Hell yes for Spring Break! I didn't really leave my house all week; it was perfect! I got to work on my Swedish, I got a new sketchbook since my old one fell apart, AND I finished this for you guys :D
Heads up, this may not be your definition of 'good ending', but seeing as how the rest of the story played out this can't be really classified as 'happy, joyful ending. The birds flew over the beautifully pink sky and shit rainbows over a newlywedded couple who's ex's decided to get married so everyones happy and blahblabhablahbalblah' nuh uh, you get THIS! xD
Also, could you guys possibly write a review over the story so far so I know what I need to work on? It would be very appreciated, and I would most likely write better fanfics if you think about it. (Win-win situation here :D). I'm not trying to pressure you into it though!
Chapter XVI Ending II
"You're killing the mood." He moved his arm back as if he was holding a baseball bat, and swung. Lovino stood there in shock waiting for the pain to kick in, but it never did. Instead, a single shot rang through the air, hitting Ivan right in his shoulder. He staggered backwards and slipped off the edge of the top step, though his adrenaline kicked in at the last second. Before he completely fell, he threw the wine bottle at Lovino as hard as he possibly could.
Everything seemed to be going in slow motion for the Italian; he wanted to move, he wanted to keep on living, but his body wouldn't let him. As the bottle inched nearer and nearer, Lovino started praying for the first time in years.
'Caro Dio, so che non sono stato molto religioso in tanto tempo, ma aiutami, aiutami per favore.
Salvami di questo disastro che presto affrontare.
Mi permetta di continuare ad vivere in questo mondo con tutti; non farmi lasciare nessuno di loro.
Chiedo question a voi.
Amen.'
When he was done with his prayer, the bottle slightly caressed the side of his cheek and crashed into the wall behind him. Lovino was stunned; it had actually worked. He was alive and safe.
But for Ivan it was a different story. All of his blood rushed to his head as he spiraled backward, hitting it against the rail, and rolled down the stairs. Every step he fell down curved against his spine, grinding it a little bit more than the last. Soon enough he reached the bottom and slammed his head against the stone floor. Blood rushed from the partially visible crack at the back of his skull and piled around his face delicately as if it didn't want to leave. The poor man was so bruised, so beat up.
Lovino looked in horror at Ivan, even if he tried to kill him it didn't mean that this should have happened. Lovino fell down to his knees as he realized the damage that he had caused.
A hand clasped his shoulder protectively, "Mon ami, he tried to kill you. He got what he deserved, no matter how bad the cost." Francis explained, staring at the limp body by the end of the stairs with Lovino. Lovino put his hand over his mouth, holding the urge to vomit back in his throat as he saw the battered Russian. The blood had started to dry slightly by now, though it still flowed from his flesh, as new bruises and cuts still emerged. Bruises were scattered across his body, especially around his face, while the small cuts were mainly around his back and upper torso. His chest was slowly rising and falling, yet getting somewhat slower each time. The once beautiful purple eyes of his started to take on a glazed look, flickering in and out of this world rapidly.
"Calm down, there's no way he would die from that." Vash said, leaning on the wall next to the remaining pieces of the wine bottle. "It was only his shoulder, even though there is a lot of blood, now can we leave already?" He sped through the words as he tapped his foot impatiently.
Francis shot a glare at him then comforted Lovino again, "Mon ami, like Vash just said, he will not die from that. Now would you rather cry over here or save your amoureux?" His entire body flinched as he heard those words. He was right, he was absolutely right; he needed to go save him! Antonio had to have been waiting for the longest time to be saved!
Lovino pushed Francis' hand off of him and dashed down the stairs, actually bothering to take a brief glance at the madman as he jumped over him. "Antonio!" Said man's head looked up immediately, his face smiling as big as the moon.
"Mhmmhm! Mhmhmm mhmhmmh! Mhhmmhhm hmmhmmm..." He began to cry out of joy.
"Oh stop you bastard!" He twisted his foot embarrassingly as he looked away, "I haven't been gone that long!" Antonio tried to laugh, but it just came out weak and muffled. "Now show me the rope." Antonio motioned his eyes behind him toward his bonds. Lovino noticed his signal and did as he instructed. Antonio leaned off of the wall, and once his hands and feet were untied, he quickly hugged him. He dug his fingers into Lovino's clothes as if he was hanging for dear life and buried his face into his shoulder.
"Hey, Bastard," He looked at Lovino with tear-stained cheeks and red eyes, "Ti amo." He slowly removed the duct tape, and placed a kiss onto the Spaniard's lips. They both kissed each other until something grabbed Lovino's leg.
"Otoidite vy chertovski suka!" Ivan clenched Lovino's leg menacingly, his eyes a crazed and maniacal shade of purple. His deadly smile got bigger with every passing second, as did the amount of blood dripping from his ripped skull. Laughter passed his lips ever so easily.
