A/N:
To anyone still following this story, you are seriously amazing for putting up with my haphazard updating schedule TwT I don't deserve you
"God-damn it, Antonio, let go of me!" Lovino ripped his wrist out of the clingy man's tanned fingers. "I can walk perfectly fine without you fucking holding onto me-!" the poor Italian had turned to look at Antonio and ended up tripping over a rock.
Luckily for him, Antonio grabbed his upper arm and pulled him up before he could crash into the ground and, much to Lovino's horror, he laughed warmly "Are you sure about that chico~? Maybe I should carry you to the village."
Lovino had a brief memory of seeing an oddly colored world from atop Antonio's shoulders before quickly righting himself, scowling at Antonio as he fixed the backpack strap on his shoulder. Spain's head poked out curiously as he mumbled "Bastard, I said I can walk on my own…"
Antonio just chuckled and continued down the path as they reached the village. Lovino hesitated at the edge of the forest, slightly startled by the sight of Sogno.
The beauty that the village once held was gone, replaced by a horrid view of repulsive, dying memories. Buildings had begun to crumble and mold, a few already collapsed and left to rot in their foundations. Trash and debris littered the grimy cobblestone streets and few beings hurried through the murky, sepia, midday light and those that did mainly chose to scurry through the shadows, their nightmare forms flickering with their heartbeats. Lovino watched them with a mix of curiosity and fear as he rushed to catch up with the trio, who had disappeared into one of the larger, better kept buildings.
The heavy doors creaked open under Gilbert's eager hands and revealed a small tavern. To Lovino's left was a large fireplace, providing warmth to the whole large room and helping light where the grimy windows and the scattered candles could not. Wooden benches, chairs, and both large and small tables sat scattered tastefully around the room and a few customers (probably no more than 20) sat at the or at the long bar directly in front of the main door. To the right and next to the bar was a curtained off staircase, probably leading to the tavern owner's quarters. More tables and chairs sat to the right side, but where the fireplace sat on the other side was a beautiful grand piano, dusty and probably untouched and a lot like the one back at the Vargas Manor…
A gunshot jerked his gaze away from the piano and he whipped around to look over at the bar where Gilbert and a few other customers crouched hidden under the bar."Gilbert, get your ass away from my bar and put the alcohol back!" A man with chin length blonde hair and dark forest green eyes had a smoking rifle pointed over the bar, but nobody but Lovino seemed to be worried.
"Jeez, Vash, you think so low of me!" Gilbert whined but at the sound of Vash reloading his gun, the albino quickly replaced the two stolen beers onto the bookshelf and scurried over to casually use Francis as a meat shield.
Still glaring daggers at the albino shadow, Vash placed the still armed rifle against the wall behind the bar. "So is this the boy that Al found in the field?" He asked, nodding toward Lovino as the four sat down at the bar.
Alfred, who had been talking to a little girl with hair just like Vash's, laughed and walked over to them, taking an open stool on the other side of Lovino and threw an arm around his shoulders, earning growls from Antonio and Spain (who was still safely hidden in the canvas bag) "This is Lovino!" the blue eyed youth introduced a startled Lovino "And this is Vash," he pointed at the grumpy barman. "He and Lili," he gestured to the little girl waiting on tables "They own the bar here!" The trio and I work here too-!"
"You won't for much longer if you don't get your ass back in the kitchen!" Vash threatened the younger blonde. "You should be honored that Lili allows you near the stove at all, now get back to work."
Alfred stood up and saluted "Aye, aye, boss man!" he grinned and disappeared through a side door leading to the kitchen.
Vash sighed. "The boy has no brains but he follows Lili's every order…" He tiredly tried to defend the reasoning for hiring the hyper blonde to himself. "Anyway, so this is… Lovino?" he looked the scowling man over and Lovino suppressed a shiver with a sigh, unfortunately getting used to being analyzed. "You know he does look a bit like-"
"Romano?" A quiet, female voice asked from behind them, making 'Romano' whip around to see the little girl with Vash's hair.
Lili played nervously with her purple ribbon, looking not even a day older than the first time Lovino was in Sogno. Then again, Lovino thought, it doesn't seem like anyone aged at all… except for me...
"Romano?" The girl asked again, nervous. "Is that really you?"
