Hey I'm posting a little late because I continue to be an awful slacker and bleh. I'm excited to get back to Arthur, clearly, as my writing for Liza is getting a little...weak. A break from the lovely girl is needed. It's not her fault, it's mine. Eh I think most people will appreciate my escaping her for now also haha.


Antonio had grabbed Lovino and pulled the protesting Italian along, seeing how upset Antonio was caused him to quiet, his face twisting in concern. Once they were back by the car Lovino clearly felt safer, as his face lost all concern and was soon stormy.

To say the absolute least, Lovino was furious. It was noticeably terrifying, as he didn't yell like when he was frustrated, but nearly shook in fury. Some of the shaking was probably fear, as Lovino was much more of a coward then he let on, but his steely glare was definitely more angry.

Antonio sat next to Elizaveta in the back of Lovino's car, visibly relaxing. Lovino slammed the car door, and they sat in silence for a long moment. Lovino sighed, turning around in the seat to frown at Antonio. "What the fuck was that?" He snapped. "Seriously, what in the fuck-"

Antonio looked down guiltily. "It was the Braginski-" He looked up, trying to find the words.

"You got freaked out over-?" Lovino didn't seemed to understand, he looked at Antonio through narrowed eyes. "What was going on?"

Elizaveta eyed Antonio quizzically. "Do they-?"

"They aren't a threat," Antonio said stiffly, his tone icy. Lovino opened his mouth to protest, but before he could Antonio continued. "Not to Gilbert, at least."

"What do you mean?" Elizaveta said softly, though her thoughts were whirling around in her head, panicking.

Antonio looked taken aback, distant. "They would've been my first suspects a few months ago, but not now."

Elizaveta wracked her brain. Braginski, she had definitely heard the name before. Highschool, possibly? "Ivan, right?"

Antonio nodded, looking down at his hands. Elizaveta sat back. "So, what do I need to know about them?" Her tone was no nonsense, Antonio wasn't weaseling around this one.

"Gilbert got foolishly involved with the family. It had Francis and I concerned to a point where we..." Antonio paused. "Confronted them about it. We struck a deal of sorts,"

"Deal?" Elizaveta said, her voice a bit weak. Antonio sounded serious, but she couldn't imagine him doing something so shady. The man was so happy and kind, and she was learning the worst things about him all at once. It was surprising to see so much of her friend she didn't know, especially since Antonio seemed to not be one to hide his personality.

Antonio looked up, his green eyes dark and thoughtful. "Liza, I want you to know that I am absolutely positive that the Braginskis had nothing to do with Gilbert's...death."

"Okay," She said, still questioning. "I still need to know-"

"As a friend I don't want you to get into this, as it's more dangerous for you in the long run and you will not be able to find anything,"

"Antonio, my job is an entitlement, I don't think you quite understand how much we can control." Her tone was cool.

Antonio looked at her, his eyebrows knit together, he looked apologetic, and his normal friendly tone was back, with a tad of concern laced in it. "I am serious, amiga. Please,"

Elizaveta sat back in the seat, slightly aggravated. "Either way, you need to explain this further. Now."

Lovino's eyes were still narrowed, they flicked between the two of them. He glared at Antonio as if trying to see through him.

Antonio felt Lovino's eyes on him and avoided them, looking around before just landing on Elizaveta.

"He went to that bar a lot..." Antonio sighed, tilting his head towards the way of the bar, he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the seat. "I'm not sure how he got caught up with them, and I'm sure he didn't want to be."

Lovino blinked, turning around and also falling back into his seat in exasperation.

"Francis, another friend of mine,as you have probably guessed- He's French, and you know how they are with...negotiating." Antonio continued. "The deal was simple, but it took a ton of time to actually agree on. If they left Gilbert alone for good, we would never return to that bar. If we did-" Antonio trailed off, opening his eyes. "Well, they threatened our safety. Did I think they were bluffing?" Antonio let out a near amused sigh.

Elizaveta looked at him, beckoning him to continue.

