The Vargas family used to be part of Italy's upper class but war came and once it had taken the money and the fame it came again to take the family's old head. Now only the house was left to tell storys of by-gone times and it had a lot to tell, every piece of old funiture that was left, every crack in the marble, every photographie had a way that took whoever entered the house back to the good old times.
The people who currently lived in this house matched with it's aura far too well and they put their own melaancholy into it instead of foorcing it upon each other.
Autumn came and it brought long breaks of silence between Ludwig and Feliciano but the silence wasn't a bad thing, it just silently lay onto their souls. Autumn left and winter was more lively again. Feliciano hadn't been affected by autumn melancholy that much and now excitement claimed his mind but Ludwig had been deep in it and he still was. They spent Christmas at Lovino and Antonio's house. Ludwig remembered it, the house in front of wich he'd found a certain tomatoe box. It looked much nicer now, just a little too messy for his taste. Antonio had hung a mistletoe and warned them right after they'd arrived, he also anounced that he stole a kiss from Lovino whenever one of them walked through underneath it. His attempt to be romantic was interrupted by several swears and cries of protest. When Antonio went to bring the food from the kitchen, Ludwig went to help him. After he'd placed it on the table he was about to go back to the kitchen again when something fell on his head. When Ludwig looked up he saw that it was a part of the mistletoe. Feliciano and Lovino were coming back upstairs from incpecting some old stuff downstairs and Antonio came out of the kitchen, they were all gathered together to see Ludwig standing under that small piece of green all by himself. Feliciano took advantage of the situation and run towards him, he hugged him in his usual way and kissed his cheek like he always did. Antonio aplauded while Lovino demonstratively covered his eyes with his hands. This act made Ludwig fall back into his usual mood and since they weren't alone he acted more rejecting than acepting. The rest of the evening went as normal as possible. On a day early in spring Feliciano found Ludwig standing in the open garden door, gazeing at the sky. He didn't recognize that he wasn't alone.
"It's been a year", he mumbled to himself. The war was a topic that was to be avoided and they both knew that the other had suffered so Feliciano just took his hand. Ludwig flinched since he had been deeply in his thoughts but didn't turn his head. He let Feliciano hold his hand and held his.
As romantic as their relationship seemed it was a friendship and nothing else. It didn't need to be anything else. They just needed each other for comfort and company and trust and gentleness, the things they both found in the other in their own ways. It seemed like there could never be a romance between the two of them but the reason wasn't their friendship. The reason was that there was still a distance between them, an unspoken word that had nothing to do with sexual desire, they could have become soulmates but there were things they wanted to say but didn't because these words were ment for someone else.
It'd been hard for Ludwig to find peace, but he'd made it. It became clearer and clearer to him and the thought that things could ever change moved farther and farther away from him. It hit him like a bold from the blue when they suddenly did.
It was Februrary 14th, a T uesday. He hadn't recognized the mere existence of this day until Feliciano reminded him with a loud sqeak that he let out as he looked at the calender. His goodbye was even more cheerful than usually when he left to go to the market. He came back home only a few minutes before Ludwig who'd gone through a rough day. His mind was fussy and unable to remind him that it was bad to draw conclusions before understanding the situation. Feliciano gave him his kisses while obviously hiding something behind his back. Ludwig wasn't in the mood for games, he snatched it away from him and held a beautiful bouquet of roses in his hands before he realised it. He showed absolutely no reaction, no change in his expression or skin tone, not even a twitch in his body, he just froze. Feliciano laughed at the surprised expression even though he couldn't tell if it was good or bad.
"Buon San Valentino!" he sang and ran to turn on the radio. Ludwig didn't know what to do, his mind was blank. Feliciano was always strange and he couldn't explain some of his actions - actually most of his actions – but this morning it'd been even stranger and now this...
"Come on, Ludwig, dance with me!" he giggled and pulled him into the living room. Feliciano had teached him how to dance before and even though he wasn't as bad as he used to be Ludwig stumbled over his feet over and over again. His partner lay a hand around his waist and smiled at this silliness. Finally Ludwig had enough of making a fool of himself and pushed him away. Feliciano interpreted his aggressive reaction as embarassment and didn't bother him again. He could hear rumbling upstairs, not knowing that it was Ludwig searching for a certain book wich he'd found in their collection a few weeks ago. Finally, there it was: The psychology book. He studied it until Feliciano came upstairs to sleep, expecting to do so in Ludwig's warm embrace, but he'd already turned off the light and faced him with his back, just like he'd done the first night they'd spend together, on their first sleepover. Since they lived together every night had been like a sleepover, telling stories and sleeping together, with their arms around each other. That was their ritual and lately Ludwig had even started to expect it a little, but Feliciano just couldn't explain to himself why he suddenly wanted to brake it of. He spend hours trying to figure it out and eventually fell asleep, but not with the usual relief. The next day Ludwig was acting coldly again, or at least Feliciano enterpreted the fact that he avoided him that way. But he definetly couldn't run away in the evening. Right when he opened the door Feliciano was standing in front of him, wearing an apron over his clothes, glaring with a smile. Ludwig became nervous.
"Uhm... about the roses", he started.
"Y-yes?" Feliciano was getting insecure, too.
"Did you give them to anyone else?"
"Oh!" he rejoiced. It was a good thing that Ludwig spoke about the evening at wich he'd gotten mad, so maybe things could go back to normal, right?
"I didn't." But it turned out to be the opposite way. Ludwig looked like he was going to explode.
"But... You must have someone you like, don't you?"
Feliciano's fave lit down.
"Well, I once liked a boy, but-"
He wasn't planning to finish the sentence, he knew he couldn't have done it anyways and he didn't have to. Ludwig groaned, quickly walked into the living room, saw the radio and turned again.
"How about soccer?"
"Uh...Okay..."
Feliciano cooked dinner for them. They remined silent during most of it. Hoping it'd help Feliciano just opened is mouth to ask if they'd play again tomorrow, Ludwig preempt him.
"My answer is "Yes"."
Ever since then he placed his hand a little lower on Feliciano's waist when he guided or held onto him, but their cuddling had stoped, wich was troublesome since the result was that their greeting became more intense.
