Disclaimer: Hetalia does not belong to me in any way, shape or form, only the story does, and that only half-way. It belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya, so if there's someone you want to bother about owning copyright, bother him~

Chapter Three: ~Deutschland~

The pillow under her head felt infinitely more comfortable than having Austria's arms wrapped around her. She turned around in her sleeping bag and mumbled childishly to herself as her left cheek disappeared into the soft pillow. "Ita-chan...cute...mnnngh...Roma-chan don't do that..." Outside her tent a tall figure pried open the flaps and glanced in, still perplexed by the sudden turn of events that had happened this morning. Lost in thought he stepped back and rubbed the back of his neck.

Behind him a bound-up Italy chanted long veeeehs as a tipsy England told him questionable stories about-Germany paused to clear his head. Between Italy's drawn-out sighs and England's low murmurs about curses pulled on various other countries in the last few weeks, he felt like he had intruded in on something he wasn't supposed to hear in the first place. He glanced over at them.

England's cheeks were tinged with a vividly bright red, which reminded him terribly of the strange red flowers he had seen earlier; the ones that floated in the sky and glowed as they showered down scarlet dust onto the dull brown earth below. Just the thought of it sent shivers up his spine. He had run away of course-no intelligent German would be caught with strange dust on his face. What if it was radioactive?

He should've been surprised at how colourless the island itself was but for some reason it hadn't alarmed him at all; as if he had already known what to expect the moment he stepped foot on the island. Even the method of transportation hadn't bothered him, not in the least; even though it involved being drugged and then waking up to find himself all alone on a strange island.

"Flare up and burn intensely,

And turn it into crisp from corner to corner~"

"That's more than enough!" Germany yelped, scared of England's shenanigans. The other did deserve his fair share of beer and definitely could whine away to Italy as long as he liked (it was doing the brunette some good; Italy was definitely more wary than he was before) but he wouldn't put up with ghosts and summoning chants in his camp. "England, just...go to sleep."

To be honest he probably wouldn't have worried about England in the first place if it hadn't been because of those blasted traps. He remembered how it started-how he decided to set up traps around the camp's perimeter so no one would attempt to kill him. But then he woke up this morning and imagine his surprise when he bowed out of the tent and almost stepped on Italy's sleeping form. He didn't have the heart to kill the poor thing without fair warning so he knelt down and prodded the other country with a branch. "Oy, Italia."

"Vehvehvehvehvehveh~"

He shook the brunette vigorously. "Italia. Wake up this instant."

"Vehvehvehvehveh~" Italy snored even more loudly if that was possible. It was enough of a trigger to make Germany do what he did next. An irritable vein danced along the lines of his forehead as he towered over the curled up Italy; like a giraffe over a mouse. "Well, if that doesn't work..." His boot shot out and connected with the other country's side, which was immediately followed by a healthy load of scared screams.

Germany wasn't exactly sure what happened after that. He did however remember Italy scrape, beg, wave white flags and pray in rapid-fire Latin before before Germany finally decided to take pity and tied him to a tree. It kept both of them safe and he didn't have to kill Italy. Who could with that look trained on them? He swore that if Italy had nothing else to claim as a weapon, he definitely had the puppy-dog look down pat.

That had been that; relatively harmless and uncomplicated. But then Hungary appeared on the other side of his campsite and unwittingly stepped on one of the mines. It was a miracle she was still alive. "Ita-cha-EEK!" What had happened after that was the only reason England was allowed to go through his beers. The only reason.

"Oy, Germany!" England got up on his feet and swaggered towards Germany with a dangerous tilt to his posture, as if he would give in and fall over at any given second. The other nation didn't move as the British clapped a hand on his shoulder and held up an empty beer bottle in front of his face. "Do you have any more of-?"

"Like I said," Germany cut across England and deprived the latter of a shoulder to lean on as he shook off the others' hand with almost no ceremony. "Just go to sleep."

"But-"

"Just. Go. To. Sleep." Germany grabbed the other nation's shoulder and steered him away; to his surprise England didn't object and complied without objection. Maybe he was only belligerent towards America, Germany reflected as he watched the other country clumsily work himself into one of his spare sleeping bags. England's usual bed-hair crumpled as his head hit the pillow with a thud and left Germany to consider exactly how messy the campsite had gotten since the morning. He stood up, stretched and allowed himself to blink several times up at the dark-tinged sky. It was already evening; twenty-five days before all this ended, he thought.

