A/N:

Heyyyy Look at this, another late update from Sword~ ...Yeah nobody should really be surprised by this...

Anyway, life and fate have been jerks lately and I've been sick for the past few weeks but whatev, I finally got a new chapter up! ...Even though I had to cut it shorter than I wanted to but oh well it's something right?

So let's get on with this chapter, ne?

"Antonio!" a child Romano ran up to the man as he looked up from the fruit vendor's stand. The two were in the market square, collecting ingredients for that night's dinner.

The sun was shining bright and warm as the crowded market hummed with life. Music, laughter, and the calls of the competing vendors accompanied the smells of sun-warmed produce and freshly cooked breads and sweets.

Romano crashed into his much older lover, clutching a beautifully crafted chain in his hand "Antonio, look what the pretty jewelry lady gave me!"

Apologizing to the kind fruit vendor the little Host had interrupted, placing his purchased groceries up on the ground and picking his precious boy up. "What did she give you, querido? You didn't steal it, did you~?"

Romano puffed his cheeks up in a cute pout. "Nuh-uh, I didn't steal it! Don't assume stupid things like that, bastard! She gave it to me 'cause I was looking at it a lot and stuff," The Italian opened his hand and proudly showed off a silver cross necklace. The sun reflected off the cross's almost mirror-like surface.

Romano smiled proudly as Antonio took the cross from him and held the chain between his fingers, letting the cross itself dangle and spin in front of his eyes. "Well isn't this pretty," the older man smiled. "I used to have a cross like this."

Romano's gaze drifted to Antonio's collar, where the beaded chain of a rosary was barely visible under his shirt. "You did? I've only seen your rosary…"

Antonio nodded, handing the cross necklace back to him. "Sí but it was stolen a few years ago."

"Well who stole it?" Romano frowned "Go get it back!"

"It's more of a 'what' than a 'who', really," Antonio shrugged, putting Romano back on his feet.

"Okay, then what stole it?" Romano scowled. Stupid Antonio, being difficult…

Antonio smiled at him. His boy was so cute when he pouted like that~ He opened his mouth to answer-

"God damn that little beast!" An angry male voice shouted, jolting Lovino out of his dreams. Sitting up, he found himself in an unfamiliar (but comfortable) bed in a small, unfamiliar room poorly illuminated by the few beams of light that could make it through the thick curtains lining the single window to his right. Loud bangs and shouts filtered through the closed door directly in front of him.

It took him another second to remember where he was and he hid his face in his hands, muffling a groan. So it hadn't been a dream. He was really back. He was really the H-

A loud yowl snapped him out of his thoughts, dragging his attention to the door again. Deciding that he should probably figure out what was going on; he slid out of bed (finding himself clothed, thankfully) and grabbed one of his shoes off of the ground, holding it in front of him like a weapon.

He quietly pushed the door open and made his way toward the kitchen, where the sound of chaos was coming from, and found what could've been an amusing sight to anyone but a man who had just been scared out of sleep.

The kitchen was a disaster; pots and pans scattered everywhere, dishes, broken, and food splattered over almost every surface. Francis and Gilbert sat with Arthur (who didn't seem as amused by the destruction of his kitchen as the shadows) at the kitchen table, laughing at Antonio, who was scrambling around the room, trying to catch a ball of brown and white yowling fur.

Said ball of fur jumped at Lovino and buried its little nose in his chest, green eyes wide and heart beating rapidly. Lovino wrapped his arms around his cat, smoothing down puffed-up fur.

"Oh, good, you caught it!" Antonio sighed in relief. "Now give it here-"

Spain hissed, scratching at the air in front of Antonio's face.

"I don't think he likes you," was all Lovino could say, fingers running through Spain's fur and lingering on the rusting metal cross, remembering his dream.

"Good, 'cause 'Tonio doesn't like it, either!" Gilbert laughed at the cat and the shadow glaring daggers at each other.

"Why not? Spain's just a damn cat; he hasn't done anything to you," Lovino frowned.

"Cats work for Adnan," Francis said nonchalantly. "People don't trust them. I don't know what cats are like where you come from, but they're all spies for him here."

"And I hate this one in particular," Antonio growled.

"Why, because it stole your eyes?" Arthur grinned as he sat down across from Francis.

Twin sets of green eyes turned to the blonde "And my cross! Sure, the eyes are creepy, but it took my cross!"

"And it's not like Antonio can do much about the eyes," Francis mused. "The cat's his double; they need to have some feature in common."
Not even bothering to ask about how Spain could be Antonio's 'double', Lovino interrupted the discussion with a new question "Who's Adnan?"

