...Yo. ovo
Sorry I've been gone for like everr. I started writing this chapter in February I think, but then my computer crashed and I lost everything. So I ragequit and didn't come back to it till now. May. xD
I feel like I like this beginning better though. And anyway, this story is finished! I can go on with other pairings, but this Spamano story is all done with this chapter. Thank you for reading through this three-shot! This chapter is where all the action goes down. ~v~
This chapter's only a couple hundred words longer than the last two, but I feel like it took twice as long to write. So please enjoy it. TAT
And review, por favor! Thank you and have fun with your Spamano lalalalalaa~
Warning: Vulgar language in multiple languages in this chapter. .v.
It was true that the blizzard ceased its raging, but the cold air did not cease its biting at Lovino's skin. While no longer strong enough to throw debris, the winds were still harsh, and lashed at the poor Italian cruelly, as if taunting him for only being clad in some thin pajamas and a single blanket. His feet sank into the snow frigidly, soaking in the numbing ice.
He hoped that he would reach his home soon, lest he get frostbite…
All he could think about was his brother's warm, stupid smile and equally as warm household. He hoped he would be alright, in such a scary snowstorm… he probably lost power as well…
He could just imagine Feli's fright, his shivering under blankets alone in a pitch-black room with no one to hold him and make him realize that everything was alright…
Feliciano's terrified beliefs that everything was NOT alright, and the endless stream of worries flooding his mind… Lovino needed to vanquish these thoughts. He needed to be there for his brother.
...But no, maybe 'need' wasn't the right word. Feli probably already had someone like Ludwig barreling through the house to find him and make sure he was alright already. He probably didn't even need Lovi...but he felt compelled to go make sure anyway.
Or is that all just an excuse…?
As much as he did care for his brother, perhaps it isn't true that that was all he could think about.
The stupid Spaniard crossed his mind as well. Occasionally.
…
Maybe a bit more than occasionally.
The pain in his chest was now just a dull ache, but still resonated inside him. Although it lessened in its intensity, none of the other pains that were attacking his body right now compared to the one squeezing his heart. He barely even noticed the cold at this point.
What the hell did that bastardo think he was doing…
He didn't want to think about it too much. It would surely just hurt.
But why did it hurt…?
...He didn't want to think about that either. The question would bring up reruns of the scene, the sensation of Antonio's breath against his skin, the warmth of his hand against his cheek, the perplexing lowness of his voice ringing through Lovino's ears…
And it would all confuse him again, just like it did when it happened. He would be confused by what it all meant, if it all meant anything, how he felt about it all…
And that's where the pain existed. That's why it hurt. The confusion.
Still confused, he just thought it would be better if he didn't think of it at all. And so, he focused on the inky darkness ahead of him, penetrated by the fuzzy light of the streetlamps, and the distant windows of some houses.
Wait, the windows are lit up…? Looks like the power is back for some people…
That's good. Feli lives in that area of town. Looks like he would have his power back too. Lovino could just imagine his brother singing with joy at the functioning light bulbs, hot tears rolling down his cheeks. That would certainly be a lovely sight.
I think I'm halfway there...Halfway home...Wait for me, Feli…
It's unfortunate, however, that it would seem Feliciano would have to wait a bit longer than expected for his dear brother to return home.
To his side, barely within earshot (which is still in close proximity to him due to the howling of the winds drowning out all noise within a couple yards of him), Lovi heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Multiple sets. Paired with these footsteps were the rough, unfamiliar snickering of someone nearby, coming towards Lovino.
He froze in place looking towards the sounds, alarmed. Who the hell is that? I thought I was alone here…
Lovino scowled into the darkness, but his jaw chattered too much from the cold to look intimidating. Soon, the closeness of the voices were making him uncomfortable.
"Who's ther-" he tried to shout, but the sharpness of the air pierced his throat and made him cough before even finishing the last word.
Suddenly, his breath was forced into silence when the voices appeared right next to his ear.
"How about you don't worry about it, kid."
A growl as harsh as the wind surrounding them. The words themselves seemed to be smirking bitterly. Hot, hostile breaths trickled down Lovino's neck, and almost immediately processing these words in his mind, he felt the power of two strong hands shove him a few feet forward, straight into an equally-as-strong shoulder blade.
Lovino squeaked and attempted to scramble to his feet to run away, but he felt hands grab at him once again and shake him a bit.
"You don't got a chance against us, kid," another voice practically spit at his face, "Just hand us your wallet and get the hell out of here."
"I-I don't have it on m-" Lovino tried to whimper out the truth in a trembling voice, but was cut short by the sensation of being lifted off the ground. The thug threw him in the air once again- this time, he landed inside a nearby alleyway the attackers must have been camping out in all this time. The short, brick-and-cement walkway was soaked in darkness, dotted with dumpsters, and ended on the other side with a wire fence that was too tall for Lovi to have any chance jumping over. He never felt so fucked in his entire life.
