Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You will love Aunt Marzia, she’s the best!”

“Tell me something we won’t love in your opinion, Gio, you’re so annoying!”

“And you have your head in a hole all the time!”

At this I looked at Elio who was reading by my side and he just shrugged. We were so used to Gio and Luke’s spats by now that we just leave them solve them. It never got aggressive or anything, it was mostly childish banter, but whatever. Patrick was a good referee anyway so we just leave the three of them be, most of the time.

It was summer vacation and we were on a plane on our way to Italy. The three children were sat on the three seats on the left side and Elio and I took the two seats in the middle section on the same row as theirs. I took the seat next to the aisle so I was closer to them.

“Guys, please…” Patrick pleaded, ever the patient and uncomplaining one, which was why he sat in the middle of the other two.

“And she’s not your father’s sister so she’s not your aunt,” he shrugged, and I just rolled my eyes, trying and failing to concentrate on my own reading.

“Duh, it’s just an affinity!”

“Do you even know what affinity means?”

“It’s enough now! Just… watch a movie, listen to music, I don’t care, but please shut up!” Patrick said in a low but somehow authoritarian voice.

Surprisingly, they did!

“Sometimes I think they listen more to Patrick than to us,” I whispered to Elio. He just chuckled as he turned the page of his book.

“Damn, I can’t feel my butt, I can’t wait to land…” he sighed, “how much time till we arrive?”

“We have about two hours, so not much.” I added afterwards, very low and close to his ear, “careful with your butt though, we can’t have it damaged now, can we?”

He giggled and kissed my cheek.

After two long hours we were finally landing and facing the difficult task of keeping an eye on three children and get them to behave while getting off the plane and waiting for our luggage. I loved every bit of this, though… I loved to have the boys with us and of course after three years and a half I already saw Gio as if she was my own.

Well, she was Elio’s and Elio was me.

As we waited, Gio propped herself up on the airport trolley as Luke pushed her around. It was in times like these that I was assured that their spats were only superficial and they were actually really close.

“Stop, stop! You’re going to hurt yourselves!” Elio rushed to them as Patrick merely shrugged looking at me. At barely fourteen years old, he was as tall as Elio, which made me think that perhaps he’d grow even more than me. He was much more confident and mature than I was at his age, possibly because he doesn’t have extremely conservative parents like I had…

“But, Papà-“

“No! Get down.” She turned to Luke, pouting but she knew she had no choice. “As if I would risk taking you to your grandmother covered in bruises… Come.” Luke pushed the trolley, now without Gio, and Elio placed a hand on his shoulder as they made their way towards me.

Luckily, our luggage was among the first ones so we didn’t have to wait too long. When we got outside, Annella was already waiting for us. Gio was the first to run to her of course, but I was quite surprised that the boys followed right after. She had left quite an impression on them over the two months she had spent with us in New York.

“Il mio Tesoro,” she murmured to Elio as soon as she put her arms around him. After embracing her son for a long time, she turned to me, that maternal look that had almost been alien to me at a certain time, somewhat familiar at last.

“Oliver… Come here, son!” She exclaimed before hugging me. The scent of fresh fruit and bread and all things motherly was as evident as ever.

The drive to the villa was a combination of nostalgia and pleasantry, and I couldn’t help but smile at Luke’s constant awe of his surroundings. He barely remembered any of it and it was comforting to see him with all his defences down for once.

“Here we are,” Gio beamed as soon as she spotted the house. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

“We’ve been here before smarthead…” Luke mumbled.

“I bet you remember nothing, oblivious head!”

“You cannot know what that means!” He said, exasperated, and Gio stuck her tongue out to him as the car came to a full stop.

“Last to get to the house is a rotten egg!” She got out of the car and started running, Luke following her.

“Giovanna!” Elio tried in vain to calm her down.

“Let them be,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s just so safe here for them to play around... Can’t blame them to start running straight away.”

Even Patrick couldn’t take it and started running to his brother and stepsister.

“You’re probably right,” he said with a long sigh. “Shit, I missed this,” he added as he felt the clean air entering his lungs.

