After a few more things were gathered, such as blankets, coats, extra shoes, what ever seemed useful at the moment, the three stood quietly at the door, trying to think of what else they might need. Except Italy, all he could think was that his brother may or may not be alive at the moment, and that either way the two Italians would never see each other again. He swallowed hard and fought back tears, thankfully Germany or Prussia didn't seem to notice, as they were naming items off at each other and going down a mental checklist.

"...flashlight?" Prussia asked.

"Ja. I managed to find two."

"Batteries?"

"Check."

"Matches? Lighters? Shit like that?"

"Check."

"Candles?"

"Check."

"Food for Gilbird?"

"We're not really taking that damn bird with, are we?"

"OF COURSE WE ARE! HOW DARE YOU IMPLY WE LEAVE MEIN AWESOME GILBIRD BEHIND!"

"If we can't bring the dogs, we can't bring the bird."

"Three big ass dogs take up a lot more room and eat up a lot more food than one little chick!"

"Fine. But I swear to Gott, if we start running low on food, the bird is the first to go."

Prussia gasped and Gilbird chirped simultaneously in shock and disgust, "TAKE THAT BACK! WE ARE NOT EATING GILBIRD!"

"If it comes down between eating your bird and eating one of you two, I'll eat the bird."

Prussia smirked, "Really West? Because something tells me you're hungry for some of Feli's pasta. Kesesese~!"

Germany's face turned bright red with anger and embarrassment and he slapped his brother upside the head, "STOP WITH YOU GOTT VERDAMMT INUENDOS!"

"Okay then, would you have rather I just said you wanted to suck Ita's-"

"STOP IT." Italy shouted this time, surprising the two. "YOU TWO NEED TO STOP FIGHTING RIGHT NOW! I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'VE NOTICED, BUT THE WORLD IS ENDING. JUST BE THANKFULL THAT YOU'RE BOTH SAFE FOR GOD'S SAKES! THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE DYING RIGHT NOW, AND ONE OF THEM MIGHT BE MY OWN BROTHER, SO YOU TWO NEED TO GET THE FUCK ALONG, BECAUSE YOU'RE STARTING TO PISS ME OFF!"

The two German brothers stared at Italy with wide eyes and jaws slightly agape. Italy matched the expression, realizing that he had briefly snapped. Unfortunately it seemed like ever since WWII his breaking points were getting increasingly easier to reach. The room was quiet for awhile while Germany and Prussia processed what the Italian had said, and while Italy was trying to think of the right apology and hoping that neither of the two though he was crazy. He bit his lip in concentration and stress. Finally someone spoke.

"Well, shit." Prussia said rather bluntly, "Guess you and your brother are related, aren't you?"

Italy didn't quite understand what Prussia meant, "...Ve, we are brothers. Usually brothers are related."

Germany still seemed to be processing what had just happened.

"Yoohoo? West?" Prussia whistled obnoxiously while waving a hand over Germany's face. The German seemed to snap out of what ever he was thinking and scratched the back of his head, awkwardly, "Uh, ja. Sorry."

"No, mi dispiace, I'm sorry. I just...got a little upset." Italy muttered, looking down at his feet.

Prussia put a hand on Italy's shoulder, "Don't be sorry, Ita. It's understandable. It's hard not knowing whether your family's okay or not. You're right, me and West really shouldn't be fighting right now." For some reason the albino had a strange look about him, a sad, sympathetic look. It really was miraculous how quickly he could go from panicked, to obnoxious, to surprised, to sympathetic all in one day. Major events like this really did make people act differently than you'd expect.

Germany nodded in agreement with his older brother. "Ja. It's hard." His mouth twitched as if he wanted to say more on the subject, but Italy already knew what he was thinking about. He had heard about the Berlin Wall, and he knew how sore of a topic it was around the two brothers.

He wondered what Prussia was referring to, though. Of course there had to be times where he had worried about Germany, but the way he said it made it seem like there was a specific incident. The Italian shrugged it off, deciding what ever it was it wasn't any of his business.

Rather Italy nodded solemnly. It seemed to be unsettling to Germany, who kept staring at Italy with a worried expression. Finally Prussia kept going on their list,

"Anyway, enough food and water?"

"Well, I don't know about enough, but we grabbed everything we could."

"Damn...okay, we'll worry about getting more of that later, since there's not much we can do right now. Band-aids, meds, shit like that?"

"Check."

"Stuff to keep us warm?"

"Check."

"Soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc."

