"You're going out again Ludwig?" Feliciano peered around the door and watched the German fasten his white tie around the collar of his white shirt. The blonde sighed knowing fully well what the Italian meant. During the lunch hour, Ludwig repeatedly insisted nothing bad happened when Feliciano asked about the night Gilbert held him and Arthur hostage at the bar over and over again. He'd rather have the event forgotten or wiped out from history, never to be bought up again like so many other unfortunate events he could list in his head. The blonde let out a sigh.

"Vell since zhe conference is over for now, I may as vell take some time to relax and enjoy myself," Ludwig practically lied and he felt fortunate that Italy wasn't good at sensing the mood.

"Well try not to drink too much beer this time," Feliciano continued speaking in his upbeat tone. "Prussia said you were so drunk last night that you kept falling over. I was worried you might have hurt yourself."

The German growled quietly under his breath. Gilbert must really be mad at him for not catching his phone if he resorted to breaking his promise behind Ludwig's back. Either way, he hoped he spared Feliciano the details of the night before with Arthur and the tubs of yoghurt. He opened his mouth to ask the Italian how much Gilbert told him about last night when the sound of the door bell rang throughout the house. This filled Ludwig with a sense of dread.

"Veh! I'll go see who's at the door!" Feliciano chimed as he dashed out of the room and down the stairs. The blonde's anxiety built up inside of him; Italy's going to open the door and find that French moron asking for his presence in a casual tone, when in reality he could be taking him out to… Ludwig didn't even want to finish off the sentence because knowing Francis; he'd have some perverted activity in mind. And then the dreaded call from downstairs came.

"Ludwig! It's Francis! He's wondering whether you're ready to go out with him!" Feliciano's voice cheerfully announced. The German growled softly as he slipped his brown jacket on himself and stroked his blonde hair back. Satisfied that his hair had no rebellious kinks whatsoever, he forced himself out of his bedroom and reluctantly made his way downstairs.

He did contemplate about pretending to be ill and really hoping Francis would just have to come back another night. However that was not possible without the Frenchman carrying out his threat, and the fact that he couldn't turn back after he reached the bottom of the stairs, catching a smirk off Francis propped casually in the doorway.

"Shall we make our move zen?" The Frenchman grinned. His over-confidence made Ludwig want to punch him on the nose and make it bleed all over his flashy, white suit. But because Feliciano was present, he had no choice but to hold his anger back and instead nod his head slightly.

"Lets just go," The German passed the auburn haired Italian and shoved past Francis. Feliciano waved his hand as the two walked away from the house.

"Addio! Try not to get too drunk this time Ludwig!"

The German flinched at the last sentence and grabbed the car handle door of his Volkswagen when he felt Francis tap his hand away from it.

"Ah ah ah," He shook his head. "We're walking. I want to build up zhe mood for zis occasion." Oh dear God! Francis really did have something perverse in mind. Unfortunately, the constant reminder of his blackmail forced Ludwig to abandon the car and stroll in the dark, damp streets while bombarded by the Frenchman's conversational advances. He was definitely not in the mood to talk, especially to Francis of all people. Why oh why did he have to agree to going out with him? Why did he have to get himself drunk to the extent where he and Arthur shared a passionate night together? And why didn't he kill Gilbert before he sent the photos and video to Francis? Admittedly he probably should have controlled his emotions and his beer intake when he found out Kiku was going out with Alfred of all people. That's what caused the problem in the first place. If he'd been more sensible like he usually was, he wouldn't have allowed himself to wander into such an embarrassing situation.

"Ludwig, we're 'ere," The annoying French accent bought Ludwig back from his thoughts and stared at the public house before his eyes drifted to the cruel reality, in form of a sign, glaring at him.

"Speed dating?" The German scowled. "You're black mailing me to go speed dating vith you?"

"Not black mailing," Ludwig felt Francis slide beside his and felt a less than uncomfortable arm slither around his shoulders, making Ludwig shudder. "I know you've been 'aving relationship problems lately. So I zought zis could 'elp you find yourself a lover." Ludwig's irises narrowed.

"How do you know about-"

"Allon-sy! Your potential lover is waiting pour vous!" Francis pushed the reluctant German into the building with great effort. Ludwig's heels dug into the dark blue carpet only for his steps to be hitched by the Frenchman's force and before he knew it, they reached the cluster of people who seemed to have turned up for the speed dating session as well, filling in what seemed like application forms. Some looked like they were excited while others looked nervous but willing to go through with it, and then there was an apprehensive Ludwig who really did not want to be there. He snapped his head around the room to search for any emergency exits when a girl with curly, brunette hair made Ludwig jump and squeak at the same time with a simple 'hello'.

"You're here for the speed dating session, ja?" She beamed and handed him a blank application form. Ludwig glanced at Francis who was scribbling on his form before he turned back to the girl and unwillingly nodded. The German found a secluded place to fill in the paper with his shaking hand. He struggled to write each word mainly because he didn't want to and secretly he hoped that by being slow he could miss the whole speed dating session. Unfortunately, Francis was not going to allow that and snatched the application form and gave it to the host before Ludwig had the chance to secretly dispose it.

