Chapter Text
The Guilty Heart
This takes place a month before Love Is Blind...
Lovino had not had the best night, working at the Cielo Italiano restaurant to put himself through college, learning business and culinary courses with the goal of opening his own restaurant one day. He had been stuck with a diner who could not make up his mind what meal he wanted to order and when he did, he changed his mind. Finally, the diner made up his mind and Lovino quickly disappeared into the kitchen before the diner could decide that he wanted something else. He put the order up for the chefs to put together and then comprehensively cursed the customer out, the curl sticking out of his red-brown hair on the right, quivering with suppressed rage.
"Stupid, indecisive bastard!" he stormed. "Like I've got time to stand around while he decides what pig swill to shove down his throat. What's wrong with the bastard? Is he need going to need Mama to feed him as well?!" Lovino's cousin, Marcello who was in the kitchen picking up meals, chuckled.
"Showing your superior people skills again, Lovino?" he asked, jokingly.
"Screw you!"
"And I don't cook pig swill!" Lucius, the restaurant's main chef said at the work top, pointing at Lovino with his meat cleaver (he had been indulging in the cooking wine again) . "I cook good quality food and don't you forget that!"
"Might as well be pig swill for all the appreciation that bastard will give it!" Lovino declared. "Probably get more appreciation if you gave it to pigs! I don't think the stingy bastard will leave a tip either!"
"You need a holiday, Lovino," Marcello commented. "Or a soulmate!" Lovino pulled a face.
"A soulmate is the last thing I need!" he stated. "What I need is less customers being indecisive dick-heads."
Lovino dreaded finding his soulmate. He wanted to feel his heart beat but because of what had happened ten years ago, Lovino felt he did not deserve a soulmate.
" Come on, fratello!" eleven year old Lovino shouted to his ten year old brother, Feliciano, as they ran toward the forest. "Let's climb the trees! I bet I can climb higher!"
" I bet you can't!" the excited younger brother exclaimed as they ran into the woods and began looking for the best climbing trees. Lovino found a good one and began scaling the branches, Feliciano close behind him in the next tree. Lovino gained good height in his tree with the branches being close together but, as Feliciano got higher in his tree, the branches became more widely spaced and he had to reach further to get hold of them. The next branch was a distance and he reached out his small hand to take hold of it and, as he managed to grab it, his foot slipped but his hand could not grip the branch properly and it slipped from his grip as he fell into open air with a scream.
" FELI!"
Lovino watched in horror as his little brother hit the ground with a sickening thud and began to make his way down his tree, risking falling himself but he made it safely to the ground and ran to where Feli lay. Feliciano's unnaturally pale skin made his auburn hair with the left hand curl stand out against his forehead, as it did the blood seeping from the side of his head where it had hit an upraised tree root. Feliciano looked like he was dead and Lovino began to cry as he shook his brother gently, trying to get some reaction but Feli remained unnaturally still and Lovino did the only thing he could. He ran home for help!
Romulus wasted no time following his eldest grandson to reach Feliciano's side and reassured Lovino that his brother was still alive and made him wait while Romulus went to call an ambulance. Feliciano was swept into hospital where he stayed in a coma for three days. He had a few broken bones but had somehow avoided damaging his back but the doctors were concerned about the head injury as he was yet to wake and a CAT-scan showed damage around the optic nerve. After the three days, Feli finally woke but the true damage became clear as Feliciano began to cry as he realised that he could not see.
Lovino cried himself to sleep that night! It was his fault! He had suggested climbing the trees and now the doctors said that the damage to the optic nerve was unrepairable. Feli would be blind for the rest of his life and Lovino knew it was because of him!
Lovino rubbed his eyes as if trying to rub away the unpleasant memory that would always be a permanent resident in his brain, along with the other one that was always behind his eyes, the memory that made him not want to find his soulmate.
Lovino had gone to the library to study but there had been some kind of water leak and the library was closed so Lovino trudged home, cursing under his breath at not getting his study period in and he opened the front door with a disgruntled bang. No one was home and he dumped his books on the dining room table and ran upstairs to the bathroom. Nature was calling and he wanted to answer it before he got down to studying with what books he had.
