AN
Thank you for all of the attention given to this story! It really means a lot and is good motivation. So yeah…
Reviews:
spiritualnekohime4: Sure I love PruCan! Thanks for liking the story and here is chapter 3! No more waiting!
Forever South: Yes. Yes it has. No more peace for Lovi. It was a traditional Italian bread (I made some with some homemade pasta/sauce and it was spectacular. You will find out this chapter… I don't know why it makes you happy either, and he is just joining because he is new to the school. Yeah I was typing fast, and okay I will see what I can do, but how do you do an upside down exclamation point? And yeah I spared him… for now *evil laugh* Thanks for liking the chapter!
TheSlayerGirl : Hmmm debating whether or not it is a good thing to have a sibling like Feli… I'm going to go with yes so YAY~! And just because people are mean, Lovi is a jerk to people who don't know him and he is different so they count it as an excuse to be mean… Not to mention for the story to happen they have to be so….
I sighed when we got home and I looked at the time: three forty-five I had about an hour until my dad would be home, that's good. I spent said hour working diligently on what little homework I had before going to the kitchen and starting on dinner. I had barely started cutting vegetables when Feliciano walked in.
"Ve, fratello, I forgot to tell you Ludwig's mom invited me for dinner again so I won't be here to eat!" he chirped happily sticking his head into the room and watching me cook.
I growled 'Damn it Feli, not again…' I cursed in my mind but kept my composure intact, so far this week Feliciano spent every night over at the Beilschmidt's leaving me here to cook for father. "Why the hell are you spending all your time at the damn potato bastard's house anyway?" It was better if Feli hated me and thought I hated him.
"No need to be so mean, fratello!" He cried out looking taken aback though in all honesty he should have been used to my insults by now. "If you don't want me to go just say so" he huffed.
"No, no, don't let me stop you" I said waving my hand dismissively.
His face brightened "Thanks Lovi, I'll be back by eight okay?" He grabbed me around the waist and I tried not to stiffen as he hit both fresh and old bruises.
"Yeah yeah whatever, now get the fuck out of here," I said reminding myself 'It'll be better that he isn't here, at least you won't be compared to him' and decreased the amount of food I was preparing.
By the time my dad came home, at around six, I had his dinner prepared and sitting on the dining table and was standing in the doorway waiting to tell him where Feli was. He walked in threw down his briefcase and walked to said dining room, so I spoke before he acknowledged the lack of my brother's presence, "Feliciano isn't here, he went to go have dinner at Ludwig's again." I said as he plopped down and immediately downed the cup of wine and grabbed the bottle to drink instead.
"Damn it, that means I'm stuck here with you" he growled taking another swig then beckoning me over, "You didn't already have dinner have you?"
I sighed I knew where this was going "Of course not, I'm not an idiot."
"Sure you aren't" He laughed and grabbed my face, "Now, let's see if you're lying," he grabbed my chin with his thumb on one side and his other fingers wrapping around the other and pushed on my jaw to force me to open my mouth. I cringed as he put pressure on the area of the punch I took earlier but didn't move as he stuck his face sickeningly close to mine and smelled my breath. "Good, you actually listened for once," he sneered, "I will go easy on you tonight then, clean the house and when Feli gets home I expect you to help him with any homework he has."
He released my face and I nodded before setting off to do the rest of my chores and leaving him to eat in peace. I barely finished before Feli came home and by the time he did I was doing the dishes from our father's supper, and washing an empty plate of course. "Hey Feli," I called out as he passed by, "Do you need any help on that English homework, I tried it and it was a little difficult," the excuses flowed easily now.
"Aw, fratello, thank you so much for your kind offer but Ludwig and I did our homework together!" He pounced on me while I pulled the plug on the water in the sink and dried my hands.
"Damn it Feli how many times do I have to tell you that if you need help to come to me and not that German bastard!" I yelled and he flinched.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, it's just well he wanted to make sure he got his work done so I came up with the idea we could work on it together so that I could spend more time with him! I didn't mean to upset you, I really didn't!" He was on the brink of crying and holding me tighter begging me to forgive him.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, "It's fine Feli, just try to remember for next time okay?" I said even though I knew he never would, if it meant spending time with Ludwig my brother would do anything.
"Thank you fratello, do you need any help with the chores?" he asked tilting his head.
"Nah, I finished everything but the dishes a while ago, there weren't that many," I lied, anything to keep Feli happy.
"Okay, well I'm going to go to room and work on my painting some before bed, are you going to be up long?"
"No I'm really fucking tired I'm just going to finish up here and go to bed." I said coolly he smiled and hugged me.
