I wrote this listening to Sixpence None the Richer's "There She Goes" on repeat so there's that.
This one is for Kay-Mentrae for the review that really got me in the spirit to write this. Props to Positively for the info on altar serving since I only did it like twice. Thanks!
Just a reminder that the T rating is for language, as some stuff goes down in this chapter where people call other people unpleasant things.
This chapter features the appearance of priest!Mexico. Since there's no canon Mexico yet, feel free to insert any characteristics you like. My personal favorite is nadiezda's, and I got the name from them. Cuba and Austria also have cameos in this chapter!
Translations:
-novio: Spanish for "boyfriend" (I was given to understand that this is typically used for boyfriend despite literally translating as groom; Spanish speakers please feel free to correct me on this.)
-la misa: Spanish for "the Mass"
-lo siento: Spanish for "sorry"
-gracias, Padre: Spanish for "thank you, Father"
-ustedes/vosotros: plural form of Spanish "you;" ustedes is used in Latin America while vosotros is used in Europe
-Nonno: Italian for "grandfather"
-per favore: Italian for "please"
TALA 9
What the hell is going on?
The church was two streets away from where the edge of campus blurred into the college town. The early mass attendance was always sparse, as the college kids preferred sleeping in after a long night of their activity of choice (studying? partying? despairing over the human condition?). Lovino would also have liked to be sleeping away the morning in the dorm, but when you knew the priest, it wasn't really an option. Priests had this special "I'm disappointed in you but I'm not going to come out and say it because I hope you'll do the right thing" look that was especially potent considering they had the Almighty on their side. It was like being stared down by your favorite uncle and Jesus at the same time.
Anyway. He and Feliciano had known Father Eduardo since their early teens, and had been altar serving for just about as long. Having to serve at the early masses wasn't exactly an enviable position, so usually he or his brother or both of them got roped into staying through the 8:00 mass and the subsequent 10:00 Spanish mass. Some other lucky bastards got to serve at the later masses and sleep in.
Today it was just him, and Feliciano was one of the lucky bastards that got to sleep in. Or at least, it would have been just him. Except Alfred had been waiting outside for him at 7, smiling and raring to go. So now Lovino was sneaking covert glances at him, sitting in a front pew, as he waited at the side of the altar to carry the Book over to Father Eduardo for the opening prayer. He made a determined effort not to look as he crossed the altar during the Gloria, but judging by the amused slant of the priest's eyebrows as he opened the Book, it hadn't worked too well.
"Let us pray."
It would have worked better, Lovino thought, if Alfred didn't keep catching his eye and smiling at him whenever he looked over. One, because it was embarrassing, and two, because it was seriously distracting. Why, why, why was Alfred acting so...normal? He'd seemed angry last night, in that horrible silent way that meant he was really upset, and then this morning he hadn't even mentioned it. And even walking over, Lovino had been too scared to ask lest he jinx it. So they hadn't really said anything, just "Good morning, can I come with you to your service thingy?" "It's called Mass you Protestant heathen." "Yeah that, can I come?" "If you want to?" "Sweet."
Alfred had whistled during the walk, while Lovino battled sleep and confusion and general early-morning irritability. He'd watched Lovino put the white robe over his clothes, grinned, and gone to sit in the nave. Thirty minutes later Lovino had carried the cross past him in the front, nearly tripping up the whole processional when Alfred had waved at him.
Father Eduardo gave him a covert nudge, and he realized with a jolt that the prayer was over and everyone was sitting down. He snapped the Book shut and shuffled back to his seat with his face burning.
The rest of Mass passed in much the same, horribly excruciating, way. He missed most of the readings and the Homily watching Alfred try to mouth along with the other parishioners' responses. While it was obvious he was unfamiliar with the hymns, he seemed delighted to try following along in the hymnal. Lovino wondered if he had any musical background at all. He wondered a lot of things about Alfred, actually, and despite himself he wondered all through the Mass.
He hoped it wasn't too obvious to the parishioners, but Father Eduardo had no qualms calling him out on it before the Spanish mass started. "I could get the Machado kid to fill in for you if you wanted to hang out with your novio."
"Excuse me?" Lovino sputtered.
"You know, hang out? I thought that's what the kids called it these days."
"You're not funny, you know."
"No, I'm hilarious. And anyway, Carlos will definitely cover for you if you wanted to skip out early today. Just say the word and I'll grab him before la misa starts."
Lovino resolutely turned his back, fiddling with the rope around his waist.
