…Italy 2.0…
I awoke a few hours later my head still on Blaise's chest. I smile at him. I traced his facial features with my finger. I kiss him lightly. I put my head back on his shoulder.
I feel him stir. "Hey." he whispers his voice gruff with sleep. "Hey." I respond turning my face to him. He gave me a quick kiss before enveloping me in a hug. "Come on. Up you get.", he wraps me in a blanket as he carried me to the bathroom. He fills the tub with water and we sit in the water. "Are you ok?" he asks as he rubs my shoulders. "Of course. I've never felt better." I turn my head to him.
He smiles. I lean back so I could rest my head on his chest. We spent the rest of the time in the tub talking. He handed me a robe and towel. I towel dry my hair and put the robe on.
I sit on the bathroom counter while Blaise stood in front of the sink a towel wrapped around his waist and washing his face. "Blaise. I'd love to keep you to myself, but I know that every now and again you'll need space.", I explained. He stands with his hands on the sink letting the words sink in.
He slowly nods. I nudge him with my foot. "You're right. I was a bit immature." he mutters. I turn his head towards me. "I don't want to be right. I want you to understand. I love spending time with you, but you can't keep me to yourself. I wouldn't do that to you, because I love you and I know you love me." I placed my head against his. "Ok. I understand. I'm really sorry love." he whispers.
I hop off the counter. I went to my luggage and got dressed in some shorts and a tank top. I clean up the mess we had made earlier. I went through the photos on my camera while I waited on Blaise. He emerges a few minutes later. I wave him over and he sits next to me on the couch. I show him the photos I'd taken during our walk.
When we get hungry, we went to the kitchen. I make a quick pasta dish while he watches me. I bring it over to him when it was done. "Dinner is served." I sing happily. We sat at the kitchen island eating straight from the pan. "This is delicious." he moans in between bites.
We talk about where we might go tomorrow until I began yawning. He picks me up and carries me up to our room. He places me on the bed. I shift slightly before getting comfortable. I feel him slide into the bed. I reach my arms out and he pulls me to him. I fall asleep curled up against him with a smile.
I wake early and take a shower. I come out of the bathroom in my towel. "What a lovely sight to see so early in the morning." Blaise mumbles from the bed. I walk over and smack his arm lightly. "Time to get up. Go on. Go get showered and changed." I order. He groans. "Do I need to start counting?" I ask taking his little catchphrase. He smirks and then sighs.
He got up and went to take a shower. I got dressed in a skirt, crop top, and wedges. I braided my hair, so it was out of my face and put into a hat.
I look around. I find my camera and put it in my bag. He comes out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and begins to get dressed. I grab a light jacket when he was done.
"Who are we meeting today?" I ask as I follow him down the stairs. He grins at my gleeful expression "Rochelle, Cesco, Elda, and Neryssa. Ortensia, Byanca, Uberto, and Jino all have extra lessons that they need to do. I think we'll take you up and down the Amalfi Coast today."
I stop walking. "The Amalfi Coast? REALLY?!" I shriek. He smirks and grabs my hand leading me out the front door. I skip happily along side him all the way to the car. We went to pick up the others and drive down the coast.
I take pictures of the coast as Blaise drives. We reach our destination and get out of the car. Rochelle, Elda, Neryssa, and I take off and begin taking pictures. "Geez, you guys. We have all day. You can take your time you know." Cesco sighs as he and Blaise rush after us.
We stop taking pictures long enough to eat. While Blaise and Cesco were distracted by a group of tourists me and the girls snuck into a dessert shop. We select a huge variety and sit at a table.
"Won't Blaise be upset you've disappeared?" Neryssa asks she took a bite of Panna Cotta. I think about it. "I don't know. Most of the time when I wander off, he's always been able to find me with no problems at all." I respond taking a bite of cannoli.
"She's quite right." Blaise's voice comes from behind us. Elda and Rochelle jump in shock. I let out a laugh and Neryssa shakes her head as she waves them to the table seats that were empty.
After that Blaise takes my hand in his. We continue our exploration of the coast. I sit on the beach eating some gelato. When I was done, I join the other girls in the water. We splash around in the water for a while and do tricks.
The sun had begun to set, and we were having dinner watching it. "I still can't believe you ate a whole cake an hour ago and your still hungry." Elda pokes at Cesco. He waves her off and continues devouring the pasta dish in front of him.
I sip my water. I nudge Elda and she winks back at me. Elda nudges Rochelle who winked at Neryssa. Blaise watches us and sits back in his seat folding his arms. A server came forward and whispers something to Elda. She claps her hands excitedly nodding as he spoke.
