything he might be able to come up with.

With a faint smile still on his face, Prussia plopped cross-legged onto the ground to watch the balloons, counting as every new red dot appeared.

***##***

Beep.

Beep.

BEEP. BEEP.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!BEEBEEBEEBEE…

The Allies looked over at the monitor that suddenly seemed so desperate to gain their attention. A view of the border between East and West Germany showed, dozens of brighter spots revealing that several dozen somethings were crossing.

"…That can't be good, aru."

"What is going over? I have not allowed anything to be brought in…"

"Guys… those look too small to be any kind of delivery plane, or even small planes. Like, waaaaay too small."

"For once, the Yank may be right. There's no way you could fit a person onto a dot that big…"

"Then… what are they…?"

"I dunno… but they're probably not friendly."

"Da. What is it you say? 'Better safe than sorry'?"

"Yeah. Better safe than sorry…"

-Beep. Commencing operation. Please enter pass code.-

-Pass code accepted. Deploy?-

"Are we sure about this?"

"Alright then..."

"…"

-beep-

***##***

To this day, he still wasn't sure what had happened. One moment he was sitting on his lawn, watching Westen's bright red gifts bob through the sky, and the next… that same sky seemed to have exploded.

The chaos that had followed had definitely not been awesome. In fact, it had been the opposite of awesome. Whatever had caused the sky to erupt also hit the ground, burning buildings and sending debris flying everywhere. It took an hour for the dust to start to settle, another two to get the fires out.

The next day, looking around what was left of his once-awesome city, Prussia desperately tried to remember what he had been feeling before the disaster. That calm, fuzzy-warm feeling of being remembered and loved, peace at just watching balloons drift among the breezes had been awesome, and he found himself wanting it back.

It was all but gone. The feeling was only a distant memory, and it had only been a day ago. All that remained was the panic of the explosions and a desolate, ruined street.

Because of a child's toy, they had ruined a city, taken so many lives. An overreaction, it had to be. Some machine had probably misinterpreted things, had thought there was a threat. And destruction had followed.

As if in a trance, Prussia found himself walking down the center of the street, in the places that hadn't been buried or were simply covered in less rubble. There, string trapped under what used to be a windowsill, but was now simply a piece of wood wedged under a rock, there was what he was looking for. A miraculously untouched, dusty red balloon.

He reached out and carefully wiped the dust off, revealing the same bright red rubber that he'd seen in the sky the previous day. Still in the dream-like state, he turned around to face the West, string held lightly in his hand.

The whole ordeal that had followed had been completely not-awesome, yes, but… his bruder might still have some hope for becoming slightly awesome, if he could agree to something like this with Italy. Because they'd reached him, and reminded him that he wasn't forgotten, that there were people who cared.

And that was completely and utterly awesome.

The luftballon drifted off into the sky, carried by the winds, carrying his dreams.

One balloon to say he'd heard. One balloon to wish on. One dream, of two nations, to finally see each other again.

***#End#***

So, um, history. Right.

Obviously, this didn't happen. (I think they would teach it in school if they did…). But the idea for the original song came from something like it. At a concert in the Western half of Germany, the singer for Nena watched as they released a bunch of toy balloons (as opposed to say, hot air balloons or research/weather balloons, in case that didn't make sense), and wondered what would happen if the balloons drifted over into the other half, since as a mass the balloons looked more like a spacecraft of something.

Both of the songs (the Nena and Goldfinger versions) tell a story about someone letting 99 balloons go, and a mistake and an overreaction triggering a nuclear-apocalyptic war. Wikipedia has an interesting article (that I've basically summarized here, but whatever) if you'd like to check that out.

I may have… exaggerated some things (no, duh) or left others out. If you'd like to point that out, do it nicely, okay?

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!