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Chapter Text

MADHOUSE

Chapter 1: Arrivederci, Roma

Mediterranean Sea spread like a big blue blanket hundreds of kilometers below me and I watched it from the window doing everything possible to ignore the annoying noises from the idiot that was sat next to me, who wasn’t other that my stupid little brother, Feliciano; it was his fault that I was stuck in that damn can of sardines, commonly called airplane, with another two hundred people with destination to Spain.

And why do I say it’s stupid Feliciano’s fault? Because it is, that simple. Everything that damn idiot does ends up affecting me in some way and this time wasn’t going to be different. And it’s that the idiot had no other better idea than moving to Spain with our grandfather after finishing high school and continuing there with his studies and, of course, he had dragged me with him…

Okay, it hadn’t been him really, at least not directly, but my darling and beloved mother…

The day Feliciano dropped the bomb I was comfortably lied down on the sofa while enjoying the tranquility of having nothing to do (benefits of being fired by your stupid boss for kindly making the clients of his restaurant hurry up so I could take their order) when I saw him approaching to me jumping and with a stupid face that was brimming over with happiness.

“Ve~ fratello, I have something to tell you …”

Feliciano always has something to tell me, from the biggest stupidity in the world such as he has seen a cat with a curl just like his in the street to the things he considers more important such as mom has scolded him for a decrease in his grades. And, because of that smile on his face, surely it was some stupidity such as that night we would have his favorite pasta dish.

“Speak, idiot” I told him in a bad way, I wanted to recover the damn tranquility he disturbed with his presence, “what happens to you now?”

“Come on, Feli, honey” my mother said coming into the room with my father. Great, an unexpected fucking family reunion, “you can tell us that important thing. You” she pointed at me with her finger and pushed me to the side of the sofa, “sit properly!”

I puffed my cheeks and moved away to a corner of the couch, leaving room for my parents to sit down. I would have gone to my bedroom, but I wanted to know what was that Feliciano had to tell us to get everybody together, just out of curiosity, seriously, not because I was really interested.

That idiot of Feliciano was standing there in front of us three shaking like a leaf, why the hell was he so nervous? It had to be something very big, maybe something for what he would be scolded and due to that he was trembling, but knowing my parents’ attitude toward my brother in the end they would give him all their support. Yes, all the support they denied me when I intended to do anything.

And then he announced the news. There was silent. I was looking at him dumbfounded; he has always been a damn coward, if he still gets into my bed at night when he’s scared! Where did he get the courage to embark on an adventure of such magnitude alone? Well, okay, he won’t be completely alone, he will be with our grandpa… which is practically the same as being alone.

My mother, who was initially in shock, started a round of shouts, she took her time; how could she let her adorable and innocent kid go to a distant country with an irresponsible old man and womanizer? Who knows how would be his lifestyle! Her little one would certainly become corrupted.

With a light smile on my lips I listened to my mother ranting on about her father-in-law and scolding my brother, who had already started crying although he didn’t seem willing to retract his decision despite he was very afraid of mom. For me, it was rather satisfactory that, for a change, my mother’s shouts weren’t for me. But, of course, if I think about it sooner, it will happen sooner.

“LOVINO!” she shouted at me as if her life depended on it, what the hell did I do? “This is your fault!”

“Fuck. And why is it my fault that this idiot wants to leave?” I said angrily, frowning, puffing my cheeks and standing up.

“Because I’m sure you do know this! Feliciano tells you everything, I’m sure you’ve kept quiet so we can’t do anything.”

I was getting more and more angry, I had no idea of my idiot brother’s plans, I had just found out like everyone else. But before I could answer back, Feliciano ran to me and hugged me, rubbing his wet cheek against mine (agh, how disgusting!).

“My fratello didn’t know anything!” he defended me, still crying. “The only one who knew it was grandpa, he phoned to congratulate me for finishing high school and was the one who suggested it to me.”

The answer of that idiot gave my mother a new reason to hate her father-in-law more. I’m sure that if he had proposed it to me my mother wouldn’t have hesitated to pack my things and send me on the very first flight to Spain, besides praising my grandfather and putting him on a pedestal.

And now I was thinking about it… why grandpa hadn’t suggested to me something similar when he phoned me for the same reason last year? I guess the answer is clear: because of Feliciano. Our appearance is very similar, but not our character. Feliciano is the kindest, the friendliest, friend of everybody, the one who has talent, cooks the best, cleans the best, doesn’t get in trouble… And I… I’m just useless compared to him, the lonely, bad-tempered, grumpy and foul-mouthed older brother good for nothing.

My mother’s anger took me out of my thoughts, she came to us in a rage and looked like she was about to fume. She was fucking close. Without thinking, I tightly hugged that idiot who had caused that disaster and who was sobbing between my arms, we were both scared shitless.

“If Feli is sure about it, there’s nothing else to discuss” my father said for the first time in the evening, I had almost forgotten about his presence.

 “HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SAY THAT?” my mother spat adressing all of her Italian fury towards him. “Feliciano it’s not even able of defending himself, how do you expect he can manage alone in a foreign country? I WON’T PERMIT IT!"

“He won’t be alone, my father will take care of him.”

“What a relief!” she said sarcastically. “He’s nothing more than an irresponsible old man and a womanizer, you know all those stories about him. AND I DO NOT TRUST HIM! So I refuse to let my little boy go alone with him."

There’s nobody who makes this woman sees sense, not even my patient father.

She turned towards us again. Feliciano clung tightly to my neck, that fool was choking me! And then I saw it, a sparkle shone in my mother’s amber eyes and the creepy expression on her face changed to a more relaxed one.

“Maybe I would worry less if Lovino went with him.”

Feliciano relaxed his grip and, wide-eyed, looked alternatively to my mother and me. A stupid smile spread on his damn face and he started jumping around me with that foolish face he puts when he’s happier.

 “Fratello~ ~”

I was in shock. WHAT? I felt great in Italy, why would I have to move to another stupid country, and what’s more, with my idiot brother?

“NO, I REFUSE!” I shouted getting out of my trance. “I WON’T LEAVE!”

“Yes, you will. You’ll go with your brother and take care of him.”

“NO WAY!”

“Think about it as a chance” my father said, “so that you can make up your mind about what you want to do with your life. What’s the problem? You don’t have a job, neither friends nor a girlfriend to leave behind.”

Oh no, that’s all I needed, that my idiot father supported my mother’s idea and was against me, and what’s more, he touched a raw nerve reminding me how pathetic my life is.

“I’M NOT GONNA LEAVE, FUCK!”

“Look, Lovino” my mother’s look darkened and half smiled making my blood ran cold, “I give you two options: or you move to Spain and take care of your brother…”

“NO!” I answered with tears in my eyes that, because of my pride, I wouldn’t let fall and least in front of my mother.

“…or you  leave home.”

I froze. Feliciano stopped his stupid dance all of a sudden and looked at me with fear. That woman wasn’t talking for talking’s sake, she would really throw me out of our house.

At last after 19 years she had found the perfect excuse to get rid of me. Why? Because she hates me. Yes, she hates me, it’s nothing new, she has hated me since the moment I appeared in her damn life with the only purpose of screwing it up and making her lose all her youth, according to her. Sure, and I was too the one who makes her spread her legs in front of my father at the first opportunity. Obviously, I wasn’t going to spit her that despite I wish to, because of the punch my father would give me I’d end up as stupid as Feliciano or more, and because of the one my mother would give me she would kill me and I still appreciate my life a bit, even if it’s pathetic.

“So? What do you decide?”

“I move to Spain with Feliciano and grandfather” I said resigned.

My mother smirked, she had managed to get rid of me at last, and left the room with my father.

I stayed with Feliciano, who was jumping again with a dumb face, and went towards the phone to call grandpa. I, letting my rage out, ran towards him and tried to kill him with the phone cable for having gotten me into that mess.

I don’t know how our grandfather reacted when idiot Feliciano told him I was included in the pack too, but I don’t give a fuck.

The only good thing about all of this is that I have gotten rid of my parents, who I didn’t intend to say goodbye, they have thrown me out of my house and exiled me too, they shouldn’t expect I show any affection for them.  But my mother, despite she hates me, didn’t let me go without giving me some kisses on the cheeks and some advices.

“Don’t get in trouble…”

It’s not like I look for problems, they find me some way.

“Take care of your brother…”

I’ll watch him close as much, but I don’t intend to stick to him like a limpet.

“Be careful not to get a girl pregnant…”

I don’t plan to be the third generation which makes the same mistake.

“And pay attention to what your grandfather tells you, try not to give him many headaches.”

Now she’s gonna worry about my grandpa after rating on about him, she couldn’t be more hypocritical in this world.

I left my parents hugging Feliciano for the last time in a long while and I went to pass the police control. I don’t know if those useless policemen thought I was part of the mafia or something, but the imbecile searched me from top to bottom as if I were a fucking criminal, I don’t know how I didn’t end up with a probe up my… what a great way to begin this damn journey.

From the window of the plane, I could see how Italy, my beloved home, was left behind. I felt sad (although I will never admit it in front of anybody).

“Ve~~ Fratello, what’s wrong? Are you dizzy? Does your stomach hurt? Are you hungry?”

I’m lucky that Feliciano is stupid and doesn’t realize anything.

“Yes, I’m hungry” I lied, “besides airplane’s food is so disgusting that seems to be made by an Englishman, it’s not even served on time.”

“Veee~”

I don’t know what awaits me in Spain, I only wish that whatever has to come is better than what I leave behind.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: A guitar at night

Grandpa was waiting for us at the airport. It wasn't difficult to find him among so many people, after all he is a guy who stands out not only because of his height, but also because of his stylish dressing, like every good Italian.

"Nonno!"

"Feliciano!"

Feliciano dropped his luggage and ran towards grandpa in a very little manly way, he was received with a strong hug. I approached them slowly, very embarrassed, those two were making a scene and the people around stared at them.

"Lovino~!"

The damn old man rushed at me and squashed me between his strong and big arms. I tried to escape of his grip, complaining, but he had a stronger subjection power than Feliciano's. It runs in the family!

I didn't know if grandpa's house would be far away from the airport, but it was or not, I'd take a nap in the way. Or so I had wanted.

"So tell me, boys, how are your parents?"

I had forgotten… grandpa doesn't stop talking once he starts.

"As always." I answered to see if he stopped talking soon. "Dad is busy with his job and mom still hates you. Now even more if that can be possible.

"Fratello!" Feliciano scolded me from behind.

"Hahaha, she wouldn't be my beloved daughter-in-law if she showed any kind of sympathy towards me, hahaha…" the old man laughed, it seems that he didn't mind to be in my mother's black list. "And what about you? Is there any bella ragazza who has stolen your heart?"

"No…"

"Do you think that if I had had a girlfriend in Italy I would have agreed to move here so easily?" How the hell could he ask so obvious things?

"Ve~, but, fratello, if you practically have been forc…"

"SHUT UP!" I shouted.

That idiot cringed with fear. He was about to screw it up. Although it was true that I was in this damn country because I couldn't help it ―that or the street―, I didn't want my grandfather to know it.

"Calm down, boys. So, Lovino, do you know what you are going to do with your life from now on?"

What's that question in aid of? Wasn't it supposed that moving to grandpa's house would help me to decide about that? Why does he ask me if I ALREADY know what I'm going to do? Obviously no, I'm as lost in this country I HAVE JUST ARRIVED as I was in Italy.

"No."

"But you'll have something in your mind, won't you?"

I looked at him frowning, I was getting angry.

"No."

"And how are you doing with the violin?" he changed the topic.

One moment, violin? What violin? Ah yes, I played violin, it was the only thing I did better than Feliciano… but I gave it up four years ago, specifically because my parents didn't come to my school recital. I got so pissed off that I sold the instrument, luckily I got a good amount, enough to buy a vespa… My vespa… that wonderful means of transport which let me go from one place to another in the city making me avoid those horrible buses and full of people undergrounds. Who knows which its destiny would be in my mother's hands… Ugh!

"Lovino… Lovino…" grandpa pulled me out of my sad thoughts about my motorbike. I looked at him "how are you doing with the violin."

"I'm not doing. I gave it up years ago."

"WHAT?!" he made a sharp turn and entered in the contrary lane for seconds in which I thought we'd kiss the car that came towards us. "And can I know why you gave it up?"

"Because I was really piss… because I was sick of it"

I wasn't going to admit in front of my grandfather that I stopped doing the only thing I was really good at because I felt hurt with my parents.

"I can't understand how your mother could permit it. Letting a talent like yours get lost that way can't be forgiven…" I blushed lightly due to his comments, I wasn't used to receive compliments.

In half and hour more or less, we reached our destination, a three floor building that looked ancient in the center of the city. The entire building was property of my grandfather.

"Well, boys, welcome home!"

He opened the gigantic main door and we went into a small hall with another door made of wrought iron and glass, which led to… a patio! But what the hell?!

Loaded down with our heavy luggage, we crossed that patio following grandpa to reach a stairs which a beautiful green-eyed girl with long brown hair was walking down with… a frying-pan in her hand?

"Hi, Romu" she greeted cheerfully. Why the fuck was she so familiar? And more important, if it was supposed my grandfather was the owner of the entire building, what was that beauty doing there?

"Ciao, bella, who were you settling scores with?"

"Who do you think? With the same two as always, they were starting to plan misdeeds for this evening. Are these your grandsons?" she looked at us smiling. "So cute!"

"Feliciano and Lovino" he introduced us. "She's the tenant of the low floor, she's from Hungary."

She gave us a pair of kisses to each one as a greeting, to grandpa too so he didn't get jealous, and she continued her way downstairs swinging the frying pan in her hand while singing.

"She's a beautiful girl and very kind" grandpa commented, "but try to be discreet and not to be seen doing something indecent if you don't want to receive a hit with the pan" he touched the back of his neck making a gesture of pain.

We continued going up. Fuck! How heavy was our luggage!

Grandfather stopped on the first floor landing. I dropped all my load on the floor. We had already arrived, hadn't we? I was wrong. In front of us, lying on the floor, a blond with shoulder-length hair and another guy who looked like an albino rubbed a bump in each one heads.

"That hasn't been awesome on the part of lady tomboy."

"Don't talk about her so loud because she's able to hear you and come back with a second round" the blond has a French accent.

The two idiots realized of our presence in front of them and got up in a theatrical way.

"What have you done this time to receive Eli's caresses?"

"Romu, mon ami." Another one too familiar with my grandfather. "But if it hasn't been anything, that girl sees things where there is nothing, we only commented our possible destinations to go out and drink this evening."

"In fact, my awesome self took the trouble to invite her to come with us. And that tomboy hit me with her frying-pan instead of giving me an answer!"

"Who knows what you have proposed to her!" grandpa laughed.

The Frenchman come to me and Feliciano and put an arm over our shoulders. The albino approached too but stayed beside my brother.

"But tell me, mon ami Romu, are these two beautiful cherubs your beloved grandsons?"

The Frenchman looked at me with lust and caressed my face with the back of his finger. A shiver ran through my entire body.

"CHIGIIIII!"

I ran to hide behind my grandfather. That idiot of Feliciano stayed smiling stupidly beside that pervert and his white-haired friend.

"Are you kicking up a row again?" complained a tall, blond and very muscular guy who came to the landing, angry.

"WHAT IS A DAMN GERMAN DOING HERE?" I shouted pointing at him. No, I don't like Germans, they're tall, blond and squared, not only in body but also in mind, and they're frightening… I mean... there are imposing! I'm not afraid of anything.

"Hey, boy, keep it polite" the albino spat me, was he German too?

"Oh, Mister Vargas, it's you. I thought my brother was kicking up a row again." Brother? The blond was the albino's brother? If they don't look alike.

"No, Ludwig! I was introducing my grandsons to Gilbert and Francis. This one of here" he took me out from his back "is the eldest, Lovino, and the one who is with your brother and Francis is Feliciano."

"Nice to meet you." The German said.

"Hey, Feli" the albino took too many liberties very quickly, "do you want me to show you the most awesome thing I have?"

"Veeee~"

"Damn perverted bastard! Don't talk filth to my brother!"

"I'm talking about my fantastic little chick, Gilbird!"

"Vee~, is it true you have a chick?"

"Maybe in other moment" grandpa pipped in, "those boys should arrive home first and leave their things."

Thank God grandpa recovered the little sense he has, I couldn't stand anymore being in the presence of those two damn Germans and that perverted Frenchman.

Another flight, where the hell was grandpa's house supposed to be?

"Don't leave me in the lurch, Gov, I need you to take me to work."

"Use public transport like everybody else. You are given to bad habits due to that damn Spaniard."

A couple of blonds arguing that went quiet when we appeared. She, very beautiful, with short and curly hair and emerald eyes, and he… another muscular giant, with a scar in his forehead like Harry Potter and with a strange hairstyle in shape of… a tulip?

"Ciao, how are you, guys?"

"What's up?" the blond guy said curtly.

"Hi, Romu" the girl greeted with a beautiful cat smile. "Here I am trying my brother takes me to work."

"Aren't you going with Antonio today?"

"He changed his shift, he has to work in a wedding today."

The blond guy snorted, it seemed that he didn't like the topic of the conversation.

"Don't tell me these two handsome boys are Feliciano and Lovino!"

"We look alike, don't we?" grandpa joined his face with ours smiling. I frowned and rolled my eyes.

"If they look more like your sons than your grandsons!" it's not surprising that someone says that, my grandfather had children, well only one that I know, when he was very young (later my father followed his example), he is not even sixty! In fact, more than once grandpa has passed himself off as our father, which he loves, especially if there are females involved.

"I think so too. Hera~, hera~" stupid laugh and ego increase of the old man mode on.

The blond rolled his eyes and went downstairs, running away from the girl.

"Govert!... Excuse me, I have to go, nice to meet you!... Govert! You're not gonna run away, I need you to take me!"

The blonde disappeared downstairs following her brother.

"They are Govert and Emma." grandpa explained. "He is a bit weird" it wasn't necessary to mention it, "but is a good guy. And she is a ray of sun and makes a chocolate… delicious!"

We went up a new flight of stairs and apparently the last, at last!

"Welcome to your new home!"

Grandpa made us go to his house, which took up the entire third floor, and led us to our rooms. I fell onto my new bed and I would gladly have taken the well-deserved nap my body asked for, but I had more than one question in my mind that needed an answer.

"Grandpa…" I told him sitting up.

"Tell me, Lovino."

"If it's supposed the entire building is yours, why the hell had you the brilliant idea of coming to live in a third floor WITHOUT A LIFT?"

"Because it has more light, better views and because going up stairs is a good exercise to strengthen the heart and legs!"

What shitty reasons are those? I would have thrown the whole building and built a manor house in the middle of the city.

"And can I know why the hell you have two fucking Germans living here? And why the whole building seems like a damn UN headquarters? Fuck, I didn't see so many people from different nationalities since the day mom forced us to visit Vatican City. Where the hell have you taken them from?"

"Most of them came here as Erasmus and then they decided to stay here. I only rented the apartments, Antonio convinced me to do it, with those puppy eyes he puts is impossible to say no. Although no doubt it's one of the best ideas I have been given. Anything else you want to know?"

I shook my head. Grandpa smiled at me and ruffled my hair despite my complaints before leaving and closing the door.

I didn't even bother to unpack my luggage, I'd have time later. I fell onto the pillow again and succumbed to fatigue.

I woke up in the middle of the night. My nap got longer than expected, it was two in the morning. I heard noises in the patio. I looked out of the window, the moonlight lit everything and I could see how a tall figure crossed the patio with stealth. I couldn't see his face.

I decided to stay there a little longer. The soft summer breeze caressed my face, it was quite pleasant. Maybe moving to Spain hadn't been such a bad idea.

I began to feel sleepy. I could have spent six hours sleeping, but what could I do? I had a lack of sleep! The damn trip had me on my nerves the last few days, I couldn't help it.

I lay down between the sheets ready to sleep again when the sound of a guitar reached my ears and woke me up a bit. Who the hell is the moron bastard that plays a guitar at two o'clock in the night? I went back to the window and scanned the entire patio, the lights in all the apartments were off, was a guitar being played in the dark?

I went back to bed, the music started to relax me. I would complaint about it with my grandfather in the morning.

I got up at one o'clock in the noon. Feliciano, incredible as it may seem, was up. Sleeping a lot is one of the few things we have in common!

"Vee~ Good morning, fratello, have you slept well?"

"More or less." I answered while registering the fridge.

"Don't eat anything now, Lovino, lunch will be soon" grandpa scolded me.

I closed the fridge angrily and went to the living-room. The bell rang.

"Bonjour, mon petit cher." the perverted Frenchman greeted and came in. I stayed paralyzed for some seconds and when I was going to yell at him to get out of there, the open door hit me from behind and I fell to the ground.

"Dammit!" I complained. I looked towards the door, the blond with tulip head looked at me with boredom and went inside without even saying hello, what a nerve had the bastard!

"Hello~!" Emma greeted cheerfully. "What are you doing on the ground?"

"Eh… so… I…" I'm the eloquence in person. She held out her hand to me. "And you…? Well… you all, what are you doing here?"

"Don't you know?"

The door hit me again, but this time I didn't fall to the ground.

"The awesome presence this house needed has just arrived !" the idiot albino had opened the door wide open and had stayed under the doorframe in a victory's pose holding a pair of beer's packs on each hand which were held over his head, why gravity didn't act and they fell on him?

"Come on, awesome presence, go inside right now." Elizaveta, from behind him, gave him a kick in the ass pushing him inside. This time, instead of a frying pan, she carried two big platters in her arms.

"Romu!" the albino shouted, going inside followed by the brunette. "Look what the most awesome of your tenants has brought to you!"

Starting to get angry, I was about to close the door. One foot stoppedme. Specifically the foot of the bastard brother of the egotist, why do Germans have to come to MY HOUSE? He also brought two pair of platters in his gigantic and muscular arms.

"What the hell do you come to my house for, macho potato?" it was the first insult that came out, in Germany beside sausages many potatoes are eaten, ok?

"Hello." he said a little flushed and followed his brother.

After checking no more intruders were coming, I slam the door shut. Emma and I entered the dining room, the table was already set. I didn't understand anything, what were all those people there?

"Grandpa, why are all your tenants here?" I asked in a low voice.

"We get together every Sunday to have lunch and have a good time. Sometimes we take the opportunity to discuss the issues of the building, such as a neighbors board. Every week the tenant of a different flat has to prepare lunch, that way we taste typical food of each country." That makes me suspicious. "Our turn is next week! Come on, let's sit."

I forgot, my grandfather likes to celebrate parties and gather friends, he could be the next protagonist in any Christmas spot.

He led me to the table, making me sit between him and Emma, sit next to the tulip-head giant. In front of me was sit Feliciano, next to the macho potato!, the Frenchy, Eli and, in front of my grandfather, the macho albino. Now we were all gathered together I remembered the guitar of the previous night.

"Who was the idiot that played guitar last night in the small hours?"

"Guitar?" my brother said. I'm not surprised he didn't hear it, when he is asleep not even a bomb could wake him up.

"It probably was mon ami Antonio."

"He would be happy" the albino said.

"Or sad" the Frenchman added.

"Or drunk" the tulip-head said with contempt.

"Do you think he went to drink without us, his awesome friends? How he dares?!

They opened the lunch boxes on the table. Oh no, German food! Sausages and potatoes. All the hunger I had, which was a lot because I didn't eat since the day before in the airplane, vanished suddenly… or that I'd have wished because for nothing in the world I would try that infernal food.

"By the way" my grandfather said while he was helping himself, "talking about Antonio, wasn't it supposed that today was his turn to prepare food? I wanted to eat a dish of his fantastic paella, present company excepted, for the record."

"Yes, it was his turn," the white-haired answered, "but last Friday he asked us to change the turn because he had been called to work today. Obviously my awesome self couldn't refuse that kind of request."

"That poor boy is going to end up ill from working so much."

"But you already know his philosophy," Emma said, "water has to be collected when it rains."

"What a shitty philosophy" the tulip-head commented, "what that idiot should do is to stop wasting money the way he does and save."

"Not everybody is as stingy as you are." the Frenchman spat. "Antonio simply has some ambitions you don't…"

I stopped listening to the conversation. Emma had put in front of me a plate full of disgusting white sausages. I covered my mouth.

"Do you want me to serve you?" she asked me with sweetness and ignorance. I shook my head. "Aren't you hungry?" I denied again.

"Vee~ fratello, it's strange you aren't hungry. Are you sick?" why the hell this idiot always has to speak when he shouldn't?

"You haven't eaten since yesterday, it's impossible you aren't hungry." grandpa said serving me some sausages and a succulent helping of potatoes on my plate, how disgusting! It turned my stomach violently.

"I…don't like… German food." I whispered with my head down.

"What did you say, Lovino? I didn't hear you."

"I do not eat German food" I raised my head. Grandpa looked at me serious.

"I think you are old enough to still have those fads with the food. At least try it first." he gave me a fork with a piece of sausage and a potato, I looked at the mouthful with disgust. I swallowed hard and brought it to my lips.

"NO WAY!" I threw the fork to the plate making a lot of noise and stood up. Everyone was staring at me, even the Frenchman and the tulip had stopped their argument to watch me. "I'M NOT GOING TO EAT THAT GERMAN JUNK AND YOU CAN'T FORCE ME!"

I got up from the table and left home slamming the door, showing my anger.

Great! I haven't been here for a whole day yet and I'm already fighting with my grandfather, he'll send me back to Italy on the first flight he finds, sure, and then my mother will kick me out. Dammit!

And the one to blame for what's happening to me is that Antonio I haven't met yet, damn bastard. Yes, it's his fault because if that moron hadn't played guitar in the middle of the night I would have slept when I felt sleepy and I wouldn't have woken up, so I'd have gotten up earlier and I'd have taken a good breakfast, making no difference if the lunch was German or English shit, I wouldn't be hungry or, at least, I'd be less hungry. And in addition, it was the idiot's turn to prepare lunch today and he changed his turn with the Germans, with the Germans of all people!

With these thoughts in mind, I began to wander aimlessly through the unknown streets of the city. I was lost and I didn't have money or my cell phone on me, fuck! It seems that sometimes Feliciano's stupidity is catching me.

I walked to a walk by the sea. In the distance the beach could be seen, I decided to continue my walk towards there, I was dying of heat and thirst (and of hunger too) and I was sure that on the beach would be a drinking fountain (or showers, in that moment I didn't mind) because in all the way I had walked I hadn't seen a single one.

After walking for a while, I don't know exactly how long because I didn't wear a watch, I finally saw what I was looking for. I took off my shoes and ran through the sand, the damn burned like the fire of hell but I didn't give a fuck.

While quenching my thirst (and tricking my stomach) with that disgusting warm water I felt something hit my back and burst against it leaving me completely soaked.

"BUT WHAT THE FUCK…?" I straightened and turned fast, terrible decision, I could only distinguish a figure that came running before I felt dizzy and fainted with the last vision of some green eyes on me.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: Guardian angel

My head hurt and my body felt very heavy. I opened my eyes slowly, everything I was seeing was white, where the hell I was? Maybe had I died? No, that's stupid, if I had died my head didn't hurt and my body didn't feel heavy.

"Oh, he is waking up!" someone shouted close to me.

"Try not to overwhelm him." another voice said. "And don't let him sit up yet! But make him take this slowly when he does."

I didn't know the voices of those who spoke. I turned to see who was beside me. A tanned boy with messy dark hair and shining green eyes (those that I have seen a moment ago or I had imagined it?) looked at me with a mix of worry and relief, slowly drawing on his face a beautiful and bright smile with perfect teeth (have I said beautiful and bright? Hunger makes me say strange things).

"What the hell happened?" I tried to sit up unsuccessfully, I was stopped by a tanned arm. "Can I know what the fuck are you doing, bastard?"

"You can't sit up yet" my insult didn't affect him apparently. "You suffered a fainting fit, if you get up fast you'll get dizzy, wait for a while".

I sighted with resignation, it didn't seem that the bastard was going to let me move.

"You can't imagine the scare I got. I was walking to you to apologize for the water balloon which was thrown by one of my boys and hit your back when you fainted all of a sudden. Luckily I could catch you before you reached the ground." So I really saw a pair of green eyes, it wasn't my imagination, what a relief!

"And why the hell a water balloon was thrown to me? Weren't there anybody else on the damn beach to bother?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We play to throw the balloons next to the fountain so that we fill them, but the one that hit you was actually directed to me, but it was too high and I couldn't take it."

"What a shitty excuse." I spat.

"I'm sorry" he apologized again. "To forgive me, I'll let you sit up a bit and give you this delicious apple juice." With a smile he wagged the juice's brick in front of my eyes, which opened wide as saucers, I wanted it!

"Ok, ok, ok, I forgive you!" I said eager. He smiled more if that could be possible and help me sit up a bit. "Give me that!" I tried to wrench the brick from his hands, but he took it back before I could catch it. "Idiot!"

"You have to drink slowly." He inserted the straw and slowly brought it to my mouth as if I were a little child. I felt my cheeks flushing, how embarrassing! "Hahaha, you look like a tomato, so cute~!" I was about to choke on the juice because of that comment, that asshole was laughing at me! I coughed and the bastard took back that delicious drink. "I told you to drink slowly."

"It has been your fault, idiot!"

"I'm not who is drinking…" the bastard answered back, but he brought the juice's brick to me again. "By the way, I still don't know your name. I'm Antonio." this guy's smile seems permanent.

"Buff, you've the same name as the bastard for whose fault this has happened to me."

"Really? What did that moron do to you so you ended up fainting on the beach?"

"To me directly nothing, but his actions have ended up affecting to me."

"I don't understand." He said scratching his nape as if thinking was something hard.

"I'm not surprised."

"Can you explain it to me?" he looked at me, imploring. I couldn't refuse, although I wasn't going to tell him all the details.

"Let's say that because of that idiot I ended up having an argument at home and I left without my cell, without money and without having lunch."

"That's why you fainted!" he shouted excited as if he had just discovered America. "Don't worry, I'll treat you to lunch when we are said that you can go."

"Really?" I got excited, free lunch! "Will you treat me? To whatever I want?"

"Sure! But with one condition" that sounded bad, what the hell was that bastard going to ask me? "You have to tell me your name!" Just that? I was relieved, it's not that I think the worst, but my mother taught Feliciano and me that we should not trust strangers… even if they save you from falling to the ground due to a faint.

"My name's Lovino."

"Nice to meet you." he stretched his hand to me and I shook it with mine. "And tell me, what do you want to eat, Lovi~?"

"Why are you so familiar, bastard? I'm Lovino."

"And I am Antonio, but you haven't answered me."

"Pizza! I want a pizza. But I don't want that shit it is served in Onlypizza or similar, I want a real Italian pizza."

"What a demanding boy!" shit, sure he'll retract. "Very well, I know an Italian restaurant that is near."

"Seriously? And will they let you in looking like that?" I hadn't noticed until that moment, but Antonio's contoured and perfect torso was naked… contoured and perfect torso? Where the hell have those words come? And why have I had to notice how is his torso? Fuck, fainting has really affected me because I don't know what I'm thinking now. I blushed again, the bastard laughed.

"Sure! I've got my T-shirt and my flip-flops in a locker right here and they have never raised objections for wearing beach clothes." What kind of den is he going to take me to? No good restaurant allows badly-dressed people enter."

As soon as I drank the juice, I was told I could go by the nurse or doctor or whatever the girl who assisted me was, but also she told me not to make any effort or stay in the sun for long.

Antonio helped me to get up, I still felt a little weak and dizzy. As bold as brass, when we left the infirmary, the bastard took the liberty of holding my hand. I let go of him with violence and anger.

"Why the hell do you hold me?"

"It seems that you still aren't very well, I wouldn't like you to fall again in the way, so I don't want you to leave my side." He held out his hand. I frowned at him. "Either that or I carry you in my arms like I did before." He made a movement with his arms to carry me.

"Idiot!" I blushed, to think he had carried me, unconscious, in his arms and he wanted to repeat the experience but with me being awake, no way! I gave him a head butt on his stomach, he deserved it, but I only got to feel dizzy again. Antonio held me by my shoulders until I felt better.

"You ok?" he told me with tears in his eyes because of the hit I gave him.

"Yes… now I am…" he stared at me and it seemed that he was going to insist with the idea of carrying me in his arms to the restaurant, so I agreed to hold his hand. He looked at me surprised for some second and then smiled widely.

"That's the way I like it." He ruffled my hair with his free hand. I blushed again.

The restaurant was quite close. The terrace was crowded with people, which made me think that we would have to wait for long till our lunch was served. Antonio proposed to go inside, I think it was the only intelligent idea he had, there wasn't any client inside and it was cool. The place was better than I expected, a genuine Italian restaurant.

We were served immediately. I would have liked to order a good Italian wine, but the bastard didn't let me, according to him because it wasn't a good idea after my fainting, I think he didn't have enough money. Anyway, at least the drink was brought fast, with a basket of bread which I delighted while we were waiting for our pizzas.

"And tell me, Lovi…"

"Lovino." I corrected him. He ignored me.

"…from which part of Italy are you?"

"I haven't told you I'm from Italy, how do you know?" it seems that he is cleverer than he looks.

"For your accent. Either you are from Italy or this year's carnival has affected you seriously." I didn't understand his comment, but I neither wanted him to explain it.

In that moment our pizzas were served, how fast!

"Grazie!" I told the waiter and put the first piece in my mouth despite it was burning, I was pretty hungry and the pizza was delicious! "I was born in Naples, but I have lived most of my life in Rome."

"Well, you speak Spanish very well."

"I couldn't help it! My grandmother was from here and my father forced Feliciano and me to take classes since we were children. And talking about children, bastard," I have just remembered certain detail I had overlooked until that moment, "where have you left those kids who soaked me?"

"With their parents, I wasn't going to take them to the infirmary, was I? Also, my work shift finished at two, the kids and I only were whiling away the time while their parents were coming for them."

"Are you paid for entertaining the kids who go to the beach?" I had never heard that kind of job existed.

"Yes, basically, and for taking care of them. The truth is that it's an exhausting job, but very comforting. And the best of all, it has let me meet you!" he added that last with the biggest smile of happiness I had ever seen. I blushed, again, and surely much more than the previous time, I could feel the large amount of blood that was accumulating on my face.

"Shut up, idiot!" I spat embarrassed and tried to dissimulate it eating another piece of pizza.

"The bad thing is that I can hardly stay another hour with you," there was a certain sadness in his voice, "I go back to work at five. Do you think you can come back home without problems? How far do you live?"

I paralyzed, I had forgotten the reasons why I had ended up having lunch in an Italian restaurant with a boy I had just met. Dammit! What was I going to do when Antonio went back to work? Wandering aimlessly again through the streets of the city? If I didn't even know where I was in that moment, how could I reach my grandfather's house? It would be a miracle if I could find it. And to top it all, because of I hadn't my mobile on I couldn't phone him, his number was in the cell, I didn't know it. I covered my face with my hands.

"What happens?" Antonio worried. "Are you feeling bad again?" I shook my head without moving my hands from my face. "Then? Ah, I know! You feel sad because I have to go with the children and I can't stay with you."

"Don't say bullshit!" although I was never going to admit it, he was partly right. "It's for other reason…"

"Which? Can't you tell me?" through my finger I saw he pouted.

"Well… it's… I don't know… I don't know… where I live."

"Poor Lovi…"

" IT'S LOVINO!"

"…if you are lost you could have said it from the beginning."

"I'm not lost!" I said angrily. "It's just that I don't know the address of the house where I live!"

"And is not that being lost?" he was really getting on my nerves.

"Fuck! I barely arrived yesterday in this damn country, I haven't had time to look at the fucking name of the street where it's supposed to be the fucking house where I have just moved in, I only know that it's in the old quarter, so don't keep on touching my balls saying that I'm lost, I simply don't know my damn address, but I have a slight idea about the area where it is, capito?"

"Ok, ok, take it easy." The bastard smiled nervously. "I live in the centre too, maybe I know your family, the old quarter is not too big and there are not many Italians there, at least that I know." His doubt didn't give me much hope, but it was better than nothing.

"My grandfather is Romulo Vargas…"

"Seriously? Yes, now that you mention it you look alike…"

"Do you know him?"

"Sure, if I…" he made a weird expression that I didn't know what it could mean and then he recovered his smile. "Everybody in the city knows who he is, he has done many interesting things here." I didn't know what he meant by 'interesting', but I couldn't help reminding my mother's words talking about how irresponsible and womanizing my grandfather was, maybe in this city he was known for his facet of Casanova. "Was he the one you argued with?"

"Yeah…"

"And what was the reason of the argument?" what a gossip guy. "If I can know, of course…"

"German food…" I said in almost a whisper.

"What?" besides stupid and gossip, deaf.

"He wanted me to eat disgusting German junk which is called food, but for nothing in the world I intend to put in my mouth! Gross!"

"It's not as bad as all that…"

"It is!" I shouted angrily. "And don't you dare to say otherwise! Over my dead body I put that crap in my mouth. Just thinking about it makes my stomach turn." Antonio didn't seem to share my opinion about German food, but he didn't say anything. I sighted. "Well, the fact is that he wanted me to eat 'that', I got angry and made a scene." I hit my head with my fist when I weighted up the consequences of my outbursts. "Now he'll send me back to Italy… and my mother will get mad for having left Feliciano alone… and she will kick me out… and I'll have to live under a bridge… and… and…"

I kept quiet. Antonio bastard was laughing, was it funny what I was telling him? Is my misfortune a mockery perhaps?

"What the hell are you laughing at, bastard?!"

"How can you be so exaggerated and negative? Don't you think everything would be settled with a simple apology?"

"I'm not going to apologize!" I brought my pride up. "And even less for that."

"Although it implies that you end up under a bridge as you say?"

"Even so, so don't insist more with the same, bore."

"And just out of curiosity, what's that Antonio you mentioned before got to do with all of this? Because I don't see how it's connected."

"I woke up late because of him, how can anybody be such an idiot to play a fucking guitar in middle of the night? Doesn't he know it's annoying? And on top of that it was supposed that today's lunch should be prepared by him, but that idiot gave the turn to the potato-loving Germans. There you are."

"I see…"

When we left the restaurant it was almost time for Antonio to return to work. He made a sign to a taxi that was approaching and it stopped next to us. In that moment, he took the opportunity to hold me in his arms. I would have resisted, but the bastard took me by surprise.

"It's been nice to meet you, Lovi." He let go of me and pushed me into the car.

"What? What are you doing, bastard?"

"Sending you back home." He answered me calmly.

"B-But… if I still don't know the address."

"Don't worry, he does know." He pointed the driver. "I hope we'll meet again." He smiled at me. He went to the driver's window, told him something and gave him ten euros, the other one nodded. Antonio moved away and waved me goodbye.

"W-Wait…"

While I was watching how Antonio's figure grew smaller as the taxi was going away, a strange uneasiness invaded me. Fuck. What was that discomfort?

I guess the bastard seemed nice to me, just a bit! After all, he had helped me when I fainted… and he had treated me to lunch… and had paid the taxi to go home…

Goddammit! And I didn't even know if we would meet again… And I hadn't thanked him either! Merda! Merda! Merda! For a person that likes me (or that impression I got) I leave it to chance or whatever it is that plays with the destinies of people the possibility of meeting again.

Fuck!

I spent five minutes in front of the entry phone of my grandfather's house without deciding to press the button, I approached my finger and moved it away before pressing it. The old man saved me the bother, he appeared through the giant door. I held his gaze, but neither he nor I spoke, maybe because he was waiting for an apology that I refused to give him due to my pride.

"Fratello!" Feliciano came running from behind and threw himself to my back with teared-eyes, does that idiot have to cry for everything? "Where were you? I have been looking for you with Ludwig all afternoon…"

Macho potato came to us slowly.

"Get away, stupid!" I pushed him aside. "Who asked you to go looking for me? And even less with that guy."

"Ve~, but fratello, I was very worried about you… as you left without eating…" shit, why did he have to bring that topic out so soon? My grandfather remained impassive. "I thought you'd be near here in a park, so I asked Ludwig to come with me because he knows the city."

"And what made you think I'd be in a fucking park?"

"Ve~ I remembered that time you got angry with mom and left home, but you got lost and didn't know how to come back and dad found you crying in a park near home…"

"YOU IDIOT!"

Feeling that my face was burning with embarrassment and anger, I jumped down Feliciano's throat, how the hell could he tell that embarrassing story? And to top it all, in front of the muscular potato-eater… It's to kill him!

"I hate you!"

Grandpa and the German hurried to separate us. My brother stayed coughing beside his new friend, while I was still red with anger trying to get rid of my grandfather's grip. I turned to the old man.

"Give me the fucking keys!" I spat.

I didn't have to say it twice. I took them away from his hand and ran into the building. Going up three floors of stairs made me relax (and get tired) a little, although I was still terribly angry… and the worst thing is that I didn't even know the reason, I guess it was due to the shitty day I had (except lunch).

I shut myself up in my room, I didn't want to see or listen to anybody. Luckily, Feliciano and grandpa opted not to disturb me for the rest of the evening. The one who did it was the pain in the ass of the next floor down with his damn guitar, he played a song that was too cheerful for my mood.

"Stop with that damn fucking guitar!" I shouted, stamping hard the ground so he could hear me and stop. He ignored me.

Feliciano knocked at the door to tell me the dinner was ready. I have to say that the atmosphere during dinner was so tense that could have been cut with a knife. Fuck, wasn't that damn day going to end?

I didn't bother to help to clear the table and much less to wash the dishes. I returned to my bedroom as soon as I ate the last bite of my pasta. I lay down on the bed, I was terribly tired, the day couldn't have been more exhausting.

Before falling asleep, the only remarkable thing of that fucking day came to my mind: Antonio. Why did I think about that bastard? Maybe because besides having helped me selflessly, he was the only person who, right after meeting me, had tolerated me for two whole hours without telling me to go to hell for my behavior. Would it happen that we meet again?

"Ve~ fratello, fratello" Feliciano shook me when I was in the best part of a dream with the Johanson, "wake up, ve~…"

"What the hell do you want so early?" because it was still early, not even ten o'clock in the morning. "Isn't there anyone else to bother? Any muscular potato-loving German, for instance? Let me sleep!" I turned round for him to leave me alone so I could continue with Scarlett.

"Ve~ but, fratello, grandpa has sent me to call you… It seems that the neighbor of the next floor down is asking for you and wants to see you."

"The asshole of the fucking guitar?" I asked with curiosity, what would that guy want to see me for? Would he be annoyed by my stampings on the floor? If that was so, fuck him, his damn guitar annoyed me… and his damn existence too!

"What guitar?" my brother asked confused, there wasn't anybody more idiot than him.

I followed Feliciano, intrigued. I rubbed my eyes, still sleepy.

Grandpa was chatting friendly with the guy, who had his back to me, dressed in black trousers and a white shirt with long sleeves (ideal to bear the heat of the country, surely he has to be an idiot). When the old man noticed my presence, his face became serious and he pointed at me.

"Here he is."

The other turned to me with a smile… that unmistakable and bright smile of…

"Antonio!"

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Le  petit italien

Antonio's POV

Mr. Vargas and I met six years ago, when he acquired the building in which I was living, a nineteenth-century architectural jewel (or so I was told, because I don't understand anything about architecture). I arranged to meet him to convince him of allowing me to rent the apartment where I had been living. He was a hard nut to crack, but in the end I achieved my goal and even more: he showed an interest in the place and decided not only to settle there, but also to renovate all the apartments.

In spite of his intimidating look ―tall, strong, robust, well dressed and serious― the Italian turned out to be a very friendly, talkative and cheerful person, let's say that our character is similar, however he is more party-loving and uninhibited than me… uninhibited is the word? Well, it doesn't matter.

The thing is that Romulo is a guy who endears himself to everybody, so much so that we soon established what could be called a "good friendship": he helped me whenever I needed; he cheered me up in bad times and celebrated the good moments; he gave me good advice… and I gave him some too, he still keep saying that renting the apartments to foreign students is the best idea that he has ever been given! No doubt he knows how to make someone feel important… I can't deny that for me Romulo is more than a friend… is like a father!

For all of that, when I bumped into the most grumpy person ―and also the most adorable, it has to be said― I have ever met in my life, I was surprised a lot to discover he was none other than his grandson.

And how did I meet the little Italian? Purely by chance.

I would have liked to welcome them in the building on their arrival in Spain, as everybody else, but unfortunately (or luckily in these times) I was working. I usually work part-time in the children's clothing section of a store, but sometimes I'm hired as an animator for all kinds of events (I have to take care of the children and entertain them), as it happened that weekend.

Saturday was a full day. In the morning I worked in the store, in the afternoon on the beach, and in the evening in a wedding… What a long day! I remember that I got home in the small hours, pretty tired, and while I was going through the patio I thought I saw somebody in one of the third floor's windows, I guessed that it would be one of Romulo's grandsons, maybe he could not sleep.

I neither could, despite the fatigue.

I lay back on my bed with my guitar, playing always relaxes me. I know it was pretty late, after two in the morning, but no one had complained until then and the song I was playing was very soft and calm, like a lullaby. Although it took me a while, I finally succumbed to exhaustion.

The good thing about Sunday was that I only had to work on the beach, I started late and there were three hours between one shift and another in which I could rest. Or that was what I thought.

The last two kids that were left from the morning shift and I started playing with water balloons while we were waiting for their parents to come to pick them up. We stayed near the fountain to fill the balloons; moreover, there is usually nobody sunbathing there who we could bother and people are rarely seen drinking… the water come out warm.

The children's parents appeared and the kids threw me the last two balloons, one fell on the sand near me and burst, but the second one passed over me and hit and burst against the back of a young boy that, unbelievably, was drinking from the fountain. I ran to him to apologize and I saw him straightening and turning fast.

"BUT WHAT THE FUCK…?" he shouted and collapsed.

I held him in time before he hit the floor. He had fainted. I got scared. I carried him in my arms, he wasn't heavy at all, and ran as fast as I could towards the infirmary. The girl there told me to lie him back on a stretcher and made him a little examination, apparently he had suffered a fainting fit due to the heat… that sounded really bad, I looked at her with concern.

"Relax, he will wake up soon." She calmed me down.

I stayed beside the stretcher watching the boy. He had an angelical face while he was sleeping. I couldn't see his eyes when he fainted, but I bet they would be a beautiful color that would go perfectly with his chestnut hair from which a strange curl stood out. His lips were fine and pink, surely they would also be soft and wet… what a beauty! Although his face was strangely familiar… His body was thin and slender and, only then I realized, he didn't wear beach clothes but long jeans and a shirt, where would he have come from?

He started moving and opened his eyes slowly. What I said, they were beautiful! Olive on the edge and honey inside.

"Oh, he is waking up!" I shouted, excited.

"Try not to overwhelm him." The nurse said. "And don't let him sit up yet! But make him take this slowly when he does." She gave me a brick of apple juice.

The boy turned his face to me with an expression of confusion drawn on it. I was relieved he had woken up at last, thank goodness, what a fright I got.

"What the hell happened?" he asked with a strong Italian accent trying to sit up. I stopped him as I was said. "Can I know what the fuck are you doing, bastard?" what a foul-mouth the boy had! And he only had said two sentences.

I answered calmly, informing him of what had happened to him. He sighted with resignation and settled down on the stretcher. He frowned and puffed his cheeks (what a lovely face!) and he showed annoyed when I told him about the water balloon which had bumped against him. I apologized several times, but he was reluctant to forgive me… Fuck, it wasn't my fault! Maybe I'd achieve it letting him sit up and giving him the brick of juice… those beautiful eyes opened wide as saucers when I put the brick of juice in front of him.

"Ok, ok, ok, I forgive you!" he said excited. I smiled and helped him to sit up a bit, but I took back the brick he eagerly tried to wrench from my hand. "Give me that! Idiot!"

"You have to drink slowly." I said as I inserted the straw and brought it to his mouth slowly. Suddenly he blushed, there is no words to describe how lovely he looked. "Hahaha, you look like a tomato, so cute~!" it seemed that he choked, I had already told him not to drink fast. "I told you to drink slowly."

"It has been your fault, idiot!" why did he blame me?

"I'm not who is drinking..." I would have finished the sentence saying his name, but I didn't know it. "By the way, I still don't know your name. I'm Antonio"

"Buff, you've the same name as the bastard for whose fault this has happened to me."

Oh blast, my name brought him a bad memory, but there are many Antonios in Spain… it can't be helped.

"Really? What did that moron do to you so you end up fainting on the beach?"

"To me directly nothing, but his actions have ended up affecting to me."

"I don't understand."

"I'm not surprised." He frowned.

"Can you explain it to me?" I asked him using the technique of imploring eyes, he couldn't refuse.

He explained that because of that guy he had had an argument at home and had left with nothing on him and without having lunch too. Of course, that explained why he had fainted. Poor boy. I offered to treat him to lunch, his face brightened with emotion.

"Really? Will you treat me? To whatever I want?"

"Sure! But with one condition" He put a strange grimace, of distrust, what did he expect I asked? "You have to tell me your name!" he relaxed his face.

"My name's Lovino." What a beautiful name, although to his cute little face suits something tenderer like… like Lovi! I'd definitely call him that.

"Nice to meet you." We shook our hands. "And tell me, what do you want to eat, Lovi~?"

"Why are you so familiar, bastard? I'm Lovino."

Apparently he didn't like the way I called him, but it's a name that suits him pretty well… I'll keep on calling him like that, I like the guy, I want us to be friends and friends should be treated affectionately, I know in the end he will end up liking it.

I asked him again what he wanted to eat. It turned out to be a pretty demanding boy because he wanted a genuine Italian pizza. Luckily I knew a good Italian restaurant that was near (sometimes I worked there as a waiter) and that was precisely owned by Mr. Vargas.

Lovi worried about whether I would be allowed to enter in the place with beach clothes. He looked at me from head to foot and turned red, very red. I couldn't help laughing at that cute vision. I told him there wouldn't be any problem, since I have never been raised objections.

As soon as the nurse told Lovi he could go, we walk to the restaurant. As he still felt weak and I didn't want him to faint in the way, I held his hand to keep him close. He got annoyed and let go of me with violence.

"Why the hell do you hold me?"

"It seems that you still aren't very well, I wouldn't like you to fall again in the way, so I don't want you to leave my side." I held out my hand, but he still looked angrily at me. "Either that or I carry you in my arms like I did before." I wouldn't mind to have him so close again. I made a movement with my arms to carry him, but he retreated.

"Idiot!" he blushed and threw himself to my stomach. That head butt took my breath away. He felt dizzy and I held him by his shoulders.

"You ok?"

"Yes… now yes…" he answered me. He blushed again and looked away, I didn't understand why, but then I realized he had held my hand. I surprised a lot with the gesture.

"That's the way I like it." I ruffled his hair and he blushed even more.

In the restaurant I decided to sit on the inside, in these summer days people prefers to stay in the terrace, but it's better inside because it's colder, and Lovi had been recommended not to be in the sun, it's not gonna be me the one who put his health at risk!

We were served immediately, it's the best thing of being known in the place. Lovi wanted to order some wine, but I wasn't going to let him drink alcohol after a fainting, who knows how his body would react. He resigned and ate all the bread of the basket that was brought while we were waiting for the pizzas.

I showed interest in his origins, he spoke Spanish pretty well, but he had a strong Italian accent, which made me think he was from there. He confirmed it, he was a Neapolitan who lived in Roma and was descendant of a Spanish woman, reason why he was forced to learn the language since he was a child. I tried to imagine him as a child with tan lovely face trying to memorize sentences in Spanish…

Lovi pulled me out of my thoughts when he asked me about the children who threw the water balloon to him, he thought they were mine or something like that! I talked about my job on the beach, he looked surprised by the work I performed.

"The truth is that it's an exhausting job, but very comforting. And the best of all, it has let me meet you!" I smiled. It was true, the boy was a bit grumpy, but I found him adorable despite everything, he blushed to the roots of his hair with my words!

"Shut up, idiot!" he spat embarrassed.

"The bad thing is that I can hardly stay another hour with you," I felt a bit sad, I barely know nothing about the little Italian and I was thrilled to know him more, but I didn't even know if we'd meet again, "I go back to work at five. Do you think you can come back home without problems? How far do you live?"

Lovi's face suddenly became white. His face showed… worry, I'd say, but I wasn't sure. Maybe food had disagreed with him. He covered his face with his hands.

"What happens? Are you feeling bad again?" he shook his head. Maybe he also felt sad for not meeting me again. "Then? Ah, I know! You feel sad because I have to go with the children and I can't stay with you."

"Don't say bullshit!" he bothered. Maybe he wasn't sad. "It's for other reason…"

"Which? Can't you tell me?" I pouted.

He was lost. He didn't want to admit it, he denied it, but it was that way. He was lost.

Apparently Lovi had just arrived in the country and he didn't know his address, but he lived in the old quarter and he had walked from there, that's more than half an hour walking! I tried to calm him saying that I also lived in the old quarter and maybe I knew his family, although the only Italian I knew was Mr. Vargas. What a surprise discovering that Lovi was Romulo's grandson! That's why his face looked familiar.

"Do you know him?"

"Sure, if I…" could it be possible that the Antonio who Lovi blamed for his misfortune was me? I swallowed hard, I had to find out what I had done so he ended up arguing at home. "… everybody in the city knows who he is, he has done many interesting things here. Was he the one you argued with?"

"Yeah…"

"And what was the reason of the argument? If I can know, of course…"

"German food…" I think he whispered.

"What?"

"He wanted me to eat disgusting German junk which is called food, but for nothing in the world I intend to put in my mouth! Gross!" If my friend Gilbert heard him saying that, he would beat him up… I can't let him get too close to Gilbert if he wants to keep that beautiful little face.

"It's not as bad as all that…"

"It is!" I had gotten he got angry again, all I do with this boy is wrong. "And don't you dare to say otherwise! Over my dead body I put that crap in my mouth. Just thinking about it makes my stomach turn. Well, the fact is that he wanted me to eat 'that', I got angry and made a scene." I think that Gilbert has already listened to him ranting about German food… that scene Lovi was talking about had to have happened during lunch, when all the tenants of the building gather together in Romulo's house to have lunch. Lovi hit his head with his fist. "Now he'll send me back to Italy… and my mother will get mad for having left Feliciano alone… and she will kick me out… and I'll have to live under a bridge… and… and…"

I couldn't help laughing, Lovi was being too dramatic. Knowing his grandfather as I know him, the most he'll get will be a little telling-off, nothing else.

"What the hell are you laughing at, bastard?!"

"How can you be so exaggerated and negative? Don't you think everything would be settled with a simple apology?"

"I'm not going to apologize!" he is very stubborn. "And even less for that."

"Although it implies that you end up under a bridge as you say?"

"Even so, so don't insist more with the same, bore."

I already know the reasons of the arguing, but what did I get to do with all of that? I still didn't understand it.

"And just out of curiosity, what's that Antonio you mentioned before got to do with all of this? Because I don't see how it's connected." I tried not to sound suspicious.

"I woke up late because of him, how can anybody be such an idiot to play a fucking guitar in the middle of the night? Doesn't he know it's annoying?" so it seems that I can't play the guitar again at night. "And on top of that it was supposed that today's lunch should be prepared by him, but that idiot gave the turn to the potato-loving Germans. There you are."

Ok, now all had sense… more or less. I understand he blamed me for the guitar playing, but it's not my fault that he doesn't like German food…

When we left the restaurant it was time for me to return to work, the best thing was to send Lovi back with his grandfather instead of letting him wander aimlessly. I made a sign to a taxi that was approaching and took the opportunity to hold the little Italian in my arms, as if we weren't going to meet again. He didn't resist.

"It's been nice to meet you, Lovi." He didn't even complain when I called him that way. I pushed him in the back seat.

"What? What are you doing, bastard?"

"Sending you home."

"B-But… I still don't know the address."

"Don't worry, he does know." I pointed the driver. "I hope we'll meet again." I smiled and closed the door. I went to the driver's window, told him our building's address and gave him ten euros, that was enough.

I moved away and waved goodbye until the taxi got out of my sight.

I took out my phone from my pocket and called Romulo.

"Ciao, Toño" he sounded worried, "what happens, boy?"

"Hi, Romu. I've heard that a grandson of yours is lost, isn't he?"

"How do you know?"

"He told me himself. Don't worry, I have just sent him home in a taxi. He won't be long in coming."

"You always surprise me, Antonio." He laughed, he sounded more relaxed now he knew that his grandson was coming home. "I don't know how I'm going to thank you."

"Bah, it's nothing, but…" I remembered how worried Lovi looked when he talked about what would happen to him when he met his grandfather and, I don't know if it was because he blamed me, I felt a bit guilty of the situation he was. "…don't scold him so much… he hasn't had a good day precisely…"

"What do you mean?"

"It'd be better if he was the one who tell it to you." If I told him about the faint, he would worry again. "Ah! And… don't tell him anything about me, neither I've called you. "

"I don't understand why, but okay. Grazie, Toño."

"See you."

I wasn't sure how Lovi would react when he discovered I was the Antonio he blamed for his misfortunes, but something said me that he would be glad to meet me again, maybe it was due to the sad face he made when he was leaving in the taxi…

I spent the rest of the afternoon imagining our next meeting and thinking about him, I couldn't stop remembering that cute face. I would have gone to see him when I arrived home, but I thought it was too soon.

Without knowing exactly why, I can say I felt happy. I took my guitar from under the window and laid down on my bed just like the previous night, but instead of playing a lullaby I strummed the strings to obtain a happy melody, according to how I felt. A few blows sounded on my roof.

"Stop with that damn fucking guitar!" a voice said.

It certainly was Lovi, listening to him complaining made me feel even happier and play with more intensity.

The doorbell interrupted me. Was the little Italian so annoyed by my guitar that he had come to complain in person? I opened with a huge smile on my face which faded when I saw my two best friends, Francis and Gilbert. It's not that I didn't want to see them, but it gave me a thrill that it was Lovi.

"What a disappointed face, mon ami, did you expect anybody else?" Francis smiled mischievously.

"No…" I lied without conviction. "It's just that I'm a bit tired."

"No, no, no, no way, Toño, tonight there's no fatigue." Gilbert told while entering my home. "You're going out to drink with your two awesome friends. Do you have anything better to do? And don't say sleep, because I won't let you waste a Sunday night doing something so little fabulous as that."

"But I have to work tomorrow…"

"Us too, cher, but we haven't seen you for days, you can't blame us for wanting to have a good time with you, can you?"

They were right, I had been so busy working all the week that we had barely seen each other. I changed my clothes, under Francis' watchful eye, and we left.

"Well, mon amour," Francis said, spinning the wine of his glass, "are you going to tell us who you were waiting for when he arrived?"

"I was waiting for nobody."

"For the song you were playing and the smile on your face when you opened the door, anyone could say otherwise." Francis has always been very perceptive. "By the way, you should stop playing guitar in the small hours, it seems that le petit italien is annoyed by it."

"Who?"

"One of Romulo's grandsons, Toño, do you remember they arrived from Italy yesterday?"

"Poor Toni," he put an arm over me, patting me on the back, "with that of working so much he is not up to date with what has happened in the building. But don't worry, mon ami, big brother Francis and your incredible friend Gilbert will inform you of the last events."

I was going to tell them that I was up to date with what happened more or less, but they didn't even let me speak.

"So the older little Italian is no more than a damn idiot and grumpy brat who has been able to despise the magnificent lunch that my awesome person had prepared with such care." He was certainly talking about Lovi, I smiled remembering him, but I was getting annoyed by Gilbert insults to him. "Spoiled brat…"

"If you had seen how he got, what a temper…" Francis rolled his eyes.

"For once I agree with the cabbage, what that kid needs is a good punch to kick all the nonsense out of him."

"And then his brother asked us to excuse him, because it turns out that the boy tends to be explosive…"

"That Feli is a good boy…" he took a long gulp from his mug of beer. "Ahh… kind, nice, funny…"

"And so cute, mon amour!"

"They are completely opposite. That grumpy brat could learn from him…"

I was getting very irritated by all those criticisms to Lovi. Everyone has his own character, that people like or don't like it is not really important.

"But that little grumpy boy is so cute too… You'd have to see him, Toni. And what a butt he has…" I think I blushed at the thought of Lovi's ass. "Mmm, so tight…"

"Don't be perverted, Francis." Gilbert spat.

"It's a pity he loses everything with that horrible character he has…" he took a sip of his wine and finished it, putting the glass on the table with a sharp bang. "It would be funny being able to tame that shrew…" he continued with a lascivious tone and a smirk. I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Fuck, guys, stop now!" I spat, standing up. The two of them got alarmed.

"Toni, mon ami, why do you say that?"

"Because I don't like how you are talking about Lovi" I said, "he could be a bit grumpy and bad-mouthed, but he's an adorable boy and I'm not going to let you keep on ranting on about him."

"Lovi?"

"Adorable… boy?"

Gil and Francis shared a confused look and then put all their attention on me.

"Are you talking about le petit italien, mon ami?"

"Do you know him perhaps?"

"Don't tell me it was him who you were waiting for when we got your home?"

"Eeeh…"

"Tell us everything, mon ami!"

Francis and Gil took me by my shoulders forcing me to sit again and tell them everything that happened with Lovi.

"So le petit italien has stolen your heart." Francis concluded with excitement.

"Lovi hasn't stolen me anything, we have just met."

"Kesese…" Gilbert laughed. "As your most awesome friend I think that that looks like love at first sight… or at first faint, as you prefer to call it."

"The same as yours with Eli, mon ami? Although that was actually love at first frying pan hit."

"I'm not in love with that tomboy!"

"Sure you are, Gil, accept it for good. If every time she appears, your ego increases a lot…"

"That's because I'm wonderful and get full of myself in front of everybody."

"Yes, whatever you say," he added sarcastically, "but if you don't hurry and do something, the sexy black-haired man with purple eyes will end up seducing her again."

"That stupid aristocrat has nothing to do against my awesome person!" he hit the table with his fist.

"Well, he admitted it at last." Francis said with pride while Gilbert looked at him confused. "Now it's your turn, Toni."

"I have nothing to admit. That what you say about Lovi has stolen my heart is just a figment of your imagination."

