Time flowed faster, fading away with the soft notes of the violin. Lovino played until his fingers grew tired of playing, although his mind still yearned for the relaxing release. Music still bounced around in his head, silencing all other thoughts as it gave him a moment of peace from his nagging worries. The warmth from the fire and Feliciano's soothing humming made him feel like he was in a memory. He hadn't felt this comfortable in years, and even then, those moments had been fleeting and tainted with woe.

In the chair across from him, the man who had provided this comfort sat, staring blankly into space. Lovino wondered if the blond really understood what he'd done for his brother and him; Lovino doubted it. He remembered what it felt like to know nothing of the real hardships outside of wealth. The aristocrats took too much for granted, Arthur was a prime example of that. The Englishman was ignorant of hunger and cold, trained only in the use of eloquent speech and pretty manners. They seemed so differently now, but Lovino remembered a time he was somewhat like Arthur. He remembered when his enemies were hidden behind frozen faces and easily removable when they posed a threat, but now his real antagonists were ever present in the form of a fire with no wood and a plate with no food. In some ways, his life was more dangerous then than it is now, but he wasn't in that life anymore and it didn't matter so much. The thoughts of his old life brought up something he's nearly forgotten in his time with Arthur.

"Hey, bastard."

The blond didn't look at him.

"Arthur."

"Hm, yes, love?" Green eyes snapped to him and focused, as if coming out of a trance.

"Do you know anyone with the last name of Beilschmidt?" Feliciano stopped humming abruptly.

Arthur stared at him in surprise, and glance at Feliciano. "You knew the Beilschmidts?"

"I didn't say that."

"Oh, then yes, I know them. Gilbert Beilschmidt is a close friend of Francis, and Ludwig Beilschmidt is an intelligent young man."

His lip curled in disgust. Lovino remembered Gilbert too well. The older boy had been several years older than him, and always willing to pick a fight, which Lovino would, under enough provocation, happily give him. Of course, Lovino lost most of the time. Gilbert was older, taller, and stronger. He knew how to fight well, but the scales were piled too high against a boy of eight trying to fight a teenager.

"Did you know the brothers?" Arthur was watching him too closely, and he quickly gained control of his expression. Apparently he was getting out of practice hiding his emotions also.

Feliciano began to say something, but Lovino coughed loudly and nudged him with his foot. "Excuse me. No, I didn't know them personally, but we traveled in similar social circles and I heard much about them."

"I see..." Arthur's eyes narrowed, and Lovino knew Arthur didn't believe him, but he wouldn't call him a liar with Feliciano there. Only half of what he said was a lie, and if Feliciano hadn't tried to flap his damn mouth, Arthur probably wouldn't have questioned his honesty. "Why do you ask about them?"

"Curiosity. I know what happened to the Bonnefoy and Carriedo children, but the Beilschmidts don't seem to still be in the country," he said, hoping to deceive Arthur into believing his interest was nothing more than simple curiosity. Lovino didn't know anything about the Beilschmidts since he saw Aldrich Beilschmidt in the market so many years ago and he wanted to know where his target had gone to.

"Actually, Gilbert does live mostly in Germany now, but Ludwig goes between Germany and Italy. They have a grandfather that lives in the country somewhere and Ludwig often visits him." Arthur crossed his legs, unknowingly giving him the information he wanted, and fixed his observant eyes on him. "Did you just hint at knowing Antonio and Francis before now?"

So the old goat is still around. Lovino rubbed his nose, using his hand to hide the malicious smirk crossing his face. Arthur confirmed Aldrich was still in Italy and, with the little piece of information that Gilbert was friends with Francis, he could find out his exact location, too. He'd gotten more information in one conversation than he had in six years of on and off looking; Arthur was finally proving useful.

"Lovino?"

"Ah, yes, I knew them, but they obviously don't recognize me. Actually, Antonio might remember me. He use to follow me around when he wasn't with the other two assholes, Gilbert and Francis. And they probably don't recognize Feliciano, because of his gender issues as a child."

"It's not my fault Signorina Elizabeta liked to dress me as a girl," Feliciano whine, breaking his unusual silence.

"Shut up. You know you liked it."

"They were pretty clothes..."

"Did you remember Antonio or Francis immediately when you saw them?" Arthur chuckled at their playful bickering.

