I just can't seem to stop writing this story. Which is always good when I get stuck on the others. Having a story that I know more about the direction it's going and how it will get there is nice for once.

I just realized that with only half the chapters, less than half the words, and half the hits, Wild has more reviews and alerts than In the Streets of Seattle o.o Wow, I never would have guessed that. Hell, I never would have even written this down if my friend didn't make me, so the fact that people are reading it… wow.

Well, on with the chapter!

When Feliciano awoke the next morning, he was alone. He sprang out of bed, panicing for a moment, until he heard Ludwig's loud voice from downstairs. He didn't sound like he was mad, he just seemed to speak louder than most people.

After hearing his voice and calming down, Feliciano decided to take a look out the window. It faced the back of the house, so he had a great view of the back yard. It wasn't a particularly large yard, nor was it very impressive, but Feliciano loved it. There were a few mid-sized trees, the kind just barely big enough to climb, along with several patches of pink and yellow flowers that Feliciano guessed Ludwig's mom had planted.

"Ve~ I never would have guessed how pretty it would be outside of that place…" he whispered, resting his elbows on the windowsill and putting his chin in his hands. His tail, which he had forgotten to hide when he woke up, was swaying back and forth lazily.

"It's not that great," a voice said from behind him.

"Ah, Ludwig!" Feliciano said when he turned around. "What are you talking about? It's beautiful!"

"If you say so…" Ludwig said. "So… what was 'that place' you just mentioned?" Feliciano's eyes widened a bit when he asked this.

"V-ve, um…" he stuttered. "I don't really think I should tell you. If they find out…" he trailed off, and Ludwig nodded.

"Well, you slept in really late. Mutti's about to start making lunch."

"Oh! Let me make it!" Feliciano said. When Ludwig looked like he was about to argue, he added, "I love to cook. And besides, it's the least I could do since your family's letting me stay here." Ludwig sighed, but he agreed. Feliciano started to run out of the room, but Ludwig grabbed his shoulder.

"What do you think you're doing?" he yelled, causing the smaller Italian to flinch.

"Wah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don't hit me!" he cried, covering his head with his arms for protection. Seeing this, Ludwig's grip loosened.

"I… I wasn't going to hit you," he said in a softer voice (though it was still pretty loud). "It's just… you should hide those." He pointed to Feliciano's cat ears as he said this.

"Ve? I should?" he asked with a puzzled tone.

"Ja. Mutti and Roderich might not…" he couldn't find the right words to finish his sentence, but Feliciano appeared to understand.

"Okay, I'll hide them, then. But, um… who's Roderich?" he asked. Ludwig stared for a moment as the ears and the tail disappeared into Feliciano's head and bottom of his back, leaving no sign that they had ever been there. Then he remembered that he had been asked a question.

"Oh, he's my cousin that's been staying here for…" he paused to think, "I'm not sure how long, but it's been years now. He came because the schools are better here than where his parents live. He's the reason the guest bedroom is taken. He gets lost in the house a lot, so you probably won't see him much, except for some mealtimes and when Elizaveta comes over." Yes, he always seemed to find his way around when he got hungry enough or when she came.

"Ve~ I can't wait to meet him!" Feliciano said. "If he's your cousin, then he must be nice, too." Before Ludwig could determine what he had meant by that, Feliciano ran towards the door, yelling, "I'm gonna go make lunch now! Meet me downstairs!" Ludwig watched him leave then slowly followed him.

"I hope you like pasta!" Feliciano called when he heard Ludwig walking into the combined kitchen and dining room.

"I haven't had any in a long time, but it's not bad." Feliciano's jaw dropped to the floor.

"Not bad? Pasta's amazing!" he argued. "I'll have to make this extra yummy to prove it to you~" Ludwig sighed. Even without the whole weird cat thing, this boy was still pretty odd. He had never met anybody quite like him.'Though I have to admit, he kind of brightens this house up a bit…'

"Done~!" Feliciano called from his spot at the stove. He carried four bowls over to the table and set them down (how he managed to carry all of them without dropping any was unknown to Ludwig and his mom). It wasn't anything too special, just spaghetti and store-bought sauce, but when Ludwig took a small bite, he was surprised at how good it was.

"Do you like it?" Feliciano asked expectantly. Ludwig looked away and blushed very lightly. 'What am I doing that for?' he wondered.

"Y-yes, it's very good," he answered when he pushed that thought out of his head. Feliciano finished his bowl in what seemed like seconds. After patiently waiting for Ludwig to finish, he grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the back door.

"C'mon, I wanna sit outside!"

"I really think I should clean up all the tomato sauce you got on the counters first," Ludwig told him.

"Can't that wait?" he asked the taller boy.

"Go ahead outside, Ludwig," his mom told him. "I can clean it up. You two should spend some time together and get to know each other since we're all living together now."

"…fine then." Feliciano let out a happy cheer, then continued pulling Ludwig to the door. When they got out there, Feliciano sat down in the grass and looked all around him, taking in everything. 'It's even prettier from here~' he thought.

"I'm sorry there's nowhere to sit but the ground," Ludwig said, seating himself a few feet away.

"What about that bench over there?" he asked, pointing.

"Oh, that's broken," Ludwig said. "You can't tell from here, but the seat's broken in half."

"That's too bad. I think it would be fun to sit on a bench in a nice place like this with a friend." Ludwig stared at the boy in silence for a few moments, unable to respond.

"You consider me a… friend?" he asked. "You hardly know me."

"But you're nice to me," he said. "And I'm nice to you, right?" Ludwig nodded. "So we're friends." Ludwig smiled a little.

All was quiet for a long time, save for a bird in one of the trees, which Feliciano was watching intently. After a while, I thought came to Ludwig that he felt the need to voice.

"I've been wondering," he started, drawing Feliciano's attention away from the bird. "Are there more?"

"Ve? More what?"

"More people like you. With the cat ears."

"Oh, that. Well, I don't think there were many cats besides fratello and I…"

"Fratello?" Ludwig questioned.

"My brother, Lovino. He's a cat, too. There were lots of other kinds with us. Birds, rodents, a wolf, a fox, some dogs, and a bunch of others. There was even one guy who would turn into a horse from the waist down, just like one of those… uh…" he stopped the search for the word.

"Centaurs?" Ludwig suggested.

"Yeah, those!"

"So there are a lot of people like you?" Feliciano nodded. "How come nobody's ever heard of them?" Ludwig asked. Feliciano's smile disappeared instantly.

"Ve… I'm sorry, I told them I wouldn't tell anybody about that. I wasn't even supposed to tell you there were others…" He looked away, mentally scolding himself for telling Ludwig so much.

"That's okay. You don't have to tell me," Ludwig said. He was still extremely curious. He had mentioned a brother, but where was he? And it sounded like the people like him had all been in one place, but what place was it? He decided now wasn't the time to ask more questions, so he just ignored his curious mind and looked over at Feliciano, who was happily watching the bird again, and smiled just a little bit.

There we go! A little more info on the animal people (I need a word for that).

There have been some pretty good guesses about what each person will be, but only one guess has been right so far (I won't say who yet, 'cause I don't want to give away what any will be) And some guesses are giving me ideas for the ones that I know will be animal people, but I just haven't decided what animal yet. I feel like telling you (since a lot of people are guessing for him) that Alfred will actually be a normal person like Antonio and Ludwig. That doesn't mean Matthew will be, though ^^

*sigh* I'm trying to make the chapters longer, really! They seem pretty long when I type them, then I upload the document and I'm like "What? Only 1,300 words?" *goes back to try to add to it*

Next chapter moves to another part of the story again.