"Toni, your eyes and the smile you had while you were talking about le petit italien leave no room for doubt."

"Don't talk nonsense, I just want to be friends with him. Moreover, I like women."

"L'amour knows no gender, darling." Francis caressed my face tenderly. "But if you really don't feel anything for the little Italian, as you say, you won't mind if I try something with him, right?"

The image of Francis with Lovi crossed my mind and I felt a kind of pinch in the pit of my stomach. My mind clouded.

"Don't even think about trying something with Lovi." I said with a serious voice, not usual in me.

"Well, another one who admits it. Calm down, amour. At least your subconscious isn't as slow as you are."

That last he had told me… was good or bad? With Francis I'm never sure about if he is complimenting me or not… but he's my friend, whatever he says he'll say it for my own good, for sure.

I said goodbye to the guys when we reached the first floor of our building. Francis insisted several times that I should go to his apartment to take the last drink, but out of experience I know that 'take the last drink' with Francis and Gil means to drink an entire bottle of liquor per person.

I entered home repressing the urge to go up one more floor and pay a visit to Lovi to know how he was… although one o'clock in the morning is not a good moment to pay visits.

But half past nine in the morning is!

Dressed in my work uniform, the clothing store's one, I went up to Romulo's house. He received me with a good handshake followed by a strong hug. Obviously he asked me about the reasons of a visit so early in the morning, this man knows me pretty well and knows that I like to stretch out my time off until the very last minute.

"Feliciano, go call your brother." He told to his younger grandson, a boy that looked exactly like Lovi but with lighter hair and his particular curl on the other side of the head.

"F-For what, nonno?" the boy said with… fear? Why would he be afraid? "He is probably sleeping…"

"Wake him up." Feliciano's face showed fear. "Tell him that I asked it to you, that the neighbor of the next floor down is here and he is asking about him."

"B-B-But…" Feliciano didn't move, he just watched me, confused.

"Run!"

"Ve!" with that scared scream, he ran down the hall.

Mr. Vargas told me that Lovino wasn't precisely in a good mood when he waked up, what made me wonder if it had been a good idea to pay a visit so early… but I was eager to meet him and see what kind of face he'd make when he saw me! He wasn't long in coming, Romulo and I were chatting about my busy weekend when he suddenly stopped talking.

"Here he is." He pointed behind me.

I turned around to meet with his sleepy face and those beautiful eyes that opened in surprise. I smiled.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Grandpa in action

“Antonio!”

I was shocked, the bastard of Antonio was the last person I expected to meet right after getting up.

“Hi, Lovi~!” he greeted cheerfully. “I have come to know how you are after what happened yesterday.”

I felt the blood running to my face, how could he say that sentence? Didn’t he realize how fucking bad it sounded and how easy to misunderstand it was?

“Aren’t you seeing me, bastard, or have you become blind suddenly?” I shouted. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Vee~… what’s what happened yesterday, fratello?” the idiot pipped in.

“NOTHING!” I barked.

“How can you say that a fainting fit is nothing?” shit, it seems that this idiot bastard doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. “What a scare you give me!”

“WHAT? A fainting fit?” my grandfather got surprised.

“You haven’t told anything to your grandfather?”

Fuck, grandpa would sure get mad because I hadn’t told him anything, as if he wasn’t angry enough with me because of the previous day’s events. He approached to me very serious. I closed my eyes and I cringed expecting a blow from him, but it didn’t come, instead, I was caught between the old man’s strong and suffocating arms.

“Why you have to be so stubborn?” he told me while rubbing his chin against my head and I tried to push him away to no avail, how strong he is! “You only get me to worry…”

“Chi… giiiiiii…”

While I was trapped in the old man’s hug, Feliciano approached the bastard.

“Excuse me, could you tell me what a fainting fit is, Mr. Neighbor of the next floor down?”

“My name is Antonio.” The bastard answered as smiling as always. “And you have to be Feli… I have been talked so much about you!” who has talked about my brother to this bastard? And more important, WHY?

The damn bastard caught that idiot of Feliciano between his paws, what made me feel nervous and angry, why the hell are they hugging? Can’t that bastard shake hands as everybody else?

One moment… has my idiot brother called Antonio ‘neighbor of the next floor down’? Yes, in fact he has woken me up because the idiot of the next floor down wanted to see me… What an asshole! It’s that when I’m just awaken my brain works as slow as Feliciano’s, how couldn’t I realize before?

I finally managed to free myself from the grip of my grandfather (family of limpets) and separated my brother from the bastard to confront him, if he thought he was going to make fun of Lovino Vargas as he wanted, he could keep on dreaming.

“Damn lying bastard!” I shouted. “So you are the imbecile who lives in the next floor down, you’ll have had so much fun pissing me off and laughing at me.”

“And why would I do that, Lovi?” he tilted his head and looked longingly… Arg! How the hell could he make that sad face? Damn bastard, he gets on my nerves.

“As if you didn’t know, idiot!” he scratched the back of his neck, what an idiot! He did know what I was talking about, he just was acting dumb pretending not… He spent all the previous afternoon knowing that it was his fault that I ended up fainting on the beach… and he didn’t have the balls to confess it! “And my name’s Lovino!”

“Lovino,” Grandpa pipped in, “from what I understand, Antonio found you lost” I didn’t get lost! “and sent you back home, you should show him a little gratitude, don’t you think?”

I ducked my head and crossed my arms. Yes, maybe I should thank the bastard… but, for what? By amending a situation that he had caused? Ha! No way!

Grandpa decided to let us alone taking Feliciano to the kitchen with the excuse of making breakfast. The bastard of Antonio took the chance to approach to me, much. In fact he was too close, so much that he held my chin gently forcing me to look up at his hypnotizing green eyes.

“It’s not necessary that you thank me anything, Lovi.” He said with a husky and sensual voice while smiling. I stared at him like an idiot for too long. I blushed.

“O-Of course not, imbecile!” I pushed him violently. “I wasn’t going to do it, what do you think? And my name’s Lovino, stupid!”

It seemed that at last something of what I did was affecting the bastard. The expression of constant happiness that he used to have disappeared of his face, being replaced by one of complete sadness. But why sadness? He should get angry, not get sad.

I frowned, crossed my arms and turned my face. I didn’t want to look into that bastard’s eyes, with that pity face he was making I’d end up thanking him for his help and then forgiving him for having mocked me… or admitting that what happened to me wasn’t his fault!

Fuck! It seemed that little sparkles of pain came out from his eyes and crashed against me to make me look at him and do what he wanted… It was a lost battle, I felt unable to resist… I had to think something fast so that he didn’t get away with it…

“Where are you supposed to go with those clothes?” score for Lovino and my stylish dressing. “You look like a traveling Bible seller.”

Gotcha! The bastard turned his gaze away to his clothing and those damn ocular sparkles that pricked me stopped.

“A Bible seller? Really?” he said funny, it seemed that the sadness had passed and he returned to his cheerful and smiling character. “Well, it’s my work uniform.”

“How the hell are you going to play with the kids on the beach with those clothes?”

“Beach?” was he acting dumb again or maybe is that so much sun had melted the few neurons that should be left in his stupid brain? “Noooo…” he said cheerfully as if he had just realized something very obvious.” I don’t work on the beach today but in a clothes store that…”

“Toni!” a feminine voice and a distant doorbell sound came through the windows. “Tooooniiiiiii! Have you overslept again?”

The bastard ran to a window and leaned out of it, adopting a very suggestive posture… why the hell is he leaning over the windowsill? Those fitted trousers didn’t leave much room for the imagination… and what the hell was I doing looking at his rear? Shit, I blushed again, of course.

“Emma!” that beauty was the one who was calling him? “Up here.” He waved his arm several times making the movement to travel through his perfect back… (but what I was saying?)

“What are you doing up there? Hurry up and come down now, we’re going to be late.” She scolded him.

“I’m coming!” he went inside. I turned my flushed face before he turned, I only expected that he hadn’t realized that I had been watching him. He approached me again with his typical smile. “Well, Lovi…”

“My name is Lovino.” I corrected him.

“… I can’t stay here anymore, the duty is calling me!” how much emphasis and joy for working. “But I’ll come to see you this afternoon.”

“You can save your visit, bastard.”

As answer, he laughed and ruffled my hair before leaving. What the fuck did that gesture mean? That he’d obey me or that he’d do whatever he wanted? He left me a bit disconcerted.

I sat on the windowsill and watched the bastard crossing the patio with Emma. They were chatting cheerfully and smiling... and very close too, more when Antonio threw an arm over the blonde and pulled her closer to him. I felt a kind of pressure in my stomach. Fuck, why does he have to be so near her? That damn Spaniard doesn’t know how to respect the personal space? Or maybe they were a couple, the complicity between them was palpable…

“Has Antonio already left?”

I jumped and got up from the windowsill. I was a bit flushed, but I didn’t want my grandfather to know that I hadn’t taken my eyes off his tenants while they left.

“A moment ago.” I answered. He clicked his tongue.

“Well, I needed to tell him something. Anyway, I’ll do it in any other moment.”

My grandfather came to me and threw an arm over my shoulders, it was useless wasting my energies trying to move away, so I allowed it, because of laziness, not because I needed a human contact to relieve the pressure that was still in my stomach.

“Well, Lovino, get ready…”

The cold tone of my grandfather’s voice and the way he squeezed my shoulder cleared my mind of all thoughts other than the bad feeling I had. I looked at him, his twisted smile gave me chills. I swallowed slowly.

“F-F-For what, grandpa?” I asked nervously beginning to sweat.

“We’re going to the doctor so you get a complete medical check.”

I don’t like doctors, they have a strange and sickly obsession with giving me painful and huge injections arguing that they look after my health. And my grandfather knows it.

“B-But… but if I’m perfectly fine, can’t you see? Nothing happened to me…”

“A person doesn’t faint just like that. We’re going to the doctor and there can be no argument about that!”

“NO!”

I didn’t want to argue about anything, I simply refused to go visit a damn quack doctor to pierce my body with its ten centimeters needles. I wanted to run away, but to my disgrace, grandpa kept me hold tight by the shoulder, preventing any kind of escape. I fidgeted several times trying to free myself until all of a sudden the old man, I can’t understand how because it was very fast, picked me up and carried me over his shoulder as if I were a vulgar bag of potatoes.

“CHIGIIII! Let me go, you’re gonna make me fall! I don’t want to go to the doctor!”

I would have kicked out, but I didn’t want to hit grandpa, who also held me tight, especially my legs. He started to walk to the door and I raised the volume of my protests. Feliciano came in the room, disconcerted.

“Ve~… Nonno, what are you doing to my fratello?”

“Feliciano!” I shouted with effort, it’s not easy to raise your head when all your body is fighting against gravity. “Don’t stay there watching as an idiot and come to help me, fuck!”

“Feliciano, stay here, your brother and I will come back soon. Then we’ll go to visit the city.”

That damn stupid stayed where he was with his foolish face, waving us goodbye, he didn’t even pay any attention to me!

My grandfather showed me the great physical shape he was when he went downstairs carrying me without even getting tired. I kept on complaining, but I was completely ignored.

“Aspetta, nonno, per favore!”

“I don’t understand you, Lovino~.” He said cheerfully. Besides ignoring my complains, he played dumb.

When we were on the second floor landing, the tulip-head came from his house. Grandpa greeted him kindly, as if carrying me was the most normal thing in the world. The blond made a gesture that said clearly ‘God, where the fuck I am’, but then a kind of smile drew on his face, he took his phone out of his pocket and held it in front of me while going downstairs behind us.

“What the fuck are you doing with that damn phone, Harry Potter?” I moved my hands trying to take it, something difficult when you are upside down on the back of somebody who’s walking downstairs.

“Laughing at a little, idiot, rude and spoiled crybaby…”

“You’re an asshole, damn fucking tulip!” I made a great fuss to take the mobile phone away from the blond, but I only got some contempt looks and that he laughed at me more.

When we reached the first floor landing, grandpa moved aside and let the giant tulip pass. He gave me one last mocking glance before disappearing of my sight. I renewed my protests and, seeing that they were being ignored again, I entered in a desperate mode, goodbye to my pride.

“Grandpa, nonno, per favore” I held his shirt tight, what I was going to say was too humiliating and wasn’t easy to spit out, “if it’s what you want, I apologize for everything I said and did yesterday, I’m really sorry.” I closed my eyes tightly, some tears were trying to go out, but I wouldn’t allow it, I was humiliating myself so much. “Punish me as you want, but not like this, please!”

Grandpa stopped. For a moment, I thought he had accepted my apologies and that he’d reject the idea of visiting the doctor, but nothing more cut off from reality, instead of getting me down from his shoulder, he rang a bell. We were in the patio, the only house that was there was the one of the hot Hungarian girl. She was who received us.

“Hi, Romu!” for her voice tone it seemed that she didn’t find weird that my grandfather was carrying me like a bag of disgusting potatoes. “What can I do for you?”

“Ciao, bella” he closed the door and finally put me down. I felt a bit dizzy due to the sudden change of position, “I bring you an unruly patient. He needs a complete check.”

The Hungarian was the doctor? For some reason that reassured me…

“Very well.” Elizaveta answered with a mischievous face. She put on her hands some white latex gloves that snapped when she fitted them properly.  My   calm   left   the  same way it came. I  swallowed   slowly . “Sit down. What happens to him so you bring him to me?”

“Nothing happens to me!” I answered fast as grandpa forced me to sit on a chair and held my shoulders to avoid a possible escape.

“He fainted yesterday, apparently with a fainting fit.”

“But I’m fine now! The girl who assisted me told me, or ask your idiot Spanish tenant, he was there and heard it too…

I suddenly shut up, Eli put a big black bag on the table and began to search inside. It was the injection, sure, she was looking for a fucking hypoallergenic syringe of those that pierce the skin to the bone.

“Here it is!” she smiled when she found what she was looking for.

She took out something long. I closed my eyes instinctively, expecting a painful prick…

The Hungarian lifted my eyelid and blinded me with… the light of the little lantern she had took out! So in the end it wasn’t a syringe. She did the same with the other eye. Then she put a tongue depressor in my mouth and made me say ‘aah’; she auscultated me; she knocked my knees; she measured my blood pressure. She wrote down the data in a small notebook.

“Give me your finger.” She told me grabbing my middle finger strongly and approached a black thing that pricked it.

“AUCH!” I move my hand away. “DAMN FUCKING BITCH…!

BAM!

A frying-pan hit my head, where the hell had it come from so suddenly? I cringed and put my hand on the incipient bump that was going to appear, I could almost say that I was seeing stars.

“I warned you to be careful with Eli.” Grandpa whispered in my ear.

“Have you had breakfast?” the professional doctor said while looking the thing that had pricked me (I know that some damn needle had to pierce my skin).

“No!” I answered angrily. She wrote down in her notebook.

“Does anything hurt?” that damn bitch had to be joking. I glared at her.

“My head.”

“Since long ago?”

“Since a certain Hungarian that calls herself a doctor hit me with a frying pan some minutes ago.” I spat. She kept on writing down calmly.

“Anything else?”

“My finger?” I raised it to make the gesture, not because the pain. I don’t like to be rude to women, but this one was getting me to throw away my principles in relation to them, I don’t know if it would be due to the fact of being a doctor or due to something else.

Grandpa slapped me on the back of the neck. On the other hand, the Hungarian looked at me narrowing her eyes and brought her hand dangerously close to the handle of the frying-pan that was on the table.

“Very well!” she read her notes and smiled widely, this time with a sincere and beautiful smile. “In view of the test I have done, I can tell you, Romu, that your grandson is perfectly fine, he’s healthy as a lettuce.”

 “Happy?” I crossed my arms. “I had already told you.”

The old man ignored me… once again.

“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that, you take a weight off my mind.” He approached Elizaveta and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Grazie mille, bella.”

Grandpa held my arm and we left the Hungarian’s house.

“It wasn’t as bad as you thought, was it?” the old man smiled and ruffled my hair.

“Leave me!” I complained moving his hand away. “It’s so easy for you to say it, your finger hasn’t been pierced and your head hasn’t been about to be split in two.

“Don’t exaggerate!” grandpa laughed, pulled me in a hug and kissed my forehead (agh, how clingy he could be). “Come on, let’s go to have breakfast, Feliciano must be tired of waiting for us. And after that we will go sightseeing around the city!”

Yeah… what a fantastic morning.

The Spanish bastard didn’t come that afternoon, although he said the contrary. It seemed that he took my last comment seriously. It’s not like I minded he didn’t come, I wasn’t waiting for him, of course not! It’s just that it bothers me that people say they’re going to do something and then don’t give a damn about that.

Well…

With the tranquility and comfort of having the sofa in the living room only for me, I was zapping the TV channels, because there was nothing to watch, what a shitty Spanish programming, so many channels and not a single decent program… I should find some hobby like Feliciano who was playing happily with the paint materials (easel, canvas, oils…) that grandpa had bought him that same afternoon, how generous!

Okay, I guess that if I were to study something, the old man would buy me things too.

And talking about him, he had been locked in his study talking on the phone (business matters) since he came back from buying the materials with Feliciano. I didn’t go with them, I had enough strolls that morning while doing sightseeing, we walked round the entire old town, luckily it’s relatively small… but no less exhausting. For the next time, grandpa had already threatened us (at least I consider it like that) that we’ll visit the museums and monuments of interest in which we haven’t entered… No  comments …

The doorbell interrupted my hard work of searching TV entertainment. I called out Feliciano to open the door, but nothing, he would be so immersed in his magical-fantastic world of paint and  colours  than he didn’t even hear me, or maybe he would have gotten trashed on the dissolvent inadvertently, which wouldn’t surprise me, and also it would make him be in his magical-fantastical world…

It was me who opened the door, as always.

“Hello, Lovi~!”

A smiling and annoying Spaniard greeted me from the other side of the doorframe. I was tempted to close the door in his face.

“ What have you lost here, bastard?”

“Lost?” he tilted his head. "I haven’t lost anything… I’ve come to see you, I told you this morning that I’d do it.”

“It’s after nine, you said you’d come in the afternoon.”

“It’s not night yet.” Damn Spanish bastard with an answer for everything. “I didn’t come before because I have just woken up from a nap… a long one. Have you been waiting for me?”

“Pff, as if I had nothing better to do.” I crossed my arms and puffed my cheeks. “Moreover, why would I want to see you? Because of your damn mouth, my grandfather had the great idea of taking me to the downstairs crazy Hungarian so that I got a medical check."

“Really? And how it was?”

“She did me this,” I showed him my finger, which has become a bit purple, “and what’s more, she hit me with a frying-pan, that damn…”

“Oh, poor boy” he interrupted me while stroking my head as if I were a fucking pet. “I’m sorry you had a bad time.”

“Don’t touch me, idiot!” I pulled his hand away angrily. "What the hell have you come to?"

“Haven’t I told you yet? To see you, this morning I told you that I’d do it.”

“Well, you have already seen me. Now go.”

I was about to close the door, but he stopped it by holding it with his hand and entering.

“Hey, wait, have you had dinner yet?”

“It’s none of your business!”

“Bonsoir, mes amis!”   the perverted Frenchman appeared behind the bastard. “Are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” I asked.

“For what? Toni, mon cher, haven’t you told them yet about our plans for tonight?” the Frenchman rolled his eyes.

“That’s what I was doing right now, Fran.” He scratched the back of his neck and grinned.

“Don’t tell me you have just woken up from your nap.” The bastard nodded. “Mon Dieu, forcing yourself to work so much can’t be good.” The pervert came in without asking for permission. “Anyway, I’m going to tell Romu.”

“Hey, you!” I shouted. The Frenchman stopped and turned his head. “Where do you think you are going? My grandfather is busy!”

“You’ll see he is not busy anymore. Romu!”

The Frenchman resumed his way to my grandfather’s study calling out his name. I stayed where I was with a vein throbbing dangerously in my temple, does everybody enter in this house when they please?

“Come on, Lovi,” the bastard said, “call Feli and get ready to go out.”

“ To go out where? Today is Monday!”

“Ve~ Has anybody called me?” Good time for my idiot brother to come, when I call him he turns a deaf ear, but when another one speaks of him, he knows it. “Hello, Antonio!”

“Yes, idiot, I called you almost an hour ago to open the door, but you ignored me.”

“I didn’t hear you, fratello.”

“Yeah…”

“How nice that you have appeared, Feli. Right now I was telling Lovi to call you and get ready to go out…"

“To go out where?!” I began to lose patience.

“To go out for tapas!” grandpa said, approaching with the Frenchman. “Come on, boys, get ready. Everybody else is waiting for us.”

Feliciano ran to his room. On the other hand, I remained with my arms crossed in front of my grandfather and the other two. I didn’t want to have to put up with all the idiot tenants of my grandfather, starting with those two who were in front of me and ending with the frying-pan doctor”.

“Is it obligatory?”

“I’ll take you there the same way as I did this morning if necessary.” The old man threatened me.

I couldn’t help but obey.

Fuck, two days, I have been only two fucking days in Spain and my grandfather hasn’t stopped forcing me to do things I didn’t want to do: eating German food (ok, I skipped that and made a scene), going to the doctor, doing some sightseeing, and now going out with all the people of the building. I don’t know why my mother can’t stand him, they are two of a kind!

The smiling bastard was the only one who was waiting for me when I come back to the living room. Grandpa, Feliciano and the Frenchman had already gone to the bar. I don’t know how the old man would intend to carry me if I refused to go when he had already left.

“Why don’t you go before?” I said, hoping to get rid of the meeting. “I’ll catch up with you in a moment.”

“Your grandfather has already warned me. He told me not to leave without you and that if you refuse to come with me, I drag you out if necessary, that this morning he did it to take you with Eli.” I clenched my fists as I remembered, how embarrassing! “Come on, Lovi, we’ll have a good time.” He held out his hand.

“IT’S LOVINO!”

I snorted angrily and left the house before him. He caught me up in the patio and we walked to the tapas bar where the others were. Luckily the place was near, because you’d think that he’d been wound up, he didn’t stop talking during all the way. Apparently, grandpa told him about our morning walk around the city and he talked about the emblematic places. I didn’t pay attention, I had had enough with visiting them by force.

“Come on, boys!” Emma scolded us from the door of the place. “The waiter has already passed three time, three!”

We came in, everybody was already sat. My brother, between the potato brothers, was chatting with both of them cheerfully (why does he have to be damn king of sympathy and become friends with everybody?). My grandfather was beside the Frenchy, with whom he shared a grin… I think they were talking about their conquests. The tulip was in his own world apparently, well, concretely he was watching something very funny on his phone because he didn’t stop laughing, or looking at me all the time… I think I have a slight idea of what he was watching on the screen.

I sat next to Emma, who sat beside his brother and tried to see what was entertaining him. The bastard went to the bar instead of sitting down to table, and we were supposed to be in a hurry to order.

“And where’s Elizaveta?” I noticed the Hungarian wasn’t there, it was a pity, because although she was a bit crazy (a lot in reality), the girl was a feast for the eye. “Did you scold us for being late and she hasn’t arrived yet?”

“Eli won’t come today,” Emma answered, “she is on duty in the hospital tonight.”

“Aam…”

I only hope she doesn’t break the heads of her other patients with a frying-pan.

“For you!” the always smiling Antonio surprised me putting in front of my eyes a wide grass filled to the top with a reddish drink. “I hope you like the summer red wine.”

“Eh… ah…” I grabbed the cold glass and my fingers brushed his. I felt a shiver that ran through my entire body, no doubt it was caused due to the low temperature of the glass (why would it be otherwise?), but for some unknown reason, I also noticed that my cheeks blushed. I looked away from his eyes.  “Thanks…”

Antonio widened his smile, drank a sip of his drink, summer red wine too, and sat between my grandfather and me.

Ours was, without doubt, the loudest table of the place. Some customers gave us disapproving looks, gang of killjoys, as if we were annoying them! Yes, I recognize it, I was having fun dininng in the company of such a diverse group. Contrary to what happened to me when I went out in Italy with Feliciano and his friends (who didn’t like me and I didn’t like them either, but whom I was forced to stand by my mother’s order), I felt part of the group, and I only spent the time listening to all the conversations without taking part, unless they asked me directly.

The two who kept out of the others’ conversations for a while were grandpa and the bastard of Antonio, who were talking between themselves, both showing an unusual serious face (but Antonio smiled slightly from time to time). I remembered that in the morning grandpa had said that he needed to tell something to his tenant, but what kind of business were that two up to be so serious and indifferent to the others? They had aroused my curiosity.

“What will those two have to talk so much about?” the tulip told his sister in a low voice. Well, I was not the only one that noticed the strange attitude. “I hope it is not about a rent rise.”

“Brother, what would be the point in Romu talking about that only with Antonio when that’s an issue that concerns us all and we are practically all here?”

“As if you didn’t know: your friend” he put special emphasis and hatred in the word friend, “is the lapdog of our landlord, who counts on him for practically everything, even to make decisions.”

It was the first time I listened to somebody saying that my grandfather needed the opinion of other person to make decisions, he has always been characterized by not taking other people’s opinion into consideration. Although he also recognized that Antonio convinced him with the idea of renting the apartments to foreigners… maybe he was starting to become senile.

“Brat,” the tulip told me, if we hadn’t been dinning inside a bar, I would have made him regret calling me that way, “what do you know about that?”

“Nothing, why would I have to know anything? I only have been here for two days and I AM NOT interested in the old man’s issues.” I crossed my arms, narrowed my eyes and leaned towards the tulip. “And if I knew something, why the hell would I have to tell you?”

“For nothing, crybaby, for nothing…”

I blushed to the roots of my hair in anger. The damn tulip was trying to make fun of me reminding me something as embarrassing as what happened that morning, what an asshole! When he saw my face, the blond grinned before turning his head towards the German to take part in his conversation.

Che palle!

Puffing my cheeks and snorting, I turned my face to the other side.

The mysterious conversation between grandpa and the bastard had finished. Antonio had recovered his sparkling smile and nodded as grandpa, laughing, patted his back and then he got up and walked away from the table.

“What happens, Lovi?” the bastard fixed his emerald eyes on my face. “You are so red that look like a tomato…”

“Nothing!” I growled. He laughed. “What were you talking about with my grandfather to be so serious?”

“Eh…? Well…”

He didn’t answer me.

The Frenchman was patting the bastard’s shoulder impatiently. He looked at the blond, me too. The Frenchy had his eyes fixed on the bar, just like the albino, who was patting his shoulder and his brother’s. I was curious, so I turned my head to see what was so interesting.

I couldn’t believe it, I even rubbed my eyes. My jaw could have reached the floor due to the surprise. There, next to the bar, was my grandfather, with the most radiant smile I had ever seen on his face, FLIRTING with two women a bit younger than him, not with one BUT WITH TWO! And on top of that it seemed that he was doing well because both women were laughing at what he was telling them, how the hell does he do it?!

The two women went to the door and the old man came to the table.

“They’re newly divorced who don’t want any kind of attachment.” He exclaimed, closing his fist as a sign of success.

Everybody except the macho potato and the tulip, who seemed to feel embarrassed, cheered him. And the idiot Feliciano… looked at the old man with that silly smile he put when he didn’t understand what was going on around him.

“Well, guys, there are two beautiful ladies waiting for me, so I say goodbye. By the way,  dinner is on me.” They cheered him again, including the tulip this time (how stingy, he cheers because of the free dinner). “Lovino!” grandpa threw me a bunch of keys. “Take care of your brother and lock the door.  Ci vediamo! ”

And he left with the women.

I spent the rest of the night astonished by what I had just witnessed, I had confirmed by myself that those stories about my grandfather that my mother used to refer to were true.  I would love to see my mother’s face when she found out that his little cherub in person had had the pleasure of being present to confirm it. Because she would find it out, I had no doubt, that bigmouth of my brother would tell her as soon as she phoned. The trouble is that, knowing her as I know her, I’m sure she would blame me for letting my brother see grandpa in action.

We came back home as soon as we finished our drinks. Feliciano walked next to his new best friend, the potato bastard; Emma and her brother were the first, chatting between themselves; I advanced behind the group formed by the Frenchman, the albino and the bastard of Antonio. The latter urged me several times to walk with them, but I refused, I preferred to keep a safe distance from his two buddies, who were remembering some of the most memorable conquests of my grandfather, what made me think that night scene wasn’t new at all.   

Back in the building, each one got into their respective apartments while passing, since everybody rejected the suggestion of the Frenchy of continuing the ‘party’ in his flat, although his buddy the albino did it forced by the murderous gaze his brother gave him.

“I hope you don’t think about playing your fucking guitar again tonight, bastard,” I warned Antonio before he entered in his flat, “because I swear that if I hear it…”

“Don’t worry, Lovi~,” he interrupted me, “even if I spent the whole afternoon sleeping, I still have a lot of sleep to recover. Moreover, I don’t want you to get angry at me again for make you spend a sleepless night.”

“You’d better!”

“Yeah, yeah. Good night!” he ruffled my hair in an affectionate way and, before I could complain about it, he closed the door behind him.

Fuck, suddenly everything went silent. I went up the stairs two at a time, not because I was afraid, but because Feliciano was waiting for me to enter, sitting on the floor and cowering in fear, by the way. It was enough for him to see me to throw his arms around my neck and remain there until we were inside the apartment.

But I wasn’t going to get rid of my idiot brother so easily that night. I was already in bed, not asleep, when I heard a knock on the door of my room and I saw it opened. With the light that came through the window I could see Feliciano below the doorframe, hugging a pillow as if it was a stuffed toy.

“Vee~ fratello, are you asleep?”

“What do you want, idiot?” the question was a bit stupid because I already knew what he had come for.

“Can I sleep with you?”

“No.”

“Per favore!” he begged.

“I had said no, idiot! Go away!”

“But… but…” I knew by the tone of his voice that his eyes would be full of tears although I couldn’t see them. “I’m afraid of sleeping alone… and… and…”

“These last nights you have slept alone and wasn’t afraid.”

“Because grandpa was at home… but not today… what if somebody comes in and hurts us taking advantage that we are alone?”

“Feliciano,” I said trying to remain calm, “I remember you that on the first floor there is a German built-in wardrobe and on the second there is a giant tulip with an angry face, not to mention the crazy Hungarian with her frying-pan, who’s not here today, NO ONE in their right mind would dare to enter.”

“Ve… but…” he began to whimper. “Ve… but…”

I couldn’t bear to keep on listening to his whining.

“Okay, idiot.” I agreed. “Come in!”

“ Grazie, fratello!”

He jumped into the bed and even made me bounce. I growled and settled down with my back to him. At least, he’d let me sleep peacefully.

“Ve~ fratello?”

No. Of course not, I’m talking about Feliciano, a bore in capital letters, it was impossible for him to let me in peace only for the fact of letting him sleep in my bed.

“What do you want?” I began to get mad.

“Grandpa’s tenants are very sympathetic and kind, don’t you think so?”

“Buff, that brainless bunch? Come on, the only different one is the blonde.”

“Vee~… well, I really like them all” he said happily.

"Yes” I growled, remembering him stuck to the potato bastard all the time.  “I have already noticed.”

“And you don’t get along with Antonio?” he asked. “That’s what I thought.”

“And what made you think that?” I asked with a touch of anger.

“Well… I don’t know. I guess I got that impression when you were talking this morning… and this evening too when I saw you two chatting at the door, and in the bar, and before you got home… You don’t usually talk so much to anybody…”

Great, what I needed to sleep at easy, that Feliciano reminded me how antisocial I am. 

“Well, we don’t get along because he is a damn bore and that, but…” I had to admit that Antonio hadn’t stopped being kind with me despite I didn’t stop insulting him and pouting. “But… it’s not like… I don’t like him… And sleep now, fuck!”

He remained silent. At last it seemed that he was going to let me rest.

“Veee~… fratello?” I was wrong.

“Whaaaaaaat?” I growled, gritting my teeth, the vein in my temple began to throb dangerously.

“Do you think that what happened to grandpa has been love at first sight?”

“Feliciano…” I said slowly, taking a breath so not begin to hit him. “Do you listen or it’s that your mono-neuronal brain doesn’t process the information? Grandpa has NOT fallen in love, nor at first sight nor anyway. He DOES NOT want attachments and NEITHER those women, they have gone to spend the night together and that’s all, I’m sure that tomorrow he won’t ever remember their names.”

“And you don’t think it could happen?” he insisted. God, why do you force me to be surrounded by bores? “Don’t you believe in love at first sight?”

“Of course not! Don’t be stupid, that’s nothing more than bullshit in which fifteen-year-old girls believe. And sleep now or I swear that I’ll give you a kick that will take you back to the Disney world you have come from!”

“Ve!” he got scared. “Okay…  Buonanotte , fratello.”

“Buonanotte .”

I sighted tired, only Feliciano could ask such stupid questions before going to sleep, I don’t know how he could have such a dreamy mind.

I settled down again on my side of the bed and closed my eyes. The brief of an emerald gaze crossed my mind before falling deeply asleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Music for ears

Except for the so hectic first days I had when I arrived in Spain, the rest of the first week at my grandfather's house passed quite calmly. Very few things were remarkable during those days, as Feliciano and I ended up sunburned after our second day at the beach (the bore begged me unstoppably to go with him, on the contrary I wouldn't have moved from the sofa); and that my mother phoned and found out about grandpa's love affairs by my brother's mouth and, of course, I had to bear her shouts and accusations… until I hung up the phone in the middle of her monologue (one of the advantages of being 3000 kilometers away, not having to put up with my mother's anger).

And that way, after several boring days, Saturday night came.

And what could a nineteen-year-old boy like me do on a Saturday night? Nothing better than enjoying a great film like The Godfather comfortably lying down on the couch and without anybody around to disturb me.

Exactly, Feliciano wasn't at home. At noon, when we came back home after buying everything necessary for the (stupid) community lunch that we had to prepare that week, we met the macho potato on the landing of his apartment and, of course, the always kind and sociable Feliciano had to stop to chat with him. Obviously, I didn't stay there, I ignored the German presence and went upstairs. My brother didn't take long to appear, though, with one of those silly smiles that often decorate his face due to any nonsense, specifically because he had arranged to meet the potato bastard to go to the cinema that evening, he even asked me if I wanted to go with them! Yes, as if I had nothing better to do (ok, I didn't have, but I'd rather do anything before go out in the company of the potato bastard).

Grandpa had left too. I don't know if he'd have arranged to meet someone or he simply went out to look for a 'prey' to spend the night with. The truth is that I didn't want to think much about it, in itself it was already quite depressing that my grandfather, at his age, had a more active sex life than mine.

Anyway, there I was, lying down on the comfortable couch enjoying one of my favourite films without anybody around to disturb me. But, as it usually happens to me, it was enough for me to gloat over this situation so that something happened and ruined it, specifically that the doorbell rang.

"Hello, Lovi~!"

That bore of Antonio (because he hasn't any other better way to be described) had come almost every evening of that week to talk to my grandfather, I don't know about what issue because he didn't want to tell me anything despite all the questions I asked him. And I had had too much time to pump him about it since, after each one of those mysterious and secret meetings, the bastard stayed with me (I wanted to or not) and we chatted about anything for a long time.

"My grandfather is not at home."

I wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible to keep on watching the movie, I tried to close the door, but he stopped it with his hand and came in without asking, the same as everyone in that building.

"It doesn't matter, I came to see you."

"Why?" I asked with boredom.

"You ask why?" he looked upset, as if the reason of his visit was obvious, but it wasn't. "It's Saturday night, let's go out and have some drinks!"

"I pass."

I walked to the couch and sat on one end hugging a cushion. The bastard didn't hesitate to follow me and sit on the other side to try to convince me. Luckily for me, the film was in the middle of advertising.

"Come on, Lovi." He pouted. "Come have a drink out there."

"No, leave me alone."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't feel like it, I'm watching a film."

"When it ends." He began to get on my nerves.

"It will be very late. Moreover, what interest do you have in me going out with you?

"Well… friends go out together to have fun."

Friends? The day we met, I got the impression that he liked me and, in spite of how I behaved with him, Antonio put up with me without erasing the smile on his face, but did he really consider me his friend in such a short time? I strange feeling of joy overcame me. I smiled slightly.

Antonio's eyes sparkled with illusion, why? I looked away and watched the movie that had just come back from publicity, hiding part of my face behind the cushion I was holding.

"You have smiled!" he exclaimed excited.

"You're wrong!" I lied. "I haven't smiled, you have imagined it."

"You can't fool me, Lovi…"

"It's Lovino." I corrected him for nth time.

"It's the first time I see you smile." Fuck, how could this guy notice a trivial detail as a simple smile and get so excited about that? I hid my red embarrassed face behind the cushion a bit more. "Does that mean that you are going to go out for a drink with me?"

"No, and don't insist." I said with my face still hid while watching TV. "I'm not gonna move from here."

"Joo~ Lovi," he approached to me, "come on…"

"No! Leave me alone!"

"Pleeeease." He begged in a childish voice. He held my T-shirt's sleeve and began to pull it, he was even borer than my brother, "pretty please~."

"Arg!" I got up angry, throwing the cushion to the floor and facing the bastard, who has moved back scared. "If I say yes you'll be quiet and won't bother me?"

"Sure!" he smiled.

"Then okay." I accepted.

"Great!" beside widen his smile, he raised his arms as a gesture of victory.

I sighted in resignation while falling onto the couch and picked up the cushion from the floor to hug it again. At least I had managed to that bastard stay quiet and let me watch the film in calm.

"Hey, Lovi…"

Five. Only five fucking minutes he had been with his mouth shut. I clenched my fists tightly, stretching them against the cushion, and I turned to him with my eyes half-closed while sending him all the hatred that was filling me in that moment.

"What?" I asked plainly.

"I know this film is very good and all of that, but how many times have you watched it?"

I felt out of place, why the hell did he ask that strange question?

"A f-few," about twenty… number above, number below, "w-why?"

"Because you're moving your lips at the same time as the dialogues take place."

Did I do that? Fuck, I always was so concentrated on the film that I have never noticed that I moved my lips unconsciously… and now the Spanish bastard would laugh at me for that little peculiarity!

"And what the hell did you do looking at me instead the movie, bastard?!" I hit him several times with the cushion. He covered his head with his hands.

"Ay, Lovi!" he complained. "I just looked at you for a moment and I noticed what you were doing… Stop it, please!"

I hit him one more time and dropped the cushion over his head. I grumbled angrily and walked to my room. I was sure the bastard wouldn't let me enjoy the film without disturbing me again.

"Lovi?" he asked surprised. "Where are you going?"

"To change clothes!" I answered angrily. "And stop calling me Lovi!"

"But, didn't you say that you were going to watch the film?"

"Not anymore!"

I changed clothes quite fast, more than everyone else would need to be able to even be as well dressed as me. When I returned to the living room, I found the bastard completely absorbed in the movie… too late now! I don't know how I could be able to contain my anger and not give him a good punch despite he deserved it, if he even heard me when I said that we could go, I had to turn the TV off for him to pay attention to me.

We stopped on the first floor in order to tell the two friends of the Spaniard that lived in that floor, the Frenchman and the macho albino. The damned bastard had convinced me to go out for a drink, but that asshole omitted the little detail that those two would come with us. Obviously, if I had known it, I wouldn't have agreed to go out, but I would have kicked Antonio out of my house and I'd have stayed so comfortably on the couch. I still had time to regret, but… it's not like I wanted to go out with those three, it's that I hadn't got myself ready in order to go down two floors and come back home!

I was walking a few steps behind that trio of friends listening the bland discussion they had about the place we should go, I didn't understand why we kept on walking if they didn't come to an agreement about the place we were heading for… what a bunch of idiots I had joined! The German left the other two and came to me, wanting to throw his arm over me, but I moved away disgustingly from him.

"Dude, I don't bite." He grabbed me by my shoulder in a gesture that seemed friendly, at least that's what I assumed according to his smile (or similar gesture) that was drawn on his face. "Come here."

"What do you want?"

"Look, I know that you and me haven't had a good start, because what you said last week about my food hurt me a lot, I prepared it with the greatest care" as if I minded. "But I'm a comprehensive person, so I understand that you have your own likes, although they aren't as great as mine. For that, so you could see how magnanimous I am, I forgive you."

"I haven't asked for your forgiveness."

"I forgive you anyway." The albino does his own thing. "Listen, I'll tell you one thing, I respect your grandfather so much and he's a man that I fucking like, but that's not important, I don't give a fuck who your grandfather, your father or your brother is. What does matter is that I trust in my friends' criteria and it turns out that our good Toño has you in very high esteem and I, as the awesome person I am, am a friend of the friends of my friends. So from this moment you have the joy of being part of the small but exclusive group of friends of the great, magnanimous and amazing Gilbert Beilschmidt, feel proud."

The last thing I expected from that egomaniac was a declaration of friendship. Well, it had been an imposition of friendship… to call it somehow. But why would I want to be friends with that egocentric German? Although he didn't give me the option of refusing either, I think the German didn't give a fuck about what I thought about establishing a friendship with him.

Laughing with a loud laugher, he gave me a couple of pats on my back that almost knocked me to the ground and we joined the other two, who were waiting for us in front of the entrance of a pub.

"What were Gil and you talking about, Lovi?" the gossip Spaniard asked me while we were approaching the bar.

"Nothing important, he just wanted me to join his sect."

As expected, the idiot of Antonio didn't catch the joke, but I wasn't going to explain it either.

"This first round is on my awesome person!" the German said when our drinks were served and we go to a table. "This is a celebration!"

"And what are we celebrating, mon ami?" The Frenchman asked while we were sitting down to a table.

"Kesese… I'll let you know that, after so much time, finally next Monday the road on the bridge that's being built under my supervision will begin to be built."

I almost chocked when I heard that, that madman was building a bridge? What idiot had left an important job like that in the hands of someone who couldn't see beyond his own shadow? Mental note: never cross that bridge. The bastard and the Frenchman cheered and congratulated their friend effusively.

"Do you build bridges?" I asked surprised.

"What else could an extraordinary engineer like me do but awesome works like that?" Engineer? I had never imagined it. "You can't expect less from someone as great as me, keep that in mind."

"And you didn't invite the belle fleur de la Hongrie to celebrate?"

"Of course I did, and she answered my awesome invitation with a frying-pan hit! She'll end up deforming my head." Or making him dumber than he already is.

"What did you propose her?" Antonio asked distrustfully. Remembering that she almost split my head in two for insulting her, I guess that the albino's proposal would be something intolerable for her.

"Nothing that deserved that answer!" he defended himself.

"And didn't you celebrate with Ludwig?"

"Sure! Besides passion for engineering, in the veins of my extraordinary little brother runs the same beer-loving blood as mine, so last night we went out to celebrate drinking the best German beer until we couldn't stay standing longer, kesese…" he laughed, and the other two too. I didn't, fuck, how could I let my influential brother go with someone who drank until he fell? "What's wrong, kid?"

"I…" I stuttered. "Feliciano… with macho potato…"

"Are you worried because ton petit frère has gone with Ludwig and because of what this has just said?" Fuck with the Frenchman, he does understand things fast. I nodded.

"This" he pointed himself, "has a name, one as awesome as him. Don't worry, kid, West only behaves in an awesome way when he goes with me because I let my geniality get him, the rest of the time you can call him the dull. Feli will be okay."

It wasn't like that calmed me down, I didn't really trust the albino's criteria.

"Changing the subject," Antonio said, "what are you going to cook tomorrow for lunch, Lovi? I can't wait to taste your food."

"Ah… well…. I don't know. I guess it will be Feliciano who will be in charge of that…"

"Pourquoi?" the Frenchy interrumpted. "Can't you cook maybe?"

"What do you take me for? Do you think I'm useless or what? Of course I can cook! You have never tried something better." I replied hitting the table with my fist. I can be questioned very things, but not that I can't cook, I do it and pretty well, as to lick your fingers. But my brother can do it even better, although I'll never recognize it in public. "But I'm not in charge of food, it's Feliciano. He… does it better… he does everything better…"

Damn it, my brain chose the best moment to bring out the jealousy I feel for my brother. Alcohol's things, it makes me talk about subjects I don't like to talk. I shut up drinking a sip of my drink and staying slightly crestfallen. I felt the brush of a hand between my hair and looked up.

"Come on, Lovi, don't get like that." The bastard of Antonio told me smiling. "I know that what you say it's not true." He added in a mysterious tone, winking at me.

I didn't understand what the bastard was based on to make that statement, we met only a week ago, he barely knew anything about me and even less about my brother to have a clear certainty that what I said wasn't true. However, his words raised my spirits.

With one more pair of drinks in each one's body, we left that pub. I was slightly dizzy, enough to feel like coming back home, but the other three were as fresh as a rose. In fact, they thought to continue with the binge in another place, at least the Frenchman and the German, because Antonio affirmed to be enough tired as to keep on with the party. We said goodbye at the entrance of the place.

"It wasn't necessary that you accompanied me home, bastard, you could have stayed with your buddies to continue with the party." I told Antonio, who was walking behind me, as I moved a bit to the sides while walking. "I'm not gonna get lost."

"Excuse me for doubting it, Lovi" he laughed, "but you are staggering and I have had to grab you a couple of times so you don't enter in a wrong street."

"Streets are different at night!"

He grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him, making me hit his torso. I looked up, Antonio was staring at me with his permanent smile causing me to blush.

"What are you doing, idiot?" I pushed him. "Let me go!"

"We've arrived, Lovi."

I looked around, the huge main door of the building was in front of me and I had been about to pass by. Fuck, what a way to make a fool of myself, the bastard would spend the night laughing at me. However, he didn't even say a comment about it.

We went up two floors of stairs to his flat in silence. The bastard made the feint of keep on going up behind me to my grandfather's house. I stopped him at the first step.

"Where do you think you are going, bastard?"

"I was going to accompany you to your house."

"It's just one floor up, I don't need your help, I can arrive ALONE. Good night!"

I went the stairs up running.

I took the keys out of my pocket. I tried to put the key in the lock several times, but to no avail, the door didn't stop moving, fuck! Or maybe it was me who was moving from one side to another. To top it all the light of the landing switched off, making harder the job I was dealing with.

The door of the house suddenly opened revealing on the other side the presence of a huge figure, I couldn't see his face because of the lack of light.

"CHIGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

I cringed, a giant stranger had entered the house and I had caught him the moment of running away, would he hurt me for it?

"Don't kill me, please!" I screamed, with my eyes closed and full of tears. "I-I'm a good Italian, I have relatives in… in… wherever you are from, don't kill me! DON'T KILL ME!"

"LOVINO!" I heard Antonio's breathless voice, as if he was running. "What happens?"

"Antonio, help me!" I begged, with my eyes still closed.

"Vee~ fratello, what happens? Why are you on the floor?"

I opened my eyes and looked up when I heard the sleepy voice of Feliciano. Someone switched the light on, specifically the macho potato, who was in front of my house's door, my brother was behind him looking at me confused. Antonio was bent next to me trying to catch his breath after his run up the stairs.

I wiped away the tears that didn't come out of my eyes and tried to stand up. Antonio offered me his hand to help me, I held it and stood up slowly, the scare would have passed, but my legs were still shaking.

"A-Are you okay, Lovi?" I nodded, blushing a bit. "I heard you screaming and I came thinking that something had happened to you."

"He got scared when I opened the door." The potato bastard said.

"Who doesn't get scared when someone opens the door of his own house in the dark?" I defend myself. "By the way, what the hell are you doing in MY house at this hour, potato bastard?"

"Fratello!" Feliciano scolded me. "I asked Ludwig to keep me company until you or grandpa came back because I was afraid to stay alone at home."

"That's right." The potato-eater confirmed. "While we were waiting, Feliciano fell asleep on the sofa and then I heard noises on the door, I thought someone tried to enter by forcing the lock."

"I just wanted to put the key in the lock!"

"That's why I wanted to accompany you" the bastard said, "I knew you'd need help."

"I didn't need it!" I spat. "I would have managed to put the key in the lock if the potato bastard hadn't opened the door giving me an awful scare!"

"Can I know why the hell you are shouting at this hour, gang of useless?!" the tulip shouted suddenly appearing on the stairs in a T-shirt and shorts and with a crazy expression on his face that scared. "That the majority of people who live here are brainless doesn't give you the right to make a row at three o'clock in the morning, there are people who have the habit of sleeping at this hour!"

"Sorry for disturbing you, Gov." the bastard apologized while scratching the back of his neck. "We shut up now."

"I better not hear you again or you'll regret it!" he threatened pointing us with his finger.

I stuck my tongue out at him when he turned. Idiot.

Antonio and the macho potato said goodbye to us and disappeared downstairs. I slammed the door shut to screw the tulip up. I headed to my room, as expected, with Feliciano stuck to me as a limpet.

"Fratello…"

"The answer is no" I said before he asked and I separated him from me by closing the door of my room in his face.

In the end he managed to convince to let him sleep with me. I don't know why I bother in refusing, I always end up giving in to his requests.

Next morning, grandpa, that only God knows at what time he returned, came into my room full of energy, although it wasn't even twelve o'clock yet, how could he have so much vitality so early? (Yes, early, I think that getting up before noon is early). He called us at the top of his voice for us to get up and start preparing the stupid lunch for his beloved tenants.

Feliciano obeyed him immediately, but I slacked and turned around on the bed, I didn't intend to get up and much less to cook for others, I was too comfortable on the mattress hugging the pillow…

"Lovino, get up!" he commanded me while lifting the blind.

"Leave me!" I grumbled.

I covered myself with the sheet, avoiding the annoying light that came in through the window. Grandpa pulled it and took it from me. I obeyed him reluctantly, I knew that he kept on disturbing me if I didn't do what he wanted… No doubt my idiot brother has taken after him.

"You'll sleep all you want in your nap." He said smiling.

I entered annoyed in the kitchen. Feliciano was about to bite a toast that I took from his hands, at least I'd have breakfast at ease.

My grandfather prepared the dessert, Feliciano prepared the main dish and I… I took care of peeling, cutting and chopping the ingredients, stirring the sauces, cleaning what was getting dirty… let's say that I spent two hours receiving orders of what to do, as if I liked to receive orders (yes, it's a sarcasm).

I slipped away from the kitchen as soon as I heard the doorbell ringing. They were the potato-loving brothers. The albino entered making a lot of noise, as it was his custom, and his brother as serious as always saying a plain 'hello', I looked at him with all the hatred in my soul for the scare he gave me the previous night.

As I had already learnt the lesson from the previous week, I didn't even bother to close the door, the guests could come in when they wanted and sit down to the table. In just ten minutes we were almost all reunited, only one person was missing, and after fifteen minutes of waiting he still hadn't appeared.

"Where is Antonio?" grandpa asked, looking at his tenants. "He didn't have to work, did he?"

"Maybe he is still asleep." The Frenchman said.

"Toño has the bad habit of always being late." The albino added.

"That idiot was born late." The tulip said.

"Govert!" his sister scolded him, sat next to me. "Don't talk about Antonio like that."

"Here I am!" Antonio said, appearing in the room and sitting between the Frenchman and the tulip. "Were you talking about me?"

"Yes, we commented how someone can be so useless as to be late for a meeting that is held just two meters from where you live."

"Govert!" Emma scolded him again.

"Sorry for being late, I got up late and between some things and others the time caught up with me…"

"As if now that was a novelty…"

Fuck with the tulip, it seems that he had gotten up on the wrong foot and that he had stepped on a lego being barefoot, because his bad temper was worse than mine and he was taking it out on the bastard. I got the impression that he was still a bit pissed off about having woken him up the night before.

"Now that we are all" grandpa said, ending the conversation, "let's eat!"

The tulip didn't participate in the conversations during the rest of the meal, he only talked to his sister. Antonio, on the other hand, chatted normally with everybody, as if the poisoned words of his neighbor hadn't affected him.

Everybody enjoyed the lunch and congratulated my brother for the delicious dishes he had prepared. Sure, I risk my fingers cutting vegetables and the one who takes all the merit is Feliciano… what a novelty!

"I don't believe that Feli has prepared all the food by himself, I'm sure that you have helped him, haven't you?" the bastard said, winking an eye just before leaving, he seemed to have read my thoughts. He let me speechless, I only could nod. And blush.

I felt strangely happy, just for something as foolish like Antonio had considered that lunch hadn't been the sole and exclusive work of my brother. I guess I wasn't used to being taken into consideration instead of Feliciano.

Smiling slightly, I fell onto my bed and hugged the pillow, ready to sleep a long and good nap.

I woke up a couple of hours later with my stomach roaring in hunger despite how much I had eaten at lunch, but it was time for a snack and my body was demanding something sweet.

I stretched myself when I got up and I noticed that in the room there was something strange, a black long object on the desk that wasn't there when I went to bed. It was a case. I opened it slowly, nervous and swallowing hard, intuiting what it kept inside. The smell of new and freshly varnished flooded my nostrils, the tightening cords shone in front of my eyes inviting me to caress them gently with my trembling fingers… it had been years since the last time I had a violin in front of me.

A bad memory came to my mind, I closed the case with violence and frustration.

I looked for grandpa throughout the house, I found him reading in his study, he was reclining on his chair with his feet on his desk. He jumped and almost fell of the chair when I stormed in and he sat well. I put the case with the violin on the table with a thud.

"What the hell is this?" I said pointing the case.

"What do you think? It's a violin." He replied calmly.

"I know that it's a fucking violin, I've got eyes on my face! What I want to know is why the hell it was in my damn room."

"It's a present, I wanted to surprise you," Yes, he surprised me, "although I'm afraid that the reaction isn't what I expected."

"I do not play violin anymore" I crossed my eyes, "I gave it up long time ago."

"Now you'll take it back." He said seriously.

"Ha! No way, why should I do it?"

"Because I say so!" he stood up and looked at me angry, his face scared me more than the tulip's in the middle of the night. I swallowed hard. "That your foolish mother consented you to leave it doesn't mean that I'm going to let you waste a talent like yours for a stupid tantrum."

"It's not for a stupid tantrum!"

"Then give me a good reason for what you don't want to do it."

"I… I… don't…" I wasn't going to recognize the true reason in front of my grandfather. "I don't… I don't like it anymore."

"I don't accept that reason. From tomorrow on you will receive violin lessons, I have gotten you a teacher, he'll wait for you at ten o'clock." I opened my mouth to protest, but the old man didn't let me. "And there's no more valid discussion." He said.

I took the instrument and, giving my grandfather a look full of resentment, I returned to my room. I kicked the door shut and fell onto my bed, putting the case aside.

Fuck, it seems that grandpa likes to annoy me. Obviously he doesn't know the real reason why I gave up playing and I didn't intend to let him know, he'd call it foolish… Yes, I've low self-esteem, but I'm not going to admit it in front of anybody, I also have my pride!

Somebody knocked on my door and entered slowly.

"Ve~ fratello, why were you arguing with grandpa?" he sat on the bed close to me. I was facing away from him.

"For nothing, idiot. Go and leave me alone!"

"Whoa!" he got surprised. He had opened the case, damn nosey. "Is this a violin?" what a stupid question, doesn't he have eyes on his face? "Where have you got it from?"

"Grandpa gave it to me as a present."

"Does that mean that you are going to play again?"

"No!" I replied without looking at him. "I don't care if grandpa wants to force me, I'm not going to play again."

"Veee~… It's a pity, fratello." He stood up and walked to the door. I still didn't look at him. "I still remember the last time I heard you play, at the school recital, you did it so well that I came out in goose flesh. You can't imagine how envious I was."

The door closed suddenly. It was then when I turned to look, my brother had gone.

That Feliciano, the living personification of perfection, told me that he was envious of me let me perplexed. His words had a deep effect on me, so much that I dared to carefully take the instrument out of the case and put it on my neck. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of its scent again to, with a trembling hand, slide the bow through the cords.

That sounded… terribly bad. But, it was normal, dammit! The instrument was new and it wasn't in tune, and I was a bit rusty… Fuck! It had been four years without playing, there are things that are forgotten. And well, getting riled had no sense, next day I'd begin to receive lessons with some idiot who would make me remember everything I needed.

Next morning, my grandfather woke me up very, very early, although I barely had time to get dressed and eat breakfast. He went to work, but before he told me that I was being waited in the living room (maybe to not try to escape). I got very surprised when I saw it was the bastard of Antonio who was there.

"No, please, tell me that you are not my violin teacher."

"I'd like it" he laughed, "but I only can play guitar. I just have come to accompany you to your teacher's house, are you ready?"

I grabbed my things and followed Antonio through the streets of the old quarter.

"Hey, bastard, why aren't you working today?"

"It's my free day."

"Fuck, two free days in a row in your busy work schedule, you should think it's Christmas or something like that." The bastard laughed. "And why are you accompanying me to class instead of using the morning to rest?"

"Well… the only ones that could accompany you were Ludwig and me, so your grandpa ask me for the favour" okay, I appreciate the company of Antonio instead of potato bastard, at least the old man thinks, "he said that he didn't want to make Ludwig have a bad time." But he thinks in a wrong way. "We're here."

We were received by a dark-haired and purple-eyed guy that looked stuck-up and was looking at us over his glasses with an expression of bother.

"You're late, idiots!"

"Hello, Rod…" Antonio scratched the back of his neck. "Always it's a pleasure to see you."

"Is this Mr. Vargas' grandson?" he spoked with a strange accent. "I'm Roderich Edelstein, your music teacher. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand to me.

"ARE YOU GERMAN?!" I shouted pointing at him.

"I'm Austrian." He said slowly.

"So you are semi-German." Antonio facepalmed himself.

"Antonio, could I know what kind of idiot you have brought?"

"Hey!" I pipped in, offended. "What did you think, you damn imbecile?"

"SILENCE!" he hit the table with a bat… no, with a radio antenna? Antonio and I stood firm for the scare. "The discipline is very important in music, so try not to repeat another outburst like this anymore, because I'm not going to consent it, understood?"

I nodded several times.

"Very well. You can go now, Antonio."

"Jooo, can't I stay to listen to Lovi?"

"NO!" said at the same time my new teacher and I.

"Well, okay." Antonio resigned. "I'll come for you at two."

"Antonio" Roderich said, "it's not necessary that you come for him, I can accompany him to his house."

"Rod, my friend, it's not for nothing, but I want Lovi to get home, not spend several hours wandering around the center." He patted his shoulder. "See you later!"

"Idiot." My stuck-up teacher said in a low voice. He turned and walked towards me. "What are you doing standing here? Come into the living room and show me what you know."

I obeyed him. I took out the violin from the case and settled into position. He sat on a chair in front of me, but…

"W-What should I play?" I asked nervously.

"Whatever you want, I'm just going to listen to you to evaluate your abilities. So let's start."

The Austrian's attentive look on me made me feel more nervous than I already was. Fuck, and I didn't know what I could play. Feliciano's words of praise came to my mind and I decided to play that same music as the last time.

Roderich remained silent for several minutes, staring at me with that purple and cold look, how long did he plan to make me wait to hear his assessment? He stood up and smiled a faint smile of satisfaction.

"You have talent, but you lack technique."

I was excited. That meant that… I hadn't done it so bad! I felt proud and satisfied with myself.

And then the real class started.

Roderich was a very strict and perfectionist teacher, he called me idiot when I made a mistake or he hit the table with his last model baton (radio antenna). He forced me to review the most basic knowledge of music and about the violin, including how to put the fingers (because he said I did it wrong) and how to grab the instrument.

By the time Antonio arrived and we finished the class, three long and strenuous hours later, the fingers of my left hand hurt me so much for stepping on the strings that I could feel them throbbing and releasing fire.

"I want you to practice this for tomorrow." He gave me a score, he should be dreaming if he thought that I was going to spend the afternoon rehearsing. "Antonio, could you come with me? I'd like to talk to you in private."

The bastard went happily with him to the next room, Roderich, on the contrary, didn't seem happy at all. I couldn't hear what they said, those assholes spoke in a very low voice, quite an achievement for the noisy Spaniard. Finally, the Austrian, with trembling hands, gave Antonio a sealed envelope that he kept safely.

"Hey, Lovi, do you want us to go eat?" the bastard asked once we were out of my stuck-up teacher's house. "I know a good place near here."

"Are you treating?"

"Sure!"

"Then okay."

I wasn't going to say no to a free meal. And besides, we didn't have to walk so much to reach the place, it was in the back street. We sat to the tables on the street.

"And well, how was the first day, Lovi?"

"My fingers hurt." I said shortly. "A lot."

"Poor boy." He caressed my hand. I withdrew it. "Sometimes Roderich is too strict and intransigent, but he is the best at teaching music, that's why your grandfather insisted so much that he was the one who gave you lessons."

"One moment, did you say that my grandfather insisted that he was the one who gave me lessons?" I put the pieces together. "Did all those meetings with the old man have anything to do with this?"

"Of course, what did you think? Your grandfather told me that he wanted to surprise you and as I had the week a little freer and he was too busy he asked me to take care of looking for the best violin there was and to convince Roderich to give you lessons. Don't think it was an easy task, especially the latter, Rod is very reluctant to accept students in his classes, always makes a test to know their musical skills before giving them yes. But I managed to convince him to accept you!" he stuck his chest out with pride. Surely the Austrian gave him yes for being a bore.

"He made me a test too. As soon as you left."

"And what was his verdict?"

"He said I have talent." I admitted proudly, although I omitted the lack of technique.

"I expected no less from you." He admitted with a glowing smile.

I smiled shyly. And I blushed, a lot, I didn't understand how a guy that barely knew me could have so much faith in me when even the closest to me hadn't trusted me so much.

"How cute you are when you blush!" he laughed.

Okay, now I understand it. Antonio is an idiot. But he's an idiot who managed to cheer me up.

"Moron" I threw a piece of bread to his head, "I'm not cute."

"Auch, don't waste food."

Resignedly, I brought to my mouth the next piece of bread I had prepared to throw.

"Hey, Lovi, I was wondering…" who knows what had crossed his mind. "Why did you decide to play violin out of all the instruments? Or is it that your parents forced you?"

"I don't remember." I lied. I did remember, but I was embarrassed to tell. The bastard made a face of not believing me. "Do you remember the reason of all your damn decisions?"

"Of the important ones, yes."