We took the luggage to our room and managed to make the kids move their own. Unsurprisingly, even though she tried, Gio asked Patrick for help and as usual he was happy to do so. She stayed in her usual room and the boys shared a room with bunk beds right next to hers.

“It’s so good to have you here,” Annella said as I joined her in the kitchen moments after, the noises of the kids on the upper floor were welcomed somehow, setting the house alive. I put an arm around her and kissed her temple. “All of you. I hope Marian doesn’t mind the boys staying here for an entire month, though…” She said, referring to my ex-wife.

“She’s all right. She will take the opportunity to travel with Anthony and she reckons it’s good for them to taste the fresh air for a while. She loved it here, as you remember…”

“I liked her, she seemed to be a genuine person, she was just caught in the middle of something that she would never be able to control…”

“She didn’t try to. If someone is to blame in the middle of all this, it’s me. But as Elio says, when we look back, any road that wouldn’t lead to Patrick, Luke and Gio is simply despicable.” She smiled and nodded. “Now tell me, who else is here?”

She proceeded to tell me about everyone I knew who was also around which included Marzia’s family. We talked for about an hour, until Elio and the kids joined us. We were all tired from the trip, but it was almost dinnertime and no one wanted to skip the first dinner. The night would be long enough for us to sleep and rest, anyway.

Marzia came for dinner with her husband and son. Francesco was Gio’s age and the two had known each other since forever. They were happy to finally be together and immediately started talking Italian non-stop. I could sense Patrick’s amusement and Luke’s… discomfort? He was frowning at them, not understanding a word and not really getting why Gio was so excited about that boy.

“Luke! Stop staring…” Patrick mumbled to his brother who was sitting opposite him.

“I’m not!”

“You’ll have to excuse them… Francesco doesn’t speak English, even though I think that has to change soon,” Marzia said, smiling apologetically at Luke. He immediately blushed, and I wasn’t sure if it was due to embarrassment of being caught or because of Marzia’s undeniable beauty.

“It’s all right, I can’t speak a second language either, so...”

“You’ll start your French lessons in September,” I reminded him.

“Huh… Whenever I listen to Elio speaking French it just seems so difficult; I’m not sure I’ll manage.”

“Oh, you will…” Elio assured him. “The difficult part of learning a new language is to surpass the embarrassment of speaking it out loud and not be afraid to make mistakes. We’ll practise whenever you’re at home and when you get to speak at school you’ll see it will come naturally. It worked for your brother.”

“I guess…” he shrugged, not too convinced.

In the meantime, Gio and her friend continued their animated conversation. Luke glanced in their direction from time to time trying to decipher some words. He probably missed their playful quarrels and tiffs, I thought, and he was feeling intimidated by this boy he didn’t know. It took some time, but he was finally seeing Gio as family and experiencing that common sting of an older brother who suddenly is not the centre of attention anymore. Especially for someone like Luke, I believed it would take some time for him to get used to having Francesco around.

Patrick was much more mature and because he’d warmed up to Gio much sooner, he was already in that comfortable zone where he knew he wouldn’t lose her. However, he was finding his brother’s reaction pretty amusing.

Dinner didn’t prolong itself into the night as usual, especially not for us. Elio stayed a while longer speaking to Marzia, but I desperately needed a bed. The children followed me and the boys quickly made a beeline to their room whereas Gio looked more pensive, walking slowly behind me.

“Are you okay, monkey?” I asked as she reached her room’s door. It had become my nickname for her over time, taken from the fact that she loved trying to climb over my back and hold onto my neck. She nodded and entered the room, sitting on the bed with a thud, her eyes down, so I knew better. “Missing Nonno?”

“Is it normal that I still wait for him to appear inside his studio? And to come for breakfast and dinner?” She asked bluntly, her green glassy eyes meeting mine at last.

“This place is so him, that I don’t think his presence will ever fade,” I answered, sitting by her side.

“But I don’t want it to fade…”

“So don’t let it,” I smiled, ruffling her hair. “Come here.” She climbed onto my lap and I put my arms around her.

