Antonio watched as Lovino watched the tv, he could see the brunette flail when the guy walks away from the girl he shot. He also happen to be the girls father. Antonio sat up in his bed and looks at his clock, the time was almost six that next morning.
He got up and went over to Lovino, " you know what time it is?"
Lovino's eyes were trained on the tv, and he gave no response. Antonio sighs and blows in Lovino's ear, who flipped and fell over onto the couch and then wound up falling to the floor. He glares at Antonio and mouths "I know what time it is, dumbass."
Antonio stood up straight and crossed him arms, "really? You didn't respond so I suspected you didn't."
Lovino rolls his eyes and gets back up onto the couch. Antonio's tired eyes catch something on Lovino's wrist and he grabs the brunettes wrist, pulling it closer for him to see. A dozen few bandages on his wrist, and Antonio knew what it was. The boy hisses at Antonio, pulling his wrist back.
"What happened?" Antonio asks, trying to see if Lovino would admit to it.
'A burn. I was cooking myself food last night and I set the pan on fire by accident.' Lovino mouthed, accidentally signing along with it.
"Oh? Can I see?" Antonio asks, sitting next to Lovino. He looked at his bandages, then glanced at Antonio. He shook his head and resumed watching the tv.
"Lovino." Antonio says, and the brunette glanced at him.
'What?' He mouthed, and Antonio says, "do you cut?"
The merman lurched back and gave him a classic 'what the fuck' look. "No, I don't fucking cut, Antonio." He mouths, glaring at him.
"You sure?" He asks, and Lovino crosses his eyes, inhales and sighs all in one move, before removing his bandage. The skin was bright pink, but no cuts, Antonio relaxed and smiles. "I guess any self respecting King would know better to cut, hmm?"
He saw it for a second, no, a millisecond. The pain, doubt, insecurity, all of it flipping through his eyes like a book, before the walls went back up. Antonio felt kinda bad then, he wondered why the Fire King would feel so low about himself. The sound of the door opens, and Feliciano's voice rang through the dorm, and the feelings and thoughts Antonio held disappeared, like smoke.
"Hey Feli. How did you sleep?" Antonio asks, getting up and going over to the two other triplets.
"Pretty good, vee~! Want to walk to class together? After you get dressed that is?" Feliciano asks, not including his older brother.
"Si, why not." Antonio says, going to his room to get dressed.
Lovino sat at the edge of the ocean, he didn't bother to go to school today. He knew he broke, wether or not Antonio noticed he didn't know. Self respecting. Hah. The last time Lovino believed anything he did for his kingdom whole heartedly was before his father died, and he wasn't even a King then.
His fathers death was the black stain on another wise red heart. Then his brothers always had a secret hatred towards him. Then everyone called him the Accident-Murderer. Then everyone said 'why can't you be more like your brothers' and all that jazz. He stood up, slid off his shoes, stepped into the water and dove under neath. Within seconds, his tail reappeared, and he swam past the shallow shores. Once he got past the broken mast of a ship, he stopped swimming so fast and slowed, crossing his arms over his chest as he slowly made his way past the ship graveyard. He got to his least favourite point in the graveyard, a silver slab set on the ground, and a billion sea plants surrounded it, but never grew on it. He went down to the slab and sat next to it, he slightly smiles and says, "hey Nonno. I've missed you."
"Why don't we go out for lunch?" Antonio asks Feliciano, smiling.
"Si! That sounds fun! Where would we go?" Feliciano asks, and Antonio smiles.
"There's a pretty good restaurant here. Come on, I'll show you." Antonio says, leading Feliciano out of the school.
They walked in silence as Antonio tried to decide what to do. 'Would this be considered a date?' Antonio thought?
'Is he picking me?' Feliciano says, shyly smiling.
"Here it is!" Antonio says, pointing to a fancy Italian restaurant. "It's Italian. One of the few restaurants still working today."
Feliciano smiled larger than ever before and hugged Antonio's neck. "Grazie, Toni!" He says, pulling back and pulling Antonio inside.
"Hallo, I am Ludwig. I will be your waiter." Said a tall German boy, with combed back blonde hair and crystal blue eyes.
"Ciao!" Feliciano says, and Antonio laughs, finding his attitude adorable.
"What would you like to eat?" Ludwig the Waiter asks.
"Pasta, vee~!"
"The same, with tomatoes, please." Antonio says.
