The One On Purpose, And The Other By Accident

He had brought the candles. They had been on the counter, though neither Tino nor Berwald was there. So Ludwig had closed up the store and had locked up the front, leaving out the back and not locking that door just in case neither of them had their keys with them for whatever it was they were doing.

And now he had brought the candles. Just as he had been asked. Elizaveta had asked it of him and she was not here. Ludwig ground his teeth together. He would just set the down in the entrance hall and go. He did not have to stick around, he would probably just get in the way. That is what he told himself as he set down the bulk of wax.

"He loves you for you, why would he want you to try and treat him differently, even now?"

Ludwig had been given worse advice then that. Still, just being himself was something that Ludwig was not good with around other people. Though Feliciano was not 'other people'. Actually, right now Feliciano might be considered as 'another person'. None of this was making him feel better. If anything, it was making him feel worse. Maybe he should have gone on vacation while all of this was going on. Such a thought had crossed his mind when he first saw Antonio propose to Lovino. Why had he not taken his mind up on that?

Feliciano. Of course.

Ludwig sighed.

Blue eyes fell on a few pieces of paper that were set up neatly on the table he had placed the candles on. A few moments of looking at it ascertained that it was the seating chart. Ludwig leaned over the table, resting his forearms on it as he pinpointed himself out. After scanning through where everyone else was seated, Ludwig grabbed the pencil and erased a few names. Antonio had the right idea, but it would probably be a bad thing to have...

Wait, what was he doing? Fixing something else? Like he did not have enough to do! Ludwig glared at the seating chart. I am so sick and tired of instinctively having to fix everything...

He put the names back in, though he really did not care where he had placed them. Dropping the writing implement soon after Ludwig stood, back straight.

What had he just done? Guilt quickly overcame him, but he shook it out of his head soon after. Did it matter? It would be checked and rechecked again and then perfected like everything else that seemed to take forever for this wedding. With a sigh, Ludwig turned to leave and then stared at the banner and streamers.

"Dat's crooked."

Ludwig strode over and fixed that. In fact, most everything in here was crooked. That would be no good, Lovino would blow a gasket if he thought everything had been put here carelessly. Even if Ludwig did not know why so much effort would be put into the entrance of the building when most people were just going to walk in and out... he supposed they would stop to sign the guest list (not that he understood why that was necessary either when there were so few people in from out of town for this that they knew who would be here and who would not), but to stare around at the decorations?

"Vell, dat's as good as it's going to get," Ludwig stared around him. He had done enough, it was best to leave before he tried to fix the seating arrangements again and mess that up more than he had.

"Straightening up?"

Ludwig looked over to see Ludovicus. "Ah... ja," he responded, glancing about him once more. Ludovicus appeared to do the same.

"I like it."

Ludwig rose an eyebrow. "You do?"

"No," Ludovicus responded. "I mean I like it better like this than I did previously."

Ludwig nodded, because he agreed with the sentiment. The entire thing was too much in his eyes, but it certainly looked better now that everything was straight. Glancing over, he saw Berlitz as she walked over to him. "Ah, I dought you had taken her vith you," he said simply as he scratched her between the ears.

"I do not see my girls often," Ludovicus said with the closest thing Ludwig had ever heard to fondness in his voice. "You have been taking good care of them."

Ludwig smiled. "Danke."

Ludovicus nodded. "Now I need to find Marcus and make him stop sulking so he remembers what is happening today."

"Good luck vith dat," Ludwig shook his head, reminded that he needed to find Feliciano and hopefully get him to stop being bitter so that he would remember what was happening today.

"You too."

Surprised, he looked over at his grandfather, but the man had already turned away and was leaving. Interesting. What was that about?