A/N:
Hey gais~! Guess what? I'm still in school~! Not for much longer, but it's killing me! Lol
So! Updating is still slow, but in one week or so I'll be updating this a lot faster. Maybe I'll even finish both of my fics! :D
But, of course, you're probably more interested in the story than my personal life, so... read on~
Lovino and Antonio laughed happily from inside their carrier… thing… as Alice and Arthur walked outside, the four of them parading down the streets of El Dorado.
"Tons of gold for you, hah~!"
"Tons of gold for me, hoo~!"
"Tons of gold for we, ha~!"
"Not bad for a day's work, eh?" Lovino smirked, playing with a small piece of gold.
"Not bad at all~" Antonio giggled in amusement.
"We just became richer than the king of Spain!" Lovino cackled.
"Y'know, speaking about kings," Antonio said, "The chief and the high priest seem a bit, uh…" he searched for the word "Tense."
"Pfft, buongiorno!" Lovino rolled his eyes. Had Antonio really JUST noticed that? "Look, all we have to do is keep playing the one against the other," the Italian explained. "Y'know, do a little god dance, chant some mystical shit, dazzle 'em with some smoke and mirrors, and get the hell back to Spain!"
"Uhm… Lovi," Antonio said uncertainly, "How… are we going to get all this back to Spain?"
Lovino's face fell at Antonio's question. "Ahm…"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"A boat?" Chief Heracles asked, needing clarification.
The chief and the 'gods' sat in the chief's room, surrounded by cats.
"We really hate to be, ah, ascending so soon," Antonio started while he played with one of the affectionate kittens. "But some, ah, urgent business has come up…"
"Y'know, family matters and such…" Lovino shrugged.
"Oh… we were expecting you to be staying with us for the next… thousand years," Heracles said, a thoughtful frown on his face as he absentmindedly stroked a passing cat.
Antonio looked at Lovino, mentally asking him to continue. Lovino uncrossed his legs and sat up straighter as he addressed the chief. "Well, as we say in the spirit world, there's your plan and then…" he thought quickly. "Then there's the god's plan. And our plan, ah, calls for a boat, 'cause we gonna ascend in a kind of… horizontal pattern at first…"
Antonio hid his mouth in his hand to muffle giggles.
"And then we're gonna go vertical as we uh, get farther out to sea." Lovino continued, glaring at his giggly partner. Antonio ignored the glare and nodded in agreement.
"Hmm…" Heracles pondered, removing a cat from his head and placing it in his lap. "To build a boat large and glorious enough would take… about a week."
"A week," Lovino frowned.
"Uhm…" Antonio looked over at his partner.
"Hmm… I wonder how long it would take Sadik to do it," Lovino pretended to think over the matter, leaning back in his chair to watch the chief squirm.
Heracles opened his eyes wide and sat up a bit straighter. "Ah, but for the gods… three days."
Antonio sighed. "Well, if that's the best you can do."
Heracles thought for another minute. "Well, perhaps if you were not burdened with so much tribute, you could leave sooner."
"Hmm," both 'gods' mumbled.
"I like it here," Lovino said quickly, making himself more comfortable in his cat-hair covered seat. "Antonio?"
"Yep, yep, three days is… just fine!"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"No, three days is not fine," Lovino muttered angrily, absentmindedly tossing two gold earrings in his palm. "This is a real…" he trailed off as he turned to Alice, who was sifting through a pile of gold jewelry and small knick-knacks. "These are the ones," he interrupted his own sentence and her search to hand her the earrings he had been toying with.
"Oh! T-thank you." She said quietly.
"A real problem," he continued. He walked past Alice and up to Antonio, who was lounging on one of the large piles of gold. "Tonio, how are we gonna keep this up for three more days?"
Antonio yawned and stretched, getting up from his siesta and jumping off the pile. "Oh, Lovi, you worry too much~" he waved the younger man off.
"No, I worry the perfect damn amount!" Lovino argued, jumping over the extensive piles of gold to grab Antonio by the shirt. "You can never worry too much! We just have to lie low."
"But Lovino, this place is amazing!" Antonio complained, staring out over the golden city with excitement. "I mean, I wonder what's over-"
"Don't!" Lovino yelled, destroying all feelings of adventure that might have been surrounding his friend. "Don't even move!" he commanded.
"Lovino," Antonio laughed, turning back to face his friend.
"You're moving!" Lovino almost shrieked.
"A little bit, but-" Antonio tried to take a step closer to the Italian.
