By the next time he woke up, the room was dark as the sun had long set by then. Germany stirred in his bed, slowly opening his eyes as he felt a strange case of déjà vu. He sniffed the air quietly, smelling the faint trace of bratwurst leaking in his room from the kitchen. Was Prussia in bed by now? What time was it?

How did he even fall asleep?

He sat up in his bed, leaning over and turning on his lamp on his light stand to illuminate the room. He winced at the bright light but looked down at his alarm clock again. Seven at night, he'd been out of it for another three hours? He must have really been tired. He reached over to take the blanket off so he could go see where his brother was, but instead when he turned over to do so, he blinked. And a set of golden honey eyes blinked back.

"…Good morning, Germany!"

A near girlish shriek came out of Germany's mouth as he suddenly jumped back from his spot, ending up falling off the bed all together. His arms flailed outwards and smacked against the lamp, making it topple off the stand and smash on the ground, snuffing out the main source of light in the room, leaving only the pale moonlight from the window to pour in.

Germany quaked and shook, holding the edge of the blanket close as if for protection as his eyes darted back and forth across the room, only seeing darkness. That's right, he had passed out time and time again because of—where was he?!

Over time, his eyes got accustomed to the lighting, being able to see everything in the room with the moonlight as his guide, and most importantly the silhouette that stood before him. With another yelp, he scrambled backwards from the supernatural being until his back hit the wall.

"Y…. Y-You're….."

Italy tilted his head curiously, softly frowning out of concern for the frightened German. However he shifted it to be a small smile before soundlessly stepping forward.

"Germany, you don't have to be afraid of me. It's me! Italy~ Remember? Your best friend?"

"Y-You're DEAD."

Italy leaned back a bit in surprise at the others shout, his smile quickly vanishing at this as he took another step forward towards him.

"Germany, I can explain—"

Italy froze, seeing how whenever he made a movement towards Germany, he would press himself further into the wall and continue to just stare up at him with such deep fear. He bit his lower lip in thought before gently reaching out a hand, opening his mouth to try to say something, only to see Germany curl up and toss the blanket over his head, muttering panicked German to himself. His ears perked as he tried to catch some of what he was saying, picking up on hearing 'forgive me' and 'have mercy'.

"Oh Germany…"

Silently, he walked up to the German and kneeled down next to him, looking over him for a moment before reaching forward and wrapping his arms around him tightly, holding him close and setting his head into the part of the blanket that covered his neck. He softly sniffed, squeezing his eyes tight as he just wished he could stop the other from shaking so much. Was this how Germany felt when he tried to get him to calm down from being in enemy forces?

"Germany… what have I done to you? I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

At this, Germany's mutterings went silent, a moment of silence hanging between them before the blonde reached up and carefully took the blanket off his head, looking down to where Italy was now fully curled into his neck.

"… You? Sorry? But… how could you be sorry? I… I-I was the one who-"

"You did what a good solider would do. I was the weakest, you said so yourself. If I had to be food for you both, I'd gladly do my part. I am the most useless of us all."

"Italy…"

Slowly, he reached his hands up and set them on Italy's surprisingly physical shoulders and gently pulled him back so they could see one another, seeing that his cheeks were just as damp with tears as his own.

"I may have been a good soldier, but I was not being a best friend. I… I murdered you, Italy. Murdered and devoured you for my own benefit. I understand if you'd never want to forgive me for this. I still don't forgive myself for it."

Italy sniffed, biting his lip even harder as he felt his chin tremble.

"G-Germany…"

Without another word, Italy leaned forward and hugged him again, this time resting his head under Germany's chin and beginning to outright sob, being unable to control himself any longer.

"It hurt so much… I-I didn't want to believe it was happening. I... I just…" Italy trailed off as another sob escaped his lips, feeling Germany hold him closer to console him, at the same time even he not able to keep back a quiet sob of his own.

They stayed in each other's arms for a long while, both of them crying about what had happened that night, once in a while pausing to say they were sorry only to be replied to by the other that they were also sorry. After so long, they were reduced to just quiet sniffles, sitting there in the darkness.

"…You gonna be all right, Germany?"

"Mm."

"Ve, that's good."

More silence.

"… You're not alive, are you?"

Italy's ears perked at this, finally pulling back to look at Germany face to face, tilting his head again curiously.

"How do you mean?"

