Feliciano rubbed his eyes free of sleep. These weren't the usual cracks in the ceiling he had been greeted with over the last few days. Weeks? He didn't know anymore. This bed had also become a lot comfier than he last remembered. He surprised himself by actually being able to sit up and surveyed the room. The desk had gone and the layout of the room had become completely different. There was now a comfortable looking armchair to the right of the bed and a bedside table on the left. There was also a door opposite him. A chest of drawers was to the left of the bed, and there was now a large window emitting a harsh white light. Once his eyes adjusted to it, Feliciano could see it was snowing. The white specks dancing down the window pane excited him greatly, it barely snowed in Italy unless you were high up on the mountains of Isonzo. Feliciano wondered for a breif moment if this was a dream. It wasn't cold, he didn't feel light headed, and he could almost forget about the painful scratching inside his lungs. There was still that ever lingering familiar smell of the Beilschmidt's that both Gilbert and Ludwig carried about them.

The door suddenly opened and Ludwig strode in, followed by Gilbert. A third figure also entered the room. Feliciano recognised him by the way he stormed up to the bed.

"Dio mio, Feliciano you idiot. What the fuck are you doing here?" Lovino spoke very sternly in Italian.

"I think I should be asking you the same question. I came to find you, fratello."

"Well you shouldn't have. Look, you're ill again, what did I tell you?"

"I can't remember." Feliciano giggled sheepishly. "Plus Antonio looked really sad so I had to come."

"Fuck him, I told him to keep you away from any kind of war."

"It wasn't his fault, it was my idea and he told me not to go but I did anyway so be mad at me instead." Feliciano quickly tried to shift the blame away from Antonio. "Wait, why are you here?"

Lovino sat down at the end of the bed. "I jumped of the train that was taking us to the Prisoner of War camp." He nodded to Gilbert. "He found me and took me in."

Feliciano nodded to show he understood. This was all said in Italian so both Gilbert and Ludwig looked very confused. Feliciano decided to switch to German.

"Where are we, anyway?"

"Oh right, yeah. He kind of have to tell Feliciano what happened." Gilbert left Feliciano in bewilderment.

Feliciano's eyebrows knotted together in confusion. "What happened?"

Ludwig sighed heavily. "I was ordered to kill you but I couldn't do it, so I brought you here." He said this with a mixture of pride, shame and exasperation.

"I knew you were a nice person." Feliciano smiled as if he had just been told a joke he'd heard before. "Um, so where is here?"

"It's the farmhouse Ludwig and I grew up in. Although we don't farm." Gilbert chuckled and started to move towards the door. "I just gotta go check on something." He left the room.

Lovino jumped up suddenly. "The soup!" He exclaimed and ran out the room. Feliciano chuckled at his brother. It was so good to see him again after all that had happened. Ludwig went to the chest of drawers and took a stethoscope from one of the drawers. He came and sat down on the arm chair. Moving it closer to the bed, he put the stethoscope in his ears. "I'll check your vitals while you're still sat up."

Feliciano nodded, unbuttoned his shirt and turned around. Ludwig usually measured how it sounded at the back first. Ludwig placed the cold chest piece against the right side of Feliciano's back and ordered him to breath in and out. He repeated this with the left side then told him to turn to face him, so he could listen to his chest. Feliciano shivered at how cold the chest piece was, and inhaled and exhaled as he was told. He was sitting so close to Ludwig and he could feel his face heating up. Why was he always warm around Ludwig? And what was this knot in his stomach he could always feel tighten whenever Ludwig looked at him? Ludwig looked confused for a second and drew the chest piece away. He tapped it a little, put it to his own chest to test it, then replaced it on the same place on Feliciano's chest. Feliciano breathed in and out again, but this made Ludwig take the stethoscope off in frustration and confusion. Instead, he placed a hand on Feliciano's chest as a replacement. Suddenly becoming flustered, Feliciano decided to break the ice with a question.

"S-something wrong?"

"No, nothing. I'm not hearing what I usually hear, so that means you should be recovering."

Felciano smiled relievedly. "Really?"

"Yeah, well we did inject you with the cure while you were unconscious." Ludwig frowned again. "But your heart rate is immeasurably fast." He stopped focusing on his hand and looked up to Felciano's face, which had moved a lot closer in the past minute. Ludwig's heart also quickened and he found himself leaning in too. Both men's cheeks were stained crimson and Ludwig felt as if he had never been so close to another human being. The door suddenly swung open and Ludwig found himself already stood up and on his way out the room. It was Lovino, and he had brought tomato soup. Feliciano stayed in the same position and stared at the space where Ludwig was. He had never felt so alone.

To be continued...