It's another Monday, guys. Oh, have a good April Fool's day tomorrow. Don't be a jerk to anyone. Harmless pranks are okay though. Also, SOPA's back again. I'm sure you know the drill by now. Find the petition and sign it. Deadline is April 13th.
Lovino was the first one in the house and he rushed inside then went to go look for his brother, shoving anyone who got in front of him out of the way.
"How is he Ludwig-san…?" Kiku asked the German vampire as he looked around the room.
Ludwig sighed as he put a piece of a broken pot in a garbage bag and said, "He's still stressed… He's currently in his room right now as a wolf and hiding under the bed…. Arthur's spell helped get him here, but he flipped out when it ended…"
"What happened to that pot?" Antonio asked, deciding it would probably be better to leave Lovino and Feliciano alone, not wanting to upset the younger of the two more than he already was. "Did you drop it or something?"
Ludwig shook his head. "Nein. Feliciano suddenly came too quicker than we though and knocked it off that stand. I'm just cleaning it up before anyone gets hurt from it."
"Ah. I see."
"Did you find out the cause of why Feliciano is acting like this?"
"Si. Do you remember that girl from the dance that flirted with you and hit Feli?" Antonio asked.
Ludwig frowned and nodded. "Ja."
"It was her fault. She got a few people to stalk Feliciano around with her."
"….. I see. I'll have to have a talk with her soon."
Meanwhile, Lovino managed to follow the scent of his brother all the way to Feliciano's room and slipped inside.
As Ludwig had said, Feliciano was in his wolf form and hiding under his bed, whimpering softly as his wide, frightened eyes darted around, looking for anything he could deem suspicious.
"Feli….?" Lovino softly said as he carefully moved closer then knelt down in front of the bed. "It's just me, dammit… Lovino? Your fratellone?"
Feliciano sniffed the air, catching his twin's scent. Before Lovino could move or try to tempt him out, Feliciano's head shot out, his jaws clamping into the other's collar, then yanked him under the bed, curling up around his brother protectively. Now that Lovino was touching him, he could feel the slight trembles running through the younger's body.
Lovino sighed as he gently started petting Feliciano's head and back. "We can't stay under here forever, dumbass. Going to come out at some time."
The wolf growled softly, disagreeing. Feliciano was perfectly happy with the idea of never again leaving the safe haven that was the underside of his bed. And he was content to keep his brother with him. ONLY his brother.
"... You want some pasta, Feli? You have to be hungry."
There was a soft whimper from the younger. He was hungry, but he didn't want to risk leaving his room and being ambushed.
Lovino sighed, then looked Feliciano in the eyes and said, "Do you trust me? You KNOW I wouldn't let some bastard attack you. Just come out to eat and you can come back in here for the rest of the day if you want to."
After a few more moments of hesitation, Feliciano slowly moved out from under the bed, his tail curled under him. He trembled, waiting for Lovino, his fur on end as he looked around his own room, not trusting that something wouldn't pop out of nowhere.
Lovino carefully pulled himself out and stood up. Then, while placing a hand on Feliciano's back, he started leading the wolf out of his room and down the stairs.
The wolf padded silently through the house, his ears perked for any out of place noise, his eyes continuing to dart about. He was only as still as he was thanks to the reassuring hand of his alpha on his fur, guiding him.
Finally, Lovino managed to get Feliciano downstairs and into the kitchen without any problem and without anyone coming up to the two. Looking down at Feliciano, he said, "I'm going to take my hand off your back to start cooking. That okay with you?"
Feliciano fur stood on end, signaling that no, it was very much NOT okay.
Lovino sighed . "I can't cook with one damn hand…."
The younger twin trembled.
Lovino sighed again. "Feliciano… Please…"
Whimpering, Feliciano shot away from his twin and under the breakfast table, crouching low to the ground and continuing to tremble, his eyes wide and watchful. He looked around carefully for anything that could be even slightly threatening to his brother or himself.
Lovino watched and rubbed his forehead then started cooking, hoping to get it done quickly to help Feliciano calm down.
Antonio, Ludwig, and Kiku had moved quickly out of site before Lovino and Feliciano came downstairs. They emerged from their hiding spots and took seats in the living room. "Do you think Yao will be able to help him?" Antonio asked. "Do you know how much longer it'll be until he gets here?"
"I'm not sure, Antonio-san," Kiku answered. "He said he had a few orders to fill first. He sounded quite hurried when I spoke to him on the phone."
"I hope he can help," Antonio said. "I wish we could do something for him right now that wouldn't freak him out..."
