A high-pitched sound similar to a whine rang through the house. James grimaced and looked around, wondering where it could be coming from. It wasn't until after a few minutes of fruitless searching that he realized what it was.
It was the window in the basement, that was the only thing it could be. Allen had suggested making the alarm both annoying and high pitched so none of them could ignore it. Unfortunately for James, the rest of his family had left the house a few days earlier. It had taken a lot to make Oliver leave, but eventually, he had, though it hadn't been entirely voluntary.
He sighed and got up, taking his time to get to the basement despite his growing irritation at the alarm. Alright, she's either trying to get out or kill herself. Wonderful.
She didn't even jump when the door opened or glare at him as he came down the stairs. Her eyes were dull and unfocused, only occasionally flicking over to him to keep track of his path. She was sitting in front of the italian, putting herself between him and anyone who might harm him almost protectively. Of course, he didn't know that.
James wasn't sure if Lovino was dead or just unconscious, but the pool of blood originating from him had gotten significantly larger, his eyes were closed, his skin had paled considerably from its normal olive tone and he was unresponsive. It was probably safe to assume that if he wasn't already dead, it wouldn't be long before he got there.
Italy didn't need two personifications, after all. If nothing else, Feliciano could take over. Not that Lovino had done much for the country anyway, everyone had always gone to his younger brother for anything related to it.
"So, what should I do with you?" He asked, once the silence had become unbearable, though his question hadn't been aimed at the one who could respond. He nudged Lovino's leg with his foot. "I could always ship you off to Luciano. Make pasta sauce out of an actual italian. Wouldn't that be ironic?"
Just as he expected her to do, Maddy sent him a cold glare. What he hadn't expected her to do was to lurch to her feet and lunge for him, her hand clenched around… something. He sidestepped, latching onto her wrist as she stumbled, clearly not having planned for the possibility of him moving out of the way. He tried to hold her as still as possible as he examined whatever it was she'd tried to attack him with.
A shard of glass.
That was why she'd broken the window.
Blood was already welling up around where the glass had dug into her palm, staining it red and probably doing far more damage to her hand than simply crawling out the window would have.
"I wonder," he mumbled, after a few more minutes of silence. "What exactly did you think stabbing me with a glass shard would accomplish? I heal. I'm immortal. At the very least, you would have had to find a way to severely wound me to do anything."
She didn't respond, just tried to tug her wrist out of his grip.
That was answer enough for him. She hadn't had a plan. It had been a pure impulse decision that she had been planning to see through without caring about the outcome. If she managed to get away from him, great. If not, oh well.
He fingered the knife in his pocket. She probably wouldn't care enough to look and recognize it as her own. "You really should have tried harder than that, beauty." Taking the pocket knife out and flipping the blade open, he dragged her towards him as she began to squirm even more and try to get away from him. "I really did care, y'know." He thrust the knife forward and she stiffened, blood oozing out of the new puncture wound in her gut. More of the red liquid bubbled up at her lips and she... smirked at him?
He scowled and jerked the knife out, stepping away from her. Her legs buckled and before he knew it, she was on the ground, hands pressed against her abdomen. After a minute, she began shaking and for a minute, he thought she was having some sort of seizure or crying, but soon he realized she was laughing. "What's so funny?" And she thinks I'm hard to read!
In that moment, her laughter changed from silent and controlled to loud and close to maniacal. She looked up at him, her eyes suddenly wide and gleaming with crazed mirth. "You never got what you wanted."
He stiffened. "I always get what I want."
She shook her head, in an almost dreamy manner. "Not this time. So sorry to spoil the fun." The sarcasm was there, just as he had known it would be, but now it had an underlying layer of both madness and smugness to it.
She looked like she'd finally snapped and lost her mind, though he supposed that the blood running down her chin didn't exactly help.
"Well, unlike your friend over there, you don't regenerate. Have fun with the last few minutes."
"Naturally."
He turned and left before she could say something else in that deranged tone. He'd had quite enough of crazy people for awhile, thank you very much.
