I'm back again! Took a little while longer than planned, but ah well, can't always help it. Appointments, chores, preparing for uni... Real life stuff.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and favourited and followed! You guys made me do it again, I swear. The squealing. Still doesn't sound natural or healthy, but hey, it's a good thing! (I guess ^~^' Nah, I'm certain it is)
Thank you all so so so much!

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I tried to make it brighter and fluffier than the last one (which, thinking about it, shouldn't be too hard actually)

During late spring 1946, Germany and Prussia had decided to do one of the things they had been talking about for months: they had left, just the two of them, and gone camping in a forest. Just being away from civilisation, away from their worries, away from people and other nations.
Germany was fascinated watching his brother just… change. Prussia became almost an entirely different man the moment they left the city. He was the one providing them with food, although he was also teaching Germany to do it himself.
The Prussian had taken a pocket knife with him and some strings, found a good piece of wood and started crafting a bow. He'd sent Germany out to gather stones that could be filed down to arrow tips, and by the time Germany had returned, Prussia was already finishing up the bow. By evening, the albino had made himself a well-functioning bow and a set of arrows that would last them for two days, provided that the hunt went well.
Prussia had then, just two hours before nightfall, taken Germany out hunting. The young nation had been amazed at how silent and nimble his brother could be if he put his mind to it. Prussia was tall, strong, well-muscled. He wasn't as bulky as Germany was, but he was certainly not the type one would expect to be stealthy and agile. Watching him, Germany felt almost as if he was looking at the Prussia of a couple of centuries ago, when he had been young and lived on his own. Of course Prussia had told him about how he used to hunt for food, help out farmers to earn some money or be paid in grain. It was with mercenary work as a Teutonic Knight and little chores like those that he made a living. Accommodation was one thing the Knights provided him with, like with any of their 'brothers', but he'd been expelled for some time, too. Between then and meeting the Holy Roman Empire, this had been what his life had looked like.
Germany was certainly impressed.

Germany was following Prussia as quietly as he could, trailing behind a little so as to not startle any potential prey. At one point, Prussia signalled to him to halt and be quiet, and the young nation watched with bated breath as his brother drew his bow, took aim, then shot. The arrow that exploded from his hand-made weapon sailed through the air at amazing speed, and Germany thought that he'd miss it if he blinked. He probably would have, too.
"I hope rabbit's to your taste, little bro!" Prussia declared proudly, still in a hushed voice, as he quickly moved forward, following the direction his arrow had gone in. The Free State disappeared behind bushes for a moment, then reappeared with a rabbit hanging limply from his grasp. He was pulling out the arrow as he walked.
Germany couldn't suppress a smile as his brother brought back his catch. "That was amazing!" he praised the Prussian. "You used to do this all the time? That must have been a lot of work."
Prussia just chuckled. "Not all the time," he answered with a grin. "As a Teutonic Knight, we sometimes caught our own food, sometimes we bought it or were given provisions by villagers as we passed through. My years with Holy Rome were pretty much luxury for that time: we didn't even have to prepare our meals by ourselves!" He hummed then and looked away, grinning. "Or, actually, that is luxury in this day and age, too. The quality of the meals just was that much worse compared to nowadays. Now let's see… After I went back to my land, I lived on my own for a while. Same lifestyle as the Teutonic Knights, but I had a house and didn't travel all the time. Then I went to live with my leader's family when I became a duchy, and from then on… Back to luxury!"
The albino laughed to himself, and Germany only stared at him until he was already way ahead of his little brother. "Well, don't ruin it, just when I'm getting impressed about what you do…" With a sigh and a grin, the young nation said with a chuckle, even though Prussia was out of earshot by then. Shaking his head in amusement, he went after his brother.

