"So..." Felicia started hesitantly, rocking back and forth on her feet and looking at the floor, since she hadn't had the courage to look up at Monika in front of her yet. She kept her arms behind her back, holding a paper bag which hit her bottom every time she moved forward. "New Year's Eve is coming..." she said somewhat nervously before biting her bottom lip for a second, then took a deep breath and got to the point. "And I'm going to Roma for a while to see my sister. I'm only coming back on the fifth, and I won't be here to give you this, so here you go." She stopped, extended her hand with the bag towards Monika and said a quick prayer in herself, hoping her always nice and never grumpy friend wouldn't find her little gift too embarrassing. It seemed a good idea when she was in that store, but not now that she was standing there.

Hesitating maybe just as much, Monika curiously took the bag and dug into it after mumbling a soft, unsure thanks. She pulled out something that made her gasp shortly, but after forcing herself to stop frowning quickly and blinking a few times, she took a deep breath and all she could do was smile, accepting defeat from her once again. She didn't know what she had been expecting from her.
"I've never seen so much lace at once in my life." She said with a silly smile as she examined the set of lingerie she had just received.
"And it's red too." Felicia shrugged, grasping her own hands tightly behind her back in her nervousness. "It brings you luck and everything."
"That's great. Thank you." Monika dropped the way too lacy for her liking underwear back into the bag, but when she saw that Felicia was still standing there in the same way, just as shy and nervous as before, she was wondering if she still wanted something.

"Anything else?"
"Um..." And she started that rocking again which always annoyed Monika after a while, but she never said anything. "Won't you try it on?" She slowly lifted her gaze up at her. "I have even washed it for you."
"Oh... Well..." Monika found herself frowning again, not exactly comfortable with the gift or the idea of wearing it at all. But then... Being all awkward for a minute or two for her seemed to be way better than offending her and dealing with her bad mood for the rest of the day. The look on her face and the way she did anything at all, so nonchalantly and bored, made her feel guilty every single time. She took a deep breath and gave in. "Alright, but just because you're asking me to, Ita."

Hearing those words made Felicia - or Ita, how Monika called her, at first just to make fun of the way she said Italia, but later it had become just a nickname for her that she quickly grew fond of - really happy, so much that she suddenly threw her arms around Monika's neck and held her tightly.
"Great, I'm sure it will look good on you!" she said with a big smile. Monika patted her back, then pushed her gently away.
"Let me go change then."
"Sure thing!" Ita sang and watched her leave towards her room. She only followed her to the door, which was left half open, so she could not see inside, but they could hear each other.

"Do you want me to be nice or honest?" Came the questions from inside after a short time. One could hear the discomfort in her voice, which she failed to suppress.
"Is it uncomfortable?" Felicia asked worriedly from outside.
"No, no, it's not that."
"It doesn't even show so much..." Her voice suddenly became weaker, which Moni thought would be a sign of Ita one step closer to cry.
"Sorry, but..." she had to say it, she found no better way to describe the feeling. "I feel like there's some first class prostitute looking back at me in the mirror." At least she could avoid using the word whore.
"Pretty sure it looks good." Felicia's voice shook. "Or just cha-"
Monika heard a sound from her that resembled a hiccup, but she had a worse feeling about that. She started mentally preparing herself to comfort her, growing somewhat worried at the same time.
"Feli?" She walked towards the door and opened it fully to see her.

She regretted the decision immediately, and she stepped back inside, hiding her body behind the door, only sticking her head out of the room to see. To glare. To give the I swear I'm going to beat you up look to Luciano, who had an arm around Felicia and a hand on her mouth. He was holding her from behind, a carefree smile on his face.
"Come on, we both want to see. One second wasn't really enough." He grinned. His captive had had her eyes tightly closed until then, she looked up slowly to give a sincerely apologetic look to Moni.
"Idiot. Let the girl go." Monika nearly growled.
"Why, it's not like I'd hurt her. She does a very good job dressing you for me. Right, my dear?" He looked down at her, but all she did was groan and roll her eyes. She couldn't talk anyway, Luciano's hand was in the way, holding her cheeks maybe a little too tightly, his thumb pressing firmly against her cheekbone. His shoulders twitched in a short shrug. "It's just that she talks a lot of silly things and never admits she could be my right hand."
"You helped him?!" Monika gasped suddenly.

"Mh?!" Feli's eyes widened suddenly as she lifted her gaze at her again, then shook her head as much as she could, Luciano's hold still preventing her from moving a lot, but she desperately tried to tell that she had nothing to do with him, it was just that she was too scared to tell Moni when he suddenly appeared behind her back, and when she still tried to warn her, he shut her up. She struggled to be free from him, but he still wouldn't let go.
"Don't push me, I love you." Luciano cooed innocently, removed his hand from her mouth and wrapped his other arm around her too, holding one of her shoulders down with his upper arm and the other with his hand that was on her mouth before. He leaned down to press his cheek against hers, his upper arm not letting her turn her head away from him too much.
"I don't, so leave me alone." Felicia mumbled, tense in his arms, waiting for the chance to get away.
"So mean, you're worse than Lovi." Luciano chuckled. "But Moni can always save you, if she comes out looking like that first class prostitute, I'll have her instead of you right away." He looked up from Felicia back to the door, but he couldn't see Monika anymore.

"Where -" he started but couldn't finish.
"Hände hoch." Luciano heard from behind him, as well as feeling something hard pressing against his back near his shoulder blade on the side which Ita had already managed to pull away from, but nothing more. She was trying to escape on his other side. Luciano froze, but hadn't loosened the hold a bit yet.
"Are you seriously crazy? Are you going to shoot me, or what?" He asked, thinking Monika has completely lost it. "She's still with me."
"Yeah. Let her go." The calm, firm reply came.
"How did you get behind me?" He groaned, angry that Monika could somehow trick him.
"My house has windows. Let her go."

Closing his eyes he sighed, and slowly lifted his hands up in the air, releasing Felicia, the hard object pressing harder into his back convincing him rather fast. His captive jumped away from him in the second his arms were finally peeled off of her and ran to Moni. What he least expected though, was that the girl suddenly started laughing. Surprised, he turned around slowly to see Feli giggle with a wide grin and Monika, holding up and playing with a thick pen between her fingers, a smug smile on her face. She was now wearing a black T-shirt and sweatpants, something she quickly threw on before getting outside through her window. Luciano let his hands drop. He looked furious. He was fooled, how could he let that happen?
"Well, Romeo, maybe some other time." Monika chuckled and threw the pen away. "Do you still want something?"
"No." He growled.
"Great. Now, I'm already having enough Italians at my place without you, could you come back some other time perhaps?"
Without any further words, Luciano left them, and the girls could enjoy the rest of the evening in peace.