Accidentally in Love- GerIta~


"Come on, Ludwig, let's go dance," Feliciano says, tugging impatiently on my arm. "This is a formal party and you're my date, so we have to dance!"

I heave a massive sigh. How did I end up here at Alfred's extravagant Christmas party? I mean, I know that he expects you to go if you're invited- he is an American, after all. But honestly, I wasn't even going to show up.

Well, that was until a certain idiot showed up at my dorm room yesterday morning.

I had been cleaning diligently around me and my brother Gilbert's room (we're roommates, and he's a slob) when someone slipped a pile of envelopes under my door. I guess that I should have known something was up when one of the envelopes was neon red with sparkly stickers. And I definitely should have stopped when I opened it and was showered in red, white, and blue confetti. But my curiosity got the best of me, so I unfolded it and read the contents.

"HEY DUDE, YOU LIKE TOTALLY HAVE TO COME TO MY AWESOME CHRISTMAS PARTY! ITS THIS WEEKEND! ITS A FORMAL PARTY SO BRING A DATE, OKAY?! SEE YOU THERE! -YOUR TOTALLY RADICAL FRIEND, ALFRED F. JONES (RESIDENT HERO) "

I'd initially intended not to go, since I wasn't going to be able to find a date in time, and besides, Alfred's parties were always extravagant and entirely over the top.

"Hey, Luddy!"

Startled, I turned around to find Feliciano bouncing up and down in my doorway. How did he even get in here? He doesn't live in these dorm buildings, even though he attends the same university as me. He lives in a different one, a more expensive one, where you don't have to share rooms.

"...Feliciano, what are you doing here?"

He ignores my question, letting himself into my room and flopping onto my bed.

"Hey, Ludwig?"

"...yes, Feliciano," I say absentmindedly as I attempt to clean up the confetti that that infernal American's invitation had dumped onto my floor.

"You got invited too, didn't you? To Alfred's party?"

"Ja, what about it?"

He sits up straight suddenly and shifts uncomfortably.

"Um, well, you know how it said about bringing a date...?" He trailed off, unsure, and for a little while, there was an awkward silence.

I had no idea why Feliciano would be asking me about the party specifically. Alfred probably invited everybody in the school and rented out some sort of venue. So why would he ask?

It wasn't like I was planning on attending, at least, not without a date. Unless...

"Hey, um, Feliciano?" I started to say just as Felicano spoke. "Hey, uh, Ludwig?"

I felt my face turning red. No way he'd agree, right? Besides, that would have been weird...

"N-never mind, you go first," I said to him.

He blushed and hugged his knees to his chest, awkwardly rocking back and forth on my bed.

"Um, uh, well, ah, um, er... Ludwigwillyoubemydatetotheparty?"

"...what?"

He blushed redder.

"I said... Ludwig, would you... Will you be my date to the party?"

I froze, dropping the dustpan full of confetti and spilling it's colorful contents to my floor again.

Feliciano instantly started waving his arms around and speaking rapidly, getting redder and redder by the minute. Not that I was much better as far as blushing was concerned.

"Well I mean, I just thought that maybe you didn't know who to go with and then weren't gonna go because well I know you, and then I thought, we could go together as dates or maybe even just as friends, and then you would come, and we could eat snacks and drink stuff and dance and you can have fun-" he paused for a quick breath and then continued on even more frantically.

"Because you never like to have fun and it's not good to be so serious all the time and I worry about you, but I mean, if you don't want to I understand, it's kinda weird since we're both guys, but since we're such good friends, it'd be okay-"

"J-ja."

"But if it's not it's okay- huh?! You'll go with me?" He stopped, looking at me happily.

"Ja, I... I'll be your date... Feliciano."

He grinned super wide and launched himself from my bed and straight into my arms, sending us both toppling to the floor.

"Yay!"

"Get off me, Feliciano!"

"Ludwig, Ludwig, Luddy, helloooooo?" Feliciano singsonged, waving his hand rapidly in front of my face.

I look at the hyper Italian, shaking my head to bring myself into the present again.

"Ah, yes, Feliciano?"

"Are you going to dance with me or not?"

I sigh again. "I don't know," I say.

He points to the dance floor behind us. "Come on, Luddy! Look at everyone else, they're dancing!"