Heart racing, yet heavy with dread and terror, the Italian scurried to free himself from a faceful of snow and twisted around to face the rapidly-approaching criminals. His legs felt like jello, and would not allow him to stand, so he merely backed away from them using his feet.
"C'mon, a prissy little brat like you, walking around in the dark like this? We know you got something. Hand it the fuck over."
Why won't they believe him? He could not have looked very wealthy at that point in time. Was it too dark to see his pajamas? Did his blanket look like a shawl? Thank goodness he was covering his small dolls with the blanket- they would probably assume they were a wallet…
"R-Really, I have nothing but my pajamas and this blanket. Just leave m-me be, and I'll tell no one. Please." Such polite language settled against Lovino's tongue bitterly, and he clenched his teeth. He wanted nothing more than to curse these thugs to Hell and back, but he knew that would cause nothing but trouble and danger for him at this point in time.
"Bullshit," one of the now-more-visible four goons retorted with an impatient glare. Lovi's eyes nearly bulged out of his skull, and his heart almost stopped functioning entirely, when he saw the glimmer of a gun being pulled out of the man's coat pocket.
"We know you got something under that blanket. Give it to us."
Lovino hiccuped, and felt stinging tears well up in his eyes. He backed up and stood against a brick wall, but the mobsters simply faced him from the other wall, pointing the gun straight at his face. He began imagining how much better this situation would have gone if he was stronger. He clearly couldn't handle anything by himself, after all. He really was very clearly useless. And here, he would have to meet the end to his short life because of it.
He cursed his uselessness, but even more so cursed that he never did anything to fix his uselessness- he simply denied it, over and over again. At least his brother accepted his weak stature and swore by staying by Ludwig practically at all times of possible danger. At least his brother had Ludwig to protect him. All Lovino had was…
"You're fucking wearing my patience down, boy, now give me the damn wallet or I'll shoot!"
The tears were running down the poor Italian's eyes at this point. He had nothing. Nothing. He was alone, now. He would die alone, in the cold, brutal darkness, useless till the very end. Useless.
Useless.
The word echoed in his mind, again and again, until it filled his thoughts and drowned out all other voices in his head. It filled his head to the brim more and more, until it finally overflowed and spilled out of his mouth.
"Useless," he whispered to the snow-covered ground dissolving his tears. The tears that fell from his darkened eyes. He had succumbed to his fate. Despair smirked at him with satisfaction.
"What the fuck did you just say to me?! Die, you little bitch!"
The thug fired the gun. The bullet shattered the air, and Lovino shut his eyes in anticipation of the quick, skull-cracking pain. Nothing happened.
Instead, he heard a choked gasp come from the attacker, and opened his eyes to see what happened.
He could see nothing, because Antonio's broad shoulders were blocking his view.
Lovino gasped as well, but not out of pain, unlike the thug- he gasped in a wave of relief and shock. Steadily, the realization kicked in:
Antonio jumped in front of the bullet for him.
Antonio got shot for him.
Antonio got shot.
"Antonio!" he peered over his shoulder to see if he was alright. The Spaniard's brows were knotted in obvious anguish from the gunshot wound, but he bared his gritted teeth in a defiant smirk as he glared intently at the man in front of him. The gun wielding man was slightly bent over and gasping for air, and Lovino could finally see why- Toni had brought his cherished, antique weapon passed down his family line for centuries- the espada ropera.
The espada ropera was a common civilian sword in 15th century Spain. It was a long, thin sword that made clean, effective cuts. Antonio had stabbed the sword right into the thug's ribs, dealing immense pain. But this criminal had dealt with numerous gunshots before. This wasn't going to phase him.
The hoodlum shot the Spaniard a shaky smirk and fumbled for the trigger on his gun, raising it to his opponent's chest. "You never bring a knife to a gun fi-"
Alas, he lost the will to finish when Antonio smiled gently at him before swiftly sliding the sword out of his flesh and slicing his gun-wielding hand off in one smooth, effortless motion. The man's entire face dropped along with his hand, and he his accomplices froze in horror as the pale appendage plopped to the ground at Toni's feet, turning the snow crimson in mere seconds. It still held the gun limply, finger positioned on the trigger in an eerie fashion.
"You don't know what this sword has been through, amigo."
Toni continued smiling as the thug began trembling, reaching towards the bloody stub at the end of his right arm with his other hand.
Lovino also gawked in shock. He had never seen Antonio hurt a fly, let alone another human being. But he was doing this…
For me…?
