I felt like we were lacking in Germany and Italy fluff, so this is the first part of what will be two chapters of Germany and Italy! THE POLL RESULTS ARE UP! The pairings will be: France and Canada, Russia and China, and the infamous Austria, Hungary, and Prussia triangle! If I research it a little more, I can do some Poland and Liet for you guys as well =D Anyway, on with the fluff!

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Turning the World Upside Down

Chapter 11: The Sincerest Form of Flattery.

Germany pressed his gloved fingers to his head. He had a horrible headache today and he had no clue why. He kept getting random flashes of things in his head, of alley streets and a decrepit old playground with kids playing on it. Their faces were a blur, but he could also barely pick up laughter, so he knew the children were happy. He tried to track down Prussia, only to find him collecting bets on whatever harebrained scheme he had last tried to make a profit on.

"Did we ever live near a slum?" he blurted out the second Prussia languidly looked up from his money.

"Excuse me?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"A place with an old horrible playground and dirty alleyways. Did we ever live near one?" Prussia looked at him curiously for a minute, and then smiled.

"Wow, West. You finally seem to be getting your memories back." Seeing Germany's confused look, he sighed and elaborated. "We lived near an orphanage for a while- you know, when Dad was still alive. But we had to move away when he died and we couldn't pay the rent. You were making some kind of stupid argument because you promised to marry a girl near the neighborhood and you didn't want to leave. Then, you got hit by a car or something." Germany gaped, but Prussia waved a hand dismissively. "It's not very important to the story. Anyway, you lost your memories or something, and the doctor said you would eventually get them back. Except you didn't. So I had to give you a new name. 'Germany' sounded pretty AWESOME for a name, and you know how much I love awesome things. So I called you Germany."

"You didn't have to give me a new name, you know. It didn't really matter. You could have just called me by my old name."

"Excuse me? Are you QUESTIONING my awesomeness?"

Germany sighed. "No, older brother. I'm not questioning your awesomeness. What was my old name, anyway?"

"Do you expect me to remember this stuff? Hm... I think it was 'Bob'."

Germany let out a short, surprised bark of laughter. "Bob?"

"Bob," said Prussia decisively.

--

Feliciano blinked at Germany, who was walking down the hallways, looking confused. Italy liked it when Germany was confused because he looked absolutely adorable. His face would scrunch up and his blue eyes would narrow. He would mutter random words, and only some of them would be loud enough to hear, so the entire conversation sounded incoherent. Today, he heard the name 'Bob' over and over again. That piqued Feliciano's curiosity, which was admittedly not that hard to pique.

Feliciano walked behind Germany, bouncing on his heels. Not literally of course, but he was hopping from foot to foot behind him and almost breathing down his neck.

Italy watched Germany's boots walking in perfect military form; left, right, left, right, left. He began to stop his bouncing step, eyes following Germany's perfectly polished boots very much like the way a cat watches a mouse when he isn't particularly hungry. He started to walk slower, taking more purposeful steps and imitating Germany's pattern of left-right-left-right. He looked at the boots again, then straightened his back into perfect military posture. Finally, he twisted his face into a mask of confusion, basically turning himself into a shorter, perfect replica of Germany. Everyone he saw in the hallways giggled hysterically at him, and he would break his pondering expression to beam delightedly at them and give them a little wave. Everyone seemed so happy today. Italy loved happy people.

Germany looked at the giggling people in confusion. Of course, whatever he did with his head, Italy imitated him, so the people only ended up laughing twice as hard under the perplexed gazes of the twin Germanys. Germany walked all the way around the school, so preoccupied in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice his little shadow mimicking his every movement. Finally, after the sixteenth person who cracked up when he passed, Ludwig began to wonder why exactly people were laughing at him. He thought about it for a moment, before deciding that maybe there was a 'Kick me' sign on his back or something. So he turned around to see and found Italy behind him, imitating his every move.

"...Feliciano, what are you doing?"

"Oh, hi Ludwig! I was walking!"

"I can see that. Why were you walking like me?"

"Because I thought it would be fun! And I was right! Everyone in the hallways thought it looked fun too! They were all laughing and smiling! It was like a carnival!"

Germany looked at him skeptically before deciding that Italy hadn't meant anything by it, so he gave up and smiled slightly. "Please don't do that again."

"Okay!" chirped Italy obediently. Germany groaned as his headache gave another pang and he closed his eyes.

"Hey, Germany! Are you okay?" Ludwig opened his eyes slowly to find a pair of gigantic brown eyes staring curiously at him. Ludwig backed up, flushing pink.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," he said hastily. "What?" he added when he noticed Italy still staring at him with a look of concentration on his small face.

"No, you just look like this friend I had a long time ago, when I lived in an orphanage. He had blue eyes and blond hair, too."

"Really?" he said, intrigued, despite himself.

"Yep. Bramble Woods Orphanage. It was on this street near the slums, and my friend would sneak in to meet me there!"

"Near a slum?" he repeated. No, it couldn't be. It was purely coincidental.

"Yep! He lived with his dad and his big brother. He said that his brother always picked on him all the time. He always came to see me when I had cleaning duty, so I was wearing my apron and dress. He said it made me look pretty. He even said we were gonna get married when we grew up." A fond, sad smile graced Italy's face.

"What was his name?" Germany asked quietly, feeling the throbbing increase drastically. It couldn't be. It could not be. Italy smiled again, brighter this time.

"Holy Roman Empire!"

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Enjoy your mild cliffie! See you tomorrow with Chapter 12!