"Oh, yes? So tell me, why the hell did you decide to work in a clothes store when it's obvious that you don't have any style in dressing?" he pouted and made puppy eyes, it seemed that I had offended him. "Fuck, don't look at me like that and admit it, you wear the first thing you catch from the wardrobe, it's obvious."

"It's true." He admitted smiling again. "Let's say that I get the job by chance, I needed a job to pay for college expenses and I was offered a position."

"You were offered a position? How is it that you were offered a position?"

"Yes, actually I was only accompanying Emma," I felt a little pang in the stomach, "she was who wanted to work in that store. And in the end the two of us were hired!"

Nobody can't be luckier than this damn bastard, he is hired by chance and besides with the hot blondie. The same as me, who worked in fifteen different restaurants in Rome during last year and each one of my bosses and partners were worse than the previous ones.

"And why the hell are you still working there and with the kids on the beach instead of doing what you studied for? By the way, what did you study?"

"Children's teaching." He answered completely happy. I got surprised, but I don't know why, if Antonio is like a child, that work suits him.

"And why aren't you working in a fucking school?!"

"It's not easy to access. Besides…" he remained silent for some seconds and then smiled in a relaxed way "I don't want to work in a school."

"And then why the heck did you study that?"

"Because I like to work with children and… well… I have a dream…"

"What dream?" I tried not to sound interested in knowing it, but the bastard didn't mind, his gaze was full of illusion for the question.

"I want to open a daycare and be my own boss!" he replied enthusiastically. "Although at the moment I don't have the means to do it, but I know that sooner or later I'll get it."

That is what is called being optimist. I felt I bit of jealousy of the bastard, he had a clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life…

"Well, Lovi, now it's your turn. Tell me why you decided to play violin."

"No."

"But I have answered to all your questions!" he complained and made puppy eyes again. I turned my face away. "I've even told you my dream! You are one of the few that knows it."

Damn fucking manipulative Spanish bastard, he got to convince me again to do what he asked me.

"If you laugh at me because of what I'm going to tell you, I'll kill you." I threatened pointing him with my finger. "My grandmother played violin. One day, when Feliciano and I were children, grandpa showed us her violin and told us stories about her. Fuck, he talked so fondly and so proud of her while stroking that instrument that I wanted him to feel the same way for me too and… so I thought that the best way to get it was learning to play."

The bastard didn't laugh. He stared at me in silence, spellbound and with a tender smile on his lips that made me blush and make me nervous, it wasn't usual to see the Spaniard so quiet.

"W-What? I know it's a stupid reason, but in the end it turned out that I was good at it and… Fuck! I was only seven years and…"

"Lovino" he interrupted me, "you should listen to your grandfather talk about you."

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: No money, no party

Having class with Roderich Edelstein was a real pain in the ass. Although the guy had managed in a couple of weeks that my level with the violin resembled the one I had when I gave it in (without forgetting, of course, my admirable effort), standing his incessant scolds and that he called me idiot every time I made a mistake required I gather a patience that I didn’t think I possessed for not replying him badly and it made the hours of class seemed eternal for me.

“Enough!” My teacher shouted at me, hitting his radio antenna on a table while I was playing a piece. “Stop playing, idiot!”

“What? Why?” I snorted, putting the instrument down. “What have I done now?”

“You would know if you had listened to me. What was the last thing I told you yesterday?”

“Goodbye?”

“Don’t get smart on me, idiot!” he hit again his radio antenna against the table. “I told you to practice at home the score I gave you, the same as the previous days. And have you obeyed me?”

“Of cour…”

“No, of course not.” He said. “Don’t try to take me for a fool, I know you haven’t obeyed me any day. I have a very good hearing and, although you advance quickly thanks to your talent, you don’t do it as fast as you could due to the little interest you show outside class.”

“I spend four hours here playing no stop!” I justified myself. “I need to rest, my fingers hurt.”

“No more excuses. I think you were nineteen years old, but you behave like a kid of nine, so I’ll treat you like one.” He pulled out a chair from under the table. “Put the violin away and sit here.”

I obeyed and walk to Roderich a little nervous, the twisted expression of his face and his crossed arms didn’t make me have a good feeling, in fact it reminded me so much of the attitude that my mother showed when she was going to reprimand me. He pulled out a bundle of white sheets and a pen. I looked at him without understanding.

“Write ‘I will obey the orders of Mr. Edelstein without questioning them’…”

“WHAT?!”

“…over and over again until I tell you to stop,” he continued, “numbering each phrase and with a clear and legible handwriting if you don’t want me to make you repeat it, have you understood?”

I inflated my cheeks and, with narrowed eyes, I glanced him with pure hatred as any response. I bowed my head and focused on the boring and repetitive task I had been commended by the Austrian, who played the piano in the meantime.

I spent one entire hour writing the damn phrase, I wasted two sheets on both sides. When he told me to stop, it was time to come back home, so I picked up the violin case and walked to the door.

“Where do you think you are going?” he stopped me. “The lesson hasn’t finished yet.”

“But it’s two o’clock, it’s time to go.”

“Not today. Come back here and take the violin out, we’re going to recover the hour we have lost due to your indiscipline.”

“But it’s lunch time!” I complained. “I’m hungry!”

“Haven’t you learnt anything from what you have had to write?” he looked angry. “Maybe do you need another hour of punishment? But keep in mind that then I will not allow you to leave until four o’clock, because we’re are going to recover the hour of playing you owe me today.”

The fucking Austrian didn’t think twice when it came to imposing punishments, he didn’t care the hour or how hungry I were if he managed to apply his strict discipline. I mentally cursed the idiot Roderich during that hour he forced me to be in his house playing… and without complaining.

I came back home hungry and in a rage. I let out part of my anger against every door that was in my way while insulting my teacher, I know he wouldn’t listen, but at least I expected his ears to ring. Grandpa came to meet me, I don’t know if he was worried about my condition or about the doors I had slammed without compassion.

“Lovino, is everything okay? Why have you arrived so late today?”

I ignored his questions. The only thing I wanted in that moment was to fill my stomach with the dish of carbonara that Feliciano had kept into the microwave. The old man entered the kitchen after me, waiting patiently for an answer.

“What happened, Lovino? You have come back very late from class and in a worse mood than usual."

Great, now it turns out that I’m always in a bad mood. I growled.

“Lovino…”

“Roderich is an asshole! I have come back so late because that imbecile has punished me…”

“What did you do?” he asked, curious.

“Nothing!”

“You have had to do something, nobody is punished for nothing.”

If what he wanted was to make me angrier, no doubt the old man was getting it. First he told me I’m always in a bad mood and now he call me liar, why the hell didn’t he believe in what I was saying? Precisely Roderich had punished me for doing nothing, nothing that he ordered me to do in MY FREE TIME.

“Yes, going to his damn classes, that’s what I have done!” I said. “I wouldn’t have any damn problem if you hadn’t forced me to waste my time on them!”

I got up and locked myself in my room slamming the door.

Maledizione! I don’t know how I do it, but sooner or later I end up arguing with grandpa, he always does or says something that makes me angry, he must regret having brought me from Italy. Although I may be wrong,  Antonio planted the seed of doubt on me when told me that I should listen to my grandfather talking about me, but honestly I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what the old man thought of me, because if it was a good thing, why didn’t he tell me?, and if it was something bad… I preferred not to know it.

And talking about the bastard, he kept on coming home almost every evening, not for meeting grandpa, but to force me, somehow, to go to take something out there, what could be limited to drink a pair of summer red wines in any terrace or be extended until the dinner. However that day he wasn’t going to come, as he didn’t the day before, because he had been called to work in a restaurant… or something like that he told me.

But of course I wasn’t going to get rid of the bore Spaniard so easily, he had to be noticed one way or another.

That evening, still quite annoyed by the Austrian’s punishment and by the argument with grandpa, I decided to obey the instructions of my teacher (not for pleasure, but because I didn’t want to get another punishment) and took out the score he gave me before I left. I knew that song, it was a Venetian Rondò.

I concentrated on the melody I was creating with the violin, until the voice of certain bastard who was singing the song I was playing reached my ears through the window which looked out onto the patio.

I suddenly stopped playing and went to the window.

“Stop inventing such a stupid lyrics for the rondo, bastard!” I shouted angrily, the imbecile had distracted me.

“Hello, Lovi!” he greeted me happily, sticking his head out of the window and looking up. “Didn’t you like the song?”

“Obviously, NO!” I spat. “Shut your fucking trap, it’s your fault that I can’t get concentrated, fuck! And don’t call me Lovi!”

I went back inside and snorted a couple of times before taking the instrument back in my hands.

I started the melody again, but if at some point I thought the damn bastard would stop annoying because I had shouted him a bit through the window… I should receive a price for my ingenuity. Apparently the idiot Antonio knew too how to play the song and he should think it was funny to accompany me with his guitar, musically speaking, until the end of the song.

Snorting, I put the violin on the desk. I left my room like a bull, ready to go to the bastard’s apartment to tell him a few home truths for not stopping disturbing me over and over while I was practicing.

However, something stopped me. Feliciano was leaping towards me with his typical and silly smile and with his eyes so full of illusion as it seemed that sparkles were coming out of them.

“Vee~… Fratello, so beautiful!” he clung to my neck. “It’s been a while since the last time I heard you play, it has been wonderful!” although I love to listen to my brother’s compliments, I was sure that Roderich would laugh at Feliciano’s opinion and raise thousand objections to my interpretation. “I loved the rondò played a duet, why don’t you do it again?”

“It wasn’t played a duet, idiot!” I yelled at idiot Feliciano, pushing him away from me. “And don’t dream that you will hear me again today!”

Because I didn’t intend to try to practice again, surely somebody would disturb me. So I sat on the couch of the living room and spent there the rest of the evening, watching the boring Spanish summer programming, which, next day, cost me a new reprimand from Roderich after listening to me playing the piece he ordered me to practice.

“It seems that whatever I tell you goes in one ear and out of the other.” He was standing in front of me, softly tapping his modern extendable baton against the palm of his hand repeatedly. “Is that what I made you write yesterday didn’t serve you?”

“Of course it did!” I said, offended. “I was practicing for…”

“Don’t lie to me!” he hit the table. “The notes sound at the wrong time and squeak in my ears, you didn’t practice.”

“I did! What happens is that the Spanish bastard I have as a neighbor didn’t stop disturbing me over and over again during the entire time I was practicing and…”

“Come here and sit down.” He interrupted me and pulled out the chair from under the table.

Shit, punished again.

I obeyed and approached slowly to my teacher, who pulled out a bundle of white sheets and a pen.

“Write I will stop inventing excuses to justify my indiscipline over and over again until I tell you to stop, numbering each phrase and with a clear and legible handwriting if you don’t want me to make you repeat it, have you understood?”

I frowned at him. As if it couldn’t be understood, if he had released exactly the same speech as the previous day, with the difference that the sentence to write was different. I bowed my head and focused on the boring task I had been commended, cursing mentally with every word I wrote to the prissy Austrian, who was expressing his irritation playing Chopin on the piano, and to the stupid bastard of Antonio, because it was his fault I was being punished.

And having to copy hundred times the same sentence wasn’t the worst, but that Roderich would force me to recover the lost time by postponing the time of leaving. That bastard would find funny to make me go hungry!

However, fortune smiled at me and made his appearance in the Austrian’s house in form of a bell ringing when the extra hour of class had just started. It was Antonio and Emma, they had come to pick me up and go for lunch all together.

“Lovino can’t go yet” Roderich said to them, “our class is not over yet.”

“Isn’t supposed that your class finish at two?” Antonio asked in a childish tone. “It’s already more than two, it’s time to eat!”

“Not today. Lovino is fulfilling a punishment” I blushed and ducked my head embarrassed, that my teacher had punished me as a kid was something I didn’t want anybody to know, “and he won’t leave until I allow him. So you’d better leave.”

“Don’t be so bad, Rod, what has poor Lovi done to be punished?”

“It’s more what he has not done, precisely to obey me and practice at home the scores I gave him.”

“I heard him playing.”

“Yes, in fact, you know what?” Emma said, “yesterday evening Lovino and Toni played a little duet concert, it was beautiful.”

I felt proud that Emma would have liked my interpretation, even if it really hadn’t been as she thought, but I wouldn’t be the one who say her was wrong.

“Really?” Roderich asked incredulously, turning his head towards me to look at me with bewilderment, perhaps because the blonde’s version didn’t match with I had told him in the first moment. He sighed with resignation. “All right, Lovino, you can pick up your things and go.”

I couldn’t believe it, I had gotten rid of the punishment! I took my things as fast as I could and stayed under the doorframe of the house trying to hurry the other two, just in case my teacher regretted his decision at the last moment.

“Would you like to come eat with us, Rod?” Antonio asked.

“Thank you very much, but no.”

“Come on, man.” The bastard insisted. Couldn’t he accept a no as an answer? What a bore. “We’re going near here, then, if you want, we can have a coffee together and I accompany you so you won’t get lost.”

 Roderich twisted his face and his violet eyes threw a look of deep resentment to the smiling Antonio. Emma was laughing softly.

“Leave now, please.” He said politely. "And you, Lovino, try to practice this weekend, because next time I will not be so benevolent with you.”

I raised my thumb in response. Roderich rolled his eyes and closed the door behind us.

We sat down to a table in the shade at the terrace of a nearby place full of tourists who were eating and drinking greedily while they were roasting under the sun. There was no doubt that Antonio knew the city almost as well as the palm of his hand because the place, despite its appearance of a grotty den, served delicious dishes, most of them prepared with tomato (fruit for which the bastard and I felt authentic passion).

Emma’s presence at lunch seemed odd to me, not because I didn’t like her company, which I actually loved, but because maybe I had gotten used to having the bastard’s attention only for me and I didn’t want to share it with anyone… It could be said that I thought selfishly, but, fuck, Antonio was the first person who felt a special attachment for me and I didn’t want to lose that.

“Hey, Lovi,” the bastard said after wiping the rest of tomato sauce on his plate, “if Roderich is too severe with you, don’t hesitate to tell me, I’ll go and tell him a thing or two if necessary.”

Although sometimes the Spaniard paid me more attention than necessary… he treated me like a fucking kid!

“Toni, darling” Emma said before I could answer the bastard. But, one moment, why the hell did she call him “darling”? I felt a pinch in the pit of my stomach. “I don’t think you have to interfere in Roderich’s way of working, he has his own methods. Leave him alone, he has already had enough.”

“I know. I don’t want to interfere, but you know how he is and the character he has, all I want is that he doesn’t give Lovi a hard time with his strict discipline.”

“I’m not a damn kid, bastard. I don’t need you to keep an eye on me all the time.”

“Do you see, Toni?” Emma placed her hand on the bastard’s, causing him to return his puppy eyes to her and smile. “Lovino doesn’t need you to stand so over him.”

To the pressure in my stomach it was added a lump in my throat. Maybe was there something between those two beyond friendship? They were only assumptions, because there were hardly any signs of loving affection, but… Shit, I was jealous! Although, frankly, I wouldn’t be able to say about exactly what, if I felt that my chances of conquering Emma were decreasing by the bastard’s fault or that she got all my friend’s attention.

Spending Saturday night alone at home lying on the couch hugging a cushion while watching on TV an absurd romantic comedy (what a shit I was watching) was the most pathetic way to end a day that, in general, hadn’t been so bad.

I had slept until lunch time, eaten lasagna and then I had spent the afternoon with Feliciano, we went shopping together to the mall, it’s one of the few things we have in common besides sleeping a lot.

But now my idiot brother had gone out there with his super friend the muscled potato bastard and I had stayed at home bored like an oyster. And it’s not that Feliciano didn’t invite me to go with him and his little friend, but I passed to go anywhere with the potato-lover, it was enough for me to put up with his beloved and egocentric brother, my self-proclaimed friend, some of the time I went out with Antonio.

Damn! I remembered the bastard. We didn’t see each other since we said goodbye the day before at the door of his flat after lunch, what would he be doing?... Fuck! Why did I wonder what that idiot would be doing? It’s not like I had any interest in it… or yes, well, maybe a little… but it’s that that damn asshole had made me get used to his almost daily visits! I guess he would be working (then people complain that there is unemployment, normal, all the jobs are monopolized by the bastard) or with Emma… something contracted inside me when this idea came to my head.

Some knocks on the door took me out of my thoughts. Maybe it would be the idiot of Feliciano who would have forgotten the keys, although in my opinion it was too early for him to return, just half past twelve.

“Hello, Lovi~!”

The smiling bastard of Antonio was greeting me happily with his hand. I can’t deny that I was surprised (and also glad, although I’d never admit it) by his visit.

“What are you doing he-here, bastard?”

“What do you think? It’s Saturday night, let’s go have some drinks!” he said effusively going inside and looking around. “Are you alone?”

“Eh, yes… Grandpa had a business dinner or something like that” I hope it wasn’t a euphemism, “and Feliciano go with his friend the giant potato-lover. And you…? Weren’t you with Emma?” the question came out alone, unconsciously, I guess because I had been thinking about it before Antonio appeared. I blushed a bit. I felt the urge of hitting myself against the wall for not being able to stand the curiosity.

“With Emma?” he asked, surprised. My heart (I don’t know why) jumped with joy when I saw his reaction. “And why should I be with her? Have I missed something?” he cocked his head. “I have just finished working and…”

“No… forget it, it was mere curiosity.” I feigned indifference. “I’m going to change, I’ll come right now.”

I practically flew to my room and went back, ready, before Antonio even had time to sit down and wait for me.

The Frenchman and the albino were waiting for us in the pub we went to and, judging by the amount of glasses that were piling up on the table, they had been there for a long time, although they didn’t look like they were drunk (what kind of liver do this guys have?).

“At last!” the Frenchman said, getting up. We were thinking about going to your house to get you out of the bed, Toni.”

“How exaggerated!” Antonio answered laughing as we sat down. The Frenchy sat next to me. “I told you I would be late, I just got out of work.”

“Working as much as you do can’t be very good, mon ami." The Frenchman’s voice had a tone of genuine concern, but Antonio simply smiled at him as he always did. “And what about you, mon petit cher?” he put an arm over my shoulders. Arg, what a disgusting feeling! My face should have been a poem.

“Yes, kid” the albino said, “tell us how your classes are going with the stupid aristocrat. The other day I wanted to ask you, but sometimes my awesome mind suffers gaps and I forgot it.”

“Gaps? I’d rather say oceans, mon ami, especially if certain Hungarian doctor is present and the subject in question is related to your archenemy and rival in love."

The macho albino was in love with Elizaveta? Wow, it was surprising to discover that that egomaniac was able to feel love, or whatever it was, for someone else but himself.

“Francis, two things: first, miss tomboy has studied medicine, but she needs two or three years more to be a doctor; and second, that damn aristocrat is NOT my rival in love, Elizaveta left him, he has no chance of getting back together with her, so I have no reason to compete with him.”

“The Austrian and the crazy Hungarian were a couple?” I was surprised.

“Hey, you, brat!” the German spat suddenly. “The only one here who insults the tomboy is me, so take care not to let me listen to you again or I assure you that you’ll fell all the fury of my amazing fist.”

Fucking albino, the other day he proclaimed himself as my friend and now he threatens me for saying that his chick is round the bend, he must have some kind of personality disorder. I was about to get up to respond to his provocation, but Antonio’s hand on my chest stopped me. His other hand rested on the German’s shoulder urging him to remain calm.

“Come on, Gilbert, take it easy.” Antonio said. “Lovi didn’t want to offend you, really?” he looked at me. I nodded. “See?”

“Ok, it doesn’t matter, just for showing you how great I am” or asshole, depending on how you look at it, “not like that conceited aristocrat.”

“It seems incredible that back in the day you got along.” The bastard said.

“Yeah” the albino said, annoyed, “I even took the trouble of taking him in my awesome home when Eli broke up with him and threw him out of the house, but the asshole didn’t stop touching my balls with his stinginess trying to impose me his stupid rules of conduct in MY OWN house, I wasn’t going to stand that!”

“And then I took him in” Antonio said, “but he didn’t stay long.”

“Because you are a spendthrift, Toño.”

“I wanted to take him in” the Frenchman said, “but, for some reason I don’t know, he doesn’t like me so much… What a pity, I would have repaired his broken heart…”

“Stop dreaming, beardy.” The albino said.

“Anyway, being so close to Eli wasn’t good for him, he was still… well, he is still in love with her.” Antonio said.

“And why did they break up?” I asked.

The three shrugged.

“I have a theory about that.” the Frenchman said, taking on a mysterious air. “She got angry because he didn’t want to volunteer for her urology practice, impeding her to practice with him a prostate exam.”

The three started laughing. I didn’t understand the joke.

“What is a prostate exam?” I asked with all my fucking ingenuity.

“Don’t you know?” the Frenchman said, approaching dangerously his face with a perverted expression on it to mine. “Whenever you want, I’ll make you one…”

“FRAN!” Antonio hit the table and got up, his expression was cold and his eyes emanated angry. It was scary.

“Keep calm, amour” he got away from me, “I was just joking.”

“But what is it?” I repeated, curious, looking at Antonio, who relaxed his gesture and adopted his normal attitude. "Explain it to me.”

“Eh… Well…”

The other two were still laughing softly. Antonio blushed a bit. He indicated me to approach him and explained it to my ear. I got redder and redder with every word of the explanation, how could someone be so perverted? Antonio had his face very red too when he finished telling me what the exam was about.

Full of rage and disgust, I got up and turned to the Frenchman, I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and made him get up too.

“Damn perverted Frenchy!” I shouted. “You can put your fucking finger in…! AGH!”

I was completely disgusted, but I was still clenching my fists with the Frenchy’s shirt clasped between them. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to mind being at the mercy of my anger, in fact he was not even looking at me but at a point near the main door.

“Oh, mon Dieu!”

I turned my head to see where he was looking at, but there was nothing interesting, just a dressed blond guy with eyebrows that covered most of his forehead. It seemed that he had just entered.

“Loose, brat!” he smacked me on my hands to let him go. One moment, did that asshole just call me ‘brat’? That one won’t leave the bar with all his teeth. “Let me go, I say!”

He had become very serious. I did what he asked for and I sat down again, confused. He smoothed his shirt, staying up. The other two were very serious too and were looking at the blond who was coming to us. There was tension in the air.

“Oh, my God!” the newcomer put his hand on his head. “Why the hell out of all the damn pubs in this city I have precisely to come into the one you are in?”

“Call it destiny, mon amour.” A crooked smile curled his lips. “How are you, Arthur? It’s been a long time.”

“It would have been more if it was up to me” he snapped, “but I had to dock here.”

“So are you already a captain?” the Frenchman feigned surprise. “Congratulations, cher!”

“So it is. And are you still a wine bastard or was it just a passing phase in your life?”

“What are you saying about a passing phase? I’m the best oenologist you are going to find in all your life and know, mon amour, that I work in the best winery in the area, so come to my house when you want and I’ll give you a bottle.” He winked. “I still live in the same address, I guess you know it, with the difference that now I reside in the apartment that was yours.”

“No way will I put a foot in that place.” He added with repugnance. “And what about you two? I read that the monstrosity that crosses the bay is yours.” He told the albino.

“Monstrosity? It’s the best engineering structure you’ll see in your whole damn life, and you’d like any of the bridges that cross your dear Thames to be half as amazing as the one I’m building here.”

“I work on a ship, I go on a magnificent engineering structure every day, idiot.” The Englishman replied (I deduced it from the Thames). “What about you, Antonio? Did you finish your ‘formative cycle’ of teaching or your brain isn’t good enough for finishing such an easy degree?”

“Your fucking mother, eyebrows, I swear I’ll kill you.” Antonio got up ready to jump over the table to hit that Arthur guy, who moved backwards, but the albino held the bastard on time.

“As irascible as ever.” The browed said, laughing. Irascible Antonio? Who was he talking about? “And who’s this?" He pointed at me contemptuously. “His face seems familiar to me.”

“Don’t you see the resemblance? It’s Romu’s grandson!”

“Ah…” he looked at me from feet to head. “Yeah. Well, I leave you. I hope we won’t see again.”

“Same.” Antonio and the albino said together with weariness.

The browed blond headed for the bar followed by the glances of Gilbert and Antonio, who threw him daggers, and the malicious one of the Frenchman, who didn’t take his eyes off him. He sat next to me again, a particular lascivious smile formed on his lips.

“How nice is your friend.” I said sarcastically.

“He’s not our friend.” Antonio said with a hint of hate in his voice, which surprised me, since the bastard is mister sympathy and likes everyone. “He’s a moron.”

“We had an affaire.” The Frenchman confessed. I spat my drink when heard that.

“Fuck, Francis, don’t remind me” Antonio said with horror, “we lived together then and I found him in the morning as God brought him into the world coming out from your room. I still have nightmares with that image.”

“It was just the night before he left” the Frenchman ignored the complaints of the other two and continued to remember, “first we made out on the beach and then we continued the party at home. We haven’t see each other since then… This must be the work of destiny, no doubt.”

“Destiny my foot, Fran!” the German said. “He’s a ship’s captain and there is a damn port here, he’ll be here a couple of days and he’ll disappear again. That’s all.”

“Yeah… Then I think I’ll go to remember good times… I mean, to bother him a bit… I mean, to…”

And he went with the Englishman, who welcomed him shouting and with a face of disgust.

“Fuck, no wonder he hates the Frenchy” I said, “but what did he do to you two so you have that mutual hatred?”

“Bothering us all he could” the German answered, “specially Toño.” He put an arm over him.

“Don’t remind me.” Said the bastard bitterly. “Damn idiot…”

“I know! Next time we will sing him Yellow submarine, which will be what his boat will become if he sail it.” The albino tried to cheer him up, with a stupid idea in my opinion, but that got a slight laugh from the bastard.

No doubt the atmosphere of partying had gone to hell, it was enough to see the faces of my two companions to realize it. We finished our drinks and decided to leave.

That’s when the night really got dark for me.

I grabbed my wallet and… what the fuck?! I didn’t have enough money to pay the bill for what I had drunk. I searched and searched some lost bill in all my fucking wallet, but nothing, I didn’t have an extra euro. I was stunned contemplating poverty in my own hands.

“What happens, Lovi?” The bastard asked me. “Are you daydreaming?”

“Eh… no… I don’t have enough…” I showed him the empty wallet. “I don’t have more money.”

“Ah, don’t worry, man! I’m not gonna let you stay here washing glasses," he joked, ruffled my hair and paid the waiter, “I treat you, no problem.”

But there was a problem, a very big and fucking problem, at least for me. It wasn’t that I carried an insufficient amount of money in the wallet because of a forgetfulness, but that the amount I brought from Italy (the few savings I kept in my moneybox) had been shrinking little by little until there’s practically nothing left.

Dammit, I had to get money somehow or I’d have to say goodbye to go shopping and to go out constantly with the bastard, even if he didn’t mind to treat me once, twice, or infinite times, I didn’t think it was right to take advantage of his generosity… Fuck! It’s not that I cared about him or his economy, but the guy worked more than a Chinese to carry out everything and achieve his dream.

The only chance I saw of getting money for my expenses quickly was to ask my grandfather, I didn’t think he would deny it to me, wouldn’t he? But throughout my life I had never need to ask anyone for money, I always got it by my own means, and having to turn to grandpa to obtain it was a bit humiliating.

However, it’s supposed that if someone has two people under his protection, in this case Feliciano and me, the person in question will take care of all their needs, including economic ones, so it could be said that grandpa was obliged to cover my needs. It was enough to stand in front of him and say something like “Old man, I need money, give it to me”… what a phrase of a petty thief, can someone be more pathetic? I feel the urge of hitting myself for thinking about something like that, I wouldn’t get anything like that, maybe that my grandfather send me packing.

And in these thoughts I was immersed on Sunday afternoon while pretending to watch a fantastic movie on TV with Feliciano, who was dozing next to me on the couch  (and he was the one who wanted to watch the film in question, I guess to remember his planet).

“Lovino” grandpa called me seriously, that wasn’t a good sign, and in a low voice for not waking up my brother, “come with me a moment.”

I pushed Feliciano the sleeper aside, because his head was resting on my shoulder. He didn’t wake up. I followed grandpa to his study.

“What happens?” I asked with tediousness after closing the door. “What have I done now?”

“Do you feel remorse?” he asked curiously. “What have you done?”

“Nothing!” I exclaimed, ofended at being accused of… I don’t know of what, because the old man had turned an innocent question into a kind of confession. “It’s you who has called me, what do you want?”

He didn’t answer immediately. From a drawer of his desk he took out an envelope and several fifty-euro bills that put into it. I was stunned contemplating the orange color disappearing within the white, it was incredible that what I needed was so within my reach.

“This money is for you to give it to Roderich tomorrow, it’s the payment for his classes.” I think he said, I wasn’t listening to him. “Lovino?” grandpa snapped his fingers in front of my nose and pulled me out of the trance. “What’s wrong? I was talking to you and it seemed you weren’t listening to me.”

“No… nothing…” I answered absently.

“Lovino, don’t lie to me.” He crossed his arms and adopted a serious expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Eeeh… well…” I looked alternately at his eyes and at the envelope that was still in his hands. I had to tell him, it was the perfect opportunity. “I… need money…”

He frowned and looked at me inquisitively without saying a word. He was making me nervous.

“What do you want it for?”

“What do I want it for?” I spat. “What do you think I’m going to want it? I have expenses, you know?”

He made a face of annoyance, very similar to the ones that Roderich showed me daily, I think he didn’t like the way I answered him, I just hope he won’t imitate the Austrian’s punishments.

“How did you get money in Italy?”

I didn’t expect that question.

During the last year in Italy I was working. Yes, I worked in fifteen different restaurants in Rome, all with owners who verged the extreme bullshit, because there was no one that allowed me to develop my skills as a waiter without raising objections.

Moreover, my parents gave Feliciano and me some money weekly, which, although it wasn’t so much, let me cover some expenses. And well… if sometimes I needed more and I didn’t have other way to get it, I pilfered some bill to my father from his wallet, the idiot thought that it had been my mother (who did it too) and, due to he’s scared of her, he didn’t dare to speak. But of course, with my grandfather I would never think about doing something like that, the old man is not idiot, although sometimes you could think otherwise.

“I had a pay and I worked.” I finally answered after my mental reflection.

“What was your job?”

“I was a waiter.”

“Where?”

“Do you want the list?” I puffed my cheeks, so much questioning was starting to bother me.

“There’s no harm in having some references.”

“My references are a fucking shit, my bosses were half retarded, for not saying they were completely retarded, and my colleagues screwed me around, do you want to know anything else? They wouldn’t say anything good about me even if they were bribed.”

The old man started laughing loudly, making me confused. I don’t know what he found so funny in what I had just said, I didn’t see it.

“Very well, Lovino,” he wiped the tears from his eyes, “don’t worry. Tomorrow I’ll talk to the manager of my restaurant to give you a job as a waiter on the night shift, so it won’t interfere with the violin lessons.”

“But… WHAT?!” I shouted, surprised. “I have asked you for money, not for a damn job!”

“You won’t think I was going to give you money just like that, just for coming and asking me, right? As if I was a bank…”

“And isn’t it supposed to be what grandparents do?”

“I don’t know what kind of grandfather does that, but I assure you that I don’t.”

“I’m sure if Feliciano were the one asking for it, you’d give it to him.” I said softly, bending my face and crossing my arms.

Shit, I had screwed it up once again. Grandpa heard my comment and remained silent for a while, I think I offended him. Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I felt his eyes on me. He grabbed my chin and forced me to lift my face.

“You and your brother are different” he told me seriously, although he didn’t looked angry. I clenched my fists, preparing myself to hear how I was going to be compared with my perfect brother once more, as it always happened, “both have virtues and defects, but doesn’t mean that one is better or worse than the other. You are both my grandsons and, although the relationship I have with each other of you is different, I love you both equally.”

And before I could react, the old man wrapped his arms around me against my will.

“The things we want must be earned with effort, Lovino, otherwise we get wrong ideas about what we really deserve.”

He separated from me and smiled. He forced me to take the envelope to give it to Roderich and then he took out a twenty euro bill from his wallet and put it in my hand.

“Take this, so you can see I’m not that bad.”

He kissed me on my forehead and ruffled my hair before my total bewilderment before leaving laughing from his study. My grandfather was a walking enigma.

I looked at the blue bill and smiled slightly.

I had gotten more than I expected.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Mess à la française

With my arms crossed, my cheeks inflated and frowning, that is, showing my best expression of discontent, I was on my way to work contemplating the maritime landscape of the city through the window of my grandfather’s car, being accompanied by him, who was driving, and the idiot of Feliciano, who was humming a song happily in the back. Despite my repeated complaints and refusals, both insisted on accompanying me and being the first customers I served in the restaurant.

The only good thing about coming with me was that I didn’t have to take the bus. Yes, unfortunately I had to go there using the damn public transport (better than nothing), because the restaurant was far from home, specifically on the other side of the city. In fact, when my grandfather took me to visit the place three days before to know all the details of my job, I discovered with surprise that the place wasn’t unknown to me, it was the same place where I had lunch with Antonio the day we met on the beach.

Grandpa parked the car and the three of us went into the restaurant. It was still early to serve the customers, but for the old man for being the owner of the place the schedules weren’t applied, so he and Feliciano settled into a table as I went to the store to start my job.

“Hello, Lovi~!” a well-known voice greeted me on my back.

I turned. If on Monday it was a surprise discovering that my grandpa’s restaurant was the same one Antonio took me to when we met, it was even more surprising to find the bastard working there as a waiter.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I work here, I told you last week, don’t you remember?”

I remember he told something about he had been phoned to work some days in a restaurant, but I didn’t pay so much attention.

“Hey, and what about you?” he asked reproachfully. “If it wasn’t because your grandfather told me, I wouldn’t have known that you were going to start working here until I had seen you, how mean you are!” he pouted and pinched my cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“Auch, stop!” I complained, slamming his hand away. “I didn’t tell you anything because, knowing how bore you are, you wouldn’t have unstuck of here and wouldn’t have let me work in peace.”

“As if I didn’t have anything else to do!” he said between laughs. “However I must admit that you have part of reason, with a waiter like you serving me I wouldn’t get up from my chair all night.” He winked.

“B-But what are you saying, i-idiot?” I blushed to the root of my hair, how was he able to say something as embarrassing so easily?

“Hey, you!” the manager interrupted us. “Stop chatting and get to work, the tables don’t lay alone and there are a couple of customers waiting.” Obviously grandpa and Feliciano. “And, Antonio, show the kid” he pointed at me “everything he has to do and how.”

“Okay~” he accepted, smiling and happy. Then he turned to me without erasing his glowing smile and said in a half serious, half mocking tone, “I’ll let you call me ‘boss’ if you feel like it.”

“Fuck off!”

I put on my apron and left the store snorting as the idiot bastard came after me starting with is explanations and advice, which would have been quite useful if I had been a damn rookie without the slightest idea of the job, but it turned out that everything he explained to me I already knew thanks to my fifteen horrible and failed previous experiences, although… it didn’t hurt me to refresh my memory a little.

The job was practically the same as in Italy, so I was able to manage myself easily, without needing that bore of Antonio’s help and, best of all, without any complaints from anyone of the staff (I hope the presence of grandpa had nothing to do with it). Well, after several hours serving customers with an unusual kindness in me (except for women), I was exhausted, not even the delicious pizza I ate at the end of the shift helped me recover.

“Lovi, are you okay?”

If I hadn’t been eating, I would have fallen asleep and my head would have hit the table due to the fatigue, making all the workers laugh at me. The damn bastard of Antonio, on the other hand, was smiling and without signs of exhaustion… he works twice or three times more than me, where on earth does he get so much energy?

“What do you think, bastard?” I rubbed my eyes. “I’m tired!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll leave right away,” He put a piece of pizza in his mouth, “as soon as we finish dinner.”

Taking advantage of the presence of the bastard in the restaurant, Feliciano and grandpa left as soon as they ended dinner, leaving Antonio the task of taking me back home, to which he agreed with one of his typical and sparkling smiles. Nobody asked me. Although complaining had no sense, going back with the bastard was better than having to wait for a damn bus.

We went out through a side door to a lonely and dark street, one of those that makes you suspicious when you look around, even if it joined the main avenue and the promenade. Antonio walked a few steps in front of me and it was not that I was afraid or something like that, but why the hell was the bastard taking me for that way?

“Take this” he said while giving me a helmet he had just pulled out from under the seat of a black motorcycle, “put it on.”

“I didn’t imagine you as a motorist.”

“Actually, I prefer the car” he said as he pulled the motorcycle toward the road, “but this is more practical to move around the city, especially to park. Come on, put on your helmet, we’re leaving.”

I obeyed. Antonio got on the bike and put his helmet on too. I got behind him and grabbed the iron behind the seat, obviously I wasn’t going to hug the bastard. Or so I intended, because when he started the engine and we began to move, I felt that my body was going back a little. Instinctively I changed the position of my hands and hugged Antonio’s waist tightly, joining my torso to his wide and warm back that cut the wind.

In just ten minutes we were in the old quarter with the motorcycle stored in a nearby garage (owned by the old man, precisely where he also kept his car). We walked towards the building slowly, not because I didn’t feel like arriving, but because I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open between steps. Suddenly the bastard stood in front of me, turning his back to me, and bent down throwing his hand back. 

“Get up.” It was all he said to me as he stretched his fingers.

“WHAT?! Are you crazy, bastard? I’m not planning to get on your back.”

“Come on, Lovi” he turned his head towards me to look at me, “you are so tired that you can’t even walk.”

“You won’t be able to carry me!” I replied.

“I have already carried you before, in case you don’t remember,” of course, the day I fainted on the beach, just when we met. I blushed slightly as I remembered it, “and I can tell that you aren’t heavy at all. I can carry you easily. Get up, listen to the boss.”

“But how are you going to carry me? Aren’t you tired, bastard?”

“Of course I am, but I still have enough energy to take you home.” He moved his fingers again as a sign for me to get on his back. “But you go up the stairs alone, eh?”

I finally agreed. I placed my arms around his neck and rested my head on his shoulder, I could feel the subtle sweet smell of his perfume. He held my legs to his waist, stood up straight and started walking.

“I’d like to know what you eat to have so much energy.” I said. “Or what planet did you come from.”

“You’re so funny.” He laughed. "I prepare what you want when you feel like it. Anyway, you’ll taste my food soon, this weekend it’s my turn to prepare lunch for everyone.”

“Better don’t give the turn to the potato bastards again or you’ll regret it.” I threatened him yawning, so my threatening tone went to hell and lost all credibility. The bastard let out a laugh and quickened his pace.

When we were reaching the building, we could see the tulip was entering through the giant door. Antonio yelled at him to get his attention and to hold the door as we arrived. He stopped under the frame and turned his head, he had listened to us. He stared at us as we approached, but when we were only two meters away, a crooked smile appeared on his face and he closed the door in our faces. What an asshole!

I got off Antonio’s back, who searched for his keys in his pockets. I rubbed my eyes several times while I was going up the three floors that separated me from my comfortable and soft bed. The bastard grabbed my hand, stopping me on the first step of the last flight of stairs.

“What do you want now?” I asked tired.

“I also work in the restaurant tomorrow and the next day, do you want me to come for you so that we can go together?”

“Su-Sure.” I smiled shyly, I avoided bus again.

“Great.” He smiled widely. “See you tomorrow!”

He turned and opened his apartment’s door. I didn’t move from the step, I should say something to the bastard before going home.

“Hey!” I shouted while he was crossing the threshold. He stopped and fixed his eyes on me. “I… I…”

“What happens, Lovi?” he cocked his head.

I turned around and went up a couple of steps. I could feel the heat on my face and ears, I was red, fortunately Antonio wasn’t seeing my face in that moment. I stopped again, but didn’t turn around.

“I… mmm… Tha… Thanks!”

And, without looking back, I started going up home again.

On Friday, the bastard came for me too early, one hour earlier than expected, moment in which I was immersed practicing a new piece (on my own initiative, nothing had to do that the idiot Roderich had threatened me with imposing more punishments).

I was so concentrated in music that I didn’t notice my room’s door had been opened and I had two spectators, Feliciano and Antonio, until they broke into applause when I finished playing. I almost got the heart out due to the shock they gave me. I blushed with a mixture of fury and embarrassment, I hated being watched while practicing.

“What the fuck are you doing there looking at me as two idiots?” I said angrily going towards them, who stepped back a little. “Feliciano, idiot, how many times have I told you not to interrupt me or even think of entering my room in the middle of a rehearsal?”

“Ve!” he ran to hide behind the bastard. “Sorry, fratello, but it’s that Antonio arrived and…”

“As if the Pope himself had come from Rome! If I tell you not to enter, you don’t enter! And that also goes for you!” I threatened the bastard with my finger.  Feliciano took the opportunity to flee to the living room. “Anyway, what the hell are you doing here so early? It’s not time to leave yet.”

“I know, but I want you to come with me to a place before.” I raised an eyebrow and looked at him questioningly. “Relax, you’ll like it.”

The bastard didn’t tell me where he was taking me until we were in the place, a small Italian ice-cream parlour near the restaurant. It was impossible I didn’t like it, my mouth was watering, could there be anything more wonderful? Antonio showed off that generosity that characterized him and treated me. Then we walked towards the promenade and took sit on a bench in front of the restaurant to eat our ice-creams.

“I’d have liked to do this after work” Antonio said, “but I have a feeling that today you’ll end up the same or worse than yesterday.”

“Not all people take Duracell batteries for breakfast like you.”

“I guess it will be a matter of getting used to it.” I shrugged, not knowing whether agreeing or not. “I only hope that, since tomorrow you don’t have to get up early, you can stay awake at night.”

“For what?”

“It’s Francis’ birthday.” The perverted Frenchy’s birthday, who knows what kind of madness he would think of doing to celebrate it. “I bet whatever you want that he prepares some kind of party in his apartment.”

“An orgy?”

“Wow! Don’t exaggerate!” he laughed, ate a bit of his ice-cream, and made a face of curiosity. “Maybe would you like to participate in one?”

I blushed and headbutted him in the stomach, he deserved it for being a pervert. The bastard writhed in pain for a few seconds.

“ASSHOLE!” I stood up. “You are a damn degenerate, how you dare to ask me such a thing?”

“Auch, Lovi” he sighed, massaging the blow, “don’t be angry, man, it was a joke.”

“One in very poor taste!” I sat again on the bench. “Who do you think I am? Idiot!”

“Okay, okay, sorry. I won’t tell you that kind of joke again.” I glared him, for some reason I didn’t believe in his words. He, on the other hand, smiled as always. “Anyway, whatever Francis organizes, we already have prepared a small celebration in his honor.”

As could not be otherwise, the celebration of the Frenchman’s birthday would take place in grandpa’s house, the alma mater of parties. The community lunch was moved up to Saturday and all tenants were notified, including the birthday boy, who didn’t know he would be honored.

We were almost all sat down to table, only one person was missing… the same that always was late, with the difference that on that occasion he was the one who had to provide us with the food.

“Why the hell does that damn Antonio bastard take so long?” I complained, my stomach was rumbling furiously. “I’m hungry!”

“The idiot is not even able to arrive on time to the pantomimes organized by himself.” The tulip, as usual, had to say a negative comment about the bastard. He made a gesture of pain, Emma had pinched him under the table for talking too much.

Then Antonio made his appearance in the room. He carried a giant paella in his hands and began to sing the happy birthday song loudly, the others joined as if they were children. The Frenchman made a very theatrical gesture of surprise, holding a hand to his chest as if he were deeply moved.

The bastard left on the table the giant paella, in which he had written with shrimp the phrase “HAPPY B’DAY, FRANCIS”. The honoree ran to hug the Spaniard, although… rather than hugging him he was rubbing him up and down, running his hands all over his back to where it lost its name. And the idiot Antonio didn’t even notice! He was still there, smiling happily, hugging his dear friend as he allowed the other to touch him. I don’t know why, but it was terribly annoying.

After releasing the bastard, the Frenchman kissed and hugged everybody to thank for the surprise. I moved my hands to get him away from me, but he didn’t care, he approached me, grabbed my face and kissed me on the cheek repeatedly despite my disgust and displeasure. He was covering me with his slobber (how disgusting!).

“Stop now, Fran” Antonio said with a cold smile, squeezing his shoulder, “you have thanked him enough, don’t you think so?”

The Frenchy smiled him nervously and continued the round of kisses and hugs. I run to the bathroom to clean my face of the French slobbers.

When I came back, the bastard of Antonio was serving the paella. He took my plate, the one left to be served, and filled it so much. He stood looking at me with expectation until I tasted a bit of that yellow rice, it was delicious, although I wasn’t going to admit it in front of the bastard. However, I think my face betrayed me, because Antonio’s smile grew bigger and brighter (how the hell is it possible?).

“Before we start eating,” interrupted the Frenchman just when I was going to continue to delight with the bastard’s paella, “I have to invite you, as I do every year in this day, to the party I’ll celebrate at my house tonight. I hope none of you will be missing, I’ll roll call.” He winked in a way that was intended to be sensual, it gave me chills.

“Will you also delight us with a striptease like last year?” Emma asked with a wicked smile.

“Emma, cherie, I know that seeing three hot guys like Toni, Gilbert and me dancing on a table and stripping to the rhythm of the music is something hard to forget nor it repeats every day” I almost choke on my drink when I imagined the scene, “but you who have come to all the celebrations I have done since I am in Spain will know that there hasn’t been one the same as the previous one, so you can expect anything.”

“Yes, darling, but what hasn’t failed in any is that someone ended naked, who will be this year?”

“Be careful, ma belle, it could be your turn.”

“Get close to my sister if you dare.” The tulip said, cracking his knuckles.

“I don’t force anyone to take off their clothes, who does it is by their own will.”

“Except the first year! Kesesese… Do you remember that two policemen came saying that the neighbors had complained about the noise?”

“Impossible to forget it!” grandpa said with a wicked expression. “I hope you considered it a good birthday present, Francis.”

“One of the best I have received, mon ami.”

“I’m glad because you can’t imagine…”

Grandpa’s cell phone rang and he left the table to talk. I was glad, I didn’t feel like listening to the old man talking about the binges he lived up as if he still were twenty years old.

“We turned whiter than Gil from the scare” Antonio commented laughing, “and Romu spent all the time acting dumb until Francis was handcuffed to a chair and they made their show, stripping him! God, what a crazy night!”

Definitely, after hearing a lot of similar anecdotes about the Frenchman’s parties, and no matter how great they were considered by those who had participated in them, my grandfather included, I completely refused to put one foot in the house of the perverted Frenchy, surely in the moment I was left alone he would jump on me…

But of course, I wasn’t bearing in mind that my good friend the bastard of Antonio, bore between bores, would spend the whole damn evening, even at work, being a real pain and insisting that I should go to the party with him.

“No!” I answered angrily for the fifteenth time to the bastard. “Stop insisting now, I’m not going to your friend’s party.”

“But why not, Lovi? We’ll have a good time, you’ll see…”

“You can’t be sure,” I took a couple of plates to serve, “so I pass.”

“Come on, Lovi” he made that puppy look and pouted, “it won’t be the same without you.”

I stood still in front of the dining room door with the two plates in my hands, was so important my presence for the bastard to have fun? Damn, damn, damn one and a thousand times the bastard for being a bore and convince, and damn one and a thousand times I for letting me convince so easily.

“Okay, I’m going.” I sighted. Bastard’s face lighted up and smiled happily. “But only on the condition that you don’t leave me alone at any time.”

“As you wish!”

He run to me, hugged me from behind (I almost dropped the plates) and kissed me on the cheek. I got paralyzed and with my face burning, as he took the dishes from my hands and left completely happy to serve them.

In fact, the bastard kept on irradiating happiness until we arrived in the Frenchy’s house. Fuck, there were more people in there than in the war, where the hell had all this bunch of stranger come from? Unconsciously I grabbed Antonio’s arm and we entered into the crowd.

“At last the last two that were missing have arrived.” The Frenchman grabbed us from behind and joined his cheeks with ours, rubbing his scratchy beard for them. He was too drunk. “Here you are, mes amours” he gave each of us a plastic glass full of a green liquid, “it’s a special cocktail created by me. Enjoy.”

He gave us a pat on the butt, yeah, by the face the perverted asshole touched my butt and left with impunity disappearing into the crowd.

I looked at my glass with suspicion, however the bastard drank it in one gulp, and according to him it wasn’t bad. I sipped the drink, it was sweet and cold. I imitated Antonio and drank it in a gulp.

We kept on moving between the people until we reached a table with snacks and bowls full of that strange, sweet and heavenly drink, where we also met the familiar faces of the rest of the tenants of the building: the albino, who boasted in front of Elia and Emma, who were laughing of his silly things; the potato bastard and my brother, who were chatting with the tulip, who didn’t take his eyes off his sister; and grandpa, a bit further, who was trying to flirt with two girls at least twenty years younger than him.

“Fratello!” idiot Feliciano shouted while jumping over me, he was a bit tipsy. “You have finally arrived, I missed you.” He tried to kiss me on the cheek.

Fuck, I didn’t expect that sudden attack of brotherly love.

I pushed Feliciano away and he bumped into Antonio, who held him before falling to the ground. My idiot brother hugged him in gratitude… fucking boy with a limpet complex, I had to go to separate him from the bastard or he would have stayed the whole damn night stuck to him, who also suffered the same problem.

Antonio laughed at my action and gave me a glass full of green liquid as my idiot brother went to hover around his new little friend the potato bastard, it seemed he wanted to ask him to dance, but he didn’t got it. It has to be a real spectacle to see that wardrobe moving his feet to rhythm of the music.

“Honhonhon” the host laughed, suddenly appearing with his shirt open and his hairy chest in the air. I hid behind the bastard to avoid a new and gratuitous French touching, “are you having a good time, mes amis?”

“Of course; right, Lovi?”

I poked out my head a bit and nodded. The Frenchy continued laughing and went towards my grandfather. The latter, after talking to the Frenchman, came to where Antonio and I were and, contrary to what he always did, he informed us that he was going home. That was strange, very, very strange… maybe he got depressed because he had been rejected by the girls.

Even without grandpa there, the party continued, although with the Frenchman a little crestfallen. I kept on drinking with the bastard near me all the time, as he had agreed, at least until the idiot of his friend the albino came up with the brilliant idea of dancing.

“Come on, tomboy” he said to the Hungarian, who looked at him as if he were the most repulsive being on the planet (which in fact was), “let’s show all these amateurs how a guy as awesome as me and a girl as man as you dance together, leaving them all open-mouthed.”

For the Hungarian’s expression, I would have sworn that she was having an internal debate about whether to kick the albino’s face or laugh at his occurrence. In the end it was the second, although the German didn’t escape a slap on the back of the neck.

“Let’s go dance we too, Lovi?” the bastard asked, excited.

“No way.” I answered bluntly, finishing my drink.

“I will dance with you, veee~…”

“Me too.” Emma said, grabbing my brother by his hand.

“Very well.” Smiled the bastard. “Stay here with Ludwig, Lovi, so you won’t be alone.”

Of all the people I could stay with, why with the potato bastard? And not only that, but beside the potato lover was the tulip killing Antonio with his eyes every time he got too close to Emma.

Damn Antonio, damn Feliciano hoarder of attention.

I squeezed the plastic glass in my hands, very annoyed, and threw it on the ground. I turned to the table and took a new one that filled with the green drink. I drank it in a gulp. I refilled it and did the same. I filled it a third time and crossed my arms while watching the scene of my brother, the bastard and Emma dancing like crazy near the albino and the Hungarian who, although it seemed false, did move well.

I was getting hot.

Antonio approached to me dancing (or acting the fool) and took me by the hand, forcing me to move to the rhythm of the music despite I refused to do so. Somehow, I couldn’t resist. He made me spin around twice and took me to where the other two where.

The song finished and we stopped dancing. It was really hot! I needed to refresh myself urgently. I went for another cocktail glass. Antonio, Emma and Feliciano accompanied me, they looked thirsty, but then the bastard had the brilliant idea of competing to see who could drink faster. I don’t know who won… from that moment, music, dances, faces… everything becomes very diffuse…

The next thing I remember is waking up at noon in my underwear on my bed with a terrible headache, how the hell had I got there? And why the hell was I almost naked? Luckily there was nobody sleeping next to me, on the contrary I would have imagine anything.

I went to the living room staggering and bumping against the walls of the corridor, the whole damn house was moving under my feet, what a hangover! Well, at least there was silence.

“Grandpa! Where are you?” Fuck, even my own voice echoed in my head. “I expect you have prepared a good coffee… because I need it urgently.”

I was strange that the old man didn’t answer, I guessed he would have gone out to do some errand, although it was something unusual on Sunday, he likes to slack that day.

The strident noise of the phone rumbled in my aching hangover head.

“Pronto!” I replied in a bad mood.

“Hello, Lovino!” it was grandpa. “It’s good that you are already awake! I needed to talk to you, I have just landed right now…”

“WHAT?!” I regretted screaming.

“I have just landed in Rome.”

“And what the hell are you doing in Rome?”

“There’s an important problem that I have been trying to solve all weekend, but it has been completely impossible to it from Spain.” Now I understood the phone call in the middle of lunch and why he left early from the Frenchman’s party. “I had to leave urgently this morning and I couldn’t tell you.”

“Don’t lie, yesterday you knew that you would have to leave, you could have told us.”

“I didn’t want to spoil you the fun.” What a shitty excuse. “Anyway, my stay here may prolong a bit…”

“How long is ‘a bit’?”

“I don’t know, but at least a couple of weeks.”

“TWO WEEKS?!” I put my hand on my temple and cursed myself for yelling.

“Yes, so listen carefully: take care of your brother and try not to fight with him” fuck, it’s true that idiot drives me crazy most of the time, but it’s not like I was always bad with him; “do not miss the music lessons or work, because I’ll find out and will get angry if you do” now it turns out that my grandfather is omnipresent, like God, and he finds out everything; “and if you have any problems, do not hesitate to ask Antonio or any of the building tenants for help, they won’t hesitate to help you. Have you understood?”

“I’m not my brother, so yes.”

“Well, be careful. Ciao, Lovino.”

I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes, the conversation with grandpa had managed to increase my headache, damn, I would have to deal with idiot Feliciano for two whole weeks, what horror.

A plaintive “ve” was heard in the corridor. Feliciano appeared sobbing and clutching his belly.

“Nonno! Fratello!” the idiot hadn’t seen me. “Dove siete?”

“Here, idiot. Stop crying, I have a damn fucking headache. Oh, and don’t look for the old man, he has gone to Rome for work. He won’t be back in two weeks.”

“VE! WHAT?!” he got scared.

“DO NOT SHOUT, IDIOT!”

Feliciano cringed in fear, I cringed in pain. I felt as if my head was going to split in two.

“Veee… fratello” he moaned, “no… I’m not feeling well…”

“Me neither. It’s called a hangover, idiot, consequences of getting drunk last night.”

“But… but… my head hurts a lot” he said in a plaintive voice, sobbing. “I’m dizzy… I have nausea… and it hurts… it hurts a lot… my stomach… Do something…”

He pressed his arms against his belly. Until then I thought he was making a mountain out of a molehill, but it seemed that he was suffering a lot, lots of drops of cold sweat ran down my brother’s face.

“Fuck, Feliciano, what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know.” He started to cry inconsolably.

Damn Feliciano, he chose the worst time to get sick. I had to think of something quickly.

“Okay, I’ll look for the crazy Hungarian to examine you."

“Grazie, fratello…”

I went down the stairs slowly, even walking caused pangs of pain in my head. Luckily (if you can call it luck) the ground had stopped moving under my feet. I considered asking Elizaveta for something to get rid of the headache, but I discarded it immediately, I was sure she would have given me an injection.

I rang the bell of the Hungarian’s apartment despite the annoyance of hearing that sound rumbling in my head. I didn’t get an answer, everything was quieter than usual. I rang again, just to make sure Eli wasn’t there to help me.

There was a feminine scream coming from inside the house. And then more yells, some with a male voice. Things breaking… what the fuck was going on inside that apartment? I put my ear on the door and listened.

“I kill you, I swear I kill you.” Eli’s voice said, I guessed.

“But drop that frying-pan, please, because ending up beating me after an amazing night of passion is not awesome.”

Awesome? I couldn’t believe it, the macho albino had spent the night with Elizaveta, how the hell had he managed to trick the Hungarian into agreeing to do… whatever they had done?

“Come on, Eli, don’t be like that, last night you enjoyed it.”

“You have taken advantage of me, you damned egotistical imbecile!”

“No, Eli! Someone as awesome as me would never do something so…” I heard a thud. “Ah!”

Hearing Elizaveta being angry was scary, but seeing her appear in the doorway wrapped in an aura of fury holding a frying-pan produced dread.

“What do you want?” she asked with her voice full of rage, I freaked out.

“I… uhm… eeh…” fuck, being in front of the crazy Hungarian in a rage mood made me nervous. “M-My brother… F-Feliciano doesn’t… doesn’t … feel w-well, cou-could you… would you m-mind going to… to see him… please?

By her look, it seemed that she wanted to know something else. I took a deep breath and prepared to explain what was happening to Feliciano without stuttering.

“He has awaken with a hangover, but he feels very bad, he has a headache and a stomachache, and that makes him nervous, and I get nervous too, and he doesn’t stop crying…

Eli sighed deeply and relaxed her face, that was a good sign.

“Very well, I’ll go up to examine him.”

She entered her house and changed the frying-pan for her black bag.

I looked inside before she closed the door to go upstairs, the macho albino was lying on the floor half unconscious with his torso naked and the trousers half-put… it wasn’t necessary to imagine much to know what my self-proclaimed friend had done that night with his beloved Hungarian.

Elizaveta went up the stairs with firm steps and without saying a word, maybe she felt embarrassed that I knew what happened with the albino.

When we passed in front of the apartment of the Spaniard, he left his house with a bag in his hands. Eli continued the march up the stairs, I stopped.

“Hello, Lovi!”

I made a gesture of pain, him too.

“Don’t yell at me, idiot!” I spat, raising my voice. New gestures of pain. “I have a hellish hangover!”

“Sorry.” He touched his temple and closed his eyes. “I had a terrible headache too.”

Fuck, once the bastard gets drunk and I miss it. Well, I didn’t miss it, but I couldn’t remember it.

“Where are you going?” he asked me in a lower voice tone than usual.

“Back home, I went to look for Elizaveta to examine my brother, the idiot has a much worse hangover than mine and yours together.”

“Oh, poor boy.” He sympathized.

“And where are you going?” I asked for boredom, not because I was interested to know. “You have bedroom eyes.”

“I just got up.” He laughed. “And I was about going up to your house.”

“To my house? For what?”

“For giving this back to you.” He lifted the bag he carried in his hands.

I raised an eyebrow looking at him inquisitive, I didn’t remember having lent anything to the bastard so that he had to return to me.

“And what the hell is that?” I took the bag and opened it, there were only clothes… clothes like those that…

“It’s the clothes you wore last night.”

My body and mind got paralyzed for a few seconds, why the hell did the Spanish bastard have the clothes I was wearing the night before? I began to tremble, I don’t know if it was in anger, in shame, in a mixture of both or something unknown. My face lit up, I felt the blood on my cheeks.

“You have turned completely red, Lovi” the bastard chuckled, “like a little tomato!”

“W-W-Why are my clothes in… in a b-bag? Wh-Why do you have it?”

“You don’t remember?” I shook my head frantically. “I guess it’s not surprising, you were very drunk…”

“WHAT HAPPENED?” I shouted, ignoring my headache and the bastard’s.

“Well, we were dancing when suddenly you said that you were very hot and went to the landing, taking off your shirt and throwing it down the stairs. I left behind you and, seeing how you were, I forced you to go home… I don’t know how we didn’t roll down the stairs, because we were staggering from one place to another. On my landing you started dancing again, you said you were hot, sat on the stairs and threw me your trousers.

In those moments my face would have gone from the most intense red to radiate own light, what uncontrol, what a shame… the bastard took it as a joke, but my heart was beating madly… of shame or other thing?

“Then you fell asleep on the stairs. I took the keys from your trousers, carried you on my shoulder to your house and laid you on your bed. And I left and picked up your clothes in my way.

If everything that Antonio had already told me was embarrassing, my desire for knowing what I didn’t remember made me ask something that I could possibly regret.

“And… did I say or do something weird?” I asked, fixing my eyes on the ground.

“Well…” shit, there was something else. “You told me that you were going to do me something that nobody else had ever done me before…”

Earth, swallow me. How could I say such a bad phrase?

“Playing the Spring of Valverde or something like that…”

“The Spring of Vivaldi, ASSHOLE!”

Damn Antonio bastard for causing me more headaches and making me think bad… and he makes me think badly about myself!

I turned angrily and started going up the stairs, leaving the bastard alone on his landing. Eli was in the middle of the flight of the stairs looking at me with raised eyebrows and a mischievous smile, without a doubt she had heard everything, damn it!

“I don’t know what your smile means, but I don’t like it.”

She only giggled and kept going up.

I took a breath several times to calm down.

What a shitty day: I wake up with a mortal hangover, I have to take care of the idiot of Feliciano and I find out terribly embarrassing things that I did being drunk…

Without a doubt, I will never again put a foot on the Frenchman’s parties.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Awakening

It was Thursday, at last! It is extremely ironic that I was glad about the fact that I had to take a bus and spend several hours going from one place to another, putting an unusual smile on my face to serve customers while working. And all, why? For one simple reason: to get rid of my brother for a few hours.

Since grandpa's departure four days ago, the idiot of Feliciano had become more of a bore than before. When he wasn't painting or spending time with his gigantic friend the potato bastard, he refused to separate from me, he even wanted to accompany me to the violin lessons on Monday! Luckily, I managed to dissuade him by instilling fear in Roderich and he decided to continue sleeping all morning. What I couldn't get away with so easily was that my idiot brother went into my bed every night, I can't refuse! He starts whining, makes me feel guilty and I end up accepting… fucking coward, it's hard to believe that he's only a year younger than me.

Well, after four hours in the restaurant I got prepared to come back home. What a pain in the ass, the bastard didn't work there that week and I had no choice but to use the damn public transport to return.

