Nightfall

-4-

Somehow, Antonio had managed to keep most of his plan a secret from both Roberto and Saverio. Once he assured Roberto he knew what he was doing (he didn't), the blond officer only warned him to be careful and kind of left him to his own devices.

He also insisted that delivering the news to Saverio should be solely Antonio's task, given how 'sure' he was that he knew what he was doing. And like the absolute idiot Antonio was, he agreed to do it.

Saverio waited patiently for him to finish (he did omit a lot of stuff, yet his cousin still seemed to put some of the pieces together), then threw the newly bought bottle of lemon-scented detergent at him.

"Nino, what exactly do you know about that place? And from who?"

"I know it pays well. As for the source..."

Antonio took a deep breath. "I saw the offer on a flier." It was not entirely a lie, he did see the flier after he went to the interview, but what could he do? If he mentioned Rafael, he could kiss goodbye any chance to indirectly help his cousin. Although, if he were completely honest, he didn't really feel like he was helping much.

Saverio seemed to ponder for a moment the likelihood of his cousin lying, but since he also stumbled across the damn fliers... It still did not fully eradicate his suspicions, but Saverio wasn't going to call him on it based on a guess.

"Is this why you applied to it?"

'Solely' remained unsaid, but it still weighed heavily in the room. Antonio was about to try to defend himself (and most likely get caught in the middle of it) but thankfully Saverio seemed to have foreseen another potential reason.

"I've noticed this habit of yours... whenever you're stressed or upset about something, you have that phase in which you obsess over cleaning up stuff. More than usual, at least. Are you... bothered by something?"

"Everything is fine. Cleaning is one the few things I'm good at, might as well get paid for it."

The eldest tilted his head. That didn't sound like his cousin was having a great time, but forcing out an answer was definitely not an option.

Did someone pick on him again and didn't want to tell? Was it something he did or said?

Sometimes he wished he had Tanya's tact, she never seemed to regret saying or doing anything. On the other hand, it was an underestimation to say he wished he handled some things differently. Especially when it came to Antonio.

Gods, he was so bad at this... How the fuck he got trusted with raising a kid?

"Savi..." Antonio gives a sheepish grin as he puts a hand on his older cousin's shoulder, successfully snapping him out of the train of bad thoughts and self-doubt. "It'll be fine. Please have some faith in me, will you?"

The painter would have to be exceptionally dull not to notice the hesitation behind the hues of mint and grass dancing in his eyes. He would have been slightly offended if anyone else doubted him, but his cousin had seen some of the most atrocious, half-baked and dumb ideas and thoughts coming from the youngest's mouth for basically his whole life, so he couldn't really blame him for not believing Antonio magically stopped being dense overnight.

Him agreeing with Rafael's request without thinking too much before was already enough proof he was still as stupid as ever, but Saverio didn't need to know that. If he ever suspects he's endangering himself on purpose, Antonio could already picture himself being locked in the house for the rest of his life...

"That place sucks. Are you sure you want to...?"

Right, Saverio didn't know he was aware of the disappearances at the company. Most likely he wasn't allowed to talk about the actual danger either or how much he wants Antonio to stay away from that place, but alas, what's another bad choice joining the pile?