Chapter Text
The guest room was fairly cozy with a large bed that took up most of the room. There were two windows, both with the shutters closed, opposite the bed. However, the slats of the aforementioned shutters were still slightly open, which let stripes of pastel yellow light into the darkened room, peacefully finding their resting place all along the bed. The calming atmosphere made Alberto want to take a nap.
“Well, do you need help unpacking?” Luca said, gesturing to the briefcase on the bed. Alberto looked around the room, at the briefcase, then back to Luca.
He was unsure of what he wanted. He wanted the company of his friend, but he didn’t like how nervous he had been getting near him. It felt too out of character for him. He preferred to approach things collectedly. But these days when he was with Luca, he could barely hold a stable conversation, let alone stay calm.
“Nah, I’m good. I need to take a shower anyway. Plus, I don’t think you would approve of the situation in here.” He said, patting the briefcase and putting the calm and collected mask back on.
“Okay, well, the party’s at eight if you feel like hanging out before then. Otherwise, just tell us if you need anything.” Giulia said, smiling like she was happy to be helpful.
“Thanks,” Alberto responded, placing his hands behind his back to fidget with and rocking back and forth on his heels a few times. His eyes followed the girl as she walked out of the room.
Luca lingered a couple of seconds longer in the doorway staring at Alberto like he was pondering the boy’s very existence, studying him like he was one of those clumps of stars that made a picture. Luca had talked his ear off about them on the last night they had spent under the stars. However, after a moment of empty silence, he left too, quietly closing the door behind him.
After they were gone, Alberto sighed. For some reason, the star clumps still lingered in his mind. Why couldn’t he remember what they were called? He knew it was probably something stupid with too many letters, but the word escaped him.
After a moment of racking his brain, he defeatedly fell backward onto the bed. The soft mattress clung to him, pulling him down deeper. It practically begged for him to fall asleep on it. The soft cushioning perfectly supported his tired back and legs, which were still very sore from working the day before with Massimo.
The tranquil bed didn’t allow for thoughts about star clumps or worries about messing up his relationship with his best friend or negative thoughts in general, only relaxation. If Alberto wasn’t already determined to take his shower, he would’ve stayed on the mattress all day long.
However, when he was determined to do something, nothing shy of dismemberment could stop him. Achily, the boy got up from the bed.
Turning on his heels to face his briefcase, he clicked the latch and flipped open the top revealing the metaphorical hellscape that was the inside of his luggage. Alberto was by no means an organized person, a common point of contention between Luca and himself, but this was bad even for him. It would be nearly impossible to attempt to describe how unorganized the briefcase was.
Alberto blamed the disaster that he called luggage on the fact that it had been a fairly spur-of-the-moment trip, Luca and Giulia asking him to come in their weekly phone call with himself and Massimo only two days prior.
Of course, he had jumped at the opportunity. But the sudden timing didn’t lend itself to packing in an organized fashion.
Alberto reached into the pile of clothes and pulled out a striped, beige, and chestnut-colored button-down shirt, a pair of khaki shorts, and a pair of socks and underwear. He didn’t know why he had packed something so nice, compared to his usual T-shirts and sweatpants. But he knew that he should clean up a little for his first house party.
Holding the clothes in a clumped-up ball under his arm, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. The door to the bathroom was on his right, slightly ajar. He entered the room, closing the door behind himself. It was the biggest, nicest bathroom he had ever seen. The palace-like restroom felt out of place in the otherwise normal home.
It was nearly the size of his bedroom back home, with a ceiling so high that he felt like he was standing in a ballroom. The tiles were sparkling white. Alberto almost felt bad stepping on them, feeling like he’d ruin them with his mediocrity. The mirror was crystal clear and about two feet tall. The sink and toilet were nothing to scoff at either, both white and pristine.
The main attraction, though, was the shower. White tiles lined the walls around the tub and stopped just below the ceiling. A skylight above the shower shined a soft light with a slight blue tint on the whole room.
Without turning on the light, he quickly took off his clothes as to not disturb the beauty that emanated from the skylight. He set the fresh ones from his suitcase and stepped forward towards the shower.
From outside the tub, he turned the knob on the faucet to about halfway and pulled up the stopper to let the showerhead run. After a few seconds of letting the water heat up, he hopped in the tub and yanked the curtain closed behind himself.
He immediately felt a chill run through his body as scales replaced skin, claws replaced hands, and his fins and tail jutted out of his body. As the water continued to heat, he slowly sat down on the floor of the shower. He hugged his knees close to his chest and curled his tail around himself like a serpent.
Truthfully, he didn’t need a shower, as he had taken one that morning. But, the water always helped him relax; they helped him think and clear his thoughts.
Like clockwork, his brain began working again. The river of his mind flowed evenly and naturally as if a dam had broken. There were so many things going through his mind. It was hard to focus on one. However, one thought seemed to come back to him over and over. Luca. Luca. Luca.
He couldn’t stop thinking about his friend, about how happy the shorter boy had been to see him. He knew his friend had missed him, but seeing it with his own eyes was something special. It gave him pause whenever Luca looked at him with that curious glint in his eye like a school of fish was swimming around in his gut.
