Antonio slumped on his bed with a groan. It made a soft whumpf sound as the quilt rose up around him.
The amber eyed boy sitting at the desk in their small room said nothing, his only reaction was to push his glasses further up his nose.
"Lovi… Help me."
The boy bent further over his sketches.
"I have so much work, I hate it."
"Please…?"
No response.
"I'll make you pizza."
His eye twitched, but he otherwise didn't react.
"With extra tomatoes?"
Lovino bit his lip.
"Baciami~"
He pushed his chair away from the desk with a clatter. "Damnit bastard, you nearly had me there." Running a hand through his auburn locks, he stood up and stretched, cat like, walking toward the shared kitchen. "Anyway, I have three new designs due, so if I eat anything, I'll be too sleepy to work. Although," he poked his head back into their dorm, "I'm holding you to that on Friday."
The older man smirked from his nest of blankets. "The pizza or the kiss?"
"Fuck you, Toni."
The sight that greeted Antonio when he walked back into their dorm was of a sleeping Italian. The boy had slumped across the desk, cheek pressed against his designs, he was making soft breathing noises and his glasses were pushed up on his face, his bangs pushed back from his forehead.
Antonio lifted him and dumped the younger boy unceremoniously onto his bed. Lovino falling asleep at his desk was nothing new, but it was worrying how much easier lifting him up had been getting.
Antonio watched him for a while, although when sleeping his face wasn't scrunched up in a scowl, he was still sleep-deprived and his brows were slightly furrowed. His normal olive skin tone had paled over the past few months, and now his dark lashes and glowing amber eyes looked dark and fierce against his pale face. But even like this, he was gorgeous.
Gorgeous, and completely and utterly himself. Unlike him, constantly shedding and changing his skin with each person, cutting and pasting emotions and smiles, snippets of old conversations to reference, turing off his brain and turning on the smile.
Sometimes, Lovino was the only colour in his life, the rest of the world in his peripheral vision- shades of black swirling together till it was indistinguishable. Like his days that blurred into the night, his vision that faded into black.
"Toni."
Lovino looked down at the boy sprawled across the desk, their earlier positions reversed. Although Lovino was definitely not strong enough to carry Antonio all the way to his bed. And he needed the desk.
"Tonio, please. If you sleep, you sleep on the bed, bastardo. And plus, it can't be comfortable there. I need this space."
Now it was him met with silence. He stayed there a beat longer, then turned on his heel and left the room.
When Antonio awoke, the blinking lights on his clock read 1:23 am. Lovino was curled up on the couch and a plate of pasta sat on the counter. He smiled. The little Italian had a soft side under the slightly abrasive exterior. The two looked out for each other, Antonio was able to be Lovino's shield and protector against the harsh and judgemental population, the people who didn't care for anything but the surface layer, the people who ignored the small offerings of friendship, the ones whose gaze went past him to land on his brother. And Lovino understood Antonio. Knew when he was skipping meals, when he needed a break from everything. Their relationship was made of subtle glances, of long gone cold meals left out, of carefully chosen words. It was made of a quick smiles across the room and small notes on the whiteboard, of forgotten notes slipped into bags. One wrong word from either of them would shatter their frail relationship, but both of them valued it too much for that.
So instead their house of cards kept on being built upwards, getting more complex and intricate, each card making the whole thing more dear and precious. But neither wanted to solidify the base lest it all come tumbling down.
A/N
It's only the second chapter and the story is already meandering to all kinds of corners orz.
Also idk why there is so much 'watching the other person sleep', but it happened. I also didn't expect to update so fast, but this chapter was super short so. Maybe I will need to start figuring out what is going on in the later chapters oops. Oh and just a heads up- I have never been to university. I haven't even thought about which one I would like to attend and the only way I can get info is from my parents which is... ew. So I won't focus much on classes haha...
Thanks for reading y'all, reviews are always appreciated
