Chapter Text
Venice, 2018
"I have to buy more blue and green." Came from a young man watering his tulips on the windowsill. He brushed his light brown hair with his fingers away from his face, allowing it to bathe in the early morning sun rays. He wasn't normally the person who would wake up early in the morning, but duty calls and he had work to do.
His brothers had yet to wake up and, if we're being honest, he enjoyed the morning silence. It was always very noisy in the house. His younger brother Romeo had a habit of singing loudly and, sometimes, off key which pisses off his eldest brother Lovino. It was a good thing they lived a bit outside of Venice and not in the centre or else the neighbours would complain all the time.
And he, a stunning 22 year old man who answers to Feliciano, was always just there. He wasn't really all that flashy like his brothers. Sure, he had his talents, one being art which was also his job, but he was mostly known as the happy one from the Vargas family. Maybe that was for the best.
He just finished watering his tulips when he heard a loud thud followed by a bad word you probably shouldn't teach to your kids. Lovino was awake and if he wanted to live to finish his painting of the Adriatic Sea, he better make him some coffee.
He set down the watering pot and started the coffee machine. Knowing his brother, he has about 20 minutes till he gets ready enough to come down to the kitchen. Just enough time to make breakfast as well.
Feliciano opened the bottom drawer next to the washing machine to take some bread Romeo baked the night before as well as some jam and Nutella from the table next to the stove. He knew Lovino liked it when he made his special half jam half Nutella bread, even though the latter would never admit that.
Lovino was down right on time for breakfast and coffee which means Feliciano gets to live for one more day.
"Morning." Lovino greeted, his voice still sore from sleeping.
"Good morning, Lovi!" Feliciano returned and offered his brother two pieces of bread and his cup of coffee with some anime girls on it. "Are you driving Romeo to collage today?"
"No. Midget can walk to his collage. Maybe he gets some tan from the stupid sun blinding my eyes at 4 in the damn morning."
Despite being the shortest of the three, Lovino still had a bad habit of calling his brothers midgets. Talk about Napoleon complex.
"I was thinking we should all take a walk. It's a nice day and it's been too long since we took a walk together. Plus I need to buy more paint." Feliciano smiled as he made his own cup of coffee, with a picture of the Colosseum on it, and sat down beside his brother.
"When are you gonna get a real job? You can't just draw for a living. Get an actual job that pays well and you can do art in your spare time." Lovino looked at Feliciano, who has most certianly heard this all before.
"It's what I love, Lovi. It's what I want to do with my life. Believe it or not, money isn't everything in the world. I want to be happy with my life. I don't wanna waste it doing something I hate just because it pays well." Feliciano rolled his eyes.
"So you're planning on living off Grandpa's allowances, love and some drawings? That's more miserable than doing what you hate. I hate my job, do you see me miserable? No. Then why can't you do the same?"
"Because I'm not you and I don't wanna talk about this. It's my choice, Lovi. Not yours."
And with that the conversation died, the two brothers continuing their breakfast in awkward silence. Until...
There was a loud thumping and a red headed boy was before them in less than a minute. His messy hair falling on his face, the eyebags still visible. He was gasping for his breath.
"Why didn't anyone wake me up?!" He said in between smaller gasps.
"Romeo, you're 19. You're old enough to wake yourself up." Lovino said, not remotely fazed by his brother's state.
"Um, no. If you woke up before me, you should have woken me up. You know my phone alarm doesn't work. Or my phone at all."
"Fratellino, calm down. You're not in high school anymore, your collage doesn't start till 9. It's 6:40." Feliciano laughed. He had the same problem when he left high school too.
Romeo looked at the clock. It showed 6:40. His high school would start at 7 AM. His body still wasn't used to the new surrounding that was collage. He buried his head in his hands and sat down. "What's for breakfast?"
"My speciality." Feliciano offered him some Nutella-jam bread.
"I love it when you get up early."
"I know you do." Feliciano laughed and the breakfast was continued.
It was 8:00 when Romeo left the house for collage, leaving Lovino and Feliciano alone. Lovino was getting ready in his room while Feliciano wrote the list of things he needed to buy. They were running low on coffee and milk, but most importantly Feliciano wanted to buy a new brush. His old one had far too many stray hairs to be used for delicate painting. It's a shame, but he had it since he was little. Of course he needed a new one.
"Are you done?" Lovino asked, spraying himself with some 'manly' perfume that smelled like plastic strawberry.
"Yeah, I'm done. I just have to find my jacket." Feliciano said, throwing every single jacket they had hanging in the hallway on the floor. A strange method, but it worked because he found his dark green fall jacket and returned all the others back on the stall.