Hungary blinked dusty tears from her eyes as she sat up in her sleeping bag the next morning, fully refreshed and otherwise out of place. She glanced down; hadn't she been in her house clothes just yesterday? The mild green gown, the apron and the kerchief wrapped snugly around her honey-brown hair; she couldn't find them no matter how much she looked around. But the military uniform fit properly on her small frame and another thought went through her head as she considered her arms curiously. Who had changed me out?

More importantly, where was she? The tent smelled strongly of strong beer and gunpowder. When she put her hand in one of the boxes that lay around on the small area of ground, she found her fingers wrapped around a magazine of a rather questionable nature-and she immediately knew who it had to be.

"Germany!" She stepped out of the tent and shielded her face with her right hand as a particularly bright flare of sunlight shone directly into her face. Annoyance came on her rapidly, like ants scattering when water flitted onto them, as she blinked into the clearing and tried to see who was around. She was right; Germany was lying on the ground with a scowl etched onto his sleeping expression as she tip-toed away from him and towards Italy, who was still tied up-and snored with all the enthusiasm only an Italian could muster. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently. "Italia-chan!"

"Vehvehvehvehvehveh...veh?"

Behind her England shifted uneasily in his own bag and muttered something about 'of course I'm not alright, you bleeding crumb' and she almost did a double-take. But Italia-chan was already awake and from what she saw of his expression, he was ready to be as noisy as...an Italian. She quickly clapped a hand to his mouth and shook her head. "Ssshhh. I'm going to set you free, okay?"

"Veeeh~ Hungary-nee-chan!" Maybe he wouldn't have looked as happy if she wasn't digging into the ropes with one of Germany's daggers, but she was gratified all the same. It only took a few more swipes before the ropes gave way and Italy stood up and stretched-and forgot all about her warning. "Alright! I'm free!"

"Italia!" Germany was up on his feet in a moment; Hungary had known that this would happen, she knew he was a light sleeper. She rubbed her hair in exasperation and left a few strands of hair out of place when she removed her hand. Why was Italia-chan always such a loud-mouth? "Hungary! What do you think you're doing?"

"Is it wrong to want someone to not hurt from being tied down all day?" She demanded with her hands on her hips, with her typical 'older-sister' glare on her face. "Italia-chan, you wouldn't run away, would you?" Italy opened his eyes wide as she turned around and fixed him in place with her emerald stare. "You'll stay, right?"

"Veeeeh~ of course, if Nee-chan says so!" Italy nodded at her before his face relapsed back into its usual cat-like languor and she smirked at Germany as if to say 'I'm awesome'.

"See?

Germany shook his head and shrugged as if to say 'do whatever you like' before he knelt and poked England's back with a random branch he had picked up out of nowhere-it was then that Hungary realized something. Everyone here-was male. Her face went red as she stomped over to Germany and snatched away the branch from his hand. "Germany, why the hell were my clothes changed, and which one of you did it?"

Germany flushed a scarlet to match her own but before he could do any more than open his mouth, England rolled over to face them and muttered to himself dreamily. "Why the hell...have to change her clothes?"

She could deal with the incident at the world meeting; she could deal with the bad stuff he had poured down his throat and even his creepy obsession with things that didn't exist, but there was one thing she couldn't deal with-and that was a situation like this. Her entire body bristled in embarrassment as she walked over to him and with boots she had borrowed from another one of Germany's boxes, aimed a swift kick to his ribs.

"AARGH!"

"Why on earth would you need to change my clothes, damnit?" She yelled, her hands clenched. "You are so-"

"Veeeeeh~ Nee-chan, your dress was already done for~" Italy saved the other two nations the explanation as he appeared behind the group and danced around the spot in his typically airheaded way. "When you stepped on the mine it sort of tore up, veeeeh~"

"It tore up? Wait, I stepped on a mine?" Hungary blinked in disbelief as she guffawed at the other nations. When the entire group nodded in unison, she rubbed the top of her head and felt even more embarrassed for her reaction. England had clearly gotten the short end of the stick when he decided to save her with his horrible food. (It had to be the food. No way could it be his silly incantations.) She turned around and stared at his form, which was still doubled over from the pain. "Er, well, sorry for that..." She scratched her chin as she looked down at him and suddenly wanted to shear off his eyebrows-they irritated her. "...but you still deserved it, you know."

