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“Don’t you think that’s enough coppa for the six of us? ”
“I told you, I have to take some extra for my stand. That cold is making my pistols all numb and slow, they need more energy than usual.”
“Right…”
“Why do you feed them though? Stands don’t just starve to death so you could just… not do it?”
“Oh yeah, not surprising coming from the one with some lame plane.”
“What did you ju–”
“Come on you three, hurry up and choose what you want. I don’t want Abbacchio and Giorno waiting together for too long.”
It was the very end of December, during that week between Christmas and the new year. The gang was staying in a small village in the Piedmont region, a little up in the mountains.
The area they were in didn’t count that many locals and wasn’t popular among tourists, a great advantage when you wanted to avoid running into civilians constantly.
They had just completed a mission that had involved a lot of standing around and waiting in the cold, but everything had gone on smoothly overall. On their way back to the isolated house they were staying at, Fugo had pointed out that they were almost out of food so they had stopped at the only shop in the village to buy some groceries, Giorno and Abbacchio standing guard outside.
“Finally,” the latter huffed once he saw the others coming out of the shop, each of them carrying some bags.
It was late in the afternoon and everything was a silent white, every noise, every voice was muffled by the freshly fallen snow. A thick layer of grey clouds was obstructing the whole sky, but it was easy to tell that the sun was already setting.
After a short walk during which only the crunchy sounds of footsteps could be heard, the group was back at their rental, setting everything they’d bought inside.
As soon as Mista had put the bags he was carrying in the trunk that a snowball came crashing right between his shoulder blades. He turned around immediately, catching sight of Narancia already running away.
“That’s for calling my stand lame!”
In a split second, Mista was dashing through the nearly empty parking lot, soon catching up to Narancia and tripping him down. They ended up struggling together on the ground, shoving handfuls of snow into each other’s faces, but that was all in a playful way.
When they were both finally back up on their feet, Fugo had slowly walked up to them, his hands in his pockets, while Giorno was still a dozen meters away, crouched down, like he was looking for something on the ground.
“Hey, tell Giorno to come over here,” said Narancia in a low voice, gathering some snow from the hood of a car. “I wanna see how much I can mess his hairstyle up with only one throw!”
“Uhm, Narancia?” said Mista suddenly, pointing at something behind the shorter teen.
“Uh?”
Narancia turned around just in time to see a dove flying dangerously fast towards him. Before he could dodge it, the bird collided with his head, transforming back into a lump of snow as it crashed.
“Hey no fair!” Narancia complained, swatting the snow from his hair. “We never said we would use our stands!”
“Just say you’re salty he got you on his first throw,” said Mista, raising an arm to protect himself from two more snowballs thrown by Fugo.
Meanwhile, the oldest two of the group had finished loading the car. Abbacchio made a move to climb in when he saw Bruno walking away from the vehicle and towards where his other team members were making ammunition for a snowball fight.
Abbacchio held back an annoyed groan. “Do we really have to wait for them? Can’t we just go back to the house now? It’s not that far, they can walk back there when they’re done messing around.”
But Bruno only took a few more steps away. He then stopped to lean against a railing on the edge of the parking lot before looking back expectantly at Abbacchio, silently asking his partner to join him.
“It wouldn’t be advised to get separated, even for a short period of time,” said Bruno in a collected voice once Abbacchio was close enough. “The mission may have gone without a hitch but you never know what might happen. We shouldn’t let our guard down now.”
That answer made Abbacchio feel rather sheepish. The constant fatigue he’d been ignoring up until now was starting to kick in, and all he wanted in that moment was to go get some well-deserved rest. Their task being completed didn’t mean that they were now immune to any sudden attack, and his weariness had almost made him forget that.
Bruno was always so wise and sensible in any situation, and Abbacchio always admired that in him.
“Besides,” the capo added, nodding towards the four teens, “they’ve shown such focus and dedication during those past few days, they definitely deserve that time out. They’re still young after all.”
Abbacchio made a face at that. It wasn’t often that his leader would excuse the others’ childish behaviour, but whenever that happened, he couldn’t help but feel just a little bit resentful. It wasn’t as if him and Bruno were that much older.
“Fine. But it won’t be my fault if we freeze to death by the time they’re done,” he mumbled with a scowl, which made Bruno smile a little.
They stood together in silence, both of them leaning against the railing, their shoulders almost touching. After a few minutes of looking at the younger ones’ now intense snowball fight, Abbacchio started rubbing his bare hands with an annoyed sigh.
“Are you cold?” Bruno immediately asked.
“Forgot my gloves at the house this morning,” Abbacchio replied in a sullen tone. “As if this day couldn’t get more annoyi–”
“Here.”
Before he had time to react, Abbacchio felt a gentle yet firm grab on both his wrists, before his hands were pulled upwards then slid between wooly fabric and soft, warm skin. For a moment that felt like a whole hour, he couldn't say a single word, too focused on the feeling of Bruno’s neck under his palms and fingers.
“But… You’ll get cold too…” he finally said after his shock had passed, concern evident in his voice. What was also evident was the blush that was rapidly spreading all over his cheekbones.
Bruno simply smiled at him. “Don’t worry. I was getting a bit too hot with this scarf anyway. Does it feel warmer?”
