Work Text:
Ludwig held onto the leashes as he walked his three dogs. A morning walk at exactly 6:00 in the morning was just another part of his strict everyday routine. As long as the weather was dry, he was outside walking the dogs. It was one of the few times that he can consistently get some quiet from the chaos induced from his work and social circle. Both Feliciano and Gilbert can be too obnoxious for him to handle sometimes, and any others often got dragged into the mess. They also were the cause of the chaos at work sometimes, especially if international meetings were involved. Ludwig could forget it all when walking the dogs.
Blackie suddenly pulled at his leash. Ludwig held on fast, preventing the dog from running ahead. He watched Berlitz and Aster to make sure that they didn’t suddenly pull at their leashes too. Aster barked at a squirrel that ran across the sidewalk while Blackie tried to get away again. Berlitz did not seem to have a care in the world about squirrels or anything that was going on around them.
“Blackie, Aster, nein.” Ludwig had no problems with keeping the dogs by his side. It was still annoying to deal with whenever a small animal crossed paths though. The two dogs in question calmed down after the squirrel had been out of view with Ludwig’s coaxing.
About two thirds of the way in the walk, Ludwig’s phone rang in his pocket. He transferred the leashes to one hand as the other was used to retrieve the device. He initially thought it was an early call from his boss about work again, but he was surprised to see that it was Feliciano’s name that came up. He usually doesn’t call this early.
“Hallo?” He purposefully held the phone a little bit away from his ear. The first time Feliciano called him on a phone about two decades ago, Ludwig thought that he had hearing damage from how loud Feli was. At least he never needed to have him on speaker.
“Ciao! Good morning, Ludwig!” And sure enough, Ludwig could hear the other just fine with the phone a few centimeters away. “Do you happen to be free today? I want to come over to your place as I got something that I want to show you. Ve~.”
“How do you plan on getting here so quickly?” If Feliciano was in Italy, it would already take a few hours for him to just cross the German border. That is if he manages to avoid Basch on the way.
“I’m already in Germany!” Feliciano’s excitement was pouring out of the phone. “I came over here yesterday and got a hotel. I’ll be in the area for a week. We haven’t seen each other in a while and I missed you!”
Ludwig got flustered as his heartbeat accelerated. And there he is being adorable again. He just sees me as a friend, nothing more. He was surprised that the Italian had gotten into the country without him sensing it. Getting back on track, the German briefly went over the day’s schedule in his head. He had some work to do for his boss in the morning and afternoon. “I can have you over for a little while this evening.”
“Ve~. I’ll bring pasta for dinner! See you soon, Luddy!”
“Goodbye, Feliciano.” He scolded himself for getting so worked up over seeing his longtime crush again. He couldn’t deny that it had been a while since they last saw each other. Thinking back, it had actually been a few months last time they saw each other. Time does continue to fly fast when work takes up most of your attention. So now he had a few hours to get back home, go to and get work done, and prepare for his friend’s visit. His thinking was interrupted as all three dogs were now barking excitedly at another person who was walking their dog. Ludwig adjusted his grip on the leashes. “Nein. It is time to head home.” He guided the dogs away from the other animal towards the direction of home, his eyes never leaving his pets for more than several seconds. The dogs gradually calmed down the further away they got. They were quiet by the time the walk ended back at the house. Ludwig let them loose in the enclosed backyard before heading to take a shower. He had quite a day ahead of him.
~~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~~
Ludwig’s sanity was almost gone by the time he was able to head home from work. He got into an argument with his boss about various policies and their effects on the people. Then, an intern got some reports mixed up, which resulted in the report Ludwig originally wanted to be rewritten. That incident had caused some of Ludwig’s work to be put on hold. And then at the end of the workday, to add salt to injury, Ludwig came out of the building to find his car completed covered in sticky notes. He had no clue who did it or why they would do it, but it annoyed Ludwig even more having to peel off the hundreds of sticky notes off of his car. Overall, it was a stressful day that gave the German a massive headache.
