Once Ludwig had been able to get rid of the paint on his skin (which took much longer than it should've in his opinion), he was able to take care of the flowers he had been given. After changing the water and cutting off a few dead leaves, they were left in a much better condition.

Before he could eat his dinner, he heard some scratching on the apartment door.

Ludwig had forgotten to take his dogs for their walk.

Feeling an immediate and overwhelming sense of guilt, he grabbed all three leashes as fast as he could and continued to mentally apologize to them while they seemed to only grow excited at they left the apartment.

Walking around a few blocks, with the sun only beginning to set, Ludwig found himself nearing Feliciano's store. Lingering for only a second longer than he should have, it was all it had taken for him to realize what was going on.

From the floor above the shop, where Feliciano's apartment was, the sound of yelling could be distinctly heard, except it was a little deeper than what Ludwig would expect to hear. Two shadows occasionally appeared in front of the curtained windows, both of similar heights, and both giving many hand signals to each other. Although one showed more variations towards anger. A car was parked immediately out front, seeming to be expensive, and of an Italian brand to say the least. Although from what Ludwig knew, Feliciano didn't seem to have a car, or if he did it was never in front of his store.

Before he could stare any longer, the impeccably loud sound of a door closing was heard and Ludwig figured it would only be best to leave before the either of the two that were there could see him.

Waking up, going through his morning routine, with the new addition of flower care, he left his apartment and went off to his work.

Arriving, he was met with a different secretary than usual. His name was Edward, a young blond who usually prefered to work at home, stating he would rather be comfortable in bed than in some bland office, but every once in a blue moon he would be seen without any comment as a type of last minute replacement. With Elizabeta's notable absence, it could only make sense that he was her replacement. He was an undeniably good employee, always getting work done weeks ahead of time, although his rather flamboyant actions and inability to be humble never left good first impressions.

"Good morning, Ludwig." He singsonged before returning to his computer.

"Good morning, Eduard." He nodded, before going inside the office.

The first thing he saw was chaos.

With Elizabeta not being able to keep everyone in line, and Eduard being a much more laid back person, it was inevitable that something would be out of control. With the fact that their deadline for shipments was coming up and many weren't able to stay late to work on it or were out of commission from getting sick, the building was in complete mayhem. Trying to get to his cubicle and finish as much work as he possibly could, too many accidents prevented him from doing so.

With Tino carrying a large stack of forms that was a little too high for him to properly see, not to mention he was nearly running with it, he only ended up crashing into Abel, who, with his carelessness, had been distracted enough to not hear Tino's warnings.

After helping them both return the forms to their proper place, Ludwig only nearly dodged Katyusha who had been running around with coffee while she was desperately searching for Mogens - he was the only one in the building that could properly handle anything related to their financial stability. Once he was able to lead her to him, only doing the basic action of pointing, he was met with another issue.

While it had not been Katyusha's fault this time around, the only working printers had gone haywire. With Arthur trying to fix the five that they had, all spewing out as much paper as they were filled with, the arguing that could be heard with Francis didn't seem to help out their situation. Although when Alfred had come in and began to interject, only to be kicked out of the room, Ludwig figured it would be best to leave the two of them alone.

Finally getting refuge in his cubicle, he found Roderich trying to gain his attention.

Turning his head, not bothering to hide his annoyance, he then noticed the lack of glasses.

"Ludwig, have you by any chance seen my glasses?" They were atop his head.

"No, not at all." He could see them as clear as day.

"Oh, alright. Sorry for bothering." Turning around, he then walked over to Gilbert to ask the same question.

He heard Gilbert laughing at Roderich.

This would be a long day.

Returning to his apartment, Ludwig immediately laid down on his couch with a heavy sigh. While his dogs remained near the couch, he could hear them growing anxious.

This was one of the very few times that he honestly could not find the energy in himself to do anything, let alone go on an hour long jog. Although, the guilt of not doing so would be too much for him if he didn't, so with a heavy breath, he changed into different clothing and then left with his labradors.

Jogging a few blocks, with him trying his best to not think of the issues going on with his office so far, he ran into Feliciano.

Or, at least, someone that looked like him.

"Oh, I am very sorry, I must have not been looking."

Before the doppelganger could reply, he was able to see the actual Feliciano skipping out of the store.

"Luddy! You brought your dogs! I feel like I haven't seen them in such a long time! I mean, I saw them yesterday at your apartment, but I only saw them for a second before we had to say goodbye! And you need to practice your hugs better!" As he then bent down to pet the dogs who were extremely excited to him again, the seemingly carbon copy began to gain a bitter expression on his face, stark in contrast from his previously pleasant one.

Clearing his throat, he spoke. "Feli, who is this?"

"Oh!" He quickly stood up, and then gestured towards Ludwig. "This is Luddy! He was the one who helped me get customers!" He then gestured to the man beside him. "And Luddy, this is Lovino and he's my older brother!"

Sticking his hand out for a handshake, which Ludwig returned, his words were friendly but his expression was not. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you." At each word his grip tightened.

When being released from the other's death grip, Ludwig replied. "Likewise."

Turning around to speak to Feliciano in quick and low Italian, Ludwig could see how they were brothers. At least, physically.

They both had similar hair styles (including identical hair curls) and eye colors, Feliciano's only being a shade or two lighter. Although, even though he was the older brother, he was still a few centimeters shorter. His posture was more stern than Feliciano's, and he had a constant feeling of near anger around him. Overall, Lovino's first impression didn't seem to be the best.

