Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He didn't know where he was. It was crowded and he was alone. Voices and faces whom he had never seen nor heard before were hovering over him like hawks, jet no one seemed to have any interest in him whatsoever. The people around him seemed angry at something. They've made one thing really clear, they demanded a unified state. They wanted one like the french. They wanted power and influence. Everybody yelled for the soldiers to be taken away.

Someone hoisted him up from the ground. "What are you doing here, Kind?" a deep voice spoke to him. "Where are your parents?" he asked. The man knelled down after he didn't answer, to look him in the eyes and tried again. "What are you doing here? Don't you have parents?" The brown-haired male looked concerned at the boy as he put his big hand on his shoulder. "Are you lost?" The man looked more worried by the second. "Come on tell me, are you lost?" He didn't quite know what to say to this, so he just nodded. 

Maybe his answer wasn't the right one, it seemed it had just upset the man more. He looked around the crowd and then back at the boy. "Are your parents here?" The man asked, The boy shook his head, for all he knew he didn't have parents, so... "Do you know where your parents are?" Again he shook his head. Now the man seemed irritated. With a wrinkled forehead, he asked "Do you want me to help you find them?" The boy nodded hesitantly. 

Suddenly he felt the hands wandering from his shoulders to his armpits. "brace yourself." The man said before lifting him to his chest and then to his shoulders. "Can you see everything?" He looked around amazed at the crowd. Thousands of people were gathered around the space in front of the balcony yelling. "Hey, can you see everything?" The man asked again, tapping his leg. "Yes, yes. I do" The boy answered finally. "Good. Tell me when you see them." 

With that, the man started slowly walking around the crowd taking turns every now and again. After a while the man started walking away from the crowd, maybe his parents were looking for him somewhere else. "Do you know where your parents might be?" The boy was getting cold feet, so he started looking around franticly for a good excuse. 

A bakery. 

"The bakery." The boy said quickly.

"The bakery? Are you sure?"

"...Yes."

"Alright. To the bakery, we go." 

´bang´ The crowd broke out in panic immediately spreading out onto the street dragging the both of them with them. The man tried his best not to lose his balance as they were shoved further by the crowd. The panic only heightened as suddenly cavalry joined the other soldiers. A person accidentally knocked the man's hat off his head only missing the boy by a few millimeters. Luckily the man had caught his head before it would hit the floor and get dirty. 

A chuckle broke the panicked voices of the people. Startled the man fixed his hat and tried looking at the boy sitting on his shoulders. "What's so funny?" The boy didn't stop chuckling for a while before saying," Why are you wearing a hat under your hat?" and started chuckling again. The man started chuckling lightly. "Double holds better, doesn't it?" "That's not an answer!" the boy insisted lightheartedly. The man was quiet for some time.

"You know, it's a religious thing." was all the man said before going back to looking around. The crowd still hasn't calmed down and new shoots were fired. The man got to moving again. They tried to get away from the ever-moving crowd but failed miserably. The people were already everywhere, in every little side street, in every dark corner. Everywhere.

Fortunately, there was a corner still unoccupied where they could catch a breath.

Meanwhile, another man was standing looking over the panicked crowd beside his boss Friedrich Wilhelm the fourth. Both were rather shocked at how the events had developed and now we're looking for who was responsible. Someone must have shot first, against their orders. "Someone must be responsible for this!" The king was furious."I really don't know, sir. No one steps forward or tells me! I'm trying my best!" Prussia tried to reason. "Then you're not trying hard enough! Go and find who is responsible!" he said wildly gesturing with his hands. "Now!" 

Prussia stomped off out of the room and into the next. He sights resting his elbows on the table staring out of the window. Running his hands through his hair he was trying to come up with a plan. It seemed impossible to find the one responsible for this when all hell was breaking loose outside. He saw his citizen-built brigades out of thin air, and his soldiers responding violently. It was pure chaos and he could do nothing about it anymore, just watch and hope for the best. 

He ruffled his hair in irritation. The silver-haired had been irritated for a while now. He didn't even know the reason why, he just was. He couldn't concentrate today but also couldn't distract himself. No matter where he looked everything reminded him of work. Even worse that he had that dooming feeling slowly creeping up his stomach. Something was about to go wrong. 

Unlucky for him, his stomach was right. 

The silver-haired was looking baffled out of the window, among the thousands of people was a boy. The boy himself looked like every other kid in berlin but something made him stick out like a sore thump. And that something made Prussia irrationally annoyed. Something made that boy a threat. Prussia knew the feeling from somewhere. But his feelings weren't important right now. He had an order to fulfill, but how was he supposed to do that? 

His mind kept wandering away from the topic at hand, always back to that boy standing in that corner. Something about him just rubbed him the wrong way, as he doesn't belong here. The boy looked fairly human but there was something uncanny valley about him. 

Suddenly it hit him. Suddenly he understood the uncanny feeling, that annoyance. That boy wasn't a human. He was another nation or was currently trying to become one. That kid did indeed not belong here, not in his county. 

After his realization, the annoyance that was eating him from inside was quickly turning into boiling anger. How dare that brat come to his country, his territory, and turn his people against him like that? They want a unified german state and that's how they are going to do that. Make some brat and start a revolution. His boss already agreed to some of their demands and as thanks they do... that. How fucking dare they.

According to the current events Prussia declared the boy as the person responsible for this, and so went after him. He practically ran down the hallway, bumping into a few soldiers on the way. He almost flew down the flight of stairs but still made it to the back door unharmed. 

As he was trying to run into the crowd he was abruptly stopped by one of his generals. "Where do you think you're going?" He was asked rather rudely. "I have orders," he didn't feel like explaining more," now let me through." he tried to make his way into the crowd once again but was held by his arm. "It's too dangerous. Who has given you the orders if I'm allowed to ask." The general asked, again rather arrogantly. Prussia already annoyed snapped back. " The king, now let. me. through." 

The grip on his arm lessened almost immediately and Prussia finally made his way into the raging crowd. Most of them didn't even notice him at all, they were just trying to get away from the situation. Others were throwing rocks and other solid things at him. He didn't care though because he had already focused on the blond boy standing in the corner. 

What Prussia didn't know, was that the boy had already seen him. He was looking over the shoulder of the brown-haired man watching the silver-haired soldier approach them. A feeling of dread suddenly ran through him. His blood ran cold and he started to struggle against the hold the man had on his body. Shocked, he was being let go and fell to the floor. The man looked at him stunned but the boy didn't care about that right now. 

Not wasting a second he jumped up and ran for it. He does even know what the soldier wanted but in the current context, it certainly wasn't good. He could hear the silver-haired man running after him. The boots hitting the concrete were unmistakable and they were coming closer and closer. He could run for his life and take as many turns as possible. 

After a way too long-lasting while the steps grew quieter and the boy dared to look behind him. No one was to be seen, he had made it away from the crowd and he was now standing in front of a river. He bent down, hands on knees, trying to regain his breath.

Prussia on the other hand was still in the crowd looking for any signs of the boy. In the meanwhile the demonstration had escalated, the citizens had begun to fight back even more and everyone around him got more hostile by the second. Even worse, he seemed to have lost the boy within the raging crowd and he himself seemed to be lost too.

Frustrated he tried to get out of the crowd and get some fresh air to plan his new approach. He simply couldn't come back with empty hands, his king would kill him.

Prussia was pushing through the crowds losing orientation more often than he could actually tell where he was. He was only certain once he saw the crowd getting more and more disbanded and he could see the houses standing further apart. 

In the end, he stood outside the city and at the belle alliance place, Prussia would've loved to stay here for a while and catch his breath, really it was a beautiful place, but there were more important things right now. For instance, find the boy and bring him to his boss. 

Determined to complete his job and go home as fast as possible, he went on his way further north. The walk was rather plain and not much of an eyecatcher. The inner city was much more of an adventure. So he quickly found himself lost in thought.

What would the "boy" even want here? where would he go? Where would he go if he was running away? Home... well the invader didn't seem to have one. At least he can't remember having one when he was first born and lost in the middle of a forest. Alone. The church he ran into hadn't seemed to like him too much for they did try to kill or exorcise him, multiple times. 

Back to the question at hand. Where could he be? Not sure if someone would just let some random child inside the house, but if, his search would prove to be completely useless. Who would give a probably distressed child to a weird-looking soldier, especially today? But if not, he'd probably run into the next forest or so. But the river would be in the way, but a bridge wasn't that far away so...

He should just go along the river and hope that maybe, just maybe, with a lot of luck, he would catch him before he was gone for good. Prussia's luck was never the best so he didn't have much hope in his plan. The boy probably ran the exact other way and he had missed him completely. It was still worth a try though.

To his surprise, he proved himself wrong. Just a few steps away, below the bridge, was a tinge of color that didn't belong there. Between the green of grass and leaves was a hint of yellow sticking out not even trying to hide within the yellow of the late midday sun. The boy was sitting clueless in the high grass fixating on the green hoping frogs not knowing about the threat standing just meters away from him. 

The Prussian on the other hand had just started to approach the unassuming blond. He was only a few remaining centimeters away when with a loud crack a twig snapped. The head of the "boy" shot around his pupils turning wide. Both lurched forward, running along the small river fighting for who got up to the street first. 

With a lot of slipping and stumbling, they made it to the top, the kid just a tad bit before Prussia. He ran towards the bridge looking over his shoulder trying to bring a little bit of distance between the two. Unfortunately, he failed to do so and the Prussian naturally had already halfway caught up with him.  

Prussia caught up with him just a few meters behind the bridge. He grabbed the blond's arm in an iron grip and wasn't even thinking about letting it go. The boy was struggling like a madman trying everything in his power to somehow get away,  even resolving to kick the Prussian's arm, hanging upside down. Nothing worked but he kept trying.

After a while both got frustrated. Prussia was done with having his arm kicked and scratched while the nameless boy was sick of being held by the arm by some Prussian soldier and not being let down. But neither of them was ready to let g of their stubbornness, which would end the whole ordeal. So they stood there, not going forward but also unable to go backward.

Soon Prussia, who was both the stronger and the most pissed off by the whole situation, decided that he will end this once and for all. He grabbed the boy hanging on his arm by the back of his shirt and kinda held him under his arm before throwing him over his shoulder. The boy could do nothing but struggle helplessly while the Prussian sight and studded the way back. 

After around an hour, they made it back to the Alexander Platz expertly dodging all the barricades and other soldiers. Prussia used the backdoor to the house, sneaking around all the officials to avoid further questions. He basically ran up the stairs but was slowed down by the weight on his back. The one soldier coming down the stairs in a hurry looked at him weirdly but didn't dare to comment on it.

Just a couple of seconds the Prussian and the boy over his back were standing in front of the door leading to the king's office waiting to be allowed in." You may come in!" came from behind said door and Prussia opened the door. The king was sitting in front of the window.

"I found him." 

Chapter Text

It had been at least three days since he last had a semi-good night's sleep. Involuntarily being kept awake by the blonde trying to escape by any means available to him.

Once he had been woken up by the uncomfortable cold draft coming from the window. His eyes had shot open to see an around five-year-old child trying to climb up and out the window. Miserably failing to do so.

