I am way too happy about this. Happy belated Valentine's Day, everyone!


Valentine's Day was finally here.

I hadn't seen Ludwig yet, but I knew that talking with him was going to be a bit strange, only because today was a day for love and we were gonna start dating tomorrow.

Oh, well.

"Feliciano?"

I looked over at Lovi. "Yeah?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

I shook my head. He shrugged and looked back to the front of the room.


"Happy V-Day, losers," Gil said as Herc and Kiku finally came to the table. Ludwig and me were sitting next to each other.

"A time to celebrate love, whether it be platonic, romantic, or anything in between," Francis said, throwing a glance at Artie, who didn't notice (I think).

Al tried to put an arm around Mei's shoulders, but she said, "No—please don't."

"Somethin' wrong?" he asked.

She winced. "Um, I—tripped the other day and banged my shoulders on the table."

"Oh, damn, I'm sorry," Al said quickly.

"No, it's fine," Mei said softly. She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Happy Valentine's, Al."

He grinned and kissed her back. "Same to you, beautiful."

"Oh . . . did we all bring . . . stuff?" Herc asked. He brought out a small bag and passed it around. "It's . . . the same thing . . . as last year. . . . Butter cookies."

"Hey, awesome," Al said. Matt brought out a bag and passed it around while Al said, "I kinda totally forgot about V-Day until like yesterday, so me and Mattie just went out and bought these cupcakes."

I tried mine. "It's good!"

"Me and Luddie made apple fritters," Gil said, quickly tossing one to each of us. Ludwig glanced at him and Gil said, "I mean—well, okay, Luddie did most of the work, but I made the glaze stuff."

"Lovi and I bought some cookies," Toni said, setting out the box in the middle of the table. "We were out of tomatoes this year."

Mei looked confused. "Tomatoes . . . ?" she murmured.

"Don't worry about it," Al said.

"Okay," she said. "Um . . . anyway, I made some orange tarts . . ." she brought them out in a little box. "I hope you guys like them?"

Gil tried his. "Damn, that's good."

"Thanks!"

"Oh, me and Eliza made cannoli," I said. I took the bag out of my backpack and passed around the individually-wrapped treats.

"Mm, it's sweet," Kiku said.

"I made some macarons," Francis said, passing around little sandwich cookie things. "It took me a few tries, but I think they turned out well."

"They did," Artie said, trying his. "It's really good."

"Do you have something?" Matt asked him.

Artie sighed. "No, sorry, it completely slipped my mind. I could make something for tomorrow."

"Nah, that's cool," Al said. "Wouldn't want any of your cooking anyway."

"I told you, I only set the kitchen on fire once!" Artie exclaimed.

"No one brought that up," Gil pointed out. Francis bit his lip and looked away.

"I made something this year," Kiku said. He brought out a bag and passed around some treats. "This is mochi ice cream. Its flavor is vanilla."

"Mochi?" Ludwig asked, trying some. "It's very thick—it's good, though."

"Thank you," Kiku said softly.

"Man, those were good treats," Al said. None of his sweets remained.

"Like I said, how on earth do you eat so quickly?" Francis demanded.

"Still dunno what you're on about," Al muttered.

Francis sighed. "Never mind!"

We all sat in silence for a few more minutes as we finished off the sweets and started on our normal food.

"So, uh," Al said abruptly. "Since today's V-Day and all—Feli, Ludwig, when're you guys gonna start dating?"

Ludwig and I glanced at each other and then looked at Al.

"What . . . are you talking about?" Ludwig asked after a moment.

"Are you fucking serious?" Gil exclaimed. "You literally told me like a year ago, but I would've figured it out even if you hadn't! Jesus, you guys are so obvious!"

"We are?" I asked.

"Well, yes."

"Yeah."

"Yup."

"Uh-huh."

"No shit."

Gil sighed. "Why are we all terrible at keeping secrets?"

Artie coughed; Francis and Mei looked uncomfortable.

"Because we're all incredibly nosy as well," Ludwig muttered. "Anyway . . . we're going to start dating tomorrow."

"Wow, that's awfully specific," Al commented.

"Yeah, we decided about a year ago!" I exclaimed.

"Back up, what?" Toni asked.

"You decided a year ago to date on February 15 of this year?" Matt asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Yeah, we did," I said.

Ludwig sighed and explained the situation to the group.

"That's kinda sweet," Mei said. "But didn't you guys think that . . . maybe one of us knows one of your childhood sweethearts?"

"I didn't remember anyone here going to the same elementary," I said.

"Same here," Ludwig said.

"Give it a shot," Al said. "Feli, what was he like?"

I looked up. "He had really nice and soft blond hair, and he had beautiful blue eyes, like ice, and I think his family was German, and he was really shy, and he scared me at first but then we got closer . . ." I smiled.

"O-kay," Lovi said. "You realize you literally just described Ludwig?"

I shrugged. "Well . . . Ludwig's a lot like him, but it can't be him, right?" I glanced at Ludwig. "You said your sweetheart was a girl, right?"

"Er—yes," Ludwig said.

"Yeah, it can't be him," I repeated sadly.

"Okay then . . ." Herc said. "Ludwig . . . what was . . . she like?"

Ludwig smiled. "She was a beautiful girl . . . I think her family was Italian . . . when I finally got up the nerve to approach her, it turned out we had the same feelings . . . her eyes were very light brown, almost amber . . . her hair was this beautiful copper color . . ." he frowned. "And . . . I just remembered, she had this strange curl on the . . . left side of her hair."

He glanced at me.

"Well, it can't be," he said quietly.

Francis was smirking. "What was her name?"

"I assume it was Felicia, or Felicity . . ." he murmured.

"You assume," Artie repeated flatly.

"She never told me her full name," he said thoughtfully. "She always told me to call her—" he glanced at me. "—Feli."

Everyone stared at me and Ludwig. I stared at Ludwig and he stared at me.

"So," Matt said softly. "Feli? This boy you loved . . . what was his name?"

I hesitated. "For some reason, he was . . ."

". . . Too shy to tell you his name," Ludwig completed.

I nodded.

"Well, that's that," Gil proclaimed. "You may kiss the bride."

A smile burst onto my face and I practically jumped onto Ludwig in a tight hug that I hoped would last forever. He hugged me back just as tightly.

"Why didn't you tell me your name?" I cried.

"I never liked my name as a kid!" he exclaimed.

"Why did you think I was a girl?"

"You wore dresses half the time! What was I supposed to think!?"

"I like wearing dresses!"

From somewhere else I heard Lovi groan, "Goddammit, Feliciano, I told you not to wear those . . ."

"Shush, Feli probably looks great in a dress," Toni said.

Ludwig and I finally pulled back. I leaned forward and kissed him full on the lips.

"Ich liebe dich," I said happily.

"T—Ti amo," he said softly.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" we said together, smiling happily.