Oktoberfest

Title: Oktoberfest
Author: kira
Characters: Prussia, Gilbird, Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Lichtenstein
Challenge: Oktoberfest
Words:  3500
Rating: PG 13
Summary: Prussia and Germany are invited to Austria’s Oktoberfest party…

888

Prussia looked through the mail on his way back in the house he shared with his brother, Germany. It was mostly bills and what America referred to as “junk mail,” but one letter caught his eye. Entering the house, he dumped the mail on the console table in the foyer, except for that one letter, while the dogs greeted him enthusiastically, even though he was only gone a few minutes. Chuckling softly to himself, he wondered what that prissy old fool wanted as he opened the letter addressed to the brothers Beilschmidt. It was an invitation to an Oktoberfest party and Prussia snorted at the clip-art picture of sheaves of wheat, presumably indicating the harvest nature of the festivities, along with a picture of some beer steins and a plate of wursts.

“You’re so cute when you’re trying hard…”

He read the invitation, noting the date and time as he headed into the kitchen. Prussia was about to dismiss it as something stupid and boring, especially when he read the postscript written in Austria’s elegant script.

Germany, I hope you’ll wear your lederhosen and please tell Prussia it’s okay if he comes in jeans and a t-shirt as I know, being Prussian, he wouldn’t be caught dead in them. Please help Italy get a pair if he asks, and yes, I invited him too.

Prussia laughed when he read that. You’re damn right; I wouldn’t be caught dead in them! Wait! Ita-chen was invited…? Does this mean you’ve invited Hungary too…? As he hung the invitation on the fridge, he wondered if he should invest in a pair of the leather breeches. Even though he would have felt stupid wearing them, he remembered his brother and Austria mentioning they were seen as a sign of virility. If there was one thing Prussia was not going to take lightly, it was that prissy old fool Austria looking more virile than him, especially if Hungary was around.

Grabbing a beer from the fridge, he opened it and headed downstairs to his room in the basement. Once there, he sat at his desk and turned on his laptop. Surfing the ‘net, he found several sites on lederhosen, and opening each one, he read up on them while he drank his beer. “What do you think, Gilbird?” he said to the little yellow bird sitting on his head. “Think I’d look awesome in them?”

Gilbird cheeped in reply.

“Then it’s settled! As soon as West gets home, we’ll go to Munich and get me a pair!” Prussia finished his beer. Opening up another browser window, he went to his blog to update it.

Hey there! Today the awesome me, despite my proud Prussian heritage, has decided to take a trip to Munich with my brother and get a pair of lederhosen. My Austrian cousin is throwing this Oktoberfest party and well, how unawesome would I be if I didn’t look the part? I’ll be sure to take a ton of pix!!

The Awesome Me

888

“Put that down, West, we’re going to Munich!” Prussia said to Germany when he walked in the house.

Germany blinked. “Munich?” He sighed softly. “Who called while I was out?” Germany set his briefcase down in hall and greeted his barking pack of dogs.

“No one.”

“Then why are we going to Munich, or shouldn’t I ask?” Germany loosened his tie while he waited for answer he was not sure he wanted to hear.

“Austria’s throwing an Oktoberfest party and we’re invited, so hurry up and get changed; our flight leaves in three hours, which should just give us enough time for you to get dressed and us to get to the airport.” He added at the look his brother gave him, “And don’t worry about the dogs, Ita-chen said he’ll come over and babysit.” Prussia beamed at him. “It’s only overnight. I’ve got a room booked for us and everything’s all taken care of.”

Germany let out a long suffering sigh. “And if I say, ‘no’?”

Prussia frowned. “You won’t.”

“I’m tired, Brüder, and I have a ton of work to do this weekend.”

“You work too much, West. Even that prissy old fool can see it. That’s why he invited us to that party. He tried really hard too, you should see the invitation; it’s got this cute harvest theme with sheaves of wheat, some beer steins, and a plate of wurst on it. I can’t believe he actually figured out how to do stuff like that on his computer. Hell, I can’t believe he’s actually figured out how to use a computer!” Prussia laughed. “Now go upstairs and hurry up and get changed, you don’t want to be late.”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” Germany said as the thought of his brother running around, making a nuisance of himself in Munich, was not a pleasant one.

“Nope!” Prussia grinned and that was how Germany found himself, some five hours later, in a nice comfy hotel room in Munich.