Luckily for him, he had been able to easily pick him up, close the window, put him back in his place, and go to sleep again. Considering that that was most likely the life that he was going to live for a while now, Prussia was more than disappointed. He thought that having a child was going to be fun, playing around in the garden and reading bedtime stories, etc. Not running around trying to catch them at 3 am. But no, his boss had gifted him a little demon. 

 Now he was standing in some hotel room in Berlin trying to get the boy to not throw his clothes all around the room. "Stop it, you are not a toddler!" He basically screamed. Prussia couldn't believe he was really screaming at a kid but he had overstepped his patience like four minutes ago.

That child was horrible. The most demonic child that he had ever seen. It would be compelled in church. The one that could parent that boy, without an exorcism, deserves a medal. 

About half an hour later he finally had him in his clothes, most were wrinkled and a little bit dirty but it looked semi-acceptable after all. He himself didn't look much better; he literally had small footprints on his dress shirt that luckily were hidden under his jacket. Prussia had to spend a whole ten minutes fixating his hair back in place and smoothing his clothes back out while holding onto the boy so he wouldn't take off his clothes himself.

Taking a glance out of the window, he noticed that the carriage was already waiting. Prussia took a second glance at the clock hanging on the wall; shocked he noticed that he had been late for a while now.

Hurriedly he grabbed the child up and made his way out of the hotel room. The boy was whole heartily protesting against it but the silver-haired man was too keen on not letting their chauffeur wait any longer. His whole motto was being on time and he wasn't going to let some boy ruin that. 

He quickly made his way down the stairs with the boy over his shoulder; both were lucky that it was early in the morning, otherwise, they'd have to deal with dirty looks all around (especially from mothers). Prussia had gotten enough complaints about the noise they made. Even though "they" should be reduced to the boy trying, and failing, to escape multiple times. Which would lead to them having boxing matches with biting and every dirty trick the boy could come up with. 

To say the least, neither the guests nor the staff of the hotel liked them very much. The receptionist glared at them as he slowly moved towards the counter. His expression changed to a weird mix of gratitude and suspicion as Prussia handed him the keys to their room. Still, they were quickly grabbed and they were wished a good ride. 

Slightly irritated he now walked out of the hotel towards their driver who was waiting for them, rocking in his chair looking quite impatient. His foot was tapping the ground of his seat as he quickly ushered them inside the wagon. The ash-haired man was doing his best to seem polite but one could hear the impatiens in his voice. Prussia uttered an apologetic "Sorry." before guiding the boy in before him. 

The inside of the carriage was comfortable enough for the hour-long ride. One could call it ridiculous how far away he lived from his workplace. Fortunately for him, he could do most of his work at home and only needed to travel to his work once every few weeks. He just got the paperwork in the mail or was called to stay with his boss for some time. 

And that's just how this will work out too. He will have to stay at home for some time and bore himself to death with paperwork and his (hopefully) contemporary additional burden. After some time he will get a letter in the mail stating that had to come to berlin ASAB, leaving the boy behind, getting some rest, and then the cycle will continue. 

But currently, his situation didn't have any escapes to offer. "I'm your king and you do as I say!" It was always the same, he didn't get to have a say in his own life. It's always what the king wants when the king wants. All of them are the same. Well...except Fredrick of course. He will always stay in his heart rent-free, the rest, however, were just one in a dozen. Elitist, arrogant, and weirdly needy. Regardless he will do as they as for it is his duty as a nation. 

Looking at the boy leaning out of the window, almost falling over, with his eyes so wide and shiny, he could see nothing else than a clueless child that doesn't know what he is going to get into. No nation would ever want to be one nor would glorify it in any way, shape, or form. It could get truly nasty. Not the other nations, no, but the people. Humans are the most horrifying, repulsing, disgusting things to have ever walked on this planet. The word humanity is a complete and utter joke, humans are the most inhumane creatures to have existed in the infinity that is time. Hurting, even hunting, people for fun and then blaming it on the victim, experimenting on other people in the most grotesque ways, and the mere existence of torture had to be proof enough that the human in humane was a lie. And in the end, it is always your fault. They start a war, that's on you. They start a civil war, that's on you. The government makes a decision that has nothing to do with you, you guessed it, also on you. Not to forget they do something utterly disgusting, yeah that's your new image now. Being able to live for eternity is nice until you do. It's pain and suffering nothing else, and the possibility that someone willingly wants to become part of that disgusts him even more. 

The worst part was that he could do nothing about it anymore. It was far too late, his king had already decided that that child is going to have to live on. He didn't think that the king thought any of this through. What is he going I do with that child once this is over? His boss was never going to agree with the commands of the people but the nation is already there, so it's almost unavoidable now. 

He was stuck with that brat until further notice and he wasn't quite sure if he ever was going to get that notice. But it was too late now; the boy was there and he wasn't going to leave any time soon, so he better get comfortable with the idea of being a parent. He didn't wanna be a parent but it seemed to already have been decided for him. Prussia had never cared for anyone before let alone a child. He didn't know what to do; because how do you care for a child? What is he supposed to do? Do they need some special food? Idk.

Prussia was getting comfortable in the carriage watching as the young boy was ignoring him completely. He was looking out of the window watching the trees next to the path. They were towering over them like all mighty kings looking down on their peasants. Century-old, wise, monstrous oak trees were dominating the forest, their leaves joining in an impeccable wall darkening the sky, only leaving a few patches of light. The little light that those trees let through was being used by the younger trees trying their hardest to keep up with the battle that was surviving. Who got the most light would survive for centuries; the others would grumble and die. A tree that has fought for its place in the forest will leave a hollow space once it dies, another that didn't will just be forgotten the left space being taken in by others almost immediately. One could say all life is like that, either you fight yourself to the very top or you are never going to get to your full potential. 

The air outside was chilly forcing the hair on his neck to stand up. The boy was getting affected by the cold air too; he was hugging himself, running his hands up and down his arms in an attempt to warm up a little bit. His gaze was leaving the outside for the first time this ride and it went to the floor right after. The boy was looking at his feet for approximately five minutes before he build up the courage to say something. "I'm cold," he said looking at Prussia expectingly. 

To be honest, Prussia was a little confused as to what the boy might want from him. He's cold too, and he does have anything to warm him up let alone himself. How could he possibly accommodate the boy in a way that would help him? "Great me too." Was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Not the smartest thing if he looked back at it, but what else was he supposed to say? 

Lucky for him the boy had already an idea in mind. The Prussian heard some rustling from the other side and soon after felt an additional weight on his lap. Shocked he looked down to see that the boy had dared to climb on him and was now opening his jacked. It should be said that Prussia didn't like, no hated, physical touch. 

The boy couldn't care less about that. He was cold and the prussians body heat was the only source of warmth he could find within the box they were more or less trapped in. So he sneaked his arms around the body of the older and pressed his own as close as possible to steal some of the heat provided by the uniform jacked. 

Prussia was frozen in place, wordlessly staring at the body pressed on his own. His heart was beating at record speed. He had never felt more repulsed by simply physical contact in his entire life. It wasn't even the boy's fault, it was just too close, way too close, and he felt like he couldn't do anything about that. He couldnt push a child, could he? What kind of man would he be, if he couldn't even handle some child touching him? Still...

The blonde boy didn't notice the internal struggle that was going on within the silver-haired man he was sitting on. The jacked now provided him with the comfortable warmth he was looking for but his position still wasn't satisfying. Hard muscled legs felt like rocks beneath his body and the still unresponsive body of the Prussian reversed the temporary comfort he was feeling. 

The outside didn't mirror the gloomy inside of the carriage. The sun stood high as they were approaching midday. The clouds started to reveal the blue sky behind them. it would have been a beautiful day if it hadn't been for the cold or the stress the two of them were going through. 

Birds were singing outside as they left the forest behind them and turned into the second half of their journey. The laughter of children switched out the quiet bird song, and towering houses replaced the mighty trees. 

With the trees, the protection that they had from the sun was gone and it hit them with all its power. Prussia had to squeeze his eyes shut, and with watering eyes, he tried to regain a sense of space. Meanwhile, the boy could hide his face in his shirt to shield himself from the blinding light. 

As Prussia's eyes slowly got used to the brightness, he could start to make out where they had finally arrived at. To his surprise, they must have been traveling for a while; they had already made it to the suburbs.

It won't be long before they arrived at their final destination, for the day at least. With a hopeful sigh, he somewhat loosened his posture. It sure would be over soon and the boy would disappear somewhere inside the house not to be seen anytime soon. 

But before his salvation would come he would have to get that kid off of his lap. Shouldn't be too hard, should it? Wrong. The Prussian moved his still somewhat rigid hand from his side to the chest of the blonde and started to shove him off; to no avail, however. The kid stayed on by holding Prussia's shirt in an iron grip. Children are crazy strong for no reason. Somehow they manage to be impacble ohne they warnt something. Almost like cats.

The boy isn't even really notice him trying his best to get free; he was too focused on the outside. Other children ran around with their friends while their mothers did their grocery shopping. Somehow the boy felt envious; he would too rather play with someone outside in the fresh air, maybe play in the forest being watched by those impressive trees, than sit here trapped with that weird man who didn't even seem to want him here. Why take him with him then? Why not leave him alone?

This ride was the longest and most tedious the Prussian has ever been on. Not ever had he felt Top many emotions at once doing a maybe 2-3 hour ride. Anger, frustration, and a nauseating sense of numbness had been bothering him ever since he had first seen the boy. It had to have something to do with him. of course it does; that boy was the only thing that had changed in his life.

But somehow he had a feeling that that wasn't the worst interaction he will have today.

And like always when he wanted to be proven wrong; he was proven completely right. After the endlessly long ride, he had finally arrived at his mansion. His sweet, sweet home. Laying protected and calm on top of a hill, hidden behind a bunch of trees.

The not-so-sweet reality started to down on him as he saw another carriage on his property.

He knew all so well what would be coming next. 

Once he had dragged the kid out into the open with him, he promptly marched over to his front door and tried to open it. It slid open before he could even touch the knop. Suspicious. Who was he kidding? He knew who it was. 

Still not leaving the child out of his arms, despite the struggle, he quickly maneuvered himself towards the salon; where his suspicions would be confirmed.

There were sitting two all-too-known figures on his sofa sipping on a cup of tea. (Seems like they had already found the kitchen.) Austria had his legs crossed looking him straight in the eyes; while Hungary at least showed some kind of guilt by avoiding his eyes. 

Speechless, Prussia stood in the doorframe and looked them up and down; eyes wide open. He couldn't believe that they had made themselves comfortable in his home without even contacting him first. There seemed to be no context as to why they would come and visit him (at least that he knew of).

It must have been important considering that Prussia had made it a great effort to live as far away as he possibly could. There was no way they would come from Vienna, all the way to his home just for a small visit. Not to speak of that the other party also made a big deal about never meeting in person. 

"It took you long enough." Austria had been the first to break the unconfortable silence. He didn't look just the tiniest bit pleased to be here; which the red-eyed took as a compliment to his efforts to keep the pianist out. But why was he there then? 

"What's that supposed to mean?" he started his line of questioning, " and what are you even doing here? I don't remember the world ending." 

