A/N: I've had people ask me why certain characters aren't in the story...so to clarify, I'll tell you all now that this will be a REALLY long story (or at least, I'm aiming for 20-something chapters). So please be paitent with me on this, since as I stated once before, the MAIN PAIRING is GERTALIA. However, if you request a pairing by sending me a message or simply writing it as a comment, I will consider it and it will have a high chance of being in the story if it's reasonable, (except those involving Germany, Italy, America and Japan, because...well, you know.) There's some PrussiaxCanada if you squint.

It takes me a while to get these posted up due to summer school...stupid physics XD. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter^-^

Chapter Ten: What Was Known As Love

"Kiss me," Ludwig said, his voice nearly a whisper.

What?

"L-ludwig, what do you-"

Ludwig pinned him against the wall, silencing the Italian with his own lips. As he began to close his eyes, Feliciano's were left wide open. The Italian tried to pull away, only to have Ludwig press himself against him, crushing him with his weight. Feliciano then closed his eyes out of shame and being scared. However...

...this feels familiar...

After a while, Ludwig finally broke the kiss, searching for air. He gazed at the man before him, who was now in tears. "What's wrong?" the blonde asked harshly. "I-I-I... I d-don't..." Ludwig then placed a hand on Feliciano's shoulder and roughly held him against the wall. "Don't you remember?" he whispered through his teeth. Now crying and shaking uncontrollably out of fear, the Italian shook his head "N-no...I-I d-don't." "You used kissed me all the time, remember?" the blonde said, his voice almost sinister. "L-l-ludwig...I told you," Feliciano said in between sobs, "I-I don't remember! I can't remember anything! I only know what my fratello and everyone else has been telling me!" Ludwig scoffed, then smirked. "You're such a bad person...first you break up your alliance to me and Kiku out of cowardice and attack us. Do you have any idea what that did to us?" the blonde said, his speech now becoming slurred. "And now, you go out and forget us, just like that."

"Ludwig, listen to me! You're drunk, so stop it! I don't know what you're talking about and neither do you!" Feliciano was now bursting into tears, unable to control his speech as well. "You don't know? You don't know? Scheisskopf!*" the blonde shouted. "You're really useless, aren't you? All those times I had to save your ass! I don't even remember why I did all of that for you of all people."

"I'll aid you whenever you're in a pinch, so stop worrying."

The words of that faded promised echoed in Ludwig's mind. He got up, and headed his way out of the room. However, something the Italian would say at that moment would tug on him mentally. Maybe even emotionally.

"You're not the same..."

Ludwig let those words sink in. What the...?

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Feliciano stumbled as he stood up, but projected his voice for the blonde to hear. "Elizabeta and Roderich...they said I had a first love named Holy Roman Empire...and for I moment, I thought you were him since you look the same. But now I realized...that a person like you...I could never love someone as cruel as you!" Ludwig stood his ground as Feliciano backed up against the wall once more, fighting against his own tears. Holy Roman Empire...why does that sound so familiar? the blonde asked himself. "Even though I can't remember what he was like...I'm sure that I he wouldn't be as cold as you! Because...he promised...he promised..."

Those words kept tugging at Ludwig's conscience. "It's not like I could love you either!" he shot back. "You're too stupid and useless! And to top it all off, you're a guy! All I ever did was rescue you and clean up after your messes!"

"Then why didn't you just abandon me? You didn't have to stick around, y'know! Lovino said that I had other friends, so I didn't need you at all!"

It was because I needed you.

No. Ludwig shook his head. He promised himself to never think like that again. He would put it behind him and think of it only as a bad dream.

I didn't want to be alone again.

Goddammit, stop thinking like that! he told himself. "Then why did you only run to me when you needed help, huh? You always called for me! You never called your brother, or any of your other friends. So why me?" Feliciano began to cry again. "I don't know! Maybe because I thought I could trust you? But right now, I don't see a reason why I was even around you! More or less, why you were around me!"

Because I thought you loved me, so I...

"Shut up! I don't want to hear it anymore!" Ludwig shouted back. "That's it! I'm done!" he ran out of the room, in search of a phone. "I should've done this a long time ago!"

"Excuse me. Kiku?" Elizabeta said quietly.

"Yes, what is it Elizabeta-san?" Kiku asked. "It seems that you have a phone call." she motioned for him to follow her into another room. "Roderich, Lovino, I think it would be a good idea for you two to come along with us as well." Gilbert shot up as the others headed towards the door. "What about Francis? More importantly what about the awesome me?" Gilbert asked, obviously insulted. "Why does Lovi and the aristocrat get to go?" Elizabeta sighed and gave him an annoyed looked. "Because, Gilbert," she said sternly, "it's from Ludwig. Either way, he specifically asked for Kiku."

"How does he even know I'm here?" Kiku asked himself out loud. Lovino crossed his arms. "What does he want? Did he say?" Elizabeta shook her head. "No, but he sounded pretty upset." She then turned to Kiku. "The phone's right in there," the Hungarian said as she pointed to a room directly across the hall. "Take your time." The Japanese man nodded and closed the door behind him as he entered the room. He saw that the phone was placed on the table. With shaky hands, he picked up the phone and gulped. "Ludwig, this is Kiku speaking. You wish to speak to me?" At first, all Kiku could hear was the other man's labored breathing. "Ludwig, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," he replied. "I called your house, but they said you were over there at Roderich's house." Kiku tried his best not to sound surprised. "I see...then this must be of great importance." He heard Ludwig scoff. "You got that right." The blonde had paused, as if to think of what to say, then continued. "Look, I know it's been a long while, but I need you to do me a big favor." Kiku could hear the sincerity in Ludwig's voice. However, he failed to notice right away that the door was slightly open.

"What are they talking about?" Lovino half whispered, half shouted.

