Prussia sat on the living room couch, bored. Germany was off with Italy, doing Gott-knows-what, so the scarlet-eyed ex-country was alone in the house. He could play video games, but he had beaten all of his brother's already. He could make lunch, but he had just eaten. Solution: pester the other countries until one of them came over to subdue his boredom.

Prussia scrolled down through his contact list to see who was most likely to answer. Nobody stuck out, so he closed his eyes and put down his finger randomly. With a grin, he pressed the 'call' button. A soft voice answered.

"'Allo?"

"Gutentag Canada! Today is your lucky day, you get to spend it with ze awesome Prussia!"

"Um… w-well Prussia I'm making c-candy right now…"

"Candy? I shall help you! See ya in a few!" He hung up before Canada could protest.

About an hour later, Prussia was at Canada's house. Sitting on the front porch was the blond, stirring a large black boiling pot. Inside the pot was a thick tan liquid; it was maple sap.

"Ze awesome Prussia has arrived!" Prussia exclaimed, strolling up the steps to stand beside Canada.

"Uh. Salut, P-prussia," Canada muttered, not looking directly at the taller country. "W-would you like some taffy? I th-think the sap had reached that consistency now."

"Sounds awesome!" Prussia grinned, then realized something important. "How do I…?"

Canada laughed quietly and handed him a popsicle stick, then took a huge ladleful of sap and spread it thinly over the snow on the railing of his porch. He waited a second, then dipped his own stick into the rapidly cooling sap and picked up the stretchy liquid/solid with it. Giving it another second to cool, he giggled as Prussia tried to mimic his actions, and ended up getting the sticky substance all over his hands. When he did manage to get some into his mouth, he gave Canada an appreciative look.

"That. That is awesome," he said. Canada unwillingly blushed at the compliment.

"M-merci. Would you like some more? There's plenty to go around."

"Ja! Here, Gilbird, try some!" He tried to feed some to his little yellow bird, but only succeeded in getting more on himself. Grinning sheepishly, he pulled off his coat and washed the sap off with snow. Laughing outright, Canada took the jacket from Prussia and put it on his chair to take inside and wash later. He pulled off his own sweatshirt and offered it to Prussia, who declined, declaring that the cold didn't bother him.

"Well, the n-next stage of boiling is maple butter, a-and that won't be for another few hours. Would you like to come in?"

Prussia nodded, shivering slightly. Grabbing the jacket, Canada led him inside.

"Would you like some hot chocolate?" he asked, putting the jacket into his washing machine.

"Ja, bitte," answered Prussia, looking around at the rustic furnishings. He settled into a squishy blue armchair that smelled like pine trees. This is a nice place, maybe ze great me should visit more often, he thought.

Canada quickly made up the drinks and put them on a tray along with cinnamon, peppermint sticks, and cream. The tray was placed in the middle of the woven rug in front of a massive fireplace. As he got the fire to a roaring blaze, Canada invited Prussia to sit on the rug with him. Prussia slid to the floor, unaccustomed to this sort of seating arrangement.

"A-are you cold, P-prussia? I have blankets in the closet."

"Nein, I'm good, danke," Prussia said quickly, picking up his mug. "Uh, how much of these would make mien drink awesome?"

With a soft laugh, Canada helped Prussia make an 'awesome' drink. A dash of cinnamon, a peppermint stick, and a quick slosh of cream later, Prussia was contentedly sipping on his hot chocolate.

"What shall we do now?" he asked.

"W-well we can talk about stuff, I guess," answered Canada. "Or listen to the radio?"

Prussia nodded, then said "Let's do both."

Canada jumped up and grabbed his mini radio. He tuned it to a country station, and set it down in between them on the tray. They sat listening to the songs playing for a few minutes. Oddly enough, Prussia wasn't bored.

"Do you want to play a game?" Canada finally broke the silence between them.

"What game?"

"Chess?"

Feeling his face heat up, Prussia admitted one of his faults: "I don't know how to play that."

"R-really? I'll teach you!" Canada got up and pulled an old chess set out of an antique toy box. "It's easy. These are the pieces."

