I curled up on Aro's lap on his bed, my head resting on his chest. Absent-mindedly, I traced the markings and the small sapphire gemstone on his V-shaped crest.
"Did the others see your bite yet?" I asked him.
"They made no comment about it, but it is likely that they did," he responded.
I rolled my eyes. "Great. Can I ask you something?"
He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "You can always ask me anything, cara mia."
"Can you teach me Italian? Because I've been here for more than half a year now yet I still barely know a word-"
"Of course, I would be delighted to teach you, il mio amore!" he exclaimed with the enthusiasm of a small puppy dog.
I raised an eyebrow. "Really? You're seriously willing to put yourself through the pain and torture of tutoring me? Even after you tried to teach me to swim?"
"Bellissima, teaching you would be an honour," he insisted, clapping his hands together. "No time like the present."
"Wait, we're starting now?" I asked confusedly as he lifted me up from under my arms like a small child and set me down opposite him on the bed.
He tossed a pillow over for me to lean against. "Why wait? I learnt Italian a long time ago, but immortality and the perfect memory that comes with it does make language learning much easier, I promise. Within a few weeks, you should be able to speak almost fluent Italian. We may as well start with the basics, such as simple greetings and such."
"Here we go," I muttered under my breath.
"For instance, if you were to say 'Hello, my name is…', you would say 'Ciao, il mio nome è…'."
"So, I would say ciao, il mio nome è Eliana?" My pronunciation wasn't perfect but the fact that vampires are good at imitating other voices did make things a little easier.
"Precisely, cara mia. I do believe you are aware of what a few of our pet names for you mean, is that correct?" he clarified.
I shrugged. "Some, I guess."
"In that case, cara mia translates to 'my dear', il mio amore is 'my love', bellissima is 'gorgeous', piccola is 'little one', tesoro means 'treasure', and carissima means 'dearest'."
"Oh, I thought I remembered more," I laughed.
He hummed in thought for a moment. "No, those are the only terms we have used. Of course, technically it would make more sense for us to use Greek terms of endearment, but we have spoken Italian for so long now that using it as our go-to language is habit. Now, the days of the week are as follows: lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì, sabato, domenica. You are unable to count in Italian, correct?"
I nodded in confirmation just as he proceeded to quickly count out loud from 1 to 100. The only thing I could really do was sit and listen as he filled my head with shit tons of Italian vocabulary and facts about Italy. For a Greek man, he did have an admirable amount of Italy pride.
About an hour later once he'd finish babbling on about goodness knows what, he pulled a piece of paper and pen from his bedside table and drew a small table with two columns, one for each of us.
"Um…what are you doing?" I questioned.
He drew one final line across and glanced up at me with a grin. "It is time we test you on what you have learnt, no? I will ask you questions and when you answer correctly, you will earn one point, but when you answer incorrectly, I will earn one point. Does that make sense?"
I nodded. "What questions?"
He paused for a moment. "Let us start with an easy question: In what year was Rome originally founded?"
"753 BC?"
"That is correct, il mio amore." He drew a tally in my column. "Translate this sentence: il piatto nazionale d'Italia è la pizza."
"Something about Italy and 'national' and pizza...the national dish of Italy is pizza?"
"Again, that is correct. Caius odia la gioia e la felicità."
"Caius hates...what? Days? I don't know, something about happiness?"
He chuckled at my weak attempt. "Caius hates joy and happiness. Gioia means joy, while giorno means day. I suppose they do sound vaguely similar. In what year did the Roman Empire implode?"
"395 AD. I think," I replied.
"That is again correct. Now, translate this sentence: La data oggi è lunedì il 21 ottobre."
"You're quite a bossy-boots, aren't you?" I giggled. "The date today is Monday the 21st of October," I answered confidently.
He nodded his head and drew yet another line down on the piece of paper. When he glanced back up at me, he had a mischievous smirk on his face but, while it was hot, I knew it wasn't a good sign.
"Translate this sentence: voglio fare l'amore con te ogni giorno."
Something about the husky tone of that sentence and the way he murmured it so deeply gave me the feeling that it wasn't exactly the most appropriate for an innocent Italian quiz. Since I had no idea what he had said, I simply stared at him blankly, and he laughed before adding a tally to his own column.
I crossed my arms with a frown. "Are you going to tell me what it means or not?"
I barely had the chance to finish my sentence before Aro flew at me and pinned me down to the bed with my arms restrained above my head. His obsidian black hair surrounded us like a curtain, his face inches from mine.
"It means, my sweet Eliana, 'I want to make love to you every day'."
His lips collided against mine but I flipped us over so that I was sat on top of him before anything could escalate. He seemed disappointed, like a child being denied candy.
Now it was my turn to glance down at him. "What about learning Italian? You said so yourself, 'no time like the present'. Please? I still haven't had the chance to beat your ass in this quiz yet."
He sighed and I moved off so that he could sit back up again. "If that is what you would rather. But trust me when I say I will not be making things easy for you."
"Bring it, boy," I taunted.
"In what year was Italy no longer considered a kingdom?"
I drew my eyebrows together. "How the hell am I supposed to know that? I don't know, at some point in the 1700s?"
"1946," he corrected with a smug grin, "that is one mark for me."
I grabbed his hand before he had the chance to give himself another tally. "That's not fair, I had to guess, that's cheating!" I protested.
"There was never any rule against asking questions you do not know the answer to," he shrugged.
He moved the pen again to write a tally in on his column, but I quickly wrestled him down to the bed and attempted to pry the pen and paper out of his grip. Laughing mockingly, he extended his arm out, holding the two items so that I couldn't reach.
"No, you don't get a mark for that," I wheezed out as I shuffled over to reach the paper from him.
