Chapter 11

Dinner was amazing and bar hopping in Berlin on a weeknight was a great way to end the day. Germany and the two Italian brothers tagged along with Prussia and Denmark in the beginning but by the 3rd bar the two love birds managed to ditch the trio and go off on their own. The third place they went was familiar to the Dane. He'd been there before and even sat in the same exact seat. It was the bar Prussia had taken them when he'd asked to date.

He nursed a beer contentedly and Prussia did as well. Instead of sitting across from each other they were squeezed together side by side in the booth. They held hands under the table and Prussia's shoulder was pressed tightly against Denmark. It was nice. The lighting was low giving the place a rustic feel and the patrons too were talking to each other in quiet voices giving the background a nice soothing hum.

"You know what would be awesome?" Prussia asked as he wiped a bead of condensation from the side of his glass.

"What?"

"You have to guess."

"Oh..." Denmark was drawing a blank but he tried. "If frogs were as big as houses?"

"What? No," Prussia lifted the head that was on Denmark's shoulder to give him a strange stare.

"Yeah it would. Then we could ride them."

"I guess," Prussia said. "But that wasn't what I was thinking."

"OK, let me try again."

Prussia settled back against Denmark once more, "Sure whatever."

Denmark thought for a moment before speaking once more.

"I got it this time! It'd be awesome if we could get unlimited free beer at bars on our land."

There was a pause before Prussia shifted again to glance at him.

"OK, yeah that would be pretty dang awesome. But it wasn't what I was thinking."

"Fine, what were you thinking then?"

"It'd be awesome if we went on a trip together!"

"Oh," and then there was a pause. Denmark continued, "Didn't we already do that? We went to Latvia, remember."

"That doesn't count. It was a world meeting. I mean a real vacation. We pick a place, rent a place, or stay with a friend it doesn't matter, and just go around and see shit and enjoy ourselves."

"Wow, I honestly can't remember if I actually ever done that before. And I mean not to a Nordic country or as a guest of some nation for some political thing."

"Exactly," Prussia said. "I have done it a few times now that I'm not a nation anymore. I mean before that no, it was always business or something. You won't believe the stuff you learn when you just go out to visit someone."

"Like who?" Denmark was curious.

"Well, like Japan. Also Argentina." and then as an after thought. "And Canada."

"Who?"

"America's brother. The one up north."

Denmark was drawing a blank.

"OK. If we plan a trip to a country won't we have to tell them about it?"

"Naturally. We don't want them to get the wrong idea. We're not there to attack."

"Yeah," Denmark agreed.

"Plus, we might get some special hospitality from the host nation," Prussia said.

Suddenly Denmark started thinking of all the places he never really been to other than for meetings of some sort that he'd like to try. Most of them were warm equatorial places much different from his own kingdom. The thought of riding on a boat down a floating market in Thailand or diving in the warm waters of the Cayman Islands intrigued him. It would be cool to see how his fellow nations really lived.

"What about somewhere near the equator?"

Prussia shuddered, "I've got sun burn just thinking about it."

"Aw, just bring lots of sunscreen."

"I see you've warmed up to the idea pretty quickly."

"Well, you usually do have pretty good ideas. I admit it."

Prussia downed the last of his beer and then set it down on the table. "Did you want another beer or should we head back to my place?"

"One for the road?"

"Sure."

They acquired two more beers and returned to their comfortable position. Denmark stroked Prussia's knuckles with his thumb.

"I can't believe this is where it all started," he remarked.

"What?" Prussia looked around. "Oh, you mean us. Yeah, how about that?"

"I gotta admit that's another one of your good ideas. You and me, who would have known we'd have been so good together. Maybe we should have done this earlier."

Prussia through his head back and laughed, looking up at Denmark with shining red eyes.

"Is that the beer speaking?"

"No, I mean it. I feel so comfortable with you," replied Denmark.

Prussia shook his head and moved so that he could wrap both arms around Denmark's middle.

"Think of all the damage we could have done if this only happened a few centuries earlier," something wicked flashed in those ruby eyes.

"The rest of Europe is probably better off with us getting together now," agreed Denmark "If Lithuania knew that he'd gotten off easy maybe he could find it in his heart to forgive you."

That really got Prussia going. He threw his head back in a fit of laughter.

"Speaking of Lithuania," Prussia said. "Whatever happened to that party Poland invited us to like a month ago?"

"It wasn't a month. The world meeting was like a week ago."

"Do you still have the invitation?"

"It might be in my bag back at your place," mused Denmark. "I'll check when we get back. But... are you sure you want to go?"

"What? And miss a chance to torture Lithuania, Hungary and Austria all in one place? Never!"

"But.. well...," Denmark didn't know how to proceed.

"No buts! If it's Poland's party those three nerds will definitely be there."

"But you know... Russia might come too."

"So what," Prussia said. "Let him come. I'm there with you. In fact, let's make a vacation out of it."

"Poland wasn't quite what I had in mind when you said we could go on a trip. I was hoping to avoid Europe in general."

"True. Poland is so been there done that," Prussia agreed with a sigh. "Anyway we have plenty of time to think about where to go."

Prussia took a final long drink of his beverage and set down his empty tankard beside Denmark's on the table.

"Ready to go?" asked Denmark shifting and gathering his jacket.

"Yeah, but I have to piss first, kesesese," Prussia replied moving to stand.

He was a bit wobbly and Denmark grabbed his elbow to steady him.

"Careful now," he said and stood as well.

"I'm OK," Prussia said pulling away and doing a pirouette to show how nimble he was.

And he was too. Denmark was impressed. They had drank quite a bit that evening and even he was feeling tipsy. He decided he probably needed a bit of air and so went to wait for his boyfriend outside of the bar. The night air was cool and he wondered if they were planning to walk back or not.

