This story literally took all my patience. But ghost stories are a favorite of mine so I powered through! It's only two chapters long, but I like it ^.^

The idea for this is a little jumbled, but yeah, Lovino's got some problems with conducting himself and dealing with others.

But no matter. I own nothing- Enjoy!

Moving in with Feliciano and his bastard German was not Lovino's idea of fun. In fact, it was a nightmare he had once.

But despite how downright unpleasant the very prospect was, Lovino really didn't have much of a choice. He had no where to go, no place to live, and frankly living on his own was a problem in itself.

Grumbling, Lovino dragged his things up the steps.

Two suitcases and a vase was all he had to his name. As he passed an open window, he felt a strong urge to chuck the ugly piece of porcelain as far as possible, but he couldn't bring himself to actually go through with the notion. It had been the only thing his grandfather had left him. Sighing, he trudged on.

The entire house had a musty air to it, giving the impression it hasn't been lived in for ages. According to his brother, who relayed the fact from the realtor, the house really hadn't been occupied for as long as thirty years. Feliciano and his partner, Ludwig, were the first to buy it, and Lovino was trapped along for the ride.

The entire building and the grounds that came with it were overrun or just rundown. Ludwig had sworn he checked to make sure the floors were completely stable, as well as the infrastructure, but Lovino took no chances. Every step was as light as he could make it and he held his measly possessions away from the walls. The last thing he needed was to bump something and take the entire house down.

Finally making it to his designated room, Lovino carefully opened the door. Inside was a plain bed and simple furniture; the sight was oddly welcome. After throwing the suitcases on the bed (and caution to the wind it seemed), Lovino set the vase on the nightstand.

"Now it's home" He said aloud, as if the walls could hear him. "Just fucking perfect"

"Lovino!" Feliciano called from the first floor. "I made pasta! Want some?"

"Oh course idiot!" He called back. "I'll be down as fast as I can without the floors falling through!" Lovino cast one last look around his new room. He wondered how long it would be until he would have to leave again.

In a moment he was back in the hallway, on his way downstairs. But something caught his eye. It was the window. He had sworn was open last time he checked, but now the glass was firmly closed, the grime coating it so thick he could see his reflection. Biting his lip, Lovino tried to think of an explanation. "Maybe the wind had pushed it?"

He hadn't realized he had spoken aloud until he heard a bark of laughter behind him. Spinning around, Lovino expected to see Feliciano, or maybe Ludwig, but there was no one. The hall was as empty as it could be.

The emptiness unnerved him. The sudden silence reminded him of something he couldn't place. It didn't take long before his nerves could take no more and he fled.

By the time Lovino had thrown himself into the kitchen, the chuckling had long stopped. It took hours of coaxing and eventual bribery to get him to return upstairs again.

[=]

Exactly one week later, a man appeared in the hall.

It was middle of the night and having dueled with his thirst for hours, Lovino decided to give in and go fetch himself a glass from downstairs. It wasn't like he was sleeping that night any how. His frequent nightmares had become more persistent.

He was halfway down the hallway when a door at the end of the hall -one of the doors that no one in the house ever used- slammed shut.

Much to Lovino's credit, he did not scream. He screeched and flung backwards because it was the middle of the goddamn night- but he did not scream.

He did scream however, when he saw him.

The man was near transparent, with curly brown hair and a wide, almost sad smile.

But despite Lovino's worst fears, he did nothing. He only stood in the moonlight watching Lovino as he lay sprawled out and paralyzed on the floor. Seconds turned to hours as he was stared down. Old, green eyes scrutinized him from the face of a man who couldn't be older than twenty-five.

Mouth dry, Lovino struggled to find his voice. "Wh- who are you?"

A smile was the response. The man took a small step toward him, looking as if was really going to respond.

But in that moment, the cavalry arrived.

"What happened?" Feliciano demanded from behind the frying-pan wielding Ludwig. Both stood at the mouth of the stairs, the latter looking as serious as one could in his underwear at three in the morning.