"I like this one, it looks awesome." Prussia inspected the black king.

Canada laughed, then explained how the game was played. For the next few hours they played, until Canada realized it was time to check the boiling sap. Prussia followed him outside, watching as the shorter country carefully tested the sap. When they went back inside, he was clutching a small bowl of it.

"I'm going to make some toast, would you like a piece or two?"

"Ja. Und more hot chocolate, bitte?"

With a grin, Canada cut a loaf of home-made bread into thick slices. While the slices were in the toaster, he stirred the sap he had taken from the pot. It thickened to the density of honey, and when the toast popped up, he had Prussia take it to the tray in front of the fire while he carried the toast. Prussia re-set the chess game as Canada made a new batch of hot chocolate.

Prussia 'buttered' his toast with the maple butter and dig in with gusto, mumbling around a mouthful of toast "Zif if awefum!"

Canada couldn't resist laughing. Enjoying the bubbly laugh, Prussia subconsciously decided he needed to get the shy country to laugh more often. They continued to play chess until Prussia could beat Canada every three games or so.

It was nighttime before the sap had reached the right temperature for making hard candies. Prussia helped Canada pour it into little maple leaf-shaped molds, which took them a good two hours to do. By the time they were done, Prussia was covered in the sticky liquid.

"W-would you like to change into different clothes? And maybe take a shower?" Canada giggled.

"Ja," Prussia grinned.

Canada searched his closet for clothes that might fit the taller, more built country. He went to hand a red over-sized canada sweatshirt and sweatpants to Prussia, but, remembering the stickiness, just carried the clothing to the bathroom. Prussia struggled, getting tangled until Canada helped him undress, getting his own hands sticky in the process. They looked at each other awkwardly for a second, then Canada turned on his heel and walked to the kitchen to wash his hands of the sap.

Prussia was out of the shower in minutes. Canada's over-sized clothes did fit him, which gave Canada the chance to wash the sticky clothing. They ate a small meal, during which Prussia talked about his awesomeness and fed Gilbird scraps of food.

Afterwards, Prussia asked when the candies would be finished. Hiding a small smile, Canada said that they wouldn't be hard enough until the morning.

"Then, I shall stay ze night!" Prussia announced, not surprising Canada in the least.

"I-I can make up the guest room for you," he said, giggling.

"Ja, that would be awesome."

Canada stood up, taking the plates to the sink. With nothing else to do, Prussia followed him into another room, where he ended up being forced to into helping make the bed. Before leaving the room, Canada tossed him America's extra pajamas.

After an hour or so of tossing and turning, Prussia got out of bed. He couldn't sleep, so he decided to wander the house. As he walked into the living room, he noticed the fire on the porch that kept the big black pot heated was once again blazing. The front door opened and closed, and Prussia walked over to Canada.

"What are you doing in the middle of the night?!"

Canada jumped, not expecting Prussia to be awake. "I-i-i'm boiling an-n-n-nother batch of sap. It needs t-t-to be stirred constantly for the first f-f-few hours."

"Awesome! Can I help?" Prussia's face lit up; his scarlet eyes showing a kind of joy Canada had never seen before.

"Sure." He handed over the spoon. "Just be gentle with it, if it gets on you you'll be b-burned."

Prussia carefully stirred the sap, keeping Gilbird away from the bubbling substance. "Do we do this all night?" he asked.

Canada nodded, then said "If you get tired you can go back to bed. I'll be up to watch over the sap."

Realizing that this was why Canada was always so tired, Prussia decided to help and stay up too. After a while, Canada took the spoon back. He cleared off a snow-covered chair for Prussia and laid a blanket over it, so that Prussia could sit without getting himself soaking wet. Yawning, Prussia grabbed another blanket and wrapped himself up in it before sitting down. Gilbird settled into his hair and started snoozing. Canada smiled as Prussia fought to stay awake.

Around three in the morning, Prussia found himself being shaken awake.

"Pst. Prussia. Get up, it's time to go inside," Canada whispered, barely a foot away from him.