Vash rolled his eyes, "Geez, will he ever stop?" He sighed and raised his shotgun. "Fore." Francis ducked down as the German pointed the gun more precisely and shot. Another bullet went through the Russian's shoulder, but this time the opposite one. Ivan grinded his teeth together, holding onto Lovino's calf tighter. The bullet couldn't even stop his deep hatred now. Nothing could.
"D...dammit fucktard get off!" The obviously frightened Italian stuttered as he shook his leg wildly, succeeding in not getting him off.
"Daite mne moi Antonio nazad! On moi! Tol'ko moe!" Ivan screamed, his entire face dancing with terror.
"Never! Whatever the fuck you're saying, never!"
Vash aimed one last time and fired. It hit him right on his wrist, or at least what was formerly known as his wrist. That caused him to finally stop holding on, because frankly, what had he to hold on with? A bloodcurdling scream tore through the semi-silence and gave even the uncaring German goose bumps. Lovino and Antonio looked at the appendage horrifyingly; it was still holding onto Lovino's khakis, a dead man's grip you could say, while its owner laughed. Not a scream anymore, oh no, but a hearty laugh. Blood came out of the sliced vein and coated Lovino's clothing almost immediately.
Lovino's fear was rising in him when Francis came over to where he and Antonio were. "Hurry up, we need to leave!" Grabbing his arm, he kicked off the hand and pulled the two up the stairs.
Ivan slowly stopped chuckling, "Antonio! Antonio...gde zhe vy?..." He pulled himself toward the stairs with his remaining arm, looking up at him innocently. Antonio looked back at him for as long as he could, but the second they passed the doorway, Vash slammed the door closed.
"Bring him to the Rivera's house; their parents are at the PTA meeting as well." Vash said as he walked out the door
"You're just going to leave them like this?" Francis exclaimed.
"He shouldn't live much longer with all that blood loss, especially with that small present at the end." He flashed a small smile, and left the three in utter silence as he walked away.
"...Insensible bâtard."
Lovino, though still in shock, spoke. "Can we hurry...please?" In the back of his mind Francis wondered where the sudden strange politeness came from, but instead he nodded and rushed them through the house, across the street, and into the van.
Francis peeled off of the road immediately after he commanded them to sit in the corner, causing Antonio to fall onto Lovino's side. Lovino glanced down at his face for only a moment, yet in just that one moment he was able to see all the sadness in his face. The once shining emerald eyes of his were reduced to dull color. The once cheerful, smiling face was brought into a state of permanent apathy. And even the once friendly demeanor was now just unsettling. He rested his head against Lovino's shoulder and held his knees close, not bothering to look at him or anyone else for that matter.
"We're almost there mon amis!" He turned onto the next street impatiently.
"Antonio." The Spaniard stared at the computer screens in front of them soullessly.
"Antonio!" Lovino cupped his face in his hands roughly, his face leaning slightly forward as he did.
"Antonio your okay now, Ivan's gone." Lovino set his forehead against Antonio's. The limp body he was so carefully holding onto suddenly became straight.
"Oi! We're here! Hopefully Oswardo will let you guys stay considering those incidents..." Francis trailed off, lifting up Antonio with some help from Lovino. The Frenchman turned his head around and sighed, "Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue."
Oswardo barged out of his house yelling about "money you owe me from three years ago" and "how you bullied me all of middle school" until he abruptly cut himself off. Lovino and Francis held Antonio's arms above his head and dragged him out of the van. His head hung low, but the general feelings surrounding him were much worse. The Spaniard's bare feet folded when they touched the ground, partially showing the slight rope burns on his ankles. The only thing that seemed strange, other than the overall dulled emotions, was his back; it was perfectly straight as if it didn't move at all from when the psychotic man's name was mentioned.
Oswardo grabbed his dirty feet and helped walk him inside where he was placed onto a floral couch. "What the hell happened to him?" He asked as he walked into the nearby kitchen to grab a few damp paper towels.
Francis didn't raise his head as he answered, "I don't think that we should talk about it." He seemed discontent with the answer, but nevertheless he accepted it. He wiped his feet carefully and thoroughly, not missing a single speck of dirt.
"He doesn't deserve this though." He stood up and threw away the grimy towels, "Even if he owes me money."
"Silly brother, this is why you shouldn't talk to other people; you always get hurt." Natalia cooed as she broke the door open with a crowbar and danced down the stairs.
When she reached where Ivan laid, she slid the crowbar away from them and started stitching up his stump of a hand. "That's why we're going to run away this time! Father's too oblivious to notice and no one would care, so it's perfect~" She kissed his forehead gently then proceeded to wipe the dried blood off his silvery hair. She rambled on about their new life together in Europe, their beautiful children that they would have, and every other topic loosely related to those as she nursed his wounds.