"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"
Another goon screamed and charged at Antonio, prompting him to prepare himself. "Stay back, Lovi," he instructed his friend before dodging the attacker's fists and replying with a flurry of slashes and stabs from his own weapon of choice. The man collapsed to the ground with a fully-diced-up torso at just the right time for the right-hand-less man to rebound and swing at Antonio with his other fist. The swordsman glided out of the way with ease before chopping him to pieces as well. The two thugs fell in a bloody heap on the ground together, wheezing and writhing in evident pain.
The remaining two slowly backed away from the murderous Spaniard, fearful for their lives. They opted at last to bolt. They spun around to leave; before doing so, however, one of them picked up the gun from the lifeless hand and fired it at Antonio three more times. All three shots hit his upper torso region. Grunting in shock, he fell to his knees and clutched his chest- Lovino immediately fell down with him, holding his shoulders as the two men made their way out.
"Antonio! Antonio, hang in there, per favore! Can you hear me?!"
Toni shot him a disoriented smile. Tears beaded his eyes, and he tried to blink them away. "Of course I can hear you, silly, you're screaming in my ear."
"You bastard!" Lovi choked through a sob, "Why did you do this?!"
"Why did I do this…?" the Spaniard repeated Lovi's words, though in a much more slurred, relaxed manner. "How could I not do it, mi corazon…? How could I just sit there and watch you...ahh…"
He gripped his chest tighter and bent over the bloody snow. Lovino hugged his shoulders tighter, and cried even harder. He said nothing, because all that his mind could process right now were angry curses. How dare Toni hurt himself for his sake. How dare he…!
Somehow, Toni's head found its way to Lovino's chest. It rested against it softly, and Lovi let it. The ringing in Antonio's ears was preventing him from hearing his loved one's sobs, and his fading vision was blocking his view of Lovi's tears. So the Spaniard chuckled weakly, looking up at that precious Italian face with darkening eyes.
"Don't worry, Lovi...I'm alright...I'm…"
How can you tell me not to worry at a time like this, you fucking idiot! Lovino's wailing grew louder, and he let Antonio's head slide down to his lap so he could unwrap the blanket from his own shoulders and lay it across the wounded man's body. The bitter cold meant nothing to him now- all that mattered was this idiota's safety.
"Please!" he cried into the air, as loud as he could make his voice, "Is anyone out there?! He's dying! He needs to go to a hospital immediately! Please, dio mio, someone!"
The tears rolled off his chin and found their way to Antonio's forehead, causing him to moan quietly under his shaking breaths. Seeing the damn Spaniard losing consciousness like this was unbearable. Hearing his breaths get shallower and shallower by the minute, seeing his eyes darken and shut more and more…
He couldn't stand it. Lovino could not take this anymore. If Antonio died, he felt like he would drop dead as well.
But why? Why did he feel so strongly like this? Why?
…
Quit trying to fool yourself, cretino. You know exactly why.
He loved Antonio.
He really did.
…
At last, Lovino drew in a sharp breath before grabbing the cloth dolls and unraveling them from the red binding.
They rolled out of the bundle easily and revealed to be connected together by the red string tied tightly on both of their arms. It looked like, no matter where they were in relation to each other, they were always holding hands via that red string.
Lovi quickly grabbed Antonio's hand and squeezed it.
Almost immediately after untying the dolls, a beam of light flashed into the dark alleyway, illuminating the horrific scene.
"Is anyone down here?" An authoritative, yet familiar voice called out from behind the light that Lovino quickly deduced was a flashlight.
"Here! We are here!" Lovino cried, waving his free hand at the torch-wielding figure, who approached quickly.
The figure turned out to be a female police officer, much to Lovi's relief. She ran the scene over with her flashlight.
"Per favore, lady, my friend and I got attacked by four thugs with a gun here, he fended off two of them, but still got shot multiple times, he needs medical attention right away…!"
All of his words ran together like a constant stream of desperation out of his mouth; it was a miracle the officer understood him at all.
She quickly spoke into her handheld radio before nodding to Lovino in affirmation. "Medical help will arrive shortly."
"Grazie mille, poliziottoa," Lovi sobbed, but this time with thankfulness to the heavens. She shined her light on Antonio, who was fully detached from the outside world at this point, resting calmly against Lovino's lap. The blood from his injuries were seeping through the blanket at this point, however.
Still, the cop gave Lovi a reassuring nod once more. "I think we made it in time. He's going to be okay." She looked towards the other cop cars pulling up outside the alleyway as Lovi sighed with even more relief. "We saw some suspicious-looking characters running away from here and realized they were suspects in a murder case of a sixteen year old kid just a while ago, and thought we should handcuff them and investigate the area. That's when we heard your yelling. These are the guys who killed that poor kid. It's good that we caught them."
Lovino watched as his rapid breaths formed white puffs in the air. He only just now noticed that the winds were dying and the snow was at last slowly sprinkling from the sky. He already heard the faint cries of an ambulance siren sounding in the distance. The flashlight allowed his vision to become clearer, and he looked up at the woman. His eyes widened upon seeing her face. She is…
"Lady, aren't you...the woman I saw in the park before…?"
