Well, it's here! The last chapter. It's been great writing, and I hope all of you have enjoyed it.

Lovino had been visiting Antonio for the past week or so. The man had not seemed to get better, but he wasn't becoming worse either. At least, Lovino thought he wasn't. Today, he was back at the hospital, this time with a treat.

"I asked the doctor if you could have some," he told Antonio, then pulled three bright red tomatoes out of a paper sack. His companion beamed at him with innocent child-like joy.

"Thanks, Lovi! I haven't had one in ages!"He picked one up and delicately bit into it. "It's good."

"I tried to pick the best ones I could find." Lovino scrutinized Antonio closely. He seemed much better today, remarkably so. In the sunlight streaming in from the room's windows, he appeared to be glowing. "You seem much better today."

"I feel okay." Was Antonio's voice getting stronger? It seemed so. Lovino became more excited.

"At this rate, they'll probably discharge you by next week!"

"Yeah! I'll be out of here in no time." There was something hidden in the depths of Antonio's eyes, but he didn't read too much into it. This was great! Antonio was improving at a rapid pace. Lovino was already planning out the rest of his life with the other man. The future seemed boundless. Fueled on by optimism, he talked animatedly with Antonio as the minutes passed by.

Toward the end of the hospital's visiting hours, Antonio suddenly said,

"I love you, Lovi."

"I know." He had suspected it for a long time.

"Um… do you love me?" The blood froze in his veins. Would his confession have to come at such an untimely instance, not to mention in a hospital of all places?

"… You know what? I won't tell you until you get out from the hospital. It'll give you an incentive for getting better faster."

"Aw, Lovi!" At Antonio's sad look, Lovino decided to relent a little.

"If it makes you feel any better, I have a strong feeling that the answer is going to be positive."

"Okay!" There was still a hint of melancholy in Antonio's expression, but he seemed happy enough. Lovino nodded, satisfied.

"Then when I come again tomorrow I expect to see you back to your old self."

"I'll try!"

"You'd better, idiot," he added in fondly, for old time's sake. He leaned in to give Antonio the customary goodbye kiss. This time, however, the other man's hands slid onto the sides of his face gently. He tilted the young man's head back. Lovino could feel the intense passion radiating from Antonio's heart-of-hearts in the kiss, and he tried to invoke the same from himself. Into it he poured everything that he had neglected to say or neglected to do. They pulled away moments later.

"Bye, Lovi," Antonio said softly. He watched with mournful eyes as Lovino, his dearly beloved, disappeared out of the door of his room. The other saw nothing of it, not even the lonely tear that trickled down Antonio's cheek.

Lovino was awakened early in the morning by the abrupt ringing of his telephone. He looked groggily at his bedside clock. Who the fuck was calling him at six a.m.? The designer debated hanging up on the caller until he saw that it was Francis.

"Hello?"

"Romano?" Francis' voice sounded urgent.

"What is it?" And how did you get my private phone number?

"You need to get to the hospital right now. It's Antonio, he's—" Before the sentence had even been finished, Lovino had thrown on his clothes and rushed out of his house.

It was late afternoon, and Lovino, Francis, and Gilbert were still at the hospital. They were keeping a vigil outside of the emergency room. Lovino gripped the edge of his chair tightly. The hard plastic dug into his palms.

"What are they doing in there?"

"Last time I checked," Gilbert said, "They were pumping something into him." He looked a bit green. His red eyes were lusterless and he was deathly pale. Francis looked haggard too. His usually fresh, young face was worn and weary. All three fell silent and listened to the erratic beeping of the heart monitor coming from within the emergency room.

Early in the morning, Antonio had woken up and vomited blood violently. He had not done so before, as the doctor had explained, and after his condition had been confirmed as critical he had been rushed into the emergency room. There he had been diagnosed with ulcers on his stomach. The formerly benign tumor somewhere in his chest had suddenly turned malignant, spreading its chaotic influence all over his body. The surgeons were preparing to remove it. At that point Antonio's friends had arrived. And there they had remained. The clock on the wall read four thirty.

"They must have been able to do something by now," Lovino muttered to himself. The others stared at their hands dully. They remained like that for a good other hour. Lovino was almost dozing off. He struggled to keep awake, focusing on the sounds of the heart monitor. The beeping was still inconsistent—Wait. Was the beeping getting slower? Heart pounding, he counted each one.

Beep buh-beep beep buh-beep beep buh beep beep buh beep beep beep beep beeeeeep.

