Austin had not let her hand go until they got to Santoli's later that night and Ally didn't know if it was so he wouldn't lose her through the flood of tourists that came out of nowhere or because he just liked holding her hand. She had silently hoped it was the latter because she liked holding his hand as well. His entire hand engulfed hers, holding it tight and making it warm in the cool winter weather. When he ultimately let go after dropping her off at her home, it felt like he took all the heat with him. Now, it was three days later and she was still feeling cold; and telling Mercede and Paola about it all was not helping. It only made her miss Austin more.

In the three days since her visit, Ally had headed straight to the embassy for a preliminary interview and Austin, the last she checked with him, was finishing up more songs, which made her happy. The more songs the better, in her opinion. She still couldn't get one of them out of her mind and found herself humming the tune around the house. It was Sunday afternoon now and while Silvana had enlisted Seraphina's help in the kitchen for dinner later that night, she was with the other daughters and watching as Gianna put her younger brothers through Carnevale tests, also known as the tenth layer of hell.

It was funnier as time went on, she determined. Rico had downright turned the paintbrush on his sister after she dolled up his face in black and white to see just how his and his brothers' costumes would look. Lazzaro, on the other hand, was oblivious to everything going on and only paid attention to the game on the television that his dad was watching on the other side of the room. After breaking up Rico and Gianna for the third time, Ally was now helping Paola in her very full, very frilly, and very pretty, blue gown for the first ball in just a few days.

She stared at the roses that popped out at every corner of the skirt and the details that Gianna had put into her sister's garments. It was gorgeous shade of blue - not quite sky and not quite sea but somewhere in between. The top of the gown was a corseted top that was encrusted in aquamarine stones all around and the laces that Ally had pulled and pulled on to make sure were tight had almost disappeared into the fabric. While her mask was a traditional Colombina mask that was plain white with the same aquamarine stones surrounding the border, Paola's headpiece matched the skirt, with a giant rose popping out of the side of it. Ally stepped back to take all of Paola in and took a deep breath. This would be her. In purple.

"How does it look, Ally?" Paola turned slightly, lifting the skirt with her hands as if it was air.

Ally kneeled down, fixing the skirt so it laid just right and looked up at the younger of the twins. "Sei bellissima." She watched Paola blush a bit and push Rico out of the way for the mirror that Gianna had stuck him in front of. She twirled and double checked the dress, making sure it fit her just right. It was beautiful and Ally could hardly believe that in between her job at the national bank, Gianna had time to make all the costumes for the first ball. For the second, however, she had to rely on her mother's expertise and help.

Mercede was up next, in the lightest shade of yellow that you could find. She had labeled it limone gustoso...or lemon yummy in English as soon as she saw the gown. As much as Mercede was against being in yellow, and red, she actually looked stunning in both colors. In contrast to her twin, Mercede's hair was more beigey than the golden Paola had going on and the combination of her hair with the makeup that Gianna had picked out for her, Ally was convinced she was going to be the prettiest of all of them. She wouldn't admit that to anyone, but she knew it was true. The layers in the gown were different from Paola's too. It wasn't all bunched together with roses, even those were still there - they were a bouquet of roses, after all.

Mercede's dress had more ribbons and was tiered and in between the tiers, there were laces and petals of yellow all over. It was gorgeous and she silently hoped her own dress was more like Mercede's. The corseted top was just like Paola's though, dotted with yellow sapphires that dazzled when she spun around and hit the lights.

With Rico out of the way, Gianna was finally done with the guys and let him go after taking a few pictures of his face for reference on ball night. Ally could only imagine the disarray this place would be in just a week's time. She took a seat next to Mercede, taking just a moment before starting to adjust and make little tweaks on the dress. "Is it me or has he gotten even more annoying?"

Ally could only laugh at Gianna. It was Rico, he'd always been annoying.

"Have you met Rico before, Gianna?" Paola asked her. "He's always been that way. It's the youngest child syndrome."