"Check."

"Stuff to pass time with, you know, like books and shit. I know I grabbed my laptop, since I figured I might as well have it for how ever long it's going to work."

"No, I never thought of that, actually." Germany said.

He grabbed on of the very few empty boxes off the floor and began to just throw books into it off the nearby book case. Italy was suddenly struck with an idea and made a request.

"What about a bible?"

The two looked at him a little peculiarly, Germany spoke, "I didn't know you read the bible. Don't Catholics usually...not read it?" It was true, usually Catholics didn't really study the Bible, but he probably could have phrased that a little better than that.

Italy replied with a small, obviously faked laugh, "Yeah, but I like to have it around. Some of the stories are nice, and sometimes it makes me feel better."

"Okay." Germany said, Prussia looked over at him and questioned, "Do we even have one?"

The German shrugged, he'd been an atheist for quiet some time now, both of them, in fact. "I'm sure I could find an old one around here somewhere."

"Well hurry up, we really should get going before we can't get out of the city."

"What do you mean?" Italy asked as Germany wandered away in search of the holy book.

"There's two things going on right now." Prussia stated, "One of them is riots, because people are freaking the hell out, breaking into stores and houses and stealing supplies, and whining about the government not doing anything about all the shit that's going down, when really they can't. The second thing is people like us are being smart and fleeing the city before we get caught up in the middle of something, since this place just isn't safe to live in anymore, and probably never will be. The more people that leave, the harder it is to get out. The harder it is to get out the more likely some people will realize we've got all the shit they could ever need in our car and try to ransack us. Of course they wouldn't be able to, since mein awesome would fend them off, but it will still be a problem we can avoid if we get the hell out as soon as possible."

"Oh." Italy said simply, "Things are that bad?"

Prussia nodded, "Yeah, but don't worry too much, we'll get through it somehow."

The Italian had sort of a difficult time believing the albino as their situation seemed pretty hopeless, but he nodded none-the-less and faked positivity, "Yeah, you're right. Everything will be okay."

Prussia gave him a strange look, detecting the falseness in Italy's tone, but said nothing as Germany had walked into the room holding a dusty book that looked as if it were about to fall apart. He handed it to Italy, his face a little apologetic, "I'm sorry it's in such bad shape, I couldn't find anything else."

Italy smiled anyway and took it, gratefully. Despite the fact that it was dusty, falling apart, at least a century old, and severely damaged by water, it was still readable. To his delight when he opened it there were even old, smudged ink etchings on some of the pages. He grinned at Germany, "Grazie, it's perfect."

The German twisted his mouth in doubt and spoke, "If you say so."

"Anyway, I think that about wraps up everything right? Unless you two can think of anything else." Prussia grabbed a box and motioned for Italy to do the same.

The Italian picked up the box of books, and Germany started to grab some bags, but Prussia quickly stopped him.

"No, West. You're going to be the body guard. Your job is to watch us and the car while we fill it up. I haven't seen any problems in our neighborhood yet, but you can never be too sure. Like I was just telling Ita, people have been going crazy. Looting cars, houses, stores, everything. Since you're the scariest one here we need you to protect the supplies. I would do it, myself, but unfortunately I don't think I'd be of much effect since thugs can't exactly sense awesome."

"Okay...if you insist I really need to..." Germany said, looking slightly uneasy.

"Ja, you really need to."

"Fine, then." The German complied, following the two out the door.

After little incident the car was stuffed with supplies. There whole trunk and backseats were packed so tight the doors were difficult to shut.

"So how are we all supposed to fit into the car, now?" Germany asked, looking at Prussia skeptically.

"Easy. We'll all just sit in the front."

"Ve, there's only two seats..."

"I know." Prussia said as a mischievous smile spread across his face. "Okay, guys, since I'm awesome and I've got the keys, I'm driving!" He suddenly shouted, "You two will share the passenger seat."

Italy and Germany froze, looking at Prussia in complete horror. Italy had been trying his best to ignore all the albino's comments and meddling the whole time he'd been there, but he couldn't pretend he hadn't heard that.

"We won't both fit in the passenger seat..." Italy quickly excused.

"Ja you will, just sit on West's lap."

That was worse. Far worse. Far more awkward. Of course Italy would have liked it, and had it have been seventy years prior that he was faced with this situation, he wouldn't find it awkward at all. Too much had happened, though. It was hard for the two to feel normal around each other, and this would make things so much worse. Especially since Italy was positive Germany didn't return his feelings for him. The Italian was okay with that, though, he was glad that they were just friends again. He really didn't want to complicate the newly restored friendship with the awkward feelings that sitting on the German's lap would cause.