"Drinks?" Ludwig asks.
"Gelato, please!" Feliciano asks, smiling. Antonio looks at Feliciano.
"Are you old enough to drink?"
"Si, I'm twenty three." Feliciano says, smiling. Antonio was shocked, he would've bet on Feliciano being nineteen. Antonio had just turned twenty two about four weeks ago.
"Alright, and you?" Ludwig asks.
"Hmmmm, Coke please." Antonio says.
"Alright." He says, leaving.
Antonio looks at Feliciano and smiles, Feliciano smiles back. "So Toni, where did you live before here?" He asks.
"Spain. My mother passed away a while ago and left the inheritance to me. I got all the money then I decided to get a better education in America."
"My father taught all of us.. Until we turned fifteen, when he died. But that was a long time ago." Feliciano says, sighing softly.
"How did he die?" Antonio asks.
"He was snagged in the side by the same thing that hooked Luciano's tail. Lovino was with him, they were returning from their trip from Spain when he was caught by a hook of sorts. He died shortly after Lovino removed the hook, it ruined Lovino. He was never the same after that, he yelled at us, called us mean things, and then one day he just stopped talking all together, we both swore he hated us. But when Roderich came, we realised what happened. He sold his voice. We have the magic to remove voices, but it's considered illegal to do so. He never sang again, he never spoke, and we wondered what he did with the vessel in which he concealed his voice. He wouldn't tell us, but when we asked Roderich, he said that Lovino threw it into the Abryus Trench, the deepest darkest trench in our kingdom. It was horrible."
"He had no right to call you mean things or yell at you." Antonio says, trying to console Feliciano.
"Actually he did. Me and Luciano acted horribly when he told us Father had passed. Luciano shunned him for months, and I... I disowned him. I've regretted it ever since." Feliciano says, sadly.
"Still, he didn't call for help." Antonio tries.
"No message would've gotten to us in time. He did what he could, but still. Anyway, what's it like in Spain?" Feliciano says, changing the subject.
"Dry. Spain is going through a horrible drought, my garden was destroyed, I wasn't able to make money so I sold my land and moved here. But Spain will always be home to me, it's was gorgeous. The summer sunset was the best in the world. Absolutely beautiful." Antonio says, remembering the sunset like he just saw it.
Feliciano smiles, "you'd like the view from Itala then. We have this one pretty spot, it's a cave that's walls haven't thickened yet, and when entered, the sun can be seen from the outside. It's like a one way mirror. I'll have to show it to you sometime. "
Antonio smiles and sets his head in his hand. "I'd like that.
"Your food, sir." Ludwig the waiter says, placing down the food and drinks. Antonio smiles and nods in thanks to him. He nods back and leaves, without another word.
Feliciano didn't wait, he just began chewing down on the pasta, slurping it up as if it's a nice cup of iced Starbucks brand coffee.
Antonio laughs softly, watching the brunette. He begins working on his own food, when he hears a loud voice cry, "Lovino!"
He turns to see a tall silver haired red eyed man walk up to them.
"Actually, this ones Feliciano." Antonio says, correcting the man.
He leans in and stares at Feliciano, before standing back up, "you sure? Is this one of his brothers then?"
"Si. Lovi is my Fratello!" Feliciano says, smiling.
"Oh, well have you seen him? I can't find him anywhere." The man says standing up.
"Call his Empathy. He has one on him." Antonio says trying to get him to leave. Somehow, Lovino, wether he's actually there or not, somehow manages to ruin his time with Feliciano. It was starting to get annoying.
"Actually he doesn't. We all share one, I have it." Feliciano says, holding up one.
'Oh...' Antonio taught. He looked at the man, "look in our dorm. Room 221B."
"Okay! Nice meeting you Feliciano." The man says, before Antonio hears the man mumble as he walks away, "poor Lovino."
Ludwig, you know, The waiter stopped the man outside the restaurant and talked to him, and Antonio sighed before looking at Feliciano. "Enjoying lunch?" He asked.
"Si! I am!" Feliciano says, smiling.
"Hey Antonio, see your eating with the fish." He hears someone say, Antonio looks over to the person who talked and sees Mogens and Abel.
"What do you mean?" Antonio asks.
"I think you know." Mogens says, "where's your brothers, King of the Sea Forest?"
Feliciano's eyes narrowed and Antonio saw a change in him. "What do you mean? King? I'm no King."
