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Giulia struggled with the keys of her and her mamma’s apartment, the one now shared with Luca, too. It was absolutely freezing outside and yes she was technically inside now, but 5 minutes ago she was still struggling against the wind and slight drizzle of freezing rain that she wished would just turn into snow. Ergo, her hands were still sluggish from the cold, and they seemed to refuse to cooperate with her keys.
When she finally slipped the key into the hole, Giulia sighed in relief. The apartment should be much warmer than the rest of the building, and she swore without even stepping inside that she could feel the warmth already spreading through her body.
However, upon taking her first steps in, she realized it was still absolutely freezing. Colder than the hallway, even.
“What…?” She mumbled. Letting her bag slump off of her shoulder and fall to the ground, she quickly made her way into the kitchen, flexing her hands in a small attempt to warm them up. The thermometer on the wall, a cute little thing with cardinals adorning it, read ten degrees.
She wandered around the apartment some more, trying to find clues as to why it'd be so cold. When she made her way into the living room, she found two of the bay windows wide open.
“Santa mozzarella,” she mumbled, shaking her head.
She closed them, cursing a bit at how hard it was to do so (old apartment meant windows that needed the window equivalent of WD-40) and how it hurt her still-cold fingers, too. She glanced around, wondering why the window could have been open.
Upon finding no reason, she realized another thing (or, person) was missing from the equation: Luca. He was nowhere in the main part of the apartment, when usually he was sitting in the kitchen eating a snack after school.
At least, she thought he wasn’t.
After searching the bedroom and kitchen and still coming up empty handed, she went to plop down on the couch, but instead of plopping down onto a lumpy mass of what she thought was just blankets piled on top of each other, she hit something hard.
She immediately stood up when the blankets groaned in what sounded like vague pain.
“Luca?” She shook the blankets again. The blankets let out a whine that sounded a lot like Nerone, though it's anyone’s guess if it was actually Luca instead.
She huffed and pulled the covers off of Luca, revealing him to only be wearing shorts and a t-shirt that Giulia was certain was actually hers. “Luca, why was the window open?”
“The wha’?” Luca blinked blearily at her.
She pointed at the now closed bay windows.
“Oh. Yeah.” And then he was closing his eyes again, blindly reaching for the blankets.
Giulia simply scoffed and let him return to his nap. She’d ask him more when he woke up. It wasn’t like he was one to sleep for a while anyway, usually his naps only lasted upwards of an hour or two, if he even napped at all. He usually only napped if he stayed up all night the prior night (and subsequently usually kept Giulia up, too, but she didn’t mind).
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Three hours later, Luca was still asleep.
At this point, Giulia’s mother had come home too and was preparing dinner, a nice pasta bake for the three of them to then have leftovers for the next three days. It was one of Luca’s favorite dishes—really anything with pasta was a favorite of his—yet he stayed asleep on the couch, curled up next to Nerone.
“Jesus, Giulia, it’s freezing in here,” her mother had said when she got home.
“Oh, yeah, the window was open earlier. Not sure why,” Giulia had replied.
“Keep it closed next time, then.”
Giulia nodded, though she was already well aware of keeping windows closed in the winter. She wasn’t going to rat Luca out, though she was certain he wouldn’t even be scolded for it.
“But—” her mother started again— “I got a letter in the mail about there being an issue with heating in the building. So it’s probably going to be a bit cold until it gets fixed. I’ll just have to take those space heaters out of storage.”
Giulia nodded again. That’d be annoying, but it happened last winter, too. They really needed to move to a better apartment, but there was only so much they could do on a single art teacher’s salary.
They sat in comfortable silence as her mother cooked and cooked and cooked, Giulia careful to sit out of her way (she knew how annoying it was to have someone in the kitchen at the same time when you’re cooking).
“Giulietta,” her mother started. “Wake up Luca, it’s almost ready.”
Giulia nodded, throwing a small comment: “He never usually naps this much.”
Her mother only responded with a shrug.
If her mother wasn’t concerned, then it was probably fine.
She made her way into the living room, glancing over the couch from the back.
“Luca? Are you awake?” She shook him gently.
Luca grumbled and shifted under the blankets. Giulia could practically feel how tired he looked.