"D-don't be ridiculous! There's no way I'm letting you drive, and no way I'm going to let a grown man sit on my lap!"

"Fine, then you can drive, and Ita will sit on my lap."

Italy saw something weird in Germany's face just then, it looked kind of like a strange mixture of possessiveness and jealousy, but he decided it was just his imagination. There was no way Germany felt like that.

And yet, when Germany spoke, his words reflected the expression that had crossed his face, "You're insane if you think I'm going to let him sit on your lap!"

"Those are your only two options, so make up your mind. We have to go, now."

Germany looked like he might throw up as he quietly mulled over the two scenarios in his mind.

"Any day now, West."

"F-fine. You can drive." Germany answered flatly with a red face. Prussia smirked.

"I thought you might say that."

XXXXX

They had tried many different arrangements, but like Prussia said, the only way Italy manged to fit in the car with them was on Germany's lap. The blond's face was hot and probably bright red as he looked out the window, trying to pretend that Italy didn't exist so to maybe kill his embarrassment and how awkward the situation was, but that was extremely hard to do with Italy squirming all over the place, apparently trying to find a way to get comfortable without touching Germany more than necessary.

"Italy, stop moving around." Germany commanded through grit teeth to the Italian on his lap.

"Sc-scusa." He stopped. Germany saw the Italian's reflection in the window, and it looked as if his face was red as well. That was strange, Germany couldn't recall the Italian ever looking embarrassed about something. This only strengthened Germany's belief that the Italian didn't love him back.

Prussia smirked over at the two as he turned the keys in the ignition, "Fasten your seat belt, your in for an awesome ride."

Yet another dilemma. Wear a seat belt and have Italy strapped to him, or not and face the consequences of Prussia's driving skills.

Mein Gott, it just keeps getting worse, doesn't it?

He decided to take his chances with Prussia's driving and not put on the seat belt for the sake of his own sanity.

Suddenly Prussia peeled out of the driveway, causing Germany to instinctively grab Italy around the waist to prevent either of the two from flying from the seat. Italy let out a loud squeak, and Germany couldn't tell if it was because Prussia's driving or because he had been gabbed. He quickly let go of the Italian, realizing what he had done, and awkwardly placed placed his hands to his own sides for lack of a better place. Prussia snickered at the two's reaction and discomfort, and Germany began to think it might have been a better idea just to have let Italy sit on Prussia's lap and drove himself, God knows it would have been safer than this arrangement.

Prussia glanced over at them. Germany instantly recognized the look, but before he could do anything about it the older brother had rammed his foot down on the gas pedal so hard Italy was flung backwards onto his lap fully and the back of his head knocked into the German's nose with painful force.

Hey cursed loudly in German, right into Italy's ear, causing the already jumpy Italian to lurch forward, smacking his own nose against the dashboard. He began whining and clutching his face. All Prussia was doing was laughing hysterically, still swerving around on the road at about eighty miles per hour.

"I think it's bleeding!" Italy whimpered through the hand cupped over his mouth and nose.

"Ja, I think mine is too." Germany said, covering his face as well. "Gott verdammt, Gilbert, your driving almost broke our noses!"

"Well, you should have been wearing your seat belt I knew you wouldn't be able to handle my awesome driving."

"First of all, wearing a seat belt wouldn't have prevented Italy from hitting me, second of all, your 'awesome' driving is going to get us all killed!"

"Psh, you worry too much." He accelerated through a red light, nearly hitting other cars, speeding though in the intersection in the other direction.

Italy was obviously scared as hell, and with his free hand he clutched the handle on the door. Germany took note and clicked the button to lock it, just in case.

After the very terrifying drive out of the town, consisting mainly of Prussia jumping curbs at high speeds to drive around traffic, they were outside of Berlin, going in a direction no one could discern. Prussia had slowed down a little bit since they were out of the city, but they were still going fairly fast. Italy and Germany's noses had since stopped bleeding and they had wiped their faces and hands off with wet naps from the glove compartment. Things had gotten relatively quiet in the car, the only noise that could be heard was the radio giving out alarming and depressing news reports in German.

Italy leaned back into Germany, surprising him a little. The small auburn haired man sighed and rested his head against the Germans shoulder, causing his face to heat up.