"Ja….." Ludwig mumbled as he glanced towards the kitchen.
"I'm am very sorry… I wish I could do more to help," Kiku softly said.
Antonio lightly patted the Japanese teen's shoulder. "It's okay, Kiku. We've done what we can for now. Hopefully, Yao will have the answers we need."
Kiku nodded in reply. "I hope so…."
Back in the kitchen Lovino was in the process of making the sauce as the pasta cooked while at the same time trying to make small talk (keyword – TRYING to) to put his brother at ease.
Even though Feliciano didn't seem to really be paying attention to the actual words his brother spoke, it seemed Lovino's calm and gentle tone was having a positive affect as the werewolf's fur had soothed out and his trembles had lessened.
Lovino continued doing this until the food was cooked and cooled enough for Lovino to put on a plate then hold it out to his brother. "Going to have to come out here to eat. I'll make sure no bastards come in here while you do."
Very, very, very slowly, Feliciano crept out from under the table and approached his twin, sniffing at the plate.
When Feliciano was out of the table enough that Lovino deemed acceptable, he set the plate down in front of Feliciano. "Here."
Padding up to the plate, Feliciano finally lowered his head from his constant vigilance and licked the tomato sauce. Liking it, he began to take small bites, eating the pasta his twin had made for him, though he looked ready to jump away in a moments notice.
Lovino carefully sat down near him while leaning his back against the counter-top.
Feliciano ate quickly, not wanting to be vulnerable for to long. Licking the sauce from his muzzle, he bolted behind Lovino, somehow managing to squish himself behind his twin's back and the counter, his eyes quickly scanning the room for threats that might have appeared while he was eating.
"You… You want to go back upstairs now...?" Lovino asked as he glanced back at Feliciano.
The wolf nodded, glaring suspiciously at a dark corner on the opposite side of the room.
Lovino moved between Feliciano and the corner. "There. Now it can't fucking get you this way," He said as he put his hand on Feliciano's back again. "Let's head back upstairs now."
The younger of the two relaxed instantly under Lovino's touch, nodding again.
Lovino did his own check around to make sure that no one was near them, then led Feliciano back upstairs and didn't remove his hand until they were back in Feliciano's room and Lovino had closed the door behind them.
Feliciano roamed around his room, sniffing for intruders or anything suspicious.
Lovino sat down on the bed and watched.
Deciding the room was safe, Feliciano jumped up onto the bed at his twin's side and curled up, resting his head in Lovino's lap.
Lovino sighed as he leaned back, beginning to pet Feliciano's head. "Get some sleep. I'll keep watch for you." Then he watched and waited for the wolf to fall asleep.
"Feliciano….? You want to try to paint something?" Lovino asked as he held up some papers and brushes. "Damn things might help you feel better."
It was two weeks after everyone had found out what was wrong with Feliciano. Romulus had had to call the brothers in for three days the first week because Feliciano refused to return to his human form and Lovino didn't want to leave him. On the fourth day, Feliciano finally changed back and Lovino went to school, though Feliciano stayed home, still to twitchy and paranoid to be able to go back yet.
Feliciano stared at his brother silent for a moment, then slowly reached out and took the offered supplies. They were in the living room, Romulus out at work. Laying out the paper on the table, Feliciano sat on a pillow on the floor and began to paint, his brush sliding smoothly around the page.
Lovino bit his lip as he watched. He wanted to ask his brother to say something... anything at all… but he also didn't want to push him. So the elder twin settled for trying to paint too only to mess up on the daisy he was trying to paint, causing it to look lopsided and like a child had painted it. "Shit… Fucking flower and paint…" he growled.
The younger of the two turned and saw his brother having trouble. He stood up, set his paints on the table, then moved to Lovino's side and sat down, gently taking his hand. He kept the paint brush in the elder boy's hand, dipped it into the paint, then slowly began to make brush strokes on the page, silently helping Lovino fix the mistake. When it was done, he let go.
Lovino blinked as he looked between the paper, paints, and his brother then mumbled, "Thanks…"
For the first time in far to long, Feliciano spoke. "You're welcome." Then he stood up and left the room.
"Hey, Feliciano! Hand over the tomatoes, dammit!" Lovino called over to his brother while holding out his hand, keeping his eyes on the rest of the sauce he was fixing. "I need them now!"
It was now a week into April, April Fool's Day having been unanimously voted against as Feliciano was still recovering and no one wanted to accidentally trigger a relapse. The Italian was definitely doing better. He spoke more, he could stand near people again, and he had been back in school for four days and counting now.