He didn’t know how he felt about that. He liked hanging out with his friend, but that gut feeling made it seem like something was missing from his life, like Luca was missing from his life.
He knew that it was a stupid thought. Even when Luca wasn’t physically with him, he was either there in spirit or through his letters. But he couldn’t shake it. He was never satisfied, always wanting more. It was good, though, that he got some space and took a shower. Another second with Luca, and he would have melted.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend time with his friend. He was just too damn anxious. Another second, and he would’ve slipped up, done something wrong, and ruined everything like he always did.
It was weird. Luca was the only thing in the world that scared him. Alberto wasn’t scared of Luca like Ercole was scared of spiders or how Machiavelli was scared of water. He feared the way Luca made him feel and the uncertainty of what the pressure in his gut was whenever Luca got worried or uncomfortable.
However, what scared him most was the way Luca had changed recently and the way that their dynamics had seemingly changed overnight. In his countless letters, Luca was as he’d always been, curious, charming, and a little shy. When Alberto had gotten to Genova, though, it was like someone had flipped a switch. Luca was suddenly outgoing, erratic, and daring. The change made Alberto nervous and a little curious. He didn’t know what had caused the sudden change in his friend, but he wanted to find out.
“Alberto, what’s taking so long? You’ve been in there for half an hour!” Giulia yelled suddenly, banging on the door.
Alberto scrambled to his feet, nearly falling twice, “Uh, sorry. Be out in a second.” He said, his brain suddenly turning into tar. Hurriedly, he turned the knob, shutting off the water. Once the steady stream of water was reduced to single droplets from the showerhead, he pulled back the curtain and leaped out of the tub and onto the shag rug.
Now dripping profusely onto the rug, he snatched a towel from the rail on the wall. As he furiously dried himself, he felt his body change back into his human form, his hair poofing upwards like it always did.
Once he was dry, he quickly pulled on his boxers and shorts, almost forgetting to zip up his fly, and speedily buttoned up his shirt. Making a mad dash for the door, he paused for a moment to check himself in the mirror. He rolled his sleeves up just above his elbows, ran a hand through his thick curls, and flung open the bathroom door.
As he stepped into the hall, he saw the door to Giulia and Luca’s bedroom, which they shared, slightly ajar, and an idea popped into his head. He gingerly strolled over to the room and stood at the door. The boy gave a light knock and waited a moment.
“Come on in, slowpoke,” Giulia’s voice called from inside the bedroom. In response, he softly pushed open the door. Both of his friends were laying and reading on their respective beds. The only difference between the two was that when Luca heard Alberto come in, he closed his book and sat up, legs crisscrossed on his bed. Giulia did not. She was leaned back with her face still buried in whatever she was reading.
“How was your spa day?” She teased, still not looking at her adopted brother, who was now standing in the center of the rectangle-shaped room.
“I told you I was taking a shower, didn’t I?” He retorted, hands on his hips.
“You need to look at a dictionary, Fratello,” She started, side-eyeing him, “Last I checked, that was a little more than a shower.”
“B-Berto, I like that shirt. Is it knew?” Luca spoke up nervously, trying to change the subject so his friends didn’t spend an hour arguing over what qualified as a shower.
“Oh, thanks. No, I’ve had this for a while. You know me, I don’t usually like dressing up.” He replied, throwing a smirk over his shoulder at Luca, “But, I figured since we’re going to a preppy house party, I might as well try to look nice.”
“Glad Genova’s wild nightlife was the thing to finally make an honest man of you.” Giulia retorted.
“Speaking of wild,” Alberto started again, “I was thinking since we have a while until the party,” He paused for dramatic effect in a way that made Giulia roll her eyes but had Luca hanging on his every word, “Wanna get gelato?”
“You buying, hotshot?” Giulia shot back quickly, smirking at the metaphorical corner she’d backed him into.
“Ugh, fine,” Alberto exclaimed, throwing himself onto Luca’s bed like he was acting out a scene from one of those Shakespearean plays that Luca had gotten into a couple of months prior. Neither of the boys acknowledged it, but both of them tensed slightly at how close they were to each other. Even as both of their faces reddened slightly, and Luca began fidgeting nervously with his hands, neither noticed the other’s behavior.
“Yeah gelato sounds good,” Luca said, doing a half-decent job of sounding less anxious than he was, “Hey, It’ll be like old times. Right, Alberto?” Luca’s voice filled with genuine excitement. It was as if the nostalgia of past summers in Portorosso, and their long-standing friendship had beaten out his anxiety.
“Yeah, it will,” He replied calmly. The tension Alberto had been holding in his shoulders eased a little. He was back in his happy place. The security of nostalgia brought him back to before Luca gave made him feel anxious, back to when they could just have fun as best friends before everything got complicated. It was comfortable.
Giulia suddenly hopped up from her place on her bed and began marching towards the bedroom door. She turned herself flamboyantly towards the boys and jabbed a thumb behind herself and towards the open door.
“Well, after Alberto’s shower stunt, we don’t have all day. So, we can either spend the rest of the afternoon reminiscing, or we can drown ourselves in a mountain of gelato.” She didn’t wait for the two of them to think about it and immediately started to leave. But unlike when they were doing the dishes, the two boys got up just as quickly as she had and walked with her out of the room.