Feliciano shot Ludwig a puzzled look when he tossed the pillow back into the wardrobe, tilting his head a bit. He didn't think too much about it, watching the man pull out the small antique sword.

It was a beautiful sword; he may not have any appreciation for the death dealing it was made for, but it was truly a work of art. Even after all these years the blade seemed to glow, a small ruby winking at him from the golden hilt. He reached out to touch it, but immediately flinched his hand backward.


"Nngh..U-uwah..." The girl sobbed and hiccuped, huddled on the ground next to the sword, cradling her hand in her lap. A small part in the back of her mind said that Austria would be terribly upset with the stains of blood on her smock, but the majority of it was panicking as she grasped her wrist, beginning to rock back and forth as her sobs increased.

"Italia! W-what happened?" She sniffed, looking up at the boy through her tears.

"Hnn...R-Roma..." The sobs began to shake her body, struggle to speak through her tears. "Uwah...I-I w-was going t-to...c-c-c-clean your sword f-for you, b-b-b-but..."

With a blush on his cheeks, the boy grabbed her hand, inspecting the wound. He looked around for a second before taking off his cravat, wrapping it around the girl's hand. His voice was mumbled with embarrassment as he spoke. "D-don't worry about the sword...I'll protect you, so you don't have to ever touch one..."


He looked down at his hand, flexing his fingers. "...Ve, it is beautiful..." Feliciano looked up at him with a sad smile. "But it just reminds me of you going off and leaving me for war, you know? Swords are such scary things..."

"This sword is not scary, it is really decorative." Ludwig shove the blade back into its sheath and walked over to the door to lean the sword against the wall next to the painting of the little maid. "I want to take it with me. Maybe we can put it at the wall next to the doorway hall?" He turned back to Feliciano and gave him a gently smile. "And it is not like I'm going to kill anyone with this sword. Not any more."

Ludwig turned his attention back to the still open box. It seemed like no more interesting things were in there. Only more books. He just wanted to close it as his glance fell on a very unspectacular leathery notebook. Tilting his head Ludwig took it out of the box and observed the old cover. Carefully he opened the notebook just to see all the pages empty and unwritten. Expect of the last one. A little pencil sketch was drawn on it. Ludwig flushed at the sight of it since it showed two little stick figures holding hands. One of them had a hat like he was currently still wearing and the other one had a curly strain of hair swaying away from its head. The two figures were surrounded with little creepy drawn hearts.

"Ehehehe..." Ludwig let out an embarrassed laugh and struggled for words since he noticed that Feliciano also took a look at the sketch. "Seems I was a little bit very in love with you back then."

"Ve?" Feliciano peered over Ludwig's arm, craning his head to see the little doodle scrawled on the corner of the paper. He couldn't help but to crack a wide smile, unable to contain the little giggles that bubbled in the back of his throat. "Eh heh! That's so cute!" He looked up at Ludwig, hugging his arm. "I might like this one more than the painting actually! Because it has both of us together!" He rubbed his face into the man's shirt, still giggling. "Do you doodle things at work like this too, ve?"

The Italian gave the arm one last squeeze before skipping back over to the closet, pulling out another box. "Ve, I wonder what's in this one?" He opened it quickly, excited. This one was more interesting than the last, filled with assorted toys and various other trinkets from that time.


"Holy Roma~ Hey Roma~" The girl titled her head at the other boy, bringing her hand up to her mouth, curling it like a paw. "Nyaah~ Look, look! I'm a kitty cat today! Nyaao~" She leapt at the boy, causing him to blush furiously as she rubbed her face against his cheek, still meowing.


Feliciano put the cat ears on his head, turning to Ludwig with a smile. "Look! I'm a cat!" He laughed again, curling one hand in the air like a paw. "Meow! Eh heh heh!"

Ludwig took a look into the new box that Feliciano had opened. There were mostly toys and other little things like small wooden statues of horses and other animals. Things that might be treasures for the little boy he once was. He looked up as Feliciano put on the cat ears, a shy smile forming on his face.

That was pretty much the cutest thing Lothar could imagine at all. She was standing there clawing her little hand against his small chest and made these cute, purring noises like she would really be a cat.

The boy couldn't help but get into her little game and cuddled her gently. It felt like a chance to come close to her. Closer then ever before. Lothar's cheeks burned into the hottest red he had ever felt as he held his arm around her small waits his free hand patting her brown curls. So cute... "Italia"

Ludwig caught Feliciano's hand and brushed a kiss onto the palm. "You are still as cute as back then. When you had theses ears the first time..."