I went out the side door of the restaurant to the dark and lonely alley that I ran through until I reached the main avenue, but not because I was afraid, of course not!, but because it was possible that I lost the bus and I didn't want to wait for the next one. It was past midnight and I was already sleepy.

I was really tired, not as much as the previous Thursday, but enough so that I didn't pay attention to the people in the bus (girls' laughs could be heard in the background and I didn't pay any attention to them) and I sat in two free seats together which allowed me to stretch my legs comfortably… until the idiot of the moment approached from the back.

"Well, well, look who we have here!" the tulip said with a crooked smile, I hadn't seen him entering the bus. "If it's Sponge Lovi, where have you been getting drunk tonight?"

If looks could kill, the damn tulip would have collapsed in a heap. He was laughing at me for what happened on Saturday at the Frenchy's party, and he had put me an absurd nickname for it!

I held his gaze for a few seconds and turned my face, I didn't want to argue with him and I expected him to realize that he was bothering and to get back to the back of the bus, but no.

"Take off your feet and sit down properly," he ordered. I shot him daggers again, "I want to sit there."

"Are there no more seats on the whole fucking bus that you have to come to bother me?" I said angrily.

"Maybe there are, but this is a public place and I want to sit there, so move away before I complain to the driver and he throws you out of the bus on the next stop."

I snorted and grunted before lowering my legs off the seat to leave room for the annoying tulip, see if at least he would shut up and stop annoying me. He sat down with his arms crossed, serious and with his eyes fixed on the nape of the person in front of him. I leaned my head against the window and watched the nocturnal cityscape as my eyes closed.

"Are you so drunk that you're not even able to keep your eyes open?"

That woke me up completely.

"I'm tired, not drunk, asshole! I just got out of work right now."

"Ah, but do you work?" he raised an eyebrow, surprised, but somehow keeping the indifferent gesture that characterized him. "I thought you were a spoiled brat who did nothing but demand and wait for everything to be put in front of you."

"Well, you were wrong!" I was offended and I puffed my cheeks, the damn tulip had described me as useless. "I do something else besides scratching my balls with two hands."

"Well, it's not exactly the impression you give."

"Appearances can be deceptive, idiot."

He gave me a crooked glance that made me cringe in my seat, his face would scare the bravest person.

"And where do you work?" he recovered his gesture and tone of indifference.

"In my grandfather's restaurant…"

"In the end I wasn't wrong at all, you are the person with pull."

"I'm not!" I yelled at him, "I work as hard as anyone."

"Yes, sure." He said in a condescending tone.

"Yes, fuck. Ask that bastard of Antonio if you don't believe me, he worked with me."

The tulip growled when I named Antonio.

"I'm not going to ask anything to that idiot, he's your dear friend" although he showed indifference, there was resentment in his words when talking about the bastard, "he wouldn't be impartial or objective, so he can shove his opinion where it fits because it's not valid for me."

"Fuck, dude, what the hell did Antonio do to you to hate him so much?"

The tulip held his gaze with mine for a few seconds before answering.

"That… is NO concern of yours."

And with those words he ended the conversation.

The way that remained by bus and the subsequent walk home we did in silence. Better that than wasting my energies trying to convince that giant with a bad-mood face that I wasn't useless, he sure would find something to mock me again. Well, he could laugh as much as he wanted, I would find something to make fun of him at any moment… and I would do it! Revenge is a dish best served cold and an Italian never forgets.

Not even when the tulip went to get into his flat we exchange words, he entered and I continued up the stairs.

When I got home, everything was almost completely dark except for the light of the television. I assumed that Feliciano would be lying on the sofa waiting for me, although it was very strange that he hadn't lit any lamps, he has the damn habit of lighting up as much as possible the room in which he is in when he is alone at home at night.

I closed the door carefully to not make noise, I would scare my brother approaching the sofa stealthily and taking him off guard.

"IIIIIIH!"

It was the second time that damn German scared me. It was such a shock seeing the macho potato sitting on the sofa that I tripped and fell to the ground on my back, hitting by butt painfully.

"What the fuck are you doing here, potato bastard?" I yelled from the ground.

"Shhh." He said putting a finger in front of his lips.

My brother was sleeping peacefully lying on the sofa, his head resting on the lap the potato bastard, as if I didn't have enough that the damn German made me shut up in my own house, that vision infuriated me. I stood up slowly, tears bursting out because of the fall, and I shook my idiot brother to wake up, although the potato lover tried to stop me.

"What?" Feliciano asked sleepy opening one eye. "What happens?"

"I'm back, idiot, wake up!" I said. "And you, potato bastard, you better go off or I'll kick you out if necessary."

The words I said to the potato bastard woke up completely the idiot Feliciano, who faced me angrily.

"Fratello!" He scolded me. "Don't talk to Ludwig like that! He is my friend and I asked him to accompany me while I was waiting for you."

"I don't give a fuck, stupid, I don't want him here. So you are slow to leave, potato bastard."

"Fratello!"

"Feliciano," the macho potato interrupted with a serene voice and serious face, standing up from the sofa, "it doesn't matter, I'm leaving. Goodnight."

My idiot brother accompanied his dear friend to the door while apologizing to him for my behavior. In my opinion, there was nothing to excuse, I don't like the potato bastard and I show it openly, it's all.

I went to bed to not keep on listening to Feliciano's nonsense. I knew that, as soon as the German left, he would come running to my room, scared to death and begging me to let him sleep with me. What surprised me was that this coward appeared angry rather than scared.

"Fratello! Why are you like that with Ludwig?" he scolded me with a grimace terribly similar to my mother's. "He hasn't done anything to you!"

He got on his knees on the bed and began to beat me on the arm with his fists, he hit like a little girl, but after several blows it began to hurt. I grabbed his hands with some difficulty because he kept moving.

"Auch, idiot! Stop moving!"

He didn't listen to me, he kept on trying to hit me uselessly.

"Stop now or you will spend the night alone in your room!"

My threat took effect and idiot Feliciano stood still. I released his hand distrustfully, but he simply gave me a sad look and lay on the bed, covering himself to the head with the sheet (he was going to roast because of the heat).

"Fratello, stupid." He said under the sheet. I kicked him. "Auch, hurts!"

"So learn to shut your damn trap, idiot."

"You're so mean, fratello." He sobbed.

The damn idiot knows some tricks to make me feel bad, but it was too late (half past one!) and I was pretty tired to listen to his nonsense, so I switched off the light and turned my back to him, we didn't even say goodnight.

Because of my argument with Feliciano I slept fatally and woke up sleepy, which make me receive a couple of sermons from that prissy Roderich for not paying enough attention to his explanations or to the music I played. Luckily he didn't punish me forcing me to copy absurd phrases over and over again. However, the four hours of class seemed eternal and when I got out the only thing I wanted was to have lunch and a long and good nap until the time to leave for the restaurant.

"Hello, Lovi~!"

I met that bastard Antonio on the landing of the second floor when he was about to get into his house. I nodded to him in greeting.

"Look, what a coincidence, right now I was thinking about you and wondering if you'd have arrived from class, I had thought that we could go somewhere to have lunch."

Although the offer was tempting, I had to reject it, I wanted to eat as fast as possible to go to bed, and Feliciano would surely have prepared lunch. The bastard was sad to hear my refusal, I noticed despite he tried to not erase the smile on his face. He made me feel bad.

"Fuck, don't make that face." I said. "We'd better go other day, I'm very sleepy today."

"Didn't you sleep well? Or maybe you went to bed too late?"

I had understood that those kind of questions were asked by my grandfather, but by the bastard who, more than a friend, seemed a worried mother.

"Both." I answered tired. He made a gesture that meant that he wanted to know more details. "I went to bed late and slept bad because I had an argument with Feliciano after returning from work."

"So the voices I heard were yours… And why did you argue?"

"The idiot let the potato-lover enter at home and got angry with me because I kicked him out."

"What did Ludwig do to you so you don't like him?" he asked laughing.

"Are you going to take that wardrobe's side too?" I got angry. I don't like him, it's all! I don't need to justify myself to anyone."

I turned my back to the bastard to continue my way home, but he held my arm and turned me to him.

"Lovi, don't get mad, please!" he begged. "I'm not taking anybody's side, it just was a question."

I sighted. Antonio's imploring eyes didn't allow me to keep my anger with him for so long.

"Ok… I'm not angry anymore."

"Great!"

The bastard hugged me. I tried to separate him from me by hitting him, but I didn't succeed. The idiot is quite strong.

"Let go of me, you bastard!"

He obeyed me smiling and without saying a word.

"Hey, Lovi, what do you think if instead of going to eat lunch I meet you this afternoon before you go to work, I'll take you and we'll have some ice creams in the same place as last week?" it wasn't a bad idea, but before I could answer, he added: "I treat you, of course."

My eyes sparkled probably, Antonio couldn't have proposed anything better: I would avoid bus and I'd have free ice cream, fantastic!

"I'd have accepted even if you didn't treat me."

The night in the restaurant was very stressful, he had more customers than usual and some of them were fucking fusspots, I was about to throw the food over them (it wouldn't be the first time doing it), but they were lucky and I controlled myself thanks to I had relaxed enough during my long nap and the time I shared with Antonio eating ice cream before entering.

I took the same path than the previous night, by the dark alley which I crossed fast, to go to the bus stop. I had to wait for it at least fifteen minutes. It was a pity that the bastard left when I entered work.

I stood in the middle of the bus holding the bar, there wasn't any damn free sit. There were a lot of no more than fifteen year old girls who wore belt-sized skirts and necklines that reached their navels. They were too young for my tastes and I didn't want to get into trouble, otherwise I would have tried to flirt with them, because more than one devoured me with her eyes (I stir up passions wherever I go).

"Don't you think those girls are too young for you to keep those exchanges of glances with them?"

The tulip appeared from the back of the bus, why the hell he didn't stay in the damn place where he was? I turned my face to the other side, making him know that I didn't feel like talking to him.

"Although your mental age is the same." He added scornfully.

"Fuck! Isn't there anybody else in the damn fucking bus to bother instead of me?"

"Is it a rhetorical question or do you really need an answer?" he asked nonchalantly.

I grabbed the bar so hard that my knuckles turned white, the fucking tulip seemed to know how to tease me, I was being taken for a fool! I shot him a look of deep hatred, but I didn't give him the pleasure of answering.

"It must be funny being paid for pretending to work." The tulip commented loud enough to be heard.

I took a deep breath, containing all the desire of telling him to go to hell that was accumulating inside me, after all that giant was as scary in the middle of the night as inside a bus full of people.

"I pretend nothing."

"Sure."

"Look, idiot, if you don't believe what I'm telling, you only have to go to the fucking restaurant any evening from Thursday to Sunday and check it by yourself. Of course, try not to be my customer or you may end up bathed in spaghetti and tomato sauce."

I groaned and turned away. I think I heard him laughing, but I didn't want to bother to check it. The rest of the way we kept silence, just like the day before, which was quite a relief, I had had enough with the stupid customers to bear the tulip making fun of me constantly.

What was in silence too was my house when I arrived. No noise was heard inside and all the lights were off, not even the television was on. That was strange, very strange. Feliciano would never stand staying alone and not turning on at least one light. I swallowed slowly, would something have happened to my brother?

An anxiety feeling seized me and I went through each and every room in the house shouting my brother's name, but he was nowhere to be found. Fuck, he always tells me and repeats everything to me, absolutely everything, whatever he does or intends to do and that day he hadn't told me anything about going out, where was he then?

I phoned him, there was line, he didn't answer. I phoned again, he still didn't answer. Would he still be angry about the argument of the night before?

I sat on a chair of the dining room with my head resting on my fists and racking my brains about possible places where Feliciano might be at that hour, if nothing had happened to him.

I looked up for a moment and noticed that there was a sheet of scrawled paper on the table. It was a note from Feliciano. Well, rather a hieroglyph because his handwriting was hard to read. I needed at least five minutes to be able to decipher the fucking letter: he had gone to spend the night at the house of the macho potatoes.

Specifically, I can't say what bothered me the most: that Feliciano had gone to spend the night with the potato bastard, that he had made me know through a badly scribbled letter or that he had left me alone at home.

I phoned him a third time.

"Vee~…?" my brother answered in a sleepy voice.

"Feliciano, you idiot!" I yelled at him in a hoarse voice due to the nerves of not finding him. "What the hell aren't you at home? You scared me to death, moron."

"Fratello? I'm at Luddy's house… I left you a note… Haven't you read it?"

"Yeah, I managed to decipher your code, Da Vinci. Come home right now!"

"Veee… I'm already in bed, fratello, I won't go up."

"What the fuck…?"

"Buonanotte!" he cut off, both what I was saying and the call.

Full of rage, I threw the mobile phone to the sofa. That fucking idiot of my brother would find out what's what next time I met him. Oh, yes, he was going to regret not obeying me and leaving me alone, preferring to spend the night at that muscled German potato bastard's house.

I went to bed thinking about diverse ways to punish my idiot brother the next day. Although I have just recovered my bed and I had all of it only for me. I stretched out as much as I could in the middle of the mattress and turned to the window looking for the sleeping position. I closed my eyes placidly, ready to immerse myself in the world of dreams…

In the silence, a kind of creaking made me open my eyes and turn on the bedside light. I looked around, but there was nothing strange. I lay back and switched the lights off. A new creaking. I covered myself with the sheet all over my body, head included, I was roasting. I told myself that those noises were just the furniture creaking, it couldn't be anything else, but… what if it was?

Fuck! The damned Feliciano had managed to make me pick up his stupid and irrational fears and I couldn't sleep, the slightest noise put me on alert, what could I do? Obviously one thing, stop acting like that coward of my brother and relax, there was nothing to fear.

Another noise, loud and close. Or maybe there was something to fear, I don't know what, but I wasn't going to stay to discover it.

I put on my pajamas (a wide T-shirt and some pants, because I was in underwear) and left the house, key in my hand, and went down the stairs like crazy. I stopped at the second floor's landing and pounded the door of Antonio's house, he was the only person I could ask the favor of allowing me to spend the night in his apartment, but the idiot didn't open and the silence that enveloped everything was making me more and more nervous. If I kept pounding the door, the one who would go out to the landing would be the tulip wanting to satisfy his murderous instinct because of waking him up… that would be really scary.

"Lovi?"

The bastard opened the door at last and invited me to enter. He seemed sleepy, I had woken him up surely, and he only wore a black boxer short that… that didn't leave space for imagination… Fuck! What the hell was I doing staring at the bastard's body? Shit, I was blushing.

I looked away from him and forced myself to focus on something else… his apartment! The decoration was simple and didn't have much furniture, let's say no more than necessary. Well, I had just realized it was the first time I had visited the bastard's house, and it had been a while since we were friends, but of course, it was always him who went up to look for me.

"Did something happen, Lovi?" he asked yawning and pulling me out of my thoughts. "Why have you come at this time?"

"Well, I… I was wondering if… you would mind… if I could… spend the night here… at your house."

Antonio didn't answer immediately, he smirked, raised an eyebrow and stared at me curiously for a few seconds, what did that expression mean?

"Of course!" he answer, smiling as always. "But why? Has anything happened in your house? And Feli?"

"Feliciano went to his beloved potato friend's house before I arrived and he's gonna sleep there." I crossed my arms and puffed up my cheeks, annoyed at the thought. "And I… well, I didn't feel like staying alone…"

I blurted out the last thing fast, I didn't want the bastard to think I had gone to his house because I was afraid, he would have laughed at me all he had wanted and more.

"Aam… ok. So let's go to bed!"

With a quick movement he grabbed my hand and led me to his room, where he released me and threw himself on his wide bed, moved to one side and waited for me to accompany him. However, I stood under the doorframe, looking at him a bit stunned.

"Lovi, can I know what are you doing there?"

"You won't intend we sleep together, right?"

"And where do you want to sleep if not?"

"Aren't you supposed to have another room with another bed?"

"No" he answered shortly, "I have another room, but I don't have any more beds."

That disconcerted me. The bastard was supposed to have taken in Roderich there after his break with Elizaveta, where had he slept then? And he had also lived a considerable time with the perverted Frenchman, had he shared a bed with him? The repulsion that produced such an idea can't be described in words.

"If you don't have more beds… where the hell did the Frenchy sleep when he lived here?" I asked disgustedly. "And Roderich?"

"When I shared the apartment with Fran I did have another bed," I don't know why, but fuck, what a relief I felt to hear that, "but it's been at least two years since I took it off. In fact, Roderich had to be satisfied with sleeping on the sofa-bed."

"And why the hell don't you open it now?" he was getting on my nerves.

"Lovi," he sat up in bed, "haven't you come to my house in the middle of the night because you didn't want to stay alone? Why do you insist on wanting to sleep alone in another room? I can't see any sense…"

I didn't know what to answer, the damn bastard was right.

I approached to the bed slowly as I noticed my cheeks were turning deep red, how funny those two revealing I was dying of shame… And why was I so embarrassed to get in bed with Antonio? (Ok, with Antonio half naked). We're friends and there's supposed to be nothing wrong with a couple of friends sharing a bed, really? At least that was what Feliciano had told me when he stayed at his friends' house in Italy.

"Do you know you get so cute when you blush?" the bastard commented smiling widely.

"S-Shut up."

I lay down with my back to the bastard, who didn't take his eyes off me on my way from the door to the mattress. No doubt it had been a bad idea to agree to share the bed with him.

"I want to hug you."

"Touch me and I'll kick you to the main door."

The bastard chuckled. I noticed I was even redder, thank God Antonio didn't see my face, he would surely have commented again my imminent blush.

"Good night, Lovi." He said cheerfully, turning off the bedside light.

"Buonanotte…"

In just a couple of minute the bastard's breathing became slower, he had fallen asleep. In a certain way, listening to him relaxed me and soon I also fell asleep.

I woke up at noon. I was completely alone, both in the large bed and in the bastard's apartment, I searched for him in every room until I found a note from him on a plate of churros covered with plastic wrap on the kitchen's table (fuck, what a similar situation to the one lived the night before).

Luckily, unlike my brother's handwriting, Antonio's was legible: "I had to go to work, but I leave this delicious plate of churros and a coffee in the microwave for breakfast. I hope you enjoy it." The note was signed with his name and with a smiley face winking an eye. I couldn't help but smile at that detail.

After devouring that fantastic breakfast, I left Antonio's house. I was making sure the main door was closed when I felt something soft brushing my leg, I jumped back.

I looked down and found a little white rabbit which seemed scared, it didn't expect that jump from me. I caught the animal before it escaped and caressed it to calm it down.

I looked around, it couldn't have come from far way. The door of Emma and tulip's apartment was ajar, that soft and fluffy animal belonged to the blonde probably, she would be certainly grateful to me for finding it!

I entered with the pet in my arms announcing that I was there, but nobody answered. Fuck three similar situations in less that twenty-four hours, it was starting to seem sinister.

"What the fuck are you doing here, brat?"

The tulip appeared by the corridor into a cloud of smoke that smelled of tobacco and… something sweet. I stayed where I was, afraid and hugging tightly the little animal.

"Why the hell are you holding Vincent?"

The tulip, angry and with a mad face, took the furry animal from my arms to curl it up in his. He modified his expression to a relaxed and affectionate one not usual in him while gently caressing… Vincent.

"T-That rabbit is yours?" I asked, resisting the urge to mock the tulip.

"Any problem with that, brat?" he gave me a defiant look, I shook my head frantically. "Why did you have it?"

"I… I have just found it in the landing and… the door w-was open…"

"I have told Emma million times" he said ore to himself that to me, "make sure the door is well closed before leaving…" he squeezed the animal in his arms and rubbed his face against it. "How soft you are…!"

I thought, without a doubt, that the tulip had smoked more than tobacco. I left before there was a new twist in his head and resumed his sulky attitude.

"FRATELLO! I found you at last!"

As soon as I set foot on the landing, Feliciano appeared up the stairs and threw himself at my neck, typical of him. The macho potatoes and the macho albino watched us, one serious and the other smiling respectively, from a few steps below.

"What the fuck are you two watching?" I snapped. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Kesese… Come on, West" He patted his brother on the shoulder, "let the little Italians enjoy their brotherly love in peace."

I gave the albino a look of hatred and both brothers disappeared down the stairs.

"Get away from me, idiot." I pushed Feliciano and crossed my arms. "What is this sudden show of affection supposed to be about?"

"Vee~… I have been really happy to meet you. You weren't at home when I returned this morning and I got scared, it was too early for you to get up, because it's Saturday and you sleep a lot on Saturday…"

"Well, last night you didn't care much if I was home or not." I reproached him." You preferred to stay with your friend the potato bastard."

"Don't get angry, fratello, please." He begged with tears in his eyes. "You were late in coming and Luddy was tired and was going to go to bed… and I didn't want to stay alone at home… and… and…"

"Stop! That's enough, Feliciano!" I shouted before he started crying. "I'm not angry…"

"Re-Really?" he was surprised.

When the idiot hung up the phone the night before I was really pissed off, but at that moment I felt pretty good, I don't know if it was because I had slept peacefully and was rested, for the delicious breakfast that Antonio left prepared for me, or for having discovered the weakness of the tulip.

"Really. But listen to me well," I took out my index finger of the reproaches, "next time you are going to spend a night out, in the house of whoever, don't leave a bad scribbled note like last night… send me a fucking message to the mobile so that I know you won't be at home when I arrive! Have you understood me?"

"Yes!"

And then again he threw himself at my neck. Damn limpet boy.

As usual every Saturday, Antonio went for me to go out, with the difference that he didn't go to my house that night, but came directly to the restaurant. I didn't have to be asked twice, besides I avoided the bus I wanted to go out and have fun. Of course, no alcohol.

As was also being usual, the two idiot friends of the Spanish were waiting for us in the pub when we arrived. Judging by the small amount of glasses on the table, only two and filled, the Frenchman and the albino hadn't been there for long.

"Even if you have a free night, you aren't able to arrive on time to our meetings, mon ami." The Frenchy reproached Antonio, tapping his finger on his left wrist.

"I went to pick up Lovi at work."

"Don't pin the blame on me, bastard. Nobody asked you to come to pick me up."

"Kesese… Our Toño is always so helpful, though not as much as the great me!"

"What kind of services do you provide, mon ami?"

"As if I'm going to tell you!"

"Well… it seems we'll have to ask your beloved Hungarian if we want to know." He said nonchalantly.

"Ask her whatever you want, no doubt she'll tell you about the awesome and good lover that I am."

"That's why she chased you around the house yelling at you and knocked you unconscious with a frying pan?" I asked with malice. Antonio and the Frenchman burst into laughter.

"Shut up kid!" the albino was annoyed. "And now that I remember, tell us what you are up to lately with Van Helsing."

"With whom?"

"Govert's surname isn't Van Helsing!" Antonio laughed. I should have guessed he was talking about the tulip. "It's Van-something, but I don't remember what."

"You shouldn't be the one who doesn't remember." The Frenchman said raising an eyebrow.

"It was a very weird and unpronounceable surname."

"Van Gaal?" the albino asked. It seems that the 'weird and unpronounceable' was not captured by his awesome ears.

"That was the coach of Barça."

"Van Gogh?"

"He has two ears and lacks sensitivity, mon ami."

"Van der Waals?"

"Stop this meaningless talk now, idiots!" I yelled at them and hit the table, they were annoying me with such nonsense. "And what do you mean, potato bastard? I'm not up to anything with that giant tulip."

"Then why did you come from his house this morning?" the German asked. Antonio, next to him, changed his expression to a very strange one, between sad and curious.

"I went to give his rabbit back to him, it had escaped and I found it in the landing."

"Gov has a rabbit?" the bastard got surprised.

"Yes, a little one, white and soft."

"That unawesome giant looks after such a tender being?"

"Spoke the chicken breeder." The Frenchman said.

"It has to be the only rabbit he has contact with lately, kesesese…"

"Honhonhon… Oh, mon Dieu, Gilbert, what are you insinuating?"

"Just what you're thinking, kesese…"

"Well, let's leave Gilbert's vulgar comments and let's return to the subject, mon petit cher, because you've only half-answered," he Frenchman said, getting closer to me, "you say that you aren't up to anything with the blond tulip-head, but I have seen you arriving together at the building the last two nights…"

"Because he comes in the same bus than me, imbecile." I got angry, why the hell did I have to justify whom I was going to those three? "I wish I didn't meet him, he spends the whole time searching for any detail to annoy me and laugh at me. And what the fuck is all this questioning about?!"

"Well, mon ami" the Frenchman ignored me and spoke to the bastard, "it seems that you're no longer the only one he hates."

"If at least I knew the reason why he does it," sighed Antonio, "I've always tried to get along with him, I even took him at home when he came from Nederland!"

"You do not know the reason why he hates you?" the albino pointed with a clear gesture of disbelief.

"Don't you think it's enough to have deflowered his sister?"

I spat out my drink and stared the bastard with my eyes wide open due to the surprise. So in the end my suspicions were right and there was something between him and the blonde… Damn, something contracted painfully inside me.

"Fuck, how many years have passed since then? We were in the high school."

"Not to mention all the time you were 'with or without you' after breaking."

"Yeah, we spent a lot of time seeing each other without being a couple and we were about to go out again, but in the end it didn't happen…"

"Because she stopped liking the dark-haired ones to like the blond ones and he started going out with that weapon-loving dwarf." The albino pointed out laughing.

"For whatever it was, the fact is that she and I are nothing more than good friends since then and it's already been several years, Gov could relax a little and stop bearing me malice…"

Knowing that the relationship of the bastard and Emma had been based for so long on simple friendship made the painful pinching of my insides vanish. In fact, it could be said that I was even happy, so happy that I didn't care that Feliciano spent another night at the house of his dear friend, the potato bastard (he had listened to me and sent me a message to the cell phone to tell me).

One moment, that meant that I'd have to spend the night alone at home! Damn, I remembered the noises and creaks that didn't let me sleep the night before and I got nervous…

"Hey, basta… Antonio," I corrected. We were back in the building, in front of the door of his apartment, "could I stay in your house today too?"

Antonio's expression exuded illusion, his smile widened and his response was immediate:

"Of course!"

He grabbed me by the wrist and took me inside with the same emotion that shows a kid with a new toy in his hands.

"Hey, hey, wait." He stopped. "I don't have my pajama here, I should go up…"

"I'll lend you whatever you need."

I used as a pajama an Antonio's T-shirt which was at least a couple of sizes too large for me (the bastard has a very wide back). He preferred to get into bed only in his underpants, red tight boxers… fucking Antonio, he could wear more clothes. I turned around so he couldn't notice the blush on my cheeks.

"Hey, Lovi…"

"W-What?" I asked without looking at him.

"I have always been very interested in that curl you have, how…?"

I didn't hear his question. He rolled that sensitive hair of mine between his fingers and gave it a little tug, which caused me a strange sensation that ran down my spine and made my heart race, as well as overheating me.

I punched him in the stomach that made him let go and he stared at me, surprised by my reaction.

"Do not ever touch me there again!" I said, snorting hard and blushing ten shades of red.

"Ve-Very well." He said fearfully as he rubbed the blow. "I… I'm so sorry…"

I lay on the pillow again, turning my back to the bastard and wishing my heartbeat normalized as soon as possible. He said good night and turned off the light.

I woke up suddenly at noon. I felt a breath on my neck. A muscular, tanned arm was wrapping me in what looked like a hug… the damn bastard was hugging me as if I was a fucking stuffed bear! I squirmed several times trying to get rid of his grip, but he pulled me closer to him so that our bodies brushed. I got hot.

I chose to nudge him and he woke up.

"Mmm… Good morning, Lovi!" he greeted me while stretching. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, until a certain octopus woke me up."

"What?" the idiot hadn't understood me, but I wasn't going to explain it either. "Are you hungry?"

My stomach roared before I could answer. The bastard laughed.

"Me too." He smiled and rubbed his belly. "I'm going to prepare breakfast, today I have something that I'm sure you'll like."

"Churros?" I had liked, I can't deny it.

"No!" he said smiling happily. "Fried pancakes with honey!"

I sat down to the kitchen's table and watched the bastard prepare breakfast, he put a lot of effort into it.

The doorbell rang. I got up and went to open the door so that Antonio wouldn't interrupt his work and we could have breakfast as soon as possible, because I was hungry, fuck. Emma was waiting on the other side of the threshold with a catlike smile draw on her beautiful face.

"Lovino?"

The blonde looked surprised to discover that it was me and not the bastard who welcomed her, but she smiled again and came into, I followed her to the kitchen.

"Oh, Toni, don't tell me you're making fried pancakes with honey, so delicious!"

"Do you want some?"

"You're bad," Emma pouted, "you know they'll go directly to my hips…"

"Come on, girl, don't deprive yourself." He put a pancake in her mouth and laughed. "I know you love them…"

Seeing those two in that close attitude after having discovered that they had a relationship made me feel nervous, why? It didn't make sense and I couldn't understand it, the bastard behaved with her exactly the same as with the rest of the people.

Emma sat in front of me at the table, delighting in the pancake she was eating. The bastard grabbed me from behind, rested his head on my shoulder and put a pancake dripping with honey in front of me.

"Open your mouth and try this, Lovi."

I blushed to the root of my hair, as to not do it!

"I'm not a kid, bastard!" I spat annoyed by such familiarity. "Give me that!"

I took the pancake from his hand and ate it in a single bite, it was delicious. Emma laughed at the scene and the bastard, also laughing, put a platter full of the delicious dish and three coffees on the table and sat next to me.

Among laughter and conversations of different kind, as the possible reasons why a tulip of almost two meters raised a fluffy rabbit, our breakfast was extended until almost lunchtime. Feliciano had to be desperate for not knowing about my whereabouts, so I changed my clothes, thanked Antonio (because I can also be grateful when I want) and left with Emma.

But it wouldn't be the only time that day that the blonde and I would meet, because that same night she and Elizaveta went to dinner at the restaurant.

They sat down to a table near the kitchen, which meant short walks. Obviously, I managed to be the one who served them, not that there were more clients, because it was still quite early.

"But if the two most beautiful girls of the building are here." I greeted them with my best smile.

"What a flatterer you are!" Emma laughed.

"What do you want?"

It was great to have customers like those two girls, who took a quick look at the menu and knew everything they were to order without hesitation, I assumed it was not the first time they visited the restaurant. I served them the drinks and handed the sheet with their orders in the kitchen.

It seemed that my boss saw me unoccupied after that and he sent me to carry a pile of clean plates from the sink to the place that belonged to them. I was doing that task when I passed near the door and heard the voices of the two girls talking, they were commenting something about the little slip of the Hungarian. I know I shouldn't, but I couldn't help but stand there and listen to their conversation (yes, sometimes I'm a gossip).

"Then you haven't talked to Gilbert yet?"

"No way! That idiot has suddenly become shy and avoids me. And when I manage he pays attention to me, he becomes dumber than usual and asks me loudly if I'm trying to seduce him to have another amazing night of passion. Then I hit him with the frying pan and leave him unconscious." She sighed. "I shouldn't have got carried away, alcohol clouded my mind."

"No, honey, your mind was already cloudy for him, alcohol only led you to do what you were repressing."

I deduced, I think correctly, that Elizaveta was as much in love with the idiot albino as he was with her, but what the hell has she seen in that egomaniac German? He's German! Definitely, the Hungarian is crazy.

The manager passed near me and I pretended carrying the plates to their place and going for the rest. I stopped again next to the door, not because I wanted to keep on spying my two neighbors, but because I heard them saying my name, although I didn't know why.

"Well, Lovino is a lovely boy," Emma said. I blushed, "and I have noticed that lately he gets nervous when I'm around." That was strange, a moment ago I was near her and I didn't feel nervous. "He's so cute…"

"So, do you like him or not?"

"What are you saying? He's a cherub! I won't deny that the boy is cute and nice, but he causes me nothing but tenderness and desire to hug him… as if he were my little brother!"

Fuck, I was disappointed. I thought I might have some chance to conquer Emma and it turns out that she considers me a kind of little brother, fucking hell!

"Then who?" Eli asked. "Antonio maybe?"

I tensed when I heard the name of the bastard and held the plates tightly. There was no response from Emma.

"AGAIN?" the Hungarian got surprised. Again what? The porcelain was beginning to creak in my hands.

"It's been three years since there's absolutely nothing between us, I even had another boyfriend afterwards, you know it, but lately I don't stop thinking that I made a big mistake in leaving him. I think I feel something for him again and…

I would have sworn that my heart stopped for a second. I has just realized…

The plates slipped from my hands and shattered on the floor causing a great rumble throughout the restaurant. I watched the disaster with wide eyes for a few seconds and ran out of there.

It couldn't be. It was impossible. I didn't want to believe it. It was true.

I was… in love with Antonio.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Chasing after an Italian

POV Antonio

I was worried and depressed, something unusual in me, but I couldn’t stop thinking the same over and over again and I couldn’t find an answer that would satisfy the doubts I had in my head. If I weren’t as clueless as I am, I’d know perfectly well what I had said or done wrong during the past few days and that was so terribly offensive to Lovi so he was angry to the point of having chosen to avoid me at all costs.

It's not like it was the first time that Lovi got angry with me. Of course not! In fact, I think it was unusual the day I didn't do any stupidity which annoyed him. And he would usually yell at me, insult me or throw himself at my stomach (with either his fists or his head, as if there was a target drawn on my abdomen); and after that unexpected interruption, sometimes painful for me, we would laugh (or rather I'd laugh as he kept on throwing insults at me) and then we would return to our previous conversation or we'd start a new one.

But that was before whatever had happened.

I had to remember exactly what had bothered Lovi, fix it as soon as possible and apologize to him until I lost my voice if necessary, because being ignored by him was killing me. I had never felt such an emptiness inside me. I had to get my friend back no matter what.

It seemed like an eternity, even though it had been only three days since we last saw each other. That was on Sunday.

That day Lovi behaved as usual, he even got angry with me as always (yelling at me and calling me ‘bastard’) for treating him as a child trying he ate a pancake from my hands, he blushed madly, it’s impossible to be cuter! 

We were having breakfast with Emma, who appeared unexpectedly and, now that I think about it, I don’t have a clue about the reason of her visit. Whatever, our breakfast extended until lunch time. I was going to invite them for lunch, but before doing it, they decided to leave: Emma because she had things to do, and Lovi because, according to him, his brother would be desperate for not knowing about his whereabouts; no doubt Lovi, although he complaints a lot of Feliciano, worries so much for him, he’s a good older brother!

I said goodbye to my two friends, who left together, and got prepared for a new afternoon of work as an entertainer in the mall (I’d be busy every afternoon of the next week with that job). I would have liked to go out and have a drink with Lovi when I returned, but I knew by that time he would be working at the restaurant. A pity, I had no choice but to wait for the next day.

However, despite my desire to spend some time with him, on Monday we couldn’t see each other either. Before getting dark, just a while after I finished my long day at work, I went up to his house to go out, but contrary to what normally happened, I wasn’t greeted by Lovi’s moody face, but by the smiling Feliciano.

“Hello, Lo…!” I was surprised when I saw that it wasn’t who I expected and rectified. “Hello, Feli~! I’m looking for Lovi, could you tell him to come out?”

“Veeee~” he stared me for some seconds before answer. “Ciao, Antonio. My fratello… is not at home.”

“He isn’t here?” I surprised, Lovi didn’t use to go out alone. “Where has he gone?”

“Veee~…” he was thinking. “Well… I don’t know!”

“Don’t you know?” he shook his head nervously. “Didn’t he tell you?” he shook his head again. “And you didn’t ask him?”

“Vee~… you know how my fratello is, he gets angry when you bombard him with questions.”

It’s true, Lovi goes on the defensive if he is bombarded with questions as if he was being interrogated.

“Yeah… Then I suppose that you won’t know if he is coming back soon, will you?” he denied again with his head. I sighed a bit resigned. “What a pity!”

“Do you want to leave him a message?”

“No, it’s not necessary, just tell him I have been here.”

Feli said goodbye to me smiling and waving his hand and he closed the door when I turned my back to him. The moment I put my foot on the first step of the stairs, I thought I heard Lovi’s voice coming from inside his house, but I didn’t give importance, I was so eager to see him that I would be imagining it.

To my regret the situation on Tuesday was similar. I may have been more than tired after my exhausting and long working day, but I really wanted to spend some time with my dear Italian friend, so I went up to his house to look for him. I guessed he was there, just a few minutes before I had heard the melody he played with the violin through the patio window. However, when I knocked on his door and after waiting several minutes, I was received by the smiling Feliciano.

“Hello, Feli! And your brother? Could you tell him to come here?”

“Vee~… Veee~…” he sounded nervous and he looked at me and inside the house alternatively.” My… my fratello… vee~… my fratello is not here.”

“How’s that?” I felt a bit out of place. “I have heard him playing violin just a moment ago.”

“Veee… yes, well…” it seemed he was thinking about what to say. “Actually he is here…”

“Then tell him to come!” I urged him.

“He can’t!” he replied, I looked at him inquisitively. “He… he… he just went to bed!”

“So early?” I asked incredulously.

“He wasn’t feeling well!” he looked more anxious.

“Oh, so can I enter to see him? If he’s sick maybe I can stay to help you out…”

“N-N-N-No!” he stretched his arms forward and move them sideways so I couldn’t enter. “My fratello has said he doesn’t want anyone to bother him and you know how he is, ve! I don’t want him to get angry!”

And, without giving me time to say anything else, he closed the door in my face.

I was a bit taken aback by that strange attitude that Feliciano showed, not that I wanted to distrust his words, but his nervousness made me think he was trying to hide something, but I didn’t know exactly what.

As soon as I got home, I lay on the bed. I stared at the ceiling, just on the other side of it, barely a couple of meters above me, was Lovi’s room, where supposedly he was lying sick. I sighed, I felt bad because I couldn’t do anything for him, or could I?

I turned my head towards the window, my guitar rested just below. I picked it up and settled into bed with it. I took my cell phone out of my pocket and sent Lovi a message of encouragement that I’d accompany with a song of my guitar, a soft one to help him feel better.

Since I didn’t get any response after putting my idea into practice, I didn’t know if it worked or not, so I felt a bit disappointed. I suppose that deep down I expected to hear Lovi stamping on the floor so I stopped playing or complaining through the window or, at best, answering to the message. But nothing. I contented myself thinking he was asleep and that maybe my music would have helped him to have sweet dreams.

The next day, Wednesday, I decided to pay a visit to Lovi after lunch to know if he was feeling better. I left my apartment ready to go up when I saw somebody carrying a black case at the end of the flight of stairs, it seemed Lovi who was returning from class (although a bit late). I called him and he turned around, it really was him.

He looked at me for some seconds, with a scared face, and ran as if he was fleeing from me. I ran after him without understanding the reason of his reaction, but he was very fast and entered his house before I could reach him. I knocked on his door repeatedly, almost desperately, but neither of the brothers opened it.

That was the moment I noticed something happened: it wasn’t that Lovi wasn’t at home or felt sick the times I went to see him, it was that he didn’t want to see me, he was avoiding me. But… why? It didn’t make sense that his attitude towards me had changed suddenly, there had to be a reason for Lovi to decide to act as he was doing, which made me conclude that I did or said something that offended him in such a way that he preferred to get away from me.

Throughout the afternoon I tried to think about the possible actions or words that could have bothered Lovi, but being in charge of the entertainment of twenty or more children doesn’t allow many ramblings, so all my attempts to remember were in vain. I felt frustrated and disappointed with myself for being unable to focus and get something clear.

I came back home crestfallen and with my mind immersed in my thoughts, looking for a possible reason to justify Lovi’s detachment. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t notice where I was going and ended up crashing into someone much bigger and stronger than me who made me fall to the ground on my back. I looked up, I was in next to the building’s gate with Ludwig and Feliciano in front of me. No doubt I had collided with the German, who offered his hand to me to stand up.

“Are you ok, Antonio?” Ludwig asked me when I stood up.

“Yeah, sure.” I shook off my clothes. “It was nothing.”

“Vee~… Are you sure, Antonio? You don’t look good…

“Yes, I’m fine, Feli.” I said trying to smile at them, althought my mood didn’t let me. But, one moment! Feliciano was there in front of me, it could be possible that he knew what had bothered Lovi. I threw myself into his arms. “FELI!”

“Vee!” he shouted scared. “W-What happens?”

“And your brother? What is happening to him?” I asked almost desperately, moving a little away from him, but still holding him by his shoulders. He looked scared. “You know? Tell me you know!”

“Veee!” with his eyes full of tears, he shook his head. Ludwig made me move away. “I… I don’t know.”

“Don’t you know?” I got depressed again. “Then you won’t know why he’s avoiding me, right?”

“Did you realize?” he asked surprised.

“That’s why you behaved so strangely when I went to your house to look for Lovi.”

“I’m sorry… My fratello asked me to cover him when you came home, although I don’t know why. He… He has been behaving strange for several days, don’t tell me what’s happening to him and… he gets ve-very angry if I ask him.

“I see.” I answered sadly.

“One moment,” Ludwig said, “are you saying that Lovino is avoiding you” he pointed at me, “but he didn’t want you to realize and still you have noticed?”

Sadly, I nodded. Ludwig stood with his mouth wide open for a few seconds and looked up at the sky. Feliciano and I looked up too, we had no idea what the German was searching for in the heights.

“Is it going to snow tonight?” I didn’t understand why he had asked that, sometimes Ludwig is incomprehensible to me.

“Vee~… How is it going to snow, Luddy? It’s summer and it’s very hot. We’re not in Germany, it doesn’t snow here.”

“No, I didn’t mean…” he stared at us for some seconds and shook his head. “Bah! Never mind, let’s leave it. It’s about time to go, Feliciano.

“Yes, it’s true, it’s getting late.” Feli held Ludwig’s arm again. “We are going to the cinema to watch a ninjas’ movie, do you want to come, Antonio?”

Ludwig paled and his expression became more serious than it normally was.

“Thank you very much, Feli, but I don’t feel like it. Have fun.”

Ludwig relaxed his face, smiled a bit (because the corners of his lips rose a few millimeters, otherwise it wouldn’t have been noticed) and patted me on my back as a goodbye.

Unfortunately, the conversation with Feliciano had only depressed me more. If he didn’t even know what happened to Lovi and he was avoiding me, how could I find out what had happened and make amends? I decided to try my luck going to his house once more.

I don’t know how long I spent on the landing or the times I knocked on his door, but my fingers ended up in pain. I tried to phone, Lovi’s mobile tone was heard on the other side of the door the first two times, and there was no signal at the third call, he would have turned it off. 

I went down to my apartment frustrated, disappointed and, above all, depressed.

I fell onto the bed and buried my face in the pillow, which, to my complete surprise, still retained the smell of Lovino. I breathed in that aroma, remembering the two nights I spent in his company.

When he appeared in the middle of the night asking me for letting him sleep at my home, I don’t know what I thought, he seemed scared and shy, but he looked so cute… Just like in the morning! He was so calm while he was sleeping that I couldn’t repress the desire to kiss his rosy cheeks… Maybe he noticed and that’s why he got angry! No, even if it was a possibility, if Lovi had realized at the moment he wouldn’t have repressed beating me, just like on Saturday night when I touched that funny curl he had, I only wanted to know how he managed to keep it suspended in the air, but got angry and hit me in the stomach… the truth is that his reaction was a bit strange, he looked heated and nervous, he was snorting and his face was redder than usual, he might have gotten angry for that! Although the next morning he behaved as always…

Agh! Thinking about the possible reasons of Lovi’s annoyance and then demolish them by myself had no sense, I was only getting a headache. I rubbed my face to try to clear myself. I sighed deeply and hugged the pillow, inhaling again Lovi’s scent (I missed him a lot!) until I fell asleep.

I had wanted to see Lovi in the morning, in fact I spent a while sat on the stairs waiting for him to go down to his class, but he didn’t do it. In the end, it was Emma who appeared, a bit surprised by my delay and urged me to leave for work or we would be late.

 On the way, while driving my motorbike with Emma on my back, I remembered that she left my house with Lovino the last day I saw him, maybe she knew something about what was happening to him, because he had told her about it or because she had noticed (girls have a special ability to detect problems). I asked her as soon as we got off the bike.

“Lovino was weird?” she said. “Really? I saw him the same as always, both at your home and at night.

“Did you see Lovi that night?!” I got surprised.

“Yeah. I went to dinner at Romu’s restaurant with Eli when she finished her shift at the hospital. It was Lovino who served us, at least at first, because then there was a row in the kitchens and we didn’t see him again.”

Lovi took his job seriously, I knew it on good authority, we had worked together and he didn’t do it bad, in fact he learnt everything he needed to know quickly and put a lot of effort into doing it well. So that they didn’t see him again was strange enough.

“How’s that there was a row and you didn’t see Lovi anymore?”

“Well, I don’t know what happened, but there was a rumble like dishes breaking on the floor. I imagine that since Lovino was the last to arrive, he had to pick up the disaster and that’s why he didn’t come back out again, at least during the time we were there.”

“Oh, okay.”

Wow, for a moment I thought that in the restaurant there might have happened some event that triggered Lovi’s annoyance towards me.

“Hey, Toni, now that we’re talking about the restaurant, why don’t you and I go there to have dinner tonight? It’s been a long time since we saw each other outside of work.”

“We live in front of the other! We see each other every day.”

“Oh, don’t play dumb!” she grumbled gracefully making a puppy face. “You know what I mean, to spend a little time together and have fun, not to pass each other on the landings. What do you say? Are we going to dinner at Romu’s restaurant tonight?”

Sincerely, I didn’t feel like accepting her proposal, but Emma, with her head cocked, looked at me with those imploring green eyes and an innocent smile on her face. I couldn’t refuse. Moreover, I had a good incentive to accept, it was Thursday and Lovino would be working in the restaurant, which would give me the opportunity to talk to him.

So that evening, after coming back from the mall and having a long, relaxing shower, I went to pick up Emma. Luckily she was who received me, because I wasn’t in the mood to endure the scathing comments of her brother towards me, even so I tried to put my best smile for my friend.

It wasn’t even dark yet. We walked to the garage to get the car or the motorcycle, at least I was heading there, but when I was arriving Emma grabbed my hand and pulled me. I looked at her without understanding, she smiled at me and led me to a square.

“We better go by taxi” she said, “so we won’t have a problem to return if we drink a little.”

“Do you intend me to get drunk?” I raised an eyebrow, looking at her inquisitively.

“You never know.” She stuck out her tongue and winked. Moreover, then we could go back taking a walk…”

I shrugged. Emma interpreted it as a positive answer and giggled softly. She pushed me inside the first parked taxi we found, she sat beside be and started to talk to me, I don’t know about what, really, because I was so deep in my thoughts on how to get Lovi not to avoid me in the restaurant that I wasn’t even listening to her.

“Toni, Toni!” she shook my arm, pulling me out of my absorption. “Where are you? Because it seemed that you weren’t listening to me.”

“Sorry, Emma” I smiled, “I was distracted.”

“What happens?” she looked at me worried. What I said, girls have that ability to detect when something is not right around them. “You don’t look like yourself.”

“I have been a little bad for a few days because something happens with Lovi and I don’t know what it is or how I can fix it.”

“That’s why you asked me about him this morning?” I nodded. “If you have any problem with him maybe we shouldn’t go to dinner to Romu’s restaurant, we can go anywhere else if you want…”

“NO!” I shouted suddenly, I had to go and make Lovi talk to me. Emma startled by my unexpected reaction. “I… I mean there’s no problem, I really want to have dinner there.”

“Ah, fine.” She smiled again.

“Do you know? It’s been a while since last time I went there as a customer” I remembered my last visit and smiled with a bit of nostalgia, “since the day I met Lovi. He asked me to take him to lunch at a genuine Italian restaurant.”

“So demanding!” she laughed.

“Poor boy, he fell down in a faint in my arms… if he ever finds out that I have told you this, he’ll kill me…”

I continued to remember my first encounter with Lovi until we reached our destination, the truth is that talking about him made me feel a bit better. Emma, on the other hand, was becoming more and more quiet and thoughtful.

I wanted to enter at the dining room, in summer there’s much more tranquility inside, but Emma stopped me holding my arm, she preferred to sit at a table on the terrace.

While we were reading the menu, I told Emma about the days Lovi and I were working together and how I had to teach him everything he needed to know and how fast he learnt. Suddenly she left the menu on the table with a slap.

“Do you know what you are going to order?” she asked me sharply, but smiling, though the corners of her lips trembled.

“Eeh… well…”

My gaze went alternately from the menu to Emma a couple of times. Her green, piercing eyes were fixed on me, making me nervous. I looked away and saw that Lovi passed in front of the dining room door, I know it was a few seconds, but our eyes met. No doubt that was the moment to talk to him. I got up from the table very fast, almost without thinking.

“I’m going to the toilet” I lied, “I come back right now.”

And I ran into the restaurant chasing Lovi, who was serving with a gallant smile a table with four young girls who… were making eyes at him! What a cheek… anyway, as soon as Lovino finished taking note, I approached him and grabbed his arm so he couldn’t escape. He squirmed a little trying to get away.

“Lovi, please, we need to talk.” I said in a low voice.

“Don’t you realize that I’m working, bastard?” he kept on moving. “Leave me alone, you idiot, I don’t have time for your bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit!” I was offended.

“I don’t care, I’m not interested!”

He squirmed once more and nudged me in the stomach causing me to let him go and he took the opportunity to disappear into the kitchen. Chasing him would be useless and would only bother everyone who was working there, so I snorted in frustration and went out onto the terrace.

To my utter surprise, Emma was no longer sitting at the table, she was going out to the street at a swift pace. I ran after her, I didn’t understand why she was leaving so suddenly, if it was her idea to go to dinner. I held her by her wrist when I reached her and she stopped, turning to me with an angry face.

“Emma, what happens? Why have you left so suddenly?”

“What do you think?” she snapped back at me.  

She got free of my grip violently. She stopped a taxi which was approaching and left, leaving me there with no explanation.

I sighted deeply and made my way back home on foot.

 I definitely didn’t understand anything about what was happening. First Lovino pulled me away from his life suddenly and for no apparent reason, and then Emma got mad at me who knows why. What a horrible week! I felt more and more depressed.

When finally after forty five minutes I arrived at the building’s gate, Francis and Gilbert were leaving and stopped me. I didn’t have to tell them anything to let them know that I felt really bad emotionally, they realized when they saw me, especially Francis, who has always had that ability. Both of them grabbed me by the arms, stopping me from continuing my way to the second floor and dragged me to a nearby bar.

“Now, mon ami, you’re going to tell us why you’re depressed.” Fran said to me when served us drinks and a couple of tapas (because I hadn’t eaten yet).

I explained in detail what happened during the last days and what had happened in the restaurant. Gilbert and Francis listened to me with all their attention and without interrupting me, which was a novelty, as they always find something to comment on. In fact, they didn’t speak for a while after I finished, they stared at me with astonished faces.

“My, my, you can tell the le petit italien made a deep impression on you, mon amour.”

“What do you mean, Fran?”

“What does he mean? Is it not clear enough? If you have even left the blondie behind to get that kid’s attention, and in its day you drooled and whined for her.”

“C’est vrai, you weren’t like that for anyone since Emma and you stopped ‘not going out’ together.”

“Eh?”

“Let’s see, Toño, haven’t you thought that maybe the little boy has gotten angry with you not for something you have done but for what you haven’t done yet?”

“Guys! Please, speak clearly because I’m more lost than the rice boat.”

“What Gilbert says is that maybe le petit italien has gotten angry with you for being so slow and not having declared to him yet.”

“Declaring to him? And why the hell should I declare to him?”

“Maybe because of your feeling for him?”

“Friendship?” I asked hesitantly. “Do I have to declare my friendship to Lovi?”

“Friendship? Come on, Toño, if you can tell it a mile away that you have a big desire for that kid. Do yourself and that grumpy boy a damn favor and give an amazing cock once and for all, he sure is also looking forward to it.

“Fuck, Gilbo! What obsession you do have with chickens… Auch!”

Francis had slapped me on the back of my neck, painfully indeed. Gilbert received one too. Francis sighed deeply.

“To begin with, Gilbert, stop making vulgar comments and giving absurd advice that is useless.”

“What do you say about my advice?” he was offended. “They are some amazing tips.”

“Yeah, amazingly useless. I’ve already seen how well what you said worked with your beloved doctor, now you run away from her every time she approaches you.”

“Because lately she has her murderous instinct at exorbitant levels and I don’t want her to split my head with her frying pan.”

“You didn’t care about that before. Be a man, confront her and make it clear your feeling for her!” Francis stood up in excitement. “And you, Antonio” he pointed at me and sat down again, patting me on the shoulder, “mon amour, how slow you can be sometimes, don’t you realize that what you feel for le petit italien isn’t a simple friendship?”

“Is it not?”

“Of course not, Toño” Gilbert said, “you haven’t seen him for less than a week and it seems that your vital regions had been removed.”

“Not to mention how you behave with him, always so helpful and attentive and above all…” Fran paused for a moment and smirked… “protective…”

I looked at him, intrigued by the tone which he had said that last word.

“Don’t look at me like that, cher, you know well what I mean. It’s enough that someone comes closer to your beloved Lovino so that you are on the alert.”

“Kesese… with that ‘someone’ you mean yourself, really, Frenchy?” Fran laughed.

“Moreover, if he is present in the same place where you are, you don’t separate from him. Like the night of my party, you didn’t move away more than a meter from him…”

“That was the condition Lovi put to accompany me to the party, so I didn’t leave him alone.”

“So he only went to the party because you asked him.” He exchanged a glance with Gilbert and they both nodded with conviction. “Interesting…”

“Well, to be honest, Fran, Lovi doesn’t trust you, he thinks you are going to jump on him or something like that at the first chance.”

“I’ll gladly do it.”

I looked at him badly, the lascivious tone he used to say that phrase made me angry, it seemed that he meant it and, no matter how good friend of mine Francis was, I would never allow him to use Lovi for his amusement.

“See how I’ve got reason, amour?” he said calmly. “You are on the alert. Calm down, I was joking.” He winked.

“I don’t like that kind of jokes.” I said seriously.

“Whatever, mon ami, don’t dismiss the chance that Lovino has been angry with you for your slowness, because he may have misunderstood certain aspects of your behavior. So what you have to do now is to think over everything we have said to you, analyze your own reactions and realize what you really feel for le petit italien.”

“And assume it!”

Far from helping me solve my problems, the conversation with the guys only managed to confuse me even more. Why did they insist on questioning my friendship with Lovino? Although perhaps they were right in saying that what I felt was not a simple friendship, it was something stronger, I had become very fond of him! It was impossible not to do it: he’s a smart and funny boy –I never get bored while being with him– but also vulnerable and insecure, who cares for those who matter to him, but who hides himself behind a barrier of hostility so he is not gotten hurt. How could I not be fond of someone so adorable?

And now that adorable person was leaving me aside, why? The guys raised the possibility that Lovi had been angry at my slowness in not declaring to him… Were they insinuating that Lovi felt something more than friendship for me? No, that was impossible…

Although, on second thought, there was an incident at Francis’ party that might well suggest the opposite. Lovi, totally drunk, and I were dancing when suddenly he felt very hot and went to the landing taking off his shirt. I ran after him and, seeing his condition, I grabbed him by the waist and forced him to go to his house, he refused and repeated over and over again that he wanted to dance. We went up the first flight of stair with difficulty, because Lovi didn’t stop moving and dancing. Then he grabbed my abdomen and ran his hands over it, saying that “he was going to do me something that nobody else had ever done me before”, I’d swear that my face lit up when he said that, but suddenly I felt a lot of tickling, of course, he meant that! Or that I wanted to think, I’d ask him the next day. But it turned out that Lovi didn’t remember anything and when I told him what he told me, he became completely white and his face was distorted. I felt so bad to see him like that, so I decided to lie to him saying that he was referring to a musical work and the first one that came to mind was that famous of the seasons, that seemed to relieve him. And I forgot about the subject, until that moment.

Oh, God! Could it be that Francis and Gilbert were right with that they implied about Lovi? No, definitely not, Lovi was as drunk as a lord that night and he wasn’t aware of what he was doing or saying. But… it was possible that Lovino had remembered what happened that night and knew that I had lied to him and… that was the reason of his anger! Yes, that explanation was much more plausible than the one exposed by my friends.

On Friday morning, I woke up tired and with an incipient stomachache, facing so many negative events in so few days was taking a toll on me.

I was just in time to get to work, I dressed quickly, drank a cup of hot coffee and went to look for Emma, but I was welcomed by Govert with that sympathy that characterizes him.

“I don’t know what you are doing here, but you are annoying, so you can leave now.”

“B-But I come for Emma to go to work.”

“Emma left half an hour ago, she must have finally gotten tired of waiting for a good-for-nothing lie you every morning.”

He shut the door in my face.

There was no doubt that Emma was still angry and she had preferred to leave alone to work, but at least I could see her there and apologize for what had bothered her. Or so I intended, because I couldn’t find her all morning and I looked for her throughout the store, but nothing, I didn’t find her. And I didn’t see her at the time of leaving, so I returned home alone.

“Antonio!” an authoritative voice shouted as soon as I set foot in the patio.

Roderich suddenly appeared leaving Elizaveta’s house (it was quite a surprise because until a few weeks ago he used me as a messenger to send letters to his ex-girlfriend). He approached me with an angry face, and what had I done?

“What the hell is happening with Lovino?” I looked at him without understanding. “He skipped my classes and I have come to look for him.”

“How long did it take you to come?” he glanced at me, Roderich gets annoyed every time I refer to his null sense of direction.

“Less than you imagine, I’ve been here for a while. I tried to see Lovino, but he didn’t open the door.”

“Welcome to the club.”

Since it was you who insisted that I accepted him as a student, I demand a good explanation to justify this intolerable lack of discipline.”

“Rod, it’s been at least five days since Lovino doesn’t want to know anything about me and I don’t even know why, what makes you think that I can know the reasons why he has skipped your classes? Ask Feliciano, luckily he may know something.”

“Do you mean that boy who is in Elizaveta’s house and can’t stop crying because his brother doesn’t let him into the house?”

“WHAT?!”

I went into my friend’s house. Feliciano was on a couch crying while Eli was trying to calm him down unsuccessfully. On another sofa, Gilbert lay unconscious and with a bump on his forehead, he would surely have won a frying pan blow from Eli, who knows why. I approached Feli and bent over in front of him.

“Feli, what happened? Why are you crying?”

“Vee~… My… my… my fratello…” he sobbed. “Vee~…i-is… an-angry and doe…doesn’t let… let me en-enter… home…”

“What? Why?”

“Didn’t you hear about last night’s mess, Antonio?” Eli asked. I shook my head, I was so tired that I lay on the bed and didn’t hear anything. “Well, the row wasn’t small precisely.”

“Your beloved Lovinito showed up at my awesome abode looking for Feliciano, who had stayed to sleep there, but Feliciano refused to leave and they had an argument. That’s the short version of the story.” Gilbert said, sitting up while rubbing his bump. “Damn Hungarian, you’re going to make me stupid with your blows.”

“You are” Eli answered, “learn how to behave and you won’t receive more.”

“I have no reason to behave with that stupid aristocrat.”

Roderich and Gilbert exchanged hateful looks. Eli raised the pan so it could be seen by both of them. Gil grunted and leaned back on the couch, crossing his arms.

“But let’s see” I said, taking up the subject, “other times you have stayed at Gil and Ludwig’s house, why does Lovi get angry now to the point of not letting you enter the house?”

“Vee~… Because… because I told him that I preferred stay with Ludwig than leaving with him.” Feliciano answered calmer.

“And considering that horrible dislike Lovino has for German people, that had to suit him like a hole in the head.” Roderich commented.

“Fuck, if I even let him be friend of my awesome self, where does so much hatred come?”

“Vee~… That’s my fault…”

The looks of all of us instantly turned to Feliciano.

“What?”

“Vee~… When we were little we had a very serious German neighbor of who we were afraid and one day my fratello went into his garden to catch a ball that had fallen unintentionally, but that man discovered him and got angry and took my fratello with my mamma, who scolded him very hard. From then on he began to detest everything related to the German…”

“But that’s not your fault, Feli.” Eli said while caressing Feli’s head.

“In fact, it’s time for Lovino to get over those traumas.” Roderich commented coldly. “Anyway, I’ve already accomplished what I came to do, so I’m leaving.”

“Do you want me to accompany you?” Eli offered.

“NO!” shouted a blushed Gilbert.

For doing both Gilbert and Roderich a favor, I decided to be the one to accompany the latter to his house, which only left me time to have lunch before going back to work. But I had already decided, that afternoon I would talk to Emma about her anger and I would clarify with Lovino the reasons of his avoiding, whether he wanted to or not.

Fortune seemed to smile up on me for the first time in that week. I decided to solve first the issue with Emma, I had the feeling that I would solve it in a short time. So just after returning, I knocked on her door. This time she welcomed me.

“Emma, great!” I smiled at her, I hoped she didn’t throw me out as her brother. “Hey, I have been wanting to see you all day to apologize for…”

“No, Toni” she interrupted me seriously. No? No what? “You don’t have to ask for my forgiveness for anything, it’s me who has to apologize to you.” Well, I didn’t understand anything. “I didn’t have to get angry or react as I did, I know, there’s no justification for it, but I’m not going to deny that I was very shocked to discover how you are for Lovino.”

“What? I don’t understand, what do you mean by ‘how I am for Lovino’?”

“Please, Toni, isn’t it obvious?” she said frowning. “You’re crazy for that boy.”

“Come on, Emma, are you going to begin with that like Gilbert and Francis?”

Emma joined her index and middle fingers together, put them in front of my face and quickly directed them to my forehead, hitting it with their fingertips. It hurt. Whenever she wanted to make me notice something, she used that strategy.

“Auch, it hurts!” I rubbed the spot hit.

“Antonio!” Emma only called me by my full name when she got angry. “Don’t you see yourself?!

I didn’t know what to answer to that question, so I shrugged. I won a new blow with her fingers on my forehead.

“How you act, how you talk about him, how you miss him, don’t you realize? Your whole world revolves around Lovino. You are in love with him!”

