Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

A/n1: This will be a very fluffy, cuddly, sappy, corny and gushy chapter, because all that angst is making even me feel a bit down. So I tried to make one of those awfully cute chapters! ^^ I-I really hope you'll enjoy it!

A/n2: So, the Americans celebrated their Declaration of Independence yesterday, right? Well, good for all of you! Congratulations, America! I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
But. Buuuut but but but.
Guess what… THING also had something to celebrate yesterday?
COMIC SANS.
YES. YESTERDAY, IT WAS INTERNATIONAL COMIC SANS DAY.
The radio DJ's of the radio station I always listen to even jokingly demanded their listeners to hail and obey the wonderfulness that is Comic Sans MS and EVEN CHANGED THEIR PAGE TO THIS TYPE FONT. OH MERCY ME.
Well anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful day, regardless of what wonderful day you celebrated (or not).^^

~~ And Three Makes Five ~~

Chapter 57:

Two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own way – or always to have it.
Frances Hodgson Burnett
(English playwright and author)

While Lovino was taking a shower, I remade the bed with nice, crisp-clean, just-washed, fresh sheets, I readjusted the pillows – I don't know what that is with me and pillows, I liked fondling around with them whenever I got the chance, I guess, ahahahaha – I put on my own PJ's and I made myself delightfully comfortable. I even put on the TV to check if my favorite soap was on.

Well, what else was I supposed to do? Sit up in bed and stare at the door of the bathroom, telepathically demanding Lovi to hurry up already, yes, come out and just lay here with me, and now tell me what's on your mind, spill the beans already, tell me EVERYTHING. I WANT TO HELP. NOW.

…

That's just plain creepy. Also, I was more likely to scare Lovino off like that than to actually lure him into bed.

…

Oh god – that sounded a lot more suggestive than I wanted it to sound, even in my head. I groaned and rubbed my temples again.

Look, I – I just wanted him to feel safe. That's all. I wanted him to come out of the bathroom, sense the lovely, carefree ambiance and relax himself. No pressure. Just nice niceness – and it was up to him when to tell me what. He should decide what to say, not me. I just happened to be there. Ready to comfort him when he wanted to be comforted.

But, good grief, I wanted to comfort him so badly… I had seen those eyes, that expression, his body silently screaming to be held and consoled, and I had to restrain myself from just grabbing and cuddling him already. He was like a stray cat you just brought in from a stormy night: you'd love to hug it, but it would only backfire on you, since the poor thing would be scared, exhausted and simply at the end of its wits, and therefore, it would attack you. And run away. And… and more bad things.

…

Did I just compare Lovi to a stray cat? Oh god, better not tell him that.

Anyway, so I there I was, sitting, pretending to be watching the soap on the TV while I was really just eagerly waiting for Lovi to get out of the shower already, and at one point – since Lovi actually kept showering for a while longer than I had expected – I even got into the story for real. And yes, exactly, right at the moment Martha was going to confess to Paulo that it wasn't his but his estranged stepfather's child (ohhhhh, didn't see that one coming), the door of the bathroom opened and Lovi shuffled out of the steamy room.

'You bastard,' he started huffily when he saw I was watching television, 'the fuck are you doing, watching TV?'

I looked away from the screen and glimpsed at Lovino and oh, oh, he really was wearing the fluffy PJ's. A fluffy, super-soft pair of black pants – Lovino had told me what the fabric's name was once, but of course I had forgotten it right away – and an equally soft white T-shirt.

I felt my jaw drop, if only just a bit, and I instantly switched the TV off. I had wanted to quasi-nonchalantly but very nicely ask him if he wanted to lay down here with me, but instead, I just sat up, tossed all my carefulness right out of the window, and jumped out of bed. I rushed to his side, threw my arms around his charming frame and pressed it against me, way too excitedly.

'Oh, Lovi, you look so very adorable right now!~ I can't believe you're really, really, really wearing it! So soft! Aww!'

I nuzzled his burning face, ignored his sputtering, half-hearted protests ('N-no, you… d-dammit, Antonio… but yeah, it really is soft, huh?') and kept saying how very happy I was to be here with him, to finally be able to be there for him and to hold him in my arms like this. Finally.