I managed to grab it and hide it underneath me so that I was lying with my stomach down on the bed, but Aro was now directly on top of me, pressed up against my back as he tried to pry the items out from my grip. Very unfairly, he decided to tickle my sides in an attempt to retrieve the paper which left the perfect opportunity for him while I writhed in laughter underneath him.
I was still disappointed that vampires were ticklish, because I was really betting on my crippling ticklishness to disappear with immortality. It was to the point where I trembled with laughter even when Fernando was simply moving to sit on my lap at home.
He finally moved off me and sat back on his heels, crumpled and torn sheet of paper and pen in hand. I propped my weight up on my elbows and frowned at him.
"That wasn't funny."
He chuckled. "No? I thought it was rather entertaining, piccola, I must admit."
A faint knock sounded from the door, which was odd since guards very rarely had the guts to directly disturb Aro and the other two usually just let themselves in whenever they felt like it.
"Yes?" Aro asked, but I could see his slight annoyance on his face.
The door opened, allowing Marcus and Caius to glide into the room. Caius instantly settled behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist and his nose pressed against the skin on my neck. The brunette sat himself down beside me and pressed a kiss to my temple.
"What did we miss?" Marcus asked. "We heard Eliana's giggles from the other side of the castle."
"That was all his fault, he cheated in our Italian quiz," I pointed to Aro, but of course his face held a shocked—no, mortified expression.
"How could you ever accuse me of such a heinous deed?" Aro gasped.
I ignored him. "He asked me what year Italy was no longer a kingdom, and I had to guess because he hadn't told me before. So, therefore, if you want to get all technical about it or whatever, he earned the mark, but there was no way I could've known."
"I will say this again, cara mia, there is no rule against asking questions you do not know the answer to. It is that simple," he shrugged with a grin since he knew he was winning.
"Then how do I even have a chance? Doesn't that just defeat the point?"
"Maybe, but your attempt at hiding the score sheet from me was very amusing, truly. Yet still, I have not written my mark on-"
"Give it!" I yelled.
I leapt at him as my body crashed into his. After a few struggling reaches, I managed to snatch the paper out of his hand and shuffle back on my ass towards Marcus before he had the chance to grab it again.
Aro edged towards me with a slightly menacing smile. "Do not make this difficult for yourself, bellissima, just be a good girl and hand back the paper."
The way he said 'good girl' made my expression falter a little, which only made his smile more pleased. Despite it, I still held my ground and clutched the now destroyed sheet of paper to my chest.
He shook his head. "Tsk, disappointing."
Suddenly, he lunged at me and pushed me down hard into the mattress between Marcus and Caius. Marcus simply shook his head and managed to pull the sheet of paper away from me with ease.
"Aro, this has been destroyed beyond recognition." He held the torn paper between his thumb and forefinger.
"Exactly," I smiled and took the paper from Marcus before ripping it into tiny shreds.
I blew the shreds of paper in Aro's direction and he looked far from happy about it. To avoid any further battle over it, I shuffled back even further into Caius' lap.
"Il mio amore, do you remember the few occasions when I called you 'il mio piccolo piantagrane'?" Aro asked.
I thought about it for a moment. "It rings a bell, yeah," I nodded.
"Do you know what it translates to?"
Suddenly, the translation hit me. "I am not a troublemaker thank you very much!"
He simply chuckled. "Oh, but you are. Do you have any idea of how peaceful this castle was before you came along and all hell came loose? Trouble follows you, bellissima, hence the title."
I raised an eyebrow. "Fine, if you want your castle back to its normal, boring ass self, I'll just leave-"
It was Caius who tackled me down this time, a snarl escaping his lips. "Over my dead body."
"I don't know, I prefer your body undead, but that's just my preference," I giggled.
His lips crashed roughly against mine as one of his hands came up and tangled itself in my hair. I could feel his other hand beginning to itch its way up my top before Marcus interrupted.
"Brother, I would rather if you didn't monopolize our mate, thank you."
Caius sat me up so that I was on his lap with my back pressed against his chest. His lips sucked on the tender spot on my neck which made me moan softly.
"She is my mate, and I will do with her as I please," he murmured into my neck.
My phone instantly began to ring on Aro's dresser. The familiar, annoying automatic ringtone echoed off the walls to his bedroom and I quickly picked it up, recognizing the caller ID as Alice.
"Hello?"
"Eli, phew, you picked up. Listen, things are about to get messy, okay? I can't tell you right this second, trust me, but just follow your gut instinct. Promise me that? Promise me you'll do that, your life depends on it," she gushed out at once.
"Whoa, pixie, slow down. What's happening?"
"Look," she sighed lightly, "I can't tell you, seriously. I'll call you again soon, just please, for the life of you, remember that, okay? Don't over-think it, get on with your day as usual, but when the time comes, remember what I said. Trust me, I'm doing you a massive favour here El. I love you."
She hung up before I could ask her what the hell she was on about. I slowly turned to my mates with my eyebrows drawn together.
"I wasn't the only one who thought that was weird, right?"
"Certainly unusual behaviour, undoubtedly," Aro agreed, "but this seems like a serious threat she is warning us of. I will ensure security is increased on you and-"
"No, no, we're not doing that," I cut in.
"And why not?" Caius asked.
"Alice told us to get on with our days as usual. Don't add any more security on me, and we'll deal with this as it comes.
"We're just going to have to trust the pixie on this one."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: Dun dun DUN! Wow, things are about to get pretty mental over here, so I hope you lot are prepared for that. Any predictions on what Alice is warning them about? Or what this could mean for Eli?
I almost didn't get this chapter done today, but I'm so glad I did. It's the last fluffy chapter you'll get for a bit, I'm sorry, but it'll be worth it in the end.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!