“Y-yes…” Abbacchio stammered, not exactly sure why he was feeling so embarrassed. “Much warmer…”
He had completely forgotten they were still standing outside in the cold. He couldn’t hear the others laughing and shouting in the distance anymore, or feel the piercing cold wind that had started to blow.
There was only Bruno, with that gentle, caring smile on his face, a smile Abbacchio always felt like he didn’t deserve. The former cop didn’t have that many weaknesses, but that smile was definitely one of them.
He could sense a faint yet steady pulse beneath his fingers, and that feeling alone made his heart hammer hard in his chest like he’d just run a race.
His eyes drifted downwards, stopping at Bruno’s lips, slightly glossy from chapstick. Leaning over, he slowly started to lower his face towards Bruno’s, ready to stop at the first sign of reluctance from the other.
But Bruno didn’t seem to mind in the least, even lifting his own face encouragingly.
They were just close enough to feel each other’s warm breaths on their lips when something thick and cold hit Abbacchio in the head, hard. He whipped around, face half-covered in snow.
The four boys were all standing there, the same look of dread on each of their faces.
“WHO THE FUCK THREW THAT?”
But he didn’t even care who had done it, he was already running fast towards the others before any of them could start answering.
It wasn’t so much receiving a stray snowball right in the head that made him utterly furious, but more the fact that his moment with Bruno had been completely ruined. They had done it on purpose, he was sure of that.
“You little shits are so gonna pay for this, just you wait until I catch you!”
“Guys! The lion has entered the arena!” yelled Mista as he and the other three ran off in different directions, which only fueled Abbacchio’s anger.
Shooking his head, Bruno stared at his teammates fondly. The amount of energy they had left was impressive.
He actually considered joining in the fight but decided against it. Someone had to keep guard after all. He simply watched from the side, mostly to make sure that that snow battle wouldn’t end up in twisted fingers and broken noses.
Later that night, the capo was sitting on the couch in the living room, bent over his laptop on the coffee table in front of him. He was working on his report regarding the mission that had been completed, enjoying this moment of quietness now that everyone else had gone to bed, quite exhausted from the fight.
He was absorbed in his work when he suddenly felt the couch dip from the weight of another person sitting down beside him. A smile grew on his face as two long, strong arms sneaked around his waist from behind, and a head rested gently on his shoulder.
“Why won’t you come to bed with me…” he felt Abbacchio mumble sleepily into his neck.
As an answer, Bruno leaned against his partner’s head affectionately. He could smell the cologne he had given Abbacchio as a Christmas present. His smile widened.
“Are you still cold?”
“No. But I will be again without you to keep me warm.”
Bruno chuckled softly at that.
“I’ll be there in a moment, just after I’m done with this,” he said, feeling Abbacchio sigh against him.
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
No was definitely the most expected answer, as everyone knew that Bruno took his responsibilities as a capo very seriously. However this time, he thought he could take a break for once.
“Actually, it can,” he declared, closing his laptop.
Abbacchio sat up straight at that, a look of disbelief mixed with excitement on his face, which Bruno found incredibly cute. He took Abbacchio’s hands in his as they both stood up, eyes locked, before slowly making their way to the bedroom they were sharing.
They stopped as a very faint rustling noise came from above them. Both raised their heads at the same time to notice, hanging from the ceiling, a small mistletoe branch.
“What’s this doing there, I don’t remember seeing it before…”
“Surely one of the others must have hung it there earlier,” said Bruno, looking towards the stairs where he swore he’d seen some movement.
“Those brats…” Abbacchio grumbled, but he didn’t seem actually annoyed as he looked down at Bruno. “I bet they did it on purpose…”
“Mhh, I think so too…” murmured Bruno, slowly sliding his arms around Abbacchio’s shoulders and pulling him close. “Probably their way of apologising for earlier.”
A slight blush was back on the taller man’s face, this time less visible in the semi darkness of the room. Bruno loved that sight, he loved seeing Abbacchio acting all shy and awkward, which he perfectly knew could happen only in moments like this, when it was just the two of them.
He tilted his head slightly, his parted lips brushing over Abbacchio’s in a ghost of a kiss. Neither of them was quite wanting to move first, as they simply enjoyed this closeness, this satisfying warmth, the calming rhythm of their hearts in synch.
A creaking sound coming from the stairs startled them. They both turned their heads, only to notice the four younger boys pressed together on the steps, all perfectly still as if they were holding their breaths. They probably were.
Abbacchio glowered at them.
“Are you fucking kidding m–”
“Leone.”
Bruno’s hand on his cheek interrupted him, turning his head so that they were locking eyes again.
“Don’t get distracted this time.”
Before Abbacchio could say a thing, Bruno had pulled him into a soft, deep kiss, standing on his toes to do so. Abbacchio’s lips stayed frozen in surprise, but only for a short second, after which he was kissing back, passionately so.
As the cold fingers on his hips were slowly creeping under his shirt, Bruno heard the whispers and footsteps of the teens quickly going back upstairs, but he wouldn’t even have cared if they’d stayed to watch. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know.
Though it was true that he much preferred when it was like this, only him and Leone, alone and undisturbed.
They kept kissing softly in the middle of the room, not even paying attention to the mistletoe branch turning back into a small ceiling lamp above them.
Nothing in the world could distract them now.