Impossible, Whole Playlist.

Light chapter!

Big Brothers Don't Cry

Red-Card Referee

Four days later, Nonna's fridge died.

It was inexplicable, and came as a regrettable shock to everyone. The neighbourhood was in mourning. They just couldn't understand how the off-yellow behemoth could have perished in the night.

Nonno also couldn't find his wire cutters, something he remarked on casually while the three brothers worked together to pry the fridge out of its crusty place between the cabinets and stove. Feliciano and Carlino had to navigate the monster through the house, using two plywood sheets and Nonna's harping to keep them from getting a speck of muck or dirt on her floors. Lovino, on his hands and knees, scrubbed away twenty years of grime and gunk from the aging linoleum.

"Scrub harder, boy." If the old man wasn't careful then Lovino was going to start eyeing new flooring for the kitchen too, this stuff was cracked and peeling…

The replacement was practically a steal because with Nonno coaching them in the art of haggling the new fridge was loaded up in the back of their car for half the ticketed price. Of course, that meant that as soon as they finished hauling the thing inside, there was only room for two grandsons out of three.

"Wait a minute-" Carlino was already in the front passenger seat, and when he almost locked the door on Lovino's fingers the eldest sibling looked up and saw Feliciano holding the back door shut as he squeezed himself in next to the box. "HEY!"

"There's a bus in about ten minutes!" Nonno announced, starting the engine with a cough.

"I paid for the damned thing!"

"Yes, and it'll be waiting for you to install when you get home!"

The installation wasn't actually that hard, figuring out the bus had been harder but still forgivable. Putting the new fridge together was just a reason for the three of them to bicker over the instructions while their grandparents left for a few hours to pick up the snacks and sandwiches for lunch: Feliciano's insistence on having a picnic seemed like the best way to calm Nonna down after discovering a dead mouse in her ruthlessly scrubbed kitchen.

"But that's not how it goes!"

"It's on the god-damned picture!"

"Well if you'd read it you'd see-"

"I finished putting the shelves together, what's next?"

Carlino got most of the work done while Lovino and Feliciano were still arguing over the power supply, but by the end of the afternoon the new refrigerator was setting itself up while the family went for lunch at the local park. A bag holding Carlino's bat also revealed a new baseball glove ("Don't look at me like that."), and their old soccer ball which was much easier to use with only three players.

It wasn't until they'd burned through the last of the day and were back at home that a small stumble happened, and it waited until their grandparents were asleep and the brothers were slouched across the couch not really paying attention to the movie they were watching. Feliciano was cleverly pretending he was still awake on the opposite end of the couch, long legs pulled up on the cushion and folded arms propping him up. Carlino was putting up a valiant effort not to join him where he was sitting in the middle, and Lovino, who was used to late nights, was checking his e-mail quickly from the phone he'd sworn not to use for calls while visiting home.

It was a little awkward filtering the English voices of the movie against the Italian script in front of him, but when he saw "De Rossa" sitting in his inbox Lovino got a chill.

The e-mail was casually labelled "Should It Concern You", which really wasn't anything special from Flavio, but almost as soon as Lovino tapped his thumb against the icon, he swore.

That was the Eiffel fucking Tower.

"Son of a bitch," he hissed, "you went without me!"

"Huh?"

"M'awake!"

But Lovino wasn't listening, half-aware of Carlino leaning over and resting his face on his shoulder, nudging him a little while Feliciano yawned and asked what time it was. The eldest brother didn't really hear them because he was busy scrolling through the message. Scrolling, and slowly filling up with a mixture of jealousy and rage.

As always the skyline and atmosphere of Paris are-

"I don't care, I said we'd fucking go next month you impatient prick!" Wait for a holiday where Lovino could take one day off instead of a whole two weeks, and either fly or take the trains up into France for a long weekend.

"Who's that?" Of course Flavio was in some of the pictures, curiously alone in his white suit and sunglasses, bleached hair perfectly combed to the side around his asshole face with the Louvre's glass pyramid behind him. Lovino was grinding his teeth too hard to answer. He was waiting for something else, something he knew was going to:

"God DAMN it!"