"There was someone down the hall!" Lovino shouted, gesturing to where the man had stood. Emptiness was the only thing to backup his words and Lovino groaned upon realizing how crazy he must sound.

"There's nothing there." Feliciano said, stating the obvious.

"But there was!"

Ludwig, ever the sensible one, reached over the brothers, hitting the switch on the far wall of the small hallway. Light flooded the are and illuminated nothing but three doors and a window. Ludwig took no chance though, marching down the pathway and flinging open door after door to inspect each and every room. There was no one to be seen.

Feliciano's knowing look was sickening. Lovino growled, pushing himself away from the sad look in his brother's eyes. Yet despite his cold gesture, his cheeks still warmed as Feliciano grabbed his hands.

"No no, Lovino- maybe you were right! Maybe there really was someone, and he slipped out the window before we got here!" His words felt empty even to him, but he soldiered on. "How about we get new locks for all the windows and doors? That would be sure to make you feel better, won't it Lovino?"

Lovino grunted, feeling his cheeks burn redder still. He was not a little kid. "There really was someone there, I'm not making it up!"

Feliciano's grip tightened. "I know you aren't. It's just... late. Maybe you're tired! Let's all go back to sleep and tomorrow it'll be all better, I promise."

Lovino tried not to feel written off, but it was hard with the look Ludwig was trying not to send him. He clumsily tugged away from Feliciano's hold, clamoring to his feet.

"There really was someone!" Lovino growled. It was a worthless defense but he stuck to it. He walked back to his room, unable to work up anything else before slipping past the door and slamming it shut.

[=]

Morning broke slowly. Or rather at glacier's pace to Lovino, who was still unable to sleep. Every time he closed his eyes it felt like that man would be there again, watching him. It took sometime before he worked up the courage to get out of bed and open the door to the hall. Taking special effort to avoid looking at where the man had appeared before, Lovino dashed out the door and down the stairs, into the kitchen which was always his first and foremost destination.

Feliciano, upon seeing him enter, took no time before yapping his ear off.

"Lovino, Lovino! Want some coffee?" Lovino grunted, which was enough response for the man as he slid a mug down the table to his brother. "So I was thinking we could go the market today and look for a locksmith-"

"No way" Lovino replied, taking a long sip and enjoying to the instant burst of caffeine.

"Oh come on Lovino, it could be fun. Besides, you've never seen what it's like around here- soooo pretty! I mean it's no Italy but... you're not listening to me" Feliciano frowned slightly, dancing over to his brother. It took a minute of waving about before he even looked up from whatever was especially interesting on the counter.

"There will be tomatoes..." Feliciano tried.

Lovino's response was immediate and expected. "We leave in an hour"

[=]

It took a very long walk and a bus ride to get to the bustling market place. By the time they arrived, the sun was already high in the sky. People busied themselves all around, going from peaceful to aggressive as Feliciano stopped suddenly and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.

"So!" He announced. "The locksmith's should be here somewhere. A man by the name of Mr. Ox...erwhaddawhudda. I have no idea how to pronounce that. Anyway, he's the only locksmith in town so it shouldn't be too hard"

Lovino looked around to the many different shops lining them from all sides. It did not take long to locate the one with smoke rising from the roof and the unmistakeable clanging of an anvil. He pointed toward the general location, pulling his brother roughly by his sleeve. "That way"

They pushed their way through the crowd, who was more than welcome to have them move out of the way. Approaching the entrance, Feliciano knocked loudly on the stall's side. "Hello!" He chirped. "Anyone here?"

The clanging stopped. A man straightened up from where he had been hunched over a molten piece of metal. He spared the two a glance before saying something in a language foreign to the brothers. Immediately, another man popped out from behind the far back curtain.

"Hello!" He greeted, quickly sticking out his hand to Feliciano, who shook it enthusiastically, and to Lovino, who quickly stuck his hands in his pockets. "Welcome to the local blacksmith's. My name is Tino, and Berwald is the one toiling over the iron. What can we do for you folks?"

