Sorge

Chapter 7

Germany had no idea how long he had been dozing when a buzzing sensation in his pocket painfully tore him back into consciousness. Disoriented, he fumbled to take his phone out his pocket. Blinded by the glare of the screen, he couldn't read the caller ID but desperately answered it anyway, as he squinted in the darkness.

"He-hello?"

"Dude!"

It was just fucking America. What the hell did he want this late?

"Ugh. Alfred, do you have any idea what time it is over here?"

"Not really, but this is important!"

"…It had better be." Germany rubbed his eyes and prepared to listen.

"Ok! So, first of all, forget that this involves the fact that I currently have a spy-drone hovering over your backyard."

Germany's eyes widened.

"You have WHAT hovering over mein backyard?!"

"Shh, everything's cool, calm down."

Did America just "shush" him?Germany gritted his teeth and listened.

"So, earlier today, after you told us that your brother was missing, I had to listen to Mattie bitch about how the only people who ever pay attention to him were Francis and Gil, and now that Gil was missing, his social life would be cut in half, yada, yada, yada… And, well, I got to thinking; I'll bet me and Tony can find him with all our cool gadgets!"

Germany sat up on the bed. America had captured his attention, "Go on, Alfred," he said.

"Heh. First, we traced the last signal that his cell phone sent out before it died."

Scheiss! Of course! Germany should've though of that. All this stress and lack of sleep had made him so stupid.

"Then, I activated my sweet new infrared spy-drone and scanned the area! It's, like, the size of a mosquito! So cool!"

"…And?" Germany held his breath (He'd deal with America's unauthorized drone infiltration later).

"And… go out your back door and walk straight for half a klick, then turn left and walk about 50 paces… then…"

"…Then what!?"

"Then, Lud, from now on, just don't forget to address me as 'Master Chief'!"

With an annoying laugh, America hung up the phone.

Germany ran upstairs, grabbed a flashlight from a drawer, opened the back door and took off across the cold, wet yard. Half a klick took him way past the garden shed and over the back fence to an unkempt field area. His heart was pounding as he turned left and jogged across the field. In the flashlight's bouncing beam, he could see a dark mound on the ground. As he got closer, he saw that it was freshly dug dirt… there was a large hole in the field! Standing over the hole, he shone his flashlight into its depths.

And at the bottom of that hole, huddled in a sopping wet hoodie, crouched next to a shovel, trying not to look too pathetic was-

"Bruder!"

Prussia looked up, blinked into the flashlight beam and smiled. His was covered in mud and shivering. The hole was almost ten feet deep and water was pooling at the bottom.

"West! It's about t-time you showed up!" Prussia slowly got up.

"Bruder! I've been looking everywhere for you! What are you doing in this hole? Are you hurt?" Germany lay down in the damp grass at the edge of the hole and peered down to examine the situation.

"I'm f-fine, just f-freezing!" Prussia answered.

Germany put the flashlight aside and reached an arm down as low as he could stretch it.

"Can you jump up and reach me?"

Given the muddy terrain and Prussia's waterlogged condition, it took him a few jumps before he finally caught a hold of Germany' hand. After establishing a decent grip, Germany easily hoisted him up and dragged him over the edge of the hole and onto the grass with him.

Without letting go of his hand, Germany sat up, pulled Prussia into his lap and embraced him tightly. Giggling happily, and obviously enjoying the unexpected affection, Prussia nuzzled his face into Germany's chest.

"Wow, West, miss me much?"

Germany couldn't reply. Hot tears were blurring his vision. One eventually dripped down onto Prussia's forehead, catching his attention.

"Hm?" Prussia carefully maneuvered himself into a higher position, so that he could be at eye level with his younger brother. He straddled over Germany's outstretched legs on his knees and wrapped his arms around the back of his neck.

"Hey… this isn't like you," Prussia frowned. He had kind of expected Germany to be yelling at him right now. A terrible thought suddenly popped into mind, "West…Did something happen to one of the dogs?!"

"…Nein. They're fine."

"Whew! Thank Gott."

"Bruder… I just had the most terrible day." Germany admitted. "I'm just really relieved that I found you. I was beginning to think the worst."

"Aw. You're such a nice boy," Prussia kissed away his tears. Germany allowed it. "I told you not to ever worry about me. See! Your awesome Big Bruder is ok!"

Germany could feel himself blushing a little.

"I'm almost afraid to ask… but what were you doing in that hole?" He asked.

"Ahh, impressive, isn't it?" Prussia proudly regarded the hole. "That's our new defense system, West! I found 2 euros and 33 cents in the car cushions, so I went to a yard sale and bought an old shovel. Naturally, I'm so good at digging that it wasn't long before I dug myself down too deep to climb out."

"Of course." Germany closed his eyes. "A hole. As a defense system. That's what you've been doing for the past two days?"

