When In Venice

"I'll make my mark/ I've got my spark"

Ed Sheeran, "Spark"

(Continued from chapter six!)

"Lovino, where were you?"

I instantly go completely still and hold my breath, because THAT will totally hide me from him.

"Lovino... I can... I can see you, you know."

"No you can't," I immediately insist. "I'm wearing an invisibility cloak."

"...Lovino, do I need to have you go visit a psychologist again-"

"NO."

"Then tell me where you were."

"...I went out."

Nonno snorts and walks up to me, leaning against one of the walls of the entrance. "I noticed that, Lovino. I want to know where you went."

I avoid his eyes, pretending to be super focused on taking off my shoes. My lips seem to be tingling from where Antonio kissed them and my heart keeps randomly fluttering up to my throat, making it incredibly hard to breathe. I get the insane feeling that if I look at Nonno and he sees my face- my slightly flushed cheeks, my vaguely bright eyes, the fact that I reach up and touch my lips ever half second as if to make sure they're still there -that he'll know that I... I feel like I can fly.

"Lovino. I am your grandfather. Your nonno. I've raised you since you were seven. Please tell me where you were." There's a note of panic in his voice that almost makes me tell him, but... I know my telling him would not end well.

"I can't tell you," I say quietly. "I will tell you that I'm perfectly fine. I'm not doing anything bad."

He's quiet for a moment, and then he sighs, long and hard. In fact, it's practically never ending. "Lovino," he says quietly when he's done. "Lovino, I love you, and I want to take care of you, but... if you think what you're doing is okay... then... I trust your judgement."

I stare at him for a long moment, and then suddenly there are tears in my eyes, because I never expected that he would trust me ever again. I quickly reach up and rub my eyes on my sleeve and duck my head so that he can't see my wet eyes.

"Thanks," I say, trying to sound as normal as I can. My voice still sounds a bit hoarse, I think, and I feel my face redden. "I-I'm going to bed now." I quickly walk past in, shaking my head so that my bangs fall in front of my eyes, but before I can even get halfway towards the stairs he's gathered me in a big, comforting hug. I freeze for a moment, but he either doesn't mind or doesn't notice.

I don't know what I'm supposed to feel... what I'm supposed to say... what... what should I do?

Finally he pulls away. "Good night, Lovino. Sleep tight. If you ever leave for a long, unexplained time again, I will probably kill you." He slaps me in a fatherly way on the back, then walks up the stairs, leaving me to stand at the bottom, trying not to either cry or flip major shit.

I wait until he's gone into his bedroom to walk up the stairs, and when I finally make it into my room, I jump onto my bed and press my hands to my mouth. They feel warm. Are the warm because my lips always feel warm or because Antonio's lips were warm when he kissed me? Are they warm because they're, like, so happy to be touching Antonio's mouth that they just... heat up? ...Oh my god, that's the stupidest thing I've ever thought of. I need to get some sleep, don't I...?

I grab my blankets and wrap them around myself, then snuggle into my pillows and try my best to not think about Antonio, which... is failing. How am I supposed to not think about Antonio? He's so... Antonio. And yeah, that's not the best description, but there aren't enough words in the English/Italian dictionary to describe Antonio, so go fuck yourselves.

I lie in my bed a while longer, staring up at my ceiling but seeing nothing but Antonio as he leaned in and pressed his lips sweetly against mine... OHMIGOD STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.

Eventually, I fall into a fevered sleep and have a... um, interesting, um, d-dream about, um... A-Antoni- nevermind...

(','(','(','('.')';')';')';')

The next day, we're sitting around in class, waiting for our teacher (aka Antonio, the guy I just kissed...) to show up, when an announcement comes over the speakers:

"Alert, alert, seniors will be having their three-day class trip in Venice soon!" There then comes a scuffling sound as a secretary or something grabs the announcer-phone-thingy from Nonno and begins making sense. I blush and stare at my desk. If anyone asks, I'll tell them that Nonno and I aren't actually related, even though we look related, what with my hair curl and his bajillion hair curls... But I'll just say that I'm adopted. No one will believe me, but at least they won't think that I condone his actions.

"-be at school at six o'clock this Thursday morning." the secretary finishes. "Thank you all for listening to this announcement; you may all get back to your classes now." She hangs up, but not before the whole entire school has the chance to hear my grandfather whining like a little baby.

...I feel bad for Aldrich. He's going to have to keep my childish grandfather in line until they both die.

But... I don't want them to die!

N-nevermind, Lovino, just don't think about it...

I watch quietly as Antonio walks into the room, smiling happily at everyone and clapping his hands together. "Wow, senior trip, huh? You guys excited?"