Feliciano brightened at the greeting, still clutching the poor man's hand in his palm. "I'm Feliciano, and this is my brother Lovino. It is nice to meet you. Today we're actually looking to get the old locks on our home replaced. Can you do that as well as, um, whatever he's doing?"

"Of course!" Tino replied. "But I'm afraid we must know dimensions and sizes before anything can be replaced."

"Oh! I do actually! Ludwig wrote it down..." Feliciano patted at his pockets, jabbering on. Lovino rolled his eyes as the measurements were found on the scrap of paper already in his hand.

Tino looked over the paper carefully. He nodded. "These seem to work just fine. If you follow me to the back, I'll show you our most popular wares"

Feliciano nodded too, easily trailing after the blond man as he began moving to the back end of the store. Lovino was left alone with Berwald, who was now giving him an odd look. It was against his will that he began to shrink into himself. Damnit, why had Feliciano left him alone?

Instead of returning to whatever it was he was working on, the man took a step towards Lovino. Lovino in turn took a step back. After a moment of a staredown that reminded him more and more of the apparition from the night before, Lovino broke down. "What?!" He cried.

The man froze. His expression was still unreadable but if Lovino were to guess he would have to say he looked the slightest bit flustered. "You live in the Fernandez Mansion, do you not?"

"What's it to you?" Lovino demanded, more than slightly relieved the man had stopped advancing.

"There is something you should know about that house" He continued, his serious expression never fading.

To say Lovino was intrigued would be an understatement. Ever since he had stepped foot inside the place, he knew something was different. But so far, there hadn't been anyone to address his concerns, "What?"

He breathed out. Berwald sat heavily in the chair next to his anvil, nearly breaking the tense mood that had settled over the little workshop. His next words remedied the shift soon enough, dragging the tone darker and darker as he spoke. "There used to be a family that lived in that house. A boy and a girl, their parents, and a couple of servants."

Lovino waited with baited breath. He got the sense Berwald rarely talked much, and was near shocked when he kept going.

"One day, a fire broke out. It ran along the trees and swallowed the house full. That's why the infrastructure is so shaky, no one around here was ever willing to fix it much. The girl and her parents got out fine, along with most of the servants. But the boy- well everyone whispers how close he was to the youngest servant of the house. When the servant boy never emerged from the flames, he went after him"

Berwald stopped his tale to take a shaky breath. "I know he's still there. Still desperate to find him. Neither of the bodies were ever found"

Upon the end of the story, the atmosphere became heavy. Lovino tried to think of the implications of what Berwald had just said. "You mean to tell me" he stuttered out. "That there's a ghost in that house?"

Berwald said nothing. The silence dragged on.

"That's fucking crazy." Lovino finally decided, ignoring how easily the apparition of the man could have been explained. If he fell for such a stupid thing now, he might never find a sense of mind he was always desperately searching for. "No, stop it. Stop looking at me damnit!"

His voice began to reach near hysteria. He couldn't even tell if Berwald was even looking his way anymore or not. "Stop it!" He began to hyperventilate.

"Lovino!" A new voice shouted, bringing him harshly back to reality.

Lovino spun around to see his brother and Mr. Tino side by side, back in the shop. Feliciano ran to his side, grabbing his shoulder and asking if he was alright.

When Lovino made no response, Feliciano immediately began apologizing to Mr. Berwald and Mr. Tino simultaneously. "I'm so sorry! He didn't mean to, well whatever it was he did! Please don't be angry!"

Mr. Tino opened his mouth in reply, but Berwald beat him to it. "There is no need to apologize. The locks will be fitted tomorrow at the latest"

Feliciano made a squeaking noise, but decided to take his blessings and dragged Lovino out for a quick exit. "Ciao! Grazie!" He called as they disappeared into the crowd once more.

Once they were a safe distance away, Feliciano tried for an explanation. "Why were you shouting?" he asked his brother.

"I, I don't know." Lovino answered honestly. With every step he felt his feet become heavy with dread. He didn't want to go home.