When he opened the bathroom door, he found that he was not alone in the house. Feliciano was stood in the room, his face a mass of tears and, to Lovino's horror, he was holding a blade to his wrist.
Lovino grabbed his both of his brother's arms and forced the blade away from the other wrist, his brother, struggling.
" Feliciano, drop the knife!" he ordered. Feliciano gave a hard sob and slowly slackened his grip and the blade fell to the floor. Lovino wrapped his arms around his sobbing brother while he willed his breathing to slow down after the scare he had just had sent it to the speed of sound.
" Why?" he demanded, angrily. He did not mean to sound like that but the sight of his brother attempting to take his own life had made him lose control of his emotions. "Why would you do something so stupid, fratello? What's so bad that you'd do this to yourself? To us? Do you know what this would do to Nonno? Why?" Lovino fished his phone out of his pocket and dialled his grandfather's number.
" Lovino," Romulus answered the call. "This is not a good …."
" Get home, Nonno!" Lovino ordered. "Get home now! It might not be a good time there but it's a worse one here, come home now! It's Feliciano!"
" What about Felici ….?"
" Just come home, Nonno!" Lovino hung up and put his phone back in his pocket, turning his attention to his still sobbing brother and taking him out of the bathroom and down to the living room, lying him down on the couch, as he continued to cry. Lovino stood up and shove his hands into his hair and gripped it. He did not know what to do and he began crying himself as his helplessness to help his brother overwhelmed him. He knelt down and hugged Feliciano.
" Why, Feli?" he asked, again. "Why do you want to leave us like this?" Feli gave a hard sob.
" Why should I live?" he wailed. "I'll never feel my heart beat because I can't see my soulmate's eyes and I can't condemn my soulmate to a life with someone with no beating heart. I'll always be alone so it would be better if I just died!" Lovino picked Feli up and sat down, pulling his distraught brother into his lap and hugged him tight. This was because of him! Because of Feli's blindness, caused by him! Just when Lovino could not feel any lower, his actions were waiting with more consequences. He not only took away his brother's sight, he almost took away his life! Lovino tucked Feli's head under his chin and wept with him.
Romulus dove into the house to find his youngest grandson in the arms of his eldest, weeping as if the world was ending and he knew that this was something serious.
" Lovino, what's happened?" he demanded as Feli continued to sob. Lovino turned his tear-reddened eyes up to his grandfather.
" Feli tried to kill himself," he said. Romulus did not react at first because what Lovino had said had not sunk in.
" What?"
" I came home to find Feli trying to slash his wrist, Nonno," Lovino clarified. "He wanted to die because he thinks he's going to be alone for the rest of his life because his heart will never beat! He doesn't want to chain his soulmate to him because of that and thinks he'd be better off dead. Nonno, what do we do?"
There was only one thing that they could do and that was to take him to the hospital who recommended that Feliciano be put on Suicide Watch in a mental health centre which Lovino was not happy with. He wanted to stay with his brother because he did not trust them to treat his brother kindly as he had heard so many horror stories. Feliciano was a fragile soul and his blindness made him all the more vulnerable. He did not want his brother worse than when he went in.
After three days, Feliciano was deemed low risk but he was given medication to calm his mood and he was referred to Doctor Elizaveta Héderváry Edelstein, a specialist in mental health issues in young people and she would counsel Feliciano for the next year. He was doing much better but his issues had not gone away which was why Lovino did not want to find his soulmate just yet. If he found his soulmate, it might upset Feli and Lovino did not want anything to set Feliciano's recovery back. Lovino felt that he had caused his brother enough pain.
Lucius put two meals on the collection shelf and Lovino picked them up, leaving the kitchen to take them to a table he had served earlier. He placed them on the table in front of the diners with an Enjoy your meal! and then to another table who were ready to pay the bill. His mood was lightened a little when the man paying the bill also left a generous tip and, as the man left, Lovino gave him a genuine Please do come again, Signore!
Lovino cleaned the now empty table down and put on fresh cutlery and side plates, replacing the glasses and refreshing the water jug ready for the next customer before going back into the kitchen to collect Mr Indecisive's meal and deliver it to him.