Duck confit, that bastard! A meal that took days to cure and prepare and the son of a bitch had taken pictures of it he-!

Although the roasted potatoes would not have been to your liking I must express my appreciation for the greens. As you should be able to see they were of course seared in the fat from the duck, a hearty and free-range bird bred specifically for-

Paragraphs about that one plate of food: one plate. Flavio never ordered just one item at any restaurant, this was not a man who could just make himself a sandwich and be done for the day, he-

The poached lobster-

LOBSTER, Lovino was going to scream.

-was a work of culinary genius, and as I do not say such things lightly it is worth mentioning that the butter sauce was in fact a pristine accomplishment. Terribly sorry.

Bullshit, Flavio. He was never sorry for anything and Lovino was too busy reading over the (lack of) criticism to go with the pictured meals. He'd done this on purpose because he was a snotty stuck up prince who couldn't handle waiting a few more weeks for his own idle pleasures!

Speaking of which, as Lovino's thumb kept scrolling down and down through the pictures his mood abruptly fell and he stopped on one of the images. It shouldn't have surprised him, shouldn't have bothered him either, but there it was and he had to admit it: he was unhappy.

"Uuh, are they your friends?" Carlino was still trying to get him to answer the question, Lovino was absorbed in the picture of Flavio at another restaurant, a glass of wine tilted and touching the rim of another man's glass. His smile for the camera was smooth and condescending, the powerful tug of his paper lips and the hidden glint of dark eyes behind his lightly tinted shades. Flavio liked men and women equally, and he had plenty of friends with whom his relationship was purely platonic, but when it wasn't…

The company has been equally remarkable.

Lovino could just tell when it wasn't.

"You know the term 'friends with benefits'?" Lovino asked, finally answering his little brother where Carlino was drowsily still leaning on his shoulder. Feliciano was practically on top of him trying to get a look at the screen, but as soon as he did he backed off right away to his place again and remained silent. Glancing over Carlino's head at the younger brother, he saw Feliciano pulling a face he hadn't made since Rome: the 'I'm okay with it I just don't want to talk about it but I'm fine' one.

"Mm, yeah?" Carlino answered. Feliciano was staring very hard at the coffee table, at least he was until he rubbed his face with one hand and sat up again, folding his arms and blinking at the TV. He was tired, but maybe he was okay with it. It was Lovino's secret to share anyways.

"Can you keep a secret?" But that didn't mean he wanted it getting out to everyone in the house. Looking down at his little brother, Lovino shrugged his shoulder to make Carlino sit up again, the teen whining slightly before slouching down on the back of the couch. "I mean from Nonno and Nonna. I can trust you right?"

"What about Feli?"

"Feli already knows."

Carlino looked at Feliciano, who just took a deep breath in through his nose and held it. He didn't look at either of them, just slowly nodded with his cheeks puffed up until he let it out and mimicked Carlino's slouch. If he could have vanished under the thin cushions, he would have.

The way he was acting made Carlino sit up properly, but Lovino didn't want it to be tense and terrible like the last time he'd been forced to come out. Their baby brother mulled over whatever was in his head for a moment before he finally looked at Lovino properly again, mouth in a tight line before he shrugged a little.

"Okay, sure. Whatever it is, I swear I won't tell." Good enough.

"You know what friends with benefits are?"

"Yes."

Lovino tilted the phone towards him again, the same picture still sitting on the screen and hurting him a little with whoever the Frenchman was that Flavio'd met up with in Paris. He brushed his fingers over the screen like he was trying to sweep away Flavio's new friend.

"I don't know who that guy is, but this stuck-up bastard with the funny hair is mine."