I then got a bit quiet when I realized I was really holding him right now. For real. Thinking about how much he had needed me before and how far away I had been at that particular moment… well, that sure stopped me from cooing and acting like a huge oaf.

I swallowed and hugged him tightly, burying my face in his neck.

'I'm sorry. I couldn't comfort you when you needed me the most. I… please forgive me for that, my love…'

He halted his wiggling and fell quiet. Then, he gripped the front of my nightgown and breathed out gently.

'You couldn't help it.'

'I could.'

'No you couldn't, dammit – what did you want to do, then: run over to Venice and kick Feliciano's ass?'

'No, I just… I don't know.' I sighed and slowly let go of his – so very cuddly – body. 'I just wanted to be able to do something for you.'

'Y-you did!' Lovino stammered, as I caressed his blushing face with the back of my hand, moving it up and down slowly, as adoringly as I could.

I smiled, but shook my head. 'I didn't do enough.'

'You did all you could, you damn wuss! Stop whining about it already!' Lovino pursed his lips and his eyes started to fog up again, although I did spy the hint of a smile breaking through. '…w-what the fuck, why am I comforting you, d-dammit…'

I chuckled softly. 'Well, I have been through a lot. I mean, you may have experienced a horrible trip to Venice and all that, but me – I spend the past few days with hyperactive rodents! Oh, the horror!'

Lovino grinned some more. 'You poor son-of-a-bitch, it's a miracle you're still standing.'

'That's what I thought.'

'Maybe you need to go follow some… some therapy.'

I noticed Lovino was beginning to cry for real now, and I embraced him again, not saying a word. Fooling and joking around all kinds of uncomfortably tense subjects usually helped calming him down, but it looked like Lovi needed more than that to feel at ease.

Well, he at least let me hug him, he at least held on to me and pushed his face in my chest… and he didn't even nag at me when I swiftly picked him up and brought him to bed, informing him about every step I made, just because I wanted him to know. Because I wanted him to feel better. Because I… I… I just did.

'There,' I said, putting him down on the sheets – and a heap of pillows. 'You're on the bed now.'

Lovino's tired, teary eyes stared at me. 'I noticed.'

'…that was a bit weird to say.'

'It was.'

'Um. Sorry.'

'Oh god.' Lovino turned to his side, looked up at me and tried to muffle his giggles. 'You're such a massive dork.'

'Heyyyyy, don't call me a dork,' I snorted with a big smile, watching Lovino move away so that there was room for me to join him. 'I'm trying to help!'

'Oh you're helping alright.' Lovino still chuckled when I laid next to him, also on my side.

I pricked his side teasingly. 'Are you mocking me?'

'You bet your ass I am.'

'Oh, that's not cute at all, Lovi.'

'Shut the fuck up – I'm the cutest asshole of the entire city and you fucking know it.'

'Ah, so you found out?' I smiled and lowered my voice. 'That's nice.'

'Hm-hm.' Lovino kept smiling at me for a little while as well. But then his smile faded and he scooted closer to me, sighing deeply when I wrapped my arms around him again.

'I-I'm not sure I can tell.'

I kissed his forehead. 'I don't mind waiting. Take your time.'

Lovino moaned quietly when I stroke his back. He indeed didn't say anything right away – I bet he was doing his best to control himself – but just when I was beginning to notice one of my arms was starting to get numb, he looked up at me again.

'O-okay. Okay. I found him. I tried to persuade him to come back with me to Germany. You know all that. He refused. You know that as well. I-I did my best to convince him, but he knew I was trying to mess with his mind, and so it backfired. The cheeky bastard went and messed with mine in revenge, and he did a much better job at it, too, because I didn't even know he was fucking around with it until I found myself on the verge or crying one fucking night.'

Lovi's voice sounded strained and squeaky when his verbal waterfall fell right over me, but I didn't comment or ask – I patiently nodded when I needed to nod and hopefully gave him the idea that he was free to tell me whatever he wanted to tell me.

