It was, at least in his mind, arguable which day was truly the worst day of his life. Ludwig often had to think it over which he should regret most. Maybe it was two days ago when he got into a fight and won, but managed to scare even the people who had been routing for him. Or much much farther back, when out of no particular dicision what so ever he developed in his mothers womb as a boy. No, in the end it always came back to one day in the spring of his third grade year, when a pretty girl had said she loved him, yes that was the worst day ever.

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Netalia, she was by far the prettiest girl in his class, a girl that if you hadn't known her you would have gladly excepted her invitation of love. But Ludwig had known her, she was surly, and scary if you upset her, one of the reasons he always hid from her, back then he didn't want to get into fights, he was a lover, not a fighter. She had gone up to him on the playground one sunny day, telling him she loved him, and that they needed to get marred. Ludwig walked her over to one of the places none of the teachers every really looked to talk to her, if he was going to get beat up he still wanted some dignity.

"N-Netalia..." He was shaking, his cheeks burned bright red.

"Yes, husband-to-be~" She smiled at him lovingly.

"I'm sorry, Netalia, I-I really like you, but not like that..." Ludwig looked at his sneakers, waiting for her to explode. He was not dissipponted.

"You- YOU JERK!" She slammed a fist against his face and he stumbled to the ground, "WHY! WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME?"

"I'm, sorry Netalia, I just don't like girls..." Ludwig felt a stream of hot red flowing down his face from his nose, "Its not you, its-" he was yanked up by his shirt caller, he knew he didn't have much time to make his peace with the lord, or who ever might be up in heaven. He started praying in German quickly under his breath, squeezing his eyes shut, not wanting to see the end coming.

"Hey! What are you doing to Luddie?" Alfred exclamed rushing in to stop her from delivering the fatal blow, "Put him down Nataly!"

"It's Netalia!" She dropped the beaten boy and growled at the newcomer, "What ever, I'm going to find big brother." She walked away in a huff to find her stepbrother Ivan.

"Hey, you o.k. Ludwig?" Alfred nealt down next to him and observed what he was doing.

"Yeah, I'm used to taking a beating from my brother." Ludwig tried to smile, but winced as a fresh spurt of blood dripped out of his nose, "But then again, he doesn't mean to hurt me..."

"That doesn't look good, we should show the teacher-" Alfred was cut of.

"No! If my dad finds out I got beaten up by a girl he might send me to military school!" Ludwig considered that the worst case scenario, he could handle being grounded, having to do extra chore's, but his father punished him like that for the minor things, if he found out... "He can't find out!"

"Alright... Umm," Alfred snapped his fingers, "I know! We'll tell her you fell when we were chasing each other!" Ludwig stare continued, "That way your dad wont find out, and you'll get sent to the nurse!"

"That's a good idea, actually..." Ludwig was going to stand up on his own, but Alfred offered him a hand, and he took it.

"Look like your in pain." Alfred whispered to him as he lead them to the teacher, still holding Ludwig's hand tightly, "Mrs. K." Alfred said innocently, she looked to them and gasped.

"Oh my! What happened?" She crouched down to look them in the eye.

"Me 'n Luddie were playing and I ran into him," Alfred looked to him for support of the lie.

"I hit my nose on the ground... it hurts a lot." Ludwig made fake tears fall down his cheeks, "Can I go to the nurse?"

"Of course you can go, Alfred, you go with him." She rushed them inside looking worriedly at them, the boys in her class were always so clumsy.

"I can't believe that worked!" Ludwig looked at Alfred smiling.

"Yeah, it was one good plan," The boy looked back at him, "We make a good team, ya know?"

"Yeah, I guess we do~" Ludwig felt a little part of his heart get fuzzy.

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That day was the worst day of his life, not because he got beaten to a pulp by a girl, but it was because of that day, that everyday sense he has been with Alfred, clinging to each others side. Alfred wanted to be a hero, he always told that to Ludwig anyway, he had gotten sweet on his friend over the years, to such an extent that he wanted Ludwig to be closer to him than that, more than friends should be.

The second worse day of his life was of course three weeks after his tenth birthday, he and Alfred went on a pic-knick to the local park. Nether of them had innocent intentions, Ludwig had more than a slight crush on his friend, he just couldn't help it, Alfred was sweet and kind, and made him laugh. Alfred had come to love Ludwig's cute laugh, those beautiful azure eyes, and his soft golden hair, Alfred could go into such detail about Ludwig, it was almost scary. The only thing stopping them from admitting it was the fact that nether of them wanted to take the chance to ruin what they did have, but that all changed that day, well, they thought it would at least.

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"Come on Luddie~" Alfred called affectionately from the top of the hill.

"On my way!" Ludwig somehow managed to catch up to his hyper friend, "Why all the way up here, why not by the lake?" Ludwig looked toward the tree at the top of the hill and felt dread sink in. Please say they weren't here for that.

"I'm going on the suicide swing!" Alfred pointed at the rickety old piece of wood held up by cracking old rope.

The suicide swing was something idiotic young men ride on to try and impress their girlfriends, normally it does what is asked of it and whoever they show is in awe of them. But this time, it didn't.

"Alfred!" Ludwig shouted at him as the swing climbed into the air, "You'll hurt your self! Get Down!"

"I'll be fine. No one ever gets hurt on this-" Just as the swing reached it s highest, the branch gave a might creak, and the ropes snapped and Alfred was launched.

"ALFRED!" Ludwig voice came through as the world went black.

Ludwig ran as fast as he could to his friends side, doing the only thing he could do. He screamed. For help. For Alfred. He cursed god, damned the devil, blamed himself, and prayed that Alfred would be fine. For the first time in his life, Alfred, his hero, didn't seem invincible, he didn't seem immortal, he was more human than Ludwig had ever thought, and it was destroying his whole world.

He couldn't stop crying. Not when the first person found them, not as a crowd gathered, not even when the paramedics came to take Al to the hospital. They felt bad for the boy, so they let Ludwig come along. He gripped Alfred's hand, and watched him, fear playing in his eyes, tears spilling down his face, a mess was what best described him at that moment.

He didn't come to his senses until days after words. He came to in Gilbert's arms, his father glared at him from across the room, Gilbert had been holding him for three days, just after they took him away from the hospital. Ludwig didn't care what his father thought, he needed to know if Alfred was alright, and he got his answer. Not exactly.

"What happened to him!" Ludwig shouted, another burst of tears threatening to fall.

"He's alive, don't worry." Gilbert put his arms around the shaking boy, "But he won't be awake for a long time."

"What do you mean?" Di-spar painted Ludwig's expression.

"He's in a coma, he might wake up tomorrow, or in twenty years, no one knows..." Gilbert held him close again as Ludwig sobbed again. The kid had more guts than Gilbert did, he was showing their father his weakness, as if daring him to do anything about it.

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