(A/N) After the first scene is when the time skip happens. I hope the time skip feels natural. I just feel if I went too much into detail about the things that happen during that time some of it would drag and/or be pointless.

Anyway, enjoy chapter 18.

That same day

On his motorcycle, he was speeding faster than usual. Alberto had to get answers and was now racing to the gang's base. After finding out that Luca's uncle was named Ugo, also the name of the man that the gang was extorting, it had given him a scare. He didn't want to believe that they could be the same person. Alberto dreaded the idea of Luca finding out if he was. What would happen then? Would Luca blame him for Giulia's dad's unemployment? Would their relationship, a relationship that resembled some sort of friendship, crumble? All the possibilities scared the hell out of him.

Alberto reached the base. To any other regular citizen, the base looked to be just a regular bar. But to a Scorpian, there was a secret entrance in an alley connected to the bar that looked as if it just led to an unused storage room. That's what everyone else thought it was at least. The door didn't have a window and not just anyone could get in. You wouldn't be able to get in if you weren't a Scorpian.

Alberto parked his bike, looked around to make sure he was alone then knocked on the door.

"Password?" a rough voice on the other side of the door said.

Alberto rolled his eyes. "Save it, Renzo. It's me, Alberto."

He then heard a grumble from the person on the other side. The door unlocked and opened to reveal a tall man in a leather jacket like the rest of the gang. Renzo wasn't exactly friendly, though were any of them? But he had reason not to be. He always got settled with the mundane tasks and door duty.

Renzo crossed his arms as Alberto walked in past him.

"Just because you're Bruno's son doesn't mean you should take the fun out of this job!" Renzo yelled after him.

Alberto chuckled. "Sure it does!"

Alberto made his way to the back where his father's office resided, passing some of the other Scorpians, some years older than him that were either drinking, gambling or both and some making whatever shady deals were going on between each other.

Alberto made it to Bruno's door, opened it and walked in. He saw Bruno and Ercole in the room who looked like they were in the middle of a conversion. They both shot Alberto less than pleased looks to be interrupted by his surprise appearance. If Ercole had been anyone else Alberto would've reluctantly waited but he never liked the idea of Bruno and Ercole conversing alone.

"Un po' maleducato entrare senza bussare…" Ercole muttered.

"It's fine. We'll talk later. Be gone." Bruno said, waving Ercole off.

Ercole was a bit put off by Bruno's passive response to Alberto's rudeness but obeyed and left the room. He made sure to glare at Alberto as he passed him. Alberto paid the tall, lanky older teen no mind and happily shut the door right after Ercole went through it. Glad to be the cause of interrupting whatever they were talking about.

"This is quite the surprise. You showing up here willingly." Bruno said. "What do you want?"

Alberto was taken aback by the question. "Why do you think I want something?"

Bruno scoffed. "Alberto. I know you . You never come here without reason, especially to barge in when I'm busy."

"Busy with what?"

"None of your business."

"Oh, so you get to pick and choose what is my business even though I'm going to be in your position in the future as you've told me time and time again?"

"I will ask again . What do you want?" Bruno asked once more, his voice getting agitated.

Alberto sighed. "I wanted to talk about the guy who owes us money. The...sea monster?"

"What about him?"

"Well...what's his last name again?"

Bruno raised an eyebrow at the question.

Alberto was quick to come up with a believable excuse. "I just want to know to keep tabs on him. You know, make sure he'll follow through with payment. Do a little checking in on him here and there. I do pass by his fishery every day on the way to school."

Bruno seemed to buy it since his skeptical expression then turned into a neutral one.

"Hmm...that's not a bad idea." The man said, thinking about it. "I think we do need someone to go in there and check on him every once in a while. I'm guessing you wanted to make up for your cowardice that day, hmm?"

God only knew how much Alberto wanted to sock him in the face at the moment. But he held himself back and went along with it. "Yeah...sure. So what's his last name?"

"It's Paguro," Bruno said simply.

