A/N: Thank you for the faves and alerts. They made me really happy.

I can't believe I wrote this one this fast! I'm on fire!

And speaking of fire, I've found some inspiration to continue one of my almost forgotten fic Dream or Not. So, I dunno when the next chapter of this will come.

But enjoy this chapter please.

20. BTT is formed now!

Click!

Clicks!

Cli-Click!

Cli-cli-cli-cli!

Click!

The irregular sound of a digital camera set the pace for Friedrich's steps. The fifteen-year-old teen boy looked up at the arcs of the Eiffel Tower before lifting his camera upwards and taking another photo from the dramatic angle his place created. It was beautiful but somewhat hollow feeling filled him every time he looked at something particularly magnificent. It had been the same since his birthday in January. When Der Alte had left him.

The thought brought back a choking feeling on Friedrich's throat and he swallowed hard. He couldn't break down now, on a class trip in Paris. Karin would never let him live it down when she'd hear about it, especially when she had been so pissed that she couldn't go. Seriously, she needed to wait only two years but apparently it was forever.

"Hey, Fritzie, come and look at this!" Julie called from the distance. Friedrich sighed as he turned to look at the platinum blonde who was looking at a small pond with ducks and ducklings(A/N: There really is one!)."Aren't they cute?" Julie grinned from the crouch she was in. A small smile grazed the boy's features too and he lifted the camera up again and took a picture about her and the ducklings.

"They are indeed." He said, letting the camera drop to hang around his neck. "But what I have told you about that nick-name?"

"Not to call you that? C'mon, it suits you, several of other Friedrichs are also called that I bet."

"Just because it is a fact it doesn't mean that I like it. So don't call me that." The boy sighed, extending a hand for the girl. Julie took the hand and was pulled upright. "We're going to climb up soon by the way."

"Really? I can't wait. I bet I'm up there before you." The blonde grinned and ruffled Friedrich's dark grey hair. Damn the growth spurt she'd had…

"Yeah, and that's only because you are going to run the stairs up." The hand was swatted away.

"I so am!" The girl grinned triumphantly. "Catch ya there, shortie!"

And she sprinted off. Friedrich snapped a photo of her back and bouncing ponytails as she ran towards the Eiffel Tower and the rest of their group.

Julie was slumped against the railing and barely paying attention on the view. She and some other girls and boys had – at least tried to – run the long stairs up to the first floor of the Tower. The rest of the group(which was about three classes) had taken it easy and enjoyed the view from the stairs. The way up was exhausting enough without running.

Friedrich took his camera, aimed it at the scenery they all up there could see and took a few pictures. It was beautiful indeed but he couldn't help the bile rising up to his throat. If one knew about his situation and understood it, they couldn't blame him. What would you do if one day the person who had always been there was just gone?

(*Flashback*)

Friedrich woke up. He felt good, really good. It was the morning of his fifteenth birthday after all. He was about to get up when he noticed something missing. It took him a while to realize what it was but when he did, tread filled him and chilled him to the bones.

"Old man…?" The boy looked around for the man who was usually sitting somewhere there in his room and reading a book or something, or then at the other side of the mirror the boy still had. Friedrich even tried to poke the depths of his own mind to find traces of the ghost but found nothing, only memories from both of them. He panicked. Yes they had talked about the possibility that Old Fritz would one day leave Friedrich as neither of them was sure what exactly their connection was but they had never really considered it.

"Friedrich! Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!" Karin burst into the room and tackled the older of the two on the floor. The boy looked up at her happy bright green eyes and twisted his mouth into a smile.

"Danke, Karin."

"Come, breakfast is already at the table." The girl practically dragged Friedrich on his feet and to the dining area where their parents were already waiting for them, smiling happily. None of them noticed the emptiness of Friedrich's smiles or the absent-mindness he sometimes drifted into.

"Do you have anything special in mind for today, Friedrich?" The boy's father asked.

"Um… I'd… There is one place I'd like to visit today if it's not too much to ask." The boy said while fiddling with his napkin.

"What is it dear?" Their mother asked from the left of Karin.

"I'd like to visit Sanssouci. I've never been there and I've wanted to go for a long time."

"Some history thing? Boooring." Karin complained.

"Says a girl who reads Axis Powers Hetalia."

"I read it for the laughs. And you read it too."

"For history. Anyways, you don't need to come, I can go alone too."

"Alone? Are you sure?" Mother asked worriedly.

"I'll be fine, Mutter."

"Well, if you are sure…"

"Elise, Friedrich will be just fine. It's time we give him a bit more freedom."

"Thank you, Vater."

