A/N: wuu First upload! Ah man I'm so nervous D: This isn't supposed to be that long since I have to do 100 of these as part of the 100 Theme Challenge. I thought it'd be a good way to start off and practise using this site and the features and such~
Hope you enjoy, guys! Please R&R! .u.

1. "Love"

"So you'll be back in about an hour?" An excited tone reached the receiver as slender and tanned fingers cupped the ivory phone.

"Mn.." A thoughtful hum sounded, followed by an unsure tenor. "I'm not sure, Feli.. I should be but traffic's pretty bad because of this damn weather."
There was a pause, and Feliciano deflated a little. "—But I'll get there as soon as I can. This Tea bastard's taking his sweet time; he must know I want to get home to see you.." That earned a smile.

"Okay.. Just care of yourself, and don't work too hard."

"I won't, Feli. You do that too. Don't wait up for me if I take too long, Alright? I'll call you if there's any news on the traffic." The younger nodded at the instructions.

"Si." A small pause. "Ti amo, Fratello."

"…Ti amo."

He would have everything ready for when Lovino got home.
Feliciano buzzed around the house. Even though the sun was well on its way to turning in for the night; he still had things to do. He wanted to cook, clean, get the house perfect, everything, all in the short space of time he had – a challenge he decided to take up since he had done nothing all day.

Lovino had taken the liberty of filling in for his younger brother at a world meeting, the latter proving that morning to be too sick to drive halfway across town to attend this month's session. He had left early that morning and would return tonight after having a hard day and, although he had been alone for most of the day, Feliciano felt ten times better than he had done before, and was determined to stay up late enough to greet his brother upon his return.

Within the next forty-five minutes he had tidied the living room and the entirety of the upstairs, leaving the kitchen until last for good reason.
After filling a pan with a thick, crimson soup, the Italian took a peek out the window beside him and fled the room to rush upstairs and fetch a towel along with a pair of his brother's slippers, already sporting his own matching set.
He arranged the slippers on the ground, the feet holes facing the door for easy access, and the towel folded up next to them. After this, he skipped elatedly into the kitchen and resumed stirring the soup leisurely, watching it boil and protest under the heat of the stove.

By the time the eldest Italian was due back at home, Feliciano stood in the centre of the hall facing the door. He held a white bowl filled with that aromatic, steaming soup and wore a lax smile on his face; anticipating that door to open.
When five minutes had passed, he yawned which caused his eyes to water. Ten minutes, and he had to snap himself out of a somnolent daze before the entirety of the contents of the bowl tipped over, and he decided that Lovino was going to be late and it was best to sit down.
The brunette rest the bowl on a small, hip level stand beside the couch and slumped into the cushions, promising himself he would turn the volume right down so he could hear Lovino coming, and rush up to pretend he had been standing there waiting from the start.
He flicked through the channels idly, his arm falling flaccid after a while and leaving it on a popular Japanese-looking game show. He snickered a little at the highly-animated host, thinking he looked strangely like his own Japanese friend.

"So, to our first contestant, you can't see these girls – you can only hear them! I'm going to go through them one by one and give them a chance to tell you what to expect if you choose to date them! Are you ready? Here we go!"
What was this.. a Blind-Dating game show? It looked cheesy but Feli thought it to be cute- or.. he would have done, if he wasn't zoning out every few moments and drifting closer and closer to falling asleep completely.

What was I doing, again? Something about Fratello..

"Alright, and now you, young lady – what are you hoping for from today?"

"Um.. I'm not into cheap hook-ups or meaningless flings…. If you pick me, I'll give you eternal love!"
The voices on the TV played out as the last sounds the boy heard before reducing into a slumber.

..Eternal love? What is that…


Is that like what Fratello and I have?

Did we always have that? No…

Feli's mind mulled over the probability of what "Eternal Love" really meant - to love someone forever? But.. forever hadn't happened yet – how was that possible?
It confused him, and caused him to think back to the very, very start of he and Lovino's story together, their first instances of love.

It was back before they were split up – he remembered now. Back when they lived together along with Rome, their cherished Grandfather. Back when they were too young to know what eternal love even meant, but what they felt was true.