Also, screw my arm – I wasn't going to move it away from Lovino now, not when he was trembling and clutching me so helplessly.

It'd rather let it fall off and rot away than that. Anything was better than that.

/0o0\

Lovino kept talking for a long time.

It all came out, stuttering, stammering, rattling and at one point even gasping, and I noticed it was hard for him, very hard indeed to tell me about Feli and how that paranoid little kidnapper had basically told him he didn't have a North Italian brother anymore. I gripped Lovi even tighter and I felt my respect for Lovino and his determination to keep talking about all of this, all of Feli and his conflicted thoughts, even though it hurt, growing with the passing second.

I also felt I was getting unreasonably angry at Feliciano.

Running off with Mimi and hurting Germany with his selfish, childish behavior was one horrible thing – but hurting Lovino, and hurting him so intensely that he had to cry his eyes out several times and wreck a complete room before he would finally be able to simply talk about his pain, that was pushing it too far. That was pushing it way over to the fucking moon, and you bet I was going to give that Italian creep a piece of my mind when I'd meet up with him again.

And with giving him piece of my mind, I meant I'd beat him up. Hard.

But now was not the time to think about that – that would be selfish. I didn't want to be selfish. I wanted Lovino to finish his story, safe and sound, and then I wanted him to stop talking about it, because hearing it saddened and enraged me.

So I kept listening to Lovino's cracking, unsteady voice, I kept caressing his shaking but soft back and I kept my boiling thoughts to myself. As long as it was needed.

/0o0\

I think it was 2 A.M. in the morning, or at least something like that, when Lovino finally was out of words. His voice had probably dried up from talking so much, from rambling about some parts of his trip to Venice over and over again. I could tell in the faint light of the lamp on the side table next to the bed he still wanted to talk, but just couldn't. Not anymore. It had been too much.

I understood. I even patted Lovino on the shoulder to silently tell him that I understood.

And then we just laid there, all cuddled up, in surprisingly tender quietness.

It was nice, really. I liked moments like these very much. They gave me some rest and peace of mind, even if it was just a bit.

I slowly let out a puff of air and kept on stroking Lovino's hair, even though he wasn't crying or trembling anymore. I just felt like it would be the best if I kept doing that, so I did.

'Antonio,' Lovino at a certain moment suddenly said in a quiet voice.

'Hmm?' I responded, thoughtlessly running my fingers over a particular long strand of hair.

'Will you stop doing that – it feels really awkward when I'm not… eager.'

'Huh? Stop doing what?'

'Molesting my damn curl, y-you pervert.'

I blinked and turned to my side to look at him. Lovino glared at me, although it wasn't real anger I saw in his dulled eyes, and I glanced over to my hand. My fingers indeed were sliding over that… weird, strange curl-thing that a lot of people from Italy seemed to have.

…

I seriously didn't get that haircurl. A long time ago, Lovino reluctantly told me that he got sexually aroused whenever that upright strand of hair was touched or fondled. I have to admit I barely used it whenever I had sex with him, or wanted to arouse him – I always felt that was too easy – but I wondered if he himself ever used it.

…

'So do you masturbate a lot with it?' I heard myself ask, out of the blue, and it was pretty funny to see Lovino's face change color so very fast. His frown also deepened.

'Antonio. I just told you about one of the most horrible experiences I've had in my entire life. I laid down my very soul for you. And now you casually ask me whether I masturbate a lot while using my haircurl or not. Like it's the fucking most normal thing in the world to ask.'

'…sorry.'

'...'

'…'

'…'

'So… do you?'

'…sometimes.'

'Ah, okay then.' I chuckled and wiggled myself closer to him.

Lovino rolled his eyes and sighed – but allowed me to slide my arms around his waist once again.

'Dirty bastard. You should be ashamed.'

I smiled. 'Why? I just wanted to know. That's all.'

'Really, now.'

'I want to know everything about you. No, I-I want to know you. Always.'

