He did not fall asleep of course, sleep never came to Lovino the same way it just came to Antonio. "I just let go, close my eyes and sleep." Antonio would say every time Lovi would wonder how he could fall asleep so easily. That had never happened for him, trying to fall asleep was always a battle of not letting his brain worry about well, nothing and everything. If he focused on anything to much he would get too worried about whatever it was and if he tried to clear his mind he would always end up thinking about things that were too big for his mind to deal with. Why are we here? What is life really about? That sort of thing. But how Antonio could fall asleep in the brutal midday summer heat of Madrid, Lovino would most definitely never understand. He reached over Antonio to turn off his alarm.

"Get up, we need to get ready for the opening."

"Well it's a little hard to get up when you are on top of me." Antonio said and then without giving Lovino the chance to move he grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down in to a kiss. Lovi smiled, people often didn't understand why he never smiled. To be honest he was never really sure himself; but somehow he could feel it, the wait of the worlds horrors on his shoulders. He was no army veteran nor a witness to any crime, he just knew it was there and knew that he couldn't do anything about it. But he always smiled at that silly green eyed fool how somehow was always there next to him. He rolled off Antonio and swung his legs over the side of the bed so that he was sitting. The small closet was just next to him so he didn't have to move to open it. In fact everything was sort of like that in there small 6th floor apartment in the center of the art's district in Madrid. There was always music playing on the streets, day and night… Sometimes Antoni would sing along with the songs that he had known his whole life. Songs about sex, songs about love, songs that only made sense to him because of the little Italian boy.

Lovino pulled a purple collared shirt out of the closet, as he buttons up the buttons he looks up to see Antonio with his hand outstretched.

"Dance with me, mi corazón?" he says, a huge grin on his lips. Lovino furrows his brow. "You are going to be late for your own exhibit opening" but he takes his hand despite himself.

"You ok?"

"Yes, Yes of course" but lovi could see the nervousness behind his eyes.

"Don't worry, everyone is going to love it! Your stuff is so good, you got the gig didn't you?"

Antonio tugged on his vest a little, he had been waiting for this for so long. He had been taking photos of things he thought deserved to be remembered since he was able to hold a camera. Somehow he had managed to get a gallery to hold an exhibit of only his work. This was a first, before this he had only ever had one or two pieces in a large exhibit, granted he was only 23. Just barely out of school he had been asked to do project for a newspaper, which was very lucky. Getting started is one of the hardest things about being an artist. Although he quickly realized that taking photos of things he was told to take photos of by other people was not what he wanted to do. But it paid the bills and let him keep Lovino by his side.

He looked down and smiled at the fiery little Italian next to him as Lovino made that little smirk that he did whenever they were in public. "Well I guess we better go in before people start showing up." Antonio took his hand with a soft smile and started walking towards the glass double doors of the gallery

The evening had gone pretty well so far, Lovino had stayed next to Antonio at the door welcoming everyone in.

"Why don't you go look around Lovino, you haven't seen all the pieces in here yet."

"Alright, I'll be back in a little while with some wine."

It was true Lovino had not seen most of the photos that were being exhibited, although he could tell that they were Antonio's right away by the why the light hit the different subjects of the photographs. As he walked a long he saw a waiter with a tray of wine turn a corner.

"Escuz…" the word simply dissipated in to the air as his jaw fell a little open. It was him. The entire back wall of this hall was a photo of him, he is about 16 in the photo. He is walking out of the lake next to Antonio's parents' house in the south of Spain, wearing red swim trunks; the water on his skin catching the light of the late afternoon making his skin glisten. He didn't know it at the time but he was walking towards someone who had loved him for a long time, and who he would fall hard for as well.

All of sudden there is a Lovino feels a worm, and familiar hand on the small of his back.

"That was the day I realized that I loved you, Lovino. I don't know how I didn't see it sooner…" the larger man trailed off, he was now holding him close to his side. Lovino put one hand on the Antonio's chest and stared up wide eyed.

It was like everyone else in the world had simply turned to smoke. There was nothing in this world that could take the Italian's eyes off the big green ones that were staring right threw him as though Antonio was trying to see his soul. They were burning in to him. But he didn't mind, not one bit. Without even realizing it they had begun to gravitating towards one another, their faces now centimeters away from each other. Antonio's hand reached up Lovino's back and stopped at the nape of his neck to pull him in close for a kiss that Lovino gladly gave in to.

Before either of them had the chance to remember all of the people standing around them Lovi pulled away just a bit and whispered in to his loves ear, "Better late than never, amore mio."