Next day they take the car to the nearby city. Ludwig parks the car and gets out.
"Lets go. I know a nice store down this road." they start to walk.
"Have your boss tried to contact you yet?" Ludwig asks after a while.
"Hn? No." the Swede was brought out of his thoughts. "You are the one with a phone, if so you should know." Sweden pauses. "Besides, I don't really want to talk to him anyway." Ludwig nods.
"Here it is." They enter the store. Sweden stands still for a moment, just looking around. He seems a bit nervous. Ludwig wonders if he is used to shopping. He's not sure, but decides to help out.
"Come, I'll help you look around." Sweden nods and they start to scan through the clothes hanging and lying about. Sweden now and then picks something and hangs it over his arm. It seems like he doesn't need any help after all. Ludwig stops looking for clothes and mostly follows Sweden as he walks around.
"So, I think I want to try these." Ludwig looks at the clothes hanging over his arm.
"You know, you can buy something a bit more expensive."
"I don't want you to spent to much on this, I'll be fine. Besides, I have other clothes to."
"Fine. Now, try them out." Ludwig doesn't want to push him more. They walk to the changing rooms. Ludwig sits down on a bench outside as Sweden walks in to try on the clothes.
"Germany…?" Sweden asks after a while.
"Yes?"
"What do you think about this?" he pulls away the curtain. He is wearing a thin, dark blue shirt trough witch you can make out his muscular shoulders and chest. The dark blue enhances the light blue in his eyes. Damn, he's sexy. With that messy hair and uncertain, adorable looks Ludwig can barely take his eyes of him. He suddenly feels like doing something very drastic and very stupid. He manage to control himself, and realizes that Sweden is waiting for an answer.
"It looks good." Ludwig says, hoping that Sweden will fail to notice his embarrassment. Sweden nods and pulls back the curtain. After a while he comes out again. They head to the checkout where Ludwig pays.
"Where do you want to go now?" Ludwig thinks of the bookstore Sweden was looking at before. "I know a nice bookstore, do you want to check it out?"
"Sure."
"Do you have something you have to do today?" Sweden asks after a while.
"Hm, just some report, but it can wait." It surely can, Ludwig is certain that his boss just asked after a full report about the whole 'Swedish situation' as he had called it, as payback. He would take his time with that.
"And I also have to fix the stupid tank the even more stupid Italy had to demolish." he sighs just by thinking of it. He seriously manage to put the motor on fire. "That means that I have to pick up some more parts. They had some in the store so we'll just drop by and pick them up on our way home." Sweden nods. Ludwig enters the bookstore, followed by Sweden.
They check around a little. Ludwig finds a book named 'Technology for idiots' and decides to buy it for Italy. At least Italy have his heart in the right place.
"Have you found anything?" he asks Sweden who is roaming about in the store. He shakes his head.
"Then we'll go. I'll just pay for this." When that's done they leave.
"Are you hungry? I think I want lunch now." Sweden grunts. Ludwig takes it as a yes. They goes to one of Ludwig's favorite lunch restaurants. They order their food and then sit down by a table.
"Would you need help with the tank?" Sweden asks. Ludwig looks at him with surprise.
"If you want to. I'll need it."
"Why did Italy try to finish it for you?"
"Hm, I suppose he just waned to surprise me, thats what he said. He just doesn't seem to notice his weaknesses. He is a nice guy, he just tend to mess things up. Though, I am glad that we are allied. Have you thought about having an alliance with someone outside of the nordics?"
"Hm. Not really, it just seems like hard work. All they ever seems to do is to quarrel and fight."
"Yes, I understand you. You easily get tired of them. Most of them. No, all of them. It must be peaceful up there where you live."
"Most of times. We have Denmark." Sweden says, not too happily. Ludwig laughs softly. They sit quiet for a moment, looking out of the window.
"So… how do you feel now?" Ludwig asks. Sweden seems to be alright. He thought that he might get a bit depressed or something, that it would come some time after.
