AN: Here's the new chapter.

So, those states? Yeah..I got most of them done. I nearly fell asleep on the computer last night. I was so exhausted. Then tonight's my big brother's, as well as about half of my group's, graduation. I wanna go see it, but I dunno if I'll be able to. I'm gunna miss them!

On a side note, I told America this morning that I hated her states and her response was 'then let them be hated'. Real nice. But still, I understand. With all that's happened recently? Yeah, I understand it.

Anyways..

To those who reviewed:

Spamano4ever: I know, right? It's interesting to watch people do that.

LaniKat84: Yeah. I know, I didn't start Glee until my Route 85 year - second eighth grade year - when Mr. Carter got me hooked on the music, and I started watching the show. On..the first episode with the Warblers - Never Been Kissed. And that does sound quite scary.

Enjoy.

A broken cry filled the silence. Lovino blinked his eyes open tiredly at the sound, looking around for the source of it. When the light flickered on, it alerted him to the fact that the others were awake, too. He finally realized who it was when he looked over at Raivis and Toris. Raivis was sitting up, running his fingers through Toris's hair softly. He got up and disappeared into the kitchen for a moment, coming back with a mug of warm chamomile tea. He sat down in front of Raivis and Toris carefully. "Tor?"he asked quietly.

When Toris's eyes opened, Lovino noticed that the pupil had canceled out all the colour in his eyes.

"What was it this time?"Lovino asked softly.

Toris shook his head, allowing Raivis to help him sit up. Lovino offered him the mug, which he accepted and gave a faint smile. He met Lovino's eyes then. That was all that he needed to do. No words were needed.

Raivis sighed, giving Toris a tight hug. "We aren't going to let you get hurt again!"he mumbled into Toris's shoulder.

Toris set the mug down, shifting slightly so he could hug Raivis back before pushing him away slightly. "I know."he said softly.

"But it isn't enough to stop the memories and nightmares."Lovino finished.

Toris nodded.

Antonio managed a faint smile at seeing this interaction. While he knew the three had gone through Hell with the mafia, he also knew they were all strong. And that they depended on each other to stay together. They understood each other in a way that nobody else in the group shared. It was much deeper than normal friendship. It was a lot more trusting and loyal. They acted like brothers. All three of them. They cared for one another.

The following morning, everyone sat in silence. At least until Lovino managed to drop a tray he was carrying to set on the coffee table, making the contents on it shatter. He flinched back from the loud shattering, but immediately kneeled down to pick the shattered glass up from the floor.

Toris rolled his eyes and got up, disappearing for a moment before he came back with a roll of multi-coloured duct tape, kneeling beside Lovino and pushing his hands away. "Go put that away somewhere, we'll see what we can do with it later."he said.

Lovino nodded, getting up carefully and going to deposit the glass shards onto the kitchen table.

Toris set about working on the small splinters of glass, easily cleaning it up with the tape he'd grabbed before getting the tray up and taking the items into the kitchen.

As soon as the mess was clean, Toris stopped in front of Lovino, who'd moved to sit in the living room. "Let me see your hands."he said softly, kneeling down in front of the chair.

Lovino huffed, but held his hands out anyways.

Toris was careful as he examined them. He stopped when he found a single cut going around Lovino's left hand. It went about halfway across the palm and around. "You really need to wear gloves when you're handling broken glass, Lovino."he murmured.

Raivis sighed, disappearing and bringing Toris back a first aid kit without being asked, allowing the Lithuanian to be able to doctor Lovino's hand.

Antonio watched this in amazement. He'd never seen a group who worked so well together like these three did.

When Toris was finished, he put the kit up and Lovino rolled his eyes.

Raivis spoke softly. "You flinched when you dropped the tray."he pointed out.

Toris re-entered just then and looked to Lovino.

Lovino shrugged. "Did you not hear how fucking loud it was? Of course I flinched! I didn't expect it to be loud like that!"he said in his defense, but Raivis raised an eyebrow like he didn't believe Lovino's story.

"Uh-huh. So it has nothing to do with what happened the last time you dropped something glass?"

Lovino's eyes went to his hands, folded in his lap.

Antonio sighed. "Another thing with the Mafia?"

Toris nodded. "The one day we thought we'd all avoided trouble with them. Lovino got tore up pretty bad that day. From the glass and the...well.."

Antonio nodded. He wasn't happy about this.

Lovino shook his head and got up. "I need to get ready for work."he mumbled, leaving the room.

Antonio's eyes dimmed in concern.

Raivis noticed and spoke. "He'll be alright. It's just..it's all a really touchy subject for him. Out of us three, he caught the worst of it. He was trying to protect Feli by doing it and then he tried to protect Tor and me when we could get into a lot of trouble by taking the blame on himself."

"He's loyal."Toris said softly. "Don't screw him over, Antonio. Please don't. He needs someone who's willing to fight for him the same way he's fought for everyone else. I'm hoping that person is you."

Antonio half smiled. "I'd never screw him over."he promised. "Not if my life depended on it."

Gilbert rolled his eyes, but he was glad to hear it. He was close with Lovino. He wanted what was best for his friend as well.

They just had to figure out how to work together to get there.

Here. Just so you know, I had a Biologie and Deutsch final exam today. That's it. And it was my last day of Schule! I am so happy about it. By the way, I need to figure out a way to do this: I want to complete this career pathway at my school - foreign languages. We have German and Spanish. I want to do it. But..I have two years left. I want to take Deutsch Drei (3) und Spanisch eins, zwei, drei und vier. But I don't know how. Any advice would be wunderbar! Danke ahead of time!