And Blow your House down.
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"Italy, let us in."
There's a knock at the door, but Italy stays curled up on the other side, shaking. "No," he calls in his best commanding voice as it breaks. "No, I can't."
He thinks of Germany, of unyielding stone and unwavering resolve. If he tries, like Ludwig had told him to, he can imagine that the straw walls of his house are something stronger.
But all it takes is a gust of wind, really. The door to Italy's house swings wide open and he stands there and watches England and his Commonwealth and America make themselves at home. The walls cave in around him, silently, resignedly, but the wolves don't seem to notice.
Italy does. His legs give out and he crawls under the table to try to cry and feel sorry for himself as he watches their feet march past in twos and threes and fours. Oh God, he tries. He really does, but he can't make those tears come, no matter how sorry he is that all he and his brother have are straw walls for Dogs of War.
Germany, he knows, will be so disappointed in him.
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How beautifully Japan's house burns.
Kiku sits by the fireplace, covered in ash and blood and mud with his trusty sword by his side as the eaves rain firefly-cinders. His fingers and toes are burned in the heat and his hair is singed like his uniform; he is full aware that each blister is a thousand people dead and dying.
Despite this, he takes another sip of his green tea. It scalds his tongue, and he smirks at the irony.
"Japan, you Pig!" America's voice can barely be heard above the crackle of flame and the fire-bombs. "Get out of there before you die! Just open the door- just do it, damn it!"
Alfred's panic and uncertainty filter in through the heat, but they have no place in Japan's smile. "I will not," he answers calmly, not caring if they hear him or not. His house is made of wood and pride and nationalistic stubbornness. It will not fall so easily.
A beam crashes to the ground not half a metre away, knocking ash and civilian casualties into the air.
He doesn't give in. Japan kneels in a burning house and keeps the door locked as everything begins to fall apart around him in the B-29 madness become reality.
Yes, he tells himself again, holding his head tall. America needs something more than a mere house fire before Kiku will let this Wolf in.
-
The Reichstag is made of bricks. So is the underground bunker where his leader commits suicide.
On the Eastern Front, Russia is knocking on his doorstep so hard it shakes the plaster from the ceiling.
"Little Pig, Little Pig- let me come in," Ivan sings, as Germany rushes to the walls frantically, futilely trying to hold his house together against mortar shells. He presses his back to the plaster, praying, scrabbling, pushing. The house groans with each steady fall of Russia's knuckles.
"No. No!" he grinds out, squeezing his eyes shut. He will not fall. He will not. He cannot. "You will… will not come in!"
There is no huff and puff. Russia doesn't need a chimney, and there is no fire here to catch the Great Bear of a Wolf that breathes down Germany's neck, no pot of soup. The Red Army blows his house down with cannons and machine guns. Ivan lifts him by his neck like a Pig and whispers gleeful Russian in his ears.
This is no fairy tale, he realises as he gazes up at the Soviet flag fluttering in the breeze. He has the blood of Germans and Jews and Russians and all the dirty salted-iron of the world dripping from his fingers onto the ruins of his house and Empire.
Ludwig's walls crumble. World War Two is no fairy-tale, and for Germany, there is no happy ending.
-
"You need new houses," the Wolves say afterwards, holding out their hands. "You need our help."
The Axis bite their tongues, swallow their empty pride and start rebuilding.
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Of straw, sticks and bricks.
Did you know?
In rural Italy, straw houses are not actually horribly rare. After the recent earthquakes, straw houses reported apparently the least damage.
The Allies landed in Italy on September the 3rd, 1943.
Japanese buildings are traditionally wooden. During WWII, America made the most of this by dropping fire-bombs.
The B-29 raids on Tokyo caused a firestorm so great that more than half of Tokyo was burned to the ground. Over a million people lost their homes. 100,000 people are thought to have died as a result- more than in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
Despite this, Japan did not surrender until the Atomic bombings, some 5 months later.
The Battle of Berlin saw Berlin fall into Russian control, and finally forced Germany to surrender in 1945. The Eastern front between Russia and Germany resulted in 30 million casualties over the course of the war.
...War is not a fairy tale.