A/N of sexiness: This is a cowrite between kyriaasimi and Venustas iaceo, who is the one writing this author's note. Grr...
Anyways, excluding my random expression of anger, this story is a birthday present by request for Nara Occult, and is really, really late. She said she didn't mind! Hehe.
She requested Sevastyan Sokoll backstory, and so we wrote his history with Lucio, kyria's person. Laaa
IMPORTANT! this story is placed on this page so that anyone who has not read Hard Candy will not read this then Hard Candy. Please do not read this first if you plan on reading Hard Candy, which can be found on Venustas's page, which is me the one writing.

Kyria here. Um...Yeah. What she said. If you intend on reading Venustas's story Hard Candy, which is totally freaking awesome, don't read this first. Because I have admittedly lower page traffic. So I can protect it. Yeah...enjoy Nara!

The backseat of my brand new 1980 Pontiac has at least two dozen roses in it for tonight, but I’ve especially placed one beneath the windshield wiper of tonight’s target. Tonight is my birthday and I plan on giving myself a treat whether or not Lucio holds any interest in volunteering his time to me.

Instead, I drive just a few spaces over, and I watch him walk from the parking lot towards his car with a grin on my face when I see he’s with his brother and sister. It’s a good thing the card wrapped around that rose has Lucio’s name on it. Well, I think it does. I’m still not exactly brilliant about spelling in a different alphabet.

Lucio pulls the rose free and looks down at it. I catch his head moving as if looking around, but I don’t think he sees me. He hands the rose to his sister, Norma, appearing to say something before opening the door and getting into the driver’s seat before the other two follow. I let them get a little bit away before I follow them, driving faster than I probably need to, and purposely staying observantly a car or two behind the car I’m following. I feel a bit like a spy, or maybe a stalker, but I can’t just ask the man for directions to his house. That’d ruin my fun!

The car pulls into a parking spot of a driveway just before a tall brick building. They get out and drive past the house once. I make a note to even change out of the top I’m in into a white tank top and my dog tags before returning and pulling to a stop behind the car. I gather the rest of the roses except one and place them on the doorstep, taking one and biting down on it to hold it between my teeth. I ring the doorbell from a spot off of the stoop to the house with a grin on my face around the thornless flower, making sure to align my back with the building in as seductive of a manner I deem possible standing upright, my eyes not even on the door. Whoever answers, answers, but I’m not moving until Lucio sees me as I am regardless.

Not much later, he does answer the door, and I know he looks me over because there’s a pause before he speaks. “Sevastyan, what the hell are you doing!?”

I let off larger grin before removing the rose to lick my lips as my eyes hit his. “Clearly, I’m getting my birthday present.”

“Now!?” he answers, looking inside before stepping out and closing the door.

Silly Italian. I chuckle at him as I begin making my way up the stoop. “No, tomorrow, that’s why I’m here now,” I answer, stepping close enough that he’s a few inches away and stuck between me and the door, leaning just my face a little closer with the smile still stretched across it. “So what’s for dinner other than you?”

He smiles at me, the same kind of lecherous smile I must have as he laughs. “You’re going to kill me, you know that, Sevastyan?”

“Yes, but I promise the heart attack will be from intense pleasure if that helps any.”

His eyes move down to the roses littering his doorstep, and he changes the subject. “You’re not going to get off my doorstep unless I let you in, are you?” he asks, completely right.

“No, I’ve already invited myself to dinner,” I reply before reaching a hand out to pull him against me, even if someone could very well see us right now. I don’t think anyone would say anything I couldn’t argue an ‘I-was-threatening-him’ against. Either way, I manage to lean my face a little closer, regaining his attention. “Letting me inside comes next unless you want to skip dinner all together?”

Lucio leans forward as well, smiling right back at me. “Behave yourself around my family or you can forget about that even if it’s your birthday.” I go to lean the final bit forward but he pushes me off of him and gives a sigh, leaning against the side of his house in response.

“I’m always behaving, Lucio. I haven’t done anything wrong, yet. So how about letting me inside?”

Lucio shakes his head from side-to-side and sighs, but the smile on his face doesn’t leave. “All right,” he says as he begins to open the door, “but don’t make me regret this too badly.”

“I can’t promise that, but I’ll promise to make up for any regrets you shouldn’t have,” I say as I take a step back, giving him space to open the door and as a sign that I won’t be groping him around his family. I have a far greater sense of decency than that.

Lucio’s little sister, Norma, runs into us in the hall, a blush instantly crossing her face as she looks at me. “Oh, hi.”