They sat in the hotel’s bar, waiting for their dinner to arrive, and Germany had to admit it was nice to see how efficiently his brother had planned their little excursion. Prussia had figured they would start with the closest of several shops selling lederhosen, which were all within walking distance of the hotel. If all went well, they could spend the rest of their day sightseeing, before heading home.

“It should be fun,” Prussia said, and picking up his beer, he drank. “I went to his Hanukah party last year and that wasn’t half bad, even if was only the two of us.” He grinned.

“I’m sorry; I had other plans I couldn’t get out of.”

“I know and so did he, West. While it would have been nice if you and Ita-chen were there, I think he really missed Hungary not being there.”

Germany nodded.

They chatted over dinner and when it was finished, they went back to their room to retire for the night.

888

They stepped out of the hotel into the crisp September morning and headed down the street to the little shop that sold custom-made lederhosen. The brothers walked the streets of Munich, pausing every so often to look at the displays in the shops advertizing the upcoming Oktoberfest celebration. Even though Oktoberfest was still a month away, there was a party atmosphere in the streets that had both brothers looking forward to Austria’s party. Rounding the corner, they found the little shop Prussia was looking for and entered. Inside, they were greeted by the shopkeeper and it was not long before they got down to the business at hand.

“I’d like to get a new pair of lederhosen,” Prussia said. “I’m not sure of my size.”

Germany raised an eyebrow over the mention of “new” since he knew that Prussia had never owned a pair in the first place.

The shopkeeper looked Prussia up and down, and walked over to where several pairs were hanging on a rack. “These are for the tourists, but please, try on a few so I can get an idea of the fit. Will you need both long and short pairs?”

“Long,” Germany answered for him. The last thing he wanted was for his brother to start mouthing off about leather hot pants and sissies, and creating an incident.

Prussia briefly looked over at him, before turning to the shopkeeper. “Long,” he repeated. Armed with several pairs of lederhosen, Prussia took off for the fitting rooms. While he was trying them on, Germany looked around the shop, while making small talk with the shopkeeper.

“My brother has a small farm and they grow mainly hops along with some barley,” the shopkeeper told him. “He’s got a few milk cows too.”

Germany nodded.

“He was telling me, they had a good harvest this year.”

“Yeah?”

The shopkeeper nodded. “He makes his own beer for Oktoberfest just like our father used to and his father and his father.” He smiled. “When the beer’s ready to be tapped, my wife and I’ll go over to his farm for a few days and we’ll have a small party to celebrate.”

“Sounds like fun,” Prussia said as he stepped out of the dressing room.

Germany smiled in amusement at his brother’s appearance. Even though he was just as German as he was, Prussia somehow managed to look like an American tourist. He thought all his brother needed was a ridiculously large beer stein in one hand and a wurst sandwich in the other.

“What do you think, West?” Prussia asked while the shopkeeper fussed with the lederhosen, took a few measurements, and wrote down some notes.

“I think,” Germany began, the side of his mouth twitching upwards in a brief, amused smirk. “You look awesome.”

Prussia cackled. “Think she’ll like them?”

“She’ll love them,” Germany replied.

While Prussia went to get into his street clothes, his brother paid for them. Mission accomplished, they did a bit of sightseeing, before heading home.

888

Austria’s Oktoberfest party was in full swing when they got there, as some of his guests had arrived early. Not that the brothers minded in the least. While everyone made a fuss over Prussia’s lederhosen, Austria, ever the perfect host, went and got them each a glass stein full of Vienna lager.

“Hey, Hungary!” Prussia called out as he walked over to her.

She turned at the sound of his voice in time to see him raise his stein to her. Shaking her head at him, she said, “Prussia.”

He grinned at her. “Whadda you think?” he asked, indicating his outfit.

Hungary drank her beer. “Well…”

“I look too virile for words, right?”

She laughed. “You could say that.”

His grin turned into his familiar smirk as he looked over at Austria. “I look better than he does.”

“Sure you do,” Switzerland said as he walked past, his younger sister Lichtenstein following closely behind him.

“I think he looks cute,” Lichtenstein said, getting an angry frown from her brother.

“Hey! I look good and you know it!” Prussia said. “By the way… where are your lederhosen?”

Switzerland paused. Looking over his shoulder, he said, “I wouldn’t be caught dead in those things; they’re not Swiss.” He looked Prussia up and down. “I wasn’t aware they were Prussian.”

“They’re not… I’m just wearing them cuz West is and so is Specs.”

“And he’s really wearing them because I asked him to,” Hungary added, much to Prussia’s surprise.

Switzerland snorted in reply. “Come, Lilly,” he said to his sister, using her human name. “Let’s go over to the refreshment table.”

