for Dogsrule~

Haunted

"Come on, bastard, pick up the pace!" Lovino growled, walking down the spiraling path leading up to Braginski Manor. Dark, long dead trees lined the property.

Braginski Manor had long since been abandoned and left to rot out in the middle of Monde forest. It was said that the original owners all died in a horrible blood bath. The youngest sister in the family went mad and slaughtered her siblings as well as her brother's fiance and family.

No one ever entered the manor due to the fact their spirits supposedly haunted the house.

However, for the students at both Monde High and Monde Community College, this haunted house was just a conquest to prove your bravery.

"Sorry, Lovi … this place just creeps me out!" Antonio hurried to catch up with his friend, "I mean … didn't you ever play HetaOni? What if there's an alien thing behind there and he's going to kill us?"

Lovino rolled his eyes. He never wanted to play such silly games, "Stupid idiot. Do you know how many people come in this manor all the time? They always leave." a sly grin came over his face. He wasn't afraid, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun, "Almost always."

Antonio had relaxed until Lovino said almost, "What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Lovino sang with a tad bit of laughter. They walked onto the steps, careful of their weight on the rotting dead wood. It creaked beneath their steps and Lovino bit his lip lightly, walking up to the manor front door. Golden lettering on the side, now dirt covered and missing pieces, read 'Braginski', or would have if teenagers hadn't stolen the 'r', 'a', and 's'.

A loud, clanging ring echoed around the forest, sending crows flying across the night sky. Lovino shuddered and turned a glare to Antonio whom was holding the long door bell cord. The Spanish man quickly let go and gave Lovino an apologetic smile.

"Damn it … you could wake the dead with that thing! What the hell were you thinking?" he hissed.

Antonio made to answer but the door swung open, revealing a large foyer. A dusty old staircase led up to the second floor and split into two different directions.

"Creepy. Come on, bastard. I'll show those two freaks you call friends that I'm not afraid to spend the night here." he pulled out his flashlight and walked inside, looking around the foyer at the old, partially broken busts of the previous owners. The chandelier hung broken above them, the glass from it littered the floor beneath Lovino and Antonio's feet.

"They didn't mean anything by that, Lovi … so can we please just go back to our dorm room now? I don't like this place … I feel like we're being watched." he whispered the last bit.

Lovino glared, "You're just being paranoid, jerk. Let's explore before we set up for the night." he began walking through the first arched doorway into a long straight hall way. His Spanish dorm mate was holding onto his backpack, jumping at every little shadow that was cast against the wall from Lovino's flashlight.

The hall ended up branching off to the right twice before coming to an end in the kitchen. Long wooden tables sat in the middle while the dirt covered floor held remnants of cooking supplies and tools. Lovino saw the back door and shrugged lightly, "Nothing here, come on." he turned, but the table in the far back began shaking lightly. Lovino's eyes widened in fear and he shut the door from the kitchen into the hall and leaned against it, his heart racing.

It was all in his mind! Yeah … he was seeing things that Antonio's fear and complaining was putting there.

Antonio turned back, "Lovi?" Lovino looked up at him and peered in through the small window to see the table was as still as ever. He let out the breath he had been holding and quickly caught up to Antonio. The two explored the study next. It was the first hall on the way back.

They looked at the books on the shelves, possibly searching for something to read if they got bored during the night.

The Italian pulled down a dusty looking book and cracked it open. The pages were yellowed, but the words were good. However, Lovino growled, not being able to read the weird lettering in the book.

"Hey, bastard!" he turned to see Antonio sitting on a long table pointing his own flashlight down onto the pages of an old medical journal, "What the hell is this stuff?" he asked pointing at the lettering.

Antonio looked up, "Russian~" he smiled, setting his book down. He pointed the light up at a large painting over the small fireplace in the room. A large man and two girls sat in it, "They were Russian … I thought you knew that."

Lovino blushed lightly, "I did … I forgot … shut u-" he froze seeing the medical book Antonio had been reading slowly lift off the table. He stared at it and a cold fear washed over him and he grabbed Antonio's hand, "Come on … we can't even read any of this shit." his voice was shaking lightly as he pulled his friend.

"Oh … okay …" they explored the upstairs next. Lovino was already on edge from his strange encounters. There's no such thing as ghost, there's no such things as ghosts, he chanted in his head. Alfred was just a big baby and Lovino Vargas was no baby!

He looked down one hall and then the other, "Which way?"