Once roasted, the rabbit tasted surprisingly good. They had some bread with them, but they decided to leave that for the next day, as Prussia's catch was large enough to serve as a full meal for the evening.
Prussia smiled as he watched Germany with the rabbit he'd caught. He'd almost forgotten how good it felt to have to work for your food like this. Of course he and Germany worked to make a living, but being able to sit down and eat something you caught yourself was a special feeling. He hadn't realised he'd missed it.
"So?" he began to his little brother. "Do you want to try the bow tomorrow, too?"
Germany nodded, but his eyes said the opposite. "Do we have arrows enough for that, though?" he asked a little worriedly. "I'm fairly certain that I'll mess it up, and that rabbit won't last us another day."
"We've got bread for a day," Prussia reminded him. "And we can make new arrows."
Germany shrugged, looking uncertain still. "We'll see. Thanks, anyway."
Silent for a moment, Prussia then sighed. Turning sideways, he grabbed one of the bottles of water they'd brought with them; the two brothers had enough water with them to last them a week. That was one thing they wouldn't leave up to chance. After the war, they feared groundwater might not be drinkable anymore in some areas. Many things might have contaminated water, after all: waste, perhaps even chemical waste, but also… corpses. There were mass graves in some areas, mainly around old concentration camps, but perhaps there were some around here, too, and they had just not been found yet.
As Prussia took the lid off one of the bottles, he smiled wryly. "This really does ruin the mood, you know?" he said to his little brother. "Out hunting earlier, it almost felt like the good old days. I used to drink water from rivers all the time, you know? Or brooks, or lakes… Rainwater was always a good one, too." Taking a swig of his water, he went on: "The water wasn't exactly clean, but it was fine. It never killed us."
"I disagree," Germany answered with a smirk. "Life expectancy was a lot lower back in your so-called 'good old days'. Also, you just admitted that the water wasn't clean back then. You need clean water now. Don't complain."
Prussia huffed at this. What's that supposed to mean? "We both need clean water," he corrected the younger nation. "I'm not a special case, you know." But as he then took his pills for the day, swallowing them with water quickly, he realised that was a lie. He just didn't want to think about that right now. They'd left to leave their troubles behind for a little while, and his health fell under that category.
Germany had been sick for a week or two, but Prussia's brief illness just a few weeks ago had been both shorter and more intense. It had lasted five days, two of which he had been unable to eat altogether. Since then, Germany had been very protective over his elder brother, to the point that Prussia got annoyed with him sometimes.
Prussia stiffened for a moment when Germany suddenly leant towards him and put his arms around him, but then he relaxed and smiled. "You just need to take extra good care of yourself for just a little while," the young German said to him. "Until the effects of the war have subsided. As long as we're both a little unstable health-wise, I want you to be careful."
Patting his little brother on the back, Prussia smiled wider. "I will be, you know that," he assured the young nation. He hugged him back only briefly before he let go again and moved away. "Now finish your meat and then we'll finish setting up that tent. Tomorrow I'll teach you to work that bow, all right?"
Finally, Germany smiled a little. "All right. Thanks, Prussia."

"Ow! Shit, that… That hurt more than I thought it would."
Germany was scowling at the bow in his hand, then gingerly rubbed the fresh scrape on the inside of his arm.
Prussia smiled warmly and shook his head amusedly. "You need to bend your arm more as you hold the bow," he explained calmly, walking back up to his brother's side and helping him hold the weapon in the right position. "That way, it won't hit your arm as you shoot. If the arrow hits your arm, it'll hurt even more, trust me." He glanced at his brother's arm then and smiled wryly. "Although I must admit, you already gave yourself quite the scrape there. How did you even do that?"
"You tell me," Germany sighed in response. "Guns are much easier, I swear."
"And also a lot less suited for hunting," Prussia argued. "With that godawful noise, you can shoot maybe one animal before you've scared away the entire forest. Arrows are much more silent than bullets and work just as well, provided the right person wields the bow."
Germany huffed softly and lowered the bow. "I think I might not be that person…" But when Prussia then told him to try again, the younger nation still did so, and this time he could at least shoot an arrow without injuring himself. He didn't quite hit the target, but the arrow was at least lodged firmly in the bark of the tree he'd shot at. Another shot, and this time he did hit the target.
Prussia smiled wide when he saw this. "We'll see about that yet, Ludwig," he said proudly. "And even if it's not a weapon for you, that doesn't matter. You don't have to be a genius with every weapon, you know."
"You are," was Germany's only answer as he drew the bow again, aimed, then shot. In the target again. But then he handed the bow to Prussia silently and went to retrieve the arrows that could be used again. When he handed those to his brother also, he sighed softly. "I'll leave the hunting to you, if you don't mind," he told his brother solemnly. "I'm not even going to try moving targets, we'd go hungry if I did." With a tiny smile, he added: "Thanks for teaching me, though."
Prussia ruffled his little brother's hair with a grin. "Thank you for indulging me and letting me teach you a thing or two!" he laughed. "I enjoyed myself, doing this. It's been too long since I felt like the big brother between us two." He stood up on his toes as he said this, but even then he only just about reached the same height Germany did. With a huff, the Free State stood normally again. "You just had to grow taller than me, didn't you?"
Germany smirked a little at this, patting his elder brother on the head mockingly. "Stop whining, pipsqueak."

