The three of them were pretty exhausted and hungry, they had left the apartment by 9 and barely had anything for breakfast.
"We should go out to eat." Antonio said as he concentrated on the road.
Romano looked at him suspiciously, "Are you even allowed to take your costumers out to eat?" he asked.
Antonio shrugged, "I dunno, I've never done so but I don't see anything wrong with it."
Romano took a moment to curse at the way Antonio could make him feel happy and depressed at the same time with the same sentence. "Well, if you're fine with it, it's fine with me. Feli, where do you want to go?"
Feliciano practically bounced in his seat, "Didi's Pizza! Didi'z Pizza!" he squealed.
"One would think he'd get tired of pizza." Romano commented with a slight chuckle.
"Didi's Pizza it is then." Antonio replied with a smile.
"Table for three, please." Antonio said to the waitress who greeted them.
"Can I go to the games now? Please?" Feliciano pleaded as he tugged on Romano's hand. There was a small playground in the restaurant and for as long as he could remember, Feliciano had loved it in there.
"Just wait 'till we get our table, once you've told me what you want to eat, you can go." Romano replied with a small sigh and a smile.
As soon as they got to the table, Antonio pulled back a chair with a gallant smile, obviously expecting Romano to take it.
"I can pull out my own chair, idiot." Romano murmured as he sat down, instantly diving into his menu. He wasn't hiding his blushing face, he was just really hungry and wanted to order quickly.
Really.
"Spaghetti carbonara, can I go now, Toño?" Feliciano pleaded now with Antonio who was taken slightly aback by the sudden nickname. He couldn't help it and nodded, "Sure, you can go now, Feli."
Feliciano squealed in delight and bounced out of his chair and to the playground.
"You're spoiling him, idiot." Romano said, having set his menu down and looking amusedly at Antonio.
"I can't help it! He does this bamby eyes and I just can't say no." Antonio replied apologetically, scratching slightly the back of his head.
A woman two tables away from them was giving them the stinkeye, but Romano was honestly used to it, so he almost unconsciously ignored it.
"So, what should I ask for?" Antonio asked, eyeing the menu doubtfully.
"The pizza is traditional, oven-made and thin crusted. It's to kill for. The Florencian one is their speciality and..." Romano started ranting as he started explaining some of his favourite dishes. He leaned over to point at the menu and at the different dishes, not really meaning anything, Antonio was sure, but it still made his heart skip a bit and his face felt considerably hotter.
He was completely mesmerized as Romano explained to him about the different ways the vegetables were prepared for the pizza. However, a small commotion made him focus again on the restaurant around him.
"What's going on?" he asked Romano, sitting straight up again, since had been leaning his head on his hand and looking dreamily at the Italian. God he must've looked like such a fool, he was partially glad for being snapped out of it.
"Huh? Oh. I have no idea. Probably a customer complaining." Romano said dismissively as he waved his hand and looked at his menu again.
"So, I'm going to have a Sicily Pizza, you?"
Antonio looked at his menu and was about to reply, when a very embarassed waitress walked up to their table.
"Is something wrong?" Antonio asked, looking questioningly at the waitress.
The poor girl seemed embarassed and stuttered as she started speaking, "I-I um..."
"That woman over there was complaining abou us, wasn't she?" Romano asked bored, taking a drink from his glass.
"Complaining? Was Lovino too loud? He often is, please forgive him." Antonio said, half-jokingly, not understanding the stressful situation and wanting to dissipate it.
"No, Antonio. She's complaining because we're two men sitting in a table with a kid. She thinks we're a couple." Romano explained coldly.
Antonio hadn't known Romano for too long, but he'd seen most of his reactions and had started to understand his character. This was a side of Romano he had never seen, speaking coldly and trying to hide a pain that was clearly reflected in his eyes.
"Is that true?" Antonio asked the waitress calmly. She bit her nail and nodded, carefully avoiding both their eyes.
"Is there a restaurant policy against it?" he questioned.
Romano, who had been busy trying to act aloof and not completely enraged and hurt, almost fell from his chair at Antonio's words. It didn't matter if there was a policy or not. They weren't a couple.
The girl quickly shook her head, "Of course not! Y-you are free to stay... And she's actually being just awful... but I..."
Antonio smiled kindly, "Please, do inform this lady that if she has a problem with us being here together, she can come and tell us directly, she shouldn't have to put you in such an uncomfortable position."
The waitress smiled the tiniest and most nervous smile and hurried off, back to the other table.
Romano, meanwhile, had been doing the perfect imitation of a fish.
"So, Lovi, you're having the Sicily, right?" Antonio started, with the most perfect normality.
'It meant nothing. It meant nothing. It meant nothing. It meant nothing. It meant nothing. It meant nothing.'
"Y-Yeah, the Sicily. I-" he started, however, was interrupted by the quick tapping of heels against the floor, heading directly to their table.
"Look, I tried being nice and considerate!" the woman from the other table, who was now beet red with fury huffed, stamping her foot as she stood in front of Antonio.
"Oh? Did you? I'm sorry, I must've missed that." Antonio replied with a polite smile.
Romano covered his mouth with one hand, trying to hold back his snigger.
"You... You... You rude faggots! You are nothing but blemishes in humanity and will never be in God's grace! I hope you die from AIDS or something horrible like that!"