The others looked at him briefly before looking at each other. Should they tell him? He would probably find out eventually. If they didn't tell him, he would learn from someone else anyway…

"Sadik Adnan," Antonio started, forgetting all about Spain "Is a horrible, cruel, evil man."

"He took control of Sogno after y-… After the Ho-… Many, many years ago and has ruled ever since," Gilbert took over, rolling his eyes and kicking both of his feet onto the kitchen table. "He has pretty much enslaved everyone and is constantly seeking more power."

"Wait, you almost said something…" Lovino gave Gilbert an accusing look. "After I what? The… something starting with an 'h'…" Something started clicking in his mind. "You were going to say when I left. You almost called me the H-"

Arthur's hand clapped over his mouth. "Do not say it aloud unless you know what power you will unleash," he warned "Now is not a good time."

Lovino nodded and Arthur let him go. Antonio stopped glaring at him for touching his boy and stepped closer to Romanito. Spain's eye twitched unhappily at his movement.

"Eventually he will have to learn," Francis warned. "Isn't it safer if he learns sooner rather than later?"

"Arthur sighed. "Tea. Before I explain anything to this boy again I need tea."

At his command, the tea pot started to whistle and tipped over to fill a cup. The cup floated over to the angel. "Thank you," said to it and the teapot whistled again in acknowledgement.

"Now," Arthur, continued, motioning for Lovino to stop staring at the teapot like it was going to explode and to join him and the other three at the kitchen table. "Now, let's see if I can explain this again…" Arthur thought for a minute. "Well, I'm going to put my faith in the fact that you know the word starting with an 'h' – and don't say it!" he hissed quickly as Lovino started to open his mouth. "Don't say it; we're all going to assume that it's the correct word. Now, do you know what this word means; why it holds so much power here?"

Lovino tried to figure it out on his own, trying to pull up the memories of his childhood. Vaguely, the image of luscious turquoise grass dotted with large, vibrant flowers and fields of beautifully ripened fruits and vegetables filled his vision. Large darker turquoise leaves sprang from a forest of trees covered in light purple bark and a light green (almost mint) sky was home to the occasional cotton-white cloud. Tomato plants sprang from wildflower fields and objects flew and materialized from the air at his beck and call. Icy shields formed in front of him as easily as a flaming sword could fight for him. The sun was warm and the whole atmosphere was peaceful and inviting; so different from the sepia and scarlet tinted world he was in now. "I… Or whoever is… that can control everything," Lovino said, voice barely a murmured whisper. "They can summon anything, control the weather and the earth and air and perform powerful spells," In the back of his mind, it worried the Italian that he knew all of this, but he allowed his mouth to continue spilling newly unlocked information. "This place – Sogno – is theirs; in their mind, created by them for them and nothing can stop them from doing what they please to its land and people as long as they have their power. But… but they can get rid of it," The others at the table tensed. "They can give their power away to one person if- Mph!" Lovino struggled as a hand was once again clapped over his mouth. Really, it was getting old fast… "That's enough," Antonio smiled. Lovino bit his hand. "You remember so much Romanito; it's amazing!"

"Did you really expect him to forget?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow at his tanned friend. "He is – was – Romano; Lily and Carnation. As much as you un-awesome people enjoy jumping over it, we all know what he's destined to do."

"I don't," Lovino frowned and Spain's ears perked up with interest as he dared to poke his head above the table from his perch on Lovino's lap to look at the albino.

Antonio just patted the hazel-eyed man's head. "You'll figure it out on your own when you're supposed to," he assured. Lovino just glared at him "or you can spare me some confusion and tell me now."

"Not an option," Francis purred. "A Host must figure out his path on his own-" He cut himself off just as the other three Sogno residents started to scream at him for saying the one damn word that they had been trying so hard not to say.

Host… The word spun around Lovino's head and he couldn't help but smile to himself as he felt his body becoming pleasantly warmer. Tickling electricity sparked from his chest and down his arms and legs and power seemed to fill him with in an alarming rush and it all felt amazing! It felt like nothing could hurt him, nothing could touch him-

"Oh shit, the kid's on fire!" Gilbert's voice broke through his haze of warmth and power, forcing his eyes to snap open even though he didn't remember closing them-

Spain had jumped from his lap onto the kitchen table and was hissing at him fearfully, human eyes darting back and forth between Lovino and the older men frantically, wondering why the hell they weren't helping him.

