Chapter 1

He was sitting in bed, awake in the middle of the night, again. Germany was still sleeping soundly by his side, with a very peaceful look on his face, which made Feliciano smile a little bit. Then he looked up, wondering what to do, since he already knew there was not a single chance to fall asleep again. He got up and walked towards the window, setting aside the curtains with his hand, just a little bit, facing outward with a sad look on his eyes. Nothing but darkness before him, he couldn't see the stars, nor the moon, nothing; he felt a little depressed.

The italian exited the room silently, preventing himself from waking up his friend. Germany's house was a little creepy at night, being so huge and obscure, but he didn't really felt scared, he had being in places that were a thousand times more fearful than that. This was Ludwig's home after all, his closest friend's house was the only place where he would feel secure no matter what, so he just walked downstairs and headed to the german's office hoping that he could get something to do.

Since he couldn't find anything but white sheets of paper, he decided to try and do some sketches, he hadn't draw in a long time, but it was an old, forgotten hobby of his. His hand first moved tiredly, making lines, randomly, trying to decide on a subject for his drawing, and then, when something came to his mind, the dancing pencil moved frantically across the paper. After a good two hours, a complex picture of a beautiful Venetian mask, covered in gorgeous details, that adorned it, it would seem that it was about to pop out the white sheet. Feliciano contemplated the picture with mixed feelings, a part of him was happy with the result; the other was lost in his memories, back at his beautiful hometown, in some marvelous festival, delightful music playing, riding a gondola through the canals.

He was so absorbed by his thoughts that he didn't notice the blond man that was approaching him, and he wouldn't have at all, if he hadn't spoke to him with that deep, sleepy, but concerned voice.

"Feliciano… what time is it? What are you doing here so late?"

He looked up to Ludwig in shock, he never let his friend know that he woke up during the night; he always went back to bed before he could notice. Not knowing what else to do he jumped to hug him throwing his drawing carelessly. "Ludwig, Ludwig, let's have some pasta! I want a midnight snack. Don't you want something too? Let's prepare some wurst, that would be good, don't you think Ludwig?" He tried his best to look as enthusiastic as always, the last thing he wanted was to worry his friend.

But the german was not buying it, he had seen the look on his ally's face, it was so different from his usual self, it seemed… broken. "Feliciano…" he sighed "Feli, what's wrong?"

He loosened the embrace "Germany… everything's ok… what are you talking about?" His voice was soft, he was getting really scared that Ludwig had discovered something he had being hiding for so long. "I'm just hungry… I'm sorry that you… why are you awake? Are you hungry too?" He gave a weird smile to his friend, hoping that we would stop asking questions.

"Stop it" Ludwig was looking directly into his eyes, not his usual stern look but an almost painful one. "Don't play dumb with me… not now… what's wrong?"

The smaller man ran out of words, he didn't know what to so anymore and began shaking, he tried to head towards the door, but the blond man didn't allow him to do it. When Ludwig grabbed his arm, he finally couldn't take it anymore, he violently freed himself and stood there, unable to see his friend in the eyes. "I'm sorry…" He whispered before exiting the room.

Ludwig didn't move, even when he heard the front door closing, he wasn't good with emotions, and now he was extremely confused, as much as he could be. What was that? Did Italy just run away in the middle of the night? Should I chase him? But he couldn't do anything, he just went to his desk and sat on his chair, looking around, trying to understand. Suddenly he saw it. An astonishing drawing on the floor… it seemed familiar, where had he seen these things before?

And then it hit him. It was a mask from the Venice festival, a mask that was left behind.