Dro: Beware, a chapter of fluff lies ahead!
Chapter Summary: Romano and Prussia argue over the former's secrets. Meanwhile, America tries to help Italy get back on his feet emotionally.
Warnings: None, really.
Disclaimer: Dro will never own APH.
"So let me get this straight. You got 'magic powers' from that Drovich guy, then decided to keep it a secret from us even when you felt something was wrong?" Gilbert glowered at Romano, who wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Well, I certainly didn't plan for this to happen."
"You…" Gilbert was shaking with anger. That idiot! Not only had Lovino almost gotten himself killed, but now he'd dragged Feliciano into this whole magic fiasco. When Lovino had explained to the three of them what he'd been up for the past few days, Gilbert was mad. When he added that he believed he'd transferred some of his powers to Feliciano, Gilbert was furious. Now, as Lovino was explaining that he thought the power had been too much for his body and almost killed him, Gilbert was fuming. What the hell was he thinking?
"Well, it's over now, so let's all calm down." Alfred held up his hands. "There's really no point in yelling over something that's already happened. You guys are fine, so let's just let the anger go and talk about other things."
Gilbert glared at him. "You mean like how are we going to explain that the Italy brothers now have magic abilities to everyone else?"
"You're going to tell?" Lovino finally looked up at him, nervousness pooling in his eyes.
"Damn straight. You think I'm letting you off the hook for this? You almost got yourself and Feliciano killed."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Gilbert." Alfred stepped in. "If our bosses catch wind of this, they might want to try using the brothers as weapons." He cringed inwardly. That had been his first thought, unfortunately. The unprecedented opportunity that the Italy brothers presented was in no way lost on him, but he'd quickly shaken that idea out of his mind. He wasn't going to use his friends like that, no matter how much he wanted to take these sky bastards out. Plus, he already had another plan of his own. He just needed to set it into motion.
Gilbert bit his lip. He didn't want to admit it, but Alfred was right. Telling on the boys could pose an even bigger risk than allowing them to slip past his guard to keep practicing their "magic." He glanced at Feliciano. He'd gone back to being silent again. The bandage on his face had started peeling off from the impact earlier, and Alfred had peeled the rest of it off without thinking about it. They'd all been shocked to see an already completely healed injury, scarred over in a thin pink line that cut across Feliciano's face. Gilbert realized then that Feliciano had only kept wearing the bandages because he didn't want everyone to see what his face looked like. Gilbert couldn't help but pity him.
"Fine. We won't tell anyone. But you need to stop using it. It's obviously dangerous."
Lovino growled at him. "I don't care if it's dangerous. I want to learn how to use it. I want to learn how to fight with it."
Gilbert pinched the bridge of his nose. "We don't know anything about it, Lovino! For all you know, it could be killing you as you speak. Look what happened out there!"
"I know what happened out there, and I don't care!" He stood up and marched up to Gilbert, challenging him with a glare. "I'm going to use it whether you like it or not."
"We'll see about it."
"Yeah, we will." Lovino clenched his fist, a stack of books flying off the shelf and zooming past Gilbert's head before slamming into the wall.
Gilbert stared at him with wide eyes. "Gott, you really can…" He still hadn't wanted to believe it, not even when Lovino had explained it in full. But the kid really could…
"Told you. Now let's see if you can stop me."
Gott, this idiot! Gilbert's hand shot out and grabbed Lovino's collar, pulling him closer. "You listen to me, Lovino Vargas. I swear to Gott if you get yourself or your bruder hurt one more time, I will make sure you never use this magic shit again. Am I clear?"
Lovino stared at him, fear sinking into him. "Yeah." So Gilbert was letting him use it? The grip on his shirt loosened, and he pulled away from Gilbert. He wanted to be an ass, but Gilbert had been nicer to him for the past few weeks. He supposed he could at least…respect Gilbert's worry.
Gilbert released a deep breath. "Good." He relaxed his muscles. These two…he looked from Lovino to Feliciano. They were going to be the death of him. "One more thing."
Lovino perked up. What now?
