That evening, when Antonio returned to the coffee shop, he saw that it was closed and locked up and everything, and standing in front of it was Lovino, rubbing his hands together and stamping his feet, little clouds of breath emanating from his lips.
"Were you.. waiting for me?" Antonio asked, surprised, but also quite pleased.
"No! I was just… standing. Nothing to do with you!"
Antonio grinned. "You were totally waiting for me. And you even closed the shop early." He nodded towards the dark interior of the shop behind Lovino.
"There was no one there," Lovino argued. "Why shouldn't I close it?"
Antonio laughed. "Come on," he said. "Let's go." He took Lovino's hand and started to walk. Lovino tried to tug his hand away, but Antonio held fast.
"Your hands are freezing," he realized.
"Maybe they wouldn't have been if you hadn't kept me waiting so long!" Lovino snapped.
"So you admit you were waiting for me?"
"I- I didn't say that!" Lovino protested.
"Yeah, you just did."
"You heard me wrong."
"Fine, fine, whatever. But your hands are like ice- here, let me warm them up." Antonio took Lovino's hand and lifted it to his lips,
blowing on Lovino's fingers. "That better?"
"D-Don't do that!" Lovino cried, wrenching his hand out of Antonio's and thrust it into his pocket.
"Do what?"
"Th-I-You-" Lovino stammered, and then stopped, shaking his hand. "Forget about it. Never mind."
"Alright," Antonio said, a little confused, but he decided to just go with it. "It's this way, right? To the park?" He pointed to the alley that he and Lovino had gone through a couple days earlier.
"Yeah. Don't slip this time." Lovino swiftly passed Antonio and swept into the alley. Antonio followed and within seconds lost sight of Lovino and all that was around him. He walked slowly, daintily, trying to feel the ground with the tip of his shoe before he placed his whole weight on it, so that he wouldn't slip on ice as he had the other day.
Finally they made it through and Antonio was relieved to see light again. They walked side by side, in silence, and just as they passed the small Chinese chippy they heard a woman's scream. Antonio froze, panicked.
"Stay here," he heard Lovino command him, but he couldn't process the words. Lovino ran off and he felt a hot, wet feeling inside his stomach, not knowing what to do, mouthing the words Lovino had said and thinking them, one by one. By the time he realized what Lovino had said, Lovino had already darted back, supporting a teenage girl of about seventeen. Antonio stared, frozen, not knowing what to do.
"Take her in there," he heard Lovino say, pointing to the Chinese place, the words rushing and tripping over each other. Lovino looked over his shoulder and Antonio looked too; he could see a gang of white boys running out of the alley, shouting at Lovino. Lovino turned back to him and Antonio focused on him, his eyes, his lips, the curve of his face, and he felt somewhat calmed. "Call the police," Lovino said. He thrust the girl into Antonio's arms.
"What about you?" Antonio's words felt sluggish, lazy, sloshing around in his mouth. He nodded at the advancing horde.
Lovino grinned and turned away, patting his back pocket, and Antonio remembered the pepper spray. He nodded curtly and ran off.
Antonio placed the girl gingerly on one of the tables in the Chinese restaurant.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I- I'll be fine." she said shakily.
"I'm going to call the police now. Did they hurt you? Do you need an ambulance?"
She shook her head, then leaned over the edge of the table and threw up. Antonio held her hair back for her as he got his phone out of his pocket. He found a wadded tissue in the depths of his pocket and got it out for her to wipe her mouth with.
"I- I knew him," she said, a little unsteadily, after she was finished. "He sits behind me in English class- always seemed nice, I.." she shivered and hugged herself. Antonio finished dialing the police and told them the address and what had happened.
"Can you watch over her? Make sure no one comes in?" he asked the stunned person behind the counter. They nodded. A man stepped out from behind him, a wok hefted over his shoulder, his long black hair pulled back into a ponytail.
