AN: Hey guys, it's been awhile! Sorry for the sudden hiatus but I felt like I should write when I got out of my writer's block. I got sloppy when I forced myself to write and I didn't want to mess this fic up by doing that. I probably should have tried harder to get out of it, but thank you guys for patiently waiting. I'm going to pick up the pace with this fic and (hopefully) finish it by the end of summer. It's not going to be too long of one. There could be 4 more chapters at most left.
Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Ludwig got home late that night. Alfred had tried to convince him and Feliciano to stay the night but after the long day out, he decided to decline. He took Feliciano home, sneaking a good night kiss and then another before heading home himself. He quietly tip-toed through the house, trying not to wake up his father. His brother was still up, he wasn't awake enough to handle Gilbert, but at least his music was too loud for him to hear Ludwig walking by.
He lay on his bed, kicked off his shoes, and stared up at the ceiling. He was exhausted, but happy; very happy. He almost didn't realize he started to doze off.
Bzzt. Bzzt. Ludwig awoke with his phone vibrating in his pocket. He sat up and stretched his arms before checking it. A new email, from Kiku. Ludwig blinked, vaguely remembering giving his email address to Kiku so he could send him the pictures from their day out.
Ludwig took off his shirt and pants, turned out the light and slipped under the covers on his bed. He opened up the email. The first pictures were of them in the antique shop, then outside. A lot were pictures of Alfred goofing off. There were several pictures at the candy shop, mostly of candy. Then there were several selfies of Francis and Ivan. His smile turned into a frown when he saw Francis was making provocative gestures in the background in some of the pictures of him and Feliciano. Kiku managed to get a few good shots of them without Francis, at least.
The pictures taken at the restaurant were mainly blurry, with the exception of a few including one of Kiku, smiling with a drop of tomato sauce on the side of his mouth. Next were several pictures from the karaoke bar they went to. Feliciano had sung first, he would get off key sometimes, but Ludwig almost would call his performance perfect. He felt warmly thinking back at the moment. Kiku managed to capture the way he looked over at Ludwig while singing, and also how the two had gotten carried away with PDA afterwards. Ludwig blushed looking at the pictures, a little embarrassed.
Francis and Ivan had sung afterwards, Ludwig was in awe over Francis's voice. He sung like an angel; a beautiful, masculine French angel. Ivan sung up back-up vocals, almost perfecting their duet. After they had finished, people had asked for them to sing again, though Alfred wanted to take a turn. Ludwig, though he felt bad about it later, expected him to not do so well, but he proved him wrong. He had a good rhythm, even danced up on the stage. Arthur joined him half way through and stole the show. Alfred didn't seem to mind and sung with him.
There were a couple of group pictures of all of them, then the pictures from the quick trip to the nearby lake. They had a sand castle building contest; Kiku had won, with Francis and Alfred coming pretty close. Matthew neglected to finish his castle to help Ivan out with building his. Arthur couldn't seem to build one without it falling apart. Ludwig had to put his phone down for a minute after seeing the picture of Arthur with the angriest expression on his face, kneeling by a rather large pile of sand. Ludwig and Feliciano worked on one together, but it couldn't compare to Kiku's uniquely-styled castle, or Francis's moat he had made around his. Alfred made his impressively large, before Arthur decided to kick it down after Alfred teased him about his lack of building skills.
Kiku had taken a few pictures outside the marine museum before he had to turn his camera off to go inside. Feliciano tripped on the steps while walking up them and Ludwig went to help him up. Feliciano seemed to be focused on the skid marks on his hands instead of getting back up on his feet. Kiku had snapped the moment when he held Feli's hand and had two of his fingers on his other hand holding his head up. The two had gentle, loving eye contact with each other the moment their eyes met. At that moment, Ludwig was just happy Feliciano was okay, but the picture that was captured showed more than just that. Ludwig instantly saved it to his phone gallery.
At sunset, they took a quick trip into the lake. Kiku, Feliciano, and Ludwig all got on one boat, while Ivan, Francis, and Matthew got on another, and Arthur and Alfred on one of their own. Kiku took many pictures of the view while Feliciano and Ludwig cuddled in the back. Under the light of the sun setting, Ludwig could not help but kiss his lover passionately on the head and cheeks, fascinated with the way Feli giggled and the way his eyes shined happily. "Ludwig!" Feliciano laughed. "I love you so much," Ludwig repeated those words over and over in his mind; he didn't want to forget them, or the way Feliciano said them, or the way Feliciano looked at him. He wanted to cry out in bliss.
"I love you much more than you know, my sweet, sweet Feliciano Vargas." They embraced tightly. Ludwig had to wipe tears that were starting to pour out from his eyes. Kiku had captured that moment, too, of course. Ludwig told himself to thank him after he finished going through all the pictures.
Taking his eyes off Feliciano for a second, he looked over at Kiku, who was looking down at his camera. "Kiku!" Feliciano called. "Did you enjoy today?"
"Yes," Kiku smiled. Ludwig kissed Feliciano on his head once more. "I want to take one last picture before it gets too dark." He sat in between the two of them and held up the camera. Though, that wasn't the last picture. The three of them snuck pictures of the others, a few of Ivan trying to get close to Matthew, who was overwhelmed with the attention, blushing and hiding his face. Ivan was gentle, nuzzling close while talking to him. Francis apparently then demonstrated how Ivan was ticklish to Matthew. They both tickled the Russian, making him laugh loudly.
They heard distant yelling from Arthur and Alfred's boat coming from Arthur. Alfred seemed to be holding him back. They ended up tripping and falling backward into (thankfully) the boat instead of the lake. Upon getting back to the shore, Arthur didn't wait to grab Matthew and pull him away from Francis and Ivan. The boy waved bye at his friends before being taken away.
Ludwig saved the email and hit reply. He typed a quick message to Kiku, thanking him for the pictures and the great time, and sent it. He looked through his new text messages; one from Feli saying good night and a couple from Alfred, a text asking to hang out another time, which was sent to the others, too. He replied back to them, set his wallpaper to the picture of him and Feli on the boat, and threw his phone aside. He closed his eyes for a second before his door opened up.
"Lud," his older brother, Gilbert, stood in the doorway.
"Yes?" he squinted at the sudden light coming into his room. "Can I help you?"
His brother blinked for a second. "Not going to throw something at me this time? That's weird for you. Anyway, I was gonna ask what's up with your giggling. I don't think I've heard you make those noises," he paused. "You made those right, there isn't someone else in here?" he chuckled.
"No, Gilbert, it's alright, don't worry about it," he rubbed his eyes, almost laughing.
"You feelin' alright?" Gilbert teased. "You look happy, unusually happy."
"I feel fine, bruder, now please, go back to sleep."
"Alright, we'll talk later." His brother gave him one last smile before softly closing the door. Ludwig laid his head back down and passed out immediately.
He dreamed nice dreams that night, but the next morning felt like he was waking up into a much nicer dream, that was now his reality.
AN: I liked writing this chapter, I really did. The coming up chapters may get a little rough, though, prepare yourselves. ;3 Again, thank you so much for reading and the favorites and the reviews. You guys make me happy, okay? Oh and I'll try being much quicker with the next chapter. Have a good week, everybody!