Oh god, this was so difficult to write, and it took me forever, but finally, the last chapter is here!

Chapter 17

This trip had being way longer than the german was expecting it to be. The bus they were traveling in was packed with tourists, asleep tourists to top it all. Luckily, at least the seats were quite comfortable, he thought trying to be a bit more positive, but it was certainly taking quite some time to get to, god knows where, Feliciano was taking him. He couldn't complain though, it was true that the italian had offered to drive up there, but Ludwig had learned his lesson long ago. He refused in a second; there was no way he could let him drive his precious car, or any car at all… So they had no other choice than the bus.

And also, he had to admit that he was already feeling a bit curious about this place, it looked less, and less like Italy every minute, and it was certainly getting colder, and colder as well. There was this really large lake that seemed to never end, and some high mountains covered by trees. Where were they going? He couldn't even ask, since Feliciano was soundly sleeping in the seat next to him.

On second thought, he was sleeping, right? The blond man looked at the relaxed face of his friend, breathing softly, with no worries. The recent events were still fresh on his mind, the Italian talking about his sleeping issues; Ludwig couldn't help but wonder if he was actually sleeping now. A bit hesitant, he touched Feliciano's cheek, but almost immediately stopped himself. That was really weird, right? What was he doing?

The smaller man just made a little sound, and turned to the window looking slightly annoyed. So he was really sleeping, he thought feeling relieved.

Not too long after that, they entered what seemed like a really small town, but something was out of place. He was sure they were still in Italy, but it didn't seem so. Something about those houses' design was rather familiar to him. When the bus stopped he woke up Feliciano, who was a bit confused for a second, but as soon as he noticed that they were already there he looked ecstatic.

"Luddy! We're here! What do you think? Do you like it? Come on, we have to get down, don't worry about our bags, we'll come back for them later." The Italian rushed down the bus as he pulled his friend's hand.

"Ja, ja, calm down…" He said faking annoyance, but he was really curious by now.

Once they were out of the bus Ludwig was completely sure something wasn't right. "Feliciano… where in the world… are we still in Italy?"

The smaller man spoke giggling a bit. "Yeah, we sure are! Why would you ask?" He said with a little mischievous smile on his face.

"Well… to start with… why are all the signs… in german? And that's not saying the look of this buildings…"

Feliciano laughed. "Well, that's the whole point, you silly!" But Ludwig looked really confused, so he explained a little more. "I always wanted to bring you here, since I figured you would be more comfortable. You can speak to everyone, they speak mostly german. We're actually quite near to Austria…" He looked around for a second. "And I was hiding here the last few days, since it reminded me a lot of you…"

"So… you were here all this time?" Maybe Ludwig was imagining it, but it looked like Feliciano was slightly blushing.

"Si… I was… feeling kinda lonely without Luddy… that's why I came here…"

There was an awkward silence for a second, before the Italian walked towards a nearby road calling for his friend. "Come on, Luddy. We can talk about that later. There's something else you need to see first, someone will take our bags later, so don't worry, si?"

He looked around a little more before following him. This place was indeed interesting; it did feel a bit like home. Just a couple of minutes after that, the lake appeared in front of them again. He stopped, thinking that his eyes were playing games on him. "Feliciano… why is that… there?" he said pointing at the clock tower in the water.

"Weird, right?" The italian sighed while smiling softly. "This isn't a natural lake, you see? There used to be some little towns over there, and that was the church's tower, but that's all that's left… It's a bit nostalgic, don't you think, Luddy?"

"Is that so?" He thought about it for a minute as he noticed his friend's mood getting a bit gloomy. The old towns that were now underwater, the memories of the people who used to lived there, and this tower, standing alone in the water, just a fragment of it all. "Doesn't it make you sad?" He asked feeling a bit down himself.

"Uh?" He was caught off guard by the question. "Well, just a bit… I mean, this area had always been conflictive, and I do remember quite some stuff about this place before the lake, but… I feel like I can make some happy memories in here now for a change."

Ludwig barely heard him, he was lost in thought, this was a rather emotional scene for the other man, and yet he had brought him here. Every nation had points like this; a lot of history that not everyone remembered, a lot of memories of what once existed, and now was gone.

Feliciano just patted his shoulder, and smiled at him. "But it just seems like the perfect place for Luddy, and me, right?"