"Absolutely not." He said finally, smiling regretfully and morosely. "You can see how much it helped,"

The car was silent again. Lovino switched the car on before turning around in his seat, so that he was facing Antonio again. "Are you fucking serious?" He said, struggling to keep his voice level.

Antonio looked confused. "Discúlpeme?" He asked him. Elizaveta was rather poor at Spanish, but understood the gist of what he was saying. Antonio opened his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted rather harshly.

"Basta! You must be kidding! You did not just bring us to a place where we could've been at the hands of those fucking psycho Russians?!"

Elizaveta knew what Lovino had said really translated to: Did you seriously just bring us to a place where you could've gotten possibly hurt, with US?!

Antonio could only smile weakly in response this, but he winced when Lovino's demeanor changed and he quieted, eyeing Antonio as if trying to dissect him. It was a look she was familiar with from working so often with Kirkland.

"This is my fault," Lovino muttered, turning to face the windshield. "I should've known."

"Lovi, no-" Antonio voice cracked and he cleared his throat. "It's not your fault at all."

Elizaveta was quiet, she looked out the window of the car. The street was lit plenty by lights, but it was so lonely at night, while most of the town was asleep. One thing she liked about the city is that it was always awake. The city that never sleeps.

Antonio was speaking quiet Spanish now, and since she wasn't facing him she wasn't able to tell if it was being directed to Lovino or if he was just muttering to himself. Amidst all this, the car started with a rumble, not moving.

Elizaveta turned her head again, Antonio glanced at her, trying to muster a smile. He was clearly distraught, but she deemed him okay overall.

Lovino began to drive, and before long Elizaveta was trying to think of something to say. The silence was deafening.

"I'm sorry, both of you. I know this is all overwhelming," Elizaveta mumbled, she wasn't usually one to have trouble with making useless conversation, and she was mad she couldn't have brought up anything else. Lovino scoffed at her comment, and she looked at her hands.

"You're doing your job," Antonio was trying his hardest to be amiable, but grimaced as he said it despite himself.

Her job. The job that seemed to be getting her in quite a bit of trouble. She briefly considered getting reassigned, but pushed the thought away. She wanted for there to be a point in all of this shit.

"My job will require me to research the Braginski's," Elizaveta said, realizing it was out of turn instantly, she closed her mouth sharply, a bit horrified.

Antonio scanned Elizaveta's face, he looked concerned.

Lovino spoke from the front. "Can we not talk about this?" He snapped.

Antonio nodded, more to himself than to anyone else.

Elizaveta sighed, this was tedious. She brought up what she had been bringing up lately when she didn't know what else to say. "How are you two feeling about the wedding?" She smirked ever so slightly when she said this, as she had already talked to Antonio about the wedding for about two hours today.

Antonio sighed in relief though, and she felt a little bit better about it. Lovino made a sound from the front that sounded like a groan, but Elizaveta wasn't sure.

"Have you decided what your eating yet?" Antonio asked her, it was one of the only subjects they hadn't elaborated on earlier today.

"We're getting a cake from a high class bakery in the city," Elizaveta said, pausing. "Roderich's in charge of that, though." She smiled, laughing slightly. "In all honesty I'm not sure what we're really having meal wise yet..."

Lovino seemed to sigh. "Liza, you're friends with the owner of a well rated restaurant, and you haven't even talked to me about catering the event?" He sounded surprisingly amused.

"Aw, Lovino, I couldn't," She voiced, almost forgetting about the Braginskis. Almost. "Does Mazzetto even cater?"

Antonio smiled, feigning amusement. "No, but we'd be willing to provide food for you and Roderich." Even though that was what Lovino had meant, he still scoffed.

"I didn't say it was free," Lovino started, a tad bitter, though Elizaveta believed he wasn't serious. "And we? Are you fucking serious, don't act like you help me with the food."

Antonio actually smiled this time, and those his smile wasn't large it was happy. "Huh? I help you all the time?"

"Eating all of my fucking tomatoes isn't helping, T." Lovino snapped, glancing to him in the back of the car. Antonio smiled at him, his smile lengthening when Lovino called him T.