After a week, the two brothers decided it was time to head home again. Or, 'home'… They still had to stay at the Cecilienhof, unable to get a house in Berlin yet. At least they weren't under so-called supervision from any nations anymore now, although they were still surrounded by Russians day in and day out. Still, these men had allowed them to leave for a week, which they hadn't expected in the least, so they both felt a little less hostile. Also as if the Russians were a little less hostile towards them. So even though they didn't like the lack of privacy they got, at least life was a lot easier on them than it had been when they first came to the Cecilienhof a year before.
Prussia didn't get into fights with the Russians anymore, which also only served to make life more relaxing; the albino had given himself a project to work on, which distracted him from the constant presence of the Soviet soldiers. He was working on copying each of his old journals with a typewriter, so that, if the centuries-old books would finally perish, he wouldn't lose his old records of events.
Germany liked to help his brother with it. It was work that didn't require him to think much, he just had to keep typing, so whenever he worked on this with Prussia, he could just zone out and forget his worries. Some of the things he read and copied were almost disturbing, but he quickly learnt to ignore that. He knew that Prussia had been in a pretty dark place many times over the course of the centuries, and the things he wrote down would of course reflect that. Soon enough, instead of freaking him out, these things only saddened him, knowing that his brother had been either so angry or so distraught at the time of writing what he had that he sometimes came across as almost insane. Maybe he really had been driven mad with grief at times, or fear or anger.
There were many good things written down in the countless books, however, and Prussia would often end up telling Germany long stories about whatever they had come across. For the first time ever, Prussia was comfortable enough to tell his little brother about his and Brandenburg's wedding day, a story which left both of them in tears with laughter. There was also a rather cryptic journal entry about Old Fritz, who at the time had only been a teenager of course. Germany figured out soon enough what 'weird' was supposed to mean in this one, but Prussia still wanted to tell him the story. The nation had been quite drunk, had been in an argument that escalated into a fistfight with Poland, and Fritz had brought him to his room to tend to his wounds and make him sleep off the alcohol.
That night had been the first time that Prussia had ever questioned his sexuality, apparently.
"Okay, okay, you can stop now," Germany grunted when his brother was about to go on. He half expected the Prussian to go into details he really didn't care to know.
Prussia just chuckled, though. "Oh, relax, Ludwig," he laughed. "I'm really not going to tell you all about our little… moments."
"Good," Germany sighed, laughing also. "You had me worried for a moment there, brother." The young nation shifted then, a little uncomfortable with what he wanted to ask now, but he really wanted to know more about this. "Can you, maybe… Could you tell me about our family?"
Prussia was quiet for a moment, surprised, but then he smiled. "Of course. What do you want to know?"
After a brief hesitation, Germany decided it didn't even matter. Anything that he hadn't heard before would be great. "What was Saxony like?" Prussia had never told him much about the Saxon, seeing as his death had been quite traumatic to the Prussian and he rather avoided thinking about his elder brother.
This time, the Free State didn't seem to mind much, being in too good a mood to have it ruined now. "Oh, Saxony could be a prankster when he wanted to," the albino said with a grin. "You should've seen how he used to tease Netherlands with his fear of heights. When Brandenburg and I got engaged, he just could not shut up about that, either. If I wasn't embarrassed already on our wedding day, he would've made me get embarrassed, I swear. The older he got, the less joking he became, though, which was a shame…" The older nation sighed then. "It was sometime during the War of Austrian Succession that he and I started fighting. Unfortunately we never made up again before he died, but… Well, I've got plenty of fond memories with my big bro, and that's enough for me."
It was quiet for a moment after that, until Prussia asked if there was anyone else Germany wanted to hear about. The young nation had to think for a moment, but then decided he would just make the most of it now that his brother was in such a talkative mood. "Maybe… Maybe Brandenburg…?" he suggested almost tentatively. "From before you got married."