"Good. Let's go. I have to go to the town for some buissness so if we don't hurry bye bye vaporetto." Lovino cringed at the reaction his brother made. They lived close to Venice, but they still had to travel by a smaller ship called vaporetto to get to it. It was inconvenient, but it was good for the tourist season.
Feliciano practically skipped the whole way to the port. There was one vaporetto waiting for people to board. Lovino entered inside to ask when it will be leaving and to pay for their ticket. Feliciano waited outside for his brother and when he exited the room to tell Feliciano they will be leaving soon, Feliciano boarded the ship.
The ride to Venice would usually take them about 45 minutes to a full hour, depending on whether or not there were many tourist groups. Today there was only two of them. Germans. Feliciano had taken a course on German in middle school, but he had mostly forgotten it. He understood that they were talking about some kind of new book that was a hit among youth in Germany. A book about Venice itself. He wished he still knew how to speak German. He would have asked for a title.
They arrived on Riva degli Schiavoni, a bridge and a walk away from the magnificent Basilica di San Marco and it's large Piazza which was always crowded with either people or pigeons. Feliciano loved to run into pigeons, loving the way their wings moved as they flew away. He wanted to do that now, but apparently his brother wasn't planning on more walking and was talking, rather happily, to their old friend Antonio, who was a gondolier.
"Feli! I gotta go to post office, not pigeon chasing! Get your ass over here!" Lovino yelled, reverting back to his moody attitude. He jumped into the gondola and sat down, crossing his arms and legs.
"I'm coming, quit yelling! Hi Toni! I hope Lovi pays you for this." Feliciano greeted and jumped into the gondola and sat down next to his brother. He was looking foward to going under Ponte dei Sospiri. He was even preparing himself to breathe out while going under it.
"It's always free for you three. We're friends after all. Lovi can pay me with a little drink after I'm done with my shift." Antonio said as he adjusted his gondola and softly made his way to the post office near the Church of San Salvador.
Feliciano enjoyed everything he saw. He was born here, but in his entire lifetime he could never comprehend Venice's entire beauty. It was only when he saw a bookstore hidden well among tall buildings and restaurants, that he snapped himself out of the trance.
"Hey Toni, do you think you could bring me right here while we wait for Lovi to do his thing?" He asked, turning around to look at Antonio.
Antonio brushed his curly dark brown hair away from his green eyes and nodded at Feliciano. "Sure! Saw something pretty?"
"Yeah, a bookstore. It had a nice design and I wanted to check it out. Plus I need to buy more paint and bookstores tend to have good ones." He answered happily, oblivious to his brother rolling his eyes.
The ride to the post office was relatively short and quiet, with occasional comments from Feliciano and Antonio asking how their grandpa was doing. They dropped off Lovino and were on their way back to the bookstore Feliciano saw.
"You got a book in mind to buy?" Antonio asked.
"Maybe. I overheard some German tourist talking about this book about Venice or something. I thought I should check if they had it." Feliciano smiled softly at Antonio.
"I think I know what you're talking about. Armando recently bought this book called Silence in Venice, by a German author. I asked my German friend about it and he told me that it was all the rage in Germany now. Apparently, it's a love story about a boy who goes to war and leaves behind his childhood love. That's all I know, Andy didn't tell me much else to avoid spoilers as he says."
"A love story... I really like those. Thanks, Toni!"
Soon they arrived and Feliciano hugged Antonio as a thanks, promising he won't be long.
He entered the bookstore and was immediately striken by the smell of new books. That wonderful scent of paper that was about to be touched and read by many. It was so pleasant, he would have just kept standing there forever. But he had to move, Antonio was waiting for him outside and maybe even Lovino. Knowing his brother, if he waited longer than 10 minutes, he would lose his already short temper.
Feliciano quickly found the desired shades of blue and green as well as a new paintbrush that had small drawings on it. It was a bit more expensive than the normal brush, but it spoke to his soul so... how could he say no?
He was about to go pay for his things, when a book cover caught his eye. It had a picture of two people, a boy and a girl, on Ponte di Rialto, embracing each other like they were about to lose each other. The girl had long light brown hair tied in two side braids and was wearing a beautiful green dress. The boy had blonde hair that looked like it was previously slicked back, but messed up by the wind, and was wearing a war uniform. Feliciano knew which book it was. The title read Il Silenzio a Venezia. Silence in Venice. The book Antonio recommended to him.
Feliciano couldn't resist it. He bought it and happily skipped to the gondola on which Antonio waited for him. He clutched the book in his arms close to his chest, impatiently waiting to read it.