Prussia yawned and stretched. Glancing outside the hospital window, he noticed that the sun looked fairly high in the sky already, but Austria, Hungary and Italy all seemed to still be sleeping. Getting out of bed, Prussia took a minute to neaten up the blankets before tiptoeing around his companions to the door. He sighed, wishing they could always be this peaceful, then turned and slipped outside, closing the door with a soft click.
He walked over to a bored-looking receptionist. "Hey! Where could I get some breakfast food around here?"
The woman looked slightly incredulous. "Breakfast? It is nearly 12:30 in the afternoon."
"Sheesh! I slept longer than I thought. Well, whatever. I'm pretty hungry."
The receptionist frowned. "There is a café attached to the hospital on the bottom floor."
Prussia found his way down and selected a few sandwiches and a salad to bring back to his companions. Finally confronting the truth he'd been trying to push from his mind all morning, he let his mind wander to his brother. Was he going to ask Prussia about the mysterious 'someone else' of his memory? How would everyone else react? And to bring up the topic of the Holy Roman Empire was sure to be painful for everyone, especially Italy…there was certainly a reason why he'd kept such an unfortunate secret for so long. The elevator slowed to a halt on the fifth floor, and he dismissed his troublesome thoughts again. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
The others had awakened when Prussia returned to their room. Italy was already awake and full of energy, complaining loudly about not being able to see Germany yet. Pulling over a desk from the back corner of the room, Prussia pushed two cots on either side of it and sat down at the makeshift table, gesturing for his companions to do the same.
They ate in silence, other than Italy's cheerful babble, for which Prussia was somewhat grateful, as it did not require him to speak at all.
"And one time Lovi was in the hospital with a broken arm, because he told Spain that he could climb the old tree in the yard faster, but he's actually really clumsy and he fell down! Lovi was screeching and Spain was crying and it was kind of loud but they had lemon gelato at the café! I think he liked it…" Prussia began to tune him out, wondering at how he could remain his silly self while the love of his life had just suffered a concussion.
Hungary looked dazed as she helped Prussia put the room back in order. Her hair was tangled at the end, and it curled up in odd places (not that it looked bad, but still).
"Cat got your tongue?" Prussia said. "I'm surprised you're not insulting me yet."
"Stuff it, Prussia. Some of us are clearly more worried about Germany than you are. You seemed to sleep sound and untroubled."
"Yeah, just like your boyfriend." Prussia promptly received a punch to the side of his head with a hiss, "He's not my boyfriend!"
"Anyway, Germany's dealt with shit like this before. He doesn't need the awesome me to worry about him."
"Rude," Hungary said, rolling her eyes. "You never mentioned him losing his childhood memories before, though. That sounds unusual to me."
Prussia shrugged. "Countries have weird…stuff happen to their minds sometimes. I don't remember my very first days."
"They weren't his very first days. He must've been older than that. What did you do, keep him locked up in your house?"
"He was severely injured when I found him! I couldn't let him run wild in the world," Prussia protested.
Hungary rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to critique your parenting, but –," their conversation was interrupted by Italy's excited shouts of "come on, guys, we have to go see Germany!"
On the way out the door, Hungary leaned over to speak to Prussia. "I do think you should check up with Germany sometime today. Bring Italy too; he and your brother are so close. Just the three of you." Prussia swallowed.
"I, uh, don't think that's really super necessary. I mean, like, you and Austria could be there too."
"Oh, that's okay, there are likely regulations on how many people can be in the room with a patient at once anyway."
"I think he'd appreciate you two visiting as well…Uh, I can always talk to the staff." Prussia stammered.
"Hold on a minute!" Hungary bent down to look for something. "Oh, Austria and Italy, you two go on ahead. I seem to have dropped something." She waved off Austria's offers to help her look for it, "Prussia can help me. I know you don't like all the germs!"
As soon as the others were out of earshot, Hungary stood up from the ground and turned to Prussia.
"What are you doing? There's nothing ther-,"
"Is there something wrong? You're acting pretty strangely today." Hungary looked at him with a mixture of confusion and concern.
When Prussia made no move to say anything, she continued, "Come on, I've known you for centuries! You were always bad at keeping secrets. If there's something you need to say, you should say it-,"
"There's nothing wrong. I'm just stressed out about Germany. I thought you would understand."
Hungary frowned. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me, I'll wait." She turned and jogged after the others.
"I'm not hiding anything!" Prussia yelled, but Hungary did not seem to hear.
Sighing, Prussia turned the other way and began to wander aimlessly. He couldn't bring himself to go see Germany just yet, and he wanted to at least have something ready to say to him when he did. Suddenly a crippling exhaustion overtook him. Grabbing the nearest wall, he keeled over and began to cough. His chest hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before, and he felt his vision beginning to swim. "Help," was all he could get out before everything went black.
"Hey. Gilbert. Wake up." Someone was shaking him. He opened his eyes to find himself back in the room they'd slept in. Hungary was standing next to him, along with a concerned-looking elderly woman.
"Dear, you're awake," the woman said. "Do you feel alright?"
"He must have collapsed due to stress," Hungary said. "His brother's been just been hospitalized for a concussion."
"Oh, you poor thing!"
"I'm fine," Prussia said weakly. Hungary refused to meet his gaze, and he sighed. Just then, his phone buzzed. Reaching into his pocket, he saw that he had a new message.
[Francis]
We heard about Germany! Spain and I can come pay a visit if you'd like.
Flipping out his keyboard, he replied, thats ok, lud's fine.
[Francis]
Alright, mon cher. Make sure you remember our dinner arrangements for tomorrow night!
Prussia put his phone away and sat up. "I feel pretty good now. Can I get up?"
"You sure you wouldn't like to rest some more?" the older woman asked.
"Nope, I have to be awesome about it and go see my brother!"
Hungary rolled her eyes as the woman continued to fuss over the albino. "He'll be fine. He's endured worse…"
When Hungary and Prussia finally managed to abandon the old lady, they walked back down the corridor to Germany's room. Hungary had taken out her phone and appeared to be texting someone while Prussia observed the carpet pattern. The silence was suffocating.
Upon entering Germany's room, the first thing they heard was Italy shushing them. "Germany's taking his siesta." He was gently stroking Germany's head. Austria seemed uncomfortable by this display of affection and was relieved to see the two newcomers.
"I'm going back to our room to get some books to read," he said, getting up from his chair. Hungary smiled. "I think I'll come too! I've got to grab a few things myself." The door clicked shut behind them as they departed, leaving Italy, Prussia, and the sleeping Germany.
Prussia seated himself in a chair beside his brother's bed and Italy smiled at him.
"Germany is nice when he's quiet and sleepy."
"Yeah, it at least means he's not yelling at anyone."
"I think Germany just yells when he doesn't know how to express his feelings," Italy said. "Like when he's nervous or something."
Prussia was taken aback. "Yeah, I guess you're probably right."
They still had time before Germany woke up. Prussia could still think over what he was going to say. He leaned back in his chair and listened to Italy hum softly, contemplating in silence.