This is really going fast isn't it, but I really want to get to the good parts.

On to it then.

It took Matthew and Gilbert a few weeks to work out the details of their situation with Gilbert in the end taking the Canadian's name and becoming Gilbert Williams. It took years for Gilbert to stop getting random memories from his former life, many coming in the forms of nightmares that had him waking up in a cold sweat and shaking. Usually after one of these he would make his way from what had become his room to Matthew's room and crawl into the Canadian's bed. Matthew never complained or asked questions he just held the boy until he calmed and fell back to sleep. Sometime in the sixties the two had settled into a routine that Gilbert was none to pleased with. Why he was not happy was because he had been stuck in grade school for the past two decades.

"I'm not going. Why can't you just tell everyone I'm home schooled or something."

"Gilbert, I can't. Not with my job I don't have time to make it believable. Please. You can spend time with your friends and I don't care what you do while your there as long as I don't get calls from the school."

It was true though Matthew already had made sure Gilbert had gotten a full education, homeschooling him when he had started having to repeat grades to keep their cover from their neighbors. They had moved every few years so they never drew suspicion at the fact that neither aged. It was problematic that Gilbert looked so young, around 8 years old by this point, but they managed.

"Fine I'll go, but there had better be fresh maple cookies when I get home today." With that the albino boy scooped up his bag and headed out, He always made sure he had plenty of time to walk to school despite this argument happening nearly every day for the past few years. It wasn't that he couldn't take the bus, he didn't want to. Despite what he led Matthew to believe, Gilbert did not have any friends and was often a subject of ridicule amongst his peers. It hadn't always been that way though. In the late forties and through the fifties no one had really made him feel left out, but as the sixties came upon them it seemed that the tolerance for those who were different seemed to leave his classmates and he became the target for bullies and scorn due to either his albinism or, when he got into the higher grades, his small size. This was why he always asked if he could stop, not for lack of wanting to go, no he liked learning, thrived on it. No two schools taught the same way and the facts they taught kept changing as new discoveries were made, history was added to and the world opened up. He just wished he didn't have to deal with others that looked down on him because he was different.

Kicking a rock, "Maybe I should dye my hair?"

More years past and eventually Gilbert couldn't keep Matthew from finding out about the bullying. It must have been in the nineties, the bullies then were especially harsh. They dumped him in trash cans, beat him up and left him hanging from the coat hooks in the bathroom stalls. The last led to the school calling Matthew and telling him about what had happened.

In retrospect Gilbert knew that the bullying in his latest school was a reflection of the fact that he had gotten older in appearance. He now looked about 11 and Matthew had decided it wouldn't hurt to let him try some middle school. Of course the bullies from the smaller schools would only get worse as they got older since they also got bigger but Gilbert was still smaller than them and there was little he could do to fight back.

When Matthew found out about the bullying he was furious. He nearly stormed the school to demand retribution for his 'little brother'. Instead Gilbert managed to find a solution, a shadow of the former military strategist shining through, and had Matthew sign him up for self defense classes. Needless to say Gilbert learned fast and the next time bullies got out of hand Gilbert was able to fend them off. Being able to deal with the bullies also led to him being able to make his first new friends. other victims of the bullies that he saved from torment.

They had a few close calls through the years with nations as well. Gilbert learned quickly that the first thing he needed to do upon moving into a new home was find all the hiding places and stash a book there so that when he had to hide he wouldn't be bored. They also learned to keep his room locked when he wasn't in there with Matthew explaining to their visitor, mostly Alfred but occasionally Francis, that the room was just storage. Gilbert was always grateful when he had time to actually hide in his room rather than one of the closets or nooks and crannies he would squeeze into otherwise. He slowly came to resent Alfred's visits due to his necessity to simply barge in giving the small province little time to 'duck and cover'.

Those close calls had come when Alfred would barge in while Gilbert was doing his homework and had to pretty much abandon his things where they were. This had raised questions that Matthew needed to field but he always managed to come up with a good excuse or explanation. Another reason he tended to dread when Alfred came for a visit was the length of time he tended to stay over. Sometimes Alfred would even stay the night. The first time this happened Matthew had nearly been caught by Alfred calling Gilbert in sick to school so he wouldn't get in trouble.

Needless to say by 2010 both of them were beginning to get tired of hiding the whole thing from the other nations.

It had been over sixty years since Gilbert had become the representation of New Prussia. His bond with the land had stabilized and strengthened. No one besides Canada would be able to sever it. It was time to let certain others know what had happened to the former nation. Now the only question was, how did they go about it?

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This was mostly a filler chapter, filling in blanks on how the two lived through 6 decades of each other. But its also important filler. I hope you all are enjoying this thus far. I'm sure having a hoot writing it.