Firstly, SuperstitiousSeaturtles, thank you for correcting me on my Spanish in chapter 6, but since it was so far back there, and I don't know where that chapter is on my computer, I'm afraid I can't change it. But for all those that are wondering, "abrir" is supposed to be "abierto". Sorry! But now I know for the future, so thanks!

So, this chapter is for a lot of reasons.

Hanukah! Hurray! Have fun, my little Jewish readers! Here's my gift to you.

Finals. We need a break from them.

And most importantly, I just wanted to freaking write some fluff.

Here we go.

(Antonio's POV)

"Why am I here?" Lovino mutters as he follows me into my little pet shop.

I chuckle as I step over Fluffy, who's laying lazily on the floor. Lovi's hesitant to step around her. "We're partners in the little project Mr. Boy assigned."

Lovi rolls his eyes and hisses something like, "This is punishment. He's just bitter about our fight." Louder he says, "What are we even doing?"

I nervously glance up at him, "We have to help each other practice our powers."

Instantly Lovi's trying to get out of the room. He doesn't think twice to step over the snake on the floor and head towards the door. But I saw that coming, so I'm able to catch him in time. My arm finds itself wrapped around Lovi's waist, holding him in place.

"Let go of me, you fucking bastard!" Lovi hissed in a mix of fear and anger.

I whine as I turn his body so he's facing me, "But we have to try, Lovi! You can't just run from your powers!"

"Yes I can." Lovino says far too quickly. Like he didn't have to think about it. Like he's thought about it enough already.

Before I can reply, we both look up at the sound of someone clearing their throat. Standing on the other side of the room is Mama, calmly watching us bicker.

"Antonio, who's your friend?" She says with a knowing grin.

My hand drops from Lovi's side. I gesture to each of them in introduction. "Mama, this is Lovino. Lovino, Mama."

My Mama walks over to us. Fluffy, annoyed by the commotion, safely left the area. She looks Lovi up and down, inspecting him, no doubt. "So you're the boy Antonio's been talking about!"

Its clear Lovi isn't sure how to respond to that. He gives an awkward shrug and looks at his shoes. "I guess." He mumbles quietly.

"You're even more handsome than he said!" Mama says, placing a finger under Lovi's chin to tilt his head back up so she can look at his face. I flush as Lovi shoots me a glance of surprise –embarrassment?. Mama smiles warmly at Lovino while practically manhandling him. She wraps her hands around his decently firm arms. "Oh, you look so strong!"

Lovino's eyebrows furrow slightly in confusion. "Thank…you?" He says like a question, having no idea how to deal with my energetic mother.

"Ah! Where are my manners?" Mama lets go of Lovi's bicep and smiles politely at him. "You can call me Mama. I'm so happy to finally meet you!"

Mama wraps Lovino up in a huge hug, her arms surrounding Lovino. Lovi's body instantly stiffens against her. His body goes rigid in her arms. His eyes wide and distant.

I'm terrified he's going to scream and cuss at my Mama. That he's going to push her away. That he's going to accidently hurt her. I mean, I trust this boy more than I trust myself, but all things considered, it wouldn't surprise me if he did accidentally hurt Mama. I'm ready to pull her away in case he starts smoking.

My mouth practically drops to the floor when Lovi closes his eyes and wraps his arms around her. His body relaxes against hers and he buries his head in her shoulder. I just barely notice the small tear that rolls down his cheek and how his shoulders softly shake.

"Lovi?" I whisper in astonishment.

His hands are gripping onto her shirt, like if he loosens his grasp on her, she'll disappear. Lovino mumbled, not opening his eyes, "I've never really had a mother before."

"Aw," Mama hummed, her hand found his hair and she gently runs her fingers through his strands until he calms down. "You can come here anytime, for anything. Okay, dear?"

"Yeah, okay …Mama." Lovi ducks his head slightly, and I almost miss the slight upturn of his lips. I almost miss his beautiful smile.

"I think you're prone to bad ideas." Lovi says as he sits down across from me.

I smile and shake my head, "No, this will be fine!"

Lovi snorts, "Yeah, let's sit in the tall, dying grass, and fucking light me on fire."

I took the adorable Italian to my backyard, a fenced off grassy area with lots of dog and cat toys to play with. I bring the animals out here a lot to play.

"Well, we can't do this inside, the smoke alarms will go off." I point out.

Lovino grits his teeth, "I'm saying we don't do it at all."

I smile as I say, "Look, water elementals practice with their skills all the time. Sometimes they ruin furniture. Sometimes someone almost drowns. Sometimes bad things happen." As I say the last part, Lovi's eyes dart to my hand, the bandaged one, "But they have to practice, or they'll never get better. Same with you."