"That," Austria pointed at the very confused-looking child in his arms, "is the reason you're blessed with our presence." he halted in an overdramatic break; eyes swaying back to Prussia, "your king was nice enough to inform us of the," he glanced over to the boy, "circumstances. We've suggested a more in-person evaluation of the situation given the significance." 

Prussia rolled his eyes at the formalities; but what did he expect of Austria? "and that's why you've let yourself in?" 

"Considering that we, sadly, are still family and buisness partners, I honestly do not see the problem. Assuming you have nothing to hide?" 

Seeing the tension rise, Hungary jumped into action. "I would suggest that we sit down and talk like civilized people do." keeping her voice as calm as possible. "I suggest that we move to a more suitable, personal area of the house. How about the drawing room."

Still murmuring, both men obeyed her. They refused to break eye contact the entire way out of the salon; glaring daggers at each other, telling more than words ever could. Prussia, especially, seemed much tenser than before; more or less letting it out on the child still trapped in his arms. His muscles had flexed, accidentally, suffocating the boy who struggled to get free. 

The two men didn't even seem to notice it at all, too caught up in their mutual hatred. Hungary who was more of a bystander than an active participant noticed right away. Coming to the rescue, she quickly stepped up to the Prussian:" How about I take that," she took the child out of his arms, careful not to be too forceful, " and you concentrate on talking it out."

Both didn't seem to even listen to her; needing to almost be led to the drawing room. On the way she protectively held the child out of the raging men's reach. Even though she wouldn't think anyone of them would hurt him, one couldn't be too sure. The boy hung unto her seeming overwhelmed by the whole situation. 

Once in the living room seated across from each other, the debate began, only kept civil by Hungary acting as the moderator. She didn't want to stay for too long, as the whole situation was stressing her out, and she was only elongating the time until they went off. The tension was already too high for her to ease it. 

"If you would excuse me for the time being." She announced her leave calmly and collected, taking the child with her.

Just as she turned into the hallway leading up to the stairs she could hear the bomb go off. Seemingly Prussia, as expected, was the first to lose his temper Austria followed soon after. Hungary felt a lump building up in her throat when she thought about leaving the child with any of those hot heads. That wouldn't end well, and she wouldn't forgive herself if it did. Why? She didn't even know that kid.

Leaving the argument behind, she climbed up the stairs, stopping at the platform. She thought that it was pretty rude that no one had at least introduced themselves to the child. Hungary sight as she set the kid down and straightened his clothes. her hands were straightening his shirt as she started to speak cautiously. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" 

Meanwhile, the boy stood as still as a statue seemingly frozen in place his breathing irregular and frantic. His eyes were darting around the hallway frantically while avoiding hers by all means possible; not even listening to her.

Hungary didn't notice his panicked state at first and continued talking. "Don't worry they don't usually resolve to physical attacks; at least not towards third parties... are you even listening?" 

It was slowly dawning on her that this whole situation was way too overwhelming for the young boy. Honestly, she could fully understand. Who wouldn't be overwhelmed if they had just been kidnapped off the streets and forced into the care of people he probably didn't even know the names of? She would be scared too. 

To counteract that just a little bit she started telling about herself. "Ah, sorry. How rude of me... I'm Elizabeta Héderváry the representative nation of Hungary; currently, the wife of Roderich Edelstein the representative nation of Austria. The brown-haired one. I'm kind of going through the same as you are you know? Fighting for my own, individual existence. So, no need to be scared of me." she smiled kindly at him as she ended the last sentence. 

Her introduction didn't seem to impress the boy too much but his shoulders dropped visibly, indicating some form of relaxation. He still wasn't really looking at her rather scanning the staircase and the portraits hanging above it. His eyes were fixated on one particular portrait that was hanging right in the middle. A huge painting of Prussia looking down onto whoever is standing on that staircase. The boy just couldn't look away, if he was intimidated or amazed. Who knows?

Hungary noticed his dreaminess and followed the child's gaze to the portrait. She then moved back to the boy's face her eyebrows pulling together creating some wrinkles between them. She laid her head to the side, her eyes switching between the boy and the portrait. 

They stood like that for a couple of seconds, the noise of the two men fighting never leaving the background. The boy's mind was wandering places no one could comprehend. Meanwhile, Hungary was standing beside him slowly getting bored of waiting for something to happen. But nothing did, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. 

She walked over to the boy and patted him on the shoulder. He turned around immediately his eyes wide and his shoulders completely tense again pulled up. Hungary gasped, and pulled her hand back quickly letting it stay in the air for the time being. They looked like statues.

After another couple of seconds, she started up again. "We need to get on. There's no use standing here like manikins." After stating that she gently pushed the boy towards the steps leading up to the next floor. 

The boy obliged reluctantly letting her lead him up. The way up was steep. Hungary was walking behind the boy further and further pushing him up until they hit the end of the stairs. A long hallway was revealed behind the last step leading to a window front. But that wasn't the destination Hungary had in mind for them. The destination she did have in mind was the door right next to it. She was leading the boy right towards it. 

Once they were in front of it she stopped, keeping her hands on his shoulders she opened the door. It creaked as it slowly revealed the room where the boy would be staying for now. How long she didn't know, maybe just today maybe longer, who knows?

She obviously couldn't ask Prussia where the boy could stay, so she made the decision that the former guestroom was a suitable host for the boy. It wasn't all too big, but it wasn't small either. It was a good fit for a children's room. There wasn't much in it, a bed, a bedside table, a simple wardrobe, and a bookshelf filled with books that's it, but it was enough for now. 

Hungary gently pushed the child inside the room. The boy was more or less going along with it, at least he didn't resist. But the boy seemed kinda out of it, his eyes were fixated just straight ahead, and breathing heavily. He stood stiffly in the room waiting for what was to come.

He didn't move at all until she pulled the door closed behind them. Her eyebrows again pulled together in worry, she thought that maybe he was scared of her because she was the wife of one of the men yelling downstairs. Maybe he hadn't even listened to her introduction. It seemed like he hadn't really been there since Prussia dragged him into the house. 

"Don't you wanna go on the bed? Standing there can't be comfortable for you." she tried to imply that he should move or at least react. But he didn't. He, again, stood there like a statue. "Come on." she tilted her head to the side, "What's wrong?" The boy still didn't react.

Hungary walked around the child, took his hands in hers, and knelled in front of him. Their eyes met," You don't need to be scared of me. I won't hurt you." she let that sink in for a few seconds before continuing calmly, " What's wrong?" ... Still nothing. Instead, the boy moved towards the bed and clumsily climbed onto it. Then he stopped again and just sat there.

Meanwhile, Hungary, not at all satisfied, turned around to the wooden wardrobe to start searching for a fitting pajama. She went through most of the closet not finding anything fitting if anything at all. She was growing more concerned that she wasn't going to find a fitting piece to serve as pajamas meaning that the kid would've had to sleep in his dirty street clothes.

Hungary couldn't let that happen, first of all, no one wanted to sleep in dirty clothes. Second, the sheets were white and she already knew that Prussia would raise hell if he would find his sheets like that. It had already been a mistake to let him sit on the bed in the first place. 

Luckily she did find a shirt at the bottom of the closet, big enough to work out as a kind of nightgown. Prussia wouldn't miss it, it was old anyway. She turned to the child on the bed, smiled, and moved to him. "Can you undress yourself, or do you need help?" she asked as she put the shirt down on the bed. 

The boy looked at her like he'd seen a ghost, his pupils are all wide and his muscles tense. She didn't really understand his reaction, she asked him a normal question. She didn't ask him to jump off a roof or anything. "...Can you?" she asked again 

After a few moments of waiting for some kind of reaction, a nod or shaking his head would've been enough, but she didn't get anything. So, she more or less took it as a no and therefore went to help him.

Her hands were closing on his shirt, moving to unbutton it. The boy sat there letting her undress him without any issues. All was well, Hungary was quickly getting rid of the shirt placing it on the floor next to her, so she could wash it later. Now she was moving her hands to remove the pants as it was the second last thing to remove before she could tug the boy in and get him to sleep, but she just got to remove the suspenders before the boy moved further back onto the bed and her hands were pushed away simultaneously.

Hungary looked up from her work, focusing her eyes on the kid looking shocked back at her. He was blinking profusely while moving backward. Hungary again tilted her head when watching that; she didn't understand his reaction at all. She was just gonna take his trousers off, they were dirty, why would he want to keep them on? 

"Is something wrong?" she asked. The boy stared at her, scrounging his eyebrows but shaking his head. Again Hungary saw nothing really wrong with it so she tried again. Her hands grasped the hem of the trousers, opened the top button, and took them off. She put them next to the shirt and went off to now dress him in his new pajamas. 

So she did. She told the boy to put his arms up in the air and then slid the too-big shirt over the boy's head. She straightened it out and pulled it further down over his legs. He didn't react at all to her moving him around but he sure didn't look too thrilled about it. He was glaring at her the whole time but didn't say anything, he never said anything, at least not while he was there. Hungary at first thought that he might have been mute. 

Hungary shrugged it off and went on, "Just go lay down, you must be tired." the boy again just did as he was told and didn't answer. Hungary didn't feel like tugging him in silence so she kept talking. " Must have been a long ride, can't imagine being trapped with Gilbert for so long." she chuckled, " you can't guess how whiny Roderich was the whole way here. 'Prussia this, Gilbert that' for so many hours." she rambled on while tugging the blanked beneath the boy's feet. 

Once she was done a question popped into her head. 'what was the boy's name?'. "I don't think you ever told me your name." a blank stare. "do you have a name?" a slow shake of the head. That startled Hungary, because who doesn't know their name? "are you sure?" a slight pause then a nod. 

She started down on him again tilting her head, then looking away for a few seconds. After a while, she looked back at him. "Do you want a name?" she asked timidly while raising her eyebrows. It took a while but he ended up nodding. "Great... Do you have an idea?" no answer. Great. 

Christian?... No.

Willhelm?... Nah 

Frederick?.. Maybe, it has a great meaning.

"How about... Ludwig. Yeah, you look like a Ludwig." 

Hungary nodded in self-agreement and then looked over the kid hoping for a positive reaction. The boy didn't seem opposed to it. That was good enough for her, he didn't hate it so he could live with it. 

Satisfied she turned around and walk to the door. She stopped on the doorstep turned around one last time and said her good nights, giving him a warm smile. Then she closed the door behind her quietly. She ended up standing behind it for a couple of minutes waiting for any signs of commotion. Nothing she just heard the faint sound of breathing. 

The yelling downstairs had dyed down a lot and was now settled down to quiet rambling. Hungary signed straightening out her dress before finally turning around and walking towards the staircase and down towards the living room where both men were still fighting. 

She stood there for a while leaning on the doorframe. "Are you quite done yet?" she asked making both men turn around.

Chapter Text

He waited. He waited inside this room sitting in this bed, listening for footsteps. Especially the ones leading toward the bedroom. He hadn't heard any for a suspicious amount of time, she could still be waiting outside. There weren't any leading away either so it was anyone's guess where that woman could be.

The tension was starting to feel unbearable and Ludwig was getting ready to just stand up and find out if she was still standing in front of the door. Shortly before he was going to do just that he luckily heard the sought-after footsteps, finally reassuring him that she was indeed gone. He didn't know where she was going but he heard that the steps were getting quieter so she must have been moving away from him; that was good enough. 

