The next day, I help Birdie get up and walk around a bit. When he can do it without help, he had a slight limp, thanks to the guy that shot his leg and back. He gets dressed in his country's uniform, but I notice he keeps the German cross on.

"If we leave now and move fast, we can make it there by tomorrow night." I tell him.

"Can I say good-bye to my brother before we leave?" he asks.

"Alright, but I'm coming with you."

"OK."

We find Alfred eating alone in his tent. When he notices us, he looks up. He smiles a bit at Birdie. "Yeah, what's up?" he asks.

"Al, we're leaving. I wanted to say 'bye'." Birdie tells him.

"You're leaving again?" Birdie nods. Alfred gets up and hugs him tightly. Birdie hugs him back. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Al."

Alfred gently kisses his brother's check, then looks up at me and mouths, 'You better take care of him Nazi bastard.' His eyes have some tears in them.

I mouth back, 'Don't worry, I will.'

The brothers hug and say their good-byes to each other for a few more minutes. Alfred gently nuzzles his brother's neck before letting go of Birdie.

"Thank you." I whisper to Alfred. He solemnly nods. "Do you have any of his things?"

"Yeah." He grabs a duffel bag by his cot and gives it to Birdie, who slings it over his shoulder. I thank him again. "Take care Mattie." he says as we leave. Birdie waves back and tells him that he will.

Birdie and I walk in silence for a few hours. We talk after that, not about anything important, just whatever comes to mind. We stop for a small lunch and dinner later on. We don't sleep long, only a few hours, maybe. We don't run into many people on our way, but the few we do meet are hostile to wither my side or Birdie's. The three we can't get away from in time end up dead.

Two days later, in the late evening, we make it to my old house. It doesn't look that bad; a few plants are overgrown, and it may need to be painted again, but it's still awesome.

I bring Birdie inside. He glances around, too tired to take in the awesomeness that is my house. I take his bag from his shoulder, kissing his check as I do so.

"Look around; make yourself comfortable. I'll be back in a minute." He nods. I smile a bit and go up to my room. Birdie'll be sharing it with me. I smile at the thought.

I go back downstairs to bring Birdie up to my room so we can get some sleep. I don't see him where he had been, so I go looking for him. A few minutes later, I find him.

He's passed out, peacefully sleeping on the couch. I smile at sight of him. I don't want to disturb him, so I let him stay there for the night, but I do take off his coat and shoes.

Canada POV

I wake up to the sound of birds singing, and the sun gently shinning on my face. Except it's different this time. This time it's outside and I'm inside.

I get up off the couch I was sleeping on and wander around, looking at the house and taking it in. While doing so, I manage to make my way to the kitchen. It's awesome. And it is Gil's house, so I doubt he would mind if I made some breakfast.

Since he doesn't have any pancake mix, I just have to make them from scratch. Luckily, he has everything I need. So, while I make the mix, I hardly notice I'm humming something Papa used to sing while he cooked.

Soon enough, the air is full of the smell of pancakes, and I hardly notice that I'm now singing the French song. I just feel so comfortable, like I should have been here my whole life.

"This is a nice way to wake up."

"Eh?" I jump a bit and turn around to face the sneaky Gil with a slight blush.

"Kesesese. It's an awesome way to wake up." He comes over and wraps his arms around me. I look up at him as he looks down at me. "The first thing I hear is you singing as if there's not a care in the world. The first thing I smell is the pancakes you're making. Only thing wrong is that you weren't the first thing I saw when I woke up." He kisses my forehead and lets me go back to making the pancakes. He stays behind me with his arms loosely wrapped around my waist while I continue making them.

I finish making them after a minute.. Gil sets them on the table, and I go over to the refrigerator. To my horror, I see no ssyrup. Luckily, I'm pretty sure there's some in my bag.

"Gil-kun, where's my duffel bag?"

"My room. First door on the right upstairs.

"Thanks." I hurry upstairs to his room. My duffel bag is on his bed. I go across his messy room over to it. I open my bag and dig through it, finding my special syrup rather quickly. I smile and go back downstairs.

"I got the syrup Gil-kun!" I proclaim as I come back into the kitchen.

"Awesome!" He had already put butter on the pancakes. I drown mine, and Gil laughs a bit before pouring some syrup over his. We eat my pancakes, Gil holding me close. "They're awesome." he tells me after a mouthful. I thank him, and he kisses my check before going back to eating.

We finish after a few minutes. Gil takes the dishes and put them in the sink.

"Hey, let me help with those?" I offer.

"How about you get ready." he says, looking over his shoulder at me.

"Eh? Ready for what?"

"I thought we could go swimming."

"I don't think I have-"

"You can borrow a pair of mine; I'm sure they'll fit." he says before I can even finish my sentence. "They should be in the closet."

"Th-thanks." I blush a bit as I go back up to his room. It's a small miracle he can find anything in his room though. So, I make my way through it to his closet, making a mental note to clean his room while I'm here.

When I get to the closet, I look through it, looking for a pair of trunks. I eventually find some that are designed like a Prussian flag. I go into the bathroom to change.

After I change, I carefully unwrap the bandages around my chest and back, seeing the damage for the first time really. Apparently, the bullet went by my heart, but it wasn't close enough to mortally wound me. I guess that makes me really lucky. I take the bandages off my lower thigh. I wince a bit as I stand, but the pain subsides and I open the door to be greeted by Gil in a pair of black swimming trunks.

"Birdie." He gently kisses my chest by my wound. "I'm so sorry this happened to you." he murmurs. "But I'm glad you're here." He picks me up so I'm over his shoulder and starts walking downstairs.

"Gil-kun! What are you doing?" I ask, blushing a bit.

"Well, I'm bringing you to the awesome lake I found a while ago and claimed as mine."

"Why are you carrying me over your shoulder?"

"Well, I was already kissing you r chest, and I thought, 'why not?'"

"How about just walking me there?" I ask as he gets outside and starts walking down a path.

"But what fun would that be?"

I sigh. "Gil-kun."

"Kesesesese. I love you."

I smile and say, "I love you too."

A few minutes later, Gil stops and puts me down. I turn around and see a beautiful lake surrounded by trees and a patch or two of open space.

"What do you think?" he asks, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"C'est beau.(it's beautiful)" I whisper.

"Nicht so shön wie du.(not as beautiful as you)" he gently whispers in my ear. I blush, knowing enough German to know about what he said. He gives me a soft kiss on the check before grabbing my hand and pulling to the lake, smiling. I smile too and allow him to pull me into the water.

It's a bit cold at first, but as Gil pulls me deeper into the lake, it warms up. We swim around for a little bit until Gil seems to somehow disappear. The lake is pretty clear, so I figure if he went underneath, I would have seen him.

"Gil-kun? Where'd you go?" I ask, looking around. I feel something wrap around my waist, and as it lifts me out of the water, I softly exclaim, "maple!" Soon enough though, I join in with Gil's laughter.

He turns me around and kisses me before letting go of me and smirking as he swims away. I softly smirk back and swim after him. The chase lasts a few minutes before I catch up and wrap my arms around him. "Got you." I say before kissing his check.