Why the fuck had Lovino agreed?

Anything involving Arthur and his freaking magic couldn't end well, so why he'd said yes when Arthur had asked him to help out with his magic was beyond Lovino. He hadn't even been drinking this time!

"Lovino, might I ask a favour of you?"

The fact that Arthur was coming to Lovino for help should have been concerning in itself. The Brit didn't have the best track record, especially when it came to his schemes and ideas. Especially not when his magic or his cooking was involved.

"What do you need?" Lovino demanded, eyes narrowing. The last time someone had helped Arthur with something, they hadn't left their house for a week. Even now, nobody knew exactly what had transpired between Arthur and France that one time.

"It's just a small thing," Arthur said slowly. "There's this….well, it's a spell," he admitted, "and I can't quite manage it on my own."

"Aren't there some other magic freaks you can ask?" Lovino responded. Aside from anything else, he wasn't interested in being the subject of Arthur's experimentation.

"Well, yes," Arthur said, looking quite put out at being described as a 'magic freak'. "But they won't help me, they're all busy."

"Alfred?" Arthur shook his head.

"After I told him what I was trying to do, he said it wasn't 'hero-like' and refused to have any part of it."

Lovino sighed. He was running out of people to put into the firing line in his place. At this rate, Lovino would actually have to help Arthur. Hell knows how that would turn out.

"Exactly what are you trying to do anyway?" Lovino asked. The dark look Arthur got in his eyes at the question was terrifying.

"I'm going to create giant waves and send them straight to Sealand," he declared, voice dripping with malevolence. "That'll show that git who's a real nation!"

Lovino considered it for a few seconds. He didn't know what his part in this endeavour was, but watching Peter and Arthur getting into another argument would probably be more entertaining than whatever else he would've ended up doing that day. Besides, the spell wouldn't even be aimed at Lovino. What could possibly go wrong?

On the surface, Arthur didn't seem like the kind of person to have a secret basement, much less one filled with all manner of dark magic paraphernalia. Of course, being a fellow nation Lovino knew him a lot better than that. If you considered his magic, and the whole 'imaginary friends' thing, Arthur's secret lair kind of made sense.

The single, bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling did little to illuminate the room, casting everything in dark shadows that only added to the creepy atmosphere.

"How does this work?" Lovino asked, still struggling to take in everything. The stairs creaked beneath his feet as he descended slowly, slightly concerned about what he'd gotten himself into.

"I've tried this spell a number of times," Arthur said calmly. He began walking to a shelf by the stairs, pulling a large book from one shelf and all manner of strange items from the rest. "I don't quite have enough power to pull it off, that's why you're here."

"In English, maybe?" Lovino asked, still having no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Arthur sighed dramatically.

"You're here to amplify my powers, sort of act as a second battery if you like," Arthur explained matter-of-factly. Lovino gulped.

"Is this dangerous?" he asked sceptically, purposefully keeping his distance from the Brit. Lovino wasn't sure if he could outrun Arthur if it came to that, but he would damn well try. The way Arthur was about his magic, Lovino didn't doubt he could get forceful if someone tried to resist. Namely, Lovino.

"No, no, it'll be fine," Arthur dismissed, waving his free hand. The other was preoccupied with holding the growing number of things he needed for the magic.

Feeling no less confident in Arthur's abilities, Lovino watched as he placed his supplies down and began drawing strange chalk symbols on the concrete ground. The white symbols eventually formed a circle, within which Arthur drew a number of different symbols in blue. Satisfied with his work, Arthur stood up, dusted off his hands and placed the chalk back on the shelves.

"Are we doing this or what?" Lovino asked, equally nervous and impatient.

"Almost ready," Arthur replied absently.

He was preoccupied rifling through the supplies he'd grabbed from the shelves, opening jars and bottles and throwing their contents into a wooden bowl. After he'd gone through everything he'd grabbed, Arthur sprinkled the dark powder he'd created over the floor, scattering it across the chalk symbols he'd drawn earlier.

"Right, now I need you to stand here," Arthur said, pointing to the centre of the circle.

"This is going to end badly," Lovino said, not as much of a realisation as it was a statement. Still, he'd come this far now. Might as well see it through.

"Nonsense," Arthur replied, stepping out of the circle to make way for Lovino.

