Mamma was furious.

She had been having morning coffee before venturing into the vineyard herself, and the instant she heard the howling wind and the dislodging shingles she'd risen from her seat in the breakfast room, tromped down the stairs, flung open the back door, and scolded both her boys with enough instant fury to justify why Lovino could be so bold when his papà had been as kindly and whiny as Feliciano.

Feliciano, ever the golden boy, regarded his scolding with rivers of surprised tears and enough apologies to set the dark world back on its course. Lovino, ever the irresponsible one, had gotten exactly what he expected — to be called irresponsible and unproductive.

So, like children, their charge of penance was a healthy heap of chores, which started, unsurprisingly, with the pruning.

Lovino wiped the sweat from his forehead and grunted in his throat. He could feel fairy dust sticking the folds of his shirt together. He stretched his wings wide and cringed both at the soreness of his muscles and the sliminess crawling under the fabric. He hadn't even been allowed a bath first. Not that he was complaining. He'd rather be caked in dirt and sweat than trapped inside where he couldn't feel if the plants were healthy.

"Hey, at least we can still spend time together," Feliciano chirped weakly next to him.

The idiot was trying to be as gentle as possible with his shears, in hopes that Lovino wouldn't feel the vines' distress as much. Slow pruning only made it worse, of course, but by now Lovino had shoved his magic deep inside himself in the way he'd learned after his expulsion, and the most he felt from the pruning was a terrible itch under his fingernails.

"I suppose we do," Lovino said. "You could've helped me with this in the first place."

"I didn't want to hurt you."

"You're not hurting me. I can control how much I feel the auras if I really focus."

"No, not that. I meant about earlier. I messed up again. I hate messing up."

"Yeah, sure you do. Because you're always perfect."

The phrase had lingered in empty air for ten seconds before Lovino realized he'd said it aloud. He turned to look at Feliciano, who was looking back at him with the stunned face of betrayal.

"Stop being jealous of me. You don't want to be me. I'm the one who's jealous of you! Do you realize that!?"

Lovino scoffed. "Why? I get that you admire me for being powerful, but why would you be jealous of me? You're the Last Musical Fairy in Allegria—"

"Exactly. The last. Because papà was turned to stone, and then Grandpa Roma passed away. Lovi, my musical gift may be rare and powerful, but there's no one to teach me how to use it or even control it. I keep making mistakes. You don't make mistakes."

"I got expelled for making a mistake."

"It was a beautiful mistake, though. You turned the whole school into a hill of flowers."

"See, that's how irrational you're being right now. The day I was expelled, you scolded me so badly you had to sing to me so I felt better. I made a huge mistake that day, and it may have been an accident and completely unfair, but I did it. And your power was enough to get me off the ground and working again. You… you taught me to fly again. Just not literally. That's a lot more dangerous."

Feliciano pulled him over in a one-armed hug and nuzzled his button nose against Lovino's shoulder.

"You're the best brother," he said.

"We're both stupid-powerful idiots. When I feel your magic, I… I compare it to my own in more ways than one. Let's just say that."

"You're smiling."

"Why aren't you?"

Feliciano grinned. "You know, tomorrow we're going to practice again. No magic wind this time. We can fly to the coast if we want to evade some obstacles."

Lovino's wings perked up and fluttered. "I don't know. I thought I evaded plenty this morning, even with you clamped onto me."

Feliciano fluttered quicker. He popped up onto the balls of his feet, then gave his toes a light tap and rose a few feet in the air. Just as quickly, he wobbled and flailed his arms a bit before steadying himself on the ground.

"I'm a little sore. Should heal by this evening."

Lovino crossed his arms, then leaned into the embrace of his vines as they twisted themselves into a backrest. He cocked his head and gave the most evil smirk at that symbiotic poison to his roots.

"Looks like someone's not flitter trained."

"Oh, Lovi! Please don't call it flitter training!"

~N~

Fine! Thank you for reading and reviewing and voting! A new SCC ep is out tomorrow!

Published by Syntax-N FanFiction . Net 19 March 2020. Reposters cursed.