[UNDER REVISION] Reconnection

Chapter 1 - Open Eyes

It was a hot, dry summer day in the country of Italy and Ludwig was hastily walking down the cobblestone streets, wanting to arrive at work as soon as possible.

Tightly holding on to his briefcase, he was trying to ignore the sweat running down his face as the suns blazing heat hit his back through his black overcoat.

Oh, how he hated having to wear such heavy and dark apparel for work. At least it was much cooler at home in Berlin... But he did love the wonderful scenery of Italy, so he could live with it for now.

After about five more minutes of being in the heat, he let out a sigh of relief as he walked into the cool, air-conditioned office building and quickly checked in to his shift. Just as he turned around to head to his office, one of his co-workers suddenly appeared in front of him from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Ah, buongiorno Ludwig! The boss needs some extra paperwork written today, and seeing as you are one of our best employees, he's specifically asked for you to do some extra today if that's all right?" he informed him, winking. Ludwig sighed and nodded. "Yes, of course, I'll be able to."

"All right! Perfect, thank you!" His co-worker smiled and waved to Ludwig as he walked off.

Ludwig internally groaned as he arrived at his office's door. He quickly unlocked the door and went inside. Sitting down, he started his 'daily routine', which consisted of e-mailing certain staff members about certain subjects, write and approve of paperwork, make and answer phone calls and all the everyday boring office stuff.

After typing some documents for about ten minutes, Ludwig reached over some papers to grab his coffee... only to realize it wasn't there... Which meant that he left it out on the counter at his house. It was quite an unfortunate day to forget it too. He had stayed up late last night due to his brother, Gilbert, calling Ludwig after he had gotten hopelessly drunk after a night of bar hopping.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, taking a mental note to go and get some coffee from the closest café at lunch break. There used to be a coffee machine in the employee cafeteria, but it, unfortunately, broke after someone got mad at it for not boiling their coffee fast enough. It was an old model anyways and they did need a new one... But it seemed like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

As the hours slowly ticked by, he was more than overjoyed when the clock struck 1:00 and his lunch break began. He leaned back on his computer chair, relaxing for a few moments as he looked at all the work he had completed within those 5, agonizing, coffeeless hours, only to be disappointed to find that it wasn't enough up to his standards.

Normally when he wasn't satisfied with the amount of work he had completed, he'd just skip over lunch break. But he decided that just this once he'd let it slide and go out for the break... and coffee.

Meanwhile, just across the street, at the same little quaint café, Café Tramonto, that Ludwig was about to go to for lunch, Feliciano and his work partner, Maria, who was like an older sister to him, were chatting about random things at the table nearest to the counter.

The two normally had many breaks throughout the morning since the café didn't have many customers until around lunchtime, and even then it would still be pretty empty.

They were discussing their home lives with each other when the lunch buzzer rang and they had to get back behind the counter.

Feliciano muttered a little "Ve~" as he grabbed the top of his chair and slowly stood up. People always assumed that his little 'Ve' was a vocal tick, however, it surprisingly was his unique form of echolocation.

Maria smiled and felt like she needed to ask "Hey Feliciano, I've always kind of wondered, why do you always keep your eyes closed? I mean, I know you're not blind or anything, so wouldn't it just be easier to keep them open?"