|A/N| And it begins. This chapter has gone through so many different changes that it's not funny, but I finally wrote it in a way that I like.

In other news, I am finally on break for the summer. As a result, I will have more time to write and I will try to keep my updates on track, so expect a regular output of content!

M'kay, enough of my pointless chatter. Enjoy!

January 31, 2016

Florence, Italy

"Hey, brat, you got a visitor."

Lovino sat up on the ratty old cot, using his elbows as crutches to keep him from falling backwards. Feliciano smiled at him from beyond the metal bars keeping them apart, giving his older brother a little wave in greeting before turning to the officer who stood behind him. "Can my brother and I get some alone time, please?" Feliciano asked, sweetly, giving the guard a closed-eyed smile.

The guard rolled his eyes, turning away and making a show of patting the gun on his hip. "Alright, but no funny business. Or this baby is the last thing you both see." With that one threat left hanging in the air, the guard left.

Feliciano opened his eyes and turned his attention back to his older brother as soon as the guard disappeared. His smile had melted away, a sure sign that he was going to go into his rare "lecture" mode. "You can't keep doing this, Lovi." Feliciano began, ignoring the eye roll Lovino gave him in response. "The first few times I understood it. We were both grieving then. But, now? Lovino, Nonno died two years ago; there's no need for doing this anymore. Give that research up."

The younger Italian brother putting on a strict face was a rare occurrence, but Lovino had been seeing it more and more often; he really didn't care anymore. Standing up from the cot, Lovino walked over to his brother and grabbed the rusty bars separating them, drawing himself upwards so that he could have a slight advantage over his (taller) younger brother. "This isn't just mourning anymore, Feliciano," He huffed, removing a hand from the bar and running it through his hair, no doubt staining the strands with the red rust coating the palm, "Nonno was onto something extraordinary for genetics. Revolutionary for the world."

Lovino released the bars completely, pushing backwards and starting to pace the length of his cell afterwards. "It's stupid, but his research...It's exciting to me. I know I acted like I hated him most of the time, but...Ugh." Lovino stomped his foot like an agitated horse, feeling frustration bubble up in his chest. Why couldn't he say why this research was important? "Dammit. I can't explain. But, Feliciano, Grandpa's research...There might be people like Angelo out there. Hidden, but they're out there."

Hazel eyes didn't even look up when Lovino heard Feliciano's breath hitch at the mention of the third Vargas brother. They hadn't brought him up for quite a long time, but the name was still so painful to mention it was almost taboo. Angelo Vargas: The third brother. The forgotten brother. The special brother, who was somehow able to survive being held underwater for far too long by a stray fishing net because he could breathe water.

Romulus, the grandfather of the three boys, had been studying the group of people he gave to the moniker of "Peculiars" for years after that horrible beachside incident. He had studied them even after their family's very own Peculiar died in a car crash with the three brothers' parents. The old man had left behind both a large sum of money and decades worth of research to the two remaining Vargases; Feliciano got the money, while Lovino settled for the research papers.

(Really, Lovino was the only brother who truly showed an interest in the field of genetic studies anyway.)

What was within the binders and files and accordion folders, however, was richer than money could ever be: The autobiography of a Seychellois girl who could control water; Information regarding a Polish boy who could douse himself in flames; Evidence of a young Australian man who could morph into the form of any animal. Every single paper contained evidence of people with amazing abilities.

If so many of the missing links were contained in just one thin manila folder, who knew what else Lovino could uncover, given enough time?

Though, all he was able to add to the preexisting research was the definite conclusion that these Peculiarities (the name that Romulus' notes had oh so originally called them) were certainly genetic; just like hair and eye color, maybe even being decided like gender. This game of chance was so unpredictable; like the lottery. Lovino knew that the chance of being born a peculiar individual was only 25%; one out of three places on a Punnett Square chart. And that was just generalizing the chances.

Lovino looked up again, stilling his footsteps and reaching through the bars to grasp his younger brother's shoulders in slightly shaky hands. He had been unsteady all day, ever since he had been caught breaking into a nearby genetics lab. "All of this is crazy, I agree, but I'm in too f-cking deep to stop now, fratello, just like Grandpa was. I don't just want answers, anymore. I need answers."

Feliciano looked at his brother, feeling the elder's hands shaking even more as they gripped onto his shoulders tighter. Just like how Feliciano was rarely stern, Lovino seldom got excited for things; especially not things dealing with their Grandfather. Or their family, outside of Feliciano and Angelo, in general.