"Your body is still missing. There's no way you would actually be here." Germany closed his eyes, taking an almost sad breath. "This must be a dream."

"No no! Not at all! While my body is out there yes, my spirit is here!"

Germany opened an eye to look down at Italy, raising an eyebrow with it as it was pretty obvious he didn't believe him. Italy pouted for a second before reaching up and pinching Germany's cheek, pulling it back and wiggling it around.

"Ow! Hey, knock that off!"

"See? This isn't a dream!"

Germany paused at this, once the other retreated his hand, he gently rubbed the stinging cheek. This was definitely real.

"But… how?"

Italy looked around for a moment in thought before raising a hand to the window. Germany blinked in confusion, looking at the window for a moment before looking at his hand. Upon closer inspection, there was a very very thin layer of transparency going through his hand to see to the moonlight, one that probably wouldn't have been noticed if he didn't look close enough.

"You're… a ghost?" Germany finally settled, leaning back into the wall behind him as Italy nodded, setting his hand down.

"My Grandpa Rome visited the real world this way as well. It took him a while but he told me he also got your attention while he was down here. So I did the same thing!"

Germany straightened up even further at hearing this, remembering how that man came to him on a night he hadn't been sleeping well. At first he thought it was just a very odd dream but perhaps it really was a supernatural encounter. And like Grandfather like grandson it seemed.

"It took me an awful long time to get your attention too. I tried calling out to you and I tried to touch you, but nothing I did worked. Every time I passed through you…" Italy trailed off, averting away his eyes at the mention of it, "… you would act weird. Like when you broke Japans neck and tried to kill yourself… that was all my fault. I shouldn't have tried to stop you from running away from the meeting."

"Wait wait-" Germany quickly interjected, his eyes widening at the others admittance. "You… it was your fault that I went crazy last night?"

"Mhm. Grandpa said every time I go through someone who is close to me, their mind fills up with their last memories of me and it has a lot of different effects." Italy explained, hoping that he didn't ask about what sort of effects, not wanting to go into detail of what he had seen happen around him when he tried to interact with others.

Germany pursed his lips at this, noting to himself that that explained a few things. He sighed through his nose, his arms going back to lightly hug Italy, feeling that Italy's arms were still around him for a hug.

"Well, that's in the past now. You can help us find your body, right?"

"Well… I don't exactly know where it is either."

"Mm, I had a feeling."

The both of them were quiet once more, just being content in being in each other's acknowledged presence before they lightly jumped, hearing a shut of the front door.

"Weest! You up yet? I got something for ya!"

Germany lifted his head, rolling it lazily over to where the direction of Prussia's voice came from. That explained why he didn't come help him when he was yelling.

"Ja?" He called out, not having the energy to move from his spot to go seek out his brother. Though it wasn't exactly easily with an Italian still cuddled up to him either. He waited for a few moments before the door open and the light switch was turned on, making him quickly shut his eyes from the sudden oversaturation of light.

"Euh? Whatcha doing there in the dark, West?" Prussia asked, tilting his head at the weird position Germany was in.

Germany glanced back and forth between Italy and Prussia, seeing the Italian look up at Prussia with a bright grin and Prussia just looking confused.

"Good morning, Prussia! How are you?"

Prussia pursed his lips, looking over further on to see that his lamp was busted as well.

"The hell happened to your lamp?"

Germany raised an eyebrow, looking over to his lamp for only a moment before looking back and forth to Italy and Prussia, then just settling on the albino.

"Are you going to answer him? He asked you a question."

At this, Prussia looked right back to Germany, looking around before pointing to himself.

"Me? I asked a question?"

"No, he did." Germany said, squeezing Italy lightly to put emphasis on his words, making Italy giggle a bit. "You're just going to ignore him?"

Prussia leaned back a bit, surveying where Germany was motioning to before just looking at Germany again, this time looking a lot more concerned.

"This isn't like you, West. Maybe you should get back to bed."

Without another word, Prussia went over and took a hold of Germany's forearm, pulling him up to be standing on his feet and inadvertently making Italy slip out of his hold and just sit on the ground patiently. Germany furrowed his brows in confusion of what Prussia had seemed to ignore the now suddenly living Italian but he decided to just go with it.

"I can get myself to bed, don't worry about me."

Prussia frowned a bit, looking down to a grocery bag he had in his hands from the mart down the street, he lifted it up to show Germany.

