Chapter 61

Gil took a breath, and walked into Russia's office, standing at attention, "You… asked to see me?" he asked simply. A cold chill ran down his spine.

Russia laughed.

Gil set his jaw, swallowing hard, hiding his shaking hands behind his back, looking away. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to hide the fear in his breath as the laughing stopped and Russia stood suddenly.

Russia walked to Gil, standing in front of him, looking down at the red eyes that didn't turn to look at him. "Take off your shirt."

Gil looked up at Russia, shaking, "What?"

"I gave you an order."

Gil set his jaw, closing his eyes for a moment, looking up at Russia again, his breath shaking. He reached up to unbutton his jacket, slipping it off. He loosened his tie, pulling it off his neck and opened his shirt, looking up at the giant country. He unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and pulled it off by the sleeves, laying it against the chair across the desk from Russia's. He looked up to the bigger country again, sighing deeply.

"Explain those," Russia motioned to the healing wounds from gunfire across Gil's chest and sides.

Gil said nothing, his head snapping to the side as the back of Russia's gloved hand struck his cheek.

"Answer me," Russia's voice was cold, but he was smiling.

Gil looked up at him and smirked, "You already know the answer, don't you?"

Russia nodded, "Da. You let someone across the wall. Some random girl… Did you fall for her? Did she manage to talk her way through your common sense!? You let someone across the wall, GDR! You can't expect me to let something like that go unaddressed… what were you thinking?" Russia shook his head, the anger in his voice growing more distinct, "Explain yourself!"

"Who told you? How did you find out…" Gil looked up at him, relieved he didn't seem to know it was Gisela.

"The soldier who let you back in informed your boss, who informed me. And apparently, your handler was concerned about you after seeing your injuries. You're careless, GDR!" Russia snapped, walking behind Gil.

Gil shivered, closing his eyes, knowing what was coming. Russia grabbed his hair, kicking him to his knees, pulling his head back. He didn't look at Russia, "I'm not sorry."

"Oh, I know you're not… yet," Russia's snarled, his voice like ice.

Gil kept his hands behind his back, trying to hide their shaking, hoping Russia didn't notice. He closed his eyes again, wincing hard as Russia snapped double-locked cuffs around his wrists and pulled them tight.

"Russia…" Gil set his jaw, trying to talk his pride into shutting up long enough for him to ask Russia to loosen the cuffs.

"What's wrong, GDR?" Russia leaned behind him, his freezing breath sending a shiver down Gil's spine again. He pulled the cuffs tighter, smiling as Gil winced again, gasping a little in pain.

Gil grit his teeth harder, he didn't care how tight Russia made the cuffs. He wasn't going to ask him to loosen them, no matter how much it hurt.

"Get up," Russia snapped, kicking Gil's back, sending him to the ground.

Gil winced, looking back at Russia. Getting up wasn't easy with his hands behind his back. He tried to roll onto his side, trying to move his knee higher to give himself some help, only to have Russia kick him down again.

"I said, 'get up'," Russia said.

Gil glared up at him again, pulling himself to his knees and standing, turning to face Russia, his eyes flashing with defiance.

Russia grabbed his face, stepping closer to him, "Look at you…" Russia shook his head, laughing again, "You think you have a right to challenge me after being away for so long… I won't make that mistake again." Russia grabbed Gil's hair, dragging him towards the door, kicking him into the hallway. "Get up."

Gil looked back at him again, trying to get back onto his knees so he could stand. He cried out in pain before he could stop himself as Russia grabbed his arm, pulling him to his feet. His wrists burned and his hands were starting to go numb, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to beg. He tried to keep up as Russia dragged him towards the staircase leading to the first floor of the house. He closed his eyes bracing himself to be shoved down the marble steps.

"Vanya!" A panicked voice screamed as a loud crash came from the kitchen downstairs.

Russia looked towards the room, his expression changing from anger to concern instantly. He kept his hand around Gil's arm, pulling him along behind him as he almost ran down the stairs.

Gil tried to keep up with Russia, almost tripping several times as the bigger country led him to the kitchen and dropped him to the ground as he ran up to Ukraine, kneeling beside her.

"Katya?" Russia asked, worried.

