"Come on, Feli, it's just another mile…"

It's way longer, but Feliciano doesn't need to hear that. Besides, this road has to go somewhere, right?

"Nn— Vino, 'm tired."

"I know, Feli." Lovino tightens his grip on Feliciano's soft, small hand and keeps walking, adjusting the overlarge bundle slung over his shoulder. There's an old boning knife tucked into his belt, although Lovino has only the slightest idea of how to use one, and Nonno's sword was too heavy to carry so Lovino had to leave it behind a long time ago.

Probably some dirty Visigoth has it now, he thinks bitterly. Some barbaric Goth, one of that bastard Ewald's men, has Nonno's precious spatha, probably can't even use it correctly (not like Ewald who definitely used one, used it to cut Nonno open and leave him bleeding and-)

"Ow ow Vino stop pulling!"

He's unconsciously sped up and Feliciano is being pulled along by his arm, stumbling behind.

"Sorry." Lovino stops long enough to let Feliciano catch his breath, and then picks up again. "We've got to get there before it's dark."

"Where're we going?"

Lovino doesn't answer for a very long time, ignoring Feliciano's repetitions of the question. Eventually he finds an abandoned changing-station, which at least is out of the open, and then hurries over to the side of the empty road and drops the bundle, since Feliciano seems pretty tired and they'll not find a town any time soon. "You know how Nonno sai— says that all roads lead to Rome?"

"Mm-hmm?" Feliciano looks up at him, wide-eyed.

"So obviously since we started from Rome this road has to go somewhere."

"Like— like all the way to Egypt?" Feliciano brightens up, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. "We could go see Ahhotep!"

"Don't think we're going that far." And he's not going to tell Feli this- Feli who doesn't know Nonno's dead- but the last time Lovino saw Ahhotep she was failing, weak as Nonno and thick hair shot with gray and white, and the little he hears (although people do speak in front of seven-year-olds, they think he's not listening but he is) of Egypt is civil war.

Feli doesn't know, doesn't know that Francis ran off back with his barbarian brothers and sisters, that Antonio didn't go back to stay with his mother but ran away too, that that little bastard Herakles is with that bitch Eudokia who took Nonno's eastern lands and left him to crumble- doesn't know that Nonno crumbled at all. Only that he had lots of scars, and that the last thing he said was Feli, your brother will watch you for a while, and remember I love you and stay out of trouble.

The last thing Nonno said to Lovino was keep him safe, I love you.

Feliciano sits down, already digging through the bundle in search of food, and Lovino hands him a chunk of bread before Feliciano manages to undo the entire bundle.

He chews it a little disconsolately. "I miss Nonno's food." Lovino doesn't answer that, just pats his downy, curly hair, like Nonno used to do with both of them, until Feli leans into the touch and sighs. Lovino takes a little more bread for himself— he misses Nonno's cooking too, but he won't say it, he has to be the strong grownup for Feli.

Feliciano is already falling asleep as he sits, he's never had to do much in the way of physical exertion, and Lovino places an arm around him and scoots the both of them further back into the shadow of the changing station.

They fall asleep like that, Lovino holding the boning knife in one small fist and hugging Feliciano close to him.

Keep him safe, Nonno had said, and Lovino will do that if it kills him.


"Fratelli d'Italia" is the national anthem of Italy.

A spatha is a Roman longsword.

Ewald is Germania, Ahhotep is Mama Egypt, and Eudokia is the Byzantine Empire, which succeeded the Roman Empire after the latter was split- the western half crumbled and the eastern half became the Byzantine Empire except for the parts that crumbled.