"I think you are. That's why the crown," Adel says, pointing to the curl.
"Get out of here." Antonio says, slightly standing up.
"Fine. Come on Abel." Mogens says, as a waiter passes by him. He sticks out his foot, and the water pitcher the water carried fell off the tray and onto Feliciano, and Antonio, drenching them.
Antonio grabbed Feliciano's hand and ran out of the restaurant, he moved to carrying the boy bridal style and running down to the ocean. Halfway there, Feliciano reverted back.
He sets down Feliciano down on the shore line, and he sighs. "Sorry."
"For what?"
"Not getting here fast enough." Antonio says, sighing.
"It's okay, you reacted good enough." Feliciano says, smiling softly.
"What do you think your doing running ou-" they hear a third voice say, they look to see Ludwig the Waiter staring at them, shocked. "M-ma-me-mer..." He stutters, freaking out. "Merman!" He screams, turning and running.
"Wait!" Feliciano says, stretching out his hand. Grass suddenly appears out of the sand and wraps around his ankles, pulling him to the ground.
Antonio and Feliciano look at each other, Antonio then knew that Ludwig was for Feliciano because he saw Feliciano's tail.
"I'm gonna go find Lovino, okay?" Antonio says, smiling. Feliciano nods slowly, before saying,
"Toni, thank you."
"No problem." Antonio says. He felt disappointed, he was hoping he'd wind up with Feliciano. He doesn't know much about Luciano, but he knows a little about Lovino. He'd have a better chance with him, as of now. But he might wind up changing his mind.
"Wait, Toni. Here, take this," Feliciano says, and Antonio turns around to see Feliciano handing his a string made of wet seaweed.
He takes it and looks at Feliciano, confused. "Tie it around your waist. It'll help you breathe underwater. That is were Lovino is." He says, pointing to Lovino, whose head is poking out of the water.
"Oh..." Antonio looks at Lovino, who growls and looks away.
"Lovino, I expect him to be back here in one piece." Feliciano says, and Lovino crosses his eyes. "Promise?" Feliciano says, and Lovino crosses both his arms over his chest.
Antonio steps in the water and Lovino takes his hand. The two disappear under the water, and they swim together.
"Can you hear me?" Antonio hears in his head a male voice.
"Woah? Lovino?"
"No, fuckass. It's Oprah." He hears the voice say, and he smiles.
"You sound like Feliciano and Luciano combined." He thinks back. "How are you doing this?"
"You know how dolphins can communicate telepathically, we can do the same. Sound travels slower here and frequencies shift pitch. I can use vibrations to shift, then once the sound slows it comes out as coherent words." Lovino explains.
"Why did you get rid of your voice?" Antonio asks, and he feels Lovino release his hand.
"None of your business." He hears Lovino say, and he looks around, before he hears a chuckle.
"Oh, mon cousin, qui-est-ce mon ami? Il est humain, oui?"
Lovino shrugs and nods. A blonde with blue eyes appears before him, and he smirks, running his hands under Antonio's chin seductively.
"Francis." Lovino says, and the blond looks at him.
"Oui?"
"Back off, he's here on Feli's recommendation."
"Oh, so, he's yours, hmm?"
"Tch, as if. More like he's Feliciano's." Lovino says in French, so Antonio doesn't understand him.
"Wait what? I'm lost." Antonio says, and Lovino crosses his eyes.
"Come on. Idiot." Lovino says taking his hand again, and leading him through the sea.
Antonio looks around, and is in awe of the sights. He looks up at Lovino and sees no sign of annoyance or anger. He was calm, which Antonio found weird, but he didn't want to ruin the calm look. He looks around and watches as the scenery go from tranquil to dark and ominous. Ships passed by and he saw many flags, reigning from Spanish ships to Japanese war ships.
Then something caught his eye, a gleaming object in the middle of all the gloom. He stopped, pulling from Lovino's grasp. Then he saw something even more strange, a merman staring straight back at him. He had wavy, almost curly brown hair, and brown eyes to match. His tail was red at the top and gold at the bottom. He smiles and waves at Antonio, who slightly waves back.
"Who are you waving at, idiot?" He heard Lovino say.
"Him. He's waving at us," Antonio says, pointing to the merman.
"No ones there, idiot. Or at least, not any more. Come on." He says, taking Antonio's hand again, and leading him towards the castle.