I was speechless for a few seconds. I… was I in love with Lovino? That was what Fran and Gil meant when they tried to convince me again and again that what I felt for him was more than just friendship? Yes, they were definitely right, it was not just friendship. And it wasn’t a simple fondness as I had thought, it was something even stronger, more intense, deeper, I needed him with my whole soul and I wanted him with all my heart.

Emma was right, I was in love with Lovino.

I held my friend in my arms, if it wasn’t for her and her direct way of telling me things, it would have taken me a lot longer to realize what I really felt for Lovi (guys were absolutely right saying that I am slow).

I only had to solve the problem with Lovino. I had to talk to him and know once and for all the reasons that had led him to decide to grow apart from me by avoiding me, and solving it in any way, I didn’t care, the only thing I wanted at that time was to have my Lovi close to me again.

By the hour it was, he had to be in the restaurant, but it turned out that no. I was still hugging Emma when he passed behind me at full speed towards the stairs, saying a brief “good evening” that made us separate. My heart beat so fast, Lovi had spoken to me again, even though he hadn’t stopped. I looked at Emma with excitement, she smiled shyly and nodded, closing the door.

Without thinking about it any longer, I ran after Lovino. He was one step ahead of me. I called him several times to stop him, but he chose to run. I lost sight of him a couple of times, but luck was on my side and I managed to keep track of him until reaching a small nearby beach.

I saw him sitting on the sand contemplating the sea while the sunset sun illuminated his face. I approached him slowly so he wouldn’t notice my presence and flee again. I sat next to him while taking his arm gently, but firmly, and I gave him a wide smile.

“This time I won’t let you escape.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Taste of salt

POV Lovino

My heart was beating madly and not precisely because of running along the promenade after leaving the restaurant abruptly, but because of the strange emotion that had suddenly seized me when I discovered the feelings I had towards a certain Spanish who drove me mad.

Dammit, there are millions of people in this fucking world and I had fallen in love with the bastard of Antonio, that bore spendthrift of sympathy and good humor, idiot among idiots. How the hell had it happened? He is a MAN and I have NEVER been attracted to men.

However, Antonio was the first person who put up with me and accepted me despite of the way I am, considering me his friend (he was also the first one who I considered as such), he worried and was wrapped up in me, he had many details with me (like picking me up at work or treating me to eat) and, even though he always found the way to infuriate me, I can’t deny that I had a lot of fun being with him. Fuck! With his fucking smiles and that kind and attentive behavior towards me he had managed to get, little by little, but full, into my heart.

Nevertheless, what did it matter that I had fallen in love with Antonio? He didn’t love me back, he behaved the same way with everybody, I wasn’t special for him, even if he made me feel that way. Moreover, the bastard had Emma, or he would have her when she confessed what she felt for him again, because I doubted that idiot didn’t jump into her arms with joy when he knew it… where there was fire, ashes remained. Damn it, something inside me was contracting painfully with just thinking about it.

I had to do something to stop feeling like that, but what? The damn bastard Antonio would continue behaving the same with me, making me unable to banish this confused feeling, wanting to be more than his friend. Definitely, I had to get away from Antonio, it was the best I could do. I would deprive myself of seeing him, I’d avoid him as much as possible, at least until that feeling stopped and we could be again two simple friends as always.

But of course, avoiding the bastard wouldn’t be an easy task, not only because he lived downstairs and our times to leave home coincided sometimes (I’d wait every morning to see him leave through the gate before leaving to class), but because he was such a bore and I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone that easy.

On Monday, at the end of the afternoon, as it was usual most of the days when we had free time, the bastard showed up at home to look for me to go out. As soon as I heard the doorbell I knew it was him. Feliciano, who was in the living room watching TV, approached the door to open it, but I stopped him just in time to tell him to invent some kind of excuse for the bastard to leave.

“Vee~… but why, fratello?” he cocked his head. “Has something happened?”

“No, it’s just that I don’t want to see him.”

“Are you angry with him?”

“No.”

“So?”

“Stop with the questions and do what I’m telling you to do, idiot!” I started to get angry.

“Ve! And what do I tell him?”

“I don’t know, make something up, don’t be stupid.”

I pushed Feliciano to open at last as I hid in the corridor, because knowing the bastard and the liberties he took, for sure that he would sneak into the living room and eventually find me. I listened carefully, expecting my idiot brother to do well what I had asked him.

“Hello, Lo…! Hello, Feli~!” the bastard greeted, it seemed that he was expecting that I welcomed him, as I always did. “I’m looking for Lovi, could you tell him to come out?”

Feliciano stared at him for several seconds, I guess he was trying to think of some excuse, I don’t think his brain can work faster.

“Ciao, Antonio! My fratello… is not at home.”

“He isn’t here?” he asked with a trace of surprise in his voice. Is it so weird not to find me at home? Not that he was the only one who I went out with… okay, he was. “Where has he gone?”

“Veee~…” he was trying to think again, damn idiot. “Well… I don’t know!”

“Don’t you know? Didn’t he tell you?”

That idiot Feliciano shook his head frantically, it was obvious that he was trying to hide something… or it would have been obvious for someone who wasn’t as thick as two short planks, because the bastard kept on asking, which was what I wanted.

“And you didn’t ask him?”

“Vee~… you know how my fratello is, he gets angry when you bombard him with questions."

Damn Feliciano, I don’t do that! I don’t get angry so easily, it’s that I’m surrounded by idiots who don’t know anything and make me get on my nerves. The bastard laughed.

"Yeah…” and on top of that the bastard agreed with that idiot I have as a brother. “Then I suppose that you won't know if he is coming back soon, will you?" Feliciano shook his head. Antonio sighed. "What a pity!"

"Do you want to leave him a message?"

"No, it's not necessary, just tell him I have been here."

The bastard’s voice sounded sad, down, which made me feel really bad, but it was the best, I was convinced, it was necessary to get away from him.

Feliciano waved goodbye to Antonio, closed the door and came to me practically shouting if he had done well.

“Idiot, don’t shout!” I scolded him trying not to yell. “Antonio may be close and listen to you.”

“Vee~… Sorry, fratello.”

Since the bastard didn’t come back I guessed he didn’t hear Feliciano asking me.

“Vee~… but, fratello, I don’t understand it, if you aren’t angry with Antonio, why don’t you want to see him?”

“It’s none of your business.” I replied.

“Vee~…” Feliciano looked at me confused. “But, has something happened?”

“No.”

“Sure? Because you are so weird since you came back from the restaurant last night.”

“Don’t say bullshit!” I yelled. “I’m the same as always!”

I locked myself in my room slamming the door, I expected that would put an end to Feliciano’s annoying questions, the idiot seemed to suspect something, and he usually didn’t get anything! I didn’t want my brother to discover that he was right and that something really happened to me, so I had to avoid the topic of Antonio as much as possible.

However, I needed Feliciano’s help again to get rid of the bastard the next day.

Just a few minutes ago I had finished rehearsing a new melody with the violin when I heard the doorbell, without a doubt it was Antonio, I confirmed it when I saw him through the peephole. Convincing myself (because I doubted a lot of my decision) that avoiding the bastard was the best, I went in search of my brother to deal with him.

Feliciano was pretty focused (which was quite an event worth mentioning) in a room painting something that seemed he was looking through the window of the patio, I don’t know what, because as soon as I entered the room he jumped and hid the canvas the was painting (no doubt, in that aspect is the same as me when rehearsing, he doesn’t want onlookers until everything is complete).

“Feliciano, go open the door” I held his arm and led him to the living room, “someone’s waiting.”

“Vee~… but, fratello, don’t you come from there? Why didn’t you open?”

“Because it’s the bastard, you have to invent something for him to leave.”

“Again?” he was starting with his questions. But why don’t you want to see him?”

“That’s my business, you only do what I have said.”

“But, fratello, he may know you are here, possibly he has listened to you playing the violin through the patio.”

“Well, try to make a good excuse for him to leave.”

I released Feliciano, who didn’t seem very happy with what I was asking him, in front of the main door and ran to hide in the corridor, just like the day before, from where I could perfectly listen to the conversation.

"Hello, Feli! And your brother? Could you tell him to come here?"

"Vee~… Veee~…" that idiot of Feliciano looked nervous and looked away from the bastard to me, as if he were asking me indications about what he should say next." My… my fratello… vee~… my fratello is not here."

"How's that? I have heard him playing violin just a moment ago."

Fuck! In the end, the idiot Feliciano was right, the bastard had listened to me and knew I was at home.

"Veee… yes, well… actually he is here…"

But what the hell was that stupid I have as brother saying? I asked him to cover me in front of the bastard inventing some excuse and, besides contradicting himself, the idiot betrayed me saying I was at home. 

"Then tell him to come!" Antonio urged him.

"He can't!" Feliciano replied immediately, which surprised me a lot, although he looked pretty nervous. "He… he… he just went to bed!"

"So early?" the bastard’s voice denoted disbelief.

"He wasn't feeling well!"

"Oh, so can I enter to see him? If he's sick maybe I can stay to help you out…"

"N-N-N-No!" he waved his arms so the bastard wouldn’t enter. "My fratello has said he doesn't want anyone to bother him and you know how he is, ve! I don't want him to get angry!"

And before the bastard spoke again, Feliciano shut the door closed.

I was surprised by the speed with which my brother had been able to invent a new excuse, a proper one in addition, for Antonio to leave.

“Vee~… have I done it well today, fratello?” Feliciano asked with fear.

I smiled a bit and nodded. I didn’t feel well at all for having managed to get the bastard out, despite being what I considered the best (or so I believed at least). I felt something inside me contracted and I had a painful lump in my throat that didn’t let me talk.

“Vee~… fratello, what’s wrong?” Feliciano looked at me worried. “You look bad…”

“I… am not… feeling well.” I said with effort. “I’m going to lie down for a while. Tell me when the dinner is ready.”

I lay on my bed thinking about the bastard and how difficult it was to stay away from him, ¡and only two days had passed! And although I wasn’t going to admit it openly, I missed spending my time with that bore of Antonio, I had gotten used to his damn company.

The sound of my cell phone made me jump. I reached out and grabbed the phone from the bedside table, Antonio had just sent me a text message full of emoticons but without half of the letters that said: “Lovi, I know you’re sick, so for you to recover soon I dedicate you a song. I hope you like it. Lovingly, Toño.”

The soft music of the guitar came to my ears through the window. The lump in my throat became more painful and I couldn’t help that some tears escaped from my eyes as I was listening to it and reread the message over and over again. I was dying for answering him, but I couldn’t. Damn, why the hell did that idiot bastard of Antonio have to be so kind and considerate? That way I could never fall out of love with him.

I hardly slept that night thinking about the bastard. Luckily Feliciano has deep sleep and didn’t notice the many times I woke up and took my phone to read Antonio’s message again. Damn, I looked like a fifteen-year-old girl!

The worst thing was that the next day I continued with that stupid in my mind distracting me from everything, which didn’t go unnoticed by my prissy teacher, who hit his modern baton (radio antenna) against the table catching my attention and forcing me to stop playing.

“Lovino, can I know where you are?” Roderich told me visibly angry crossing his arms.

“Where I am? What the fuck is that question? Have you become more myopic and you don’t see me?”

“Language!” he scolded me hitting the antenna against the table again. “I warn you, I won’t tolerate any more insolence!” he threatened me with his antenna. I swallowed a bit scared and nodded. “Now speak, why are you so distracted?”

Roderich’s inquisitive gaze made me nervous and I couldn’t find the words to answer him. I didn’t want to talk about what I felt for the bastard.

“I… umm…” my professor waited for my answer impatiently. “Well, it’s just… how do you… forget someone?” The Austrian frowned. “I guess you… you know, don’t you?”

“And why should I know about that?” he said calmly although he looked angry.

“Well… you were Elizaveta’s boyfriend,” he frowned deeply and snorted, “but not now and… I guess you’ll know what to do to…” I scratched my head because I wasn’t sure how to continue “… to forget someone or… or at least to stop caring about what that person does and with whom…”

“What kind of vulgarities are you insinuating?!” he shouted indignant and hysterical, whipping the table again, I got scared to see him like that.

“I…”

“ENOUGH!” a new blow. “Stay quiet! I don’t want to listen to you again until we finish the class. Take the violin and continue where we left off. And you better not get distracted again, idiot.”

I just nodded and obeyed him. I don’t understand why he got so angry when he was the first to ask. And of course, it couldn’t be otherwise, the damned Austrian punished me by forcing me to stay playing half an hour more for wasting time with nonsense.

The worst of Roderich’s punishment wasn’t the extra time playing or how hungry I was, but when I returned home the bastard would have come back from work and I could meet him. And indeed it was. Although I went through his landing on tiptoe so he wouldn’t hear me, he left his apartment when I was at the end of the penultimate flight of stairs.

“Lovi!”

I turned when I heard my name. I couldn’t describe the emotion I felt when I saw Antonio’s emerald eyes, but I had to get away from him, so I ran up the stairs and locked myself in my house. The bastard followed me and knocked the door several times while calling my name, his voice sounded concerned. Why did he make things so difficult?

“Vee~… fratello, what happens?” Feliciano approached the entrance alarmed by the noise.

“Nothing!” I grabbed his arm and took him to the kitchen. “A vacuum cleaner seller has sneaked into the building, don’t listen to him.”

Luckily Feliciano was in one of his moments of little lucidity and believed me, I hadn’t stood a new interrogation on his part about what was happening to me with the bastard.

The knocks on the door stopped. I sighed in relief, Feliciano noticed the gesture and stared at me inquisitively, but didn’t say anything. He served lunch and sat at the table next to me to eat.

“Vee~… fratello, why did you arrive so late today? Have you misbehaved again and been punished by your teacher?”

“Who the hell are you taking me for?” I replied annoyed. “I didn’t ‘misbehave’, I’m not a kid. Besides, to that Austrian idiot any nonsense seems like a good reason to force me to play for a while longer. He’s annoying to the greatest extent, you can tell he’s half German.”

“German are not annoying, fratello.”

“Your opinion is not valid, you spend all the time fluttering around that giant potato bastard.”

“He’s my friend!” he said seriously and then smiled again. “Oh, he invited me to go to the cinema tonight, do you want to come, fratello?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he cringed on his chair. “I’m not going anywhere with that macho potato, no way!

I got up and locked in my room.

Feliciano and I didn’t talk in the whole afternoon until the moment to leave reached, when he told me he was leaving and asked me again if I wanted to go with him. It wasn’t necessary to answer him, my glare said everything and he, luckily, understood it perfectly.

I stayed on the sofa watching TV without really watching anything. I was thinking about the bastard again, about how I had run away from him and had ignored him at midday, and about how much I missed spending my time with him…

Somebody cut my thoughts knocking on the door, it was that bore of Antonio! It seemed he could read my mind, how convenient! I buried my head under the cushions of the sofa, covering myself with them so not to hear the knock on the door or the ringing. I don’t know how long he spent on the landing, but it felt like an eternity. Then he decided to phone me, once, twice, and before a third one, I turned the cell off, it was getting on my nerves. And it was also increasing my desire to open the door and tell him that he was a bore and being with him.

Finally, he stopped insisting.

From the window of the living room I was looking at the patio and the gate of the building. Emma and the bastard were walking fast to the entrance, very close to each other, and by the gestures she was doing, I’d say she was scolding him for his delay, because they were late to leave for work. I wondered if she would have already confessed her feelings for him, the pressure in my stomach and the lump in my throat became stronger.

I waited a couple of minutes before leaving for class to avoid a possible encounter with the bastard in the street, after all I was already late. Of course, for a certain Austrian that represented a disrespect almost as offensive as an insult.

“Lovino” Roderich greeted me, tapping the tip of his antenna against his hand in a clearly threatening gesture, “don’t you know the concept of punctuality?”

“It’s just that… when I was on my way, I had a little problem and had to come back home… and there are three floors and…”

“Enough!” he interrupted me. “Stop with that poor excuses and come closer.” He pulled out a chair from under the table and placed on it a bundle of white sheets. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

As if I couldn’t know: punished for an hour writing over and over again a bland phrase “I must arrive on time to Mr. Edelstein’s classes” while my teacher was playing a piece of music on the piano, showing his discontent, and at the end of the class we’d recover that lost hour.

“Well, Lovino, stop writing.” Roderich said to me after an exact hour. “I have a proposal for you.”

I raised an eyebrow, curious. The Austrian handed me several scores.

“Despite you have had your head in the clouds practically the whole week, who knows why, you are one of my most advantaged students and for that I want to reward you.” That… was a compliment? “I always reward my best students by allowing them to participate with me in a recital I give every year by the end of the summer, so I’m suggesting to you that you accompany me on the violin with that songs I have given you. What do you say?”

I was excited. Roderich had praised me and offered me the opportunity to participate in a recital, although my memories of the latter weren’t pleasant due to the absence of my parents. I accepted without thinking. The bastard would be flabbergasted when I told him the news, or he would jump over me to hug me and congratulate me, or… shit, what a disappointment, I couldn’t tell him.

Thursday evening didn’t start well. I was lectured by my boss because of having left without any explanation on Sunday night after breaking a pile of dishes. After half an hour of lecture I could start working.

As if the damn fate were laughing at me, while I was going to serve a table, I saw the bastard sat next to Emma at one of the tables on the terrace. My stomach clenched painfully. Damn, with the amount of restaurants in the city, why the hell had they chosen my grandfather’s for dinner?

I tried not to pay attention to the couple, but a part of my brain forced me look at them both every time I passed by the door, until suddenly my gaze crossed for a few seconds with Antonio’s, I got really nervous.

I shook my head and continued with my work, that was serving customers, specifically four girls of my age that… were devouring me with their eyes. As the good Italian I am, I served them with my most charming smile and praised them with the best compliments I could say to four beautiful girls like them.

After finishing taking the orders of the girls, the bastard caught me off guard and grabbed my arm. I struggled cunningly for him to let me go, but the bastard was very strong.

“Lovi, please, we need to talk.” He said whispering.

“Don’t you realize I’m working, bastard?” I kept on struggling unsuccessfully. “Leave me alone, you idiot, I don’t have time for your nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense!”

“I don’t care.” I lied. “I’m not interested!”

I struggled again and elbowed him in the stomach so he let me go. I ran away to the kitchen, praying for him not to come after me, although deep in my heart I wished he did. He didn’t do it. In fact, when I went out the kitchen after a while, he and Emma had left the restaurant.

From then on, the evening became quiet, or at least I felt relieved that I couldn’t see the lovebirds showing their love in my face practically, although the pinching in my stomach didn’t go away and I kept wondering what those two would be doing to have left so all of a sudden… I didn’t even want to think about it!

The vibration of my cell phone in my pocket suddenly moved away the horrible image I had in my head. I looked at the phone, it was a message from Feliciano telling me that he would spend the night at the potato bastard’s house. I sighed and put the cell in my pocket again. But, that meant that I would spend alone the night! I took my phone out again, called my idiot brother and warned him not to go to the German’s house and wait for me at home until I arrived.

It didn’t take me long to leave the restaurant and get on the bus. The tulip was sitting in the back, I sat in the front seats, although it took him a short time to get close to me with his sour face. He sat next to me to annoy me, but I wasn’t in the mood to go on the attack.

“Explain me what you find funny when a guy like me has a pet rabbit.”

Well, it seems that the conversation I had with his sister and the bastard the previous Sunday –how far it seemed to me that day– had reached his ears.

“I suppose that is seeing a guy as big and sinister as you squeezing a defenseless small animal in his arms and caressing it with his chin while saying how soft it is.” I answered as I looked out the window. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“It’d be better if we don’t talk about what suits each one.”

“It’d be better if we don’t talk at all.”

In the reflection of the window, I could see that the tulip was staring at me with a frown, besides I felt his eyes fixed in the back of my neck.

“Something happens to you.” He commented with his usual indifferent tone.

“None of your business.”

“So I’m right, something happens to you.”

“None of your business.”

“You aren’t being funny.”

“And I don’t want to be, I’m not a fucking performing monkey.” I didn’t want to go on the attack, but he was bothering me, so I turned to him and held his gaze. “If you want to laugh at someone, look at you in the mirror when you are as high as you were the other day.”

“I’m happy to see a spoiled and cheeky brat sulking for any nonsense like a five-year-old kid.”

I turned my face to the window again, I puffed my cheeks up and bit my tongue, and I wouldn’t give that damn tulip the pleasure of answering him.

I got home pissed and to top it all I found the unpleasant surprise of finding everything off and quiet, which meant that Feliciano had disobeyed me and had left to the potato bastard’s house, as I could translate from the note he left on the dining room’s table. My anger increased. 

Just taking the keys, I went down to the first floor and pounded the door of the potato lover’s apartment. I was received by the egocentric albino, who was completely disconcerted, but I was more confused when I saw a yellow chick chirping among his silvery hairs (being a featherbrained wasn’t a set phrase in his case). I ignored the bird’s presence and focused on what I had gone to do.

“Where the hell is my idiot brother? Tell him to come.”

“Feli is here?”

“Don’t play dumb!” I said. “FELICIANO! Come out now, asshole!”

I pushed Gilbert aside and sneaked inside screaming my brother’s name as I opened all the door I saw in my way. The macho potato came out in a shirt and pants with a sleepy face.

“What happens?”

“Tell that idiot Feliciano to come out!”

“He’s asleep.” He said calmly.

“WHERE?!”

I didn’t wait for his answer, I went through the door for which the muscular potato had appeared. He came after me. I found my idiot brother there. He was sleeping peacefully, wearing only his underpants (Doesn’t he have a little bit of shyness?), with drool falling from the corner of his mouth. He hadn’t even heard my yells.

I shook Feliciano while yelling his name. The potato bastard tried to grab me from behind unsuccessfully, trying to stop me, but I managed to wake my brother up. I held him tightly by the arm and dragged him to the landing, despite his complains, calls for help to the potato bastard, who didn’t know how to act, and his attempts to free himself.

“VE!” he cried, making efforts to get free from my grip. “Fratello, let go.”

“I told you very clearly on the phone that I wanted you at home when I returned, you should have obeyed me!”

“Come on, lad, don’t be like that. Let Feli spend the night here, he’ll be okay.”

“SHUT UP, BIRD LOVER!

Feliciano managed to get free and ran to take refuge behind the potato bastard. I made the attempt to grab him again, but the albino stopped me by grabbing me by the waist.

“Could you say what you are playing at this hour?” the Frenchy went out his apartment because of the noise, he looked me up and down, smiled sideways and approached my position. “Can I join you?”

“Toño kills you if he finds out.” The albino murmured.

“Let go of me, you damn potato bastard of the devil!” I shouted to the idiot who was holding me and I elbowed him twice, but he didn’t give in. “And you stay away from me, pervert! Feliciano, listen to me right now and let’s go home!”

“NO!”

“What is this row?” Eli appeared with her frying pan in her hand.

“Don’t you have anything better to do during the damn night than kicking up a row, you bunch of drunkards?” the tulip and his sour face appeared by the stairs, although the gesture of his face became one of total confusion when he arrived at the landing. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Great, the one who was missing.

No, actually the ones who were missing were Emma and the bastard. I stopped struggling for some seconds when I realized that detail that made me feel as if a sharp stake was stuck in my heart.

The macho albino relaxed his grip and, all of a sudden, I rushed forward over Feliciano. I grabbed him by his wrist and pulled him from behind the German.

“I said we’re going home, LISTEN TO ME!”

“AND I HAVE SAID YOU NOT!”

“AH!”

The Hungarian hit my head with her frying pan, making me release my brother managing the albino to immobilize me. I struggled without success.

“I’m old enough to have to obey you!” Feliciano spat, showing an unusual boldness in him, although the tears were filling his eyes. “I rather stay at Ludwig’s house than go with you!”

Silence filled the atmosphere. The expectant glances of everybody focused on me, but I was in shock, I simply breathed slowly as the rage and pain that Feliciano’s words caused piled up inside me.

“You don’t know how much I hate you.”

I got rid of the albino’s arms and ran up the stairs.

I was too agitated by everything that happened that night, which was a lot. I began to release all the rage that was inside me by slamming the door shut and locking up, I left the key in the lock, so Feliciano couldn’t enter. I went through the house kicking the walls and throwing everything that was at hand, the more noise it made when hitting the floor better.

I arrived at the room where idiot Feliciano painted, it was full of fragile canvases and paints and… a painting without finishing on the easel, a painting in which a window had been painted and behind it the potato bastard was sitting while reading a book. In fact, from where I was I could see that same window and Feliciano curled up in the same couch where he had painted the macho potato who, by the way, was approaching him with a cup in his hand, he caressed his head and… Feliciano threw himself over him and gave him… a kiss on the lips.

Oh, God!

I dropped the painting in my hands because of the surprise. So that was the reason why that idiot of Feliciano had preferred to stay with the potato bastard instead of keeping me company. That’s why he always defended him.

I went back into the living room and let my rage finished releasing by hitting a cushion while the tears that were filling my eyes slid down my face, my pride wasn’t able to hold them any longer. I felt betrayed and lonely, very lonely, and on top of that I had drifted apart of the only idiot who put up with me. I turned on the TV just to hear some noise and lay face down on the couch until I fell asleep. 

The doorbell woke me up the next morning. I was in my bed (I went to my room in the middle of the night) and it was over noon. Great, I had missed the violin class, Roderich would be furious with me. I walked towards the door avoiding the objects scattered on the floor, as a result of my anger the night before, and looked who was on the other side by the peephole. It was Feliciano. He tried to put the key on the lock uselessly, mine was on the other side. He rang the doorbell several more times and also knocked on the door.

“Vee~… fratello” he said in a pitiful voice, “let me in, please.”

“Noooo.” I said. “Now get away with the nasty potato bastard who you love so much,”

“B-But, fratello,” he sobbed, “per favore…”

“Shut your trap, GET LOST!”

I heard him crying on the other side of the door, but this time he wouldn’t get me to succumb to his emotional blackmail I was too angry with him to give in. I’d make him pay for leaving me aside in favor of the potato bastard.

“Vee… fratello…” he cried while pounding the door. “Vee… vee…”

“Lovino!” that was Roderich’s voice. “Lovino Vargas! Irresponsible idiot, could I know why…? You are not Lovino.”

That idiot Roderich had appeared on the landing and mistake my brother for me.

“I… am Feliciano, vee…” he whined. “My fratello is… inside…” as well as a traitor, sneak. He knocked on the door again. “Vee… fratello, open…”

“Lovino!” Roderich also knocked on the door. “Open right now, idiot, I have to talk to you seriously.” He knocked impatiently. “Lovino, you know perfectly well that I don’t like to waste my time, so open up right now!”

Roderich and Feliciano spent a while knocking on the door and repeating the same. Obviously, I didn’t open the door. Finally they stopped and left.

“What the hell are you doing here, you damn prissy aristocrat?!” I heard Gilbert shouting in the patio.

I looked out of the window. Gilbert was grabbing my teacher by the collar of his shirt and they seemed involved in a heated argument. Eli went out from her house in a moment with her frying pan in her hand, he approached the two idiots who were arguing and hit the albino, the blow stunned him. Then, she greeted her ex-boyfriend and both of them carried the albino (she picked him up by the torso and Roderich grabbed his feet) to the Hungarian’s house. Everything became quiet.

But that tranquility wouldn’t last long for me, because Feliciano returned to the attack several times: before and after meal, in the middle of nap time and at afternoon snack’s time. And on every occasion he tried in vain to unlock the door and, as he couldn’t, he begged me to let him in. But I didn’t give in, I was lying on the couch covering my ears so I wouldn’t listen until he got tired and left.

Shortly after Feliciano’s last assault, the phone rang.

“Feli~, my darling~!”

It was my mother’s voice. Hell, I didn’t remember when it was the last time we talked, but, as usual, it wasn’t with me who she wanted to talk to.

“MEC!” I imitated a horn. “Sorry, mother, wrong son.”

“Ah, Lovino, it’s you.” She said disappointed. “Come on, put me on to your brother.”

“He is not here.”

“How’s that? Has he gone out without you? You know you mustn’t leave your brother alone, he’s very innocent and doesn’t know how to manage alone, what if something happens to him?” so much worry about Feliciano was pissing me off. “At least you know where he is, don’t you?”

“Probably he will be being sodomized by the German hulk he has gotten as a boyfriend!” I shouted very angry. “So if you want to talk to him, call him on his fucking phone, because I’m not his damn babysitter!”

I hung up the phone with fury. The only thing I needed to end up feeling completely useless was my mother scolding me and showing her clear preference for Feliciano.

It didn’t take long for the phone to ring again. I don’t even know why I picked it up.

“Pronto!”

“Hello, Lovino! What a joy to hear you!” it was my grandpa, he should be the only person who was happy to hear me. “How are you? How is everything?”

“Fi-Fine.” I lied.

“Sure? Then, can you tell me why your mother has just call me furious, complaining that you aren’t taking care of Feliciano?”

“Be-Because she is like that.” I didn’t want to talk about my mother and much less about idiot Feliciano, I had to change the subject. “W-When are you coming back?”

“Oh, Lovino, are you telling that you miss me?”

“Of course not, why the hell would I miss an annoying old man who doesn’t stop forcing me to do things I don’t want to do?” my voice trembled, I really missed him, but I wouldn’t admit it out loud. He laughed and kept quiet for some seconds.

“What happens, Lovino?” I don’t hear you well.”

“This is the telephone at home, maybe you are breaking up.”

“No, I mean that you don’t seem well. What happens to you?” How on earth did he realize? The old man is very perceptive.

“No-Nothing.” My voice trembled again.

“Lovino, don’t lie to me. I know you pretty well and I know something happens to you, what is it?”

“Nothing!” I didn’t want to worry my grandfather and I didn’t feel like telling him everything that happened to me, so I quickly though about a good excuse. “It’s that I’m late for work! I h-have to go now, I have been told that the restaurant’s owner is scary when he’s angry.”

“Who has said that?” he replied offended. “I’m not scary!”

“Ciao, nonno.”

I hung up before he could answer me.

Contrary to what I told my grandpa I wasn’t going to the restaurant, it was already quite late and I wasn’t in the mood to serve anybody. I needed to be in a peaceful place where I could try to forget everything for a while and think. The beach.

Unfortunately, as I was going down the stairs I found the bastard hugging Emma at the door of her house, it was very painful to see them like that. I said a brief “good afternoon” when I passed beside them and ran to the street, where I slowed down a bit. I thought I heard bastard’s voice that was calling me and ran again to lose him. Done.

There was hardly anybody on the beach. I sat on the warm sand, looking at the sea, contemplating how the sun sank into the waters. And I sank deep in my own thoughts, in how painful was to see the bastard hugging Emma, why didn’t I manage to fall out of love with him? On the contrary, I felt I need him more than anything in the world. Fuck! In Italy this would have never happened to me, of course there was no one there who cared about me to develop any kind of special bond.

Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and sat next to me, smiling. It was Antonio.

“This time I won’t let you escape.”

I was paralyzed, the bastard was right there, next to me, holding me so I couldn’t run away.

“L-Let go of me, you bastard!” I managed to say after a moment.

“No.”

I sighed resignedly and looked away from his eyes, there really was no point in running away from him… and I didn’t want to do it either.

“What did you come for, idiot?”

“Isn’t it obvious? To look for you. I needed to talk to you.”

“Well, talk.”

“Lovi, I’m really sorry, please, excuse me.” He sighed and released me. “I’m really a clueless idiot and I have no idea of what I have done wrong, but I want to fix it. I can’t bear that you’re still angry with me.”

“I’m not angry with you, bastard. Who the fuck told you that?

“Oh… so aren’t you?” he was surprised. “Then why were you avoiding me?”

“For nothing.”

“For nothing? I guess that I’ll have done something.”

“Yes, being you.” I murmured as I hid my blushing face behind my knees. The bastard didn’t hear me.

“Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“No.” I answered. He pouted.

“Come ooooon.” He shook me softly, he was getting on my nerves. “Pretty please, tell me~…”

“AAAGH! Stop!” he obeyed, but he kept on pouting and looking at me with his imploring eyes. I hugged my legs and hid my face more. “I was avoiding you because I thought I had to do it… but I was wrong.”

I couldn’t tell him I had fallen in love with him, I would have died of embarrassment and fear, because it was impossible that Antonio loved me back and I felt unable to bear his rejection.

“But, why…?”

“That’s my business!” I cut in. “Stop with this subject, I was wrong and that’s it! Okay?”

“Okay, okay.” He answered nervously. “If I haven’t done anything, better!”

He smiled as usual, although I got the impression that there was something strange in it, as if Antonio were hiding something.

“Hey, Lovi, aren’t you supposed to be working at this time?”

“I’m supposed to.”

“That’s wrong! This morning you also skipped your classes with Roderich, you mustn’t fail in your obligations like that,” he scolded me, “as your grandfather knows, he will give you a good spanking.”

“Don’t say bullshit, my grandfather won’t do anything to me.”

“No? Well then I will.”

He grabbed me suddenly and threw me face down on his lap. Fuck, what a humiliating position, I felt my face burn in shame.

“What the fuck are you doing, bastard?!”

Obviously the bastard didn’t spank me, he began to pat me on the ass. The bastard had all the nerve to be touching my butt as he pleased, he was taking advantage of me!

The damn bastard stopped his little scene, resting his hand on MY ass (he was groping me! Living with that perverted French had to leave him some sequel), and I heard a choked sob. I turned surprised to look at him.

“Antonio, what…?”

I could barely see the bastard’s face for a few seconds because he suddenly threw himself on me, holding me and lifting my torso, putting his head on my shoulder and I put mine on his, and he held me tightly in his arms as he dissolved into tears. I didn’t understand what was happening to him, but my heart accelerated.

“I missed you so much, Lovi.” He sobbed. “Don’t ever drift apart from me like this again, please.”

He hugged me tighter. I clung to his T-shirt and clenched my fists against his back, it shocked me to discover that drifting apart from him had affected him so much. I got a lump in my throat and I couldn’t help that some tears escaped from my eyes. I had missed him too.

 I dried my tears cunningly and moved away a bit from Antonio. We stared at each other intensely for some seconds. I blushed and we began to approach our faces slowly until his salty lips met mine in a kiss.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: Bursting with emotion

Antonio and I were kissing. My heart was beating madly and my senses were carried away by the caresses that his salty lips offered to mine. Antonio slid his hand on my back to the back of my neck, caressing it, deepening the kiss, making it more intense and getting my mind completely lost in the sensations he was provoking me. 

We separated as slowly as we had joined. My eyes fixed in the intense green gaze of the bastard, I was captive for some seconds until, suddenly, something clicked in my head and I realized where I was, with whom and what I had just done. I blushed intensely, so much that I felt my face to burn, and I hit the bastard in the stomach making him fall on the sand.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing, damn perverted bastard?!” I yelled at him angrily as I stood up and pointed him with my finger. “Yo-Yo-You kissed me! You are… are… you are a damn opportunist!”

While the degenerated bastard was writhing in pain on the sand, I strode away from him. That imbecile had not had enough with touching my butt all he wanted, but also he took advantage of a moment of vulnerability to kiss me… Okay, it’s true that I kissed him back, but because I have that confusing feeling inside me that attracted me to his lips! However him, why the hell had he done it? Maybe it was possible that…?

The bastard called me. I didn’t listen to him and kept on walking. But, suddenly, idiot Antonio grabbed my ankle while I was going away and I fell over the sand. I turned angrily to face him.

“What the fuck are you doi…?! WAAH!”

The bastard pulled me hard and dragged me through the sand (it was getting into my clothes!) to his side. He held my leg and stared at me. I swallowed hard, he was making me nervous.

“I told you I wouldn’t let you escape.”

“You wanted to take advantage of me!” I said, straightening up.

“No, I just kissed you. And you kissed me back.”

“What?!” I blushed and looked away. Even though it was true that I kissed him, I’d never admit it… neither I had liked it, I would die of embarrassment. “I… I… I didn’t do that.”

“Don’t deny it, don’t be a liar.” He grabbed my face to look at him. “Admit that you kissed me back.”

“B-B-But what are you saying, bastard? That’s not true…!”

Antonio silenced me with a new kiss, sudden and passionate, introducing his tongue in my mouth and moving it as much as he wanted throughout the cavity. I couldn’t resist, the sensations the bastard was provoking in me clouded my mind… I don’t know why I tried to lie to myself when in reality it wasn’t that I couldn’t resist, but I DIDN’T WANT to. I tried to keep up with the bastard by moving my tongue to his compass until the damn lack of air forced us to separate.

Feeling the fast heartbeats in my ears and breathing in gasps, I looked away to the ground so that the bastard didn’t see the incredible blush that adorned my cheeks. He took my chin gently and forced me to lift my face.

“Look, Lovi, I only came here to solve the problem which had drifted you apart from me and I didn’t intend to tell you this because I wasn’t sure if I should do it, but now I have no doubt about it, so I won’t beat about the bush.” he was unusually serious and paused a little. “I like you, I’m in love with you.”

I was paralyzed, an incredible emotion filled my chest when I listened to that words Antonio had said. However, there was something inside me that made me not believe at all what he was saying, something that just thinking about it made my stomach contracted painfully.

“And what about Emma?”

“Eh? What’s wrong with Emma?” he asked confusedly, tilting his head. “It’s the second time you ask me about her for no reason at all, Lovi, have I missed something?”

That disconcerted me. There was something that didn’t fit together, what was that about the fact that I had asked him about Emma for no reason? Just an hour ago I found him on the stairs hugging her, not to mention their brief visit to the restaurant and later disappearance together the day before. Surely the blonde would have confessed what she felt for him, maybe the bastard was so stupid that he didn’t know what I was talking about? Although it was possible that I was wrong and Emma hadn’t confessed… I swallowed hard, I needed to know.

“Didn’t Emma tell you anything?” I asked with fear.

“Yes, she did.” He answered in a singsong voice, smiling widely. Oh shit, the bad news was about to come. “She told me to open my eyes to what I felt. Although she got angry with me last night because… I’m not sure why, she’s a good friend and if it hadn’t been for her direct way of saying thing, it would surely have taken me much longer to realize what I really feel for you.”

I was perplexed, it turned out that in the end Emma not only hadn’t confessed, but also she had managed to make the bastard realize that he felt something for me.

Antonio scratched the back of his neck and giggled.

“Sometimes I’m very clueless and slower than a turtle to notice the really important things, even the ones I feel.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yes, I am.” He grabbed me by my waist and pulled me close. “I’m an idiot completely in love with you and I’m glad to know that you feel the same for me too.”

“B-B-But what the fuck are you saying, bastard?” surely even my ears turned red at that moment. “Don’t put words in my mouth that I didn’t say, asshole!”

“It hasn’t been necessary that you said anything.” He caressed my face while he was approaching his face to mine. “Maybe I’m clueless most of the time, but I have fully realized that you feel the same as me because of the way you have returned my kisses.”

“I didn’t…!”

My objection was silenced again by the mouth of the bastard. Fuck! His damn kisses were addictive and clouded my mind in a dangerous way, urging me to follow him.

“See that I’m right?” he said with a mischievous smile and sparkling eyes.

I got nervous. I turned my face away and ducked my head, my cheeks burned so much that they were about to start fuming due to how embarrassed I felt.

“Yes.” I finally admitted in a barely audible whisper, but it was listened by Antonio’s ears.

“Yes, what?”

It wasn’t enough for the damn bastard to be right. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that the idiot looked at me expectantly and excited because I admit in full detail what I really felt for him and he’d keep on insisting again and again until I did it, he didn’t care I died of embarrassment because of that, but he already knew! Why did he insist on making me have the hard time of saying it aloud?

“Well?” he hurried me.

“You… I… I…” fuck, what a lack of eloquence. Embarrassment and nerves were playing against me and I wasn’t even looking at Antonio’s face. I took a breath, swallowed hard and, gathering the little courage I had, I faced him. “I like you too!”

I spoke very fast and almost yelling, I don’t know how he could understand me, but it was as if I had rid myself of a heavy burden. But then another heavy burden came over me, the weight of the bastard, who jumped over me and threw me in the sand while kissing me all over my face as I tried in vain to push him away, but his strength was far superior to mine.

“Leave me alone, bastard!” I complained. “Go away, you weigh a ton.”

“Mmm…” he said between kisses, laughing a bit. “No!”

After leaving his drool on my face with his kisses, despite my annoyance and complains, he moved away from me, sat on the sand and helped me to sit up.

“Hey, Lovi, there’s something I want to ask you.” I was afraid of what would have crossed his mind. “Do you want us to become a couple from now on?”

“Idiot!” I shouted angrily. “Wasn’t that implicit in what you forced me to confess?!”

“Is that a yes?” he smiled stupidly. I puffed up my cheeks and growled in response. “It’s a yes!”

The bastard could be an idiot that didn’t catch things most of the times, but he understood that the first time. What a relief, because it wasn’t in my plans to say otherwise.

He leapt to my lips and we kissed passionately. I loved those pleasant sensations that damn idiot Antonio was able to produce in me, they made me lose my mind.

He subtly separated his mouth from mine, tracing a path of kisses that came down to my neck, where he stopped for a few seconds and suddenly moved back to stare at me.

“Do you know, Lovi?”

“What?”

“You have sand everywhere!” the imbecile laughed as if he wasn’t the culprit that I was coated in sand like a croquette.

“And who the fuck do you think the damn fault is, asshole?!” I punched him (not too hard) in the chest.

Still laughing, reason why I looked at him with hatred and puffed my cheeks, the bastard got up, shook off the sand and held out his hand to me. I grabbed it to get up. I shook off the sand the best I could, but not enough, I felt the damn grains of sand even in the depths of my body.

“Come on, we’re leaving.” Antonio held my hand and walked with me to the exit of the beach.

“Where are we going? Home?”

“No, we aren’t. We’ll go home later, first we are going to the restaurant.”

“For what?” I stopped our walk. “It’s already too late and I have sand even in… I’m not going to work like this!”

“You’re not gonna work. You are going so you can apologize for skipping today.”

“What?!” I was surprised. “No, no way.”

“Yeah, of course.” The bastard resumed our walk as I tried to release the grip his hand made on mine, but he didn’t give in. “I know you really haven’t done it on purpose, Lovi, but skipping responsibilities is not good,” he scolded me, “and it can have consequences, that’s why I’m taking you so that you can apologize before it’s too late. Ah, and since Roderich has demanded a good explanation of why you missed class today, I’ll make sure tomorrow we go to his house so that you can also apologize to him.”

“What?! Are you crazy?” I yelled. “That idiot semi-German will force me to write bland phrases until my hand falls or he’ll punish me as severely as it comes to his mind…”

 “Yes, of course, as if I would allow it.” Antonio stopped and turned to me smiling. “Don’t worry, Lovi, this is for your own good and I’ll be with you all the time. Trust me, ok? I’m your boyfriend after all.” He winked at me.

My boyfriend…? Fuck, how weird it sounded and how easily Antonio said it…

But… damn manipulative bastard! It was enough for him winking and saying a stupid phrase to make me redder than a tomato and on top of that convincing me to do what he wanted.

He smiled at me widely, commented about my blush and ruffled my hair fondly (a lot of sand fell from it).

We stopped a taxi and Antonio pushed me in and then he entered too. We were still holding hands and it seemed that the bastard didn’t have any intention of letting go, not that it really bothered me, but I think he had taken seriously that he wouldn’t let me escape… in a strange way he made me feel important.

We entered the restaurant by a side door which led to the kitchen and we were greeted by the manager who didn’t seem to be in a good mood. Well, only I was greeted by him because the bastard of Antonio disappeared suddenly, what an asshole! And he said he would be with me all the time.

My boss accused me of being irresponsible and scolded me for appearing two hours later, at least I had gone, what else did he want? Luckily, idiot Antonio appeared after five minutes and interceded on my behalf by inventing an excuse that justified me. He even got my boss to calm down and change my shift that night for the next Wednesday, which seemed fair to me but I didn’t like because I had a night off less next week. However, I suppose that was the better than my actions reached my grandfather’s ears (I preferred to avoid that scolding).

“See how everything went well?” the bastard said when we went into the dark alley.

“You’re an idiot.” I said, annoyed. I started walking and left him behind. “You left me alone, you bastard.”

“But I came back quickly, didn’t I?” he caught me up and stopped me. “Come on, Lovi, don’t get angry.” He begged childishly, pouting and pricking my cheek with his finger.

“Stop!” I slapped his hand away.

To his pout, he added a sad expression on his gaze that made me feel bad. I sighed, with that face he was making I couldn’t be angry for long.

We took another taxi and it wasn’t until we got off in front of the big gate of the building when I realized that the bastard was holding my hand again, he didn’t let me go. I was pulled by him upstairs, luckily nobody saw us… until we met the perverted French who was getting out his apartment, fuck!

“Oh, mon Dieu…” the French looked us from head to toe, widening his smile. “Oh, mon Dieu!” he got excited and pointed at our hands. “Tell me this means what I think it means, mon ami, tell me!”

“What do you think it means what?”

“That you are together!”

“Sure~!” the bastard exclaimed happily.

I blushed and pushed him aside, getting him to release me. The Frenchy took the chance to jump over Antonio and rub against him pretending a hug, the damn pervert touched with his hands the whole back (and what wasn’t the back) of MY… idiot… and I was getting so annoyed…

“Keep your hands to yourself!” I yelled. Fuck, was I jealous?

 The bastard seemed not to notice anything, but the French grinned and separated from Antonio to jump over me, but in a quick embrace and without unnecessary touching, something incredibly strange coming from that pervert, although perhaps it had to do with the icy look Antonio gave him when he came to me.

“Mon Dieu, you have sand everywhere, have you been giving amour to each other on the beach?”

“Yeah~!”

“NO!”

I hit the bastard on his arm. Damn idiot, how could he affirm that kind of thing? The French laughed mischievously.

“I’m so glad. As a good expert on l’amour, I knew that you would finally realize what was OBVIOUS” he told Antonio, winking at him, “and that the intuition I had about our petit Lovino was correct.” He smiled with satisfaction. “And since I knew this would happen, I have a little gift for you.” He added mysteriously. “Wait here for a moment.”

I didn’t expect anything good from that pervert and I would have left immediately if it wasn’t because Antonio was holding my hand again. After a couple of minutes listening to him moving things around inside his apartment, the French came out with a triumphant smile and a paper bag in his hands that he gave to the bastard.

“I’m sure it will help you, honhonhon.” He winked at us. “And now, mes amis, I’m leaving to spread a bit d’amour. Enjoy! The night is young. Au revoir!”

He went to the stairs, but before he gave us both a pat on our butts in his way, damn pervert!

We continued our way upstairs to the next landing, where I tried to release his grip to go home, but Antonio pulled me to him.

“Stay with me tonight, Lovi.”

I blushed madly and got nervous, very nervous. And it’s not that I didn’t want to stay with him, it would even let me avoid Feliciano, who I didn’t want to see, it’s that I didn’t know what he intended by making me that proposition, maybe something sexual? Oh, God, I wasn’t prepared to make that move yet, if I was still finishing assimilating not only the fact that I was in love with a MAN but I had also agreed to be his boyfriend.

It is said that silence implies consent and I was quieter than at mass, which apparently Antonio interpreted as I was agreeing to his request and dragged me into his house, closing the door behind him.

“Come on, Lovi, take off your clothes.”

“W-WHAT?!”

Fuck, he wanted to make me his so suddenly, without letting me assimilate anything.

Normally I would have hit him with a headbutt for such audacity and break into a run, but if I was already nervous, I got even more nervous, so much that I was paralyzed and just hugged myself.

The bastard, on the other hand, had already taken off his shirt. He unbuckled his belt and dropped his trousers, staying in underwear. My face should look like a lantern. Antonio looked up at me and cocked his head.

“Lovi, you’re so red, it’s something wrong? Are you ok?”

I just nodded without taking my eyes off his… damn my brain unable to react!

“So, what are you doing standing there? Take off your clothes.”

“W-W-Why?”

“For what do you think?” he said laughing. Sure, because the reason was obvious, fucking me right there. “Because I don’t want the floor to become a beach due to the sand we have on us. So come on, take off your clothes and go to the shower. I’ll give you something for wearing.”

It took me several seconds to process Antonio’s words. Nerves went away and I felt ridiculous, but it was his fault for not explaining things clearly, not because I have a dirty mind.

“Turn around and don’t even think about looking at me, pervert!”

Instead of obeying me, he went to his room. I took the chance to undress and ran in my underwear to the bathroom, where Antonio had left clothes for me. Clothes that were at least two sizes too large and made me look much smaller. The bastard described it as adorable when we saw in the hall.

I went to the kitchen with the intention of assaulting his fridge, because it was late and I was hungry, but the doorbell stopped me. Who the hell could it be at that time? I thought about the macho albino since the Frenchman had left, but I was completely wrong: it was one of the guys in the restaurant who brought a couple of pizzas, they were already paid.

I put them on the table and began to eat as the bastard came out of the shower, I was too hungry to wait for trifles, it wasn’t my fault.

“It smells good! Has the dinner arrived yet?” Antonio appeared in the kitchen, already dressed and with his hair dripping. He looked at me amused. “You are impatient, do you know?”

“And you are slow.”

He laughed and kissed my cheek. He sat in front of me and started eating his pizza, he seemed as hungry as me.

“I didn’t know we had delivery service.” I said.

“Very few people know it. Generally our customers prefer eating in the restaurant, but we offer that service too.”

“So when we went to the restaurant you already assumed that I would agree to stay with you tonight.”

“It was a small risk I decided to take.” He winked.

“Idiot.” I smiled slightly.

After diner, Antonio settle down on the couch and turned on the TV, choosing a random channel. I, a bit nervous again, sat on the other end and stared at the screen. However, being so far way didn’t please a certain Spanish, who stretched out his arm to reach me.

“Lovi, why are you so far away? Come closer, I don’t bite,” he grinned, “at least for now…”

“FOOL!”

He gained the blows I gave him in the face with the cushion for that comment. He grabbed the cushion and made as if he was going to hit me with it, I cover myself, but in the end he put the cushion on his lap and urged me to put my head there.

I ignored him.

But Antonio, as the bore he is, wouldn’t stop insisting unless I obeyed him.

“Aw~, Lovi, come here with me, I’m not going to do anything to you.” he said in a childish tone while pouting and looking at me with sad eyes. “Trust me a bit, ok?”

The fucking bastard manipulated me the way he wanted.

I lay on the sofa and put my head on the cushion of his legs. He kissed me on the forehead and began to gently stroke my hair. I felt better than ever being with Antonio, it was stupid to try to get away from him, I needed him. I hugged his legs as he continued to caress me… it was so pleasuring, so much that I relaxed until I fell asleep.

I woke up in the bastard’s bed, I was alone and a bit confused, how the hell did I get there? I fell asleep in the living room on… Antonio’s legs, surely he brought me to the bed.

I got up and went to the kitchen. Antonio was preparing breakfast while singing happily a song about tomatoes that he stopped to greet me. I sat at the table and waited for him to serve me, a coffee and bread with olive oil, tomato and cured ham, a real delight.

“Did you sleep well, Lovi?”

“Normal” I answered shortly. I lied, it was the first time that week that I slept so well.

“Oh… so last night you seemed to be very comfortable, you even curled up in my arms!”

My face became red, that idiot seemed to be a specialist in making me blush.

“I love how cute you are when you blush!”

“S-Shut up!”

I crumpled the paper napkin I had on the table and threw it at his face, hitting his forehead. He complained, but quickly regained his almost omnipresent smile.

“As soon as we finish breakfast, we’ll go to Roderich’s house.”

“What? I don’t want to go” I protested, “that idiot will tick me off and besides he will punish me, who knows how…”

“I’m not going to argue with you about the scolding, but it will be worse if you wait until Monday, believe me, I know Roderich well. And besides, today I’ll accompany you to weather the storm, it won’t be that bad.” He got up to clear the table and ruffled my hair. “Do you need me to lend you some clothes?”

“Your clothes are too big for me. To be at home and sleep is fine, but I don’t intend to go out bad dressed. I’ll go home to change.”

“I’ll go with you!”

“No, fuck, as if I’d get lost.”

The bastard wanted to reply, but my gaze was enough for him to obey me.

When I entered home, I realized that the disaster I made on Thursday was over. I heard some quick steps, Feliciano appeared running down the hall and jumped over me, crying. I remained static.

“Fratello, you are here!” he sobbed. “I was very scared because when I could get into the house, everything was lying on the floor, ve, and I phoned you, ve, but you left your phone here and… and…”

“As if I cared!” I yelled. “Let go of me, stupid!”

I pushed him away from me and he fell on the floor.

I locked myself in my room slamming the door. That Feliciano acted as if nothing had happened made me very angry, his contempt hurt me too much to forget it so easily.

Feliciano waited behind my door for me to leave. I ignored him, but he hung on my arm forcing me to look at his sorrowful face.

“Ve… fratello, are you still mad?”

“And what does it matter to you?” I released from his grip. “You don’t fucking care about what I said to you, so go with the damn fucking potato lover and leave ME alone!”

I pushed Feliciano away again and went downstairs steadily to the flat of the bastard, releasing part of my anger against his door, because I have my pride and wouldn’t shed anymore tears over that idiot brother.

“Lovi!” Antonio surprised when he opened. “What’s with the rush? Are you ok?”

“Perfectly!” I barked. “Let’s go to Roderich’s house before I regret it.”

The Austrian was surprised by our visit, but he regained his composure soon, branded his radio antenna with threatening air and began to lecture me for my irresponsibility, my insolence, my indiscipline… and more things that started with letter ‘i’, but at what I didn’t pay attention because his list was endless.

“Well, Rod, it’s enough, don’t you think?” Antonio interrupted him. “Lovi knows he didn’t act correctly and that’s why we have come, scolding him so much doesn’t help.”

“Do not interrupt me, Antonio!” he hit the table with the antenna. “Incentives don’t work with him either, it has already been demonstrated to me. Scolding and punishing him are the only ways this boy learns.”

“That’s counterproductive!”

I don’t know how long they discussed about didactics, but I sat on a chair so bored of listening to them that it was making me sleepy, until my teacher mentioned my name and I woke up.

“Actually Lovino has a lot of talent, but he doesn’t know how to work it by himself; and with any other teacher he would surely receive many compliments, but he would stagnate and wouldn’t make the most of all his potential. Because talent needs to be worked to improve, otherwise it ends up wasting. That’s why the worst punishment I could impose on Lovino would be to expel him from my classes…”

“NO!” I got up from the chair, anguished, Antonio and Roderich looked at me surprised. Although I always complained about Roderich and his strict discipline, I didn’t dislike his classes at all (leaving aside reprimands and punishments) and he got me to improve a lot with the violin. “I don’t want to leave your classes, I… I…”

“Better, because I can’t bear the idea that a talent like yours is wasted for not being worked enough.”

I sighed in relief, but then a dark and threatening aura surrounded my teacher, it was scary. I ran to hide behind Antonio.

“But don’t think that you are going to escape from your punishment.”

“Chi… Chigiiiiiii…”

“Come on, Rod, don’t be like that,” Antonio said, “be kinder to poor Lovi, he won’t do it again, really?”

I shook my head.

“Silence!” he whipped the table with his antenna. “I have to reprimand him in some way.”

“Don’t you think it has been enough with your scolding? It’s all clear to him, Rod, he’s not a little kid.”

“But he behaves as such.” He sighed and returned to normal. “Anyway, I’ll think about it. Now, if you don’t mind, I have things to do, so I would appreciate if you left.”

What a polite way to throw us out, he even opened the door. And of course, he didn’t forget to recommend me to rehearse. I nodded as I went ahead of the bastard.

“Don’t worry, Lovi,” Antonio said to me in the street, “Rod won’t punish you.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about it, you have listened to him.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m telling you, I know him well.”

I shrugged and we walked home.

“Hey, are you going to tell me what happened to you before? Have you fought with Feli?”

“No.” I answered shortly, I didn’t want to talk about it, “but he pissed me off.”

“Because of what happened the other night?”

“You know?” I stopped.

“I do. Yesterday I was told what happened and I understand that you are angry… and sad.”

“I’m not sad!”

“Of course you are, it’s obvious. But don’t worry because I have a special remedy for those cases, a spell to raise your spirits! Fusososo…”

He repeated his ‘spell’ several more times while opening and closing his arms. I couldn’t help it, I laughed at the ridiculous thing he was doing.

“Pff…  you are an idiot.”

“But it has worked! You’re laughing!” he held my hand and we started walking. “Come on, I’ll treat you to eat at…”

“No.” I let go of his hand.

“No?” he asked. “Don’t you want?”

“No. I want to eat paella and I want you to cook it.”

“Did you like my paella so much?” his eyes sparkled with illusion.

“It’s not like that, it’s just that you have to compensate me for the bad time I had at Roderich’s house because of you.” I crossed my arms, frowned, puffed up my cheeks and turned my face, because I blushed a bit. “But I don’t want you to ruin.”

“And you care about me too!” he hugged me tightly.

“I didn’t say that!” I made futile efforts to get him away from me, he was making me feel embarrassed in the middle of the street. “Let me goooooo!”

He laughed and smooched my face until he finally released me. He grabbed my hand and started to run pulling me.

“Come on, I’ll cook everything you want!”

After Antonio left for work after having a nap together, I spent the rest of the evening rehearsing without interruptions, because Feliciano wasn’t home. I supposed he would be with his friend the potato bastard. Better, because I didn’t feel like repeating an encounter like the one in the morning.

However, I had another unpleasant encounter, with the tulip on the stairs when I left for the restaurant, he also went to the street.

“I didn’t see you on the bus last night.” He commented as we went down.

“It would have been odd if you had seen me.”

“Did you stay at home crying because of what your little brother said to you the other night?”

If the tulip was a bother in himself, mentioning the subject of Feliciano only infuriated me and I would have punched him if… if he wasn’t a huge man that looked very unfriendly.

“What I do or not it’s none of your business, so fuck off and mind your own business!”

I quickened my step to get rid of that damn intrusive giant tulip. But, to my disgrace, I met him again in the least expected place: as a customer in my grandpa’s restaurant. He sat inside accompanied by a green eyed blond who dressed in garish colors. I had to serve them, shit, I would have to bite my tongue.

“So, dude, you know, it was totally like a million years ago that I didn’t come to this restaurant, but, anyway, the place” he looked at me “has totally improved a lot since then.”

“I’ll agree with you when I check the service is working as it should be” he turned his eyes towards me “and that the customers are properly served.”

“Oh my, like seriously YOU have chosen the place, do you bring me here doubting about its quality?”

“Our service is excellent, you misters don’t have to doubt about it.” I told them with a fake smile on my face.

“It’s no use if that’s said by the owner’s grandson.”

“Oh my, like seriously don’t tell me that this precious one who is in front of us is the grandson of that Italian Adonis.” Italian Adonis? Was he talking about my grandfather? The old man would love to listen to somebody who was talking like that about him, but it was uncomfortable for me. “Oh my, but how old is that man to have a grandson? If he looks so young, like seriously, I have to ask him what his secret is to stay so young, like you don’t know, do you, sweetie?” I shook my head. “And his good taste is enviable…”

“Feliks.”

“And that Frenchman who lives in your building totally has very good taste too… and he throws parties that are, like seriously, totally ideal. What a pity I couldn’t go to the last one!”

“Feliks, cut the crap. And you” he talked to me, “stop lazing around and serve us.”

“Oh my, Govi, you are so unfriendly that surely the day you were born, it was you who slapped the doctor. Like seriously the boy is serving us, let him be.”

“No, he isn’t.” I gave him a murderous gaze, but I bit my tongue not to reply him. “Recommend us a good wine and something from the menu.”

I did what he asked me, I’d show that tulip how well I worked. He, on the other hand, surprised me by accepting my recommendation and asking for several strong dishes.

“Like seriously, Govi, cool it, that because I treat you, you don’t have to order the entire menu, you know?”

“Shut up!” he spat. “You owe it to me, that’s our deal.”

I tried not to approach more than necessary to their table, the tulip didn’t stop doing scathing comments about me to make me blow up, but that week I had been scolded enough to allow myself the pleasure of throwing a plate of pasta over him.

“Hey, cutie,” the tulip’s companion told me when I brought his the bill, “like Govertín and I are going to have a few drinks and, you know, I liked you, do you want to come with us when you finish here?”

“Eeh… no, thank you.” I answered a bit embarrassed. “I have already arranged to meet.”

“So another time, bye~.”

The blond waved his hand goodbye and the tulip… was as indifferent as ever.

I didn’t really lie to them, Antonio arranged to pick me up, to which I was not going to say no. There he was when I left, waiting for me in the dark alley with his perennial smile and his motorcycle. He greeted me with an intense kiss that I gladly corresponded, advantages of being in a dark alley without anyone around who could see us… well, that made a very bad impression.

“How was the night at the restaurant?” Antonio asked me and put an arm over my shoulders when we left the garage after parking the motorbike.

“Terrible.”

“Why? Have you been scolded again?”

“Idiot!” I pushed him aside and hit his arm. “Why the hell do you think I have been scolded? Do you consider me to be so useless?”

“No, of course not!” he got alarmed and ran to hug me from behind. “I didn’t mean to offend you, forgive me.” He shook me. “Don’t be mad, please…”

“Idiot bastard.” I said softly.

“Ooh, look, Fran, it’s the happy couple.” The bird-lover said, he had just appeared with the Frenchman. “They come from the garage… Have you just fucked in your Ibiza, Antonio?”

“But what the fuck are you saying, damn potato bastard?!” I blushed, of anger and embarrassment.

“The car is always a good option, mon ami, but knowing notre cher Antonio, for sure he would choose a more comfortable and intimate place like the bed… or the couch… or the bathtub…”

“Yes, sure,” Antonio said, “or a sexual tour by the whole house.”

Those three idiots burst out laughing, I don’t know what was so funny. I elbowed the ribs of the bastard, but he didn’t even bat an eyelid. Fuck, and I was getting nervous just because they were talking about sex.

We entered a nearly pub. Yes, maybe a bit of alcohol helped my damn nerves to pass. Before ordering our respective drinks, the Frenchman asked for a round of shots to toast Antonio and me. We clinked our glasses.

“And whoever doesn’t tap it, don’t…”

The three of them tapped their glasses several times on the bar and then drank. I just drank it down.

“What happens if you don’t tap?” I asked naively.

“Look for an awesomely easy rhyme.”