"Shut up! I may be awesome, but that doesn't mean I have super hearing or something!" said Gilbert.

"Will both of you stop acting like children and be quiet!" Roderich said sternly.

"Why? What's an aristocrat like you gonna do? Wave money in my face and bribe me to shut up?" Gilbert shot back.

"No, but I'll be the one to wave something in your face!" Elizabeta said, clutching onto her frying pan.

"Elizabeta, mon cher, calm down." Francis said worriedly. "What's important is that we listen in on our little Japonaise's* conversation, no?" They all moved their focus back on Kiku, who seemed to be struggling. "...yes...ok...I'm sure I can somehow accommodate...it's no problem...it's nice to hear from you, too...alright then, but the earliest I can get there is in two hours. Can you hold off until then...okay then, 4 o'clock it is...I'll see you then. Okay, good bye." As he hung up the phone, he glared at the door. "You know, the four of you aren't that great at spying."

"Spying? Who's spying?" Gilbert said nonchalantly as he walked into the room. "We were all...concerned. That's right! We're concerned!"

"Geez, you're not that good at lying either." Roderich muttered. "Hey, who was the one who invaded your vital regions? Should I remind you? Kesesesese!"

"Maybe I should remind you!" Elizabeta said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Lovino and Francis rolled their eyes in annoyance. "Anyways, what did that potato bastard want?" Lovino asked. Kiku cleared his throat. "Gilbert-san, it seems that your part of the plan failed." Gilbert laughed at this, only to see the seriousness in the man's expression. "Mein gott...why? What did my bruder say?"

"He...he's giving up. He can't handle Feliciano-kun being around him, so he asked me to take him away from him."

"And you agreed?" Lovino shouted. He preceeded to shout more foul things in Italian as Roderich went up to Kiku and Elizabeta. "What are we going to do now?" Francis muttered as crossed his arms. "Why did you agree?" the Austrian asked. "Ah, about that...well, if it's okay with Gilbert-san, I would like to have my turn now. However..." Kiku spaced off as Gilbert started to flail his arms like a child. "That's not fair!" he whined. "I only had one day with him! I wanna play with Feli more!" The next thing they all knew, Gilbert was on the ground with Elizabeta standing next to him, both her hand and his face red. "You had your chance, and you blew it. So he'll be going along with Kiku now, got it?" she said through her teeth. "Yes...ma'am..." the man mumbled. "Excuse me, but can I make a phone call? There's something I want to confirm before Feliciano-kun comes over to my house." Kiku said as he motioned towards the phone. "Go ahead." Roderich said as he facepalmed. Great, just great. Now we have to clean up Gilbert's mess...

"Mon cher, I'm sorry to say that I have to leave on another important business. However if you need anything else, please give me a call." As Francis was about to leave, he could've sworn he felt something hit him. Literally. Looking down, he noticed a black loafer on the ground, shoelaces untied. "You bastard! Where do you think you're going!" the blonde man turned around to see Lovino, wearing only one shoe. "I just said that I had something important to do."

"More important than Feliciano?"

"On the contrary, yes. My boy, Matthew, has been sick for the past two weeks." Gilbert quickly looked up upon hearing this. "I even went as far as to ask Yao if he had any herbs or such that'll help..." Francis continued to look at the ground. "Oh...um, sorry, I guess. I hope he gets better..." Lovino mumbled as he retrieved his shoe. "I wanna go visit him!" Gilbert said as Francis headed towards the door once more. However, he turned around and glared at the other man. "I'd rather you not." Once Francis had left, Gilbert kept his eyes on the door, those words ringing in his ears. "Geez, what on earth did you do to make him look at you that way?" Elizabeta asked. "I have no idea..."

"Alright, it's settled." Kiku said, after hanging up the phone. "Alfred and I will be picking up Feliciano-kun in about two hours so-"

"-wait, wait, wait. Since when was Alfred gonna help?" asked Gilbert. "Oh, well...um..." Kiku's cheeks turned to a bright shade of red. "He's...well...we're...um..."

"He's...well...we're...um...' Just spit it out already!" said an impatient Lovino. They were interrupted by a laughing Elizabeta. "That's just too cute!" she said in between giggles. "What are you talking about?" asked Roderich. "Don't you guys get? Alfred's helping because they're living together now!" she answered proudly as she patted an embarrassed Kiku, much to the other's surprise. "What...how...and since when?" they all began to ask. "Well...it's actually a bit different than what she said..." said Kiku as he looked at the ground, trying to hide his red face, "...but I suppose that would be the closest thing to it..." Gilbert let out a hearty laugh. "Wow Kiku! I didn't think you'd have it in you!" he said as he patted his head. "...just promise you'll take care of my fratello." Lovino said with a blank face. "Of course I will! I care about him a lot, so I'll do my absolute best!"

Feliciano stayed in the backyard with the dogs-by his own choice. Being inside is too scary...he thought. The dogs circled around him. One of them, probably Aster, went up to him a couple of times. Feliciano smiled at him. "Why can't Ludwig be as nice and cute as you?" he said as he petted him. In one hand, he held a flower close to him. He touch the pure, white petals with the other hand, and began to pluck them off one at a time.

"I cry...I don't cry...I cry...I don't cry...I cry...I don't cry..."

There was one more petal on the flower. Well, look at that, he thought. However, without a second thought, without any hesitation, he did what he didn't want to do: he cried. All because the flower had told him that it was okay to do so.

A/N: Again, sorry this took so long, and sorry that it's pretty short and rushed (well, at least I think so). I hope you enjoyed so far. I'll be working as hard and as fast as I can. Although, that depends since I have an upcoming exam for physics =.= Wish me luck? Until next time! ;P

*Scheisskopf-shithead (literally)

*Japonaise-French for Japanese (person)