"I guess so," Gianna shrugged her shoulders, a pin coming out of the cushion on her wrist as she judged Ally. "Tell us more about your day with Austin. I need to get lost in a love story after that."

"Love story? It's not a love story," Ally told her, lying straight through her teeth. It was such a love story that she could write the book about it right now and it would have just as many chapters as "The Wizard of Oz."

Ally saw Gianna roll her eyes. "You took him to San Giorgio in Alga, an underground party where you almost kissed him and then just spent a full day with him singing to you and almost kissed again. That's not a love story?"

"Sure sounds like one to me," Vittoria muttered, flipping through a magazine on the sofa. "Sounds like a beautiful beginning of one anyhow."

A love story. While Gianna mastered Mercede's gown, Ally let her thoughts drift away and really soak up what Vittoria said, a love story. When Ally thought of love stories, she thought of folk tales and legends and the real fairy tales where they didn't end up happily ever after; the tales where they made true sacrifices and most times died for true love. The stories she read were full of adventure and people who were trying to keep the lovers apart - which seemed to be the opposite of what the women around her were trying to do. Ally remembered her favorite love story well - Soleste and Moroello.

The legend would always have a soft spot in her heart after visiting the Landi Castle at Bardi in Emilia-Romagna during high school. It was sort of a Romeo and Juliet tale, but with much more truth and sacrifice behind it. Soleste was the daughter of the castle Lord and fell so deeply in love with Moroello, a captain of the knights and he with her. No one approved of their love, except a nurse and soon, Soleste was promised to another Lord by her father's doing. But that didn't stop her from loving Moroello. During a long battle for more land, Soleste waited for the captain and when she saw riders approaching the fortress, she noticed they were not wearing the family's colors. Fearing Moroello had perished, she threw herself off the tower and died. In a sad twist, it was Moroello and his men riding towards the castle and they were wearing the enemy's colors to promote their victory. When he heard about her jumping, he did as well.

When Ally was at the castle, she heard even more stories of Moroello haunting the grounds, looking for his lost love and it got her even more hooked on the emotion. She loved love, ever since her mom told her her first fairy tale when she was two. But her own love life had been far from any fairy tale, which was both a blessing and a curse. She had one boyfriend in high school and two in college and all of them were far from the typical Prince Charming moniker. In fact, all of them were far from it. Her high school relationship lasted about a month before he chose to take the homecoming queen to bed and in college, she had dated her R.A. before he graduated and another guy during her senior year, who was actually kind of sweet, but it was more of a friends with benefits situation than anything else.

Now, with Austin, it was different; she was different. They weren't forcing anything and even thinking about the possibilities with him was making her stomach turn into bats. Not butterflies. Bats. Bats with their wings that could cause major damage. She liked the way he paid attention to what she said and remembered what she said at all. She liked that he had learned Italian and even though he insisted it wasn't for her, she still liked to think that it was. She liked that his smile was lopsided and she absolutely loved that he treated Suzetta Santoli like a queen and paid her so many compliments that made her blush. Him having a voice that could make anyone get off on was just a bonus.

Ally shrugged her shoulders. "It could be one..."

Paola snorted. "Oh, it is."

"Go change into your dress," Gianna nudged her.. "I put it in your room upstairs."

"Wait, you expect me to walk down all those stairs in one of those?" Ally got up, pointing at the twins still in their gowns.

"Certo faro," Gianna looked up at her, with the cheesiest smile. "I'll send Vittoria up in a minute to get you all fastened."

Turning around, Ally made her way up the stairs towards her room and was immediately met with a mess of lavender fabric staring back at her as it hung over her wardrobe. The material was darker than she remembered it being in the shop and instead of the lightest shade of violet, it was more of a creamy amethyst with pleats of layers and ruffles that blasted out from the bottom of the corseted top. Unlike the other dresses, which were strapless and straight necklines, hers had thin straps that would help holding up the dress with a sweetheart neckline instead. Also like the others, the top was dotted with jewels that sparkled as she turned in it. Slipping into it, Ally was suddenly very aware of just how small she was again. Short, tiny, miniature...and all those other words. The dress actually swallowed her.