Everybody laughed. Shit, they have turned back to that subject, and the bastard had tapped the glass!

As soon as the barman served me my drink, I drank it down in a go and asked for a new one. We went to a table. I sat in a corner beside Antonio, who put his arm around me clinging me to him. I didn’t even resist a bit, alcohol was starting to affect me.

“Kesese… it seems that our Toño has managed to take you down a peg, hasn’t he, lad?”

“I’m still mad at you, asshole.” I glanced at the albino with hatred. “Next time you think about grabbing me, or even touching me, I swear that you won’t be able to escape from a kick in your balls.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Antonio, squeezing his glass.

“About the fight of the other night, cher. Gilbert had to grab ton petit Lovino to get him away from Feliciano.”

“Fuck, kid, it seemed you wanted to kill him. Here my awesome person had to risk my personal safety to avoid a tragedy. Your blows still hurt.”

“Fuck you.” I stuck my tongue out at him. “Go complain with your brother, who is the one to blame for everything.”

“My brother?” the albino was surprised. “In any case yours, who was the one that was at my amazing home and was with whom you fought. Why should West be to blame?”

“Because he is having an affair with idiot Feliciano.”

“WHAT?” the three were surprised.

I left them with the intrigue for a while as I went to ask for another drink.

“Wait, how’s that that my brother and yours are having an affair? That’s impossible, I didn’t know anything…”

“And you are surprised, idiot? You don’t see beyond your own shadow.”

“You’re right at that, mon petit, but it turns out that Gilbert is a complete gossip.”

“I’m not a gossip!” he got offended. “It’s that I have such awesome senses that get everything. But in addition, it turns out that West tell me everything, fuck, so it can’t be because he didn’t tell me anything.”

“Feliciano used to tell me everything too… but that doesn’t eliminate the fact that I saw him through the window kissing the potato bastard like this” I grabbed Antonio by his T-shirt and kissed him furiously in front of the astonished gaze of the other two, “and he wouldn’t have said anything to me.”

“Lovi, how much have you drunk?” the bastard asked me, preventing me from taking my glass.

“Well… a pair… I don’t know, like you all…”

“We haven’t finished our first drink yet, mon petit.”

“You are drunk.” Antonio got up and held my hand. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

I left the pub staggering to the sides, luckily the bastard was grabbing me by the waist because otherwise I would have kissed the ground. I was so dizzy that I stumbled every two steps, Antonio solved the problem by carrying me on his back.

“Bastard,” I said near his ear, “you won’t change me for any muscular potato, right?”

“I wouldn’t change you for anyone, Lovi.”

“You better.” I sank into his neck. “You are mine.”

“Auch! Lovi, have you bitten me?”

Yes, I had bitten him at the base of his neck, but instead of answering him I laughed and kissed him in that area. I didn’t think about what I was doing, I acted on instinct, the alcohol had gone to my head.

The bastard put me down when we got to his apartment. I clung to his neck and kissed him, he kissed me back intensely, pressing me against himself. He parted suddenly panting and holding my gaze, even when drunk he got me to blush.

“Let’s go to bed.” He said.

He grabbed my hand and led me to his room, where I freed myself and pushed him to fall on the bed, but he simply sat on the edge and I sat on his lap to kiss him again.

“Do you want to make me yours?” I whispered in his ear.

I bit his earlobe softly, and Antonio responded by taking off my shirt, grabbing me by both arms and throwing me on the bed to be him who was on top of me. I swallowed slowly and closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but being a bit nervous. He lowered his face to my neck, bit it, kissed it, and stood there as his hand gently caressed my head, producing a very pleasant tickling that was making me sleepy…

When I opened my eyes again, it was already light. I looked around, I was in Antonio’s room, alone and in underpants. I remembered what happened the night before, luckily I didn’t drink so much as the previous time and I could recall absolutely everything, which made me blush to the core… Oh my, how the fuck could I look the bastard in the face? Would he do anything to me after falling sleep? No doubt when I fell asleep I was wearing my trousers… Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“Oh, you’re already awake, Lovi. Good morning!” Antonio greeted, entering the room.

“AAAH!”

I blushed even more if possible and hid my head under the pillow, I wanted to die of embarrassment. I felt the mattress sinking close to me. Antonio pulled the pillow from my head even though I was clutching it tightly. I covered my face with my hands.

“Lovi, what’s wrong?” he grabbed my hands and took them from my face. “Could I know why you are hiding?”

“What is going to be for, idiot?” I looked away, with my face burning. “Be-Because of e-everything I told you… and e-everything we… we did last night…”

He hugged me against his chest while laughing and kissed my forehead. We separated and he fixed his eyes on mine, just what I needed for my heart to race.

“Last night we didn’t do anything, Lovi.”

“What are you saying? I got drunk because… because… I thought you wanted… and I was nervous for… doing that and… and I… and then you…”

“You aren’t even able to finish your phrases.” He laughed. “Listen to me, we have been together for, how long? One day? One day and half? I understand you are nervous, this is also new for me, that’s why we don’t have to force the situation, the moment will come eventually. And, sincerely, I prefer that it isn’t with you drunk, you can’t imagine how much it took me to resist last night and get you to fall sleep…”

“Did you make me fall sleep ON PURPOSE?”

“Of course, and I undressed you to sleep comfortably, but I wasn’t going to take advantage of you. It’s not that I dislike the drunk Lovi, he’s a bit crazy, uninhibited and acts without thinking, but…”

He threw me on the mattress, climbed on top of me and held my hands above my head. He smiled mischievously.

“What the fuck are you doing, bastard?” I shouted, blushing and kicking out. “Let go of me!”

“… I prefer one million times before the normal Lovi who blushes adorably and becomes shy when he’s honest.” He kissed me. I tried to sit up to return the kiss, he noticed and released my hands, which hugged his back. “But even so he is still passionate.”

He gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

“Ah, but next time try not to tempt me so much…”

He got up, ruffled my hair and left the room winking at me.

“W-What do you mean?”

He didn’t answer, but I just had to look at myself in a mirror to understand what he had meant: I had a purple mark above my collarbone.

“DAMN FUCKING ASSHOLE!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: Wave of heat

Five minutes, that was the time I had spent in front of the door of the stiff Austrian I had as a teacher, hesitating about knocking, afraid of the possible punishment that he would impose for skipping the class the previous Friday, because even though the bastard of Antonio tried to convince me otherwise, I knew that damn discipline freak would impose me some kind of corrective.

I raised my hand, held it up for a few seconds and lowered it again for the umpteenth time. Damn it, at that rate the fucking Austrian wouldn’t only reprimand me for skipping classes but also for being late, despite being in front of his door.

“Hello, isn’t professor Edelstein at home?” said a sweet voice.

I turned. A childish, short girl with aquamarine eyes and short blond hair adorned with a purple ribbon was approaching me with a confused look. She had asked about Roderich, I assumed that she would also be a student of the Austrian.

“Well, actually I haven’t knocked yet.”

“Aam, it seemed quite strange that he wasn’t at home, but because I have seen you in front of the door I have thought that you were waiting for him to open.”

I felt stupid about the situation, but I smiled trying to hide it. The girl smiled too and knocked on the door, which was opened immediately.

“Good morning, come in.” the Austrian welcomed us.

“Guten morgen, herr Edelstein.”

I stopped as soon as I put a foot inside and pointed to the blonde with my finger.

“ARE YOU GERMAN?!”

“No, she isn’t.” Roderich replied visibly upset. He sighed, adjusted his glasses and turned to the girl. “I beg you to apologize him for that behavior or to ignore him, whatever you feel like. He has germanophobia.”

“I don’t have…!”

“SILENCE!” my teacher cut me off by hitting the table with his antenna, the girl remained serious, but she was trembling and looked scared of that reaction, what it was normal. Roderich crossed his arms, but kept his stretchable baton at the ready. “Stop your complaints and absurd discussions, come in at once and close the door, because we are wasting time, you fool.”

I obeyed immediately, mainly because I didn’t want to give the Austrian more reasons to get angry at me and add more punishments to the list he surely had prepared for me.

“Well, I’ll introduce you: Lovino, this is Lilly” I approached the girl and shook our hands, “who has kindly agreed to come some mornings to rehearse the songs you will play together at the recital.”

“Wait, what?” I got surprised. It’s not that I didn’t want to play with that kid, it’s that I have never rehearsed with anybody else but my teacher and, to be honest, I didn’t like the idea of doing it. “Wasn’t I supposed to play just with you?”

“No, you were wrong.” Roderich replied coldly. “You’ll play with me one piece, the others with Lilly. Now get ready to start.”

“But…”

“No buts, Lovino!” he hit the table. “You have heard me already and you know how much I hate having to repeat things, so get ready to start playing. And if you have some complaint, keep it, because I have no interest in knowing your opinion. And if you don’t like my way of doing things, you know where the door is. Is it clear to you?”

“Crystal-clear.” I replied slowly and reluctantly.

I didn’t open my mouth during the rest of the morning, which I spent rehearsing with the violin as the little blonde accompanied me on the piano. I have to admit that to be so little she did quite well. Of course, together we didn’t do it well enough for Roderich to approve.

“I suppose this is what I should have expected.” Roderich sighed, massaging his temples. “Anyway, let’s leave it for today. Lilly, thank you for coming, we’ll meet again on Wednesday.”

The girl got up from the piano, said goodbye and gave us a smile before disappearing through the door almost as quickly as she appeared that morning. I was about to put away the violin and the scores, but it seemed that the class wasn’t over for me yet.

“May I know what are you doing, Lovino?” Roderich crossed his arms.

“Putting my things away, you said that we left it for today.”

“Obviously I was referring to the rehearsal with Lilly, you cannot leave yet.”

“What?” I complained. “But, why?” I was asking something obvious, it was clear that this would be my punishment, I thought it was strange that that prissy Austrian hadn’t told me anything until that moment.

“How many hours do you owe me, Lovino?”

“Four…”

“Correct, four hours! And we are going to make them up from today until Friday, having an extra hour of class each day, do you agree?”

“Wouldn’t it be from today until Thursday?”

“No, it wouldn’t. Add an extra hour as your punishment.”

I growled.

“And be grateful that I am being benevolent to you, because I don’t allow any of my students to commit a fault like yours the other day, don’t forget it.”

I cursed Roderich during the whole extra hour of class because, although he said it, the fucking Austrian was everything but benevolent, my arms ached from having them playing for so long!

When I got home I was greeted with a suffocating hug by my idiot brother, who was still acting innocently as if he hadn’t said anything hurtful. My arms were too tired and without enough strength to push him away from me, so I opted to step on his foot forcing him to separate from me, but he didn’t give up on his effort to be stuck to me.  

“Veee~… fratello, I’m glad you have come, I was waiting for you to have lunch” he told me happily. “I have prepared pasta.”

What a novelty coming from him, obviously I’m using irony. Of course, I didn’t say a word, I just went to the kitchen followed by idiot Feliciano, who kept on talking as if I had any interest in listening to him.

I ate as fast as I could to take a nap and stop listening to my brother’s bullshit, but it was clear that ignoring him was out of his understanding.

 “Veee~… fratello, what do you think about doing something together this afternoon?” he followed me to my room. “We could take a nap together and then go shopping to the mall, or to the beach, or…”

“Look, Feliciano” I interrupted him, “if you want to do something with someone, go down to the first floor and ask it to your special friend, the muscular idiot potato lover, and leave me alone once and for fucking all!”

“Ve!” he got scared and his eyes started to water. “But, fratello…”

“Leave me alone! Wasn’t that what you wanted? Then get lost, stupid.”

As Feliciano wasn’t going to obey me and he would keep on bothering me, I chose to be the one to leave. Obviously there was only one place I could go, to the bastard’s house.

“Just the person I was thinking about!” he greeted me cheerfully and gave me a peck on the lips.

I sighed, rolled my eyes and pushed him away from the door to enter his house.

“How’s been your day?” he hugged me from behind and laid his head on my shoulder.

“Bad.” I took a couple of steps forward to get rid of him and turned to him. “Your idiot friend did punish me at the end, I have an extra hour of class every fucking day to make up the hours of last Friday plus one more extra, because he is that nice.”

“Do you think he is nice about that?”

He made me want to bump myself into the wall and make him bump too, how the hell could I have fallen in love with an idiot like him? I looked at him badly and then he seemed to catch the sarcasm.

“Ah, okay.” He laughed. “Then you can use this afternoon to relax.”

He smiled and kissed me intensely, I kissed him back gladly. I was brought closer to him by one of his arms that was surrounding me while the other was touching the lower part of my back shamelessly.

“Bastard, stop touching my butt.”

He giggled and raised his hand, but didn’t move away.

“What do you think if we spend the afternoon at the beach?”

“What? No way!”

“Come on~.” He begged. “We can take a nap there.”

“No.”

I walked back to get rid of the hug in which I was wrapped, I stumbled on the couch and fell on my back over it. The bastard threw himself over me.

“Get off me!”

“No. Let’s go to the beach.”

“With this?” I lowered my shirt collar, showing him the hickey he made me. “No fucking way, bastard.”

“I also have a good mark,” he showed me the bite I gave him while being drunk. I blushed at the memory of it, “but I don’t mind if it’s seen.”

“But I do.”

“Why? As if it were something bad…”

“Because I don’t feel like showing it everywhere.”

“You can cover it with a band-aid, but then it would remain the sun mark and that one lasts much longer. In addition, seawater will help it heal faster.”

“It’s not a superficial wound, idiot. And get off me, fuck! I’m roasting because of you!”

“I don’t intend to do it, I think I have never been as comfortable as I am now.”

“Fuck, bastard, you are squashing me.” I kicked out. “Get off meeeeeee!”

“No, no, no.” he kissed my cheeks between every “no” he said. “I wouldn’t mind take my nap here, I’m pretty comfortable.”

“You weigh a ton! If I accept to go to the beach with you, you will get off me?” he nodded slowly, without stopping smiling. I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Then okay, fuck.”

Once more the damn manipulative bastard I have as a… boyfriend (it was still weird for me saying it) had managed to convince me to do what he wanted. Instead of getting off me, the damn bastard remained over me a bit longer, smiling like an idiot. He was making my patience run out.

“There’s no doubt that this is a good method of persuasion.” He laughed.

He leaned on his hands and lifted his torso, finally getting off me. With my arms already free, I put my hands on his chest and pinched his nipples mischievously.

“Auch!”

“You better not use this method of persuasion with any other person, because I swear you’ll lose your balls, am I clear enough?”

He didn’t answer, just smiled in a naughty way and lowered his head to bite my lips lightly and then kissed me passionately. I kept up with him, put my hands on his back, hugging him, and my legs around his waist, pulling him down. It took him by surprise, his arms gave in and he leaned on his elbows, without breaking the kiss and with his body on mine again… Well, I loved having him so close, but I wouldn’t admit it, nobody could stand Antonio if he found it out.

“Then… are we going to the beach or… would you rather do something else?” he raised an eyebrow and smiled mischievously, making me blush, because I realized of the meaning of his question, damn pervert.

I grabbed a cushion and hit him in the face.

“No fucking way, bastard. You haven’t forced me to listen to your damn pleas for half an hour so that you now decide not to go. So move, idiot!

“Yeah, yeah.” He said as he got up without losing his smile, but with a sad tone. I didn’t like to hear him like that.

I got up too, breathed deeply and kissed the bastard. He stared at me with a sparkling smile. I blushed a lot, but I was glad that he had returned to normal…

Damn Antonio and the things he forces me to do…

I couldn’t stand being at home accompanied by idiot Feliciano, he didn’t stop bothering me and try to get my attention as he kept on his attitude of a little innocent angel who hasn’t broken a dish in his fucking life. But if he thought that showing up like that he’d get me to soften and forgive him for the words he said to me the other night, he was quite wrong.

Luckily, I only had to leave, as I did the day before, and go down to the bastard’s house, who welcomed me with the same enthusiasm as a child when received a gift.

That Tuesday before nightfall, after spending the whole afternoon together at home, because I flatly refused a new beach session and it was too hot to go anywhere, Antonio and I went out for a drink and tapas, like we used to do before I drifted apart from him, with the difference that the bore insisted that we walked around holding hands despite my repeated refusals.

When we came back, while Antonio was opening the gate of the building, my idiot brother and the potato bastard appeared from the end of the street. They were walking calmly while talking. Great, the two people I least wanted to see together.

As soon as he realized that I was just a few meters ahead of him, Feliciano interrupted his talk, ran towards me and tried to hug me. I pushed him before he jumped over me and he would have fallen on the ground if Antonio hadn’t held him from behind on time.

“Vee~… Buona sera, Antonio!” idiot Feliciano greeted, looking at the bastard, who helped him get up. “Buona sera, fratello!”

“Good evening, Feli and Ludwig!” the bastard said, smiling.

The German nodded in greeting, but avoided looking at me directly, as if he felt ashamed. I growled, crossed my arms and gave a look of deep hatred to both of them before turning my face and running up the stairs to avoid having to endure the annoying presence of those two.

I stopped on the second floor in front of the door of Antonio’s apartment. I sat on the steps while catching my breath after the race and waited for the bastard to appear, but the idiot was taking a long time. Surely he was chatting with that couple of idiots and, considering that when he talked you’d think he’d been wound up, it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t come.

“It was time for you to appear, you bastard” I said, annoyed, getting up, “I was about to leave. Open right now!”

“Sorry, Lovi.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Coming, calm down!”

I go to bed immediately, dressing with an Antonio’s T-shirt as a pajama and leaving my clothes on the floor without minding it. Seeing Feliciano being accompanied by the potato bastard drove me mad because I reminded once again the argument of last Thursday.

I heard the bastard entering the room after me, because I was lying down on the bed, turning away from the door and I couldn’t see him. He lied on the bed beside me, hugged me and kissed the back of my neck to caress it softly later.

“Are you still mad because of Feli?”

I growled, I didn’t want to talk about that issue.

“Your brother also seemed sad and worried, he told me that it’s been days he hardly sees you…”

“He has exactly what he wanted, he told clearly, he preferred to be accompanied by that macho potato instead by me.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t serious.”

“He was! You weren’t there, you didn’t listen to him.”

“But…”

“Are you going to side with him as everybody else always does?” I started to get mad. “Are you going to betray me too?”

“Never, Lovi.” He tightened his hug and kissed me gently on my neck. I remained static, showing no reaction. Antonio took a deep breath and turned away from my back, “But I get the impression that more than being angry with Feli, what you’re doing is hiding from him…”

“YOU FOOL!”

I got out of the bed, annoyed and offended, the damn bastard had branded me as a coward in my own face. And even if he was a little right about what he had said, I didn’t intend to recognize it or allow him to think that way about me. So, to his total confusion, I put my clothes on and left.

Antonio idiot ran after me in underwear, I slammed the door in his face. He rang the doorbell several times and asked me to open the door, but he had pissed me enough to refuse it no matter how much he insisted. After a few minutes in which I had to fight against myself to avoid being convinced by his pleas, he finally left.

The house was completely silent, idiot Feliciano was not there, he would surely be on the first floor with his beloved macho potato. I cursed them both while I got in bed, it was his fault that I got angry with Antonio, but especially that muscular German, no doubt he was the cause of my problems.

I fidgeted around the sheets, it has been five days since the last time I slept in my bed, but I didn’t remember it so large and empty. Fuck, Antonio bastard used to take all the space and always ended up wrapping me in his arms in the middle of the night. Even so… I really felt that I missed the company of that bastard in order to sleep.

I sat up angrily, this time I was annoyed with myself for being such an idiot. I looked around for something to distract myself while I got sleepy. The clothes the bastard lent me on Friday, the first time we slept together as a couple, were on the chair at my desk. I took it, but not before stomping on the floor to annoy the idiot I had as my… boyfriend…. so he couldn’t forget my anger.

Even if it was subtly, Antonio’s smell could still be perceived on the T-shirt, it was enough for me. I spread it on the pillow and laid my head on it, inhaling the slight scent of the bastard that helped me to fall sleep, although it cause me to dream about him and not in an innocent way. I woke up in the morning soaked in sweat and with a serious and “hard” problem in the south part of my body.

Damn Antonio, how had he taken over my sanity and me to provoke such reactions even without the need to be there?

Fuck, due to that and the argument of the night before, which was still annoying me, it was impossible for me to concentrate on the music and the violin notes didn’t go the rhythm of my partner’s piano, the blonde named Lilly. I was finishing the little patience of a certain Austrian who had a vein in his temple throbbing dangerously.

“Stop right now!” Roderich interrupted us. “Lovino, is there any reason why you are far away again like last week?”

I didn’t answer, but I knew the reason of my distraction was the same than last week. Well… not really. The guilty was the same, but the reasons were completely different and so much more embarrassing.

“Well?” my teacher was losing patience while brandishing his antenna. “Is there a reason or do I have to punish you again for making us waste our time?”

Obviously I couldn’t answer the Austrian by telling him that I was distracted because I had an argument with that bastard of Antonio due to my idiot brother and his not yet recognized German boyfriend, but that I had missed his company at night to the point of dreaming of him and waking up “happy”. I didn’t even want to imagine how my teacher would react to such an answer.

Roderich got more impatient, he demanded an answer immediately, but his inquiring eyes made me too nervous to invent a good excuse with which getting out of trouble.

“Herr Edelstein” said the little blonde, getting up from the piano, “it is obvious that my partner must have a good reason to be so absent-minded, I doubt that he wanted to waste our time like that. But surely what can be a waste of time is forcing him to play when there’s something that doesn’t allow him to be 100% involved with music. Don’t you think it would be best to give him a little respite and allow him to rest his mind and clarify the issues that distract him?"

I was speechless, what the hell with that girl?! What a great speech she had told, although knowing our stiff teacher so many words put together wouldn’t work at all. Or so I thought, because, to my total surprise, Roderich relaxed his gesture and nodded with a slight smile.

“You’re right, Lilly.” He sighed and turned his head toward me. “Well, we’ll finish the class for today, but, Lovino, try to fix what makes you have your head in the clouds and come to class with a clear mind and ready to focus on music, because next time I’ll make you focus by force,” a dark aura enveloped Roderich, it was really spine-chilling, “understood?”

I swallowed hard and nodded slowly, feeling as frightened by the Austrian’s face as incredulous because he was allowing me to leave even when there still were two hours of class left.

I picked the scores and put the violin away as quickly as my hands allowed, before my teacher could change his mind, and I left Roderich’s house with my partner.

“Hey, Lilly,” I said when we were out on the street, “thanks for helping me out with that idiot Roderich earlier, you saved me.”

“You are welcome” She smiled wide and sweetly, “though I’d appreciate it if you didn’t insult mister Edelstein. I know he has a difficult character and that he is very strict, but all he wants is to teach us well and to make us improve our abilities.”

That little girl left me speechless again.

“Wow, you are quite mature for your age.”

“And you too childish for yours.” she said, leaving me completely stunned. “How old do you think I am?”

“Eeh… fourteen or fifteen?” I doubted. She laughed.

“It always happens to me and I don’t wear braids anymore. I’m nineteen.”

“WHAT?!” I was surprised. “You are the same age than me? That’s not possible, if you look… but if… but…” I looked her up and down a couple of times, her face showed a sweetness and innocence typical of a little girl, although I had to admit that appearances are deceiving. “Ok, forgive me for being so idiot, in return I’ll treat you to some drinks as a thank you.”

Yes, I treated her, because I’m a grateful person although I don’t show it so much. Moreover, the Italian blood that runs through my veins forces me to be polite and gallant with ladies.

I took Lilly to one of the bars I used to go with the bastard and we sat in the shade at one of the outside tables while having a couple of drinks. The girl was quite polite and seemed a bit shy because she didn’t talk much, but somehow her company made me feel comfortable and calm, which was quite normal considering that I lived surrounded by annoying idiots who didn’t leave me alone for a damn minute.

“How long have you been playing the piano?” I asked her to bring up a subject. “You do it very well.”

“Thank you.” She shrugged and blushed. “I have been playing for about nine years and three of them with mister Edelstein. And what about you?”

“A month, have you seen the prodigy I am?” that sounded like something that certain stupid German I know would say. Lilly raised an eyebrow, she didn’t believe it. “Ok, yeah, I’m joking. I started when I was seven, but I left it four years ago and when I came here my grandpa forced me to retake it and I started classes with Roderich.”

“Your grandfather did well, you’re talented.” I blushed a bit because of the compliment. “And why did you leave it four years ago?”

“Because I didn’t like it anymore.”

It was the same answer I always gave to everyone when I was asked about that topic, because I would never admit that I felt hurt with my parents, and no one had ever questioned me so far.

“It’s not that I want to call you a liar, but I know that’s not true. Just by seeing the expression on your face when you play, one may realize how much you enjoy it.”

The little blondie was perceptive, I had no doubt that she was totally different from the bunch of idiots that surrounded me at all hours. Anyway, I wasn’t going to tell her the real reason that led me to stop playing violin, so I decided to change the topic immediately before she insisted.

“And do you do anything other than playing the piano?”

“I study. I love music, but I am aware of how difficult it is to get on with that career. And because I like children so much, next year I will finish my studies so I will be able to work in nurseries.”

Just like that bastard of Antonio, Lilly was another of those people who knew what they want to do in their lives, I felt a little envious.

“Aam… My bo… I have a friend who wants to set up a daycare center, but he is a teacher.”

“Then I’ll have to ask you to tell him about me when he open it.”

“Take it for granted.”

“Thank you. And do you study or do anything else besides playing violin?”

“I work. My grandfather has enslaved me four nights a week in his restaurant working as a waiter, but since last week I missed one day I have to recover it today. Agh, how disgusting!”

“Is that why you were distracted?”

“No, nothing to do. It was because last night I had an argument with my bo… with a friend!” I rectified. “And everything was my brother’s fault, do you have any siblings?”

“Yes, I have a wonderful older brother.” She spoke with such devotion that ever her eyes sparkled. “He is very good and kind and is always taking care of me.”

“Well, I can’t tell you who’s luckier, if you for having a brother like that or him for having as a sister a girl who values him so much.”

“You’re very flattering.” She smiled sweetly. “Anyway, it’s time for me to go home, I have to prepare lunch. Thanks for the drink, see you on Friday. Auf Wiedersehen!”

Lilly disappeared into the street.

I went home too and spent there the whole afternoon, sleeping, watching TV for a bit, playing the violin and mainly ignoring that idiot Feliciano every time he came up to me and spoke to me.

I went to work happily of getting rid of my annoying brother and having been able to bear the whole afternoon without turning to Antonio taking me in, despite how bored I felt and how much I wanted to go down to his house. That bastard would have to swallow his own words when I showed him I wasn’t hiding from anyone.

The night at the restaurant was quite quiet, just the opposite of my return trip on the bus where the tulip was as usual. He approached to where I was and sat next to me to bother me for a while.

“What open-air drinking session are you coming from tonight?”

“Again with that shit?” I spat, annoying. “How many times do I have to repeat that I work? Were you stoned the other night you had dinner in the restaurant that you don’t even remember I served you?”

“I wish I would have been stoned, the service was so poor that it was embarrassing.”

“The service was excellent!”

“Whatever, you said you work from Thursday to Sunday, today is Wednesday.”

“I changed my shift.”

“Because you were off work last Friday?”

The tulip, who was already scary with his angry face, was also beginning to be creepy because of the way he picked up and connected even the most insignificant details, he was cleverer than I thought.

“And… what business is it of yours?” I turned my face to the window so that he left me alone.

“Did you take that night off to hang out with that idiot Spaniard who doesn’t leave you alone?”

Although the reasons why I was off work were not those the tulip had just exposed, I couldn’t help blushing, after all I spent the whole night with Antonio.

“D-Don’t say bullshit. As if I were with that bastard all day. Besides, what do you care who I spend MY free time with? Why the hell don’t you mind your own fucking business and leave me alone for once?”

The tulip didn’t speak to me during the rest of the trip, but he kept a smug smile on his face, as if he knew he had hit the mark. However, his smile disappeared when we arrived in our building. 

“LOVI~!”

The bastard came to us running down the street and waving his hand as he yelled my name, who knows where he would come from. When he got to where we were, the tulip looked at him contemptuously and got into the building, slamming the main door shut.

“What’s got into him today?” Antonio asked himself. “Bah, it doesn’t matter. Hi, Lovi~!”

He hugged me by my waist and brought his face close to mine to kiss me. I stopped him by putting my hand on his mouth.

“Don’t even think about it, bastard.” I warned him, giving him a more terrifying look than the tulip’s ones. “I’m still mad at you for last night.”

I pushed him away from me. I went upstairs ignoring the bastard, who was coming after me. When we reached the second floor, he grabbed my arm to stop me.

“Oh, Lovi, forgive me, please. You know I didn’t want to bother you…”

“You said I was hiding from Feliciano” I freed myself from his hands. “You called me coward to my face! So look how I have hidden today and how I hide now going to my house.”

“I really didn’t mean that.”

He looked at me with his puppy eyes and pouted, I turned my face to not be influenced, but the sad and pleading tone of his voice was enough to make me give in. As soon as I told I forgave him, the bastard throw himself to my lips.

“You drank.”

“I went out with Gil and Fran to watch a football match.” He said. “I would have gone to pick you up to the restaurant, but I don’t drive after drinking booze, so I decided to wait for you at the bus stop. I was in my way when I saw you in the main door with Govert.”

“You were late as always.”

"I'll make it up to you however you want, Lovi, but don't be mad at me again, please."

“Tomorrow you'll have to drive me to work and pick me up, I don't feel like meeting that idiot tulip again. Oh, and you will have to buy me ice cream too.”

As expected, Antonio did not even think about it, he immediately and delightedly accepted my proposal. That bastard is lucky that I demand little of him.

Despite the heat, I let Antonio cling to me and wrap his arms around me on the bed, which brought me back to last night’s vivid dream, making me nervous. Moreover, that idiot could not be happy with just hugging me, he cunningly put his hand under my shirt to grope me at his whim.

“Bastard, I wanna sleep, so put the octopus-mode off and stop touching my nipples, fuck!”

He stopped immediately with a guilty chuckle.

However, I don’t know if it was because of the groping or sleeping so close to the bastard that once again I had wet dreams with him. I woke up groaning, drenched in sweat and with my heart pounding with excitement. Worst of all, Antonio’s face was just few inches away from mine and he was waking up.

“Good morning, Lovi” he greeted me, half opening his eyes.

I blushed violently I would have died of embarrassment if the bastard had even figured out how I had woken up and why, so I dumped his arms and jumped out of bed, grabbed my clothes and left the apartment in front of his look of total confusion.

I don’t know how could I concentrate during my class with Roderich, but I managed it, avoiding a new scolding from the Austrian, who had to have a moment of temporary lucidity in which he was able to appreciate my admirable effort during the lesson and decided to ignore the extra hour of punishment.

I was leaving my teacher’s house when, unluckily, I met the damn macho potato. I pretended not to see him and walked towards the building.

“Lovino, wait!” the fucking German grabbed me by the shoulder, disgusting! “I need to talk with you.”

“CHIGIIIII! Let go of me, you damn brother-corrupting potato bastard!” I yelled at him while turning around and I elbowed him in the abdomen, but he didn’t even bat an eyelid. “What do you think you are doing? Isn’t it enough for you to take advantage of that idiot of Feliciano?”

“Please, don’t day such things on the street” he blushed a bit, “they could be misunderstood.”

“I don’t give a fuck, I say whatever I fucking want!”

“Listen to me, please, I want to talk about your brother.”

“I don’t want to know anything about that idiot traitor. LET ME GO!”

Since elbowing him wasn’t working, I tried kicking his shin. It worked, potato bastard released me, I ran away, tripped and fell to the ground. Dammit! I had to make a fool of myself in front of the person I hated the most.

Surely that idiot Feliciano, as I ignored him day after day and everything he told me was useless, had sent that disgusting German to convince me to talk to him. And I would do it, but not in the way he expected. As soon as he opened the door of our house, I grabbed my brother by the collar of his shirt and cornered him against the wall to face him, who immediately began crying.

“Ve!” he yelled scared. “Fratello, what’s up? What have I done?”

“I’m warning you, stupid, tell that muscly jerk you have for a boyfriend that if he comes close to me again, a well-placed nudge will be the softest thing he’ll get.”

I pushed Feliciano against the wall releasing him. He looked at me with his teary eyes for a few seconds, long enough to make me feel bad, and the left without saying another word.

My sudden escape that morning had left Antonio quite worried, as he confessed to me when he came to pick me up in the afternoon as we had agreed. Knowing how clueless and gullible he was, it wasn’t hard to convince him that I left because I had overslept and I didn’t want to be late for my class with Roderich.

What wasn’t so easy was keeping my composure every time the bastard got too close to me, I blushed and got nervous remembering over and over the hot dreams I had about him the last few nights. For that reason, as soon as we got to his apartment after coming back from the restaurant, I got into bed and pretended to fall asleep immediately. Antonio didn’t say anything, he just caressed my hair, kissed my cheek and lay down next to me while hugging me.

And for the third night in a row, I had some wet and hot dreams again, my subconscious was a fucking bastard. I don’t even know how Antonio didn’t wake up because of my moans (because I woke up moaning quite loud). I was glad that bastard was a heavy sleeper.

I took a cold shower to calm down, although I only managed halfway, because I kept wondering why I didn’t stop dreaming about the bastard in that way, maybe was my subconscious warning me that I was ready to take that step with Antonio? But if I died of embarrassment just thinking about it and I needed to get drunk to put my nerves aside when I tried to do it days before… Damn subconscious! And damn Antonio for making me hornier than his fucking pervert French friend!

“How cool you are!” the bastard hugged me from behind and kissed me on the cheek.

“I just took a shower, because it’s hot and sleeping with you stuck to my side is like lying next to a stove.”

“I hope that’s not the only heat I cause you.” He whispered in my ear and bit it, which made a shiver run down my entire spine and my heart raced. As not to be horny!

“I-I-I have to go, you bastard, I don’t want to be late.”

Antonio faced me and cornered me against the door to kiss me deeply and intensely before letting me go.

Damn, with all his provocation, I needed a new cold shower, but I didn’t have time to take it.

However, not having Antonio hovering around me helped me to calm down and I was able to concentrate fully on the songs I was rehearsing with Lilly, getting a smirk and an approval from the Austrian, what an achievement! Best of all, just like the day before, Roderich decided to overlook my punishment hour.

“You played very well today” Lilly complimented me as we left.

“Thank you very much, you did great too.”

“I’m glad you solved whatever was distracting you the other day.”

In fact, the only thing I had solved was my argument with the bastard, the rest was still the same or even worse, because those dreams… Dammit, I thought about them again and blushed.

“D-Don’t think that…”

“LOVI~!” it was the bastard’s voice, just when I was thinking about him.

“The annoying one is arriving.” I commented with feigned weariness.

I grunted and rolled my eyes, Lilly giggled. I turned my head, Antonio was waving his hand and running towards us. When he saw that the blonde girl was with me, he made a strange grimace on his face, a mix of serious and surprised.

“Hello.” He greeted plainly, how odd.

“Hello, Antonio.” A smiling Lilly replied. I had no idea they had met before, and judging by the face the bastard was making, he didn’t seem to know that either.

“Eeh, do we know each other?”

Lilly didn’t answer him. She parted her short hair in two and grabbed each part of it with her hands as if they were two pigtails. Antonio’s eyes widened in surprise, and he jumped over the girl to hug her.

“Lilly!” he pulled away from her, but kept staring at her, which annoyed me a little. “It’s incredible how much you have grown, I didn’t even recognize you!”

“You have already proved your idiocy with that detail.” I pointed out, crossing my arms and turning my face away.

“She has changed a lot during the time we haven’t seen each other.” The bastard explained to me as if I cared. “How long has it been? One year?”

“I think so, although you haven’t changed at all”. Antonio smiled proudly. Lilly looked at her watch. “Well, I have to go. It’s getting late. I’m glad I saw you, Antonio. Lovino, I’ll see you on Monday. Have a good weekend. Auf wiedersehen!”

“Ciao!”

The bastard waved goodbye to Lilly like an idiot until she disappeared down the street. Meanwhile, I resumed my way towards home without waiting for Antonio, who caught me up seconds later.

“Hey, Lovi, didn’t you tell me the other day that Roderich had grounded you every day until three in the afternoon? How come you are already out?”

“That idiot may have forgotten about my punishment.”

“That’s so rare of Rod” he remained thoughtful, “he doesn’t exactly overlook punishments. In fact, I was on my way to his house to try to convince him to let you out earlier.”

“Late.”

“I see, but at least I found you on the way!” he smiled broadly, although his expression immediately turned serious. “By the way, what were you doing with Lilly?” I thought I detected a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Going back home.”

“What? And how do you know each other?” there was definitely jealousy in his voice, which I was a little glad for, somehow he made me see I was important for him.

“She’s my classmate.”

“But you have the classes alone and Lilly plays the piano…”

“Exactly, but she and I will play together in Roderich’s piano recital, so she comes to rehearse with me some mornings.”

“Are you going to play in Roderich’s recital?” the seriousness disappeared from his face, replaced by surprise. “That’s… That’s… That’s wonderful!” he trapped me in his arms, he reacted as I supposed he would. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Because I couldn’t… and then I forgot about it.” I struggled a little, I was getting hot again. “And let go of me, dammit!”

“But do you know what that means?” he loosened his grip a bit without letting go and looked at me proudly. “Roderich only chooses his best students to play in the recital with him. I expected no less from you! We have to celebrate this!”

Antonio was really excited by the news, so much that it wasn’t enough for him to celebrate it by treating me to lunch in one of the best restaurants in downtown, but also, in the evening, he showed up to pick me up from work before my shift ended and convinced the manager to let me leave earlier… he was up to something.

As we were going up the stairs to the bastard’s house, we ran into the Frenchie, who raised his thumb and winked at Antonio. No doubt, he was up to something, and to top it off that damn Frenchman was also involved. I wanted to run away.

It didn’t take long for me to discover what he was up to. As soon as I entered, I could see that the room was full of candles and the table set: he had prepared a romantic dinner; could he be soppier? Although the bastard had taken a lot of trouble just for me, so I kept my comments to myself until we almost finished dinner.

“Well, are you going to tell me what the hell this is all about, you bastard? Is it your way of trying to get me into your bed? It’s not subtle at all, you know?”

“What are you talking about, Lovi? It’s just a dinner to celebrate…”

“Too much trouble just to celebrate that I’m going to play in a stupid recital.” I interrupted him.

“That’s not the only thing we have to celebrate: today is Friday.” I raised an eyebrow, the fact that it was Friday meant nothing to me, “It’s been a week since we started dating. Don’t you think that is a fact important enough to celebrate?”

I opened and closed my mouth several times without making a sound. Antonio had left me speechless.

He approached me smiling, his gaze filled with illusion and tenderness. He knelt in front of me until our eyes were at the same level and gently caressed my face. I ducked my head.

“What’s up, Lovi?” he lifted my chin up, fixing his green eyes on mine. “Did I say something that upset you?”

“Ho-How…? How can you be like this?” he looked at me blankly. “Does it seem so important to you to be with me? I have always been a nuisance to everyone; even my own mother can’t stand me…”

“Forgive me for what I’m going to say, Lovi, but with all the respect in the world, your mother… is an idiot.” He stated. I couldn’t help but smile lightly. “I’m serious. You have to be an idiot not to appreciate such a wonderful person as you…”

I didn't allow him to continue. I silenced him with a kiss that, although it surprised him, he didn't hesitate to reciprocate immediately and it was intensified little by little as his arms encircled my back and brought my body closer to his.

The temperature was rising by the minute.

We separated our mouths slowly, holding each other’s gaze. My cheeks turned deep red. Still hugging me, Antonio made me stand up and led me to his bedroom, joining his lips with mine again. There was no need to say anything; I knew the moment I had been thinking about all week had arrived.

He gently laid me down on the bed, without breaking the kiss, while he ran his hands over every inch of my anatomy. He separated his lips from mine, straightening up and taking off his shirt. I watched him from below with my heart pounding and my face flushed with embarrassment. I was still very nervous about what was coming, because I had never been in a situation like this before (at least with another man), but the excitement of the moment was much greater and I really wanted to take that step, my whole body trembled asking for it.

Antonio lowered his head to my neck to kiss it. He moved down my torso as he unbuttoned my shirt, stopping at my nipples. He licked and nibbled them gently, making me moan. I covered my mouth with my hands, overcome with embarrassment. He smirked and withdrew them to kiss me while he took off my pants and stroked my excited penis over my underwear, which he soon got rid of, leaving me completely naked to his mercy.

He took my cock and began to suck me unashamedly from the tip to the base, then taking all of it into his mouth, playing with his tongue, making me pant and moan uncontrollably, just like when I dreamed about him, but feeling countless more pleasant and incomparable sensations that made me come in his mouth.

“Wow, looks like you were eager,” he commented.

I blushed, I couldn't help it. I turned my face away and covered it with the pillow, completely embarrassed.

 “Lovi, don't hide from me,” he said in a low voice, removing the pillow to kiss me intensely. “There's nothing to be ashamed of.”

Dammit! That was all it took to get me worked up again. He smiled victoriously and moved away from me a little to get a bag from the drawer of his nightstand. It was the same one the Frenchman had given him the week before. He took out a bottle of lubricant and coated his fingers with it.

“Are you ready?”

I nodded slowly, fearfully.

Antonio guided his hand to my entrance and slid a slippery finger inside me. It was a strange and slightly painful sensation. He introduced a second finger, causing a little more pain that was soon replaced with pleasure as he began to move them to loosen me.

He suddenly withdrew his fingers, surprising me, and finally took off his pants along with his briefs, freeing his… member. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath, preparing for what was to come.

“If I hurt you a lot, tell me and I’ll stop.”

Antonio positioned himself at my already lubricated entrance and slowly introduced himself inside me. I squeezed my fists tightly against the mattress. It hurt. When he was completely inside me, he waited a few seconds before he began to move gently in and out. I closed my eyes, letting myself be carried away by the pleasurable friction of his penis inside me. It made me want more of him.

“Aah… Antonio,” I said between sighs… “What…? What… are you doing to me…?”

The bastard stopped immediately.

“Why the hell did you stop?” I said, annoyed, opening my eyes.

He didn't answer. He smiled with lust and thrust hard into me without consideration, drawing a deep moan from me. I wrapped my arms around his back, pulling him closer to my body, and he began a rapid back-and-forth, getting deeper and hotter with each thrust. Our pants and moans mixed, increasing the excitement.

I clung to Antonio even more when he hit a spot inside me that made me scream with pure pleasure and reach ecstasy. I came all over my stomach and felt my insides contract around the bastard's penis. He kissed me intensely and came inside me, panting heavily. He gradually reduced the speed of his thrusts until he finally pulled out of me and lay down beside me, embracing me as our breathing returned to normal.

“I love you, Lovi.”

His gaze was full of sincerity and passion. I blushed intensely and was left speechless once again. Only he was capable of causing such a reaction in me. I kissed him in response and snuggled up on his chest, falling asleep.

Someone sang my name while gently shaking me. I opened my eyes with difficulty because of the annoying light coming through the window, finding the smiling face of the bastard, who was lying next to me, just a few inches away, but dressed in his work uniform.

“What time is it?” I asked, sitting up.

Antonio pushed me back down, making me lie down again.

“It's still early, Lovi, you can stay in bed a little longer.”

“Then why the hell did you wake me up, you bastard?!”

My boyfriend was an idiot. He woke me up to tell me that I could stay in bed longer. I felt like killing him, and for good reason. He laughed.

“I'm sorry, but I have to go to work, and after last night, I wouldn't want you to wake up alone and think I had left without saying goodbye because I didn't care about you or something like that…”

On top of that, the bastard was considerate, and I couldn't get mad at him.

“How are you feeling?” He stroked my hair. “Does anything hurt?”

Hurt? Not really, although I felt a little discomfort in my butt. Too many memories came to my mind, and I blushed a little with embarrassment.

“W-What do you think, you bastard? Of course it does.”

“Seriously?! Was I too rough?” He was worried. “I swear I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm so, so sorry, forgive me!”

Dammit, I didn't think he would take it so to heart. I wouldn't, at least. But of course, Antonio had shown me more than once how much he cared about me, so it was normal for him to be alarmed at the thought that he might have caused me any kind of harm by himself.

“Don't be an idiot, you bastard, I'm fine.”

He sighed in relief and sat me up a little (which increased my slight anal pain) to hold me close in his arms and kiss me goodbye. I lay back down on the bed and fell asleep again.

I woke up a couple of hours later, hugging the pillow tightly. It smelled like the bastard. He had left breakfast prepared for me in the kitchen, coffee with churros, along with a note full of little hearts that I couldn't help but smile at… ugh, deep down, I was cheesy too!

I left after breakfast. I was on the landing, making sure I had closed the bastard's apartment door tightly, when a familiar voice spoke from behind me.

“Well, well… Look who we have here. How are you, Lovino?”

I immediately turned to find that tall figure I knew so well.

“G… Grandpa!"

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: An open secret

Before I had time to process that Grandpa was back, he was already squeezing me tightly in his huge arms and kissing my forehead. Of course, I protested and struggled to free myself from his grip, but I eventually hugged him back, though only because I knew that the more I resisted, the longer the old man would insist on squeezing me.

“Fuck, grandpa, stop being such a bore and let me go already.”

“Oh, Lovino, you’re still the same foul-mouthed boy you’ve always been. What am I going to do with you?” he said with a smile, letting go of me but keeping me held by the shoulders. “Didn’t you mess me even a little?”

I did have missed him; he’s my grandfather after all, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know it just like that, just as he hadn’t let me know he was going back to Italy for an indefinite period.

"Ha! Who the hell would miss a senile old man who has fun by forcing me to do things I don't want to and then takes off without a single word?"

"So you're mad because I didn't tell you before I left, and that's why you don't want to admit you missed me, huh?"

Ugh! I hated when he hit the nail on the head like that, I definitely wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of answering him. I crossed my arms, puffed out my cheeks, and turned my face away. Of course, he didn't care about that; he let out a loud laugh and pulled me toward him to hug me tightly again while he rubbed his chin against my head.

“I've missed you a lot, too! I was so bored without hearing your protests…”

Dammit, as if I spent the whole day complaining about everything! I squirmed in his arms, managing to get free from his suffocating bear hug and faced him.

“Well, if you wanted to hear me, you should have called more often. You didn't even bother to tell us you were coming back today.”

“I wanted to surprise you! It's much more exciting that way, don't you think?”

What I thought was that it was a ridiculous excuse. I huffed, crossing my arms and turning my face again, a grave mistake on my part.

"What's this you have here?"

He reached for my neck. I got nervous and slapped his hand away.

"NOTHING!"

Just the hickey that idiot Antonio had given me almost a week ago, which hadn't faded yet. Before I left his place, I made sure he hadn't left any new marks; if he had, I would have killed him.

Completely flushed, I adjusted my collar to make sure nothing was showing. Grandpa gave me a knowing smile.

"Well," he pinched my cheek, "...I see you haven't been wasting your time in my absence, have you, you rascal?"

I blushed even more, if that was even possible. Grandpa looked at me expectantly, as if he wanted me to tell him what I had been doing during the three weeks he was away, but that was not a topic I wanted to talk to him about, at least not at the moment, because what had happened was certainly far from what he imagined.

My grandfather seemed to notice my discomfort, and before I could decide to run away from him up the stairs, he changed the subject to one that, even though he didn't know it, was along the same lines as the last one.

"What were you doing here? Were you at Antonio's house?"

"Yes," I answered without thinking... "NO!" I corrected myself immediately, nervously. "I was… I was… I just went down for a moment… to talk to him, but… I didn't remember that… he had to work today, he's not..."

"Oooh, Antonio's not here?" said someone with a sleepy voice from behind Grandpa. "What a pity, I really wanted to see him and talk to him..."

"I'm sure Antonio-san will return sooner or later, and then you can talk to him all you want, anata."

The old man stepped aside, and I was surprised to see that we weren't alone on the landing. Two very strange guys were watching us: one was tall, muscular, with green eyes and brown hair with a couple of strands longer than the rest; the other was short, with short black hair and Asian features. Both were carrying several suitcases, plus a caged white cat.

I looked those two men up and down. Where the hell had they come from? I hadn't even heard them arrive. They must have listened to my whole conversation with Grandpa. What intrigued me the most, though, was that they claimed to know the bastard. From where? Antonio hadn't told me anything about expecting visitors.

"Oh, right, Lovino, I almost forgot," Grandpa said. "These are Kiku and Heracles, my guests. They'll be staying with us for a while."

"Hajimemashite," the Asian man stepped forward, bowed, and offered me his hand. "My name is Honda Kiku and I'm from Japan. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

"H-Hi," I shook his hand.

"Hello... nice to meet you," the other one greeted me slowly, raising his hand. "You wouldn't happen to know... what time Antonio gets back... from work, would you?"

"Well, I guess at two," I said, annoyed, frowning. Why was this sleepy-looking guy so interested in seeing the bastard?

"Oh... still a good while... until he gets back..."

"Let's keep going up then!" Grandpa suggested cheerfully. "There will be time to greet everyone later. Lovino, help them with their luggage."

Reluctantly, I approached the guy with the weird haircut and grabbed the cat's cage. The cat's fur bristled, it hissed, and it tried to scratch me through the bars. Damn animal. I disliked it as soon as I saw it, just like its owner.

"Please... be careful with Socrates... he doesn't like... sudden movements..."

I smiled maliciously without anyone seeing me. I shot a scathing look at that furball, which was still trying unsuccessfully to reach me with its claws, and went up behind Grandpa and his two guests, swinging the cage as much as I could. That's how that furry monster would learn not to mess with me.

Grandpa entered the house, loudly announcing that he was back and calling my brother's name, perhaps hoping he would come running from somewhere in the house to jump into his arms, but he got no response. Everything was completely silent.

"Lovino, where's your brother?" he asked, surprised.

"And why the hell should I know?" I said, annoyed. "I'm not his damn babysitter."

Grandpa gave me a disapproving look in classic Roderich style, but didn't say anything. He went down the hallway to help his guests get settled, and I gave the cage with the stupid cat to its owner before he went following the old man.

I was left alone in the living room, thinking about Feliciano's absence. I hadn't heard anything from him for two days, ever since he ran away from me after I confronted him about his beloved friend-lover, the muscular potato-eater. I assumed he was with him. Of course, Grandpa didn't know anything about it, and considering my idiot brother was usually home at that hour, it wasn't strange that he would find it odd that his adored youngest grandson wasn't there.

The sound of the key turning in the lock announced Feliciano's arrival. Our eyes met for a few seconds, but he looked away first, lowering his head and walking past me without saying a single word. He seemed angry with me. Could it be because of how I threatened him the last time we saw each other? The damn moron, as if I had said anything offensive, unlike what he did when he chose the potato-eater over me.

Grandpa came into the living room at that exact moment. Feliciano's eyes widened in surprise, and he lunged at the old man, who received him with joy, giving him kisses and hugging him so tightly that he even lifted him off the ground. The Japanese man and the other guy watched them with curiosity, while I crossed my arms, bored as I watched a scene I had already seen so many times before.

"Nonno, I'm so glad to see you!" Feliciano said with tears in his eyes as Grandpa put him down. "I've missed you so, so much."

"And I've missed you, Feliciano~!" the old man replied, ruffling his hair. "Where have you been, you rascal? I got here and couldn't find you anywhere."

"Vee~... I was downstairs at Luddy's," he said (I was right). "I didn't know you were coming back today!"

"I wanted to surprise you, did I succeed?"

"Yes, you did!"

Grandpa hugged Feliciano once again. I rolled my eyes; knowing those two, they would probably be at it for a while, so I decided to leave them alone. They were starting to annoy me. However, the old man stopped me. He grabbed my shirt collar and pulled me, trapping me between his chest and his arm the same way he was holding my brother.

"Ugh, let go already, you bore!" I complained, struggling.

"I'm so happy to be back with my two dearest grandsons!"

Ignoring my complaint, Grandpa squeezed us even tighter against him, causing my idiot brother and me to lock eyes. We both turned our faces away. The old man then loosened his grip, and I took the opportunity to escape to my room before he could give me some absurd task, as he always did. I'd have time for that later.

During the afternoon, there was a constant parade of people at the house. Most of Grandpa's tenants had heard of his return and came up to welcome him. What they didn't know was that the Japanese guy and the other one, who turned out to be Greek, were also there, which surprised them, as they were old friends with everyone in the building. Of course, that damn Greek guy seemed to have some kind of unhealthy obsession with the bastard, as he wouldn't stop asking everyone who arrived about him. It was driving me crazy!

Antonio didn't show up at the house until much later than everyone else, and not because he'd heard the news. When the doorbell rang for the umpteenth time that day, I assumed it was the bastard, so I dutifully got up from the armchair and went to open the door, but Grandpa got there before me.

"Hi, Lo...!" Antonio fell silent, his eyes widening in surprise. "ROMU!"

Without a second thought, the bastard hugged my grandfather who, of course, didn't hesitate to hug him back.

"I was starting to wonder why I hadn't seen you around here," Grandpa told him as he pulled away. "How are you, lad?"

"Great, but... I had no idea you were back!" No one can win him when it comes to being clueless. "I was coming to get Lo... Oh, wow, Kiku!"

Antonio noticed the quiet presence of the Japanese man, who had approached the door as soon as the bell rang to greet the new visitor, as he had been doing all afternoon. The bastard walked toward him, smiling, and squeezed him in his arms, although the Asian man was shaking his head and didn't seem very comfortable with the display of affection.

"I'll never get used to these effusive European displays of affection," the Japanese man commented when he was released. "I'm glad to see you, Antonio-san, how are you doing?"

"Damn, Kiku, we've known each other for so many years and you're still calling me in that formal way. Just call me Antonio, man, we're friends."

"Antonio?!"

The Greek man, who had been sleeping on the sofa, jumped up as he recognized the bastard's voice. As soon as Antonio saw him, his smile grew even wider. They quickly approached each other for a tight embrace, patting each other vigorously on the back and giving each other kisses on the cheek. How annoying!

"So happy... to see you, Antonio," the damn Greek said without letting go of MY boyfriend.

"You can say that again, what a day of surprises!"

"I was impatient," they finally pulled apart but continued to hold each other's arms, standing very close... "to see you to... talk to you about... something important..."

"Well, it will have to be another time!" I interrupted, grabbing the bastard and pulling him toward the door. "Antonio came to get ME and we're leaving NOW or he'll make me late for work."

"But, Lovi, it's still early..."

"We're leaving NOW!"

"Antonio, I appreciate you looking after Lovino so much," Grandpa interjected. I got nervous, damn it, I had gotten jealous in front of him, "but you shouldn't give in to all his demands or he'll end up getting spoiled..."

"It's nothing, Romu," he replied, laughing and ruffling my hair. "Besides, it's no trouble at all for me."

I guided the bastard toward the door, giving him little shoves so he wouldn't stop every time someone spoke to him.

"I'm sorry, Heracles, we'll talk more calmly in a little while when I get back. See you la...!"

I slammed the door shut as soon as we crossed the threshold. That damn Greek guy and his familiarity with the bastard had managed to infuriate me. I ignored Antonio, ready to head down the stairs, but he took my arm firmly, turning me toward him to kiss me until I was breathless.

"I’ve been eager to do this during all day," he whispered against my lips.

I didn't have time to catch my breath before his mouth was on mine again. I let myself get carried away, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him back, until I realized we were at the front door and anyone could come out and see us. Blushing furiously, I pushed Antonio away and urged him to leave.

Since we had a little time before I had to start work, we first went to the ice cream shop—Antonio treated me—and then walked leisurely toward the restaurant.

"You know what, Lovi?" he asked excitedly as we walked.

"What?"

"I got another call from the mall to work next week!"

I smiled slightly. I was happy for Antonio; getting a job meant he was a little closer to achieving his dream, but on the other hand, it made me feel a little uneasy. Damn, I'd gotten used to him so quickly being so close to me, and now we'd have to spend a whole week with barely any time to see each other.

"What are you thinking about, Lovi?"

"About the poor kids you'll traumatize when you get the daycare open."

"You're so mean," he pouted and poked me in the cheek with his finger.

"Idiot," I swatted at him, "and I'm cheering you up..."

The bastard thought for a moment about what I'd said, then smiled. He grabbed me by the waist from behind, pulling me toward him, and kissed me on the cheek in gratitude, not caring about embarrassing me in the middle of the street. I had to struggle a bit to get him to let go, but I couldn't get him off me. He put his arm around my shoulders.

"Tell me, Lovi, do you want me to spoil you a little more by coming back to pick you up?"

"Are you making fun of what my grandfather said, bastard?"

"No, I wouldn't even think of it, but," he lowered his voice and leaned closer to my ear, "I really wouldn't mind if you got used to everything you do with me..."

In addition to using such a sensual tone of voice that it made my skin crawl, that damn Antonio made me reminisce about what happened the night before, making my cheeks turn the deepest red.

"Y-You're a fucking pervert, you know that?"

"But that's how you like me."

Just as I was about to retort, because there was no way I'd admit he was right, the bastard stopped me from speaking by kissing me deeply, making me forget what I was going to say.

"So, do you want me to pick you up or not?" he said as we separated. "You haven't answered me."

"What do you think, bastard?" I rolled my eyes. "It's not too hard to guess, think about it."

He smiled, kissed me again, and left.

I spent the whole afternoon wondering if Antonio had gotten my hint. Sometimes he didn't understand anything, but luckily for me, he was smiling and waiting for me on his motorcycle in the alley when I finished my shift.

We headed toward the pub where Antonio and his two closest friends, the Frenchman and the albino, had planned to meet. For some reason I didn't know, the bastard seemed more cheerful than usual, which made me a little uneasy. Something must have happened to make him act this way.

"The lovebirds are finally here!" the albino yelled from the bar. "We thought you'd be busy with your own things and arrive much later."

"Don't be an idiot, you moron!"

"Judging by the look of absolute bliss on notre cher ami Antonio's face all day, I'd say last night was when they had a good time..."

My face turned red.

"I won't deny it," he said. I hit the bastard on the arm for saying such things, and he just laughed and hugged me from behind. "But it turns out that just being with my Lovi is enough for me to have a good time and be happy."

He kissed my cheek. I turned even redder because of him. How could he say and do such embarrassing things so easily? The Frenchman and the albino looked at us sarcastically and pulled Antonio away from me, putting their arms around my shoulders in what seemed like a friendly and complicit way.

"Ooh, so our fantastic friend Toño managed to win you over in every sense of the word, huh, kid?"

"I hope mon cher Antonio behaved himself and managed to leave you satisfied, mon petit."

If what that horny pair intended was for the red colour to never leave my cheeks, they were succeeding. Being asked about what Antonio and I did the night before was very embarrassing for me.

"And if he didn't succeed," the Frenchman added close to my ear, "you know where you can find me, mon petit. I'll give you all the amour you need."

That sent a shiver down my spine and made my hair stand on end. Luckily, Antonio rescued me from his two perverted friends' arms, only to trap me in his own again.

"Enough, guys, you're bothering my Lovi, a lot."

"But we were just showing interest in your relationship, mon ami."

"And speaking of that, kid, how did your grandpa take the news?"

Damn it! Why? Why, out of all the possible topics of conversation, did those two damn idiots have to choose, first, the one that embarrassed me the most, and second, one I'd rather avoid for now?

I remained silent. All three of them looked at me expectantly, Antonio most of all, waiting for my answer.

"Well... I... haven't told him yet," the bastard seemed a little disappointed. "But it's because I haven't found a good time to do it, damn it," I quickly added. Antonio smiled. "So you'd better not say anything to him before I do. This is my business and it's up to me to tell him, got it?"

"Of course, Lovi," Antonio smiled. "You're absolutely right. And Gil and Fran agree, right?"

He gave them a threatening look, and the other two nodded nervously.

"Changing the subject, Toño, did you go up to talk to Heracles?" I tensed up when I heard the Greek's name. "This afternoon he seemed incredibly anxious to see you and tell you something important."

"Of course I did~!" he answered happily.

"And what the hell did that damn Greek want in the end?" I asked, annoyed.

"Well, well," the Frenchman smiled crookedly, "looks like notre petit Lovino is jealous..."

"I AM NOT JEALOUS!"

"Kesesese... You're kidding, kid, you went stiff as a cat that feels threatened the minute we mentioned the Greek."

"You're not one to talk, so you'd better shut your trap, potato-eater," I shot back. "You would've gotten into a brawl with Roderich the other day if your girlfriend hadn't knocked you out with a frying pan."

"That wasn't because of jealousy, but because that stuck-up prig deserved it!"

"Yeah, right..."

"If you're so afraid of the Austrian trying to win back the doctor's amour, what you should do is grow a pair and just confess once and for all instead of running away every time she gets near you, cher."

"Someone as awesome as me never runs away! I just get myself to safety from her. She's got a long arm and great aim lately... And let's drop the subject already! We were talking about how the little one is jealous of the Greek guy."

"The little one will be your father!"

"Are you really jealous of Heracles, Lovi?" Antonio interjected. I crossed my arms and looked down at the floor. "But why? I don't get it. All he wanted was to talk to me to ask me to be a witness at his wedding."

"WHAT?!"

"It seems notre petit Lovino had no idea that Heracles was getting married."

"And how the hell was I supposed to know if I just met him today and all he's done since he got here is sleep and ask for this bastard over and over again?"

"He and Kiku are really discreet and don't usually show their amour in public, so it's logical that, if no one told you, you wouldn't know or even suspect anything, cher."

"He and... Kiku?!"

So the sleepy Greek was the Japanese’s partner and didn't actually want anything to do with Antonio... Suddenly I didn't dislike him so much, but I still didn't completely trust him. He was like the Frenchman, too familiar with the bastard. Besides, I found it hard to imagine him as the Oriental’s boyfriend; they seemed too different from each other.

They continued talking about that strange intercontinental couple and planning the best way to throw them an epic bachelor party. Although it was a topic that didn't interest me in the slightest, I preferred it to being harassed with overly personal questions I didn't want to answer, which the idiot Antonio had led them to. That damn bastard was going to pay for it, specifically that very night.

