Chapter 10

Prussia opened his eyes slowly, groaning in pain. His lungs ached less, and he could at least move his shoulders. He wasn't lying on stone anymore. He was in his room, in his own bed, face down. He tried to move his shoulders. His back and chest were bandaged, and his arms still braced. He lifted his head slightly, the wound on his neck stinging. He ignored it, pushing himself up on his right hand, trying to look around.

"You shouldn't move, Gil."

Prussia turned, it was Hungary. "Elizabeta…" The sound of his own voice scared him. His throat was raw, and both talking and swallowing hurt. He shifted, turning his face towards her, trying to rest. She was right, he shouldn't move. "How long have I been out?"

"A few days." Her arms were crossed over her chest. He noticed she wasn't wearing her usual dress, just a pair of grey pants and her white blouse. Her arms were bandaged.

"Are you ok?" He asked, trying to be kind.

"Oh I'm fine, how are you, you f-…" she stopped herself with a sigh. "You're a real idiot you know."

"Meh, I keep your life interesting," he smirked.

"I have enough to deal with at the moment, thank you very much!" she put her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"Mmph," he turned away.

Hungary sighed deeply and put her hand on Prussia's. "Are you all right?" her tone was gentle, concerned.

He sighed too, "Yeah, I'll be all right." He winced as she touched the bandages on his back. "So, did Estonia actually stitch them?" He turned to look at her again.

She nodded, "Yes, Russia helped."

"Did he hurt you?" Prussia motioned to the bandages on her arms again.

"Not much," she shrugged, "You know better than anyone that I can take a hit," she smiled.

He smirked, "Yeah, yeah I know."

"Be quiet, Gil." She rolled her eyes.

"Where's Russia?" Prussia almost didn't want to ask.

"He's… um… busy," she rubbed her upper arms nervously.

"Who?"

Hungary looked down, not answering.

"Liz, who?"

"Poland," she said, still not looking at him.

Prussia sighed, "He still won't talk to me."

"Does that honestly surprise you?" She shook her head.

"I guess not…" he looked away. "I've tried to apologize, I've tried to… help? Make things better… I don't know…"

"After what you and your brother did to him, do you really think you can just apologize?" She stared at him, confused.

"I mean… I know the beatings were...bad sometimes, but-"

"You think he's upset about a few be-" she stopped suddenly, looking into Prussia's face. "You don't know. Oh God, you don't know… do you?" She brought her hand to her mouth and looked away.

"Don't… know… what?" He reached for her hand, taking it away from her mouth, not letting it go when she tried to pull away. "Liz, what don't I know?"

"I… I can't…" She shook her head, staring at him, shocked. "How… how could you not know? How- Your brother must have known, there's no way… he couldn't have…"

"Known what? Liz, what are you talking about?" Her voice was stern, almost angry.

She pulled her hand away from his forcefully, "You'll have to ask Poland yourself." She stood, turning away from him.

"Liz… what did we do?"

She looked back at him, shaking her head, "I… you…" She looked away again, "You're an idiot, Gil…" She turned back to him, angry now. "How could not know what your boss was doing? How could you just look away? Why didn't you stop him? Why didn't you do anything? Do you know how many people's deaths you and your brother are responsible for?"

"We're no worse than any of the rest of you." Prussia's voice was hot with anger now, "Don't pretend you don't have your own dark side."

"Oh, I have a dark side, I won't argue with that, but you… you and your brother… you killed children. You killed hundreds of thousands of children…

"No!" Gil forced himself to sit up, turning to her. He didn't care about the pain anymore, "I'm a soldier. I kill men. I've killed a lot of men, but never, ever, children." he prayed he was right.

Hungary shook her head in disbelief, "Yes, you have. Thousands of them. You and your brother, and… and…" she bit back tears, "and Austria…" She took a deep, shaking breath, "All of you."

"So you'd rather stay with Russia then, is that it?"

"No! If I could leave I would, this second, but I can't, because you and your brother destroyed everything! Both of you! You… the things you did… how do you not know what you've done? I can't believe you didn't know… I can't!"

Prussia looked down. He couldn't lie, not to her. "I knew…" He fought his own pride, "I knew something was going on, something… something he didn't want us to know about, probably because we would have fought back… but I never found out. I never… I never wanted to know." He looked up at her, seeing her soften with his honesty, "I followed orders. My men followed orders."

