hetalia oneshot || shots of light;
pairing: Italy X Germany
rating: PG
summary: On a night off, Italy and Germany have a small conversation that says some big things.
note: so yeah, i gotta get back to WAL & LHFM & also a new IY short fic im workin on, this was just an idea that popped into my head :|
City lights like fireflies: it was night outside, and the cold in the air was thin, breathed life into your veins...and there was some calmness about it that made Ludwig itch with anxiety- through the soda cold and the skeleton breeze there was something about it that didn’t seem normal...
But then, it might just be him, he might just be high-strung. He relaxed back into a calmer mask while the other two carried on a conversation that was going nowhere pretty quick: Kiku was as usual quiet like a flower bomb, talking in that reserved, quiet voice, and...Feliciano was walking in the middle of them. Bounding, puppy dog energy that overspilled, charged in warm shades and left some light brewing over them...
“Ludwig, Ludwig,” he broke out suddenly, his mind completely off what he and Kiku had just been talking about (leaving Kiku looking overwhelmed but sorta relieved), “You look lonely! Why are you so quiet? It’s a nice night, after all. Nice and cool! Nights at my house are like this, you should come over my house, we spend so much time at yours!”
“Eh?” Ludwig answered, overtaken again Feliciano’s cartwheeling energy- ignoring the observation that he looked lonely, “Yes, it’s nice out.”
“No wait, we should all go to Kiku’s house- the hot springs, and we can look at all your pretty picture books!” Feliciano suggested.
“Ah, uhm, well, I would be disinclined to- take visitors at the moment,” Kiku replied, straightening a little. Kiku had a whole array of fancy ways to say “no.” Which of course worked on Feliciano, so it was all good as they continued on their aimless walk down the burning boulevard.
Paths of quiet stars and broken guitars: the lights were spacey now, the streets widened into a hushing antiquity. “Eh, I’m hungry, Ludwig,” Feliciano whimpered, propelling past Kiku to lean on Ludwig- fastened onto his arm like he was bracing against the wind. “Is
there anything to eat around here?”
“...We just ate,” Ludwig answered flatly, veins twitching in disbelief.
“I want coffee,” Feliciano smiled, looking lazily toward a stand on the corner. “Can I borrow some money, Ludwig?”
Ludwig’s mind hummed on a low setting, his feelings seemed to coast and he suddenly felt a shot of gray pass his eyes as he looked at Feliciano, felt what it really meant to be the one paying all the time. “I’ll go get it,” he conceded, as though giving up some battle, moving from Feliciano’s grasp, “Kiku, anything?”
Kiku noticed the sudden shift in the air. “Nothing, thank you,” he replied, leaning on a nearby fence, words carefully molded, discreet.
Feliciano picked up on some change, too, but he didn’t have Kiku’s manners, or the ability to look away. Ludwig didn’t brood on it, just walked across the street to the stand on the corner. Past senses, hit full with that dark, terse sweetness in the smell of roasting coffee- there was a short line in front of the stand, so he craned his head past the people standing to check the price, and got out some bills...
It could just be that he was stressed, that his mind was cluttered with all kinds of cacophonous sounds, thoughts of strategy, how things were going down with the Allies. A breeze picked up and seemed to blow snow from some far-off street. It could have also been that lately Feliciano’s arms were like a jail, but there was a gentleness in that jail that clouded dark perfume over his heart. Ludwig let out an exasperated scoff and rolled his eyes- pleasure in prison, how many BDSM jokes would that get him...
“Did I tell you how I like my coffee?”
Ludwig’s mind crashed, immediately drew up its defenses, in the worry that Feliciano could maybe see what he was thinking (an irrational fear: Feliciano wasn’t a mind reader by any stretch of the imagination). “Oh, Feliciano...didn't I say to wait behind with Kiku? I’m fine,” Ludwig answered, uneasy.
Lonely lights turned into flower illumination under the spell of Feliciano’s smile. “I forgot to tell you about my coffee! Besides, I wanned to go with you,” he replied easily, latching onto Ludwig’s arm again.
“Alright, alright,” Ludwig answered evenly. “How do you take your coffee, then?”
“Black! Lotsa sugar. How do you take your coffee?”
“Eh, milk and sugar, I suppose,” Ludwig said, straightening his collar.
“Ahh, Germans like things super sweet,” Feliciano observed, nodding sagely. He tipped his head curiously as they moved in line- watched the lines of Ludwig’s face seem to worry as he looked windily down the street. “Some-something’s wrong?” Feliciano managed to get out.
Ludwig looked back to him- eyes shaded. “Oh, nothing’s wrong,” he said, “I just still have a lot of things to work on when I get home.” If anything, he didn’t want Feliciano to worry for him. Given they way they were with each other, it wouldn’t make sense for Feliciano to worry over him...
“Oh, still have work? Huh, you’re so hard working,” Feliciano mused; but his face broke out into a smile again. “-But it’s no good to work all the time! Come off the battlefield once in a while. Eww I’m cold.”