"Okay, night fratello, don't let the bed bugs bite!" He laughed childishly and skipped off to his room.
I dried the dishes and was in the process of putting them away when a large figure staggered into the room.
"Why 'rn't you helping your br'ther?" he slurred as he stared at me sending chills down my spine.
"He said he doesn't have any homework, and I'm still working, plu-" I was cut off by his hand connecting with my temple.
"Don't you lie to me boy," he growled down and I nodded "Now get to your room before I kick your ass." He released me and I half ran half stumbled to my room and slumped down in front of the door when it was safely closed.
'That was a close one…' I thought and flinched at the thought of how much worse it could have been. I hear his door down the hall slam and waited long enough until I knew that he wasn't coming out soon and I would be safe for at least a few blessed hours before I scrambled over my book bag and pulled out the bread I had stowed in there from earlier. 'Thank god he doesn't know about cooking class, if he did…' the thought sent chills down my spine as I took a bite of the slightly staled bread despite my throbbing jaw. Damn bullies.
I had just eaten over half of the bread when I my door slammed open and my eyes and nearly popped out of my head. Damn bastard was back, I tried to swallow and hide my bread but it was too late, he had already seen it.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" He said as loud and angrily as he could without disturbing my brother sleeping next door.
"I-I" My stammering was cut off when my bread was ripped out of my hand and thrown on the floor only to be stomped flat and kicked aside. My father grabbed me by my collar and hauled me off my bed to the bathroom only to throw me to the floor by the toilet. I knew what he wanted and it was an internal debate between starvation and extreme physical pain. I chose the latter and that did not bode well with him.
"You know what I want, now puke up the damn bread or I will beat it out of you." If only to prove his point he kicked me in the chest and I could swear I heard a snap along with a sharp burst of pain. I held my breath and bit my tongue eyes watering but refusing to cry out, to give in. "Tough guy and rule breaker eh?" He said landing a flurry of kicks along my stomach and causing my back to slam into the side of the bathtub beside me pain shot up and down my spine as new injuries were added to old and old stirred up. "You listen when I tell you to do something you bastard!" He grabbed my foot with one hand and my shin with the other and twisted until something snapped sending another current of pain down the entire limb. By then tears were flowing down my face and was biting through my bottom lip, blood pooling in my mouth, in effort to stay silent and keep from waking Feli. Another kick to the stomach was all it took to lower my resolve, the pain was too great and I could no longer hold it in, I vomited all over the floor and his nice new shoes, which earned me another series of kicks before he leaned down and grabbed me by the hair pulling me so his alcohol ridden breath was in my ear. "You listen here boy. You will clean up this mess, then you will go to your room and go to sleep, we can't have little Feli finding out about this incident now can we?" My stomach churned and my eyes grew wide at the idea of Feli finding out about any of this. I had to keep him safe, preserve his innocence, I had to make sure he still thought of me as strong and able to protect him, it was my job after all. But I was still choking back sobs so I only nodded in response, I saw the anger flare in my father's cold eyes and he stood back up, only to step on my wrist that was laying on the ground next to me. I could hear my bones crunching under the weight but I had gone numb to the pain. "Answer me when I talk to boy!"
"Yes sir.." I said meekly as my body was racked with silent sobs I had been trying so long to hold back.
"Finally, now get up you disgusting piece of trash. You have work to do." With that he left me crying on the floor clutching my stomach and praying that there was no internal bleeding, bones I could deal with but there wasn't anything I could do about that. After a few minutes to gain my composure enough to work I sat up and began scrubbing the vomit, bile and blood that had pooled around me as well as I could. After making sure everything was spotless I got up and brushed my teeth to remove the putrid stench of vomit before thoroughly washing my toothbrush and making sure to cover up the smell.
I looked at myself in the mirror, needless to say I was a wreck, I already had a bruise forming from where he punched me and the one on my cheek stood out purple against the slightly tan olive tone that made up my skin. My bangs were coated in the vomit and blood that I had been laying in earlier and were now dried and stuck to my skin. My face was red and puffy with tear marks running down my cheeks. I was pitiful.
I decided that I needed a shower so that is exactly what I did, I took an extremely short one and then reexamined myself, still bruised but my hair was clean, my face back to a normal shade rather than red and was smooth rather than puffy with no evidence of tears. Once I approved of the appearance, hey I will admit I am one vain son of a bitch (or ass is more like it), I made my way back to my room and crawled into bed in the dark.