The Brit picked up the large, leather-bound book he'd left resting on the ground. Lovino was suddenly struck by the fact that perhaps the reason nobody else had wanted to help Arthur was that they'd known it would end badly. He was about to voice these thoughts, when Arthur flipped open the book and started reading from its pages.

The second Arthur started chanting the strange words, Lovino found himself rooted in place. When he tried to speak, he found his mouth clamped shut, in fact he couldn't even form the words in his throat. Lovino had not agreed to be subject to Arthur's magic, this wasn't supposed to be happening.

Things got weirder as Arthur kept chanting. The room started to get dark, despite the lightbulb still dimly illuminating everything. The shadows cast across the room started to shift, spiralling slowly around the room and gradually getting closer to Lovino.

Arthur finished his chanting, the shadows leaping from the floor to surround Lovino as dark clouds. There was a tremendous sound, like thunder crashing, and a burst of light that resembled a flash of lightning. If he hadn't been frozen in place, Lovino would've whimpered at the sound. He hated thunder.

Lovino couldn't see anything beside the black, smoke-like clouds, and shit he couldn't really breathe either. He felt like the smoke was filling his lungs, making him desperate to cough except he still couldn't move.

There was a loud, cackling laughter filling the room, and the last thing Lovino realised before he passed out was that it was Arthur, and he sounded incredibly demonic.


The first thing that became apparent was the throbbing pain in Lovino's head. The next thing he realised was the throbbing pain everywhere else in his body.

"Oh thank goodness you're not dead." And that was distinctly Arthur's voice. "I thought I'd killed you!"

"Could you do that now?" Lovino groaned, screwing his eyes shut against the pain in his body.

"I'm not dealing with a dead body on my hands again," Arthur said simply.

"Again?" Lovino demanded, pain momentarily forgotten as he sat bolt upright. It made him feel as though his head was exploding, not to mention incredibly dizzy, but Lovino kept his gaze fixed on Arthur. Well, as much as he could when everything was so blurry.

"Don't worry about that," Arthur said dismissively, placing a hand on Lovino's arm to help him stand.

Something felt…off. Lovino couldn't quite place his finger on it, but there was something that just didn't feel quite right.

"Did the spell work, at least?" Lovino asked, rubbing his head. Arthur went strangely quiet. "Well?"

"Sort of, you could say," Arthur said cryptically.

"What does that mean?" Lovino demanded, getting worried. "Either it worked or it didn't."

"Well it worked," Arthur started. "Peter's certainly not happy about that." He chuckled, pleased with himself.

"But?" Lovino prompted, feeling more and more like this had somehow backfired on him.

"Uh-" Arthur stopped himself, quickly walking over to grab something from the bookshelf. When he returned, Lovino saw it was a small hand mirror. "Take a look for yourself."

Hesitantly, Lovino took the mirror and held it up. What he saw nearly made him black out again.

"What the hell did you do you bastard!" he yelled, eyes wide as he stared at his reflection.

On top of Lovino's head were two large cat ears. The fur covering them matched the colour of his hair almost perfectly, although they might have been a few shades lighter. It was hard to tell in the dark basement, and that really wasn't the important part here because Lovino had freaking cat ears.

"When I think about it now, the spell we used is quite similar to another one," Arthur admitted sheepishly. "The other spell is supposed to turn a person into a cat, temporarily of course."

"I have cat ears! Do I look like a fucking cat to you?" Lovino yelled.

"The ears and tail could have fooled me," Arthur said casually.

"Tail?" Lovino twisted around, and oh crap he had a cat tail. What the actual fuck. How the hell had he let himself get roped into this?

Lovino was stuck between slapping himself, since he was really, really hoping this was a dream, and slapping Arthur. Either one was a viable option at this point, except Lovino knew that he was awake so hitting the British bastard seemed like the better option. Of course, if he did that, Arthur might do something to make this permanent, and Lovino would rather die than let that happen. So basically, no pissing off the Brit.

"You said the other spell was temporary?" he asked, breathing deeply in an attempt to control his anger.

"It'll only last a day. Well, 48 hours at the most," Arthur explained, taking the mirror from Lovino's hand and replacing it on the shelf.

"Two day?" Lovino demanded. "Change me back, now dammit!"

"I can't," Arthur said, shrugging. "You'll just have to live with it."

That was the point at which Lovino decided it would be a good time to punch Arthur in the face.


