Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart

Chapter 5

Feliciano lay in long, sun drenched grass with Ludwig beside him, smiling, a ray of orange sunlight turning his hair to gold. He reached for Feliciano and pulled him close with warm, strong arms. Feliciano gasped, ran his fingers through that golden hair, shuddered at the soft touch of Ludwig's lips on his neck. All was silent around them... no one else existed in the entire world. Feliciano threw his head back and moaned. "Ludwig..."

A deafening bang exploded in his ears and Feliciano's eyes shot open, blinking in the sudden soft light. It took him a few moments to remember where he was, and when he did, he could hear Lovino's frantic breathing cut through the silence of the bedroom. He turned his head to see Lovino limp heavily from the front door to the dresser, take the glass tomato Antonio had given him from its surface, and clutch it tightly in his hand before smashing it suddenly to the ground. Feliciano blinked in shock and pushed himself upright, the last vestiges of sleep falling away. "Lovino, what are you doing?"

Lovino barely noticed him. He just dropped to his knees, placed the lantern on the ground and searched through the shards of glass until he found something. He held the tiny object up to the light. Lovino stared at it, unmoving, breathing heavily, before he closed his hand over it and clutched it to his chest. He laughed bitterly. "Bastard."

Feliciano pulled himself out of bed, confused and worried. "What is it?"

"Nothing. It's nothing." Lovino put his head in his hands briefly. "Oh God, it's nothing, nothing."

Feliciano dropped to the floor beside Lovino, grasping his hand and opening it to see what he held. It was a plain, silver ring. Lovino did not protest when Feliciano took it and held the ring up to the light, turning it over in his fingers. There were letters inscribed on the inside. Feliciano read out the unfamiliar words. "Te quiero. What does that mean?"

"Nothing," Lovino repeated firmly. "Forget it." He snatched the ring back and thrust it in his pocket. "Just forget you saw it, and I'll forget I saw it, and we'll all just forget that any of this ever happened." Feliciano got the feeling he was talking about something other than the ring.

"Forget that what happened? Lovino? What happened?"

Lovino just shook his head and pulled himself to his feet. "Nothing," he repeated.

"What's the time? Why are you home so late? Where is Antonio? Grandpa said you hurt your ankle, are you all right? Lovino, you look like you are going to fall over."

"Feliciano," said Lovino as he limped shakily to his bed. "Go back to sleep."

Feliciano nodded reluctantly, realising that was the most he was going to get out of Lovino tonight. "Will you at least let me bandage your ankle?" Lovino responded, but it was muffled by a pillow. "I'm sorry?"

"I said, Antonio already did that. Now shut up."

Feliciano smirked at that. He quickly swept up the broken shards and discarded them, a little disappointed as he watched them fall into the bin. It was a shame that Lovino had to break something so pretty just to find out what was inside it. Te quiero. He would have to find out what it meant. Feliciano sighed and climbed back into bed, hoping that he could fall back into the same dream he had been woken out of.

.

The wind carried with it a deep and bitter chill as Feliciano walked through the cold morning air. The winter had been unusually mild so far, and even though the day before had been unseasonably warm, there had been a sudden change almost overnight. Feliciano could even make out snow on the mountains. Along with the sudden freeze, dark clouds had settled on the horizon, and Feliciano watched them uneasily as he strolled along the road. He never had liked winter storms, with the freezing rain and the piercing lightning and the thunder that rolled off the mountains and echoed back twice as loud. When Feliciano was little, Grandpa Roma used to say that the thunder was the old Gods fighting each other. That just scared him more.