Feliciano couldn't help but blush at the gentle kiss on his hand, unable to contain his giggles of delight. Every time Ludwig would remember something it would make his heart soar, searing away years of aching and longing he had for the love he thought he had lost. He brushed over Ludwig’s lips with his fingertips before leaning in and giving him a quick kiss, face still flushed. “Ve, I’m glad you think so! We should celebrate that holiday with Elizabeta again sometime!” He laughed before skipping away from Ludwig, looking back into the wardrobe. “I’m sure Ludwig would look cute in these too!”

He took of the kitty ears and put them back into the box before closing it up, sliding it into the closet. “Hmm…” Giving the closet a quick scan, he reached deeper inside past the boxes, scrounging for anything he had missed. “I don’t see any other boxes…Eh?” His fingers wrapped around something cloth-like; he pushed and tugged until he managed to wiggle it out from the clutter, holding it in front of him. He froze again, staring. “T-This…”

It was the cloak. The long, deep navy cloak the boy had always worn, the cloak Feliciano had last seen him in before he left to fight, rippling in the wind as he turned his back to the little maid, never to return to the house again. The ends were tattered from age and wear, and Feliciano almost swore he could see the blood speckled on the ends from the battlefields the boy went off to face.

He…didn’t know how to react, his mouth hanging open with unvoiced thoughts. Seeing and feeling the cloak was surreal, almost like having a piece of the young boy he knew in his hands. It brought him back to the days where he would wash it with care, playful hide under it, tug on the ends when he was scared…The cloak that had whipped around him when they shared their first kiss, before he watched him walk off into the distance…

Feliciano took in a ragged breath, closing his eyes for a second to try to regain his composure. “…I-I…” He scrubbed his eyes with the back of a hand, suddenly noticing the tears that had begun streaming down his cheeks. The Italian turned to Ludwig, handing the cloak to him. “…It’s…” He struggled for something to say. “…you would always…wear this…”

Ludwig tilted his head, looking at Feliciano with unspoken questions in his eyes. "I was wearing this...?" He took the cloak out of the other's hands and brushed his fingertips over the silky fabric. This piece of clothes was so old and yet it seemed so precious. Ludwig swirled the cloak around his shoulders and tied the small ends together in front of his collar. Turning around to the huge mirror he observed his appearance on more time.

"You are an empire Lothar." That was what Roderich always used to say. "You need to show off your strength and your noble provenance."

A noble provenance... Lothar had it. Of course. He was an offspring of the Germanic tribe. And yet he wished to be more then that. The boy tugged his cloak closer around his little body, straining his shoulders to look taller and stronger. 'Like the great Roman empire... So I can protect Italia and build up a new, invincible empire just for the two of us.'

Ludwig took a sigh as he looked into the mirror. He looked kind of ridicules in these clothes now. The hat still on his head and the cloak that once reached down to his ankles was now just so long that it reached the place between his shoulder blades and the small of his back. "I'm not sure Feliciano..." Ludwig turned around and glanced over to the Italian. "This kind of does not look like me."

"No..." Ignoring the tears beginning to stain the fabric of his shirt, Feliciano shook his head, walking up to Ludwig before resting his hands on his shoulders. "...trust me...it is...completely you..." He paused for moment before looking up at Ludwig with a small giggle, face alight with full rapture as he smiled at him gently. He reached up, tweaking the hat and pulling it further over his forehead. "...completely!"


Sacro Romano Impero...

Lothar...

I'll wait, okay...? With lots of sweets...!

The young "girl" had long since grown since last seeing the young boy that had stolen "her" heart...It had been, what now? At least a hundred years now? Or was it more? The brunet had long since lost count of the days.

"I hope you are well...right? You're taking good care of yourself like I asked...like you promised..." His charcoal glided over the page, the boy from his memories slowly taking form. The little priest was careful, trying desperately not to get any smudges on his pure white robe, lest be scolded by the Papa once again.

But...it was becoming much harder for him to recall his face...! The memories were still there, fresh in his mind as if they had happened yesterday, but the features of the boy slowly faded away, leaving only a small figure in a dark cloak...

Come back for me...I'm waiting...


Feliciano's arms had wrapped around the man's middle, burying his face into his chest. "Y-you came back...I'm glad..." He breathed a shaky sigh, held back sobs causing him to tremble. "I-I'm so glad, Ludwig...I-I waited so long...s-so long!" Fistfuls of Ludwig's shirt bunched in his hands, hugging himself as tightly to the blond as possible, as if he let go he would disappear again. "I'm so glad...you d-didn't forget me!"