And there it was. His suspicions had been correct. Alberto liked it better being ignorant. Paguro is a common last name, right? But no. He'd only be fooling himself. Of course they were related. The world had never been on his side so why should it when it came to Luca?

Alberto acted unphased by this information and kept a straight face. "Alright. I'll keep an eye on him."

"Great. Now if we're done send Ercole back in on your way out." Bruno demanded.

Alberto wanted to protest but he knew that would be pointless so he just left and reluctantly did as he was told, unable to avoid a smirk from Ercole on his way out.

Two weeks had come to pass. Alberto had continued to stay silent about his discovery. He didn't want to risk losing whatever he did have with Luca so, avoiding the problem, he said nothing more about it. But when Luca had gotten free of his grounding, Alberto hadn't invited him over to the tower again. The truth was that Alberto had been too afraid to mess up with Luca or risk letting the truth slip. Something that had left Luca confused and disheartened but he was too polite to just invite himself.

Giulia and Guido, after their second date which had been another that had gone pretty well, had decided to go steady. Guido had been thrilled. And they had gone on more dates since then. When the news first broke that Giulia and Guido were now officially dating, Luna had become distant and usually spent time with Luca and sought comfort in him as a distraction from her inner conflict she continued to keep to herself. And now that both of them were finally free from their grounding they would talk on the phone more. But this only led to Giulia believing that Luca had been lying about not having feelings for Luna. Giulia saw that the two had a connection and that there was something between them that they weren't telling her. A notion that had hurt her so she decided to spend more time with Guido because it felt he was the only one who wasn't hiding anything from her.

Massimo's money problems hadn't been getting any better. He couldn't find a job that was good for him. Fishing was all he knew. It had been what he was comfortable with for so long. He loved fishing and continued to do it. It just wasn't the thing that provided income anymore. Applying for new jobs had been a challenge. His pride and shame wouldn't let him ask his ex-wife for more money. He had gotten paychecks in the few weeks of doing the jobs he had gotten but he wasn't any good at them and couldn't hold one down for very long. He had talked about his jobless predicament to Maria before but he always left out that he was struggling with money.

It wasn't until one day that Giulia had come home saying she had to come up with a Halloween costume to wear for the school's Halloween Dance that was coming up very soon. Knowing their money issues, Giulia had said she would make her costume so that they wouldn't have to spend any money on one but the ticket to get into the dance did cost a small fee. Massimo had felt terrible that he could barely provide his daughter with a costume just to have a fun night with her friends. He had finally broke and told her the truth. He told her that she might have to go live with her mom soon and if money didn't come in fast enough Giulia could no longer live with him. As predicted, the idea had devastated her. Tears were shed and words of denial and bargaining were said on Giulia's part all night.

The next day - Friday

Giulia told her friends and Guido the bad news.

The news made Luca feel as if his world was about to get demolished. He and Giulia had been friends for so long. Yes, he had made many other friends since entering high school but Giulia was his best friend who knew him like no one else. Luca just couldn't imagine life without her. He felt...broken.

The news had taken a toll on the others as well. Luna couldn't believe it. There were so many things she hadn't told Giulia yet. So many things she desperately wanted to say. Some of those things she could never truly say since Giulia was now spoken for but she had been so busy trying to figure out why she couldn't change at will anymore. Stepping back with Giulia for Guido, something she'd been obsessing over when she was alone, now felt like a mistake. There was so much time that had been wasted between them for the past few weeks.

Guido had been so happy when Giulia had agreed to be his girlfriend and now he was going to lose her. They hadn't even had a real kiss yet even though he had hinted at the idea of doing it a lot of the time they had been seeing each other. But he hadn't ever wanted to be pushy towards her about it. Now there was a chance it would never happen.

Ciccio, though he had been cautious about being friends with Giulia and Luca since the beginning due to Luca's back talking on the first day, he was sad at the idea of losing a friend. He had enjoyed how happy she made his best friend, though he had often teased him about their relationship. He knew that once Giulia left he would become the guy Guido would complain to.