"Enjoy your meal, Signore," he said, politely and moved away before the annoying time-waster could take up any more of his time. The door to the restaurant opened and a new customer walked in. Lovino could see a dark-haired man out of the corner of his eye and he groaned when he was shown to the table he had just cleared and set up which meant he had to serve the guy. He gave a disgruntled sigh, picked up his pad and a menu and went to the table.
"Buonasera, Signore," he greeted in his politest voice. "Welcome to Ceilo Italiano! I'm Lovino, your waiter for the evening. Can I get you a drink while you look at the menu?" Lovino handed the menu to the man and the man looked up to take it. Caramel eyes clashed with those the colour of a green forest.
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump!
When Antonio Carriedo came into the restaurant to eat because he did not want to eat alone at home, he never thought he would meet the one person who would make sure that he was never alone again as attested by his beating heart. Lovino had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen and the rest of him was not bad either. His hair was dark brown with hints of red in it with a large stray curl that sprung out from the side of his head and complimented the olive skin that covered a slight but toned body. Yes, Fate had been very kind to him.
"I would like a glass of your finest wine," he said with a smile, his Spanish heritage clear in his voice. "And my soulmate to join me!"
Lovino stared at the man as he felt his no longer still heart pound against his rib-cage and his pad and pencil fell from his nerveless fingers. His soulmate had chocolate brown hair and tanned skin and was one hundred percent Spanish. His green eyes were cheeky and flirtatious as he requested that Lovino sit with him and, for a moment, Lovino revelled in finding his soulmate but then reality intruded.
Feliciano! Mio Dio! How would Feliciano react to this! He backed away, shaking his head.
"No!" he said in denial. "No! No! No! I can't do this!"
Then he turned and ran.
This was not how Antonio had imagined his soulmate reacting to him. His vision was his soulmate would be overjoyed to see him and fall into his arms, cheesy maybe but he had not expected his soulmate to turn and run at the sight of him. Finding your soulmate was supposed to be a happy time but the waiter, Lovino?, had looked like the world had just ended. Antonio had to find out what was wrong and followed his fleeing soulmate.
"Lovino?" Marcello called after his cousin as he ran passed him, followed by a man with green eyes and dark hair whom he stopped. "What just happened? What did you say to my cousin?"
"He's my soulmate," the man replied in his Spanish accent. Antonio watched as the confusion on the other Italian man's face cleared as if he understood something.
"Oh!" the man, who's name badge said 'Marcello', said. "This is going to be awkward."
"Why is he so upset about finding me?" Antonio asked, desperately to understand. Marcello scratched his head.
"It's complicated, Signore," he replied. "Let's find him first. He probably ran into the staffroom." And he indicated to Antonio to follow him.
Lovino sat in a chair in the staffroom, hugging himself and rocking back and forth. Why did he have to find his soulmate? He did not deserve one, not after what he did to his brother and what he drove him to! And he was scared to tell Feliciano about what had just happened. Lovino had been living on egg-shells ever since that dreadful night a year, terrified of anything that would send his brother over the edge again. And this could definitely qualify! There was a knock on the staff room door but Lovino ignored it as he did not want to talk to anyone right now but he was not going to get a choice as the door was pushed open and Marcello walked in.
Followed by the man who had started Lovino's heart beating! Lovino leapt out of his seat and backed away from them.
"Why did you bring him in here, idiota?" Lovino fumed.
"Lovino, you have to face it," Marcello replied. "You found your soulmate! The two of you are meant to be together and you can't let Feli stop you from living the life you were suppose to lead!" Antonio frowned. Who was Feli? Did Lovino have a lover? A twinge of jealously stabbed Antonio's newly beating heart.
"Feli's my fault!" Lovino stated. "And if he finds out that I've found my soulmate, he might ….." Lovino hid his face in his hands. "I couldn't live with myself if he succeeded this time," he wailed. "I can't do that to Feli!" Antonio came forward and pulled Lovino's hands down from his face and gazed into his caramel eyes.
"My name is Antonio Carriedo," he introduced himself. "And I understand that you don't want to hurt your boyfriend, Lovi, but he's not your soulmate so he must have known that this day was coming." Lovino went as red as a tomato.
