A/N: I wrote this story for the GerIta secret Santa exchange on LJ. For some reason, this story gave me soooo much trouble, though for the life of me I can't understand why. It's not even like it was that strange or specific a request… Anyway, here it is, finally finished. I'm so nervous about it. But my wonderful betas were a big help in making me a little more confident about it, so let's give a hand to Jeeperscreeperz, doomy slasher, and Twilight Rose!

Since my recipient preferred human names, I had to make up some for these kids since they don't have them in canon. Chibitalia is, of course, Feliciano, but I needed a way to distinguish him from adult Italy, so I'll mainly be calling him "Feli-chen" in this story. "Chen" is a German diminutive, and is, to my limited understanding, similar to the Japanese "chan". Italy will call Feli-chen "Felicino" since "ino" is the Italian diminutive. I had to get a bit creative for Holy Roman Empire. Since I already have two characters with the same name, I decided to give HRE a new name: Benni. Hopefully that works for everyone. Also, even though I'm using human names, this is not intended to be a human!AU; they're still meant to be countries.

I.

Ludwig gratefully returned home after work that chilly winter Friday to a warm house filled with the overpoweringly delicious scent of something chocolaty baking, the sounds of his husband singing to himself as he worked in the kitchen and his four-year-old twin boys playing in the front room. The blond man shut the garage door rather loudly in order to announce his return and waited.

"Daddy's home!" he heard Benni gasp excitedly.

Ludwig couldn't help smiling at the sound of little bare feet pattering on the wooden floor as they rushed to greet him.

"Daddy!" Feli-chen cried joyfully.

The German man laughed softly as his sons latched onto his legs, hugging as tight as they could. He crouched down to scoop them into his muscular arms, Benni in his right and Feliciano, Jr., or Feli-chen as Ludwig called him, in his left. He pressed a kiss to the top of each boy's head. Feliciano senior soon joined them in the entryway in his light blue apron, a smudge of chocolate across his bottom lip from when he had tasted the dessert he was preparing.

"Welcome home, Ludwig," Feliciano greeted with a warm smile.

Ludwig leaned forward awkwardly so that he could kiss Feliciano over his sons' heads. Feliciano's lips were so soft and delicious that he stole another kiss, and then another.

"I drew you a picture of a doggie today," Feli-chen reported, seemingly oblivious to his parents' preoccupation. "Daddy likes doggies."

"I drew a dinosaur," Benni said proudly.

"I can't wait to see them," Ludwig replied.

"I'll show you!" Feli-chen said eagerly.

Ludwig put their children down and they scurried off to retrieve their drawings. He took the opportunity now that the kids were occupied to pull Feliciano close.

"Something smells wonderful," he commented, kissing along Feliciano's neck.

"I made budino al cioccolato," Feliciano hummed, nuzzling his cheek against Ludwig's chest and rubbing his husband's back lazily. "Did Ludwig have a good day at work?"

"It was fine as far as work days go," Ludwig answered. "But I'm glad to be home for the weekend."

"I'm glad Ludwig's home, too," Feliciano said softly.

Their conversation was interrupted by the return of their children, both of whom were clutching drawings in their little hands. Ludwig smiled and squatted down again so that the boys could show him their pictures. Feli-chen handed his over first, smiling brightly as his father viewed his work of art. It depicted a grinning rainbow-colored creature sitting outside a misshapen lump that appeared to be a doghouse, a huge yellow smiling sun shining overhead surrounded by a few fat, puffy clouds. Feli-chen was still developing his skills as an artist, but even at this stage, Ludwig could tell that he had inherited at least some of Feliciano's abilities. The drawing was quite a bit better than he would have expected from the average four-year-old.

"This is wonderful, Feli-chen!" Ludwig said. "I like the colors."

Feli-chen let out a happy little hum, his upper body twisting from side to side at the waist with pleasure at the compliment. "The doggie was painting a picture and got paint on him. That's why he's all those different colors," he explained.

"I see," Ludwig said with a smile. "Thank you, I was wondering about that. What did you draw, Benni?"

"A T-Rex," Benni answered, handing over his drawing.

Benni didn't quite have the artistic prowess that Feli-chen possessed, but he was still proficient. The red creature that was supposed to be the dinosaur had a head that was too large to have been supported by its body, and there was a large emphasis placed on its sharp teeth. The background was sparser than in Feli-chen's drawing, containing only a blue mass which Ludwig surmised was meant to be a lake and some yellow dots floating in the air as well as a green… something under the dinosaur's foot.

"Are the yellow spots… stars?" Ludwig guessed.

"Fireflies," Benni said.

"Ooh, I like fireflies!" Feliciano piped up. "Nice idea, Benni!"

The blond child smiled shyly.

"What is this that he's stepping on?" Ludwig pointed to the green blob.

"Broccoli," Benni said, "'cause it's yucky."

Ludwig chuckled and ruffled his son's hair. "This is very good, Benni."

"Ve, I'm so proud of my little artists!" Feliciano cried, clapping his hands joyfully.

