Feli was walking home when she spotted Lovino sitting on a playground swing. Delighted, she called and waved to him.

"Ve, Lovi, hi! What are you doing here?"

Lovino looked startled, but waved back as Feli approached him.

"Nothing, just wasting some time. You?"

Feli sat down on the swing next to him. "Just finished working for today. Ve, why aren't you at work, by the way?"

Lovino held on tighter to the swing chain and shrugged.

"I called in sick. I didn't feel like going today. Please don't tell Antonio, or I'll never hear the end of it."

"Ve, how typical of you, Lovi!"

Lovino stuck his tongue out at his sister before speaking again.

"How are you doing? You didn't get any weird cravings for wurst or potatoes, did you?"

Feli laughed. "Don't worry about that, ve. I'm really fine. I thought I'd feel worse, but I'm all good!"

Lovino smiled a bit. "Good. That's it. But listen, did you change your mind about finding out the gender?"

Feli shook her head. "Nope. I still want it to be a surprise. I really don't care if it's a boy or a girl. I just want a healthy baby, ve."

Lovino puffed his cheeks. "You're no fun. I want to know now, dammit."

Feli playfully punched his shoulder. "You'll know soon enough, don't worry. Just wait till August!"

Lovino sighed. "August is so far from now..."

Feli held her ground. "I know, ve, but this makes it all better. If you have to work hard or wait a long time for something, the results are going to feel better, right? Don't they always say no pain, no gain?"

Lovino looked really serious for a moment, as if what Feli said was a complicate verse of poetry that he had to analyze for school.

Then he looked up at the sky. He was silent for a long time.

"... that makes sense, I guess."

Now Lovino remembered why he had decided to keep his disease to himself. He looked at Feli for a short while.

He did it because he wanted to spend his last months surrounded by happy people.

He did it because right now, Feli was having a baby, and Belle had finally started to fall in love again, and he was going to celebrate his sixth year with Antonio.

Right. The news of his impending death would have ruined everything.

Lovino knew now what he was doing. He had decided to take everyone's pain. To cry and be worried and feel shitty in their place.

Yes.

Now he remembered.

Or maybe he had just discovered it.

Go figure.

Lovino and Feli had decided not to do crazy things for their birthday, since Feli couldn't drink. But that didn't mean that their birthday party couldn't kick ass anyway! They would have dinner with all of their friends, and when you grouped them all together in the same place, crazy shit was gonna go down, alcohol or not. Well, at least their friend Roderich had taken it upon himself to bake a cake, so that was taken care of.

But now that the restaurant had been booked and both annoying boyfriends were out of the way, they were just hanging out together.

"Look. You want to spend the night like all those other times? For our birthday, I mean."

Feli's face fell. "Ve, yes! Why? You have something else already planned?"

Lovino looked away, a bit embarassed. "Why would I! I just thought that... I don't know, you wanted to spend the night at home with that potato or something this time..."

Feli got closer to Lovino and hugged him. "Ve, that's stupid! I live with Ludwig, I can see him every night! I don't think he will die if I spend the night with you for once, ve..."

Lovino blushed madly and squirmed in her hold. "Alright, alright, I get it! Now get off!"

"Ve! You're always so mean to meeeee! You never let me hug you!"

"Oh, please. You hug me all the time!"

"Maybe, ve..." she freed him from the hug and let herself fall back on the couch.

"Ve, I think that Ludwig and Toni don't really like it when we kick them out on our birthday, you know?"

Lovino sat a bit straighter. "That's their problem. And it's not like we kick them to the curb, we just evict them for the night. Which reminds me... this year's my place or yours?"

Feli looked thoughtful for a moment. "Ve, I think it's mine this year..."

"Ok then, that means you'll ship the potato over to my place. Cool. I get the feeling that he's not very happy about that, is he?"

"Ve, I think he will manage. We've done it every year, so yeah, five times for Toni and four for Ludwig. Ve, I think they're used to it by now."

Lovino allowed himself a cocky smile. "Well, not like they have a choice. So, what do you feel like doing on our birthday night?"

"Ve... I'd say we just do what we feel like, like last year. It was cool, ve!"

Lovino thought about it. "Sure, why not. Okay then, I'm off. I have to be at work in-" he checked his cell phone "-FIVE MINUTES! SHIT! See you, Feli, I'm outta here!"

Lovino spent the car ride to the restaurant in utter silence. He had had to take double the amounts of morphine he was used to in order to prevent getting attacks during the party, and he was feeling groggy and in a foul mood. But as usual, he waited it out and when Antonio asked, he blamed it on not having had any coffee for the whole day.

By the time they arrived he was feeling better. Luckily, because it seemed that pretty much everyone had turned up at the party. Lovino greeted everyone and accepted everyone's presents with a bashful "thanks, I guess". Really, there was everyone at the party. There were Francis and Gilbert, already tackling Antonio (now he knew that the stupid Frenchman and the "awesome" older potato bastard would have been there, but hope is the last to die right?) and in the far corner of the room Alfred was already teasing a very sulky Arthur, and Tino and his scary-ass Swedish "husband" were already trying to stop their Danish friend from getting drunk within two minutes from the start of the party, and right there next to Feli was Feliks, her best friend, and that crazy Japanese chick (Kiko? Kiku?) talking to Herakles, Lovino's Greek cousin, who had his usual seraphic expression on while he flirted shamelessly with her.

Lovino felt a bit moved. All of those guys had showed up for his last birthday. That was... nice. For once, he smiled to everyone. That had to mean something, right?

"Ve! That was a nice party! And look, we've got so many presents! It was so fun!"