I follow his arm to with my eyes. He was right; a lot of other couples are out there at the moment. I can see my brother Gilbert dancing with some blonde-haired guy. He has glasses, and I feel like I've seen him before- maybe he was in one of my classes, but I can't place his name... And Alfred is dragging a heavily blushing Arthur away from the bar, the former laughing loudly while the latter screams at him in a thick British accent.

"So, what?" I say gruffly.

"Awww, come on, why not?"

I sigh yet again. "I don't like to dance," I inform him.

"But, Ludwig,

"Please? Pretty please with pasta on top?"

I look down at him, and he opens his eyes. He doesn't do that often, they are almost always closed. His eyes are golden. They shimmer slightly, and he sticks out his bottom lip, still gripping my arm in a pleading gesture.

All in a moment, my willpower crumbles.

"Ja, sure."

"Yay! Oh, you're taller, so you lead, okay?" He chirps, grinning widely as he grabs my hand.

I nod, unable to say anything, what with my heart pounding wildly and my cheeks trying to light themselves on fire, and lead him onto the dance floor as a slow song starts up.

We dance for some time before I decide that I'm tired of it.

"I'm done dancing for now, Feli," I say. His eyes widen, and I realize that it's because I called him by the nickname he is always trying to get me to use. "Why don't you go get yourself a snack or something?"

Whatever was going through his mind about the nickname seemed to vanish as soon as I said 'snack'.

"Si! Yes sir!" He gives me a goofy salute and skips off toward the food. My eyes follow him automatically, before I catch myself and avert my eyes to the ground.

I find a table to sit at, and discover that I'm a lot more tired than I thought I was, and suddenly I'm really cold. I rest my head on my arms, using the table as a pillow of sorts. Maybe if I just close my eyes for a minute, I'll feel better...

I don't know exactly how long I was out, but it doesn't last long, because Feliciano comes back, probably with a plate heaped full of food.

"Ludwig! Ludwig? Luddy, come on, wake up you silly," he exclaims energetically. "This is a fiesta, not a siesta!"

I open my eyes, and everything in the room is slightly out of focus.

"Feliciano...?"

"Hey Ludwig, you okay?"

"Ludwig?"

"Ludwig..."

His voice fades, and I'm out cold again.

"Ludwig...?"

Someone is calling my name very quietly, and I wake up to see who it is. Everything is still a bit out of focus, but I still try to find who was talking to me. I turn around and knock somebody over.

"I- I'm so sorry," I say hurriedly, helping him up. It's the blonde kid my big brother was dancing with earlier.

"It's fine, that's not the problem." Feliciano is there too, but he doesn't look happy. In fact, both him and the blonde kid both look like they're about to cry.

"What's the matter?" I ask.

Felicano grabs my hand, squeezing it tight and pulling me towards him. I follow him across the hall over to the dance floor and see a large group of people gathered around in a circle, but there's no music and they aren't dancing. I hear muffled shouting, somebody shouting something that sounds like Alfred.

"Hey, call an ambulance, somebody!"

I think I hear Arthur's voice, also, adding to the mix.

"Yes, immediately if you please, he's not moving at all!"

I'm not sure what's happening, but it sounds like somebody is hurt or sick. But then, where's my big brother? He would normally be standing up front, directing the students in an orderly fashion. Gilbert may be disorganized, but he pulls through when it really matters. So why isn't he helping?

Something's not right here.

"Feliciano, tell me what's going on," I order shakily.

Feliciano looks up at me, and starts crying for real now, little sobs that make his whole body shake.

"It's Gilbert, it's Gilbert."

I refuse to believe him.

"W-what do you mean, it's Gilbert?!" I demand.

"It's Gilbert," he repeats, tears falling faster now.

I run as fast as I possibly can to to the people gathered around and shove my way through them.

"Move!" I order over and over again until I reach the center.

It's Gilbert.

He's collapsed on the floor, not moving.

"Big bruder," I say, scooting towards him and shaking his shoulder. "Big bruder?"

"Gilbert, wake up, please!" I think I'm crying, too, and everything else becomes a stop-motion blur.
People in blue scrubs arrive shortly after, pushing their way through the horrified crowd with a stretcher in tow. I think one of them leans down to take his pulse and I'm scared, so scared I can't breathe or stop crying.