I shrug, but most of the class says some random bullshit about how they're so damn excited, blah blah blah, Venice, blah blah blah. I'm not saying that Venice isn't cool or anything- I mean, it's in fucking Italy, it's awesome! -it's just that, well... how do I put this gently? It smells like rotten vagina. Quaint, I know, but true. The canals are all full of icky sea water and there is pretty much more canals then actual city, so all the air in the city pretty much smells like rotten vagina. Of course, you get used to it after a while, but three days isn't long enough, so the whole trip will smell like the stink of rotten vagina.

Oh, joy.

Venice is super cool though. In fact, Nonno, Romeo and I used to live there for a year or so, back when I was eight or nine or something. It was pretty badass; once you got over the smell, the whole romanticness of the place gets to you, and you honestly feel like you can go up to anybody and just fall immediately in love and get married and have kids and have a perfect life until you die.

Also, it's fun to play with the pigeons. I swear to god, if you throw food they will just land on you. Make sure you wear clothes you don't like too much, because these birds know nothing about things like "sanitary-ness" or "toilets." Or "toilet paper," for that matter. I mean, Jesus, can't they at least clean up after themselves?

Oh, and Venice has got all sorts of art and stuff. And museums. Yeah, it's pretty great, y'know, if you're into that sort of stuff. Which I'm not. Feli is, though. He'll be super excited when he next sees me; he'll probably run me over in his haste to tell me how awesome this all will be. The little shit.

"-really excited to be going to Venice with you, it should be fun, don't you think?" Antonio is saying. The students all chirp their agreement, probably only glad they don't have to present the short stories they were supposed to write. I think bad thoughts about them for a moment until my brain lazily turns back to what Antonio is saying in the first place: "-really excited to be going to Venice with you, it sho-"

I slam my hands down on the table suddenly, staring at Antonio with wide eyes. "You're going to Venice too?" I ask, not sure if I should believe it or not. He smiles at me, and, maybe it's just me, but I sort of feel like he's smiling lovingly at me... oh god. I feel my face begin to heat up and try to ignore it.

"I'm glad to know what at least Lovino was paying attention!" Antonio says with a chuckle. The rest of the class giggles evilly, and now my face is really burning. Oh god oh god oh god, dammit Antonio, read the mood or something, fuckit!

"Yes, I will be going to Venice with you, as a watcher-teacher-person." He waves a hand airily through the air. "Whatever they're called. It should be fun, right, class?"

"Right," we all chorus, but I'm pretty sure mine is the only heart that flutters as I say it. I'll be going to fucking Venice, the most romantic place in the world, with my... m-my boyfriend. Fuck. This will be... crazy.

(','(','(','('.')';')';')';')

When I wake up on Thursday morning- bright and early, because Nonno is a fucking dick -the house is filled with the smell of cooking tomato sauce. My stomach immediately reacts in the natural way, growling hungrily and telling me, in stomach speak, to get the fuck outta my bed and eat some pasta, which seems like a bad idea, since it's so early in the morning, but god do I want to.

I get out of bed, get dressed, then check through my big suitcase to make sure I have everything I need, which means five pairs of jeans and five t-shirts and a ton of socks and some underwear and a camera and my laptop and some notebooks and a sketchpad. And four pairs of pajamas. You know, the necessities.

When I'm done checking my bag, I wander downstairs, then peek into the kitchen to see Romeo making puttanesca sauce. The bitch. I hope he gets kicked in the head by a pissing angel.

"Romeo, why are you making puttanesca when I'm leaving?" I ask him redundantly, since I'm pretty sure I already know the answer. He turns to me and shoots me a smug smile.

"It's 'cause you're leaving, duh. I want you to feel the pain of what you've done to me."

"I haven't done anything to you, you dickass!"

He rolls his eyes at me and turns back to the sauce. I'm about to continue chewing him out when Feli walks into the room, looking all floaty and happy. "We're going to Venice today, Lovi! My hometown!"

"I told you not to call me Lovi, jackass!" I hiss at him. "Also, we were all born in New York, so how in the holy history of fuck is Venice your hometown?"

He shrugs as he starts making us both omelets. "I just feel like it should be!"

I sigh, throwing myself into a chair at the table and rubbing my forehead. "Feli, how are we even related?"

"Mama and Papa had sex, and then, after nine months, Mama gave birth to us." Feli says matter-of-factly as he shreds cheese for the omelet.

"I DIDN'T WANT IT IN DETAIL, FELICIANO." I holler. "Ew ew ew, thanks for the gross mental image..." Don't you just hate it when you start thinking about your conception and, ah, what that means your parents were doing...? Ew. Gross. Yuck.

