Author's Note: Alright, so I've already got one ongoing fic, and then I put this up. What gives, right? Don't worry! How to Date a Nation is still being written, I'm just wrestling with a particular bear of a chapter, which should be up relatively soon.

This fic, for one, was inspired by a conversation a friend and I had a while ago, which ended in me really wanting to write about Feliciano chained to a tree. And thus, "I Speak for the Trees" was born. It's my first AU fic, so please enjoy, and tell me if I mess anything up!

Feliciano stood before the tree, a heavy chain draped over his shoulder. It was past midnight in the forest, and the night air was warm with the remnants of the hot summer sun. Something he was glad for, as he was never good at handling the cold. He looked down at his arms and went through his checklist. He had a cell phone, a blanket, a stainless steel water bottle, a packed lunch, and a bucket for… purposes. He'd rather not have to think about the bucket until he actually had to use it.

"You can do this, Feliciano." He said to himself. "You're brave, you can do this." He repeated this to himself like a mantra as he worked the chain around the tree, and then around his torso, locking it with two different locks, the keys long flushed to make sure he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. This was it. There was no turning back. Feliciano was going to save the forest, or die trying.

…Well, hopefully not that last bit.

Lovino woke to the alarm on his bedside table. He then hit the snooze button with a vengeance, and rolled over in his bed to get a couple more hours of sleep in. What the heck, it was Sunday. The college student could put off the day until noon, at least. He got five minutes of beauty sleep before he sat up straight in his bed, with a hint of panic to his urgent manner.

"Where's Feliciano?" He half-shouted to himself as he propelled himself off the mattress and onto the floor, running out into the hall to check his brother's room. Normally the overenthusiastic Italian would have woken him up before the alarm even sounded, never seeming to learn that waking Lovino up early on weekends earned you a punch in the face. And so his suspicions were only confirmed when he opened the door to Feliciano's room, and he was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't anywhere downstairs, either, though he had half expected to find him in the kitchen making pasta for breakfast. "Where's that idiota gone…" He grumbled as he stood in the living room, his hands poised angrily on his hips. He was about to go upstairs and wake their grandfather Roma to help search, but his eyes fell on a scrap of paper on the coffee table, covered in what looked like his brother's handwriting. He picked the paper up, reading it with furrowed brows.

Dear Nonno and Lovino.

If you're reading this, it means I'm gone. But don't worry! I've just gone away for a while to do what I think is right. Please don't try to find me because if you do then you'll want me to come home, and I can't, because I need to do this! I'll be back eventually.

Love, Feliciano. :)

The airhead had even drawn a little smiley face after his signature. Lovino pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead, staving off the inevitable headache. Did he really think they wouldn't know where he'd went? The little tree hugger had been talking about this for days, even though they never thought he'd actually do it. When they had found out their beloved forest was going to be cut down… yes, it had been a shock, but at least he and their grandpa had had enough sense to stay out of the matter. But that idiot Feli hadn't been able to let it go. They had joked about him rioting with picket signs, almost as if the image was too funny to ever happen in reality. But it looked like he'd gotten the idea stuck in his head.

Lovino started up the stairs to his grandfather's room, but stopped himself midway. Did he really want to get Feliciano in trouble for this? He gave it a moment's consideration before he was out the door and in the garage, borrowing his grandfather's car. He really, really hoped he could get back before he woke up, because sticking his neck out for people was not something he did often, and he didn't want the one time to end in his ass getting roasted. He grumbled over the steering wheel the entire drive over, even as the town began to give way to dirt roads and forest. Finally the road ended, and he was forced to get out of the car and walk the rest of the way into the woods. He didn't have to search long, though; all he had to do was follow the snoring. It looked like Feliciano hadn't wandered in too far, probably wanting to make sure he'd be found easily by any loggers. He was chained securely to a large oak tree, his head resting against the trunk and his lower half covered by a blanket as he made that ungodly honking noise that was the reason they'd had to spring for a three-bedroom apartment.

"Fratello!" Lovino shouted, loud enough that it startled Feliciano into waking. The younger brother, having been ripped from his dreamland, simply stared dumbstruck at the older as if confounded that he had ever been able to find him. Lovino rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you! You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack this morning!"