Getting home without being seen actually turned out to be the easy part. Lovino managed to hide the ears under a beanie, and tuck the tail underneath a baggy jumper. It worked well enough to get him back to his house, where he was met with the real problem.

Gilbert was staying over for the week. The Prussian practically lived with Lovino, to be honest, which made the entire situation more difficult. Lovino had to get inside, lock himself in his room and hide for the next two days.

All of which he had to do without being seen by Gilbert, along with coming up with an excuse as to why he was refusing to be seen.

The first part was easy. Lovino managed to open the door quietly enough, and slip inside without being heard. The TV was on full blast in the living room, making it a lot easier for Lovino to remain undetected. Of course, he wasn't lucky enough for that to last long.

Lovino couldn't even remember how long he'd lived in this house. He should have remembered the creaky floorboard three steps from the door. He should have, and he could've avoided it, which he shouldn't have even needed to do since the TV was so loud.

But whatever Gilbert was watching decided to go silent, and it just so happened to do it the exact second Lovino stepped on that one damned floorboard.

"Lovi, is that you?" Gilbert yelled, turning the TV down enough to be heard.

Lovino cursed internally, hurrying to get to his room before Gilbert decided to come out and talk to him face-to-face.

"Yeah, it's me," he yelled back, knowing if he didn't reply Gilbert would only get up to investigate the strange noise.

"I didn't hear you come in, where've you been?" Gilbert asked, his voice sounding closer.

Lovino swore to himself, fumbling with the doorknob on his door. Gilbert could not see him like this, he'd never hear the end of it.

"I was with Arthur," Lovino replied, preoccupied with trying to get into his room.

By the time Gilbert stepped into the hallway, Lovino was just slamming his door shut. The lock clicked, and Lovino breathed a sigh of relief. He was safe for now.

"Lovi, what're you doing?" Gilbert asked, voice muffled by the door.

"Just go away," Lovino demanded, stepping back towards the bed.

"Lovi, what's wrong?" Gilbert said, unusually gently. "You don't have to let me in, just talk to me."

"No!" Lovino yelled. "Leave me alone!"

He was beginning to get afraid. If Gilbert didn't stop, Lovino was going to have to start lying, or worse tell the truth. Neither of those were things he wanted to do, not to Gilbert. The Prussian was being strangely quiet, and Lovino was worried he was preparing to break the door down.

"Fine, if that's what you want," Gilbert conceded. "I'll be out here if you want to talk to me."

Retreating footsteps let Lovino know Gilbert had left. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lovino cautiously turned away from the door. He was still afraid Gilbert was just getting momentum to smash through the door. Slowly, he walked towards the mirror in the corner, biting his lip. Lovino wasn't entirely sure he wanted to see the results of Arthur's handiwork.

He pulled off the beanie and jumper, standing shirtless in front of the mirror. Normally Lovino would've felt as least some self-consciousness about that fact, but not now. He was too concerned with the brown tail and ears he now possessed. They felt alien, like they shouldn't belong to his body, and he had no idea how he was supposed to control them. The ears kept twitching at every small sound and the tail was swishing of its own accord, which had not made it easy to hide on the way home.

Growling, Lovino stormed away from the mirror. Staring just made him more annoyed, and also kind of creeped him out. As an afterthought he drew the curtains, knowing Gilbert wasn't one to just give up. He'd go to any lengths to try and find out what was going on with Lovino. That thought made the Italian's heart beat a little faster, which he didn't have time to focus on right now because he was too busy wishing this would just end.

With the room dark, Lovino crawled under the bed covers, exhausted and wanting nothing more than to hide from the world. He was just done with everything at this point, and sleeping would at least make the time until things could get back to normal go faster.

Except once again, Lovino's plans just had to be ruined. At least this time it wasn't just unfortunate timing, but a very determine Prussian that decided to interfere. The door opened, and Lovino gasped.

He sat up, the bed covers around him over his head and hiding the ears. Gilbert stood in the doorway, holding a lock pick. He at least had the decency to look at least somewhat guilty.

"Lovi, what's going on?" he asked, leaving the lock pick on the dresser as he closed the door and walked over to the bed.

"I told you to leave me alone!" Lovino growled, pulling the covers tighter around himself.

