I apologize for the long wait. This chapter has been sitting and waiting to be finished and edited for so long now! I do hope you all like Spamano, as there is plenty in this chapter. More so at the end but still.

Characters do not belong to me, but the universe does. Enjoy!

They were caught. Oh god, Lovino knew they were fucked the second the shop door slammed behind him.

Lovino spun on his heels, steeling himself up for the undoubtedly, impossible-to-fight minion sent to capture them. But nothing could of prepared him for what faced them.

It was a doll.

The doll was leaning toward him from the nearest shelf, looking ready to kill. Its glare was rather uncharacteristic of a child's toy, but Lovino figured that had something to do with the fact that everything in the shop was the work of Satan. To Lovino's left, Antonio squealed at how cute the thing was, blood lust and all.

Despite himself, Lovino burst into a snicker. "A doll? You've got to be kidding! Oh I'm so scared"

He really shouldn't of been surprised when the harmless toy sprung from the shelf and attacked him.

And if a killer doll flying at his head wasn't a bad enough situation already, the thing transformed into a full sized man midair. Lovino screamed and dodged out of the way as the thing landed directly where he was standing.

The age old of question, 'friend or foe?', was answered pretty fast as Lovino nearly lost his arm as a hammer barely missed him.

The doll-man swung toward him fast and violently once more, this time releasing an aura that Lovino never seen or felt before that burned his skin. Deep within his heart, he began to feel his soul crystal as it was drawn out.

Antonio, to his credit, immediately fell into action. He hastily pushed off the ground to run to Lovino's side. But he would never make it. Springing to life was the doll he himself had been inspecting not a minute before.

This one stood taller than all three of them, with red hair spiked up not unlike Lars'. Antonio pulled out his weapon just in time to block a violent swing to his rib cage.

Lovino didn't have time to worry him, he had bigger problems. Namely the numbing sensation beginning to take hold of his body. He had to find a way out of it. Desperately, Lovino wracked his mind for something relevant that he had learned in school.

But things like dolls coming alive and attacking you for your anima were never covered in class. The only lesson that came close was Transmutation 324, in which Mr. Bondevik created an illusion of a toy car becoming a real, bright red Ferrari. But that of course had nothing to do with the situation at hand.

Except it did.

The entire lesson revolved around how powerful illusions were if you believed in them. The concept was universal, but the actual act of transmutation was purely a Magician's power. And who's shadow was running the shop?

Lovino mentally slapped his forehead. Good god, if he planned to live past thirty he was going to need to learn to think.

So think he did.

It was rather hard to imagine the doll-man as nothing more than a doll, especially since the pain in his chest felt so real, but he tried his hardest.

A doll... sitting lifeless on the floor. Its arm shattered because Lovino hadn't payed attention to where he was going and stepped on it. Crying because "that was my doll you just broke!"

As the image took place in his imagination, a heavy cloud he never noticed in his mind lifted.

Two light clatters sounded throughout the isle, and Lovino desperately opened his eyes to see his idea worked.

Both dolls were now as they were supposed to be, just lifeless dolls. Their arms spilled out clumsily from where they had fallen over one another. It was startling considering they had been a serious threat not a second ago. But more importantly than that, Antonio was in sight.

He looked pretty bewildered at the situation. "But they were... and now they're... what just happened?"

"It was an illusion" Lovino explained. "But I'm pretty sure they could of killed us."

"Oh" Antonio visibly relaxed, dropping his stance and moving to dissolve his weapon.

"Oi" Lovino whispered, roughly pulling him to the floor. "What the fuck are you doing? Its not over yet!"

"Whoops, sorry" Antonio replied sheepishly. His ax reformed itself.

"Whatever. The important thing is escaping." Lovino whispered. "There is no way we can fight the shadow up there- we're going to need Bella and Lars and then get the fuck out of here"

"I'm not going to argue" Antonio whispered back. "The doors locked though, so now what?"

Lovino spent a second on that, gazing out the large window to his right. Standing across the street and walking closer were the siblings he needed to see. Thank the lord for Bella's intuition. "Let's try getting their attention. Without getting theirs" He jerked his thumb to the front of the store where both the shadows were last seen.