"Francis, yes, he hasn't changed much, although he has become more perverted. But I didn't remember Antonio until afterwards. I had met him before...and he had helped me, but I couldn't remember why he seemed familiar until I saw him next to Francis."

"And you didn't tell them who you were?"

"No. There's no reason they should know. I have no money, no standing, and it would only cause me trouble for all those rich bastards to know Feliciano and I aren't dead."

"They think you're dead? Well, that's one way to disappear completely and make sure no one goes looking for you." Arthur laughed, but his eyes stayed calculating and sharp.

You're saying too much. Shut up, you idiot, he growled internally at himself. Lovino couldn't have Arthur knowing who he was for his own safety, if worst came to worst. "What about you? Who picked on you when you were younger?"

"My siblings, sometimes Francis. My childhood was spent mostly in England away from people. I was a rather sickly child up until I was about fifteen, and almost never went to parties."

Lovino used his out of date knowledge of blue blood families that he thought he'd never need again to remember the Kirkland name. "I remember your family. You father was a quiet man with a good eye for business. Your eldest brother was too loud and drank too much. Your second oldest brother was like your father, and the two twins always fought. As for you mother, she was a very kind, intelligent woman. I vaguely remember your the second oldest mentioning something of a younger brother."

Arthur stared at him, as if seeing Lovino for the first time. "You knew them all...?"

"Your family left quite the impression."

"Veh, Lovino's right. Mrs. Kirkland told me I was pretty and your brothers broke all our wine glasses by accident," Feliciano chimed in. "Plus, grandpa loved having a good debate with your father and mother."

"It's a bit surprising that you both met them, although your memories are old." Arthur stared at him curiously. "Why didn't you say you knew my mother and father sooner?"

"It wasn't important until now, and I didn't remember your family name until I thought about all those damn parties I use to sit through."

"Don't be bitter, those parties were fun." His brother elbowed his leg gently.

"Maybe for you, Felici, but I hated them. All I ever did was meet people and smile."

"But people are fun," Feliciano huffed.

"Cheh, they're annoying and fake. I was only meeting them for Grandpa. You at least got to dance." He reached down and tugged a piece of Feliciano's hair teasingly.

"Hey!" Feliciano turned and pouted at him. "Not nice."

"I've never been nice, and you know it." Lovino turned his attention back to Arthur. He knew Mr. and Mrs. Kirkland had passed on from how Arthur spook of them. "What happened to your mother and father?"

Grief flashed over Arthur's face, but it was gone quickly. "My mother became afflicted with a mental illness four years ago and Father built this house for her to live in peace. She died within a year. Father died soon after and they were both buried in the Kirkland cemetery back in England. After the passing of my parents, my eldest brother took over as head of the Kirkland estates, and the rest is, as some say, history."

Lovino sat straighter and stared at Arthur. The blond's face gave nothing away as to what he was thinking, remaining as cold and unchanging as marble. "I am truly sorry for your loss. You parents were good people."

Feliciano stood and pulled Arthur into a tight hug. "I"m sorry we brought them up."

"Er...It's alright, really." Arthur awkwardly patted Feliciano, growing flustered when Feliciano kissed him on the cheek.

"That's enough, Feliciano. Let him go before he has a heart attack." He chuckled at Arthur's helpless expression. It was almost cute seeing the poise Englishman thrown off balance.

"But we made him sad." Feliciano pouted, but returned to his place on the ground and turned his smile on Arthur. "Our mama is also in heaven, maybe they're friends and like to watch over us together."

Arthur smiled sadly at his little brother. Seeing Arthur smile like that made Lovino want to get up and kiss him until he felt better. "Maybe they are."

"Our mama probably would have been good friends with yours. She loved painting and she loved flowers," Feliciano babbled happily.

He frowned. His little brother had never met their mother and he had no right to speak as if he knew her. "Feliciano," he said warning and nudge his brother with his foot.

"Ah, sorry." Feliciano caught sight of Arthur's confused expression. "Lovino doesn't like it when I talk about Mama like that. Grandpa spoke about her so much around me, I feel like I know her. He was heartbroken when she died."

"Enough about her, you're going to make yourself sad," said Lovino, almost gently, and set the violin in its case. He stood up slowly and stepped around his brother. The urge to read something pushed itself to his attention, or maybe it was the urge to get away of this talk of dead loved ones. Lovino wandered the tall shelves, searching for anything that could possibly hold his interest and help him forget the uncomfortable conversation.