Ludwig listened for a few more moments.

It felt like hours had gone by before he was brave enough to cautiously get off of the bed. He carefully set his right foot down on the floor shortly followed by the left one. For just a few more moments, he sat there contemplating.

All was fine until he decided to stand up completely. The floor creaked loudly under his body weight. 

He froze, listening for any sign of something moving on the outside. Not daring to make a single sound he held his breath for what must have been 10 minutes. His hands and feet started to tingle and twitch from lack of use, but he couldn't get himself to move them. 

Still, he hadn't heard anything so, after one last breath he finally allowed himself to move. 

At first, he was cautious. Stopping with every step, listening for any noise coming from the outside. He would wait until he was sure that no one heard anything and only then he would take the next step. Even though he did that his nerves were still running hot; he always held himself ready to sprint back to bed if he heard just the slightest noise coming from downstairs. 

He repeated that cycle until he made it to the door.

Carefully he held his ear to the wooden door listening into the hallway, hoping to hear if someone was waiting for him outside. Nothing. Not a single thing could be heard from the outside. Ludwig still stayed there for a while intensely listening for just the slightest noise even a heartbeat. Nothing.

Cautiously he turned his back to the door to get a better look at the room. How could he get out? There must be a way. He had to get out. Should he risk leaving the room? Maybe they were just waiting for him to open the door. And then what? What would they do if he tried to escape? Who were these people? Why did they take him? 

Frantically looking around for any opportunity to escape let his gaze fall on the window. It was the easiest way to get out. He already tried it; climbing out was a bit complicated but after that, it couldn't be too hard, just run, right? Jump out and start running, that's it. Or...

Eventually, after some back and forth in his mind, he walked over to the said window and looked out of it.

It was going straight down, nothing to jump down onto except, well, the ground. It was way too high to jump. He couldn't do this, not from up here. He would hurt himself, probably even break something. And how would he run away with a broken leg? They would find him.

He couldn't get away, at least not from this room. There was only this one window leading away and he couldn't get out of it. He would have to leave the room to be able to escape. He had to open that door to escape.

That wouldn't go down well, someone would hear him, and then... what then? He didn't think this through at all. How was he going to get away? Who was he going to go to? He had no one. He was just going on instincts but when he thought about this further, there was nothing he could go of off. He had never done this. How could he? He didn't even know he existed until like a week ago and now he was supposed to get away? There was no way he was getting away but he had to at least try.

Ludwig stepped back from the window turning around. The room started to spin around him making him feel like he was going to fall any second before it stopped abruptly. That abrupt stop shook him off his feet a little bit more than the spinning, making him stumble a little bit. Luckily he didn't fall but it took some precious seconds of his plan. 

He still recovered rather quickly, going back to looking around almost immediately. Still cautious, he sneaked around the room; opening the closet doors and ruffling through them, finding nothing. The blond didn't know what he was looking for but he would surely know once he found it. 

After some time he stopped trashing the closet very abruptly. The blonde stepped back and took a long look at the mess he just made. Nothing. He had found nothing. Nothing in the main closet. Nothing in the drawers. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Frustrated he threw the little things that were in the closet back in and shut the doors again. He turned around and looked around the room once more thinking about his next move. It had to be something quick, something quiet. It could in no way attract attention from the people (were they even people?) downstairs. Because... what would happen then?

There he stood, for the next few seconds maybe even minutes he stood in the room desperately thinking about a way for him to leave. After a few minutes of thinking about it, he still had found nothing, not even a glimpse of a plan for what to do. He knew he was going to run away but how he was going to do it, he had nothing.

Despair was starting to rise in him as he slowly made his way back to the bed. If he was going to be trapped here he could at least get comfortable. He crawled onto that bed and pulled the covers up until they hid his nose.

Slowly it dawned on him and tears started to rise in the corners of his eyes; they were threatening to overflow. He tried to hold them back so he wouldn't get the attention from downstairs but his attempts were in vain. He could only hope that he wasn't too loud.

The tears flowed over quickly, covering his cheeks and blurring his vision. The Boy tried to stop them with his hands but they quickly covered them too. He desperately tried to wipe them on the sheets but the salt stuck on his hands. He couldn't see, no matter how much he attempted to but it hurt every time he tried to wipe them. He tested his sleeves but that wasn't any better either; his eyes already too puffy and irritated by the salt. 

He couldn't seem to get himself under control, his airways were getting blocked by snot, and knots making his breathing ragged and uneven. His head started to hurt. There was no one to comfort him, not even the weird lady from a few minutes ago. Why does the room suddenly feel so cold? Why could no one hear him? Was there no way out? Was he really stuck here?

Ludwig gripped the sheets under him. They felt warm, warmer than any other surface he had touched today. Their white softness loured him in, calling for him to slip beneath them and close his heavy eyes, to let himself drift into the sweet arms of sleep, forget about this situation just for a few hours. That sure would be nice. He could leave in a world where he wasn't trapped in a house he doesn't know, where he wasn't alone, where someone was there... but he can't do that. He has to find a way out of here. 

But was there?

The feeling of despair rose back into his mind, scratching the inside of his body on the way. White seething cold consumed him, making his heart feel like it was battling against a block of ice. Even the new rising tears were icicles scraping on the way to the outside further encasing his body in ice. The sheets felt like the only warm thing remaining in this world still calling his name. 

He pulled them closer until he felt like a newly wrapped mummy. Ludwig had built himself a heavenly cocoon protecting him from the glacier that was the outside. Only his head was partially sticking out but was pressed into the pillow beneath it. 

The tears were still blurring his vision but the warmth of his cocoon made them disappear. Still, a few had slipped and added to the stickiness on his cheeks. Otherwise, he cuddled himself into the bedding calming his breathing which made him feel sleepy all of a sudden. His eyelids started to slip but he had to keep them open. He still had to find a way out of there. 

How much he would do to be anywhere else, even if he had to sleep in the forest, as long as he could sleep in a warm bed like this he was going to be just fine. But, of course, that wasn't the situation right now and he had to think. If only his brain would start working. He tried to focus on the task at hand but... 

If there only... if he could just... if... 

What kind of smell was that? How could he not have noticed how nice the bedding smelled? So fresh and warm, not like the streets where he had woken up in, or the hotel room. It was much more... What was it?... Welcoming! Yes, that was the word... Welcoming. 

Welcoming; just like the darkness that was closing in on him. He tried to fight it, stay conscious, and think but...  it surely wouldn't hurt him to just close them for a couple of seconds... a couple of seconds.

His body jolted back into the sitting position, the duvet falling from his upper body exposing him to the elements in the room. His eyes darted around said room not able to see anything apart from silhouettes hiding in the corner. The sun had gone to sleep while he was coddled up here. The night had long set in while Ludwig had slept, leaving him guessing as to his surroundings. The dark encased the quiet in a terrifying robe of uncertainties. 

Robbed of vision and sound he was forced to adapt to the hardened conditions for his escape. He blinked multiple times before his eyes started to adapt to the darkness. They started to accept the moon as their primary light source and so made seeing in this light-starved area of the world a lot easier. 

Now that the little white light that the moon generously provided him was enough for him to make out his surroundings, he quickly build up the courage to climb down from the bed and move around. At first, it was just like before, one step and then listening, but he quickly stretched that approach as he wasn't hearing any sounds besides his own breathing and soft footsteps. Rather he decided to walk over to the door once again.

He held his ears tight to the door listening intently to the sound on the outside. Nothing. No sound besides his own heartbeat that he was somehow able to hear. Thinking that his second ear might be the problem he pressed one hand on it hoping to drown out any sound coming from inside the room. Still nothing, only his heartbeat was somewhat clearer. 

Irritated at his failure to hear anything he straightened up before looking at the door. A terrifying thought came into his head. What if he just opened the door? Surely that would give him a better way of listening; but what if they would hear him? What if they were still waiting for him outside that very door? What would he do then? Or better, what would they do? Should he risk it? Could he even risk it? What if they locked the door? 

Doubts had clouded his mind keeping him from making an actual plan. There were still so many questions, but he couldn't let them consume him right now. The fact was he had to get out and what happened after that was of less importance and could be dealt with afterward. Now he had to first get out of this room and make sure there was no one waiting for him on the outside.

Timidly, he reached for the door handle slowly punching it down until the door slid open, revealing the hallway on the other side. Said hallway was lit up in the moonlight shining in from the windows, which, luckily for him, made navigating through the house way easier for him. 

 First things first, there was no one in sight. That was good, probably. Second, he couldn't hear anything at all. No screaming, no talking... not even whispering. Nothing. Only his own heartbeat, nothing else. Maybe they went to sleep too... or they were around a corner or behind another door waiting for him to step outside so they could catch him. There was no way of knowing... unless. 

Cautiously he took the first step outside into the hallway, stopping once he made it through the door. He stood there listening to the quiet of the night, trying to pick up any sound that might come from another party that might be hiding out somewhere. Again nothing.

Great, so there was no one here... probably... maybe. 

Feeling safe enough to take just a few more steps into the hallway, he made his way to the next door. He tried to open it but it proved to be closed, maybe there was someone behind it waiting to jump out once he turned his back, but why would that person lock the door? Wouldn't it be smarter to just wait and then jump out, why lock it? Wouldnt it takes longer to unlock it? Did that even really matter?

Suddenly an overwhelming realization hit him, he was visible. Visible to anyone, from behind, front, and from any room that was lined up in the hallway. He had left the only place where he could monitor the inhabitance. Now he couldn't possibly know if and where they could be.  

His breath started to pick up speed again, dangerously close to hyperventilation, franticly looking around hoping to see if someone was peeking from behind a wall or door. Sadly, it had the opposite effect, his vision only delivered blurred pictures to his brain giving him not only a headache but also making him feel dizzy. At one point he really thought that he was going to puke. Luckily for him, he didn't. That would have brought too much attention, the smell would have busted him. 

He tried desperately to compose himself, in which he eventually succeeded. His breath slowly calmed down concurrently with his heart rate; slowing down until he had calmed down completely. 

With one last long intake of breath, he took on walking down the hallway, still, cautiously listening to every sound that wasn't coming from him. Ludwig stopped at almost every step thinking he heard someone whispering behind him, making him whip his head around in fright. Nevertheless, he stubbornly made his way down the hallway, making sure to be as quiet as possible before stopping again to listen. 

This cycle continued until he was stopped by the flight of stairs he was led up just a few hours earlier. The stairs fell like a waterfall getting smaller the further away they got, they seemed straight out of a surrealistic painting, there was no way he could tell if he was up or down except his vestibular system. Again, he had to follow feeling extremely nauseous, not able to rationalize why the steps seemed to be moving away from him. His body swayed back and forth while he stared down the steps, contemplating if he should really go down there. He had to, it was his only way out.

He pulled his shoulders up letting them fall down while he exhaled, shaking his head trying to shake his growing headache off, before lifting his foot and declining it to the first step. A horrible creaking sound, once his foot made contact with the stairs he felt his heart-stopping. There was no way that no one had heard that, it echoed around the home like an out-of-control ball. Everyone in this house should've heard it.

