FULL SUMMARY

You'd think that being a prince would be great. Living in Luxury, hardly ever working, and being able to make any law you want. But Prince Ludwig Beilshmidt doesn't think so. In truth, he finds it boring. Contrary to popular belief, being a prince is extremely hard work, especially when you have so many people watching you, just waiting for you to mess up. Ludwig's life is comfortable, but dull. That is, until he befriends a servant named Feliciano Vargas, who manages to bring light into his life in a way he never expected. Ludwig suddenly begins to think that he may even be in love with the boy. But with an appending war, an incredibly strict father, and someone who has already been promised to marry him, will there even be time for love?

Being a prince was not all it cracked up to be.

You'd think that being a prince would be one of the most interesting jobs in the world. But Ludwig certainly didn't think so. Maybe it was because he'd been doing it since he was born, or maybe it because stressful paperwork, always trying to impress other people, and constant nagging from your father wasn't exactly Ludwig's thing. But it wasn't like he had a choice, anyway.

Really, he should be thankful. His brother had been so troublesome that his father had kicked him out of the palace. Ludwig hadn't seen Gilbert since he was seven. Even talking about his older brother was forbidden. Ludwig's father said that was for the best anyway. Because he'd been older, Gilbert would have been king, and Ludwig's father told him that he would be a better fit for a king anyway.

That was, if Ludwig's father ever gave up his crown.

Ludwig sighed, running a hand through his hair and looking down at the massive amount of paperwork he had left to do. It wasn't as if any of this stuff was important anyway. No, all the important paperwork went to Ludwig's father and his advisers. Which was understandable, except it left Ludwig with all the less-important stuff. Like tedious things that needed to be signed and small requests from the people.

Requests from the people were Ludwig's least favorite job. Because while it was his job to "pick out the requests of the the people that could be considered for laws," he knew his father would deny them all anyway.

Just then, there came a knock at the door. Ludwig called for them to come in, and the door opened to reveal one of the servants.

She curtsied quickly. "I'm sorry to disturb you your majesty, but the king would like to speak with you immediately." She said, shuffling her feet nervously. "He says it's urgent."

"Oh, okay. That's fine." Ludwig said, setting down the papers in his hands and standing up. It probably wouldn't seem like much to someone else, but Ludwig was extremely relieved he got to leave the stuffy room, even though it would probably be only for a few moments. He asked the maid were his father was, and she told him that he was in his study. Ludwig thanked her and was on his way.

As he walked down the spacious hall of the castle, he couldn't help but wonder what 'urgent' news his father had for him this time. With any luck, it'd be something good, though it wasn't likely. Probably having to do with the war between their kingdom and the Russian kingdom. It had started a couple of years before Ludwig was born, even though there'd been a rivalry between the Russian Kingdom and many other kingdoms for a very long time. From what Ludwig could remember from his history lessons, the Russian Kingdom had gained many enemies since the reign of the Bravinsky family began. Part of this had probably been due to the fact that they were the reason for world war III and were on the verge of starting the fourth one. But hey, Ludwig had heard that they weren't very likeable people. Maybe that was it.

However, while many small kingdoms were still angry about WWIII and were willing to help the Germanic Kingdom if they did go to war, some of the larger kingdoms weren't interested in going to war again so soon. But while the Germanic kingdom had a strong army and was regarded by many as a strong power, they still need the help of other large kingdoms if they wanted to beat the Russians.

At the moment, the Asian Kingdom was the only one showing any interest at all in siding with them. And while they were certainly helpful, the real target was getting the English to side with them. However, at this point Ludwig was pretty sure his father would take what he could get.

Finally, he reached his fathers's study. He knocked on the door, and his father called for him to come in. He opened the door, straightening his back as he centered the room.

"Hello father." Ludwig said. His father was sitting at his desk holding his head in one of his hands, staring intently at his paperwork. He looked up at him, his expression unchanging.

"Oh, finally." The king said, standing up from his seat, "Listen, an emergency meeting with the Asians has come up."

Ludwig internally sighed. Yup, that was his father. Not even time for a hello, just straight to business. "I see. And we are meeting them...?"

"Here." His father said, grabbing the papers off his desk. "They should be arriving any minute now."

Ludwig's eyes widened. They were meeting them now? Why was he just now being told of this?