“Tell me something about him. From before I was born,” she requested and laid her head on my shoulder. She already knew how I had met her father but it was true that we never truly explained how fundamental Samuel Perlman had been for both of us as a couple. I proceeded to tell her how her grandfather made me feel like family, how I would never forget his compassion and kind eyes. After, I told her the story of my test about the origin of the word “apricot”. She chuckled, probably imagining the whole scene playing out in her head.

“Thank you, Daddy,” she leaned up to kiss my cheek but I was quite simply stunned. My blank expression probably startled her and she blushed looking down. “Sorry, I-“

“Hey, hey! Monkey, there’s nothing to apologise! You caught me by surprise but you’ve just made me so happy!” She smiled shyly, looking into my eyes again. “You can call me Daddy if it pleases you. You know I love you, right?”

She nodded, “I love you, too. And I’m so happy I have you and Patrick. Well, and Luke too, I guess,” she said playfully.

I laughed and shook my head. “Well, I know they feel the same. Now, get into bed, it’s been a very long journey…” She did so and I kissed her forehead, wishing her goodnight before making my way to my room.

Elio came in about five minutes later, as I emerged from the bathroom only in my boxers. “Well… If only I wasn’t so tired…”

“Does that mean you admit you’re actually getting old?” I teased.

“Ha, you wish!” He got down to his boxers and lay on the bed with a thud. “Finally… Traveling this far is never easy but travelling with three kids is a whole new kind of exhausting,” he sighed and I smiled, lying down beside him as he turned on his side to face me. “I love it, though…”

“Gio just called me Daddy,” I said, still unable to stop grinning.

“What?” He snorted, one hand on the curve of my neck.

“She was feeling a bit sentimental so I sat with her for a moment, talking about your father and then, bang! Very typical Giovanna Perlman, she just said naturally…”

“Well, if it doesn’t bother you or the boys-“

“Elio… Of course it doesn’t. It worries me, but we’ll find a way. We’re family.”

“You’re talking about the bullying at school?”

“Yeah… Let’s hope the new one will be better. She never deserved all that bitterness.”

Gio had been bullied at her school the past year. Her classmates realised she lived with two men who happened to be a couple and in the mid nineties that wasn’t even something that people talked about much less something that average people actually accepted. It took her some time to tell us what was happening and she only did it because Patrick forced her to. It wasn’t something smooth to deal with… It left some scars.

“Luke is attending the same school, he’ll be there for her,” he said. I loved his confidence.

“Come here, you,” I smiled and pushed his body on top of mine; I loved the feeling of having all his weight upon me. “We’re one, you and I. Your blood is my blood; you’re Oliver and I’m Elio. I said it in this same bed 16 years ago and it was one of the few times I was certain of the meaning and truth of the words leaving my mouth. These past four years by your side just proved me how incomplete I was before. Thanks to you and this sense of wholeness, I feel like I’m a better person, a better father-“

“A better lover?” He teased, his eyes glistening with happy tears. I slapped his butt and he giggled adorably. “Sorry!”

“No, you’re not sorry. But you’re probably right. A better lover, too. Tomorrow I’ll prove it to you.” I teased.

“Tomorrow, old man?”

I checked the clock on the bedside table and grinned. “Well… Here in Italy it’s already tomorrow,” I winked.

“Not so old after all…” He dived into me then, capturing my mouth in his as his hands caressed me everywhere.

Sleep could wait and, considering our frantic movements, we wouldn’t last long anyway…

Chapter Text

I'm sorry if I'm going against some rules of this board, if you think it's really inappropriate I'll take it down, BUT.

In this last installment I alluded to the fact that Gio suffered some sort of bullying at school. So, I've started writing something that revolves around that particular subject but I'm not sure if it's suitable to post or not. Of course it's still Oliver/Elio, but it won't be centered on them as a couple. Would you still be interested about reading something like that? I've started many years later, with Gio as a confident teenager, but there's plenty of flashbacks and it's from her POV.

Do not hesitate to leave your honest thoughts on this, even if they are negative, I just want to know if I should keep going or if it's not worth it.

Thank you!