Still, Ludwig didn't hear any sounds besides his own.

If that was a good or a bad thing could only be determined by time. And time, was the only thing that he currently did not have. At any moment someone could catch him. One mistake and his whole plan (could one call that a plan?) would be thrown overboard.

A sound. One last time he stopped, ready to run for it. Ready to do everything in his power to either not be seen or just get away as fast as possible. 

Nothing. 

One last time he breathed in and out before taking the remaining steps until he hid the bottom floor. He refused to look at the portraits of that weird man hanging above him like a hawk; he refused to look at them no matter how much he wanted to stare back. He had one mission and now he couldn't turn back. He walked down those steps keeping his head facing forward and his breathing calm and collected. 

Once the boy did hit the bottom he just kept walking quietly, listening for any sound that the three adults might make when awake. None of such sounds were detectable from his standpoint, so he just kept moving. Eventually, he made peace with the fact that they might have just gone to sleep as he had only a few minutes ago. Still, he kept alert for any signs that they might just not be. 

After some time he turned a particular corner that brought him into a whole nother part of the house. A more museum-like one.

The hallways were long; really long. The walls littered with trophies and awards hidden behind glass. Some of them seemed to be centuries old dating back to the early 17th century. Beneath the trophies laid proudly displayed medals, probably outdated, on top of some official document that looked like they belonged together. Not only from what seemed to be the army but also judging from the horse head in the right corner of every award and the middle of bows, a riding club. Someone here must be into horseriding.

Probably the one in the uniform. 

Ludwig caught himself staring again. He shouldn't do it, he had to find an exit but it was just too interesting. It seemed like an easy way to get some information about the people he was trapped with. It hopefully gives him some kind of an advantage over them, maybe even show him a way out of there. If only he could find the exit. This damn house was like a mace; turning one corner led to another two, then you're at the same corner you were two minutes ago, etc... 

Eventually, after some agonizing minutes, he did find the front door. A sigh of great relive filled the air before the blond boy started to approve the big wooden door. He felt such a giddy triumphant feeling once the door handle came in arms reach, that he could've made a somersault if he... well if he could somersault. His hand closed in on the doorhandle not afraid to yank it down the second it came in contact with it. 

He did have some trouble reaching it considering his height but it was nothing standing on your toes couldn't fix. So, when he did finally hold the handle in hand, it felt like the time was slowing down, every second passing by like a separate picture, closing in on his hand as he pulled the handle down. Excitement overcame his body discharging through his heels making them bounce up and down. Finally, it made it to the bottom not able to move further down. Something wasn't right though...

Nothing happened. 

It didn't open.

Ludwig tried pulling it, tried pushing it. It didn't open. No. That couldn't happen. He had made it so far how could that be happening now? Of all the times nothing happened this was the worst time. Why did they lock it? Did they know? How could they? He hadn't said anything. Had he talked in his sleep? Could they read his mind? How did they know? Were they watching him the whole time? Had they watched him while he had fought with himself and strategically blocked every way he thought of to escape? 

He felt like they were closing in on him now. Everything was closing in on him now. The walls came closer mocking him on their way to suffocate him. He had failed, again. First the window and now the door. How could he fail on something so easy? He would deserve to have them find him. He could already feel the hand on his shoulder pulling him back. They had waited. 

OF COURSE, they had waited, how could he have been so stupid? 

Except they didn't. The harsh hand on his shoulder never came, just like the walls, they stayed in their place too. It was just as quiet as it was before he found the door. No... what did he expect? Screaming? Hitting? Who knows what they could've done? Well, the woman surely wouldn't hurt him too badly, she was nice to him. Probably nicer than he gave her credit for...

He felt like he had overreacted. And again the feeling of his own stupidity overcame him. Annoyed he turned around, now also abandoning his plan to just walk through the door and run.

Well, what now? Should he just go back to bed and sleep? Ludwig didn't feel like sleeping. The journey did exhaust him. Sure it was dark and he could barely see anything but he wasn't sleepy. Maybe... Maybe if these people didn't wake up while he was wandering around just a few moments ago, they would wake up if he continued this for just a tad bit longer. There was too much to explore, he couldn't go up to his room and sit this out!

Continuing his cycle, he started his adventure. He walked away from the door following the paths that he didn't take. Like the one with the scary knight standing at the end of it. Now was the perfect time to face his fears. He has stuck in here anyways. Why not explore it now?

He had to admit though, the night probably wasn't the best time to do that. Didn't matter now, he had to do this before his bravery started to wear off. 

He sneaked through the house for an unimportant amount of time, looking and inspecting all the things that he could make out in the dim light the moon provided for him. Admiring the shiny surface of oh-so-many medals and trophies on his way. 

At last, he stood in one of the many corridors looking at yet another showcase. This one was a little different from the other ones though. This one wasn't filled with documents of the trophies and medals above it. No, this one was filled with what seemed like...letters. They had too much writing on them to only be a formal documents. All the signatures seemed similar, which meant that they were most likely written by the same person. Weird, who would one have an entire showcase dedicated to only one person?

It was truly a shame that he couldn't read any of them. Surely he could've figured out who and what they were about. He tried making out what was written on them but he just couldn't figure it out the symbols just didn't make sense to him.

His attention was quickly driven away from it as he caught something way more interesting. Two huge doors stood right next to him. They didn't look like those in the rest of the house, more like... well; they are huge. They looked more like castle doors, keeping out any unwanted guests trying to pry them open. Wooden with metal decorations wielded on them.  A truly mesmerizing picture.

Almost unconsciously, he moved over to these impressive doors. His arms reached out, reaching for the handle. Time was going by in a time lab once again, his left arm lifted maneuvering his hand at the same time. Eventually, it hit the handle. He felt the smooth surface of the handle beneath his skin, his fingers were arching to curl around them, but he hesitated. Again questions flooded his head, overwhelming him. 

They were just running around in his head, he wasn't even able to grasp one to think about it. They popped up as fast as they were disappearing; it made him feel dizzy. He felt like sitting down, but with no chair around, and there wasn't another option than the ground and he didn't feel like sitting on the ground. 

He shook them away in an instant, re-focusing on his hand on the door handle. Nodding to himself, he pushed it down. The doors slid open smoothly, throwing a new smell his way. He couldn't quite place it, a little bit herb maybe.

Looking inside he found his answer; huge bookshelves filled with books to the rim. Some looked older, some younger but still very many books. So many books. On a few shelves, there were enough to bend them. 

Some of them were already starting to fall apart; pages were sticking out from their books, the backs of them almost completely scratched out by the time their titles were not readable anymore. Why would someone still keep such books? Memories?

On the other side were much newer ones, which may be bought in the last few weeks, they didn't even look ready yet. 

Most of the shelves looked like that; some mix of old and new books was not aligned in any sort of real order. It did seem to have some sense to it but he couldn't quite grasp it. They weren't sorted by height or width. Nor did they seem to be sorted by age or color, but there was definitely some order behind it. Certain signs looked the same or the books seemed to be of the same kind, some of them were bound in a particular way that the others were, and some of them were stacked specially. Every shelf was so vastly different that he could've just looked at them forever. 

However one of them stole his attention away. At first, it didn't look interesting at all some old notebooks were tightly pressed together to make them fit inside this one shelf. Why not just use a second one? Why did those need to be in the same spot? 

Ludwig cautiously approached the books, feeling drawn to them. His gaze was led up to the very top where the oldest notebooks were standing. The backs were in better shape than most of the books their same age. One, probably the oldest, dated all the way back to the 1530s. The dates were written in handwriting telling a lot about their owner. The oldest one seemed to be written by a child, while the newest looked like it was written with more precision than a printing press. 

Hungary was sitting in her bed, listening intensely. She could swear that something was moving outside of their room. 

Her husband on the other side was still snoring calmly like a little baby. Honestly, she couldn't decide if she was adored or opposed it, there sure was something cute about it but on the other hand, it prevented her from hearing what was going on on the outside. 

Hopefully, it was just that bird Gilbird that Gilbert insisted on keeping with him; he never locked it in a cage too, he just let it fly around in the house. Highly unhygienic as she found it, but who was she to tell someone what to do with their home? Still, the commotion that bird could bring upon them is fascinating, that little thing could throw over entire statues. 

A noise punched her out of her thoughts. Instinctively she grabbed the pan she had been hiding under the bed. Austria had tried to convince her to leave it at home, but it was her emotional support pan so... It wasn't even the hardest one she's got in her collection, meaning that she was already having mercy on whom she might hit with it. Prussia, for example, only got a concussion so it should be fine for everybody else. 

These were footsteps, not the flapping of little wings, not the tapping of paws of wild animals. There was a human moving along the corridors at night. A horrible decision if you ask her.

She knew that it most certainly wasn't Prussia, he was, as of most things, pretty strict with his sleeping skeptical, meaning it had to be an intruder. A human most likely. But before she got the opportunity to jump the person sneaking around, everything got quiet again. Suspicious, she listened, thinking that the troublemaker might have heard her somehow.

Suddenly she heard footsteps coming closer to their bedroom door, stopping just meters away. Alert, she got out of bed, quietly moving to the door, where if opened she would stand hidden behind it, to surprise whoever would dare open it. Her pan was already over her shoulder ready to strike. But the door didn't open, instead, the person started moving again. This time did not stop until the steps had faded completely. 

Curious as she was, she moved from her hiding space and opened the door, sticking her head out into the hallway. Elizabeta looked around hoping to catch at least a glimpse of whoever was sneaking around here disturbing her sleep. Unfortunately, the person was long gone from her sight; it was far too dark too, and she could see nothing within a few meters of her. 

Hungary looked back at Austria, who was still sleeping soundly in their bed, thinking if she should wake him; but decided against it. He would cause too much noise. It was better for both of them if he just stayed behind and guarded their room in his sleep. He surely wouldn't mind too, Austria hated being woken up. Maybe he would even try to stop her, saying things about how dangerous it was to go after people you don't know, they might be armed. 

Ah, curiosity killed the cat, but she was immortal and not a cat so...

She left.

Quietly she closed the door behind her still holding her pan in her hand tightly as ever. The hinge made a clicking sound, and she started moving. Hungary knew that the person had been moving right, along the displays. She followed them, pan hovering above her shoulder, peeking around every corner before moving along, listening to every other noise in the house.

After a long time of almost complete silence, a quiet sound of a door opening and closing could be heard. Elizabeta followed the lead immediately, rushing around the corridors from where the sound has come. Shortly after turning her one-millionth corner, she found the source. One of the doors to the, oh so beloved, library of Prussia was slightly open, just a small gap but more than enough for it to be highly unusual. 

She closed in on it, trying to take a peek inside. Again it was too dark for her to see anything, it might have been smarter for her to take a candle with her, but it was too late now, so she better just go with it. But there had to be someone in here otherwise she would've heard them leaving. 

Holding her pan just a tad bit higher and tighter she approached the door. Whoever was hiding in there better not be vandalizing because if she doesn't kill them then and there a very upset Gilbert very much will. And that person better starts praying because the second she goes through that door she is going to swing her pan so hard that it is going to put a club to shame. To be more precise it is going to make it while in a corner thinking about how useless it is.