She blinked, and looked over to him. Crystal-blue eyes sparkled in the illumination of light from the snow.
"I'm sorry, but have we really met before?" she replied.
With a smile and a wink.
Antonio was immediately taken to the ER to be treated. When they patched up his wounds and affirmed that he would remain alive under regular hospital care, they transported him to a normal hospital room and let him rest there for the night, instructing Lovino to stay home and rest himself. This time, the cops drove him home. Feli was in tears of pure happiness and relief when he saw his brother's face at the door, but Lovino had nothing but a racing mind and worried heart. Would he be okay at the hospital? Would he make it through the night? They better fucking keep the heater on in that place…
He tossed and turned all night with anxiousness. There was no way he could follow the authorities' orders and get a wink of sleep like this.
When the sun rose, he immediately got dressed (properly for the cold, this time) and flew out the door, leaving Feliciano to wonder if he was going to lose his brother for a long period of time yet again.
Lovino biked all the way to the hospital, nearly falling on his face as he leapt off his bicycle and headed up the steps to the entrance. He dashed past the front desk and straight to where he remembered Antonio's room would be. A nurse was just leaving the room.
"Is he alive?!" Lovino immediately sputtered at the startled woman. She blinked at him in confusion for a moment, before she chuckled in realization.
"Yes, he's very much alive. Quite animated, in fact," she chuckled some more. He bit his lip to keep from laughing himself. Yeah, that sounds like the bastardo…
"You can visit him now if you'd like. He's been crying for tomato-covered spaghetti all day, and he doesn't think the hospital food is up to par. Maybe you can help him out with that?"
That idiota, Lovino thought, nodding silently and entering the room. He nearly fell to his knees and sobbed to the heavens at the sight of the Spaniard's bright green eyes meeting his. Toni's face instantly lit up upon seeing Lovi's.
"Lovino!"
The Italian approached the hospital bed, where Antonio was bandaged up and connected to various tubes and such. He looked paler and tired as hell, but otherwise completely well. Un miracolo…
"Lovi, you look like a bruised tomato."
Lovi scoffed under his breath at the man's observation. He was probably noting the bags under his eyes and the blush on his cheeks.
"You don't look much better yourself, idiota." he grinned at the Spaniard, who replied with a weak chuckle himself. "...Speaking of tomatoes, I heard you were craving spaghetti…"
"Ah! Yes, yes! Por favor!"
"I...could get my brother to make some for you, if you want…" Lovino looked away shyly. He wasn't used to making thoughtful offers to others. But after all they went through...the least he could do was offer spaghetti.
"No thanks, mi cielito."
Lovino's face lit up into a bright red and he looked at Toni with shock. He knew what that meant! What is he…?
"I want you to make it. You make the best spaghetti, with the best tomatoes. Not even your brother can compare."
Lovino blinked at him for a long moment.
Not even your brother can compare.
In all his life, he never heard a single person utter that phrase at him.
He burst into tears and found his way to Antonio's chest. He was welcomed with open, loving arms.
"I thought you died, you stupid fucking figlio di troia!" he howled into the thin hospital gown covering Toni's chest. He felt a warm hand rub the back of his head gently in response.
"I know, I know." He lifted the crying Italian's tear-stained face to his, and kissed his lips in one smooth motion. Lovino's entire world seemed to stop, and he allowed it to, sinking into Antonio deeper, wishing he could melt into him. Just like that, Antonio released him, and he returned to crying softly against the man's chest as he held him, just like that.
Right there, Lovino promised silently that from now on, he wouldn't run away from Antonio's embrace anymore.
. . .
"Despair."
Somewhere in a realm beyond that of the mortal world, Hope's voice echoed throughout. A shadowy figure materialized in response.
"Shame on you, trying to mess with a couple like that."
The figure became more vivid now. It was a scowling man, clad head to toe in greyness. Dark grey hair framed a ghostly face holding two dull, granite eyes, looking off to the side in annoyance.
"I'm not letting you get away with such things. You better understand this." Hope went on in her disapproving tone. Despair crossed his arms and spat at the non-existent ground, topping it all off with an irritated 'hmph'.
"No way, I'm not getting screwed with next time," he growled through gritted teeth. "Next time, I won't let the victim be saved."
. . .
Aaaand there you have it! A possible lead-in to the next story? o3o I already have TWO outlined, but one of them is really long...it'll probably be, like, a seven-parter. xD (Oh great, I'm talking like Poland now...)
I hope you liked the story! ;w; Please please review I love to hear your thoughts and stuffusufsufsuf your ideas and thoughts matter to me uvu
Seeya next time! Ciao a presto! Adios, mis amigos~!