Prussia chuckled. "Ah, but that's the least interesting part!" he joked, although his voice had already changed entirely now: it had that warmth and love that Germany was used to hearing whenever Prussia talked about his precious wife, however rarely he did so. Although if he had to be honest, it was becoming less rare for Prussia to talk about Brandenburg these days.
With a soft sigh, Prussia started talking: "We first met when Holy Rome came to Marienburg for a visit and brought her with him. That was in the 14th century, when there were issues with Plague, and as you can imagine, people didn't particularly like me during that time. Even less than usually, I mean." He averted his gaze for just a moment, clearly not comfortable with the memories. "By the time Holy Rome and Brand came, I had been alone for a while, stuck inside my house because I would be attacked if I left. I was dehydrated, hungry and so lonely. I think part of the reason I was instantly fond of Brand was that she kept me company when I was in such a state." He barked out a short laugh then, adding: "And I guess the food she brought me also helped!"
Germany also laughed softly at this. Sometimes Prussia could be so shallow… Just sometimes. But then, if he had been going hungry for days, he would be grateful to anyone who would end that for him, too.
Prussia already went on then. "I think Holy Rome already saw some… 'potential' between us two," he mused, half to himself it seemed. "After a little while, he asked me what I thought of her, which is normal of course. But then he mumbled to himself, saying that he had plans for us." He laughed sheepishly, a little awkwardly. "If only I had figured out what he meant, I would've figured out that he planned for us to marry all along! At least, in hindsight, I'm fairly certain that's what he meant."
"300 years before you actually got married?" Germany asked, amazed. "That's… kind of freaky."
"Oh, Holy Rome had his ways," Prussia then said with a tiny smirk. "If he wanted something done, he got it done. He talked about marrying Hungary off to Austria as a reward for his loyalty in the 16th century, and he never even lived to see their marriage. He wanted me to help unite his territories, and though I wasn't in time to save his life…" The Free State then looked at Germany with twinkling red eyes. "You're here now, aren't you? Holy Rome was a mysterious person, all right. Sometimes I thought he was psychic, that man. A definite case of clairvoyance, if such a thing even exists."
He took a deep breath then. "As for Brandenburg… She and I soon became best friends. At the time, I believe she was a better friend than Hungary was, and Lizzie's been dear to me all my life. It didn't take very long for Brandenburg to become as dear to me as Holy Rome. I can honestly say that I loved her long before I loved her, if that makes sense."
Germany could only nod, unsure how to answer. He could understand that feeling, probably. He thought he did, anyway.
Prussia looked at his little brother again, his gaze warm and filled with love. "She would have loved you so much, Ludwig," he sighed. "She does, in fact. She really would have been like a mother for you, I'm certain of that. She would have been doting on you continually when you were little. Hell, even now she would." He glanced to his side then, silent abruptly, then he smiled even wider. "I know."
Surprised, Germany blinked at his brother, wondering what that was about. "Gilbert…?" It wasn't the first time his brother acted weird, talking to thin air, and he would like to hear an explanation for that now, too.
Chuckling, Prussia looked at the younger nation again. His eyes were twinkling with joy. "She is doting on you day and night, Ludwig!" he laughed, sounding very happy for some reason. "Oh, if only you would notice it for once…"
…What? The young nation was thoroughly confused now. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, Ludwig, I've been able to see them all for ages," Prussia said suddenly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Maybe I should've told you about it, but then, would you have believed me? You're not exactly accepting of the fact that there's more to life than what you can touch and see and hear."
Was that supposed to be an insult? Germany wasn't sure what to think of it, really. It wasn't important, anyway. The important part was that Prussia thought he could see ghosts. "Do you know how ridiculous this sounds?" That was the first thing he managed to get over his lips, rather bluntly.
Prussia sighed deeply, his good mood fading a bit. "What else could I have expected…?" he muttered to himself. "Stupid, saying such a thing to Ludwig…"
But as Prussia was muttering to himself like that, Germany suddenly got an idea. He suddenly remembered a dream he'd had the year before, weeks before he had been reunited with his brother and cousin. Brandenburg had told him in a dream that the two had been in Switzerland, and that had turned out to be true. Maybe she hadn't been his imagination, then? There was one way to test that, and also to see if Prussia was telling him the truth now.