Very slowly she opened the already open door so as to not make too much noise. She wanted to sneak up on them, surprising them while their back was turned to her, hitting them unexpectedly without time to react, hearing their surprised gasp before hitting the ground, and losing consciousness. Then she can calmly figure out what to do with them, without them begging for the life she wasn't going to take in the first place. What use would it be for her to kill a human? They can't kill her so... and it might be one of her own. 

The worst thing that could happen was that that person found out about them without the proper government authorization, which would make the task of reporting the issue that court today a lot more difficult and would require a ton more consideration of the tone and detail used. If the wrong tone and details are used to report to their boss they might make that person `disappear´, and that wasn't the intention of her actions, so she was already contemplating which might be the right ones. 

Damn, she was almost feeling pity for that poor person that made the mistake of entering this house. Well, hopefully for them they didn't open any of Gilbert's dairies, there are some things in there that you don't wanna be aware of. Humans and their stupid need to know everything going on in this world, and then they end up regretting it, covering it up, and living the rest of their lives severely traumatized by something they could have easily prevented. But who is she to tell them what to do? They are the oh-so-smart mammal on this earth. 

Catching herself rambling she focused back on the task at hand. The door was almost half open and she was standing in the doorway thinking thoughts. Anyway... where was she... ah yes. The person was going to regret breaking in, she was going to smack them over the head with her pan, Jada Jada. 

She pushed the door open as quietly as possible, now finally making her way into the library. She immediately knew where to search, because what person was interested in old books? She had to go look in the back. Why Prussia was stacking his books in that way was still a mystery to most but again who was she to judge? 

Careful not to knock any of the towers made of read books over. How does Prussia navigate in this? It's like a labyrinth built inside his own home, making the task of finding a book and finding a way out, unnecessarily more difficult. She would almost doubt that the intruder even made it to his desired literature before he pathetically died of thirst. It was only a matter of time once you entered this hellhole of a library before you got lost, Hungary could already not tell if she had last gone right or up the ceiling. 

Elizabeta had, in record time, looked in every corner, turned over every single book, taken the ones she liked with her, and was sure she had found a secret door hiding between the monstrous amounts of books. Siriusly she might have to talk with Gilbert about that. But still, she hadn't found anyone. 

That was until she walked around a particularly large mountain of old fantasy novels. There it was, the infamous wall of memories, hundreds of years documented on these shelves. This wall was much different from the others, while, yes, some of them were missorted or missing, most of them were sorted by year. The oldest from 1530 stands proudly in the upper left corner of the shelve. All the other years and centuries following them.

Her gaze slid among these diaries, amazed at how he had really done it. He had kept the all those years without getting them destroyed. Some of them have been through the most heated battles the world has seen and they were still standing proudly. They had survived the wildest canon fire and the malicious attempt of Gilbert's enemies to steal them and learn his battle plans. Most of them seemed to have failed, but the one from 1761 was missing. 

Once her gaze met something white she shuddered. There were no white books in here. She had found them. 

Her pan was raising higher and higher, getting ready to strike. Her breathing became calculated and calm, she was fully getting ready to do whatever she had to do to that person. If she had to knock their head off, then so be it, well she could just ambush them and take them prisoner, but where was the fun in that? But before she could bring the pan down something decision-changing caught her eye. 

She had seen that mole before, right beside the spine, just visible above the collar of the shirt she had just put on a few hours earlier. Now she could see the light blond hair that was growing on the back of the neck leading up to the messy hair on the head of the boy. He was sitting with his back to her, hunched over and legs crossed. 

The pan slowly lowered from the air until it met her body at thigh level. That wasn't much of an intruder, just a cute little boy sneaking around at night where he should be sleeping. Hungary quietly got closer looking over the boy's shoulder. He was looking at the covers of random books. She could tell that he liked the one with these folktales, well at least he seemed to like the pictures, he wasn't reading anything. Cant, he read?

"Hey." she tried gently. 

The boy, however, flinched as if someone slapped him over the back of his head. He turned around looking at her with big doe eyes, the blue almost completely covered by the black. The shine of the moonlight casts him in an even more innocent light. He looked like an angel lost in a library of sweet nothings. How could she be mad at it? Well, she could be, but she didn't want to be. It was way too late for that. 

"Why aren't you asleep sweetheart? It's past midnight." She got closer to him opening her arms invitingly. She hoped that he would just jump into her arms and she could get him back to bed but of course, it couldn't be too easy. 

Instead the boy, still on his knees, shifted away from her, not wanting her to pick him up. Ludwig hated how her voice sounded when she said that, it wasn't supposed to sound like that. He had expected yelling, harshness, or anything like that, not "Sweetheart." It felt appealing to him. No one who just found someone they kidnapped snooping around reacts like that. There had to be some kind of ulterior motive. 

Hungary, again tilting her head, looked down at him. Why was he acting like that? "What's wrong sweetheart?" He must be tired, it has been a long day for all of them. "Come on I'll get you to bed." She was kneeling now, her nightgown making a pile on the floor, still holding her arms open for Ludwig. 

Why was she talking to him like that? He didn't even know her and she was calling him sweetheart, it felt disgusting. Ludwig hoped that she wasn't going to touch him, the thought of it made him feel ill. 

Her hands were coming closer, closing in on him. He didn't want her affection, he didn't want to be held close, to be carried. But her hands and arms kept coming closer. No matter how hard he tried to move away from them, they kept coming closer like a monster following its prey. He could only go so far too, only to the wall, only to the end of this aile. Left and right were no options he had practically trapped himself there. There was no running away. He was afraid, afraid of her, afraid of what she could do to him.

Elizabeta wasn't in the least afraid of him, after all, he was only a small boy. What could he even do to her? She was the one bigger, slowly reaching for him. She just wanted to pick him up, get him back to sleep, and avoid any mess. What was he even doing here in the first place? He didn't seem to be reading any of the books.

Could he even read? Not the point right now. 

As he had reached the wall, at last, he started to panic again. His breathing started to get irregular blurring his vision. Tears swelled in his eyes but they were blatantly ignored by the woman in front of him. She was still closing in with a smile on her face. It normally would have looked kind, loving even, but right now to him, it merely looked like a predator cornering its prey.

Soon, her arms had enveloped him, trapping him between her chest and the wall. Her hand was traveling into his hair stroking it. Was that supposed to be a soothing action? If yes, it wasn't working, Ludwig felt just as uncomfortable, if not even more. It felt wrong like a buck climbing up your leg. 

"Come on, let's go. Don't make me explain this to Gilbert." She told him, finally letting him go.

And right as the blond boy thought that he was freed, Hungary closed in on him again. She simply needed some space to get up and straighten her nightgown. Right after, she took hold of the boy once again, a plain firm grip on his shoulder. Purely intended to keep him from running away. (She did listen to Gilbert's stories of that boy)

It made Ludwig shudder, he had felt that grip before. He knew it as if it had just happened yesterday, that firm grip a particular silver-haired soldier had given him just before this hell began. He should've run faster, run different routes. But he didn't know any other way. He didn't know any way. No path, no shortcut, nothing. But he should've figured something out. He should have...

Hungary didn't notice the thoughtful state the boy had settled his mind into, or she simply didn't care. Instead, she let her fingers travel lower, and lower until they arrived at his hips. There they took hold of him even firmer, slowly lifting him from the ground. Ludwig didn't even notice, too encased in his thoughts. 

She propped him up on her hip, spreading his legs, so they could go in front and behind her, getting them out of the way. Her arm was going around his waist, holding him tight and secure on her side, while her other arm was left free to move and function. It was the ideal way to carry a child. That's at least what that nurse told her once. It leaves the wife the freedom to do her chores while having her child on her side. It did start to get uncomfortable after a while though, but that wasn't the point.

Ludwig felt her starting to move, which shot him out of his subconscious questioning. He started to struggle immediately after he realized the situation. He pushed against her rib cage, and even tried to kick her, but it was quickly proven useless by her iron grip. She held on to his as if he was some kind of treasure or a prisoner; Depends on the perspective. 

Even though he knew his struggles were senseless, he continued on. Every opportunity to grab something was used. Elizabeta had to practically peel his hands off the door frames. At some point, she had gotten so fed up with it that she held his two hands in her last free one. Right then she was giving him the stare. The one where she was looking at him halfway through her eyelids looking up. Her dark eyelashes cast a frightening shadow over them. 

Promptly they had left the library and were halfway back to the bedroom. Other than Ludwig when he was ghosting through the house, she was more like an elephant. Her stomps were getting louder at every kick he hit her with, with every doorframe he tried to hold onto, and with every time she had to take another step with him in her arms. Maybe the pan wouldn't have been too much of a mistake. 

Luckily for her, he was quickly losing energy. The kicking, hitting, and gripping was more exhausting than he thought it would be and now the tiredness started to rise again. It started at his feet, making them tingle, then it went up his legs until it hit the spine, which jolted a shock wave through his entire body alerting him of the upcoming tiredness. The travel up the spine was unpleasant but incommensurable to the feeling after it hit his brain. A cold headache hit him like a tsunami, making him dizzy immediately. 

Shortly after that first wave of dizziness hit, the second came, and then the third, then the fourth, and then it stayed. 

His head tipped, over hitting her shoulder. He felt too tired to further struggle. How could he be this weak? He hadn't even been struggling for a few minutes and he was already half asleep. Frustrated with himself he forced his eyes open, refusing to go to sleep before he knew where he was going. Something inside his brain hoped it would be the bedroom once again. He has already been in there and nothing happen, so it was safe.

He refused to fall asleep the whole time Elizabeta was moving around the home. She was striding surely around the corridors taking the exact same tunes she had when she was looking for him. One had to say that Hungary had an exceptional sense of direction; she rarely gets lost. That might be creditable to her childhood, but maybe it was just a thing innate to her. 

That skill brought them considerably quickly to her destination. She ascended the flight of stairs just as fast, ignoring the portraits just as Ludwig had. It wasn't like it was impressing her anymore, she had seen them every single time she had visited the villa. Gilbert had always had a thing for power and showcasing that said power. But who hadn't? Power was a nice thing, it kept them important and intimidating. One needs to be intimidating to survive.

Portraits all over the place were a good way to remind the guest of who was in power here. It wasn't them, it never was, it was Gilbert. He was the one looking down on you. It was quite common among the nations to display their power like that. To show everybody in which country they're in. For some, it does look pretty pretentious. It needs the correct amount of it, otherwise, it looks overdone and desperate.

If Gilbert was overdoing it, heavily depended on the person you were asking. For some, it worked and for some, it didn't Jada Jada. It was all first impression anyway. You go there more than two times and it doesn't work anymore. How much she wished she could go back to chasing horses. Now everything was about impressions, it was so easy back then, just smash someone's face in and they kept away from you. 

Soon enough, they made it to the former guestroom door. It was still open, just a tat, more like ajar. Probably wasn't closed right, when Ludwig had left it. Wasn't that careful, the small one was he. Wouldn't have even taken to look inside to know he was gone. 

Suddenly all to known sounds alerted the Hungarian. She quickly ripped the door open and pushed the boy inside. "Be quiet!" she whispered and closed the door in his face. 