"He's not my boyfriend, and I'm not skipping out." He could practically hear the priest rolling his eyes. What a professional.
"If you insist." He muttered to himself in Spanish for a few minutes. Then, "Isn't he that homeless kid?" Eduardo asked offhandedly.
Lovino spun back around. "How the hell do you know him?"
"Language," Eduardo reminded him.
"Ah, lo siento. But, how?"
Eduardo cocked his head to the side, considering. "Well, you know the parish ministry runs a social outreach program. Collecting food and clothing for the homeless. He comes by there sometimes. I can't say I've ever talked to him, since he's always in such a hurry, but I remember thinking he was awfully young."
"Oh." He digested this for a moment. "Actually, Father, if you don't mind..."
"Of course, go ahead," Eduardo told him, waving a hand. "I'll go get Carlos."
"Gracias, Padre."
Eduardo smiled. "You're a good kid, Lovino. Of course, that's partly due to my positive influence, no?"
Lovino snorted, already pulling the robe over his head. "Yeah, well, not according to Antonio. He keeps getting after me for using ustedes instead of vosotros."
Eduardo grinned. "Excellent, keep up the good work." Which was really an implicit fuck that guy. He didn't understand the tension between those two, but he figured it was none of his business. "See you next week, bright and early."
"I thought that was going to be a lot more depressing than it actually was," Alfred mused. Lovino noted with dismay his words forming puffs of white in the air. Had it somehow gotten colder since this morning?
"We're not so dour all the time, you know. It's Advent season, not Lent." He started to subtly herd them towards the main street of town, where hopefully they could find somewhere to slip inside and get warm.
"I meant to ask," Alfred changed the subject, "how exactly did you end up altar serving here? Didn't you tell me you usually live a few towns over?"
"Yeah, when school's out we live about an hour away," he confirmed. "Well, after our grandfather died..."
"Oh crap! Sorry! I didn't mean to bring up anything like that!" Alfred flapped his hands nervously.
Lovino stared for a minute, trying to glare a pair of gloves into materialization over the idiot's fingers. When that didn't work he sighed and grabbed one hand, which was very helpful as far as leading the way went, as well as getting Alfred to calm down.
"It's fine, I don't mind talking about it."
"Are you sure?" Alfred asked quietly.
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't say that I was! Now shut up and listen."
Alfred mimed zipping his lips with his other hand, because he was a dork. They continued slowly towards Main Street, and Lovino continued his story.
"So, after Nonno died we went to live with our Uncle Roderich, who was a total asshat. Not like a bad person or anything, just...not a very good parent. Of course he loved Feliciano but at least he wasn't totally taken in by his cuteness like most people. I think the first time he told us we were expected to do chores Feli actually started crying.
"Anyway, he was Lutheran and Feli and I had been raised Catholic. He tried taking us to his church a few times, but after I threw a tantrum in the middle of a, a worship service or whatever it is they call the Mass, he stopped taking us. We were just hanging around one Sunday when we saw his next door neighbor come out. He was annoyingly friendly and he asked why we weren't in church. Feliciano told him all about it, and the guy volunteered to drive us to the Catholic church he usually went to, which was this one. We just got in his car and went. Roderich threw a fit when we got back, since Antonio hadn't thought to ask him about it."
"Wait, your neighbor was 'Toni?"
"Yeah, that's how we met him. And that's how we met Father Eduardo, too. Roderich gave us permission to ride with Antonio every week, and a few months later we were approached about altar serving. Antonio tried to take pictures the first time, if you can believe it."
Alfred bit his lip. "I can believe it, actually," he said, laughter evident behind his words.
Lovino snorted and bumped his shoulder into Alfred's arm. "Yeah." They continued in silence for a while. "I found out later that Antonio was a professor at the college. I wasn't too happy about it." Understatement. "The college was like a symbol of my grandfather to me. I hated the place."
Alfred blinked at him. "But you're here now."
Lovino blew out a long breath. "I wasn't planning on attending here, but Antonio and Father Eduardo talked me into it. And Feliciano nagged me into it."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Some bullshit about not completely breaking ties with my grandfather. But that's not really why I decided to stay." Alfred squeezed his hand. Lovino smiled, squeezed back, and spoke with conviction, "I decided not to let the old bastard affect my decisions. I like it here, it's a good school, and I won't let my grandfather's ghost prevent me from enjoying it."
"That's great, Lovi. You're great." Alfred sounded genuinely amazed.