"Actually, thanks," he muttered with a wince. "If you hadn't done that I'd probably still be feeling guilty now so...thanks."

She didn't know what to say to that so she sighed in response and turned away to face the others. "So...remind me what we have for breakfast?"

It turned out to be stale wurst-which everyone but Italy chewed at with much noise and enthusiasm. The brunette, gourmet as he was, couldn't bear to even put it in his mouth, let alone choke it down and nobody felt compelled to torture him into it; nobody but Germany, that was. Hungary watched with some amusement as the blonde grabbed the other and attempted to shove a few pieces into his mouth. Whatever Germany might say, he did care about Italy-Hungary knew it. She did have a girl's intuition after all!

In fact her eyes sparkled so much with the thought of Germany and Italy together, England, who was seated not far away from her, gave her a look that had 'repressed laughter' written all over it. "So...you're into that sort of thing, huh?" She threw him a curious look with her face still all shine-and-sparkle and he looked away with a wry expression. "It's nothing. Never mind."

"So..." Germany gave up on Italy after a while and turned towards the other two, a scowl still prominent on his face. "About this game-did you run into anyone else?" Hungary glanced over at England on impulse but he didn't look at her. Her eyes dropped back to her own portion of sausage, unable to meet Germany's stare. He glanced from her to England. "What?"

"It's nothing," England flatly stated and got up. Hungary saw that he still held his chest. Just as he was about to walk off, the other country stood up to face him. England paused before he could turn away and Hungary looked up. It was an unreadable expression that she saw on his face. "Is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"...it's about Prussia." Germany's eyes flickered between her and England half-suspicion and half...sadness? Hungary stood up as well and left Italy the only one still on the ground. From what she could see of the situation, things were getting sticky and fast. Germany fixed his stare on her. "Something's happened to him, hasn't it?"

"How'd you know?" It was out of her mouth before she could stop herself-England sent a glare towards her. The damage was done however; Germany was so quiet she could hear birds chirp from farther away than she should've been able to. It was a dangerous silence and probably would have continued if Italy hadn't bit into one of the sausages that the others had left behind, apparently driven into it by hunger.

"Veeeeeh~! This doesn't taste so bad after all, veh~!"

"Quiet, Italia!" Germany snapped and looked back at them, a cold look in his eyes. He scanned Hungary from tip-to-toe and for a moment she had the impression that she was being analyzed. She gulped nervously; she didn't want him to get the wrong impression. "Which one of you did it?"

"You idiot," England shot back. "Just because we know doesn't mean...well..." He looked helplessly at Hungary and she realized that she hadn't told him who it had been. He had known it wasn't her though-that much she could see. Maybe there was more in that head of his than she thought. "Hungary was there, I think."

"I tried to save him," the words tumbled out before she could stop herself. "I tried to save him, but it was too much for him and I couldn't stop the bleeding...I could only..." her voice, which had dropped down to a whisper, paused mid-sentence as she recalled the vivid scene. The soil stained with dark red, heavy and wet as she clawed at it with her fingers; the moon right above her head. The stars shone down on her, fierce and cruel. They'd never forgive me. The smell of iron that wanted to escape and flames that wanted to die. It was past midnight back then-and what had been unnoticeable then had become too vivid for her now. She had been numb. "I'm sorry," she whispered and looked away. "I tried."

"So he is...really...gone." There was something in his voice she couldn't place. "I suppose this wasn't just an innocent game after all...I guess that was too much to hope, wasn't it?" He glanced down at Italy, who appeared to not have gotten any of that at all and then back at them with pursed lips. "I don't think we can go on together like this."

"I was expecting that," England grinned humorlessly. "You're going to get serious, aren't you?"

Hungary glanced from one country to the other, not sure what to think or do. Italy chewed through the rest of the food as Germany and England stared each other; a tense moment. German was the first to make a move. "Hmph. I'll let the two of you go for now and pretend nothing happened." He nodded at Italy, who had drifted off into sleep in the few brief moments it had taken Germany to speak up. "I'll take care of him."