The person was now already at the end of the stairs, that she had just rushed up a few seconds earlier. Elizabeta took a deep breath, getting ready for the confrontation that was about to occur. She couldn't say she was exactly fond of that character but they knew each other too long for the human kind of hate. She had seen too many despicable things to say Gilbert was one of the things she hated.

"What are you doing up here?" Yep, there it was. A grumpy, sleepy Gilbert; couldn't the day get any better? 

"What do you mean? Am I not allowed to be up here?" Here we go...

"Don't play stupid. You know what I mean. The noise. What was the noise?" 

"I'm not... I was just checking up on him." She tried to explain, as she pointed to the door behind her. 

"You don't make that much noise," he sounded annoyed now, "and how come that I hear noise from the library when you're checking up on him here? And why, when you're merely checking up on a brat are you keeping that godforsaken pan with you?" How long has he been listening?

"Why shouldn't I keep my pan with me? Its mine. And have you thought that just maybe the maniac of a bird that you possess..."

"Don't talk about Gilbird like that! He wouldn't be that loud, it was someone else." 

"Then why are asking me? I'm up here and the library is down there?" It was really hard to play stupid with someone even more idiotic than oneself.

The Prussian let out a loud groan and pushed past her. Her heart stopped a little then. For the sake of the child, she hoped that he had moved his ass to the bed. If not it was too late now, Gilbert was opening the door. And god helps this child when Prussia finds him still awake. He might be stupid but not completely brainless, he will make the connection.

He practically threw the door open and looked inside. Hungary was already taking a breath of relief when she didn't see the child standing in the room. But it wasn't over yet. Prussia marched up to the side of the bed and stood there for a while. She had to jog to keep up with him. How that man could walk so fast, would forever remain a mystery for her. 

She looked over his shoulder to hopefully not see two open eyes staring back at them. There weren't, but there also wasn't a child. The pillow was empty. No children's heads in sight. Gilbert looked over his shoulder at her, tilting his head quite creepily, before he slowly moved back to look at the empty pillow. With a rapid almost lightspeed-like movement he launched the blank across the room. 

Hungary couldn't but hold her breath as she looked away. That kid better is asleep or a really good actor, otherwise, some shit is about to go down. Eventually, after Gilbert didn't make any sound, she opened her eyes again. There he was, huddled beneath the covers, sleeping. He looked so peaceful in the fetal position like there was no one standing over him who would be more than happy to throw him out of a window. 

Gilbert rolled his eyes and went to pick up the blanket from the floor. Meanwhile, Elizabeta tried to find out if Ludwig was asleep. She watched him intensely to catch any abnormalities. She couldn't tell if the irregular fluttering of the eyelids was a sign of pretend or dream. Could be both.

She heard footsteps approaching from behind her once again, ending when he stood beside her, blanket in hand. He carefully rested it around the child, almost loving. One could, without further knowledge, think that he cared for the kid until he bend down to whisper into his ear. "Goodnight Ludwig. Don't let her trick you~" 

What did he mean by that? Without further elaborating on that he stared at the child for a few seconds before just straightening up and leaving. He gave her that weird sarcastic smile as he passed her like he was meaning to say something to her. He did, but it didn't help with his former statement. "Goodnight Lizzy." 

She could only hiss "Don't call me that!" before he shut the door behind him, leaving them alone. Hungary felt like she could just collapse at any given moment. Goddamnit, Gilbert sometimes, argh. That creepy bastard. Sometimes she wants to punch him in the face. 

Her pan. She could've punched him with her pan. Maybe she was the one being stupid tonight. She had the perfect opportunity to give him the best, outstanding, most satisfactory blow over the head that she had given him in decades. How could she have missed such an opportunity? It was perfect. She had her pan right there, and she missed it.

Rustling from the bed behind her caught her attention. The boy was sitting up now, looking at her quite proudly. So he wasn't asleep. That could've been predicted. Did Gilbert know that? Did he figure that out or was he just being creepy? 

Elizabeta briefly looked back at the door, and then, with a sigh, turned back around, facing around. "Listen." She stopped trying to find the right words. Because, how do you say/ Get the fuck out of here, or you are going to bear the consequences. No one wants to be a nation; do you even know what you are getting into/ with it being comprehensible for a, what, six-year-old? That kid wasn't going to listen to her if he was already that far in.

With a deep inhale and a couple of seconds of reconsideration she tried to articulate it: "Listen, kid." She sat down on the bed, back facing the boy, while she kept her head facing him. "Are you sure you want this?" She asked as a way to introduce the conversation to him. He however looked at her like she just asked him the 100 digits of pi. 

"Do you know what you are getting into?" She asked again trying to dance around the actual statement in her head. Again, the boy looked at her like she's got three heads. 

"Do. you. know. what. you. are. getting. into? or do I need to write it down for you?" She was getting annoyed. Her question wasn't that hard to answer, but still, he wouldn't answer her. Instead, he looked at her as if she was speaking a yet-to-be-discovered language. She was speaking german, so there was no language barrier, which made his reaction all the weirder. That made her wonder something. No, actually it had been bothering her ever since she found him in the library.

So she asked, "Can you even read?" And for the first time, she got a semi-sure reaction from him, a shake of a head. That's it. The most reaction she got from him regarding a question she asked him. 

"You can't read? How can you not know how to read?" Has no one thought of him? He looks about six, what six-year-old can't read? Quite a lot actually, if she thought about it. Still, what nation couldn't read? None of them. So, if he wants to be a nation he gotta learn how to read. Actually, he gotta learn a lot of things. What else couldn't he do? If he couldn't read, who said that he could do things like maths?

Hungary started to make a mental map of what someone had to know in order to not make an absolute fool of themselves in front of other nations. First of all, other languages like English, French, etc. He definitely needs to learn how to read and write. Maths was going to be very important, and other things like science and history shouldn't be left out of the picture. If he was going to take on the job as a nation he should be best prepared for all that was to come.

Elizabeta never had this. A person who cared about her education. No one had. They had to teach themselves while fighting brutal battles against each other constantly. But what if Ludwig didn't have to do that? She had heard that America got an actual education like he was going to school. Maybe they could try the same? After all, he was not an old nation like the rest of them. He was new. He didn't experience what they had, and maybe he wouldn't have to. Wasn't it their job as the older generation to make the way easier for the new ones? Their ancestors had done so. Had to build their houses and culture, had won battles for their existence. Why shouldn't they now make the way for something new again? 

It was going to be a pain to convince Gilbert of this. Make life easier for someone he didn't seem to like, bullshit, he would have to suffer like the rest of them had, otherwise what is going to come out of him? Another Austria? Sometimes she thought that Gilbert thought of every educated person to be a sissy. Meanwhile, he himself read every book just to be able to correct Austria for every mistake he did, and thus came across like a know-it-all himself. It was a pain in the ass to convince him of anything that sightly remained him of Austria, it was horrible. 

As she mentally prepared herself for a battle in the morning, she turned around to ask some more questions. "If you don't know how to read, I'm assuming you don't know how to calculate either?" A quick nod from the child told her that said assumption was indeed correct. Alright, next questions. The child was being cooperative so she had to get as many questions out there as possible. 

"Do you know why you are here?" With a shake of the head, he didn't know. Alright, she could've guessed that.

"Do you know what nations are?" The boy looked at her for a second and then turned his head down as if he wanted to nod but changed his mind and instead shook his head. So maybe he knew something, or he had a feeling he knew something? 

But that also meant that he wasn't aware of what he was getting into. He couldn't know, he didn't even know what a nation was. Argh, it was that stupid revolution wasn't it? He couldn't have been planned. Gilbert's reaction to him and the emergency massage should have already told her this but it was nice to know for sure. But what now?

"Listen, you've got yourself in a really fucked up situation here. I don't know what to say, you just gotta try your damn hardest in this world." She definitely hadn't found the right words but were there any? The boy still looked at her like she just spoke mandarin, and she didn't have any other means of explaining to him. 

Her gut told her that all this is going to go horribly wrong; and there was nothing she could do about that, other than pray. Speaking off pray," have you ever gone to church?" She asked him. It was already Thursday and they were going to go to church on Sunday. As expected the boy shook his head. Well, she needed to get Austria to buy something for her anyway. 

It was going to get interesting tomorrow.

Chapter Text

"Roderich?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Would you mind getting me some groceries in town? We've run out of eggs." 

"Of course, but can we first eat breakfast?"

"I didn't know you were running my household." came from the sidelines.

"Well, I wouldn't have to do it, if you were able to do anything else than sit in your damn office all day."

"At least I'm actually putting in work, other than some of us who would rather marry some dumbass instead of getting their precious aristocratic hands dirty!" 

"Oh shut up! As if you knew anything about foreign policy!"

"I do know about foreign politics, more than you at least! You only know how to whore yourself around!"

"You only know how to bash another's skull in like a damn brute!"

Well, that was breakfast at the Beilschmitt house for you. Two fully grown men fighting and, quite literally, pointing fingers at each other. Only one of them didn't participate and rather sat and watched the drama unfold. He was sitting hunched over in his seat with a piece of bread plated in front of him, looking rather interested in what was being screamed about. 

If it hadn't taken Elizabeta centuries to put him into that chair and get him to actually stay in it, she would've said something. Now she just didn't have the energy. He was sitting there like it was a theatre play. His body hunched over with his elbows on the table. She could've sworn, if she looked under the table she would've seen his little legs swinging back and forth. If she hadn't been involved in the conversation, she honestly would've done the same.  

But he didn't remain off the radar for too long until Gilbert noticed him and turned his anger over on him. "What are you doing looking like a damn goblin. One sits straight at the table." He said quite rudely before standing up and walking over to the child. He stopped behind him watching him from behind for a few seconds before pushing a finger in between two vertebrae. Ludwig whelped and jolted upright, his back going as straight as a line. 

With a last push, Gilbert sighed and returned to his seat. "Not that hard now is it?" He hissed. 

"Was that truly necessary?" Came from the opposite end of the table. 

"Would you rather his back turn into a hungeback?" 

"That wasn't my question."

"But it was my answer, and it worked didn't it?"

"You are unbelievable." said the man sitting next to Elizabeta

"Oh, you shut up! Go back to playing your damn piano."

"At least I can play it." 

"That wasn't- why are you even participating in this? You don't know how to raise a child."

"First of all I know and I did raise a child. Second, you don't know either."

"Maybe I should have worded it differently. You don't know how to raise a child well."

"What is your definition of well anyway?"

"Not a wimp would be a good start."

"Says who? The one that plays the flute so his birdie can sleep?"

"Do you even know the definition- Say the one afraid of a little starfish."

"At least I-"

"Shut up both of you!" was yelled by the brown-haired woman, cutting their argument short"You two are grown, men! Act like it!" 

The table went quiet. A pair of red eyes immediately snapped towards her while the violet once took a little bit of shock time. Just the blue eyes of the youngest one didn't seem to differ from their original position. Rather he seemed amused with the whole situation. He had been looking back and forth between the two agitated parties like it was a circus. 

Still, with an authoritative voice she told them" You two are going to calm down, finish your breakfast and then leave each other's sight." she looked between the two. "Am I understood?" 