He tried to calm himself down during the commute home with some music. Coincidently, the song that was playing on the radio reminded him of Feliciano. It brought a small smile to his face. His anger mostly cooled down from thinking about the evening plans: Feliciano shows up to his house with pasta; they make and eat dinner together; then who knows what happens next. It was a good plan, one that should bring him happiness rather than anger. By the time Ludwig got home, he had almost forgotten about the events from earlier in the day as his mind was occupied on preparing for his future house guest.
In 20 minutes, Ludwig was ready for Feliciano’s arrival. He waited around for the Italian to show up. He had noted that there was never a specific time that was agreed upon for Feliciano to show up, with the only indication of a time being the pasta supposedly being brought for dinner. The blond estimated that Feliciano would show up in about 10 minutes. His brain then chose to remind him that Feliciano had said that he wanted to show Ludwig something. It got him curious as to what Feliciano could want to show him. Maybe it’s a new recipe or a new art piece. Or new clothes. Or a cat he found wandering the neighborhood or something.
Ludwig was wrong on just about everything. For starters, it actually took Feliciano 20 minutes to show up rather than 10. Ludwig had heard a loud engine noise that sounded right outside his door. The man got up and went to look out the window to investigate. He was not prepared for the sight just outside the window. First of all, there was what looked like to be a brand-new Ferrari parked in his driveway. Second, Feliciano was the driver. Ludwig could not help but observe with mixed feelings.
Feliciano saw Ludwig looking out the window. “Ciao, Luddy! Come check out my new ride! You’ll love it!”
Ludwig got on his shoes and went outside to greet his friend. He rose an eyebrow at the Ferrari. “Is that a brand-new car?”
“Sí. This is what I wanted to show you. It’s a F512 M. I got it last week after me and my fratello went to a car show.” His grin of excitement took up most of his face. “I was hoping that you would let me drive you around in it.”
The last sentence instantly brought Ludwig to the moment when Kiku had warned him to never let Feliciano drive anyone around, especially in a car as powerful as a Ferrari. As the story was told to Ludwig, apparently Feliciano had made the exact same offer to Kiku back when the Japanese man was visiting Italy on official business. It had been back in the late 50s when Feliciano had his very first Ferrari. The drive around Sicily had left Kiku both extremely car sick and traumatized. The next time Kiku talked to Ludwig, he told the story and gave the warning. As far as Ludwig knew, Kiku had never let Feliciano drive him around again. Ludwig believed Kiku’s story and trusted the man about the matter.
And then another problem came to Ludwig’s mind: the Autobahn. One would initially think that the new highway system would be perfect for Feliciano to drive his Ferrari on…until speed limits come to mind. Most of the highway did not have a speed limit, contrary to the popular belief Ludwig had been hearing from foreigners about there being no speed limits at all throughout the highway. The German could only picture the problematic situations they could end up in with Feliciano being able to have free reign on his speed: being pulled over by the police, or worse, getting into a crash. He could decline the offer for a ride and definitely thought about doing just that. Although, all it took was one look at Feliciano’s puppy dog eyes (Wait his eyes are open!) for Ludwig’s hesitation to be put to the side. “I suppose it should not be too much of an issue. As long as you follow the conditions I put in place.”
“Ve~. Let’s go right now!” Feliciano beamed with joy and got back into the car.
Ludwig got in the passenger seat and buckled in his seat belt. “There are two things that I want you to do during this ride, as I’ve heard about your driving habits. One, you drive at the posted speed limit or slower. Second, you take the roads that I want you to drive on, like a navigator.”
“Okay.” The driver was a bit disappointed about the first condition. Though he cared about how Ludwig felt. He supposed that he would drive slower just for him. The second condition he did not see any problems with. The car was started and backed out onto the street.
Ludwig gave very specific instructions to Feliciano on where to go. He had a route in mind that would only consist of parts of the Autobahn that had a speed limit. Though he thought that the limits should be high enough for Feliciano to have his fun. He also got the opportunity to describe the Autobahn’s recent completion of uniting the western half with the eastern half.
Naturally, Feliciano was intrigued by the highway system. “Is that where you are taking me? It sounds wonderful to drive on with this car.”
Ludwig confirmed it. “We won’t have time to explore the entire system, but we can do some section of it today.” He guided Feliciano to an entrance ramp.