"Just like a good soldier."

The words cut. He nodded, "Yeah, just like a good soldier."

Hungary walked up to him again, putting her hand on his shoulder, "I believe you… that you didn't know… but…"

"But?"

"Gil… Poland… what you…" She sighed, "Poland isn't…" She took a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts, trying to say it in a way that wouldn't hurt him, "Poland isn't going to get better… if… if he ever does it's going to take a very, very, very long time." She sighed, "You aren't going to be able to fix this, Gil. It's not going to go away, and I don't think Poland is ever going to trust you again… I doubt he's going to trust anyone, ever again."

"And Russia? He can't be treating Poland well either?"

Hungary shook her head, "It's… he's not quite as bad as you were, but… Gil, it's not good. I've barely seen Poland… Russia… or his boss… almost always has him…"

"His boss?" Gil stared at her, it was rare of a country's boss to get involved directly with another nation.

Hungary nodded, "Your boss did the same thing. Russia… Russia refused to hurt Poland as much as his boss wanted him to… so he's doing it himself." She sighed, "I overheard them talking once. Russia even tried to defend Poland… a little at least. It's not good, Gil. It's…" she shook her head, "It's not good."

Prussia nodded, then looked up into her big green eyes, "Elizabeta…"

"Don't." She pulled away from his shoulder, sighing as he caught her hand.

"I'm sorry."

She straightened, trying to be tough, "And which offense are you specifically sorry for?"

"We took Austria away from you, and-"

"Don't. you. dare mention Roderich, Gil, don't you dare." She pulled her hand from him, shoving his broken arm away, not really caring if it hurt him.

Prussia winced, looking up at her, "He may have been your husband, but he's my friend too, and if you think I enjoyed watching him suffer in the war then you don't know me very well!"

She slapped him. He winced, hard, not looking at her.

"Shut up, Gil. Just shut up. You didn't see him after the war… you…" She bit back tears, "He didn't even touch his piano… he just…" She swallowed the choke rising to her throat and shook her head. "Do you what he told me?" She was furious now, furious but quite. Prussia wished she'd gotten angrier. It was even more terrifying when she was quiet, "He said he'd wished you'd killed him."

Prussia closed his eyes, looking away. He would rather have endured Russia's pipe again than hear those words. He said nothing.

"What?"

He heard tears in Hungary's voice.

"Don't you have anything to say to that?" She let the tears stream now. "Don't you have anything to say that the man you call friend wishes you'd killed him?"

Gil said nothing.

"Fine, if you don't care…" She turned to leave.

"Don't you dare say I don't care about him!" Gil stood, grabbing Hungary's arms, looking down at her. "Don't…" He shook his head, angry.

She shook her head, "Sometimes you really are stupid, Gil…" She tried to stop the tears still streaming down her cheeks. Hot, angry tears that refused to stay inside her. She opened her mouth to speak again, but couldn't. She leaned her head on Prussia's chest and sobbed.

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her as best he could with the braces on his arms. He touched her hair gently, resting his cheek on her head. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, "I'm so, so sorry." He sighed, kissing her hair, pulling her closer.

She pulled away, brushing her hair behind her ear, looking up at him. "You should be standing. Please… you should rest. Just…" She sighed, "I'll go get Estonia to change those bandages again." She touched the bandage on his neck. "I'm glad you're ok, Gil." She looked up at him again. "I'm really glad you're ok." She turned away, walking towards the door, looking back at him, making sure he laid back down. She smiled kindly, then walked out, closing the door behind her.

Gil sat back on his bed, leaning his head in his hands. Austria, Poland... Germany... Millions of children...Thoughts. Thoughts he didn't want to think about, swirling around in his head and he couldn't stop them. He closed his eyes, trying to process everything. Not millions... not children. His brother would never kill children. He couldn't have known. There was no way. Austria didn't know... he was sure Austria didn't know. There was no way. Millions?

…

"G-Gil?"

Prussia woke up, slowly, looking towards the door. He glanced at the clock in his room. It was the middle of the night. There was another knock.

"G-G-Gil?"

"I'm coming, Latvia." He sighed, standing, walking to the door. He opened it to see Latvia wearing his pajamas, standing there in tears.

