It had been one hell of a storm, that night. Feliciano had fled to join him at the first hint of thunder, as usual, waking Lovino up in the process. Without a word, he folded his arms protectively around his baby brother – this was the only occasion he'd hold him like this without putting up a hell of a lot of a fuss first. Feli had always been a bit of a baby when it came to storms.

The next morning, he was inspecting their property for damage like felled trees or debris thrown about by wind, among other things. It had been pretty rough, and he knew that they'd been right in the centre of it; at about three in the morning, they'd had five minutes of peace when he'd allowed himself to think it was over. Turned out that they were in the eye of the storm.

Even now, there was still a steady drizzle of rain making him uncomfortably cold and wet.

As Lovi made his way over to one of the vines, he was grateful that they'd finished the year's harvest. This would almost certainly have ruined the crop if they hadn't.

He finished his rounds by leaning over the fence of the small paddock and checking on the trio of horses inside. They trotted over, ears pricked and eyes attentively trained on him, and efficiently frisked him for treats once they had reached the fence. Even the retired old mare that they'd taken on as a favour for a friend was looking chirpy.

"But then again, nothing much rattles you, does it, Nonna?" He murmured, digging into his pockets to pass out a few mints.

There weren't any new bumps on them that he could see, and no injuries under the thick layer of mud on their coats. Satisfied that all was well, he returned to the house to get a real breakfast in him – not just a thermos of the strongest black coffee he could make.

Sitting at the table, he unlocked his phone and began to check the local news as he ate, only to find out that there had indeed been a casualty.

The Wi-Fi was dead.

It had passed on. It was no more. It had ceased to be. It had expired and gone to meet its maker! It was a stiff. Bereft of life, it was resting in peace. Its metabolic processes were history. It was off the twig. It had kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.

Isolated as their house was – usually a bonus, in the elder brother's opinion – this was more than a little bit of an inconvenience.

He flew to the phone and, when Feliciano came down in his overlong pyjama top, rubbing sleepily at his eyes, Lovino was furiously swearing at the landline in his hand.

"Did the phone do something wrong, Lovi?"

"Damn right it did something wrong!" He jammed it back down in the cradle, growling at the cheerful little beep it made when it clicked into place. "Fucking thing isn't working!"

"Have you checked that it's still –"

"Of fucking course I checked that it was all still connected! How thick do you think I am?!"

Feliciano waited in patient silence, well-used to this and knowing that it was better to let him rant everything out. Once the impressive, even by Lovino's standards, rant was over, the voice of reason spoke.

"Maybe the storm hit a phone line? Let's go into town; the coffee shops there will have free Wi-Fi." And there would be cake as well, and Feliciano thought that Lovino really needed a little bit of extra sweetness inside him right now.

"…Fine."

And so they gathered up phones and tablets and laptops, and they both got dressed and, more quickly than they usually would be, piled into the car. Lovino very firmly took the driver's seat because the last time he'd let his brother drive, he'd nearly had a heart attack.

'Rollercoaster' was the nicest possible way to describe Feliciano's driving style. On a good day.

wifiWIFIwifiWIFIwifiWIFIwifiWIFIwifiWIFIwifi

Lovino left Feli to order and quickly found a corner table to get himself ensconced in. Comfortable chairs, clean table, and most importantly, a power socket. He signed in and barely noticed Feliciano arriving with drinks and two generously sized slices of cake as he began to check his email.

The café was busier than usual; most of the tables soon filled up, making Lovino grateful that they'd got in early. When dragged his eyes away from the screen, that was.

"Drink your coffee; it'll be getting cold."

He took a sip, and then another when he realised how well it had been made.

After Feliciano finished his own drink and slice of cake, he looked at his brother apologetically. "I'm sorry, Lovi, but I promised Monika yesterday that I'd help her with the doggies while the others are away…"

Monika Beilschmidt ran the local animal rescue, along with her two brothers. Ludwig also did dog training and Gilbert – a trained vet – ran both the blog and sponsored runs. The latter while wearing an oversized Dalmatian onesie. Normally, she'd have more than enough help, but Ludwig was ill and Gilbert was on the other side of the country for a conference.

"Tch. Still haven't decided which sibling you like most? I swear, yesterday you were fawning all over the twin brother. Last week it was the beer guzzler, and today…"

"Shush! That's mean, Lovi! And rude of you!"

