Hey there, Maria here!

This is a two chapter birthday fic that I wrote for my friend Natty!

It was originally going to be a song fic, but my mind started to think of other ideas, and this was born instead~

I hope you enjoy! (Chapter two is still in the process of being written)


Sitting down at a café booth, a single man waited for his brother to arrive. Said man had a problem. Or rather, said man thought he had a problem. He wasn't quite sure yet where he stood in his current situation.

Looking down at his watch with a frown, he wondered where the hell his brother could possibly be. He was supposed to meet him here fifteen minutes ago! He rolled his eyes accepting that this happening was inevitable. He should be arriving any time now. Or so he hoped.

Taking a sip of his coffee he thought about what he had to talk about today. He wasn't usually much for discussing his feelings or his personal life, but this seemed a little different. Less about himself and more about someone else. Someone important to him.

Sighing deeply and taking out his phone, he scrolled down through his recent texts to find his most recent conversation with one of his best friends. Antonio. He frowned looking at the short conversation they had only yesterday.

'Hey. Haven't seen you in a while…not that I miss you or anything. Are you up to hanging out later?'

'Sorry Lovi. I don't think I can see you right now. I have a few things on my mind…'

'Oh…okay then. See you later I guess.'

'Yeah.'

There were so many more things he had wanted to say yesterday during that brief conversation. So many things he had wanted to ask. The normal cheery disposition of his friend seemed to be completely gone the last few times Lovino had talked to him. Had he done something wrong? Had he said something wrong? It wouldn't have surprised him if he had…he had a reputation for doing stupid shit like that.

Frown deepening, Lovino set his phone down on the table top and shifted his gaze towards the door. Sure enough his brother was in sight, walking down the street not too far from the café, a dazed expression on his face. Glaring at him even though he knew he couldn't see him yet, Lovino got up and went to the door waiting for his brother to get to him.

Taking notice of Lovino standing in the doorway, the other man; Feliciano, smiled and waved happily before opening up the door and entering the building. "Ciao Lovi~" he said, pulling his brother in for a hug.

Reluctantly, Lovino slowly wrapped his arms around his brother. "Ciao Feli." He said, pulling back and kissing his brother on both cheeks. "How are you?"

"Oh, I've been alright. I'm sorry I'm late! I had to finish up making dinner for Luddy for when he gets home from work since I'm not going to be home till later." He smiled, a thoughtful expression on his face. Lovino waited patiently for him to collect his thoughts.

"Say, why did you want me to meet you here again fratello? I don't think I remember you telling me why…" A curious expression came onto his face as he took off his coat. "It's not like you to call me first." he said, a small frown eminent behind his smile.

Lovino frowned at him. If one were to have only met him now, they would think the look he gave his brother was one of anger or disapproval. Only people that were close to him would know that it was in fact a look of guilt. It was true. He could call more often to see his brother rather than his brother having to always call him first. But he was a busy man, especially lately what with his job and all. He didn't seem to have time for anybody right now…let alone the people that mattered in his life.

"Well, if we sit down at the table that I got for us instead of standing here at the door like a bunch of idiotas, maybe you'll find out!" he said, huffing and turning on his heel to go to the table he was originally at. "And I'm sorry...for not calling you as often as I should." He added, feeling like he should at least offer an apology, no matter how shitty it sounded.

A small knowing smile on his face, Feliciano chuckled and followed Lovino to the table, setting his coat down on the booth and sitting opposite of his brother. "That's alright Lovi. I know you've been busy."

Nodding in reply Lovino sat down too and sighed, playing with the mug in front of him, a bit of coffee still in it. "I'm concerned about Antonio." He said, getting straight to the point. "Whenever I try and talk to him, he tells me he doesn't want to keep me from doing the things that I need to do, or that he'll talk to me later…"

He stopped and looked up at his brother who seemed to be thinking. He took the silence as his cue to go on. "I don't know if I did something or said something wrong…but he hasn't been the same lately, and I'm worried."

Done explaining the situation, Lovino stopped talking and looked up at his brother, realizing he was still playing with the stupid coffee mug. He put it down and folded his hands in his lap. Why was he so damn nervous all of a sudden?