"I'm sorry!" Feliciano whined, seemingly having been shaken out of his stupor. "I didn't mean to scare you! But see, I'm okay!"

"Idiota!" Lovino growled. "That's not the point! What the hell do you even think you're doing?!"

Feliciano smiled. "I'm saving the trees! You can help too, if you want!"

"Ohh, no." Lovino stepped toward his brother, wagging his finger like a stern mother. "If you want to chain yourself to a piece of wood and piss in a bucket, you can do it yourself. But I'm going home, and I'm telling nonno!"

Feliciano's eyes widened. "Ve!? No, please don't! You don't understand, if you tellhimhe'll neverletmeoutofthehouseagainandthisisreallyreallyimportantsopleasedon'tLovino!" The last part of the sentence blurred into itself in a haze of forgotten commas and messy syllables.

"You don't get it, do you?" Lovino shouted. "This is dangerous! Have you even thought this through!?" All of a sudden, there were tears in Feliciano's eyes, his lower lip trembling.

"B-but Lovino!" Feliciano said, stuttering a bit. "If I don't do this, who will? Who's going to save our forest? We always p-played here, remember? I d-don't want it to be cut down!"

Something in his words struck Lovino. He sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Fine. You know what? Fine. I won't tell nonno. But he's going to notice you're gone eventually, and when that happens you're on your own." Feliciano nodded. If that was the best he was going to get out of his brother, he would take it. And when his grandfather came… well, he would cross that bridge when he got to it. "What am I even supposed to tell him?" Lovino continued, having resigned himself to the fact that his brother was an idiot and he was for some reason helping.

"Just… just tell him I'm sleeping over at a friend's house!"

"Yeah, and the day after that?"

"Err…" Feliciano flustered. "I didn't think of that…"

"Nevermind, I'll think of something." Lovino looked back at the little trail that had led him here, knowing his grandfather would be waking soon. "I'd better get going. Just… be careful, alright?"

"Si! Si, of course!" Feliciano said happily. "Grazie, Lovino!"

"Yeah, whatever." The older brother waved a short goodbye and headed back to his car, walking past the old wooden "Taylor Forest" sign. It was old and worn, but it still looked almost as it had when he, his brother and his grandfather had first moved to the neighboring town, almost nine years ago. It was true; there were a lot of good memories in that forest. Running around daring each other to climb taller and taller trees. Playing "Cowboys and Indians" with Alfred and Arthur, the latter never seeming quite as enthusiastic as the former. This was where they had spent entire days together searching for 'treasure', even though treasure to them usually meant old bottles and forgotten plastic jewelry. He scolded himself mentally at his own sentimentality. "Stupid bastard. Keep thinking like that and you'll end up chained to a tree too." He thought to himself, before climbing back into the car and driving off. He just hoped this would all blow over soon.

Not five minutes later he pulled back up to the house, and snuck back in through the door in the garage. He half expected his grandpa to be waiting there for him, leaning against the wall with the "You're screwed" smile on his face. But he was relieved when he realized the old man hadn't even gotten up yet. He briefly considered trying to get back to sleep, but his system was already filled with so many stress hormones it would probably be useless. So he settled for just taking some eggs out of the fridge and making himself some breakfast. It wasn't long before he heard his grandfather coming down the stairs, and Roma was soon leaning over his shoulder, asking if he could make him some eggs, too.

"Make your own damn eggs." Lovino grumbled, pushing his own around the pan.

"Language, Lovino." Roma chastised, his grey-flecked hair disappearing behind the refrigerator door as he searched for something he could make himself. For all his fifty-eight years, Roma still looked like he was only at the south end of forty, his prominent laugh lines the only real giveaway that he could be old enough to have grandchildren in college. He finally stood up, holding two of his own eggs and a pack of bacon.

"That shit'll clog your arteries." Lovino commented as he scraped his eggs onto a plate.

Roma laughed. "Why do you suddenly care so about my health, Lovino?"

"Arthur was just talking about it the other day, and he said it was really bad for you- hey!" he was cut off when his grandfather started ruffling his hair affectionately, as if he were five years old.