"Hey! Hey!" Lovino yelped, trying to get him to stop moving.
"Come on!" Antonio whined.
"Hey! Stay!" Lovino commanded.
"But I gotta-"
"Argh! Just… stand there!"
Antonio stopped moving, stuck on one foot, leaning forward with his arms out on either side of him like a bird. "For three days?" he whined before falling forward into the pile of gold.
"Yes!" Lovino growled. "Exactly, for three days. Don't even breathe! All right?"
Antonio got back to his feet, dusting himself off. "All right, we lie low." He agreed, giving Lovino a smile that didn't quite say that he was serious.
"No, no, no, you're not getting off that easily!" Lovino glared at him and spit on his palm before extending it toward Antonio. "Swear on it."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right," Antonio spit on his own palm and the two shook hands, Lovino squeezing Antonio's in a silent threat before letting him go back to staring out over the city.
"Great, good, okay," Lovino sighed, relieved for the moment. "Now," he said as he walked away and played momentarily with one of Alice's earrings, making her giggle quietly. "Time to gloat over my gold."
Alice let her eyes linger on the Italian as he toyed happily with some of the gold and bit her lower lip as she put a hand to the earring that he had played with.
She sighed and walked over to Antonio, slipping up behind her as he continued to stare longingly over the city. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yeah," the Spaniard sighed.
"You know, you really shouldn't miss it," she pointed out.
"I know," another sigh. "But I… I couldn't…"
"Go ahead," she encouraged. "I'll cover for you."
"Oh, good, thanks." He smiled. "So, what happened to Arthur?" he asked, just to make sure that Lovino wasn't paying attention as he walked away slowly.
"I don't know," Alice shrugged, making herself comfortable on one of the very comfortable couches lying around the temple as Lovino walked by her.
"-Two new gods for paradise~!" Lovino sang to himself as he came up to her. He stopped singing and frowned. "Hey, what happened to Antonio?"
"I don't know," Alice shrugged, unhelpfully.
"Oh my God!" Lovino groaned, letting all of the gold in his hands fall to the ground as he started to freak out. "He's gone! Antonio's loose, what the hell am I gonna do!"
Alice followed him in amusement as Lovino ran around hysterically.
"Argh, no! Fuck, fuck noooo….." Lovino finally flopped down on the couch that Alice had just been sitting on, hiding his face in his hands as he continued to sob.
"Antonio was right, you do worry too much," Alice sighed with a small smile and began to massage the Italian's shoulders.
Lovino's cries started to become more pleasured as he began to relax to Alice's touch. However, he suddenly jumped to his feet with a yelp. "Damn! No! Big trouble! "
Alice stared at him, arms crossed over her chest as he explained. "Look, sweetheart, we're in the middle of a scam, here; walking on the razor's edge. On the one hand," he walked over to a pile of gold plates. "Gold. On the other," he motioned toward a painting on the wall of on oddly dressed warrior stabbing another oddly dressed warrior in the chest wit a spear. "Painful, agonizing, failure."
Alice sat on the couch with a small hum as he continued. "I can't afford any temptat-erm, distractions. So I'm sorry…so sorry." He added quietly, staring longingly for a moment at her back. "But, ah, perhaps another time? Another place?" he tried.
Alice laughed and gave him a smirk. "Too bad, I'm free now."
Lovino took a step closer to her and then immediately took a step back. "I… I'm not really sure I trust you."
"Hmm, I'm not really asking you to trust me," Alice hummed, playing with her hair. "Am I?"
"K-kay," Lovino squeaked and leaned down, capturing her lips in a kiss as she giggled happily.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Antonio walked the streets of El Dorado, staring in awe as a flock of brightly colored birds erupted in front of him and flew away.
As he passed some buildings, he could have sworn that he saw somebody running behind them as the figure ran past a small alley. However, when he turned to look, nobody was there.
He gave the alley an odd look before walking again and soon came across a muscular guard with slicked back blonde hair; the only other person walking around the streets.
"Excuse me," he said quietly and repeated it again, louder, when the man didn't hear him. The guard turned to face him and his blue eyes held a look of shock at being approached by one of the gods.
"H-hey, where is everybody?" Antonio asked, confused at why nobody was around. It was such a nice day, too!
"They've been cleared from the streets, my lord," the guard explained. "So that the city can be cleansed; as you ordered, my lord."
"Cleansed?" Antonio frowned. He never ordered that….
"Yes," the guard said. "So that the age of the jaguar can begin; as you ordered, my lo-."
