Brown is the Earth, Soil, and Dried Blood [CountryHumans]

Epilogue pt 1

States watched West Germany scuttle back and forth between desk and cabinet, taking phone calls one after the other, barely catching a breath. He was starkly reminded of his birth father, the Weimar Republic who scuttled around in an almost identical fashion, only that he was a lot more tired than his son. 

West was dealing with the brunt of the work after USSR somehow managed to convince East to start constructing a wall to separate the twins' capital, Berlin. States couldn't help but feel like it was his fault, considering the recent falling out he had with the communist, feeling as if he failed to deescalate the situation, only fanning the flames of war. If the Soviet Union had a problem with him "misleading" him (he originally did, though it seemed that Union was misled for an entirely different reason than he originally intended), States preferred if they would've duked it out in some other proxy war that did not involve Europe so that it wouldn't be as economically damning as anywhere else. And also because States couldn't help but feel pity for the country in front of him.

West Germany (and East) decidedly did not have a "second" parent, not officially at least, but the role was split between States, France, and Britain as they were mostly the ones who had any sort of "intimate" relations with the Weimar Republic in that sense (none of them were good parents but… there was an attempt). States tried his best though because he was sure that West and East were his own sons and while his relationship with Weimar quickly deteriorated due to the, um, depression, he couldn't get himself to become completely apathetic to the situation of his own children, after all, he too was once a young country like them. 

So States tried his best to comfort the overworked country in front of him.

"I'm sorry about what's happening to you and your brother."

West sighed. Not this again. "What for? It's not like this was your fault."

Maybe it really was. States couldn't say that though lest he exposed all the skeletons in his closet. Also, somehow, he was not quite ready to talk about his previous relationship with the Soviet Union, not without his guts churning inside out and his eyes burning at least. States elected to nudge the topic a bit to the left.

"Do you ever miss your twin?" 

West furrowed his brow in confusion. "Twin? East? He's not my twin."

"What?" 

"Why does everyone think he's my twin?" West grumbled to himself. "No, he isn't. I didn't even know I had a brother until USSR introduced him to the world."

"So… your father… Weimar Republic never had…"

"I think I'd know if I had a twin brother." West replied coldly. "And stop calling him that, it's a bit insulting, at least to his memory."

"What should I call him then?"

"I don't know, like everyone else does. Third Reich. Or Deutsches Reich for all I care."

"Third? Isn't that his brother?"

West threw him a quizzical look. "Why does everyone think that?" 

States felt like someone threw a brick at his head. "I… don't know…"

Why did everyone assume that?

Okay. Two things. 

First. The world knew that the Weimar Republic's health steadily declined during the depression (alongside with the rumour that he was pregnant which again was true as States was sure West was his child). They knew that the republic died in a fire back in '33, the infamous Reichstag Fire. Everyone knew he was succeeded by another country incarnate who then took on the name Third Reich. 

Sure, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich did look similar (save for the scars and the difference in hair and eye colours) yet no one had the foresight of actually considering the two country incarnates were the same person (States just assumed they were siblings!). Third most certainly spoke as if Weimar was a different entity, separate from him, blamed and dragged his name in the mud as if the Republic wasn't him. They acted starkly different. Maybe that was why the world assumed what they knew now…

But if they were the same person, then that meant… 

It felt like States had finally unravelled the last of the matryoshka dolls, grabbed the stubborn last piece and wrenched it open to unveil a broken heart. This was the second thing.

States stared dumbfounded at his drink, the words of the Soviet Union ringing in his mind.

"You're not him…"

Him. 

The man Union saw whenever he looked at States. The man that he loved so much and the man that he could never be—

It was Reich. 

________

A/N:

Here's the Reich's appearance change throughout the years. After the fire his hair turned grey with stress, which I like to think he dyed blonde at some point. So the "difference", in "Weimar" and "Third's" appearance mentioned above is this.