About three hours later Friedrich found himself at Sanssouci. Surprisingly there wasn't many people around and there definitely wasn't people by the place where Old Fritz was buried now. No, one person was. One eerily familiar. Friedrich approached the grave and the person standing in front of it in a long black coat.

"Preuβen?" Blurted out of his mouth before he could stop himself. The man spun around, it was the ex-nation indeed.

"Kleine Fritz, you've grown." The albino smiled. He didn't grin or smirk, just smiled.

"It's been eight years." The boy stated, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"You resemble him more every year, you know. When you spoke, I almost thought…" Prussia trailed off and glanced back at the grave. "This is the first time you are here, why so suddenly?"

"I came to pay my respects. After all it's our birthday." Friedrich shrugged. Prussia frowned for a second but then the crease of brow was gone.

"Congratulations…"

"…" The boy didn't say anything as he walked closer and closer until he was standing side by side with the man.

"Something has happened." Prussia stated looking at the boy who fixedly was looking at the grave.

"Yes, it has."

"What is it?"

"He is gone now. My head is completely void of him. I can remember the times he was there and the memories he granted to me but… There is nothing else." Friedrich's voice wavered as he spoke and his shoulders started to shake when he tried to suppress sobs. The boy wrapped his arm around himself and shivered. Whether from cold or something else, it didn't matter. "He was always with me!"

The floodgate keeping the tears away burst and next thing Friedrich knew he was crying against the nation's chest and the man himself holding the boy tightly. "He was always there…"

"I know. I understand." Prussia whispered. He could understand the boy's feelings to an extent. After all Old Fritz had been very dear to him. But he, like other humans, was just another chapter in the nation's book of life. The albino had had centuries before and after the Great man. But for Friedrich…

"Always… Sometimes he wasn't seen but I could always feel that he was still there." The teen sobbed against Prussia's coat. "Now it's just emptiness. There's nothing left!"

"Hey, kleine Fritz…"

"Don't call me that!"

"Just listen to me, Friedrich." The ex-nation pushed the boy off him but kept him still close. "Look at me."

"…" Friedrich tried to look at the grave next to them, anything except Prussia's crimson colored eyes he had seen so many times in the memories of the Old Man.

"Look at me." Gentle hands turned the boy's head carefully to look him in the eyes and the boy didn't resist. Blood red met icy blue. "Do you remember what you told me the one time we met? You told me to look forward and not to dwell in the past. And I did that, I did everything that. I started spending more time with my friends and brother and keep tabs what's going on in the world at the moment. Previously I couldn't have cared less because… Well, you know that there's no official country of Prussia anymore. So now I'm asking you to do the same. Alright? You have your whole life in front of you and you can't stop now. Don't dwell in past and look forward."

"But how can you do all that when everything you look at reminds you what used to be…" Friedrich whispered.

"Because I know that while those days won't come back, I also know that there will be more days to come. Worth of all those memories you've had and you will have. Don't ignore what you already have. Cherish those days but remember that there's a lot more to come."

The pair of them found themselves on a bench, sipping coffee from Styrofoam mugs and just enjoying silence. Friedrich had finally calmed down and his tears had dried although his eyes were still a bit red rimmed.

"You are lucky you know." Prussia stated.

"In what way?"

"This is your only loss like this. I have experienced it twice more. The one time it was my brother Heinrich, he disappeared without a trace and in his stead was Ludwig."

"Holy Roman Empire and Germany, right?"

"History buff still I see…"

"That, and Hetalia. Karin made me read it."

"Laughs, history or shipping?"

"History, laughs for her."

"Gut."

"…What was the second time?"

"The second time of multiple times. I lost Westen to the Nazism. The boy I had raised since he was Rheinbund was completely gone. That time I feared it would be his end. I saw how the camps and the war in general affected him. And you know what? I abandoned him. I stayed firmly on the war front where-ever I was sent to and avoided him. I was scared to know what sort of monster he would become during the course of war and those 'purifications'.

"When the war ended I was relieved but also scared. I had no idea what would happen to us. I met Westen. He had woken up from his delusions some time ago and wasn't in as bad condition as he would have when Hitler made a suicide. But he looked bad anyways. I think I'm never going to forget that sight. But when we surrendered, it meant that our fate would be in the hands of the Allies."

"The Partitioning."

"Ja. And my dissolution and turning into East Germany."

"Say… Berlin was dealt into pieces too… Even though it was at your side of the border, half of it was still 'west'. And it's said that the capital of the country is the heart of the nation. Or that's what Der Alte said…" Friedrich muttered the last sentence into his cup.

"When Berlin Wall was established and was strangling the western side, it affected only Ludwig. My heart was still Köningsberg even though that belonged to that Russian bastard."

