((Welp! Third chapter already! ))
In the morning Lovino woke up before Antonio, looking a bit shocked as he saw his pants laying on the floor. "g-goddammit...why do I always do this..." he spoke quietly and pulled his pants up quickly. "Ugh my head..." He moved away from Antonio, holding his head in his hands. Maybe there was some asprin laying around..?
Antonio woke up at the loss of warmth. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Morning.." The Spaniard smiled. Yet seeing the Italian holding his head he frowned. "Aye... Hangover?" Lovino turned his eyes on Antonio. "S-si...goddammit why did you let me drink...?" he looked a bit embarrassed at this point. "Lo siento. You just seemed.. less stressed. Maybe I should've made you drink some water before going to sleep." Antonio said softly. Lovino just groaned. "...I guess I took my pants off and asked about my legs...?" he murmured. "My ex said a lot about my fucking legs..."
Antonio blushed slightly at the pants question. "Y-Yeah you did. You said people called you.. 'slendytrousers' or something." He suddenly began laughing. "And you called yourself Elsa." Lovino felt stupid as he heard what Antonio said about the night before. "...G-god fucking dammit..." he cursed once again and blushed. "slendytrousers...Si...It was because my legs are fucking slender and I used to wear a lot of black trousers..."
"Well, your legs are slender, but.. That's not bad." Antonio shrugged. "I mean, it's not like your legs are ugly." He blushed slightly once those words left his mouth.
Lovino actually felt quite happy to hear that about his legs. "...Really...?" he stared down at his legs and huffed. "It's just so hard to believe but...t...thanks.." he sighed. "...What about your girlfriend or parents or something...? Are they nice?"
Antonio flinched slightly at the subject of parents. Well.. Parents? His mom was nice on rare occasions, but his father.. No, that monster.. No. They were not nice. "I... I don't know whether they are dead or alive. And frankly, I don't care. A girlfriend I never had, it would only make my life more complicated and hellish then it already was." He subconsciously pulled at his sleeves to cover his wrists and arms better, or rather hide his scars better.
Lovino just huffed as this guy denied about knowing anything about his parents. "Well...I guess we both hated our parents then." He shrugged a little bit and then glares at his arms. "Why...did you even want to save me...I'm just making you slower..." he sat down closer to Antonio, looking down. Antonio shrugged. "I... I don't know. I guess I just wanted someone to talk to. Someone who could help me in this hellhole of a world."
Lovino gave Antonio a small nod slowly, "...Ugh.. I guess I could have just tried more, but...Si..t-thanks..." He bit his lip slightly as he stood up and walked to the window to look outside. Outside looked like shit. Welp, that's the zombie apocalypse for ya.
Lovino shut the "curtain" with a loud huff and walked back to Antonio. "I'm.. leaving tomorrow...I just...I'm not used to be with anyone and. .I.. I'd just in your way..."
"You're not in my way Lovino. Neither are you slowing me down or whatever. Stop saying that." Antonio said a bit sternly. Lovino bit his lip a little bit and hissed. "b-but.." he glared down with a small nervous growl. "...What I mean is that I want to die alone and not think that I have friends who will grief about me or shit. There's nothing good I can do. I will die sooner or later dammit, even if you're here.." he whispered quietly as his fingers poked together. "...It makes me feel fucking weird whenever I'm with a male person.. I already told you that I had a boyfriend, right..?!" Suddenly Antonio stood up, grabbing Lovino by the shoulder, glaring angrily at him.
"Lovino Vargas." The Spaniard snapped, making the poor Italian jump. "STOP putting yourself down like that! I don't know what your parents or your bastard of an ex-boyfriend said, but they are wrong. You're NOT useless. So stop f*cking saying you are, okay?!" He was silent for a few seconds. "As for the male thing.. I'm sorry if I make you feel weird. I never meant to do that." His voice was a lot gentler now.
As Antonio snapped at him, Lovino let out a small yelp, then started listening to him. "...I'm always being pessimistic about my life...Better get used to it..." he muttered eventually. He crossed his arms and sat down to bite his lip. "...Antonio...I'm...s-sorry..."
"It's okay Lovino. I understand from experience that being positive is hard when there has been nothing but negativity around you for years. But I can help you with that." He suddenly let out a snort. "Tsk. Look at me, talking like I'm some sort of therapist."
"...You could be...So what you're saying is.. just let go of your past and fall in love with someone..." he blushed lightly at this, then he cursed lightly. "...I mean ugh...just...d-don't let your past come in your way... That's what you mean, right? You should do that."
