Love Me When I'm Gone

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Germany's Letter

"Dear mein Bruder:

I hope you know that I loved you more than anything in the world. I met you when you were just a baby nation. I still remember how scared of me you were." Prussia laughed over the recording.

Ludwig was listening to the tape in the letter. He had gotten an audio recording of his brother's voice, though it sounded pained.

"Why didn't I tell you? You might be asking. Well, unless I got the chance before I died after I made this, I've tried to several times. You've always just brushed me off. Stiffed me. Made other plans."

Gilbert sighed over the recording. "Well, I was dying ever since GDR dissolved. But, a year ago, I started to have the urge to go to my birth place. That is where you'll probably find anything remaining of me. I honestly don't know where it is, so you should look around in the Northern region of Europe." Gilbert seemed to sniffle a bit over the recording. "A-Anyway, I should tell you what I wanted to."

"The truth is, you weren't born in 1871, when I formed Germany. You are actually almost as old as me." He murmured, and the recording went quiet. "You were a nation called Holy Rome, once. Italy's first love. Italy isn't sure, but I am confirming that for him in my letter to him." Gilbert sighed. "I didn't tell you, because I didn't feel as though you needed to know about the part of your past you can't remember. I'm only saying anything now so you and Italy can finally be happy. Go to him, Bruder."

"I guess, I should finish the recording now...oh wait. My things." He gave an address. "I put everything away that I was going to give forever ago. The keys to the storage unit are in the envelope I gave you." So, that was what those were for.

The recording was coming to an end. "My advice is that you lose the stick up your ass, and pay closer attention to those who love you."

"If you had, maybe I'd still be there."

The recording clicked off, and Ludwig was left alone in a big house meant for two. Him, and his older brother.

Gilbird chirped sadly, and Ludwig gently rubbed at the birds feathers.

"I miss him too." Germany mumbled, still in shock.

It had been a few days since the reading of the will, and this was the third time he had listened to his brother's voice.

He put it in the drawer, and sighed softly.

"I will miss him for a very long time."

The funeral Gilbert himself had arranged would commence in a few days.

How sad.

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Hungary's Letter:

"I want you to know that yours was the hardest to make." She sat down, with a cup of tea as she finally deigned to open up her envelope.

Elizaveta couldn't believe the idiot had gone and died. She had never even apologized for all the shitty things she'd done to him, and vice versa.

By opening the envelope, she was recognizing he was gone.

And she didn't quite know why that hurt so much.

"I had to split it up into two." He mumbled. "But I'll get to that second one later. The first thing I want to say, is sorry. I never treated you like you deserved. I want to apologize for being a nuisance to you."

Elizaveta almost dropped her cup to the floor in shock. "What?" She murmured, before he continued.

"Well, I don't expect an apology out of you for causing me so much trouble, as I'm dead now." He laughed weakly. "But, overall, I wanted you to know that. I never meant to cause you any trouble."

"You see, Liz, you were always my best friend, and above all..." He paused, hesitant.
"My greatest, and only love." He whispered, and she rewinded it just to ensure she had heard that right.

Her breath stopped, and she paused the recording to collect that thought.

"My greatest, and only love." He said again, and she put a hand over her heart.

He had...loved her?

"I wanted to tell you, but I loved you enough to let you go. I wasn't enough to make you happy. So, I let you live with him. I want you to go somewhere now. At the end of this,

I'm giving you a gift. The one thing I left you."

He read off an address, and she wrote it down. "I'll have another recording for you there." He murmured and it clicked off.

She got into her car immediately, and drove off into the fields of Europe, where there were not really houses. "Where have you taken me, Gilbert?" She asked herself, before

she came upon a field full of wildflowers.

They were always her favorite.

There was another recording with a human there, and now the land belonged to her, apparently.

She had started to cry somewhere along the way, and now didn't know how to stop.

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Austria's letter:

"I hope you know that I hated you for a time, but now I don't have the energy to." He said, voice harsh. "You had everything that I wanted, and then you wasted it."
So he had been right, Gilbert was mad at him for wasting his love with Elizaveta.

"I told you that I loved her, and you stomped all over my love!" He sighed. "Why? Why did you never tell her? I did it out of respect for you, my fellow German nation. I couldn't tell her, she would never have believed me. Well, now that I'm dead, I had the guts to tell her. You probably already know that's what I put in my letter."

"If you ever had any respect for me, Roderich, you'll tell her the truth when she comes to ask questions. And you will comfort her, in my place. I showed her the one thing I always kept for her, and she might not take that well. I also expect you to keep the family together, despite my death. That's all I ask of you."

The recording clicked off. He had gone to the storage unit Gilbert had left him, and inside, found several old portraits of them when they had all lived together.

Gilbert had kept them safe after all.

Roderich smiled. "Thank you, asshole." He murmured.

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France's Letter:

It wasn't a recording. It was a political cartoon from after WWI, and it had a caption, which read.

"You killed me. You won."

France didn't feel any joy.

He must have planned this years ago, as the letter was far older than any of the others he had seen.

They had once been bitter enemies, and in his hatred, had cursed Gilbert to fade away.

Now he was left with only his mistakes to watch him.

He imagined red eyes flung wide open, staring in judgement.

There are two things you have to do for yourself. You have to go to god, and you have to learn about living for yourself.

Gilbert had done both now.

France still had much to learn.

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A/N: The next couple chapters will just be the letters, and then plot will move along. :)