Thanks to everyone that reviewed, added me to a favorite story list, or a story alert! It means so much to me! :D Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I've officially passed 100 hits! :D
And a warning that this chapter is EXTREMELY long compared to my other ones…..so….Enjoy!
He recognized her easily even though she had changed so much in the few years since he had last seen her. He remembered her light brown hair, and sparkling green eyes that showed with happiness, and spirit as she wore a smile even though her and her family had no choice but to leave their home. He especially remembered the way she treated his dog Britta who was Aster's sister and which he had gotten from Prussia when the two of them were pups and he was just a little boy. He remembered when he was helping the girl's family, along with many other Jewish families, leave the country or at least get them to safety. The little girl had been watching his dogs Blackie, Aster, and Berlitz but she especially loved Britta. She kept walking over and petting the dog, laughing and playing with it. Not only did she play with the dog but Britta ended up following her around as she was trying to cheer up all of the younger children. He remembered when it was time for him to leave that Britta didn't want to leave the little girl. Her name was Lydia. She was around eight when Ludwig first met her.
She was now in her early teens around 12 or so and even if she had grown to be healthy you could no longer tell. Her long hair was gone, and she was extremely thin. Even her eyes that had once sparkled with life and glowed with happiness were extinguished, and they looked as cold and empty as the rest of the camp he was at. The only thing that hadn't changed it seemed….was her personality. He had seen her when they were sitting down to one of the few meals they were a loud to have, which was only stale bread and sometimes watered down soup if they were lucky. He was on the other side of the mess hall but that didn't hinder his sight do what was going on. She was surrounded by many younger children, only knowing one of them which happened to be her younger brother. The little kids were crying about their empty tummies so she broke up her own bread and gave it away to them unable to take their tears, even though she was starving herself, she would do anything to make them happy. Ludwig knew she had already been through so much, her other two youngest sibling were dead, one only being an infant. Her father had been sent away along with her older brother to a different part of the camp, and her mother had been taken away so the 'doctors' could use her to help them with certain tests. Tests that her mother would suffer because of, tests that her mother would never return from.
He hoped the soldiers wouldn't yell at him since he would surely get beaten, but Ludwig didn't care and couldn't stand to see her go hungry. He couldn't stand to really see any of his children go hungry which was why this whole mess started. He looked down at his bread picked it up and he broke off a little piece, about the size of a quarter put it in his mouth then walked over to her. He held the bread down in front of her. She looked up at him with surprised and questioning eyes. He gave her a nod and she quickly took the bread. He quickly returned to seat, just as he was starting to catch a few of the soldiers' eyes. 'They wouldn't take it out on him now, but they probably would later,' he thought.
When he woke up the next day and was sitting in the mess hall once again, he looked across the room to see if the little girl Lydia was over there with all the other little children, but instead there were other people. Realization sunk in a few days later. The little girl Lydia was gone never to return from the showers that they had taken her to. He knew that she would go to heaven, where she would be re-united with her family and once again play with that dog that made her smile and laugh so much.
Ludwig sat up gasping, after waking from his sleep. At first he was confused to where he was, before realizing he had passed out on his couch the night before, however his confusion didn't last long as his right hand involuntarily flew to his left wrist which felt as though it were on fire. He rolled back his sleeve to see the numbers looking black as night. Ludwig closed his mouth tight and gritted his teeth as the fire from the numbers seemed to come in waves.
The pain was not imaginary. It was not fake either. The pain came from hatred of people that had found out all he had done, hated him for the atrocities that he had seemingly committed. The hate also came from nations, whose feelings of anger had been brought up by some reminder, and even if the nations did not speak of it and gave him friendly smiles, he knew better. He knew since he could feel in on his wrist, and whenever that happened the numbers would only turn to mimic an actually fire. He had remembered when he first re-appeared to all of the other nations that it hurt to be around them. He once had stayed up all night long only to look at his wrist to see the numbers glowing slightly red, as though they were hot embers embedded into his skin.
He took deep breaths as he held his other hand over the burning skin, having his wrist feel extremely warm, like someone's forehead when they had a terrible fever. He knew that he only had himself to blame. He was so caught up in his memories yesterday that he didn't even think about the pain it would contribute to later. He let out a shaky sigh as the burning subsided slowly and looked to his left to the clock above the mantle which displayed the time as 5:06 a.m. Ludwig always woke up at 5 so waking up a few minutes after 5 was sleeping in for him.
