For Eternity II: Clandestine Preceding (Vampire! 2p! Italy x Reader)

Chapter Twenty-three - The Bird

The funeral for Florentina and Giovanni had come and gone rather quickly. It earned a big turn up for the funeral procession from the chapel in the castle to the freshly built mausoleum in the garden. The patio they had died at had been excavated and filling in with dirt. The bricks from it had then been relaid so the walkway would continue up to the steps of the building. The doors were locked once the bodies had been laid to rest on the pedestals in their special, custom made coffins, which somewhat resembled a sarcophagus with an intricate glass lid to allow the perfectly preserved bodies, courtesy of Doctor Skeller, to be viewed even after the prince and princess had been laid to rest. Speaking of the bodies of Florentina and Giovanni, Flavio had kept true to his word about having clothing ideas that would make them look fabulous.

Florentina was dressed in a silky looking gown with a low neckline. The sleeves went down to her wrists and slightly puffed out at the top. The bodice of the dress was adorned with an intricate inlay pattern of subtle silver. A pair of black flats adorned her feet. Her hands were placed one over the other just below her bust with her fingers pointed towards her toes and off to the side a bit. Giovanni had on black pants that were tucked into his favorite black boots. He had on a black poet shirt with a white waist coat with the exact same silver inlay pattern that was on Florentina's bodice. His hands were in the same position as his wife's and place just below his chest. Both of their feet were placed together and pointed upwards towards the sky. In addition to this, they were accompanied into their coffins with a rosary laying on their abdomens with the beads wrapped around the palm of their top hands.

Once the funeral was out of the way, life in the castle seemed to turn back to normal. Well, normal for those who lived there for a longer time period than you. You felt out of place in castle in all honesty. You weren't accustomed to the life of a royal, and being catered to every second of the night wasn't something that you liked to have done. So, you found yourself running away from your maids frequently throughout the day, trying to regain some semblance of freedom in the massive stone building. It began to sort of feel like a prison for you, but you decided to just deal with it for the time being.

Currently, you were drinking tea laced blood in a sitting room with Gilen. Said man was sitting across from you sipping from his cup. The silence between the two of you was nice. There were no maids, no bulters, and no other royals in the room. It was just you and your best friend having tea casually with one another. That was until there was a thud on one of the windows in the room. Both of you shot up out of your seats and set down your teacups on the silver tray that had been provided to carry the tea set into the room. You made your way over to the window quickly and opened it, looking around to find the source of the sound. When you found nothing on the window ledge, you looked down to the bushes below the window.

In the bushes below was a baby bird, a raven to be exact. It looked like it was bleeding and had a broken wing from smacking against the window. You scooped up the bird carefully in your hands and brought it to the table, which Gilen was still standing at. His eyebrows furrowed as he took the baby raven from you and held it up to his ear.

"They aren't breathing much..." he said grimly.

"What do we do? Should we end it's life so it doesn't suffer any further?"

Gilen shook his head. He brought the bird up to his mouth and nicked its neck before sinking a single fang into the spot he nicked. You remained silent as you watched him. Once he pulled the fang out, he laid the bird down on the table before taking his seat. You did the same as him and picked up your teacup, taking a sip. The two of you waited for what seemed like hours until the bird finally began moving again. It cawed and hopped over to Gilen, then flew up into his hair. The two of you laughed and Gilen gently pet the raven in his hair.

"I suppose I should keep them to keep an eye on them."

You nodded and smiled. "That would probably be best, Gil."

Gilen nodded and played with the little bird as the two of you conversed the night away.

~Author's Note~

DreamsForDays here! Sorry I missed the update yesterday! As I said in a message yesterday, I'm going through a bit of a tough time right now, and my niece wanted me to go to the beach yesterday with her before school starts. I also apologize for this update being really short. That's all I really have to say at the moment. Thank you for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!