Archive of Our Own

 Break-ups happen.

 Lovino completely understood that.  

But he never wanted it to be like this.  

Feliciano was trying to comfort him, though he was paying no attention whatsoever. Everything  seemed out of focus, like he was viewing everything through a pair of glasses. He felt warmth as his brother gently rested his hand on his shoulder, trying his best to smile. As much as he wanted to swat him away, his body wasn’t moving for whatever reason. It was frozen in the same, pathetic position it had been in since Feliciano had arrived: his head nestled between his elbows and his arms wrapped protectively over his head, with his body hutched over. Luckily he hadn’t started crying; that would have been extremely embarrassing. (As if this wasn’t bad enough.)

 He forced himself to move out of that position, moving Feliciano’s hand from his shoulder in the process. It was as if he was moving in slow motion. All his energy had left with his former partner. Instead of turning in head to look at his brother, his gaze remained on the wall, so his puffy red eyes weren’t too apparent. Even though his back was slightly hutched, he refused to straighten it. For some reason, he feared if he straightened his posture, he would shatter into pieces. His auburn hair stood out at odd angles, as if he had gotten into a fight with a raccoon that had tried to tear his hair out. The dress shirt he had been wearing since yesterday was wrinkled and off-center, and his tie was barely around his neck.

“Lovi, what happened to you?” Feliciano asked, his voice wavering, as if he were about to cry.

That wimp. It wasn’t him who broke up with his significant other less than a day ago. “

Shut the hell up. I don’t want to talk about it.” He managed to grumble back, a large frown forming on his face. A large sigh escaped from him, and the frown turned into a straight line. Right now, he couldn’t be mad at anyone except for himself. It was he who had caused the break-up, after all.  

“Oh… Then I won’t ask about it.” Feliciano knew better than to make his brother angry when his tone sounded like that. His expression softened; his large amber eyes watering up a bit. Wiping them away with his sleeve, he managed to make a smile before rising up from the couch. “I’ll leave you alone for a while then, I’ll just go get some pasta for-“

 “Wait.” Lovino muttered, letting out a sigh of defeat. He was not going to make another person cry today. “I’ll tell you what happened, alright? Just don’t say anything to that bastard, or I’ll kill you.” He knew that Feliciano could keep a secret if he wanted to, especially from that stupid man that was always around him. He was the last person that Lovino wanted to hear about his problems.  Noticing that his tone has softened somewhat, Feliciano hesitantly made his way back to the couch. He was treading on thin ice, since Lovino was very unpredictable when he was between a gloomy and angry mood. If he asked a wrong question or pushed him too far, he could snap and scream at him until one of them lost their voices. He masked his concern with a kind smile, and he relaxed himself so he didn’t seem too tense. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

 Work had been terrible. Since it was tourist season, business was booming at his restaurant, Sapori D’ Italia. Waiters were moving so much it seemed like a ball, and customers were flowing like water. Everything seemed to be going okay, until one woman had decided to have a fit and proceed to yell at her waitress for ten minutes. As the manager, Lovino was supposed to keep his cool, but he wasn’t that type of person. Instead, he began to yell at the woman, telling her to get out of the place if she hated to food so much. If looks could kill, then the glares that the people around him gave would have been like the bullets of a machine gun. The woman, who probably wanted an apology, had been given the direct opposite, and began to cry. Instead of apologizing, however, Lovino stormed off and exited the restaurant. After driving himself to the park, which was mostly empty, he shouted and cursed for about twenty minutes to let off stress. He had received a voice mail from Emma, the dirty blonde waitress that had been screamed at earlier by the woman.  

You might not want to come back to the restaurant for a while, boss. A lot of the customers left because of your fight with that woman, and the remaining ones are pretty mad. The rest of us can hold down the fort until you come back, so take some time off, okay?  

He nearly broke his phone in his hand.

 How dare she tell him, her boss, to stay at home?

Anger boiled in him as he sped down the road to his loft and had reached its peak by the time he slammed the door shut. He threw his suit jacket onto the white leather couch and kicked off his black dress shoes. Loosening his tie, he let out a growl of frustration and stomped into his room.

 “Hola, Lovi!” Antonio said sweetly, turning to face him. His light brown hair was combed neatly and his eyes, which were the color of green apples, sparkled at the sight of him, even if he was mad. He was probably the only person in the world who could face Lovino’s rage with ease, and talk him out of it. He smelled of roses and a mixture of other flowers. His green apron was neatly folded and rested on the bureau that they shared, leaving him in a clean yellow collared shirt with white buttons.  

“Leave me alone.” He growled, slinging himself face-up onto the bed. His eyes were slits, his brows furrowed.  

“Did you have a bad day at work?” Antonio questioned, ignoring Lovino’s command. He knew that he wouldn’t lose this temper on him. His expression turning more empathetic, he sat on the side of the bed and twisted himself so that he was looking at Lovino. His words were soft like rose petals.

 “Didn’t you hear what I said?” Lovino replied, getting more irritated. He turned his body to the side so that he was facing away from Antonio. The only thing he wanted was to be left to drown in his self-pity alone. Was that too much to ask?

 “Was someone being rude today? Did they make fun of us?” He said the last question with hesitation. Once Lovino had opened up and admitted that he was dating Antonio, he had received a lot of hate: it had gone as far as having the glass of his restaurant broken by protesters. Slurs had been painted all over the building, and protesters had broken in and trashed the place. He had been thankful enough that the cops had arrived on time to stop them from burning the whole place down.

 “Stop.” Lovino’s voice dropped, his teeth gritting at the memory of it. His fists clenched, the knuckles turning white.  He heard Antonio shift, so that he was kneeling on the bed, his shadow casting over Lovino’s body. His eyes were full of concern, but he said no words. Instead, he stroked Lovino’s face with a flower-scented hand, cupping the side of his face. It was warm, and for a moment all went into a peaceful silence.

 “Stop!” He screamed, shoving Antonio’s hand away and swinging himself up so that he was sitting on the opposite edge of the bed. “I’ve had enough with your stupid questioning. Leave me alone! I told you that more than once! Can’t you take a simple order, you son of a-“ His words slowly died away with the sound of a sniffle. And then another one.  

Oh god, what did I do?

 “I’ll leave you alone then,” Antonio’s subdued voice answered. It sounded wobbly on the last word, as if he was about to cry.  A jumble of curses flew though Lovino’s mind; he had no idea what to do.  “Listen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that outburst I-“

 “It’s okay. You don’t need to be mad at me. It’s my fault for pushing you too far.”

 “Antonio!”  The door shut in front of him, leaving him alone in his room, just as he wanted. He could hear the sound of muffled tears and another door closing.  The apron was still there.

 Lovino ended the story there, refusing to tell about how he had curled up into a ball and cried for four hours before falling asleep on top of the bed, the scent of roses haunting his dreams.

 “It might not be over, you know. All couples fight sometimes, fratello.” Feliciano advised, looking right into his brother’s eyes. “Just give him a day or two before he comes back, I’m sure he’ll be fine. Antonio is a good man, he won’t run off with another girl or guy after leaving someone.”  

Before he could say anything more, Lovino’s phone began to ring.  

And the number that was calling him caused his heart to rise to his throat.