His fingers twitched, faltering a few inches from the door knob. He stared at the door blankly, feeling as if this was almost unreal. He was finally home. He was home alone. At times, he had wished that the Italian would leave him alone for some peace and quiet in his own home, but now he started to resent it. He didn't need to worry about that anymore, unforetunately.

With a silent heavy sigh, his gloved hand turned the knob and went inside, prepared to just keep in his dark solitary confinement for a-

"WELCOME HOME, WEEEEEST!"

Germany jumped as party poppers and a party blower was heard, snapping him to reality and actually taking a look around. His living room was brightly lit, streamers of his national colors strewn about every corner and confetti being sent through the air. He looked to the side, seeing his older brother wearing some sort of tacky party hat along with his little bird perched on the lamp next to him. He wasn't going to ask how he made a party hat for it.

Prussia gave a toothy grin, blowing the party blower once more before he ran over and gave his little brother a big hug.

"Damn, West! Have you gotten bigger since your trip?! You always do!"

"Bruder, please. I'm not in the mood for-"

"I admit, usually I'm not scared of random shit but I did get a little worried there when you didn't have any contact for a few months!"

"Prussia, can you just-"

"How's Italy and Japan doing? They get home okay? Oh, they probably did! I'm just happy you're home!"

"… Actually, about Italy-"

"That's why I made this big shindig! It's only the least I could do for my poor little bro! Feel free to praise me over the wonderful job I did! I must say this could be one of the most awesomest parties ever! Behind my birthday parties of course!"

"Bruder!"

"Ja?" Prussia jumped lightly, the sudden loud tone of the other surprising him. Germany stared at him for a good moment or so, not saying a word. The other stared back and slowly began to withdraw, not liking the look he was being given at all. "What?"

"I just want to be alone for a while. Okay?" He said, his shoulders slumped in exhaustion before turning without another word to head into his room.

"But… I had cake." Prussia said, taking a step out of concern of both his usually stronger brother's mood and that his awesome party was ignored. He looked down to Gilbird, raising an eyebrow as if asking him 'what's his deal?' His chick peeped quietly, flying off of the lamp and landing on his shoulder. The albino lightly ruffled Gilbird's feathers, looking down the hallway for a while longer before deciding to go to the others room.

The door was left open, which was odd considering how much he loved privacy. With one look to it, he could see Germany laying face down in his bed. Prussia pursed his lips, cautiously knocking on the door before he came in.

"…West? Are you okay?"

"I just came back from being stranded on an island for months. What do you think?"

"Whoa there, Herr Sassafrass." Prussia said with a half nervous laugh, though it died seeing that it didn't get much of a response. With a quiet sigh, he went over to the bed and sat on the edge, taking off his party hat. He nervously fiddled with the edge of the hat, not exactly sure what to say at this point. What could he say?

"Cheep."

Germany grunted as he felt a light pair of bird feet landing on his shoulder, moving his head to look as he felt the bird starting to walk down his arm. As he watched it move, he glanced where it was heading towards; his gloved hand. Right under the leather was the ugly red marks inked into his skin in result of his sin. He flexed his fingers, watching how the leather folded and bent in coordination of his movement.

Why didn't he think to wear gloves when they were doing it? Would it have still stained him? But at least he did not have it as bad as Japan, how was he going to hide that much blood etched into his arms?

"…Germany?"

"Mm?" The German's eyes trailed up away from his hand and the bird walking to it to the worried gaze of Prussia, a little surprised he was called by name.

"Are you okay?"

That was the second time being asked that, but with brows furrowed, he gave a sigh and rolled his head back into his pillow.

"No."

"What's wrong?" Prussia asked, turning more towards him at the definite answer of something troubling him. "Was it the party? Was it too much too soon? Ah, man, I'm sorry! I didn't-"

"No, it's… it's not that." Germany interrupted, closing his eyes as he just tried to breathe deeply through his nose. "I've just been through a lot lately."

Prussia chewed on his lower lip lightly, concern growing since not much could shake his strong little brother like this. He glanced to the side, seeing that Gilbird had successfully walked on top of Germany's hand, but he blinked seeing him hop up and down and lightly peck at the lip of the glove. Was there something he wanted to show him? At the moment however, he decided to ignore it, hesitantly reaching over and setting a hand on the others shoulder.

"What happened? Of course, you know, other than the obvious, being stuck on a deserted island. Was there something more to that? I've seen you be stranded places before and you turned out pretty okay." He asked, hoping maybe to get some more information. However, he frowned, receiving no answer from him.

Maybe he could take a different route.

"What exactly are you feeling right now?" Prussia asked, hoping that asking about emotions would work, even though Germany wasn't much of an emotional talking guy. Any sort of elabortation would be helpful, though. "Are you feeling disappointed? Hurt? Upset?"

"…. Regret."

"Regret?"

Germany nodded as confirmation, his legs subconsciously curling up to his body at the mention of the sensitive subject.

Prussia pursed his lips once again, trying to figure out what to make of that. He looked over to Gilbird again, seeing him jumping a little bit more like the glove was very important. Maybe, that could have something to do with it? Was he hiding something? Taking a cautionary glance down to Germany, he reached over and gently took the hand that his pet was on, who quickly jumped off.

"Why are you feeling regret?" He asked, glancing every few seconds over to see if the other would retaliate as he slowly began to slip off his glove.

"… Because…"

Tug after little tug, Prussia's brows furrowed, seeing a distinct red staining the hand underneath the glove. Once it was off, his eyes widened at seeing blood on his precious brothers hand. He turned to look at Germany, seeing that he turned his head enough from the pillow to have one bright glistening eye showing, a tear escaping and soaking into the pillow below him.

"... I murdered my best friend..."