Ludwig shrugged. “There’s a lot of things I need to do,” he said vaguely.
Feliciano looked at him curiously; he sighed, beginning to gesture as he explained the situation. “-I have to keep working because it’s expected of me,” he said, “I need to advance, to make the first move. There are just some unseen circumstances- there’s some- things I have to still figure out.”
The line moved a bit; Ludwig thought on how the spaces between words seemed to fill cold eternities, seemed to stretch to the point of breaking while Feliciano just stood there in his smiles and his warmth. And pausing on that, Ludwig knew that work wasn’t really the problem here, and the thought of that clutched around his throat. “Ah, you’re worried? Why be worried now, though? Worry later. See,” Feliciano began to point out, “it’s a nice night, it’s the three of us, and now there’s coffee! See, better now, right?”
“...I wouldn’t get anything done that way,” Ludwig answered. “That’s procrastination, isn’t it?”
Feliciano hummed something vaguely. “I don’t see it that way,” he answered, with a bright smile- some hidden knowledge in the corners of his mouth that did make it a little better, and...
The line moved again but they stayed where they were as the headlights trailed tales onto the street, and the cold seemed to move again. Feliciano released Ludwig’s arm from his grasp of flame and flowers, and moved away- looked up at him and put a hand on Ludwig’s neck, making a small, comforting pressure with his fingers. “Be happy, Ludwig,” he said- his voice was in that usual lazy puppy brightness, but it struck Ludwig as a command of some sort.
Ludwig’s mind halted, feelings didn’t know where to be sorted, and the vague calm crashed like paint over his mind. At the touch he felt full the cold breathlessness, the blindness of the stars- the promise of contact. But still there was warmth, and he looked
over Feliciano with a smile. “Sure, sure,” he answered, simply.
“Good!--- oh, Kiku must be lonely? I’m gonna go talk to him!” Feliciano answered, and hopped across the street back to Kiku.
There was still that small rainy darkness; Ludwig watched as Feliciano zealously enveloped Kiku in what promised to be yet another very uncomfortable conversation. Ludwig caught sight of the hollow lamp light that cast a strange shadow on Feliciano’s frame before he turned back to the stand. He was next in line, after all. The wind picked up again, and the nervousness had left him: one blithe word burned on his tongue like the promise of white light, and he could vaguely make it out to be “someday.” He mused on his blessings like they were coins in his pockets- vaguely organized a strategy by which to follow Feliciano’s advice.
rating: PG
summary: On a night off, Italy and Germany have a small conversation that says some big things.
note: so yeah, i gotta get back to WAL & LHFM & also a new IY short fic im workin on, this was just an idea that popped into my head :|
City lights like fireflies: it was night outside, and the cold in the air was thin, breathed life into your veins...and there was some calmness about it that made Ludwig itch with anxiety- through the soda cold and the skeleton breeze there was something about it that didn’t seem normal...
But then, it might just be him, he might just be high-strung. He relaxed back into a calmer mask while the other two carried on a conversation that was going nowhere pretty quick: Kiku was as usual quiet like a flower bomb, talking in that reserved, quiet voice, and...Feliciano was walking in the middle of them. Bounding, puppy dog energy that overspilled, charged in warm shades and left some light brewing over them...
“Ludwig, Ludwig,” he broke out suddenly, his mind completely off what he and Kiku had just been talking about (leaving Kiku looking overwhelmed but sorta relieved), “You look lonely! Why are you so quiet? It’s a nice night, after all. Nice and cool! Nights at my house are like this, you should come over my house, we spend so much time at yours!”
“Eh?” Ludwig answered, overtaken again Feliciano’s cartwheeling energy- ignoring the observation that he looked lonely, “Yes, it’s nice out.”
“No wait, we should all go to Kiku’s house- the hot springs, and we can look at all your pretty picture books!” Feliciano suggested.
“Ah, uhm, well, I would be disinclined to- take visitors at the moment,” Kiku replied, straightening a little. Kiku had a whole array of fancy ways to say “no.” Which of course worked on Feliciano, so it was all good as they continued on their aimless walk down the burning boulevard.
Paths of quiet stars and broken guitars: the lights were spacey now, the streets widened into a hushing antiquity. “Eh, I’m hungry, Ludwig,” Feliciano whimpered, propelling past Kiku to lean on Ludwig- fastened onto his arm like he was bracing against the wind. “Is
there anything to eat around here?”
“...We just ate,” Ludwig answered flatly, veins twitching in disbelief.
“I want coffee,” Feliciano smiled, looking lazily toward a stand on the corner. “Can I borrow some money, Ludwig?”
Ludwig’s mind hummed on a low setting, his feelings seemed to coast and he suddenly felt a shot of gray pass his eyes as he looked at Feliciano, felt what it really meant to be the one paying all the time. “I’ll go get it,” he conceded, as though giving up some battle, moving from Feliciano’s grasp, “Kiku, anything?”