"The damn coward wouldn't even stay to clean up his own mess," Matthew growled, looking around. The house had seemed too quiet, to begin with, but now that he and Alfred had searched most of the house and found it abandoned, he felt like breaking something. Alfred watched his brother warily. He knew this side of Matthew, the one that rarely came out, but usually wreaked mayhem when it did. This was part of the reason he didn't watch hockey with Matthew anymore.
"Swear jar," Brittany said jokingly, but it was forced and half-hearted. She had a horrible feeling about all of this. She knew her best friend well enough to know that if Maddy wasn't locked in a room somewhere, she'd have come running to them by now. And if she had been locked in a room somewhere, she would've heard them and started trying to break the doors down. Since neither of those things had happened, Brittany had begun to assume the worst. While they'd been putting off going into the basement for as long as they could, they no longer had a choice. There was no other room to search in an attempt to prolong the inevitable. The three of them hesitantly opened the door, shocked that it hadn't been locked like they'd expected it to be. "Oh my god," Brittany mumbled, her voice muffled by the hand that had subconsciously flown to her mouth.
The small window on the side wall had been smashed, jagged points tipped with blood. There was nothing in the basement to suggest it had been used as a torture chamber and then as a prison. Nothing except the two bloodied and limp bodies on the ground. Brittany found herself drifting over to her friend's body.
"He's not regenerating."
Matthew shook himself out of a daze he hadn't even realized he'd gone into and frowned at his brother, who was examining Lovino. "He should be."
"He's not," Alfred repeated, a small amount of his irritation leaking into his voice.
Matthew grumbled for a minute, before turning his attention to the italian. It didn't take long for him to figure out the problem. "The bullet's enchanted. The spell on it keeps the victim from magically regenerating."
Brittany frowned at him. "Those exist?"
"The second players developed them years ago. Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't use them on us the first time they tried to kidnap you."
"So what do we do about it?"
Matthew spared a glance at the other body. She'd want you to try and heal him, a snide voice in his head whispered. He sighed. "He's lost a lot of blood. Most people don't survive after losing so much." He ran a hand through his hair. "I think if we bandaged the wound properly and got him back to the house in a timely manner, I could see what I could do." He paused again, trying to steady his breathing. "I couldn't make any promises though."
"Alright, we'll go look for bandages," Brittany replied, grabbing Alfred's arm. "Let's go, Alfred." She seemed eager to leave the basement. Matthew found that he couldn't blame her.
Once they'd gone, Matthew let out a shaky breath. It took a few tries, but eventually, he forced himself to look at the other body. Once he'd managed it, however, he found himself trying to deny it. This couldn't be real. She wasn't dead.
She couldn't be.
"True love's kiss. Gross."
Matthew sighed. "Why can't we ever just watch the movie without you criticizing every little thing?"
"It's not every little thing," Maddy argued while waving her water around. Matthew dodged a particularly wild swing as she continued, "I'm just saying that the whole idea of prince charmings and true love's kiss breaking the spell is ridiculous."
"You think anything having to do with affection and true love is ridiculous."
"That's because a good curse wouldn't be broken by something as minuscule as a kiss."
"And you know so much about curses all of a sudden?"
She stuck her tongue out at him and went back to watching the movie, silently this time.
She'd always hated overly sappy things and he was pretty sure he was far from what could be considered a "prince charming," but maybe. It probably, wouldn't even work, but… Taking a deep breath, he leaned down and gently kissed her. He pulled away and waited for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about a minute.
Nothing.
Tears welled up in his eyes. He hadn't really expected it to work, but a small part of him had hoped-
"Mattie! We found bandages!"
Matthew hurriedly brushed his tears away as his twin came barreling down the stairs. The bandages were handed over and he turned to Lovino. He didn't say anything to either of them, he didn't trust his voice. Purposely ignoring everyone in the room except the italian, he undid the makeshift hoodie bandage and went to work wrapping the real ones. "Done." He murmured after a few minutes. "We should go."
Lovino bolted upright, some feeling in his gut telling him something was horribly wrong. The abrupt movement, however, wasn't good for his still-healing bullet wound and he instinctively curled into a ball, his breath hissing out between his teeth with one hand pressed against his side.
It took him a moment to realize that not only was he no longer in that damn basement, but also that he wasn't alone.
Matthew shook his head at the italian, almost like a disapproving parent. "You're not going to heal any faster by flailing around like that."
