Chapter 4
He decided to wander around Germany's house, see what there was to see. He needed something to keep his mind off, well, everything, and useless meandering seemed like the best option available. Besides, he and Spain would probably stay here for a couple of days. They needed to go underground now, because of what he had done at the prison. He also needed time for his chest wound to heal, just enough so he could go back to doing normal things.
After a while of meandering, he found a room he assumed to be the kitchen. There was someone inside, wearing some sort of bonnet and an apron. Lovino watched the person carefully – just in case it was Antonio, his brother, or the potato-sucker – before cautiously stepping inside.
The person turned around to face Lovino the moment he stepped inside. "Oh, hello there, Romano-kun." The Japanese male bowed slightly before returning to his work.
Lovino began roaming around the kitchen, looking for something good to eat. Before he got very far, though, Honda stepped to his side and asked, "Is there something you're looking for?"
"Mmhm….tomatoes…" An insatiable urge for a tomato overtook him, and his mouth began to water.
"T-tomatoes? You mean you eat them raw?" Honda looked at him as though he were slightly crazy.
"Sure, why not?" Lovino sent Honda one of his famous quizzical looks, as though everyone ate tomatoes as he did.
Moments later, Lovino left the kitchen, his left hand holding a tomato he had already started digging into, his right hand bundling about a dozen. He'd be set for the rest of his stay.
As he ventured back into the main corridor, Lovino ran into Antonio. Lovino froze as his heart speed up. He swore he felt extra blood rushing to his cheeks. He suddenly felt very thirsty, and his palms were sweating again. And since when did he have a breathing problem?
"Ah, tomatoes!" Antonio cheered, taking one from Lovino's pile. Lovino scowled – he hated when people took from his food without asking – but his annoyance was completely forgotten when Antonio took a bite of that juicy tomato. Tomato juice ran down Antonio's tanned chin, and he licked it up with his tongue. Lovino felt a shudder run through him, though he wasn't sure what that meant. Suddenly, Lovino was overcome with the desire to lick that tomato juice off Antonio's chin, and lick even more than that.
He wanted Antonio to do that to him, too. Maybe even more so.
Lovino stood there, transfixed, and stared at Antonio as he began to eat the tomato.
Antonio, who looked fully aware of what he was doing, watched Lovino the entire time. He ate slowly, then slowly went down for another bite, keeping his eyes locked with Lovino the entire time. Before he took a bite, Antonio licked the tomato, slowly, savoring the taste.
Lovino's heart rushed, and he lost track of the world around him. All he knew was that he wanted those lips, and he envied that tomato.
His heart panged, and next thing he knew, all of the tomatoes were on the ground. Lovino reached one arm out to Antonio – half in lust, half thoughtlessly – but quickly realized what he was doing and wrenched it away. He grabbed his hair as his head throbbed from fighting his heart too much, ran off to anywhere that was far away from Antonio.
He thought he heart Antonio call out his name, but he didn't care. He just kept running.
Somehow, Lovino found his way outside. Panting, he stepped out into the cool air and noticed Ludwig sitting nearby, smoking a cigarette.
Wincing in pain from his chest, Lovino contemplated whether or not it was a good idea to sit next to his brother's lover. Where was Feliciano, anyway? Those two were practically connected at the waist.
Lovino shook those useless thoughts from his mind and approached Germany. "Hey, potato-sucker!" He tried to force a smile as he took a seat beside him. Germany looked over for a second, then back to the sunrise before them. Lovino took a moment to think, weighing his options, before he began, "Your place is pretty nice."
Ludwig was silent a moment before he responded, "Ah."
A silence passed between them. Lovino blushed in embarrassment – something he was doing more and more of as of late – and kept his gaze focused on anything but Ludwig. He wanted to ask the German something, but where to start, where to start?
Damn, Lovino thought, why does everything have to be so difficult?
He stopped thinking things through and just spoke, for once. "I know about you and my brother."
Ludwig was silent a moment. "You're not going to kill me, are you?" He looked over to Lovino, who couldn't manage to meet his eye.
Lovino smirked at that. "Not yet," he promised. "So don't mess up."
Ludwig took a drag from the cigarette, then exhaled and responded, "I won't."
Lovino fell quiet once more, unsure of how to get to the topic he really wanted to bring up. He decided to try the no-thinking method again. "Um…You…You don't seem like someone who'd trust others very quickly," Lovino blurted, pulling at the grass beside him to give him something else to look at. "What I'm trying to get at, is, um – "
"You're wondering what made me trust your brother over everyone else?" Ludwig guessed, looking to him.
"How do you trust anyone at all?" Lovino blurted, looking to the German for the first time. "I mean, you've had to have a lot of people hurt you in the past, right? How can you still trust people when they've done that to you?" Finally finished, Lovino blushed, realizing the depth of his blurt.
Ludwig blinked, probably surprised, before he answered, "Sure, people have hurt me before. Yeah, I don't trust most." He turned back to the sunrise, took another drag from the cigarette. "But the people who hurt me in the past…None of them were Italia."
"W-what?" Lovino stuttered, surprised.
Ludwig turned to face him again. "What I mean is…I've been through hell. I've seen hardships and have been oppressed for no good reason. But the people who did that to me…They weren't your brother. Why should he have to suffer for something someone else did to me?" Ludwig paused, waiting for Lovino to say something. When he failed to, the German continued, "Do you understand?"
Lovino looked away, deep in thought. "I…think so. You mean I should give people a chance, even though I've been hurt before, because the people who deserve those chances never did anything to hurt me. So not trusting them would be unfair."
Ludwig nodded, looked back to the sunrise. "Exactly."
Lovino looked back to the sunrise, too, the new perspective bubbling through him. He hated to admit it, but Ludwig was completely right.
They sat like that for a long while, even after Ludwig had finished his cigarette. "Where's Feliciano?" Lovino asked at last.
"Asleep." Ludwig murmured. "I have to get back to him before he wakes up and realizes I'm not there…"
"You've got plenty of time, then," Lovino laughed. If there was one thing his fratellino loved, it was sleep.
"No," Ludwig murmured, "he'll wake up when he rolls over onto my spot and realizes I'm not there."
This caught Lovino offguard. For some reason, he hadn't expected his brother and Ludwig to be so…close. There was no better word. 'So much in love'?
That would have worked, too, but it was far too cliché for Lovino's tastes.
Ludwig stood then, and Lovino wordlessly followed. "If you're going to reveal to someone how you truly feel," he began, looked to the Italian, "forget your pride. It'll come back to you later, tenfold." Ludwig patted Lovino on the shoulder in a comradely gesture, and for once he didn't feel the need to wince at the touch.
Ludwig moved off without a word from the younger.
Lovino watched after him. Spoken like a true Sergeant, he thought.
Now he had more important matters to turn to. Where had Antonio gone?
Then he realized how early it was, and thought the Spaniard would be sleeping in his room. But which room was his?
Lovino knew the second the thought had occurred to him.
Antonio's room would, of course, be the same room as his.
