Title: After Valentines

Chapter: Prologue

Rating: For the whole story: M. For this chapter: K

Characters: Germany-centric, with a lot of Italy, Austria, Prussia and some others.

Pairings: One sided-Germany/Italy, Others pairings (you will see, haha!)

Warning: Italy not being his kind and innocent self all the time. Emo Germany. Voluntary omission of some historical facts. Probably some mature events in next chapters.

Grammar/Spelling mistakes due to English not being my first language. Corrections are welcome.

Disclaimer: Heh, the usual stuff: Hetalia is not mine but the idea for this fanfic is, so no stealing, kay?

Prologue

In appearance, he is impressive: Tall, large at the shoulders. His face is knife-shaped, stern yet beautiful, his blue eyes seems cold like ice- sometimes it can melt- and his voice is low, strong, tuned for authority.

The image he gives of himself is not a hazard, It's no accident!

He has to be like that. He is no common human even if he look like one. He's too perfect, made of smooth lines, curves and sharp angles, handsome, just like a drawing. Maybe it is because he has been drawn, thought and made, by the men and women who are his peoples since then.

He is no man, he's the embodiment of the spirit of a nation.

He is Germany.

This is his main occupation: Being Germany and act, react, work for his peoples, his boss, his economy, everything that makes a nation go on and improve.

But Germany is not always Germany. When the working day is over, he is only Ludwig and Ludwig is human from head to toe, brain and heart.

Ludwig has dreams that doesn't concern the nation he represents, he has dreams for himself too.

But inevitably, he always have to forget them.

For the sake of being Germany.

Being what he has to be, Germany has almost no flaw. He is disciplined, hard-worker, intelligent, courageous, Altruist, very patient and everything the spirit of a strong nation like Germany should be.

If he had one flaw, it would be his lack of memory. Twice in his life he made severe mistakes because of that little problem of his.

The first time, he forgot himself.

He could not remember who he was before Germany. No one could blame him: Holy roman Empire

was dissolved in 1806, spirit splits in 300 provinces, to eventually become 'Germany' in 1871, as the first unification occurred to give him a new life at last, thanks to the one whom he called his brother: The kingdom of Prussia.

Germany's memory was blank then, and no one judged necessary to tell him about memories he no longer had.

They thought it would not matter and, if anything, it would be even good for the new nation to start anew. A new mind for a new spirit of a new nation.

Austria, France, Prussia, Hungary.

Those who had known Holy Roman Empire buried his memory and stopped to be worried about Germany's amnesia.

Maybe it was because no one knew about Holy Roman Empire's promise. The one he had made a long time ago to another nation: The northern part of Italy, a sweet person called Feliciano Vargas whom the Young Empire loved to bits.

They were still so young when Holy Roman Empire confessed his love to Italy. He had to leave then and promised he would come back to his loved one.

The day before he died, Italy wasn't even hoping for his return anymore.

Germany did not remember any of this and no one could have possibly reminded him.

Except Italy.

The day Germany met Italy, he didn't recognize him. Would have the boy of his past recognized his loved one, whom he has thought was a girl? Probably yes.

But Germany did not recognize him.

The second time Germany's memory failed him was in the year 1942.

This was really not the time to have memory failure though, Germany was at war with the rest of the world!

But Ludwig forgot he was Germany, he forgot the fact he wasn't a human.

And he allowed himself to do the most foolish thing a nation could ever do: He fell in love.

The feeling, that new, freshly born emotion, has gravitated around his mind and heart for quite a time. Lingering, brushing against the borders of his conscious, but never noticed until that one day.

Until He gave him those red roses.

The 14 th February 1942, Italy offered Germany a bouquet of red roses.

They had been friends for long and now allies in that war that was tearing the world apart.

Italy was Germany's opposite: He was, in appearance, lightheaded and clumsy, lazy and unfocused.

But also, he was like a little sunshine, never lacked energy, was always hungry-though he was a gourmet and liked Italian food only- and he was always smiling.

And even those who despised him could not deny the fact that he was beautiful. Cute, charming, friendly, no one could thoroughly hate Italy.

Most of the time, Germany considered him to be a pain! Italy never listened to orders, always wanted to have a siesta in the middle of the work day and skipped trainings whenever he had the occasion.

In warfare, he was useless. Despite of Germany's hard and long trainings, Italy was never able to fight properly. And that, mostly because he didn't want to!

Italy wanted peace and knew that war wasn't the right way to get it.

Because he was defenseless, he always had to rely on Germany to protect him and save him from dangerous situations. No matter the hour of the day, Germany would run to Italy's help whenever he called.

Germany never realized how Italy was unfair to him.

Germany would have lift mountains for Italy, his only friend would have asked. But, in return of the constant protection, Italy never lifted a finger for Germany. Twice in the first and second world war, he betrayed him.

Ludwig forgave him every time. He oversaw all the mistakes and looked past all the flaws. Blinded by his feelings, he could only see the good in him.

Until...

After Valentine.

Author note: This is only a prologue. There will be more introspection in next chapters and other pairings too.

Do not hesitate to comment and criticize (wisely)