I watched Lovino's eyes get bigger and less misty, and I watched his cheeks heating up even more. He didn't smile, though, and neither did he say a word – he just silently wrapped his arms around me as well and harshly pressed the side of his face against mine, rubbing it shyly.

Oh god – I couldn't stand it whenever he got this cute, and I instantly hugged him back, kissing his face and kissing every bit of Lovino that happened to be close to my lips, whispering in-between kisses how much I loved him.

'I-I love you too,' Lovino breathed out gently, looking up at me with a small, delightful smile while holding on to me as firmly as he could. 'T-thanks, Antonio. I feel… I feel a bit better now.'

'Yeah?' I smiled, pressing my forehead against his.

'Yes.' He smiled back, but I saw he gulped as well. 'I just hope I'll see him again.'

'You will, because his crazy theory is going to be busted.' I pointed out and pecked his cheeks some more, my heart making a little hop when I heard him chuckle. Not (only) because I enjoyed all of his smile and laughing noises to the fullest, but because it sounded like a reassured, comforted chuckle.

His mind was at ease, at least for now. That's what it told me. And that made me so very happy that I just couldn't help but kissing him and hugging him and wiggling around with him in my arms over and over again, until we both got too tired to do any of that and eventually stopped – breathing in and out audibly as we looked at each other, our faces red and our eyes locked.

Lovino looked a lot better now. He was still a bit shell-shocked, I believe – his eyes still seemed to have lost a lot of light, I don't know how else I should put it – but his smile was honest and bright, and his face flushed and happy, and his lips—

…

…

H-his lips.

I swallowed and tried to look away from his lips, but it was no use – my eyes got drawn to it constantly.

You see, I… I had kissed every bit of his face, all of it, even the ridiculous parts, but I had consciously skipped his lips. It had felt out of place to kiss him on the mouth when he was in such distress, even when it would be just a chaste peck. It had felt kind of wrong.

…of course, that naturally made me long for his lips even more, so I was shamelessly staring at his slightly plumb lips like they were the best pieces of art I had ever seen, and I was so caught up in it that it took me a while to hear Lovino's amused mutterings.

'What?' I stammered, snapping out of it, and looked at him – for real now.

Lovino snickered and blushed, shook his head as if it didn't matter anymore what he had said, and closed his eyes, slightly pursing his lips.

'A-are you sure,' I hesitated, although my hand already cupped his face and guided it towards mine.

Lovino didn't reply – he waited, and some bastard I would be to keep him waiting for too long. So I shove my doubts to the side and carefully pressed my lips against his. One time, two times, three times… very gently, very tenderly.

But it wasn't before too long I could feel my desire flaming up, like a beast that was suddenly awakened, and if this had been any other situation, I would have roughly plundered his mouth, stripped him from all his fluffy clothes and made love to him in the most passionate way within seconds.

It-it had been a while, after all… and god, how I had longed for him… how I wanted to make him feel good – really good…

And yet, somehow, I managed to control myself. Not because of my amazing holding-back skills (because I don't have such skills), but because of the way Lovino held my face. His hands were cold, even though the rest of his body was warm, and his lips tasted great, though they answered mine carefully.

He needed more time.

I didn't just sense that – he personally told me, right after he had softly pushed my face away.

'I'll let you know, okay?' he smiled, patting my face.

I looked at his loving expression, suddenly felt extremely selfish and perverted, and knew my face turned beet-red at that realization.

'N-no! You don't have to promise me, Lovi, you don't—'

Lovino groaned and pushed his hand against my mouth. 'Look, you wussy asshole – I'm tired. It's late. My head feels like a ticking bomb. Those are the only reasons why I'm saying no now. If it wasn't for all that – I'd fuck you in a heartbeat. Because y-you're being despicably wonderful tonight.'

I nodded – well, that was all I could, really.

'Glad you understand.' Lovino pulled his hand away and rewarded me with a drowsy smile. 'Now… let's get some shut-eye already, okay?'

'Okay,' I agreed and simply closed my eyes.

…

No, I wasn't going to let him out of my arms. No no. No way. No matter how prickly and dead my arm still felt. Nope.