Gil knelt, making himself eye level with Latvia, ignoring the pain, "What's wrong?" He brushed the tears away from the boy's eyes.

"N-n-nightmares…" Latvia trembled.

Prussia sighed, "About?" he didn't really need to ask.

Latvia nodded. "R-r-…" He couldn't speak, closing his eyes, crying.

Prussia sighed again, pulling Latvia into a hug. He understood. He wasn't surprised.

"Do you want to stay here?"

Latvia looked up at him, surprised. "Can I?"

Prussia smiled, nodding. "Yeah, just don't kick me," he smirked.

Latvia nodded back, "I won't."

Prussia grabbed an extra blanket from the shelf and gave it to Latvia, who wrapped himself in it and rolled into a little ball on Prussia's bed.

Prussia smiled, laying back down, letting Latvia rest his head on his shoulder. He closed his eyes, trying to sleep. He couldn't. He looked back down at Latvia. The boy was already sleeping. He brushed his blond waves out of his face and smiled.

Ludwig ran into Gilbert's room, crying. The thunder had shaken the whole house. He leapt into Gil's bed, waking him with a start, and buried his face in his brother's shoulder.

"What's going on, are you all right?" Gil tried to pry Ludwig's arms from around his neck, choking.

Ludwig shook his head, "The thunder is scary!" He sobbed.

"Hey!" Gil pushed Ludwig's arm away from his throat, "It's not that bad, is it?" He looked into his little brother's terrified blue eyes.

"It's really, really, reeeeeeeally scary!" Ludwig sobbed, "Can I stay with you? Please, big bruder, pleeeeeeeeease?"

Gil sighed, looking into Ludwig's face, brushing the tears away from his eyes. "All right." He laid back down, wrapping his arm around Ludwig, who finally let go of his neck. He was almost asleep when Ludwig whispered in his ear.

"Can the puppy sleep in your bed too?"

Gil chuckled slightly, whispering back, "Nein."

"Pleeeeeeeease?"

"He can sleep in your bed with you." Gil didn't open his eyes, still trying to fall asleep.

"Nein!" Ludwig grabbed onto his brother's neck again.

Gil coughed, pulling Ludwig's tiny hands down, trying to breathe, "Then no puppy."

"But he'll be scared…" Ludwig's eyes filled with tears again.

Gil opened his eyes, looking into the little face leaning over his. He sighed, rolling his eyes. "Fine."

Ludwig grinned, "Danke!" He ran out of the room, returning moments later with the trembling little brown puppy. He crawled back into bed next to his brother, setting the puppy on his other side.

Gil rolled onto his side, putting his arm around both his brother and the little fur ball that he liked more than he would admit. "Good night, Luddy." He smiled, kissing the boy's blond hair.

"Night, Gil." Ludwig's voice was distant, already half asleep.

Prussia smiled sadly, rolling onto his side, putting his arm around Latvia like he used to do for his little brother.

"Good night, Raivis."

Latvia smiled, "Good night, Gil."

A/N: Another chapter! Hopefully, I'll get two up today, but no promises. I enjoyed writing this one. Hungary and Prussia still have something of a love/hate relationship with each other... (I don't ship them, but I think they can be friends... Prussia does kinda like Hungary though. She knows, but she doesn't like him like that. This chapter is certainly lighter fare than the last one, with some adorable Latvia at the end and some more baby Ludwig. (He's too adorable... I can't even handle it...) I don't want this whole story to be all violence and gore... so baby Ludwig and Puppies was needed. XD However, it's sad to think that Latvia has such bad nightmares. Poor Latvia.

More Poland to come in future chapters. I don't like the idea that Gil, (or Ludwig!) knew what was happening during WWII. I think they must have had some idea that something was wrong, but they didn't try to find out what it was or stop it. This was true of many Germans and German soldiers. They just didn't want to know. Poland went through so much, and when he finally decides to talk to Gil, Gil isn't going to like what he hears. I promise you all I will handle this very difficult historical subject with the utmost care. I am Jewish myself (though not practicing), so this is my own history. I have nothing but honor for all the millions and millions of people who were killed. It's one of the darkest chapters in the history of our world, and that is why I think it should be addressed, even in a story.

Anyway, as always, reviews are loved by me! 3 Thank you, my dedicated readers, for taking the time to leave your thoughts! I love reading them, long or short!