Roxy requested: 12 Germany/Prussia please!
12. Kiss on the nose
Gilbert sneezed once, twice, and again, each sneeze bursting more violently from him than the one before.
He stopped and sniffled, crunching to a halt on the icy pavement as he dragged the back of his hand over his dripping nose. His brother, Ludwig, came to a stop too and turned to face him with a frown.
"I told you to dress up more warmly," he scolded.
"Yeah, well," Gilbert muttered thickly. He snorted to clear a passage in his congested nostrils.
The paper bags rustled as Ludwig pushed them into Gilbert's arms, ignoring his protestations. As the latter anxiously examined the clinking contents – "Dammit West, the beers!" he moaned – Ludwig unwound his scarf and looped it over Gilbert's neck.
"You'll catch your death," he groused, knotting the scarf tightly around him.
As he stared up at his brother, Gilbert had a sudden flash of a similarly cold and miserable December evening from a long time ago. Violet eyes had stared down at him then, lips stretched into a thin smile as large, gloved hands wound a scarf tightly around his neck, as tight as a noose…
"You'll catch your death, East."
Something on his face must have given himself away, because Ludwig softened and asked, "What's wrong?" He shook himself back to the present and forced a wobbly grin.
"'You'll catch your death'? What are you, a granddad?" he teased.
Ludwig let out a half-snort, half-sigh in involuntary mirth. He stooped to gather the bags back when Gilbert mumbled, belatedly, "…thanks."
He kissed Ludwig, brushing his winter-chapped lips over the tip of Ludwig's nose before turning away. Then, digging his hands into his coat pockets and hunching into the warmth of the scarf, he trudged through another foot of snow that lay on the pavement.
Ludwig stared blankly for a moment before following after him.