Dust clung to every shelf and the scent of paper hung heavily in the air around him as he made his way up the spiral stair case to the second floor of the library. He heard soft footsteps on the thick carpeting and Lovino turned quickly to find Arthur standing behind him. Green eyes held him in their depths and he didn't dare move or breathe.

"Do you need help finding something?" Arthur stepped towards him slowly, as if he expected Lovino to bolt.

He mentally shook himself and glanced around at the shelves around him. "Yes, this library is so damn big, I doubt I could find my way back. How did you mother get so many books?"

"She emptied the library in England and had a good deal of it moved here." The blond smiled at him. Arthur really had a nice smile. "What do you like to read?"

"Do you have anything by Ovid? I'm sure you do, but I have no clue where it would be."

"You've read Ovid?" Arthur looked happily impressed.

"I like the old Roman and Greek epics." He flushed. It wasn't often he'd spoken of books. Lovino hardly read anymore, but he remember fond evenings by the fire, watching words transform from ink into living creatures and people. "Everyone is human in them, even the gods."

Arthur tilted his head slightly. "Human? I don't believe I follow."

"The gods are vulnerable to love, lust, jealousy, anger—human feelings. It makes them more real than our current, all-knowing God."

"You speak as if God is just a fad. I thought you said your family was close with the church." Arthur led him back down the stairs.

"I told you before, Feliciano is the religious one. I believe God is a sadist."

"Is it not Satan that is the sadist?"

"Are they not the same?"

"Such talk could be considered blasphemous." Arthur ran his fingers over the spines of books until they came to a stop. "English or Latin?"

"Latin?"

"You can read Latin?" The blond stared at him in obvious astonishment.

"You can't?" Lovino allowed a smile to tug at his lips.

"No, I've always wanted to read the original texts, though. I've tried to learn once or twice, but, being the youngest in a family with four other children, Father didn't consider it necessary to hire a tutor to teach me Latin." Arthur moved his hand down and pulled out a old, leather-bound book.

"I can read all the old epics in their original language. My tutor was a pretty, Greek woman. She loved any excuse to speak Greek and Latin or read it." Lovino took the book from Arthur, and flipped through the pages. "I wonder if I still remember it, though..."

Grief gripped his heart as he stared at the letters on the pages and realized they made no sense. All those hot afternoons under the cool, shade trees with his old tutor seemed for waste now.

"Are you alright, Lovino?" The worry in Arthur's voice made him feel worse.

"I'm fine. I just forget how long six years is." Lovino thought back and he could hear his tutor's patient voice reading the page in front of him. That voice explained the meaning of words and structures of the sentences to him just as she had so many years ago. "But I think I can remember."

"If you can still read that, I will be very much impressed."

"I'm surprised I'm not fucking illiterate by now, but I can't disgrace my tutor by forgetting her lessons so easily." He walked back through the maze of shelves.

"It sounds as if you respect her even now." The blond followed behind him.

"I do. She was the mother I never had. Grandpa was no parent to me and most people didn't like me anyway. Very few people had the courage to befriend the Master's next in line grandson," Lovino said without much feeling. "Signorina Karpusi was never one for lack of courage, though."

"Tell me more about her." Arthur walked beside him, green eyes watching him closely.

He smiled. Lovino hadn't thought of Signorina Karpusi in years, but, oh, how he missed her. "Well, for one, that woman believed in the Greek gods and snubbed our own God, like He was a poisonous snake. She was a smart woman, far more intelligent than most men, but she was the leisurely type. Nothing was more important than reading and learning to her, and anything—or anyone—could wait.

"My grandfather was in love with her. During her lessons was the most I saw of my grandfather some days, if he found the time to come." Lovino walked back out to where Feliciano had been, although his brother was strangely missing now. "I like that he was there, but I hated that he interrupted her so much to ask questions. Once, she got so annoyed with him that she told him to go away so she could teach her only competent student." Lovino chuckled at this and smiled smugly. "That made Grandpa mad at me, but it was worth it."

"Why would he get mad at you?" Arthur sat in his chair.