He came to the conclusion that he wouldn't really mind if they did. He couldn't remember how far Germany's place was from where they were but he and Prussia were pretty fast walkers when they wanted to be.

A string of curses reached Denmark's ear as the door swung open. Denmark turned and out stumbled Prussia as the bartender yelled out after him to watch his step.

The door slammed shut and Prussia quickly spotted Denmark and waved.

"How many did we have again?" Prussia asked.

"I wasn't keeping count," Denmark replied.

Prussia ran his fingers through his pale hair, "If we were humans we'd probably be dead right now."

"Good thing we're not human," countered the Dane. "But hey, I feel fine. Maybe you just can't keep up with me."

Prussia bristled at that, "Hey, I have amazing tolerance! Nobody told you to be built like a brick house!"

Denmark chuckled and swung his arm over Prussia's shoulders.

"Come on let's go," he said and pulled Prussia down the road.

"My place is this way," Prussia corrected turning them to head in the opposite direction.

From that point they walked in silence in the quiet night. The further they got from the bar the more seldom it was to see any signs of life. Rare was there a passing car or the bark of a dog. The only sound was that of their footsteps against the pavement.

Prussia wasn't usually a quiet drunk. He wasn't too obnoxious when drunk, provided as that was his default state. However he certainly wasn't usually quiet either.

"What are you thinking of?" Denmark asked giving his boyfriend a little shove.

"Nothing really," Prussia remarked keeping his balance. "Just a silly thing."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Promise not to laugh."

"I won't," promised Denmark.

"Well, for one, why the heck are you so big?"

Denmark bit his lip to keep from laughing but of course that didn't stop the tremors from running through his body. Prussia pulled away slightly and pouted.

"You promised not to laugh."

"I'm not laughing," Denmark said, though a giggle spilled out as he said that.

"Whatever! It's not funny. It's true! Why are you so big? Your landmass isn't so big. What makes a country big?"

Denmark shrugged, "I used to be pretty big. Besides, maybe it's not just our landmass but our influence or whatever."

Prussia looked unconvinced.

"Explain China!"

"You're drunk," dismissed Denmark.

"I'm drunk but that doesn't explain why you're big but China's not."

"Well aren't we kind of like a representative of our people?" tried Denmark. "I guess I just look like a Danish guy."

"Oh," assented Prussia.

Of course he was only appeased for all of two seconds.

"But wait! My people never look like me."

"That's because you're special," Denmark replied not missing a beat.

"Bah! Just admit it. You don't know why we look the way we do."

"Why would you expect me to?" asked Denmark.

"It's just not fair! I was so strong and powerful. My empire was huge!"

Denmark shook his head, "Why do you suddenly want to be big?"

Prussia took a few steps in front of Denmark then turned puffing his chest out.

"I just think that my outside should match my inside. Do you really think my little bro turned out such a bastion of manly awesome for no reason? It's all thanks to me," Prussia hit his chest with a hand.

"Yeah definitely you. No thanks to your other brothers," Denmark smirked.

"I was the most influential, OK Anyway it doesn't matter. All I know is that if I were bigger I could drink you under the table!"

"Ahhh, so that's what this is about," chuckled Denmark.

Only their voices were heard in the street. The house was just as silent as they approached. Germany's place was actually pretty close to the bar Prussia chose. He probably frequented it for just that reason.

"Shh, I bet Germany's asleep so we should be more quiet," warned Prussia.

"You were the one talking!"

"Shh!" Prussia hit him in the chest as they got to the door.

Making as little noise as possible the two made their way into the darkened house and to Prussia's bedroom. After switching on the lights Prussia made his way to the bed and began taking off his shoes.

"You can shower first since you're the guest."

"Even though I'm your boyfriend I'm still a guest?"

"You're a guest until you stay over 3 times," joked Prussia.

Denmark went to his bag to get his stuff out so he could shower when he noticed in the front pocket was the invitation they were talking about earlier.

"I found Poland's invite!" he said taking out the paper of interest.

Prussia hopped up and snatched it from his hands before returning to the bed. He opened the seal and pulled out the card and spilling glitter onto his pants.

"Fucking Poland!" Prussia cursed.

"What does it say?"

Denmark joined him on the bed and leaned into him to peer over his shoulder.

"It says it's a birthday party," said Prussia.

"For Poland?" asked Denmark.

"I guess... yeah it's about that time of year again. Wow! I actually got invited to Poland's birthday! You come with perks, Jailbird," Prussia cackled.

"Your brother is asleep," reminded Denmark.

Prussia lowered his volume," Let's go. It's in a week. What better present is there than the awesome me!"

"If you say so," yawned Denmark flopping onto his back.

"You're sleeping?" Prussia asked lowering the invite.

Denmark shook his had and let his eyes close.

"Just resting my eyes," he said.

Prussia rolled his eyes and balanced the invitation on top of Denmark's nose and reclined as well beside him. Maybe he should rest his eyes too for a bit. That sounded like a good idea but he knew he'd better shower while he could.

He went into the bathroom and started the water. He was the type to hop directly into the shower, not caring that it first came out cold before warming into a suitable temperature. He stood under the frigid spray until it heated and turned his pale skin a hot pink.

As he washed his hair and closed his eyes he thought of the day and how nice it had been. He was grateful not just for the company but for the validation he'd been getting recently because of it. Was it wrong to use a person to feel alive again? Getting invited to Poland's birthday was just another beautiful development in his life. He had been starved for the attention. It had been far too long since a nation outside of his immediate circle of friends acknowledged him long enough to invite him to anything. And why should they? He was a nobody after all.

And yet to Denmark he didn't know how to say thank you except with words. He had nothing else he could give.

-to be continued-

AN: many thanks for the kind reviews and readers! They are super appreciated