As the two of them headed over to where Austria stood with Germany and Italy, Prussia turned to Hungary. His look of surprise was quickly replaced with a knowing smirk.

Hungary smirked right back at him. “Before your ego gets too big, I just said that because I didn’t want you starting some shit over nonsense.”

“Oh…”

It was all she could do to keep from laughing at the play of emotion that flitted across his face. “Seriously, I’m glad you did. “

“Yeah?” He frowned, wondering where this was going.

“You really do have nice legs.”

“Danke.”

“Bitte sehr,”she said with a smirk and he laughed.

“You look awesome tonight,” Prussia said and she smiled.

“Thanks…”

“You’re welcome,” Prussia said as an awkward silence threatened to come between them. “So um… Did that old fool make any wursts for his lil harvest-fest?” He lifted the stein to his lips and drank.

“Yeah…” Hungary said as she gave him “The Look.”

“Sorry, Austria.”

Hungary snorted. “You have changed one bit, have you?”

“No need to change when you’re this awesome.” Prussia smirked. “You’ve changed though, and for the better too.”

She blinked in surprise. “I did?”

“Yeah…  Instead of growing a penis, you’ve grown a nice rack,” his expression softened, “And I think it suits you better.”

“Thanks…”

“Let’s go eat.”

“Okay,” she said as they wandered over to the buffet table.

888

“I just realized something,” Switzerland said, “you throw a better Oktoberfest party than America.”

“Yeah?”

Switzerland nodded. “You remember his party, it was vaguely related to the harvest with silly oompah music and something he called ‘hot-dogs’ instead of wursts.”

“That’s right! And we drank out of plastic beer steins.” Austria laughed.

“Hey! The kid tries hard, just like you do, Specs,” Prussia said as he and Hungary walked over to them, a plate full of food in one hand and his stein full of beer in the other. “So what if you actually know what Oktoberfest is and he thinks it’s another holiday where you get drunk, which isn’t a bad idea if you ask me.” Balancing his plate on top of his stein, Prussia grabbed the wurst filled pretzel bun and took a bite.

Switzerland snorted.  “What I don’t get is why is he celebrating a defeat? I can understand the getting drunk over it, but still.”

“Hunh?” Prussia frowned.

“You know that spring holiday with the Mexican hats? Although, I like his other holiday better where everyone wears green.”

“And they drink green beer,” Austria added.

“Sacrilege!” the three of them chorused.

Hungary laughed. “That’s Saint Paddy’s day.” They looked at her like she had three heads. “The other one is Cinco de Mayo. America chatted me up at the World 8 End of Summer Mixer. His people have a lot of strange holidays, but they sound like fun. You know, next time he hosts a meeting, we should all stay a bit and get him to show us around. He always hangs out afterwards whenever we host one.”

“Yeah! He’s not a bad kid at all,” Prussia said. He had fond memories of himself and some of his other brothers training America during the Revolutionary War. “It’ll be awesome as he likes to party!”

“I don’t know…” Austria said.

“Don’t be such a wuss, Specs. While this isn’t a bad party, considering it’s being thrown by you, it could be livelier.” Prussia set his wurst sandwich down and removed the plate from the top of his stein and drank.

“I think it’s a great party,” Hungary said. “Everyone’s here like in the old days.”

Prussia laughed. “Yeah… A pity we couldn’t have dressed Ita-chen in a dirndl,” he smirked, “I think my brother would have loved that.”

Switzerland snorted in disgust.

“Yeah…” Hungary smiled. “He was so cute back then, still is.”

“What I find amazing is that no one figured it out that he wasn’t a little girl,” Prussia said. He laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Austria asked.

“Your ex-wife when she was little wanted to be a girl with a penis.”

Austria blushed.

“Hey! For a girl without a penis, I sure kicked your ass plenty of times!” Hungary said.

“That’s cuz I was awesome enough to let you.” Prussia smirked.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Hungary softened her remark with a smile.

Prussia smiled back at her. Lifting his stein, he silently toasted her.

888

Germany briefly looked over at his brother, who was standing there, talking with Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. Little bits of their conversation caught his attention, making it hard to focus on what Italy was saying. Things had started out innocently, he supposed as he heard someone say “harvest” and “party,” but if he was not mistaken, he could have sworn he heard Prussia say something about Ita-chen, a dress, and a penis. Germany knew if he was not holding onto a beer stein and a plate of potato salad and wursts he would have been hiding his face in his palm. Hearing Lichtenstein giggle, did not help any as the color rose in his cheeks.

