Hidden Truths

Chapter Twelve ~ Late Nights

Usually, Maria would be there if Al—Tlanextic remembered anything about the past he was quite literally forced to forget, but not today.

He sat alone in his room, the door locked and all the vents covered. He sobbed into one of the fluffy pillows.

"Nah nih ma xinechtlapohpolhui," he repeated too many times to count (I'm sorry in Nahuatl, and I used google so).

After stopping himself from trembling and sobbing uncontrollably, he got up, he saw his face in the mirror and got angry, he picked a vase up and smashed it against the door.

"Ahh!" a too familiar voice sounded from behind.

"Nah nih ma xinechtlapohpolhui," he muttered, then went to open the door. He needed this. He really, really did.

"Allie?" the tears on Alejandro's face were enough to make the girl drop her nonchalant act and run closer to him. She helped him back onto the bed and closed the door. She cupped his face and started patting his back. "What happened?"

"Nah nih ma xinechtlapohpolhui," he muttered again. That seemed to be all he was capable of saying. She rubbed his back and tried to make him lie down, but he pulled up and kissed her.

It was long. It was broken, but it was heartfelt.

"This was definitely a bad time... I just heard the vase and I...I should..." Carlos was at the door, but before anyone could say anything, he sped away.

"Ma—lo.." Alejandro shook his head and decided to use English, a language Alfred had taught him. "I'm sorry Maria. I'm sorry, I know you hate me, but I just ha—"

"Shh, it's okay. You seemed upset...but truth is, I'm nowhere near over with you," she admitted and finally got him to lying down.

"Heh, right. How is Carlos?" he asked bitterly as he closed his eyes. He didn't like being lied to. The girl sighed.

"You heard that didn't you?" she chuckled a bit, "last night, Carlos come over, a sleepover. And we started doing something you used to like to—Ohhhhhh wait, that sounds wrong. No, no, if you thought—oh (at this point it's in Spanish)," she shook her head, then Alejandro looked at her, confused. "No, see I wanted to keep the ending of that Telenovela a secret, since we used to watch it every night. That night they surprisingly ended it, and you were mad, and I had no idea it was the finale," she explained.

"They ended? Which one?" he forgot all about his concerns, and he could speak Spanish again. Phew.

"You don't need to know, you might react like Santiago did, he cried." She laughed and tucked him in, then kissed his forehead.
"If it makes you feel better," she whispered, stroking his black hair, "I refused to watch the stars," she smiled and left, knowing they were okay.

~

"You're the key to getting him angry now aren't you?" Antonio whispered to himself from his place in the halls, watching Maria leave the room, a faint blush on her face.

~

"Iggy? What are you going to do with this kid?" Alfred asked, his cheeks all red from playing tag with himself. "I was wondering if I..." he wanted to ask if this was his new play mate.

"You can play with him, but not yet. Just go play with the village kids until I say you can play with Romano," he shooed the boy away—that was something he didn't ever usually do.

"Oh," the boy looked disappointed, "okay then."

~

"Listen up," Carlos came into Santiago's room, not bothering to knock, he plopped onto the bed, and looked Santiago straight in the eye. The poor boy was blushing since he had limited clothing. Carlos didn't mind though.

"Yes?"

"Okay, so do you think Al is crazy?"
When Santiago didn't respond, Carlos rolled his eyes and pressed on it, "well amor?"

"He's okay I guess, he was just mad to he killed Antonio, I mean...wouldn't you do the same?" he paused, then came back to his senses, "actually, you'd probably do worse, like you'd probably spoil the end of a tv show to him before killing him."

"Chill, chill, but I'm serious. And," he lagged the 'and' as if he didn't want to say the rest.

"Well, go on 'amor'," he rolled his eyes this time, although he secretly loved it when he was called that. Instead of Carlos just continuing, he winked, then cleared his throat.

"Don't break it Santi, don't think I could take it," he said dramatically. "Honestly though, this has been going on for what?"

"75 I think," Santiago chuckled then threw a pillow at Carlos while lying down and tucking himself into the bed. The Venezuelan shook his head though took the blanket, and started running around with it, just like what they'd do in that other room when they knew everyone was sleeping. "No! Not nowwwww," he sprung up and chased him, then eventually cornered him, then had him against the door. This was awkward. Carlos just smirked and opened the door to escape. Santiago decided to run after him, despite only really having shorts on. No one would be awake right?

"Catch meeeeeee~!" he ran up the stairwell, making Santiago groan, he wasn't one for running, especially not at midnight.

"You better hope I'm he only one that catches you," Santiago grumbled as he ran up, two steps at a time.

He finally caught up and pushed him onto the wall, but it was another door. Ugh.

"Hah!" now Santiago was pinned against the wall, he groaned and tried kicking Carlos, but he wouldn't budge.

They didn't see who's room they were in.

"I guess, I win amor," Carlos promptly covered Santiago in the blanket and threw him onto a couch. Then proceeded to jumping on him, and Santiago shrieked.

"Dios mío Carlos!" he started fumbling over and trying to pin him down so he would stop hitting him.

This disturbed the already woken Alejandro. He went silently to light the torch, and once it was lit it got at least Santiago's attention.

"Guys," his hand was on his forehead, he was annoyed, but trying to keep calm, because every one of his father's words were sacred to him. "If you want to do..." he avoided saying what he thought they were doing, "that, get a room that isn't mine!" he yelled, then walked over to them. Santiago wrapped the blanket around himself.

"You might think I'm lying Al, but this isn't what it looks like," Carlos said, looking at the Mexican. "I was in his room right? Then like, we usually do this when you guys are all sleeping, then it gets upstairs and stuff, and Santi always makes a mess you know? That blanket?" he laughed, "soooo dirty, I mean it's been dragged everywhere, the floor, the stairs especially since it's always on this floor, and yea. So this time I ran off with the—" Santiago was in awe, he almost couldn't open his mouth to cut him off, Carlos could make the simplest night time game turn into a really bad innuendo. He probably didn't even know what innuendos were.

"He normally takes my blanket away and runs off and I have to find him. But today he's all jumpy, and I caught him twice but he doesn't want to admit that."

Alejandro had a look that read both confused and relieved. On the inside he didn't think that was all that was going on, but he wouldn't have them ramble or stay any longer. He had to get some sleep. Spain wanted to meet him early the next morning for 'vegetable lessons'.
"Okay, bye."

"We'll talk about this later," Carlos said nonchalantly at the Mexican, then pulled Santiago up. "I could carry yo—" Santiago had already folded the blanket up and ran out, thus giving himself a head start. "Oh you're gonna—" he too sped off.

Alejandro sighed, put off the torch, closed and locked the door, then went to bed.

~

"Amor you're totally getting it now! You can't be the blanket person, I'm the blanket person," they were now in Carlos' room. Santiago had passed out from tiredness though, wrapped in that nice little blanket. Carlos picked him up and walked to his room.
"Ay Santi, you sleep too much amor," he rolled his eyes as he shook his head, then he kissed his forehead before leaving the room.

I'm the darkness of the night, Santiago smiled.

This thing is all over the place. Oops. Anyways, cheerio and cy'all in the next update!