Fortunately, Lovino also wasn't thinking about letting me go, because he didn't even made a snarky comment on me holding on to him way too affectionately. He didn't laugh or tried to move away either – just like me, he just relaxed, closed his eyes (well, I assume he did) and never pulled his warm arms away from me. Even though I knew they had started to get numb on him as well.

Falling asleep like this together was probably the most uncomfortable way to pass out, ever.

But I enjoyed every second of it.

/0o0\

It was still surprisingly quiet in the House when I woke up the next… um… few hours after my and Lovino's intense conversation – I can't say "next morning", I mean, it was already morning when we decided to go to sleep! I… think. Or was it nighttime? Maybe it depends on the person – what to call that gray area between twelve and six o'clock. Yeah, probably…

Anyway, the tomato-shaped alarm next to the bed told me it was already past ten, and yet, I didn't hear yelling, running and/or tumbling kids trashing about.

Huh. I guess the little critters had been very tired as well yesterday. Or maybe they were awake, but didn't feel like acting like toddlers yet. Yeah, maybe they all say in their beds, smoking pipes and reading the newspaper and commenting on politics.

…oh god, now why did I snicker, that wasn't funny at all…

I shook my head, yawned and stretched myself – always nice to stretch yourself in the morning – and then I looked down.

…

Oh, seemed like I was a lot more lively this morning that I thought I was.

'Oh man,' I muttered, sneakily glancing over to Lovino.

Lovino was still passed out, lying on his stomach, his arms spread out like he had just flopped himself down, and his head was turned away from me.

'I should take a shower,' I mumbled to myself. And get rid of that boner – but I didn't say that out loud. That would just be silly.

So I yawned once again and put my feet on the ground. But just when I tried to stand up, I felt a force grabbing my nightgown from behind and roughly pulling me back into the bed. I almost fell over, but I somehow managed to keep myself up, and threw a questioning look over my shoulder.

Lovino stared right back at me, his mouth grumpy, as always, but his face slightly red - also as always. Apparently, he had woken up in the few seconds I hadn't looked at him, and he sat up as well.

'Ah,' I smiled, turning around to face him, 'good morning, my love.'

'Yes. I mean… ugh. I mean… good morning.' He blushed even more, probably frustrated over the fact he had trouble wishing me a good morning. Which was strange, since he nowadays was a lot more open about his thoughts and feelings about me and the like and didn't mind being cute to me at all anymore, unless…

…unless he was up to something, and I had kind of ruined the beginning of that something by… um… saying good morning, I suppose.

…

It had to be. Why else would he glare and growl at me like that?

'Now help me out here,' I slowly said, 'should I say sorry to you now, or should I wait for you to tell me what I did wrong, and then say sorry?'

Lovino seemed shocked and got so terribly red that I was afraid he was accidentally cooking himself.

'N-no, no, you didn't do anything wrong!' he hastily stammered, waving his hands. 'I was just too weak and slow, dammit, and that sucks. B-but you did nothing wrong!'

I blinked my eyes and smiled, pleasantly surprised. Sounded like he was in a good mood!

'What did you want to do, then?' I friendly asked him.

'Um, something like this,' Lovino said, sitting up on his knees, 'You know, when… when I pulled you back into bed, you were supposed to fall on your back, and then I'd say something like "and where do you think you're going with that stiff thing in your… dress-thing", and then you were supposed to get all red and embarrassed and stammer something like "oh Lovi, I thought you were still sleeping, I'm so embarrassed!~" and then I'd be like "oh well you're not the only one with a stiff thing" and then you'd look at me and then you'd look down and notice my morning wood and then you'd be like "holy sweet meringue" and then stuff would happen.'

'That sounds like something I'd say, yes,' I said.

'And right before I'd take you, I'd sensually say "I told you I'd let you know", and it would be very sexy and cool.' He swallowed. 'But all of that kind of went wrong.'

'Yeah, that's too bad,' I agreed. 'I mean, what a great start for some lazy morning sex that would be. Pretty original, too! Shame you ruined it.'

Lovino looked at me, noticed my very intense eyes and chuckled. 'So… so you're up for it, huh?'