The movie's credits were going by as Lovino felt those words hang there, but it wasn't like leaping into the void or being shoved off the top of a building. Carlino's eyes were to thank for Lovino's ability to keep breathing, because they said too much for him to get anxious: like a computer screen after a harsh reboot, his eyes scrolled over the picture and almost looked at him before they kind of lost focus. He wasn't having a stroke (although the fear did momentarily cross Lovino's mind), just going through things in his head before something seemed to click.

He stopped looking at nothing, blinked twice and leaned away from him a little bit, side-eyeing Lovino and looking him up and down once before speaking.

"You're gay?" Lovino probably could have said he was going off carbs and had much the same reaction. He shrugged at the question, breaking Carlino's obvious expectation that he laugh the accusation off and say he was bullshitting.

"Yes." Carlino's suspicious look broke and his eyes dropped a little, face softening before suddenly going peevish: his lips pulling back and pale brows slanting down over a green gaze that started burning.

"And you knew?" Carlino whipped around so fast he practically levitated off the couch, not a lick of anger wasted on Lovino as the youngest brother turned on the middle one instead.

"Hey-"

"Not because I was supposed to!" Feliciano finally spoke up, arms still crossed and voice a little too whiny for Lovino's tastes. "I really hope that isn't the same guy I met because-"

"It's n-"

"The same!?"

"Hey!"

Bringing his voice up before his brothers could ignore him completely, Lovino shut it down by getting one arm around Carlino's neck and putting a choke-hold on him to stop him from speaking. He briefly pulled it tight enough to stop the teen from fighting back, then just used it to keep him close and immobile.

"Feli found out by accident, you I just told on purpose." Carlino wasn't interested in fighting with him, he wasn't angry, just tired and obviously in a shitty mood. He didn't relax at all, but instead of squirming around he folded his arms tight over his chest the way Feliciano had his, and then gave a rebellious kick at the middle brother before settling down again. "Now I fucking mean it: don't go telling anyone."

"I won't." Lovino let him go, Feliciano gave him a smack on the arm for trying that kick, and before Lovino could settle back down comfortably on his seat there was chaos.

"It's your fault!"

"You're the one who always-!"

Carlino lunged and Feliciano nearly stood on the couch before taking the tackle in full and hitting with both hands trying to kick him off onto the floor. Cushions went flying and Lovino lost his voice to a clash of amusement and dumbfounded 'what the fuck are you doing!?'.

Standing up was a mistake, because before Lovino could yell or grab either of his brothers to get them off each other, the swearing and fist-flying were both stopped by the couch itself.

Feliciano was trying to pull away and practically sitting on the arm of the couch, Carlino was fighting to get over his legs and probably get his hands around Feliciano's throat when the aged wood and threadbare fabric keeping them up both collapsed. The whole arm of the couch split, a rent screaming across the face of the seat as both idiots were dropped on the floor in an angry, spiteful heap.

"Asshole! Look what you did!"

"Fuck you!"

Lovino stepped in before they could get going again, not settling for something as mild as yelling or holding them apart from each other. The bullshit between them had been going on for months, apparently this was the last fucking straw, and Lovino wasn't going to give them a chance to bottle it up again.

"Ow ow- ow!" So he walked over and he grabbed them.

"Vino-!? Stop!" not by the ear, because that was Nonna's thing, but by the hair. Right over the top of the scalp where the skin was sensitive and it hurt a shit-load more, so when he took a thick handful from each and twisted to make them rise, his brothers stood up yelping and hissing to be released.

He didn't let them all the way up of course, both the stupid shits had grown taller than him, so they got to walk bent over as he dragged their sorry asses across the living room to the front door.

"Open it." His hands were obviously full, it was Feliciano who navigated the latch and knob before it swung in and showed the dark summer night waiting for them.

"Wait!" And then he tossed the fucker outside, giving Carlino a kick in the ass for good measure when he followed a moment later. It was like bowling with drunks: he shoved Carlino hard enough that he stumbled and rammed right into Feliciano, making sure they both tumbled down the narrow concrete steps to the curb. Lovino waited just long enough to make sure neither one cracked his skull before saying anything.