Antonio grinned. "Well, if it's worth anything, I have an idea"

As it turns out, having a look alike doll comes in handy. Lovino only wished he wasn't so bad at making its arms and legs dance about without crashing over the rest of the display. But he managed. Antonio was doing much better than he was, expertly dancing his doll around the window scene like he was born to be a puppeteer.

Looking over at Lovino, Antonio noticed his irritated expression. "What?" He asked, posing Antonio Jr. in a question type stance. "Did you not play with dolls when you were little?"

"Of course not" Lovino mumbled, shaking 'Romano', (or as Antonio called it 'Roma~') a little harder than necessary when he though Bella had turned to look. Dammit, what was taking them so long to get the message?

"Then what did you play with?"

Lovino fell silent. He struggled to one up Antonio's girly childhood games, but there were no memories to draw from. "Shut up" He finally muttered.

Antonio looked confused, obviously ready to push the matter, when a flash of blue and white caught both their eyes. Lars had turned at just the right moment.

He viewed the dolls passively, before catching his sister's arm and gesturing to the dancing puppets. Bella spent a precious second observing before laughing.

Laughing? This was a serious situation!

Antonio forcing Antonio Jr. to preform little cancan kicks was not helping at all. Lovino roughly snatched the smiling doll away from him, sparing no glances as he ripped its head clean off. Antonio made a squawking noise but the act of violence had done the trick. Bella stopped laughing. She and her brother both took upon the roles of passing customers.

Finally, now they were getting somewhere.

"What a charming store!" Bella exclaimed, loud enough so that both Lovino and Antonio could hear. "What do you think? Should we go inside?"

At the front of the store, a shadow laughed menacingly. On the floor, one of the lifeless dolls began to stir.

"No..." Bella paused at the door handle. It seemed to entire shop held its breath as she stood poised at the knob. "It doesn't look that interesting."

Lovino had to resist the urge to turn around to see how exactly the shadows were reacting to Bella's indecision. He knew that as soon as they made their move, it was up to him to high tail Antonio and himself out of there.

He didn't have to wait long. In a similar fashion to the dolls that attacked them, the miniatures on display began to move slowly. Bella's look-alike in particular smiled and waved.

Bella froze, momentarily stunned. Next to her, Lars stiffened.

One more second ticked by and the siblings relaxed as if in sync. "Oh, they're motion censored!" Bella sang, the same time Lars gruffed, "The price is excellent."

"I guess this means we'll go inside then~"

Bella turned the doorknob and threw the door as far open as she could, subtlety be damned.

The dolls on the floor moved the same time Lovino did. He grabbed blindly for Antonio's hand, and once he had him secured in his grasp, he raced for the door. The dolls sprung, still half the size of what the had the potential to become, but Antonio was prepared this time around. His weapon in hand, he wasted no time before slicing the first minion in half.

The second minion was stopped by the door as it was slammed into his face. Lovino smirked, self satisfied, as he heard it clatter to the floor.

His grin fell as the door rattled, indicating that the doll was not through with them. He was the first to scuttle down the street, the rest of his team trailing behind. By the time all four had made it to the town gate, Lovino was panting.

"Well, that was interesting" Bella finally chose to say, upon catching her breath.

"No shit" Lovino said. "We almost died"

"Wait, why were you in there in the first place?" Bella asked. "Why didn't you wait for-"

"Us" Lars finished. He looked just the side of angry, aggravated was more like it. He was graduating that year and a causality on one of his final missions did not bode well for his perfect track record.

"Eh..." Antonio trailed off as he scratched the back of his head. "Well-"

"Someone decided to just walz straight into a death trap" Lovino sneered.

Antonio was quick to defend himself, holding his hands up placating. "I didn't know it was a Shadow hive!"

"A Shadow hive?" Lars asked. He frowned, deep in concentration. "Here?"

Bella's eyes widened. She looked pretty panicked, and with good reason. "Oh god that's bad. You mean to tell me that there was more than one?"

"There were four!" Antonio exclaimed, holding up four fingers as if to add to the gravity of the situation.