I snorted, pretending to be very annoyed. 'Don't ask for information you already know.'

'Alright.'

Before I even knew what was happening, I was grabbed, tossed on the mattress, rolled over and getting jumped – and when things finally started to slow down a bit, I found myself pinned to the bed, straddled by a huffing Lovino, my legs bend upwards in a very suggestive pose.

I blinked and watched Lovino breath in and out kind of rapidly, as if his actions had overwhelmed him himself as well.

'Okay – that… was strong and fast,' I commented. 'Holy sweet meringue, that was strong and fast indeed.'

'Are you done?' Lovino grumbled, letting go of my wrists to pull out my nightgown – but he failed, since I was, you know, laying on it. That made things a bit harder.

'Wait, wait, I'll help…' I chuckled and sat upright a bit more.

Lovino pouted, which gave him a way too adorable face, cuter than he wanted it to look right now, no doubt.

'N-no, don't sit up and do it by yourself, dammit – I'm supposed to strip you!'

'But you'll rip it!'

'I won't!'

'Yes you will – I know how much you hate it.'

'I-I don't hate it… it's just weird. Also, I know you like it, so I'll… I'll be careful.'

I stared at his dark-red cheeks and shyly turned away face, and was so endeared by that sight that I laughed, softly, and told Lovino he could do with it whatever he wanted to do with it.

'Like I said, I-I'll just pull it off, dammit…' he murmured in response, and indeed carefully slid the oversized, long-sleeved shirt – that was all it was, after all – off me. Then my underwear followed, and then he undid himself of his own PJ's, and it was so very nice of him to let me watch his body getting more naked with every fallen piece of clothing like that.

Afterwards, he swiftly pushed me down again, in case I'd start thinking he was going to change into a much more submissive Lovino if I kept sitting up, and lowered himself on top of me.

'I must say I hadn't expected you'd want to have sex already,' I told him as I collected his hot face in my hands. 'Are you sure you want to do it?'

Lovino looked at me and nodded, his expression softening as he gently kissed me.

'I-I love you more,' he muttered against my lips – against my cheek – somewhere in the crook of my neck, 'every time you act so damn sweet and protective and patient and… and you, I can't help but loving you more. Every day.'

…

I…

I-I felt ridiculously touched and smiled at him – and then I quietly gasped when his hands disappeared behind my lower back and grabbed my butt.

'You… you can be louder, if you want to…' Lovino lisped as he kneaded my ass, grinding his erection against my own sensually. 'I…I'd love to hear your voice…'

I bit my lower lip and shook my head. 'No – the kids might hear.'

Lovino paused and looked at the alarm on the nightstand. His face got a bit paler. '…shit, is it really that late already?'

'It's fine – they're still asleep,' I breathed. 'Don't… don't stop now.'

'I-I won't, but…' he let out a heavy sigh, '…since I almost know for sure that the door isn't locked either, I… I think we need to speed it up…'

'That's fine with me,' I tried to console him, but Lovino scowled as he pulled me up a little bit and gently pushed me against the headboard of the bed.

'Dammit,' he mumbled as he used one hand to push one of my legs back and the other one to grab the lubricant off the nightstand, that always proudly and casually stood there, badly hidden behind a lamp, ready to use whenever the hell we wanted to.

'Wh-what's wrong,' I managed to say while Lovino, who had just carefully coated his fingers with the lube, inserted one of the long, wonderful digits inside of me.

Lovino just shook his head and moved his finger around and around, making me moan lowly.

'It's… it's just that I actually had wanted this to be more… y-you know… romantic. And slow and stuff. Because I-I really wanted to do this with you as… as good as possible, dammit…'

I stared at him with a dazed expression, uttering another gasp when he entered another finger. Then I laughed and reached out a slightly unsteady hand, putting it down on the hand that was holding one of my legs back.

'You see that,' I pointed out, stroking his hand.

Lovino looked up, somewhat embarrassed. 'Wh-what, am I doing something wrong? Oh god – I'm not hurting you, am I?'