Third period came around Alberto had noticed the change in Luca's mood. Alberto could instantly tell something was up with him. Luca had hardly drawn in art class, his mind clearly on something else that was bothering him.

When it was time for their tutoring session it was clear that Luca was trying to be present and in the moment but his heart wasn't in it. Alberto couldn't take it anymore and had to ask.

"Okay, what's up?"

"Huh?" Luca had been in the middle of teaching a problem when Alberto suddenly asked.

"You've been acting weird all day. What's going on with you?" Alberto pressed.

Luca sighed. He was never good at hiding his feelings whenever he got this conflicted. He couldn't fool Alberto.

"It's just...there's a likely chance that Giulia will be moving away to live with her mom and Genova…" Luca said finally. "Her dad is struggling with money since being let go from the fishery."

"Oh…I'm...I'm really sorry, Luca..." Alberto said, pity and guilt coating his voice. This was all his asshole dad's fault.

"There's nothing I can do to stop it...Giulia and I have been friends forever and now...there's a chance she'll leave Protorosso forever." Luca said, looking down at his lap.

Alberto wasn't sure what to say. All that came out was. "Well...there's always a chance she could come to visit during summers and the holidays."

"Yeah maybe..."

Alberto thought for a moment then came up with an idea. "Hey, we haven't hung out at the tower for a while. Want to after school today?"

Luca perked up a little at the offer. He had been starting to think that Alberto was not interested in hanging out with him after school anymore.

"Really?" Luca beamed, a little bit of light returning in his eyes.

Alberto noticed the instant change in mood after he came up with the idea. He almost got lost in Luca's big brown eyes but quickly snapped out of it knowing that Luca asked for confirmation on the invite.

"Yeah! I mean, if you want." Alberto said, trying not to sound too eager.

"Yes!" Luca said with a grin. Then he caught himself, thinking that response was too much. "I mean! Sure."

Alberto didn't seem to mind the outburst though.

After soccer practice

When practice ended Luna was planning on approaching Giulia about hanging out after school but unfortunately, it looked like Guido had beaten her to it as she heard him ask her out again on another date. The green-eyed monster in Luna wanted to throw a tantrum. Normally she'd let this slide. Guido was her boyfriend so Giulia spending a lot of time with him was normal. But it still pissed her off. She didn't have time to waste anymore. Luna side-glanced at the couple.

"So do you want to? I feel like it'd be a good idea since you could be...moving soon." Guido said.

Giulia, thinking on her answer, saw Luna looking at them over Guido's shoulder. Luna, seeing that had been caught staring, immediately looked away. Trying to look busy. It had hit Giulia that time was running short with her time with her friends. She had not spent any real time with Luna since the aquarium and Luca was her best friend. She had not spent time with him in a long time. Guilia looked back at Guido. She didn't have the heart to flat out turn him down, especially with the look he was giving her now so she decided to be vague instead.

"I'm sorry, Guido but...I'm gonna be busy this weekend." Giulia finally said.

Overhearing this Luna turned her eyes back to the couple.

"Oh… okay, well, we can try some other time then," he said sadly.

"I'm really sorry."

"It's alright. I'll ask Ciccio if he wants to do something instead. I'll call you over the weekend if that's okay."

"Definitely," she said with a reassuring smile.

After Guido left Giulia walked over to where Luna sat.

"What are you doing this weekend? Sorry. I overheard a bit of that." Luna said sheepishly.

"It's okay. I was hoping we could hang out somewhere today. Just you and me?" Giulia asked.

Luna instantly stood up. "Yes! Totally. I was actually wanting to ask you the same thing."

"Yeah?" Giulia smiled.

"Yeah! Where do you want to go?"

"Well nowhere expensive that's for sure…"

Luna waved her hand at the younger girl. "Nonsense. Since being free from grounding my parents decided to give me allowance again. I'll pay for it and you can't stop me. After all, you're not the only one who thought about spending time together."

Giulia laughed. "Well, it's not like I can talk you out of it can I?"