Ukraine tried to speak through the tears, holding a wet towel to her arm, shaking. A metal pot was dented on the floor, hot stew spilled everywhere on the floor.

"Katya, what happened?" Russia asked again, putting his hand on her arm gently, looking up at her, "Are you hurt?"

Ukraine nodded, moving the towel from her arm, "I tripped and…" she winced, looking at her mildly burned.

Russia sighed, "Come here…" he stood, helping her to her feet and bringing her towards the sink again. He took the towel from her gently and re-wet it with cold water, replacing it on her arm. He reached up and brushed the tears away from her cheeks kindly, "You're ok, Kotyonok," he smiled, trying to calm her, "It's not bad, it won't take very long to heal…"

She nodded, "Spasiba…" her voice still shook as she tried to stop crying, "It really hurts, Vanya…"

Russia sighed, "Here…" he handed her the key to the medicine closet, "There's a cream for burns in the left cabinet on the third shelf from the top, the far right side, do you think you can find it?"

She nodded, brushing away her tears.

"It'll help," Russia smiled, kissing her forehead, "Now, I have other things to attend to, are you all right now?"

Ukraine nodded, smiling at him, brushing more tears away, "Spasiba, Vanya…"

Russia smiled at her kindly, "I'll send one of the Baltics to clean this mess up later, you go treat that burn, da?"

Ukraine nodded again, walking out of the room. She glanced at Gil, biting her lip, worried. She said nothing, continuing past him.

Russia stepped back towards Gil, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet, dragging him to the basement door.

Gil didn't struggle. He didn't want to use up any strength. He would play along. But Russia wasn't going to bring that pipe anywhere near him without a fight.

…

"Come in…" Lithuania's voice trembled as he turned towards the door. He sighed in relief as he saw Ukraine walk into the room, closing and locking the door behind her. She ran up to him, putting her hand on his shoulder, then kneeling next to the bed, brushing Poland's hair out of his face.

"Felya… I brought you medicine, ok?"

Poland smiled weakly, nodding, "Dziękuję… (thank you)" he whispered, "Spasiba."

Ukraine smiled, "Don't worry about it…" she glanced back at Lithuania, handing him the medicine.

Lithuania sighed, smiling, looking up at Ukraine, "Spasiba, Katya. You didn't have to do this… are you all right?"

Ukraine nodded, "The burn isn't bad, I made sure of that. I'll be fine. He needs this…"

Lithuania nodded back, "Yes… yes, he does… still, thank you."

"Where's Hungary?" Ukraine asked, touching Poland's face gently, not turning to look at Lithuania as he measured out some of the medicine.

"Sleeping," Lithuania sighed, "She stayed with him all night so I could sleep…"

"And did you?" Ukraine glanced back at him.

"No," Lithuania shook his head. He took the cup of liquid medicine and brought it to Poland as Ukraine stepped out of the way, "Do you think you can drink this, Felek?"

Poland nodded, letting Lithuania lift his head a little. He grimaced, drinking the awful dark pink liquid. "Mhph…" he shook his head, "Blech…"

Lithuania smiled, slightly amused, "It's not that bad, is it?"

"Mhph…" Poland looked up at him with a very faint smile, "yes it is…"

Lithuania took a glass of water from the nightstand and held it to Poland's lips, "Here."

Poland drank gratefully, sighing as Lithuania laid his head back onto the pillow, "Thank you…" he whispered.

Lithuania put his hand on his friend's shoulder kindly, "Do you need anything else? Are you hungry?"

Poland shook his head faintly, "Just sleep…"

Lithuania nodded, and turned to look at Ukraine again.

"There wasn't anything else for a fever. I'm sorry…" Ukraine looked down.

"This will work fine. Don't worry. Please," Lithuania shook his head, smiling at her kindly, "Thank you for your help…"

"I can stay with him for a while if you need to do anything else…" Ukraine looked down at Poland, worried.

"No, I'm fine, thank you." Lithuania nodded, "I can stay. You shouldn't though. I don't want your brother to find you here. You can't get in trouble…"

"My brother is… busy," Ukraine brought her hands to her arms, looking down again, sighing.

"Katy… what's going on?"