It was just...love...just pure and simple, brotherly and affectionate, normal love.
They would play every day, with each other as well as with their Grandfather. They would chase each other, laugh, cry, fight, everything brothers did and they would always look forward to doing the same the next day. That was still.. a type of love, right? That was still something significant, even at such a young age.

He tried to identify when it started to change.. maybe after they had to separate. When they were sent away, and they only chance they got to see each other where the few amounts of visits they got as they were growing up.
Feliciano was sent to live in an Austrian household and Lovino, a Spanish one.
For the first few, they would meet and cry and tell each other they missed one another and that they never wanted to be apart again, but.. those feelings passed with time.
They didn't want to play and fight any more. They wanted to talk, to laugh, to bewith one another. This only grew stronger as the years went on and the visits became less recurrent as they became busier. This was loving Fratello.. in a juvenile, childish way?

What about when they were set free and reunified? When they were able to carry out all their plans and tell each other their stories and dreams and wishes for the future? When they were old enough to fall in love but not so old that they knew what it could do to a person – what it could make a being feel. They were still young, still naïve, but they did love each other. This was their initial attraction, Feliciano thought.

So that left today – their present love. All those nights they stayed up and told each other they'd never leave and they'd always have each other – those words were still binding, they were still true.
And with.. all the past, the different phases and stages they had come through to get to this. This connection.. this love which people write about in novels and spend their whole lives trying to find – how did it come to them so effortlessly? Why were they allowed this? They hadn't known a time they didn't love each other – whatever the form it took – did that make it everlasting? Was that eternal love?

The pattern of rain cascading down onto the roof was broken when the sound of the front door opening at a speed coincided with it momentarily.

Lovino scuffled into the house, clutching a folder to his chest and a small bouquet in his other hand. He pushed back against the door to close it, his shoulders hunched and a scowl on his face. He was wet, and clearly not happy about it, but he was home now so that scowl had dripped away like the droplets of rain off the tips of his nose and the ends of his hair before he even caught his breath back. He spotted the slippers, a small and knowing simper curling into his lips as he followed the non-verbal instructions and peeled off every soaking outer layer and slipped them on happily.

"Feliciano?" He called out, leaving the damp papers on the stairs as he ambled past, inspecting the oh-too-quiet household. The flowers rustled with every step as he kept a grip on them – his apology for being so late.
He reached the living room and his smile returned upon seeing the bowl; now absent of any steam as it was stone cold by this time. And, in one movement, he had circled round to the front of the couch and crouched, leaning the floral gift against the coffee table to free up his hands.

As he reached out to trace a thumb tenderly over the younger's still cheek, he felt the feeling flood back into his numb fingertips. Feliciano was so warm.. he looked so comfortable curled up there – how long had he been down here? It didn't matter, he was asleep now but he knew his brother had tried to stay up for his homecoming, and for that he was grateful. That was so Feli.
"..Hey," He murmured, with no real mind or intent on waking him up. "Dumbass.. I told you not to wait up." He whispered in jest with a small chuckle through his nose as he moved to lift the other into his arms and carry him to their room.

Lovino's body didn't take long to warm up with Feliciano so close, he was much like a living, breathing blanket with how much he hung on to his older brother in his sleep. Like a heat-producing koala, Lovino thought with another chuckle.
The gentle strokes to his hair and the sounds of the other's amusement shifted Feliciano, pacifying him back into the land of the living as he woke up momentarily, lifting his head to look up at the other, and rubbing his eyes.

"V-..ve.. Fratello is.. home," He sounded just about as happy as anybody as tired as him could sound, and Lovino nodded.

"I am. The meeting went fine and everything's okay. I'll show you the important stuff tomorrow. Go to sleep for now, Feli." He hid his green orbs behind his eyelids and let out a deep sigh of content.
Feliciano nodded and nestled into the other's chest closer, closing his eyes half-way as he felt his cheeks dust over with a pastel pink.

This is..

"Fratello…"
A half-asleep hum from a half-asleep Fratello, and Feliciano beamed.

"I love you.. eternally!"