"Nope. But I'll tell you what. There's this new karaoke place. It's small and doesn't cost all that much for a booth."

"Santa Gorgonzola! I've always wanted to try that!"

"Good then let's do that."

At the tower an hour later

Luca and Alberto had talked a bit more about his predicament with losing Giulia. Alberto had listened to every word and the more he listened the worse he felt. If Luca knew that his gang was the cause of this and he lost Giulia because of all of it he'd most likely never forgive Alberto. In a way, this was all his fault. To distract both Luca and himself from the problem, at least only a little bit, he decided to show Luca what he originally had planned for them to do the next time they were at the tower. There was no better time to do it.

"I don't know if I can do this..." Luca said nervously.

Both Luca and Alberto stood at the top of the highest cliff on the island. They had both taken off their shirts and were now just in their pants rolled up to their just below their knees. That was nerve-wracking enough for Luca considering he was seeing Alberto shirtless now for a second time. He barely was able to look at the older boy without blushing. He forced himself to look down at the water below them which wasn't any better.

Alberto seemed to be having a similar conflict now seeing Luca shirtless but tried his damnest to keep his composure asking himself why it was affecting him at all in the first place.

"Yes, you can. I told you, this is one of my favourite past times. I know what I'm doing." Alberto said.

"Yeah, you see, when I think of a past time I think of reading or doing crossword puzzles. Not extreme water diving." Luca said, continuing to look at the depth of the fall off the cliff.

At the Karaoke Place

Giulia and Luna had been having a blast singing their favourite songs, singing duets together and also drinking smoothies while doing it that Luna had bought them. Giulia had found out that Luna had a very beautiful singing voice. Almost as if Luna was a sea siren that could lure Giulia into doing anything she wanted. But Giulia kept that thought to herself.

They noticed their time was up soon and they only had time for one more song. Luna did try to say it should be Giulia who sang the last song but Giulia had insisted that Luna sing it since karaoke was her idea and she was honestly the better singer. Luna was modest about it, however.

"So, what are you going to sing?" Giulia asked.

Luna looked for a certain song as she went through the song choices. "Well, there's this old American song from, like, the 40's. I like it. I hope you do too."

Luna finally found the song and pressed 'play'. The intro of the song started playing as Luna stepped up onto the tiny stage. The music was unfamiliar to Giulia but it was a soft and pretty tune. As the intro started to simmer down, Luna took a deep breath and then exhaled. Then she started to sing.

" You'll never know just how much I miss you

You'll never know just how much I care

And if I tried, I still couldn't hide my love for you

You ought to know, for haven't I told you so "

A blush started to appear on Luna's face as she sang the lyrics. Giulia gave a content smile and rested her cheek against her palm as she continued to listen to the beautiful singing voice.

" A million or more times?

You went away and my heart went with you

I speak your name in my every prayer... "

"Come on, Luca. It'll be fun." Alberto pushed.

Luca contemplated it for a second. But the fall was just too deep for his nerves. He backed away from the cliff slightly.

"Nope! Can't do it! Not in a million years. I mean, what if it's freezing?"

Alberto groaned. "Sea creatures are built to get used to ocean water no matter how cold it gets. Didn't you know that?"

"I actually have never swum in cold ocean water before."

Alberto sighed. "Luca."

He put his hand on Luca's bare shoulder, making the younger boy's whole body tense and look up at him with wide eyes.

Alberto continued. "You got this. You just have to trust me. This will help."

Luca proceeded to look into Alberto's green eyes. Maybe Alberto was right. If anything was going to stop him from thinking about the problems in his life it was risking his life. Seeing the look in Alberto's eyes now, for the first time, Luca saw true sincerity in the older boy's gaze.

"You do trust me...right?" Alberto asked.

'If there is some other way to prove that I love you

I swear I don't know how

You'll never know if you don't know now'

"...Yeah."

Alberto, at first, looked surprised at Luca's answer but then smiled. "Good. Well then…" He leaned in closer to Luca's ear and whispered "I hope you're ready to get your heart racing."