He just looked at him; the Italian didn't look sad anymore, so he decided to let go of the negative thinking as well. "Ja… it's nice to be able to read for a change…"

"That's what I thought!" He said happily. "Now you can tell me what all this signs mean!"

"Wait a minute… you can't read them? You wouldn't bring me all the way here just for that, right?"

"Well, it's true that I can't… but that's not it, Luddy!" Feliciano looked truly mortified. "I just wanted to come here with you!"

He couldn't help but smile a bit. Silly Feliciano, he thought.

oOoOoOoOo

They had stayed there for a little while, and later had a cup of coffee on a restaurant that was just in front of the lake. Right after that, they headed to what Feliciano called "his little hideout", which ended up being a rather misleading name according to the german, since the log cabin was quite impressive.

Ludwig couldn't help feeling a bit surprised; he had imagined Feliciano alone in some sad, rickety place for the past few days. But it ended up being this really nice house that looked like a small mountain lodge.

"So, what do you think, Luddy? It's quite charming, isn't it?" said the proud owner with a bright smile.

"Ja, it's actually a nice place…"

"I'm so glad you like it Luddy!" said the Italian jumping to the kitchen. "Aren't you hungry? I'll go make us something to eat, our bags are upstairs if you need something!"

"Oh, ok, I'll go check them for now…" But no one heard him, since Feliciano was already in the kitchen, doing something, and whatever it was, it was really noisy.

Not wanting to get involved in that he went upstairs to look for his bags.

This was indeed a nice place, comfortable, warm, and cozy. Ludwig found himself enjoying it already; it seemed like the perfect place to forget the rush of work, or the recent problems. And with that thought, he felt his body relaxing a bit; things were all right now.

He found their bags on the bed. He wondered for a second if there was any other bed in that place, but there sure had to be, right? Not wasting too much time in that, and being the tidy person we was, he couldn't help but wanting to unpack as soon as possible, and organize their clothes before they got too wrinkled.

His own clothes were nicely arranged in the suitcase, so it was just a couple of minutes with that. The italian's bag on the other hand… The german sighed, it's not as if he had expected something else, but that was one crazy mess. But Ludwig took it as a challenge; he could do this for sure.

Actually, it looked more like a treasure chest; he kept on finding random stuff hidden under the mountain of clothes. He smiled a bit at the German dictionary, it was such a silly thing to have, but it made him a bit happy that Feliciano would try to understand his language. It took about half an hour to get the clothes on the closet, but he still had quite some stuff on the bed since he had no idea what to do with it. Ludwig could understand the sketching notebook, the camera… but did he really need the miniature white flag?

Fifteen more minutes went by, and it was almost ready, there was just this little thing that he was trying to ignore. The small folded paper that was under everything else in Feliciano's bag. He usually wouldn't care about it, but he could still remember the letter he got back in Venice, which looked just like this, and Ludwig was somehow curious about that it. But he couldn't check it, something like that would be wrong, completely wrong. He was still there, frozen in front of the bag, when the Italian showed up calling him to eat, but as soon as he saw what was in front of the german, he rushed, and closed the bag.

"Ah, Luddy! You unpacked everything? He, thank you… eh… why don't you go down? Lunch's ready so… Ah, but thank you, I'll take care of this now, so just go, and I'll be there in a minute…" his face was very red, and the words were spoken really fast.

"Uh… Feliciano…" He wasn't sure if he wanted to ask, since this situation was suddenly a bit of a déjà vu. He decided that he couldn't let go of it that easily; curiosity was becoming another horrible bad habit for him. "Feliciano… you don't have to tell me if you don't want to but… that paper… uh, it just reminded me… but it's not as if I didn't trust you! It's just…" He was stuttering again, the second bad habit was officially back.

But despite that, the Italian immediately understood what he meant, and panicked a bit. "No, no, it's nothing like that! It's not something that I can't show to Ludwig, it's just… it's just… I didn't thought it would be… so soon…" He looked down, getting even more flustered, if that was even possible. He sighed. "My plans never go as expected, uh?" He murmured, most likely for himself.

"So soon?" He looked at the Italian, there was no way he could ignore his red face, but what was happening?

