A/N: For some reason, this chapter took me the longest to write. *contemplative hum* I do not know why. Oh well! Here it is, and I hope you enjoy it still :)

The child was like a carbon copy of the Holy Roman Empire. Of course, there were a few differences between the two; they were not the same person on the inside. It was probably just coincidence that they looked alike, and the fact that they were of the same relation. Prussia knew that if he had not been born albino, he would look like his brothers and father as well. There was no reason to think otherwise, Prussia told himself.

"Why do you have to come back covered in blood all the time?" Ludwig demanded when his older brother came stumbling into the room, falling into a chair with an exasperated sigh.

Red eyes wearily sought out sky blue ones. "Yeah… That's a good question." Prussia sighed a bit. "I fight a lot. Something you will be doing for yourself one day, in the future."

"Why do you fight so much these days?" Ludwig set his book down on the desk and went around it, barely taller than the wooden furniture, and started walking over to his brother. "It is really… I just don't like seeing you covered in blood all the time, Gilbert."

With a strained laugh, Prussia shrugged his shoulders and flinched. "Hell, if you ever wanted to see me all bloodied and nasty, you should have seen me during the Bubonic Plague."

"I have heard." Ludwig made his way over to the cupboards across the room, opening one of the doors. Inside was an assortment of wraps, gauzes and sanitations, which were running low in their glass bottles. Ludwig grabbed the bottles and a roll of gauze, kicking the door shut. He hurried back over to his brother. "It's a good thing you have me to patch you up, you slubberdegullion."

Prussia twitched a little bit and smirked at the kid. "That is just not nice, Ludwig. I thought I taught you better than that."

"I know. And you did… But such lessons do not apply to you." Ludwig dabbed at his arm and nodded firmly at this belief. "You need to figure that out."

A quiet moment passed as the child tended to his older brother, cleaning the wounds along his arms and wrapping them up in the gauze. Watching the boy work, Prussia's mind was cart wheeled back in time. In this previous time, he saw another little blond boy, leaning over him with a warm, wet cloth that he laid upon the albino's pasty forehead. He closed his eyes, seeing this memory with clear ease.

Blood stained his blue lips. His lungs would just not clear, no matter how much he hacked and coughed. Holy Rome winced only a little, looking more disgusted than concerned by this point. He let the cloth fall onto Prussia's forehead and stepped back a bit.

Pale fingers had turned lack, the coloring creeping further up his hands and palms, threatening the wrists next. The same black was crawling along the kingdom's neck. Holy Rome's eyes locked on that unnerving color change. He wondered if he would soon find himself bed ridden with the same cursed disease.

Prussia said nothing; he could not. Pain radiated throughout his body and made it so hard to even breathe. He just enjoyed the company of his brother, hoping to God that the boy would not catch this plague as well and find himself in the same ungodly situation. He prayed to God.

"There, I am done."

"Huh?"

By the time Prussia's eyes had refocused, the boy was already across the room, putting up the supplies. He looked down at his bandaged arms, sighing a little bit. It was more tolerable than the Bubonic Plague.

"Thanks, Ludwig." Prussia said, his head still tilted down as he regarded he wrappings.

"Welcome." Ludwig returned and sat in the chair across from Prussia's, his feet just barely hanging above the ground, his small hands folded in his lap. Red eyes lifted and met with blue ones, holding them for a moment then casting them away to the window.

Ludwig had noticed the far away look in his brother's eyes as he had bandaged his arms. He tilted his head curiously, face expressionless. "What were you thinking about a few minutes ago?"

It took a moment for his voice to register with the elder. "Me?" Prussia finally muttered, slowly turning back to look at him. "Oh… Just, a time when I had the Bubonic Plague… Long ago…"

"I imagine it was horrible." Ludwig commented with a small frown.

"It was horrible." Prussia nodded. "But luckily, I had someone to take care of me while I was lying in bed, feeling like I was doing to die any minute." A small smile was threatening spread across his dirty face.

Ludwig straightened up. "Hungary, right? Or France?"

"Eh… No." Prussia shifted a bit. "Hungary was busy, and France was sick, too. I had… Just someone from a long time ago that I was close to. They were there for me the whole time… I think they really helped me get better."

"Who?"

"Oh, just an old friend… Basically family. Unfortunately, they are not here anymore…" Prussia decided he would tell Ludwig of their brother later on. That was not something he was quite ready to retell. The stinging pain had still not left his heart, though he had a feeling it never really would.

Focusing on the child before him now was his top priority, anyway. He could not sit and dwell on Holy Rome any more. Ludwig was here and alive, and needing his guidance. Prussia promised he would never let the same fate fall upon Ludwig's shoulders; he had a bright future ahead of him and it was up to Prussia to help lead him there. He beat himself up knowing that he failed once, and he would not fail again. That was just not awesome.

Now as he looked at the boy, eyes taking in that familiar yet not face and rigid posture, he smiled a bit. Ludwig was his second chance to prove he was the best big brother in the world, and in Holy Rome's honor, he had to make it happen. If there was anything that Prussia truly loved, it was his younger brothers. And he wanted them both to know that. He hoped to God that Holy Rome did, and will see to it that Ludwig does as well.