The car sped up to match the current traffic. The driver took note of the speed limit as soon as a sign came up. He adjusted his speed accordingly. It was obvious that the road was new based on the color of the pavement and the fresh line paint. The Ferrari cruised on the smooth road with no issues. Even with the restrictions put on him, Feliciano was still having fun driving.
So far everything is going to plan. Ludwig almost could get comfortable in his seat as Feliciano drove around like a civilized being. He cracked his window open for a small breeze. Maybe I should tell Kiku to give Feli another shot at driving under the same rules. However, they were slowing down all of the sudden. It took the blond out of thoughts to process that traffic in front of them was also slowing down. He couldn’t get a good view ahead with the current car in front of them. “Why are people braking?”
“Ve~. I can’t see around this van very well. And I don’t see something on the shoulder.” Feliciano craned his head to try to see around the car in front. Neither of them could see what was going on. Traffic was now moving at an average of 8 km/h for a crawl.
After being stuck going at such a pace for approximately 10 minutes, they could finally see what was causing the backup. There was a severe accident blocking all of the lanes. Emergency responders had shown up at this point and also blocked the road with their vehicles. The police were forcing all the traffic to get on the neighboring exit ramp as a detour. Said ramp led to a different section of the Autobahn. Ludwig saw the sign and tried to figure out where they would get on exactly regarding that specific road. A sense of dread hovered over the passenger as he came to a conclusion on what would happen next. Scheiße. That section does not have speed limits.
Feliciano just followed traffic as Ludwig was not giving any instructions. There wasn’t another option aside from following traffic anyway. When they got onto the new section of highway, traffic sped back up. The driver mimicked the cars around him while he looked for a speed limit sign. He did find a sign a few moments later, but it looked different from the ones seen previously: there was no number. “Uh. What does that sign mean?”
As much as his instinct was telling him to, Ludwig found that he could not lie to Feliciano. He felt compelled to tell the truth. “There is no speed limit.”
“No speed limit?” The Italian was surprised. Ludwig, AKA Germany, a person who is strict on following rules and order, has roads where there are no speed limits imposed on drivers. Since there are no limits on how fast I can go… Feliciano pressed harder on the gas, making the car accelerate. The engine gave its noises of approval.
Ludwig was already imagining the speedometer needle moving slowly clockwise. This was what he wanted to avoid, and now it is happening because of something out of his control. His hands went to hold onto something, which turned out to be the handle on the car door.
Meanwhile Feliciano was having the time of his life. His window was all the way down for maximum wind in his hair. He laughed as he navigated around the cars going at a slower speed. Good old times once again. A turn was taken rather sharply with how fast they were going. He did not hear Ludwig shout his name at a warning tone involving the maneuver.
I have to get him off this part of the Autobahn. Ludwig now understood what Kiku had meant in his warning. When given the ability to drive vehicles, Feliciano was dangerous to both the people riding with him and the other drivers. “Feliciano! Do you want to head back?! We still have to do something for dinner!” He had to shout to get Feliciano to hear him.
Food was still a sufficient distraction for Feliciano. “Sure! I still have my pasta that we can cook!” He swerved around two lanes to get past slower moving traffic, resulting in some drivers using their horns.
Ludwig felt second-hand embarrassment from the display of reckless driving. Based on his experience, you did not want to anger German drivers. Even though he wasn’t the one driving the vehicle, Ludwig knew that road rage could target himself as well. He provided directions to Feliciano so that they could get home. When they got back onto the Autobahn with a speed limit, Ludwig still felt uncomfortable. Now any freeway speed was too fast for Ludwig. The blond only felt at ease when the car was parked in his driveway once more and engine turned off. He let out the sigh of relief that he had been holding for a while now.
Feliciano searched for his pasta that had been in the car the entire time. With that in hand, he got out of the car and skipped towards Ludwig’s house. He waited patiently as the homeowner unlocked the front door and went inside. The Italian made a beeline for the kitchen. “Ve~. Come cook with me, Ludwig!”
Ludwig shook his head in fondness at Feliciano’s behavior. Cooking sounded like a much safer activity. His stomach growled at the idea of dinner. “Coming, Feliciano.”