To start out, I must say that this is indeed the last chapter. I won't keep you from it for long - I'll include most of my author's notes down at the bottom - but I thought I should warn about this being it before you start to read. Thank you so much guys and I'll see you down at the bottom!

[Chapter replaced not long after it was originally published because of italicization problems. Problems fixed. Thanks!]

"Lovi?" A whisper echoed through Lovino's head, dredging him out of his slumber. He buried his face in the comfortable cushions that surrounded him, hoping the voice would go away. Instead, it persisted.

"Loooviiii…" A little nudge on his shoulder caused his body to slowly start to wake as well. Lovino groaned, still attempting to snuggle his way back into unconsciousness. "Wakey wakey, sleepy head." The voice sung softly, a hint of teasing lingering there.

Finally, Lovino crept open one eye. First, the light of the room sent a pang through his head and he shut it again, then, slowly and bit-by-bit, he reopened his golden eyes once more to look into the green ones slightly above him. A smile tugged at his lips and, to cover his sudden happiness, he cursed, "Bastard, why'd you have to wake me up?"

The laughter that sang through the air sent a pleasant warmth through Lovino. Antonio answered, "You would have slept all day. Then I wouldn't have had any of your time to myself!"

Lovino tossed a pillow from the couch at Antonio's face, getting a direct hit which then plopped to the floor and resulted in an amused expression from his friend.

Friend. What a funny word.

Antonio collapsed on the couch next to him and looked over, "Pleasant dreams?" He asked.

Lovino thought for a moment. He hadn't had any nightmares. No terrors either, which actually hadn't occurred in months. As far as Lovino remembered, he had not seen anything but darkness and static as he slept. No nightmares and no dreams either. It was the kind of sleep Lovino enjoyed.

It had been months since he had finally told his family the truth. He felt better than he had in a long time and, to his utter bewilderment, so did the rest of the Vargas household. Things were certainly different; they would ask him about flashbacks and how he was sleeping and Lovino would even try his best to answer honestly. It was a good kind of different, Lovino had determined. Uncomfortable and awkward, and often times it hurt Lovino so much to finally have so many people taking care of him, but Lovino was getting better and, through that, they all seemed a bit better. It was as if they could all finally relax. There was nothing left to hide.

Lovino talked to a new therapist, his old one being all the way in his past town and unable to reach on a daily basis. Lovino didn't know if it was normal or not to feel this way, but he liked the fact that he was seeing someone new. It was uncomfortable getting to know them and dredging up all the old history that the former therapist would have already known, but it felt like a new start to Lovino. Lovino wanted to work towards his future and, though the past was certainly something Lovino had to work over as well, a new start felt like the best path at the moment.

Lovino was improving. He wasn't "cured" or "healed" or "fixed", but he felt better than he had in a long time. Little by little his past was being addressed and he was coming to terms with it. It took a hell of a long time, something he had buried for so long wasn't something he was going to magically come to terms with, but he was working hard at it.

There had been many bumps in the road and Lovino was sure there would be plenty more. About a month before, Lovino had yelled at Feliciano for always checking to see if he had taken his medication. Lovino had felt like his brother didn't trust him and Feliciano had explained that he did trust him, just not the thoughts that sometimes took over his head. Feliciano had cried and Lovino had too. There had been a lot of crying these past months.

But there had also been a lot of happy times and laughter too. Lovino had two great friends and a family that loved him. Emma would come over, most times unannounced, and drag Lovino away from his tendency to sleep in on the weekends to go shop or bake at her house. She finally showed him her famous carrot cake and, once when her brother wasn't home, she had let Lovino feed some of the cake to his rabbit.

There were suds wars with his grandfather as they washed dishes and fighting over the TV remote with his cousin. Feliciano and him had walked to the park once when his brother had wanted to paint something and, before they had gotten home, they had both been painted from head to toe in reds and greens.

Some say that life lets the good and the bad balance each other out. Lovino didn't know if this was true - he had been through too much bad to be unbiased in his opinion - but, since Lovino had really opened up about his problems, it seemed that the world had taken a liking to him again.

"Hellooo? Earth to Lovi?" Antonio's voice interrupted Lovino's thoughts and he shook his head.

"Yeah yeah. What is it, bastard?" Lovino grumbled. Antonio merely laughed and shuffled around for the remote.

"The new episode is coming on, so I grabbed us some popcorn." Antonio grabbed a handful of the treat and threw it into his mouth. Lovino smirked as he remembered another time when popcorn had been flying everywhere and Lovino had seen those grass green eyes for the first time.

"What are you smirking at?" Antonio asked, a mischievous smile of his own creeping onto his face.

"I just remembered that the first time I met you," Lovino explained, throwing a kernel of popcorn into his mouth, only to scrunch his nose at the dry taste, "You had a piece of popcorn stuck in your hair."

Antonio blushed, reaching up to touch his soft curls, "I what?"

"You had popcorn in your hair." Lovino repeated, "Gilbert had thrown it at you when we were about to watch that movie."

"Oh, yeah. We were watching 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'." Antonio smiled softly at the memory, "That was fun. During the movie I kept trying to peek at you through the reflection on the screen."

Lovino blushed and threw a piece of popcorn at him, replicating the scene that had taken place months ago, except without successfully landing the kernel in his hair. "Seriously? You're an idiot."

"Hey, I saw you looking at me quite a few times during that movie!" Antonio tried to defend himself.

"I did nothing of the sort." Lovino waved the accusation away and looked back at the television screen.

"You know," Antonio continued on, speaking each word carefully as they each came to mind, "I think I knew deep down that first day that I would end up loving you."

Lovino's eyes were wide as he looked back at the other, "You w-what?"