Ludwig was not sure what to do or how to react so he just wrapped his arms around Feliciano, hugging him close. "Maybe... maybe we should stop here and close the closet for now. The memory's seem so painful for you and it gets really confusing for me."

Blood. It smelled like blood and tears like every battlefield the boy had ever fight on. Maybe this battle was different. Harder, his enemy's were stronger then usual. Or was it more that the young empire was weaker then he used to be?

But this battle was about so much more then all the other fights he had until now. There was someone waiting. At home. The little blond had promised to be back. And he actually WANTED to come back home. Into her arms, to protect her and life with her to become a stronger and taller empire.

Though this time luck was not on Lothar's side. He got beaten flat. France's sword was longer and sharper then his own and the fight was long and hard until the Frenchman won.

"I promised it... Italia... Wait for me."

The tall blond tugged the ends of his cloak around Feliciano's back to keep him even closer as he felt something odd pressing against his own back. He reached around himself while he still held his partner with his other arm.
Seems as there was some kind of a secret pocket sewed into the inside of the old black cloak. Ludwig fumbled inside of the pocket and pulled a silky bundle of white fabric out of it.

"Huh? What is this?" He held the piece of clothes between Feliciano and himself to look carefully at it.

"I-I'm sorry, Ludwig...I-I'm...supposed to be helping y-you!" Feliciano didn't think it would be this...taxing when they first started looking through the closet. After all, this was supposed to help Ludwig remember, not him! He had already gotten what he wanted; Ludwig was with him, right? The time that he had been waiting for all these years, all his hopes had finally come true! He didn't need anything else, right?

So, why did those memories of that boy--of the boy Ludwig used to be--hurt so much? Forgetting all those years of heartache and longing was harder than he thought it would be.

He looked up at Ludwig rustled behind his back, pulling out something and holding it between the two. "Ve?" He stared at the fabric in front of him, silent for a moment...before a gasp passed through his lips, slowly turning into giggles, and soon into almost hysterical laughter, drying up all his tears in a instant. "Ah ha ha ha! O-oh, I-I remember! I remember that! Eh heh heh heh!" He buried his face in Ludwig's side, shaking with uncontrollable laughter. "I-I can't believe y-you actually kept them! Eh heh heh! T-the panties I gave you, ah ha ha ha ha ha!"


Oh no...oh no, oh no, oh no...

He was leaving...he was actually leaving right now...

The little maid panicked, looking around her frantically. He...he couldn't just leave! He couldn't just leave right now! She never got to...she never got to tell him how she felt!

No, no! She couldn't let him just leave...she...she need to give him something! A...a good luck charm, a token of her affection, anything! Anything that would remind him of her, anything that would keep her with him, in his thoughts...

But she had nothing to give! Nothing but the clothes on her back--

"What panties?" Ludwig let go of Feliciano and unfolded the soft and frilly fabric in his hands. It were really small, innocent white panties like a girl would wear back then.

Lothar stared at the white panties in her hands, his face flushed bright red. Was she really about to give him this? Her UNDERWEAR!? The boy couldn't believe it. but on other hand... She had possibly nothing else to give.

Giving a fast side glance to his waiting companions he inched closer to the little maid. "T-Thank you." He took the frilly piece of clothes out of her hands and hide it as fast as possible behind his back.

"Oh... Oh god..." The German's face flushed, his eyes wide open as he stared at the bloomers in his hands. "You seriously... gave me THIS?" There were no words to describe this situation. Ludwig didn't know how to react. He was completely stunned. One little part of him wanted to laugh in embarrassment like his partner did. An other part of him wanted to throw the panties away in anger and yell at the Italian. But instead he swallowed against the fierce blush on his cheeks and said two words with a small, almost shy voice.

"Thank you."

"No," the Italian shook his head, wiping the tears of mirth from the corner of his eyes, "thank you, Ludwig!"


"W-what do you do...with the person you like...at your house?"

It seemed like such an simple question, but even the little maid had to think for a moment. What do you do with the person you love?

And when the answer came to her, it was so obvious. Hugs were nice, and so were sweet words and touches, but a kiss meant so much more. A kiss on the cheek could mean a hello to new acquaintances, a small promise of the friendship to come; Mothers kissed their children scraps and bruises, telling them it'll be alright and nothing would hurt them again; lovers kissed each other's lips, sealing the promise they had made, expressing so much more than the words their lips could say.

"You...kiss them..."

A lover's kiss...