"But at that time so did you."

"Thanks for rubbing salt on my wounds…" Prussia gritted through his teeth. Friedrich chuckled when he noticed no real heat behind those words. The ex-nation smiled too when he saw the boy brighten up.

"Anyways, at that time I was so sure that something had happened to Westen. We had no means to contact each other until the Berlin Wall came down and we were finally reunited."

"I see…"

"But enough about those depressing times." Prussia got on his feet. He deliberately left out everything that had happened to him during the Cold War. No need for the kid to worry about that. Although he probably had quite good idea about it. "It's all past now."

"I suppose…"

"Say, if you ever have anything to ask or talk about, you can call me. Here is my number." The man gave a business card to the boy who took it. "Oh, and I'm going to continue calling you 'Kleine Fritz' if you don't call me Gilbert."

A small smile quirked Friedrich's lips. "We'll see that, Preuβen."

Gilbert grinned. "See ya!"

"Bye!"

(*Flashback ends*)

Friedrich focused back to the present and took another photo. This time about Julie lounging against the railing. That talk with Prussia had made him feel better but soon after that the hollowness had come back. He hadn't called the ex-nation though. It was better that he didn't worry too much about him. But now when Friedrich thought back he found his own behavior ridiculous. Prussia was the only one who knew about the situation and who he could talk about it.

"Silly, silly me…" Friedrich muttered as he looked at Julie. A small smile was on his lips again. He still had everything he needed around him. Friends, family… people to trust.

"I'm telling you Alonso, the view is tres magnifique."

"Sí, I believe do you, François, but you had no reason to drag me the stairs up."

"Non, non, au contraire. The most beautiful time is the moment of sunset and it's in a few minutes. You absolutely have to see it. Besides you play football, you have muscles to run the stairs."

Friedrich turned a bit to see two young men chatting to each other. One was blond with emerald green eyes and slender build while the other was a brunet with chocolate brown eyes and more muscular and tanned body. By their speech the young German could guess the blond was local and the brunet was foreign, maybe Spanish. The two came to that part of the railing where Friedrich was. The French on the right and the Spaniard on the left.

"Hola!"

"Bonjour!" They greeted the surprised boy.

"H-Hallo."

"You're German?" The Spaniard asked, his eyes twinkling.

"Ja…"

"Or Prussian?" The French grinned. A proper smile found its way on Friedrich's face.

"Actually I'm Prussian descent German. I'm too awesome to be just German."

"Oh! François, guess what?" The brunet, Alonso as Friedrich recalled, looked at his friend past the boy.

"I know. I think we found a fellow Hetalian. A one Prussian at that. They're the only ones to get the joke." François smirked.

"Yes, the rest are just 'Prussia is part of Germany' or 'a what?'…"

"Or 'leave me alone'."

"So you've been asking that from people around?" Friedrich cut in the flood of words.

"Basically yes." François nodded. "Only the ones who we have noticed to speak German."

"Or have German flag on their backpacks like you do." Alonso added.

"Say, do you want to hang out with us. You seem like a cool guy."

"Cool enough to know the reference and possibly help us to form our own BTT."

"…" Friedrich was speechless. He didn't really know what to say to that spontaneous proposal. But in the end he didn't really need to think about it much. "I'd like to."

"Génial! We should probably introduce ourselves. J'ai m'appele François Dubois. I live here in Paris. I'll be eighteen next month. My dream is to have my own café with a cute girlfriend."

"Sí! That's my dream too. Almost. I'm going to help François with his café anyways. Mi nombre es Alonso Verdacia and I'm really close being eighteen too. I live in Barcelona and there is no better place in the world."

"I beg to differ." François snorted but Alonso only flashed him a bright grin. Friedrich watched the two in amusement before introducing himself in the same manner than the other two.

"Ich bin Friedrich Dietzig. Fifteen years old. I live in Berlin at the moment. My dream… is to play violin a top of Berlin Wall someday." He didn't know what made him reveal that dream to those two but somehow he felt he could trust them. They just clicked together like pieces of puzzle.

"Nice to meet you Friedrich!" The other two chorused.

"Hey, is that your group?" Alonso looked over their shoulders. Friedrich turned around too. His group was leaving. He could see Julie already there, waving to him to follow.

"Yes. It seems I need to go. But…" The boy lifted the strap of his camera over his neck. "…not before a photo."

The camera was lifted high and far from the trio.

"Say… 'yes'."

"Sí."

"Oui."

"Ja."

Snap.

A/N: Yay, Friedrich got some new friends. Pity that Fritz had to leave. Again. But thankfully Friedrich and Prussia have each other.

But now bye until next time! XD And Please review. It would make me really happy.