"Hurry up and go make yourself presentable."His father told him, "Straighten your coat, fix your hair, all that. Meet me in the meeting room in five minutes." He then walked out of the room, leaving Ludwig all alone.

Ludwig sighed. "Yes sir." He said, even though he knew his father couldn't hear him. He hated that he was just now being told about this. Even though it was an unplanned meeting, the Asians would have called before they got on a plane, and it took them a couple of hours to get here. Ludwig would have appreciated a few hours notice. But whatever.

He walked out into the hall and towards his room, wondering if Sakura would be there. Sakura was the princess of Asia, and his father had implied on a couple of occasions that Ludwig would probably be married to her someday. He certainly didn't mind. Sakura was a lovely girl who was very honorable and who loved her country. But for some reason, Ludwig thought that if he wasn't a prince, and he had a choice of who to marry, Sakura wouldn't be his choice. It wasn't that she was bad, it was just that she didn't seem right for Ludwig.

Ludwig dismissed the thought. He would love her if he had to. He was used to not being able to control his life.

Finally, Ludwig reached his room. He opened the door, only to find one of his servants, Elizaveta, making the bed. When she heard him come in, she turned around, smiling and standing up a little straighter.

"Hello, your majesty." She said.

Ludwig rolled his eyes, walking over to his mirror. "Cut the crap, Eliza."

Eliza laughed. "Alright, Lud. What's got you in a bad mood?"

"First of all, don't call me that."

Eliza sighed in fake exasperation, putting her hands on her hips. "If I can't call you your majesty, and I can't call you Lud, what am I supposed to call you?"

Ludwig looked in the mirror, trying to fix his hair. "Ludwig is just fine." He said, "And I'm in a bad mood because my father called a meeting without telling me."

"He didn't tell you about that?" Eliza asked, going back to making the bed.

Ludwig turned around to look at her. "You knew?"

Eliza smiled. "No."

Ludwig rolled his eyes again, turning back to the mirror. "I just wish he would tell me about these things at least a little bit in advance."

"Why, so you can make yourself look good for Sakura?" Eliza teased.

"So I can prepare what I'm going to say." Ludwig said, then muttered: "That is, if they let me even talk."

Eliza stepped back from the now made bed. "Well, maybe this time they will.

"It isn't likely." Ludwig admitted, "But thank you. I just need to remember what I want to say..."

Eliza scoffed. "If you can't even remember to make your bed in the morning, I highly doubt you can remember what to say."

"I'm sorry, I was very busy this morning." Ludwig told her.

"So was I! I was washing your clothes." Eliza said, "You have so many of them."

"Yeah, it's like I wear them every day." Ludwig remarked.

Eliza grinned. "Was that sarcasm?"

"Maybe." Ludwig said, but then realized the time. "Dammit, I need to go."

As he rushed towards the door, Eliza called to him: "Your belt is crooked! And fix your jacket, one of the sleeves is rolled up!"

Ludwig did as he was told, yelling a thank you back at her. He quickly made his way to the meeting room, hoping he wasn't late. He took a moment to smooth back his hair one more time before entering the room.

Upon entering, he saw all the Asian officers and advisers sitting on one side of the table across from the Germanic ones. Next to them was princess Sakura. Both his father and the king of Asia were standing next to the door and discussing with each other in hushed tones. Other than that, the room was completely silent.

When he walked in, his father and everyone else turned to look at him. His father smiled, but the disapproving look in his eyes said You're late. "Ah, here's my son. Go sit down, Ludwig, so we may start."

He did as he was told, hoping that this meeting would make his father forget about his tardiness. He was sat right across from Sakura, who when she saw him, gave him a small smile and a bow of her head. He did the same, though the smile felt a little forced.

For the next couple of hours, Ludwig sat through what could have been the most tedious meeting he'd ever been through. They talked non-stop about the war, about the pros and cons of trying once again to take down the Russian monarchy. Sakura seemed to be listening intently, paying attention to their every word. Ludwig could have honestly care less about what they were saying. About halfway through the meeting, they still hadn't asked his opinion once, so he figured that he wasn't going to get to talk today.

After the meeting was finally over, the Asians announced that they had no time to stay and chit chat. Usually they stayed for a little while to converse with the Germanics, and Ludwig usually talked to Sakura. But today, they had announced that they had an emergency meeting with the English.