“Please don’t worry about it, Herr Germany,” Lichtenstein said softly. “Fräulein Hungary isn’t upset and your brother isn’t bleeding.”

Germany nodded dumbly at her, too mortified to speak.

“Worry about what?” Italy asked.

“Nothing,” Germany said. “Now hurry up and go get something to eat so we can sit down and hear the rest of your story.”

“Okay!” Italy, who did not need to be told anything twice when food was involved, hurried over to the buffet table.  He returned a few minutes later, with a plate piled high with what he liked to call Germany’s comfort food and a boot full of beer. The three of them then walked over to where Austria had set up a couple of card tables and sat down to eat.

Germany found it much easier to ignore his brother’s nonsense while in such pleasant company. As he relaxed, the food started tasting better and he found he drank less too. It was also easier to make small talk, something he was loathe to do, but Italy’s easy going nature and Lichtenstein’s sweetness helped loosen his tongue, although, Prussia would have attributed that to beer he drank. He laughed at Italy’s story about their first Oktoberfest together. Germany realized with a start that he must have been having a good time because it felt like they had just sat down five minutes ago, when he noticed Austria wheeling out a dessert cart. It was full of dainty Viennese cakes and cookies, and he recognized the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte Austria had asked him to make.

“Anyone feel like some dessert?” Germany asked.

“Yes!!” Italy cried. “Did you help Sig. Austria make them?”

“Only the Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.”

“Oooh, I’d like to try that,” Lichtenstein said. “Whenever he comes over to visit my brother, Herr Austria always brought some cake or cookies that he’d made. While they’re good, I think I want to try something different.”

“They’re all good!” Italy said.

They each got up and headed towards the dessert cart. Once there, everyone took a plate and filled it with something they wanted to sample. Germany noticed there was also a coffee urn, and after setting his plate down on the table, he went to get each of them a cup. Despite his brother’s antics, he was actually having a good time.

888

While everyone was enjoying their desserts, Austria sat at the piano and played a selection of folk songs about the harvest, pretty girls, and one Prussia had called a good drinking song. He prided himself on being a good host, who knew how to keep a party going, despite Prussia’s efforts to teach everyone a game America had taught him called “Quarters.” He made a mental note find smaller steins and boots for next year, as well as making sure Hungary kept plying Prussia with wursts to soak up the alcohol. Without giving it a second thought, he began playing a waltz.

“Wanna dance?” Prussia asked Hungary.

“Since when do you know how to waltz?” she replied.

“Since Old Fritz made me learn before we went to Versailles.” Prussia got up and held his hand out to her.

“Yeah?” Hungary said as she stood and took it.

“I’m an awesome dancer,” he smirked, “if I may say so myself.” He led her out onto the makeshift dance floor.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Prussia swept her into his arms and they danced. Hungary could not help smiling, while she had seen his dance number with India at last year’s Halloween party, she never figured he would be able to dance with her and not tread all over her toes. He smiled his trademark smirk at her and for one brief shining moment, Hungary wished they had not been at odds with each other during the height of the waltz.

“I told you I could dance.”

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Hungary teased.

Prussia snorted. “I’d say it was awesome.”

It was her turn to snort. “You say everything you do is awesome.”

“That’s cuz I’m an awesome guy!” they chorused.

Hungary laughed. She had to admit that he could be pleasant company when he wanted to, especially when he was not trying. When the waltz ended, she thanked him for the dance. Watching as he wandered over to Lichtenstein, Hungary saw him lead her out onto the dance floor, not for a waltz, but for a lively Polka, much to Switzerland’s annoyance.

All too soon, the party ended. The German brothers made their goodbyes, and they headed out into the night. Germany carried a tired Italy on his back and felt the smaller country shiver in the crisp autumn air. As they walked along, Prussia kept up a running commentary about the evening’s events.

“Did you see how awesome I looked out there, dancing with the girls?”

“Yeah…”

“I can’t believe Specs gave us some cake to take home and the steins too. I was kinda hoping he’d give us some beer to go in them, but what do expect from that tight-wad aristocrat? I suppose we’re lucky he didn’t charge admission.”

“Yeah...”

“And didn’t Lichtenstein look cute in her dirndl?”

“Yeah…”

“And who knew Hungary could dance so awesomely?”

“Yeah…”

“Are you even paying attention, West?”

“Yeah… It was an awesome Oktoberfest and I’m glad you had fun.”

“Yeah…”