Lovino tried not to look too pleased. It was true. It had been a damn good party. Everyone had fun, and even if it was a total chaos, it had been cool. The food was good, the company was good, the athmosphere was good. And now that he and Feli were driving home after the party, he could finally say it.

"Yes, it was... decent, I guess. If only that bastard gave me his present at the party, instead of making me wait until tomorrow! What does 'we have to be alone when I give it to you' mean anyway? The idiot!"

Feli chuckled. "Ve, maybe he'll give you the night of your life!"

Lovino blushed. "... just don't. Anyway. What are we gonna do?"

Feli looked thoughtful for a moment. "I get it! Let's go star-gazing, ve!"

Lovino cocked his head to the side. "Star-gazing?"

Feli nodded. "Yes, there's a nice meadow half an hour from here. It's very dark there, we will surely see a lot of stars, ve."

Lovino thought about it for a while. "... why not. It's been so long since we last did it."

As they arrived at the meadow, Feli looked up at the night sky. Yes, this was a perfect place for star-gazing. The sky was pitch black, and they could see the Milky Way over their heads. Lovino took a blanket from his car and spread it on the ground, lieing down and gesturing for Feli to do the same.

"Ve, I told you this place was perfect. Look at that. When was the last time you saw so many stars?"

"Too long ago, honestly. I like it."

Feli smiled and looked up, stretching out an arm and moving as if she was connecting some invisible dots.

Lovino turned to look at her. She was already starting to show a bit. She used to be skinny, but now her waist had thickened a bit.

"Look, does it... you know..."

Feli turned to face Lovino.

"Ve?"

Lovino blushed madly. "Does it... kinda move yet...?"

Feli looked puzzled for a moment. "...ve?"

Lovino's blush didn't go away. "The baby, Feli, the baby! Can you feel it yet?"

Feli's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh! That! Ve, no, not yet, it's still too early. The doctor says it should start in a month or so. I can't wait, ve!"

Lovino's cheeks were still on fire as he spoke. "Well, you know... when you feel it... can you... sort of... tell me?"

Feli smiled. "Of course, ve! Though Lovi, even if I'm really happy that you're so excited about it, it's really strange. I thought you wouldn't really like the idea."

Lovino scoffed. "Why does everyone think so anyway."

"Ve, maybe because you hate Ludwig with a passion?"

Lovino shrugged. "I don't hate him, I just... strongly dislike him. But you have him wrapped around your little finger, so you will be able to manage him whatever happens. And he's really head-over-heels for you. And he's responsible. He'll make a good dad. But he could get that stick out of his ass once in a while, though."

"Ve, that's not nice! Ludwig's not that uptight when we're alone! Actually he's really sweet!"

"Don't put sweet and Ludwig in the same sentence, please. It sounds plain wrong."

"Ve, you should see him lately! He's really happy about the baby, you know? And he's also glad that you're not giving him a hard time."

"That's right, he should be very thankful for that. Remind him everyday, will you."

"Lovi? Can I ask you something serious?"

"Yes?"

"Will you be the godfather?"

Lovino deadpanned. "Something tells me that you're not talking about the movie."

Feli laughed out loud. "Ve, of course not! You're so silly sometimes!"

Lovino focused on the starry sky above him.

Well. That was nice to hear. But Lovino knew already that he wouldn't be around for the birth. The baby would be born in August, and it was only March. And according to the doctor, Lovino had a really, really slim chance of seeing the end of June. But he couldn't say no, it would be way too suspicious. He'd have to talk to the older potato bastard and innocently see if he was willing to take that load off Lovino's shoulders.

"Uhm... sure. I'd be honored to be the baby's godfather. I..."

Shit. He felt his eyes sting. Now of all times! Life was so unfair!

Feli noticed, of course.

"Aaw, look at you, all moved! You're so cute right now!"

Lovino speedily sat up on the blanket and hid his face from his twin's view, blushing like his favourite fruit. "I'm not moved, okay? I just got something in my eye! Dammit!"

Feli's laugh filled the meadow. "Ve, if you say so... You hear that, baby? Your uncle is so touched about being your godfather!"

Lovino's blush refused to fade. "W-what the hell, Feli! Don't tell him that!"

"But Lovi, I'm sure he's happy to know that his uncle loves him so much!"

Lovino bowed his head in defeat. "... fine. You tell that brat whatever you want. It's not like he understands you yet anyway."

Feli decided to give her brother some time to recover.

"Ve? Lovi?"

"Yes?"

"If you saw a shooting star right now, what would you wish for?"

Lovino lied back down on the blanket and focused on the sky above him. The answer was so painfully easy in his mind. But he couldn't tell Feli.

"... nothing."

"Ve? Surely there's something you'd wish for!"

Lovino closed his eyes.

"Ok, then. I wish to know if I'm doing the right thing."

Feli looked at him confused.

"The right thing? What do you mean?"

Lovino kept his eyes closed. Lying was easier with his eyes closed.

"In general. I want to know if the choices I made for my life will turn out to be the best ones in the future."

"Oh. That's a serious wish. You know what I'd wish for?"

Lovino re-opened his eyes. "What?"

Feli smiled. "I wish to have a birthday party as beautiful as this one next year."

Lovino's throat tightened. He couldn't really answer.

"... uhm. That's... uhm..." impossible. "...actually a pretty cool wish."

Feli smiled before changing the subject.

They spent a long time like that, gazing at the stars, talking about their past, present and future. And when he drove Feli home and kissed her goodnight, he was sure to have created another beautiful memory. Their last birthday together had seriously kicked ass.

Yep, Lovino didn't get over himself. I DON'T APPROVE OF THAT. If a friend/family member of mine did that, I would be livid before feeling devastated. But without his silence, there would be no story. So yeah.