"Feliciano isn't my boyfriend, idiota!" he stormed. "He's my fratello! That's it! I'm going back out to work and when I come back, I want this bastard gone!" He stormed out, banging the door on his way out. Antonio blushed at his mistake.
"I just put my foot in it, haven't I?" he asked Marcello.
"Right up to the knee," Marcello replied.
Lovino came back after a shift of biting his tongue as customers annoyed him more than usual as the new situation played on his mind. His mood was not improved as he walked into the staffroom to find Antonio still there waiting for him.
"I thought I told you to go," he fumed. Antonio just smiled at his seething soulmate.
"Lo siento," he replied. "Marcello explained about Feliciano. I'm sorry I misunderstood."
"Marcello had no business telling you anything about that, Bastard," Lovino swore. "That's family business!" Antonio smiled again.
"I'm your soulmate, Lovi," he said. "That makes me family now."
"Says who!" Lovino snapped. "And don't call me Lovi!" Antonio took a step toward Lovino.
"Lovino," he replied. "You've finished work now, can we go somewhere and talk and eat? I still haven't eaten and we have a lot to discuss." Lovino was torn between telling this guy to f**k off and wanting to accept his offer as Antonio looked back at him with a hopeful expression. Lovino sighed and he knew that his Spanish soulmate was right, they did need to talk, no matter how much Lovino wished otherwise. He took off his apron and grabbed his jacket.
"Fine," he huffed, putting his jacket on. "But you're paying, Bastard!"
They found a nice little café, down near the river where they ordered coffee and some sandwiches, not the meal that Antonio had been anticipating but he could get something else later if he became hungry. Right now, his priority was trying to talk his soulmate into accepting him into his life but the issue of his brother stood between them like the late, unlamented Berlin Wall.
"So you were both climbing trees when Feliciano fell?" Antonio asked. Lovino nodded. "Lovi, all children climb trees. I was forever up a tree at that age."
"It was my idea, you jerk," Lovino snapped. "If I hadn't suggested it, Feli wouldn't have fallen and lost his sight. He tried to kill himself because he won't be able to see his soulmate so if I were to go and tell him ….."
"Lovi," Antonio leant forward and took Lovino's hand. "You and Feliciano could just have easily been me. My friends, Francis and Gilbert and I were forever climbing trees, sometimes at their suggestion, sometimes at mine. It's just something that children do! Were you ever told not to climb trees?" Lovino thought and could not remember ever being forbidden to do that.
"No," he replied. Antonio smiled at him.
"So it was not a forbidden past time," he said. "You and Feli were not disobeying your parent or guardian and you said you didn't have to force Feli up the tree. This was nothing more than a bad accident, Lovi! You're not to blame!"
"It doesn't matter!" Lovino exclaimed. "I can't tell Feli about this! I was lucky the library flooded that night or I might have been coming home to a corpse, I was barely in time as it was. What if it pushes him over the edge and this time, there's no one there to stop him?" Antonio sighed.
"All right," he replied. He could see that Lovino was not going to budge on this issue. "But you are my soulmate, Lovino, that won't change and I want you in my life but, fine, we won't tell your brother but your grandfather has to know. But it can't go on forever, Lovi! Sooner or later, you'll have to tell your brother because I won't live in the shadows forever." Lovino stared into his coffee.
"But not right now," he stated. "I'll pick the moment, just not right now." Antonio was happy with that because, whether Lovino realised it or not, he had just agreed to being with him and Antonio was content with that for now.
"Fine," he replied.
Feliciano was at a therapy session when they told Lovino's grandfather and Romulus took it in stride but did not agree that keeping Feliciano in the dark was the best idea.
"You should tell your brother," he said. "It was going to happen sooner or later and Feliciano knows that. He won't be happy if you keep this from him and he finds out elsewhere."
"No," Lovino said adamantly. "I'm not risking it! You don't know what it was like, seeing Feli with a blade to his wrist. I'm not doing anything that might make him do that again so we're not telling him about this, comprendere?"
"Lovi..."
