Early update this week, because I won't be around for my normal update day this week or the next so I don't know when the chapter after this will be posted, but it will be before the 14th (going to a ball... at 11 in the fucking morning) Enough from me, on with the story!

Diclaimer: Didn't own, don't own still. Never have and never will :(

"Act like a gentleman, act like a gentleman..." Antonio muttered to himself, readjusting the plate of food on his hand. "This'll be good." He knocked on Lovino's bedroom door. "Lovino. Lovi~?"

An echoing voice that sounded as though it was coming from a megaphone answered.

"...now if you will note the unusual inverted archways, you will see that this is another example of the late neo-classic baroque period..." Antonio ran as quietly as he could towards the sound of the voice then ducked behind a curtain as Arthur lowered his megaphone, turned to Francis and Lovino and said, "...and as I always say: if it's not baroque, don't fix it!" Arthur burst into laughter.

Francis and Lovino glanced each other and face-palmed. Arthur smiled and sighed, not noticing his joke's reaction. "May I draw your attention to the inverted archways above the aviary?" Arthur began walking away.

Francis moved to follow but Lovino stopped him. "I never thought this place could be so fucking beautiful. If only that bastard wasn't here."

Once they had left, Antonio slumped against the wall in defeat, letting the plate fall to the ground. "Act like a gentleman... I am nothing but a fool." He slouched away to the West Wing.

Page break

"...And thanks to some quick thinking on my part, the disaster was averted. And that was the last time a stone of that weight was quarried in this area." Arthur lowered his megaphone and looked back at the other two. Lovino was looking around at the artwork with ill-disguised interest while Francis had collapsed on the floor and was now half asleep. Arthur rolled his eyes and began poking him irritably.

"What's up there?" Lovino asked, pointing up a flight of dark stairs. Both Arthur and Francis jumped about a foot in the air. "NOTHING!"

"Nothing of any interest at all in the West Wing." Said Arthur, shaking his head vehemently.

"Ah." Smirked Lovino. "So that's the West Wing."

"Nice going." Francis thwacked Arthur around the back of the head.

"I wonder what he's hiding up there." Lovino mused, half to himself.

Arthur grabbed the leg of Lovino's trousers and began an attempt to drag him away from the stairs. "Hiding? Ha! What an idea, hiding!"

"Then it wouldn't be forbidden, would it?"

Arthur twitched, he had a point. "W-well then, um, perhaps you would like to see something else. We have exquisite tapestries dating all the way back to Aloysius the Pretentious!"

"Maybe later..." Lovino took one step up the stairs.

"P-perhaps you would like to see the gardens... o-o-o-or the library!"

Lovino whirled around. "You have a library?"

Francis pounced on his excitement eagerly. "With books!"

Arthur nodded vigorously. "Oh yes! Scads of books! Mountains of books! Forests of books! Cascades! Cloudbursts! Swamps of books!"

"Books with pictures! Books with words!" Francis began moving towards the door, away from the West Wing.

"More words than you could ever read in a lifetime!" Arthur followed him.

"Books on every subject, by every author who ever set pen to papier!"

Lovino moved as though to follow them out the door then, once they were out of sight, he ran up the stairs as fast as he could. His feet brought him down a long corridor with an intimidating dark door at the end. Lovino felt himself being irresistibly drawn to the door. He pushed it open and entered cautiously. The room seemed worse than all the rooms in the castle Lovino had seen combined. The sheets and hangings on the bed were torn beyond repair; everything on the walls had deep slashes scarring them and all the furniture was smashed beyond repair bar a small table on which stood a single wilting carnation, protectively encased within a glass dome. Lovino watched as a single petal shrivelled and fell from the flower. He reached forward to touch it.

His fingers were mere centimetres from the glass when a dark shadow shoved him away with a snarl. "DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

Lovino took a step away from Antonio in fear. "I..."

"I TOLD YOU NEVER TO COME HERE!"

"M-mi dispiace, I didn't... "

"DO YOU REALISE WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE! GET OUT!"

Lovino fled thankfully along the corridor and down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Antonio leapt from the top of the stairs screaming, "YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO BE THERE! NO RIGHT!" He latched onto Lovino's arm, his claws slashing the fabric and tearing at the skin beneath. Lovino let out a gasp of pain, wrenched his arm from Antonio's grasp and clutched it protectively.

Antonio froze, all his rage leaving him at once. "I..."

Lovino's eyes shone with unshed tears of pain. "Promise or no promise, I won't fucking stay here!" With one last blazing glare, he fled the room.

"I... lo siento! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I... it's just there's so little of me left. So little..." He sank down on the stairs and held his head in his hands.

"This... this is the end. I'm almost out of time. If he can't love me, then who will? There's almost nothing left of who I was."

His shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I don't care anymore. Let the world be done with me."

Aw poor Tonio, don't give up!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed!

Ja!

-Animerockchic