Count On Me (UNDER REVISION, DO NOT READ)

Chapter Fourteen

Time seemed to fly by for Feli and Ludwig, and before they knew it, it was Christmas Eve. Roderich was pretty cheap, he only made turkey for dinner and then let them open one present before bed. Elizaveta tucked each of them in and read them a bedtime story, and after that Ludwig and Feli immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, the both woke up early and rushed down the stairs to open presents.
Ludwig got some history books on the Great War, and Feli got a new cap.

After breakfast Feli and Ludwig wanted to play in the snow, so they got bundled up and walked to the cottage.

***

When they arrived, there was a breathtaking scene of snow surrounding the cottage.
"You should take a picture." Feli suggested. Ludwig pulled up his camera and took a picture of the icy image of the cottage.
After that, they walked to the cottage together. Ludwig was having a bit of a struggle opening the door. He was having trouble with the lock- SMACK. Ludwig felt a sudden coldness on his right cheek, it hurt a little bit too. As Ludwig looked to see what happened, he saw Feli with a white ball of snow in his left hand. Feli looked determined, he was smiling but looked slightly sinister.
"Oh, so that's what we are doing today." Ludwig grinned, "let's handle this like professionals, shall we?" He suggested. Feli considered it, then nodded for Ludwig to proceed. "If we are going to have a snowball fight, we need to build a snow fort first. Feli thought about this and accepted. They shook hands like gentlemen, "may the best fort win."

They had four snowball fights, with Ludwig being the victor. Ludwig walked over to Feli's fort, which had been utterly destroyed by Ludwig's battalion of rapid-fire snowballs. Ludwig grinned with pride and held out his hand, helping Feli stand up. "Good game." Ludwig said. Feli smiled, despite losing, "you are very good at snowball fights." Feli said. "Thanks." Ludwig replied, "you are good at them too." Feli all of the sudden turned around to face Ludwig, "I know what we should do!" Feli beamed. "What?" Ludwig questioned. "We should make a snowman!" Feli replied. "Good idea!" Ludwig said, "I'll go find some rocks." Ludwig found a lot of stones and small pebbles to use for the snowman. Feli and Ludwig then rolled up snow in front of the cabin.
The snowman ended up being taller than them so Ludwig had to lift Feli up to put the last final details on. When they were finished, the both beamed with pride. But it could have been better.

After they finished the snowman, Ludwig and Feli went inside the cottage to keep warm. There was a stone fireplace, but neither of them had firewood and they didn't want to waste matches, so they just decided to leave it be.

"Oh yeah!" Feli remembered about the muffler he had bought, "I got something for you!" Ludwig raised and eyebrow, Feli couldn't possibly be able to find something better than the camera and journal he had bought Ludwig for his birthday. Feli pulled out the muffler he had stuffed in his coat and gave it to Ludwig. "I found this muffler while shopping and I thought it would suit you," Feli said "you would look nice in the color green." Ludwig took the muffler and wrapped around his neck, it was very warm.
"Thank you Feli," Ludwig said, "I got something for you too." Feli looked puzzled, but waited patiently for Ludwig to retrieve his present, "I think you are going to like it." Ludwig said. "Ludwig returned with a tattered canvas bag, it was rather big. Ludwig handed the bag over to Feli and he carefully opened the bag.

The first thing he pulled out was a stack of paper, Feli could tell it was made of wool. Next, he pulled out two different watercolor sets, one was a pallet and the other was tubes. Then, he pulled out a small mixing tray. Finally, he pulled out a large set of paintbrushes, made of cherry wood and rabbit hairs.

"Ludwig, how could you afford all of this?" Feli was in complete shock, although the watercolors were used, they were well taken care of. This could have been sold for a lot of money. "You shouldn't worry about it." Ludwig replied, "you can paint a sunset now."
Feli remembered that he did plan on painting a sunset. Feli ran his hand over the paper, "Arches, cold press." Feli said. "What?" Ludwig asked. "That's the company that made the paper." Feli pointed to a small imprint on the bottom left of the paper, "see?" Ludwig nodded, "what country does it come from?" Ludwig asked. "I think it's French," Feli replied, "they have been making art supplies for a long time."

Feli had no idea what to say to Ludwig, how did he even get this? Where did he find it? Feli thought to himself. He was so confused. He had never seen such beautiful art materials as these. Feli was about to cry, but he didn't want to ruin the paper. He placed the paper to his side and looked down at his hands. He smiled and cried at the same time, because he knew that these are special art supplies, only meant for professionals.

"You know," Feli finally said, "these are professional art supplies." Ludwig raised an eyebrow "yeah? So?" Feli looked up at Ludwig. "Do you know how expensive this stuff is?" Feli asked. "Well from the tone you are saying it in," Ludwig guessed "I'm going to say that they are extremely expensive." Feli nodded.

"Thank you Ludwig." Feli said "thank you so much." Feli smiled up at Ludwig. Ludwig didn't quite understand just how grateful Feli was, but he smiled back anyway.

***

They took a few pictures of the snowman, and of themselves before they left. They walked home in silence. "Hey Feli," Ludwig asked, "do you know any good jokes?"
Feli thought about this, and they started to battle with jokes.

"Hey Ludwig, what do you get when you mix a joke and a rhetorical question?"
Ludwig stood in silence and squinted at his friend.
"I don't know, but how does the sun god say sorry? He apollogises!"
Feli giggled, he had to admit that was a pretty good one.
They told jokes and bad puns and cheesy one-liners and comebacks until they arrived home. They stopped, because they knew Roderich would scold them. They both had a wonderful and eventful day, and they were both happy to have spent it with eachother.