Chapter Text
Feliciano texts him at midnight, “happy birthday!!!!!!” followed by an impressive amount of cake and dog emoji and a couple sparkles. Ludwig sets down his phone and turns to him.
“You could just say that out loud, you know.”
“I can’t pronounce ‘cake emoji’,” Feliciano answers, tapping at his phone for a couple more seconds. “But happy birthday!” He drops it on the nightstand and slides down the bed until only the upper half of his face is visible above the covers. One hand snakes out from under the blankets and tugs at Ludwig to lie down, which he does. Feliciano cuddles up to him and whispers “You’re getting ooold” in his ear, and Ludwig gives him a nudge.
The next day, he checks his messages at lunch break – “happy birthday” from Lieve, and “happy bday ur gna love ur present” from Gilbert, and a whale emoji from Alfred, which is probably the same thing, and one from Feliciano saying “hey meet me @ the park @ 6!!!”, again followed by cake and dog emoji.
After work, Ludwig heads for the park Feliciano means, a decent walking distance from their place. He passes a dog-walker and a couple families and spots Feliciano sitting on a low bench. Feliciano waves excitedly at him to come over, scooting sideways to make room for him to sit.
“Okay, I’m gonna give you your present now so close your eyes, all right?” Feliciano chirps. Ludwig does, a little apprehensively; if the ‘present’ involves Feliciano’s usual level of displays of affection he doesn’t see why it has to be in public. He hears Feliciano thank someone a little ways away, and then return, and something else with him, and a second before Feliciano says “Open them!” he’s got a feeling that he knows what this is and did Feli really –
Ludwig opens his eyes, and Feliciano did, and he’s probably going to cry in public, at Feliciano and the mostly-black dog, about up to Feliciano’s knees, whose leash he’s holding. He presses his hands carefully over his mouth and says “Oh,” a little weakly.
Feliciano leans down and nudges the dog forward, “Say hi to Ludwig, Margot!” Ludwig reaches out a hand for her to smell, and then moves it to ruffling behind her ears, and then can’t entirely contain himself and leans forward to bury his face in her shoulder, hearing the dog’s huff in his ear. He feels – his chest is tight, and his throat, and his face heating up really quite a lot, and he tries to say “hi” or “good dog” or something but it just doesn’t make it out of his throat so he just makes a sound like “Mn.”
“Are you okay?”
Ludwig answers “Yes,” but it comes out strangled, and he gives Feliciano a weak glare for the plain (and sappy) amusement on the other’s face. He takes a little while longer to stroke Margot’s head and back, and then looks up to Feliciano and begins to ask, “Does she –”
“She’s a bit over three and she’s got all her shots and things and doesn’t, you know, pee inside or anything, and Gilbert got her a bowl and bed and stuff,” Feliciano says, grinning widely. “And, uh, you know how I said I joined a book club a couple weeks ago and that was where I was going? That was me going to the shelter and I haven’t joined one.”
“I wondered why you didn’t seem to be reading anything new,” Ludwig replies, and continues petting Margot. “And why it met so often.” He takes a couple deep breaths and continues. “I – thank you. Thank you, she’s – this is –” He’s not going to cry in public. “…Thank you.”
Feliciano smiles and offers a hand to pull him back up to standing, though it’s still mostly Ludwig who does the work on that front, and hands him the leash. “Happy birthday. Cake emoji.”