"Look who's talking~"
"...s-shut up...I'm not this nice to everyone..." Lovino whispered while staring down at the floor. "...We should think when we should leave." He kept his eyes downcast. "Well, let's pack what we need. We can leave after we had some breakfast." Lovino gave Antonio a small nod and began looking for some food around the place which hadn't gone bad, then began eating some canned food.
Antonio found some canned fruit and put it in a larger backpack he found. He also emptied the bullet bag into his large backpack. His shotgun was cleaned and he sharpened his knife on a brick. Once Lovino collected some unused clothes as well and put them in his backpack, he motioned Antonio that it was time to leave. Antonio nodded. "Alright."
Lovino took as quiet steps as he could manage while heading out the door, soon startling. "...U-uh.. maybe you should keep walking in front of me...okay...? Y-You're better a-at shooting I b-believe.." he rubbed the back of his head while holding his gun. "..." Yes, he actually admitted it, even though he hated to admit he was weaker.
Antonio gave a soft chuckle. "Okay." He began walking in front of Lovino. Lovino walked behind this Spaniard while giving out a small sigh. He let out a loud groan as he felt his face slamming into the other's back. "Ugh!" he cursed quietly. "Why the fuck did you stop dammit...?"
"Hush..!" Antonio whispered. He slowly pointed at a tall male walker further away, who was walking around, stopping them from walking any further without being spotted. A few other zombies, maybe 4 or 5, were eating away at a dead person, who was laying on the ground. If they shot at the tall walker, the others would hear it and attack.
Lovino stopped speaking once Antonio ordered him to be quiet, "...holy fuck", he cursed quietly until letting out a small gulp. He took a couple steps backwards, managing to kick a can pretty loud. Aaaaaand of course all of the zombies turned their heads towards the crates they were standing behind.
Antonio paled when Lovino accidently kicked a can and all the zombies looked at them. "Mierda.." He cursed. The tallest walker growled, running towards them. Antonio quickly shot him, but there were 4 other walkers that were advancing on them. "LOVINO RUN!" Antonio called, aiming his shotgun at the other walkers. Suddenly the most slender looking one of the walkers managed to knock the gun out of the Spaniard's arms, jumping on top of him. He tried to shove the zombie off, but the walker pinned his wrists down onto the pavement. Antonio paled even more looking at the freckled face of his certain death. The walker must've once been a young male, a college student maybe. His choppy strawberry-blonde hair was tangled, his baby-blue eyes glaring at him from under huge eyebrows. Antonio could faintly make out a name tag on the walker's shirt. "Oliver Kirkland" it said.
As Lovino ran as fast as he could, he could hear Antonio being tackled onto the ground with loud thud. It made him look back or course. "...Antonio!" Lovino screamed his name as he loaded the gun and came back. "HEY! I'm here too asshole!" he yelled at the zombie, loud and clear, making it look at him. Once it had moved its head a bit away from Antonio's, Lovino put his gun fast to its head and shot this male's brains out. "G-get up dammit!" he yelled at the Spaniard, trying to load his gun in shock, his hands trembling once seeing the other walkers were still approaching them.
Antonio quickly got up, his eyes wide. He quickly got his shotgun and made a run for it together with Lovino. Lovino was panting hard as he tried his best to keep his legs moving. "...Why can't they just fucking stop!" he groaned and then screamed as one of the zombies caught his leg. "Ghah!" he tried his best to kick it away, the other zombies approaching him couple meters close while others approached Antonio, trying to take a grip from his wrists.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Antonio shot the zombie in the neck, making it flail backwards, away from Lovino. "G-Grazie." Lovino muttered, before they both ran again. Once Lovino and Antonio managed to kill all of those zombies, the two kept running. "...Do we really have to continue running..?" Lovino asked while panting heavily.
"Si. Other walkers might've heard the gunshots, so they will come towards that." Antonio's clothing was covered with blood, mostly from the walkers they killed. Lovino was no different. Lovino's voice hitched as he continued on running. It took some hours to get out of the town, then it began looking more like long asphalt roads and after couple hours more, they were in the countryside.
"...ugh...Antonio...I can't walk anymore.." The Italian sat down onto his knees, panting. Antonio glanced at Lovino and looked around him for a place where they might be able to rest. Seeing an abandoned shack in the distance, he smiled. "Hey, we can stay there. Come on, it's just a bit longer." Seeing Lovino really couldn't walk another inch, Antonio put his backpack on the wrong way, so the bag part was on his stomach, and hauled Lovino on his back, giving him a piggyback ride. He began walking towards the shack, Lovino holding on tightly to refrain from falling off the Spaniard's back.
