Arc One: The Underground

Chapter One: Him

Lovino Vargas was never one to admit his fears to anyone, let alone allow anybody to catch him in a time of weakness. He was headstrong, easily embarrassed, and pessimistic; it was no wonder he didn't like to appear weak. Sure, he could be filled to the brim with fear, but never would he show it. Rather, he would swallow the gut-wrenching feeling and move on. He was courageous in that sense.

There were many things that Lovino feared, but not a single one of them had to do with the supernatural. In fact, he found the stories rather amusing. Never had he believed in them, and he was sure he never would. The supernatural was just stupid.

It was rather annoying that his own twin brother believed in such stories. Feliciano would always run into his older brother's arms after having 'seen' a creature when really it was nothing but a shadow. His constant insistence of the existence of the damn creatures never failed to anger the older Italian.

Kind of like what Feliciano was doing now.

"-but Lovino! They are real! I've seen them." Feliciano was staring at his brother wide-eyed, mouth frowning ever so slightly. The brothers were on the sidewalk making their way home as usual, both moving at a lazy pace.

"Feli, I'm sure you didn't. You were probably tricked by some idiotas who thought it would be fun to mess with you." Lovino didn't bother to glance at his brother, knowing that he would have that stupid pout in his face.

"Lovino, I'm not that gullible."

All Lovino did was scoff in response, letting the conversation die down as they neared the entrance to their neighborhood. It wasn't the first time Feli tried to feed him stories of vampires and werewolves he'd met whenever he went out with his boyfriend. Lovino more often than not felt angry that there was a good chance that the potato bastard was pulling tricks on his naive little brother. If he ever found out that his suspicions were correct, he was going to kill the bastard.

"He was right," Feliciano muttered lowly besides him, eyes trained on the ground, "You wouldn't believe me." He almost sounded disappointed, and had it not been for the frustration lacing his words, Lovino may have just ignored him.

"What are you talking about?" Lovino asked, curiosity peaked. It was unusual for the younger of the two to become frustrated with him. And maybe now Feliciano would admit that Ludwig was feeding him such idiotic stories. Then Lovino would have an excuse to kick his ass.

"Gilbert told me you would never believe me. He says that you're too much of a realist to believe in them. The supernatural." Lovino glanced at his brother sharply, ignoring what he'd just said. Gilbert? What the fuck was his brother doing with that idiot?

As if Feliciano could read his thoughts, he replied, " Gilbert is Ludwig's older brother. When I go to their house, we always hang out and he always tell me about them- the vampires and stuff. He even invited a few of them over yesterday."

Great, Lovino thought, now he would have to kill two potato bastards. He glared at nothing in particular. Why was his brother so stupid? This was why Lovino always had to protect him from bastards that wanted to take advantage of him. He was getting tired of the supernatural crap.

"Those things don't exist, Feli. Give it up." It didn't escape Lovino's notice that the other had pulled his lips into a deep frown.

The two didn't speak anymore as they continued to short trek to their house, a mansion at the very back of the neighborhood. It was modeled after the mansions of the Roman emperors back in Italy. There were even replicated marble statues of the Roman gods and goddesses in the front yard, along with other Romanesque yard decorations. Just about everything having to do with the house and it's property screamed Roman.

They were greeted at the door by a maid who took their school bags and informed them of the snacks that had been prepared for them. As per usual, Lovino and Feliciano took to being their flirty selves when around women, and each kissed the maid's hand softly.

"Grazie, Bella." The older teen said, satisfied when she blushed softly at their antics. It didn't matter how much they did that, she never ceased her blushing. Lovino smiled and allowed the maid to lead them to the outdoor garden table.

Lovino and Feliciano took their seats and simultaneously pulled out their phones. They snacked on the tomato bruschettas placed before them. The brothers ignored each other for a while, silence settling among them tensely.

Scrolling through the pictures on Instagram, Lovino internally scoffed at a few pics some dumbass classmate of his posted. It was the hamburger bastard, having uploaded pictures from some party he'd been to the night before. The idiot, according to his posts, had crashed the party and hung around to cause a racket.

"Fucking idiot." He mumbled. He continued to scroll down, sometimes stopping to comment on a pic or two, before one particular picture caught his attention.

The picture was of Alfred, the phone having been held high above him so that it captured a good portion of the crowd behind him. There were a lot of idiots doing dumbass things, but that wasn't what had caught his attention. It was the one particular person in the background, face inadvertently facing the camera, a smirk placed on his tanned face.

A voice in the back of his head immediately murmured doubts. There was no way this could be him. It had been many years ago- too many years ago. It was probably some guy who was similar in appearance, and not the one that Lovino's mind dug up from the depths of his memories. It wasn't possible, and yet a second voice spoke up, this one holding much more firmness on his first assumption.

It's him.

Lovino's blood turned cold. It's true, he thought and a sudden sense of dread twisted his stomach into knots. There was no mistaking it; he'd met this person before- 12 years ago to be exact. They had the same face, the same eyes, that same smirk. There was no denying it. The man who'd haunted his dreams for years; the one who'd given Lovino a real reason to feel fear. It was him.

Antonio Fernandez Carriedo.

And he hadn't aged one bit.

So this is my first fanfiction in three years, I believe. It sure has been a while for me, but I'm excited to get back to writing! As for this story, it has been planned out for the most part, but because of a couple changes I did in the process of writing this chapter, I'll have to go back and re-plan a few things. That's alright with me, though.

Also, as for the uploading schedule, I still haven't made up my mind. I'll either update once a week and make the chapters at least 2,000 words or more, or I'll upload twice a week, but keep the chapters below 2,000. Of course, the word count may vary from time to time, depending on the content of the chapter.

I sure do hope you guys enjoyed the story and I promise to update within a week! Thank you for reading!