Speak Now

Chapter Eight

The next couple months went by rather fast for Maddie. She spent a good majority of her time travelling Europe with Julchen, taking lots of pictures and gathering stories for her travel journal. About a week after her day out with Francis, when Julchen and she had a pretty decent mapped out plan, Maddie checked out of her hotel and began adventuring. The two adventurers stayed in Spain with Antonio and Lovino for about a week or so, giving Maddie a chance to not only get to know Julchen’s good friend, but also she got to know some of the locals and learned more about the Spanish culture. Lovino took her sightseeing around town while Julchen talked with her friend.

“Jou don’t zhink I don’t know zhis already? Antonio, look, she’s determined. I don’t know vhat to say zhat vould change her mind at zhis point.”

“Then maybe you don’t, amigo? No sé*, why don’t you just let Madeline do her thing? I don’t think you need to be meddling this time, Julchen.”

“Ja, Ich weiß, ich weiß**. I’m just vorried, jou know?”

“Does she know about your feelings?”

“Ja, und I got rejected, don’t bring it up. It vasn’t very awesome, und I don’t vant to be reminded.”

“No sé man; maybe it’s just best to let what happen, happen. Anyway, amigo, I’m gonna go check on the tomates***; Quieres venir conmigo*?”

“-Sigh- I don’t have anozher choice, do I?”

The Spaniard smiled; they both knew the answer was no. They both were sitting on the back patio catching up. Lovino and Madeline got back to a rather embarrassing sight: the older duo had obviously had a few glasses of wine each, and the brunette was showing of his prized collection of photos. Of Lovino. The Italian blushed as red as a roma tomato.

“Chigi*!” he stormed up to the oblivious Spaniard. “Why are you so stupid and embarrassing!? Put those away right now before I hurt you bastardo*!”

He quickly ended Antonio's laughing with his infamous head-butt to the Spaniard’s stomach. He swiped the photo album out of Antonio’s hands and took it back into the house. Clutching his abdomen, Antonio waddled after his younger lover with his two houseguests following behind, trying to hold back their laughter.

After their week in Spain, they visited Ludwig and Feliciano for a night. Madeline got to know Feliciano, and spent an entire day with the two in Feli’s hometown of Venice, Italy. The brunette took the blondes and the albino shopping; they did some sightseeing; Julchen took - and by took, Julchen means she made Ludwig take - pictures of the two girls in a gondola; Feli bought everyone matching ponchos - according to Ludwig, Feliciano’s as bad of an impulse buyer as Julchen - and they took pictures wearing them; and they even went on a three and a half hour drive to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. When they got there, they met up with Lovino and Antonio again. They all got a good chance to hang out and talk and the Italian brothers took everyone to an Italian cuisine restaurant nearby - of course that meant Lovino, Madeline and Ludwig split the bill three ways. Later, the Italian twins were half forced to take pictures of Julchen and Antonio with the tower. “I really vish Francy pants vas here! He vould’ve made zhis zhat much more awesome,” the German woman sighed.

She looked over and saw Madeline sitting on the grass with Ludwig. She was showing him some of the stuff she had jotted down in her notebook for her travel journal. Ludwig was looking impressed with the petite blonde’s story telling skills when Julchen got an idea. Julchen told the brothers to wait a moment, the whispered something into Antonio’s ear. “Are you sure, man?” he looked kind of skeptic. “Won’t she like, be mad, and all?”

Julchen laughed, “Kesesese. Who cares! It’ll be fun!”

Antonio let Lovi and Feli in on the gag while Julchen snuck up behind the unsuspecting blonde. Ludwig saw his sister out of the corner his eye, but it was too late to stop her. She scooped up the blonde and ran over to Antonio yelling, “Jetzt*!”