"I'll take care of her," the man said, stepping into a fighting stance. Antonio nodded his thanks and ran out the door.
Lovino and the gang were no where in sight. As Antonio stepped forward, looking around frantically, he heard something crunch under his shoe. He lifted his foot and looked down.
Below him was Lovino's can of pepper spray, dented and crushed, lying on the asphalt.
"Lovino!" Antonio yelled. He ran around for a while, looking desperately. He heard laughter coming from a nearby alleyway and he crept towards it. He peeked around the corner of the alley, craning his neck, and saw Lovino, on his knees, surrounded by the gang. One of them was holding Lovino's arms behind his back, above his head, another stood directly in front of Lovino.
"Take his shirt off," the boy standing in front of Lovino commanded. One of the other ones watching bent down and pulled the hem of Lovino's shirt up, but couldn't take it off entirely without letting go of Lovino's arms, so he bunched it up over Lovino's neck.
"If you hold his hair back he looks kind of like a girl," another commented, and the one in front of him grabbed a hunk of Lovino's bangs and twisted Lovino's face up. Lovino wasn't struggling or protesting, in fact, no emotion was visible in his face. It was completely blank.
"Damn, you're right," the one in front of him muttered. "Shit, this is getting me hard." He released Lovino's hair and Lovino's head fell forward. With a jolt, Antonio saw that the boy in front of Lovino had let go of him so that he could unzip his own pants. He took out his cock and shook it in front of Lovino.
"Suck it," he said. The others chortled. "Go on, suck it! Suck my dick, you fucking fag!" the boy yelled. Lovino lifted his head slowly, his face still blank. Antonio opened his mouth to yell and got ready to charge, to fight, but Lovino caught his eye and gave a tiny, almost imperceptible shake of the head. Antonio didn't want to just stand there, but Lovino obviously had something up his sleeve.
He decided to stand by and wait, in case something went wrong.
The boy in front of Lovino was still yelling obscenities at him, the others joining in too. Lovino bent forward and kissed the tip of the boy's cock lightly and the others racked in laughter, holding their stomachs.
"Yeah, that's right," the boy sneered. "You like that, don't you, you little cunt." Lovino said nothing and opened his mouth wide and leaned further, his mouth around the shaft. And then he bit down. Hard.
The boy squealed in pain as Lovino ground his teeth into him and clawed at Lovino's face, trying to push him away, but Lovino held tight and the boy's efforts to move Lovino only made his teeth scrape down his length and cause more pain.
"Someone stop him!" he shrieked, as his other gang members watched, stunned. Antonio bit back a laugh. Finally one of the gang members successfully pulled Lovino off of the boy. Lovino spit out blood and what Antonio could see of the boy's cock was bloody and mutilated. He clutched his crotch and cried out in pain. Lovino laughed and started to stand up, but then one of the other gang members grabbed him and forced him face-down to the ground, one foot on his back, one hand twisting Lovino's arms behind his back.
"No one does that to Big D," he growled.
"Not so Big D anymore," Lovino laughed, but his laugh turned into a groan of pain as the gang member twisted his arms further.
Another placed his boot on Lovino's head and ground it into the concrete and Lovino cried out in pain, his voice muffled.
"I say we teach him a lesson," the one holding his arms proclaimed. The others nodded in approval and one got up and got behind Lovino, tugging at the waistband of his jeans. Lovino made a frantic noise and he kicked out with his legs, struggling against the grip on his arms, but the person behind him just sat down on his legs, stopping their movement. He started unbuckling his own belt, and it was only then that Antonio realized what was happening, that they were going to rape Lovino and he had to stop them… but he couldn't, he couldn't- he had a deathly fear of fighting, of hurting another human being. Violence made him feel sick, and yet there was nothing else he could do, it would take a couple more minutes at the least for the police to get there… he felt like he was going to throw up, felt dizzy and he had to lean against the wall and take deep breaths. But then he realized how Lovino must be feeling, how much more scary this must be for him, and the thought of Lovino hurt and afraid gave Antonio the strength he needed.