"Well… yeah… I was going to give it to you… at some point, but…" But the words no longer came out of his throat. Feliciano was scared; it seemed so clear back when he was in that basement, but now… Now that everything was happening so fast he knew that he hadn't thought this through. What would happen if the other man didn't... And he was already here; there was no way he could run away again… No, he just couldn't do that ever again.

But Ludwig's voice calling him, and a gentle hand messing with his hair calmed him down.

"You don't have… to show it to me now if you don't want to… It's ok… I'm sorry if I was too curious... So don't look so frightened, please?"

Those understanding blue eyes looking worriedly at him, the warm hand that was still on his head, and something inside him made the fear go away. He breathed deeply, and decided to take a leap of faith.

"You know Luddy…" He took the other man's hand and put the paper in it. "I think… Maybe my plans keep on failing for a reason… You can have it now… so… yeah…" He looked away. It was done, and he just had to wait now.

The blond man looked at the white note; still folded on his hand… suddenly his curiosity was replaced with a bit of fear… But it was too late for that, and Feliciano was waiting for him to read it.

He carefully unfolded it, and slowly started reading, it was just a couple of paragraphs, but it took him like five minutes. His eyes widened. He had to read again. What was this note… because it seemed like a… no… it was for sure a love confession… right? He froze, what did he think about this? He was not sure, he felt like running, but he couldn't do that, his mind was blank until a small hand touched his shoulder.

"Ve, Luddy… it's ok if you don't… feel the same… so… don't worry… ok?" Said a trembling voice.

The german looked down, to meet the italian's eyes, tears forming on the corners, but also he was smiling softly.

And that was it, that sad face was breaking his heart, he knew that he couldn't let him cry, he just wanted him to smile happily, to mess with his hair so that he would forget his problems, and take care of him as he slept so that he no longer felt alone. His mind was in order again, and in a moment he had it clear. And there was one thing he needed to do immediately.

Ludwig pulled the smaller man into a tight hug, silently; hopefully his answer would be evident to the other man.

Feliciano wasn't sure what was happening, was Ludwig feeling bad for him, did he wanted him to stop crying? He knew he didn't want to let go, but he needed to know for sure. "Luddy… what… I really need you to tell me… I can't understand if you are like this…" He was internally praying for it to be what he was imagining… that was all that he could do.

Now, it was really happening, he actually needed to form words about this. Ludwig felt the air escaping his lungs, how could he say this, he wasn't even aware until a moment ago… well… that wasn't entirely true… he did noticed something when Feliciano was away from him… He felt so lonely; he worried so much… maybe… that would be it?

" Ah… Feliciano… you know…" He breathed again; he could do this. "On those days you were missing… I really… yeah… I wanted you to be back… so badly… I couldn't stand the idea of you being suffering on your own… I just wanted to find you, and… make sure you wouldn't cry… or feel sad at all… And hug you till you smiled again... I don't know anything about this but... but if you can call that… uh..." Just a little more; he thought looking away. "If you can call that love… I think you could say… I do… love… you." Even though the last part came as a really soft whisper, he knew he had said it.

The Italian looked up in a second, and even though he was looking to the side he could see the german's completely flustered face. His heart felt warm. He had said it, Ludwig really said it… and… Feliciano was sure he was not going to say anything more… it was already amazing that he could say it. So he thought, it was his turn to do something…

He threw his arms around his neck, and hugged him tight, until the other man finally hugged him back. And like that, Feliciano just whispered in his ear. "Ti amo, Ludwig." And gave him a quick kiss before running downstairs. "Our food is probably super cold by now, you better hurry." He yelled as he ran. It was not fair to the other one, but he was so nervous that he couldn't do anything else. He was incredibly happy though.

So Ludwig was left alone, so embarrassed that he thought he could die any moment, but also, he was happy, like never before. There was a feeling that he was finally home, and it weren't the german signs, or the houses, it wasn't even the log cabin. It felt as if he had finally arrived to the place where he belonged.

He smiled to himself, now that he thought about it, the Italian had stolen a kiss from him… and he had to pay him back.

And we're finished! I hope it was a good ending for it, and that you liked it. This fanfic took way longer than expected, and was actually my first one, so I'm both happy, and a little sad that it's over. But I already have a list of ideas that I want to write, and a little funny one shot that might be up one of this days! Anyways, thank you so much to everyone that read up to the last one, thanks so, so much!