Lovino and Antonio would normally be in the sun kissed garden, picking the ripe red tomatoes from the plants they grew from. Antonio would absorb the warmth and light from the sun, leaving nothing bit a beaming smile on his face. Lovino would try to keep his face screwed in a scowl, and scold the only person who ever gave him a chance to experience some kind of compassion from another unconditionally, for being so damn cheerful. He'd always lose to Antonio's ever lasting cheerfulness and raise a small smile once he used his 'cheer up charm' on him.

That would be happening again had it not been for cancer.

At present, Lovino's hand never let go of Antonio's as the odd green scribble of signal beeped across the heart monitor. It was the sort of teasing that Lovino didn't like Antonio doing on many occasions; he yelled at him for ruffling his mahogany coloured hair, he certainly didn't like being hugged and he'd stop Antonio from telling him how much he loved him. In reality, they were the things that nearly made Lovino shed tears of happiness. When no one else (apart from his near-perfect identical twin brother) would willingly stand near him, the Spaniard would always embrace him and shower him with compliments.

But now Lovino waited for Antonio to either make the biggest miracle recovery of the century, or to stop doing all those nice things no one else could ever do for him. The sun shone outside the hospital and into the withered white room so the Italian supposed there was a chance that the power of the sun could help the man he called his lover, burn those horrible cancer cells away and make him better enough to climb out of the hospital bed. Antonio's grip on Lovino's hand tightened meaning he had strength and that was a good thing, right? The Italian looked to the other's smiling face and that when the tears started to well up in his olive green eyes. He wiped them with his free hand, knowing he could no longer hide the strength he lost over the time Antonio fell victim to the disease. "Damn it Anto… why are you still smiling? The doctors said they can't do anything else to save you!"

"Oh Lovi…" The Spaniard slowly rolled on his side and reached a shaky, tanned arm to his lover's face and only managed to smear one out of Lovino's many tears into his skin before dropping it on the bed again. Even that exhausted him. The Italian clicked his tongue, holding back a sob.

"You still haven't said why you're still smiling, damn it!" He managed to choke out. Antonio released a light chuckle.

"I don't know," he began quietly and intertwined his fingers around Lovino's. "I think it's because when I die, I'm dying next to the one I love more than anything else in the world."

"Don't say that!" Lovino shot out a sob. "I'll beat that cancer out of you until you can stand again!"

Antonio laughed. "Oh Lovi, you do say the cutest things. That's why I love you so much…"

"Don't Anto… please don't say…" Lovino had to bite back the last word since he knew he was breaking down painfully.

"Hey, hey…" Antonio wanted to stroke his cheek and tell him everything will be fine and that he accepted death but in truth, he was deathly afraid of how Lovino would cope without him. He was the only person he revealed his happiness, sorrow and deepest darkest secrets his own brother didn't know. Who was he going to go to for comfort when he finally goes? He supposed it would be Bella since the Italian wasn't so aggressive towards women. Lovino had confided with her when he first fell in love with him and vice versa. He just hoped Bella would do as good a job of looking after his lover that no one concerned themselves with. While he was alive though, Antonio could continue with his role until permanent retirement forces him to leave. "Lovino… let me cheer you up with the cheer up charm."

The Italian gave him a scowl. "What the fuck!? You're going to try and cheer me up at a time like this bastard!?"

Antonio knew it was a bad idea but he had to try for his lover's sake. At least if it did make him smile just a little bit, he'd done his job well. With his free hand, he weakly opened and closed his fingers. "Spell… spell… spell…"

Lovino stared at Antonio in disbelief. He couldn't believe he was actually doing it in his last moments of life. The Italian's breath hitched until he cleared his throat. "Here Toni… let me cheer you up. You need it more than I do." He bought his hand up and stretched his fingers out then curled them into his palm, repeating the word 'spell' like Antonio did. They carried on for what they wished to be hours until the cruel monitor sent out a long beep, cutting off Antonio's cheer up charm. Although Lovino broke down in tears, he knew his spell worked because his lover passed away with a peaceful smile on his face.

FIN.

!

I know how this fan fic came to be: TomatoFashion's Role Play journal on DeviantArt here journal/RP-Journal-Chibi-Romano-390022586 and a beautiful song I've been listening on loop, The Sunny Side of the Town composed by Peter Evans. I suggest you listen to it here ( /peterevans/the-sunny-side-of-the-town) while reading this fic if you want to bawl your eyes out. I certainly did while writing this and now it's 12:15am and I have to go to work in the morning.

Anyways, fave and review.