The bedroom door creaked open, a small sliver of light came in and fell across the bed and the apparent sleeping figure of Ludwig. However, Ludwig was not fully asleep but was simply lying quietly and unmoving, because if the figure now creeping across the room found out that he was awake he would have no rest at all that night. And so Ludwig remained perfect still, waiting for sleep to claim him and for Feliciano Vargas to settle into the bed.

Of course it was Feliciano, Ludwig didn't even have to look to know that it was the Italian, the smell of pasta and tomatoes that followed him into the room where enough (When first getting to know the Vargas brothers Ludwig was surprised to find out that they always smelled of a combination of cooking pasta and tomatoes). Vargas made his way across the room in a strange half run half tiptoe, which made him look like a deformed monkey (Which sadly to say he looked like this on most days). Right before it looked like he was about to dive bomb onto the bed he slowed himself down considerably making it possible to climb gingerly into bed. Feliciano was so light and skinny that he was able to slip under the covers without moving the mattress at all.

"So that's how he does it," Ludwig thought to himself as Feliciano made himself comfortable. There were many mornings when Ludwig would wake up and notice that at some point Feliciano had crept into his bed during the night. Until now Ludwig had never seen him do it and never knew exactly how he managed it without waking Ludwig up. Now he realized that he managed it simply by the fact that he was so skinny and barely weighed anything.

Ludwig normally would have kicked Vargas from the bed, but he wasn't disturbing anything and he might as well let the boy get his sleep, he would kick him out in the morning (Roughly and with much shouting). And so Ludwig tried to find the sleep that he had been looking for. But before he could let the realm of sleep claim him he heard it. It was gentle and soft, but it was the same almost asleep voice that he had used to speak to his brother all those years ago when his brother could not hear.

"Ti amo," the last sleepy words of a very tired Italian.

And in that moment Ludwig knew why he still had that big bed. It was the same reason that Gilbert had held on to his overly large bed all those years. He knew that he didn't need that bed, Gilbert hadn't needed his either, but need had nothing to do with it. Being a big brother was more than just need. All the brothers that Ludwig knew had bigger beds so that they could share (Except for Francis, he wasn't a brother he just liked big beds).

Ludwig waited a moment just to make sure that Feliciano was asleep, it wouldn't do for him to hear what Ludwig was about to say. No one ever needed to know what was said in response, but just the fact that it was said was enough. In just barely over a whisper Ludwig relied to Feliciano,

"Ich liebe dich auch, kleiner Bruder."

Ende

A\N: Thank you for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it. Please leave a review to let me know what you thought.