By the time all the application forms were all accounted for, the woman called everyone over so she could take photographs of each person. Francis being Francis flashed his million watt smile while Ludwig's smile was forced. After the photos had been taken, the host called everyone to attention and explained the process of what was going to occur. Ludwig was only half listening to what she was saying as he had a little idea of what it involved; two people (a male and female) sit down on a table each and they have a limited amount of time to introduce and discuss things about themselves. After the time limit is up, the males rotate in whatever direction the host instructed and the cycle would continue like this until everyone has talked to each other. It was this vicious cycle that Ludwig dreaded to take part in. How was he supposed to talk about himself to a complete stranger without feeling self conscious? What would he talk about for that matter? He couldn't simply say he's a personification of a country, no way! The girls would think he's mad and the last thing he'd want to do was leave them with the impression of a madman. And before he knew it, the host ordered everyone to take their places. A dull pain ached in the German's stomach as he took his seat and waited for the hostess to begin the cruel cycle.

The first round commenced in the form of a blaring air horn and immediately, each couple started their conversations. Ludwig was completely caught off guard and yelped as soon as the brunette girl in front of him simply said 'hello'. After somewhat composing himself, he cleared his throat. "M-My name's Ludvig. I vas… dragged here by… my friend." He seemed to growl the last part seeing how friends would not use evidence of any kind to blackmail them to make them do what they wanted. And this was Francis he was talking about and he always managed to find a way to benefit from the side lines, the sneaky bastard. The girl responded with a giggle and a sympathetic smile.

"Oh. So you came out of your freevill?" She asked cheerfully. Ludwig sighed and quickly counted how many other girls he had to talk to. Including the one in front of him, twelve. The blonde exhaled in frustration knowing he was going to be into forced conversations as the girl rightly said, against his will.

With each passing minute, Ludwig liked to believe that he was holding his own out there, but each time he felt that way and glanced at the obnoxious Frenchman charming girl after girl, he'd lose what little confidence he had and start rebuilding it again. He only felt that things got worse with every conversation that started with a different girl. Finally after what seemed like hours later everyone had finally got to know each other briefly and was currently ticking boxes, on sheets of paper, to see who had taken their fancy. However, Ludwig's pen still hovered above the piece of paper. As much as he would like to tick a name, he just couldn't bring himself to as none of them appealed to him. He even shuddered at the thought of one girl who had this strange obsession with parrots. It was then that Francis' voice annoyed his ears.

"So which ones did you like?" He asked as he peered over Ludwig's shoulders and tutted. "Really? You didn't like any of zem? Surely you must 'ave liked one girl."

"None of zem appealed to me," The German groaned his pen still not touching the paper, making Francis turn his nose up.

"Why don't you do what I do and tick all of zem? Alzough zhe parrot girl may not be zhe one pour vous."

"I'm not going tick anyvone!" Ludwig snapped. "I vent along with your stupid black-mailing scheme so leave me alone!" Francis opened his mouth only for it to be a waste when Ludwig marched out of the building into the rainy night. The Frenchman stood there for a moment before making his way across the room, to the display board where the results would be posted up.

Outside however, Ludwig didn't care about the fact that it he was sitting on a bench in the rain at thirty seven past ten at night. He didn't care that he wasn't carrying an umbrella. He just wanted to go home, dry himself off and close his eyes to enter his slumber on his warm, safe and yoghurt free bed. All he had to do was order a taxi home and-

"Privet Ludwig. What you're doing out in the rain without an umbrella at this time of night? You could catch a cold you know."

The strong accented voice sent a chill down the German's spine. There was only one person who had the talent to do that. He looked up and his suspicions were confirmed when his ice blue eyes met a frostier pair of violet orbs. The man, holding a black umbrella, towered over Ludwig but greeted him with a friendly smile. The German's gaze wasn't as frightened as they first were as his stare became calmer. "Guten nacht Ivan," He said in a tired tone. "Vhat are you doing out here at zis time of night?"

The platinum haired man chuckled and extended his umbrella over the German. "If you must know, I was just sight-seeing. Your place is so pretty."

Ludwig gave a confused glance at the Russian and uttered, "Um… danke."

"You look like you could do with a drink," Ivan suggested. "In fact, help me look for a place where they do some good vodka and I'll buy the first round for us, da?"

Ludwig flinched at the word in his head. The last time he tried to drown his sorrows; he woke up next to someone other than Feliciano, in his bed, smothered in yoghurt. So of course Ludwig felt reluctant to take Ivan up on his offer. Plus he still harboured distrust for the Russian since the Second World War. He was the guy who beat his brother into submission. However after looking at Ivan, he was being unusually kind and kindness had been a rare thing to come across for the past few days. Well, Ivan would be kind if he helped him find a public house that served some descent vodka. And it was also raining. Taking everything into consideration, he nodded his head.

"Alvight, I'll come. I know just zhe place for good vodka but I'm not going to drink too much tonight."

"Excellent," Ivan grinned. "You show the way, da?"

Despite the little uneasiness in the pit of his stomach, Ludwig needed to take his mind of that disaster of a speed dating session. One drink couldn't possibly hurt, right?

!

I apologise for getting this chapter out so late. I was very busy with a lot of things and a lot did happen which affected my attention to this story. And later chapters may come slower as I'm going to be busy with college work but I promise that I will get this story finished. And thank you for the kind reviews, they make me so happy.