"Where are you going, Lovi?" he asked, surprised as I walked past his apartment door. "Aren't you staying to sleep with me?"

"No," I replied curtly, stopping.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't feel like it," I lied without looking at him.

"Aw, come on, stay with me," he begged.

"I told you no, so don't insist."

"Aww~... I wanted to sleep all cuddled up with you..."

He was starting with the sappy stuff again. The idiot hadn't realized I was mad at him.

He walked up the two steps that separated us, stood in front of me, and kissed me softly on the lips.

"If you change your mind, all you have to do is knock."

And with that, he went into his apartment.

I stood there with my mouth open, staring for a few seconds at the door where my idiot boyfriend had disappeared. I went upstairs even more annoyed than I already was; I don't know if it was because the bastard hadn't noticed I was mad, because he hadn't insisted as much as I expected, or because he seemed so sure I'd change my mind.

I slammed both doors—the front door and my bedroom door—caring little that it was four in the morning and I might wake someone up. I was in a bad mood. I undressed, and when I went to get into bed, I was met with an unpleasant surprise: it was occupied by the damn Greek's cat, sleeping soundly in MY sheets. I grabbed the animal to throw it out of my room, but it woke with a start and struggled in my arms, scratching me. I dropped it, and it lay back down on my bed.

"You disgusting creature, get out of here!"

I grabbed it tightly, preventing it from escaping despite how much it squirmed. I threw it into the hallway and quickly closed the door, but not fast enough, because that damn cat slipped inside between my legs and took possession of my bed again. The little bastard didn't give up easily. It got into an attack position with the fur on its back bristling, and it sank its claws into me a couple of times when I approached to grab it again.

I gave up on the idea of kicking the furball out.

Instead of going to sleep in any other room in the house, as I could have done, I went down to the second floor and knocked on Antonio's door, since I really wanted to spend the night with him. I waited with my arms crossed and my cheeks puffed out until he opened the door, smiling stupidly.

"So you've changed your mind..."

"No, it's just that your idiot friend's damn cat has taken over my bed, and you have to give me asylum."

Antonio burst out laughing.

"What the hell are you laughing at, you bastard?"

"What kind of excuse is that?" he said between laughs. I blushed a little; what I had told him really did sound unbelievable, even if it was true. "You don't have to invent anything to come stay with me."

And before I could answer, he took my arm, pulled me inside, and closed the door while kissing me.

It was past noon when I entered the house as stealthily as possible. I was hoping no one had noticed my absence; after all, I always got up very late on weekends.

"Do you think one in the afternoon is an appropriate time to show up at home after leaving yesterday afternoon?"

I froze when I heard Grandpa's voice. He was sitting on the sofa with his back to me. How had he noticed I'd just arrived? He stood up and approached me with a serious expression. I was expecting a scolding, but instead, he pinched my cheeks and started laughing.

"So you've been having love affairs, eh, you rascal?"

"O-Of course not," I said, getting nervous and blushing. I didn't feel able to tell him about Antonio yet. "D-Don't be silly, I came back last night. I just had to go down for a moment to... to the bastard's house to return... something he had lent me..."

"Yeah, right, do you think I was born yesterday, Lovino? Do you think that just because you came back in the middle of the night making a fuss, I wouldn't find out that you left a while later to spend the night out and didn't come back until now?" Damn, the old man had caught me. "But tell me, is it the same person who left that mark on your neck, or a different one?"

I blushed even more. How could my grandfather keep insisting on the same thing and asking me those kinds of questions? It was too embarrassing.

"It's not what you think, damn it!" I pulled away from him. "Leave me alone!"

"Alright," he sighed, giving up. "Come on, go help your brother in the kitchen with lunch. The guests will be here soon."

"Guests? What guests?"

"The tenants, of course! We're celebrating my return!"

Great, lunches with everyone from the building were back, just like nougat at Christmas. That meant not only having to endure my brother's presence, but also the potato-eater and the tulip's. What a torture! In addition, the worst part was I wouldn't be able to get out of it; Grandpa wouldn't allow it, no matter how much I protested.

I did manage to get out of helping Feliciano; I didn't even step into the kitchen, and the old man didn't notice. But I was stuck with receiving the guests, who arrived shortly. The last to show up, of course, was the bastard, whom I greeted by hitting him on the arm.

"Idiot, why the hell didn't you tell me we were all having lunch together here today?"

"I thought you already knew, Lovi," he said, rubbing his arm. "Your grandfather told everyone yesterday afternoon."

I grunted. The damn old man hadn't told me anything until the last minute.

In the dining room, everyone else was already waiting at the table. I sat next to Grandpa (at the head of the table) and Antonio sat next to me. Feliciano was across from me, next to the potato-eating jerk. My brother and I locked eyes for an instant before we both immediately looked away.

"So, tell me," Grandpa said while serving himself, "how have these three weeks been in my absence?"

"No comment," the tulip said.

"Weird," Emma commented. I felt a little bad for her.

"Very hectic," the potato-eater said, putting a hand to his forehead.

"Just as amazingly good as usual!" the albino said energetically. Eli gave him a murderous look.

"As long as we're not talking about you," the Hungarian said with malice.

"Without a doubt, l'amour filled the air of the whole building..."

Grandpa looked at me, smiling crookedly, as if the Frenchman's words referred only and exclusively to me.

"Well, love is also in the air right now," Antonio added, discreetly stroking my leg under the table. "After all, Heracles and Kiku are here to celebrate their wedding."

"That's right! We have to celebrate the most incredibly awesome bachelor party this city has ever seen."

I sighed with relief. The bastard's intervention had completely diverted the topic, as Grandpa seemed genuinely interested in actively participating in the party they wanted to organize —so typical of him. However, in the middle of that brainstorming session, the old man's expression changed, and he turned to me to say something completely stupid.

"Lovino, don't you think there are too many of us at the table? Have you counted us?"

"Vee… And why would we need to count ourselves?"

"Dammit, stop with the absurd superstitions. Nothing would happen if there were thirteen of us," I said, annoyed, and counted. "But you can breathe easy; there are only twelve of us. Although," I fixed my gaze on Feliciano, "...to have a damn traitor at the table, there's no need for there to be thirteen."

"That's enough," the old man hit the table. "Excuse us!"

Suddenly, Grandpa stood up, and right there, not caring that all his guests were in front of him, he grabbed Feliciano and me each by an ear, forcing us to stand.

"VEEE!"

"IIIIIIH!"

"You two, come with me," he said, pulling us.

"Let go, fuck, let go!" I said with tears in my eyes.

"Do you prefer I grab you by your curl?"

"NO!" Feliciano and I shouted at the same time, instinctively bringing our hands to that sensitive spot. Everyone stared at us.

The old man didn't let us go until we got to his office. He closed the door and stood in front of us with his arms crossed and a very serious expression. I swallowed with fear; the old man looked really angry, much more than on other occasions.

"I've had enough of this attitude you two have toward each other. Can you tell me what the hell has happened here?"

I crossed my arms, puffed out my cheeks, and looked down at the floor. For his part, Feliciano started to whine.

"SPEAK!" he demanded, hitting the desk. We both flinched in fear.

"Ve... ve... my fratello and I fought," the old man needed to know more. "...my... my fratello got mad at me because... ve... I stayed to sleep at Luddy's house one night and he didn't want me to... ve... and he came to look for me in the middle of the night... ve... but I didn't want to leave and we fought... and he hasn't spoken to me since..."

"You damn lying idiot!" I shouted at him. He flinched and cried even more. "You know very well that's not how it happened!"

"LOVINO!" Grandpa called out, getting my attention. "Calm down and tell me what happened according to you."

"What for?"

"I want to hear your version."

To hear my version... When Feliciano and I were little and we fought and he ended up crying—because he always has been and always will be a crybaby—my mom also wanted to hear my version of the story, only to make me waste my breath because the only thing that mattered was that I had made my little brother suffer. She always took Feliciano's side. Everyone took his side.

"This idiot..."

"You don't have to disrespect your brother to tell me."

"...told me that he was going to stay at the potato-eater's house. I told him not to, but he didn't listen to me, and when I came back from work, I couldn't find him. I got mad and went down to look for him, but he refused to come with me and he told me that..." I swallowed hard; it hurt to remember it, "...he told me that he preferred to stay with that damn potato-eater rather than with me! Well, now he can go off with his dear muscular friend and leave me in peace. I don't need him!"

"ENOUGH! I'm not going to keep tolerating this behavior between you two. To begin with, Feliciano, how the hell could you say something like that to your brother? I don't care that you were fighting, didn't you realize how hurtful that is?"

"Vee... but... vee..." he whined, "...but he's always saying things like that to me, that I'm annoying... that I'm a bother... that he hates me..."

"Lovino needs to learn to measure his words, but that doesn't justify you doing the same thing," he scolded him. "I didn't expect this from you," he said, disappointed.

Thick tears ran down Feliciano's face; he wasn't used to being the one getting scolded.

"As for you, Lovino, this extreme reaction could have been avoided if you behaved better toward your brother and..."

"WHAT?! You must be joking, right?" I started to tremble with rage. "I have to stay with him, watch over him, take care of him, and do whatever it takes to make sure he's okay, and on top of that, the blame for that moron deciding to abandon me for a damn potato-eater... is MINE?!"

"No, Lovino, what I was trying to say, and you didn't let me finish, is that this feud should have ended as soon as it started. Feliciano was wrong, but you've shut down and haven't wanted to solve the problem. You're brothers; you should behave and get along with each other."

"Yeah, right, of course," I interrupted him again. "In the end, for one reason or another, it's all my fault. What a surprise!"

I couldn't take it anymore. I turned angrily and walked toward the door. When I opened it, almost everyone from lunch fell to the floor (except for the tulip and the Greek, who stayed at the table). All of them had been eavesdropping on the whole conversation. I stepped over them, ignoring Grandpa, who was calling me over and over, ordering me to come back.

I left the house and waited on the stairs of the second floor for Antonio to come down. I needed to pour my heart out to someone. But the bastard was taking forever to show up, and the one who appeared was the tulip.

"Little siblings are a nuisance sometimes," he said, lighting a cigarette and leaning against his door. "They don't realize what you do for them."

"You must have a lot to complain about with your sister."

"No, but I know what I'm talking about. In the end, the responsibilities always fall on the same person," he held my gaze, as if trying to cheer me up. "Of course, some of us accept them, while others behave like children and throw tantrums for not accepting them."

Typical of him, he had to have the last word and criticize me.

Since the tulip wouldn't leave until I did, I decided to get out of there and walked aimlessly through the city centre streets. It was a very similar situation to when I first arrived in Spain, with the difference that this time I knew the streets and had my phone and wallet on me.

Without even realizing it, I arrived at Roderich's house (force of habit). Lilly was coming out of the entrance and looked a little surprised to see me, but she smiled sweetly and greeted me.

"Don't tell me that uptight Austrian makes you come to rehearsal even on Sundays."

"Something like that," she said with a soft giggle. "And what are you doing here?"

"I'm lost..."

"Liar. What's wrong? You don't look good. Did something happen?"

Lilly's perceptiveness was evident; she realized something was wrong as soon as she saw me. I didn't feel like talking in the middle of the street, so we headed to a nearby ice cream parlor and sat at one of the tables inside after ordering a couple of iced lemon drinks.

"Like, I just can't believe it!" a voice near me yelled. "It's my favourite waiter!"

I turned around and ran right into that flamboyant blond friend of the tulip's. He approached us as if we were old friends.

"Like, what are the chances, you know? Like, I hardly ever come downtown, and the one day I do, I find you here, in the same ice cream shop as me. Like, seriously, tell me this isn't fate. Like, I've been asking Govert for your number all week so we could hang out, and, like, it wasn't even necessary in the end."

Lilly and I stared at the newcomer, not knowing what to say. He looked back at us, smiling, and seemed to realize something.

"Oh, like, how rude of me," he said, shrinking a little in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, we haven't met," he said to Lilly, offering her his hand. "My name is Feliks Łukasiewicz, it's a pleasure."

“Nice to meet you, I’m Lilly. Are you a friend of Lovino?”

"No way!" I replied. "We've only met once..."

"But, like, I thought you were really cool."

"You're friends with the tulip. Compared to that bad-tempered mastodon, anyone would seem nice."

"And, like, you also have a really subtle sense of humor. You don't mind if I sit here with you, do you?" I don't know why he even asked; he sat down before we could answer. "What were you talking about?"

At first, I didn't want to talk in front of that weirdo, but after a while of chatting about banal topics among the three of us, I felt an urgent need to get things off my chest, so I told them everything that had happened with Feliciano.

"Like, you know, it's like your little brother was screaming for you to give him a little space."

"What?! But he's the one who's always all over me."

"I'm not arguing with you, but sometimes older siblings don't realize how overprotective they become, although that doesn't justify your brother using those methods to let you know."

"Like, yeah, you're right, but really, it's like there's no good way to say something like that. Look, like, I don't have any siblings, but, like, I have a friend I love a lot, his name is Toris, he's a super good friend of mine, we were like two peas in a pod, you couldn't tear us apart, we even came to Spain together, and..."

"Feliks," I cut him off, "get to the point, damn it."

"Okay, like, you don't have to behave like Govert with me." I looked at him with hatred. "The thing is, my friend fell in love and, like, he started to distance himself from me a little. Like, it wasn't a huge distance, but when I suggested we go back to Spain, he, like, told me he'd rather stay in Lithuania with his beloved, that damn crazy Russian whore," he commented in a low voice with a certain amount of hatred. "I, like, took that terribly. I got really mad, but, like, Toris is my friend and I had to accept the decision he had made, even if it was a mistake. So, like, getting back to your thing, it doesn't matter how your brother had said that to you, it would have upset you just the same."

"But Lovino is right to be angry. His brother disrespected him greatly. The thought of saying something like that to my brother would never even cross my mind."

"Like, big or small, a snub always hurts, even more so when it's from someone close to you. But, like, you have to get over it. You'll only make yourself miserable if you just keep thinking about it over and over."

"Yeah, right, so what do I do?"

"I guess the best thing you can do is talk to your brother and clear things up. Despite what he said to you, this situation is probably just as hard for him to handle as it is for you."

Feliks nodded solemnly at Lilly's words.

I remained silent, thinking about what they had both said to me, until I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I had received a message from Antonio asking me where I was. He seemed worried, so I responded immediately.

"Is that Antonio who texted you?" Lilly asked.

"How do you know?"

"When you looked at your phone, you smiled just like you did the other day when we ran into him on the street. How long have you two been together?"

"How the hell did you find out?!" I stood up in surprise. Lilly laughed.

"Besides your smile, I noticed other small details the other day," she said casually.

I was speechless; Lilly was incredibly observant. It wasn't that my relationship with Antonio was a secret (except from Grandpa for now), but I also wasn't shouting it from the rooftops, unlike the bastard who did every chance he got.

"Like, you know, don't tell me you have a boyfriend." I nodded slowly. Feliks sighed. "Too bad! You said his name is Antonio, right?" He stretched his arm forward. "It's not the same Antonio who just came in, is it?"

I turned and, sure enough, there was Antonio. Judging by how quickly he got there and how flustered he looked, he must have come running. As soon as he saw me, he rushed over to hug me; he was dripping with sweat.

"Get off me, damn it!" I complained. "You're soaking me."

"You have no idea how worried I was about you. I thought something might have happened to you. The last time you left your house like that, you ended up fainting in my arms..."

"Idiot!" I said, hitting him and burying my blushing face in his shoulder. Remembering that moment was a bit embarrassing.

Lilly and Feliks looked on, mesmerized and smiling.

"How romantic!"

"Like, it's like they make a perfect couple."

Antonio noticed that we had spectators and greeted them effusively, especially Feliks, a former tenant from Grandpa's building whom he hadn't seen in a long time. He sat down at the table with the three of us, treating us to a new round of slushies.

"Oops! I almost forgot," Antonio suddenly put a hand to his forehead and took out his phone. "I have to let your grandpa know that I've found you."

"Hey," I said in a low voice, "is the old man mad at me?"

"Of course not," he gave me a reassuring smile. "I talked to him and told him how upset you were about what happened with Feli. He's not mad; all he wants is for you to solve this problem and get along again."

Yes, I also wanted to settle that issue, especially after my conversation with Feliks and Lilly. But it wasn't until the next day that I could talk to Feliciano, because I spent the rest of the afternoon with Antonio and then working.

I waited for him to wake up from his nap (I had lunch and took mine with Antonio) and snuck into his room without bothering to even knock on the door. The idiot got scared when he saw me and hid behind the bed, begging me over and over not to hurt him.

"Idiot, get out from there, I'm not going to do anything to you."

"Really?"

"Yes, damn it," I sighed and sat down on the bed. "I just want to talk, and..."

"Forgive me, fratello," he interrupted me and started sniffling as he approached me. "Ve... I... ve... I said something horrible to you... ve... I don't know what I was thinking... ve... and I didn't think it was so bad... that's why I didn't understand why... why you were still angry for so long... ve... but... but... you're always taking care of me... and... and I did something horrible to you... and... and... forgive me, fratello, per favore!"

Feliciano started to cry inconsolably. I couldn't stand seeing him like that.

"Ugh! Stop crying for a damn once, idiot, don't be such a wimp." He held back a little. "You should know that what you said to me was a low blow, but," I looked away, "...I... I understand that you want to be... a little more independent from me and... I don't hate you or anything like that, even if I always say it, you should already know that it's not true!"

Feliciano stopped crying and his eyes widened.

"That said, if you ever think of doing something like that again, I'll force you to eat a whole jar of Marmite!"

"I swear I'll never do it again!" He launched himself at my neck and held on tightly to me. I hugged him back. "I've missed you, fratello."

"Idiot."

I separated from Feliciano with a small smile on my face, feeling much better after forgiving him. He was back to his usual cheerful self.

"Vee~... Fratello, can I ask you a question?" I nodded. "Gilbert told me you knew that Luddy and I are" he blushed "we're boyfriends..."

"I never imagined you could have such bad taste."

"Fratello!" he complained, but he immediately regained his smile. "Luddy and I, well, mostly Luddy, wanted to keep it a secret for a while. How did you find out?"

"I saw you two making out through the window, idiot. If you don't want anyone to see you, close the curtains."

"Vee~... and... does it bother you?" he asked, scared.

"What do you think?" The look I gave him said it all. Of course, it bothered me; that fucking muscular German had been the cause of everything, or at least the trigger, but Feliciano seemed more excited than usual when he talked about him. "But fine, do whatever you want..."

"Vee~... Thanks, fratello!" Luckily, he understood. It was the closest thing to a blessing he would get from me. He hugged me again, and I pushed him away after a few seconds. "Hey, Gilbert also told me something else. That you... are dating Antonio. Is it true?"

"That fucking gossipy chicken-lover. Can't he keep his damn mouth shut?"

"Then it's true?" I nodded, blushing and hiding my face in my hands. "I'm so happy for you, fratello!" he shouted with joy. "You two make a really good couple."

"Shhh... Shut up, you idiot!" I scolded him. "No one here knows, and even the damn sleeping Greek will find out."

"Vee~... You haven't told Grandpa yet?"

"I haven't found a good time to, damn it! Have you told him about the potato-eater yet?" He shook his head. "Then don't rush me."

In fact, I had already decided that I would talk to Grandpa that day. I went into his office, where he was absorbed in reading one of the hundreds of documents that covered his desk. He was certainly busy, so I thought about coming back later, but Grandpa stopped reading and greeted me cheerfully.

"What a sight for sore eyes!"

"You're the one who forced me to take violin lessons and work at the restaurant, so don't complain if I'm not home."

"It's not a complaint; in fact, I'm glad you take your obligations seriously," he smiled. "Tell me, what do you want?"

"I... well... I came to tell you that... that Feliciano and I have made up!"

I really didn't want to say that, but I had gotten a little nervous. Grandpa stood up and came toward me, smiling.

"I'm happy to hear that. I know what Feliciano said must have hurt you, and he earned a good scolding for it yesterday, but I see you were able to overcome it and forgive him. Well done, it seems you're maturing," he added proudly. "Did you want to tell me anything else?"

I got the impression that Grandpa suspected I hadn't just come to tell him about Feliciano. I tried to muster the courage to confess my relationship with Antonio, but I didn't know how to approach the subject. Besides, I was too embarrassed to talk about it, especially with my grandfather, whose potential reaction terrified me.

"Yes, I wanted to tell you that... that... I... I'm..."

"What, Lovino? You what? Did something happen to you? Speak up!"

"I... I... I'm going to play in Roderich's recital!"

Grandpa hugged me, emotional and proud of the news.

I cursed myself for being unable to tell the truth. Sooner or later, Grandpa would find out, and it was possible it wouldn't be from me. After all, I was dating Antonio, whom the old man held in high regard, and practically everyone in the building knew about this relationship —it was an open secret. But I just couldn't find the right moment to bring it up.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15: Storm and Tempest

It was Thursday. Three days had passed since I had unsuccessfully tried to be honest with Grandpa about my relationship with Antonio, and I still hadn't told him anything. But it wasn't easy! Just thinking about it made me nervous and I would get tongue-tied, not to mention that a possible negative reaction from the old man terrified me. I was starting to think it would be best for him to discover it on his own, just to save myself from going through that whole ordeal.

The strange thing was that the old man, being so perceptive, hadn't caught on to anything... Well, he had realized I was seeing someone, but he thought it was a girl. It was incredibly embarrassing to have to endure his smiles and incessant questions about the "lucky girl" every time I went out and when I came back. This, combined with my nervousness and terror of being honest, made me want to escape his presence as soon as possible.

He greeted me with one of those smiles that day when I got back from class, but I was too hungry and pissed off to pay him any mind.

"Where are you coming from at this hour, Lovino?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and not erasing that stupid smirk from his face. "We were waiting for you for lunch."

"Where the hell do you think I'm coming from? I was in class, damn it! That stupid half-German enjoys keeping me there longer than he should."

"What did you do this time?" he sighed tiredly, crossing his arms.

"Nothing!"

That idiot Roderich had punished me with an extra hour of playing just for being twenty minutes late. It wasn't my fault I overslept! The night before, I went out until late with Antonio, the fucking bastard. Despite also having to get up early, he kept convincing me over and over with that pleading look of his not to go home every time I mentioned it. But of course, that excuse wouldn't be valid for the Austrian, and I wasn't about to give it to him.

Before Grandpa would continue with his pesky little questions, I sat down at the table across from my brother, who was waiting for me with the Greek and the Japanese, and the old man took a seat between us. For a few minutes, no one spoke. The hunger was palpable, but the silence wouldn't last long.

"I ran into Antonio on the stairs a little while ago," Grandpa commented. "I would have liked to chat with him, but he looked like he was in a hurry. That boy doesn't stop working! And even so, I think he manages to find time to have a little romance" I tensed, staying still for a few seconds, "because since I’m back, I get the impression he looks much happier than usual."

"You can say that again, Romulo-san."

"I hadn't... seen him like that... for a very... long time, at least... since he... was dating... Emma."

Feliciano made signs to me with his eyes and gestures with his face, urging me to reveal my relationship with Antonio. I gave him a dirty look and subtly shook my head. It wasn't the right moment. He continued to gesticulate.

"Yes, it's true," Grandpa affirmed. "Those were the days!"

"Could it be possible that they've gotten back together?"

"Well... they work together... they live across... from each other... they see each other every... day... It wouldn't be... strange at all..."

"Oh, that would undoubtedly be wonderful news," Grandpa smiled. "Those two made a very good couple."

It didn't make sense, but I felt a kind of pang in my stomach. It was very uncomfortable to be listening to that conversation.

Since I was ignoring his facial gestures, my idiot brother decided to kick me to get my attention. I glared at him, subtly shaking my head one more time, and kicked him back, but much harder than he had kicked me, which made him give a little jump in his chair.

"For your own good, I hope you two aren't fighting again," Grandpa warned us coldly, looking at both Feliciano and me with anger.

"NO!" we both replied immediately, straightening up as much as we could in our seats, cowed by a possible outburst from the old man.

"That's what I like to see," he relaxed and gave us a smile, "you two getting along."

I finished my plate at top speed and slipped away to my room. I didn't want to keep putting up with Feliciano's incessant, poorly disguised gestures, much less Grandpa's uncomfortable conversations with his two guests about Emma and Antonio. Somehow, that stupid talk made me feel bad, a little insecure, and it had certainly taken away all my desire to tell the old man the truth. He would surely be enormously disappointed with the news.

I threw myself onto my bed. I would have gladly gone down to Antonio's apartment, but I was sure he'd already be in a deep sleep for his nap, and there was only an hour left before he had to leave for work. It wasn't fair to bother him. I would have to wait until after I got off from the restaurant to see him; I was sure he'd come by to pick me up.

I was wrong.

I had no choice but to take the bus home, where, of course, I ran into my "nice" spiky-haired neighbour, who, as usual, didn't hesitate to sit next to me, much to my total disgust.

“Don’t you have your private chauffeur tonight?”

"I gave him the day off so I could enjoy the fantastic bus ride and the company I don't want to have," I replied sarcastically.

Incredibly, the tulip put aside his typical indifferent expression and smiled while nodding. Was he actually amused by what I had said?

"Have you stopped acting like a child and throwing tantrums yet? Or are you still the same and refuse to make up with your brother?"

"Considering the number of busybodies who live in the building, I'm surprised you haven't heard anything. I didn't know you were deaf."

"I don't trust anyone's gossip. I prefer to ask the source directly," he held my gaze. "So, from what you've said, I deduce that the answer to both of my questions is yes, because even though you've made up with your brother, you're still acting like a child."

"I'm not acting like a child!" I snapped, puffing out my cheeks and turning away from him.

"That's not what you're showing, exactly," he said slowly, "but I guess that's what's funny about you."

"I'll tell you again," I said, facing him. "I'm not a fucking performing monkey. If you want to laugh at someone, all you have to do is get a little high and look in the mirror. It must be hilarious for you; you'll think a giant tulip is looking back at you."

Suddenly, the tulip brought his chilling, mean-faced expression close to mine. I jumped back, not because I was scared but because I was surprised, and I hit my head on the window. Tears sprang to my eyes. He continued to get closer until he was barely a hand's width from my face; I could almost feel his breath on me. Why the hell was he getting so close? I swallowed with difficulty; at that moment, I really was freaking out.

"I can assure you that it's much more fun to watch a scared kid who thinks he's being laughed at when people are just commenting on a simple trait of his character."

The tulip smiled crookedly and finally moved away from me, getting to his feet. With a swift and unexpected movement, he reached his hand toward me. I flinched where I was, but he just grabbed my arm, forcing me to stand up too.

"Come on, kid, don't just stand there, we've already reached our stop."

Damn, I hadn't even realized the trip was over; it always felt so much longer.

The tulip pulled me along until we were out of the bus. I had had enough of his little joke about me acting like a child, only for the idiot to then treat me like one, as if I couldn't handle myself! I pulled away abruptly, and that giant regained his characteristic indifferent attitude.

We walked in silence until we reached the building. The tulip mumbled a curt "good night" as he went into his apartment.

I stood in front of Antonio's door for a few minutes, hesitating whether to knock or not. It was late, and he was probably already in bed. I decided to go home, but as soon as I turned around, the door opened behind me, at the perfect moment.

Antonio was surprised to find me there, but he didn't hesitate to greet me with a tender kiss on the lips and invite me in, despite being late and him looking terribly tired, which was clear from his dark circles and the countless yawns he gave.

"Forgive me, Lovi," he said, hugging me from behind. "I was planning to come pick you up, but I fell asleep on the sofa and just woke up. I was about to go get you, but I see it's much later than I thought..."

"You should have gone to bed, idiot. Have you seen your face?"

"But I really wanted to see you," he said in a childlike voice, tightening his hug. "That's worth a few hours of sleep. Besides, I love it when you worry about me."

"No... Don't be silly!" I turned around in his arms. "I'm not worried about you. It's just that your face right now is scary. You have huge bags under your eyes."

"It must be because I didn't take a nap today. I finished later than usual at the shop, and they also called me in to come an hour earlier at the mall. It's been a crazy afternoon."

"Whatever, damn it, just go to bed already."

"Will you stay with me?"

Damn it, that fucking question had to come up. I was dying to stay with him, but that would mean a new interrogation session from Grandpa the next morning.

"I think it's better not to," I said, looking away.

"Aww, why not, Lovi?" he pouted. "You haven't stayed the night with me in days, since Saturday. I miss having you all cuddled up in bed." He made me blush, of course.

"I-I can't, damn it, I have to go home."

Antonio pulled away from me, crossed his arms, and sighed.

"You still haven't told your grandpa, have you? That's why you don't want to spend the night with me."

It surprised me that Antonio, who most of the time didn't catch on to anything, had deduced that on his own. His damn brain cells just had to start working at the least convenient time.

"I haven't found the right moment to tell him!"

"I'm starting to think that's just an excuse and that you really don't want to tell him because you're ashamed of what we have."

"What the hell are you saying?" I asked, offended. "Where the hell did you get that from?"

"That's what it looks like!" he retorted. "All I've asked is for you to stay the night with me, nothing more, but you keep refusing over and over. You've been doing the same thing all week. All I want is to be with you as much as I can, and this week we've barely had any time to see each other."

"It's not my fault we haven't seen each other! None of this would happen if you didn't spend the whole damn day working!"

The bastard put on a displeased frown and furrowed his brow; it was rare to see him like that.

"No, Lovino," he said seriously. "None of this would happen if you'd stop looking for absurd excuses instead of facing the situation as it is."

The utter bastard had just called me a coward, clearly, for the second time, and this time he had said it completely on purpose.

"GO TO HELL!"

I left with a loud slam of the door. Antonio didn't run after me.

When I went home, slamming the door again, Grandpa was still awake and sitting on the sofa, from which he rose with that stupid smug smile, ready to begin his annoying questions. But I stopped him before he could start.

"Leave me alone!" I snapped at him.

I locked myself in my room, from which I had to kick out the damn Socrates for the fifth time this week. He seemed to have taken a liking to sleeping in my bed.

I stomped on the floor several times before getting into bed just to annoy the bastard, Antonio. The idiot had managed to piss me off by so blatantly calling me a coward.

But the idiot was also angry, especially when I said that thing about his job. Maybe I had gone too far with that. It was really the first time I'd seen him mad at me, and I wasn't sure how long it would last, which worried me a little... not too much, though! Well, maybe just enough to steal a couple of hours of sleep from me.

Friday was turning out to be a shitty day, not just because I woke up exhausted and because that idiot Roderich punished me again with an extra hour of playing for being distracted in class —despite all my efforts to concentrate on the music and Lilly's intervention on my behalf— but because I felt so frustrated that I couldn't get my fucking argument with the bastard out of my head. I was still pissed off, that was obvious; he had called me a coward! But the anxiety of not knowing if he was still mad at me was even greater. Dammit, why the hell did it have to affect me so much?

And to top off the day, nothing was better than a hectic and stressful night at work, a packed bus with no seats available (specifically, with teen girls who looked like they were going to a party), and the fucking tulip standing right next to me.

I tried to ignore him, even though he wasn't saying anything. I kept my gaze fixed on the window, where more than the scenery outside, I saw a reflection of myself with that giant beside me, without him taking his eyes off me. It got on my nerves to feel his gaze drilled into the back of my head.

"So there was a storm last night, huh?"

Wow, so when the tulip couldn't think of anything to say to annoy me, he resorted to the most common universal topic of conversation: the weather. I turned to face him, frowning.

"What the hell are you talking about? Yesterday there wasn't a single damn cloud in the sky. Maybe you should lay off the drugs!"

The tulip smiled crookedly.

"Are you telling me there was no storm last night?" he said slowly, coming closer to me until he was inches from my face. I swallowed with difficulty and nodded. "Are you sure?"

I nodded again.

"Well, I could have sworn that last night I heard your voice yelling at that brainless Spanish idiot I have the misfortune of sharing a landing with to go to hell. Did I imagine it?"

The bastard was talking about my argument with the bastard!

I grunted and turned my face back to the window, puffing out my cheeks. It was strange that that idiot of a tulip would talk about something as insignificant as the weather and not just make fun of me.

"I see you didn't," he answered himself in that characteristic indifferent tone of his. "I don't understand why you waste your time with that pathetic idiot."

"What the hell does what I do matter to you?" I snapped at him. "Mind your own damn business and leave me the hell alone!"

The bus reached the last stop. I bolted out of there as soon as the doors opened to get away from the fucking tulip. I didn't feel like putting up with his company for the rest of the walk home. But that night, my neighbour, who was just a few steps behind me, smoking a cigarette, didn't seem to want to leave me alone.

"Why are you running from me?" he suddenly asked as we went up the stairs.

I stopped on the second-floor landing and turned to face him.

"I'm not running from you; I just don't feel like listening to you making fun of me anymore."

"Making fun of you?" he raised an eyebrow. "I'm not. You just get startled at the slightest thing," he stared at me as he got closer, "that's what I find funny..."

"Well, it's not funny at all!"

"...and what I like about you."

It took me several seconds to process the tulip's words, time he used to corner me against the wall, leaving me bewildered and with no way to escape.

"W-What the fuck do you think you're d-doing?" I yelled, gripped by terror and trying to push him away. "W-What the fuck are you on, damn it?"

Seeing that his face was getting closer and closer, I closed my eyes and turned my head, but that fucking tulip grabbed my chin to face me forward. I could already feel his tobacco-scented breath on my lips when he suddenly let go and pulled away from me abruptly.

"What the hell were you doing?!" Antonio's voice said coldly.

I opened my eyes instantly. Antonio was holding the tulip by the collar of his shirt, and the Dutchman was doing the same to the bastard's T-shirt collar. They were both giving each other a look full of deep hatred, but the cold, somber expression on Antonio's face made my hair stand on end.

"What do you think?" the tulip said defiantly. "Now, besides being an idiot, are you blind? You saw what you saw. I don't have to give any explanation, especially not to YOU, you runt."

"You were kissing MY boyfriend!" Antonio yelled, trembling with rage.

"Really?" he put on a grimace I assumed was a smile, one of superiority. It gave me a bad feeling. "How curious that your boyfriend has mentioned NOTHING about you two being in a relationship."

Damn it.

Without letting go of the tulip, Antonio was trembling from head to toe and breathing faster and faster, like an enraged bull. The tension was palpable, and it looked like he was going to get into a fistfight with the Dutchman at any moment.

He made a quick movement and released the tulip from his grip, pushing him against his apartment door, which made the tulip let go as well. They gave each other one last look of hatred, and Antonio turned around while the tulip went into his apartment.

"A... Antonio..."

He looked at me angrily, much more than the night before. I felt a great weight in my stomach and swallowed with difficulty, unsettled. Antonio looked straight ahead without saying a word, went into his apartment, and closed the door forcefully behind him. I couldn't react.

I went up to my place, where there was no one, which I was glad about because I didn't have the energy to answer any questions. I locked myself in my room, sliding down the door until I was sitting on the floor.

Socrates, who had once again taken over my bed, crept up to me and rubbed affectionately against my legs before jumping into my lap. He gave me a couple of gentle taps on the chest with his paw while staring at me.

"Are you trying to cheer me up?" The cat meowed in response as if he had understood me. "So you're not such a bad little furball after all, huh?"

I stroked the hairball's head, and he purred, getting even more comfortable on my legs. I stayed there in the silence of the night with the cat on me, trying to process what had happened and holding back the horrible urge to cry. I felt as if my whole world had come crashing down.

I didn't want to get out of bed.

It was two in the afternoon, although I hadn't been awake for long. It had been almost impossible for me to fall asleep after everything that happened the night before, and for that very reason, I had no interest at all in putting a foot outside of the mattress all day. I didn't feel like having to face the world.

"Fratello! Are you still asleep?" Feliciano said, suddenly bursting into my room. "Lunch is ready!"

"I don't care," I turned my back on him. "I'm not hungry."

"Vee~... Are you sick, fratello?"

"No, leave me alone."

"But it's really weird that you don't want to eat..."

"Just leave me alone!" I yelled at him.

Feliciano gave a scared shout and ran away. But the peace and quiet didn't last long; Grandpa wasn't long in coming to bother me.

"Lovino, what are you still doing in bed? It's two in the afternoon and lunch is on the table. Get up!"

"I don't care, I'm not hungry, so leave me alone."

As expected, my grandfather didn't accept my refusal. He went to the window and raised the blind. I covered myself with the sheet to protect myself from the annoying light, but the old man pulled on it, trying to snatch it from me. I didn't let him; I held on tight.

"Get out from under there, Lovino, you're going to roast. Or do I have to throw Socrates on you to get you up?"

"For all I care, you can throw Plato and Aristotle on me; I'm not getting out of bed."

"No, those two were left at home," he said to himself. "Come on, stop with the nonsense, get up!"

"AARGH! Leave me alone, damn it!" I yelled angrily from under the sheet. "I'm not getting up!"

Even though I was roasting from the heat, I didn't want to come out of my hiding place. I knew the old man hadn't given up and wouldn't leave me alone, despite staying still and quiet. I felt the bed sink on the other side.

"Alright, what's wrong? Ah, I know," he clapped his hands. "You fought with that girl you're seeing."

I took a moment to answer. Maybe it was time to tell him the truth.

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no?" he asked, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well... I did fight, but" —I progressively lowered my voice and, without uncovering myself, I pulled Antonio's t-shirt, which I hugged when I slept, from under the sheet— "there is no girl..."

"Huh?" he hadn't heard me. "What is this?"

I uncovered myself and looked at him angrily. He was starting to get on my nerves. "Damn it, Grandpa, can't you see it or have you suddenly gone blind? It's a fucking t-shirt!"

"Lovino, I assure you that if you keep talking like that, the phrase 'washing your mouth out with soap' will take on a true meaning one of these days."

A little scared by his severe tone, I took refuge under the sheet again. Grandpa sighed, regaining his composure, and uncovered my eyes so I would look at him.

"I see it's a t-shirt," he said calmly, "but what are you trying to tell me with this? Because I don't understand."

"There is no damn girl, damn it!" I buried my face in the pillow, embarrassed, but leaving my mouth uncovered. "The t-shirt is... i-it's Antonio's... he's the person I'm with..."

He was silent for a while.

"W-Wait... Antonio? Which Antonio?"

"How many Antonios do you know?" I looked at him, exasperated. "I'm talking about that fucking smiling idiot bastard you have as a tenant on the floor below," I said, my face toward the pillow. "Who else could it be?"

More silence. Damn, it was getting terribly overwhelming. I was sure Grandpa wasn't taking my relationship with the bastard well; that's why he wasn't saying anything. I could already see myself with a ticket back to Rome in my hand. I was starting to regret telling him.

I dared to lift my head; I needed to know the reason for Grandpa's silence. His face didn't show any expression; he just looked at me thoughtfully.

"But Antonio likes women," he stated, "and I thought you did too."

"Damn it, Grandpa, I thought so too, but I don't know how or why it turns out that... that I fell in love with that bastard," I blushed deeply and bowed my head, "...and he fell in love with me."

"Wow..."

"D-Do you... do you think it's wrong?" I asked fearfully, hiding behind the pillow.

"Wrong?" he frowned. "I can't deny that it's been a complete surprise, but there's a good distance between that and me thinking it's wrong."

He gave me a wide, sincere smile. I smiled too; it was as if a very heavy burden had been lifted from me.

"But tell me, you said you two fought," the smile disappeared from my face as I remembered it, "what happened? It must have been something serious for you not to want to get out of bed."

Grandpa wasn't home when I got back last night (only God and he himself know where he was), so he couldn't see how miserable I felt after what happened.

"Antonio got mad at me," I said slowly. "The big idiot thought I was ashamed of us because I hadn't told you anything yet, and that annoyed me! I hadn't told you anything because I didn't know how to do it, damn it," I defended myself. "Then we started arguing, and he ended up getting mad at me."

"I know that during arguments you say all sorts of things, even things you don't mean, but Antonio isn't the kind of person who gets mad about just anything," he looked at me pointedly; I knew he was referring to me with that comment. "You must have said something that was genuinely annoying or hurtful to him to make him get mad at you."

"Well," I lowered my head and twisted the sheet between my fingers, "...I told him that if we could barely see each other this week, it was his fault for spending the whole day working..."

"Lovino! How could you say something like that to him?" he scolded me. "Do you even know why Antonio works so much?"

"Yeah, to open that stupid day-care..."

"So he told you... Well, that 'stupid day-care' as you call it is his dream, and it's what he's been working hard for these last few years. It's not something new. That's why I'm not surprised he got mad at you for what you said. It's as if you weren't supporting him in one of the projects he's most excited about, as if you didn't care."

I bit my lip. It hadn't even crossed my mind that Antonio would get mad because he felt a lack of my support. I had behaved like a complete egoist. On top of that, I had to add what happened with the tulip. I hid my face behind my knees. I felt like crying, but I wouldn't show myself to be so weak.

"Damn it!"

"Come on, Lovino, there's no need to get like this," he stroked my head. "You just need to go to him and apologize."

"No, that's not all. That was on Thursday; yesterday, Antonio got even angrier..."

"Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing! It was because of the fucking tulip."

"You mean Govert?"

"Yeah, that idiot, he tried to kiss me!" The old man's eyes widened in surprise. "Antonio saw us and almost got into a fistfight with him. To top it all off, the damn tulip wouldn't stop provoking him, and I don't know what he was thinking, but he ended up even angrier than he already was."

The old man was speechless.

"Well... In any case, the solution is the same: go to him, explain what happened, and apologize. It's that simple."

"Do you think that will work?"

"Antonio isn't a resentful person," he said thoughtfully, which I didn't like at all, "or he isn’t usually..."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, it's not important. Let's go eat, unless there's something else I need to know about." I rolled my eyes and bit my lip. I knew that the thing with Feliciano and the potato-eater was still a secret. "What?"

"Nothing!" I replied immediately. Grandpa looked at me inquisitively, raising an eyebrow. "It's not me who has to tell you..."

"Whatever," he sighed. "Anyway..."

He got up from the bed and walked a couple of steps toward the door. I grabbed the bottom of his shirt from behind. He stopped and turned back to me. I blushed a little and lowered my head without letting go.

"G-Grandpa... um... I... thanks..."

He hugged me tightly and kissed my forehead. I didn't complain; I really needed a hug.

"Come on, let's go have lunch; the food must be more than cold by now," he said as we separated. "Afterward, you can go down and sort out those messes you've made."

Even though Grandpa had framed it as something relatively easy to do, going down to the bastard's apartment and apologizing was a terribly difficult task. I spent the entire afternoon thinking about the right words to apologize, not to mention gathering enough courage to stand in front of him, set my pride aside a little, and just do it.

It wasn't until I got off work that night that I decided to knock on his door. I don't know if the fact that he wasn't waiting for me in the alley, like he did every Saturday, influenced me, but I felt terrible because of his absence.

I didn't get a response. Patience isn't exactly my strong suit, so I soon started banging on the door without mercy until my knuckles hurt. But either Antonio was still so pissed off that he didn't want to open the door for me, or he wasn't home. Considering it was Saturday night, I preferred to think that the bastard had taken off to go drinking with those two idiot buddies of his. That was just great. Here I was, racking my brains to fix everything, and he was out partying, and I bet he was bad-mouthing me like hell!

I stayed for a while sitting on the stairs, biting my nails out of sheer nervousness, waiting for the damn bastard Antonio to show up. I even thought about calling him on the phone, but no, I was already grovelling enough without having to look desperate, even if I was.

I would have to wait until the next day to see him. After all, like every Sunday, all the tenants would come up to the house for lunch. It was only a matter of time before Antonio showed up.

But even when everyone had been settled at the table for a while, the bastard still hadn't appeared. I didn't move from the entrance from the moment they started arriving (I avoided, as much as possible, exchanging glances with the damn tulip) until Grandpa called me to sit with them.

"Aren't we going to wait for Antonio?" I asked Grandpa in a low voice.

"Antonio isn't coming," said the albino, who had apparently heard me.

"C'est vrai. The poor thing is still in bed; he needs to recover after last night."

"You damn perverted Frenchman," I shouted, getting to my feet. "What the hell did you do to Antonio?"

"Moi?" he said, pointing to himself with a very theatrical gesture. "No, cher, more like what did you do to him?" he snapped at me. "Because last night, mon ami Antonio was feeling so terribly bad that he got so drunk he's still in bed sleeping it off."

So I wasn't wrong to think that the bastard had taken off to go partying with his two friends, although from what the Frenchman was saying, he hadn't had a good time at all.

"Pff, for that drunk idiot, any excuse is a good one to hit the bottle," the tulip commented. "He brought it on himself."

"You'd better thank me for getting Antonio to go to bed when we got back last night, because otherwise, he would have gone straight to kill you. He definitely had the desire."

I paled. Could it be that Antonio thought I had something with that damn tulip?

"Brother, what have you done?" Emma asked softly, more to herself than to her brother, putting a hand to her forehead.

"You should've let him try," the tulip challenged with a crooked smile. "We could have seen who would've come out worse."

"You damn tulip, this is all your fault!"

I couldn't stand the Dutchman's attitude anymore. I wanted to launch myself at him, even jumping over the table, but my grandfather stopped me mid-trajectory and forcefully pulled me out of the dining room.

"That's enough, Lovino!" Grandpa yelled at me without letting go. "Calm down for once!"

"But did you hear him?"

"Yes, but you're not going to fix anything by fighting with Govert, no matter how guilty he is. You already know what to do and who you have to go to solve this problem."

Grandpa let go of me.

I ran down to Antonio's apartment. I rang the doorbell repeatedly and banged on the door without stopping, even kicking it, but he didn't answer.

"Stop being an idiot and open the fucking door, you bastard!" I yelled, not stopping the banging.

Nothing.

According to that perverted Frenchman, Antonio was in bed, but no matter how deeply he was asleep, it was impossible for him not to hear all the racket I was making, so if he wasn't opening it for me, it was because he didn't want to.

"It's pathetic to see you grovelling for that empty-headed idiot," the tulip's voice said from behind me.

I turned around, and without thinking twice, I did what Grandpa had stopped me from doing before: I lunged at him. I started hitting him in the chest with my fists as hard as I could. I didn't care that he was a giant of almost two meters and so much stronger than me; in that moment, I wasn't afraid of him. I just wanted to make him pay for getting between Antonio and me as he had.

"This is all your fault, you damn idiot!" I snapped at him, on the verge of tears, not stopping my punches. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why the hell did you have to come and mess everything up for me like this? What did I do to you? What did Antonio do to you that you hate him so much?"

The tulip remained stoic until I mentioned Antonio. He grabbed my wrists, stopping the blows, and held my arms together with a single hand, dragging me inside his apartment, where he released me after closing the door.

I swallowed. I was getting scared. But I wouldn't let myself be intimidated by that giant with the angry look on his face. I lunged at him again. He grabbed me again with barely any effort.

"Stay still for once, damn it," he said, incredibly calm while I squirmed to get free.

"I don't want to! Let go of me!"

"Only if you stay still."

"Go to hell!"

"I really wonder what the hell I could have seen in you," I stopped moving, and he let me go. "You're nothing but a stupid, foul-mouthed kid. And I hate kids."

"Only kids? I'd say you hate everyone, especially Antonio. What the hell did he do to you to make you hate him?"

"Exist," he responded coldly. "It's because of that damn idiot that I'm stuck here, living in this damn country, rotting in this disgusting city. I had other plans, you know? But that stupid runt showed up, and everything went to hell."

"What the hell did he do?"

"Why are you so interested?"

"Because it ended up affecting me. You've really screwed me over just to annoy Antonio. What did he do?"

"He brainwashed my sister," I frowned and looked at him inquisitively. "He convinced Emma to stay in Spain when my mother returned to our country. Of course, my father wouldn't allow his little girl to stay alone with that degenerate, no matter how much my mother trusted him, so he forced me to move here to take care of her."

Damn, the tulip's story was a lot like mine. I didn't want to move countries either, and my parents forced me to take care of Feliciano.

"I had just finished my degree, and I had my own projects," he continued, "but everything went to hell because of that airhead who had my sister under his spell. Even after they broke up, they stayed hooked on each other..."

"What a load of crap!" I cut him off. "You hate Antonio for an absurd reason."

"It's not an absurd reason," he said in a deathly voice.

"Yes, it is! Okay, so he was the reason you had to come here, but he didn't force you to do it. I didn't want to come to Spain either, and if I did the same thing as you, I'd have to hate my grandfather, since he convinced Feliciano to move and dragged me along with him. But obviously, I don't blame him for it."

"Did you have any plans in mind before you came here?"

"No, but..."

"Then it's not the same."

"Yes, it is! Plans can be postponed. If you haven't done what you wanted, it's because you haven't wanted to, because the excuse that you have to take care of your sister is stupid; she's old enough to take care of herself..."

"Yeah, I've already seen the great decisions she's made," he said in a low voice.

"That's her business, damn it!" I yelled at him. "Leave her alone and make your own!"

Incredibly, the tulip smiled slightly and took a couple of steps toward me. I backed away out of pure instinct.

"You're not the one to talk about that. I've seen you in action, and I know you're exactly like me," he took a step closer, and I hit the wall, "just more impulsive. I guess that's what I find most attractive about you..."

"I don't care!" I pushed him away and went to the door. "I just want to fix the damn mess you've gotten me into, so leave me alone!"

I went out onto the landing, closing the door behind me.

It was clear that bad luck was following me because at that very moment, Antonio was coming up the stairs. I don't know where he was coming from, but he saw me coming out of the tulip's apartment. He stopped and stared at me for a few seconds. He didn't look angry; his expression was sad and disappointed.

"Anto...!"

He turned around and ran before I could even finish his name.

Damn coincidence! There was no doubt in my mind; I was sure Antonio must have believed I was up to something with the tulip. But how could anyone be so stupid to think something like that? And on top of that, he was running from me. How the hell was I supposed to apologize for what I'd said and clear up the whole situation?

My eyes filled with tears of helplessness. I didn't know what to do.

Definitely, I was so fucked up.

Chapter Text

Chapter 16: Ladybug

There are definitely some days when it's better not to get out of bed, and that damn Sunday was the best example of it. My problem with Antonio, far from being solved, had only gotten worse, and it was all because of the fucking coincidence that led to a stupid misunderstanding!

It wasn’t only that he was mad at me, he also thought I was having some kind of affair with the tulip, and to top it all off, he didn't even want to see me, making it impossible for me to get close to him to fix things. Calling him on the phone was completely out of the question. If he ran away when he saw me, he'd probably hang up as soon as he heard my voice, and that's assuming he'd even answer.

I didn't know what the hell I could do.

I thought about banging on his apartment door again when I got back from work, but it was one in the morning, and from the patio, I could see that the lights in his place were off. He was probably asleep, and I didn't want to piss him off even more by waking him up (I'd be mad).

Besides that, at that moment, my potential apology could go to hell because I wasn't exactly in the mood. My shifts at the restaurant had been changed by Grandpa's orders without even asking for my opinion. I would have to keep working every night until Thursday. Obviously, I wasn't going to accept that change just like that, and I let my grandfather know as soon as I arrived home, since I found him awake watching TV.

"Why the hell did you change all my shifts for this fucking week?"

"Hello, Lovino, good evening," he greeted me calmly. "How was work? Good? I'm glad."

"Don't play dumb with me and answer me, fuck!" I yelled. "Why did you change my shifts?"

"Lovino, it's one in the early morning; lower your voice," he scolded me in a severe tone. I huffed. "I asked the restaurant manager to change your shifts because next week is Heracles and Kiku's wedding. We're invited, and the celebration isn't here, so we'll be spending the whole weekend away."

"I don't care; I'm not going to that wedding," I said —unless I could solve my problems with Antonio, which at that moment seemed anything but possible. "So forget about me going to the restaurant tomorrow or any other day I'm not supposed to!"

Grandpa frowned angrily and stood up in front of me with a threatening air. I recoiled backward.

"You'll go, I can assure you of that," he stated seriously. "I'll drag you there if I have to."

"W-We'll see about that!"

I huffed, puffed out my cheeks, and left before he could respond.

It was a wonder Grandpa and I had not argued for so long. It was the only thing missing to complete that damn and disastrous week.

With so many negative things happening in the last few days, I found it terribly difficult, not to say impossible, to concentrate on the music during Monday morning's class, which Roderich noticed.

"Lovino, why? Why? Why isn't there a single damn week where you don't have something on your mind to distract you?" he yelled irritably, stopping the rehearsal mid-morning. "Alright, what's wrong with you today?"

"N-Nothing," I sighed. Lilly looked at me worriedly from the piano. I bowed my head. "Let's keep going."

"What for? Did you even listen to any of the instructions I gave you first thing this morning, or did they go in one ear and out the other? You haven't managed to play well all morning: you're out of time with your partner, and you're even skipping some notes. Do you think it's worth it for us to keep wasting our time like this when you're not even making an effort to do it right?"

I felt a vein throbbing in my temple. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Fuck, I'm trying!" I yelled. "I've been trying the whole fucking morning to concentrate on the damn notes, on the damn music, on paying attention to the stupid advice you repeat to me day after fucking day, but I can't do it! I wish I had the same ability as you to put aside all the shit I have in my head and be able to concentrate fully on this, but it turns out I'm not some fucking heartless stiff like you, so I CAN'T!"

I dropped the violin on the table with a thud and stormed out of the Austrian's house to the stunned looks of both him and Lilly, closing the door behind me with a slam.

I didn't go far; I stayed sitting on the first few steps of the ground floor. I hid my face in my hands, trying to calm down. I had lost my temper in an absurd way and was unable to stop it. I didn't even want to think about the punishment Roderich would give me for yelling at him and disrespecting him like that.

"Are you feeling better now?"

A small, cold hand rested on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Lilly's calm face, which was smiling sweetly at me. I responded by shaking my head and hid it in my hands again.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" she sat down next to me.

"I lost my temper."

"I already saw that, but it's not the first time Professor Edelstein has called you out or scolded you. What happened to make you react that way?"

"What hasn't happened would be more like it, because for the past few days..."

"Are you having problems with Antonio?"

I nodded, hugging my knees and burying my face in them. Lilly was silent for a while, lightly stroking my back.

"Are you calmer now?"

I didn't answer her. She took my hand and stood up, pulling on me a little, but I didn't move.

"Come on, let's go up to Professor Edelstein's house so you can apologize to him."

"What?!" I let go of her hand roughly. "No, no way in hell. Who knows what kind of punishment he'll give me for what I said," I shivered. "I can imagine anything, especially now that he must be fuming."

"Lovino, you called him a 'fucking heartless stiff.' It's obvious he'll be mad," she replied calmly, holding my hand again and pulling me to get up. "But it will be much worse if you don't apologize immediately. He'll get even more furious, and the consequences will be worse. So come on, don't be stubborn."

I got to my feet reluctantly just so I wouldn't see the strained look on Lilly's face every time she pulled on me, although it took a lot for her to get me up the stairs. She wanted me to face death head-on! Because if there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that Roderich would have no mercy on me after what I had said to him.

"Come on, Lovino, afterward we can go have lunch together, and you can vent to me about everything that's happened to you."

"No, no, no," I said, shaking my head. "If I go into that half-German's house, you can forget about ever seeing me again. He's going to kill me!"

"Don't be dramatic; he's not going to do anything to you, much less kill you."

"But he'll punish me, who knows how. He'll keep me there, starving me until my hands fall off from playing so much, so you can forget about us going to lunch together..."

Even though I felt a huge urge to break free from Lilly and run away, I let my partner guide me to our professor, who was playing the melody he always performed during my punishments on the piano.

Noticing my presence, he stopped playing and brandished his fully extended antenna, lightly tapping it against his hand while that dark, terrifying aura enveloped him. I swallowed and prepared for the worst, although I had the comfort that Lilly would intercede on my behalf... Or maybe not. The blonde girl suddenly stepped aside. I would have to face the Austrian alone. I was going to die.

"You are truly hopeless, Lovino," he said in a poorly feigned calm tone. "If it weren't for your talent, I would have kicked you out of my classes a long time ago, because in all the years I've been teaching music, I have never come across a student as irresponsible and disrespectful as you. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"That... that it wasn't my intention... I didn't mean to say that to you or to disrespect you," I said, lowering my head, a bit nervous. "I lost my temper. I'm sorry."

"You'd better be, or I’ll make you really regret it," he threatened, a shiver running through my entire body. Roderich sighed, making the aura around him disappear. "Believe it or not, Lovino, I understand that you have problems that distract you. Music is heavily influenced by our state of mind, but you have to learn to keep your emotions in check and channel them into what you're doing. That's what makes us good musicians."

I felt out of place; the last thing I expected was for my teacher to show such a sympathetic attitude.

"Well, I suppose it's best if we end the class for today."

"Danke, herr Edelstein," said Lilly, who had reappeared without me noticing.

"Just so you know, Lovino," Roderich said to me coldly, "bring something for lunch tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes and grumbled. I knew I wouldn't escape from a punishment.

"So, what, Lovino?" Lilly asked me when we were on the street. "Are we going to get lunch together?"

"I'm sure you had something to do with Roderich letting me leave class so early and alive, so I can't say no to you."

"Good," she smiled. "I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of telling Feliks to join us."

"So that's why you disappeared and left me alone while I was facing death head-on, huh?"

"Death, Lovino?" she said with a sneer, raising an eyebrow. "Death?"

"You haven't seen Roderich's face when he gets angry," I justified. "Anyway, where are we supposed to meet up with Feliks?"

After meeting up with the flamboyant blonde, who could have passed for a girl due to the feminine clothes he was wearing (sandals, tight white shorts, and a pink tank top), we went to a nearby place where we had lunch, and I told my two... friends... about all the events that had shaken my life in the past few days.

"Ugh, like, how about that Govert, what a dog!" Feliks exclaimed indignantly. "No wonder he didn't want to give me your phone number, like, he wanted you all for himself, the totally..."

"Fuck, Feliks!" I interrupted him, annoyed. "Is that ALL you have to say after what I told you?"

"I mean, honey, don't get mad. It's just that, like, I always thought Govi was nothing more than a bad-tempered, heartless giant, and so, like, it turns out he also has a little heart and everything, you know? So, like, I'm just surprised, dude."

I grumbled and shot a look of deep hatred at Feliks before turning my eyes back to Lilly, who still hadn't said anything.

"Look, Lovino, on one hand, I understand you were annoyed with Antonio for hounding you, but on the other hand, I also understand that he got mad at you for your lack of support, and..."

"I know already!" I interrupted her. "I know I fucked up in a huge way by complaining about him working so much and not supporting him, and I wanted to apologize! But since that fucking tulip from hell came to fuck things up and mess everything up, I couldn't."

"And haven't you thought about why it was so easy for Govert to mess everything up?" I shrugged and shook my head. "That's what you didn't let me finish earlier: it's obvious that Antonio still thought you were ashamed of your relationship," I went to deny it, but Lilly held up her hand in front of her face to stop me from interrupting her, "no matter how much you might have denied it. After all, that's what started the whole argument. But then what happened with Govert was like pouring salt on that wound, provoking Antonio, making him think the worst, and leading to all those misunderstandings that followed."

I was stunned after hearing the analysis that Lilly had presented about the situation I was in. Even Feliks was surprised. Fuck, I felt more and more depressed as I realized how complicated everything had become and how difficult it would surely be to solve it.

"Oh my, like seriously I don't understand why Antonio would think that. Our dear Lovinito openly admitted to us that they're a couple, I mean, they even showed affection in front of us."

"Yes, Feliks, but as you can understand, our opinion on their relationship isn't the same as Lovino's grandpa's. Hiding it from someone so close might have been what made Antonio think that way, although it's possible there are other reasons..."

Lilly progressively lowered her voice and stared at me intently, but without speaking, as if she were thinking about what she was going to say next, which was starting to make me nervous.

"I hope you don't find this an indiscretion on my part, Lovino, but have you told Antonio that you love him?"

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. That question had caught me off guard and was also a little embarrassing, so I didn't answer, though I didn't need to for Lilly and Feliks to know the answer.

"Oh my, like seriously I can't believe it!" Feliks exclaimed, surprised. "You haven't told him you love him? And, I mean, like how do you expect him to know?"

"Well, um... me... we..." I felt my cheeks burning. Answering those kinds of questions they were asking me was very embarrassing. I hid my face behind my hands. "...we have... noi... noi abbiamo... abbiamo fatto l'amore..."

The change of language came out spontaneously. I didn't even care that my friends didn't understand me, as they both exchanged a confused look, but that wasn't the case.

"Lovino, I assume you know that the fact that you've had sex doesn't necessarily mean you love him," Lilly pointed out. "Antonio may not have interpreted it that way."

"Oh my, honey, like seriously there are a lot of people who have sex and don't feel anything at all for the other person."

"But I'm not like that, fuck!" I snapped, offended. "I don't just sleep with anyone who comes along, and if that idiot doesn't know it, he should have figured it out, damn it!"

I crossed my arms on the table and hid my head in them. My personal situation was looking blacker and harder to solve every day, which was getting me really depressed.

"Fuck, I can't be like this," I complained. "I'm going to die..."

Someone hit me on the back of the head. I immediately raised my head to see who had hit me. Feliks was standing with his hand raised and a clear look of disgust on his face.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I snapped at him, mad. "Why the hell did you hit me, you idiot?"

"Oh my, sweetie, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you and get it straight," Feliks said, more serious than I had ever seen him. "Like, NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE dies from love. I mean, you have a bad time, you suffer, you want to send everything to hell and stuff like that, but YOU DON'T DIE. And I'm telling you this because, like unfortunately, I know it from experience, so I have a slight idea of what I'm talking about."

"Oh, Feliks, are you okay?" Lilly got up and went to the blonde to comfort him. "Was it that friend of yours you told us about the other day?"

"Yeah, but like, there's no point in suffering for unrequited love, although sometimes I forget," he smiled slightly and motioned for Lilly to sit back down. "But, I mean, like seriously your situation is different, Lovino. It's nothing more than a spat that's gotten a little out of hand and has been complicated by a few misunderstandings. But, I mean, Antonio loves you and you love him, so, like seriously, what you have to do is go to him, clear up what happened and, I mean, most importantly of all, TELL HIM CLEARLY THAT YOU LOVE HIM."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that if he won't even deign to open the door for me?"

