After a restless night of tossing and turning, Germany eventually decided to give up and start his day earlier. He followed through his usual morning routines of getting ready, every minute of which he half hoped to spy a shorter Italian appearing whenever he turned a corner. There were no extra visitors and the house remained fairly quiet, a relatively normally thing as Austria generally chose to sleep in and Prussia had left early for a morning run.

As he nursed another cup of coffee and stared blankly at the files in front of him, his mind sluggishly churned with the same thoughts of the night before. It had been repeating for hours as he tried to come to a solution about his friend. He had gotten frustrated the day before and hadn't meant to snap the way he had and now the guilt of it sat in the pit of his stomach and ate away at him.

The sounds of the door opening and closing were barely heard and he merely nodded to whatever it was his brother said when he stuck his head in. Prussia walked away laughing as he headed for a shower and Germany sighed and stared at the cup in front of him. He needed to fix this, that much he knew, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Maybe talking to Italy was what would needed to be done, but what should he say to repair their friendship? Or what if Italy had chosen to move on and wanted to forget that ever happening?

Japan arrived before he was ready to leave for the training field, and he tried to greet the nation as though he hadn't slept or wasn't currently thinking of things besides the preparing for the war. He glanced to him out of the corner of his eye, cursing the way Japan's brow was furrowed.

"Is everything alright?" the other asked when their current conversation had come to momentary pause.

"Everything is good." Germany spoke quickly, mostly to get out of any sort of talk about his feelings. It was a small mercy that Japan didn't question it any further and he ushered them out of the house to avoid the conversation further.

It worked to some extent. The walk was spent going over the plans for training, discussing what they should focus on improving over the day and only getting caught on one question:

"Will Italy be joining us?"

Germany stumbled at the name and attempted to continue walking as though it had never happened. "He should be meeting us there."

Japan nodded and faced forward. "Do you know if he is well?"

"He is." He stammered out and walked a little faster. He changed their subject to one of the weather, for lack of anything else coming quickly to mind, until the field came into view. Still he could not relax because as they approached, a familiar looking brunette was waiting for them.

He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, as there was a variety of equipment strewn around and the nation himself was lying on his stomach in the midst of it, but the sight stilled his steps as he stared at the scene hoping for some sort of explanation. Japan coughed lightly beside. "Perhaps you should go speak with him." He gave a nod in Italy's direction and then gave Germany a fairly stern look in case the hint hadn't been strong enough. Germany gulped and nodded, steeling himself for whatever was about to happen next.

When he had gotten close enough, Italy picked up his head and jumped. "G-Germany!" he gasped and quickly sat up. "I wasn't taking a nap!"

Germany blinked and crouched on the grass beside him. "What were you doing?"

"Well…" Italy nervously looked away, "I came early to start training, but I wasn't sure what to do. I tried using some of the things you always practice with, but I couldn't do it. So I thought maybe it was because I don't have the muscles that you have and you always tell me to do push-ups, but they were a lot of work and I needed to rest."

Germany sighed and shook his head. "You could have waited for me to get here."

"I know… I…" Italy fidgeted, "I wanted to surprise you. You were so angry yesterday and I wanted to be something you liked better. Maybe if I changed…?"

"Do not change." Germany stated firmly, reaching out and pulling the shorter in for a hug. "I am sorry."

The other stiffened briefly, relaxing as he was held. "Grazie." He replied with a smile. "Do you mean that?"

"I wouldn't mind if you put more energy into training…" Germany commented, "Or if you didn't sleep during meetings. Actually, if you paid attention during meetings…" He glanced down in concern as Italy began to pull away from him before adding, "But as my friend, I would not want you to become someone else."

"Ti mo." Italy grinned and kissed his cheeks, hugging him tightly in return. They stayed like that for a while, Japan stealthily using the time to document the moment. Not much training was going to happen that day, however Germany would not have complained for once. For him, he was just glad to have his friend returned to him.

Little else of note happened during the next week. Unless you count what occurred during the Allies meeting when England arrived. After accidently calling America "Canada" (something one brother was horrified by and the other found so amusing he chuckled about it for the rest of the day), he grabbed France into a tight hug announcing "You are less of an insufferable twat again!" to the rest of the room.

Though I am sure that was nothing to worry about.

AN: And that is it. I won't post anymore (finally!). Thank you to all of you who put up with my terrible story and I wish you all well.

~Bufffy