He let himself enjoy it for a moment before crooking a wicked smile at him. "Damn straight I am."
Alfred laughed. After a few minutes of walking in companionable silence, he spoke up again. "Did you want to ask me something?"
Why aren't you mad at me? "Like what?"
"Well I mean, you just told me a bunch about you, so it's only fair I tell you something about me, right? If you wanna ask."
Oh. Oh. That opened up a whole range of possibilities, from How often do you get food from the church program? to Why did you leave? This was a great opportunity in theory, but something told him that he could also blow this big time. Better to play it safe.
"Actually, I was wondering during Mass if you know anything about music."
Alfred looked startled, then laughed. "You caught me, I know nothing about anything remotely musical. I kept trying to follow along but mostly I ended up just pretending to sing. Was it that obvious?"
"You looked totally lost. It was pretty funny, actually."
He winced. "Thanks. But um, was there anything else you wanted to ask?"
Huh. He hadn't backed out of it, despite being obviously skittish over the offer.
"What's your brother like?" he asked eventually.
"Mattie?" Alfred's eyebrows rose.
"Yeah. He doesn't seem to like me too much."
"Really? That's weird, usually he's super nice. And really polite! You're right though, he's got a mean streak a mile wide. Well, not a mile. Maybe like a really covert mile, which you only find when you go down the wrong road and then suddenly BAM you're off the map and your GPS isn't working and you're about to run out of gas and everything is terrifying. Other than that, though, he really is the nicest guy ever."
Alfred continued to ramble about how great his brother was for close to half an hour. At this point they were just walking up and down Main, until Lovino was struck by an idea and led them to a secondhand store. Alfred was apparently in a good mood, so it couldn't hurt to try this now.
At Alfred's questioning look, Lovino told him, "Christmas shopping. Keep going." So Alfred followed him around the racks, detailing one particularly disastrous exploit the two of them had got up to when they were kids, although he wasn't specific about whose care they were in at the time.
He had launched into another anecdote when Lovino found it: a beat-up but very warm-looking bomber jacket. Perfect. He paid for it, declined a bag, and they exited the store plus one jacket. Lovino, of course, was already wearing one. This fact seemed to occur to Alfred just as they stepped out, because he trailed off and stared at it speculatively. Lovino held it out to him, and before he could protest, said "Merry Christmas."
"Uh, Christmas is still almost two weeks away."
"It's an early present. Might as well use it while we're out; it's goddamned freezing out here."
"But..."
"You just saw me buy it, Alfred. It was fifteen dollars."
He hesitated only a moment more before taking it and shrugging it on.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome." He stared at Alfred, finally wearing a fucking jacket, and felt his face crumple. He'd finally managed to do something besides screw up.
"Wha-? Lovi, what's wrong?"
Lovino gasped in a breath of cold air. "I thought you'd be mad at me," his voice trembled as he said it, "for yesterday."
"Oh." Alfred shifted. "I'm sorry I just left like that. I was mad, but I couldn't stay that way. I mean, I missed you a lot while I was gone and, and I think you were right, that I should have told him."
Lovino shuddered, from some combination of cold and the surge of relief coursing through him. Alfred drew him in for a hug, and Lovino could feel he was already warming up and he was so grateful that Alfred had accepted the jacket.
"I thought you wouldn't talk to me. Or that you would leave again," he confided, almost in a whisper.
Alfred kissed the top of his head. "I promise I won't disappear on you anymore. Okay?"
Lovino nodded, and they stood on the sidewalk and for the first time in a while he felt like everything would be okay.
By the time they got around to walking back to campus, it was getting dark.
"I always forget how early it gets dark in the winter," Lovino grumbled. He was slightly annoyed with the sun for setting so fast, but on the other hand, Alfred had an arm wrapped around his shoulders and it was pleasantly warm and comfortable.
Alfred grinned. "Yeah well aren't you-wait, what's going on over there?"
Lovino looked over and spotted a small group of four standing on the corner. There was no one else around in the area, so they stood out as rather suspicious. He squinted, recognized them, and hissed, "Shit." They were some frat boys, and unfortunately Lovino was familiar with them. "Let's go," he told Alfred.
"What're they doing?"
"Who knows, but I really think we should go."
Alfred gave him a questioning look, just as one of the boys spotted them and called out, "Hey, if it isn't little Vargas. Oh, and is that his new boyfriend?" The group started snickering.
Alfred's hold tightened protectively. "You guys got something to say?"
"Alfred," Lovino protested, but there was a stubborn set to Alfred's jaw and a threatening gleam in his eye.