"Is it alright if I hang them in my office with the others?" Ludwig asked. It would be a task to find somewhere to put them; his walls were already plastered with his children's masterpieces. There was hardly a blank space of wall to be seen, but he would figure something out.

"Ok!" Feli-chen sang as Benni nodded quietly at his side.

The kitchen timer chose that convenient moment to go off, signaling that the budino was done baking. Feliciano hurried away to remove them from the oven while Ludwig went to put the drawings in his office to be hung up later and joined his family in the kitchen. Feliciano was setting the tray of little chocolate desserts on a cooling rack, the children watching with rapt interest.

"Can we eat them right now?" Feli-chen asked hopefully.

"Well, not right now," Feliciano replied. "They're still pretty hot. I wouldn't want you guys to burn your mouths. Let's give them a little time to cool off and then we can eat, ok?"

"Shouldn't we wait until after dinner?" Ludwig suggested with a slight frown. "It's not healthy to spoil our appetites with sweets."

"Huuuuuh?" the other three whined in unison.

"But… but it's only four thirty!" Feliciano pointed out. "Dinner's not until seven thirty… three hours is long enough to get our appetites back, right? And! And look how tiny they are! We won't be full after just that, right?"

"Please, Daddy?" Benni requested, looking up at him with large, hopeful blue eyes.

"Pleeeeeease?" Feliciano and Feli-chen begged.

Ludwig sighed, knowing that it was difficult enough resisting one of them but all three at once was damn near impossible. Feliciano was supposed to be on his side, for crying out loud. But Ludwig told himself that he couldn't very well expect Feliciano, king of the gourmands, to be suddenly resistant to the temptation of desserts just because they now had children. Besides, those budinos did smell really, really good.

"Well… I suppose just this once wouldn't hurt," he relented.

"Yay!" the other three cheered.

Feli-chen and Benni expressed their gratitude by hugging his legs and Feliciano happily kissed his lips. Ludwig couldn't bite back a small smile, even though he hadn't gotten his way. He set about making some coffee for him and Feliciano to have with their desserts. Ten minutes later, because Feliciano and the children couldn't wait any longer than that, the four of them were sitting down at the table together. Feli-chen bounced excitedly in his seat as Ludwig scooped out a small serving of vanilla ice cream and deposited it into his bowl beside the cupcake-sized budino. Even calm and serious little Benni was swinging his feet back and forth under the table in anticipation.

Ludwig served the children first, then Feliciano and finally himself. Benni punctured the thin cake crust of the budino and watched the molten chocolate inside rush out. He scooped some of the chocolate sauce up on his spoon and drizzled it over his ice cream. At his side, Feli-chen was already digging in messily, immediately getting chocolate on his face. Feliciano was only a little cleaner about his eating; he managed to get chocolate on his lips fairly quickly, though to Ludwig's mild disappointment it melted away when Feliciano took a sip of his hot coffee. Ludwig never turned down chocolate-flavored kisses from Feliciano when the opportunity presented itself. He partook of his own portion and sighed in satisfaction.

"Good?" Feliciano asked sweetly.

"Perfect, of course," Ludwig assured him with a kiss, "as always."

Feliciano grinned and took another bite of his dessert.

"Um, after this," Feli-chen began, seemingly unaware of his chocolate beard and mustache combo, "after this can we play outside? I wanna make a snowman!"

"Sounds like lots of fun to me!" Feliciano chirped. "What do Benni and Ludwig think?"

"Ok," Benni agreed.

"Count me in," Ludwig said.

"Yay!" Feli-chen cheered.

Benni glanced over at his twin and frowned slightly at the sight of his messy face. He picked up his napkin and began to wipe away the chocolate.

"You got your face all dirty again," Benni huffed. "Be more careful."

"I'm sorry," Feli-chen said, his voice muffled by the napkin.

When his face was clean, Feli-chen leaned over and gave his brother a thank-you kiss on the cheek. Benni wrinkled his nose slightly and wiped the chocolaty lip-mark away on his sleeve absentmindedly as he finished up his budino. Ludwig and Feliciano gathered up the dishes and placed them in the sink.

"Now, who's ready to go out and play in the snow?" Feliciano chirped.

"Me!" the boys answered enthusiastically, almost simultaneously.

"Alright! Let's go get our coats on!" Feliciano cried.

The four of them gathered in the entryway once more, Ludwig and Feliciano pausing to help Benni and Feli-chen into their coats, boots and gloves before venturing out into the pure white wonderland.

A/N: Please note that I will not be posting the second chapter on this site, due to its semi-explicit nature. I have placed it on my personal journal, as I did with Steam and Suds and How to Say Thanks in Italian, and friends locked it in an attempt to prevent underaged readers from getting at it. If you want to see it, the link to my journal is in my profile. You must comment, saying that you want me to add you as a friend and your age MUST be displayed on your LJ profile in order to be approved. However, missing the second chapter will not hurt your ability to understand the story, so don't worry about it too much.