Elizaveta was recognizing buildings and was soon looking at the ones that were right around her apartment building. She sighed to herself, she needed to talk to someone about the Braginskis, and briefly checked her phone to see if Kirkland had texted her.

Kirkland hadn't texted her, but she smiled at a text from Kiku. He showed up with Alfred, it seems you were right.

She had expected to be, maybe not so soon, but at some point. Alfred was just one of those people she knew would pursue his interests in others and just in general. He was cute, and Elizaveta vaguely remembered him from highschool, she felt as if he might've even been her type if they had known each other better.

The car was stopped and Lovino turned around in his seat, he looked slightly annoyed, but his resting face was rather bitchy, so Elizaveta wasn't sure.

She heard Antonio ask her to say hello to Roderich, and she nodded instinctively. Elizaveta looked back at them, wondering if they were going to say anything else, both Lovino and Antonio were quiet.

Taking this as a message, she opened the car door, pulling down her dress and nearly stepping out.

"Wait," Antonio said, his eyebrows knit together in thought. "I would like for you to take me seriously with the Braginski thing..." Elizaveta slumped back down in her seat, eyeing him in scathing annoyance. He shifted "I don't think you understand-"

She attempted a playful smile, hoping she hadn't twisted her face into a too terrifying expression. "Wow, Toni. It's nice to know you expect so much from me," Her voice dripped with sarcasm, and he frowned.

This isn't going to go anywhere. Elizaveta thought glumly, we're both too stubborn about this.

She crossed her arms and tapped her heel on the floor of the car, waves of slight aggravation probably coming off of her. Elizaveta shook her head "I don't want to fight, guys, we'll talk about this later," She moved towards the door, stepping up and out of the car, turning back to wave goodbye to Antonio.

His expression was nearly hostile, but far more concerned. "You'd be shooting in the dark, Liza. Don't waste your time." He said it softly, cautiously.

Elizaveta smiled. "Even if I'm shooting in the dark, at one point I'm going to hit something." Her tone was wry, and feeling that was a rather good way to end the conversation, she shut the door.

...Only to have it opened by Antonio. She resisted rolling her eyes, as he looked hurt. "Why isn't my word enough proof, amiga?"

Elizaveta opened her mouth, then closed it, a flash of serious anger flashing over her this time. "Proof," She muttered softly, breathing out in exasperation. "You know what?" Elizaveta snapped, both Antonio and Lovino looked panicked by her harshness. She continued anyways "All this is proving is that you two know more than you're letting on about this!"

Antonio nearly moved farther into the car, and she saw Lovino's jaw clench. She breathed out, calming down and pulling at an earring. Elizaveta softened her tone and expression "Look, I'm not going to pry further, it's been a long day. I just- I want you two to be careful, okay? This is my job, I'll be fine."

She stepped away from the car, leaving Antonio and Lovino in their shock, retreating to a fitful night of sleep.

Back in the car, Antonio grabbed Lovino's hand and they sat in the dark for many moments.

The silence was apologetic for more than one reason.


Eyyyyyy. It's over. This one is kind of boring whoops. It's also kind of all over the place because I'm not good at outlining my plans. Like I knew what I wanted to do, but I also didn't ahaha. Thanks for reading! I greatly appreciate reviews/follows/favorites. Anything ist gut. Next chapter we're going back to Arthur so yay, there's a reason to keep reading this story!

Probably You: Oh shit there's more bold this week? Ew.

Don't worry you are under no obligation to read any of this, as I'll say again, it isn't important yet. I'd like to thank anyone who gave me feedback on my news from two weeks ago, and yes I am still planning on writing the story as of now, I will probably write it regardless but just not for NaNoWriMo if people say they don't want the story then. There is no news of it for now other than that it is officially a go and planned for November.

IMPORTANT FOR PEEPS WHO DON'T KNOW ABOUT/ HAVE READ THE BOLD: Most of my info about this is posted in the last chapter, and I'd love more opinions on it, so if you're interested please check it out!