"I hope to one day expand it into a moat!"

"How medieval. Bruder, you should have called me. Why was your phone dead?"

"Oh, in order to keep my energy levels up, I had the Nordics make me the most amazing metal playlist to listen to on my headphones, but the music eventually drained my phone battery."

"*sigh* Well… why didn't you send your little Gilbird to come find me?!" Germany was getting exasperated.

Prussia laughed and reached into his hoodie pocket.

"You mean this useless thing?" He held up a very bloated, sleepy-looking Gilbird.

"What's wrong with him? He looks… kind of fat," Germany asked, concerned.

"Ja, from sucking down too many earthworms! This was probably the greatest two days of his life! But consequently, he's too heavy to fly." He carefully put the little bird back in his pocket.

"Ah. This explains so many things." It was official. Germany was completely surrounded by assclowns. Even Gilbird was one of them now.

Prussia seemed to sense what Germany was thinking. His shoulders drooped and he glanced downward, frowning.

"West, I'm sorry I'm such a screw-up… I just get so bored."

This time, Germany wrapped his arms around Prussia's lower back and shuffled himself forward a couple of inches so that they were closer. He pressed his forehead against Prussia's.

"It's ok," he replied.

Then Germany, with unprecedented eloquence, told Prussia all the things he had been thinking about that day:

"Bruder, I probably never mentioned this, but I really appreciate all the things you've done for me. You try to brush it off like it's easy, but I know it's not. You make mein life more interesting. You take chances. You think of things that I never would be able to think of. Even if they're… ridiculous… it's still really impressive."

Prussia raised a confused eyebrow. Germany felt like his face was on fire, but he continued:

"I know you get bored, but I think I try to do everything because I want to show you that I'm an adult and I can handle a lot of things. I want you to be able to confide in me, and not just try to protect me all of the time."

Germany swallowed. He was about to tread into dangerous waters but he had to say this. He looked directly into Prussia's eyes:

"… You have scars all over your body that aren't healing, don't think I haven't noticed… Bruder, how do you expect me to not worry about you?"

Prussia'e eyes flashed with anger, but it quickly dissipated. Gloomily, he looked downwards. Germany bravely pressed on:

"I want to deal with these things with you, but you have to let me."

Prussia sighed.

Finally, he looked back up at Germany and said:

"West… I hate to tell you this, but I think hanging around with Feliciano has turned you into a pussy."

Appalled, Germany's mouth hung open.

Prussia let him hang for a moment before he burst out laughing.

"Kesese!" Prussia squeezed Germany into a tight hug. "Oh, so sorry, West! I couldn't resist! The look on your face! It's so funny!"

"You are such an asshole." Germany entire face was now dark red.

"Heh, I know."

Prussia gradually calmed down and became sincere. Actually, this really was a lovely moment, and he didn't want to ruin it too much.

"Well, as long as we're bearing our souls… You're right. You're an adult. You've been one for a long time. I guess I just don't know how to deal with it. I loved protecting you and teaching you stuff. It made me feel… significant."

"Bruder, you're significant. So many… well… several people I talked to today were worried about you. I didn't realize you had such an active social life."

"There's lots of fun to be had in this world. Next time I go somewhere cool you're coming with me. I have to get you away from that desk."

"Ugh, you always say that, but I can't. I have so much work to do."

"Work will always be there, West. Don't let it take over your life."

Yes, work would always be there, Germany thought, but what about Prussia? After the day's event's, he felt like he was being given another chance.

Before he knew what he was doing, Germany turned his head to the side and kissed Prussia on the mouth.

He was kind of goofy at it, but, being Germany, he saw it through. It only lasted a few seconds. Prussia, who was not expecting it at all, was frozen at first, but soon yielded and kissed him back a little. Germany thought it felt warm and sort of slippery.

As they pulled apart, Germany saw that Prussia was regarding him with a slightly bemused expression, which made Germany uneasy. He looked down, and then back up at Prussia, and then off to the side. He'd done it again… he read the situation wrong. Oh, Gott, he had just kissed his own brother! As deviated as Prussia might be maybe this was going too far. Germany was just a hopelessly awkward fool who was not to be trusted in any social situation ever again. How he wished he could just quarantine himself in his office and quietly chug down a bottle of Draino!

"West, was that your first time kissing someone?" Prussia asked quietly, interrupting Germany's train of inner self-hatred thought.

"Uh, um, ja, nein, I mean… ja." Germany stammered.

The corner of Prussia's mouth curled slightly, but it was a gentle, shy smile, and not his usual smirk… wait, was he blushing too?

"Well… it was really nice. Let's work on it some more," Prussia raised a hand to the side of Germany's face, and slowly leaned in towards his lips again. With what felt like a horde of hamsters jumping rope in his chest, Germany closed his eyes and pressed in to meet him.

Meanwhile, a mosquito hovered a few feet away…