He sighed and leaned back down to lie down for a bit before getting up to get ready for work. He put his slightly burning hand down at his side as he used his other one to try and wipe all the remnants of sleep and the memories of the little girl away, but he was only successful in doing one of those. Ludwig suddenly felt something cold and wet touch his burning hand. Ludwig jumped and sat up startled. The German man never usually would do anything like that but since he had been a little on edge because of his past recently he was not prepared for anything like that to happen. He looked down to see Blackie his German shepherd panting while sitting in front of him, and then cocking his head to the side a little. Ludwig usually would get up and go for an early morning run with Blackie but he couldn't since it probably wouldn't help him get his mind off these things.
"Not today," he told Blackie as he patted the dogs head. Blackie look disappointed for a few seconds but then wagged his tail as his owner stood up. It wasn't long before Berlitz and Aster entered the room along with Franz who was a light brown Leonberger breed dog. Ludwig walked out of the living room, into the main hallway and started to make his way to the back door as his dogs quickly followed him. He was standing at the back door and looked down to see Berlitz standing with his head cocked to the side looking at Ludwig and Blackie was sitting sniffing the door curiously while Franz just sat there panting. Ludwig sighed and opened the door only for a golden blur, which was aster, running outside happily with Berlitz chasing after him trying to play with him as they were running further outside. Ludwig looked down to see Blackie looking at Ludwig with bright eyes and then his tail went crazy hitting the ground still curious if he was a loud to go out too. Ludwig gave Blackie a slight nod and watched as the dog took off quickly after the others only to get distracted by something and run over to a tree smelling it. Ludwig sighed and then looked down to see Franz lazily getting up and then slowly walking out of the house.
Looking out at his dogs Ludwig realized that something was wrong. He heard the pitter patter of feet as his last dog scampered down the stairs. That dog probably slept on my bed again Ludwig thought with annoyance. He turned around to see Kuschel his 3 month old Titan Terrier. The dog sprinted at him and jumped up at him. The dog had been a present from Italy celebrating their 'friendaversary' the anniversary of their friendship. He looked down at the troublesome pup. Why it was so troublesome you may ask….?
Well it's because the dog acted exactly like Italy. It would always whine because it was hungry, if not then it would be sleeping, somehow it always managed to get dirty when he let it outside meaning he had to wash it almost every day. Not only that but it would always jump on him and want to be held by him, and when Ludwig held it the puppy would always try and lick him. The puppy somehow always managed to get into Ludwig's room and sleep with him. Exactly like Italy Ludwig thought with a bittersweet smile about his friend because of once was between them, but would never be again. He was brought out of his thoughts by the little dog that was whining wanting attention and wanting to be held. When the puppy realized that it had Ludwig's attention its tail started beating wildly against the floor. Ludwig bent down to pick it up, and instead of giving the excited bark like it usually does he heard it whine. He looked at the puppy confused only to see it staring up at him with slight concern. He turned around and set it outside, but he knew the pup could tell that something was wrong. Ludwig just sighed and set it outside before closing the door, knowing the dog could do nothing to fix his problems. Ludwig couldn't even fix them.
He made his way to the kitchen filled up the dog's food dishes, and was reminded of the mess he made the night before that was still littering the table and cleared it up quickly. Afterwards, proceeding up the stairs to start another day. Just like usual.
Germany was walking down the stairs fully dressed and ready for the day in a black suit white shirt and light blue tie.
Sizzle
He paused and his attention went to the kitchen door. Italy wasn't back and besides Italy going into the kitchen there could only be one other person
Pop
Germany was in the kitchen in less than a second prepared to grab his fire extinguisher, but paused at the scene before him. Gilbert stood at the stove he was wearing light gray suit pants and a white shirt, with an apron on taking bacon out of a skillet and then went to flip some pancakes. Clearly something was off. What's going on?
"Bruder, are you alright?'" Germany asked.
"Yup, I'm awesome, like usual," Prussia replied not even looking up from the stove. This wasn't right. Germany looked at the kitchen table to find that it was set and there was actual food on the plates. Actual edible food. There were sausages, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, cereal, oatmeal, orange juice, milk and doughnuts among other things. He looked at Gilbert again; this had to be a joke, or a stupid prank of his.
"What's the meaning of this?" Germany asked.
