Hello! Sorry I didn't update sooner. I was busy this week. My class went to Baltimore, Maryland for our 8th grade trip. It was fun. I got a book called Japanese: Demystified. OH! I was in the manga section with my sister (she was my chaperon) and there was this asshole! He was on the phone and said "Yeah, this sucks. They just have a bunch of yaoi shit. This only thing that would make this worse is Hetalia. Ew, they have Black Butler, too."
ASSHOLE!
Enjoy~
The next morning, Ludwig awoke to the sound of his alarm clock next to his bed. He sat up and stretched briefly before shutting off the clock. He yawned and hopped off his bed and onto the cold hardwood floor. He walked out of his room and headed to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth, used the toilet, and began shaving. He hated facial hair. It was itchy and uncomfortable. Plus, he just didn't look right with a mustache. He grabbed a towel and wiped away any leftover shaving cream. He looked over his reflection. His blonde bangs were growing in front of his eyes. That's another thing Ludwig never liked; long hair. He was due for a haircut soon.
He slipped on the grey trousers of his school uniform. He buttoned his white shirt and slid his navy blue vest over it. He fixed his navy blue tie and sighed. This new uniform was very formal, but also very stiff. But still, it looked nice. It made Feliciano look very nice…He put a hand over his rapid heart and shook his head. He spent most of the night thinking about Feliciano. As much as he hated himself for it, he couldn't deny the warm feeling he would get in his cheeks and chest when he thought of his new friend. It was pathetic, and he would think of him no more. He slicked his hair back in its usual confinement and grabbed his schoolbag, ready for his second day of school.
Feliciano skipped down the sidewalk, humming to himself merrily. School time! He didn't like the actual learning part of school, but he sure loved to see his friends. His smile widened as he thought of Ludwig. His new friend. His new friend whom he trusted with a very intimate secret. His new friend who trusted him with a very intimate secret. He could hardly believe that they exchanged such personal information in only one day, but he wasn't complaining. He thought of Ludwig the previous night. Feli came to the sad conclusion that just because Ludwig was gay as well, did not mean he would have a chance with the shy German. He came to a halt when he reached the corner of the street. The crossing guard smiled. "Good morning, Feliciano."
"Good morning, Candy!" Feliciano chirped.
Candy smiled and motioned for Feliciano to cross the street. He continued to skip until his reached the gates of the school. He walked through the gates normally, not wanting the boys to see and call him "gaybird" or something like that. The dumbass bullies were another part of school Feliciano hated. But having a gay friend beside him was comforting. He wasn't alone anymore! He walked through the hallways of school with his usual smile plastered on his face. He greeted Elizaveta and his other friends. His eyes widened with delight when he saw Ludwig and Kiku by their lockers.
"Veh! Ludwiiig! Kikuuu!"
The Japanese boy firmly planted his feet on the ground. He turned to Ludwig and whispered, "Brace yourself."
"What?" Ludwig asked his friend. With no time to answer, Feliciano attacked Kiku in a hug. It took years for Kiku to get used to Feliciano's morning hugs. The first time it happened, Kiku blushed and roughly pushed the Italian off his body. Feli had whimpered and cried and asked why he rejected his hugs. Eventually, Kiku came to terms with the cultural differences between him and his Italian friend. It was clear that Ludwig would have the same problems.
When Feliciano hugged Ludwig, the German's face was colored like a field of roses. His muscles tensed and he gasped dumbly. His heart hammered in his chest mercilessly and he couldn't help but notice how incredibly warm his friend's body was. Feliciano recognized this reaction and pulled away. "Aw, you don't like my hugs?" he pouted cutely, hiding his sincere disappointment.
"U-um," Ludwig put his hands in his pockets and looked away. "I-it's not that it's just I-I'm just not used to it…" he coughed. Truth be told, a strong desire to embrace Feliciano had been building in his chest since yesterday. Of course, he would never admit that. Feli smiled. He found Ludwig's shyness was very cute.
Suddenly, they heard the front doors burst open. A large figure stood at the end of the hallway. The figure began to waddle down the hall. The children backed away toward their lockers and averted their gaze. They didn't exactly look scared, but rather… disgusted? As the figure came closer, Ludwig saw that it was a man. The man was tall and very overweight. He had white hair and a cold face, strolling down the hall liked he owned the place. Ludwig grimaced. "Who the hell is that?" he asked.
Feliciano giggled behind his hand. "That's Deacon Leonard." His smile disappeared rapidly. "He's not a nice man."
"He's not?" Ludwig looked at Kiku.
Kiku shook his head. "I do not normally speak down of others, but yes. He is not a nice man."
