Silence.

It was the first thing Germany noticed as he woke up in the morning.

Silence. And too much of it.

Not that the German didn't enjoy the rare moments of time to himself; on the contrary, he longed to have much more of them. If it wasn't paperwork, it was a certain Italian clinging to him, and if it wasn't Italy, it was his brother up to his antics, and if it wasn't Prussia, it was a Frenchman subtly hinting on him, or a much more angry Italian screaming at him, or an Austrian scolding him, or an endless amount of possibilities.

But this moment of silence left him wary. Yes, he often didn't know what to do with himself when he actually had a moment alone, but to wake up alone was a completely different feeling. There was no Italian in his bed, which was rare but not unlikely; the man did go home on occasion, but it was usually heralded by an unprecedented amount of clinging and tears (and a lot of begging for hugs and kisses, but thinking about those aspects only made him blush).

And more often than not when Italy was not with him (or even when Italy was with him), his brother would be up and making noise, stumbling in from a night of drinking and other things Germany did not want to imagine.

And, if it was neither of those two, there would be at least a phone call or a voicemail informing him of a schedule change or an appointment to be made or some extra paperwork to be filled.

But there was none of those things. No calls, no voicemails, no voices, nobody.

Just silence.

Germany tried to push those thoughts to the back of his mind. He ran through his morning routine without interruption: a quick shower, getting dressed, brushing his teeth, combing and gelling his hair, taking the dogs for a quick walk before coming back inside to sit with his newspaper as he ate breakfast.

And still, not a single soul bothered him.

He checked his cell phone; surely this had to be a mistake? But he had no calls, not even a voicemail or a message.

The morning dragged on, leaving Germany more wary with every passing minute. Something was up; there was no doubt about it. He could only hope that his brother was in no way involved.

Germany cleaned up the kitchen and headed to his office, feeling slightly derailed. He couldn't go through a day without some type of purpose or plan; even his alone time was thoroughly scheduled beforehand. This morning was supposed to be filled with catching up on any work that may have been called in during the night, and the afternoon to be filled with meetings. Of course, interactions with Italy and his brother were also accounted for in his schedule, but in the absence of all of those things, the German was left feeling misplaced.

He checked his laptop when reached his office, and still, there wasn't a single e-mail waiting for him. How could this even be possible? He couldn't even go through a full day without at least getting a piece of junk mail. And here he sat, counting on something turning up in his inbox and ending up with nothing.

The blond sighed, rubbing his face in his hands, an impending sense of doom settling over his shoulders. Something was definitely up.

"Germany! Oh, good, you're up!"

For once, the German was absolutely relieved to see Italy burst into his office unannounced. "Italy." Thank goodness. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened to all of my—"

"Ve, come on, Germany, come on!" The Italian was over at his side in no time, tugging at Germany's sleeve.

To which the German responded with arched brows, not budging from his seat at all. "Come where? What's going on?"

A pout was the only answer he received, the tugs to his sleeve relentless. "Germany~ If you don't hurry and pack we'll miss the train!"

"Train? Train to where, exactly?" Despite his questioning, he was eventually persuaded to his feet, the Italian dragging him back to his bedroom.

"To Italy! Come on, Germany, we're wasting time!"

That left the German with his arms crossed and feet planted firmly on the ground, fixing the Italian with a gaze that stopped him right in his tracks. "You don't really expect me to run off to Italy without an explanation, do you?"

Italy fidgeted under the accusation, physically drooping a bit. "Ve…I was hoping I could surprise you!" When he received no response from the blond (except maybe a more frightening version of the scowl he normally wore), the Italian gave him a shaky smile, tossing out his arms. "For your vacation, Germany!"

"Vacation?" Eyebrows shot up once again at the word, confusion erasing the frown from his features. "I don't have a vacation scheduled."

The Italian giggled, a bright smile spreading across his cheeks. "That's because it's a surprise! Germany works too much, so I'm giving you a vacation!"

It didn't take long for the scowl to return to Germany's face, watching Italy as he tugged his hefty suitcase from under the bed. "Wait a moment. I can't just go on vacation whenever you feel like I need one. I have work to do."

"No you don't! I took care of it!"

Confusion spread across his face again. "Took care of it?"

"Of your work!"

Germany sighed, quickly becoming exasperated with the other. "Ja, I understand that, but how could you have possibly ta—"

Italy was pushing him toward his closet, opening the doors for him as he tugged at his sleeve again, urging him to hurry up and stop with the silly questions. "I rescheduled your things!"

The German was still resistant, turning to face the Italian. "Italy. You are going to have to explain yourself in more detail if you ever expect me to leave my house on your whim."

The Italian sighed, fidgeting for a moment before taking a deep breath and letting everything out in a rush. "Well, I know Germany's been working an awful lot lately, because he always comes to bed really, really late and is really grumpy all day, and even my hugs and kisses and making you wurst all the time even though I like pasta a lot better can't seem to make Germany happy, so I thought you could use a vacation! I thought about it and I knew Germany wouldn't just leave if you had work to do, so I asked Prussia if he would help me out, and he agreed to do all your work for you and then I could take you to Italy for a while so you would feel better!"

"Wait, wait, wait just a moment!" Germany took a second to absorb the flurry of words, holding up his hands against the onslaught. "You…you got my brother to take over?"

Italy nodded eagerly, smiling again now that the German's scowl had softened. "All your calls and e-mails are being forwarded to him! And Austria's going to help him with all the paperwork!"

"Austria too?"

"Mmhmm, Prussia is at Austria's house right now! They promised to look after your things for you!"

So Austria was in on it too? Germany didn't really feel comfortable leaving his work in the hands of his brother (who wasn't known for his responsibility), but the thought that Austria was there too left him feeling a bit more easy. But still unconvinced.

The Italian quickly noticed his hesitation and tugged at his sleeve again, brows furrowing as his frowned. "…no good? Ve, I tried really, really hard to make it easy for you, Germany! I made sure I caught all your meetings and wrote them down, and I gathered all your paperwork, and I had to make a lot of phone calls and e-mails, and your language is really difficult, so it was really hard!" Italy was on the verge of tears now, hugging himself to the German's arm. "Come on, Germany! Don't you want a vacation?"

He looked down at the brunet, mind whirling as he connected all that the Italian had said, making sure there was nothing left unattended. "…all my meetings? And emergency calls?"

Italy nodded eagerly, trying to look as serious as he could. "The ones we couldn't reschedule Prussia will go to, and he promised to be on his best behavior!"

Another pause, Germany lost in thought for a moment. Italy tugged at his arm again, brown-eyes wide, and the German couldn't help but sigh, turning to his closet. "I am not very good at just being…spontaneous."

"It's not hard, Germany! That's what surprises are like! And it was planned, Germany just didn't know about it, ve!"

Germany knew defeat when he saw it; he could never resist the Italian for long. The blond started to comb through his closet, grabbing a few shirts and ties for the journey. "…fine. I guess we have a train to catch?"

The brunet was absolutely glowing with happiness; he hopped up to give the German a kiss on the check, rushing out of bedroom with a happy squeak. "Grazie, Germany, grazie, grazie! I'm sure you'll love it, I know you will!"

And a morning that had started out so uneventful turned into something quite the opposite; as they drove away from the house and toward the train station, Germany couldn't help but wonder which outcome he would've enjoyed more.