Romeo suddenly drops the spoon he's holding into the pot of sauce, gagging. "Ewewewewew, Mama and Papa are so old!"

"Once they were young, though." I inform him knowingly as I begin to make coffee (espresso, of course, because what sort of Italian would I be if I didn't drink espresso?). "Once everyone was young. Even Nonno."

"What do you mean once?!" Nonno yells suddenly. "Oh my god, am I starting to look old?!" He bolts up the stairs to the bathroom, then starts wailing pathetically. I roll my eyes.

"Dipshit." I mutter under my breath. Romeo rolls his eyes in agreement while Feli runs upstairs to comfort our stupid grandfather. And he's supposed to be the adult in this relationship. I swear, if I didn't know Antonio I'd think there was no man more childish on this earth.

Not that... Antonio was at all childish when he kissed me...

Feli and I eat a quick breakfast of omelets and espresso, say goodbye to Romeo (who glares at us), then have Nonno drive us to the airport where our private airplane will be taking off from (I know right, we get a fancy private airplane). We say bye to him too (he and Feli crying over each other, for some reason- Jesus fuck, it's only three motherfucking days) and then board the plane. I put my suitcase (which is small enough to fit into the overhead rack- kudos to me, bitches) in the overhead rack- but not before pulling out a notebook to write in -and then begin writing my epic novel once more.

And that's when I realize: Antonio and I met in an airplane. Holy motherfucking shit.

I squirm around in my seat and try not to glance to where Antonio's sitting, near the back of the plane. I stare at the seat in front of me, trying not to blush as I (probably imagine) the feeling of Antonio staring at me. Someone sits down next to me, and I glance over to see Eliza sitting there, looking vaguely smug. She elbows me a couple times in the side, wiggles her eyebrows, then jerks her head at Antonio. I glance back to see that he's happily chatting with Francis, you know, Michelle's older brother, and also one of his teacher friends. Francis has silky, shoulder-length blond hair, clear blue eyes, and a slightly stubbly chin. He's medium-height, thin-ish, and always wears fashionable clothes, a fact which I respect him for, since fashionable clothes is always a good thing.

"So, Antonio's going on this trip," Eliza says when I turn back to look at her. "There's all sorts of stuff you could get up to all alone in Venice, you know."

I feel my face slowly turn red as a tomato as I get what she's saying. "Wh-wh-what- I-I'm not going to-"

She slings an arm around my shoulder in a friendly way, pulling me towards her to whisper in my ear. "I think it would be a good idea... no one to interrupt you, hmm?"

"H-how do you know one would interrupt us? You haven't met my brother, and besides I don't even want to-"

She laughs rather loudly, making a couple people turn towards us and stare at us weirdly. "Oh, you totally do, honey, you just don't want to admit it because you're tsundere."

"Tsundere-?"

"It's a thing that Japan taught me about. Don't worry about it. The important thing here is that you'll be able to fuck him and so you should fuck him. It'll be great."

"Eliza, I am not taking relationship advice from you. You always give me bad advice."

"Yes, I know, but it's for your own good."

"How exactly is that for my own good?"

"I dunno. I just felt like you might trust me more if I said that."

"I don't. And I never will, actually."

"Okay, then trust Bella. She agrees with me. She thinks it's a good idea. He's a teacher, he'll have his own room, you know..."

I blush yet again, stutter over a couple more endless sentences, then finally say, "No."

She leans away from me, looking terribly disappointed. "You're not going to take the chance when it's handed to you? Right on a silver platter? Tsk. I'm ashamed that we're both homosexuals. You might as well be straight." She says it like it's some sort of insult, then flounces up out of the seat next to me to sit next to Bella, both of whom then proceed to stare at me like I've just done something absolutely terrible. I flip them both the bird before I begin scribbling in my notebook, struck by sudden inspiration.

And then Feliciano sits down in the seat in front of me, Ludwig sitting next to him. They're both talking animatedly about something (well, Feli is animated, Ludwig... not so much), interrupting my focus.

"Isn't that right, Lovino?" Feli asks suddenly. I look up and glare at him evilly.

"Hush, Feli, I'm busy."

"Busy with what?" He peers over the top of his seat, and I scramble to get my notebook out of his view, causing it to fall on the floor. It flips open to a page I absolutely do not want him to see- a rather awkward picture -and I dive down onto the floor after it, covering it up.