Romano wasn't laughing anymore. He felt sick, his stomach turning uncomfortably in his stomach.
He was.
He was a blemish, an error, a mistake.
Everything would be so much simpler if he wasn't-
Antonio suddenly stood up, looming over the short plump woman.
"I'm sorry if you have some inherent hate for people who live their lives peacefully with someone they love, but it's not our fault. You are being extremely rude. And I don't normally do this, but... I belong to the Family Services department of the government and there are some people there who would love to talk to you. A fine may be imposed for open discrimination, though... However we can provide a psichologist for the obvious emotional instabilities you have." Antonio said with a polite cold smile as he offered his business card to the woman.
People around them had started to notice and some even clapped Antonio's little speech.
"You're just fucking faggots, you're going to hell and rot there! This is a family place, you have no right to be here!" the woman screeched.
Romano, who was still taking in the fact that Antonio was defending them as if they were a couple, was kind of frozen. He had so many thoughts and feelings at the moment he didn't realize anything until it was too late.
"Lovi, what's going on?" Feli asked as he popped up from behind the woman.
Romano felt his blood freeze as she saw the woman turn to look at his little brother.
"Feli, come here, please." he managed with a small voice.
Feliciano felt the tension in his brother's voice and was quick to rush to his side.
However, the woman gripping his hand stopped him.
"Oi! Leave them alone!" "Stop it already, you witch!" "Hey, let the kid go!" People from other tables were calling, but Romano heard them all too far away.
"Let. Him. Go." he hissed between teeth.
The woman completely ignored him, though. "Oh you poor thing! Don't tell me...! Blasphemy! Don't worry, child, I'll make sure you never have to see them again. Poor, poor kid, you must be traumatized!"
"L-Let me go!" Feliciano pleaded, his voice trembling.
Romano felt his eyes tear up with rage and was about to rush forward, but Antonio beat him to it.
A loud slap was heard and the whole place fell silent.
Antonio had slapped the woman hard.
Due to the shock, the woman had freed Feliciano and he wasted no time rushing to his brother's arms.
The woman was still in an angry shock when the manager of the restaurant came up, quickly followed by the waitress who was pale.
"Ah, finally!" the woman screeched, indignated, "This man just hit me!"
"B-Because you were being horrible! And you were threatening to kidnap his son!" the waitress yelled, pointing at her accusingly.
"He's not really my-"
"I was not! I was trying to save him!" the woman interrupted Antonio.
"You were, you awful woman!" a woman from another table said, standing up. "You have a room full of eyewitnesses."
The manager turned to look at Antonio, who had one protective arm around Romano who was holding a crying Feliciano in his arms.
"I'm sorry, I acted out of reflex." Antonio said calmly, slightly bowing his head.
The manager nodded, "I'm sorry too. You'll have to accompany us outside, you're bothering our esteemed clients." he said, looking at the woman.
The woman screeched and screamed all the way as she was dragged out and everyone in the restaurant clapped.
Romano would've been glad and cursing loudly at her in any other situation, but he was just too much in shock and was holding Feliciano, softly whispering to him that it was going to be okay, that the mean lady was gone.
Antonio turned to the waitress, "I'm really sorry for all the trouble... Could we have our order to go? I think we've had enough exitement for today." He asked with an apologetic smile.
The waitress nodded and quickly disappeared into the kitchen.
"I'm really sorry about this whole fiasco. If there's anything I can do to make it up to your husband and you, please just tell us." the manager said with a preoccupied frown.
"He's not..." Antonio started but then, just as Romano looked up, he stopped himself, "No, we just want to get home and forget this little episode." he confesed, a slight smile in his face.
The world stopped for a moment and Romano couldn't make heads or tails of anything in his life right then.
The dishes were ready in what was probably record time and before Romano could really recover, they were on the elevator to their apartment.
Feliciano had fallen asleep in his arms, and he would undoubtedly wake up biting from hunger, but Romano thought it was better if he slept a little bit.
They hadn't talked to each other in the whole way, but the silence between them wasn't as uncomfortable as much as it was tired.
Antonio opened the door for him and Romano quietly walked in, setting Feliciano on the sofa and covering him with the blanket that he left there specifically for his siestas.
"I'm sorry about all that mess." Romano finaly said in a small voice as he joined Antonio in the kitchen.
"You shouldn't be, Lovi. I was kind of the one who gave her that impression, I think." Antonio confessed sheepishly.
"You were listening to me rant about pizza." Romano pointed out, confused.
Antonio laughed, "I think I might've been gawking a little."
Romano shook his head, refusing to think about it in any other way than that Antonio was as dense as a fucking brick wall and was probably talking about gawking because of the pizzas.
"Just eat your pizza, bastard." Romano said with a smirk as he opened the container with his pizza.
A.N.: I love you guys so much that I spent two hours finishing this instead of sleeping... I LOVE YOU MORE THAN MY SLEEP! (that coming from a university student is equivalent to 'marry me' XDDDD)
I have no times to reply to your beautiful reviews, but do now that I read them all and they are what keep this story alive! (that and the fact that I already wrote scenes from the final chapter XD)
lost of love, hope you enjoy this little, though kinda sad, chapter
Fun fact: I actually had these same words yelled at me :'D