The three men looked at each other with frightened eyes. They jumped up simultaneously, gazes fixed on the door.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Suddenly, everything was quiet. The silence was like a blow to Lovino's heart. No, it can't be…

The doctor stepped out of the room. He looked at them carefully. Then, he hung his head.

"I'm sorry."

That was when time stopped.

They were not permitted to see the body. Eventually, they had all exited the building. Lovino was the last to go. He had locked himself in the bathroom until his broken sobs had subsided. Then, with his eyes red and his face wet, he left the place where Antonio had been cinched by the jaws of Death. The first person he saw was Francis. He too was dry-eyed. What betrayed him were his knuckles, stark white against the black of his jacket sleeves that he clutched so tightly. Lovino went over to him. He didn't know what to say. Luckily, Francis spoke first.

"He was a great guy. Always smiling, always happy." The designer looked at him. Francis' face was perfectly blank. Only his eyes revealed the turmoil taking place inside of him. Lovino had forgotten the effect that Antonio's passing would have on his friends. He had thought only of himself, ruling out all of the other people who had made impacts on Antonio's life.

"He always said that you and Gilbert were the best friends a person could have," he offered.

"We were his best friends, yes," Francis admitted. He turned and let his piercing gaze fall softly on Lovino. "But you were his everything." At that, the designer could not reply. He merely looked away and asked,

"Where's Gilbert?"

"He's by the front of the hospital."

"Thanks. Take care," were the only consolations he could yield in his haze of painful misery. As he made his way to the hospital's entrance, he felt his heart being pierced by a million nails; slowly, crookedly. It hurt so much. Finally, he spotted the familiar red sweatshirt. He walked up to Gilbert's side. There they stood, two shattered men mourning. Presently, Lovino looked at his companion. He opened his mouth to say some words of comfort, but something else came out instead.

"Let's start over." Gilbert was just as startled as he was.

"What?"

"We didn't get off to a great start, and I—I want to start over." He added hastily, "He would have wanted it." After some hesitation, the other man nodded. He withdrew a hand from the pocket of his jeans and stuck it out between them. Lovino took it, and they shook. A simple action, really, but something passed between them that was infinitely more complex and lasting. The designer nodded. Then, after having paid his dues, he left in order to be by himself.

It was dusk when he finally arrived at Mariposa Wharf. He parked his motorcycle where he had the last time he had been here with Antonio. Then he walked over to the edge of the dock. Sitting seemed inappropriate for the moment, so he remained standing, leaning against a pole.

He couldn't believe that Antonio was gone.

The man had seemed fine when he had visited him the day before. How was it that all of a sudden he turned critical? Unless—He suddenly realized the agonizing truth. Antonio had been keeping up the pretense of being well. He had known that he was going to pass away; he just wanted to prevent Lovino from worrying. That was probably also why he had told him he loved him.

To leave his final words with his love.

Lovino realized with a jolt that he had not made his due confession. The pain went straight to his heart, a lightning bolt zapping through. Why was he so stupidly stubborn? Why couldn't he just have told Antonio that he loved him too? He recalled that he had not told him about his suicide plans either. Perhaps it wouldn't have mattered, but he had not been entirely truthful to the other man when Antonio had told him everything. That hurt most of all.

He looked up to see the most heartbreakingly beautiful sunset that he had ever seen (the one that he and Antonio were supposed to have watched on that fateful day). Perhaps Antonio, somewhere up there, had sent it as a parting gift and a sign that he was alright. And that got him thinking.

Antonio had been a good man, the best type of man, never backing down in the face of opposition. He was forever optimistic and forever smiling. He had reformed him and made him better than he had ever dreamed. Lovino thought about Antonio's theories, the ideals that he had lived for. He would never have thrown his life away. Thus, he let his former plans float away on the breeze, those many years that he had wasted by ignoring the wonders of life. He would keep living. For Antonio. Now Lovino knew that he was ready to create his own future, to write his own beautiful story. He looked up at the vividly hued sky and smiled. Antonio was up there, grinning down at him.

I know what happiness is now, and I love you.

So, I hope you guys liked it!

*Update* Recently, I received something really special for this fic: fanart! So, please go to the link below (remove the spaces) and tell the artist your opinions on her beautiful work.

http : / browse. deviantart. com/ ? qh=& section =& global=1&q=te+amo+dammit# / d2y5vzw

Thank you so much, ~Artriz! I love it so very much, and I'm really honored that you thought highly enough of the fic to draw something from it! And thank you to Bleachfan82 for telling me. :)