"Would you want some apfel kuchen before you go to bed though? … Favorite brand."

Germany blinked at this, smiling a little as he realized Prussia had left to get some cake for him to try to cheer him up.

"I'll have some in the morning, along with that breakfast of bratwurst and beer you promised me."

At that moment, a few emotions ran through Prussia's face simultaneously, excitement of a real German breakfast with his brother, worry about denying a meal and still being of ill will, and disappointment his offer was turned down for the moment.

"All right, sounds like a plan, kesesese!" Prussia said, obviously forcing up a smile for the others sake before turning on his heel to head out the door. "… Sleep well, Germany. I hope you start feeling better." With that, he left, leaving the door open a little.

Germany waited for only a moment before looking down to Italy, offering a hand to help him up. Italy smiled and took his hand, the contact brightening up the red on Germany's hand as he stood up.

"Why didn't he notice you? You talked to him and asked him a question."

Italy's smile turned a little sad as the both of them turned to the bed, Germany leading the way to head over to it.

"Only you can see me and feel me. I'm not sure why it works like that, it was the same for Grandpa."

Germany nodded, this being pretty understandable. Well, in ghost logic it seemed pretty understandable.

"Then why did you say hi to him and ask how he was doing if you knew he couldn't hear you?"

Italy bashfully looked downward to his closed buttoned shirt, fiddling with the end of it a bit before sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I… like to pretend they can hear me; that nothing's changed and I'm still part of the group." Italy looked up as Germany slid under his blankets, giving a small, almost shaky, smile, "I did it around you and Prussia all the time. Sometimes you would hear me and just think Prussia said it."

Germany's brows furrowed a bit at this, feeling very bad to somehow being unable to pay attention to Italy this entire time. How long had he been haunting him anyway? Recently? After they got off the island? He wanted to ask more, but figured perhaps he could ask those later. He raised up the blankets next to him, motioning for Italy to join him, this making Italy perk up.

"Wha- really? I can… sleep in bed with you?"

The blonde gave a tired smile, nodding a little.

"I never realized how empty it felt until you stopped crawling in it."

Of course, he did like his privacy when it came to sleeping in his bed, but he knew they both needed some time together to heal from that night. Long as Italy didn't try anything romantic it would be fine.

Italy jumped lightly on the bed before peeling back some of the covers and sliding into place next to Germany, scooching over near him and resting his head on Germany's shoulder to use as a pillow. This made Germany raise an eyebrow, making him a little uncomfortable.

"Why don't you use the pillow?"

"I'll phase through it, and these blankets when I go to sleep. I won't phase through you though, not anymore. Hopefully that's okay?"

Germany huffed quietly as he looked down to Italy, but just looking down at his hesitant eyes once making him know that this would probably be okay. After all, they both probably needed at least a tiny bit of affectionate interaction, long as it didn't cross any boundaries. He knew especially Italy needed it more than anyone.

"Mm, that's all right. Hopefully I won't wake up to find you naked though."

"No no, I'll be good!"

Germany nodded once, closing his eyes, though flinching as Italy curling his legs against one of his legs. They were like ice, though it was understandable. If Italy had to live with it, so could he.

"… Ve… Germany?"

"Mm?"

"… Will you be here when I wake up?"

Germany's eyes opened at that, feeling an odd pang in his heart at the question. He dryly gulped and looked down to Italy again, seeing lightly shimmering eyes looking up to him.

"Only if you are still here when I wake up."

Italy smiled at that, reaching over and lightly wrapping his arms around Germany, as if almost afraid he'd suddenly fade away.

"I will. I promise."

Germany copied his relieved smile as he leaned back and closed his eyes, not even minding Italy had more of a hold on him. In a way, that reassured him that Italy wasn't going to be going anywhere soon as well.

"Good night, Italy."

"Ve~ Good night, Germany!

Silence filled the room after the quiet goodnights, soon the two nations falling back to sleep, for once in many months not having to fall prey to nightmares about each other.

However, outside the room, Prussia sat next to the door, holding a hand to his mouth as he stared up to the ceiling. He tried his hardest to stifle the sobs that racked against his throat.

His brother… his poor poor little brother…

Attacking his friends, attempting suicide... now he won't even eat and just sleeps all the time. And now talking to himself, no… talking to a delusion of Italy, from how it sounded.

There was no doubt about it.

Germany was losing his mind from regret.

He had to do something, before it was too late.

But what?