"Hey, get back here!" "Where are you going?" two loud, angry voices cut off the guard from behind Antonio, and he spun around to see two other guards ganging up on another man who was trying desperately to get away from them.
"Hey, hey, stop!" Antonio ordered, running over to the guards and shoving them away from the man. "What are you doing? Stop that!" he stood in front of the man protectively, keeping the guards away from him as some brave villagers watched from their homes.
"But my lord," the blonde guard said, running up to him/ "Anyone who disobeys your orders must be punished… as you ordered."
Antonio frowned, thoroughly confused now. "…It seems I've been giving a lot of orders lately, haven't I?" he mumbled.
"Sadik has made your plans clear, my lord," the guard said, standing a bit straighter as he said the masked man's name.
"…Really?" Antonio growled. What was that creepy man up to now? "Here's an order," he said and the three guards stood taller. "Take the day off," he finished, surprising the three guards, who nodded and walked off, surprised by the god's kindness.
Antonio now turned back to the man on the ground. "Are you all right?" he asked softly, trying not to scare the brunette man, his bangs falling into his eyes as he panted, scared to be so close to a god. Antonio extended a hand to the man, to help him up, but the man didn't take it; choosing instead to take off his earrings and hold them out to Antonio. "Oh, no," Antonio chuckled, trying to help him up again, but he didn't seem to understand. "It's all right, please-"
But the man didn't bother to listen, choosing to throw the gold pieces at the god's feet and run away quickly.
In his haste to get away, the man stumbled into a store awning, causing a part of it to fall as he continued on his way. The pieces fell together and made a small twang that reminded Antonio of the guitar that he left back in Spain.
Smiling to himself, he hurried over to the pile and began to tinker with the pieces until he had made himself a three-stringed instrument.
He sat on the steps of another building to tune it as Arthur trotted around the corner, three children with him.
"Hola, Arthur, there you are!" Antonio greeted the horse as he began to play an upbeat, fast, Spanish melody on the 'guitar'. The kids, startled by the noise, hid between Arthur's legs and stared at the Spaniard with wide eyes.
Seeing this, Antonio began to play a quieter melody, and two girls, one with short blond hair and a ribbon and the other with two brunette pigtails and ribbons, came closer, curious about the music that the god was playing.
Slowly, a crowd formed around Antonio to listen to the strange instrument and its music.
The more I learn
The more I see
Antonio handed the new guitar to one of the men standing close to him. The man smiled and began to play it for the crowd, giving Antonio a chance to slip away.
The less the world impassions me
The hungry heart
The roving eye
Antonio found himself by a small canal and smiled at the small, brightly colored fish swimming in it. Feeling eyes on him, he looked up to see another crowd of villagers watching him from across the water.
Have come to rest
Do not apply
The frantic chase
The crazy ride
He soon approached a man and a woman (the woman had short blonde hair and… a large chest, and the man was really a small boy, shivering slightly) feeding some of the neon birds that he had seen flying earlier. The boy handed him a bowl of feed and he smiled as he began to be surrounded by the birds.
Suddenly, a very large beak came from behind him and began to eat the food straight from the bowl. Antonio yelped and whipped around to see a group of birds taller than him come closer.
He laughed and held up the bowl for them to continue to eat.
The thrill has gone
I step aside
I'd believe
In anything
Were it not for you
A man blew a signal through a shell for the ride across one of the canals as Antonio ran to catch it. He stumbled onto the platform as it began to move, revealing itself in the crystal clear water that it was actually a large sea turtle.
Showing me by just existing
Only this is true
I love you
I love you
Antonio carefully placed the last domino-like tile piece upright in the pattern and leaned back on his heels to look the design over. From the air, it would have looked like the crescent moon and some stars.
Without question
I love you
The man next to him gestured for him to knock over the tiles, allowing them to flip over and change the moon and stars into a golden sun.
Showing me by just existing
Only this is true
I love you
Antonio ran off again, and soon caught sight of Arthur. He ran to catch up with the horse, which was kicking a ball in between his hooves.
As he approached his friend, three blonde boys (one held a stuffed bear, another had a bandage over his nose, and the third had a strange hair sticking up) came running up to chase the ball away from the horse.
The blonde with the strange hair smirked at Antonio and started to juggle the ball in between their feet.
The ball came at Antonio's face and he caught it before it could hit him. He juggled it momentarily before kicking it towards the three kids and chasing after it himself.
Chief Heracles watched happily as Antonio ran off with the three boys, Arthur following close behind them. However, up in one of the temples, Sadik watched Antonio interact with the villagers, confused.