"We're not talking about this any more!" Lovino put his foot down. "I'm going to the bathroom. When I come back, we better be talking about something else, bastards." And he stormed out of the room. Romulus sighed.
"I knew he would be like this when he found you," he told Antonio. "As you know, Lovino was the one who found Feli and, on top of what happened when Feli was ten, it affected him badly. It will take some persuading to get him to tell Feli."
"Shouldn't we just tell Feliciano anyway?" Antonio suggested.
"Not unless you want Lovino to hate you and never speak to you again," Romulus replied. "I know my grandson and, if you go against his wishes on this, he'll never forgive you." Antonio sighed.
"So what do I do?" he asked.
"Just do what he wants you to for now," Romulus said. "And we'll talk him round. Be subtle because if he thinks he's being pressured, he'll dig his heels in so just slip subtle comments into the conversation every now and then."
"I'm not sure I can do subtle."
"Try!"
When Lovino returned, the subject of telling Feliciano had been dropped, just like he wanted and the conversation turned to finding out more about Antonio. He was two years older than Lovino and was heir to his late father's vineyard which gave the family a more than modest income and Antonio was learning the ropes to take over one day while his mother, a very capable lady, managed it in the meantime. Antonio learned that Lovino was working his way through college, learning culinary and business courses with the plan to, one day opening his own restaurant.
Lovino wanted Antonio gone before Feliciano came home and they stood at the door to say goodnight. Lovino just stood there with his hands in his pockets while Antonio rubbed the back of his head, wondering what to do next.
"How will you explain me to Feliciano?" he asked.
"Just some guy I met," Lovino replied, although Antonio was not happy about being described as 'some guy'. "A new friend I made. He doesn't need to know the details." Antonio sighed.
"I'll go along with this for now," he said. "But he needs to know some time, you can't protect him for ever."
"Just get lost before he comes home, bastard!" Lovino ordered. "I'll be at the restaurant tomorrow if you have to bug me again." Antonio smiled.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Lovi," he replied and, before Lovino could take exception to his nickname, he found himself wrapped in the Spaniard's arms with lips firmly pressed over his. Lovino struggled for a moment but gave in as Antonio was an expert kisser although Lovino did not know whether to be thrilled or upset about that as he wondered just how many people Antonio had kissed to get that good at it. The kiss broke and Lovino shoved Antonio away.
"What was that, you jerk?" he demanded, angrily going red and Antonio smiled.
"Don't you kiss on the first date?" he said and then laughed. “You look like a tomate!” Lovino turned on his heel and stormed back through his front door.
"Whatever, bastard!" he fumed and slammed the door shut. Antonio grinned and walked to his car. Life with Lovino would be very interesting indeed and he could not wait!
Antonio practically haunted the restaurant and, although Lovino griped and growled about his presence, he was happy that Antonio was not put off by his tsundere attitude like other people. The only other people would could tolerate him were family and the rare person who saw through his hostile exterior to the lonely boy inside. Everyone else avoided the angry young man and Lovino's friends were limited to family, the ones he worked with and now Antonio. Antonio took his evening meal in the restaurant every night when Lovino was working and Lovino sat with him during his break and talked.
"What do your family say about the fact that you've found me?" Lovino asked as Antonio ate.
"I haven't told them yet," he replied. "If they know, they'll be round here, wanting to meet you and Mama would go to visit your grandfather, as is the tradition in my family and she'll want to meet Feliciano too and, as you don't want him to know just yet …."
"Okay, okay!" Lovino replied, testily to hide the guilt he felt at forcing Antonio to hide this from his family. "I get the picture, Tomato Bastard." Antonio acquired the new nickname when Lovino noticed that a lot of the meals Antonio ordered contained tomatoes. Seems he loved the red vegetable …. fruit …..whatever!
"I don't like keeping this from my family," Antonio sighed. "They're waiting for the day I bring my soulmate home. I can imagine Mama now, creating a big fiesta and inviting everybody round. The last time a soulmate in our family was found, the fiesta lasted three days." Lovino pretended not to be interested but he marvelled at the fact that soulmates were such a big deal in Antonio's family. What would they make of him? he wondered.
