Healed By Love

Feather/Gilbert-Part 3

Age 2:

"Gilly?" Kylie asked, yawning. It was almost Kylie's naptime, and the both of them knew it. He was lying on his bed with her settled on his chest, the two of them watching Snow White his good friend (and her Uncle) Alfred gave them. She was using Gilbert's thumb as a pillow.

"Ja, mein madchen?" He asked.

She was suddenly happy that she recognized these German words. "Can you stay with me?"

"I vasn't planning on leaving, Schatz." He patted your head, dozing in and out of sleep himself.

Kylie always asked him that question. Prussia knew she didn't like falling asleep alone—she had nightmares often, and when he wasn't already with her, she'd try to climb into his bed or wake him up screaming—but things were slowly getting better. He could leave her alone after her were asleep, but it was getting her to calm down enough to get to the dream world that was troublesome. Naptime was always hell though, for all two-year-olds.

Today was a rare exception. She rolled over, shutting her eyes and holding her stuffed bunny closely. In her tired state, she tried hard to remember the German words. "Danke, Vati."

Prussia woke up fully at those words. "Vhat?"

"Thank you, Daddy." she said in English, figuring he didn't know the translation.

He made a small sound at this, looking at her with wide eyes. "You...You just called me Daddy?"

"Yes sir." She usually called him, and most other adults for that matter, sir or ma'am. It was an old habit from the shopkeeper, but the fact that her Onkel Ludwig had (Zio) Feli and Kiku over nearly every week for training and demanded they call him sir made her keep this habit. Even despite protests from Gilbert, who insisted she at the very least call him Gil instead.

She had stuck with the name "Gilly." When her Onkle Francis and Tio Toni teased him for this silly nickname, she not only stood up for him but had also sent an angry Gilbird at the heads.

"...In German...Und English."

"Yes sir." Your mind was going fuzzy, and you were drifting into a light slumber. "I...Liebe dich..."

His shocked expression turned into his trademark smirk as a happiness he had only felt when Germany started calling him "bruder" spread through his chest. "Kesesese~! Hey, danke! Z—th-that means a lot! Really! Ich liebe dich, Kylie! I love you too!" He bent forward to kiss her cheek, fixing her body so he could wrap a hand around her body to hold her comfortingly against his body.

Prussia came to absolutely love these moments. Kylie was young and innocent. Goodness, she had suffered terrible abuse, but she was still so young. He hadn't met very many of his citizens, much less gotten to know them, since becoming an ex-country. Technically, since joining Germany. But Prussia hadn't spent much time, if any, around kids. He had forgotten the joy they bring him. And she had definitely made him smile and laugh, and become a more responsible person, and he fell in love with her pretty quickly.

He briefly wondered what he would do when she started to age, really age, as he was centuries old but his body was definitely not, and her body would look older than his, and that was just awkward, and with this new train of thought Prussia felt himself going down a dark hole he didn't want to go down. No, he might just take up Romania's offer of casting a spell. In the ancient days, Prussia knew magic existed, and it still does in minor occurrences today. Not nearly as strong as what he heard of and witnessed hundreds of years ago, but something that could at least extend Kylie's life. If done by one of the countries who still used magic anyway, and Prussia knew of only three who still did and was only able to ask Romania. He knew Britain would cast anything if he asked, having a soft spot for her as he was the one who picked her up in the alley. Prussia was just too stubborn to ask that snob. Of course, he was a stubborn old man. Not many countries still believed in magic today—Prussia would deny it vehemently himself for questioning its existence period—and he would always laugh at Britain for trying to make everyone else believe. But to keep her by his side and alive, Prussia would swallow his pride and ask the—what did they call themselves again?—Magic Trio to cast an anti-aging spell on her.