For an unofficially trained person, she actually did a pretty good job, and after a short while Ivan was ready to be moved. She pulled him to his feet, putting his arm around her shoulders despite his miserable and terrified face. His head was actually still bleeding partially through the stitches as well, but she still didn't care. "Okay majo kachannie, it's time for our new life to start!" Natalia giggled girlishly as she dragged him up the stairs.
"Ya nikogda ne ostavlyu tebya," Ivan whispered silently to his surroundings, "prosto posmotret' moyu lyubov'." He closed his eyes for a few seconds then looked at the ceiling wistfully, reminiscing his thoughts, and finally laid his eyes on Natalia. He whispered some unheard words before he pushed her down the stairs and ran.
Antonio stared up at the bleak ceiling with still soulless eyes, ignoring Lovino and Francis as they spoke to each other, or at least at first.
"...what if he comes back?" Francis asked.
"I don't know dammit!" Lovino snapped.
"We need to think of something at least!"
"Oh shit Sherlock, when did you finally figure that out?" Lovino added sarcastically.
"'Ey! Stop fighting you two!" Oswardo bellowed as he washed off his hands. "Even though I have no clue what you're talking about, it seems important, so you two shouldn't be fighting!"
"He has a point there."
"Shut up bastard." Lovino replied defeatedly, he always hated it when he lost. "Vash said that he's dead though, there's no way he could." He smirked triumphantly.
"Brother! Brother, why did you do that!" Natalia screeched as she caught the railing.
"Go away!" Ivan yelled as he ran toward the garage.
"But you're mine...ONLY mine..." Natalia sprung up from the rail and bolted after him. Ivan was so close to escaping when she tackled him as he reached the sidewalk. They both rolled over onto the freshly manicured grass.
Natalia ended up on top of him, and in a flash she grabbed a syringe out of her pocket, injecting him with the cloudy liquid. "Who said that you could leave?" She asked, childishly smiling as he lost consciousness.
"Vrai, he did say that..."
"Wait, you guys KILLED someone?" Oswardo's eyes nearly bulged out of his face.
"No, Vash did."
"That's just as bad!"
"No one cares if Ivan dies though, so it doesn't matter; the damn bastard is terrible." That finally snapped Antonio out of his silence. He suddenly pulled himself up and slapped Francis right across his face.
"That isn't true! He was my friend!" Antonio screamed, falling back onto the couch and pulling his knees close to his body.
Francis touched his cheek in astonishment; he was seriously defending the person who had just raped him?
"Antonio...?" Lovino put his hand out to soothe his anger, but was swatted away.
"He was my friend you know!"
"But he..." Francis tried to say.
"HE WAS MY FRIEND!" Antonio's entire body lurched with sobs.
"Pull it together man!" Oswardo mysteriously appeared in front of the couch and grasped the Spaniard's shoulders harshly.
"But he was my friend..." Tears streaked his face more now as he used Oswardo's arm as a pillow.
Francis glanced at the other two and himself as he spoke. "You have other friends mon ami, and they're right here." Antonio looked up from his tears at them. "We're right here."
Lovino took over Oswardo's place and held his lover close. "I'll go make some ropa vieja, you three seem to have gone through a lot today or something."
"Merci beaucoup," Francis replied for the three, "It may calm him down." Oswardo nodded and walked back into his kitchen.
When Ivan woke up, he was tied to the back of a seat in a strange car, a van possibly?
"You awake now sleepy head?" Natalia cooed, adjusting the mirror to look at his sullen expression. "Oh don't be like that! We'll be on the ship to Russia soon enough, then we can drive all the way to St. Petersburg! It'll be perfect!"
Ivan lowered his head and tried to sigh through the duct tape. He looked around at his surroundings, even though he had nothing to really look at. All that was there were the back doors. No decorations were on the walls, no extra rope or duct tape rolls were scattered on the floor, nothing. As he realized these things it seemed more and more like nothing was really holding him down either. He looked down at his legs and noticed nothing wrong, or at least until he tried to move them. He lifted his legs in horror.
Natalia glanced back at him once more, "Oh you noticed? Darn, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't. Well at least I remembered the duct tape." Then refocused back onto the road as Ivan screamed.
And it wasn't from his physical loss, oh no he never would mourn over something as trivial as that; it was the knowledge that there was no way he could see his true love again that tore at him.
The four sat in silence, except for the occasional scrap against the plate, as they ate. Antonio used his knees as a table, Francis and Oswardo shared a table, while Lovino just used the empty seat beside him. They were like that until Oswardo spoke up.