"Well…I do know a lot about what you're talking about Lovi…but I promised Toni that I wouldn't say anything to you." He bit his lower lip, wondering if he'd said too much already. It turns out that he had.

"What do you mean you know things?" Lovino asked, leaning in towards his brother, his frown turning into an expression of curiosity.

Leaning back a bit trying to escape Lovino's gaze, Feliciano decided to help his brother along. He couldn't tell him exactly what was going on…but that didn't mean that he couldn't at least guide him in the right direction. Besides, what kind of a brother would he be if he didn't at least try to help?

Sighing and sitting up straight again, Lovino frowned. "You're not going to tell me are you?" he asked, getting annoyed. Feliciano shook his head, eliciting a deeper sigh from Lovino. "But I will help you!" he said, trying to make up for his prior stubbornness.

A small smile started to come onto Lovino's face, but he quickly pushed it back. "Fine. Not like I really care either way." He said, trying to sound convincing. He knew he didn't judging from the smirk on his brother's face.

"Sure fratello, whatever you say." Said Feliciano, grabbing Lovino's mug and taking a sip of the coffee. He wrinkled his nose when he found it wasn't hot anymore. Setting down the mug, he adjusted himself in his seat and tried to think of what he would say to Lovino without giving too much away to him. Although, it did surprise him that Lovino hadn't seen this sooner. He thought that Lovino was supposed to be the less "oblivious" of the two. Or so he claimed.

"Alright. Well, as I said before, I've been talking to Toni about some things Lovi. He's very confused right now about something, and you're making it worse for him in a way." He paused, noticing the confused expression on Lovino's face. "Not to make you feel bad or anything! It's not really like that…ve…I don't really know how to explain this to you without giving it away."

Slouching in his seat, Lovino blew an annoying piece of hair off of his face. "Listen Feli. If you don't want to help me you don't have to. I can figure this out on my own…" he said, though he wasn't too sure he could. The list of things that could be going on with Antonio could be endless. Although if it had to do with him directly, the only thing he could think of to be wrong would be the way he acted towards the Spaniard.

"No no! I do want to help you Lovi!" Feliciano said, reaching his arm across the table to grab one of his brother's hands. "I just don't want to go back on my promise to Toni…"

"Feli, forget about what you promised Antonio for a minute, okay? If I'm going to help him I have to know what's wrong." He said, pushing his brother's hand off of his own and folding his arms over his chest. He intensified his glare at Feliciano, halfway between begging and just storming out of the building in frustration.

"If it were you in this situation and I knew something about your stupi-…about Ludwig...I'd tell you right away because I know how much you care about him. And because you're my brother and I...love you." he said, mumbling out the last part.

"And I expect you to the same for me! I c-care about that idiot you know...I want him to be okay because I..." He trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence because it was too embarrassing to say to his brother. 'Because I love him...' he continued in his head.

A moment of silence passed between the two before Feliciano shot up from his seat and attacked Lovino with a hug. "You're the best brother ever Lovino, did you know that? Oh, how can I not tell you now after you said something like that?" he practically squeeled, tightening his grip on his brother.

A small smirk crossed Lovino's features before he forced his brother off of him. "Alright, alright I get it!" he said, chuckling lightly as he got Feliciano settled back down. "Now, are you going to tell me or not?"

The grin immediately left Feliciano's face when Lovino spoke again. "I…I guess so." He said hesitantly, wondering if Antonio would be mad at him for this. Well, if Lovino did the right thing with the information he received from him, all should end well, and Toni would have no reason to be angry!

"In all honesty though, I'm surprised you weren't able to see it before…" he let out a light chuckle when Lovino raised his eyebrow at him.

Sensing the impatience rising in his brother, Feliciano decided to just cut to the chase. "So as I said before, I've been talking to Toni a lot lately because he's been feeling very lonely without you around. He knows you have work to do, and that you're busy a lot…but he wishes that you'd come out more often when you have time. He misses you a lot."

A frown formed on Lovino's face. He hadn't seen him in a while…and he guessed he missed him a little. But he didn't see what this had to do him having a problem. Besides the fact that he missed his favorite Italian. "Your point is?" he asked, growing more restless with each passing moment.