What's he doing? Why is he laying on me like that? What do I do? What do I do?

He looked down at Italy and realized that his eyes were closed. He fell asleep again, that's why.

That made Germany feel a little less uncomfortable, knowing that Italy had just fallen back on him out of exhaustion, but it also made him feel a little disappointed that it hadn't been a conscious decision for the Italian.

Italy stirred in his sleep, attempting to get comfortable. He ended up curled sideways in Germany's lap, with his feet against the door and his head resting on the German's shoulder. His hands were folded peacefully in his lap over the Bible he'd been keeping close to himself since he'd received it. Germany examined his sleeping face, and in all his life he couldn't recall ever seeing anything so sweet and pure. Something about the way he breathed softly and the light smile pressed into his face. Germany instinctively wrapped his arms around the sleeping figure so that he was cradling the Italian in his arms.

Prussia glanced over at the two and smiled, he spoke, managing to startle Germany, "I'm glad you convinced me to let him come."

Germany looked up, a little red-faced. He had almost forgotten his brother was in the car, which was a rather hard thing to forget considering his personality. He answered slowly, "Uh...ja. Me too."

Prussia smiled sentimentally, returning his eyes to the road with a small laugh, "I don't think I would have been able to live with myself."

"Why?"

"Well, I'm sure you can imagine why. Look at you!" He moved his eyes from the road and nodded at Italy, "You two are inseparable, and it was dumb of me to try and send him back to Italy. Especially after you just made up. It would have been just plain mean."

"It was a logical idea." Germany answered.

"Yeah, it was logical, but in the end I don't think it would have been good for anyone. I think you would have gone crazy, and I honestly believe it's better for Ita not to know what happened to Romano. That way at least he can have faith that he's still alive."

"So you really don't think he is?" Germany said, lowering his voice.

Prussia sighed, and shook his head, "Things don't look good. I tried to tell Antonio not to go after him in the first place, but when it comes to Romano he's stubborn. Now I'm worried as shit for both of them."

Germany sighed, "I guess I can understand it, though."

"Well, hell yeah, I can understand it, too. There's always that one person you'd risk your ass for. You'd be surprised, if you knew."

Germany gave him a questioning look and Prussia just shook his head with a sigh, when he spoke it sounded like it was mainly to himself, not meant to be heard, "Sometimes I wish you remembered."

Germany furrowed his brows, confused he opened his mouth to ask Prussia what he was talking about, but his brother answered before he could get a word out.

"I know, I'm being vague and weird. Just don't ask, since I'm just not really sure I want to talk about it right now...or ever."

The German returned his gaze to the Italian in his arms, Prussia continued to smile at the two.

"Thank you." Germany muttered to his brother, his eyes never straying from Italy, who appeared to be getting more beautiful by the second.

"For what?" Prussia asked.

"For calling him. Even though you pissed me off and gave me hell, I can't help but be glad. I've thought about what would have happened if he hadn't have come up, and I realized that things wouldn't have been good. What if he were to have gone to Naples, too? And if not he'd still be left alone to take care of himself. Not to mention I never would have known what had happened to him."

Prussia smiled, "See? I knew you'd thank me. Big bruder always knows best."

"I wouldn't go as far as to say you always know best, but you have your moments." Germany smiled as he absently brushed Italy's bangs out of his face, "As far as older brothers go, you're probably the most awesome one I can think of, though."

Author's note: Long wait for this one, but look at how worth it it was! I just love how this chapter turned out, putting Italy on Germany's lap was a random spur of the moment decision, but boy am I glad the idea came to me! And if that wasn't fluffy enough for you, the next chapter is going to be a little something I call FLUFFTACULAR.

This chapter was a little weird in that it jumped around from emotion to emotion a lot, going from silly, to angsty, to awkward, to fluffy, to a little depressing, to brotherly love and awesomeness. That probably has something to do with the fact that I wrote each little bit on different days while I was in different moods, but I think it works well in this chapter, since I imagine everyone's moving between emotions pretty quickly. Whenever something bad happens to me, I usually flip through different feelings like channels on a TV.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Join us next to for some beautiful fluff and a special reference back to the prequel. :D

P.S. Thanks so much for all the reviews, and faves, and alerts, and even the one community that added this story. I love you all! Keep the reviews coming, since I really love getting feedback, good and bad, because it tells me what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. Also, it makes me work faster. I know it sounds bad, but it's true. The more reviews I get, the more excited I get about delivering the story to my readers. So keep 'em coming! :D