I flushed and chuckled, as far as I could with a breathless voice and two scissoring fingers in my ass, and simply patted on his hand again.

'Just – ah – just look, sweetie…'

Lovi gulped but obeyed, looking at his hand – without stopping the other one from moving. His hand, although it held back one of my legs rather dominantly, didn't squeeze into my flesh. It didn't mark it – it just kept it back. And the fingers of this hand caressed my knee, leaving loving, feather-light touches all over it with trembling movements.

'Y-yeah…?' Lovino mumbled, slowly starting to get it. 'You… you think that's romantic?'

I nodded and folded my arms around his shoulders, dragging him closer to me. 'It's… it's more than just romantic. It's love, my… my love.'

Lovino's red-hot face stared at me for a couple of seconds, his mouth opening and closing a few times, as if he wanted to say something – something that probably would come out in stutters and coy compliments. But then he changed his mind and instead roughly crashed our lips together.

I instantly answered his asking mouth and poking tongue by moaning and parting my lips, enjoying his delicious dominance to the fullest. Lovino could be very demanding if he wanted to. He liked to give me the lead, but whenever he wanted to lead, he sure as hell made sure that I knew that. And yet, he never got arrogant or aggressive. Even when he was horny as hell and wanted to pound the living daylights out of me – he did it politely. Respectfully. Never losing sight of what wanted or needed.

I…

I-I was amazed at how much I could still learn from him, even though I was supposed to be the one with more experience…

'I love you,' Lovino panted, suddenly pushing a third finger inside of me, and while I uttered a surprised, loud gasp, he moved his face to my neck and nuzzled it, while repeating those words over and over again, like he wanted his words to stick to my sweaty body, one way or another.

His fingers sank in to me over and over again, rhythmically hitting all the good spots with hard thrusts, and I was starting to slowly lose it – I felt I was, it was just too much. It was too good, and I was wheezing all what I felt out loud.

'A-ah, Lovi… hmnnn – oh god, you… you – hng – f-feel so good…'

Lovino didn't say anything to that – he just stayed focused, like he always was, and pulled out his fingers. He didn't give me time to whine about the absence of his absolutely amazing fingers, since he was quick to position himself and swiftly, but precautionary as always, force his way in – all the way in, until I couldn't even feel anymore when his body ended and mine started.

'Gah – a-ahh…'

I was panting hard now, really hard and loud, and it only got worse when he took a strong hold on my hips, moving them away from him and right back at him again.

'H-hold on to me, o-okay,' he whispered as he gripped my ass and snapped his hips forwards, '…and… hnf… k-keep an eye on the door…'

I would have laughed and made a funny comment about that – if he wasn't pounding into me with such a raw, constant force that I was only able to gasp and hiss in delight.

The bed creaked, the headboard was making protesting sounds as well because of the blind lust Lovino pushed into me over and over again, and I had to plant my nails into his back and my opened, saliva-covered lips onto his loud-breathing one to avoid screaming out loud – especially when I simultaneously started to jerk myself off.

When Lovino had kissed me, and kissed me again, and let himself get kissed and kissed again two more times, he closed his eyes tightly, pushed his head into my sweaty chest and uttered a grunt, climaxing deep within me. I followed very soon after him – but not before Lovino had wrapped his hand with mine and gave my erection a few rapid strokes as well.

It was great, and I wish I could vocally let everybody in the whole damn world know that – but I muffled my cries and clasped my mouth while Lovino and I rode out our orgasms. It was spastic, clammy and not sexy at all – but it was nice, it was personal and the burn I felt after Lovino finally pulled out was more than welcome.

I slumped down on the bed, panting quickly, and Lovino let himself literally fall down, on his side, his entire body wet and glistering with sweat and other body fluids.

Neither one of us said anything for a while – we just tried to regain out breaths as we watched each other with burning faces and stupid, crooked smiles.

Yeah.

It.. it had been good.

/0o0\

I still needed to shower.

I needed to remade the bed now, as well.

I needed to get Lovino cleaned up, too, before the kids would storm in and swarm our heads with questions like why on Earth we were chilling on the bed butt-naked, and why we were panting and looking at each other so very weirdly.