The two of them nodded and more or less quietly went back to chewing on their bread. Then her gaze shifted over to the boy watching them like a spectator in a theater drama. He reminded her of what she wanted to talk about. "Right... Austria can you take Ludwig with you? He needs Sunday clothes and a new pair of pants."

Austria looked up from his meal. "Ludwig?- Oh yeah..." his eyes shifted over to the child momentarily," Why me! Can't you do it?" He called out looking at her quite distressed. Honestly, Hungary didn't care about his feelings in that matter. His reaction to a simple request was giving her second-hand embarrassment. What had Gilbert told him to react like that? Maybe she would've reconsidered it if he hadn't been so rude about it. Who talks like that about a child in front of said child? She definitely needed to talk about that with him once the opportunity arises.

"No I can't; I have other things to do. And need I already remind you that you're a grown man? What are you scared of this child for?" She tried her best to hide the annoyance in her voice but seemingly failed. Prussia looked too amused as it not to be noticeable. Austria seemed to have noticed too, just the boy looked oblivious.

Even though Austria understood that she had already fastened her mind to it, he wanted to try one last thing, "But why do you think that I know what is best for church? Shouldn't you do it? Or even Prussia?" Something in the back of his mind already told him that this argument would not work.

"Just because you don't go to church with us doesn't mean you suddenly don't know what Sunday clothes are. And again I don't have time and Gilbert is definitely not going." So it was final. He was going and that was it. No use fighting with her anymore.

A rough voice interrupted her plan making "Why isn't he coming with us- Oh yeah, sorry." The albino apologized quickly before going quiet and concentrating on eating his food once again. 

It was quiet for a long time, the only thing in the air was the sound of chewing. Everybody was focusing on their plates except one of them.

He quickly caught the attention of Elizabeta, who was just smearing her second piece of bread. She watched him from the corner of her eyes for a while contemplating what might be wrong with him. 

His body was stiff and leaning away from the group, his hands were away from the table and gripping the edge of the seat stabilizing him so he doesn't fall over from the chair. His arms were completely stretched out and stiff with his shoulders almost touching his face. The face was scrounged up with his mouth pressed into a thin line and his lower lip sucked in. His eyes open but tense, glaring at Gilbert sitting beside him. 

That made her wonder if it had something to do with Gilbert. Maybe Ludwig didn't like the smell of what Gilbert was eating. He might never admit it but onions and cheese on bread had always been a nasty smelly combination. She herself could smell it on the other side of the table but if that smell was enough to warrant such a reaction? 

But what else could it be? Didn't he like what was on the table? Well, then that sucks for him. That's all she could find in this house. If he wanted something else he would have to beg Austria for it later, but he wasn't leaving this table without eating something. She hadn't woken up before anyone else just so he would leave with an empty stomach. 

Just as she was about to say something his posture changed; but not for the better. His hands left the seat edge and wandered over to his ears, where they were pressed on top of. His facial expression changed too. His eyes weren't open anymore, they were closed shut tightly; as tightly as he could. His whole head was turned down to face the ground but his body stayed leaning away from them. At one point he even started to pull his hair too. 

All this didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the breakfast. Prussia turned his head to watch what the boy was doing but he didn't stop chewing on his bread. Austria looked up from his plate too, just that he actually stopped chewing. Now every adult was just watching the boy, no one even knew if the boy had noticed that. 

No one said anything for a long time, because, honestly, no one knew what to say at all. They just stared in confusion at the sheer abnormality of the situation. No one had ever acted like that. What could one even say to that? 

But, like always, the first to find the "right" words was Gilbert. "What are you looking like that for?" The boy didn't seem to hear this, so he leaned over and pushed the child once. Not hard, but hard enough to get his attention. His hands came away from his ears and he turned to the pushing nation. This nation restated his past statement. "What are you looking like that for?" 

The boy didn't seem like he knew what the man wanted from him, and he didn't answer him either, which seemed to irritate Gilbert even more but Elizabeta intervened before the latter could get another word out. "What's wrong with you? Why won't you eat?" She asked prodding him for answers. But the boy didn't answer. He had gone back to staring blankly at them like they were speaking another language. It made her feel like the little progress they had made yesterday had gotten lost somewhere. 

Ludwig felt like he was being poked with a stick. All these people, who were not only older, bigger, and much stronger than him; but also in the majority, towering over him like he was a zoo animal. He wanted to leave. He didn't think they really cared, they hadn't stopped chewing like a dog when he was signaling them to. They hadn't cared that he had stared them down begging them to just shut their mouth or stop eating. But they didn't, they didn't care. 

It didn't help that Rodrich had to speak too. He made some side comment about his posture and how he was being disrespectful to Elizabeta, but he didn't care. Now it just reinforced his feeling of being cornered by all these people. His hands started to tingle as they started speaking again, asking more questions he couldn't answer. He didn't know why he was looking like that. he didn't even know what he was looking like; nor did he know what was wrong with him, he didn't think anything was wrong with him. They were the ones that never shut up. They were always talking and making noises. he didn't see anything wrong with what he was doing. 

The three adults however found his behavior more than odd. They had never seen anyone acting like that at the table. If you asked them it was rather rude, to lean away like that. Some would argue that it was normal for a child to do that but they didn't see that anywhere; not even they themselves did that when they were children. 

Elizabeta was the one most unpleased with his reaction during breakfast, Austria was more impassive about it and Prussia was more amused than agitated, but Hungary was almost angry. She had made the whole breakfast and the boy was jet to eat a single bit of it. "Why won't you eat?" she asked him again this time more prodding than the last time. 

He didn't answer her which made her even madder at him. but he didn't know why he didn't want to eat. No. He knew why he didn't want to eat but he didn't know how to say it. It just didn't seem appetizing to him, he didn't feel hungry and their chewing didn't make it much better. It all just seemed so disgusting, he knew that Elizabeta had put much work into it and it was upsetting her, but he saw no reason to eat it; he just didn't like it. He didn't like the smell or how it looked. He didn't like the way it sounded when it was eaten. He just didn't want to eat it. But for some reason, he just couldn't phrase that right. 

For that reason, he couldn't say anything and that's why Hungary was upset. She didn't understand and she wasn't getting an answer. How could she understand if the answer couldn't be formulated? But this problem without a name or answer needed solving. 

It was getting tenser and tenser in the room, unbearably so. The two men in the room were looking helplessly at the situation in front of them one more amused than the other. Meanwhile, the other two in the room were staring each other down; Hungary more so than Ludwig. She was holding eye contact, waiting for him to finally answer her while the boy was merely looking into her eyes. 

After a little while longer no one could deal with it anymore. That included Hungary who really just wanted the boy to eat. So she decided to simply make him eat and then move on with the day. "Are you still going to?" It was more a demand than it was a question and Ludwig picked up on that. He frantically looked around at the table trying to look for something to eat which didn't look too weird. 

He did find something it was some pink weird smelling substance, it wasn't looking as busy as the others so it wasn't bad, probably. He picked it up and picked some up with the knife they had given him. It felt weird holding it considering he had never done this before. It was heavy and awkward to hold but he still smeared his bread. 

One of them seemed to pertigualry like the choice of spread. Gilbert's eyes lit up as he saw the pink paste picked off the table. "I knew he would like it. You are just too much of a picky eater Lizzy." He said looking at Elizabeta like he had won something. She however didn't look to effected by his choice at all, but her nose still frowned at his careless and unrequired use of her much-despised nickname. That, however, seemed to please him even more. His grin was already far beyond his ears. 

Only Rodrich was back to minding his business. He was eating the last remaining bit of his breakfast, which he had made himself. Simply because he wasn't going to give Prussia the satisfaction of being a bad Husband Elizabeta deserved as much as a helping hand. Right now however he was just snaking on his piece of bread with some fried egg.

Meanwhile, the boy too had started snacking on his piece of bread; only he wasn't so lucky to have almost complete privacy with his meal. The two remaining adults were looking over him like he was some kind of attraction. At the same time, however, they were also lurking at each other like sharks always watching each other from the corner of their eyes. Ludwig tried to just focus and finish his food as fast as possible.

Soon enough he was done and more than ready to just leave this table. He wanted to go back to his room. There he could be mostly alone and really only Elizabeta was coming inside. He didn't like being here but he was slowly losing hope that he was going to leave this family soon. That room was his best option. 

Hungary now semi-satisfied that the boy had eaten something turned to her husband who was the only one at this table still eating. He was at his last few bites though so it wouldn't be long until they could all leave. Like always she was already making a new plan. She needed to find some presentable clothing for the boy and that soon. It would take some time for them to make it into the city and there wasn't much time left until they had to leave. Maybe Prussia had some remembrance piece laying around somewhere. Hopefully, it would be a pair of trousers or the boy would've to go with his dirty ones. 

Austria was done with eating now and lifted his gaze toward them as a sign that he too was done. The first to leave the table was Gilbert. The silver-haired nation got up with a sigh pushing the chair back under the table once he had stepped out and behind it. "Finally." He breathed before storming off up into his office. 

The next one that followed was the young boy. He also left the table only that he didn't put his chair back in place; but he too ran up the stairs after Gilbert, sprinted past him and into his room. Once into his room he went straight back into his bed and covered himself with the blankets. 

The two ones left weren't planning on leaving just yet. Rather they sat for a few more minutes letting the events sink in. The room wasn't close to what it had been just a few seconds before. It was quiet and relaxed both nations slumped back in their seats just looking at each other. No one spoke. In the entire house, no one spoke. 

After a few more seconds of silence before both Hungary and Austria lashed out in laughter. They didn't speak but they started laughing. Something about this whole debacle was so hilarious to them. "So that's how it's going to be from now on." Questioned Rodrich jokingly. He might not have paid attention to the last few sentences spoken during the breakfast but to his own conversation previously and he had the slight feeling that that was going to happen more often during his stay. 

"Let's just hope that everything gets settled fast. I don't want to stay here much longer." She was back to her serious self after the events of today's breakfast reminiscent in her mind. She already felt like going back to bed and the day hadn't even started yet. Talking to Gilbert required so much energy, which she needed to go through the day with. She couldn't let him drain it all with just one conversation. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she thought about the debate she was going to have with him later that day. 

"Do you really need me to take that boy with me?" Her husband asked also back to his usual seriousness. 

"Yes. Yes, I do need you to do that for me. I won't have the time to take him before Sunday and you know how important church is to me; so please just do this for me. The boy isn't even so bad." She tried to reason with him. She couldn't go into the town this week especially not today. 

"How can he not be bad? I haven't seen him be nice since we got here and he makes the whole atmosphere tense." 

"The boy hasn't done anything bad! And the only thing that makes two so tenser is you two because you can't beat each other's head in while he's there! Don't blame him for your twos behavior!"

"Prussia is the one staring every time! I never do anything! He just starts being an asshole the second he sees me!" after a short pause he added:" Why are you even defending that boy?" 

Elizabeta was really getting annoyed at the brown-haired nation. "You are so childish sometimes, you know that. I am defending the boy because he hasn't done anything wrong. You can't just blame him for nothing!" She didn't mean to sound so mean but his childishness was baffling to her. 

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I know I can be childish but... but Prussia is even more childish!" 

"Get out." She hissed, "Get out before I get my pan!" 

Rodrich as much as jumped out of his seat and made his way into the living room. Not to be seen again.