Title: Hitler

Warnings: Let's go with references to Nazis/Hitler annnnd the Nazi Salute, there may be language too but I don't think so.

Rating: PG-13

Author's Note: Ooh, a long chapter of basically nothing exciting happening! Once again, thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed this, especially JustGrace-Lunacat13 who has reviewed so many times!


8. Odd liked to call his father "Adolf" or "Hitler" behind closed doors and smirked lips.

It started the first time he met him.

"Your father's practically Hitler reincarnated," Odd grumbled late that first night.

"Odd…" Ulrich groaned. They were in Ulrich's room and the clock read something between one and two in the morning. Ulrich shifted on the floor but remained silent.

"It's the eyes, I think. And the accent, but I guess that's a coincidence, huh? And definitely the personality, does he ever smile? ("around Annie," Ulrich mumbled into his pillow but Odd didn't hear or notice) When you were standing there in that study I almost expected you to salute him. Heil Hitler and all that jazz."

"Shut-up, Odd. Don't say that too loud around here."

Odd ignored him. "I mean, if you were at my place I would not be letting my parents make me give up my bed," Odd continued. He leaned over the edge of Ulrich's bed to study him.

"It's called manners, Odd, go to sleep."

"But, now, I don't know a whole lot of German, but what I caught…you just let him talk to you like that?" he pushed.

"He's my father, Odd. It's his right. Good night," Ulrich snapped. The lump of blankets turned over and Odd rolled back over.

It was a comfortable bed, but he didn't get much sleep.

. . … . .

The first time Yumi heard the affectionate nickname was the week after summer vacation, on the way to drag Jeremie away from the super computer yet again. She frowned at both of them. "That isn't nice for you to say. He's your best friend, isn't he?" she demanded.

"You call your brother Gollum, don't you?" Odd protested.

"Yes, but he's my brother," Yumi retorted. She looked to Ulrich for backup, but he merely shrugged in response.

"I don't really see the big deal," Ulrich replied. Odd looked up in surprise, it was the first time Ulrich had actually acknowledged the nickname. A slow smile spread across his face and Yumi stared at them both incredulously. "Sissi thought it was funny."

"That should show you…Wait, why would Sissi know that was funny?" Yumi demanded.

. . … . .

"Mommy-dearest or Adolf?" Odd asked as the door slammed shut.

"What?"

Odd glanced up from his videogame and shrugged. "Usually that much anger is reserved for the parental figures. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing." Ulrich kicked off his shoes and grabbed a towel. "I'm hitting the showers."

"Don't break anything!" Odd called as the door slammed shut again.

. . … . .

"What do you want?"

"What do you know of Hitler?"

Sissi opened the door wider and he slipped inside. "We're talking Charles Stern, not Adolf Hitler, right?" she asked. Odd nodded and she shrugged as she sat down on her bed. She rested her chin on her knees and was silent. "Not a whole lot anymore," she admitted.

"What did you know?"

"He was…hard." She frowned, thinking, and Odd took a seat on the vanity chair. "He was very strict, very set in his ways. I think he still is, from what I've seen. He favored Annie and Ulrich was never good enough." She paused and her eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Just…trying to understand a few things."

He wasn't sure what he looked like, but suddenly Sissi's face relaxed and she gave him a look bordering on sympathetic. "You won't," she promised. "But get Ulrich to tell you about how he wound up at Kadic and you may start to."

Odd didn't know what to say to that (so he left).

. . … . .

Jeremie's eyes widened when he heard Odd casually announce, "Adolf's visiting Ulrich next week. Don't bother him until he's gone."

"Odd!" he exclaimed, looking around nervously. "You don't just joke about things like that!" It didn't seem to matter that they were in an abandoned factory that no one knew about.

"Just don't rile up Ulrich, he's brooding already," Odd replied with a shrug.

. . … . .

At fifteen he comes back home after visiting his parents looking haunted. The others watch him carefully as he sits listless in class, fumbles on the football field, and develops a sudden fascination with selective mutism. "What's wrong with Ulrich?" Aelita questioned quietly. She watched Ulrich scribble in a notebook at a table across the library from them. "Winter holiday was just last week; shouldn't he be happy and relaxed not…this?"

"He visited Hitler, of course he's not okay," Odd replied.

"The former German dictator?" Aelita asked, confused. "Don't you mean his grave?"

"Nah, his father." He left it at that and grabbed his stuff. "Hey, ready to get some chow?" he called. Madam Martin made a shushing noise from the front desk as Odd persuaded Ulrich to head to the cafeteria.

Yumi and Jeremie spent two hours explaining Odd's quirk for nicknames.

. . … . .

They're sixteen and lying on Ulrich's bed; behind the closed and locked door (his father is probably searching for the spare key Ulrich stole from his desk drawer last vacation). The ceiling is decorated with darts and taped up images of football stars and distant places. It's surprisingly cluttered compared to the bare walls (Ulrich's never bothered to explain how his father never bothers to look up around him).

"Your father's a Nazi," Odd murmurs into his ear. "How did you live here all these years?"

Sometimes (like now) he thinks he should defend his father, but the words never come out right.

"Yeah, he is," he agrees.