"Hey, watch this!" A shrill voice broke through the peaceful silence of the chilly air. Snow covered the ground like a milky-white blanket, glittering in the afternoon sun, which hadn't risen very high today. A short, lithe man, his auburn chin-length hair dotted with snowflakes, lay flat on his back in the snow, flailing his arms and legs around and giggling.

Hovering above him was a tall man, with golden hair and cold blue eyes. He watched, just as his friend had asked, but was clearly uninterested in the brunette's hijinks. "Hurry it up, Feliciano, we don't have time for this," Growled the blonde.

"Almost done," Answered Feliciano, eyes screwed shut as he laughed lightly, still squirming around in the snow like a child. After a moment he hopped up and peered down at his creation. He had been attempting to create a snow angel, but the result of his rapid flailing was just a sloppy imprint in the ground that didn't look like much of anything. His smile faded away with his enthusiasm. "Awww."

"Let's go!" The blonde roughly took ahold of his friend's hand, dragging him out of the snow and onto the sidewalk. He marched forward angrily, his grip on Feliciano's hand as tight as ever. The quietness of winter returned for a moment… until, predictably, Feliciano broke it by complaining about things that the blonde couldn't fix.

"My hand hurts," Whined the smaller man after a moment.

"Too bad."

"I'm cold!"

"Deal with it."

"My feet hurt too!"

"Not my problem."

"Ludwig!"

Irritated beyond belief, Ludwig whirled around and got so close to Feliciano that their noses were practically touching. "WHAT?" The blonde snapped, blue eyes blazing. Feliciano flinched back a little, fear swallowing his voice for a second.

"…Can… can you carry me?" He asked quietly. There was a moment of silence. Ludwig's eyebrows knitted together and he looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he gave a defeated sigh, turned so his back was facing his friend, and knelt to the ground.

"Get on my back," He grumbled, to which Feliciano gave a small victorious cheer. He carefully climbed onto Ludwig's back, wrapping his arms around his neck. Then Ludwig stood up and began power-walking.

"Where're we going again?" Feliciano asked for what was probably the 28th time that day.

"Ivan's house."

"Why do we gotta go there?"

"Because I have important work to tend to. And I'm starting to regret having brought you to Russia in the first place. So shut up before I make you get a plane ride home all by yourself."

And with that, Feliciano fell silent. But with silence also came boredom, and he didn't deal well with boredom.

It started off harmlessly. Just a quiet humming that was quite pleasant. But when Feliciano noticed that Ludwig didn't seem to mind, and was actually walking to the rhythm of the humming, it evolved into a louder hum…. which still wasn't as bad… until it became obnoxiously loud singing.

"I said shut up!" Snapped Ludwig, patience finally broken, and the singing was abruptly cut off.

"You're no fun," Whispered Feliciano, mostly to himself. Ludwig just grunted in response, apparently not caring about his lack of appeal to the smaller man. Bored again, Feliciano pressed his chin against Ludwig's shoulder, his eyes fluttering shut. Fine, he silently growled to himself. If Ludwig's gonna be a meanyface, then I might as well sleep. Then I'll be dead weight and he'll wish I was still awake and singing instead of sleeping, and then he'll let me sing next time and won't yell at me! Satisfied with the plan, he drifted asleep.

"Feli!" A small yet gruff voice was shouting. A child, with deep blue eyes and blonde hair that was hidden beneath an odd black hat, was shaking another child in a desperate attempt to wake her. "Feli!"

The sleeping child stirred finally, sitting up and blinking her owlish hazel eyes. Her short brown hair was matted from sleep, and her green dress and apron were wrinkled. As the sleepy confusion slowly faded from her eyes, realization sparked her. "Oh no! I-I'm supposed to be doing the dishes!" She yelped, quickly swiping her bandana up and struggling to put it on her head.

"No, no, it's okay!" The young boy took the bandana from Feli, propped it against her head, and tied the bandana for her. "I did the dishes already, so there's no rush. You just have to sweep the hallway floors and then you can do whatever you want for the rest of the day."

"What…?" Feli was taken off-guard by the boy's sudden kindness. "But I needed to dust the paintings."

"I already did that for you."

"A-and… fetch water…"

"I did that too."

"….You did almost all of my chores?" Feli asked, looking shocked. "W… why?"

"B-because, I…. I was wondering… if you could teach me how to paint later?" The blonde shifted nervously in place, blue gaze locked on the floor. His face was as red as a tomato.

"O-oh, of course!" Feli smiled brightly. "I-I'll hurry up with sweeping the hallway! Be right back!" With that, she snatched up her push broom and bounded off as fast as her stubby legs could take her. The blonde watched her go, admiring the way she seemed to always have a skip in her step.

This started out as just something I'm writing for my Writing Fiction class. I'm not completely sure which direction to take it, but so far it's just been creating itself and taking me along for the ride, so let's see where this goes~