"Just me doing something awesome, and being an awesome brother because of it," Prussia said in response as he turned off the stove stacking the pancakes on a plate and setting them down on the table before taking a seat at the table. Germany was too shocked to move or take a seat at the table.
"Are you alright bruder?" Prussia asked snapping Ludwig out of his daze and looked down at Prussia surprised to see his face serious. Germany sat down slowly and cautiously. Ludwig wasn't sure what was up with this unusual behavior.
After loading up their plates him and Prussia awkwardly sat with all the food in front of them staring at each other. Prussia waiting for Germany to eat and Germany just waiting to see if the food was actually safe to eat. Prussia finally broke eye contact and started eating some of his pancakes, which Ludwig took as the fact that the food was safe to eat, and it wasn't poisoned or laced with any laxatives or anything or the sort. They sat eating in silence for a while. Germany looked up as Prussia was calmly drinking his orange juice, still being serious.
"I'm surprised you're not drinking any beer," Germany wondered aloud, since Prussia was acting unlike himself.
"There's only one beer left and I'm saving it."
"Oh….I'm sorry," Ludwig looked down.
"Is there something wrong Ludwig, because that was quite a lot even for you," Prussia asked. Germany looked up to meet gazes with Prussia who was staring intently at him.
"Nothing is wrong," Germany said curtly avoiding his brother's gaze.
"Alright."
They both continued to eat their breakfast with no more talking surrounded by a semi-tense atmosphere. When they were both done Prussia cleaned up the food as Ludwig went to fetch his dogs, he then meet up with Prussia at the door and then they both silently walked to the car to go to work and meet with their boss.
Prussia sighed with relief as they finally got out of the meeting with their boss and followed Ludwig back to his office. "Since the meetings over you can either take a cab back home or stay here. I would prefer if you stay here since I need you to sign some papers after I am finished working with them. I do request that this time when you are in the building to not put metal in the microwave and make it catch on fire. Also I request that you do not make any contraptions that happen to look like bombs and cause an evacuation of the building. Also-"
"Kesesesesesesese, don't worry about it Western! I'm not leaving yet since this place is so un-awesome and needs more awesomeness so today, lucky for you, I will grace it with my awesome presence!" Gilbert said. Ludwig gave him a reluctant look still not sure how to react to him because of his behavior from that morning, but sighed and decided to let it go, "Alright, just don't disturb me while I'm working."
"Kesesesese, you'll be lucky when I come up here and let you bask in my awesomeness!"
"….Whatever…." Germany sighed before entering his office and closing the door before Prussia could enter. So Prussia immediately did what he had planned on doing ever since last night. He would investigate. Since he knew that if Germany was hiding something he would most likely not tell you if you confronted him the first time. If you had evidence and pushed him to talk to you about, he usually would. So that's exactly what Prussia was going to do. He was going to go look for anything he could find in any government documents that pertained to the numbers on Ludwig's wrist.
He went to the private elevator that was for high government officials and swiped his name card in order to access it. He had clearance to everything, and giving that to someone like Prussia sometimes wasn't the best thing.
He went into the elevator and clicked the bottom button which took you down to the records floor. Every nation had one in their government building. They had records for everything down there some of them were records that the public had not seen, they had secrets stored down there, and they also had records of the nations and anything they had been involved in contained in a certain area. Although the one at their building tended to be slightly larger than other nations since not only did it have the history of one nation but two. Although not all of their history was there. Some of it was in the attic of their house, certain parts of it in the basement hidden away since Ludwig didn't exactly need to know it…well remember it. It's not like the kid could even remember that much from-
Ding!
The elevator dinged open and Prussia shook his head dispelling of those thoughts and walked out. He started heading toward the very back walking past numerous boxes and things until he came to a door with a keypad. He slid his key card and entered in the password that only three people knew which was him, Ludwig, and their boss. He entered the room and closed the door. First thing he was going to do was look for any documents, so he went to the main computer. It listed all the documents and organized them by date, information it pertains to, or the people that could be mentioned in it, all you had to do was enter in a key word.
Prussia entered in Ludwig Beilschmidt to the search bar, before it continued it asked him to swipe his key card again and enter in the private pass code. After that when he finally got through he saw that over 50 pages showed up with 100 documents per page. Prussia glared at the computer and then clicked on the date. He clicked the date boxes so the documents between the months of September of 1943 and August of 1945 came up that contained his name. He gave a frustrated sigh as the computer requested for him to re-enter the pass code and once again slide his-key card again.