Feliciano grabbed Ludwig's hands in his, intertwining their fingers. "Millie grazie, Ludwig. Truly." He looked up at the man, his eyes filled with all the devotion his heart had to give, all the love felt for the man in front of him. The man he had waited for all his life.

"Thanks for coming back, and thanks for loving me again...."

Lothar had never imagined it like this. Her lips were soft like cotton candy and she truly returned the feelings he had for her. The day had come. The day that he would be able to tell her that she was in his mind and in his heart all the time.

The kiss broke way to early and the boy glanced into her beautiful golden eyes, her soft cheeks shining in this slight shade of pink. He didn't want to go. He didn't want to leave her now. Now that he was finally able to be with her.

But Lothar knew his duty. He had to go and fight for his empire. That empire that he would share with her once he came back. Though the boy would not go without telling her...

"Italia... Ever since the 900,s... I've always loved you."

And Ludwig still did. He still loved these golden eyes. Even if Italy had changed a lot from what he was back then to the man he was now. But so did Ludwig. Their love for each other was the only thing that still remained from these long ago times.

Taking Feliciano's face him his hands he glanced into these big eves he loved so much and gave his partner one of his very rare smiles. "Oh Ita-chan. How could I forget you...?"
Then he leaned down and kisses these soft lips like he did back then when they were still young and innocent and the future was a way to go, a path for both of them that leads to better times. Together.

Last edited by Ludwig / Germany on Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:40 pm; edited 1 time in total

"U-uwaaaaah..."

Feliciano trembled in the darkness surrounding him, becoming a little claustrophobic as time went on and the hours stretched passed, knees shaking and back aching from being cramped in that tiny tomato crate.

Even so...even so, being stuck in here was much better than being out there fighting! Why did they have to fight? He wanted to stay neutral, but his brother had urged them to fight; after all, didn't he want his cities back?

But, now that they had signed that pact and entered the war, he wished he just let Roderich keep them! Fighting was scary and hard, and he didn't like it at all! And now that scary man Germany was on his land...was his name Ludwig? He couldn't remember, but he just wished he would leave him alone!

"V-ve...s-so scary...u-uwah...I-I don't want to fight anymore...v-ve...."

Someone come save me...anyone...please....

A knocking on the box almost scared him out of his skin, his trembling and tears increasing ten-fold.

"G-go away, go away! I-I'm...I'm just a lowly tomato box fairy!"

Despite his protest, the lid was ripped away from his retreat.

And an almost familiar face stared down at him...


Feliciano wrapped his arms around his lover's neck, savoring the gentle touch on his lips, the kiss speaking more than any number of "Ti amo's" he could utter. Chest against chest, heartbeats mingling and becoming one...He never wanted to leave these arms again.

Ludwig's smile was contagious, a grin brighter than any star splitting his blushed face, happy giggles passing through still moist lips. "...eh heh!" He rubbed his nose against the bigger man's, tickled beyond words.

Of course he had waited a long time to be in the arms of his beloved again...but it was moments like this that made all those years of waiting worth it.

Ludwig just stared plainly at the crying and cringing man on the dirt in front of him. Seriously? This was Italy? A descent of the great antic empire Roma? The tall German couldn't believe it. A wimp like this...

But something seems oddly familiar with this man. And Ludwig got the feeling that it would become incredible difficult to get rid of these brown, teary eyes that already burned memory's into the blond's mind.

Ludwig placed a last, soft kiss onto Feliciano's forehead before he parted away and took off the old hat. "I think this were enough memory's for today." He also took off the cape and put both pieces of clothes back into the closet before closing it. Shutting away all the things, hiding then again out of his life and his mind.

Folding the soft fabric of the panties he gave a slight smile to his partner. "I will take these with me and lock them in my safe... So I wont forget again about the promise we made." Ludwig stretched out his hand, offering it to Feliciano for holding it. "Come on, lets go. We need to find a good place for the maid painting and the antic sword."

Feliciano grabbed the German's hand eagerly, smiling madly. "Eh heh, okay~!" He reached up on his toes to give Ludwig a quick peck on the cheek, the faint blush still brightening his face. "I bet we can find a nice frame for the painting somewhere!" He bent over to pick up the paint and the sword before they headed out of the attic, closing the door behind them.

That attic had been full of memories, for sure. Some good, some bad, but still...despite all the memories locked behind that door, it didn't change the here and now. And as Feliciano looked up at Ludwig, looked up at the man he had waited on for so long, had loved for so long, and who was now with him, giving him just as much love in return...

...well, he coudln't help but think that the here and now was much, much better than any memory that wardrobe held.