"I looked forward to the day I can introduce you to Mama," Antonio continued, hoping a little guilt trip might push Lovino in the right direction. Lovino could not help but wonder about his future mother-in-law.
"Do you think she'll like me?" he asked.
"Oh Lovi!" Antonio laughed, attempting to hug Lovino as he squirmed to get away from him. "She'll love you as much as I do." Lovino stopped squirming.
"You love me?" he asked. Antonio looked at him as if he had just asked the silliest question in the world and took his hand.
"Lovino, I would hate to have to spend my life with someone I didn't love," he replied and gave him a soft kiss. "Te amo, niño tonto! ¡Ahora y siempre! (I love you, silly boy! Now and forever!)" Lovino did not understand Spanish but he got the Te amo part.
"Whatever, Tomato Bastard!" And Antonio laughed.
"Miss Elizaveta is going on maternity leave," Feliciano announced when he came home from his latest session with his therapist. Lovino snorted.
"That kind of thing happens when people get pregnant," he commented. "You should have realised that was coming." Feliciano sat down in his usual chair and sighed.
"Si, I did," he replied. "But I have to see a replacement. Someone called Ludwig Beilschmdit but I like Miss Elizaveta, I don't want to see another therapist."
"It's only for a few months, idiota," Lovino huffed. "It won't kill you. It'll be good for you to meet new people, right Nonno?"
"Si," Romulus agreed. He felt that Feliciano cut himself off too much. He had been a very sociable child, even after his accident but in his mid-teens, he became less willing to meet new people. He had still seemed happy enough to Romulus until the night that Lovino came home early and all Feli's insecurities came to light. "You should make more friends, piccolo, it's not good to keep to yourself all the time." Feliciano lapsed into silence, a sign he was thinking of something serious. Lovino hoped that this new therapist might make some headway with Feli, not that Miss Elizaveta was not good at her job but Feli seemed to need something more. One break-through, that's all Lovino asked for and then, maybe, he could introduce Antonio to Feliciano.
"You're going WHERE!" Lovino shrieked. "Why the Hell are you going to Canada?" Antonio had managed to get Lovino to take a walk with him through the local park to tell him the news. Antonio's French friend, Francis had found a good deal on a skiing holiday in Banff and booked it for himself, Antonio and their other German, although he insisted that he was Prussian, friend, Gilbert. Antonio would have refused but Francis had already paid the deposit.
"It's only for a couple of weeks, Lovi," Antonio insisted. "Francis booked this skiing holiday for us and he's already paid money for it. I'll be back before you know it." Lovino huffed. He did not want Antonio to go, even though he griped about his presence so much and he wondered if Antonio was getting fed up with him and his insistence to keep the soulmate thing secret from Feliciano and wanted to spend time away from him.
"Fine!" he snapped. "Do whatever you want, Bastard!" Antonio pulled Lovino into a hug and nuzzled his neck while Lovino squirmed in his hold.
"Awwh, don't be like that, Lovi," he cooed. "I'll be back in two weeks and I'll make it up to you, I promise." Lovi stopped squirming and blew out a breath.
"Better be good, Tomato Bastard!"
"What's wrong, Lovino?" Romulus asked as he laid out the table for breakfast. Lovino had been quiet for a few days, a sure sign that something was bothering him, otherwise he would just be his usual grouchy self, cursing everybody out. "And don't say nothing, I know when you're brooding!" Lovino huffed.
"Antonio's gone to Canada," he grumbled. "He's there for two weeks."
"Who's Antonio?" Feliciano asked as he came through the door and walked unerringly to his seat at the table. Romulus and Lovino glanced at each other, Romulus's look saying Tell him! and Lovino's saying No way!
"Just someone I met," Lovino replied while Romulus rolled his eyes in disappointment. "And leaving just like everyone else."
"Lovino, he's just going for two weeks," Romulus replied, putting out breakfast. "Not forever! People do go away sometimes."
"Si, I suppose," Lovino mumbled.
"Eat up, Feliciano," Romulus ordered. "It's your first session with your new therapist today, isn't it?"
"Si," Feliciano replied. He did not sound very happy at the prospect.
"Stop worrying, Feliciano," his grandfather told him, ruffling his hair in affection. "I'm sure you'll get to like your new therapist as much as Miss Elizaveta, just give him a chance."