Turning at the knock at her door, she was happy to see Vittoria there to help her zip it all up and prayed it actually didn't make her look like a doll like she feared it did. She prayed even harder that she would be able to walk down the stairs in it. "Was yours this heavy?" Ally asked Vittoria as she lifted the skirts up and went to glimpse at herself in the tiny mirror on the vanity set across from the wardrobe.

"Mine was light, but the fabric was different too," Vittoria told her, securing the zips and hooks up in the back. Vittoria's had been just the same as Paola's, only a light minty green with peridots on every edge of it. She took a step back and let Ally turn around in it. "It looks gorgeous on you."

Ally turned towards Vittoria and smiled. "Let's just hope I can walk down the stairs in it."


He was not a runner. At all. He hated it in high school when it was required to actually pass gym class, he hated it when he physically had to run to catch a flight and he hated it now, when he was late for the Nicoletti's family dinner that he had been looking forward to all day long. Ally had teased him the day before at Santoli's with promises of new pastas and a mouth watering chicken dish and he had been dreaming of it ever since...of course that was before Santo called him early in the morning and let him know the recording studio was open to use.

That was the start of his day and he had been in there since noon, putting down the base tracks for five of his songs. The first two were officially finished and he just had to send them to his label later that night for their first listen on what he had promised them would actually be his best album. He knew that Ally's host family wouldn't actually mind him being a bit late, but he still wanted to be punctual. Being on time meant more time for the delicious food and more time with Ally.

Austin tried to catch his breath as soon as he crossed the last bridge towards the piano nobile square and didn't even mind the coolness he felt with his open coat that was flapping around on his sides. Stopping just ahead of the home to regain a steady breath, he was surprised to find a few patrons eating outside at the restaurant beside it. He wasn't cold at the moment, but he had been when he left the conservatory a half hour ago. It was cold tonight and he secretly hoped that the family had a raging fire going on in that fireplace he had seen last week in the main living room. A hot, crackling fire.

Pulling on the age old bell, Austin pulled his coat all the way closed and adjusted the bag that he had wrapped around his upper half, turning it to where it was supposed to be instead of where it was. He didn't wait long before the door opened up, revealing Dante, if he recalled correctly, with a drink in his hand and half of his face painted up. "Ciao. Non so se ti ricordi di me ..."

"Austin," Dante quickly cut him off. "Come on in. Warning you now that Gianna is doing a fitting for everyone for this week."

"For Carnevale? Should I run home?" Austin tried out the joke on the guy who he hardly knew and it worked. Dante laughed and nodded profusely. "How bad is it?"

"Rico got the worst of it," Dante said, as they bypassed the kitchen that smelled of things he would eat without even seeing it and into the big room where his eyes fell on Ally immediately.

She stood in the middle of the room, her arms spread out as Gianna made little adjustments to the dress she was modeling. The gown was gorgeous and made Ally even more beautiful. The Nicoletti women were all around her, fluffing up the dress and making sure it fit just right as he caught her gaze. The light refracted off her dress and almost blinded him just as Lazzaro tapped his shoulder and welcomed him back. Austin let his eyes unlock from her being and greeted all the guys, remembering each of them as they watched an old soccer game on the television. Truth be told though, he really just wanted to stare at Ally...or at least say hi.

Breaking away from the guys for a moment, Austin walked over to the "girl's side" of the room and greeted them as well before looking up at her again. "Buona sera."

"Ciao, Austin."

"That's some dress," he noted as a few of the girls slipped away and went to hassle their brothers. "It's...big."

"That's what I told her. It's too big," Ally motioned to Gianna.

"It's not too big," Gianna stepped back after pinning pieces of fabric together so it would actually fit her perfectly on the day of. "Tell her Austin."

Austin darted his eyes between both girls and bit his tongue, trying not to get in between them. It was a big dress, but he wasn't about to tell any girl, let alone the one he was crazy over that she looked awful in it. "Um..."