"Sort out your bullshit out here!" He snarled, "I'm not opening this door until I get my fucking brothers back."

"What!?"

"It's midnight!"

Lovino wasn't listening, he was already shutting the door and made sure he got the deadbolt in place before putting the chain on too. Standing close to it for a minute, he listened without approaching the little window where they might catch sight of him:

"My keys? What about yours!"

"I don't have them!"

"And you think I do?!"

Fuck that, he heard the sounds of a scuffle again and scoffed under his breath, turning around to lock the kitchen door before either moron thought of that. Along the way, of course, he was stopped by his grandparents.

"What are you boys doing?" Nonno was in no mood for bullshit, half-asleep at the foot of the steps and taking slow, deep breaths before blearily looking around for Lovino's brothers. Nonna was a little more aware with pink curlers in her hair and a housecoat wrapped around her nightgown.

"What happened?!" She shrieked, looking into her disaster of a living room before bustling straight over to the locked door and looking out past the thin curtain at the sight in the porch light. Nonna's whole body went stiff before her voice lowered to a deep and damning boom. "Those hooligans! What are they doing? How dare they- what will the neighbours think!"

"Rina-"

"Don't 'Rina' me, they get this from you!"

Lovino considered his brothers safer outside as he and his grandfather were forced to sit down in the kitchen while Nonna put a kettle of water on her old stove, Nonno quietly asking what she was doing with her mop-bucket when she fetched that from the closet and set it under the kitchen tap to fill. Lovino said just enough to excuse himself from any blame about the living room, Nonno complained about wanting to sit in his arm-chair instead of at the kitchen table, and by the time the water was boiling the bucket was full.

Nonna left the tea to steep, took the bucket with her up the stairs, and a minute later Lovino heard a loud splash and two shrieking voices on their front step. Lovino took the initiative to pour the tea for his grandmother when Nonna returned, strutting across the kitchen with her nose in the air and empty bucket in hand. A few thin slices of lemon in a cup for his grandfather was also met with a gracious nod, and Nonno asking again if Lovino was sure he hadn't set off the fight looking for an excuse to replace the old furniture in the living room.

"Believe me, no."

Nonno didn't believe him, which was annoying but after having about half their tea his grandparents went back upstairs to bed. Lovino promised to wait until the two morons outside had calmed down before going to sleep.

"It's… better, having you home." His grandfather didn't mean it to sound the way it did, but that didn't change anything. It was better being home…

Lovino cleaned up some of the mess from the broken couch arm while waiting, firing off a "fuck you" e-mail to Flavio. When a check out the window showed his brothers sitting on opposite ends of the porch from each other and obviously not working things out, he poured the rest of the tea into a cup for himself. It was hard to find menial chores to do at one in the morning, but Feliciano had a stupid password on his laptop and Lovino found ways to entertain himself.

At two his brothers were actually sitting close to each other on the front steps.

At three Lovino realized they hadn't moved in about an hour, but decided to wait another twenty minutes just in case they were trying to trick him.

Ten minutes into that resolve he considered the fact that the two of them working together like that was in fact better than a handshake or a hug as far as reconciling went, and opened the door.

Feliciano had fallen asleep on the top step, leaning uncomfortably on the railing post. Carlino was one step below him and had tipped over so his head was resting on the other one's lap. Lovino was a dick and snapped a picture of them, the two still damp from Nonna's assault, and then finally brought them back inside.

It was a quiet night, not very restful, but dreamless.

The next morning Lovino resolved to ask about the best way to get a perfect reference letter and recommendation from Santiago at the Empress. When he saw Flavio next he was also going to figure out if the prick had ever tried any of the restaurants around Chicago and see just how international his reach really was.

His vacation was almost over, but so too was the time Lovino Vargas had invested in living abroad.

Short, silly chapter, but I quite liked having it! I have one more scene I might do for this arc, then we'll get another time-skip and come ever closer to the relationship most of my readers are eagerly awaiting!

For now however, I have work!