Antonio laughed, "Don't look at me like that, Lovi. I think we've both known for some time that I like you like that. I mean, I kissed you."

Lovino sputtered, "But that- that doesn't mean-"

"It means a whole lot more than you're making it out to be, I think." Antonio laughed more, causing Lovino to feel like a total idiot, "Oh, Lovi, can I make things any more clear to you? I mean, people say I'm oblivious."

"H- hey, idiot. Don't laugh at me!" Lovino exclaimed in indignation, crossing his arms and looking the other way to conceal his blush.

Arms wound around Lovino's sides and he was pulled into an embrace, "Lo siento. Lo siento. I just think it's cute." Lovino continued to pout, not looking at the other as Antonio continued to snuggle him from behind. "So, now we have another big question to ask ourselves."

Lovino's brow furrowed and for a moment he forgot his pouting and turned back to Antonio. "Another question?"

"Do you," Antonio wondered, "Like me?"

Lovino immediately blushed and turned away. Antonio couldn't help thinking that the predictable reaction was endearing. Lovino mumbled something that Antonio couldn't quite make out. "What was that?" He asked with a smirk, already knowing what the words were, but wanting to hear them aloud.

Lovino didn't answer back immediately and Antonio's breath stopped.

Antonio had been sure for some time what Lovino's feelings towards him were, but, now that they were finally speaking to each other about it, now that Lovino could have said anything and his words were too quiet to hear and he had paused for one doomed second before repeating, Antonio began to feel nervous and doubtful. Perhaps he had been seeing the wrong signs. Maybe Lovino really did hate him.

"Yeah," Lovino spoke up, "I like you."

Then, just like that, Antonio's heart soared. Lovino turned back around to see the other grinning like some idiotic maniac and rolled his eyes. "No need to act so surprised."

"I'm not surprised." Came Antonio's elated voice, "I'm just really happy."

"Not surprised? Wait, so you knew I liked you?"

Antonio merely laughed and snuggled his nose into Lovino's neck. Lovino once again crossed his arms and turned away. "Fine. If you knew I liked you all this time then it won't be any different if I continue to ignore you."

"What? Aw, Lovi, don't do that!" Antonio badgered Lovino, but the Italian was stubborn. For the rest of their show, Lovino paid not a dime of attention to the Spaniard, keeping his eyes fixated to the television screen in front of them..

Finally, when it was nearing Lovino's curfew and he was due home, Lovino slipped on his shoes and walked to the door. Antonio trailed after to say farewell on the porch.

"Loviiiii, come on. At least say bye! Looooviiiiii!"

Then, before Antonio could comprehend the fact that Lovino had actually responded and turned around, there were a pair of lips on his own, already pulling away after only a brief peck. Antonio looked dazed as Lovino gave him a smug look. "Buonanotte, Antonio."

Antonio was too stunned to say anything in return, but Lovino didn't seem to mind. In fact, he looked quite pleased with himself as he spun on his heels and walked away from Antonio's house, turning right at the sidewalk and continuing up the street.

As Lovino walked, the cool winter air touched his cheeks and nose, and the dark clouds above began to release tiny white flakes into the sky. Snowflakes dotted Lovino's hair and, for once, Lovino remembered a pleasant memory of him and his mother. They were playing in the snow on Christmas morning, rolling around in the chilly frost and throwing snowballs at each other. For so long, the past had been painful for Lovino. For so long, he couldn't even think of a memory without feeling like a failure to his mother or to his family.

But now, Lovino walked through the snow remembering all of the good things about his past. Lovino could handle the past and his present and now he knew that he was cut out for the future as well. It would take time for Lovino to heal and, even then, he would never forget the horrible circumstances of his youth. Lovino had decided that that part of his life was over. He wasn't focusing on this ending though, but on the beginning it was starting. And, just because he had decided to end one thing, doesn't mean that all things had to as well.

Lovino smiled and lifted his face from where it had been buried in his scarf, letting the white flakes fleck his cheeks and eyelashes. Lovino could take comfort in this thought.

Not all things had to end.

Oh my gosh! So here it is! The conclusion to Like All Things, It Ends! Wow, what do I say now? It's just... man, I've been working on this for over a year now and publishing it for almost that amount of time too. I know where I'll start! My favorite part: Thanking all you lovely readers! Thank you all SO MUCH for reading and following and favoriting and commenting; every single one of you has made my day sometime throughout this story. I cannot thank you all enough for helping me through this story because, no matter how dedicated I feel to it, everyone hates their own writing at one time or another. Haha

Thank you to Sand as well! I suppose you're probably sick of seeing your name in my author's notes, but I can never stop thanking you for your support in my fanfics! I have no idea if I would do all the writing I do if it wasn't for you asking when's the next chapter. I'm so glad that we've become such great friends through fanfiction and our love of torturing our poor favorite characters.

This fic was my first (in writing, not posting) but it is definitely not my last. During November I will be a little MIA because I will be working on my NaNoWriMo story, but I shall be back! If you do NaNoWriMo, I would love to become buddies too or, if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, check out my profile for more info. Wow, it sounds like I'm some sort of telemarketer. I just love this challenge so much! It starts on November 1st (sorry for the short notice) and is nonprofit too, so no worries about entry fees or anything like that. It's also open globally. Okay, I need to shut up.

Now that my weird plea for internet friends is over, one last THANK YOU! Have a great day all and Code is out!

New in the world of LATIE: gdesertsand has created a oneshot of Feliciano's perspective for this story! It is so good and I encourage you all to check it out! And, yes, the information concerning their mother's killer included in this is, in fact, canon to my fic. Thank you so much, Sand!