"I'm done, right?" Ally asked Gianna and started to pick up the skirts in her hands, not waiting for permission from the seamstress even though she was nodding that she was indeed done.

Austin reached out to help her down from the pedestal that he was starting to think was a permanent feature in the home. She took a hold of his hand and while her first step landed just where she wanted, the other foot slipped off and Austin reacted quickly, his arms surrounded her upper half so she wouldn't fall even more. He bit back a little laugh as she looked up at him, a little blush creeping up on her face. "You okay there?"

"So, you probably know this by now, but I'm a bit clumsy."

Austin laughed. "Good thing for you, I like clumsy."

The two stared at each other for a minute before the snickers and whispers around them got too much. He saw Ally straighten up and poke her tongue out at Gianna and Mercede just as Silvana came out of the kitchen and clapped her hands to get everyones' - including the guys - attention.

"Va bene, tutti. Cena in cinque minuti. Aletta, andare in fretta e cambiare prima che i ragazzi trangugiare tutto in vista," she kept on clapping. "Chop, chop!"


Like his first and second time, dinner passed by faster than he liked it to. Too fast, in his honest opinion. Like any typical guy, he would always be hungry and especially for the food prepared by Silvana. It was just too good. The meal tonight was even better than the one before and it seriously made him never want to leave Venice at all. However, after being poked a bit by a few pins from Gianna's hands, that may convince him to speed up everything and get out as soon as he could. Dante had warned him during dinner that she was not the best with the tiny sticks and he had the little pricks on his wrist to prove it. While Austin took that with a grain of salt then, maybe Dante had a point...and he winced at the slip of her finger on his back at the top of his shoulders.

"Sorry," she apologized once more while Seraphina and Vittoria snickered at him keeping quiet about it all.

"Still no blood, right?"

"If there was blood, Austin, you'd be seeing her out of this house faster than Ally running across the piazza," Vittoria joked, knowing all about his 'mad woman running' comments.

"I'm not that bad."

"Yes, you are," Seraphina insisted. "Should I remind you about when Lazzaro ripped open his arm?"

"Or even when Rico was, what, around ten and scraped his knee? You almost passed out from that," Vittoria reminded her younger sister.

"Okay, so I'm not good with blood."

"I've very thankful right now that you're not a doctor or nurse," Austin piped up as Gianna rounded him and shifted the cape over his frame again.

"You and the 270,000 people in Venice," Vittoria smiled up at Gianna as she turned to glare at her.

Putting away all the pins, Gianna made sure everything fit him just right and for the most part it did. It was actually a cool costume. He fully admitted to Santo earlier in the week that he hoped he wouldn't actually look like a clown. From what Austin actually knew about Carnevale and the people he had already seen walking around the city in full costumes, he knew that the style was out there with fully covered faces and period attire and hats that he never, ever thought he'd ever wear.

The costume Gianna had put him in was more Zorro like and he was all about that. There was a dark purple cape, lined with a lighter shade of violet silk. He wore gray pants with flat boots. He had spotted a hat attached to a mask placed by her seamstress kit and already knew it was his, as noted by the giant 'A' scribbled on a post it note on it. He was also expecting a sword to go along with it all, but so far, there was none.

She turned him around, and brushed her hands over the gray shirt. "Everything is comfortable?"

He nodded and watched as Ally came out of the kitchen then after being on kitchen clean up duty with Lazzaro and Paola. She wiped her hands over her jeans and came to hang out with Seraphina and Vittoria as he was being fitted to everything.

"You match me," she said, noting the color of his cape. Ally picked up the bag he placed on the sofa before dinner and sat down, holding it close to her. "You have your camera in here?"

Austin nodded. "Don't take any pictures of this."

"Why not? You're going to want to remember this," she joked and pulled out the manual lens, holding it over her eye for just a moment and snapping the shutter.

