"That concludes today's meeting." The German man said, placing the dusty piece of chalk back on the metal holder before looking towards the two other members. "Any questions?"

The Italian boy's hand shot up quickly, his head resting on the other arm on the desk. "Yes, Feliciano."

"Si! When do we get to take a siesta?"

"Honestly Feliciano..." Ludwig grumbled, rubbing his temples in agitation. "We are supposed to be doing work in this club. There are no breaks while we are interviewing for next month's paper."

"Don't get mad at Feliciano." Kiku spoke up. "I think we deserve a little bit of a break as well. Since last month we were so occupied on researching other clubs, I noticed you both have been skipping out on other club activities."

"He's right! I missed three meetings of the siesta club-!"

"Feliciano!" When he quieted down, the German man took a moment to think. "You're right. I've been missing soccer practice and I think all of us would benefit catching up on other club's work."

"Well, this is the only club I'm in." Kiku stated softly, raising his hand. "I'll be glad to do some research while you both catch up on work."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

Ludwig sighed, running his hand through his hair to sleek it back again. "Thank you. I don't think Antonio will tolerate any more excuses of me leaving early or not showing up to practice."

"Big brother Toni will be okay with it!" Feliciano said cheerfully, patting the man's back. "He was always a very kind, patient and understanding person! He knows you've been busy and he understands why-"

Ludwig, hearing enough, just left. In the middle of Feliciano's sentence, he walked out of the room and shut the door loudly behind him. The Italian's flinched at the sound of the door closing behind Ludwig and soon after, he was rubbing tears from his eyes.

"Feli, are you okay?"

"Why did he just leave like that...?" He whimpered, trying to keep his tears at bay. "Was it something I said...?"

Unbeknown to either of them, he stood outside the door on the opposite end of the hallway. His icy blue eyes were misted over with doubt and even a small hint of sadness.

The next day at school, it was almost as if Ludwig took every precaution as to not run into Feliciano. From going to school early so he wouldn't meet up with him and Kiku in the morning to sitting with his brother at lunch, he didn't seem to want to be anywhere near Feliciano.

After school, Feliciano decided to go to the art room perfectly in view of the football field below. He stood by the window, watching as the team warmed up, running a few laps around the goals. Ludwig was naturally in front, keeping at an even pace.

Feliciano smiled, cupping his cheek in his hand as he watched. 'Ludwig is really great...strong and kind...but he's also really mean...' Tears collected in the Italian's caramel eyes once more, not knowing that a pair of blue ones were look up at him.

"Oí! Ludwig!" He heard Antonio call from behind him. "Quit daydreaming and get into your position!" A quick peak back showed Feliciano leaving his range of sight. "Ludwig!"

Sighing, he looked back at the Spaniard. "I'll be right back! There's something that I need to take care of!" Without waiting for a response, he ran off to the nearest entrance to the school.

"Antonio!" One of the teammates, a British man named Arthur snapped. "You can't just let him run off in the middle of practice after being gone all last month! He's one of our best players!"

"Hey, leave the guy alone!" Antonio said with a smile. "He's been at war with himself! I'll allow it for now! Besides, I'm not worried about him! So everyone back in their positions! I'll substitute in for Ludwig!"

Ludwig rushed to the art room. He was sure that's the room that he spied Feliciano in but if not, he knew a few other places he'd have to be at. Rushing into the room, he threw the door open and looked around. "Feli! Feli, I know you're in here."

"No I'm not..." A soft voice answered shakily back.

The German stepped in, calming down knowing that he was hiding somewhere in the room. "Feliciano...please come out from wherever you are in the room."

"I'm not in the room..." The voice answered back again, getting even more shaky. "Go away..."

Following the source of the voice, he found the Italian beneath the teacher's desk, his face hidden in his knees and shoulders shaking. He sniffled, not even noticing that Ludwig was kneeling beside him.

"Feli...come on. I'll walk you home-"

"Go back to practice..." He hissed back with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "I want to be alone..."

"You're sitting on the floor of the art room underneath a table." He reached out and took his arm, urging the Italian to move. Feliciano's initial reaction was slapping Ludwig across the face.