He took a deep breath, then interrupted his brother's muttering. "I dreamt about Brandenburg." Instantly, Prussia was quiet, staring at him wide-eyed. Germany's stomach twisted uncomfortably, but he forced himself to go on. "She helped me out a bit, I'll admit. But if you can talk to her, you must know that." He narrowed his eyes a bit. "So can you tell me what her best advice to me was?"
For a moment, it looked like Prussia was stunned, but then he looked to his side again, silent. After a few seconds, a warm smile appeared on his lips, and he turned back to look at Germany. "She told you to remember who you are," he said without any hesitation.
That answer robbed Germany of his breath. His heart skipped a beat, and before he was even aware of it, he felt tears prick in his eyes. "She… She was real…?" All this time he had wanted to believe that Brandenburg had been real in his dreams, that he had some connection to his deceased family after all and that they were looking out for him, but he never really had.
Until now.
Prussia remained a lot calmer than him, of course. The Free State just leant over to his little brother and smiled at him. "Of course she's real," he replied calmly. "They all are. Ludwig, they're always with us, always. It took me a while to understand that too, but now I do." The Prussian was quiet for a moment, but then put his arms around the younger nation. "Even when we were separated during the war," Prussia went on softly, "you weren't ever alone. I know you felt like it, and I'm still so sorry that you had to, but they never left your side."
Germany struggled to breathe as his brother was telling him this. He wanted to believe every word of it, but it was hard. This was one topic he had never put much thought into. He'd never wanted to. Prussia had tried to teach him many things since he'd been a child, most of which he had succeeded in. However, the older nation had tried to raise Germany as a Christian and he had tried to raise him to believe in life after death, but he'd failed in both. Germany believed that nations would normally be reincarnated if they died, because that was a proven fact, but that was about all.
Well, maybe it was time for him to be more open, then. There was no way Prussia could have known what had been said to Germany in a dream more than a year ago if all this wasn't real.
There was one thing he didn't understand, though. "H-how come you can see them and talk to them all the time, then, if I can't?" he asked a little hoarsely. "I've only seen Brandenburg in a dream twice, m-maybe three times…? How do you…?"
Prussia sighed with a wry smile, carefully tapping the side of his head with two fingers. "My brain was messed up a bit, remember?" He chuckled for a moment, almost anxiously. "Well, uh… Let's just say it was one good thing that came out of that stroke. I don't really get how it works, either, but I'm grateful for it." His expression darkened a little, a flash in his red eyes as he shrunk back just slightly. "Without them to keep me company in… you know… I would seriously have lost my mind. I don't think I would have made it if they hadn't been there for me."
Although he found it difficult to comprehend, Germany nodded silently when his brother explained this part. He could fully understand Prussia's feelings over having his family with him when he'd been locked up and tortured, that part was nothing surprising. It was that the Prussian had been able to see ghosts for over a decade now that just wouldn't process in his mind. So all this time, whenever Prussia had been acting weird, he had actually been having conversations? Germany almost regretted his decision to be open to this now: it was a lot to take in.
Just a few minutes ago, we were copying old journal entries and talking casually, he thought, his head spinning. When did the conversation change this drastically?
He swallowed the lump of nervousness in his throat. "S-so even though I cannot see or hear them," he asked softly, "they can see and hear me, right?" Prussia nodded silently, confirming this, and Germany took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "In that case…" What was he doing? This was insane. Still, he felt he should at least say this. "Thank you… all of you. Thank you for staying with us both, for helping us when we need you… And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for… for not knowing you were here."
It was silent after he finished speaking, and after a few seconds the young nation opened his eyes again, looking up at his brother. Prussia was smiling warmly at him, his eyes full of emotion. He didn't say anything for a little while, but eventually he choked out a few words.
"You don't need to apologise to them, Ludwig. Not ever."