Gianna let him change back into his own clothes shortly after that and Austin stayed put as the other children left to go to their own homes. He and Ally had fallen back into a conversation like they had before the underground party. The ones like they were best friends from childhood who were reunited and nothing had seemed to change. They sat on the sofa with warm coffees in their hands hours after Silvana and Benedetto had retired to bed and he was still going on about recording a few songs at the conservatory earlier in the day.

"I loved that one," Ally told him when he told her he was going to send 'West Side Story' and 'Iris' off to his label the next day. "When you sang that one, 'West Side Story' to me the other day...well, it's now my new theme song."

"Your theme song?" Austin raised his eyebrow up, amused at her words as she nodded up and down, making her ponytail bounce around on the top of her head. "I'm anxious to know what they're going to think. The songs are just so much different than what I'm known for and I think more than the label, I'm just a bit fearful about what my fans will think. Gone is that sugary pop that I was known for and now they'll get these slower, meaningful songs that they are not used to."

"I get it," Ally let her hand slip from supporting her head on the back of the couch to resting on his forearm; a feeling he was liking...a lot. "Not the music and fans part but the part where your stomach is flipping over like loops on a rollercoaster. After my stage fright took over and I was really deciding what I was actually going to do for the rest of my life, I didn't know which way to go. I could've done business and gone into a family business, or this. Following a passion of art and law and all things Italy. Scariest decision of my life."

"Obviously, it turned out really well," Austin brought the mug to his lips for a drink of the brew. "You're in Venice, following your dream job."

"And so are you." Her hand rubbed his arm up and down. "The way you talk about your fans, Austin...it's like they are your best friends. And your best friends never leave you. Ever. I'm going to predict that they're going to love this new material even more than your other hits because it's you."

Austin set his mug on the table in front of them and looked back at her. "I think I need to keep you around forever. You give the best advice."

"Not sure that I do. I once gave advice to my best friend and it turned out to be the worst."

"Tell me about your best friend."

"I don't think there's enough time in the day to tell you all about Trish."

"Come on, I'll tell you about mine. His name is Dez and his clothes are as crazy as his orange hair."

Ally pursed her lips together, trying not to laugh too hard. "Crazy clothes and orange hair?"

"Yep," Austin nodded. "He's a director and I've known him since I was in diapers. Literally. His mom and my mom took us to the same baby class when we were super young and it's where our friendship was born after he painted my hair to match his."

Ally couldn't help it after that, she had to laugh. Austin watched as her face lit up and all he could see was her smile; something he could get used to seeing all the time.

"I'm glad you're amused by this."

"I'm sorry," she said, leaning her head onto his shoulder, trying to get her laughter to die down. "I'm just trying to picture you with orange hair."

"It gets better. He called himself The Love Whisperer throughout middle and high school. He makes the best chili ever inside a drum, oh, and one time we were at the beach and he gave me spray glue instead of spray sunscreen. I tumbled into the sand and had it glued all over my body. I didn't get all the sand off until a week later."

"Oh my God..." she buried her face in his arm even more.

"I still love the beach, but I always double check the spray and I still get itchy sometimes," Austin admitted.

Once Ally's laughter had died down, she and Austin talked more about their childhood friends. She told him how her best friend hadn't held down a job for more than two days before she actually had to after college and how the same friend was the best to have for revenge of any kind. Before they both knew it, it was past midnight and he needed to get home to sleep and so did she, seeing as she had another interview tomorrow morning at the embassy.

Austin stopped before he opened the door to leave, and leaned in to to kiss her on the cheek before he forgot or she had any chance to stop him. He had the urge to let his lips drift over to her lips, the lips he had been staring at all night watching her talk about everything and anything with him. But he didn't. Instead, he let his own lips linger on her warm cheek, breathing in her scent and very slowly, pulled back. "Buona notte."

Ally curved her mouth upwards and told him the same thing. "Buona notte, mio cavaliere." She shut the door as he walked off, leaning back up against it. Running her hands over her bare face, she knew what Vittoria and Gianna were saying earlier was true. This was a love story.