"Fratello, what was that picture-"

"NOTHING! Nothing at all!" I close the notebook quickly, then glance around for an open seat. The only one is the recently vacated one next to Antonio, and I don't hesitate one bit as I get to my feet and run over to where he's sitting, collapsing in the seat next to him.

"Hi!" he says happily when he sees me. I glance at him and can't stop myself from turning what I figure is a brilliant shade of crimson, going by the way he giggles hysterically, then tries to cover it up.

"Sh-shut up!" I say under my breath, scowl-blushing, a technique I've perfected. If you have to blush you might as well scowl too.

"I didn't even say anything!" he says gleefully.

"But you were laughing!" I lower my voice. "Hey, don't act like we really know each other, okay? We have to keep this a secret, remember?"

He smiles at me. "Of course I remember!" I blush again. I hate it when he starts acting like an adult instead of a little kid. It makes him seem so much more... hot.

"Please buckle your seatbelts and prepare for take-off," says the pilot's voice over the speakers. I immediately start scrambling for my seatbelt. I'm a bit... not afraid of heights, exactly, it's just that I absolutely do not want to die in an airplane. Like... what? What could suck more than just... dying on an airplane? Dying in the shower, I suppose, or on the toilet, but... well, dying on an airplane just does not appeal to me. What if it hurts? What if all they find of me is a finger? What if they accidentally mark my grave "Peter Pettigrew?!"

Antonio pats my hand quickly, when no one's looking, I'm guessing. "Don't worry, Lovi- no, haha -it'll be okay. What do they always say in movies? More people die in, um, something else than in airplanes."

I laugh. "Wow, and doesn't that just fill me with confidence." Somehow, it does though. If I die on this airplane, at least I'll die with Antonio. I'm sure people will think it's romantic. Someone will have to write an epic romance novel off of it, which will then get turned into a highly successful, just like the book, movie.

He grins sheepishly. "Haha, yeah, well... I'm not usually in movies!"

"A likely excuse," I half mutter under my breath.

He smiles at me, then reaches out and ruffles my hair. I glance around warily, not sure if that could be seen as vaguely romantic or just Antonio being affectionate. When I see that nobody's staring and pointing at the two of us like we've been doing something terribly kinky (which we totally haven't, since I'm fucking super virgin), I decide to just... y'know... let him ruffle my hair, and I definitely don't feel like a cat being pet, because that's totally not what's happening here. Well. I'm sure that's what Eliza sees, but honestly, she's... a freak. So yeah. She doesn't count.

The plane trip is super uneventful. Antonio and I sort of just sit around and play Go Fish, which is actually fun sometimes. On occasion. When played with the right people/person. Antonio is definitely the right person.

The flight isn't even that long, either, though I still manage to fall asleep, because I always fall asleep on planes, even if it's only for a couple seconds. When we finally get off in Venice, everyone is super excited to see the house we'll be staying at. They've never seen it, of course, but I stay there sometimes towards the beginning of summer, before I go to New York City. Now that I think about going to the Big Apple, am I even going to go this year? I mean, I guess Feli might leave to there soonish... I glance to my right to see Feli talking animatedly with Ludwig- I swear, they're practically glued together or something -and roll my eyes while smirking, which is... an odd expression. Feli's parents are never going to get him back to NYC now that he's learned of the charms of Italy- and Italy's resident Germans, apparently. He's so totally crushing on Ludwig. I don't even need Eliza or someone to point that out for me, which I figure means it's pretty obvious to everyone except the two involved.

I glance toward the front of the group, where Antonio and a couple other teachers are heading the group as we walk towards some boats. Since we're in Venice and all, we have to travel by water, which seems like it should be quite a hassle to the teachers, but none of them look worried in the slightest. Maybe it's just Antonio and the fact that he nevers worries about anything, ever, or maybe it's just that only one person has gone missing on these trips, and that was Nonno, and he was only missing for, I dunno, a couple of hours. That damn asshole.

Some other people and I get into a boat- which is, sadly, not the boat that Antonio's supervising -and we start moving down the canal, which is an action that's not nearly as wrong as I somehow made it sound, so shut your fucking face.

We travel a while, then reach the house/mansion/thingy-fucker. We have to share rooms in this place, and I am, sadly, sharing with Feliciano... which just... I mean... how is that cool? I've got to live with the guy in Rome, why do I have to do it in Venice too? Although... if I wasn't paired with him, I'd be paired with someone like... fucking Potato Bastard or something. Fuck him.

We all file into the house-y thing, and Feli and I head to our room, which is way up near the top for some reason. We unpack our shit, then wander back down to the ground floor. We'll all be meeting up here to go travel around the city, which should be fun. I can dazzle everyone with my excessive knowledge of the Pizzerias of Venice. And the bookstores. And the clothing stores, but don't tell anyone I said that, because then they'll think I'm gay. Which I guess I am, but that doesn't matter.