The younger boy shook his head, the signature Vargas curl that stuck out from the left of his hair bobbing. "I asked Officer van Dike to clear the charges. Again. He did it, but said that another 'accident' like this..." Feliciano bit his lip, looking away. "They were going to lock you away in a padded cell and throw away the key." The words were fast, spit out and blurring together, but Lovino could make it out.

Giving a empty chuckle, from both the subject change and what said change was about, Lovino dropped his hands. "Of course. They think I'm crazy."

"You have to admit, Lovi, saying that your reason for breaking into a heavily guarded lab is to find out more information on 'superhuman powers' does sound a little insane."

"When you say it like that, yeah it f-cking does."

Feliciano chuckled at the bitter tone leeching into his older brother's voice, grabbing the keys that Willem had given him out of his pocket and putting them into the lock of his brother's cell. The door swung open easily with a creak of rusty metal. Feliciano hugged his brother, feeling Lovino stiffen at his touch. He pulled away after a second, eyes closed again and smile back on his face, "Let's just go home, Lovi. We won't worry about it anymore. I made pasta for dinner!"

Lovino and Feliciano lived in the mansion which had once belonged to their grandfather. It was big, very big for housing only two people, but it was...cozy, somewhat. Romulus had given the boys their own collections of rooms when they were younger (something their parents had always complained about, stating that the old man was spoiling the boys) but, now that they were older, Feliciano occupied the whole first floor while Lovino made his home in the second.

The main reason for that specific arrangement was Romulus' (now Lovino's) study. Well, studies. Feliciano would have preferred the top floor, where both the sunrises and sunsets were best for painting, but the old man had too much valuable stuff housed in too many of the rooms; it would be difficult to move it all. One of the things that really couldn't be moved was a very large world map.

It covered a wall of one of the rooms fully, held onto the surface by both thick tape and numerous multicolored pushpins. Every color was for different types of, supposed, powers: Blue for abilities involving flight or levitation; Green for elemental powers; Pink for psychic-based abilities. The list went on, spanning almost every color of the rainbow and then some.

Lovino had added a few push pins to the map, as well as a new color: Black, meant for abilities involving something that corrupted either the Peculiar using them or another person. The only black marker was currently planted on the dot reading Macau in China. That was the only Peculiar that Lovino had been able to place, for certain, so far.

Feliciano walked into Lovino's study, holding a platter of steaming pasta noodles lathered in rich homemade sauce and a side of garlic bread in one hand while he watched Lovino trace the rainbow of thin, crisscrossing cords which linked certain types of powers to each other. One pin in Iceland was connected to another in Norway, while Sweden and Denmark were also linked. Hong Kong connected to Estonia. A pin in the East of Germany trailed into China. A spider web of radiant colors spanned to globe.

"What does that yellow cord mean?" Feliciano asked, his sweet voice genuinely curious, as he pointed to the one newly added line that connected England to France.

Lovino turned away from the large board, looking at his brother for a moment before walking over to his desk. It was cluttered and messy, with so many papers piled onto it that the wooden top was not even visible anymore, but the older Italian brother found what he needed with ease. Lovino held up a manila folder with a strip of tape across the label in the same shade of yellow as the cord.

"Grandpa's notes say that there are two Peculiars," He flipped open the folder, pointing at a certain picture when he finally found it, "that always work together." Feliciano looked over Lovino's shoulder, opening his eyes to see the picture fully. It was a collage, with all of the pictures being held in an arrangement by a page protector, featuring two men; one with short, messy hair and very bushy eyebrows, while the other had long, kempt hair and a healthy amount of stubble on his chin.

What was most interesting about the collage, other than every picture depicting the same two men, was the pictures themselves: They went from black and white to sepia to colored, going downwards from what was the oldest picture to the newest.

Even more fascinating was the fact that it didn't look like the men had used a filter at all. Every picture looked the age its coloration suggested it was.

"I don't know if it's reincarnation or immortality," Lovino continued, bringing his brother's attention back to him. He furrowed his eyebrows and gazed at the latest picture of the men, depicting them standing outside of a very pristine, Oriental-looking house. It looked to be taken just months ago. "But these two have been around for a long, long time."

Powers:

Angelo Vargas - Water-breathing

Feliciano Vargas - ? ? ?

Lovino Vargas - ? ? ?