As Antonio pointed out towards this certain shack, Lovino gave it just a quiet stare until turning his eyes on the ground. "..." His legs trembled from walking and running. It didn't take long for Antonio to start giving him a piggyback ride, which made Lovino quite nervous. "...G-goddammit...I...I could have walked by myself..."
"No. You couldn't had walked by yourself. I saw that your legs hurt, so.. Just be thankful that I'm nice enough to give you a piggyback ride." They got to the shack, and Antonio put Lovino down. Carefully, in case of zombies, Antonio went inside, gun at the ready. After a few minutes, Lovino could hear Antonio call; "All clear Lovino." Lovino just rolled his eyes and walked slowly into the shack. "...It's going to be cold again tonight... I wish I could take a fucking bath.." he murmured.
"That would be nice, yeah. Ugh.. I look like I went rolling in rotten meat." Antonio groaned, looking at his clothing. Lovino took his shirt off and threw it away. "Here...I took some shirts from that store because they're light...just wash that dirty one." he mumbled while throwing Antonio a big shirt.
"Thanks." Antonio said, catching the shirt. He put his stuff down on the floor, walking over to a corner to change in peace. Yet suddenly the floor cracked underneath him, making him drop down into the basement. He yelped slightly, then suddenly there was a loud crash and he was quiet. Something else was shuffling around in the basement. A very skinny looking walker, who slowly waddled towards the now unconscious Spaniard. It sniffed, growling softly, just inches away from Antonio. Then it just turned around and waddled off back into the darkness of the basement.
As Lovino changed to his shirt, he tried to keep his chest away from this Spaniard. "...Maybe we should-" Suddenly he heard the loud crash, looking around for a moment until he noticed Antonio laying in the basement, not noticing the zombie, which was already walking away. "H-hey! Antonio!" Lovino looked around and took some rope to tie it to something stern and then began to slide it down. "...Hey...Antonio...Wake up!" He slapped Antonio's cheek a couple times, though not too hard.
Growl..
The walker turned around again, sniffing the air. It got really close to Lovino, sniffing, breathing on his neck. But suddenly it turned around again. The smell of walker blood had masked their living scent, so the zombie thought Lovino and Antonio were kin. Lovino just had to stay quiet.
Antonio's head was bleeding slightly, the Spaniard breathing softly. The stairs to upstairs weren't that far.
Lovino stared in shock, frozen, listening to the zombie as it began getting closer to him, breathing down his neck. Once he thought it was his time to go, the zombie just turned around and began walking away. "..." Lovino trembled and in the end he began to act. He pulled Antonio towards the stairs as fast as he could, but quietly. It made him really worried as Antonio had gotten a pretty heavy wound.
He finally managed to pull Antonio up the stairs, without the zombie noticing. When they got upstairs, Antonio groaned slightly, not waking up yet. Lovino placed this Spaniard onto some old bed, of course checking if it was okay to sleep on first, before starting to treat his wound with some med kit. "...Fucking asshole, try to keep your eyes open to see where you walk.." he hissed, even though Antonio might not hear him. The Spaniard stayed unconscious. Once Lovino was done treating his wound, Antonio went from being unconscious to just softly sleeping.
Lovino stayed next to Antonio the whole time. He had given him his own blanket too as the Spaniard's temperature had gotten so low all of a sudden. "...hey, don't die now dammit.." he whispered, biting his lip. Though he hated to admit it, Antonio was actually the first person in a long time that he could feel.. safe around. Okay, maybe his brother had been a nice person to be around too, but… Feliciano had always gotten more love and praise then Lovino.
The Italian huffed at the memory of his brother. They hadn't really parted at the best of terms. He had been yelling pretty loudly, mostly because perfect little Feli had tried to cheer him up. Lovino had been so frustrated, that he had hit his brother. Feliciano, scared out of his mind, had ran away. That was the last time he had seen him. How long had it been now? A month? Yeah.. A week after Feliciano had ran, this zombie apocalypse started.
Lovino sighed, laying his head on the pillow next to Antonio's head. He wondered if Feli was okay. Was he dead? Bitten? A walker? Or maybe he was with that stupid potato bastard he had told Lovino about once. Lutz? Lars? He didn't even bother to remember anything about that stupid wurst eater. Lovino closed his eyes, still holding on to Antonio's hand. T-To know if he still had a pulse d-damn it! Not because he wanted comfort. Whatever gave you that idea? Lovino just sighed, dozing off.