"I'm still worried about Finland. I haven't heard of him since that day." Ludwig nods.
"You know, there is a world meeting soon. You can check on him then. I mean, you don't even know if he's ill or not." Ludwig tries to comfort. Sweden just nods. A waiter comes to their table, giving them their food. They eat in silence. Ludwig starts to wonder if Sweden is more worried and exhausted from being kicked out like that than he shows. They have all been through some tuff timed, but he have never been without a home before. He wonders what will happen to Sweden if doesn't get it back. Would he still make it, or just fade away? After all, how can you be a nation if you don't have a place to be a nation? He thinks of it as they finish their meals.
"Is there something you want to look at before going?" Ludwig asks as they leave the restaurant.
"No, nothing special."
"Okay then." they walk back to the car. On the way home Ludwig stops by to pick up the things for the tank.
"So, you want to help with the tank?" Ludwig asks when they get home.
"Mm." they start with carting the parts in to the garage. Some of the boxes are pretty heavy.
"So, thats that. Now lets see… He did say something about a chair catapult… I wonder if he actually managed to make it work."
"At least he managed to remove the gearbox."
"Yes, and that's the first thing I'm going to put back in place. The new one, I mean." The old one was to damaged after being brutally torn away by the Italian. Ludwig opens the front door. He then pulls at the gear. He flinches as the front seat flies up and is then pulled back by a giant metal spring. He sighes. Italy really went in for it when turning his tank into a deathtrap.
"Need help to remove that?" Sweden asks. Ludwig nods. Sweden then opens the other front door. Ludwig jumps in at the passenger seat so that he can reach better. Together they manage to separate the metal spring from the chair, remove the spring from the car and then put back the gearbox. It took time, but they managed. It was actually quite fun. Sweden seemed to think that as well as he became quite talkative. He seems to forget his worries for the moment, so caught up in the task of mending the tank. They didn't even noticed the time before Ludwig suddenly notice that it is dark outside. He looks at his watch. She is half past seven.
"Maybe we should stop here for today and go make dinner." To work with the tank had made him hungry and he thinks that Sweden must be as well. Sweden grunts assent. They leave the tank, putting back the tools they have been using and then goes in to the house.
"I can make dinner." Ludwig offers.
"I can help you."
"Okay. Lets see what we got." Ludwig says and opens the fridge.
"Well, there is meet and potatoes." he informs. Sweden smiles.
"Sounds good." Ludwig takes out the stuff they need and they start cooking.
"We should spice it." Sweden says as he prepares the meet.
"Check the third drawer." Ludwig informs. Sweden pulls it out and picks something out of it. Ludwig continues cutting the potatoes.
"Oops." he looks up at Sweden. Sweden is holding an almost empty jar. He looks down at the meet, which is covered in a small mountain of chili powder.
"The lid was loose." Sweden picks up a plastic lid full of holes from the mess.
"Hm." was everything Ludwig said. He then chuckles. "That's not my fault." he says.
"Well, It's your lid that wasn't on correctly. Not my fault."
"Okay, lets save this then." they manages to get of the most of the chili, though it will probably be quite spicy. As the food is ready it seemed as if Ludwig was right. He don't mind though, with Sweden is, just as with the tank, fun. They talks about nothing special through the dinner, having a nice time.
After the evening, as they goes to bed, Ludwig finds himself being quite happy about having Sweden here. He knows that it is quite selfish of him, thinking about what Sweden must be going through to end up here, but he is still glad.
So this is the third chapter… Sorry for not updating for a while (if anyone noticed I was gone for a while), but I have been quite busy with school for a while now. All the national tests and that kind of stupid things we get here in Sweden :/ Oh well.
Please subscribe, don't be shy. Would really like to know what people think about this. Also want to mention that I have no idea why I decided to call Germany by his human name whilst not doing so with the others. I had an idea, once. Though it's completely gone now. Maybe I'll change it later.