A/N: Sorry for the re-upload of the same chapter. My RP pal had some serious input so I had to honour her opinion. From now on she will have input before I publish the chapter to keep this update problem from happening. By the way, oh my gods, thank you so much writersoftheuniverse and mirrorkirby64! Your favourite and follow inspired me to finish writing up this chapter. It makes me pleasure smile to know that you enjoyed the prologue enough to favourite and follow.
When the darkness at last dissipates Lovino sees Antonio, but he doesn't really look like Antonio should. Antonio is all smile and joy and laughter, but this boy is sitting on the porch, staring into the sunset with eyes glazed over with unshed tears. The only clue that this person is Antonio is the potted tomato plant that he has wrapped himself around.
"An...tonio?" Lovino whispers, shock resonating through his voice. The boy looks up at Lovino, with a confused sort of look.
"Who are you?" Antonio asks, voice hoarse as if it hadn't been used in a long, long while.
"What do you mean? It's me."
Antonio laughs at this, the sort of laugh that is hollow and false, with an echo of all-consuming sadness. He doesn't answer the question, just laughs in that broken way. Lovino moves closer, eyes filled with concern. 'This isn't like Antonio', he thinks, 'this isn't like him at all!'
"Antonio...?"
"Si, stranger?" Antonio finally responds, emerald-green eyes that should spark with passion, cold and unloving (or perhaps unloved). The words strike at Lovino, realization hitting him. He's shorter than the Antonio Lovino was familiar with, he was slouching too (something Antonio never did). His hair was longer than Antonio would normally keep it, and even messier. This Antonio's build is much slighter, less muscle and more gangliness. This is teenage Antonio. This is what he wanted to see. And Antonio didn't know Lovino as a teenager.
"I'm... I'm new. I just moved in" Lovino says quickly, his voice raising a few pitches. Antonio gives him a look somewhere between 'are you out of your mind' and amusement.
"Oh, alright then. Welcome to the neighbourhood," Antonio responds, his words lacking in enthusiasm. A new person in town, a new person to judge him, a new person to hide his secret from.
"Thanks I guess," Lovino says, then pauses for a moment, "So... How are you?" Lovino winces at the words, knowing how foolish it sounded. How weak. If only Antonio had started the conversation like he usually did- wait, no. Antonio wouldn't. He's in pain. He's always been there for Lovino, and now Lovino had to step up to the plate, and be there for Antonio.
"Fine," the response is hollow as Antonio's gaze drops to the ground. The glaze over his eyes thickens as the tears threaten to escape. He manages to keep them back, though. Somehow. Lovino's heart wrenches as his instincts scream to hug the boy as tight as he could, to comfort him, to be there for Antonio as Antonio had always done for him. 'Is this how he always felt as I cried' Lovino asks himself.
A voice from inside calls Antonio's name, a dark deep voice. Antonio pales in fear. "I have to go," he says, already scrambling up, careful not to bump the tomato plant. He dashes inside and out of view. Lovino stands there for a few moments longer, lost in thought.
'He's so different here, so much more afraid. He's so weak, what made him like this? Why isn't he full of light and love as he has always been? What happened to him. What changed him? And then what changed him again to make him full of light? What is it that is going to help him? Or who? What could possibly change him from the mess he is into the man I love?' These are the questions that spiral through Lovino's head at such a dizzying frequency that he doesn't hear the thuds echoing from inside the house.