"Truth hurts."

Feliciano had been crushing on first one, and then another of the Beilschmidt siblings for about a year. The poor guy was like a carousel of confused pansexuality. If he'd been anyone other than Lovino's utterly pure, totally innocent baby brother, he would've scoffed at him, told him to suggest a wild orgy, and then pick whichever of them gave the best sex. But he was Lovino's utterly pure, totally innocent baby brother, and thus anyone who would even look at him in a sexual way would have their eyes gouged out in a fit of brotherly overprotectiveness.

Feli ruthlessly shot puppy eyes at his beloved older brother until he gave in and muttered a begrudging and slightly guilty apology. He hugged him and left, running so he wouldn't be late. Monika was very pretty, but she was also very scary at times.

That left Lovino alone at their table, trawling through local news sites for more information. It was about lunchtime before he knew it, and there was someone trying to talk to him. He looked up, scowling at whoever had presumed to interrupt him.

"Ah! Hi! Sorry – you look busy! It's just – all of the other tables are full, and I was wondering if you'd let me sit with you?"

The world had to be kidding him.

A quick glance around the coffee shop proved that this guy was telling the truth; there was barely a single seat that was not in use.

"If you have to." Lovino grunted, quickly returning his eyes to the screen. Hopefully, this guy would respect the rules of sitting with a stranger; no eye contact, no conversation, pretend they don't exist.

"Hi! I'm Antonio!"

Luck never had been on his side.

"Did your internet get taken out last night, too?"

Oh, come on. He came to check his email, not make a friend. "Yeah, it did." Hopefully that shortness would cool him off a little.

Thankfully, after a couple of remarks about the storm the previous night, Antonio's laptop had booted up and latched on to the café's Wi-Fi.

They sat there in an awkward silence until Lovino left.

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The next day, Lovino was back. The landline was still dead, and mobile reception around the Vargas house was, quite frankly, shit. They went into town; Feliciano to go to church, and Lovino to sit in the same café to wait for him.

The majority of the town was singing praises to their god, so there were very few tables that were actually occupied. Unfortunately, one of those occupied tables was the one he had begun to think of as his table.

The table was low, and nestled cosily in a corner near the windows. There were two comfortable armchairs on either side of it, upholstered in cracked, but shiny, leather. It was far enough away from most of the other tables that he wouldn't have to deal with screaming children, but close enough to the counter that he wouldn't have far to walk with his drink. Most importantly, right now, there was a power socket nearby where he could plug in his laptop.

He took in a deep breath and lifted his head stubbornly high. He wouldn't let this prick chase him out of his place.

"Anyone sitting there?" He nodded at the empty chair, something in him saying that the brown mop of curls bent over a tablet looked dangerously familiar.

"Ah! No! No, I'm all alone!"

Antonio. Of course.

"Hey! You never told me your name yesterday!" He grinned. "I think I deserve to know it, if you want to sit with me~"

Bastard probably thought he was being crafty.

"…Lovino Vargas." It was a price worth paying. He dropped into the seat and opened up his laptop. Conversation did not start; they did their own respective thing until Antonio left, shortly before the church service ended and Feliciano took up the newly empty chair.

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This set the tone for their interactions throughout the next week. There was a mutual unspoken agreement to share the table. There were brief greetings at the start, which grew warmer and longer as the week went on, and after the first couple of days, goodbyes.

Lovino's job, as he had angrily told the phone and wifi provider first thing on Monday, depended on having a reliable internet connection. Unlike Feliciano, who taught art at the local school, he needed to stay connected to the rest of the world.

Antonio ran a small business selling advice on employment law and offering training for witnesses at tribunal. Although he didn't always need to be connected, it could be vital at times.

At their table on Wednesday, Antonio laughed. Lovino looked up and their eyes met. Antonio grinned, still laughing quietly, and showed him the screen of his tablet. A video of a puppy trying to play with its own reflection was playing.

Lovino couldn't help himself; he felt his own lips twitch and a snort bubbled up.

Antonio was transfixed. He was so cute when he laughed! That little snort was adorable. He resolved to share all of the cute and funny videos and pictures he came across, wanting to make him laugh again.