"Yeah, just thought you should know you're dating a fucking slut."
"Excuse me?" Alfred growled. He gently pushed Lovino back and stalked forward. He was radiating dangerous intent, but the frats were either stupid or uncaring. Lovino hung back, nervous. If something happened...
Alfred said something to them, quietly so Lovino couldn't hear, but the boys just laughed and responded loudly, "Yeah right, like we're gonna stoop to talking to that whore."
Alfred's response was a solid punch to the face of their spokesperson, and it descended into chaos from there.
Lovino stepped forward but retreated again, torn. He couldn't get into another fight, not if he didn't want to get expelled, but he couldn't just leave Alfred to deal with these guys alone.
Alfred seemed to be holding his own, though, until suddenly he froze, staring at something a few feet away. Or was that a someone? Whatever or whoever the figure was, they were hidden in shadows. The boys took advantage of Alfred's distraction, getting a few solid blows in that made Lovino wince. Alfred seemed to shake it off, though, and returned their hits with a roar.
Despite that, Lovino couldn't help but feel ashamed because here Alfred was, fighting his battles for him, getting hurt for him, while he just stood there. He' had just decided to join the fray when Alfred caught his eye between punches and yelled, "Stay back, you'll get in trouble with the school," and how the hell did Alfred know about that?
"It doesn't matter what he does, we'll say he was involved anyway," one of the guys sneered, wiping at a bloody mouth. "Maybe this time you'll actually get expelled, huh Vargas? Or will it be special treatment for grandpa's boy again?"
Lovino clenched his fists but Alfred beat him to replying. He slammed his hands into the speaker's shoulders, lifted him up off the ground and shook him. "You say anything, and I'll tell the dean what you were out here doing."
They all paled noticeably. "We weren't doing anything," one protested weakly.
"Pretty serious drugs to have on campus," Alfred continued. "Possession of what you've been buying will end up getting you sent to jail, not just expelled." He dropped him.
"Jesus!" the guy spat, scrambling to his feet. The group backed up, away from them and the shadowy onlooker. "We'll keep quiet." And they scrambled away.
"Yeah I thought so," Alfred muttered. He jogged back over to Lovino and grabbed his elbow, steering him away and towards campus hastily. Lovino craned his head to get a look back, but the other person seemed to have vanished.
"Who was-? How did you know what they were buying? Shit, Alfred, you're covered in blood again."
"Lovino, come on," Alfred pleaded. "Per favore."
Lovino started at the switch, but allowed himself to be hustled back to the dorm.
Luckily Feliciano was out again, and he could clean Alfred up in peace.
"What the fuck was that?" he asked. "What the fuck?"
Alfred pushed his hands away. "Lovi, I gotta go."
"Go where?" he demanded. "Alfred, who was that? Are you in trouble?"
Alfred shook his head, but he looked troubled. "It's nothing, Lovi, I just gotta go."
"But-"
Alfred stood up, winced, but quickly turned it into a smile. "You'll see me tomorrow, okay?"
Lovino's shoulders slumped. "I'd better," he said. "You promised."
But the next day, Alfred had disappeared again.
Thanks for sticking with me guys!
Catholic translations! For those of you who were not forced to go to church as children.
-Some of the duties of an altar server that Lovino goes through here include: carrying in the cross (it's on top of a long stick) at the front of the processional, which is when the priest goes up to the altar. He also holds open the Bible in front of the priest when he reads the opening prayer from it, after the Gloria is sung.
-The nave is just the part of the church where the pews are.
-The Homily is the talk/lecture/speech the priest gives after the day's Scripture reading.
-The Church (Catholic and I believe Protestant churches, too) has different "liturgical seasons." When nothing special is going on it's called "Ordinary Time." Advent season comes before Christmas, in preparation for Christ being born. It's a very happy, anticipatory time of year. On the other hand, Lent is the forty days before Easter where Jesus dying for the sins of humanity is mourned, so it's very gloomy and they talk about how horrible humans are a lot. But then Easter season comes and it's happy again. (Fun fact: the seasons have colors! The priest wears robes of the color, and sometimes the Church is decorated with tapestries in that color. Ordinary time is green, Easter and Christmas are white, and Lent and Advent are purple. On certain days red, black, or gold are used.)
-Another fun fact, Mexico is the second-most Catholic country in the world, following Brazil. Austria is in fact much more Catholic than Lutheran nowadays, but for the sake of the story he remained Protestant.