Lovino felt trapped. No, technically he wasn't Romano anymore but yes he was the boy that she had known as Romano…
Slowly, he nodded. "Call me Lovino," he requested and Lili smiled.
"I knew it was you!" she threw her arms around him in a hug before her brother let out a strangled cough and he quickly released him. "Do you remember me?" She asked "You used to teach me how to play," She pointed at the dusty piano "It doesn't sing anymore," she said sadly "Not since you left."
Lovino looked over at the piano, memories beginning to trickle back into his head. "I… I remember," he mumbled quietly, making her smile wider.
"Will you make it sing again?" Lili begged quietly and Lovino nodded slowly and allowed her to take his hand and lead him to the piano, almost as if he was in a trance. He sat down on the wooden bench next to her, ignoring Antonio, Francis, Gilbert, and Vash as they watched the two with a curious mix of worry and anticipation.
Lovino's hands ghosted over the dusty keys, almost afraid to touch the ivory. He looked over at Lili, who smiled innocently and gave him a softly pleading look and nodded at the piano in front of them.
Lovino sighed and steeled himself for… Something. He wasn't sure why he was hesitating…
He sighed again and reached out towards the keys, forcing his fingers down to begin his hauntingly familiar melody…
.~.~.~.~.
As the first note sounded from the ancient piano, the earth quivered. Not very strong, after all it had been sleeping for so long, but enough to make the floorboards vibrate, the alcohol in tremble in their bottles, the wind yawn once and make the hibernating trees stretch and groan.
All of this was barely noticed by the Sogno natives, as they were too busy with the faint feeling of electricity running through their bones as they too seemed to come back to life. As Lovino's haunting melody began, even in the farthest recesses of Sogno, the earth and it's creatures's hearts soared.
The dream accepts its Host. Let the land rejoice
The Lily-and-Carnation Host had returned. Long live hope.
.~.~.~.~.~.
Sadik gasped and grabbed at his chest in pain as the earth vibrated underneath his feet. He could feel his hold on Sogno slip for a moment as a small whispered hope spoke at the back of his mind
The dream accepts its Host. Let the land rejoice
Sadik scowled and shook the hope away "Heracles!" he shouted. "Heracles, where are you, boy?"
Heracles fought down the momentary rush of hope from the whisper's words as he stepped into the chamber, Egypt at his heels "Yes, Lord Adnan?"
"Alert a patrol, alert all of the patrols, of the Host's new acceptance, not that they wouldn't already have felt it like I know you did," he ordered and began to pace the room, slowly forming a new plan "Trace the tremors back to their source and they'll find the Host. Whoever he is with was foolish to allow him to release his powers without a barrier. Send them all after the source except for one; send it to the forests to relocate the Host's scent and find out who knew he had returned and who dared to betray me by not reporting him. We'll take down the resistance and get our Host with one blow." he turned to Heracles. "Understand, boy?"
"Yes, Lord Adnan," Heracles nodded and answered in a monotone.
"Then why are you still here?" Sadik growled. "Go!"
As Heracles left, Sadik turned to the grand window and stared out over the expanse of Sogno's vast forests, eyes resting on the clearing in the distance: Sogno's heart.
"You can't hide forever, Host..." he spoke softly, letting his words drift over the air.
You can't hide forever...
.~.~.~.~.~.
The candles in the cottage flickered before going out, blown away by the ground's gentle shaking and the newfound wind as the little forest angel looked up from his task of finding the old spells that the Host had to learn.
The dream accepts its Host. Let the land rejoice
The whisper made Arthur gasp. What had they done! Lovino was in even more danger now with Sogno accepting him again. How had he released the rest of his power? He was in the heart of Sogno, exposed to Adnan's wrath-
Arthur growled at the back of his throat as someone knocked at the front door of his cottage "I thought I could trust you four!" he reprimanded the trio and Lovino as he got up to open the charmed door. " You three were supposed to keep Lovino safe and stay low, /not/ give away the return of the Host-!"
The feel of hot, rancid breath and a deep, mucus-wet chuckle on his face stopped his rant. Arthur had opened the door and come face to face with a patrol.
"Hello, forest angel," the lead rasped in a throaty, toad-like voice as Arthur gasped in fear and attempted to close the door against the sickening creatures. "It's about time we found you."
.~.~.~.~.~.