Hungary didn't have the energy to squeal at this protectiveness; she barely had energy to make sense of anything any more right now. "What about me?" she whispered. "England has his own agenda, and you want to get serious. What's going to happen to me?" She looked up with tears in her eyes. "Austria has...he has...I don't have a lot to fight for right now. My glory?" She shook her head and chuckled as she swiped at her tears. "I've lost that ages ago. You might as well start with me, Germany."

"Start..."

The German stared, unable to form words for his thoughts as usual-but England was the one to intervene. He dropped the act of being injured and grabbed her soundly around the shoulders and shook her. "What are you, an idiot?" he demanded. "I had to spend magical power to save your arse-"

"Magic doesn't exist-!"

"So there's no way in bloody hell that you're going to go and offer yourself as some sort of...sacrifice while I'm around!" He glowered. "Show some appreciation, you bleeding old hag!"

"Why'd you save me anyway?" she howled and completely ignored for the moment the fact that he had just called her a hag. "Why? Did you feel pity for me, perhaps? I don't need your sympathy, eyebrow-brain!" She ripped herself away from his grasp and went on. "Eyebrow-brain! I bet you don't even have a brain in there at all! It's all EYEBROWS."

His left eye twitched as he bristled from tip-to-toe. "What...was...that...?" He stepped towards her almost threateningly before he backed up and held his ground. His hands clenched as he quivered in irritation. "I don't need someone with a face like yours commenting on my eyebrows, thank you very much..."

"My face? MY FACE? What's wrong with my face, you-"

"You don't look anything close to what a proper lady should-"

"Are you SUGGESTING-?"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Germany finally roared and placed himself just as England was about to shoot his mouth off again. "That's enough! This is MY CAMP, and MY rules apply. Take your spat elsewhere!" He pushed them aside and glared from one to the other as if he dared them to say one more word. Hungary's head reeled for one moment; this was too familiar for her, brushed too close against her memories. A bloodstained hand, nails soaked in dirt. Prussia with his hand on her shoulder, obnoxious laughter that rang in her ears. "I am AWESOME!" Piano music cut off by the sound of electric guitar-Austria yelling at Prussia to stop the racket, "o-baka-san!". Germany always stepped in.

He always stepped in.

"Hungary? Hungary!" Germany's face was pale with concern as he shook her but her own expression was blank; she refused to make a sound. "Oy! Are you alright? Say something!"

"I guess it finally hit her." England sighed, his expression sullen and wry at the same time. "She's been taking it out on me because I was the easiest target...probably." His mouth twisted into a self-deprecatory smile. "I guess it all depends on her now-whether she's going to get better or worse."

Germany grit his teeth together with resolve, determined to shake the unresponsive girl out of her stupor. "Hungary! Hungary!"

"Stop it, you'll just make it worse," England said in that snide voice of his and turned away from the others. He stretched and looked up at the sky with a gloomy look on his face. "Then? What are you going to do next?"

"What does it look like? I'm going to take Italia and leave." Germany laid Hungary down somewhere safe and glanced back at the Englishman standing in the middle of the clearing. A shadow passed over his face as he looked at the shorter nation. He stood up. "I had a question for you."

"What is it?"

"Why did you save her?"

England spared him a small glance. "How did you know Prussia was dead?"

"I think we both know how." Germany stared at his former nemesis-no. England was still his enemy now. Technically Italia was his enemy too, but he didn't feel like killing the poor country. That look...wasn't the only reason, even though he kept telling himself it was. "Who did you lose?"

England chortled. "Is it really that obvious?"

Okay, okay. So I took more time than I did with the last chapter, but after the disappointment that was the last chapter, I just needed some more time to figure out what England and the others would really act like. (Yay mini-dramas! Love 'em. Especially the ones that feature America in them, too. Go and listen to the one where they both freak out over a ghost. XD Fun times, fun.) Hungary seems to be having a delayed shock reaction from Prussia's death—I wonder how this is going to pan out? It looks like Iggy's stuck with her for a while longer yet. Also, the answer to England's question shall be found out next chapter! -cryptic hint- Read and review, as usual; they are much appreciated.

Now then, don't mind me while I go and run my own stories through a grinder...