"My point is that Toni thinks you're ignoring him." He said, taking out his cellphone and showing his brother a few of the texts. "He thinks that since you never seem to want to hang out anymore that you're trying to avoid him. You do tend to tell him that he's annoying a lot…I think he just got discouraged."

Lovino's face dropped at that. He didn't know he'd been that neglectful of his friend. "I see." He said, passing the phone back to Feliciano, trying not to show how upset he actually was to his brother. Nothing could get past him though. He smiled softly, knowingly, and put his phone away.

"He's been wanting to talk to you about something for a while too. But he thought you may have guessed his intentions and that's why you were trying to avoid him."

Another confused look. Another annoyed sigh. "What did he want to talk to me about?" Lovino asked, wondering if this was the part that was supposed to come obviously to him.

"You really don't know?" Feliciano asked, a puzzled look on his face. He would have thought Lovino would have guessed it by now. It wasn't as if he hadn't been feeling the same way lately also…no matter how much he tried to hide it. Feliciano knew a lot more than he would ever let on.

"No. I don't know fratello. Now tell me!" Lovino almost shouted, his patience wearing thin. He needed to know what Antonio needed to talk to him about. Otherwise he couldn't do anything about the situation.

Feliciano was about to give in. He was about to give Lovino the information he wanted. But just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, an idea flashed into his head and a smile formed on his face.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

A moment of silence. Then a scowl. Then a sigh of defeat.

"Do I have to?" Lovino asked, rubbing his temple. He wasn't very good at confronting people about things like this. Had he have been mad at Antonio over something, this confrontation would be a piece of cake. But he wasn't, and this wasn't anything like the other times. So this was going to be difficult. Especially since he didn't know what he was getting himself into yet.

"Yes. You have to." Feliciano responded firmly, starting to grab his coat to leave.

Also starting to collect his things, Lovino fought between the urge to punch his brother in the gut for leaving him like this, or sucking up his pride and asking him for help.

He sided with the latter, taking a deep breath before lightly taking hold of Feliciano's sleeve.

"What do I even say to him Feli? He's going to be upset with me…I've probably hurt him a lot more than I'm thinking."

"Just tell him you heard from a friend that he needed to talk to you." He said, knowing that Toni was bound to have consulted Gil and Francis by now. Maybe even Elizeveta or Roderich. He was sure Toni wouldn't suspect him first. Especially if things didn't work out well when he and Lovino met up. But knowing those two…things were bound to go exceptionally right. Even if it took some time to get to that point.

"You can do it Lovi. Knowing Toni, he's probably not mad at you or anything! Just upset." That did nothing to help settle the nervous feeling in Lovino's gut and Feliciano knew it. He tried to come up with a quick counter. "But if you talk to him about what it is he's been meaning to tell you, I'm sure you'll understand and everything will go back to normal!"

A sly smile came onto Feliciano's face as he removed Lovino's hand from his sleeve so he could get his coat on. "In fact, things may be better than normal after you're done talking to him!" he said reassuringly, giving his brother's hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go and putting on his coat.

Upon hearing that, thoughts began to formulate in Lovino's head as he came up with guesses as to what it was Antonio had to talk to him about. A few prominent hypotheses swirled around in his head, but they seemed too good to be true, so he simply pushed them aside as wishful thinking.

"I sure hope you're right Feli." He said, putting his own coat on and heading toward the door.

"I'm always right when it comes to these kinds of things Lovi!"

"I can name a few times-"

"Well it was nice talking to you! Call me later after you've talked to Toni! Bye!~"

And with that, the younger of the two was out the door with a flash, leaving Lovino alone again.

Rolling his eyes and laughing a bit, he began to exit too. "That little shit…" he mumbled under his breath as he took his car keys out, a small smile on his face.

Feliciano really had helped him. Even if the information he gave him was a bit hazy, and he still didn't quite know just what he had to do or what he was getting himself into.

Deciding he'd let fate choose what happened next, he got to his car and opened it up, getting inside quickly and starting it up.

A few moments later he was off to find Antonio and the answers to the many questions that wouldn't leave him alone since Feliciano left him at the café.


Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Please send reviews whether you liked or disliked this! I would love to get better at writing. Just, please keep it constructive criticism if you leave any of that :)

Thank you again and see you in chapter two hopefully 3