Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

GerEst: Recommendation

Eduard was waiting for his order to arrive. It was Saturday evening, and he decided to go for some takeout. A lot of people were waiting in line, so Eduard didn't think that he would receive his order anytime soon. So he decided to spend his time reading.

This was why he always brought a book when he went out to town.

"Excuse me," a gruff voice said.

Eduard looked up and almost jumped out of his seat. A buff guy was standing in front of him. He carried himself like a soldier, and he wore some sort of black uniform with a small logo on the left breast that identified him as part of a security firm. The man was staring at him with icy blue eyes and Eduard swallowed nervously.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Sorry to bother you," the man said, and Eduard detected a German accent. "I would just like to know about the book you're reading."

Eduard blinked, before he looked down at the book in his hand. He showed the cover to the German.

"It's supposed to be a horror, but I haven't gotten to it yet," Eduard said. "It's written in a first-person narrative, and the narrator is pretty talkative to her audience."

"I see," the German said. "And you enjoy it?"

"So far, yes. I usually prefer classics, but…"

"Really? So do I. I need to read a bit more contemporary works."

"If you don't mind young adult, I have a recommendation. You know the story of the Arabian Nights? About Shahrazad telling the story each night? Now, the story goes with that angle, and tells the story behind the framing device."

"Really? That sounds interesting. Could you give me the name please?"

Eduard provided it, and he could see the man making a mental note of it.

"Danke," the German said. "By the way, I'm new in town. Are there any bookstores you would recommend?"

"None around here, sorry," Eduard apologised. "But there's a pretty good one in one of the neighbouring towns. It's about half an hour's drive away, if you don't mind."

"That would be great, thank you."

The two of them chatted about books for a while, at least until Eduard's order was ready. He was a bit disappointed to leave the conversation there, and hoped that he would see the German – Ludwig – again soon.

He returned a week letter in the hopes of seeing Ludwig again, and right after sitting down after placing his order, he saw Ludwig enter as well. And this time he had a few more books to recommend.

I got the idea after an encounter last week while waiting for takeaways. I was reading, and this guy approached me to ask about the book I was reading, and if there was a bookstore nearby. My first thought when I saw this guy was that he was a bodyguard or something. He had the build and he carried himself like someone that works in security.

The first book mentioned is The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. I'm still in the relative beginning of the book, so I don't have much of an opinion about it yet. The second book is The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh, and I loved that book. I was a bit upset when I found out that it's part of a duology, because that meant I had to find the second book. I went to three different Bargain Books to see if they had it, and the third one (the one closest to me) agreed to order it. Their suppliers didn't have a single copy of the book, and when they checked with the other branches, there was only one store with one copy in the immediate area. Ironically, it's where I got the first book. They had no problem transferring the book, since the last time a copy was sold was in 2018, so it was just gathering dust on the shelf. The book arrived last week, and I just had to finish with the book I was currently reading before I could start on the sequel.