Kiku noticed the sudden shift in the air. “Nothing, thank you,” he replied, leaning on a nearby fence, words carefully molded, discreet.
Feliciano picked up on some change, too, but he didn’t have Kiku’s manners, or the ability to look away. Ludwig didn’t brood on it, just walked across the street to the stand on the corner. Past senses, hit full with that dark, terse sweetness in the smell of roasting coffee- there was a short line in front of the stand, so he craned his head past the people standing to check the price, and got out some bills...
It could just be that he was stressed, that his mind was cluttered with all kinds of cacophonous sounds, thoughts of strategy, how things were going down with the Allies. A breeze picked up and seemed to blow snow from some far-off street. It could have also been that lately Feliciano’s arms were like a jail, but there was a gentleness in that jail that clouded dark perfume over his heart. Ludwig let out an exasperated scoff and rolled his eyes- pleasure in prison, how many BDSM jokes would that get him...
“Did I tell you how I like my coffee?”
Ludwig’s mind crashed, immediately drew up its defenses, in the worry that Feliciano could maybe see what he was thinking (an irrational fear: Feliciano wasn’t a mind reader by any stretch of the imagination). “Oh, Feliciano...didn't I say to wait behind with Kiku? I’m fine,” Ludwig answered, uneasy.
Lonely lights turned into flower illumination under the spell of Feliciano’s smile. “I forgot to tell you about my coffee! Besides, I wanned to go with you,” he replied easily, latching onto Ludwig’s arm again.
“Alright, alright,” Ludwig answered evenly. “How do you take your coffee, then?”
“Black! Lotsa sugar. How do you take your coffee?”
“Eh, milk and sugar, I suppose,” Ludwig said, straightening his collar.
“Ahh, Germans like things super sweet,” Feliciano observed, nodding sagely. He tipped his head curiously as they moved in line- watched the lines of Ludwig’s face seem to worry as he looked windily down the street. “Some-something’s wrong?” Feliciano managed to get out.
Ludwig looked back to him- eyes shaded. “Oh, nothing’s wrong,” he said, “I just still have a lot of things to work on when I get home.” If anything, he didn’t want Feliciano to worry for him. Given they way they were with each other, it wouldn’t make sense for Feliciano to worry over him...
“Oh, still have work? Huh, you’re so hard working,” Feliciano mused; but his face broke out into a smile again. “-But it’s no good to work all the time! Come off the battlefield once in a while. Eww I’m cold.”
Ludwig shrugged. “There’s a lot of things I need to do,” he said vaguely.
Feliciano looked at him curiously; he sighed, beginning to gesture as he explained the situation. “-I have to keep working because it’s expected of me,” he said, “I need to advance, to make the first move. There are just some unseen circumstances- there’s some- things I have to still figure out.”
The line moved a bit; Ludwig thought on how the spaces between words seemed to fill cold eternities, seemed to stretch to the point of breaking while Feliciano just stood there in his smiles and his warmth. And pausing on that, Ludwig knew that work wasn’t really the problem here, and the thought of that clutched around his throat. “Ah, you’re worried? Why be worried now, though? Worry later. See,” Feliciano began to point out, “it’s a nice night, it’s the three of us, and now there’s coffee! See, better now, right?”
“...I wouldn’t get anything done that way,” Ludwig answered. “That’s procrastination, isn’t it?”
Feliciano hummed something vaguely. “I don’t see it that way,” he answered, with a bright smile- some hidden knowledge in the corners of his mouth that did make it a little better, and...
The line moved again but they stayed where they were as the headlights trailed tales onto the street, and the cold seemed to move again. Feliciano released Ludwig’s arm from his grasp of flame and flowers, and moved away- looked up at him and put a hand on Ludwig’s neck, making a small, comforting pressure with his fingers. “Be happy, Ludwig,” he said- his voice was in that usual lazy puppy brightness, but it struck Ludwig as a command of some sort.
Ludwig’s mind halted, feelings didn’t know where to be sorted, and the vague calm crashed like paint over his mind. At the touch he felt full the cold breathlessness, the blindness of the stars- the promise of contact. But still there was warmth, and he looked
over Feliciano with a smile. “Sure, sure,” he answered, simply.
“Good!--- oh, Kiku must be lonely? I’m gonna go talk to him!” Feliciano answered, and hopped across the street back to Kiku.
There was still that small rainy darkness; Ludwig watched as Feliciano zealously enveloped Kiku in what promised to be yet another very uncomfortable conversation. Ludwig caught sight of the hollow lamp light that cast a strange shadow on Feliciano’s frame before he turned back to the stand. He was next in line, after all. The wind picked up again, and the nervousness had left him: one blithe word burned on his tongue like the promise of white light, and he could vaguely make it out to be “someday.” He mused on his blessings like they were coins in his pockets- vaguely organized a strategy by which to follow Feliciano’s advice.