Months passed quickly, while at the same time it felt as if time was crawling by.
By the end of 1946, Prussia was sick once again. He couldn't hide that from Germany, of course, but he did his best to at least hide the severity of it. He didn't want his little brother to worry about him too much, but he had to admit that he felt pretty bad.
In fact, he had spent the past hour in the bathroom, sitting next to the toilet just in case. The Free State sat in the corner of the small room, leaning against the wall and trying to focus on his breathing. He stomach was churning continually.
To make things even more fun, Holy Rome, Brandenburg and Old Prussia were with him, and they proved themselves unable to agree on anything once again.
"Guys, please," Prussia rasped eventually, after having had to listen to their arguing for minutes on end. "My head is pounding and you're not helping." A cold shiver went down his spine when he felt bitter bile rise in his throat.
Old Prussia only huffed, but both Holy Rome and Brandenburg apologised. "Maybe you should go back to bed," Holy Rome suggested. "It must be long past midnight by now, and you've only been sitting here for at least ten, fifteen minutes now."
Prussia shook his head, lips pressed together tightly. He took a deep breath before he dared to open his mouth again. "There's definitely still something there, and I don't want to lie down and have to race back here within minutes." Just as he said that, he could taste bile again, and he shuddered. "I've got a feeling I won't have to wait much longer, anyway."
Old Prussia looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, whatever floats your boat," she sighed. "But you know, if that little brother of yours wakes up to find you gone, he'll know something's up. He's not stupid, certainly not."
Brandenburg then knelt down in front of Prussia, looking at him with a warm blue gaze but worry also sparking in her eyes. "Maybe you should just tell him, dear," she said softly. "It's better if you're honest with him than that you let him find out on his own."
Prussia sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's just the flu, for Heaven's sake! Anyone would think I'm dying, the way you all go on about it." He didn't quite realise what he'd said until he'd done it, and he added more softly: "And… I'm not, right? N-not yet? This is just the flu, right?"
Holy Rome nodded immediately. "Of course, this is just the economy affecting you," he answered reassuringly. "Still, you shouldn't pretend you're doing better than you really are. If it gets worse suddenly, then what will you do? Say, for example, you'll be bedridden before this is over. That might not be too surprising to you, since you're the one feeling everything, but Ludwig might not see it coming as much as you would. You'd give him a good scare, if such a thing were to happen."
"Yeah, well," Prussia muttered, averting his gaze. "He's been… off lately. I don't know what it is, but he's been overly protective of me all year. If I so much as sneeze, he's making a fuss over it." He sighed, leaning back against the wall. "It's getting on my nerves, if I have to be honest."
Brandenburg looked like she was going to answer, but instead she shoved out of the way quickly when Prussia suddenly had to lean over the toilet again. Nothing happened yet, though, and she sighed. "You really should go back to bed," the young woman said carefully. "You won't get better if you don't sleep."
Well, something happened, all right. Prussia flinched at the bitter and sour taste that stayed in his mouth. And just after that had faded a bit, too. He would really have to make a detour to get water before he would go to bed, or he wouldn't be able to sleep at all. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he sat back, looking at Brandenburg sideways. "Well, so far I haven't gotten any better even if I did sleep, so…" He sighed once again and leant back against the wall. "Ah, it'll pass in its own time."
There was another reason he didn't want Germany to know just how bad he felt now: Germany wasn't exactly healthy himself, after all. Prussia just didn't want to be taken care of by his little brother anymore. No matter what, Prussia was the elder brother, and he still felt that it was his duty to look after Germany, not the other way around. Circumstances had forced them to switch roles for some time, but Prussia wanted to change that again. Germany had been so protective over him lately. He just wanted that to end, he wanted to be the one taking care of his little brother again and for Germany to be just a little more carefree again.
Prussia being sick wouldn't help the young nation become that bit more carefree, especially not when he wasn't doing too well himself.
With a soft huff, Prussia heaved himself to his feet, flushed the toilet, then stumbled back to his bed -but not before drinking a bit, because he really needed to get that taste out of his mouth before he would even have the chance to sleep.

