Einsamkeit ; A Germany/Italy Story

Chapter Two

October 6th, 1946

Ardea, Italy

"Oi! Feliciano, It's time to get up you fannullone!"

Feliciano only groaned in response to his brothers shoves, pulling the blanket up over his head with a sound of protest. He knew that this would not please Lovino in the slightest, though in the present moment, he didn't much care about his brothers temper. His body felt like lead and his eyelids refused to open, Unfortunately for Feliciano, Lovino did not care what time he had gotten to sleep, nor was he willing to take on his brothers half of the morning chores. Getting frustrated at his brothers stubbornness, Lovino cursed at him and yanked the blanket away, causing a shock wave of cold morning air to gust over Feliciano's entire body. Feliciano whined in protest, it felt like it was much too early to have to be getting up yet, the sun had barely even crested over the hill yet.

"Fratello...."

"Get up! We have too much to do today for you to lie around like a house cat! We have to get chores done before Grandpa wakes up will have to listen to his singing, and I am not going to deal with that just because you didn't get your lazy culo out of bed, now get up or I'm going to shove my foot in your ass so hard you will taste leather!" Feliciano sighed, Lovino was always like this, grumpy and cursing even just out of bed. He knew that it would be futile to try to protest, so begrudgingly he sat up and yawned. His arms stretching high above his head, Lovino seemed satisfied enough to cease his prodding. He dropped Feliciano's blanket at the end of his bed, and Feliciano had half a mind to take it and roll himself up like a burrito to go back to sleep, but one look from Lovino stopped that from happening.

"We are having biscottate for breakfast, it's already ready so eat it but leave some for grandpa. Also, it is your turn to feed the chickens so don't forget." After Lovino was sure that his brother wasn't just going to lay back down and go to sleep he turned on his heel and sat down to pull on his boots. Feliciano smiled knowingly, even if Lovino was grumpy, he had still made breakfast for them.

Rubbing away the sleep from his eyes, Feliciano swung his legs over the edge of his bed and stood up, shivering a little as the cold wood paneling touched his bare feet. Feliciano was not a fan of the cold, he much preferred the warm summer months of the year when the weather was mild and warm and the wheat fields were all tall and golden. He couldn't complain much though, he was thankful that they didn't get much snow. From what he had heard of the russian winters he was very thankful that their village only got a small dusting of it. Despite the chill he didn't bother putting on pants over his undergarments. He was comfortable in his long shirt, pants could come later. Feliciano wandered out the door, dragging his feet into the hallway and immediately he had to suppress a chuckle. He could hear the rumbling snore of their grandfather in the bedroom down the hall and although this was a common sound in the early mornings here in the Vargas household, Feliciano never ceased to find the sound entertaining.

Felciano was distracted from the humor of his Grandpa's snoring by the sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee coming from the kitchen, and the heaviness of his feet seemed to suddenly seem like less of a burden. Making his way into the small kitchen off the living room, Feliciano eyed the plate of biscottate sitting on the counter and made his way over to it. He stacked a few biscuits onto a small plate and set about slathering them with jam. Lovino thought he was strange for eating them with jam but since antonio had shown him how good it tasted he never went without, he filled a cup with coffee from the perculator that Lovino had left on the stove to keep warm and was sure to add plenty of cream and sugar before sitting at the table to enjoy his breakfast. He closed his eyes while taking a drink of the warm liquid and instantly the chill of the early morning hours was banished from his chest. He took his time despite Lovinos earlier instance, he enjoyed watching the sun creep up over the hill to shine upon their little vineyard out in the Italian countryside through the open kitchen window. The little cottage his family shared wasn't much but it was home, and that was enough. Quiet mornings like this always reminded Feliciano what a grace the small things in life were, and it was a pleasant enough thought to charge his smile for that morning.