Normally the italian would have some sort of sarcastic comeback for the canadian, but he was too shocked that he was still alive to think of one. He looked around, wondering why the terrible feeling in his gut hadn't gone away. "Where-" His voice cracked and he cleared his throat, "Where is-" He stopped, something finally clicking in his head.
As much as he always tried to act like he didn't care anymore, Matthew wouldn't just leave Maddy in that awful house. Not unless something had happened. Something he couldn't fix.
Matthew seemed to know what he was thinking, because the blond man sighed, "We didn't get there in time. By the time we got to you two, she was already-" His breath caught in his throat. "Well, honestly, you're lucky we were able to do anything for you."
"I wish I hadn't been lucky!" Lovino snapped, tears blurring his vision. Why had he been the one to make it out? No one cared if he survived or not. Why couldn't they have gotten there in time to save her? "You-" His voice was shaky and thick with grief. "You should have saved her."
"You think I didn't want to?" Matthew growled. "That's what I was planning to do, but I couldn't, alright? You can be as mad at me as you want, but don't assume I don't understand what you're feeling. I get it, okay? I messed up!"
"It wouldn't be the first time."
Before Matthew could answer, the door burst open, revealing a very distressed looking Severus. The boy took one wide-eyed look at his father and then darted over. Lovino stiffened when the hug was first initiated, but after a moment of stunned silence, he hugged his son back. Matthew silently got up and left the room, seeking out his own children.
"Dad." Sev choked out, "Is it true? Is mom really-"
Lovino hugged his son tighter, those stupid tears starting up again. For the briefest minute, he wanted to deny it, wanted to say she wasn't dead because how could she be? She was too stubborn to die. His heart dropping, he nodded, squeezing his eyes shut to keep the tears at bay, but a few slipped out anyway. He couldn't deny it, no matter how much he wanted to. Sev had been dreading his father's nod and was now openly sobbing.
Neither of them had ever been so obvious when displaying their feelings, much less around each other. There was a certain understanding between them now. Lovino cursed himself silently. Why did it take someone dying to bring us closer?
Okay, so this story turned out a lot darker and sadder than I originally intended, but I'm actually pretty happy with it. I didn't get to touch on Lovino and Maddy's friendship quite as much as I wanted to, but they weren't really supposed to be the main focus of the story anyway.
CheesecakeKittyCat: Thank you!
I've gotten a couple questions about how Lovino never figured out why Maddy and Matthew broke up. Well, truthfully, he did figure it out. He had his suspicions and he was about 99% certain that their breakup was partially because of him, but he decided not to push the issue. He figured that if Maddy wanted to talk about it, she would.
Now, how everyone reacted to the whole "cheating" thing. Francis and Alfred both took Matthew's side in the matter, pretty much everyone did, but those were the two major ones that Maddy talked to and interacted with. Once they all found out that it was because of a spell, both apologized, but Francis decided to give her space which is why they don't talk much anymore. Alfred apologized and then pretty much forced her to spend time with him and she gave up on trying to make him go away.
Now, I know I was very protective of the OTP in the original fanfic, but while writing this one, I started thinking about the children as small kids and just got this idea for an AU where Severus is the only kid who ever actually exists and Maddy and Lovino just raise him together in Italy. In my head, it's really cute and Sev grows up to be a lot sassier than he is in this story because that's how his parents show affection while he's growing up. He's still a generally sweet kid, but the sarcasm is a lot more prominent.
I've also gotten a couple questions about why Maddy stopped living with Lovino in the first place. Neither of them could have known at the time that she was going to get pregnant again, so why'd she leave? Because I read between the lines enough in the original fanfic and talked to the actual person enough to figure out that being comfortable somewhere or at least settling down somewhere is actually really terrifying for her. So, in my head, Maddy started to get comfortable living with Lovino and she got so scared that something bad was going to happen and mess it up that she decided she needed to leave. The excuse I imagine her giving Lovino would be "I need to get back on my feet and I can't do that depending on you." I also imagine Lovino wasn't very happy to hear this because, in my head, he became very protective of her.
Anyways, that's all for now. I'm going to stop before this turns into pages and pages of headcanons and things that didn't get detailed explanations in the story.