He started clicking through the documents before he saw some interesting ones. Usually the results would show a picture of the document with them but he had started coming across a few that had no picture of the document. He looked at the dates to see that they were from September in 1943 through May of 1944.
That's odd. Prussia looked at the description only to see that it was 'classified' and gave away nothing else besides the date and Ludwig's name. He retyped the date so it was a smaller time period. It was now all documents between May of 1944 through August of 1945. He re-entered the password and slide his key card getting frustrated about how many times he was having to do this.
Only two records of documents became present. Only one of them had a picture and it was the private treaty of surrender that only the nations signed. The other one though was missing its picture as well. It was dated for April in 1945, with Ludwig's name in the description and it also listed that it was an examination…a medical examination?
What the hell? Prussia thought. When did this happen? He then decided to type in the number he saw on Ludwig's wrist only for it to come up with no record of any of it. Being frustrated with the completely un-awesome computer Gilbert decided to head to the file cabinet that it would be stored in. So Gilbert started flipping through the files that had the files of each person, and their whereabouts through their time when they were in those camps. 270713….270714…..270716..?
Where is 270715…?
He kept flipping through a few pages trying to find where it was to not find it at all.
About 30 pages later and Prussia felt like throwing the stupid record book in the air! It had nothing at all! West probably took all the stupid files he though with a glare. He was about to throw the book of records but saw a note that was typed into the book….….
Pictures pertaining to these files are stored in section D3. Prussia was totally AWESOME! He practically ran to where the pictures were stored.
Well…this sucks. Prussia thought section D3 had numerous boxes. When he was starting on this he didn't plan for it to take so he wanted to do so many other things today. He planned on pulling a prank on that stupid pansy Austria, and then go over and hopefully watch Spain piss off Romano, and then go home and sit down and drink some beer with Gilbird, but this was going to take forever! The boxes were stacked up to his waist and there were over 100 or them. He had to stop complain he was too awesome to complain, complaining was for completely un-awesome people. He flipped open the first box and started flipping through the pictures
Flip
Flip
Flip
Flip
….what is this…? Prussia thought with a smirk
Flip
Flip
Flip
Kesesesesese I remember this
Flip
Flip
Flip
Is that Austria? Kesesesesese the stupid Aristocrat.
Flip
Flip
Flip
Flip
I wasn't expecting this…..he felt unsure of how to react. It was a picture of him wearing that old uniform. The old gray SS officer uniform. He looked so different, but he couldn't suppress his shudder as he realized he was not only wearing the same shade of gray as the old uniform but….the look in his eyes. Ludwig was in the picture next to him but his face wasn't showing the same happiness, or glint of excitement as the Führer talked of greatness. Ludwig's expression was sullen and looked strained. Now thinking of it through all the pictures Prussia has looked through he has noticed that Ludwig's expression has slowly changed. So far he had been through about 13 boxes and none of them seemed to be the one he was looking for…but he did find a few blackmail pictures. He grabbed the next box to see that a few of the pictures seemed to be missing…he grabbed the first picture to see the gates to that camp….the one that the Allies took him to after the war, showing him what Ludwig had done, saying how he was a monster and how this could not be forgiven.
He kept flipping but slower this time until he saw the picture that made his heart freeze and sink lower.
So it is true
He thought looking sadly at the picture.
Why didn't you say anything? Prussia shook his head and didn't know why, but he sure as hell was going to find out.
DONE! With this insanely long chapter! Confrontation in the next chapter! What was in the picture? What did the documents have on it?
You'll find out! Also I wrote this really long chapter because next week I have to house sit and I may not be able to update as much as I would like to, but if I can't then I'll post like 2 or 3 chapters all at once.
I know I added extra dogs but I saw a picture with Ludwig and this really giant sleepy looking dog so I decided to make Ludwig have a dog like that. I also wanted Ludwig to have a do like Italy since it would be funny, and I choose that dog since it originates in Italy and Germany. This chapter also had hints of Germany x Italy if you looked close enough. It also had HRE is Germany theory! I would appreciate reviews since it lets me know if
1) the story is being read/enjoyed
2)if my writing is okay
3) if I should write another story after this one it finished.
So review!