The server went back to the kitchen. I smirk as 5 servers brought out a tray. "The women here have requested this dish for a Cesco Ricci." the original server gave Cesco a sly smirk. They pull another table over and placed a giant pizza on it. Cesco's mouth drops open. He shifts in his seat. It was the size of the entire table it sat upon.
Blaise scoffs. "Oh, and here is the dish for a Blaise Zabini." the server continues his smile growing. The servers clear off the table and place a family sized Focaccia in front of him. I clap my hands in glee. The servers brought gelato and tiramisu.
Cesco groans as he staggers to the car. Both he and Blaise had finished their extra dishes with quite a bit of effort. They sat in the back of the car groaning. I drove everyone home. Rochelle, Elda, and Neryssa were still chuckling happily as they went inside their homes. I help Cesco out of the car. Blaise moved to the passenger seat.
I drive us back home. I help Blaise out of the car. "What happened?" Mrs. Zabini asked as she stood from the kitchen table where she was sitting with Ymelda and Zoela. "He overate." I explain as Blaise leans against the kitchen sink drinking water straight from the tap.
"Overate? Blaise?" Zoela scoffs watching Blaise. "Well, Rochelle, Neryssa, and Elda had this idea of ordering more food for them. No one made them eat the whole thing by themselves we just ordered it under their names. Honestly, I don't understand why they would a family size portion of food on top of all the food we'd eaten today." I huff.
Ymelda was shaking with laughter. "They finished the whole thing? Oh, my lord. They've done it again. Don't worry Charlotte dear. They've done this before they'll recover in no time." Ymelda she shakes her head as she sits back down. "What did they eat this time?" Zoela asks handing Blaise some medicine.
"Cesco had a pizza as big as the table it sat upon and Blaise had a family-sized Focaccia." I answer grabbing some grapes from the fruit bowl. Ymelda and Zoela double over in laughter. Mrs. Zabini hit her lightly and repeatedly on her shoulder. After a bit more discussion about their weird behavior in which I learned about the other giant portions of food they'd tried to eat before Ymelda and Zoela went home.
Mrs. Zabini went to bed extremely tired from her day and making Blaise take the medicinal potion. I watch as Blaise sits on the floor. He'd thrown up most of the food he'd eaten and looked to be in very bad shape. If this state of being is much better than the previous incidents how much worse were they! I thought to myself as I stood up.
I help Blaise off the floor. He groans as we go up the stairs. I prop him against the wall as I opened the door and he staggers inside undressing as goes. He collapses on the couch and I throw a blanket over him and go to bed.
I was washing my face in the bathroom the next morning when I hear Blaise groan as he woke up. "Good morning dummy." I call. He grumbles as he gets up and brushes his teeth. I pat his shoulder sympathetically.
I went to the kitchen and finished preparing the soup Mrs. Zabini told me about the previous night. She had plans with her siblings today and thought that since I was here Blaise would be fine.
I ladled the soup from the pot just as Blaise stumbles into the kitchen. He puts his head on my shoulder watching. I hand the bowl up to him and he takes it thankfully. I make myself a bowl and climb onto the counter as I eat. Blaise leans against the counter as he eats slowly.
"That was extremely irresponsible." I state while I eat. Blaise nods and continues eating. "I know that." he grumbles as he goes to get more soup. I cross my legs and leaned forward. "You know? Interesting. Next time we'll just have to snack all day instead of eating a meal." I sigh in mock exasperation.
Blaise turns to me looking very tired. I smile to let him know I was joking, and he relaxes. When he was done with his soup he sags back against the counter. I hop down from the counter.
I clean up the traces of breakfast. Blaise hugs me from behind as I wash the dishes. When I was done, I lead him back upstairs and force him lightly onto the couch. I watch as he lays on the couch eyes fixed on the ceiling. I sit on the floor by the couch. I begin singing a song lightly and watch as he closes his eyes falling asleep. I put the blanket back on him.
I write letters to my family and sent them off with Blaise's owl. I go back down to the kitchen and began reading through recipe books. I translated a few books by the time Blaise woke again. I open my arms as he enters the kitchen and he walks into them.
I hug him and he mumbles tiredly. I go back to my task and he sat by me. "What are you doing love?" he asks as he eats some grapes. "Translations. There are so many stories." I whisper. Blaise scoff. "You found the old stories. Are you talking about the recipes?" he reaches over and grabbed a book. He begins reading the story I had translated.
