"I've never been on a plane before either," Yamamoto said as we walked up the ramp to the plane.
"Oh, really?" That wasn't surprising at all. Usually everyone took the bullet train when they wanted to travel far in Japan. Planes were almost exclusively used for overseas travel. "Do you want the window seat then?"
"Eh, are you sure?"
"Yeah, I don't mind. I'll be spending the majority of the flight drawing anyway."
"Then wouldn't it be better to sit next to the window so you can draw the view outside?"
"...Yamamoto, just take the window seat."
"Alright, alright," he laughed. We filed onto the plane and were greeted by the flight attendants, who directed us to our seats.
I plopped down in my seat and stretched my legs out. Yamamoto stepped over them and plopped down onto his as well.
"You sure are lucky, spending your first flight relaxing in first class," I commented.
"You are too, you know," he replied.
"Mm, yeah." A slip-up. Small slip-ups like these were becoming more common, and I would have been thinking more on that if I hadn't been too busy sinking contentedly into the luxurious leather. I stretched my arms up and out, sighing, then dropped them down again onto my lap.
"You two comfortable back there?" Dino looked over the back of his seat. He was sitting in the two seats in front of us with Romario by his side like always.
"It's just as comfortable as my bed, maybe even more," I sighed.
"Yeah," Yamamoto agreed, "Thanks for giving us these seats, Dino-san."
"Yes, thank you, Dino."
"I invited you guys, after all," Dino said, "so it's only right I treat my guests the best I can. Enjoy the flight."
"We will, thank you."
Midway through the 13 hour flight, I jerked awake and accidentally woke Yamamoto.
"Mm? Sawada?" he murmured sleepily. "What's wrong?"
I frowned and shrugged. "Nothing. Go back to sleep, Yamamoto. I'm sorry for waking you up."
He blinked at me, opening his mouth. I quickly turned away to avoid any questioning.
When he didn't ask further, I relaxed then frowned again. I couldn't remember what had caused me wake up, just the vague sensation of something finally falling into place, like a golf ball finally rolling into its hole.
I inwardly shrugged. Oh well. It would come to me eventually. These types of things always did. Closing my eyes, I drifted off to sleep, only waking again when the food came.
Stepping out of the airport, I scanned the area around us, doing a quick 360.
"I can't believe it; we're actually in Italy!" I cheered, whirling around again to face a laughing Yamamoto.
"Yeah, I can't wait to do some sight seeing around here. Even the area immediately outside the airport looks pretty nice."
"Hey," Romario called out to us. "You can sight see later. For now, we have to get to the mansion."
"Mansion?"
"We're staying in a mansion?"
Yamamoto whistled. "Man, I knew Dino was rich, but-"
"-but not that rich," I finished.
Romario held the limousine - we were travelling in a goddamned limousine - door open for us and we hopped inside. Dino smiled at our impressed looks.
"You like to travel in style, don't you?" I said, admiring the deep velvet space.
"What other way is there to travel?"
"Touché."
We had reached the mansion and were currently being shown our rooms by Dino himself. He had just finished telling us that we could go sleep and would be woken up for dinner when we encountered his other guests.
"Oi, Dino!" A brunet with a strange curl poking out from his hair parting rounded the corner and stopped at the sight of Yamamoto and me. He appeared to be of the same age as us and wore an angry expression, which changed immediately to a friendly and open one as soon as his hazel eyes flicked to me.
An older boy, with tanner skin and shorter, messier hair came running around the corner as well and stopped right behind the first one, hands on knees to catch his breath.
"Hey, Lovino," he panted. "Don't run so fast, please?"
The boy named Lovino ignored him and strode forward to stand in front of us.
"Mr. Dino, are these the guests you said you'd be bringing from Japan?"
"Yes," Dino replied. He turned to Yamamoto and me and introduced the two - Lovino Vargas and Antonio Fernández Carriedo - to us. He then turned back to them and introduced Yamamoto, who nodded in greeting. I interrupted him when he gestured to me and introduced myself in Italian, inwardly smirking at his surprised look at my smooth Italian.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, miss."
Lovino stepped forward and held his palm out to me. Smiling, I placed my hand in his - then quickly flipped it so the positions of our hands were reversed and pressed my lips to his knuckles.
"Oh, believe me," I murmured against the back of his hand, "the pleasure is all mine."
Letting go of his hand, I straightened up, smiling angelically at the red-faced boy and the startled expressions on the others' faces at the role-reversal, and retreated into my room with my luggage.
There were a further few moments of silence outside the room, before Antonio laughed.
"I can't believe it! She beat you at your own game, Lov- Ow, why'd you hit me?"
"Shut up, you bastard!"
oh man, that middle part had me stuck for a long long time. like three months long. so, uh, hello again! i'm not dead! and to the people who follow/favourited this within the last month: how? how did you find this? and to everyone else: how? how can you still read and like this? you guys are amazing.
animagirl: nice suggestion, but i have other stuff planned for our protag
Kira007Goddess of Chaos: Now, normally this is the part where I say she aint got one, but alas, she will! It'll come in next chapter... if I ever get around to writing it, that is.
Review?