CHAPTER 5: Changes

The air whizzed through Lovino's hair, nipping at his cheeks as he rode through the maze of orange trees. He expertly maneuvered his horse through the branches of fruit, dodging left and right. Every so often he risked a glance behind him to find his Spanish friend trying to keep up with him, but falling ever so slowly farther away. Lovino let out a triumphant laugh, and then leapt out of the orchard onto an open plain. He quickly spotted his destination, the old barn just a short distance away. Grinning, he urged his horse faster, shouting victory into the air.

"Looks like I win this race Toni! Better luck next time." He laughed, turning around to smirk at his opponent, but he was nowhere in sight. He frowned, then his heart skipped a beat as he heard Antonio's golden laughter to his right. Whirling back around, he realized that his confidence had distracted him enough to allow Antonio to speed past him on his opposite side. Cursing, he whipped the rains again, and glared at Antonio, who had turned around to face him.

"Race isn't over yet Lovi, I still have a chance." He said, smirking and throwing Lovino a wink before turning back and putting on an extra burst of speed. There was only a small stretch of land left before the barn now, a mere 60 seconds between the riders and either victory or dreaded defeat. Lovino felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins, not about to lose this race. He was on a winning streak after all, 5 victories in a row; he wasn't about to lose that. Only 30 seconds left. Lovino pushed forward, reaching just up to the side of Antonio's horse. Looking over he saw the fiery competition gleaming in Antonio's green eyes, laughter dancing from his mouth. 20 seconds now. Antonio looked over and saw how close the two horses were, close enough that with enough effort, one person could jump from one horse to the other. 10 seconds left. Lovino watched in horror as Antonio slowly stood up on his stirrups, expertly swing his legs around the backside of his horse and casually slip behind Lovino onto his horse. Lovino jerked and swerved in shock, but Antonio managed to stay on, snaking his hands around Lovino's waist and grabbing the reins. Lovino felt Antonio's chest flush against his back as he maneuvered the horse into the stable area. Antonio pulled back on the reins, commanding the horse to a stop, and quickly jumped off. Lovino sat on the horse, clutching his chest and struggling to breathe. Antonio dashed off to retrieve his own horse, which had slowed to a stop after his rider had left him and was now munching on the grass casually. Lovino slowly slid off the horse, heavily leaning against it trying to keep his balance. He heard Antonio's horse walking over, it' s hooves plopping on the grass.

"Looks like this race is a tie, Lovi! Did you like my little trick at the end? Pretty fantastic, right?" Antonio laughed, and jumped into Lovino's view. When he noticed that Lovino was hunched over, face as pale as snow, he kneeled in front of him, eyebrows crunching together in concern.

"Lovi? What is it, what's the matter?" He asked. When Lovino didn't answer Antonio grabbed his shoulders and lightly shook him. "Lovino you need to speak to me. Are you breathing? Lovino you need to breathe, listen to me you need-"

THUNK

Antonio doubled over, holding his stomach as he felt the pain of being punched in the stomach by an incredibly furious Italian.

"You. Fucking. Idiot. You scared the shit out of me you don't just jump onto my horse like that!" Lovino shouted, his face turning bright red. "You could have pushed me off my horse, you could have scared it into bucking me off! You could have fallen off and snapped your neck and died you blundering idiotic fuck-head!"

Antonio looked at Lovino with a mixed look of confusion and pain. After what seemed like an eternity, Antonio finally broke, falling to the ground with fits of laughter. Lovino stared at him, looking as if he was ready to throw another punch when Antonio stood up, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Oh Lovino. You know I wouldn't knock you off! I'm way too skilled to do that." Antonio smirked, and clapped a hand on Lovino's shoulder. Lovino, however knocked it off and started walking towards the stable, grabbing his horse's reins and leading him towards his stall.

"Skills my ass. You wouldn't understand how to do anything that

involved a minor amount of skills if it was staring you right in the face." Antonio rolled his eyes and grabbed his own horse's reins, following behind Lovino.

"Well I had enough to be able to hop from one horse to the other! I believe that means I am skilled in some sort." Antonio countered. Lovino couldn't come up with a witty enough response to this, and so he grumbled meaningless curses and swung open the stall door. Antonio snickered, and did the same, only less angrily. Antonio turned around, and noticed Lovino had already started the walk back to the house, and ran to catch up. Once at Lovino's side, he snaked an arm around his shoulder, forcing Lovino closer.

"Oh come one,Lovi. Don't be mad at me! I was only playing around, I wouldn't have hurt you or gotten hurt. You know me better than that. At least I hope you do." Lovino sighed, and bumped his head lightly against Antonio's, as a sort of acceptance. Antonio understood, and unwound his arm from Lovino's neck, smiling. As they walked back they exchanged small talk, conversing about the weather and what they would have for dinner,

Cracking dumb jokes, and the like. By the time they got to the house, the horse-hopping incident had been forgotten, and all was well.

"Hey! There you guys are. Grandpa and I were looking for you, we need you to do some little chores, per favore," Feliciano said as he spotted Antonio and Lovino as they walked up to the house.

"Sure, what do you need us to do?" Antonio chirped. Feliciano pointed towards a large bag if oats on the ground.

"Grandpa needs you to take this to the barn and put it up with the rest of the feed. The bag is really heavy, so both of you should help out. When you're done, Grandpa and I will be in the kitchen preparing dinner, so could you please set the table and whatnot? Okay, thank you!" and with that Feliciano jumped inside and fled to the kitchen.

"He didn't even wait till we gave an answer. Little twerp. Oh well. Toni, come help me with this," Lovino commanded as he bent down to pick up the feed bag. When Antonio didn't immediately come over to the other side, Lovino whirled around to bark at him when he noticed Antonio was staring at something in Lovino's general direction, his cheeks a rosy pink.

