Author's Note- Some of the dialogue coincides with the dialogue of It's a Beautiful World. This is intentional. You do not have to read IaBW to understand what is going on for this story, and visa versa. However, if you want Feliciano's/Luciano's POV, reading IaBW will give you that. :)

Luciano wound up calling the bakery's phone the next day. "Hey, Oliver, is it all right if we drop the thing off a little early? I have plans for this afternoon that I do not want our business interfering with."

"That is perfectly fine," Oliver assured, flapping his hand, even though it was not viewable over a phone conversation. "Nikolai comes early to relax anyway."

"Good, we'll be there to pick up the information soon."

"Luciano wait." When the dial tone did not ring out, Oliver took this as the other still listening. "How was your night?"

Luciano was quiet for a few moments. The baker glanced at the small screen, but the call was still ticking. "I'll tell you about it when we drop off the stuff."

A dreadful tone relayed in Oliver's ear, signaling the end of the conversation, for now. Oliver set the phone back on its receiver, and a mischievous grin moved across his face. "I look forward to it."

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

"You're creepy," Lila told Nikolai once they settled in the basement.

Oliver lifted his gaze from the pressed dirt floors. The other man drummed his gloved fingers on his lap, humming obliviously. His stare turned to the baker, tipping his head in question. The teen then realized he was staring, and nervously giggled.

"Creepy!" Lila repeated. "Hey, Ollie, ask him why he wears those funny glasses. Ollie!" She tugged on his hair when ignored.

The baker loudly cleared his throat, glancing to Nikolai again, who was still facing his general direction. "If you perform autopsies on corpses, why do you wear those goggles?"

Nikolai dove into a light fit of laughter. "Is that what was on your mind?"

"No," Oliver wanted to say, but kept quiet.

The man tapped the plastic frame. "The dead seem to like to fight back. Fluids can fly in unpleasant places."

"It is a safety precaution," Oliver murmured, apparently to thin air.

"Still creepy," Lila said, rustling around on his head. "I can see myself in his glasses!"

"You are down here early," Nikolai observed. "Did you decide to keep me company?" He reached for the ribbon looped around Oliver's neck. "Where is your bowtie?"

Oliver bristled, and his grip increased on the bench from both hands as the neat bow was undone. The operator noted the vile scowl, and sniggled. "It is upstairs in my bedroom drawer. I do not need to wear one all the time."

"You are here early," Nikolai relayed.

"I know," Oliver fixed his ribbon with sharp tugs. "Luciano wanted to come early. He has things to do later."

"Ooh, things."

It was then when they caught the sound of multiple footsteps echoing through the tunnel. Oliver rose to his feet, taking a step away from the surgeon while his head was turned to the newcomers. As usual, Lutz was first to be seen, easily holding the body, and closely trailed by Kuro, then Luciano. The Italian slowed to face the baker, and with a mere uplift of the lips, they greeted one another. He continued after his housemates when Nikolai stood.

The dead man on the table had a hole in the side of his head; a gunshot wound. Lutz was the only one with a (visible) holster. Once paid, Luciano gently ordered to his companions, "Once we get upstairs, go wait in the car."

"Conspiring with Oliver again?" Lutz tried. He shrunk away when Luciano burned him with a child faced pout, but he backed off, muttering for Kuro to follow him upstairs. Ever quiet, the other man sensed the mood and choose not to speak.

Luciano clasped onto Oliver's elbow. "Come, let's go upstairs," he whispered excitedly, too low for Nikolai to hear. The surgeon was focused on digging around his bag of medical tools, anyway.

"I take it you had a good night?" Oliver asked once the basement door shut behind them.

The other man ducked his head to peer into the front room. The others were just stepping outside. He quickly turned to Oliver, eyes wide to match his smile. "Oh, si, si! A very good night. It was so strange, ve," Luciano coughed to cover the tick. "The dream world is this giant void, and there were these little lights, and these big lights at the end of this weird tunnel room, and-"

As Luciano described his fateful meeting with his counterpart, Oliver nodded in beat. What he experienced was different, but he assumed it was because he and Arthur first went to the Realm, already in their minds, before switching. Luciano dove right from the conscious world. It appeared that Feliciano charmed his look alike with never ending smiles, and now he could not stop smiling.

"-it turns out, he wanted a friend, too. He's so easily swayed, it's wonderful. The sudden mood swings were a bit overwhelming, but at least it makes him easier to read. I won't have an issue with him. You should have seen me. I was so cool!"

"That is lovely, Luciano. I am glad. I really am."

Luciano glanced to his car again. Kuro and Lutz were not in sight, most likely already in the vehicle. "I should go now, before they drag me out. I have plans, anyway."

"Okay, Luci," Oliver nodded, grinning. "Enjoy your plans."

The other man's eyes narrowed as his smile proved relentless, making for a frightening expression. "Oh, I will."

A light voice asked from his head, "You introduced Luciano to his other worldly counterpart?"