On Thursday, they got to the coffee shop at the same time. Antonio was directly ahead of Lovino in the queue, and he ordered two drinks.

"Lovi, you can go get our table – I'll bring our drinks."

"I didn't ask you to – "

"I want to!" He beamed.

With a slight grumble, just out of principle, Lovino grabbed Antonio's tablet and went to 'their' table. By now, people had unconsciously begun to leave that table alone, so it was barely used until after they'd left for the day.

Antonio paid and brought their drinks over. To Lovino's surprise, he'd remembered exactly Lovi's usual order. On his first cautious sip of it, he discovered that it was even better than usual. What gave the bastard the right to be so damn nice?

When Lovino left that afternoon, he also left behind his phone number, not really expecting anything to come from it.

That evening, just before dinner, his phone pinged.

Hi! This is Antonio! :):):):)

Shortly after, it pinged again.

From the coffee shop!

And again.

Is this Lovi?

He knew that he'd have to reply, or else be inundated with similarly chirpy texts throughout the night.

It's LOVINO, asshole.

He promptly saved the number under 'coffee bastard', not to be confused with 'beer bastard', 'dog bastard', or 'eyebrow bastard', to name a few.

The chirpiness did not seem to be able to be put off.

Hola, Lovi~~~!

He stared blankly at the screen for a few seconds.

I said LoviNO

Vino, then!

No.

Awwww! So mean of you, Lov!

Was this guy for real? He thought only Feliciano texted like that. At least he didn't seem to go in for the cruel and unnecessary stretching out of words like his brother did, though.

Loviiiiiiiiiiii! Are you getting my messages?

… Maybe he spoke too soon.

Yeah, I'm getting them. But I did warn you that my reception up here's shit.

Awwww, I'm sorry! I'll try to be more patient!

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On Friday, it was Lovino's turn to be stubbornly – almost passive-aggressively – nice. He bought Antonio a drink and a slice of chocolate fudge cake. Seeing as he always had a large hot chocolate, he thought it was a fairly safe bet.

His landline had been fixed, but wifi was still dead. He didn't need to spend quite as much time down in the café, but found himself inexplicably reluctant to leave his and Antonio's table.

That morning, they reached a wordless agreement and shuffled the chairs around to sit next to each other. They shared things they found; Feliciano sent cute pictures and videos to Lovino at lunch time, and Antonio seemed to be doing little more than trawling through YouTube for the cutest videos he could.

On Saturday, at about two, Lovino got an overexcited call from his brother.

"Lovi! They fixed it! We have internet again!"

"We – we what? You're sure?! About fucking time!"

"The lights are all green, and I can finally check my email at home again!"

"Fucking fantastic!"

They talked at each other for a bit longer, before hanging up. Lovino had a satisfied grin – or, at least, as close as he could get to a grin – on his face.

"Wifi's finally back at home." He explained.

"Oh, wow, Lovi! I'm so pleased for you!"

"Yeah – I don't have to come here and buy an overpriced coffee to get online any more!" he crowed.

"So are you…?"

"Huh? No – I'm here now. May as well stay for a while longer."

And things resumed their usual rhythm for the rest of the afternoon, with some tension; they no longer had the driving force of no wifi to push them together. Were things going to change?

Lovino stood, holding his laptop bag close to him. "Um… So…" He studiously avoided Antonio's eyes. "You… You wanna do this again some time?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… Without the laptop and shit."

"Like… A date?"

Those were clearly the words Lovino had been trying to avoid having to say. He nodded mutely and kept refusing to meet the other's eyes.

"I'd love to!" Antonio grinned.

"Th-then we can sort it out through texts, right?"

He nodded, that dumb grin not leaving his face for a second.

Face flushed scarlet, Lovino made good his retreat. He got to his car, carefully set down his laptop bag and got in behind the wheel.

His eye was caught by his phone screen lighting up; Antonio was sending him yet another meme. It was some horrific mashup of Pepe the frog and here come dat boi. And yet, he still couldn't help the little snort of laughter that came up when he opened it up to look at it. Almost as an afterthought, he pulled up Antonio's contact details in his phone. After a moment of hesitation, he tapped edit and changed the name. The next time Antonio called, his new contact name flashed up.

'My bastard'.

This was written because I had to spend almost a month without wifi after a storm and made my faves suffer with me.