"At my age, I think I deserve some bad habits, no?" He said happily, before plopping five fat strips of bacon into the same pan, still hot from the eggs. "So, where's Feliciano?" Lovino tensed.

"Um…" He said, thinking of what he could say to get himself out of this fast. "He's with some friends."

"This early in the morning?" Roma questioned, one eyebrow climbing steadily upward.

"Y-yeah! He said he had to catch a movie or some shit like that." He gulped as Roma looked at him carefully, as if judging whether to believe him or not. Finally he smiled, and Lovino let out a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding.

"That's lovely!" Roma said, as they both headed toward the table with their breakfasts and sat down across from each other. "It's nice that Feliciano is getting out with his friends, don't you think?" Lovino snorted. He said it like it was a rare thing. Ever since they were kids, Feliciano had had a habit of… collecting people. And it wasn't like they came to him, oh no; he had always been the kid who would run up to a stranger on the playground and introduce himself. It didn't stop, either; as he grew he was doing it in the school hallways, in the aisles at his first summer job, and now anywhere on campus he could spot someone who looked friendly. It was as if he breathed companionship like air. Come to think of it… he was probably pretty lonely out there under his tree. "Hellooo? Earth to Lovino?" He snapped out of his train of thought to find his grandfather tapping him on the head with his (hopefully unused) fork.

"Hey! What the hell, old man?"

Roma just snickered. "And he's back!" He said happily, before digging into his food. Lovino sighed and did the same, still thinking about Feliciano. Maybe he should be giving him more credit for what he was doing?

Four hours later…

Feliciano was bored. It was a simple fact that you can only play I Spy with yourself so many times before the game gets pointless, and he was starting to wish he had brought a book, or a game, or something to keep himself occupied. Not only that, he was starting to get hungry. And he thought he had been so smart, planning ahead by packing himself a breakfast. He winced slightly at the stiff feeling in his back as he readjusted himself against the bark. Such were the sacrifices of a man on a mission, he supposed.

Oh, who was he kidding. He was Feliciano Vargas, and anyone who knew him for any amount of time would know that he couldn't go without his food. He was Italian, dammit! He didn't know how much longer he could take this…

"Hey, idiota!" Feliciano immediately brightened up when he heard his brother's yell. He looked up to see him walking down the path to him, holding a canvas bag in his hands. "I figured you'd probably be hungry by now, so I brought you some food." He dropped the bag in the lap of the Italian, who eagerly looked inside to find a good-sized lunch box. "There's enough in there for lunch and dinner, and I guess I can do this kind of shit for you every day. Nonno would kill me if I let you starve, anyway." He looked away from his brother as he said this, his cheeks flushing with the embarrassment of the good deed. Feliciano didn't seem to notice, though.

"Oh, thank you, Lovino!" He said happily, already opening up the box. "You're the best fratello anyone could ask for… ve?" Lovino smirked, knowing he'd found what he had hidden beneath the lunch box. "You brought me books!" Feliciano practically squealed in delight, pulling out the small stack of his favorites; The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, and The Princess Bride.

"Yeah, I figured you'd be bored out of your mind by now, so I decided to be an awesome big brother and bring you these." He mentally slapped himself for sounding like Gilbert.

"Ohh, grazie grazie grazie!" Feliciano said. "Come here!"

"What?" What was the idiot doing now?

"Just come over here!" Lovino obliged, and immediately regretted it as he was pulled down into a very tight hug.

"L-let go of me you bastard! You're cutting off my air!" Of course, if Feliciano really had been choking him then he wouldn't have been able to yell his protest quite so loudly. But he was released anyway, and rubbed his neck theatrically as he stepped away from the tree.

"Ve, I'm sorry! But you're being so nice, Lovino! I had to give you a hug!" He giggled. Yes, the little moron actually giggled. It was no wonder he wore dresses until he was ten…

"I've gotta go now, or nonno will start wondering where I am. You just… do whatever you do."

"Si, I won't keep you. Grazie, Lovino!" He called again as he watched his brother disappear into the forest. Sighing happily, he pulled out the cold pasta Lovino had packed and cracked open The Princess Bride. He was lucky to have him.