The Italian looks hesitant as he glances down at his hands. "I don't want to hurt anyone." He nearly whispers.

"You won't." I reply, my voice just as quiet.

His eyes lock with mine, and only then do I see the amount of fear and heartbreak in them, "But I have before. What's stopping me from doing it again?"

I place my hand on one of his and smile, "Because I trust you."

Lovi nods after a long moment. I try to not feel disappointed as I let go of his hand. On the grass between us we have an unscented candle and a box of matches. I glance at Lovi, his eyes are glues to the candle. With slightly shaky hands, I pick up the box of matches and strike one. I hear Lovi's sharp intake as the flame ignites on the match. Just the slight spike of panic in him makes the small flame grow.

I smile at him for a second before I light the candle and blow out the match.

"There." I say, smiling widely, "We have fire!" I shake my hands at the last word, being overdramatic, hoping it might calm Lovi down.

The Italian's lip quirks up for just a split second. But his mouth pulls back down as he mutters, "You fucking idiot." With a sigh he straightens his back and says, "What do you want me to do?"

"Just breathe." I say, pulling my arms close to my chest as I inhale, and letting them flow away from me as I exhale. "Fire isn't like plants or water or even animals. It doesn't follow patterns or react the way you expect or give you warnings. It reacts how you react. If you breath, it breaths."

Lovi takes a deep, shuttering inhale, and the flame sways with his breath, slow and controlling, only flickering out of line when Lovi's breathe shakes. Lovino lets out a sigh that might also be a chuckle or a choke? It's an odd noise, whatever it is. Like he let all of his breath out at once in astonishment. His eyes are on the flame, and it reacts unexpectedly, like I said. Instead of swaying the other direction, like a tree or water would, the flame actually shrunk slightly.

The Italian's eyes shoot up to look at mine. Those eyes, that once held unease and fear only moments ago, where now filled with childlike wonder and surprise.

He sucks in a deep breath, and the flame dances gracefully on the candlewick. He slowly releases it, and this time the flame arches up to meet the boy's breathe.

Lovi spent a good twenty minutes just breathing differently and watching the flame's different reactions. I sat back, leaning on my hands, and smiled as he lost himself in his own powers.

"How did you know that?" Lovi murmurs, really if he worked on his power, he would know that too. But still, his expression was cute.

I shrug, faking nonchalance. "I brushed up on my elementals powers. Their history, the way they work, you know, the basics."

A buzzer in the back of my head is going off. 'Liar! Liar!' it shouts. But I probably shouldn't tell Lovino how I've been 'brushing up' by obsessing over fire elementals for the past week. How I've spent late nights researching everything there is to know about flames and the people who control them. "Do you want to make it bigger? Do something other than breathe?"

"No." Lovi says, still far too quickly for my liking. He sucks in a breath, adverting his gaze. The candle's small fire flickered. "We should work on your power now."

I smile as I say, "I've already mastered my power."

"I've already failed mine." Lovi refuses to look at me.

I frown slightly and say, "No, you've just made improvements."

Lovi grunts a quiet, "Hardly."

I can't help but feel disappointed at that. Lovi seems to notice as he hesitantly reaches a hand over to me, "H-hey." He's having trouble making eye contact, but his warm hand resting on mine is good enough for me, "Th… thanks. You. I mean, um. Th-thank you." He pulls his hand away from mine quickly, his face red.

The little fire grows happily, eating up all the emotion Lovi's feeling.

I can't stop the bright smile that explodes across my face, "Yeah, any time! We could do some more!"

"Hell no." Lovi says. Already standing up.

"But you were doing well!" I try to tell him.

Lovi shakes his head, "I said, no! Bastard!" He turns and crosses his arms, not looking at me. I glance at the little candle in front of me.

Lovino lets out a little huff of annoyance.

The flame goes out.

Slowly I stand up, smiling inwardly as I rest a hand on Lovi's shoulder. His muscles relax slightly under my hand as I say, "Okay. You're right. One step at a time."

"Damn right, I'm right." Lovi says, leading the way back into my little house. I let him lead, because I can't stop thinking of his excited wonder that just breathing with the flame brought him.

And I can't wait to see that expression again.

This was supposed to be fluff. What happened? O.o

I guess it was kinda fluffy, sometimes. I mean, the snake was in there. She was rather Fluffy.

If you just finished some finals; good job! I'm proud of you!

If you still have to take finals; good luck! I know you can do it!

If your cool and don't, nor didn't, have to take any finals; you look rather nice today.

And as always, tell me what you think!