Next chapter, and thanks to Seele Esser Deutsch for reviewing!

Gilbert was a loud person, even on the phone.

"And then the children tried to eat crayons. God, I was never that weird as a child. Was I? Who knows? Did you eat crayons, Ludwig, as a child? Was I missing out?" the obnoxious voice said over the phone.

Ludwig blinked. He wasn't sure quite sure how the conversation had led to this. "I don't think I've ever eaten a crayon."

"Haha, okay. Probably just the children of my school. Shit, anyway, is Feliciano coming with you for the whole time?" he asked.

"Yes. Then we'll go to Italy." He said.

"Ah, man, it's going to be great for you to meet Elizabeta! And Roderich, I suppose." Gilbert said. Ludwig nodded and said their goodbyes.

They had organised to meet over the summer holidays. Ludwig found himself surprised that he was looking forward to it.

For the two years he had been set on just working. He hadn't worried about holidays or time to himself or time to socialise. But since Gilbert had visited and Feliciano had become his boyfriend, he found his attitude changing. He had someone to go with to work gatherings. He found common ground with Arthur in that they both enjoyed football, and now enjoyed taking lunch breaks with other coworkers. He had travelled outside London to visit parks and the sea, which he had never really seen before.

It was sad to say that he was genuinely started to feel like he was, well, living.

Not everything was going to be perfect though.

He walked into work as normal. However, there seemed a downbeat tone as he entered his quarter.

"Er, has anything happened?" he asked his manager.

"I will say once everyone is here."

Ludwig waited around and conducted work as usual. He became more and more disconcerted by Arthur's lack or appearance.

Eventually his manager stepped forward.

"As you can see, Arthur has not come to work today." She announced to Ludwig and his co-workers. "Last night he was attacked on the way from work. It was a homophobic attack it appears. He's not near death or anything, but he was hit with a bottle in the face. It… may cause him to go blind in one eye."

Gasped shocks filled the tense air.

"Arthur will come back to work as soon as he can, but until then, we're organising a little get-well package. If everyone could donate…"

Ludwig tuned out the noise or his manager. He couldn't believe it. He hadn't considered the possibility of his friends being attacked like this, not in this day and age in this country.

But mostly it reminded him of his past, and he felt sick.

Arthur returned two weeks later.

He walked into work as normal, but it was immediately apparent that the attack occurred. He had a few scars on his face, and it was clear that his left eye was unfocused and damaged.

He didn't say much, except from thanking everyone for their support, and continued working. Ludwig couldn't help but notice that everyone was a little careful around Arthur. Ludwig couldn't help but struggle to look at him directly.

He noticed that Arthur was not doing a lot of work. He seemed distracted, and only half heartedly pushed keys in his computer rarely. He seemed to be lost in thought otherwise.

At lunch break, Arthur was making tea in the kitchenette whilst chatting to Ludwig making coffee. "Everyone keeps staring." He grumbled privately to Ludwig. "It's healed a lot, it's not that noticeable compared to how it looked before."

Ludwig couldn't think what to say. "Sorry."

Arthur shrugged. "Nothing to apologise for."

Ludwig nodded and thought of what to say. "You're back at work reasonably early."

Arthur looked at Ludwig. "It's so boring at home. I enjoyed my routine beforehand where TV was just for night, and work during the day. Nothing to do all the time bores me to tears. And I can only do some of my work at home. So I returned. Alfred wasn't happy, but I wanted to return to normalcy. Do you understand what I mean?" Arthur said.

Ludwig nodded, but wasn't convinced when he considered Arthur's poor work ethic today. "Yeah, that makes sense." He agreed, not wanting to press further.

Arthur groaned. "You know the kids who did it, seen them hanging around before where I live, that's how they knew my sexuality. Apparently they didn't mean to hurt me. They just thought smashing a bottle in my face would be funny or something." He spat sarcastically. "Those people don't think of the consequences. Like 'lets jump the gay man, it'll be funny!' Fucking arseholes…" he trailed off.

All Ludwig could think of was himself laughing at Arthur, walking down the road…

Arthur smiled at Ludwig. "Sorry if I'm dumping on you, you're easy to talk to. I can't believe we've only been talking for a few months. You're far too shy."

Ludwig nodded, but he could waves of guilt rising. He eventually burst. "I was one of those kids."

Arthur looked at him puzzled. "Sorry?"

"I used to be like them. You know, go around, laughing at people. I used to make fun of a gay people."

Arthur looked at him incredulously. "Well, I don't know quite what to say about that."

Ludwig couldn't look at him in his eyes. "I really regret that period of my life."

"Well, I can see that, with your apparent homosexuality." Arthur said. "Well, you've piqued my interest. How did you figure out you were gay?"

"I realised I didn't like girls at around 15. And I lashed out against it because the only experience with gay people I had was homophobia, so I continued with it. But one night I got drunk and tried to kiss my friend, who retaliated strongly. I ended up in the hospital and realised that I was in a poisonous world. I left that type of life behind me, not that I had much of a choice, and tried to get my grades up in school. Somehow I ended up here, an accepted my sexuality."

Arthur seemed in thought, then looked at Ludwig. "Any my attack made you feel… guilty?" he asked.

Ludwig squeezed his hands together. "I suppose."

Arthur nodded. "That's certainly interesting. You accepted your sexuality but not your past."

Ludwig was confused at that statement. "I-"

"Look, Ludwig, I'm saying this a friend. Seriously, the people are work here are fine but you're the only one I could consider a genuine friend since you don't seem to mind my rants on football and politics. And trust me, after all that's happened these past weeks, I'm not giving you much sympathy. And I'm not a psychologist so I'm not an expert. But" he grasped Ludwig's shoulders. "You need to get over yourself. I mean it nicely, but you can't continue in life as a gay man feeling guilty every time someone mentions the word 'homophobia', or similar. I don't know how, as I don't know your past, not really. But you're going to need to move on from that if you're ever going to reach any sort of contentment."

Ludwig felt stunned. "But I-" he stopped himself. Was he wallowing in his past too much, his guilt? Was he holding himself back? He thought he had accepted his past. But maybe acknowledging it was not the same as confronting it. "That's given me something to think about" he concluded.

Arthur smiled warmly.

They went back to their work stations. Ludwig's thoughts were confused, but he eventually peeked over to see Arthur absently staring at the computer screen, typing words then deleting them, as if he wasn't really thinking about what he was writing. "Can I give you advice?" Ludwig said, finally, after minutes of this torture. "Go home. Don't come into work tomorrow."

Arthur spluttered indignantly after he snapped out of his daze. "I say-"

"You haven't done any work. I think you wanted a distraction, from, err, what happened, but you're also too distracted by what happened to do it. I think it's best if you're at home" Ludwig said firmly, but he hoped he didn't come across as harsh. But if he took Arthur's advice, and tried to stop feeling sorry for himself, that included being too overly cautious with people and not trying to offend them.

Arthur's glare softened. "I… I'll think about it. I'm definitely staying to the evening." Arthur said, firmly.

Arthur didn't come back to work the next day.

He sent Ludwig a text thanking him of sorts, and stating he was definitely going to make sure that when he returned to work, his mind was on the job.

Ludwig considered it a small victory.

In my original plan, this chapter was going to spread over many and be a much larger part of the story. However, I ended up shrinking it down and down into this, just keeping the core elements of the arc I suppose. It didn't need to be as long as I initially intended, although I suppose I lost a bit of Arthur's character in the process. Still, this is Ludwig's story!

Please review, I appreciate every one!