As soon as they left, Ludwig rushed from the room, not wanting to get scolded by his father for being late. Thankfully, he was able to get away, but he didn't want to slow down until he got to his room. He was so focused on getting away from his father that he didn't notice an incoming servant, and promptly crashed into him, making him lose a tray he was carrying.

The servant had been knocked to the ground, and he didn't look up at Ludwig before bitterly snapping "Watch where you're going!"

Ludwig looked down at him. He was a small, tan guy with dark brown hair and green eyes. He also had a strange curl sticking out of the left side of his head. He looked extremely grumpy.

"S-sorry..." Ludwig stuttered.

The man on the ground scoffed, not even looking at Ludwig before trying to pick up his tray. "Don't you know how to walk in the hallway without running into people?"

"I said I was sorry." Ludwig said, starting to get a little peeved. Didn't this guy know who he was?

The man rolled his eyes, still not looking at Ludwig. "Sorry isn't going to fix the fact that you made me drop my shit! Thanks a lot, idi-"

"Lovino!"

A voice came from down the hallway, and Ludwig looked up to see another servant, one that looked identical to the one on the floor. He had a horrified expression on his face. and he rushed towards them.

"Lovino, what are you doing?!" He exclaimed. The boy on the ground, supposedly Lovino, looked up at him.

"What?! He should have been watching where he was go-"

"Lovino, do you know who you're talking to?!" The other boy exclaimed in a half whisper. Finally, the servant named Lovino looked up at Ludwig. His eyes suddenly widened and he went pale as he realized who he was talking to.

He immediately began blubbering an apology, saying that he didn't know that he was speaking to the prince. He seemed so pathetic sitting there on the floor begging for forgiveness that Ludwig actually felt sorry for him.

"It's fine, it's fine." Ludwig said, holding out his hand, "Here, do you need help up?"

Lovino looked at him in shock for a moment, appalled that he'd been forgiven so easily. Then he shook his head, standing up by himself. "I'm fine."

Ludwig nodded. "Alright, then why don't you be on your way?"

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot." Lovino said, grabbing his tray and walking away.

That left Ludwig alone with the other servant, the one that had stopped Lovino yelling at him.

He immediately turned to Ludwig, still looking rather horrified. "I'm so sorry for my brother's behavior. He's got a really short temper, and I'm sure if he'd know who he was talking to, he wouldn't have said those mean things! Please don't punish him, I promise he was only trying to-"

"Woah, woah." Ludwig said, his eyes wide, "Slow down. I'm not going to punish you or your brother, okay? Just calm down."

The servant looked relieved. "Oh mio dio, thank you so much! I promise Lovino won't ever do anything like that again."

Now that Ludwig got a closer look at him, he could see that this servant was not exactly identical to his brother. He had lighter auburn hair with a bit of red in it, and light brown brown eyes. He was small, like his brother, his uniform being a little too big for him. The sleeves of his uniform kept falling to cover his hands, so he had to keep rolling them up.

"Alright, good." Ludwig told him, "What's your name?"

The servant brightened at the question, even smiling a little. He had a very nice smile, Ludwig noticed.

"My name is Feliciano!" He chirped, "My brother and I are new servants here, along with a few others. And of course I know who you are, I mean how could I not? You're on the TV all the time, like every week! Wow, I bet it's hard to be on TV all the time. But it would also be really cool, don't you think?"

Ludwig's head was spinning a little, trying to straighten out what he'd just said. He didn't know it was possible for someone to talk so fast. He blinked, shaking his head. "Being on television isn't really that great. At least, not when you're the prince. People get to see basically your entire life."

The boy, Feliciano, seemed to think about it. "Huh. I guess that would be pretty awful. I'm sorry. But at least you have a lot of people who care about you, right?"

"Well, I guess so."

"That must be wonderful! The only people who care about me are my brother and my grandfather, and my grandfather's dead. But I'm sure he's still watching over Lovino and I, making sure we don't get into tr-"

Suddenly, the clock chimed, cutting Feliciano off. Both him and Feliciano jumped, and Feliciano's head whipped around to look at the clock.

His eyes widened. "Uh oh, I've got to go! It was nice talking to you, and thank you for not punishing my brother!"

And with that, he began walking away quickly. Ludwig was a little surprised for a moment, but then he shook off his confusion. Then, before he knew what he was doing, he called out to the boy.

"H-hey!"