But for some reason, I didn't try to get up and drag myself to the shower, or to do any of those other things. I did something else.

I got out of bed, limped to the wardrobe, hauled out a big, soft, white blanket out and pulled it over to the bed.

Lovino – laying on his back on the wrinkled sheets, with his head to the foot of the bed – gave me a confused look when I sat next to him and covered the both of us with the big blanket.

'There,' I finally muttered, laying on my back as well and getting comfortable, 'this takes less time.'

Lovino snickered weakly. 'Lazy asshole.'

'For your information, I am planning to get out of bed,' I said, staring at the ceiling while my hand touched the messy sheets below me in search of his hand. 'Just… not yet.'

'O-okay.' Lovino turned his face and smiled bashfully at me when I found and clasped his hand, his cooled-off face still pinkish. 'Five minutes.'

I nodded. 'That's long enough.'

'Th-thanks, by the way.'

'Hmm?' I looked at him.

'I-I needed that.' Lovino swallowed and curled himself up against me. 'I-I really needed you. And you were there for me – just like I hoped you would be. Thank you. Th-thank you so very much. Just… thank you, Antonio. Thank you so much…'

He wrapped his quivering arms around me and sluggishly pressed his suddenly so very small and vulnerable body against mine.

'L-Lovi…' I stammered, my heart skipping a beat, and I hastily embraced him as well, taking most of the blanket with me when I did so.

'Now you're all fluffy and adorable again,' I whispered, kissing his cheeks and slightly teary eyes.

Lovino nuzzled his face against my chest and mumbled something about 'heart' and 'fall apart' and 'if you keep being so damn sweet'.

And something else.

'What was that,' I whispered once again.

'That was nothing,' Lovi mumbled.

'Say it again.' I kissed his lips. 'Please say it again.'

Lovino's blush got hotter and more embarrassed. 'D-darling.'

'Again – now without the stutter.'

'Darling.'

I kissed him again, overjoyed because of that one little word, and then let out a deep, satisfied sigh.

'I love it when you call me names…'

/0o0\

Five nice, quiet and very silent minutes passed, in which we didn't do anything, except breathing. I knew – I kept a close eye on the alarm, no matter how awkward it was. I just wanted to make sure how long I still had before life would be making his entrance again.

And when the seventh minute started, when Lovi gave me this 'and now we're getting out of this fucking bed and I don't want to hear you whine about it' -glance, when I was quietly thinking about what I should tell the children when they noticed me walking around awkwardly…

…the door bashed open brutally, and Alejo and Matteo came tumbling into the room, screaming and shouting excitedly.

'Papa! Papa Lovi, Papa Toni!' Alejo shrieked. 'GETTOUTTABED!'

'It's life,' I said.

'Yup – it's here again,' Lovino agreed – and the both of us let go of the other, turned around on our stomach and kept the blanket around us as good as we could.

'Alright, twerps,' Lovino started, leaning on a hand, 'the fuck's the matter?'

'Ohhhhhhhh!' Matteo gasped, his hazel eyes growing to huge orbs even without his glasses on, 'Papa Lovi's happy!'

Lovino blinked his eyes confusedly at first, but then smiled at our derpy sons, endeared.

'That's because of you and Alejo, small fry – you make me happy.'

'Yea?' Alejo gaped, amazed.

'Yeah.' Lovino bit his lower lip, as if he tried to keep himself from crying again. 'I-I love you dorks.'

At that, Alejo and Matteo gasped and grinned and fumbled around with shy smiles on their faces, not really knowing what to do with that kind of lovely information.

Luckily, Luisa stormed in right at that moment to effectively demolish the cozy atmosphere and replace it with an entire new emotion.

'Papa's!' she shouted, pushing the still-fidgeting twins out of her way to wave one of my horrid-looking, portable, wireless telephones in front of our eyes, 'it's for YOU! NOW!'

'Hahahahahahahahaha!' I could hear coming from the horn, even from this distance, 'hahahahahahahaHEROhahahahahaha!'

…

…

Okay.