"Please wake up, Gilbert, big bruder!"

The doctor looks at me sadly and shakes her head, and I grab her by the shoulders.

"Please say he's okay, please, he's got to be okay, please!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but he's-"

"No, he's got to be okay, he's mein precious big bruder!"

I'm screaming in outrage and trying to claw past them to get to him, because surely they're kidding and he's fine, and it's just a joke, a sick joke, but a joke.

"Ludwig, stop it, please," he says tearfully, and I'm crying too. We sit there for a while, horrified, as we watch them take my big brother away, and then...

Blackness.


When I wake up, I'm covered in a cold sweat and gasping for breath. Once I've caught it again I look around, examining my surroundings. I'm in someone's room, not mine- it's too messy- but it's not that bad. I'd call it well lived in, even for a dorm room. The bulletin board has beautiful little sketches tacked up. There's a white noise machine on the nightstand, mimicking a light spring rainstorm. And the bed is comfortable too, much more than mine. The sheets are silky and soft and the whole thing is warm. Feliciano sighs lightly and snuggles close to me, murmuring something under his breath.

Wait.

What.

Why the hell am I in Feliciano's bed?!

He yawns and open his eyes.

"Good morning Ludwig," he says groggily. "Are you feeling any better?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you were passing out at the party last night, so I brought you back to my room to help take care of you!"

I nod and try to stand up. The blood rushes to my head and I have to sit back down.

"Woah there, take it easy, okay Ludwig?"

"J-ja..."

Feliciano gets up and heads to the bathroom, rummaging around in the cabinet for a few minutes before returning with a small white plastic thing in his hand. He presses a button and it beeps twice.

"Open up, Luddy, I'm going to take your temperature~"

Reluctantly, I allow him to stick the thermometer under my tongue. He hums a little tune while he holds it there. After a while the thermometer makes some more beeping noises and he removes it from my mouth, bringing it closer to his eyes so he can read the number.

"Oh no, it's at 38.2. You must feel pretty crappy, huh?"

I didn't really realize it before, what with being wrapped in blankets and... sharing the bed with Feliciano... I hadn't realized how cold I felt.

"Ja, I guess, but I'll be fine, probably. I just need to go back to mein room und rest."

"Nope," Feliciano answers immediately. "I can't let you do that."

"Why not?"

"Because, Ludwig, you're too sick and I've already told Gilbert you'll be staying here with me to get better!"

Wait, Gilbert? The party... Everything from last night comes back to my brain in a sickening flash.

"Gilbert! Is Gilbert... Is he- is he okay?" I ask frantically.

"Oh, Gilbert? Yeah, he's okay, why wouldn't he be?" Feliciano asks, confused.

"He didn't- he was fine at the dance? He passed out, wasn't breathing, the ambulance came, but he's fine?"

"...Gilbert never passed out at the dance, Ludwig. He was just fine. You, on the other hand... I found you unconscious at the table."

I'm shuddering all of a sudden and I hate it, this anxious feeling of fear that comes with nightmares.

"You had a nightmare, didn't you?"

I nod again, turning the idea over and over in my mind. A nightmare... I don't get them very often at all, but I hope that's all this is.

"I know how to make nightmares go away," he says softly.

I look up at him and he sits down beside me on the bed and wraps his arms around me.

My body is momentarily filled with warmth and somehow I can feel my worries slipping away, one by one.

"There, all better, right?" He asks me hopefully.

"J-ja. Thank you... Feliciano."

He smiles and gets up suddenly.

"I'm going to make you some soup, okay? Soup with pasta in it, because pasta makes everything better!"

He skips all the way to the small kitchen in the corner of his room and starts grabbing ingredients. I lean back against the pillow, closing my eyes. I'm so tired and so cold... Maybe a little nap would make me feel better. As I drift off to sleep I hear something being chopped in the kitchen, and Italy singing something.

"In the meadow we can build a snowman, then pretend that he is Parson Brown. He'll say 'are you married?' We'll say 'no, man', but you can do the job while you're in town..."

His voice is somewhat soothing, and I'm back asleep in no time. This time I dream of nothing at all.