"Oki doki, Nonno."
"My new therapist said I should get in contact with some of my old friends from the blind school," Feliciano said as they sat down to dinner.
"This Doctor Beilschmidt could be right," Romulus replied. "You should get in touch with one of your mated friends from school. You can't live your life on what ifs, my boy and you can't live it alone!"
“I'm not alone, Nonno!" Feliciano said, using his fork like a expert, despite his blindness, wrapping pasta around it. "I have you and Lovi!" Romulus sighed.
"Feli, I always won't be here," Romulus replied. "And Lovi will have his own life to lead, eventually."
"Nonno's right, fratello," Lovino agreed. "Stop being an idiota and find your soulmate!" If Lovino could persuade Feliciano to find his soulmate, it could solve everything. Feliciano could see that all his fears were unfounded and he could be happy because, despite the bubbly façade Feli put on, Lovino knew he had to be lonely. Feliciano was not the type to be lonely, it would harm him in the long run and his soulmate would prevent that. Of course, if it worked out, Lovino would no longer have to hide his own soul mate. Everyone wins.
"I can look some of your old friends on Facebook or Twitter," Lovino said. He often helped Feliciano with his Facebook page and it was possible that some of Feli's old school friends had one too. "See how they're getting on now and if they're happy with their soul mates or not. Come on, we'll do it now!" He took Feliciano arm, lead him upstairs to their shared room and opened his laptop, signing in to Feliciano's account. Feli had friended people back in school and it was not long before Lovino found one of them. He heard a knock at the front door but ignored it, knowing his grandfather would answer it instead.
"Here's one," he said. "Alice Kirkland! She was one of your friends, wasn't she?"
"Si," Feliciano replied. "What does it say?"
"Well …."
"Feliciano!" Their grandfather's voice called up the stairs. Feliciano knew his way to the door and made his way there without colliding with anything and opened the door.
"Si, Nonno!"
"Can you come down for a moment?" Romulus called. Feliciano hesitated for a moment.
"Go on!" Lovino told him. "This will still be here. Go see what Nonno wants!" Feliciano left the room and Lovino turned back to the laptop to find more of Feli's old friends who had found their soul mates and hoped for some happy stories. He checked out their profiles and everything looked promising. He was looking for more when the door opened and Lovino turned toward him to see Feli standing with a distant look on his face and he had red-rimmed eyes like he had been crying.
"What's wrong with you, idiota?"
"Mr Ludwig," Feli sniffed. "He came and said he saw my eyes and his heart started beating!" Lovino stared at Feli. This was more than Lovino could have hoped for and this was a chance for both Feliciano and Lovino.
"You've found your soulmate!" he wanted to cheer. This was just what Feli needed and then he thought about something. "He's German, isn't he? Aren't they potato loving bastards?" Feli began crying again.
"I didn't want him to find me," he said, tearfully. "Now he's stuck with me, a blind man with a unbeating heart. I've trapped him!" Lovino could not stop the impatient breath from spitting out of his mouth. Feliciano would sabotage his chance at happiness if Lovino allowed him to.
"Don't be stupid!" he snapped. "I doubt he feels trapped, probably thankful he's found you! You really think that you being blind would make your soul mate reject you! Come here, idiota!" Feli walked over to the desk that the laptop sat on and Lovino pulled him into his seat.
"Here's one of your friends," he said. "You remember Alice Kirkland, don't you?"
"Si," Feliciano replied. "She was a good friend."
"Well, she and her soulmate got married," Lovino said, reading the information. "She's Alice Bonnefoy now and expecting her first child! She and her husband seem very happy!" Feliciano considered what he had heard.
"And there's Yao Wang!" Lovi continued. "He and his soulmate, Ivan Braginski have been together for four years and getting married this year. And there's another! And another! Everyone I've found up to now is happy with their soulmates. I haven't found everyone but I've found enough!" Feliciano was lost in thought and Lovino hoped he was getting through to him.
"Give your soulmate a chance!" Lovino ordered. "Even if he is a Potato Bastard!" Lovino prayed that Feliciano would listen to him.