Oliver blinked in surprise, caught up with the moment enough to forget about Lila observing everything. He was so used to her weight, he only noticed it if he thought about it, or when she pulled on clumps of his hair with impressive might. "He needed it."

"Look how it ended with you and Arthur. His pals will be demanding answers from you if Luciano gets all mopey like you did."

"If they find out," Oliver raised a finger. "They should not be doing what we did, anyway, with the switching and all that awful arguing! This is a casual introduction, fun, like I had with Arthur, without that...incident."

Lila muttered, "Yeah, here's to hoping."

~.~

~THISISITYEAHBOY~

~.~

Days passed, and nothing of the unusual happened. Oliver was expecting the trio to come by and pick up information of the newest target. He also worked on icing a batch of sugar cookies before the customer came by to pick them up. The plastic bell on the front counter rung, and he growled in light urgency.

"I shall be there in a jiffy!" The baker called, quickly setting the cookies into a bag. Leaving the sack on the counter, he peeked out of the doorway to see which of the two kinds of visitors were in the front room. "Greeting, Lutz, Luciano." He smiled at the brunet, but Luciano only gawked at him with a near frightened gaze. Oliver lifted his eyebrows in realization of the absence of one of the housemates. "I can see Kuro is not with you two today. Are you here to pick up your order?"

Lutz barked, "Why else would we be here?"

Oliver rolled his eyes. Someone obviously did not get up from a comfortable bed. There were plenty of other things to do in a bakery besides obtain a hit list. "I will be back," he told the duo, and breezed into the kitchen for the envelope. He rolled up the bag so the heat would not escape from the cookies, and snatched the folder off the counter.

When he reentered the front room, Luciano was giggling, most likely from embarrassing Lutz, based on the pink blossoming on the blond's face. Oliver held out the envelope to the Italian, who turned his head and stared at it in confusion. He hesitantly took it, and flipped the folder over as if something were different about it.

"What's this?"

Oliver's eyebrows furrowed. "Your job. Make it clean this time, boys." That gunshot wound on the previous body dripped everywhere, and Nikolai left without taking care of the splatters. "I am not mopping up any trails today...literally."

Luciano echoed, "Trails?"

Lutz's nose crinkled. "We should be able to get it done by the time Kuro finishes job hunting." He glanced from his housemate waving the folder in front of his face, to Oliver watching the jerky movements. "We are going now, Oliver."

The baker spared Lutz a smile. He would not see it anyway, as he turned around and ushered Luciano out the door. "I will be waiting!"

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

When the duo returned, Nikolai and Oliver were in awe at how well handled the body was. "Ah, nearly mint condition," the surgeon smoothed the corpse's dark hair from his forehead. He turned his buggy goggles to Luciano, whose eyes jumped from him to the dead man. "Boo!"

Luciano gasped, and backed away, twitching again when his shoulder blades hit the wall. Oliver scolded Nikolai, "That is not necessary!"

The operator's shoulders shook with his spooky laughter. Luciano stammered, "Um...I need some air!" He spun around, startling everyone as he ripped open the basement's lower door, and darted through the tunnel at an incredible speed.

Lutz allayed any bewilderment with, "The chemicals were getting to him." He did not wait for a doubt, following after Luciano not as nearly fast as he left.

Nikolai laughed ghostly again, and Oliver could feel his gaze on him as he stared after the duo's departure in obvious worry. "Looks like no conspiring for you and the scaredy one today!"

Oliver scowled at the surgeon, even though the looks never had an effect on the large man. "No, I suppose not."

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

Later that night, Oliver flipped the open sign to its closed side, lightly sighing at the prospect of the end of the day. It may have been a bit too early to close up shop, but the summer evening was not promising. He had not cleaned up from the morning batch of cookies, leaving the mess for a time such as then to take care of it.

The shop was quiet besides whenever the baker lifted something to wipe under it, and set it back on the counter. Lila had woken up to the Realm, leaving him by himself. Once the mess from before was clean, Oliver brought out new supplies, guaranteeing a new spill. He had nothing stimulating to do, anyway, besides sewing, so he decided to get ahead by mixing a batch of purple velvet cupcakes for the display case.

He spent the time during the baking process to whip up an icing necessary for a reserved cake order for the next day. The oven beeped, signaling to be opened, and let the delicious, rich scent of the dark cupcakes to invade the kitchen. Oliver deeply inhaled, smiling at how mouth-watering they smelled.

"I ought to be careful. I may just eat them all up myself!"

For another quiet moment, used to add another pinch of sugar to the icing, the bell on the front counter rung. Oliver lifted his head from dragging a finger along the sides of the bowl. His eyebrows furrowed at the prospect of someone not noticing the closed sign.

"I must have forgotten to look the door," he admitted aloud. Louder, he announced, "The bakery is closed for the night!"

"We need to talk," a voice that usually came low, was sharp with volume.