"What happened, did someone do something to you?" Gilbert said, sitting on the edge of the bed. On instinct, Lovino pulled back. "Are you hurt?"

"Just leave it alone," Lovino pleaded.

"Tell me what happened and I will!" Gilbert said.

Lovino sighed, looking down. Damn it, he couldn't say no to Gilbert. How could he refuse the first person in a long time to actually care about him? He loosened his grip on the quilt, letting it fall away. He heard Gilbert gasp, which wasn't what he'd expected.

Looking up, Lovino studied the Prussian's expression. He'd thought Gilbert would be holding back laughter, and making some kind of joke out of it, but he wasn't.

"How exactly did this happen?" he asked, eyes fixed on Lovino's new pair of ears.

"Arthur's magic backfired," Lovino said, shrugging nervously.

Gilbert's gaze drifted to the tail, curling around Lovino as the Italian was desperately hoping to just disappear. The Prussian shuffled closer, and Lovino fought the urge to back away. Gilbert wasn't laughing, he was being unusually serious. Lovino could trust him, for now at least.

"Can I touch them?" Gilbert asked, and there went the whole trust thing.

"What?" Lovino shrieked. "No! What the hell kind of question is that?"

"But they're so cute!" Gilbert said, doing his best impersonation of Feliciano's puppy-dog eyes.

Lovino sighed, and nodded slowly. Gilbert made a strange, excited noise and scooted forward until he was looming over Lovino. That in itself was intimidating enough, but the pale hand reaching for the cat ears now sitting atop Lovino's head was actually pretty terrifying too. The entire thing was just weird, and Lovino really hoped it could just be over soon enough.

Except then Gilbert was running his fingertips across the ears, gently scratching them, and it actually felt really nice in a weird way. It was pleasant, sort of like when his curl was touched except not as intense. Certainly a lot easier to handle.

And oh crap, did he just purr?

From the look of absolute glee on Gilbert's face, Lovino was willing to bet that he had.

"You purred!" Gilbert said, smirking.

"No I didn't!" Lovino said, crossing his arms.

"That was adorable," Gilbert said, completely ignoring Lovino's denial.

He tried to stay mad at Gilbert, he really did, but it was very hard when Gilbert was still softly petting his cat ears and he had to focus on not purring again. Lovino already looked like a cat, he sure as hell wasn't going to let himself act like one.

Then Gilbert decided to kiss him, and Lovino wasn't really in any state to resist, especially not when he felt so relaxed from Gilbert playing with his ears and tail.

When the Prussian's hands disappeared from Lovino's newfound appendages, the Italian was suddenly reminded of the fact that he was shirtless. A fact which Gilbert seemed intent on taking full advantage of.


The morning came far too quickly for Lovino's liking, although that could've simply been because he hadn't much of a chance to sleep by the time the sun rose. It took him a while to wake up fully, blinking sleep from his eyes and stretching slowly. Once he was awake, however, it didn't take long at all for him to realise Gilbert was staring.

"What're you looking at?" Lovino demanded, suddenly very aware of the fact that they were both naked.

"They're gone," Gilbert replied. It took Lovino a moment to work out what he was referring to.

The moment he did, Lovino's hand flew to his head. Sure enough, the ears were gone. Another quick check confirmed that the tail too had disappeared overnight. Lovino relaxed, letting himself fall against Gilbert's chest. The Prussian tensed up at the unexpected motion, quickly relaxing and wrapping his arms around Lovino.

"Last night was fun," Gilbert said, and Lovino could just imagine the suggestive look he was giving.

"Shut up," Lovino replied, glad that his blush was hidden against Gilbert's chest.

"I'm going to miss kitty-Lovi," Gilbert said, idly tracing patterns on Lovino's spine.

After Lovino mumbling a few choice phrases, the two descended into silence. Amazingly, Gilbert was the first to get up-which may have had something to do with the fact that Lovino was exhausted from the magic related hell he'd been put through-and he galloped off to the kitchen after yelling something about breakfast.

Lovino made a mental note to ask around the nations that knew magic, although given Arthur's history not him. Maybe one of them could give him something to recreate the side-effects of Arthur's magic.

Gilbert had certainly seemed to enjoy himself last night, after all.


As of today, we are now officially halfway through our story! An extra long chapter today (over 3,000 words!) because I wanted to give everyone who's helped keep this story alive something special.