After a while, everyone's in the downstairs entry-way-thingy, which is... big and entryway-ish, and so we all leave to the city. We split into groups though, with two teachers in each (meaning that there are three groups). Me and Feliciano have a brief argument, because he wants me to be in the same group as him and Ludwig and I will only consent to that if we're with Antonio, so the four of us, plus Eliza, Michelle, Bella, and these two weird dudes from Denmark and Norway (who everyone thinks are in a relationship, even though the Norwegian dude always says they're not), and some other teacher who's far less interesting than Antonio. Meaning that I don't know his name. The little fucker.

And then we all set off into the wilderness that is Venice. Except that it's not really wilderness, it's just a city. Well, okay there are a lot of pickpockets, but pickpocketing is pretty fun! ...N-not that I've ever done it before, haha... ha.

Antonio and the other teacher point out some tourist attractions and cool-looking buildings (in Antonio's case), and Eliza and Bella send me looks that basically say that I should drag Antonio into an empty doorway and fuck. Like, right in public, on the streets of Venice. Um, no thanks.

I stay far-ish away from Antonio so that I will resist the urge to interact with him in any way that is not considered normal, but occasionally I do find myself bumping into him companionably, which fills me with a warm, gooey feeling, like warm chocolate chip cookies.

We're all crossing a bridge that goes over one of the many canals when two guys run past us, one of them shouting about pickpockets. Since I was leaning partway of the edge of the bridge to see some baby ducks (BABY DUCKS ARE WORTH IT) I get knocked into the water.

So... I won't go into detail, because the canal was really gross and I don't want to bring back those terrible, scarring memories (have you ever fallen into a canal? Here's some advice: Don't. Ever), but I will say that it was gross, and it got my clothes all gross, and it also resulted in Antonio having to take me back to the hotel, where I take a shower and change into clean clothes while he puts mine in the wash.

We both end up sitting in mine and Feliciano's shared bedroom, on one of the beds, just chilling and doing nothing and (in my case) resisting the urge to reach over and run my fingers through his hair, which would be super embarrassing and stupid and I would never do anything like that-

Suddenly I feel warm breath on my cheek, and then his lips are on the corner of my mouth. My breath is practically pulled right out of my lungs, and I feel my cheeks getting warmer and warmer and redder and redder, which I try not to think about.

I turn toward him as he pulls away, staring nervously at his mouth, wondering if I have it in me to, like... m-make out with him or something.

"Can I kiss you?" he asks softly, green eyes peering earnestly into mine. I nod- probably too quickly and too fast, but I can't help myself, because we've only kissed once, and I want to kiss him forever or something, and-

-and then he's kissing me.

Hard.

Okay, so let me describe to you a few things: There are multiple types of kisses, most of which I won't go into. The first type, though, is the soft, sweet type, where you press your mouths together and everything is magical and dandelions float around in your head.

The second type is when your older teacher boyfriend scoots over toward you and grabs you by the shoulders and presses his mouth to yours, and suddenly there's tongue and then you wind your arms around his neck and the kiss deepens, somehow, even though you didn't know it could do that, and then you hesitantly stick your tongue in his mouth and all is well with the world.

Just so you know, we did the second type, which is way hotter than the first type, and got us both extremely out of breath by the time we were done, which was also when I noticed that I was sprawled across the bed with him half on top of me.

Oh. Okay. So... this isn't as uncomfortable as I'd always thought it would be. It's... actually... It's really nice. Like... I don't know. It's just... nice. Ish.

Eventually, he rolls off of me, and I can breathe a bit easier, but now I'm cold, which is a perfectly reasonable excuse to move closer to him and sort of... not cuddle, just lie together to keep warm so that we won't freeze to death, you know? I would never cuddle with Antonio.

A/N What does it say about me if I read my own fanfiction for fun and then get totally hooked on the story? O_O LIKE SERIOUSLY I WAS READING CHAPTER NINE AND I JUST GOT HOOKED TO THE STORY WHAT THE FUCK?! I mean... I WROTE that... O_O,

I've always wanted to say this: The chapters just keep getting longer! *claps*

Also, do you want to know something stupid? I HAVE FUCKING LONG A/Ns Seriously, just story-wise I barely have 40,000 words, but on here I have more than that, and since I add the A/Ns on FF that means I have ridiculously long A/Ns...

Shout out to Jywy and i-Spit-on-Fire and VivaAmerica for being FUCKIN' AWESOME! XD