"Whenever you're training with this magic, I will be present."
It wasn't a request, and Lovino almost barked out a rejection, but he held his tongue. "Okay. Whatever."
A heavy silence filled the room for several seconds. "Hey!" Everyone jumped at Alfred's cheery voice. "Since that's settled, why don't we all go for food? I hear they have ice cream today." He tried to change the subject as best he could. It didn't quite work.
"Not really in the mood." Gilbert murmured.
"Me either." Lovino stood looking away from Gilbert, arms crossed.
Alfred sighed inwardly, his eyes flicking to Feliciano. "How about you, Feliciano?" But he wasn't about to take no for an answer anyway. He walked up to the boy, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him from his seat, dragging him out of the room before he could protest.
Gilbert and Lovino stood there in shock. Gilbert snapped out of it first. "That was…weird."
Lovino didn't reply to him, instead choosing to go sit where Feliciano had been moments before. Gilbert knew the boy had started brooding, and he couldn't help but be annoyed. He walked up to the chair and stared down at Lovino, who refused to even glance his way. "Are we really going to do this, Lovino? I'm not trying to hurt you, you know?"
Lovino mumbled something.
"What?"
"I said, why do you even pretend to care?"
Alarms went off in Gilbert's brain. Oh, don't tell me he thinks… "Lovi, do you really think I'm pretending?"
Lovino's snapped his head around, glaring at Gilbert in anger. "Don't call me that."
"Antonio calls you that."
"Because it's Antonio, and he…" Lovino found himself blushing, but it wasn't at the thought of Antonio's feelings for him. He was confused. He was embarrassed because…because he was explaining another man's feelings for him in front of Gilbert?
"He loves you. Yeah, I know. But it's not just that, Lovi." Gilbert grinned. "It's that you've let Antonio past that wall you put up to keep people out."
"What?"
"Do you really think no one notices? You try your hardest to keep other people out of range for your emotions. You're afraid of getting attached to others. I'm not sure why, but I think you feel inadequate. I think you've always compared yourself to Feliciano, who every likes because he's so carefree and happy. I think Feliciano's personality and sheer amount of friends make you feel like you're the lesser brother."
Lovino wanted to contradict him, but he couldn't find the words.
"I also think this had led you to believe that anyone who wants to get close to you is there to take advantage of you." Gilbert put his hands on his Lovino's shoulders. "I'm not here to hurt you, Lovi. I want to protect you, okay? We've known each other for a long time now, and I know we haven't always gotten along, but that doesn't mean I dislike you or want to cause your pain or tease you mercilessly. I care about you just as much as I do Feliciano." He squeezed Lovin's shoulders. "So stop trying to block me out of your emotions. Letting yourself believe everyone around you wants to hurt you is only hurting yourself." He smiled. "And that's just not awesome."
Lovino snorted, trying his hardest to block out of the rush of emotions washing over him. "How did I know you'd find a way to fit the word 'awesome' in there somewhere?" His voice cracked.
Gilbert smiled at him, wiping away the cockiness that his usual grin exuded. "Don't I always?" He ruffled Lovino's hair, catching a tear with his thumb as it fell from Lovino's eye.
"Y—you idiot. You made me cry!" Lovino bit his lip.
Gilbert chuckled. "My bad." He wiped Lovino's tears away as they fell, the boy biting back sobs. Gilbert was sure no one had really approached Lovino about this before. The kid had spent his whole life with these feelings bottled up inside.
The next thing he knew, he had an armful of Lovino, who'd slipped out his chair and planted his face in Gilbert's chest. He locked his arms around Gilbert's back, sobbing and trying to talk at the same time. Gilbert held him, rubbing circles into Lovino's back as he laughed softly. Even now, Lovino was still sputtering out 'Idiot' and 'Stupid potato bastard' over and over.
Looks like I finally made some progress.
Alfred ignored Feliciano's protests as he dragged the boy into the kitchen, where a crowd of nations where boisterously eating ice cream. The room quieted for a brief moment as they all spotted Feliciano and Alfred, who, as it appeared to them, were holding hands. Alfred felt Feliciano trying his hardest to pull away without it looking obvious, but he held on.