"How about I go to the left and you the right? We can cover more ground that way and then we'll meet back here in a few minutes and find a place to set up for the night." Antonio smiled, his previous fears and worries seemed to have just melted away.

Lovino looked down the hallway and swallowed hard. Alone? He'd go explore alone? He sniffled lightly, "O-okay. Yeah … meet here in twenty."

Antonio nodded and bounded off down his hall way to explore. Lovino, on the other hand, took a few steps down the long hall. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He smiled in reassurance that he was just tired and imagining things before. Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He saw the edge of a dress around the corner of his hallway, but as he stepped closer it disappeared.

"Who …?" he quickly chased after the person to see what she was doing in a place like this. He followed down another hall, never truly catching up to the girl, but only just staying out of reach. Finally, he found the last hallway, but instead of a girl in a dress, he found blood splattered against the walls, dripping and oozing and a human skeleton sitting in the corner.

"Get out!" a dark voice echoed. Lovino felt his blood turn to ice as he let out a piercing scream and began running.

Antonio opened another door and sighed. It was also an empty bedroom. He leaned against the door frame and contemplated just heading back to find Lovino so they could get some sleep, however a scream interrupted his thoughts.

"Lovi …" he took off down the hall, fear filling his heart. What if something happened? What if Lovino was hurt? What if Lovino was- no! He told himself. Lovino was fine. He probably just saw a spider and needed his Spaniard to save him! Yeah, that was it!

He looked around and didn't see Lovino, but he did see a bedroom door was open. He slowly pushed it open and looked around and the rotted away curtains and bedspread. He wondered if he should call out for Lovino, but what if there was a killer in the house? Then he'd be an open target!

Antonio shook his head. Finding Lovino was worth it.

He notice rushed footprints in the dust on the floor, along with brushed marks leading under the bed. Slowly, the man knelt to the ground and peered under the bed. Pain filled his senses as something hit his nose hard. He fell to his side and clutched his face tightly, moaning in pain.

"A-Antonio?" he heard Lovino's voice weakly call out. If he hadn't been so relieved and in pain, he would have leaped for joy at the fact Lovino was using his real name for the first time ever. He pulled his hands away from his face and smiled softly at Lovino, "Are you okay? I heard a scream …" he crawled under the bed to join him.

"It was awful! The girl, and the then blood and the bones!" he began to ramble incoherently about what he'd seen, but Antonio only took the other man into his arms and began rubbing lazy circles into his back, "Shhh."

Lovino eventually calmed down and buried his burning red face into Antonio's chest, "You can let me go now, bastard …" he muttered softly out of embarrassment. Antonio let him go and pushed himself out from under the bed, his own face burning.

"S-sorry …" he laughed sheepishly.

The two looked around the room and Lovino sighed, "Let's just sleep here, okay? I'm done exploring." he pulling his backpack off and pulled out some blankets and laid them out on the bed. He sat down on them and took a deep, steadying breath. Maybe he had imagined the scene?

Antonio pulled out his own sleeping bag and laid it out on the floor, sitting on it. Lovino yawned, "Night … Antonio …" he muttered, laying down and pulling his second blanket over his shoulder.

The Spaniard laid there for a second and a bright smile overcame his face, "Night Lovi~" he closed his eyes to sleep.

However, sleep wouldn't come easy for them. Lovino was laying with his back to the window, staring at the wall where the moon light was slowly fading behind the clouds. That's right, he thought bitterly, it was supposedly going to rain that night.

He closed his eyes and sighed. Maybe the rain would sooth him to sle-

Thump … thump … thump.

Lovino froze in mid thought and listened to the foot falls outside the door in the hall way. The person paced him or herself slowly, finally stopping at the door where they tested to doorknob. It jiggled, but didn't budge. Had Antonio locked the door? He smiled faintly at the gesture but his heart was racing too fast at the thought of someone being right outside his door. Light scratching came at the door and Lovino jumped from the bed and fell to his knees at Antonio's sleeping bag. He unzipped it and crawled into the slightly too small for them bag and wrapped his arms tightly around Antonio.

"L-Lovi?" the sleepy Spaniard looked at him in shock.

A face buried into his chest and soft sobs were coming from the Italian man. Antonio frowned and sat up, pulling Lovino into his lap, "What happened?" he looked at his watch and frowned lightly, seeing he'd only been asleep for ten minutes or so before Lovino woke him up.

"N-nothing … just get in the bed … please …" Lovino looked up with pleading eyes. Antonio's heart skipped a beat and he nodded, crawling into the bed. He took Lovino back into his arms and held him tightly as he tried to go back to sleep.

