It's Still Us

By the time Feliciano went back home, Lovino was already there. It was rather empty now, he realized, as he clutched at the door frame, staring into the room without stepping a foot inside. Their house was empty. No, wait. His house was empty. This was not Lovino's place anymore. Yeah.

"There you are, I was beginning to wonder whether you were going to show up!" Feliciano frowned as Lovino dropped something else in the box and turned to him, wiping off his brow. "I don't have time for this if you're not going to help me out, the rehearsal's at two, remember?"

"I remember," Feliciano responded quietly. Lovino stared at him for a few moments before closing up the box. "Lovi... that's mine."

"What?"

"That music box. It's mine."

"No, it's not," Lovino responded, looking down at it. "It's mine. It was from that day at the zoo. It's the only thing I got."

"No, you got the music box with the wolves on it. Mine is the giraffe," Feliciano retorted adamantly.

Lovino stared at the box for a few more moments, but instead of taking the music box out, he closed it up. "No, I'm pretty certain you had the wolves."

He had been doing this the entire time. Feliciano had watched as Lovino would put his things into these boxes, these boxes which were going to leave this house and not come back in. "Lovino, you jerk!"

"What the hell? It's just a music box!"

"Yeah, that's your excuse, isn't it?" Feliciano retorted angrily. Lovino glared at him.

"Look, if you didn't want to help me get the rest of my things out, you should've said so! Wouldn't have been the first time I've had to do something by myself!"

"Maybe you should have asked Grandpa!"

Oh, he had not meant for that to slip out. He had not meant to say that. Not that Feliciano was going to take it back now. He was even angrier than he was before when this was just about that music box. Lovino was staring at him as if he were insane. "He's busy right now... what's your problem?"

"...nothing... ve..." Feliciano responded, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible and so taking a few steps backward.

"It's not nothing, you idiot!" Feliciano stopped trying to retreat. Now he was angry.

"Don't call me an idiot!"

"You called me a jerk!"

"Because it's true!"

"Carogna!"

"D-donnaccia!" Feliciano stuttered, the insult not really falling cleanly from his tongue.

Lovino's eyes widened. "...vaffanculo!"

"Cazzo!"

"Ciucciacazzi!"

"Figlio di puttana!" Feliciano retorted, seething.

"My mother's your mother!" Lovino practically exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. Feliciano stared at him. Lovino glared back.

And Feliciano could not stop himself from bursting into tears.

"F-Feli...?"

"You're leaving!" Feliciano sobbed, covering his face. "Y-you barely talk to m-me in the first place and n-n-now you're leaving and it's only a few blocks a-away, but it's still not here and Grandpa's been ignoring me and you've been ignoring me and you're leaving me, Lovi, you're l-l-leaving me! I don't want to live by m-m-myself!"

He sunk down the floor, trying to make himself as small as possible. He had been so happy when he had found out about Antonio wanting to ask his brother to marry him. He had been looking so forward to this wedding. But, in the end, it meant he was going to be the only one living here. They both still worked together, they had never said that was going to change. But Feliciano was going to be going home and it would just be here. No Lovino.

There was no reassurance for that, but no one else had even tried.

"It's not even a five minute walk..."

"I know!" Feliciano responded, voice muffled into his own chest. He could tell that Lovino was squatted down in front of him now, but he did not want to look up.

"Feliciano..."

Feliciano sniffled, hugging himself more tightly.

"You know, neither of us spend all that much time in this place."

Suddenly he stopped. Feliciano looked up at him with confusion. "What? What d'you mean?"

"Well..." Lovino frowned, not meeting his eye as he rubbed the back of his head. "Dammit... I mean that I've been spending all of that time at Antonio's, but... even before that, you were spending most of your time over at that stupid German's place."

Feliciano rubbed the tears out of his eyes. "I... I don't get it." Lovino just stared at him, making Feliciano wonder whether it was obvious and he had missed it. He never thought that Lovino actually knew anything really obvious, but...

"You're not alone."

Lovino patted him on the head.

"Idiot."

"Meanie." Feliciano began crying again. He was crying, but he was beginning to feel better. Lovino was right, he was not really alone.

Yet it did not mean he was looking forward to coming to this house ever again on his own.


Notes:

What? Solving issues? Too many issues being solved! Half of me says about time, the other half of me thinks I am overdoing it. And that third half of me says that I am an improper fraction.

Yeah, and if you want to know what those insults are sort of translated to, you can do it yourself. Apparently Feliciano was listening very closely to Lovino over the years...