"She liked me better than him. Signorina Karpusi was a woman meant to care for children, not grown men. Grandpa knew that, but he still wanted her attention." He scoffed and sat into the chair he previously occupied. "It's not like he didn't already get enough of that in the bedroom without encroaching on my time with her."

"They were lovers?"

Lovino grimaced. "You could say our old home had many ghosts."

The Englishman laughed. "I see."

"Yeah, Grandpa loved to play around with women. Signorina Karpusi would compare him to Zeus by the way he chased ladies." Lovino remember the way his grandfather took different women to his room every night. Signorina Karpusi and Signorina Hassan were the only exceptions to his grandfather's long string of faceless whores and maids. He enjoyed those two women more than all the others combined. "His love for women was so annoying."

"I thought he loved Ms. Karpusi. Why were there other women?"

"The same reason Zeus played with the nymphs instead of his wife. Grandpa was a man who rule over everyone and got what he wanted, when he wanted." His fingers hesitated to open the book again. "Where did Feliciano go?"

Just as Lovino asked, Feliciano came bouncing through the door. In his hand, the boy munched on a thick slice of bread. Lovino saw his brother and frowned. "Were you hungry?"

"I just wanted a snack," Feliciano replied cheerfully, tearing off a bit and handing it to his brother.

Lovino accepted it without complaint and ate it silently. His younger brother smiled happily and squirmed his way into the chair with Lovino.

"Get off. We can't both fit in this chair," grumbled Lovino.

"Yes, we can." Feliciano wiggled, sitting mostly on Lovino.

"You're heavy." He held the book aloof, so Feliciano wouldn't sit on it.

"What are you reading? Will you read to me?"

He glanced up and found Arthur staring at him in a mixture of amusement and contentment. Lovino flushed and looked away from Arthur's smile.

"Lovi," Feliciano whined, "Read to me."

"You won't like this book."

"I don't mind."

"It's in Latin and I won't translate."

"I bet I can still understand it."

A sigh escaped his chest and he opened the book in defeat. Feliciano leaned against him in anticipation. Slowly, he began reading, taking time to remember the long forgotten language. Lovino could feel the eyes of Arthur on him, or perhaps it was just his oversensitive imagination playing trick on him, but he continued to read in spite of the slight blush spreading across his cheeks. Lovino soon became lost in the wonderfully gruesome tales of Ovid. He followed poor servants through the labyrinth of Crete and fell with Icarus as he flailed his featherless arms.

Lovino finally grew tired of reading and when he closed the book and looked up, both Arthur and Feliciano had fallen asleep. Feliciano used him as a pillow, but Arthur slouched in his chair and partly used his arm to prop himself up; it looked uncomfortable.

Carefully working his arms around Feliciano, Lovino moved his brother to one of the large couches and put a blanket over him. Feliciano barely opened an eye at the movement and went right back to sleep. As for Arthur, he carefully maneuvered a cushion under Arthur's head and spread a blanket over his lap.

With everyone asleep, he was left to his own devices. Lovino went into Arthur's room and put on one of Arthur's thick coats and a pair of his boots. Going back to the library to check on his sleeping brother and lover once more, he slipped out of the house and crunched across the snow covered ground.

Snow blanketed everything—all the trees and buildings. It was strange to see Arthur's estate, once so green, now white with the first snow of winter. Lovino smiled at the beautiful sight, warm despite the cold around him. He could only wish Feliciano and Arthur were with him, but seeing the silent landscape alone had its own peaceful charm. Bending down, he scooped up a handful of snow and threw it in the air. The smile dropped from his lips as he remember the reason he came out.

Tromping onward, Lovino went to the stable, the snow around him losing its previous luster. Inside the stable, the two horses knickered a greeting at him. Knowing Mint would give him trouble if he tried to saddle her on this cold day, Lovino brought out the older, milder gelding that merely snuffled his hand when he led him out.

The gelding shuffled his feet as Lovino opened the stable doors, reluctant to go into the cold. He pulled the horse out, closing the doors again, mounted the horse and set off at a brisk walk. Lovino could only hope he could get to town and back before Arthur or Feliciano woke and found him gone.

New chapter. I may take a little break in writing for this, just to finish it up and maybe work on some other stories. Don't be surprised if this doesn't update for a little while. I hope this is still holding everyone's interest and I'm not over doing it on the drama part. Enjoy reading.

-Windy