Romeo and Romeo

Chapter 16

Feliciano's chest rose rapidly, opening his mouth as wide as he could, he yawned. He blinked a couple of times then frowned. Still tightly grasped by Ludwig, he started counting on his fingers.

'What are you doing Feliciano?'

'Counting... hang on...'

After a couple of seconds, Feliciano quickly turned around so he was facing Ludwig. His eyes shone and his grin was full of joy.

'It's Christmas Eve!'

Ludwig smiled as well at Feliciano's happiness. He could almost never find happiness apart from in this gleaming bundle of energy in his arms. Feliciano's smile suddenly dropped.

'I haven't wrapped Ivan's present!' Feliciano threw the covers off and ran over to his unused bed and frantically ripped his bag open. 'Oh, I said who I was giving a present to...'

'That's ok, don't worry.' Ludwig softly soothed.

'Well who is your present for?'

Ludwig sat up and mischievously tapped the side of his nose.

'Aww come on, please tell!' Feliciano begged.

'No. It will be a surprise. But it's not you.'

Feliciano's face fell slightly as he took the canvas out for Ivan. He inspected it for any mistakes and then set it on the floor.

'Do you have any nicer paper?' Feliciano held up the scraps of brown paper that he had.

'Sorry, I wrapped mine before I got here.'

'Okay.' He looked disappointed and started measuring how much he needed.

The thunder had disappeared but the torrential rain made it impossible to go outside and have fun unless you liked the rain. Ludwig slowly stood up and stretched. He put his bare feet in his slippers and walked over to Feliciano.

'That's amazing!' He looked at the lifelike painting of a bottle of clearly branded vodka and chuckled. 'It's not only really well done, but it's also amusing.'

'You really think so?' Feliciano smiled and blushed slightly. 'I hardly spent any money on it.'

'I would prefer to have something cheap and handmade than something expensive and bought.'

After about ten minutes of wrapping the watercolour, trying to cover up all of the gift with the scraps of paper, they went downstairs.

Everyone was helping to decorate for Christmas. Alfred and Hercules were hauling the large Christmas tree inside, being guided by Kiku and getting scolded by Arthur whenever the needles dropped on the ground.

Ivan was hanging green and red tinsel around the walls with Yao holding a huge pile of more tinsel to be hung.

Francis was hanging up mistletoe for some reason, while Matthew was following him with a short wooden stool stool.

Elisaveta was making a beautiful wreath with branches, nuts, and berries. And Natalia was skulking in the corner of the room, muttering to herself and keeping her eyes on Ivan and Yao.

'Ah, Feliciano, Ludwig, finally! Why don't you help with decorating the tree?' Elisaveta smiled brightly while giving out her strict order. She seemed to be in charge of the decorating.

Ludwig swiftly walked over to where Alfred and Hercules were struggling with the tree (mainly because Hercules wasn't bothered and because Alfred was attempting to lift the tree by himself) and lifted it up, walked over to the designated corner of the room, and set it down. He dusted his hands off and sighed. Not even batting an eyelash.

'Wow Ludwig, you're so strong!' Feliciano cooed, smiling.

'Ah, um... thank you Feliciano. But don't show signs of weakness, that will make the enemy hurt you more.'

Feliciano frowned, not quite understanding.

'Thanks dude.' Alfred walked over with the decorations in a box and pulled a couple out.

Kiku, Arthur, Alfred, Ludwig, Hercules and Feliciano all began decorating the tree. Half way through, Feliciano managed to get tangled up in the fairy lights and then Alfred jokingly wrapped Arthur up, with strangely little resistance.

'Stop messing around and get back to work! I want you to all be finished in ten minutes so we can play monopoly and eat crackers.' Everyone jumped at Elisaveta's raised voice and hurriedly got back on track.

And sure enough, in ten minutes, everyone was eating crackers and Francis's stinky cheese.