"I hate him," Feliciano growled. Ludwig was surprised at how low Feli's voice got. There was a fire in his eyes that worried him. "What exactly is a deacon anyway?" Ludwig tried to break the tension.
"A deacon is like a priest," Kiku spoke, "but he cannot perform a Mass. Deacons can also marry and have children, while a priest cannot." Ludwig nodded and looked back at the man.
"He and sister Katherine are kind of like Father Brooks' partner in crime," the fire did not leave Feli's eyes.
"Who?"
"Father Brooks. He's the pastor. I hate him, too. And Sister Katherine is the principal. I don't really hate her, but she annoys me." Just mentioning Father Brooks' name round Feliciano made the boy's blood boil. It was seldom that Feli didn't like someone, but it really took a lot for him to hate someone. Ludwig opened his mouth to say something, but was silenced b the judgmental stare of Deacon Leonard. Ludwig shifted his eyes around awkwardly and waited for the man to say something.
Deacon gave a very faint smile, but it wasn't a real smile. "You're the new kid from Germany, right?"
Ludwig nodded. He did not appreciate the man's tone of voice. It almost sounded sickened. "I'm Deacon Leonard," he held out a meaty hand. Ludwig forced a small smile and shook his hand. "Ludwig Beilschmidt, Deacon."
Deacon suddenly clasped his large hand on Ludwig's shoulder. He shook it roughly. What the fuck? Stop touching me! "You seem pretty muscular," Deacon said. "Trying out for any sports?"
Ludwig shifted his feet uncomfortably. "Uh, I don't even know what sports they have."
Struggling with his accent, the "th" in "they" came out as a "z." Deacon raised an eyebrow. "'Zey?' What kind of word is that?"
Ludwig's cheeks turned pink. "It's my accent," he muttered. The bell rang.
"Well, have a good day," Deacon patted Ludwig on the shoulder and walked away. Ludwig scowled. "Was für ein Arschloch," he whispered under his breath.
"See what I mean?" Feli asked. Ludwig nodded. He didn't know why he was in the school in the first place, but he hoped he wouldn't see Deacon Leonard's face anytime soon.
Later that afternoon, Ludwig had his first language class. He was glad to hear he would be learning Italian. He always loved the language. The way the vowels rolled off the tongue. It was so beautiful. Ludwig tried to learn a little on his own, and wasn't too bad at it. He was pretty good at conjugation and sentence structure. His problem was pronunciation. His accent made the lightest of words sound gruff. He walked into the classroom and saw Feliciano waving at him from across the room. Ludwig grinned and walked to his friend. The room had a map of Italy on the front chalkboard and an Italian flag pinned to the desk. The side chalkboards had lists of old composers. "Why is there music stuff?" Ludwig asked Feliciano.
Feliciano stopped trying to balance a pencil on his nose and answered his question. "This room is used for Italian class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and for music class on Fridays. Veh, you'll see the music teacher tomorrow."
"Is she nice?"
Feliciano and a few other students laughed. Ludwig looked around. "Was it something I said?"
"You'll see next week. She's on vacation now," a girl seated behind Ludwig said.
The classroom door opened and the teacher entered. A short woman with weird, curly brown hair with blonde highlights.
"Buon giorno, classe," she smiled.
The class stood up and most of the students rolled their eyes. "Buon giorno, Signora Lala." Ludwig's brows furrowed. Her name is Mrs. Lala? Weird…
"Come stai?" she asked.
In a mechanical way, the class answered, "Bene, grazie. E tu?"
"Stupendo, grazie. Sit, please," she spoke in English for the first time. Ludwig grew nervous. The class seemed so advanced! They talked in complete sentences. From the corner of his eye, he saw Mrs. Lala staring at him. He turned his head to look at her. "And you are Ludwig, right?" she asked. Ludwig nodded and remained silent. There was something off-putting about this lady, but he couldn't decipher what. She continued, "Do you have any previous language experiences, Ludwig?" A boy coming from Germany with a thick German accent. Seriously. She seriously wondered if he had any language experience? Was she that stupid?
"Ja," his tone come out a little cockier than intended. "I speak German."
"Oh, I tried to learn German. I couldn't get the grammar. Besides, I couldn't pronounce those sounds. It sounds like mucus."
Ludwig felt a little offended, but put on a smile. "Ja, I know."
"Well," she sat down at her desk. "I hope you will like learning Italian." She turned to face the class. "The rest of you," her tone became sharp. "Did you do your homework?" The class passed up pieces of paper to the front of the classroom. She counted the number of papers and looked up at her class. "Hey. William, Jarrod, Dominic, Ambria, where is your homework?"
"I left it at home," was the response of the three boys.
"Oh, I forgot to do it," Ambria said absentmindedly.
Mrs. Lala almost made a hissing sound and wrote their names down on a piece of paper. "I'll see you four after class."