“It’s time for dinner, Luca.” She shook him harder, pulling the covers off of him this time. Again, he curled up and groaned, pulling Nerone closer to his chest. Nerone seemed perfectly content with this, squirming only a little bit to get into a more comfortable position.
“Luca…” Giulia gently scolded.
Luca groaned again in protest, whining a bit in an oddly inhuman-sounding way.
Eventually though, he got up, swinging his legs (though ‘swinging’ isn’t really the right word for it, it connotated too much energy for how Luca was moreso just shuffling) off the couch and sitting up straight. He didn’t stretch out, rather he stayed hunched as he stood, which exaggerated his short stature.
He actually stumbled a bit, to which Giulia immediately grabbed his arm to stabilize him. She was getting seriously worried about him.
They make their way over to the table, Luca dragging his feet and Giulia running a hand through her hair with worry. It’d mess up her curls, but they were already wild as it was.
“Good morning, Luca,” Giulia’s mother said.
“Morn…” Luca responded, punctuating it with a yawn.
“I made a pasta bake, one of your favorites.”
That seemed to wake Luca up just a bit more. He took his seat at the table and patiently waited as Giulia’s mother served him some of the food.
Then, without warning, Luca’s head nodded once, twice, and then he gave up and brought his arms to the table in a makeshift-pillow, resting his head on his elbows. And, just like that, he was fast asleep again.
Giulia reached over and placed her hand on his, hoping to comfort him somehow or wake him without shaking him for the third time in one day. Upon placing her hand on his, though, she felt how bone chilling cold they were.
“Santa Gorgonzola, your hands are freezing!” she exclaimed.
“Mff…” Luca mumbled, in the border between sleep and wake.
Giulia’s mom hummed. “I wonder if I should call a doctor?”
Giulia shook her head. “If you call one, would they even know what to do?”
“‘M cold…”
They both snap their heads at him.
Giulia stands up at the same time that her mom does.
The heater, which had until now been absolutely blasting near the kitchen table, was moved to the living room as was Luca, who had been moved to the couch positioned right in front of the heater. A plush, soft blanket was wrapped around him. Just for extra measure, Nerone was also placed right in his lap.
Giulia bit her nail as Luca dozed off again.
After a bit in front of the heater, though, he seemed to gain some of his senses, waking up just a bit more.
“Hey…” Giulia started gently.
“Hey,” Luca mumbled in turn.
Her mother stood off to the side, a worried knick in her eyebrows.
“Why’re you so sleepy? You okay? You sick?”
Luca shook his head. “No…It’s winter.”
“...Yes?”
Luca shrugged and looked down to his lap, where a peaceful Nerona was resting. He began petting him as he explained: “In the winter we usually rest. We don’t do much because we’re a bit sluggish… I think the—uhm…” Luca seemed to hesitate, trying to find the right words. He also seemed to still not exactly be all there, his mind still tired as he attempted to wake up. “I think being on the surface, where it’s colder than in the water, is affecting me.”
Giulia nodded, wordlessly making an “oh” shape with her lips.
He closed his eyes again as he continued to pet Nerone, though his petting seemed to slow significantly as he closed his eyes.
“But—” Giulia started— “You seemed fine when we went ice skating and when we were out in the snow?” She was a bit confused. What was different about this instance?
“I think it’s because I was all bundled up and also I had been going in the water more frequently. Maybe…maybe just being in Genova, away from the water, is making me tired.” Then, Luca added on, mumbling: “I already get sad enough as it is…”
Giulia frowned at that. She knew Luca got sad in the school year when he was so far from the water. At first, she thought it was just homesickness, but then, the more Luca described it, the more it sounded like he just missed swimming out in the open, clean waters than he did miss his family and Alberto—not to say that he doesn’t miss them all dearly, but it seemed like it was more biological than just homesickness.
“I think,” Luca muttered, “I’m just going to go to bed early today.”
“Oh, alright,” Maria said, gently helping Luca up off of the couch. Nerone jumped off of his lap, nails scratching on the hardwood flooring. Giulia glanced at the clock. 19:00. Not too early, but definitely not Luca’s usual bedtime.
She hoped this wouldn’t last the rest of the holidays.
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Giulia held the bowl gingerly with a paper towel, wincing when her fingers accidentally made contact outside of the towel, exposing her to the scalding heat. For a moment, she worried that the soup might be too hot for Luca, though she supposed that was the point anyway. Warm him up, as her mother had said.