The force literally knocked the breath out of Ludwig's lungs. It wasn't the impact that did it, the hit itself was actually not very strong. Just the shock of being hit by the usually zesty Italian.

Both sat in silence for a moment before the anger in Feliciano's eyes quickly turned to anguish and sobs suddenly erupted. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you! I-I just think you hate me! You left without saying goodbye a-and I was talking! T-Then you avoided me all day!"

He threw his arms around Ludwig's neck, crying into the fabric of his already sweat-soaked shirt. Ludwig remained silent, not wanting to say something wrong and get him even more worked up. "You do hate me don't you!?"

Again, he didn't allow himself to speak. "You don't want to be my friend, do you Ludwig!? You think I'm annoying! Just say it! You don't want to be my friend, do you!?"

"No." He stated simply. Feliciano stood shocked at what he heard. He was about to speak up when Ludwig placed a chaste kiss on his lips, cutting off any thoughts he would've had vocalized.

"Lud-"

"I don't hate you..." He whispered, turning his head in a futile attempt to hide his embarrassment. "I couldn't hate you, no matter what you do...you're so...special and important to me...now come on out from under the table..."

Feliciano was shakily helped up by Ludwig who held him in his arms. "Don't put yourself down either...you're not annoying..."

"B-But-"

"Feliciano..." Ludwig murmured, resting his chin on his soft, amber hair and sighing. "I'm sorry if I ever said you were annoying or a pain...I want you to know I really do care about you..."

"I care about you too Ludwig." He muttered back, wrapping his arms around Ludwig's torso, his cheek resting on his chest, eyes looking out the window. It was silent except for the occasional blow of a whistle below from the football practice and Ludwig's heartbeat (which could be heart by both).

"I...need to go back to practice..." Ludwig edged in after a few moments in the calming silence. "If you wait until I'm done...I'll walk home with you..."

"Can you just tell me why you left yesterday...?"

Again, the silence settled in between the two momentarily. Ludwig eventually cleared his throat before simply stating,"I felt...jealous...about the praises you were giving to Antonio..."

Feliciano smiled, snuggling closer. "If you wanted to hear me say something nice about you, you should've just told me! You're so cool and handsome! And you help me tie my shoelaces when they come undone! Sure you scold me when I get hurt but you always carry me and make the pain go away!"

Ludwig let a small smile come upon his lips as well before parting. "Come on...you can watch by the field if you want..."

Feliciano took his hand, acting like his cheerful, happy self again. "Why don't you come to my house! I'll make us pasta! If you want, you can make wurst too! I don't mind!"

Little did they know that as they walked down the hallway, someone was peaking from behind, catching everything that was happening. "This will do nicely..."

Kiku walked into the meeting room about a month later. The next paper had just been published and distributed. But something on it got Ludwig in a fuss and an emergency meeting to be held in the morning.

The second he walked in, a paper was shoved into his face. "Kiku, would you like to explain how the headlining story was changed into something that was - not only not previously included - publicizing me and Feliciano's relationship!?"

Behind the paper, he slyly smiled. "I don't know. Someone must've snuck in last night after the first few copies were printed and changed the entirety of the papers to...erm...what am I looking at exactly...?"

Ludwig pulled the paper away, showing the headline in big bold letters. 'Newspaper Club's Newest Relationship: Is something more happening between Newspaper Club's own Ludwig Belidshmist and Feliciano Vargas?' A picture on the front showed the two holding hands and walking down the school corridors together, Feliciano slightly leaning on Ludwig's shoulder.

"I don't know how this-"

"You damn potato bastard!"

"Fratello! Calm down!"

The two siblings bursted in, Lovino, Feliciano's older brother, nearly dragging him in. "What did you do with my little brother!? I swear if you have been-"

"We haven't been Lovino!"

"Kiku!"

"Sorry!" He said with a shaky smile. "I need to be...somewhere else!"

With that, he slipped out of the room to leave Ludwig with all the commotion. Even down the hall he could hear the three yelling in the club room. "That worked out smoothly."