Lovino barely got a wink of sleep that night. He spent a few hours tossing and turning before eventually giving up hope of getting a decent sleep. He instead decided to work on the group project for a while, since it woke save him from having to do some of the work during the rest of the weekend. It wasn't much, just dot point planning of things they could say in the speech and the beginnings of a PowerPoint. Still, the work made an extra two hours go by quickly, but that was nothing really. It was only three thirty, which left plenty of time before anyone expected him to be awake since he slept in until about ten on the weekends.

The Italian made up his mind of what he was going to do next. He had nothing better to do, and it had been so long since he'd gone flying...

As quietly as he could so as not to wake up his brother, he changed into a short sleeved white shirt with slits in the back for his wings, and black shorts. Carefully, he opened his window, allowing the warm fall air to flood the room. It wasn't too hot nor too cold, just the perfect temperature to go flying in. He was so used to wearing sweaters that the feeling of a slight breeze on his bare skin was strange, but comforting.

He hummed softly, stretching his wings and contemplating where it was he would fly to. Once his decision was made, he took a deep breath before jumping out of his window and beginning to glide through the air, only occasionally flapping his wings to keep himself airborne. It was peaceful at that time of night, the full moon illuminating his surroundings in a silvery glow. The breeze felt a little stronger when he was flying, but by no means was he cold or having trouble flying.

It was exhilarating, it just felt so natural to be flying, it was a feeling he hadn't realised that he'd missed. He first flew over some houses in the neighbourhood, flying high enough that he wouldn't hit anyone's roof, but low enough that he could land easily if he needed to. After doing this for a while, he turned in the direction of the forest beside their town. This was where was planning to fly around, it was more serene had a fresh scent. It was much more preferable than flying over the town, anyway. He flew for about half an hour, before landing in a clearing beside a stream and lying on the grass. He stared up at the sky, tears beginning to trail down his face as he gently began to laugh.

"How is it that something that's given me so much hardship can bring me so much joy," he whispered, his voice barely audible. He didn't know why he spoke aloud if nobody was there, but he couldn't help but voice his thoughts.

His wings had caused him so much pain, and yet, whenever he went flying he couldn't help but be so happy. At the same time, the sadness that he'd been wallowing in for most of the previous day had yet to go away.

He stayed for twenty minutes before standing up and beginning to fly back. He'd started feeling the effects of a lack of sleep more now that the adrenaline of flying had worn off, but he knew he needed to get back in time. There were a few cars on the road by the time he got back to where the town was, cars of people heading off to their early morning jobs, but that didn't matter too much since they wouldn't be able to get a good look at him anyways.

He flew back quicker than on the way there, and was back in twenty five minutes, slipping in his window and closing it, his eyes glancing to his alarm clock that read 4:45am. He sighed and flopped back on his bed, closing his eyes.

—

Knock. Knock.

"Lovi! Wake up, you have to get ready for school. If you don't get ready you'll be late," Feliciano called out, not trying to open the door unless Lovino said he could since he knew his brother hated it when he did so.

The older Italian groaned and reluctantly slipped out of bed. "Yeah, I'm up, go have fun with the potato bastard," he told him. Over the weekend he had basically shut himself into his bedroom and not left apart from going and getting something to eat. He ignored all of the calls and texts that he got, too.

He knew it was stupid to be upset about something so small and stupid, but he couldn't help it. He'd never felt this way before, and it was all so confusing, especially when he ended up messing up a lot.

Lovino sighed and got out of bed, his freshly preened wings slightly ruffled. He'd gone on a couple more early morning flights, and he actually liked not having to hide his wings all the time. But out in the open, anything could happen, there were many people that weren't accepting and the majority of people knew what the bisexual flag looked like nowadays. He sighed and folded up his wings, putting on his oversized sweater over the top before finishing getting dressed and heading downstairs.

It wasn't long before he was ready for school and left the house, and thankfully it was a colder day. Fall was strange in that one day it could be hot and the next freezing cold. The temperature changes were frustrating, but the cold was better than hot weather by far.

He walked alone that day, he guessed that Matthew and Gilbert had flown together to school, since he hadn't responded to any of their texts and calls, some of which were asking if he wanted to join them. He just wanted to be alone, even if wallowing in his room did him no good.

Surprisingly, it was a different group of people than usual that talked to him that day, Ivan and Arthur. Initially he just nodded in response to their waving, but when he saw they were coming over he sighed and said a quiet 'ciao'. They responded as well, and soon began a friendly conversation with him, with Lovino giving half-assed responses. Still, it wasn't horrible conversation, and he found that the two were actually quite nice. He'd gotten that impression from talking to them the previous week, but the fact that they even bothered to say hello made him feel just a little bit happy.

When the bell went he waved to them and got his stuff out of his locker, saying he'd see them in English class. He then headed to his dreaded first period, in which he knew he would be sitting beside Gilbert. He arrived on time, heading to his seat, and noticed that Gilbert was not sitting there like he usually was. The albino was sitting in the back corner with a kid with spiky blonde hair, and Matthew's brother Alfred.

There had been rumours that they would get new students, a group all from the Nordics, and this kid must be one of them. The three of them were laughing boisterously, clearly having fun, and Lovino couldn't help but feel his heart clench seeing that. When was the last time he'd ever made Gilbert laugh like that? And he called himself Gilbert's best friend? Hah. As if. He sighed and began writing down the notes the teacher had put on the board, missing the longing, sad looks that Gilbert was sending his way.

The class seemed to drag on forever, and when finally it was over something worse was yet to come. English. The dreaded table with Francis, Antonio and Laura. Sure, the girl from Belgium was nice, but he saw the way she looked at Antonio. He knew that she liked her, and now that he knew Antonio was straight he wouldn't be surprised if they started going out. They were perfect for each other.

His personality was bright and bubbly, so was hers. They were both kind, both had an interest in music, and always seemed to have endless topics of conversation. If ever one of them was having a bad day, the other seemed to know almost instantly, and knew just what to do. It had barely been a month since school started and the chemistry between them was already clear. And what was worse, it made him hurt more to know that, to know that Antonio would never want him.

He guessed he deserved the hurt though, in a way.

And so that was why he sat down at his normal table, instead of asking to move to the table that Arthur, Ivan and Matthew were sitting at. He ignored Francis, like usual. He said a polite 'hi' to Laura, because she was genuinely nice and he couldn't help but be kinder to her. And to Antonio, he only said a quiet 'bastard' as a greeting.

Even though everything was anything but normal, he put up the act that it was. He did everything like he usually did, and though he thought he was fooling them he wasn't. Both Antonio and Francis had heard from Gilbert that something had happened to make him upset, and they could see the subtle signs that Lovino was hiding things. He seemed too happy, his voice was just a bit too quiet, his chuckle a bit too bitter. Even Matthew, from across the room, could see that something was still wrong with his friend. And when it was time to split up into groups to work on their project, and Lovino was showing them his ideas, it was clear that he was more tired than they'd initially thought.

It was particularly worrying when these signs continued on not just for that day, but for most of the week. He would avoid Gilbert and Matthew, pretend like everything was fine with Antonio and Francis, and would only truly speak to Ivan and Arthur, mostly since Arthur had already figured out what was going on. He seemed to get increasingly more tired each day, and by Thursday things had gone on long enough.

Gilbert and Matthew were done with waiting for Lovino to tell them what was wrong.

—

(A/N)

So this chapter was short and kinda crappy and I'm not happy with it but I haven't posted in a while so I hope you enjoy it