The Italian Delight

three

'come over today?'

No. Marco wanted anything other than coming over to Sophie's. He was thankful she decided to ask him through messages, because otherwise he'd probably be too tired to even answer verbally. And also, there was another reason he didn't want to come to see Sophie, and it was the fact that John wanted to make sure Marco was safe.

It was a matter of course in their friendship, not the first nor the last time John was planning on taking Marco to his own house to make sure his best friend was doing fine. Sometimes it was the other way around, Marco was taking John to his own place trying to help, still, John tended to be much more protective. In the end, Marco had the propensity to alcohol written in his genes.

Usually they would have the deepest talks, and then, if it would get better, they'd hang out and both return to their homes alone. If it wouldn't get better, they'd throw a little sleepover, just so that neither one of them had to worry about anything. And today, Marco could predict there's a sleepover incoming.

The first time Marco stepped into John's house, he was eleven, and he remembered it a bit too well. He remembered how scared he was, since he wasn't used to this. Somehow, he even believed that he was taken there just to be beaten up by John and his family, because Marco cried during classes and this situation was like a punishment in his eyes.
How shocked he was when John sat him down on the sofa, offered him some cookies and asked him what made him cry. Back then, Marco was still learning English, so he didn't fully understand everything John said to him, but he felt safe.

As Marco expected, just after the classes, John asked him to spend the afternoon together, and how could Marco decline?
Except for this question, John didn't speak to him at all the entire day, so such a question could sound a bit strange, nevertheless Marco couldn't help feeling happy when John unlocked the door of his house. The familiar flowery scent could make Marco smile in any situation. The scent of home. Without any meaningless words, John's arm gesticulated him to go upstairs, in other words, into the room that used to be just John's, but later on happened to be occupied by one certain Italian boy.

Marco didn't think twice and fell onto John's bed, and as much as he didn't want to, his eyelids started to fall down. He was brought back to at least some level of paying attention as he heard footsteps approaching the room and the door opening, seeing John's ocean blue eyes peaking from behind the door. Marco could help but let out a chuckle at the sight.

"Marc, I think we're both pleased by the idea of you going to sleep, am I right?"

Marco smirked at the seriousness in John's voice, as if it was the most normal thing to say in any everyday conversation.

"You look tired too, though"
Marco really used his mind, body and spirit to let out such a complicated sentence, which John registered on Marco's even more exhausted face.

"Well, I am. I'll go to take a nap too. But I think you need sleep more than a kidney at this moment. If you want to get more comfortable, I've got sweatpants and a hoodie for you." He handled the items to Marco and continued. "As always, you can sleep for as long as you like, if you won't wake up until tomorrow morning, I'll wake you up for school. If you wake up in the middle of the night, don't be afraid to wake me up. You know this all though, it's not your first time being in this house. I'll be downstairs" and with that, he shut the door close.

And Marco fell asleep without any problems. It was still incredible to him how John's genuine care could make him feel so safe, safe enough to fall asleep in someone's bed. If he wasn't tired as hell from the night before, he would probably think about how weird it is for two guys to do this with zero romantic background, but thankfully he was tired just enough to skip these thinking sessions and fall into his awaited and dreamless sleep.