In Ludwig's opinion, the whole class, for lack of better words, was bullshit. She handed out a booklet with a little Italian story inside. The last page had a very small Italian-to-English dictionary. Other than that, they were on their own. Ludwig looked around and saw his classmates just as confused as he was. All except Feliciano. Feliciano was writing away, his tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth in concentration. He stared at Feli in awe. How did he understand this? Everyone asked Feliciano what certain words meant or, better yet, to do it for them. Feli smiled brightly and said he was happy to help and wrote more than half of some kids' papers. Ludwig didn't appreciate the fact that they were using Feli like that, but Feli seemed oblivious. Ludwig didn't ask for any help. It didn't feel right. At the end of the class, Mrs. Lala said, "Whatever you did not finish here us for homework," The class groaned in irritation. "Remember!" she called as kids began filing out of the room. "Use ! Not the Google Translate!"
"Yeah, right," some kid said under their breath. Ludwig's head pounded. That was probably one of the worst classes he ever had. The teacher didn't teach and the material was incomprehensible. The students barely knew anything. He sighed and Feli hopped to his side. "Did you like the class?" he smiled.
"No," Ludwig grumbled.
Feli frowned. "Veh? Why? You don't like my language?"
Ludwig's eyes widened. "Oh, it's not that! Wait, you speak Italian?"
"Of course I do!" he giggled. "Can't you tell by my accent?"
Well, Ludwig felt stupid. "Oh, yeah," Ludwig mumbled embarrassedly. "I think Italian is a beautiful language. I do want to learn it, but she didn't even teach!"
"Hmm, I know. She's awful." Feli shook his head. "Brings disgrace to the language." Suddenly, Feli's amber eyes turned brighter. "Veh, you said you want to learn Italian? I could teach you!" he hopped up and down.
Ludwig grinned. "Hm. I need to work on my English first. I'm still having trouble with the grammar."
"Ugh, me too. I hate grammar." Feli began to skip.
Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "Why are you skipping?"
"It's fun!" Feli beamed. "You should try it." Ludwig quickly declined. No way in hell would he prance down the hallway.
"Skipping again, Twinkletoes?" a voice hissed, immediately stopped Feliciano's skips. One of the members of Nicky's group, Vinny, smirked.
Feliciano sighed deeply. It always seemed like the other boys sensed when Feliciano was feeling a little too happy. "Please, Vinny. Leave me alone."
Vinny scoffed, his grey eyes flaring. "Did you just talk back to me, fag?" He roughly pushed Feliciano onto the floor. Ludwig gasped at the sight of his friend lying on the floor, whimpering. The breath he released came out as a growl. Ludwig firmly grabbed Vinny's arms and brought him forward, bring their faces deathly close. "Don't you dare hurt him," Ludwig growled through clenched teeth. He let go and kneeled down to help Feliciano. Vinny made a sound of disgust. "Why the hell are you helping that?" Ludwig grew angrier as his friend was called a "that."
"Because," he lifted a still whimpering Feli to his feet. "He is my friend. If you touch him again I'll break all of your fucking teeth. Understood?"
Vinny smiled nastily. "Oh, really?" he pushed Ludwig as hard as he pushed Feliciano. It made Ludwig stumble back a smidgeon, but it did not make him fall or even trip. That extremely troubled the bully. This new kid looked strong. Too strong for his liking. Ludwig remembered advice his father had given him: Sometimes it's better to just walk away. Ludwig relaxed his muscles and sapphire eyes met forest green. "I do not want trouble. Leave me and Feliciano alone. Have a nice day." He subconsciously grabbed Feliciano's hand and quickly led the boy down the hall. They heard a cackle as they walked. "Ohhh, I see why you're standin' up for the little freak!"
Ludwig completely ignored the remark, even though it confused him slightly, and held Feliciano's hand tighter. He brought them to their lockers.
"Are you okay, Feli?" his anger washed away with a wave of concern.
Feli smiled. "Si, I'm okay. Thank you for helping me, Luddy."
Ludwig really did not care for that nickname, but let it be for now. "No problem." Feli grinned, but then it turned into a smirk. Ludwig looked at him curiously. "What?"
"You can let go of my hand now, Ludwig," his smirk widened. Ludwig blushed furiously and withdrew his hand faster than the speed of light. Feli hid his pink cheeks with his hand and giggled.
"It's nice to see you two are getting close," Elizaveta walked over with a smirk that looked remarkably like Gilbert's. Ludwig looked away and said nothing.
"Ludwig saved me from Vinny!" Feliciano exclaimed. "He pushed Luddy and he didn't even flinch! Veh, you're so brave!" he looked at Ludwig with admiration. Eliza laughed and Ludwig looked down at his feet.