"Hey, what flavors do we have?"
The chatter immediately rekindled, and Alfred pulled Feliciano into an empty chair, finally releasing him. The boy was rigid in his seat, his eyes darting back and forth. Alfred knew he was expecting to be stared at like an alien for the scar on his face, and he intended to show Feliciano otherwise. After grabbing two bowls of ice cream, he plopped down into a chair next to Feliciano and handed him one.
"Hey guys, today is special! Check it out!" He glanced at Feliciano, who jumped to next him, eyes pleading.
Elizaveta was the first to notice. "Oh, Feli! You finally got your bandage taken off!" She smiled. "You look so much better now." She took a big bite of ice cream.
Roderich perked up at ex-wife's comment. "Oh, I hadn't even noticed. I'm glad it's all healed up now. I was worried about you, you know?" He smiled.
The rest of the group joined again, spewing happy comments about how they were glad Feliciano was getting better. When Feliciano took his first bite of ice cream, Alfred knew he had gotten the point across. Feliciano had obviously been terrified everyone would look at him like he was a freak. Alfred patted his shoulder, smiling at him, and he swore he saw a quick smile grace Feliciano's lips.
"To Feliciano!" He raised his spoon, and everyone echoed him. He noticed a few moments later that a light blush had crossed Feliciano's cheeks.
After half an hour and basically a ton of ice cream, the kitchen finally emptied out, leaving only Alfred and Feliciano. Alfred offered to take Feliciano's empty bowl, and he walked up to the sink and rinsed them out. He heard a murmur behind him. "Hmm?" He glanced back at Feliciano.
"Thank you." He whispered.
Alfred smiled at him. "Anytime."
Feliciano gaped. "Do you mean that?"
"Huh? Of course." He put the cleaned bowls back in the cabinet. "That's what friends are for, Feliciano."
"Since when are we friends? You rarely talk to me."
Alfred turned around to face him. "That was my mistake. I never really noticed you before. You were always surrounded by a large group of friends, and so was I. But now, when I see you, you're almost always with only your brother or Gilbert. And I can get a much better look at you now. I can see the strength I never saw before. The determination. The power that you hide beneath the surface. I felt like I could never get to know you before, but now…I find myself drawn to you. I find myself really admiring you."
"You admire…me?" Feliciano's shock appeared in a deep blush.
"How can I not? Instead of letting yourself fall to pieces at Germany's death, you got right back up and kept going. Despite the fact that your emotions were cracked and crumbling. Despite the fact that you were seriously injured. Despite the fact that death could literally be around any corner. You kept going. And that takes a lot more strength than most people have."
He met Feliciano's tearing brown eyes. "You…" Feliciano embraced him. Alfred wrapped his hands around Feliciano's back, hugging him back gently. "You were the only one…"
"Hmm?"
Feliciano took a deep breath. "You were the only one who didn't look at me like I was a broken doll, you know? They would all coo and prod and sprinkle me with kind words, but even my own fratello would look at me like I was a puppet with tangled strings. Everyone did. Except you…I realized it the other day when you spoke to me here in the kitchen. And I really didn't get why. I still don't."
Alfred released him, pushing Feliciano away from him so he could met his eyes head on. "It's because you're not a broken doll, Feliciano. That's why I don't look at like you are." Alfred wasn't sure how he was expecting Feliciano to react to that. The spark in the other man's eyes told him he'd struck the perfect chord, igniting a fire that had long been dormant in Feliciano's chest. But even then, he wasn't sure what he was expecting. A "thank you" maybe? Another hug? A thousand simple things to show gratitude were on his list of possible expectations.
But even with that entire list in mind, he wasn't expecting Feliciano to kiss him.
Dro: Hey, look! It's the main pairing I've been promising you all story!
Next Chapter: England recounts his nightmarish meeting with his parallel self. Meanwhile, a confused and brooding America stumbles upon something rather embarrassing.