Giulia winced as the door creaked open. She hoped Luca wasn’t already asleep.
“Luca?” She called into the pitch black room. Even the usual hanging lights were unplugged, probably to give Luca some easier rest, though she doubted the lights would keep him awake, anyway.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw something peculiar.
Instead of the bed by the window being occupied, Luca’s bed, Giulia found a pile of blankets and pillows and Luca situated in her bed, the bed in the corner of the room.
Giulia furrowed her eyebrows, gently placing the hot bowl of chicken soup (with the chicken picked out, for it always gave Luca a stomach ache to eat too much land-meat) on the bedside table, her bedside table, since it was closest to her bed where the intended for the soup was laying.
“Luca,” she shook the mass of covers. For probably the fifth time today she was shaking Luca awake. “Why are you in my bed?”
It wasn’t that she minded it, per se, she was just confused about it.
Luca peered up at her through barely open eyes.
“It’s…warmer than mine,” he said, groggly. Then, he closed his eyes again and burrowed back into the covers.
Giulia supposed that was true. Luca’s bed was closer to the window, where there was an inevitable draft. It was even more apparent with the heat off, especially if Luca couldn’t generate enough of his own body heat to counter it.
So, with nothing else to say in argument (nor did Giulia mind Luca being in her bed in the first place), Giulia just shrugged and picked the soup that was on her bedstand back up.
“Here, I brought you some soup. It’s very warm so hopefully it’ll make you feel warmer.”
Luca sat up instantly with an energy that she hadn’t seen from him since yesterday. He took the bowl from her hands—really, he basically ripped it out of her hands, she was worried that some of it might spill—and downed it all immediately.
Giulia stared at him with wide eyes, shocked at the display. Part of Luca’s chin was transformed, tealish scales adorning his lower face as soup dripped from his mouth. He quickly licked it up, careful not to let any drip onto the bed, and he wiped his face with his arm.
“I was hungry,” Luca said, sheepishly.
And it did make sense, for Luca didn’t eat anything at dinner (he was too busy being asleep) and Giulia doubts he ate anything earlier either when he came home from school.
It reminded her of when she first met him and Alberto, where she had placed the bowls of trenette al pesto in front of them and they both devoured it in record time. She knew how ravenous Luca could get.
Giulia simply nodded in response, no judgement in her features. She took the bowl from him, running back out to the kitchen to deposit it in the sink. As she did, she passed her mamma, who gave her a questioning look.
Giulia shrugged, mumbled a ‘he was hungry’ and slipped back off into her shared room. She was getting tired, anyway, Luca’s sleepiness was contagious.
When she finally made it back into the room, Luca was tucked into the covers again, seemingly soundly asleep. So, Giulia quietly made her way over to Luca’s bed. Until—
“What? No, sleep here.”
Giulia jumped at the sound of Luca’s voice.
“But, you’re sleeping there?” Giulia asked.
“It’s your bed, I’ll just move.” And Luca began moving to get up out of the bed.
“Move where?”
“To mine?”
“No, wait, you’ll get too cold in your bed.”
Luca shrugged, wincing as his feet made contact with the cold, cold floor. “I’ll already be supposed to be sleeping, anyway.”
Giulia frowned. “But, I don’t want you to be cold while sleeping. Here, I have an idea. Get back in the bed.”
Luca complied without arguing, immediately turning to get back into the bed. It was a bit funny, honestly, how easily Luca gave in to Giulia’s idea which she didn’t even tell him yet.
He must really be tired.
So, she watched Luca crawl into his bed, and then she followed. She tucked herself under the blankets, ignoring Luca’s confused sounds.
“I think, like a lot of frogs, you’re cold-blooded, or at least have issue regulating your temperature. Having a warm person next to you will help!” Giulia grinned, proud of herself at the idea. Plus, she liked cuddling. It always helped her sleep.
Giulia wrapped her arms around Luca, pulling him close, hopefully enough so that he’d be warmed up by her. Luca already seemed half asleep by the time she got comfortable. She realized her hand and arm were buried under Luca, accidentally stuffed under there as she shifted. It’d surely fall asleep by the time she woke up, but that was okay.
She listened to Luca’s soft breathing as she slowly, slowly fell asleep herself.
Hopefully Luca was warmer like this.