Author's note: Tumblr prompt was Italy giving Germany a lesson in Renaissance dance. Confession: I do actually know some.
The Dance Lesson
The German knows he isn't graceful at dance.
He's graceful with a gun, or in his plane, directing men on the battlefield, forging alliances and treaties.
But in dance, he lets Feliciano take the lead.
"It's easy!" the Italian insists once more as Ludwig grows more frustrated.
"No," he grumbles under his breath, "it isn't."
"Yes it is silly! Come!" Two soft hands grab him around his wrists, tugging forward. Ludwig has the sleeves of his uniform rolled up, boots off on the side of the field with his gun. The sun is warm, Feliciano in his undershirt, his skin tan despite the hardships war has so far brought them.
The German allows his sweet lover to pull him further into the field, where the grass is tall but inviting. Once more Feliciano guides him through the intricate dance his body remembers from his youth in the Renaissance; Ludwig is lucky to remember something that had happened seventy years earlier.
But it gives his boyfriend such joy to teach him simple things like this: a dance, to paint, a song, to love. And when Ludwig goes left instead of right, accidentally colliding with Feliciano, his arms immediately pull the Italian to him to keep him from falling. Without hesitation he leans down, lips claiming his lover's in a tender kiss meant to communicate that Ludwig understands what the Italian is doing. The war is waging, turning against them, on some distance battlefield and yet Feliciano loves him. He might not be the best ally, but he is his best friend.
His lover.
His everything.
"Ludwig," the moan comes against his lips. He greedily claims the moan for his own as he kisses the boy once more, harder, pulling him to his expansive chest.
"I would do," he finally gasps, resting his head against the other's, "anything for you Feliciano."
Those soft hands hold his face, Ludwig's lips kissing their palms. "I hope you don't have to." If Ludwig could have spared Feliciano from war, from ever seeing blood or a body, from learning to fire a gun or to mend the German's wounds, he would have. But he couldn't, and so instead they dance by day and make love at night and pray that however this ends, they'll be together.
Because Ludwig would die without him, and that's why they start the dance lesson again.