Not even an hour later there was a soft knock at the door, "Fratello?" Feliciano's voice sounded terrified but all I could do was groan in response "Can I sleep in here with you tonight, I had a bad dream…"
I sighed, I was going to regret this, "Sure Feli, come on over," he walked over silently and I shifted to where I was against the wall leaving him plenty of space and asked what I knew he wanted me to say "do you wanna talk about it?"
He nodded his outline barely visible in the darkness but enough that I could tell, which also made me grateful it was dark so he wouldn't be able to see my bruises. "I dreamt about mom… about the day she died…" he snuggled closer to me and I let him making sure to keep my injured arm and leg off to the side so that he wouldn't accidently hit them. I knew what the dream meant and I couldn't help the guilt that wiggled in my brain.
We fell asleep and thankfully I woke up first when my alarm woke me up at five thirty. I smiled at my brother's sleeping form peaceful next to me before I got up to get ready for the day. The second I hoisted myself to my feet I collapsed, thank god quietly and without waking Feli and remembered my ankle from the day before I looked up and inspected it only to find the entire thing purple and black and about twice normal size. That wasn't good. I reached under my bed and grabbed my first aid kit located one of the ace bandages inside and began expertly wrapping my ankle. By the time I finished I was able to put weight on it and by the time I reached the bathroom I was able to hide my limp and suppress any wince or other pain induced facial expressions. I looked at myself in the mirror before stripping down to my underwear to inspect the other damage, luckily there weren't many visible bruises, my father may be the devil but he isn't an idiot, he knows to hide what he does. That didn't help much though, my entire left arm was a solid bruise and I could hardly move it, I took another ace bandage and wrapped said arm once again with the swiftness and ease of an expert and was once again able to feign normality. My legs were dotted with bruises but neither them nor my arms could compare to my torso, my back was stiff and bruised from repeatedly being slammed into things the day before and my entire stomach was bruised. I tried to twist to get a sharp pain in my chest, yep definite broken rib. I reached up with my arm so that I could wrap myself only to feel another sharp pain lower down… make that two... or maybe three... It's hard to tell with ribs.
After the last wrapping I dawned my outfit for today, loose boot-cut jeans so they would be loose around my ankle and a baggy long sleeve tee to hide my bandages. I then turned my attention to my face, hair was easy enough as I liked it messy and simply just brushed through any tangles before picking the bag I had hidden in the corner of the room. I applied a few layers of powder (yeah that's right I wear make-up for the bruises so what the entire school already knows I'm gay) and was then content with the normal tone the injured skin now had. I had done well. No one could tell anything was wrong with me. Especially not Feli.
I then walked downstairs and made some bacon and eggs for breakfast when my dad came in and saw me cooking he sent me a glare so I put a few dried egg scraps on a clean plate and laid it in the sink before fixing two plates for my dad and brother. Feli came down a few minutes later already dressed and ready to go (we usually go to school a little early so he could hang out with Ludwig).
My dad greeted him first "Buongiorno Feli, how did you sleep?"
"Good, but I had a nightmare so I ended up sleeping in fratello's room…" Feliciano then jabbered on as father gave me a threatening glare as I picked up the dirty dishes and began to wash them.
When it was time to go my dad stopped me, "Feliciano you can go ahead, I need your brother's help with something but I'll give him a ride later." Feli nodded unknowingly and skipped out the door right before my dad turned to me a chill ran down my spine at the cold gleam in his eyes.
"How dare you corrupt my perfect little angel!" He spat in my face before knocking me into the table beside the couch resulting in a shattered lamp. "Look what you did, you little klutz! You good for nothing murdering bastard!" He picked me up and shoved me to the wall. "Turn around!" he demanded and for once I listened. I knew what was coming. He ordered he to take off my shirt and while he picked up the pieces of glass behind him I did so and secretly removed the wrapping exposing all of my injuries from my waist up. "This should teach you to break things!" He yelled seconds before the glass from the broken lamp was cutting into my skin. All of it was soon buried deep within the skin, often past the point where I could pull it out myself. I would just have to wait for it to come out on its own.
He also beat the answer as to why I had bread yesterday out of me and I had to explain cooking class to him which resulted in an angry call to the school. He tried to change my class but failed, which resulted in another beating, then he called back and demanded to speak to my teacher before calmly asking her to not let me eat what I cooked anymore because it was "ruining my appetite at dinner". He hung up from the phone call and stormed out of the room but before he left he threatened that I not be late to school "or else". I looked at the clock after I finished washing the blood from my back (which resulted in yet more bleeding, good thing my shirt was black) and it read ten till eight. Shit, school started in ten minutes and was a fifteen minute walk away, which meant one thing: RUN.
AN
…yeah…