Lovino frowned. "There were only two. Those things that attacked us at the end were just dolls. Er, illusions I mean. It's all Magician shit, I don't understand it" His team exchanged weird looks and Lovino scrambled to cover his mistake. "I mean- of course I understand it! I'm a Magician. Can do magic. Yeah" Inwardly, he patted himself on the back for his quick-witted save.

"...Anyway" Bella started again. "If there was more than one Shadow we need to tell the headmaster immediately"

All four nodded in agreement. Gathering their limited things, the headed off back to the school grounds, each hoping that this latest mission would not be too significant down the line.

Of course they would be very wrong.

[=]

Dr. Belishment stared critically as Lovino and Antonio both recounted their story. It didn't take long to tell the whole tale, because for as long as it felt, it really only lasted less than twenty minutes.

Lars and Bella stood off to the side, adding the occasional comments. Apparently they had been followed during their time in the square but shook off the tail before they could identify whomever it was. Lars had no doubts it was a shadow. When there was no more to share, Dr. Belishment began to review the notes on his desk. Lovino hadn't even realized he was doing more than staring. After a minute, he spoke. "I was afraid of this."

"You thought this was going to happen?" Lovino asked, astonished. "Why would you send us then? We could of died!"

"I assumed you would have used more caution." Three pairs of eyes glance at Antonio, who shrugged. Dr. Belishment continued on. "But more than that, I knew you could handled this mission. And because you all succeeded, I will talk to your teachers about extra credit."

Lovino grumbled. Extra credit? Inwardly, he wondered if these mission were actually worth what they got out of them. "Dandy" He scoffed. Dr. Belishment waved his hands to indicate they were dismissed. No one wasted anytime before leaving.

Despite all Lovino's grumbling, there was some good points of being sent on a mission. If one got back early, they were excused from classes for the rest of the day. Normally Lovino would have spent his free time catching up on sleep or reading in his room, but as he left the Headmaster's office, Antonio caught his arm.

"Hey" He whispered. "Come with me, I want to show you something." Lovino rolled his eyes. He could only imagine what Antonio had to show him. Against his better judgment, he followed him.

"What is it?" Lovino asked. His arm was tugged a little too hard as Antonio had yet to relinquish his grip, but he soon got used to the feeling.

"I want to show you a new trick Francis told me about the other day." Antonio exclaimed. "I finally got it down perfectly."

"What, you've been practicing?" Lovino sneered. He already had some semblance of an idea as to what Antonio was trying to show him.

"Not exactly. But consider this practice!" Having finally reached an empty training room, Antonio stopped. He smiled down at an exasperated Lovino, and pulled him close. Lovino refused relax, staring at him expectantly.

"Well get on with it." He said. "I don't have all day."

Antonio smiled. Technically he did, but he refrained from saying so. "Okay so first I lean down"

"Mmhm"

"Really close"

"I think it's closer" Lovino scoffed.

"You're right. Closer."

Antonio leaned over until their lips touched, just barely. Lovino gave a frustrated growl, but Antonio was having too much fun teasing him to care. Slowly, ever so slowly, he moved the two together. The kiss began slow, but soon escalated until Lovino was all but clinging to Antonio to keep himself standing. Not that Antonio was any better, leaning against the wall as he was.

The need for air soon broke the two apart. "Was that it?" Lovino's face was now bright red and he was panting.

Antonio laughed. "Maybe"

Lovino rolled his eyes. "You're so stupid. You don't need an excuse to kiss me."

"Eh but I wanted to try it with tongue. And you never let me touch you in public."

Lovino reflected on the statement for a moment. "True. Now fuck off, I want to get something to eat in town while there's still daylight. I get the feeling we're going to be confined to school grounds now that there's been a confirmed Shadow near here."

"I thought we were already weren't allowed to leave" Antonio said. "Because that one guy was attacked."

"Oh please, that was only to scare the First Years so they wouldn't do anything stupid. The entire situation was bullshit. Some amnesic kid just shows up, 'attacked for his anima'? I don't believe it and neither should you"

"Oh" Antonio's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to work through Lovino's claims. "Oh well! Can I come with you?"

"Sure whatever. But you're paying" Lovino began to walk toward the door, deciding to just head straight to the restaurant and not bother getting his wallet.

"But I always pay!"

Lovino sent a smirk over his shoulder. "Exactly"