After maybe half an hour, the Spaniard shot up in bed, panting heavily. He was shivering, hugging his knees like he was terrified. His eyes were wide, staring off into space as he softly, but frightened, spoke Spanish words and curses under his breath. On closer inspection, one would see tears streaming over the Spaniard's face.
When Antonio shot up, Lovino startled awake. "...Hey, hey! Keep quiet or the zombies might hear you downstairs..." he hissed at him and took hold of Antonio's shoulder. "W-What's wrong damn it?" he frowned as he saw the tears.
Antonio's breath hitched in fear as Lovino grabbed his shoulder, and he tried to pull himself loose. "Let go of me!" He shoved Lovino away, staring at him with bloodshot eyes filled with fear. It was like he didn't recognize him. Or maybe he was still delusional from his obvious nightmare.
Lovino let out a small yelp once Antonio pushed him away pretty hard. He landed onto his butt and groaned. "...Antonio!" He frowned and bit his lip as he nearly attacked to hug him. "I'm really fucking here so stop pushing me." he tried to act calm and comforting while rubbing Toni's back to calm him down. Heh, this was different. Most of the time people comforted him after a nightmare. Oh wait. No they didn't.
Antonio tried to move away from the hug, but Lovino had a strong grip on him, making it unable for him to fight back. He just made himself go limp, sobbing quietly in Lovino's shoulder. "Por favore..." He sobbed quietly. "Por favore.. Lo siento..."
Lovino frowned slightly. What was he apologizing for? Pushing him? Lovino let out a small sigh. "...Shut up asshole and try to sleep or something..." he tried to push him down to go back to sleep. "I have to go get some wood outside 'cause there's barely anything to burn in here.." He pointed at Antonio. "Stay." he said sternly while walking outside fast with a gun in his hand.
As Lovino walked outside he took small glares around the place, noticing a small gather place where you could store logs. "...Bingo..." he began gathering a lot of them so the place would keep warm longer.
As Lovino pushed him back on the bed, Antonio laid back down, still shivering in fear. He just stared as Lovino walked out. While the boy was out, the Spaniard calmed down a bit, blinking. Knowing he pushed Lovino, he cursed slightly under his breath. "Damn it.." He clenched his fists around his lower arms, flinching as his old bruises began hurting. Truth be told, he didn't mean to hurt the Italian. He was just having a nightmare about his parents. No, not about his parents. Those monsters who hit him, abused him, made his life a living hell.. Those people weren't worth it to be called his parents.
"Stupid nightmare.."
Once Lovino had filled some kind of old sack with a lot of logs, he began pulling them towards the shack in which they were hiding. It took some minutes from Lovino but soon he was there with Antonio. "I'm back..." he murmured. Somehow Lovino crafted a nice fireplace and put the logs on it. He opened the window just a bit and taped most of the small hole closed because he didn't want the cold air to come inside too much.
Antonio was just lying on the bed, giving Lovino only a hum in response to him saying he was back. He felt a bit guilty for hurting the Italian. Although Toni hated to admit it, he still had PTSD. And that in combination with the damn apocalypse, made him have nightmares, like the one from earlier, on a regular base. Feeling warmth fill the shack, he smiled slightly, before dropping the smile again.
Once it began getting warmer, Lovino sat a bit farther from the fire. "...I didn't get hurt so don't apologize...a lot worse is going on outside at the moment..." Lovino said as he stared into the fire. "...I've fallen on my butt more than anyone in the end..." he chuckled lightly.
"Well, I'm still gonna say it. I'm sorry. I wasn't.. really myself." Antonio muttered. He felt at his head, feeling the bandages. Antonio quickly understood what happened when he had dropped through the floor. "Ow.." He groaned as a headache hit him like a truck. Lovino stepped next to Antonio as soon as his head began hurting. "Here... take this fucking painkiller.. I couldn't give it to you earlier.." He looked down with a small frown as he handed him a pill from the med kit. "...Just stop thinking about the past dammit...y-you still have me here" he grumbled nervously.
"Tsk. Easier said than done." Antonio mumbled, taking the painkiller. "Thank you by the way.. For saving my ass with those walkers.. And for helping me out of the basement.." He closed his eyes for a second, waiting for the medication to start working.