Luca's face instantly turned red and flustered. When Alberto pulled away he smirked and then ran off the cliff.

"AMDIAMO!" Alberto yelled out as he jumped into the ocean.

'You went away and my heart went with you

I speak your name in my every prayer'

Still red in the face, Luca watched in disbelief as he had watched Alberto hit the water and then come back up, still alive and well, now in his sea creature form. Alberto looked up at Luca from below. Expecting him to follow. Luca looked down back at Alberto. Luca inhaled and then exhaled, pushing away his negative thoughts as best he could.

"WA-HOOOOoooaaaAHHHHH!" Luca yelled out, finally jumping off the cliff and splashing into the sea.

Now underwater, Luca's skin turned into his green scales. His eyes were shut tight in fear. Luca slowly opened his eyes to see Alberto in front of him.

"See? How'd that feel?" the indigo sea creature asked with excitement.

Luca looked around, then at his still-intact body and saw he wasn't dead. In fact, he had never felt so alive. Doing what he had just done was the biggest thrill he had ever experienced.

"That...that felt amazing!" Luca said, doing a flip in the water.

Alberto chuckled at Luca's enthusiasm. "Knew you'd love it..."

Suddenly everything about Giulia all came rushing back, dampening his chipper mood. But then Luca realized something. Alberto had been right. Jumping off the high cliff did help. It made Luca forget all his troubles, albeit for a short while. But it still meant something. Luca could see now that Alberto, this whole time, had been trying to make him feel better. Trying to make him smile.

Luca looked at Alberto as he swam closer to him. Luca wanted to thank him but he wasn't sure what to say without sounding sappy or saying the wrong thing. He could feel those damn fish swimming around in his stomach again and he could also feel that he was about to cry. Luca had been trying so hard not to cry over Giulia in front of Alberto. He didn't want to come across as an emotional wimp but his emotions were starting to win.

Without thinking, Luca threw himself at Alberto's torso and wrapped his arms around his waist tightly. Luca buried his face in Alberto's chest. Luca knew that what he was doing was crazy and Alberto would probably push him away any second.

The sudden action had made Alberto freeze up. Making his heart almost come to a stop. What was Luca doing? What had he done to deserve this? Alberto felt so confused. Then he started to hear quiet muffled sobs. Luca was crying. His plan had seemed to work for a little bit but it wasn't enough. He carefully and gently wrapped his arms around Luca, causing Luca's sobbing to cease the instant he did in surprise. But his sobbing returned not too soon after.

'If there is some other way to prove that I love you

I swear I don't know how'

The boys continued to hold each other as Alberto then rested his chin atop Luca's head. Alberto knew now that Giulia was someone important to Luca. Alberto didn't want anything attached to him to be the cause of Luca losing someone precious to him. The guilt was just too much. He had to figure out a way to fix this.

"You'll never know if you don't know now

You'll never know if you don't know now..."

The song ended and Luna let out a breath but her blush didn't disappear.

Giulia had snapped out of a daze when the song ended. There was something about the way that Luna had sung that song. It had sounded different from when she had sung the other songs. When she had sung that last one it had sounded so...genuine. Like every word meant something more than just a mere performance. It had made Giulia feel something. Something she was unsure what to name.

"Wow...Luna that was so beautiful." Giulia gushed.

"Heh...Thanks. I'm...glad you liked it." Luna said bashfully.

(A/N) Uh oh. Alberto has a plan. Hope it's not something stupid.

Here's the link to the song that Luna sang. /JZtWNlCTc6obr /

But, yeah, this was kind of my first time doing a song fic-ish chapter. I hope you guys were able to pick up on the Luca and Alberto parts, that had the lyrics to the song, that Luna is supposed to be singing as the parts are happening because both scenes are taking place at the same time. Hope that sentence made sense.

I finally got into talking more detail about the gang's base! It only took my 18 chapters to do it! Wow!

Hope you enjoyed reading the Luberto and Giuna scenes! I'm really excited to write up the next chapter.