I fix some tea for us while I waited. His eyes widen as he read. I hand him a cup. "Merlin's beard!" he gasps. "What?" I ask hurrying over. "You translated this perfectly." he gapes. I frown. "We had almost given up hope on translating some of these, but you were able to translate it. Oh, love. This is amazing!" he states as his eyes ran over the pages.
I stare at the pages. "Some of these haven't been used in hundreds of years. It makes me wonder." he mutters. He got up and made a call. I keep reading over the pages trying to figure out what he was talking about. He rejoins me and kisses me happily.
"You do realize what you've done. You have given my family back some lost stories and memories that we hadn't been able to understand." he hugs me. I thought about it. "I was wondering why they were written in different languages. I just realized that they were secrets." I mutter looking at the floor.
He picks my head up. "There's no need for you to be like this." he tells me and I nod. He organizes the papers and books. "This is just like your art notes. Hidden messages and stories." he smiles as he works and I smile realizing how right he is.
He turns to me as he finished. "You know if you keep being like this and finding these stories and things that have been forgotten they might not let you leave. When I told the others, they were so overjoyed." he shakes his head, "They'll be over tomorrow to go through the books. They might even bring more with them if you're up to it."
"Of course. I'd love to help." I tell him as I walk around prepping a small dinner of soup, bread, and fruit. He watches me with interest. "I think your dad was right. You really haven't even begun to show your actual potential yet." he smiles.
As we eat, we talk about the stories and recipes I'd translated. Mrs. Zabini came home a bit after having already heard. "Charlotte just so you know I'd love it if my son proposed to you already. You have been so helpful without anyone asking you. Thank you!" she cries as she hugs me. Blaise chokes in surprise when she mentions proposing. She fixes herself some food and hurries from the room avoiding her son's questioning gaze.
We went to bed that night after cleaning. I had to force Blaise to go to bed instead of going to question his mum. He protested quite a bit. "You need your rest so you can help me translate tomorrow." I tell him as I close the door. He taps his foot on the floor before getting ready for bed. I climb into bed and curl up.
The next day everyone arrived early to view the progress I'd made. "I heard from Blaise about your mum's linguist skills and know I'm rather sure myself that you've inherited it." Jeno laughs reading my translations. "Why of course she has. The girl learned how to speak Italian in less than three days!" Mrs. Zabini scoffs as she riffles through a stack of papers.
Belvidere looks at me in shock. "Are you sure you want to be with Blaise. Maybe you should aim higher." he jokes. "Oh, hell no! I've already told Blaise he better not let her go." Mrs. Zabini laughs. I laugh along with Rochelle and Elda.
They hand the us the papers that need translating. Blaise, Neryssa, and Cesco check our work while Byanca, Ortensia, Uberto, and Jino ran back and forth from the adults to us with more papers.
While everyone was immersed in their work I riffle through my papers. I stop on a page. Rochelle looked over. It was a drawing of a woman. Rochelle lets out a shocked gasp. Blaise leans over to look. He took the paper from me and handed it Roque and Nardo.
"There's a message in the drawing." I sigh. They look at me and then at Blaise. "She has a talent for hidden messages. I told you." he shrugs. I go over and tap my wand on the drawing. A poem appeares on the surface. A lover's message.
They read it quickly and smiled. "A message to our grandfather from when they were young.", Nardo handed the paper to the other adults who read it. "Come to think of it the set you are wearing used to be hers." Roque smiles at Blaise who had busied himself with a stack of papers.
I look through more papers finding more pictures and making the messages appear. Cyprienne and Ymelda copy them down into a journal. I look at the last one very confused. "What's wrong?" Elda asks. "The messages were found, and they've switched the rest of them to artworks." I mutter reading the message again.
I look up. "Sounds like a treasure hunt to me." Uberto sits up looking very excited by the prospect. I shake my head. "They didn't just hide their messages in things passed down through the family. They hid them in national treasures." I mumble but the room had gone so silent that it was easy to hear me.
We finish translating the recipes and pictures and at the same time Cyprienne had mapped out all the places where she was sure they would have hidden messages. We made plans to visit all the places over the next week. We cleaned up and everyone left. Mrs. Zabini went with Ymelda since she had the most.
I trudge upstairs deep in thought as I enter our room. A treasure hunt in Italy. Mum would be jealous. I thought as I got ready for bed. Blaise was already in bed by the time I slid in. He pulled me over to him. "This is going to be fun." he murmurs. "Why did you act like that when Roque mentioned the jewelry you gave me?" I ask.
I feel him stiffen then relax. "It's sort of like a promise ring." he whispers. I feel the smile grow on my face. I wrap my arms around him as we fall asleep.