Rain began pouring outside, leaving them both with a calm feeling at the white noise. Lovino smiled softly, burying his face into Antonio's neck, while the Spaniard held him closely in his arms.

This wasn't the end of their night. Lovino was jolted awake from his sleep by a loud crashing in the hallway. Antonio must have heard it too, because he tensed and his grip tightened around Lovino.

Slowly, Antonio pushed up off the bed and stood.

"Get back here, bastard!" Lovino hissed, "It might be something serious!"

Antonio ignored him and took a few more steps towards the door before something else crashed in the halls. Lovino squeaked and grabbed Antonio's hand, urging him to just get back into the bed, "Please, Antonio … it could be a psycho!"

The Spaniard looked at Lovino with a smile, "I'll be fine. I'm going to make sure you stay safe. If I don't come back, just get out of here, okay? Don't forget me?"

Lovino's mind and heart began racing as Antonio picked up a flashlight, preparing to use it as a weapon. He slowly made his way to the door.

"Stop!" Lovino cried out, stopping Antonio in his tracks, "Don't … just get back here … we'll both stay safe …" he eyes darted quickly from Antonio's eyes and down to the floor and back up again, "I … I love you …"

Antonio looked up in disbelief. His emerald eyes looked at Lovino, whom was sitting on his knees on the bed, clutching one arm with the other and looking away. His face was bright red.

"L-Lovi?" he took a step away from the door, "Y-you mean i-it? You love me?"

Lovino nodded, not trusting his clenched throat to form anymore words. Antonio dropped the flashlight to the floor and walked as fast as his feet could carry him to the bed, where he wasted no time in taking Lovino into his arms, "I love you, too …"

He pressed his lips against Lovino's, tasting the bitter, salty tears, "I won't go … okay …? I'll stay right here and protect you."

The Italian nodded, clenching Antonio's shirt in his fists and holding onto him. Antonio leaned against the old headboard and held Lovino in his lap, rubbing soothing circles on his back, his arms, even his cheek. He pressed gentle, loving kisses to Lovino's hair and forehead and held him tightly when what ever was out there was making noises.

Antonio held Lovino while the Italian slept soundly, despite the echoes of 'get out' and the scratching and thumping and crashing.

Eventually, the man also fell asleep, holding his new boyfriend close to him.

XxXxX

Gilbert laughed and held up his walkie-talkie, "You see them yet?"

"Oui! Awww so adorable! They are sound asleep! Operation Get Them Together worked like a charm~"

"Alright, hurry up and get back here and held me clean up the fake blood so we can go home." Gilbert laughed lightly, scrubbing up the walls where he and Francis had painted the walls with fake blood. He put the Halloween skeleton back in the box and made sure everything else was picked up.

"Ah, l'amour~ so beautiful, non?" Francis muttered, walking up.

The albino rolled his eyes, "Ja, ja, now help me untie the wiring from Gilbird. Poor thing shouldn't have had to lift that book like that …"

Francis rolled his eyes and helped pull the string off.

"So, Franny, how did you know that would work?"

The Frenchman grinned, "I 'ave my ways~ besides, I knew Lovino would put up a front of being brave and that if we frightened 'im enough 'e would 'ave to turn to Toni's big, sexy, strong arms."

"Alright, alright, keep your pants on and your boner away!" Gilbert laughed.

Another light laughter filled the air and the two college students turned to see a young woman, completely transparent, laughing as well.

Both of them let out a scream and took off down the halls.

She stood in shock and frowned, "Every time …"

"Boo!" the girl jumped and turned to see another spirit beside her, her sister Natalia.

"Natalia! Do you have to scare me like that?" she squeaked.

"Da."

"Calm down, sisters." they turned to see a large male spirit floating over.

"Ivan!" Katyusha smiled.

Natalia smiled, "Hello, big brother~"

Ivan just smiled lightly, "Come on, we should show those two trouble making boys what true fear is~"

Natalia nodded, agreeing instantly with his brother. Ivan grinned, going to find the blonde and the albino.

Their voice were unheard by the sleeping couple in the bed room.

Morning came and Lovino awoke from the best sleep he'd had in a long time. He smiled softly up at Antonio and woke the man so that they could go home.

They made their way back to the dorms, hand-in-hand, blissfully unaware of the three spirits watching them from the window, laughing lightly about the two scared boys who ran off in the middle of the night.

~Lady Pyrien