"What? Is there something on my ass or something?" Lovino inquired, trying to manoeuvre his body into being able to see his backside. Antonio cleared his throat, shook his head, and walked over to the other side, picking up the bag. Confused, Lovino shrugged, figured it was nothing, and began to lift the bag.

"Woah shit." Lovino cursed, as he dropped the bag immediately, "Feliciano wasn't kidding. This things heavier than a horse. This ought to be pleasant.

Antonio laughed. "We'll have to work together. I'll count to three, the. We'll lift okay? " Lovino nodded, and prepped himself to carry the load. "Alright, uno, dos, tres!"

Grunting, the two managed to lift the bag and slowly carry it about twenty feet before they had to rest. It was in this way that they carried the load to the barn, quickly walking it 20 feet then stopping for breath. When they finally managed to get it inside the barn, they realised the major task that appeared before them.

"We have to get it up there? Dios mios why?" Antonio whined as he glared up the latter towards the loft where they kept the food, stationed at least 15 feet off the ground. Lovino groaned, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, there really is no easy way to go about this. I guess we'll just have to climb up the latter and drag the bag with us. You wanna go up first?" He looked at Antonio, who blanched at the thought. Lovino frowned, and sighed. "I will take that as a 'no dear god Lovi don't make me climb the scary latter'". Antonio pouted and crossed his arms, but nodded yes in agreement. Lovino snickered, then grabbed the bag whilst facing the latter.

"Okay ready? I'm going up. Make sure I don't fall and crack my skull open and die." Lovino joked, earning a short laugh from Antonio. As he started up the latter, he listened to the creaks and groans coming from the wood. Lovino wondered how old this latter even was, and worried it would even hold him, plus the weight of the bag. As he reached the last step, his fears were realised as his foot broke through the wooden rung, and he stumbled backwards off the latter.

The only thought running through Lovino's mind at that point was "Oh dear lord I don't want to die, that shit hurts," as he fell in what felt like slow motion. He closed his eyes before he hit the ground, hoping his death would be swift and painless, when he hit something soft and warm with a resounding thud.

"Am I dead? Oh dear lord please don't let me be dead, I don't want to be dead ooh no," Lovino murmured, curling up against whatever it was he landed on.

"No Lovi, you're not dead, but I will be if you don't get off of me soon, please," Antoni's voice said, coming from underneath Lovino. Peeking open his eyes, he realised that the voice was right, he was, indeed, alive, and he was, indeed, suffocating Antonio. Scrambling into an upright sitting position, he stared at Antonio, roaming his hands over his chest to check for any injuries.

"Oh god I didn't break any bones did I? Are your ribs broken Toni, do you feel any pain?" Lovi asked, frantically checking every inch of Antonio's body, even going so far as to lift up his shirt, thought that action quickly ended as he saw Antonio's chest.

"Yes, I do feel pain Lovi. You are sitting on me, and you are quite heavy," Antonio replied, groaning a bit. Lovino frowned, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh. I'm so not heavy, so you should be fine. Suck it up." Lovino retorted, and slowly stood up. Antonio laid on the ground, clutching at his chest as he gratefully sucked in air for his dying lungs. Lovino rolled his eyes, and offered Antonio his hand. "Get up you moron."

Antonio looked up at Lovino's hand, and grabbed it, pulling himself up. He didn't immediately let go of it however, as he quickly scanned Lovino's body for any injuries that may have happened to him. He stopped at Lovino's knee, and he knelt and lightly grazed over the torn skin and blood bubbles that were forming. Lovino winced as his knee sent angry signals of pain to his brain, and he jerked his knee away. Antonio smirked, and looked up.

"What did you say about 'Sucking it up'." Antonio said. Lovino glared at Antonio, who snickered. Just as Lovino was about to make some snarky remark, Antonio took Lovino's knee in his mouth and licked off the blood. Lovino gasped, then jerked his knee away.

"The fuck are you doing?" Lovino questioned, angrily drying to dab the spit and blood off of his knee. Antonio cocked his head to the side, like a confused puppy.

"We need to clean it off," he said simply. Lovino stared at him incredulously.

"That's what water and Neosporin is for, Toni," Antonio blushed, and looked down at the ground.

"O-oh. Right, water works. Yeah. Okay let's get that cleaned then." He stood up and brushed the dirt off from his jeans. Turning around, he marched quickly back towards the house. Lovino shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Toni,you're forgetting something," Lovino called out. Antonio whirled around, and quickly walked back towards the barn. Lovino pointed to the fallen bag of feed that they were supposed to have put in the loft.

"Oh. Well let's just put it over in a corner somewhere, seeing as how the latter is broken and all."

"Right, there you go Toni," Lovino remarked. They quickly picked the bag up, and shoved it gracefully into a back corner, and began to walk back towards the house.

"Do you need me to carry you, Lovi? Does it hurt too much?" Antonio questioned. Lovino shook his head.

"I'm not that weak, it doesn't hurt too much. Would have been much worse if I hadn't landed on your squishy body. I guess I owe a thank you" Lovino stopped, and faced Antonio dramatically. He bent down, and lightly patted Antonio's stomach. "Thank you Antonio's belly, for breaking my fall." Antonio laughed, and ruffled Lovino's hair.

"My belly says you're welcome, anytime." Lovino stood up, and smirked. And for the second time that day, they walked back from the barn house, cracking small jokes and postulating about dinner plans.

(So hey guys I am totally alive and writing and whatnot hahaha yeah.

Sorry about not posting in a while. School's a biyatch and finals are coming up soooo yup

Any and all opinions, suggestions, and reviews would be wonderful. If you are reading this, thank you veeery very much.

Love you all!)