Lovino felt a harsh zap as his fingers began to play a hauntingly sad but hopeful melody; the same melody that he taught Lili years ago, the same one that he had played before finding Spain at the window. He fought the urge to yank his hands away and allowed the new power to wash over him and his blood to rush in his ears as an image of a young man with deep brown eyes and straight black hair whispered over the roaring of his pulse and the steady hum of the piano. Welcome back, Lily-and-Carnation the man hummed as Lovino stared. It's about time you came back to us the man smiles sadly and faded away as Lovino gasped painfully, finally able to fall away from the piano and let the song resonate and stop.
Feeling weak, he let his body slip away as someone gasped his name and caught him, sliding him into their lap. The smell of dirt, warmth, and tomatoes...
"Antonio..." Lovino mumbled and curled into his lover as the man wrapped his arms tighter around him. "What was that...?"
Antonio kissed his hair and helped him begin to sit up, trying to ignore the fading angelic glow of power around his lover. "The dream has accepted you as its Host again, Roma," Antonio explained.
So that explained the second power rush in one day... Lovino groaned and sat straight, looking at the awestruck faces of the people in the bar.
"So he is Romano," Vash nodded, staring at him. Lili moved closer, smiling widely "Welcome back, Lovino," she whispered as Alfred slipped out of the kitchen and gave him a thumbs up and a smile. Spain peeked out of the canvas bag next to Gilbert, who nodded to him and grinned before following Francis's respectful gesture and kneeling, crossing an arm over his chest.
Slowly, the others on the bar followed their example as Lovino stared. "The land accepts you, as does its people," Francis smiled proudly. "Welcome back to your people, Host Lovino Romano, Lily-and-Carnation."
Antonio pressed a proud smile to the back of his neck and Lovino continued to stare at the bowing people, awestruck "...D-don't bow," he finally spoke, quietly. "There's no need for that..."
"But you are the Host," a man said, looking up at him "You are the true ruler of Sogno."
"I don't rule Sogno," Lovino said simply. "I'm not a king. I have no experience with ruling anything."
"But you can't deny being the Host," another man, much older than the first, said. "We all felt it."
"Then I am the Host, but I can't rule," Lovino glared. "Doesn't Sogno already have a ruler-?"
"Adnan is a tyrant, not a king," Alfred spat. "He is not meant to rule. The earth did not accept him and turned it into a nightmare's wasteland."
"But he is still king," Lovino crossed his arms. "I can't rule of there's a king, tyrant or not."
"Then we'll just have to get rid of him," Gilbert smirked, catching on to what Lovino was saying.
"The Host must rule," Vash agreed, looking at the others.
"And we fight for our Host," Antonio hugged him close and murmured in his ear. "Not Adnan."
"And with the power of the Lily-and-Carnation Host, we can not lose," Francis nodded.
"There, understand now?" Lovino nodded once "I can't rule, not yet. But there's no damn way I'm going to let this Adnan-bastard stay on my throne."
"Long live the Host!" a man stood and shouted, earning a chorus of cheers.
"Long live Sogno!" the Host called over the rising cheers.
"Long live hope-!" the crash of the bar's front door slamming open and against the wall cut off the next cheer as the resistance turned to the newcomer at the door.
Dressed in tattered clothing sticking to fresh, bleeding gashes and bites was Arthur, leaning heavily against the door as he hastily slammed it behind him. He tried to wipe some of the blood and sweat off of his face, only succeeding in smearing scarlet over his features and his stinging wounds. His wings were lopsided; one folded across his back, feathers ruffled and speckled with pink and red while the other was crooked and limp, twitching and jerking slightly every so often and oozing bright crimson from the jagged rip down the junction of his back and the wing.
Alfred hurried forward to carefully grab his panicked, wounded lover as the angel began to topple over in exhaustion, forcing his voice to rasp shakily "The patrols! Th-they know!" He groaned. "The cottage – Lovino!" Arthur tried to push himself out of Alfred's arms as his eyes frantically searched the bar until the landed on Lovino "Run!"
And with that one word, all hell broke loose.
A/N:
Not where I was originally gonna end this chapter, but I think it's the best place to stop for now~
I've been having a few problems with the plot lately but hopefully I'll get everything worked out and back on track so that I don't go another... three months without updating XD
Until then, Adios my wonderful amazing readers~!