"Warnings": (Since this is apparently for triggery things... this is more of what to expect?) Germany/Japan (so shounen-ai)... language barriers, etc.
Ludwig flushed slightly as he was caught off-guarded by his own brother—no doubt that he'd get a lecture about the Italian or… how awesome he was. So, it goes without saying that he was shocked when Gilbert started talking about Kiku.
"What—what do you mean?" His brother had chastised him for not admitting he had a crush on the Japanese student, though he wasn't sure if his brother was being serious, or just trying to annoy him (and get him to confess that the liked the Italian, which was not true.)
The tender light in his brother's eyes worried him a bit, but he managed to still convince himself that this was a joke. It couldn't be more than a joke—everyone thought he and Feliciano were dating (and… neither of them really tried to deny that.)
Through the conversation, most of which included Gilbert chiding him for not telling "his awesome older brother" about his love for Kiku, he found that Gilbert might be a bit more observant than he gave him credit for. He also found that Gilbert was interested in Feli (not something he would condone if he raised the Italian), but that was something he didn't pay much attention to.
It also didn't help when Gilbert, someone who was pretty much shameless (he hollered vulgar words, and shouted innuendoes) told him that he would tell Kiku if he, Ludwig, didn't confess anytime soon. Thankfully, he had an advantage when it came to that—Kiku wouldn't be able to understand Gilbert, and Gilbert couldn't speak Japanese (except for those few random words).
That still didn't explain how he ended up doing this, though. He doesn't know why he bothered to listen to his brother, and invite his friends out for lunch. The overly-formal setting didn't help ease his mood—the place was lavishly decorated, and it looked as if one would take another out for a date here.
"Please give the chopsticks," Ludwig muttered in Japanese since Kiku was the one near the chopsticks.
Instead of getting the chopsticks as he hoped, Kiku stared at him in shock. He didn't know much Japanese, so he assumed that the sentence he muttered shocked Kiku, but then, Kiku started to attempt an explanation on the difference between the word "chopstick" and "bridge".
He listened as well as he could—even he, a native German speaker had to admit that his German was good for someone who only started to learn a year or two ago—but the words were sometimes confusing as he kept lapsing back in Japanese.
From what he could get, the intonations of the words mattered—the Japanese word for both chopstick and bridge was "hashi".
The day only got worse from there—Gilbert had not only attempted to keep his promise, he tried to rope his two (best) friends into helping him. So, on top of his brother and Feliciano knowing, both Francis and Antonio knew about his crush too.
It was difficult for him to keep a façade of nonchalance, of stoicism. He so badly wanted to break down and smile warmly at Kiku. He knew that it would not only frighten Kiku (and the rest of the student body), but that it would confuse him even more—he could tell that Kiku wanted to question him, but wouldn't because he didn't like to pry.
It was because of Kiku that he was somewhat thankful but somewhat wary as he knew that curiosity could (and would) bring down even the strongest man. He knew that it was only a matter of time before Kiku would speak up, and he'd have to answer (or at least make up an excuse.)
Even if that didn't come up soon, he knew he wasn't ready to explain things. But maybe, maybe when the time comes, he'd have fallen out of love with Kiku, or Kiku would fall in love with him—Ludwig believed that the first rather than the latter would happen.
There was nothing that Ludwig could do—he could only go on, and hope that there was an end within reach. The end would either come in the form of a question, one he still couldn't answer honestly, or would come with an offer to move—he hoped it was the latter.
"Brother," he heard Gilbert mutter suddenly. He wasn't curious as to why Gilbert bothered him—it probably had something to do with stroking his already huge ego—but his brother was as stubborn as he was, so it went without saying that he continued to press onwards. "What if I told you that your friend was seeing someone else?"
Before he could stop himself, he jumped to his feet and glared at his brother—it was purely instinct. When his mind caught up, he flushed slightly, but muttered, "Just shut up." To make sure he wouldn't hear anything, he removed himself from the premise, and found himself in Alfred's room.