It had started off as a perfectly ordinary day.

Lovino could remember it now: waking up to his brother's cheerful voice ("Good morning, brother! Rise and shine! Rise and shine!), opening his eyes carefully as sunlight flooded his vision, and being met by Feliciano's bright, smiling face. It was the same start to the day he's had since he-doesn't-even-remember-when.

He'd grumbled angrily, turning over onto his side, making sure that his back faced the open window, giving his eyes some much-needed relief from the bright light.

"Come on, brother!" Feli insisted, prodding his arm firmly. "You can't sleep in all day."

Lovino grumbled once more in response, barely forming the words, "I can and I will."

He went limp as he felt Feliciano grab hold of his hands and pull him up into a sitting position, continuing

his discontented grumbling all the while ("Can't I just sleep another five minutes? Do you really have to be so annoying, brother…").

Feliciano's voice took on a pleading tone as he struggled to hold his brother up. "Lovino, you promised you'd help me today. Don't you remember Antonio is coming over?"

He would have fallen back onto the bed if Feliciano hadn't retained a firm grip on his wrists. Instead he simply settled for mumbling a tired, "Who cares?" as he let his head loll forward, limp as the rest of him.

It wasn't every day Antonio would come to visit, and, with him being a faithful friend, those visits would always be treated as an important event. Lovino, however, despite being raised by the man, could not say that his presence was entirely welcome. He wasn't looking forward to the cheek-pinching and the over-use of diminutives, nor Antonio's constant and overbearing concern over his well-being despite the fact that Lovino was a grown man now and could very well take care of himself.

"Lovino," Feliciano chided. "Please just get up… You're really heavy…"

"Fine," Lovino sighed, lifting his head and opening his eyes slowly as he began to sit up on his own. As soon as Feliciano had let go, Lovi let out a wide yawn and stretched his arms and back. "What time is it anyway?"

"It's nearly noon,"

"I slept for that long?"

Feliciano nodded. "It's alright. I would have slept even longer than you if I hadn't remembered."

Lovino let out another yawn as he set his feet on the floor and began to stand up.

"Uhm, Lovi," said Feliciano as he began to leave the room.

"What?" Lovino had already made his way to the dresser and was picking out something he could change into for the day.

"I'm going to make the food after I'm done cleaning, so I was hoping you could go to the market and get some things for me."

Lovino shrugged into his shirt as he mumbled, "Alright."

"OK!" Feli called out cheerfully as he left the room, leaving his brother to finish getting dressed.

Standing there by himself, Lovino was able to zone out to the faint pattering of footsteps. A sense of anxiety, which he had been too tired to feel prior, suddenly swept over him at the thought of today's guest. He almost considered running off to one of the local cafes and spending the day there, but realized it would only make Feli look bad, and make for an extremely awkward evening. As much as he hated being near Antonio, he hated the thought of disappointing his brother more.

Lovino had just finished buttoning his pants up when Feliciano re-entered the room with a sheet of paper. Without even looking up at his brother, Feliciano began to recite the ingredients listed so quickly the words seemed to meld together. Lovino was barely listening, knowing that he would be able to read what was needed as soon as he was handed the paper, but had caught several words in his half-paying-attention state, including "tomatoes", "tomatoes", "more tomatoes", and "I need a lot of tomatoes, Lovi".

He ended with a shy smile and, "He should be here around five or so, so please be back here before long" before handing over the shopping list.

Lovino nodded and took it wordlessly.

He exited the small but cozy house as Feliciano returned to his cleaning and gentle humming. The sun shone brilliantly in the sky, warming Lovino's skin pleasantly. He could hear the soft warbling of birds in the distance, and thought he should really make an effort to wake up earlier and see the sun rising on such a nice day, of feeling the earth gradually warm and the city with all the things in it slowly waking up to a fresh start.

Then, shutting the door behind him, he made his way down the street toward the local marketplace, scanning over each item on the list and marveling at the fact that his brother could have such awful handwriting.

It had all started off so well before it went straight downhill.