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Reich was walking towards his father's office when he heard someone in there, one of the people was of course his father while the other one he wasn't so sure, he didn't recognize the voice at all, in fact he assumed it was someone he has never heard or seen before. Usually he would just leave and wait for his father to finish his work - after all this particularly was a busy season, the entire great war was taking a great toll on his father - but this time he stayed, curious to what his father was discussing.
“Thank you sir, really without your support this wouldn't be happening” the other person said, they had a recognizable enough accent to tell it's Russian which peaked Reich's interest even more, after all his father didn't hate anyone more than Russian Empire himself “but I have one more final request”
“What is it, Soviet?” German Empire responded, the name didn't any bells, neither did it exactly sound like a name so naturally he assumed it was a weird Russian surname and continued listening
“While we have everything covered there's one issue, the uniforms, especially mine” Soviet explained “I don't think this is exactly the greatest thing to lead a revolution… Neither would be an Imperial Russian officer uniform” the word revolution really piqued Reich's interest, after all this was no longer just a normal exchange, this was something more it meant his father was helping a revolution happen! One that would most likely put an end to Russian Empire… but why do it in the middle of a great war? Even though he couldn't quite understand how this made any strategical sense he continued to listen
German Empire sighed “you're right, besides it could cause unnecessary issues” as his father spoke Reich couldn't stop himself from knocking on the door and entering the office
“Hello father” Reich said
“Ah, son, don't be shy, come in” German Empire said, his expression immediately becoming much softer. Reich looked over at the man standing in front of his father, he had red hair reaching his shoulders, a simple shirt and a jacket that most definitely wasn't the greatest quality, some average pants and high shoes. The man had a red flag just like Reich and was quite tall, easily towering over him, Soviet didn't even say hello, neither did Reich. They simply looked at each other for a brief amount of time. “Reich, why don't you help him out?” German Empire asked his son
“Me?” Reich looked at his father confused and surprised
“Yeah, this young man needs a good military uniform. Could you help him get one?” German Empire explained “He's around your age, besides making allies early is important for when you're a country”
“I told you already dad, I have no wish to take over the country from your ruling” Reich crossed his arms “I believe that you are more than enough for this land”
“You know my time will come eventually son” German Empire stood up from his office chair and walked up to his son putting a hand on his shoulder. Reich looked away not meeting his father's eyes, he knew his father was right and yet he chose to believe it wouldn't end up like this “I believe you'll make an amazing leader, but first you need to meet the aspiring new ruler of the Russian land” he pointed at Soviet
“Name's Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I'm not set on that name yet though so… just call me Soviet” the Russian said, reaching out his hand in the form of a handshake.
Reich looked at him up and down and then shaked his hand “My name's just German Reich, everyone calls me Reich though”
“Now isn't this amazing, I'm sure you'll be great allies in the future, now Reich, Soviet, I'm sending you two off” German Empire patted both of their backs before leading them out of his office.
Both of them stood in silence in front of German Empire’s office, neither of them really wanted to say a single word, to Reich this was an awkward situation pushed by his father who believes he must rule one day and to Soviet it too was an awkward situation pushed by German Empire but to him it's because he's with someone probably around 14 who's forced to help him find a uniform and with how much against the idea of ruling this kid was Soviet wasn't sure if he can get anything good out of this. The two occasionally looked at each other but most of the time they were pretending that the paintings on the walls - most of which were drawn by Reich - were the most interesting thing they have ever seen. While they could've been that to Soviet, for Reich it wasn't that amusing to look at paintings he spent hours on himself, sadly the Russian wasn't exactly interested in art so for both of them it couldn't have been more boring.
Finally Soviet decided to speak up to break the silence “So, how old are you?”
Reich looked at him confused as ever, you could even see slight offense in his expression “What kind of question is that?!” he raised his voice slightly
“I don't know…” Soviet shrugged “You look… 14… I don't think a 14 year old can help me…”
“I'm 16 if anything.” Reich responded “...more in countryhuman years but we both know that wasn't what you meant” he added a little later
“Wait, like seriously?” Soviet looked at him shocked, probably expecting Reich to say how it's a joke and he isn't actually 16, sadly he didn't hear that, instead he got Reich's now absolutely furious expression.
He sighed after he quickly calmed down and then started walking away “Come on” he looked back at Soviet “Ain't no way you're fitting in any of dad's clothes we'll need to buy something for you”
And so the two set off after Soviet quickly caught up to the shorter one, of course he still wasn't exactly thrilled to rely on someone that most definitely lied about their age but what could he do? It's not like he can figure something out back home or else he'll be caught by his dad and put to jail before he even starts thinking of planning a revolution! Well realistically he wouldn't actually, Soviet greatly overestimated his father's abilities which he only found out later after he started the entire thing, turns out his father went down… disappointingly fast… unfortunate as it was to Soviet from the future he wasn't aware of this now and thought something as simple as this would've gotten him locked up for good.
