Eagle and Dove; Germany x Reader

Chapter 21 - Dancing Flames

Chapter 21

Your head leans into his shoulders as you both watch the large Christmas tree.

Ludwig's arm pulls you close as his eyes seem to fill with conflict.

"What you want to say, you can say it now. I'll listen. It won't hurt anything," you mutter, half asleep.

"My mother," he begins slowly, "died when I was younger. Not in personification years, but when I was younger. When Prussia was still a country."

"Before the first World War?"

He nods his head.

"There were other personifications on the boat too. They lost their family as well."
You tighten slightly.

"My father, when we had gotten onto a barely full lifeboat he wanted to try and save the people who were trapped in the end of the ship..."

"He wanted to save your mother..." you whisper.

His hands curl slightly as he tries to force the words out of his mouth, "They stopped him. Canada and England's personifications. They came running. They begged. They groveled. The told my father that their brother and youngest sister had fallen overboard. They said that they promised themselves that they would save them, help them, rescue them." He takes a deep shuddering breath as your body seems to have gone cold.

This is what happened.

This is the promise my brothers had kept.

And yet, I'm refusing to keep mine.

"My father made that promise too, he promised himself he would save my mother. But they begged, and groveled, and cried. He let them have their way. That's when I realized how human a personification really is." He pauses as his eyes turn to you. "Y/n, never, in my entire life, did I expect the person I would so helplessly fall in love with I would only know for about a month. My brother always pinned me for someone who wouldn't take the next step until I knew the girl for years."

"Yeah, I thought life was going to be like that for me too."

Your eyes turned back to the Christmas tree, they seem to soften slightly.

"It's sort of sad, how there were so many personifications on that boat, and they didn't lose their lives, but the ones they loved did."

And just like the Titanic, people had claimed the ship was unsinkable.

Ludwig froze, his eyes bore into you, a secret you haven't realized yet burning in his eyes. "What was the cause of the disaster again? Engine failure?"

There was a pause before you answered honestly. "I don't remember."

His brows furrowed, a look of confusion on his face that was slowly, slowly, giving way to shock.

"Y/n, I need to talk to Gilbert."

You hold back the annoyance that was surfacing. "Now?"

"Yes. Now."

He has you scooped up into his arms, running quickly back the way you came.

"Ludwig," you whine, trying to get out of arms by flailing random limbs.

"Shh," he whispers and keeps going. He knocks into a cloaked man. He doesn't utter an apology.

"Sorry!" you shout after the cloaked man. He turns suddenly, an emerald set of eyes widen.