Romano sat in the backyard, staring intently at the cobbled-together stone wall. Antonio was in the kitchen, making lunch, and he fervently hoped that his clueless lover would stay there.

"Lovi?" Antonio stepped out from the house, brow furrowed as he stared at the Italian. "Lovi, what are you doing?"

"Shh!" Romano hissed, leaning forward slightly. "Don't. Move."

"Why?" Antonio moved closer.

"You'll scare him. Now, stop moving, idiot!" Romano said, though a lot quieter than he normally would have screamed it.

"Who? And why aren't you yelling like normal?" And the clueless Antonio moved ever closer.

"I mean it, bastard." Romano growled. "Not one more step, or I swear I will punch the shit out of you or something."

"Lovi," Antonio whined. Why was his Lovi acting so strange? He was pissed, but sitting still; and he wasn't yelling. What was up?

"Shh!" Romano barely flipped his hand around, but it was a clear leave-me-the-fuck-alone gesture.

"But Loviiii," Antonio walked around the wall; maybe paying some… attention to Lovi would make him explain. He moved quietly behind Lovi (his attention was entirely focused on the wall) and knelt near him. "What's so interesting?" Antonio put his hands on Lovi's shoulder and asked the question to the back of his neck.

Romano sat up straight, inhaling sharply, then he clamped a hand over Antonio's mouth to stop him from talking.

"Shh, idiot!" Romano tilted his head slightly, wrenching his hand away when Antonio bit it lightly.

"Can you tell me?" Antonio brushed his lips against the base of Lovi's neck then trailed his mouth up to his earlobe, which he nibbled before snaking his arms around Romano's stomach and pulling him closer. "Please?" Before Romano could react, Antonio had flipped him to the ground and was straddling him, mouth too close to his to let Lovi's brain work well enough to form a reasonable explanation.

"What…! You-" Romano couldn't even complain before the Spaniard's tongue was in his mouth, muffling any insults he might have come up with. "Unnn…" he moaned as Antonio ran a finger down his curl. "That's… not fair…" he broke the kiss to gasp for air, face turning redder by the second.

"You look like a cute little tomato when you're blushing like this," Antonio remarked.

"Why are you taking my fucking shirt off?" Romano was surprisingly calm for someone who was trapped under an obviously annoyed Antonio. Then again, maybe it was because Romano knew that when Antonio was annoyed he actually acted like the seme he was, that Romano was so calm. Whatever the reason, the fact still stood that an annoyed Antonio was a lot more aggressive than he usually was otherwise.

"I would have thought you would know by now," Antonio trailed a finger down his Lovi's now-bare chest.

"I would've thought the only reason you were paying attention to me instead of lunch was because I was staring at something other than you." Romano frowned, shivering slightly now that he was half-naked.

"That reminds me," Antonio moved his mouth closer to Lovi's ear. "Why were you sitting there in the first place?" He punctuated his question by nibbling lightly on his lover's ear.

"There were lizards there." Romano chuckled at the bemused expression on Antonio's face. "When I was little, you used to catch lizards all the time, then you'd dump them down the back of my shirt. Do you remember?"

"Si!" Antonio beamed at the memories. "And you would sit very still until they left you alone, and I would always get sad because you didn't scream and wiggle!"

"Yeah," Romano's mouth twitched a bit, and Antonio knew he was holding back a laugh. "So I wanted to see if I could catch one, so I cornered the little shit in the wall and I was waiting for it to come out when you realized I wasn't inside. And now you're sitting on me. Can you move, bastard?"

"Maybe." Antonio was enjoying one of his Lovi's calm moments, when he didn't swear and growl and hit and shove. Don't misunderstand, Antonio loved him anyway when he acted like that, it was just that when Romano was being peaceful, he was more… compliant. "But I don't think so."

"Why?" Romano pouted, fiddling with something in his pocket that Antonio promptly forgot about.

"Because you're very comfortable, Lovi."

And lunch was forgotten about for the moment.

Romano lay in the mess of sheets and clothes (among other stuff), savoring the afterglow running through him. Antonio was already asleep, the bastard, and Romano had the perfect plan. He reached over the side of the bed for his pants, barely able to because of his lover's strong arm slung around his waist, pinning him to the other source of warmth in the bed. Trying to squash the fuzzy feeling in his stomach, he carefully unzipped the pocket and, wrapping the sheets tightly around the naked form of Antonio, slipped the light green lizard into the bundle.

He whispered one word as Antonio started to twitch at the tiny, scaly creature crawling all over him.

"Payback."