The next day during lunch, Ludwig kept his face in his hands to hide his burning cheeks as Feliciano told the story to all of his friends; all of which gave Ludwig the same smirk. Not being to take anymore, Ludwig spoke. "You know, Vinny said something like 'Oh, that's why you're helping him.' I wonder what he meant by that?"
Feliciano, Elizaveta, Kiku, Arthur, and Francis sat in silence. Francis smiled. "Well, you did take little Feli's hand as you walked away," he winked.
"Yeah!" Elizaveta laughed and Feli giggled. Ludwig sighed and knew he was blushing. "That's not the point," he spoke curtly.
"I think Francis-san is correct," Kiku spoke for the first time. They all looked at him curiously. "Well, if you took Feliciano-kun's hand, then he might think that you are gay as well." The whole table turned to the German and Ludwig and Feliciano immediately tensed, exchanging worried glances.
"Oh, well, uh…" he suddenly lost the ability to speak. The others raised their eyebrows. "Well, are you?" Arthur asked lowly and calmly. Ludwig looked up into their expectant eyes. Well, the accept Feliciano, he thought, so maybe they'll accept me? Ludwig sighed in defeat. "Ja…" This surprised his friends, but smiles appeared on their features.
"You and Feliciano should hook up!" Elizaveta clapped her hands together.
"Elizaveta!" Feliciano and Ludwig cried in unison. The two briefly exchanged glances and then blushed and looked away. The others looked at each other and gave knowing smiles, but said nothing more.
A few days passed and everything went pretty smoothly. The boys steered clear of Feliciano and Ludwig, only giving them dirty looks every now and then. "They're probably afraid of your big muscles!" Feli laughed. That was not true, they would discover later. Ludwig and Feliciano's relationship was, in Francis' opinion, full of sexual tension. "They are totally in love," he said to Arthur, who just rolled his eyes in return. Basically, Feli clung to Ludwig 24/7. Ludwig would often grow flustered and tell Feli not to hug him like that. It made Feliciano said that Ludwig didn't like his hugs. "He just needs time," Kiku told his friend reassuringly. "He seems very shy and confused about his emotions."
Throughout the week, Ludwig would see Feliciano staring at him from across the room. He would blush and pretend not to notice. When he told Gilbert about the random hugs each day, his older brother would laugh and say, "He likes you, West! When are you gonna make a damn move?"
"I don't like him!" Ludwig wailed one night. The blush on Ludwig's face completely obliterated that statement. Gilbert shook his head with his trademark smirk ever-present. "You are not a good liar when it comes to love, brother."
After school on Friday, Ludwig and Feliciano decided to walk home from school together again. Once again, Feli was in a conversation about something Ludwig couldn't really keep track of, something about pasta? When they neared Ludwig's house, Feli stopped talking and turned to Ludwig.
"Ludwig," his smile disappeared.
"Yes?" Ludwig looked at him skeptically.
Feli fixed his tie and bit his bottom lip nervously. "I…I just want to really thank you for helping me out earlier this week. It really means a lot," he blushed slightly. His heartbeat grew faster and the urge to hug Ludwig was growing.
"Please, it's no big deal," he blushed, too. "I couldn't just stand there and let you get hurt." You're too cute, as voice spoke in his head. Ludwig had to stop himself from yelling at the voice. He would look like a crazy person yelling in the middle of the sidewalk at someone that didn't even exist.
"Most people do," Feliciano said gravely.
"Hmph," Ludwig averted his gaze. "I guess you're right." Feliciano couldn't take it anymore. He stepped forward and hugged Ludwig, wrapping his arms around the taller boy's neck and putting his cheek on Ludwig's firm chest. It wasn't like the hugs he gave him before. No, it was more meaningful. It had more emotion. Ludwig blushed brilliantly, but slowly wrapped his arms around the smaller boy's back. Ludwig prayed that his brother or parents would step outside of their house and see him at this particular moment. Feli had to suppress a squeal of delight. Ludwig was finally hugging him back! He let go and giggled at the red flush gracing Ludwig's cheeks. Not thinking, Feliciano stood on his toes and gave a quick kiss to each of Ludwig's cheeks. Both of their eyes widened and they stared at each other. Ludwig's legs began to shake lightly. D-did Feliciano just kiss me?
"S-sorry!" Feliciano's eyes filled with tears of humiliation. "I'll see you on Monday!" he ran down the street. Ludwig just stood in the middle of the sidewalk with his hands holding his burning cheeks where Feliciano had kissed him, longing to feel those soft lips again.
Like I said, I'm heavily basing some characters on people in my school. Thankfully, the bullies are pure fiction. You'll see why I decided to introduce Deacon Leonard later. Please review~