Lovino's screams became more fervent, shriller, more desperate and Antonio heard one of them say, "Me next," before he charged into the alleyway.
Antonio grabbed the shoulders of the boy, now attempting to spread Lovino's legs, which were still kicking as furiously as they could, and pulled him off of Lovino, slamming his head into the wall once, twice, three times, then let go and watched him fall to the ground, a spot of blood on the wall. The one holding Lovino's arms dropped them and backed away, but Antonio got to him first, landing a hook kick on the back of his knees, causing him to tumble to the ground. Antonio shoved the one standing on Lovino's head off of him and punched him square in the face. The boy aimed a punch at Antonio but he ducked and headbutted him in his stomach, grabbing the boy's shoulders and throwing him aside. Antonio watched as the others started to run and held out a hand to help Lovino up, but
Lovino got up by himself, pulling his pants back up from where they had been tugged halfway down to his knees.
"You okay?" Antonio asked.
"Yeah. Watch out."
"Huh?" Antonio looked around just in time to see the one that had held Lovino's arms coming at them with a knife. "Lovi-" he started to say, for the boy was coming right at him, but Lovino ducked and kicked the knife out of his hand, catching it as it fell. In an instant, he whirled back up and held it to his throat.
"Now," Lovino grinned evilly. "Take off your pants." The boy didn't move, frozen by fear, and Lovino bent down and pulled his pants and underwear down to his ankles. "My," he said, gazing downwards. "Not very big, is it?" The boy whimpered. "If a bit of it went missing, you'd hardly notice," Lovino taunted. Tears started to dribble out the corners of the boy's eyes and down his cheeks, his chin shaking. In a flash, Lovino reached down and grabbed the boy's penis and in one swoop of the knife, he cut it clean off. The boy cried out in pain and reached out, but Lovino smacked his hands away.
"Don't you dare touch anyone without their permission ever again. You got that?"The boy nodded quickly.
"Good. Here's your dick back. If you're lucky, maybe they'll be able to stitch it back on." Lovino shoved the boy's severed penis into his hands and started to walk away. Astonished at what he had just saw, Antonio hurried and followed.
"Don't you think you went a little far?" Antonio asked, as they walked.
"No. He deserved it."
"Yeah, but… you cut his dick off."
"Glad to see your skills of deduction are up to speed."
Antonio didn't know how to answer that. "Where actually are we going?" he asked, a little scared of Lovino.
"The park. Wasn't that where you wanted to go?"
"Yeah, but it's almost ten.. and are you sure you're okay? I don't think it's wise to stay out much longer, they or another gang might come back. Shouldn't we just go to your pl-"
"No. We're not going to my place. If you don't want to come to the park with me, fine. I'll just sit there by myself." Lovino said stubbornly.
"Don't be outside at this time of night, alone! Look at what almost happened- if you really don't want to go to your place, then come to my dorm!" Antonio protested. He laid a hand on Lovino's shoulder and was amazed to see that he was shaking, trembling. "Look, you're still shaking! I don't care what you say, I'm taking you back to my place."
Lovino smacked his hand away. "I don't need your help," he said angrily, but he was still trembling visibly, and it was warm enough that Antonio could tell it wasn't from the cold.
Antonio softened. "I'm sorry," he said, pulling Lovino into his arms. "It must have been so scary for you."
"I said I'm fine! Let me go!" Lovino struggled furiously and Antonio released Lovino, stepping back reluctantly.
"Why don't we go back to my dorm?" he asked one more time. Lovino didn't answer. "C'mon," Antonio said again, offering his hand.
"Let's go." He saw Lovino lift his hand, hesitating, hovering over Antonio's outstretched one. Then he wavered and stuck his hand in his pocket, looking away.
"Fine," he mumbled. "Let's go."