Currently, he was assisting his twin in helping to make dinner before their grandfather got home. He took a couple of tomatoes from the bowl and set them into Lovino's awaiting hand.
"Here..." he mumbled, not looking at his brother's face.
"Grazie," Lovino answered as he took them and cut them up and then added them in. "You want to take over stirring? I need to check on the damn bread."
Taking Lovino's spot, Feliciano stirred the sauce while he went to check on the bread. Feliciano watched the bubbling red pasta topping quietly, not having anything to say.
"How's the damn sauce smell? Think it needs anything else added?" Lovino asked as he peeked into the oven then turned it off and removed the trays to let them cool.
"It's fine..."
Lovino nodded as he headed into the pantry to grab some more olive oil. However, unfortunately for him, he couldn't find it at all until he saw part of it peeking out behind a large bag of flour. So, cursing to himself, Lovino reached up to move it out of the way only to lose his grip on it at the last second, causing the bag to tumble down and cover him from head to toe in white as he let out a loud yelp, cursing in surprise.
Feliciano had seen the entire incident. As Lovino began to brush himself off, he heard a sound that had been absent for almost an entire month.
His brother's laughter.
Lovino paused in brushing himself off and quiet cursing as he listened and tried to process the sound, then slowly glanced around to look back at Feliciano.
A bright smile was on the younger brother's face and he stirred the sauce, looking much happier than he had in a long while.
After a long day of school the two were currently headed to do some grocery shopping for the house since Romulus was going to be busy all week and wasn't going to have any time to do it himself. "Fucking nonno! Why the hell do we have to do this shit?!" Lovino complained as he tightly griped the steering wheel. "This is HIS fucking fault! He SO fucking owes us for doing this shit!"
"It's just shopping," Feliciano pointed out. "We'll be done in a few minutes then we can go home." He looked out the window at the passing town. He was almost completely back to normal. There was only one more thing that needed to happen before he could be declared cured.
Lovino scoffed in reply and 'tsked'. "You know what always fucking happens? We go there. We almost get done, then, at the very last fucking second, that old man calls us and adds even more shit to the list because he fucking forgot it!"
"Better than having him call right after we check out or as we're walking out of the store."
"Or he COULD just not fucking call at all."
"That too." Lovino pulled into the parking lot and shut off the car, then the two got out and walked into the store and began shopping.
"So what's on the damn list again?" Lovino asked as he forced his brother to push the cart while he put his keys in his pocket.
"Same stuff as usual," Feliciano said, starting to push the cart down an aisle.
"So why's there a fucking list then?" Lovino grumbled.
"Out of habit of making one, I suppose." Grabbing a few things and putting them in the basket, the brothers rounded the corner and went down next aisle. "More like a check list, really. Just to be sure that we did grab what we need since it seems like we always forget if we're out of something or not so the list only has the things we're out of, or running out of."
"….. Bastard can still do the damn work himself. It's not that fucking hard to do…."
Feliciano stayed silent this time.
Finally, the two made it through shopping and getting everything on the list without a single phone call then headed back to the car together.
Putting all the groceries they had bought into the truck, the boys got back into the car. Starting the engine, Lovino pulled out of the lot and began to drive back towards their home. Feliciano leaned against the door, watching out the window at the passing scene.
"Anything you want to do tonight, dumbass?" Lovino asked as he started fiddling with the radio.
"... Will you watch a movie with me?" Feliciano requested softly.
Lovino glanced at Feliciano and nodded with a groan. "I will, dammit… But… Don't you DARE pick some fucking girly movie or some other shit. Got that?"
"I was thinking a Pixar movie... Maybe Dreamworks..."
Lovino shrugged in reply as he pulled into the driveway and started getting out after shutting off the car. "Fine. Guess we can. You pick it then."
After putting away the groceries, the brothers went into the living room and Feliciano slid a DVD into the player, then sat on the couch beside Lovino. The movie he had chosen was Up, one of his all time favorites.
"Just don't make any of those damn 'squirrel!' comments," Lovino grumbled with a eye roll as the movie started, settling down to watch.
As the movie started, Feliciano slowly let himself slip sideways until he was leaning on his twin.
Lovino glanced at his brother and grumbled quietly, but moved Feliciano around so they were almost cuddling. "Now stay like that, dammit. And no bitching about it."
Feliciano's eyes widened slightly, then a soft smile formed on his face and he settled down, relaxing against him. "Veh~," he breathed for the first time since the entire ordeal began. And finally, the Italian was healed.