Francis and Gilbert looked slightly alarmed while Antonio and Arthur's eyes shared an almost proud gleam but they were all staring at him…

Lovino looked down at his arms and screamed. Gilbert hadn't been kidding; he was really on fucking fire!

He screamed again and tried to shake the flames away, heart pounding in his ears as the flames grew larger and pulsed along with his heartbeat, making him panic even more.

"Lovino! Lovino, calm down!" bright green eyes caught his terrified hazel gaze and held it, forcing his breath to catch and the flames to flutter with his heart. "Lovi, stop panicking; you're only going to make them worse," Antonio shushed his screams, somehow staying totally calm as his hands hovered over Lovino's burning thigh and forearm. "See, they're not burning you…" But they could burn Antonio if he tried to touch his boy… "They're not real unless you think they are…"

Lovino stopped flailing and broke eye contact with the shadow to look down at his arms again in wonder. Antonio was right. Even though he could feel the heat of the flames, it was dulled and almost comforting, not roasting him alive like they should have been.

"Buen chico," Antonio smiled as Lovino slowly relaxed. "Now try and make them disappear,"

Lovino tensed slightly. Could he do that?

Antonio saw him tense and spoke again "You made them appear, so you can make them go away. Just…" he looked over to Arthur, at a loss for directions. He was a shadow, not a mage.

Arthur stepped closer and took Antonio's place, kneeling down in front of the flaming Host. "Just picture the flames gone," he said simply. "Close your eyes and imagine that you can't feel the heat. There's no fire, got it?"

Lovino nodded and closed his eyes, trying to obey. He pictured ice water being dumped over his head and-

And immediately felt wet and freezing cold. Shivering, he opened his eyes again and looked down at his drenched clothes "…The fuck?" He frowned. How did that happen?

Arthur and the others were staring at him with a mixture of surprise and pride "See? Bit too hard," Arthur nodded. "You mastered harder magic than that he first time you were here, this is merely a dangerous parlor trick."
"But I don't remember any of them," Lovino frowned.
"You will," Francis assured, pushing a breakfast plate and some tea in front of him. "Once you learn magic, you never forget it, no matter what," Arthur nodded, confirming Francis.

"You'll just have to unlock it again," Gilbert said. "And we all know you will. After all, you're gonna be the one to – mmh!" The albino was shushed again as a piece of toast was shoved into his mouth courtesy of Antonio.

"We're not supposed to tell him!" The tanned man scolded. "If he doesn't figure it out on his own, there will be a different outcome!"

Lovino growled at them around a mouthful of breakfast. "Will you quit doing that? Let the bastard speak, I wanna know what the hell I'm supposed to do here!"

Antonio shook his head sadly and wrapped his arms around the little Italian, making him blush and struggle. "We can't tell you or else we'll mess up fate! And we need this to happen, so I'm going to continue shutting Gil up."

Lovino huffed and turned to Arthur "Can you guys at least help me then? I'm not going to do shit if I just sit here in this cabin forever."

"Of course we will," Arthur frowned "It would be stupid to just let you run around Sogno unsupervised anyway," Ignoring Lovino's indignant shout of "I'm not a fucking kid! I don't need supervision!" he looked at Antonio. "If I'm going to have to refresh his memory of magic, I need my cottage to be silent, at least until I have everything prepared. Take the boy into town for a bit, reintroduce him to Vash and Lili or something, just leave me be for a bit. I'll come and retrieve him when I'm ready."

"Way to kick us out," Gilbert muttered but he got up from the table, mumbling about little yellow birds.

"Come on, Lovi!" Antonio smiled brightly and pulled him from the table. "Go grab your shoes, I'll let you borrow a cloak, ok?"

"Don't call me Lovi, Tomato-Bastard!" Lovino growled, surprised by how natural the insult felt on his tongue.

"You remembered the nickname you gave me~!" Antonio giggled happily. Lovino threw a shoe at his face. "It was an insult! Not a nickname, stupid bastard!"

Eventually Arthur got the four out of his cottage "And take your bloody beast with you, too!" He yelled as he chased Spain out of the kitchen. Spain hissed indignantly before Lovino picked him up and hid him in a small canvas bag (That he had stolen from Antonio) along with the notebook.

The Italian sighed before following the obnoxious trio down the path. The woods seemed safe, but why couldn't he shake off the overpowering feeling of doom…

A/N: So short chapter but hey it's an update, thank you all of you wonderful readers that are willing to put up with me~!