Lovino waved the thanks away. "Don't mention it. Oh, before I forget…" he pointed down. "Just to let you know.. there's zombies or at least a zombie down there...It just didn't do anything to me...it just smelled me and left...I guess I smell too dead...ish.." He rolled his eyes. "...I'm going to sleep for a moment, can you watch the fire?" He laid in front of the fire, using his jacket as a pillow while rolling into a ball on his side to keep warm.
"S-Sure." Antonio had paled a bit hearing there was a zombie right under him. But it made him think too. The zombie didn't do anything to them because they smelled.. Well, they smelled dead. That was a vital fact. They could use it to survive going through large hordes if needed. Antonio just watched the fire, the painkiller already doing its job at helping with his headache. Lovino stared at the fire for a moment until he shut his eyes slowly, but not before looking at Antonio for a moment. "...They won't get here. I blocked the way dammit.." he whispered and then tried to fall asleep.
As Lovino slept, he felt damn cold again. He tried to get a bit closer to the fire, clacking his teeth together a bit. Winter was coming and it wasn't nice at all. Antonio gave a soft smile seeing Lovino shaking and shivering. He stood up from the bed, waiting for a moment as the movement made him dizzy. Once the world stopped spinning, Antonio went and grabbed a blanket from his backpack. Carefully, not to wake the grumpy male, he laid the blanket over him. Then he went back to the bed like he hadn't moved at all, staring at the fire.
Lovino felt a bit better once Antonio had placed the blanket over his body. His body seemed to get a bit more warm and comfy even though the floor was quite hard. "...nhm.." he tried to get the jacket better under his head in his sleep. "...Shut up..." he groaned in his sleep and then sighed.
"I will." Antonio said in a soft voice, a faint smile on his face. He knew sleep-talkers could say weird things, and agreeing with what they say was better than laughing. Lovino wouldn't remember it anyway. Antonio sighed softly, a shiver going down his spine as he heard the walker downstairs knock into something. He decided to stay awake until Lovino woke up, but his eyelids had other plans. Soon enough, his eyes closed, and he fell asleep.
After few hours Lovino finally opened his eyes, giving a small stare to the fire which wasn't there. Lovino let out a small sneeze as his blanket had fallen off of him. "...What the..." he turned to look at Antonio. Oh fucking hell.. The bastard fell asleep. "Antonio, god fucking dammit!" He let out an annoyed groan as he got up and took one log from the sack, suddenly managing to drop the whole sack as the floor gave out. Luckily Lovino managed to jump out of danger's way. Maybe he put the sack too close to the old hole. "...F-fucking hell.." As Lovino looked down, he didn't see anyone, which made him immediately move towards the basement to get the logs. As soon as he got down, he began collecting the logs.
Antonio snapped awake, rubbing his eyes. Seeing he let the fire die out, he cursed at himself for being such an idiot. He looked around, his heartbeat increasing seeing Lovino nowhere. "Lovino?" He called, a bit worried. Lovino looked up hearing Antonio yelling at him. "Be quiet asshole.." he grumbled up at him, hoping that he heard him. "I'm just collecting the logs which I dropped." he murmured quietly, pushing one log after another into the sack. "...Ugh, it's getting heavy.."
"O-Okay.." Antonio said, less loudly this time. The walker in the basement looked at Lovino, almost curious. Its darkened eyes glanced at Lovino from the darkness. The scent was confusing it, was the man alive or dead? He was surely talkative for a dead man if he was a walker. The zombie tilted its head, wheezing very softly. It hadn't eaten in days, it needed food. The walker had already turned into a skeleton with skin thanks to the lack of food. It wanted food so badly... Taking a bite out of a brother wouldn't be that bad, now would it?
Lovino stared around the basement, trying to make sure that the zombie wasn't close. Not seeing the walker he sighed in relief. "...I guess it's still eating something or thinking that I'm something else..." He murmured under his breath as he began pulling the logs towards the door, "...why does these feel just fucking heavier.. I guess I took more than I should have.." Lovino cursed under his breath.
The zombie came closer and reached a skinny hand towards Lovino. It was so hungry.. One little bite out of a brother.. He had enough meat for himself, and walkers don't need all of their flesh to survive. Except for the brain, that was important. His brother wouldn't mind, right? The walker shook a bit of auburn brown hair out of his face, his dead honey eyes staring at the Italian. There was a feeling in the walker's chest. Happiness? Relief? He wanted to say a word, one which was stuck in his throat for days..
"Fra...tel..lo.."