Feliciano turned around again, giving him a slightly confused look. "Yes?" He called back.

"Wh-what was your name again?"

"Feliciano!" He said, smiling.

"Well, Feliciano….Maybe I'll see you again later?"

Feliciano's smile only grew. "Hopefully!" Then he hurried away.

To his surprise, Ludwig found himself smiling a little. For some reason, he found the new servant slightly amusing, despite the fact that he seemed to talk a lot. And when Ludwig had asked if he'd see him again, he hadn't said Maybe or even possibly. He'd said hopefully. As in he hoped that he'd see Ludwig again.

Was Ludwig overthinking this? Proabably. But he didn't particularly care.

He walked back towards his room, strangely in a much better mood than before. He couldn't exactly place why, though.

When he finally got to his room, he must still have been smiling, because Elizaveta gave him a strange look when he walked in.

"Oh my goodness, do my eyes decive me?" She said fake-dramatically, "Is Ludwig Beilshmidt smiling?"

That, of course, made him lose his smile. Eliza just laughed. "What's making you so happy?"

Ludwig shrugged. "Nothing. I just thought of something funny."

Eliza rolled her eyes. "Please. Ludwig, I've taken care of you since you were little. And no offense, but you aren't exactly the most smiley person in the world."

"Okay, maybe someone made me laugh." He admitted.

"Who was it?"Elizaveta asked. Then suddenly, her eyes widened, and she grinned. "Was it Sakura? Ooh, you like her, don't you?!"

Ludwig sighed, shaking his head. "No, it wasn't Sakura. They didn't stay very long today, so I didn't even get a chance to talk to her."

Eliza looked a little disappointed. "Well then, who was it?"

Ludwig shrugged. "Just one of the new servants. Feliciano, his name was. I ran into him-well, actually his brother- in the hallway. I accidentally knocked him down, and he started yelling at me. Then Feliciano came along and scolded him for yelling at me. He apologized, then I talked to Feliciano for a couple of minutes. He's rather nice."

Eliza nodded. "He is. I met him and his brother this morning. Your father actually had hired a couple of new servants to work here, since a couple of them had to be fired because they were stealing from the palace."

Ludwig shook his head. "Yet another thing that no one told me about."

"Yeah...sorry about that. Also, one of the servant that was stealing...was Niko."

Ludwig looked up at her. "Are you serious?"

Niko was one of Ludwig's personal servants. Everyone in the royal family had Two personal servants, who helped them with everything. Work, personal matters, and even getting ready in the morning . These were the only ones allowed in their rooms. There was also a head servant, who was somewhat in charge of the other two. Eliza was Ludwig's head servant, and had been ever since about when his brother had left the palace. Other servants had come and gone, but Niko had seemed pretty trustworthy to Ludwig. Well, that explained why he hadn't seen him today.

"I'm afraid so. And you won't believe who was helping him."

Ludwig sighed. "It was Anna, wasn't it?"

Eliza nodded. Anna was Ludwig's other servant.

"Well, at least now I know why my stuff was missing." Ludwig said, "That means they'll be two new servants, right?"

Eliza smiled. "Yup, that's right. One of them is a maid-in-training. She's only about eleven years old, I hope you don't mind. The other one is a boy, but I don't remember which one of the newbies it is." Great, Ludwig thought, new servants who will probably mess everything up the first day. I'll have to show the how to do everything and I'll probably scare the shit out of them too. Not to mention I'll have to explain my headaches….

Ludwig nodded. "Is there any chance you could find out for me? I'd at least like to know their names."

"Sure thing. I think I have their names on a piece of paper here somewhere…." She fished around in her pockets for a few moments, before pulling out a piece of print paper and unfolded it. "Let's see, the maid in training's name is Erika. I met her earlier, too. I think she's about twelve. She's very sweet."

"I see." Ludwig said, "What's the boy's name?"

Elizaveta looked at the paper again. "Oh! It's Feliciano. What a conicidence!"

Ludwig looked at her. "Really?"

She nodded. "That's good. At least you know him!"

"Well, I wouldn't say I know him yet, but at least he seems nice." Ludwig said.

He thought back to meeting Feliciano in the hall, the one who had somehow managed to make him smile within a couple of minutes of meeting him, something no one had ever done before.

Now that he thought about it, maybe having new servants wouldn't be so bad.