"Um, I know that you kind of can't help it, but can you guys use one of the other tables instead? Mi mama would probably get mad if she saw food on her furniture." He asked, rubbing the back of his head with his hand awkwardly. Antonio acknowledged him and grabbed the small table from across the room for him to share with Lovino. "Gracias."
More silence came to them even after they ate, causing Oswardo to twiddle his thumbs. He didn't want to anger anyone with what he might say or ask, but he couldn't really stand the silence either.
"So, are you guys going to the School Festival Sunday?"
Francis seemed to be the only one paying attention, sighed, then answered, "Sadly, I am going by myself this year since mon amour got laryngitis."
"And you guys?" Oswardo asked, trying to redirect the conversation away from the Frenchman, God knows what he might bring up, even if they were all in an antisocial state.
"Together." Antonio stuffed the last bite of his dinner into his mouth.
"Good..." He replied as the silence returned.
After most of the weekend passed, the School Festival started. Everyone in the school was there, Yao, Gilbert, Soo, Mathais, Arthur, Alfred, Francis, even Berwald.
"Ve~! Luddy look, it's fratello!" Feliciano exclaimed, dragging the German by his hand over to him.
"W..wait a minute!" Ludwig stammered as he tried to regain his balance.
"Dammit Feliciano get that potato bastard away from me!" Lovino screeched.
"But you said we could have a double date today..." Feliciano started trembling his lower lip and looked down at the ground.
A short while passed until Lovino had once again gotten impatient.
"...Okay fine you win!" The brightness returned to the younger Italian's face, "Now shut up so I can look for Antonio!"
"Eh? He isn't here?" Feliciano looked around the rest of the outdoor Asia section curiously.
"Lovi~! There you are! I've been looking for you all around the Europe section!" Antonio called as he ran over to him.
"I found him fratello!" Feliciano tugged on Lovino's shirt and pointed toward him.
"No shit!" Though as he said that, he wondered how Antonio had changed his mood so frantically over the weekend.
Antonio pointed back at the Europe section with his thumb, "Hey did you guys realize that they have a booth for every country this year except Russia? I wonder why..." He bit the inside of his cheek as he pondered all of the possibilities, ignoring Lovino's shocked stare.
Lovino put a more serious tone on his voice now, "Antonio, do you remember Ivan?"
"Who?"
[1] Caro Dio, so che non sono stato molto religioso in tanto tempo, ma aiutami, aiutami per favore. Salvami di questo disastro che presto affrontare. Mi permetta di continuare ad vivere in questo mondo con tutti; non farmi lasciare nessuno di loro. Chiedo question a voi. Amen
- Dear God, I know that I haven't been very religious in so long, but help me, help me please. Save me from this disaster that I will soon face. Please allow me to keep living in this world with everyone; don't make me have to leave any of them. I beg this of you. Amen.
[2] Amoureux - Lover
[3] Otoidite vy chertovski suka! - Get away you fucking bitch!
[4] Daite mne moi Antonio nazad! On moi! Tol'ko moe! - Give me my Antonio back! He's mine! Only mine!
[5] Antonio! Antonio...gde zhe vy?... - Antonio! Antonio...where are you going?
[6] ...Insensible bâtard - Uncaring bastard
[7] Oswardo Rivera - Cuba
[8] Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue. - Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
[9] I tried to make Cuba seem somewhat brotherly, but still keeping his normal attitude (there was only the two episodes Dx!)
[10] Majo kachannie, - My love,
[11] Ya nikogda ne ostavlyu tebya, - I will never leave you,
[12] Prosto posmotret' moyu lyubov'. - Just watch my love.
[13] If you want to understand Antonio's feelings for Ivan, read the flashbacks in the 1st ending (don't worry if you want to try and skip goriness or whatever, they're in between lines and they're the first five *the sixth may not be to your taste, but it explains Ivan's*)
[14] Ropa Vieja - Cuban food
[15] Merci beaucoup, - Thank you very much,
[16] If the ending confused you, his mind blocked all of his memories of Ivan (sorry Russia x Spain fangirls!), also Ivan did lose his legs which totals as losing 3 appendages so far. Poor guy :(
This is the end my friends, I hope you have enjoyed it thus far~! This ending was kind of harder to write since it wasn't what I originally planned, but it is finally up! I put off my other ones just to finish it ;_;
Now, time for my MANY plot bunnies that arose during the ending~!
Remember that Swengland fanfic I put on my profile that I was working on? Well I gave my buddy the idea (the exact one since I honestly thought I was a semi-to-absolutely terrible writer then) since she wanted to write a fanfic for me, and she didn't for a while, but today she showed me some of what she wrote (she was apparently bored). So I'm just saying that if she does post it, though she isn't sure if she wants to or not, we didn't steal one another's ideas, we shared in a way since we both have somewhat different ideas for it.
Hej då!