"Hmm," he mumbled, looking over the ancient books, particularly a picture of the god, a large beast in menacing armor, crushing skulls beneath its feet. It was nothing like the smiling brunette below him. "This is not what I expected… Perhaps Lord Lovino will enlighten me," he mumbled more to himself than the guard that was with him.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Unfortunately for 'Lord Lovino', he really wasn't in any position to enlighten anybody.
Sadik's call of: "Hello? My Lords?" just so happened to have cut through a very intense makeout session with Alice. The two had long since fallen off the couch and onto the ground behind it, hiding them from their unwanted visitors.
At the sound of Sadik's voice, Alice jerked upright in surprise. Lovino was slower to follow, a dazed, happy smile unfolding on his lips.
"The High Priest!" she hissed worriedly, more to herself than to Lovino, shoving the Italian back down behind the couch and out of sight. "What's he gonna think if he finds one of the gods like this with me?"
"Ehhh…" Lovino thought for a moment. "Lucky god?"
He flashed her a rare smile and she gave him an unimpressed look. "Just- just- just- eurgh!" she sighed and started to mess with his hair and clothes, trying to make him look presentable before she pushed him to his feet and shoved him over to where the High Priest was waiting.
"Oh! Sadik," Lovino said with practiced fluency, as if he hadn't just been attempting to eat Alice's face. "What brings you here?"
"I… humbly request an audience with you, my lord," Sadik bowed, amusing Lovino greatly.
"And what can I do for you?" Lovino asked, outwardly cocky, inwardly suspicious.
"My lord, I have just seen Lord Antonio out amongst the people." Sadik explained.
"Really?" Lovino frowned.
"If I may be so bold as to offer you some advice…" Sadik started.
Behind the High Priest's back, Alice made frantic motions, warning Lovino against the man's 'advice'.
"Okay, shoot." Lovino ignored Alice.
Alice facepalmed and slipped away.
"My lord, you are perfect." The High Priest said.
Lovino let out a small laugh. "Ah, well, go on."
"But in your perfection, you can not know how imperfect humans are. They are like snakes," Sadik waved his arms and two glowing, foggy snakes appeared in the air in front of him, coiled around one another and hissing angrily. "Spineless and slippery."
Alice crept up behind Lovino and held his arm for comfort, staring worriedly at the masked man and his illusions.
"They are as untrustworthy as rats," he continued, turning a bowl of fruit into rats and allowing them to run around their feet. "Cheating and stealing with no remorse."
"Spinning webs of lies, like spiders!" large, horrifyingly disgusting cobwebs suddenly covered the temple, hand-sized spiders ran freely amongst the sinewy tendrils, one of them met its fate in the High Priest's hand as it was squished and turned to smoke.
"Stop it!" Lovino ordered, lip curled in fear. "That's fucking disgusting!"
Sadik waved an arm and the illusions disappeared in a puff of multicolored smoke. "They're beyond disgusting!" Sadik said.
"Yeah, yeah, way beyond!" Lovino said, shaking off the memory of the spiders.
"Then we're in agreement," Sadik said happily. "I'll begin the necessary preparations immediately! Do you wish to have your victims bound to an altar, or would you prefer them free-range?"
Lovino frowned. What was that idiot talking about? Obviously there was a communication issue somewhere.
"And will you be devouring their essence whole," Sadik continued, oblivious to the god's concerned look, "Or piece by piece?"
Lovino took in a deep breath. "Sadik, you've lost me."
"My lord, these people will not respect you if they do not fear you," Sadik sighed.
"And, of course, we'll make them fear us, by…" Lovino tried, backing away from the crazy priest and keeping Alice behind him.
"A sacrifice! As it is prophesied." Sadik interrupted. "The history of the Age of the Jaguar will be written in-"
"Ink?" Lovino tried weakly.
"Blood!" Sadik corrected.
"Blood!" Lovino said, as if it was obvious, making his way carefully down the stone steps. "Right, of course! Well, I should probably go consult with Lord Antonio about this… this is, y'know, very important stuff… I should, uh, go consult about this whole blood thingy right away, y'know? Excuse us, won't you?" and with a quiet, "Let's go," he pulled Alice behind him as he bolted away from the creepy masked man.
"Finally," Sadik sighed, feeling accomplished. "We're connecting."
A/N:
D'aww, Sadik, why so creepy~?
Anyway, I'll hopefully have another chapter up soon, so stay tuned?
Ciao~!