Fillers, albeit long, are awesome.

/= [DAY 73] =/

When she walked to the kendo room, she was surprised to see that the blood from yesterday was gone. Instead, she saw Kiku swinging a wooden sword at a target with a speed she only saw in anime. She quietly closed the door behind her, causing him to look up and smile.

"Ah. Charice." He straightened himself. "What brings you here?"

"I just learned that we had a kendo room." She answered. "So I wanted to take a look."

"Yeah, well…it was upon my request that this room is built upon this campus." Kiku answered. "You see, I take bushido extremely seriously and I practice it whenever I can."

"Ah, I see." She nodded. "Explains why you were able to use the katana so quickly in the other world! It took me a while to remember how to use my poleaxe!"

"A true samurai must always keep his guard up, even in times of peace." He answered again, his wooden sword spinning in his hands. "Do you wish to practice with me?"

"I suck at the sword. Is there anything like a poleaxe around here?"

"There's a naginata shaped similarly to your weapon hanging on the wall over there. I allow you to use it."

"Sweet!"

Kiku watched as she grabbed it and started swinging it around like she knew exactly what she was doing. There was a sense of seriousness and maturity that he had only seen when she was trying to save someone's life or cheering someone up with a statement that made no sense whatsoever. She was just radiating something that might've been confidence but was too dumb to be that.

Especially after she tripped and landed on the wall.

/= [DAY 74] =/

She was surprised that, with all the blood he lost, Feliciano was back in school and sitting in a classroom with a sad look on his face. Charice quickly sat next to him, making him "meep!" in surprise and turn to see the (almost) Cute-Obsessed woman smiling back at him.

"You sure you should be back?" She asked.

"I…I didn't lose that much blood…and from what I heard no one was asking…" He smiled. "Thank you for not telling anyone about…"

"It's fine…stigmata is a holy symbol supposedly sent by God. And I guess it's a symbol of the Vatican City in your boundaries." Charice stated, pulling out her thermos and swirling it around. "I was more worried than anything, but-"

"Doitsu took good care of me…made sure I didn't bleed to death…" He "ve~d" cutely. "He looked so serious that I passed out again…"

Charice almost jumped from the tsundereness that was Germany.

"Awwww…you even have a nickname for him~! How cute~!" She chirped. "Besides, how are the both of you doing anyway?"

That was when he fell silent, causing Charice to get extremely worried. To calm herself down, she quickly took a sip of the water in her thermos. Hey, it's natural for couples to get into arguments, right? I mean…it's probably nothing big, it's just a stupid argument that they're going to-

"I-I think Doitsu doesn't love me anymore!"

*cue the SPPEEAAAAWWWWW*

"He kisses me when I want too, but most of the time he pushes me away and doesn't want to look at me or something like that! Ve~~~what if he doesn't love me anymore because he thinks I love him because he's Heilrich? VEEEE~!"

"…wait…" She coughed up a bit of her life. "H-he does show you affection sometimes, right?"

"Ve~~~y-yes…"

"But not most of the time?"

"Yes…"

"Quick question…does he reject affection when there are other people around? Like public places and stuff?"

"…si…w-why?"

Charice threw her head back and started dying of laughter, making Feliciano extremely worried. Most of her laughing fits were mixed up with words like "oh thank god!" or "that wasn't that bad!" before she took a deep breath and looked at the worried Italian in the face.

"You have nothing to worry about!" She laughed again. "That's not rejection, that's German custom!"

"Ve?"

"What, you've never been to Germany before? I mean, you must've seen it around them! I'm the one with the German phobia and even I knew that!" She stated. "Germans aren't like Italians or French people! They don't like showing any romantic affection in public places…like a local custom or something like that. They're OK with showing affection, just not in the open."

"Ve~~~I never noticed that…"

"Really? Come on, we've gone there in meetings, you should've noticed it! They're all very serious people and it all reflects on their respective nation." She stated. "Hence, Ludwig is a serious man to reflect a serious nation. I mean, if it wasn't a serious nation, he'd be someone like Arthur…or even someone like you or Francis-"

…

…

…

…

"Ve~~~Ch-Charice?"

*traumatized*

/=+=/

They were sitting in the campus garden, Feliciano and Ludwig, looking forward as the German was reading a book for his Languages class and the Italian looking at the sky. After a few minutes of silence, the boy turned and saw Ludwig's stray hand just a few feet from him. Silently, he reached for the hand, only for it to be jerked away at light skin contact. He looked up and saw Ludwig with an embarrassed look on his face, a confirmation on what Charice had told him. It was then that Ludwig noticed Feliciano staring at him.

"Is something wrong?"

"Ve~!" His eyes turned away. "N-nothing…"

Feliciano never felt so shy in his entire life. He was supposed to be a true Italian, chasing women alike with his cuteness charm, especially the shy ones. So when did he become so shy? Since when did Doitsu stop reading his book? Since when was he just inches from his face? He squeaked in shock.

"Tell me." His voice demanded.

"…" His eyes turned away again. "I-Is…is Doitsu embarrassed…being around me?"

Ludwig was surprised at his statement.

"I-I mean…Doitsu shows me all the love that I can possibly imagine…Doitsu's so gentle with me…and yet when Doitsu and I outside our rooms Doitsu doesn't like being kissed. Doitsu doesn't like holding hands. I was told it was normal, but…" Feliciano covered his mouth. "I-Is it because I make Doitsu work too hard when I'm around him?"

It was then that he realized something strange about Feliciano: he doesn't use pronouns for other people when he's emotional or scared. His eyes instinctively darted to his risen wrists and forehead to make sure that he wasn't bleeding, and was grateful to see that there was nothing. Ludwig lifted up his hand and caressed his lover's face, causing him to squeak.

"D-Doitsu…?"

Ludwig leaned in closer until their lips made full, soft contact, his arm wrapping around the other's waist. The Italian felt all of the other's body pressing against him, like he was a bubble protecting a child from being hurt. They quietly parted, definitely breaking Ludwig's comfort zone and his blushing face clearly showing it.

"I'm not embarrassed being around you…I'm just used to what I was raised to do." He stated. "If it was bothering you that much, you should've told me."

"…I…I thought Doitsu would be mad…"

He chuckled, thinking that his strange speaking habits were just the cutest things ever, making the Italian extremely embarrassed yet again. They closed in for another warm kiss, hearing the Italian coo in happiness before he melted in the other's touch. Just as they thought that they were alone, they heard hooting and hollering and what looked like confetti being shot in the air. Ludwig mumbled something that should not be repeated before looking up to whoever was there and was screaming at them in German to get the hell out of there, holding Feliciano close the entire time. He cooed softly in his arms.

"Damn! I wanted to see more!"

"That's what you get for yelling so much!"

"I wanted to use the fireworks too!"

"It's the middle of the FREAKING DAY!"

Feliciano looked up and realized that about half the entire campus came out of the bushes and leave them alone, causing him to squeak and hide behind Ludwig again. He heard someone that sounded like Charice before hearing said person being dragged away against their will. He didn't care. He had Doitsu with him.

/=+=/

So you know a bit about the German custom, yet are too scared to find out yourself eh? Did you get a very resourceful outside source, Charice XD?