The two were walking around town on their way to a tailor that Reich knew was in charge of making all of his dad's custom uniforms, well most of them at least, the guy wasn't alive long enough to have made German Empire's old uniforms that Prussia had made for his brother.
Of course on their way Soviet made sure Reich heard all about his little requests “It needs to be something that can handle the winter” he continued “Do you even have winter here?”
“Of course we do” and even to his own surprise, Reich answered every single one of his stupid questions
“Well I guess I told you everything then” Soviet said
“And why didn't you do it when we arrived at the tailor?” Reich asked while trying to hide his annoyance with Soviet's behavior, truly he couldn't believe this would be the next ruler of the land of Russian Empire
“Well, I don't know…” he responded, as always “Maybe because I can change my mind when we arrive, perhaps I could add some blue like America had”
“America?” Reich was surprised by the mention of him, truly he was expecting everyone to be mentioned but him
“Yeah! He's like a really cool guy, don't you know?” Soviet explained “He also started a revolution and won, oh and I bet I can make a revolution as great as his! Maybe even better!” at this point you could hear the excitement in his voice, Reich knew that no matter what he's going to say he's gonna hear America's life story if he likes it or not until they reach the tailor and Soviet would have something to shut him up
“I don't think he's that special” Reich responded “You know father wants to have Mexico attack him so he stops supporting our enemies”
“Well then your father is making a big mistake” Soviet crossed his arms
“I don't think you out of all people have a say in what he's planning, after all he's the one supporting you” Reich pointed out, in response to which Soviet just scoffed and didn't continue the topic any further, instead he started listing out all the cool and great things America has ever done and how much he aspires to be better than him. Of course this bored Reich to death as he didn't want to listen to any of this at all now or ever actually, the thought of his father implying that this is his future ally started to be more and more terrifying every second he spent with that weird America-obsessed Russian…
Finally after so long and after Reich was convinced he's gonna lose his mind they arrived at the tailor.
“Reich!” the tailor greeted him the second they entered his house “Ich habe mich endlich dazu entschlossen, mir eine eigene Uniform zuzulegen, wenn ich die Führungskraft werde? (Finally decided to get your own uniform for when you become the leader?)”
Reich shaked his head “Ich hab dir doch schon gesagt, dass ich das nie wieder tun werde, diesmal ist es für diesen Kerl (I already told you I'm never doing that, this time it's for this guy)” he pointed at Soviet standing next to him
“Hello sir” the country said
“So one uniform for this young gentleman” the tailor immediately switched to English, recognizing that Soviet isn't from around here due to the accent
“Yep” Soviet nodded “Can I list everything I want now?”
“Of course” the tailor took out a notebook and a pen
After that Soviet started describing exactly what he wants, surprisingly it wasn't anything special, he made sure to request that it looked rather simple, not standing out from an average person, what surprised Reich even more as he was listening that Soviet wanted it extra warm, he seemed like the man who wouldn't mind the cold, especially after the winter question Reich assumed he can withstand any cold temperatures, even if it's something like -40C he could absolutely imagine the Russian walking around in tall snow in nothing but a simple shirt, but here it turns out he couldn't have been more wrong. Truly it made him let out a small laugh as he imagined Soviet freezing in just -10C, of course when asked about it he brushed it off saying Soviet was just imagining him laughing. As time went on and when Soviet finally stopped talking Reich thought to himself how he shouldn't have made such a hassle to go to a tailor and would've bought it from any clothing store, after all this is much more expensive!
Then of course Soviet had to be measured, during that Reich was imagining the composition of his next painting while Soviet made sure that the tailor also heard the entire life story of United States of America…
“Come back in a week and it'll be done” the tailor said as he waved goodbye to the two countries.
“What were you two talking about?” Soviet asked as soon as the door closed behind them
“Nothing important, just the same as always bothering me about when I'm going to rule the country” Reich shrugged “None of your business, really”
“Man I wish my dad and others bothered me about all of that” Soviet said “way better than pretending I either don't exist or need to be locked up” he continued “Your father looked so happy to see you meanwhile mine shows barely any emotion if any when he sees me, he's so cold… towards everyone including me.”
“Seems like my father has a good reason to want him dead then” Reich responded
“Maybe he does” Soviet said “and you know what? I'll be the one to end his life!” he laughed, Reich didn't exactly understand what's to laugh about here but from these few hours alone he learnt to not question anything that Soviet says or does at all… or else he might regret it.