"Well," Lovino turned to face Ludwig. "'Luddy', it looks like I'll be going. "

"My name is Ludwig, by the way."

The face Romano pulled showed that he honestly didn't care.

Giving a hug and a kiss goodbye to his brother, Ludwig realized that the car from yesterday was his, as he quickly walked to it and sped off without another word.

Being left in silence with Feliciano, it was broken as his dogs begun to bark again.

As a young man walked towards Feliciano, only one question was asked.

"Where's Lovino?" His accent was thick, he sounded as if he were a spaniard.

Murmuring to the man as to where his brother had gone, Feliciano seemed a bit saddened as he spoke, but the smile the man gave seemed to assure them both that there wasn't any issue.

Giving a quick 'adios', he walked away from their sight, leaving Ludwig with way more questions than what he knew could be answered.

Turning towards Ludwig with a smile, Feliciano spoke.

"You wanna know what's going on, don't you?" Ludwig's surprised eyes gave him his answer, and he tried to suppress a laugh.

"Lovino has some issues he needs to figure out with our grandfather, but don't worry about them, they always figure it out. He may yell a lot, but he really is a caring person." Reaching down to play the dogs, he cooed at them, "Just like you three." He stared up after a quick pause, maintaining eye contact with Ludwig with a warm smile. "Just like you."

Becoming flustered at the sudden compliment, he could only fumble in trying to say any type of 'thank you'.

Giggling once again, Feliciano stood.

"When do you think you'll paint with me again? I got new paint and everything!"

"Well - and I am not saying that I would not want to - I have work that I need to do today."

His smile faltered a bit, but he tried not to appear disappointed. "That's fine. We'll do it some other time."

As he said goodbye and walked into the shop, before he knew what he was even doing, Ludwig called out to Feliciano.

"My work! I... I mean, my work is all done. I had forgotten that I had finished it at my office."

At this new information, the Italian immediately perked up, his smile growing wide as he seemed to nearly skip towards Ludwig.

"Really!?" He quickly grew skeptical. "Are you sure you not just making stuff up?" He was.

"I would not lie about this." He just did. "It is at my office all done." It was at home on his desk, incomplete. "So you do not have to worry." Ludwig will later, though.

Accepting his answer, they arranged a time (they would be meeting again in only a hour or so) and said their goodbyes.

you can come if you want now!

my last customer just left so weve got tons of time!

Going along with the text and only replying with 'ok', he left his house and walked to the flower shop, finding Feliciano waiting outside as he was bundled up for the crisp air.

He was gazing up at the sky, seemingly intent on trying to connect some of the stars to create constellations, as he was pointing with his finger as he tried to keep track of what connection went where. Although, his attempts were stopped as he noticed Ludwig walking up to him.

As he spoke in his usual hurried manner, his breath could be seen. "Luddy! I'm so glad you came! Usually people don't like to come this late and stuff since it's already getting really cold at night even though in the day I feel like I could wear shorts and a tank top. Even right now I had to put on this scarf and a sweater and I needed to make sure I had layers on and everything! But it's unfair though because they haven't even said anything about snow still and it feels like all of these sweaters and coats are useless!"

Trying to keep track the best he could, Ludwig nodded in agreement. "I understand what you mean. When I was younger in Germany the snow would come often and my brother and I would often go out to play in it as often as we could."

"You're lucky! In Italy it would barely ever snow, only in the mountains! I always got sad because that meant I would have to go to school and not stay home with my brother and play."

"You never liked school?"

"Well, I guess…" He paused. "I mean, I did all my work and my grades were good but I never liked being there. Maybe that's why I never went to college like Lovino right now."

"You had never gone to college?"

"Well, I mean, I graduated high school only 3 years ago. I'm only 21 so I mean I guess I could go if I wanted to." A 4 year difference between them, Ludwig had realized. The Italian began to whine. "But it's so much work!"

"It is not too difficult, you just need to do your work. You did that in high school so I can not see why you would not now."

"But I have this store to take care of now! And I have no idea what I could get a degree in! What did you get into?"

"Business communications."

Feliciano groaned in frustration. "But that works for you! You're super buisness-y!"

Ludwig chuckled. "Thank you, I suppose."

Walking inside to take shelter from the frigid air, they continued their conversation as they walked up the stairs.

"I mean, I like cooking and art and stuff… but could I really make a career out of that? And even if I did! I don't want to ruin things I like because I need to make them my job."

"But what about all of these flowers?"

"This is just something I did because I felt like it. I didn't know what to do if I went to a college… so I just saw some flowers and thought 'Yeah! I could do this!'" His prominent smile grew sheepish. "Saying it out loud now makes it sound kinda stupid..."

"Not at all. Although, is this why you had been struggling to find customers when I had first met you?"

"No. I usually go back and forth, from Italy to here and then back again to Italy. Wherever I go, my business goes with me."

"And yet you have been able to maintain this business for what I am assuming is a few years?"

The Italian giggled with a bright smile. "Your guess is as good as mine!"

Ludwig gave a heavy sigh as they arrived to the top of the stairs.

If I'm lucky, I might make a separate story for Lovino and maybe a few others...

But, anyway, I hope you guys are liking this story so far and hopefully you guys think it's interesting. The info for Italy I got on a couple various sources, so in this story Feli will be from either Venice or Triesta. It probably won't be talked about but at least so you guys know where I'm basing my info for his childhood.

If you guys like this story please remember to follow and write a review! I absolutely love hearing what you guys think of this!

I also need a beta. If you think you have time, please send me a message! Thank you!