Oliver peeked out of the doorway, popping his icing covered finger in his mouth before speaking to familiar faces. "You are back? Three of you this time." He was inwardly relieved to see Luciano's group was whole again. He tried something funny to the man that looked to be forever pissy. "Hello, Kuro."

Kuro did not appreciate the way the baker's finger made a popping noise when he removed it from his mouth. He put a hand to his eyes, not watching him nonchalantly wipe the digit on pale slacks. "Ugh."

Luciano kept staring, and Lutz sighed. "Are you available at the moment?"

Oliver's bottom lip stuck out at the strange behavior. "Hm, no." He smiled from their unamused stares, and whisked back into the kitchen. A fresh batch of still warm cupcakes could cheer anyone up. "But I baked cupcakes!" He announced, setting the tray on the counter. Luciano and Lutz gawked at the treats, but Kuro was still steamed. "They are purple velvet, your favorite!"

"Can you not do that?" Kuro snapped, still not facing the treats.

"Do what?" Oliver wondered what really got into their pants that night. He shrugged while they all fell silent, and took the opportunity to tackle his new mess. He put wrap over the bowl of icing, and once again, wiped the counter. Luciano's voice was extra whiny, and whatever he was crying about, the baker let off a little giggle. Throwing out the paper towel, he turned back to the front room.

"-not knowing," Lutz grumbled.

"Kitchen's clean!" Oliver announced, trying to get their attention again. Luciano was gawking at something on the ground. One of the cupcakes in the tray were missing. Much to his horror, the two coincided, based on the heap of dark purple on the tiles. "I just swept this floor." Then, they dropped a cupcake (which he proudly worked to make) onto his clean sanctuary, not making a move to deal with it.

A furious haze seized Oliver' face, and his tongue lashed before he could stop it. "You three have no respect for other people and their hard work!"

Lutz glared right back. "We are not here to be lectured." He roughly grabbed onto Luciano's jacket, and made his housemate face the counter. Oliver was taken back from the interaction. He wondered why Luciano did not start wielding his switch blade yet from the treatment. "We have more dire things to worry about."

They have noticed the Italian's odd behavior, too. Not lingering on the cupcake, but still sticking out his tongue so they know they did wrong, Oliver tipped his head. "What? Is something wrong with Luciano?"

"That is something we don't know," Lutz exchanged a dark look with Kuro, "but the question is what is wrong with what he left behind."

Before Oliver would ask what they were getting at, Kuro held a hand toward Luciano. "He keeps emitting these awful sounds, and cries way too much."

Luciano may have needed an undisturbed sleep. Oliver felt drained whenever he visited the Realm many nights in a row. Not like he could tell them that, though. "Perhaps you should see a medical examiner for sudden changes in mood."

"Feliciano-san here keeps blubbering about worlds, dream voids, and colors!" Kuro insisted. The brunet flinched. "Doctors will not help us."

Oliver's eyes widened as he gazed at the Italian. The other man let out a low whine, trying to shrink against Lutz's arm. "Did you say Feliciano?" The baker gasped in realization at why Luciano was acting so differently. He bustled around the counter to get closer, latching onto Luciano's jacket to peer at his face. Even his facial expressions were held differently. No wonder Arthur's mother found him out so easily! "I see now! Your eyes shine with a different light I could never forget! You are from that alternate color universe!"

Feliciano cried out again, trying to shake off Oliver's hands. Oliver let go when Lutz groaned loudly and slapped a hand to his forehead. "Not you, too!"

"So, can you help us get rid of him?" Kuro asked almost urgently. "You like playing with these supernatural things. Will you be able to send him back and get Luciano-san into his own body?"

"Why would I do that?" Oliver scoffed, slapping an offended hand to his vest. He then smiled as he lifted the other to affectionately squeeze Feliciano's chin. "Having one of the counterparts in our presence will be delightful!"

Feliciano wailed again. The loud noise made Oliver take back his own hand. The Italian did not seemed to be happy at all being in a different universe! Kuro stamped a foot on the ground, declaring, "That right there! That is why we need to get rid of him!"

Oliver watched Feliciano sniffle and wipe a sleeve over his eyes. If Luciano and him switched places like he and Arthur had one, why was he in hysterics? "Feliciano, did you and Luciano willingly switch places, or did he force you into his light?"

Violet eyes blinked to clear themselves. "You know about the lights and stuff? Luci and I jumped into each other's bodies before out of curiosity, but he wouldn't let me go back to my own place!"

That was not supposed to happen. What was Luciano thinking? Oliver tried to comfort him by patting his head, but more tears spilled from Feliciano's eyes. He knew the answer; he had gone through the same thing, but now Luciano was in his counterpart's body, and would not let go, based on the crying. "You poor thing. He is just frightened," the baker told the others. "Being deposited in a whole other universe is not the most pleasant experiences."

One of Lutz's eyebrow's rose. "And you would know?"

Grinning from fond experiences, Oliver claimed, "Why, yes, of course! It is like Kuro said, I fancy the supernatural."