"That's not like Antonio," Lilly pointed out.

"Oh my, Lovino, like seriously that's super easy," Feliks replied with a sideways smile. "Your grandfather owns the building, so, like, he must have a copy of the key for every apartment. So all you have to do is take Antonio's and sneak into his place."

"Isn't that stalking?" Lilly questioned. "Breaking and entering?"

Lilly might have been right, but the idea seemed good to me, though I hoped I wouldn't get to the point of desperation where I'd have to resort to it. Besides, it had a few loose ends. "And what if Antonio still refuses to talk to me?" I asked nervously. "How do I get him to forgive me for what I said and clear up this whole mess?"

"Oh my, Lovino, you know his schedule, so you sneak into his place and wait for him wrapped in a gift bow, nothing else. You'll see, he'll forget all about it."

"WHAT?!" I blushed. "Who are you, Feliks or that fucking perverted Frenchman in disguise?"

"No, he can't do that," Lilly spoke, the voice of reason without a doubt. "What's he going to save for his birthday, then?"

"LILLY!"

"Oh my, there's no doubt that what they say about the quiet ones being the worst is, like seriously, true."

Lilly let out a sly giggle.

"Anyway, for now, we should put those crazy plans aside and focus on something simpler," Lilly said, regaining her composure. "To begin with, I don't think Antonio won't see you if you go look for him. It's not like him, no matter how angry or hurt he might be, so don't hesitate to go to him."

"But what if..."

"No buts, Lovino. You're going to go find him and talk. You'll explain everything that has happened and make your feelings for him clear. Oh yeah, and you'll also apologize and show him your support for his work and his dream."

"Yeah, right, so easy," I said sarcastically. "What if he still doesn't want to listen to me?"

Lilly rolled her eyes.

"Well, like seriously you could give him a little gift."

"What...? What kind of gift?" I asked, hesitating. "Are you talking about... something sexual?"

"Oh my, like seriously you're a real piece of work," Feliks commented, laughing. "You get all scandalized at any mention of the subject, but then, like, you're the first one to think dirty, you have a dirty mind."

I blushed intensely.

"I mean, like, I was talking about a simple gift, with no connotations of any kind."

"But it should show that you care or that it has a special meaning, or both," Lilly added. "You know Antonio's tastes; I'm sure you can find something."

We went to the mall. Besides looking for a good gift for Antonio, Lilly asked for our help and advice to buy a dress for the Greek and Japanese wedding. It was an easy task, but it took us longer than it should have because of some disagreements between Feliks and me, which Lilly put an end to, even though they weren't resolved.

Afterward, we dedicated ourselves to looking for the gift. Feliks and Lilly proposed different things to me, but I couldn't find anything I considered suitable, despite having gone through almost every damn store in the building.

I was about to give up when my eyes landed on a shop window, specifically on something displayed there that gave me a magnificent idea, letting me know that it was exactly what I had been looking for all afternoon. I ran into the store, followed by my two friends, who looked at the gift in my hands with disbelief and doubt.

"Oh my, like seriously are you sure this is a good gift for Antonio? Isn't it, like, a little... childish?"

"Yeah, Antonio might not take it as something serious from you."

"No, fuck!" I exclaimed, smiling. "This is exactly what I was looking for. I knew it as soon as I saw it. It just needs one more thing..."

It wasn't hard to find the small detail I needed to make the gift perfect. Lilly and Feliks continued to question my decision to buy it until I explained my reasons, and they changed their minds about it.

I returned home with my spirits renewed and ready to stand in front of Antonio to fix that whole mess, but before I could cross the patio completely, Grandpa, with a furrowed brow and an angry look on his face, appeared on the stairs and grabbed my arm, dragging me toward the street.

"But what...?" I asked, confused. "Grandpa! What the hell is going on? Where are you taking me?"

"To the restaurant. They called asking why you hadn't gone."

"I don't care, I'm not going," I struggled, but my strength was no match for Grandpa's. "Let go of me!"

"No, Lovino. I think I made it very clear to you last night that I'd drag you to work if I had to, and you're already half an hour late."

"But I have something important to do!"

"And you also have a responsibility to fulfil!"

Arguing with Grandpa was useless. He ignored all my protests and put me in his car against my will. We made the drive to the restaurant in a complete and uncomfortable silence. I didn't even say goodbye to him when we arrived; I got out of the car so fast that I even forgot to take Antonio's gift.

However, when I got back in the early morning, I saw that Grandpa had taken the trouble to pick up the gift and leave it on my bedroom desk. I sat on my bed, hugging my legs, without taking my eyes off the package wrapped in shiny paper. I wouldn't let another day pass without talking to Antonio.

I walked into Roderich's house trembling with fear. After how I'd disrespected him, I was sure my teacher would give me the most severe punishment he could think of.

But contrary to what I thought, he took out a stack of blank sheets and made me copy the phrase "I will learn to control my emotions and channel them into something productive" for two long, boring hours while he played the piano. I lost count of the pages I filled.

"Alright, Lovino," he handed me some sheet music. "As you know, two old friends of mine, Heracles and Kiku, are getting married this weekend," I nodded. "So as a wedding gift, I've composed a melody that we're going to rehearse to play at the celebration."

"I'm not going to that wedding."

"I thought that you're invited to the celebration and that your grandfather will also be a witness at the ceremony."

"Yeah, so what?" I said defiantly, crossing my arms and pushing my luck a little. "I don't care. For now, I have no intention of going."

He raised an eyebrow and looked at me quizzically.

"Anyway, we'll rehearse it all the same; we have the whole day," he smiled wryly. "Just make sure you pay attention to what you're doing, because for every mistake you make more than once, I'll add five minutes to your punishment."

Roderich kept me playing until five in the afternoon; he only let me rest during the half-hour lunch. I wanted to go straight to Antonio's house, but I was so tired that when I went up to get his gift, I couldn't help but fall onto the bed and take a well-deserved nap.

I woke up a couple of hours later. Shit, I had slept too long. It didn't matter much, though; I had the rest of the afternoon and night to talk to Antonio, because the day before, I had made sure to convince the restaurant manager to change my shift for that day to the following week. Of course, it took some effort and a few lies, like telling him Grandpa had given me his permission (lucky for me, he believed me and chose not to call him to confirm).

With a knot in my stomach, I knocked on the bastard's door, covered the peephole, and waited as patiently as I could for him to open the door. The seconds until I heard the sound of the doorknob felt eternal. Antonio appeared on the other side and smiled when he saw me.

"Hello, Lovi... no." His smile vanished as he said my name. I don't know what felt worse, his look of sadness or him calling me by my full name. "Come in."

He stepped aside, and I walked in.

For several minutes, neither of us spoke. We even avoided eye contact. Damn it, seeing the bastard so quiet and sad made a lump form in my throat, which kept me from saying a word and made the little courage I had managed to muster to stand in front of him completely disappear.

I took a couple of breaths to relax and tried to cheer myself up, but just as I was about to open my mouth, Antonio spoke.

"I already know what you've come for, Lovino," he said in a sepulchral voice, bowing his head. "I... I was expecting it, I suppose, but... I didn't want to accept it, or face this moment, and that's why... that's why I've been avoiding you..."

I felt confused; I didn't understand what he was referring to.

"And I just can't stand it!" He fixed his green gaze on mine. It was full of sadness and disappointment. "I know I was pressuring you too much, and I'm sorry, but to think... to think that because of it, I myself pushed you into... into the arms of... into the arms of..."

I didn't let him continue. It really pissed me off to confirm that the big idiot thought I was having something with the fucking tulip. My eyes filled with tears of rage. I threw the bag with the gift on the floor, lunged at him, and started hitting him in the chest with my fists clenched.

"You're a fucking imbecile, an idiot, a stupid asshole..."

I gave him a blow with every word or insult.

"Auch, Lovi!" he tried to grab me, but failed. "Stop, please!"

"Stupido bastardo, stronzo di merda, cazzo, figlio di puttana! Non vedi che sono pazzo di te?!"

I know he hadn't understood the last part, but right then Antonio managed to grab my wrists, pull me against him, and silence me with a fierce kiss, which I returned as soon as I felt his lips press against mine.

"Have you... have you calmed down now?" he said, trying to catch his breath.

"You're an idiot," I struggled until I violently broke free from his tight grip. "You have no idea how much I hate you right now," he looked at me sadly. "How the hell...? How...? How did it ever occur to you that I could be with that idiot tulip?" I asked, indignant. "Who do you take me for?"

"I... I... I saw him kissing you!"

"The tulip didn't kiss me! He tried, but you showed up just in time to stop him."

"Seriously?" I nodded. Antonio looked at me hopefully. "Then... then... why were you at his apartment the other day?"

"That was a damn misunderstanding!" I yelled at him in desperation. "The fucking imbecile dragged me inside. And then I fought and argued with him for getting in between us, and I made it very clear to him that all I wanted was to fix this whole mess he'd created and be with you."

"So that's what the guys were talking about," he murmured to himself.

A small smile formed on Antonio's lips, but it vanished right away.

"And why did he tell me you hadn't told him anything about us?"

"And why the hell would I have to tell that fucking anthropomorphic tulip anything? All he's done is bother me since I got here. He's nothing to me, fuck, I don't have to keep him in the loop about details of my life that don't concern him."

A wider smile appeared on Antonio's face. It seemed our problem was being solved, but I still had a few important things to clarify with him.

"I know what that tulip said made you think again that I was ashamed of our relationship, but that's not it! Okay, so I don't go around shouting it from the rooftops like you do, but that doesn't mean I don't care about what we have or that I'm ashamed of it. Fuck, Antonio, I..." I blushed intensely. "...I... I love you!"

Antonio's eyes shone with happiness when he heard me. He wrapped his arms tightly around me and kissed me deeply.

"I love you too, Lovi," he caressed my cheek. "And forgive me, please. I've been a great imbecile for thinking the worst of you..."

"Only for that?" I asked ironically, raising an eyebrow. Antonio pouted. "And for running away from me, not opening the door..."

"Not opening the door?" he looked confused. "When?"

"On Sunday, a little while before you saw me leaving the tulip's apartment. I came down to see you so we could talk."

"Uh... Lovi, I'm not very proud of this, but... I got pretty drunk on Saturday and... I was sleeping it off," he scratched the back of his neck nervously, "...at Francis's place. I was coming from there when I saw you."

Damn perverted Frenchman, he forgot to mention that little detail. I laughed at my own stupidity.

"You're gonna get away with that, you bastard," I hit him weakly on the shoulder. He smiled widely. "Oh, and just so you know, I already told my grandfather about us."

"Really?" I nodded, and he smiled even more —I don't even know how that was possible. "And what does he think?"

"It caught him a little by surprise, but he's okay with it."

"That's what I figured," he commented proudly, but his expression quickly changed to a gentle one, and he caressed my face again. I closed my eyes and let my mind get lost for a few seconds in the feel of his hand. "Even so, I shouldn't have pressured you so much about that. Forgive me..."

"N-No, fuck... you f-forgive me," he looked at me strangely. I lowered my head, but Antonio held my chin, forcing me to look him in the eyes. I felt my cheeks heat up. "I... I know I also screwed up the other day by blaming you for us not being able to see each other. I-I didn't give importance to how much you're working to make your dream a reality, and I understand you got mad." Antonio opened his mouth to speak, but I covered it with my hand; I wouldn't let him interrupt me. "That's why I want you to know that I don't care if you work so much. It pisses me off a little, but I support you completely."

He removed my hand from his mouth and gave me an intense kiss in response.

"You didn't let me finish!" I complained, puffing out my cheeks. "I brought you something to show you I support you."

"It wasn't necessary, Lovi; your word is enough for me."

"Shut up!"

Antonio nodded and sank onto the couch.

I picked up the bag with the gift from the floor and sat next to my boyfriend on the couch. Even though he had said it wasn't necessary, when I handed him the wrapped package, he looked as excited as a kid on his birthday. I loved seeing him so happy.

He unwrapped the gift with extreme care, as if it were something incredibly valuable. His eyes sparkled when he discovered what was hidden beneath the coloured paper: a plush, soft, green and brown turtle with black eyes, a smile, and the unique little detail of a white bow tied around its neck.

"A plush turtle!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"I thought of you as soon as I saw it," Antonio frowned. "Because of the smile, fuck, because of the smile!" I quickly added. He laughed. "The thing is... well, I saw it, and it occurred to me that your day-care would need a mascot for when you open it."

"It's fantastic, Lovi," he gave me a peck on the lips. "I can already see it, 'Little Turtle Daycare.' You could not have chosen a better gift. I love it!" another kiss "Thank you so much!"

"I-I'm glad you like it."

I felt incredibly happy, which seemed almost unbelievable after how complicated everything had gotten in the last few days.

Antonio also looked quite happy. He kept looking at and touching the plush turtle, stroking it and giggling while he commented repeatedly on how soft it was, just like a little kid. Then he noticed the bow wrapped around the doll's neck.

"Hey, Lovi, why is there a ladybug here on the bow?" he looked at me playfully and raised an eyebrow. "Are you calling me a 'sissy'?"

He earned the slap I gave him on the back of the head.

"No, you idiot! In Italy, a ladybug is a symbol of good luck; porta la buona fortuna."

"Then you're my ladybug," he stated happily.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"Yes, you're my ladybug, because ever since you've been with me, I feel incredibly lucky, in every sense."

I blushed intensely. Only Antonio could say such embarrassing things so easily and make my heart race.

"N-No... don't say silly things," I said, a little flustered. "In... In any case, the ladybug is for you to have good luck and be able to set up the daycare soon."

"With you by my side, I have no doubt that I'll succeed," he stated with the most brilliant of his smiles. My cheeks were on fire.

"A-Auguri di buon lavoro, you bastard."

"Oh, Lovi," he tossed the plush toy onto the nearby armchair and hugged me tightly. "Thank you."

"You have no idea what I just said to you, do you?"

"No, but I like how it sounded."

“Idio…”

He lunged at my lips and cut me off with a kiss that I was quick to return. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me. Antonio broke his mouth from mine to travel down my neck and then up to my ear and bite it gently, making me sigh and moan.

"A-Antonio, are you... are you hard?!"

"I couldn't help it," he pulled away from me with a guilty giggle and scratched the back of his neck. "You just have no idea how incredibly irresistible you are to me when you're being so sincere."

I looked away, blushing. My heart was pounding, and I was getting very nervous.

Without thinking too much about my actions, but rather moving on a sudden impulse, I lunged for Antonio's crotch, to his complete surprise.

"Lovi, what...?"

"Sh-Shut up!"

With trembling hands, I managed to unbutton the button of his pants, which resisted a little, and pulling them down along with his underwear just enough to free my boyfriend's excited member.

I knelt on the floor between his legs, grabbed the base of his penis with one hand, and stared at it for a few seconds, swallowing, before putting the tip in my mouth and touch it with my tongue. Antonio groaned, which encouraged me to take as much of him as I could and start moving, getting more groans and gasps. Antonio ran a hand through my hair and accidentally caught my curl in his fingers, causing a strange, pleasurable sensation to run through my entire body, forcing me to stop.

"Aaah, A-Antonio... L-Let go of the curl," I moaned. "N-No... don't... touch me aaah... thereeee..."

At first, he looked at me confused, but he soon seemed to realize what was happening with that sensitive hair, and a wicked smile appeared on his lips.

"Why not, Lovi?" he caressed the curl, and I moaned loudly. "It seems like you're enjoying it. Keep going, please."

I resumed my work on Antonio, who continued to touch my curl, making me feel enormous pleasure at the same time as a sharp pain in my own erection, which was trapped under my pants. Without warning, with only a muffled cry of pleasure, he came in my mouth.

I fell back, coughing a little, but Antonio grabbed my arms, lifted me off the floor, sat me on his lap, and kissed me fiercely until we were both out of breath.

He didn't take long to get aroused again. He kissed me again while he stripped off my shirt. He laid me on the couch, taking off my pants and underwear, freeing me from their tightness. He moved his mouth down my neck to kiss and gently bite it while his hands roamed over my abdomen.

"I need to go to the bedroom for the lubricant," he said, straightening up.

"NO!" I yelled at him. I was too excited to stop. "Don't you dare leave now, you bastard."

"But I might hurt you!"

"I'm sure you won't."

"But..."

"Antonioo!" I begged him. He made me beg, the bastard! But at least I got him not to leave. After he took off his shirt, he lowered his face to mine, and we kissed.

He brought a couple of fingers to my mouth, and I licked them, covering them with as much saliva as I could. Then he put them into my entrance, causing a slight discomfort and then pleasure, and he moved to stretch me out.

After taking them out, with a groan of protest from me, he got between my legs and positioned his member at my entrance, stroking it with the tip, then pushed it in with a single thrust that hit my point of maximum pleasure, pulling a deep moan from me, and began to move.

I was so excited that I could barely hold back, and after a couple of thrusts, I came on my stomach. Antonio slowed his movements until he stopped, staying inside me. He lowered his head so our lips could meet in an intense and passionate kiss, which I broke as soon as I felt him thrust against me again.

"Aaah, Antoniooo!" I cried out in surprised pleasure and felt myself getting hard again.

Antonio moved inside me at an accelerated, deep rhythm, repeatedly hitting that spot that produced such intense pleasure, clouding my judgment. Sweat, cries, moans, and gasps flooded the air. With a strong and sure thrust, Antonio released himself inside me, and I came, shouting his name.

As I tried to catch my breath and overcome the remnants of the orgasm still present, Antonio fell onto me, breathing heavily, hiding his face in the hollow of my neck and kissing it softly. He straightened up a little, and our eyes met in a look full of love and desire. We joined our lips in a hot and passionate kiss.

"Shall we continue?" Antonio asked, catching his breath.

I nodded weakly, and he kissed me again, then moved his mouth to my ear and whispered, "Let's go to the bedroom."

He placed his hands under my back. I held on to his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist. He lifted me and carried me in his arms toward the bedroom while we kissed again and again.

It was going to be a very long night.

The annoying sound of the alarm clock pulled me from my wonderful dreams. After a groan, Antonio silenced it with a sharp whack. I tossed and turned in the sheets to get up and go to class, but my body felt heavy and sore.

"Ugh... Antonio, you jerk," I said in a thick voice, curling up in the sheets. "My whole body hurts because of you."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lovi," he brought his face to mine and gave me a peck on the lips. "Though I didn't hear you complain last night or ask me to stop," he looked at me playfully, "quite the opposite, in fact."

"Let's see if you say the same thing when I do it to you."

"Mmm... I can't wait to have my Lovi inside me," he whispered in a sensual voice in my ear, which made me nervous and hot.

"Sh-Shut up!" I hit him on the chest. He laughed and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his body. "Let go, bastard, I have to go."

"What? Why? Where?" he gave me a look that was a mix of sadness and surprise. "It's still really early. We can spend the morning together, sleeping and cuddling. Luckily, I don't have to work."

"That's great," I said sarcastically. "But, in case you don't know, I have class."

"But it's a holiday today! There's no class on holidays."

"Yeah. Tell that to your uptight idiot of a friend."

"Well, that's exactly what I'm going to do." He turned to the nightstand and picked up his cell phone. He leaned back against the headboard as he made the call.

"Hey, Rod! It's Antonio... Yeah, well, you see, since you made me responsible for Lovi's attendance at your classes, I'm calling to let you know he won't be going today... Oh, come on, Rod, don't be like that... The poor guy had a bad night, he barely slept and is so tired he can't even stand up..."

"Don't tell him that, you idiot!" I said in a low voice, annoyed. The bastard laughed and brought his free hand to my head to stroke it.

"Besides, Rod, today's a holiday, just relax a little, ok?... No, he's not skipping class because it's a holiday... Yeah, I promise you he'll be there tomorrow... Me? At noon? Sure, no problem... See you at dinner tonight?... Great, don't get lost, ok?... Bye."

He put his cell phone back on the nightstand and lay down next to me, hugging me tightly.

"See? All sorted out," he kissed my forehead. "We can keep sleeping for a bit longer."

I smiled and snuggled closer to him, falling asleep to the sound of his steady breathing.

We slept all morning, until after noon. I woke up relaxed and rested, though I still had a slight pain in my lower back, not to mention the soreness in my abs. But the best thing, without a doubt, was the feeling of waking up in Antonio's arms. I had missed it, though of course, I preferred to keep that to myself.

We showered together, picked up the clothes scattered around the house, had lunch, and lay back on the couch to watch a movie quietly. The plush turtle was still on the armchair beside us, a silent witness to our experiences... Fuck, memories of the night before came rushing back to my mind, making me feel hot, and I had to get up and go to the kitchen for a glass of water. On my way back to the "couch of passion," the doorbell rang.

"Anto-... Oh, mon Dieu!" The Frenchman was surprised when I met him, but his expression immediately changed, and a perverted smile formed on his lips. "Hello, mon petit! I'm happy to see you here," he winked.

"What do you want?"

"Hi, Fran!" the bastard greeted him and hugged me from behind, resting his head on my shoulder. The Frenchman's smile widened. "What's up?"

"Hello, mon ami. I've come to tell you that Gilbert urgently requires our presence."

"What for?"

"He wants to play Risk," he said with boredom.

I raised an eyebrow. That phrase had sounded like it had a hidden meaning, something only my boyfriend and his two perverted friends knew.

"Play Risk?" Antonio said, surprised. "Now?"

"Oui, and at Elizaveta's house, no less," he rolled his eyes. "I don't know what it is, but that guy is up to something."

"Francis!" Gilbert's voice could be heard shouting from the patio. "Do you have to take so long to tell Antonio to come down?"

"Damn it with that potato-eater."

"You go first, Fran, we'll be there soon."

The Frenchman nodded and left.

"What the fuck does 'play Risk' mean?"

"What do you mean, what does it mean?" Antonio asked, surprised. "'Play Risk' means 'play Risk'; it's a board game with dice, little soldiers..."

"I know what game is!" I interrupted him, annoyed. I had just confirmed what Feliks told me: I had a dirty mind.

We went into the bedroom to get dressed, because until then we were both in our underwear with bare torsos (ugh, the fucking Frenchman must have been delighted with the view). The voice of that idiot, the albino macho, echoed through the patio again, hurrying my boyfriend.

"Antonio, I know that touching my balls is a great experience, but stop doing it, for fuck's sake, and come down now!"

Antonio didn't give me the option to refuse to go with him. We went out to the landing, holding hands, and immediately stopped when we came face-to-face with none other than the tulip, who had also just come out of his apartment. The situation couldn't have been more awkward.

Antonio squeezed my hand tightly, but barely a second later, he was no longer beside me. With a quick move that caught the tulip off guard, he grabbed him by the neck of his shirt with one hand and lifted him a foot off the ground (I knew Antonio was strong, but I never imagined he was that strong). An icy smile adorned his face, and his gaze was somber and filled with fury and hatred as he looked down at the Dutchman. He was truly terrifying.

"I'm warning you," Antonio said. Even his voice had an icy tone. "If you ever approach MY LOVI again for any purpose other than a pure and healthy friendship... I'll cut off your balls, understand?!"

He released Govert abruptly, who hit the wall and slid down it until he fell to the floor.

Antonio turned back to me with his typical radiant smile of happiness and took my hand. Giving the tulip one last look and feeling a little bad for him, I let my boyfriend drag me down the stairs.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17: An endless conflict

The albino and the Frenchman were already inside Elizaveta's apartment when Antonio and I went down to the patio. The Frenchman, leaning against the door, watched with a bored expression as the potato-eater argued with the Hungarian, who was holding a frying pan in a threatening manner.

"Don't you dare change the topic again, Gilbert!" Elizaveta yelled. "Tell me for God's sake why you've shown up at my place at this hour of the afternoon."

"How many times do you need my amazing self to repeat it, you tomboy?" He showed her the game box —well, he shoved it in front of her face. "We came to play Risk, and the others are here now, so get ready because… I CHALLENGE YOU!"

The albino bastard pointed a finger at her and burst into loud, deafening laughter.

Eli rolled her eyes in exasperation and fixed her gaze on the three of us, as if asking for a confirmation of the idiot's words. Antonio and the Frenchman nodded in response. The Hungarian sighed with resignation and sat down at the table, setting the frying pan aside while the potato-eater took out the board and set up the game. The Frenchman and my boyfriend took their seats as well.

"Hey, bastard," I said to Antonio, leaning over him. "I think I'll skip this and go up to my house. I don't know how to play anyway."

"What? No, don't leave." He grabbed my arm and pulled me, making me sit on his lap. I winced in pain, which didn't go unnoticed by the perverted Frenchman, who smirked. "Even if you don't play, you can sit right here with me and I'll teach you."

I nodded. Once again, my damn bastard of a boyfriend had convinced me to do what he wanted. He smiled victoriously and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close.

Elizaveta was also smiling, but her bottom lip was trembling and she didn't take her wide eyes off the two of us. For some unknown reason, the Hungarian was making me nervous.

"C-Can I take a picture of you guys?" What the hell was that question about?

"Of course!" Antonio replied happily.

"NO!"

"No? You don't want to take a picture with me, Lovi?" Antonio asked with a pained look, making puppy eyes. "Why not?"

"Umm… N-No… It's not that I don't want to… it's just…"

A dull thud was heard. We all jumped in our seats; the potato-eater had slammed his fist on the table. Then he opened his hand and released the dice.

"If you want a picture of the two lovebirds, win," the albino told the Hungarian. "That's the reward for the game: the winner gets to ask for whatever they want from everyone else."

"Honhonhon… That sounds très intéressant, mon ami."

"I'm in," Antonio accepted.

"Fine!" Eli agreed decisively, though still a little annoyed, crossing her arms. "But you can't back out later when you're against the ropes."

Antonio and his two best friends shook their heads. Then everyone, Elizaveta included, just stared at me in silence, which gave me a bad feeling. I didn't understand what they were waiting for… until I realized what they wanted.

"What? No. No, no, no, no, no," I said, shaking my head and wagging my finger. "Don't get me into this. No way. I'm not playing, so I'm not participating in that fulfilling-the-winner's-wishes thing. No freaking way."

"Come on, kid, don't be so un-awesome. It's fine that you're not playing, but you're here and you're with Antonio. That means if he wins, you win, and you can both ask for what you want, but you lose if Toño loses and you have to follow the winner's orders."

"Come on, Lovi, it'll be fun."

"Are you crazy?! Can you imagine if that perverted Frenchman wins?" I said quietly to Antonio, although everyone heard me. "Who knows what he'd make us do. I don't trust him one bit."

"Oooh, Lovinito, mon petit," the Frenchman said, putting a hand to his chest and feigning a sob. "You offend me. You have such a bad impression of me!"

"Kesesese... The kid's got your number, beardo."

Antonio remained silent with a thoughtful expression for a moment, I guess reflecting on my words. He looked at the bearded with a slight frown and then at me with a serious face.

"Do you want me to go after Francis and make sure he doesn't win?"

"ANTOINE!"

"Okay," I replied.

The way the bastard asked the question, so seriously, was so confident that it immediately convinced me to agree to participate in that stupidity.

They started to play.

During his turn, Antonio made me roll the dice and move his "troops" across the board according to his instructions; while as the game progressed, he would explain the rules and the game's dynamic to me. I found it pretty hard to understand and follow.

On the other hand, the other four were completely immersed in the game. They were being so competitive! So much so that they didn't seem like themselves: friendship had ceased to exist; they were all rivals and would provoke each other when they faced off. The verbal battles were more intense than the ones on the board.

"Don't get so cocky just for winning one battle, you tomboy. The war will be mine, and my amazing self will take your vital regions before you even realize it."

"Stop dreaming, you idiot, and get ready to bite the dust because when I'm done with you, you'll be crying and begging for mercy."

"Honhonhon… It seems the beautiful Elizaveta is a force to be reckoned with in every sense of the word."

"Of course! What did you expect? Unlike you, who takes advantage of other people's conflicts, I actually have the balls to directly attack my enemies."

"Mon Dieu, chérie, I'll have to start agreeing with Gilbert; that language is not proper for a lady. It sounds more like what notre petit Lovino spits out of his little sassy mouth all the time."

"Go fuck yourself, you fucking Frenchman!"

"I could care less, if not nothing at all, about what's proper for a lady. If I were you, I'd focus more on the board, because you look to be in pretty bad shape."

"Ugh! Antoine, will you stop picking on me for once? Isn't there anyone else to attack?"

"All in good time. Before I can win the game, I have to get you out of the way."

Although he focused mainly on attacking the Frenchman, Antonio didn't lose an opportunity to assault the other two when the occasion arose. He was being especially competitive, which really surprised me, as it was a side of him I didn't know, just like when he got aggressive with the tulip a little while ago.

However, despite my boyfriend's eagerness to win, the potato-eater managed to secure the victory after three hours of playing. Both Antonio and the other two accepted the defeat with sportsmanship; the rivalry had ended with the game.

"I'm sorry I couldn't win, Lovi," Antonio whispered in my ear.

"I-It's okay, you bastard, don't worry about it."

He gave me a dazzling smile and looked up at the potato-head. "Well played, Gil!"

"Kesesese… Thanks! Coming from my awesome self, it couldn't have been any other way." This guy is his own biggest fan. "Alright, let's get serious. The time for concessions has come. You three, out!" he ordered, pointing to the door.

Antonio and the Frenchman exchanged a look of bewilderment and shrugged, getting up. Obviously, I, who was sitting on Antonio's lap, also got up, and we walked towards the door. The Hungarian, with her arms crossed and a clearly annoyed expression, perhaps wondering what crazy things the potato-eater was going to ask her, didn't take her eyes off the German, who held his gaze fiercely.

"And you, Elizaveta," he called her by her name instead of ‘tomboy’, so we immediately turned around. "Grant me the incredible honour of accepting to be the partner of someone as awesome as myself."

He hit the game board with his fist, just like he did before, but this time he left a small box on it. He opened it as he pulled his hand back, and inside it was a silver ring. The albino was flushed, and some drops of sweat ran down his temple.

"Let's date."

I don't know who seemed more astonished, the three of us or Elizaveta, who kept her wide eyes darting from the ring to the potato-eater’s face, which remained serious and expectant.

BAM!

With a swift motion, Eli had grabbed the frying pan and slammed it onto the albino jerk's head, just as was to be expected.

"You idiot!" she yelled at him. She dropped the frying pan, which hit the floor with a loud clang, and launched herself at the German's neck, wrapping her arms around him. "It took you this long to decide to take this step?"

"You know it didn't, but… um… I had to find the most awesome way to do it."

"Idiot," the Hungarian repeated, smiling.

The albino jerk grabbed her waist, pulling her closer, and they kissed passionately as if the Frenchman, Antonio, and I weren't even there.

"Certainly, mon ami, what you did this time was truly awesome," the Frenchman interrupted.

"What the hell are you guys still doing here?" the potato-head yelled, still holding Eli in his arms. "I told you to leave, GET OUT!"

We left the new couple alone (because Eli had accepted the potato-eater's proposition even though she hadn't explicitly said yes, which confirmed for me that she was missing a screw) and they kissed again while the three of us went out to the patio.

"Oh, mon Dieu, I expected Gilbert to take this step with Elizaveta sooner or later these days, but I never would have imagined he'd do it this way. One can't deny that it was quite original. He must have planned it very well, honhonhon…"

"And why did you expect that, Fran?"

"Oh, Toni, mon ami, why do you think? Because Roderich is going to both Heracles and Kiku's wedding and the bachelor party, and our dear Gilbo got scared shitless about a possible attempt by his romantic rival to win Eli back."

"Aah, okay, I get it now."

"I'm glad those two are together. I knew that in the end, l'amour would triumph, just like with you two." He winked. "I see you've solved your little argument and are back together and happy, though I didn't need to see you to know..."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Oh, cher, please, my room is right below yours, and you guys weren't exactly quiet last night." He winked. "You're a couple of real beasts."

Earth, swallow me whole. Had that fucking pervert heard us? What if someone else had too? God, I wanted to die from embarrassment just thinking about it. I blushed so much, even Antonio flushed a little, looked away, and nervously scratched the back of his neck, laughing.

"Honhonhon… but don't be shy. You haven't done anything to be ashamed of." He patted Antonio on the back. "Anyway, I'll leave you; I have to make a call to check that the surprise for tonight is ready. Au revoir!"

The Frenchman disappeared through the stairs.

"What surprise was your friend talking about?" I asked, trying to put the thought of him hearing us during sex out of my mind.

"What?" Antonio was still distracted. "Oh, that's the one he's planning for Heracles and Kiku's bachelor party, but shhh…" He put a finger to his lips. "It's a secret. Only I, now you, Fran, Gil, and your grandfather know."

"LOVINO VARGAS!"

Speaking of the devil, my grandfather appeared from the stairs, calling my name in a stern, angry tone. I instinctively hid behind Antonio as the old man approached us.

"Do you mind telling me why the restaurant manager called me asking if you were going in today or if he had to change your shift again?" That fucking manager was an idiot; I'd told him clearly that I wanted to change the shift for ONE DAY ONLY. Was that so hard to understand? "So you disobeyed me and skipped work, huh?"

I nervously shook my head and hid even more behind Antonio, who suddenly turned to me.

"Lovino!" he said indignantly. "What have I told you about skipping out on work?"

"I didn't, damn it! I didn't skip out!" I defended myself. "I just changed the shift. Besides," I lowered my voice so my grandfather wouldn't hear and frowned, "you're not the one to be lecturing me about anything after practically forcing me to skip class this morning."

"That's different. You were too tired to go, and today is a holiday. You're not supposed to have class on holidays. Besides, Roderich gave you permission to be absent, so that's not skipping out."

"And what I did at work isn't either. I only changed a shift to next week."

"And may I know when I authorized that shift change?" my grandfather intervened again.

I shrank behind Antonio to avoid the old man's wrath, but the bastard got behind me and held my shoulders, forcing me to face my grandfather, who was waiting impatiently for an answer.

"O-Okay, yes, I-I lied to the manager, saying you'd given me permission." My grandfather's frown deepened; he was getting angrier. "B-But… damn it! Give me a break, fuck. I haven't stopped working since Thursday, and on top of that, you add Roderich's classes, who kept me until five yesterday afternoon. I just didn't have time for anything, and I also had important matters to settle." A little flushed, I looked back at Antonio for a second, since I was referring to our relationship. "I just changed a fucking shift. I didn't do anything wrong, damn it, try to understand."

I held my grandfather's gaze. He sighed wearily but finally relaxed his expression.

"Alright, Lovino, I understand, but don't you think it would have been easier to ask me directly for the change instead of acting on your own?"

"You didn’t let me! You didn’t even listen to me and forced me to go to the restaurant."

"Don't give me that, Lovino," Grandpa snapped. "It never occurred to you to suggest that I move a shift to next week. You just complained and refused to go to work over and over again, so don't say that I didn't let you ask or that I didn’t listen to you, because we both know that's not true."

Damn it! I couldn't deny that my grandfather was right, but of course I wasn’t going to admit it. With a growl, I puffed out my cheeks, crossed my arms, and turned my face to the side.

"Hey, Lovi, there's something I don't get," Antonio said. "If yesterday was Tuesday, why did you have to work? You don't go in until Thursday." It's about time he noticed that detail.

"I changed his shifts so he could have the weekend off," Grandpa responded.

"Yeah, to be able to go to the wedding of the sleeping Greek and the silent Japanese." I'd already sorted out my problem with Antonio, so there was nothing stopping me from going.

"Aah… that's great! Although I guess that means you have to work today, right?" I nodded. "So you're not coming to the dinner tonight?"

"What dinner?"

"The bachelor party dinner we're having tonight, didn't you know? The surprise Francis is preparing comes after that."

Great, just like always, I was the last to find out. No one had bothered to tell me about the dinner until that moment. Damn it, just because I couldn't go because of work didn't mean I couldn't know about it. I glared resentfully at my grandfather, who remained serious and impassive, so I ruled out the possibility that he'd decide to give me the night off or something like that.

"No, I'm not going," I finally replied to Antonio.

"That will serve as a lesson for you for the next time you decide to act on your own and make modifications to your work shifts and schedule without consulting me."

I rolled my eyes wearily; on top of everything, I had to put up with a lecture.

"It's not that big of a deal, Romu," Antonio said, downplaying it. My grandfather opened his mouth to reply, but the bastard spoke first. "Come on, Lovi, I'll take you to work."

He threw an arm over my shoulder and, after a quick goodbye to my grandfather, we headed to the garage to get his motorbike. I was surprised to see that my work shift was about to start; the afternoon had flown by. In fact, we arrived in the restaurant barely five minutes before I had to clock in.

"Look at that," Antonio commented when I got off the bike. "It's quite ironic that now you're the one who's busier, having to work and go to class while I have a few days off."

"Ugh, don't remind me. And why do you have days off?"

"Vacation. Since the shop is closed today for the holiday and Heracles' wedding is this weekend, I asked for the rest of this week off as vacation a while ago."

"You're so lucky!" I said with envy, starting to walk towards the entrance.

Antonio grabbed me by the waist from behind, pulling me towards him.

"I'd be luckier if I could spend all that time with you," he said close to my ear.

He gently bit my earlobe and traced a path of kisses down my neck, which sent pleasant shivers all over my body. I turned around in his arms and started to devour his lips; Antonio responded with intensity.

"I love that you're so passionate, Lovi." He kissed me. "You drive me crazy." He kissed me again. "Do you want me to pick you up when you get off so you can join the party?"

The offer was very tempting; it would save me from taking the bus, but everyone from the building would probably be at the party, and I didn't want to run into the tulip (I hoped he and Antonio wouldn't end up in a fight), or my grandfather, since I was annoyed with him for not telling me anything. Besides, the fact that Francis was organizing the party didn't make me think of anything good.

"You should already know the answer to that question; it's obvious," I replied dryly and turned my head to the side. "But I don't want to spoil your fun by having you come get me, so you don't have to come."

"Oh, Lovi, you're not going to spoil anything for me, and you know it's no trouble at all for me to come get you."

"Even so, you don't have to, so don't come," I said to him seriously. "I'm not going to that party. The Frenchie organizes it, and who knows what he's come up with. Anyway, I don't feel like going, and even if I did, it'll be really late when I get out, and I have to get up early tomorrow for class, because I highly doubt Roderich will let me miss it again, so forget it."

"But Rod's going too!"

"That just makes it worse. He'll end up realizing that what you told him this morning wasn't true and will keep me at his place all day tomorrow to make up for today's time."

"Aw, Lovi," he pouted. "You know it won't be the same without you."

"I'm not going to let you convince me, so get that look off your face, you bastard."

He ignored me.

"But…"

"You go and have fun," I interrupted him. I crossed my arms and looked away, a little flushed. "Just make sure you don't get too close to that fucking perverted Frenchman; I don't trust him one bit…"

"Relax, my love," he smiled and stroked my cheek. "You don't have to get jealous."

"I'm not jealou-!"

He silenced me by kissing me deeply and intensely.

"I hope that helps you calm down."

"G-Go, damn it, I have to go in. I'll see you tomorrow."

"But, Lovi, are you sure you don't want to come? I can give you the address…"

"No, you big pest, don't insist anymore and just get out of here."

He pouted again and added his beaten-puppy look to make me feel sorry for him and get what he wanted. I avoided looking at him and falling for his trick at all costs, even making a motion to go inside, at which point he gave up and sighed.

"Call me if you change your mind and I'll come find you wherever you are."

"I'm not going to change my mind, so have a good time and I'll see you tomorrow."

Before I could get away, Antonio grabbed me by the waist and we kissed.

"Just get out of here, damn it, I'm going to be late and it'll be your fault, you bastard."

Antonio kissed me again and gave me one of his brilliant smiles as a goodbye.

I was happy he wanted to be with me as much as possible; the feeling was mutual, but I didn't want to be the one to stop him from having fun. The big idiot should realize and appreciate that I was so generous with him.

I stood by the back door of the restaurant until Antonio disappeared around the corner of the alley and, taking a deep breath, I prepared to start my night of work.

Roderich didn't say anything about my absence the day before. Apparently, the excuse Antonio gave him was valid, which was a huge relief for me, since the night at the restaurant had been more intense and exhausting than usual, and I didn't feel like spending more time than necessary at my teacher's house.

We continued where we left off in the last class: rehearsing the song he had composed for the Greek and the Japanese until, after twelve, someone interrupted us by ringing the doorbell. The Austrian got up from the piano, annoyed, and went to the entrance.

"You're late, you idiot!" my teacher complained. "I told you to come at noon, and it's twelve-thirty. Punctuality is a fundamental thing."

"Oh, Rod, I'm sorry," said a voice I knew very well. "Don't be mad, I just overslept."

"I'm not surprised. Just come in already."

With his guitar on his back, Antonio entered the room where I was, followed by Roderich, and greeted me cheerfully.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Lovino! What kind of language is that?!" Roderich scolded me. "You need to learn to be more respectful."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. My teacher was the last person who should tell me how to talk to my own boyfriend (though I wasn't sure he even knew we were a couple). Antonio let out a little laugh as he took his guitar out of its case.

"Antonio will be accompanying us on guitar for the song I composed," he handed him a sheet of music.

"We're going to play together, Lovi!"

"Are you joking?"

"You should know by now that I don't joke, Lovino," my teacher replied. "Though I suppose Antonio will only be accompanying me, since you said you wouldn't be attending the wedding."

"WHAT?!" Antonio exclaimed, getting up and coming toward me. "What's this about you not going to the wedding?"

"N-No, fuck, of course I'm going..."

Antonio sighed in relief and sat down again.

"Oh, so you've changed your mind," Roderich pointed out, looking at me over his glasses and smirking. "Fantastic. All right, let's not waste any more time and get started. Antonio, you start. Lovino, get ready and pay attention for your cue to come in."

After some explanations about the melody, Roderich gave Antonio a signal, and he began to play. Even though I had heard him play the guitar on several occasions, this was the first time I was seeing him do it. He adopted a serious expression, but he incredibly kept a small smile on his lips, and he slid his hands over the strings with grace and ease. No doubt, he knew what he was doing and he enjoyed it so much. God, I couldn't take my eyes off his hands; I was completely mesmerized.

"LOVINO!" Roderich hit the table with his collapsible baton, jolting me out of my daydream. "You didn't even notice when you were supposed to start playing. Would you please stop getting distracted and pay attention to what we're doing?"

"Y-Yes, I'm sorry."

"Let's start again. We don't have time to waste, so this time, focus!"

It wasn't until the three of us played together that I realized the melody sounded incomplete without the guitar music. After an hour and a half, Roderich decided to end the rehearsal. The Austrian seemed quite pleased with our work; he even went so far as to praise us, which was very unlike him. Antonio and I smiled with satisfaction as we gathered our things to leave.

"I know this is the opposite of what I always say, but don't you dare play in your apartment building," Roderich warned us as we were leaving. "No one can hear this song until the day of the wedding, understood?" We nodded. "Oh yeah, and tomorrow, try to be on time, Antonio."

And with these words as his farewell, he closed the door behind us.

When we were on the street, Antonio put an arm around me, pulled me close, and kissed my forehead. I wanted to move away —it was too hot to be so close to each other— but the barnacle I have for a boyfriend wouldn't let me.

"I'm so excited for us to play together, Lovi!"

"You could have told me sooner."

"But I didn't know anything!" he excused himself. "Yesterday when I called Roderich, he asked me to come to his place today at noon with my guitar, but he didn't explain why. And he didn't want to tell me last night either. I found out at the same time as you."

"I see... So how was the party last night?"

"Good, but I really missed you," he said in a sappy voice, and he squeezed me tighter. I squirmed, and he loosened his hug. "You should have come."

"What did I miss?"

"Francis dressed as a cat."

"What?!"

"Well... 'dressed' is saying too much. 'In costume!'” he exclaimed with a smile that turned into an expression of doubt. "No, not 'in costume' either... Let's just say he was wearing cat ears and a tail, nothing more. Oh, and a rose down there to cover himself."

Fuck, that mental image filled me with equal parts of horror and disgust. I'd be lucky if that damned perverted Frenchman didn't appear in my worst nightmares, chasing me in that outfit.

"And I don't know how he did it," Antonio continued, oblivious to my expressions of disgust, "but he managed to convince Heracles to 'dress up' just like him. It was quite a spectacle; Eli was drooling and wouldn't stop taking photos, and Kiku got a nosebleed from the excitement."

Antonio laughed while I remained silent. I preferred not to know any more details about that party; I had had more than enough with the disturbing mental image of the Frenchman and now had to add the Greek to it.

"Hey, Lovi, just out of curiosity, would you... 'dress up' as a kitty for me?"

My face flushed, and I gave the complete degenerate a headbutt to the stomach that knocked the wind out of him.

"PERVERT!"

I pulled away from him, angry, but he took me by the arm before I got too far.

"Oh, Lovi," he said as he caught his breath, "it was just a joke..."

"Bullshit, you were serious!" I tore myself away from him violently. "You're a damned degenerate."

"Aww, Lovi, don't be mad," he gave me puppy-dog eyes. "It was just an innocent little joke..."

"Innocent?!" I asked sarcastically. "My ass, it was innocent!"

"Okay, not so innocent," he admitted with a giggle, scratching the back of his neck. I puffed out my cheeks. "But a joke, after all. Come on, don't be mad~" He gently poked my cheek with his finger. "...To make it up to you, I'll treat you to lunch, and you can pick the place, okay?"

I grunted in response, crossed my arms, and started walking. Antonio followed me, getting to my side, and I let him put his arm over my shoulders. Damn, it didn't matter what he did or said to get on my nerves; it was impossible for me to stay mad at him for too long.

Although both the Friday’s class and rehearsal went well, Roderich was more irritable and strict than usual —according to Lilly, it was because he was nervous and expressed it that way. Deep down, I understood. He was putting part of his reputation as a musician in Antonio’s hands and mine.

"Try to be discreet when you put the instruments in the car," Roderich warned us at the end of the rehearsal. "The performance tomorrow is supposed to be a surprise."

"Calm down, Rod," Antonio said, giving the Austrian a few loud pats on the back. "No one will see us. We'll go through the garage just before getting home and leave them in the trunk of my car, does that sound good?"

"Don't get condescending with me, Antonio!"

"Speaking of the garage, we've agreed to meet there at six to leave for the town all together. I assume you're coming with us, right?" The Austrian nodded. "And do you remember how to get there?"

"Perfectly!" a vein throbbed in Roderich's temple. "But there's no need for me to remember, Ludwig agreed to pick me up here at that time."

"What a great idea! That way, there's no chance you'll get lost."

Roderich let out what I believe were insults in his native language as soon as Antonio turned his back to address Lilly, who had stayed to listen to the rehearsal after our class.

"Are you and Vash coming with us this afternoon, Lilly?"

"No, we're leaving tomorrow. I would have liked to go with you today; it must be fun for you all to go together."

‘Fun’ was not the right word for all the building's tenants plus the couple gathered in a subterranean garage, loaded with suitcases and about to leave for a village in the middle of nowhere. ‘Chaotic’ was more like it.

It took us about half an hour to figure out how to split up into cars and pack the suitcases.

We split into four cars. I was sure I'd go in Antonio's. Emma and the Frenchman joined us. The couple went in my grandfather's car with Feliciano. The tulip (with whom I exchanged an awkward look, as we hadn't seen each other since his run-in with Antonio on the stairs) went in the potato bastard's car, where Roderich would also ride. And finally, the albino and Eli went together, with their car loaded with suitcases.

I spent the time while they were organizing by watching them, leaning on the roof of Antonio's car, who managed to pack the luggage without anyone noticing that his guitar was in the trunk.

"Hey, Antonio," I said to him just before he got into the car, "can I drive?"

The bastard looked at me doubtfully for a few seconds (didn't he trust me or something?), then at the keys, and then back at me, but this time, he was smiling widely.

"Of course!"

Grandpa, who was watching us from the door of his car, shook his head, laughing at Antonio's answer while muttering something. Was he doubting my driving skills? I gave him an angry look, squinting my eyes.

I walked around the car. When Antonio and I crossed paths, he handed me the keys and took the opportunity to steal a kiss. I wiped my lips with disgust, completely red. Everyone was watching us! He just laughed.

It had been a long time since I last drove a car, but as I sat in front of the wheel and started the engine, I remembered how much I enjoyed driving.

"Give me the indications!" I ordered Antonio when he got in.

We were the last ones to leave.

The first thing Antonio told me was to follow Grandpa's car. And I did, until we got on the highway, where he hit the gas and disappeared. But I wasn't about to be left behind —not a chance. I stepped on the accelerator, too.

"I don't understand why those two had to get married in that specific place," I commented. "Couldn't they have done it in the city or something?"

"That's where they met," Emma replied wistfully, sighing. "Oh, it feels like it was just yesterday..."

"Sure," Antonio confirmed. "It's hard to believe it's been six years already."

"Oh, mon Dieu, are you two getting all nostalgic?"

"I guess I can't help it," Emma replied. "Things have changed so much since then..."

I gripped the steering wheel tightly and focused on the road. The turn the conversation had taken was making me nervous.

"Lovi, don't you think you're going too fast?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Lovi, you're doing a hundred fifty! The speed limit is a hundred twenty!" he scolded me. "Get your foot off the gas!"

"It's fine, fuck! In Italy, the speed limit is a hundred thirty, and people drive like this.”

"But we're not in Italy! And I don't feel like getting a ticket from a speed camera, so take your foot off the gas."

I huffed and listened to him, but only for a little while... and also every time that bore felt like checking our speed.

Whether I liked it or not, I had to slow down a little after we got off the highway, where a damn idiot in a BMW was driving at a snail's pace in front of us. To make matters worse, cars kept coming in the opposite direction, so it was impossible to pass him (and it was also forbidden).

"Who the hell is the asshole going seventy on a road that's... that's...? What's the speed limit on this road?"

"A hundred."

"Exactly! Who the fuck goes seventy on a damn road with a hundred-kilometre limit?"

"I'd say that's Ludwig," said Emma.

"The potato bastard?" I hadn't noticed what car he was driving in the garage.

"Oui, c'est vrai," the Frenchman replied. "That's his car."

"Damn potato-eater! Fuck, that car can do over two hundred! Why the hell is he going seventy?! It's a fucking sacrilege! Hit the gas, you asshole!" I yelled, even though he couldn't hear me. "Get the fucking car up to two hundred and stop looking at the fucking scenery!"

I kept complaining about the macho potato and his slowness for a good while, while Emma and the Frenchman laughed and Antonio kept telling me not to get so close. We finally got to a straight stretch with no oncoming cars or signs, and I prepared to pass him.

When our car and the potato eater’s car were side-by-side, I let go of the steering wheel with my right hand, extended my arm out Antonio's window, and gave the idiot potato-eater the middle finger so he could see it clearly. I held that position until I had to get back into the right lane, pulling in front of the slow-ass macho potato and leaving him behind fast.

After an hour's drive, we arrived at the hotel where we would be staying. It wasn't a very luxurious place, but it looked cozy and was right at the entrance of the village.

I parked next to a pink car (I wasn't sure why it looked familiar) in the hotel's parking lot. Antonio took several deep breaths as he got out of the car and went to get the luggage from the trunk, except for the guitar and the violin.

When we entered the reception area, I collapsed onto a sofa while Grandpa and the couple took care of everything related to our stay. That bastard stayed near the door, chatting with his two buddies, and Feliciano sat down next to me.

"Could you... watch... Socrates... for a moment, please?" the sleepy Greek asked me, handing over the cat carrier with the furball inside. "Travel... makes him... nervous... but with you... he seems to... relax..."

Without a word, I took the cage, and the Greek went back to the reception desk.

"Vee~... poor little Socrates, don't you think he must feel a little sad locked up in there, fratello?"

"Don't even think about opening the cat carrier, Feliciano," I warned him, guessing his intentions. "He's in there for a reason."

"But don't you feel bad for him? He barely has any room, and the trip is over. I'm sure he'd like to stretch his legs for a bit."

"Feliciano, don’t..."

I didn't have time to give him another warning. My idiot brother opened the cage door, and Socrates escaped from it like a bullet, jumped onto Feliciano's legs, and from there to the floor, running toward a hallway.

"Look what you've done, you idiot!"

"VE! I'm sorry, fratello!"

"Forget the apologies and let's go catch him."

We ran, chasing the fucking cat down the hallway until it split in two. Since we didn't know which way the furball had gone, we split up. As I turned a corner, I ran headfirst into someone and fell on my ass.

"Hey, be more careful," the stranger said in a deep voice and a tone of reproach.

I looked up to find a gigantic, blond guy with blue eyes adorned by square glasses. His serious, icy, and penetrating gaze made my hair stand on end and paralyzed me with fear. A few tears welled up in my eyes.

"Chi... Chi... CHIGIIIIIIII!"

"Hey!" he leaned down a bit. "Don't yell!"

"IIAAAH! ANTONIOOOO!" I screamed in desperation. "HELP ME, YOU BASTAAAARD!"

"Relax, I'm..."

"Antoniooo!" I started crying from fear. "ANTONIOOOOOOOO!"

"Mon Dieu, Antonio, come help your darling already."

I glanced back for a second. The Frenchman and the albino were peeking out from the corner of the hallway, but the cowards wouldn't dare help me.

"LOVI!" Antonio appeared, running, and knelt down beside me. "ARE YOU OKAY?! WHAT'S WRONG?!"

With my head bowed and discreetly wiping away my tears, I lifted a trembling finger and pointed at the giant in front of me.

"Berwy!" Antonio exclaimed, getting to his feet, and they shook hands. I looked up, surprised. "Long time no see, buddy!"

"Ja!"

"So, like, why are you on the floor?"

Feliks appeared in the hallway, holding the arm of a chestnut-haired boy with medium-length hair who was a bit taller than him. I went to answer him, but then Socrates came running, chased by a fluffy white dog, and jumped into my arms as I stood up.

"Hanatamago!" the giant guy said, scooping up the dog.

The rest of our group appeared in the hallway and began to greet Feliks, his friend —who turned out to be the Toris he'd mentioned on several occasions— and the giant guy named Berwald, a former tenant of the building whom some who didn't know him (specifically the Frenchman, the macho albino, and my brother) shook hands with fearfully.

"Berwald, did you manage to find Hanatamago?" said a blond guy who came out from the other side of the hallway. He looked a little surprised to see so many people at once. "Oh, hi!"

"This is Tino," Berwald said. "My wife."

"W-What are you saying?" said Tino, embarrassed. "Stop joking and please don't call me that."

"What a funny guy you are, Berwy," Antonio said, giving him a pat on the back while laughing, which made more than one person let out a gasp, fearing for the bastard's life. "You haven't changed at all."

Tino greeted us all one by one. After shaking Emma's hand, she turned to Elizaveta, very serious.

"Honestly, I don't know what to think anymore," she said to her in a low voice. "I'm starting to believe there's something weird in the water in our building..."

"Emma, honey, think what you want," Eli replied, "but don't look at me, because if there's one thing I'm sure of in this life, it's that I like men more than a German likes beer."

"Especially if the man in question is her awesome boyfriend," the albino male interjected, grabbing Eli by the waist from behind and lifting her up, "and is taking her to 'break in' the room, kesesese..."

Despite the Hungarian's protests and struggles, the albino carried her down the hallway with one arm until they disappeared around a corner —the same one another tall blonde with spiky hair combed to the side came out.

"Blondie!"

"Well, look at that!" Emma said. "It's my brother's dumb friend."

"Oh, look! It's my friend's dumb sister."

They both burst out laughing and gave each other a hug.

After a lively greeting to the tulip, the guy who had just appeared said hello and introduced himself to the rest. His name was Mathias.

After a bit of light chatter, the group started to disperse. The Greek took Socrates from my arms and went to his room with the Japanese. Only Antonio, the Frenchman, the potato-eater, Roderich, Feliciano, Grandpa, and I stayed in the hallway.

"The keys to the room you're sharing with your brother," the old man said, handing me the keys. "Go get your suitcases; they're still at reception."

"Why do I have to share a room with Feliciano?" I complained.

"What does it matter? I know ALL of you well enough," he said, looking all of us, but pausing especially on the Frenchman and Antonio, "to know that it doesn't matter what room you have; you'll all end up spending the night in whatever room you feel like."

"Honhonhon... mon ami Romu," the Frenchman put an arm around my grandfather and they started to walk. "You know it, you're absolutely right."

Antonio, Roderich, and the potato-eater followed them.

Feliciano and I, on the other hand, went to the reception desk to get our abandoned suitcases and then looked for our room. It was at the very end of a hallway, in the most remote part of the entire fucking hotel. At least it was spacious, with plenty of light coming in from a balcony, two very comfortable beds, a TV, and a private bathroom.

"Vee~... How nice that we're sharing a room, fratello. It's been a while since we slept together."

"Fuck, what did you expect? You swapped me out for that damn macho potato," I retorted. "I bet it's his fault we have to share a room. You still haven't told grandpa, have you?"

"Vee~... Of course I have! We told him the other day, and he thought it was great."

"I'm not surprised." Grandpa rarely gives Feliciano a hard time. "So why aren't you fluttering around him like always? You didn't come in his car either. Did you two get in a fight or something? Because it's really damn weird."

"Vee~... No, we're fine, though he says he wants us to be discreet," he giggled. "He's very shy~."

"And very idiotic, just like you. You two are made for each other," I said sarcastically.

"Don't be mean, fratello!"

I stuck my tongue out at him in response.

"Vee~... Fratello, why were you yelling and calling for Antonio before? What happened?"

"That was your fault, you idiot!" I yelled at him.

"VE! My fault?" He got scared and started tearing up. "Why? What did I do?"

"For opening the door to the cat carrier, you idiot! I warned you not to, and because of you, Socrates got away."

"But the poor kitty needed to stretch his legs! And you managed to find him!"

"By luck! But also..."

A knock on the door interrupted me. Feliciano and I looked at each other, puzzled. Who the hell could it be? I opened the door and found a grumpy blond guy whom I immediately recognized by his two gigantic eyebrows.

"Will you two do me a fucking favour and stop making so much noise?!" he yelled. "I'm trying to rest! Wait a minute..." He stared at me. "I know you! You're the kid who was with those three idiots."

"Vee~... Do you two know each other, fratello?"

"He's the Englishman who was screwed by the Frenchman!”

"No one screwed me, and especially not that damned perverted frog!" He went ballistic. Feliciano and I hugged each other, scared. "And you two had better not speak, or do it more quietly, because if I have to come back here a second time to call you out for not letting me rest, you'll remember for the rest of your lives who Arthur Kirkland is!"

"We'll do whatever we want, you imbecile!" I snapped back. "You're nobody to come lecture us."

"I've already warned you!"

The asshole just left and went into the room next door. After that run-in, which we didn't mention to anyone, we didn't see him again until after dinner, when we were all in the hotel gardens having a quiet drink.

"Oh, mon Dieu, look who's deigned to show up."

"Just as I expected, the same three idiots together again," the Brit said with a smirk. "Looks like things around here never change."

"Just like you haven't either, mon amour. Ça va?"

"What do you care, you stupid frog?"

People started to look in our direction.

"Always so irascible, mon amour. Why don't we set aside our hostility for once? We're celebrating."

"Or even better," said Antonio, "why don't you take your damn bitter face and get the fuck out of here to some place where we don't have to see you?"

"Oh, yeah, we don’t want the idiot Mr. Smiles to lose that stupid grin glued to his face."

"I can't believe those two are still at it," Grandpa commented near me. "I bet they don't even remember what they're fighting about. Ops, why did I mention it?"

"You were the one who started it all!" Antonio said. "You got upset over a ridiculous comment!"

"You said you were poisoned by my food!"

"I spent three days in bed with stomachache after eating that slop you cooked! And just because of that stupid little thing, you started to bother us. Fuck, you even called the police."

"Worse was you leaving me stranded in the middle of a damn highway."

"Honhonhon... how much I laughed that day," the Frenchman commented.

"It wasn't in the middle!" Antonio continued. "It was at the entrance!"

"I had to walk back two kilometres to the nearest bus stop while a bunch of idiots drove by, honking at me instead of helping me."

"Fuck off! You shouldn't have tried to steal my girlfriend."

I saw Emma face palmed herself.

"I'll remind you that she was NO LONGER your girlfriend!"

I don't know if it was just me, but after those words, the deepest silence enveloped me. Not only that, but I got nervous just like in the afternoon, and a feeling of unease squeezed me from the inside.

I stopped paying attention to what was happening around me and went to my room. I put the "do not disturb" sign on the doorknob and collapsed in the dark next to the balcony door while a few tears escaped my eyes. I didn't even cry when Antonio and I fought; how could a few simple words affect me so much now?

The fact that Antonio was still bothered because the Englishman had tried something with Emma, even though they weren't a couple anymore and had ended their relationship three years ago, while he only threatened the tulip, who had practically tried the same thing with me, and tried to be civil with him, made me think he might still have feelings for Emma. Which would be normal, since the girl was a complete charm compared to me. Dammit, I knew I was giving in to my insecurity, but if my thoughts were right, I didn't think I could handle it.

"Lovi? Are you in here?" Antonio entered the room and turned on the light. "Why did you leave so suddenly?"

Shit, I had left the door open. I lowered my head and wiped my tears, but they kept coming; I couldn't stop them. The bastard came close and knelt down beside me. I tried my best to avoid looking at him; I didn't want to seem so weak in front of him, but it was impossible.

"Lovi, you're crying!" he said, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"I... I... Fuck! This is your fault!"

"Hey, seriously?" He looked at me, confused. "What did I do? It must have been something awful for you to be crying like this." He gently wiped my tears with his fingers. "Please tell me; I can't stand to see you like this. I'll do anything to fix it."

“You… You… are you sure that… that you are… are in love with me?” I asked between sobs.

"Lovi, what kind of question is that?" He smiled tenderly. "Don't you know I am?"

"NO, FUCK, I DON'T KNOW!" I yelled. "Especially if after all these years it still bothers you that that idiot Englishman tried something with your girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, or whatever the hell she was. Dammit, you didn't even care half as much about the tulip. How can you be sure it's not her you are in love with instead of me?"

Antonio remained silent, more serious than I had ever seen him, without taking his eyes off me as I continued to burst into tears, unable to stop myself.

“You’re right, Lovi, I’m… not in love with you.”