Ukraine didn't say anything for a moment, then sighed, looking back up at Lithuania, "Gil's back."

Lithuania closed his eyes with a deep sigh, "And?" he was almost afraid to ask.

"Ivan had the handcuffs on the second to last lock, and… and there were old bullet wounds in Gil's chest… I'm worried about him…"

Lithuania sighed again, bringing his hand to his eyes, rubbing gently, trying to figure out what to do, "Maybe you should stay here and-"

"If you go down there my sister will kill you… if Ivan doesn't first." Ukraine shook her head, "So you're not going."

Lithuania looked at her, annoyed, then back at Poland. He couldn't leave. He sat back down in the chair he'd pulled up beside the bed. "You can go, Katy. Thank you for your help."

Ukraine nodded, biting her lip. She turned and walked quickly out of the room, closing the door behind her. She was worried.

…

Prussia gasped, forcing himself to hold back a cry of pain as Russia's fingers dug into the gunshot wounds he'd reopened.

"These must have hurt, GDR…" Russia's voice was almost concerned.

"Yeah, no sh-" Prussia inhaled through his teeth, looking up at Russia. His arms were pinned under him, the handcuffs nearly unbearable as they cut into his wrists. He winced again as Russia kicked him onto his stomach, crying out as he pressed into the wound on his back.

"You did this yourself, didn't you? It's messy, GDR, you're not very good at it."

"I didn't have a mirror!" Prussia snapped, wincing again.

"If you hadn't disobeyed me, none of this would have happened, GDR," Russia shook his head, his voice growing angry again.

Prussia didn't answer, refusing to look back at Russia as the giant country dragged him to the wall, pulling him back up to his knees and locking the handcuffs to a latch on the wall, forcing his wrists up and his chest down. He inhaled through his teeth again, the strain on his shoulders distracting him from his wrists for a moment before pain shot through his arms. He couldn't feel his hands. He looked up at Russia as he felt the familiar cold of the pipe against his chin, lift it roughly.

"What. Is. Your. Name?"

"Prussia!" The pipe hit his face, hard.

"Wrong answer," Russia shook his head. "What is your name?"

Gil looked up at Russia, licking the blood off his lips, "German Democratic Republic…" he whispered, looking down.

"And what are you?"

Gil bit his lip, pain driving through his arms to his chest, the scar left by General Winter burning with cold, "A communist state…"

"Who do you belong to?"

Gil looked up at Russia, "You…"

"And why was the wall built?"

"To protect me…" Gil whispered, shaking his head.

"And the people who try and cross it? What do they deserve!?" Russia snapped, forcing Gil's head up with his pipe again.

"Freedom."

Russia brought the pipe down on Gil's arms, drawing a loud cry from the smaller country. He saw the handcuffs start to tear at Gil's skin, blood dripping down his arms. He lifted his face with the pipe again, "What. Do they. Deserve, GDR?"

Gil closed his eyes, shaking his head again.

"I don't want to hurt you, GDR, but you're not answering my questions…" Russia shook his head, pressing the faucet of his pipe into Gil's throat, "What do the people who try to cross the wall, deserve?"

Prussia set his jaw, looking up at Russia.

"I never should have sent you back there…" Russia growled, shaking his head. "You've forgotten all your lessons…"

Prussia smirked, "I haven't forgotten anything… but I am going to fight you with everything I have. Do your worst!"

Russia sighed, looking down at Prussia, "Be careful what you wish for, Ptitska."

A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand things aren't going so well on the east side of the wall... shocker, I know. Prussia got his rebellious side back in Berlin, and Russia does NOT want to deal with it... Meanwhile, Poland is going through it, but he has lots of help! Also, Ukraine shows up again. You guys seem to like her a lot... (I mean I do too... but she's so sweet she's usually too helpful in this story...) Gil's going to regret not asking for those handcuffs to be loosened...

As always, reviews are so deeply appreciated! I can't believe how quickly you guys are reviewing! Or how many of you are! Thank you so much to everyone so dedicating to reviewing this story. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I want to hug you all! Instead, have some delicious, warm, freshly-baked, chocolate cookies, and some hot cocoa or lemonade! Thank you all so much! *hugs*