Prussia moaned and stood up, accidently dropping his blanket onto the snow-covered porch. Canada picked it up for him and led him back into the house. Before he could get in bed, Prussia fell half-asleep against Canada, causing the blond to stifle laughter and dump the tall country onto the couch.

The next morning, Prussia woke to the scent of sizzling pancakes and maple syrup. He sat up, got himself tangled in the canada flag blanket that was wrapped around him, and promptly fell to the rug. Canada rushed out of the kitchen, holding the spatula he had been flipping pancakes with defensively. Noticing Prussia on the floor, he dropped the spatula and helped untangle the country, who was laughing.

"Good morning, birdie," he said to Canada once he was untangled. "Do you normally have pancake batter in your hair?"

Canada blushed a brilliant red, desperately trying to get the batter out of his curls. Holding back his laughter, Prussia took the sleeve of America's extra pajamas and rubbed the batter off of Canada. When it was gone, Prussia ran his fingers through Canada's hair to straighten it back into some semblance of order. With a doe-in-headlights look, Canada stared up at him.

Prussia smiled softly at him, then suddenly looked up. "Birdie? Is something burning?"

"Shit!" Canada cried, running back into the kitchen. "P-prussia I'm sorry! I b-b-burned the pancakes!"

Prussia strolled nonchalantly behind him. "I've never heard you swear before."

Canada shot him a dirty look, searching the room for the spatula. Not remembering where he had dropped it, he turned back to the griddle and grabbed for the burned pancakes. He seared his fingers, but did remove the charred remains of pancake from the griddle. Eyes watering in pain, Canada grimaced. Prussia grabbed his wrists so that he could look at the burns on his fingers.

"Nein, we are going to get you patched up," Prussia told him sternly. "What ze hell were you thinking?!"

Canada mumbled under his breath, not looking up at Prussia, "I couldn't find the spatula…"

Gilbird flew in with gauze and neosporin, which Prussia took and applied to Canada's fingers carefully. The blond country winced in pain, tears finally rolling down his cheeks.

"Birdie, don't ever do that again," Prussia chided. He let go of Canada's hands. "Is there un-burned pancakes? Ze awesome me is hungry."

Giggling slightly, Canada gestured at the stack he had been making. Prussia took five, drowned them in syrup, and ate like it was his last meal. After breakfast, Prussia changed back into Canada's oversized clothes. He bounced back into the living room, followed by Gilbird.

"Is ze candies ready yet?" he asked excitedly.

"Most likely, but first we h-have to check on the sap from last night."

Prussia nodded. Canada handed him a mug of hot chocolate, telling him to wait for a minute so he could stir the sap. When the blond returned, he led him to the room where the candy was hardening. He walked over to a tray and poked one of the candies, getting it stuck to his finger and causing Canada to laugh. Unable to shake the sticky candy off, Prussia shrugged and put it into his mouth. His eyes widened, surprised at the silky smooth maple taste of the candy.

Grinning, Canada took him to the back of the room, where the candies were completely hard and not sticky. He popped them out of the tray and into a bowl, offering another one to Prussia. The silver-haired country winked, and instead of taking it with his hands, leaned over and grabbed it between his teeth. Smiling appreciatively, he helped Canada dump the other trays into the bowl, ignoring the obvious blush covering the shorter country.

They had just finished dumping the trays when Prussia got an awesome idea.

"Would you like one of these?" he teased, taking the bowl from Canada.

Canada gave him a funny look, trying to grab the bowl back. "Uh… oui?"

"Here," Prussia said, putting a candy between his teeth and leaning towards him. Nervous, Canada stretched up and put his face an inch or two from Prussia's. They looked at each other; Prussia's eyes appeared to be laughing. That was all it took for Canada to make his move, woe be on the ex-country if he thought that the blond was gutless. Prussia grinned as Canada moved forward and took the candy carefully.

Canada blushed and ate the candy. Looking totally innocent, he grabbed a candy out of the bowl, and, leaning close to Prussia, bit on part of it. With a light laugh, Prussia bent down and kissed Canada around the candy before taking it. Staring dumbstruck at Prussia, Canada opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

Prussia winked again, putting another candy between his teeth. Canada continued to stare at him, then, ignoring the candy, kissed him.