To his relief, Germany was fast asleep still, exactly like he had been when Prussia had left over an hour ago. Prussia watched him for a few seconds, then walked over to his side and leant down to give him a very careful kiss on the side of his head. Germany stirred, turned onto his other side, but didn't do anything else.
"I love you, little brother," the Prussian then whispered, very softly, very carefully. "I know it may not always seem like it, but I'll always have your back, all right? You can always count on me. I'm still capable of more than you might think, no matter how sick I may get."
Prussia then glanced at Holy Rome, who was watching with a warm smile. The empire had always been there for Prussia, even when he was hours away from death. The last thing he had ever said to Prussia in life was advice, wisdom, life lessons. If Prussia was to decline like Holy Rome had, he wanted to do the same for his own little brother. Whatever happened, he wanted to help Germany as much as he could in the time he had left. Whether that time was long or short, he didn't know, and he didn't want to know.
He just wanted to make the most of his time left with Germany, teach him all that he knew, help him become more confident in his position as a nation, a confidence he had lost over the course of the war.
He had created Germany, and now he wanted to be the one to help build him back up after the onslaught that had been the Second World War. Maybe Prussia wasn't the most healthy of the two, but he was still older and more experienced. Prussia's damage from the war had not been from the war itself, but from his months of imprisonment. Germany truly was scarred by the war, by the hatred he got from other nations in response to it. It would take time for the young nation to recover from this, no matter how well he could pretend that he was fine.
Thinking about this, Prussia cracked a small grin as he sat down on the edge of his own bed. Germany was so much like himself in that respect. Which also meant that Prussia had more experience with feeling like Germany now did.
"And I'll help you with that," he whispered as he lay down and closed his eyes. "I'd help you even if it was with my last breath, little brother. Stop being so worried all the time. That's my job." He yawned and turned onto his other side then, finishing under his breath: "Just… let me take care of you again."

He wasn't incapable of being the brother Germany deserved. He just needed to be given the chance. Germany gave him that chance a bit more often again now, but not nearly enough.
"I love you, little brother… Let me be there for you."

So yeah, Prussia got a chance to show off his awesome skills that he hasn't had to use for a couple centuries. I can't imagine Germany having seen his big bro like he did during their little escape from society before then.
Or I must have missed something in my own writing, I don't know...

Random info time! I've been listening to Breaking Benjaming kind of non-stop while writing lately, and I swear to Holy Rome, many of their songs depict Prussia in different stages of his life perfectly. Many also have sections that fit Germany to perfection, once or two that are 100% Germany.
In fact, just for fun, I'm going to write down some lyrics from their songs in chronological order of Prussia's life, to see how far I can come.
Heh. Yeah.
If you know and like Breaking Benjamin, I'd say... listen to Until The End, What Lies Beneath, Anthem of The Angels, I Will Not Bow and So Cold. They're the ones that fit Prussia and Germany most, in my opinion.

Okay, end of randomness.

Lastly, I just want to give a warning for the next chapter. Because this chapter was all you'll get on 1946. So yeah, next chapter is... you know.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!