“Hello!” I happily, greet, but Lucio gives her a look and so I continue walking a moment, suddenly distracted by an odd painting hanging on the wall. I’ve never seen green used in such an odd way before. Hm.

“Your new friend is cute,” I catch as a whisper near me, and I turn to look and find Lucio laughing hysterically at his small sister. She must have been the speaker, then. She crosses her arms at his laughter and storms off into another room, so I turn to Lucio and give a shrug.

“Well, she’s right,” I say in her defense before grinning and looking back at the painting. “Show me around?”

“Sure,” Lucio says, directing me the rest of the way down the hallway and directly into the path of a beautiful, middle-aged woman clearly the one who donated the family good looks into at least one of her sons.

She moves around me slightly to suddenly smack Lucio in the back of the head, making it apparent that she’s also inherited her attitude into Dante. I don’t know most people that would smack someone in front of a stranger. “Have you been picking on Norma again, Lucio?” she complains. “How many times do I have to tell you to be nice to your siblings?”

“He wasn’t being mean,” I stand in, moving over to offer my hand to the woman. When she shakes my hand, I pull her arm slightly to kiss her knuckles in a bow. “Nice to meet you. I can see where Norma gets her beautiful face.”

The woman looks me up and down, her eyes skating over to her son a moment as I release her hand. “Well then,” she says to Lucio, “It’s nice to see you at least bring a friend with some manners and sense, unlike your brother.” She looks to me again, and I smile at her. “My boys could learn something from you. What’d you say your name was?”

“I didn’t,” I answer with a laugh. “My name is Sevastyan Daniil Sokoll V, son of Daniil Sokoll the V of the Soviet Union. And you, I can guess, are Mrs. Abandonato, unless you would like me to call you by another name? You can call me anything you like.”

“Call me Giada. I’ll call you Sevastyan,” she says, saying my name slightly wrong and apologizing even though I don’t correct her. “Dinners ready. I assume you’re staying?”

“May I?” I ask. “I just showed up.”

“That’s fine,” she says, making her way away and so I turn to Lucio. He gives me a questioning looking.

“Were you just flirting with my mother?”

“I like women,” I answer with a grin. “Women like me. That’s nature. Besides, I wouldn’t touch Yada.”

“It’s a J sound, Sevastyan,” Lucio corrects.

“I didn’t correct your mother. Why correct me?” I answer back. “Yada is easier to say.”

His lips curl into a smirk and he shrugs his shoulders up and down. “All right, if you say so.”

Lucio indicates the direction of the kitchen, and we both begin walking, but he holds out a hand to stop me from walking for a moment. “Just, please, none of… ” he swishes his hand to where we just were, “none of that if my dad gets here. I’m already afraid he’s going to kill me.”

I swish my hand through the air and laugh. “Why would he want to do that?

“Oh?” Lucio reaches into his pocket and flips up the card I had attached to his roses earlier.

“Ah.” I don’t believe anymore words are needed. “I’ll behave as best I know how.”

Lucio sighs, and I smile as we enter what apparently is the dining room. Giada has bad taste in fine china, but then when someone like Dante is sitting in the corner gorging himself that’s not surprising. I wouldn’t bring out the best china for him either. Their forks have a fleur-de-lis shape. Strange. They’re Italian, not French. I wonder what the Italian flower is.

Either way, I take a seat next to Dante and clap a hand onto his back. “How’s the food?”

Lucio takes a seat next to me as Dante chokes on the white noodle in his mouth. He swallows then gaps wide-eyed at me. “What are you doing here!?”

Giada appears to be leaving the room, but stops long enough to smack Dante in the back of the head. “Be nice to our guest.”

“You should listen to your mother,” I add with a small laugh before noticing the mass of noodles on the sister, Norma’s, plate. “By the way, what exactly is for dinner?”

Lucio smiles at me, “Fettuccini alfredo.”

“Fet-ah- no, I won’t even try to pronounce that.”

“There’s chicken too, Sevastyan,” Lucio says, but I shake my head.

“I’ll try it. I’ve just never eaten a food I couldn’t pronounce the name of.”

Norma looks up and gives me a skeptical look. “You’ve never had alfredo before?”

“No, you see I was raised in Eastern Europe and occasionally Asia, but I’ve eaten food in France before so this shouldn’t kill me.” I laugh out.

I go to sit, but then notice Lucio serving himself some of the noodles. “Go ahead. We don’t wait for my dad. Sometimes he doesn’t get home.”

I nod and put a very small portion onto my plate, probably not more than seven noodles, and I stab at them with the French fork. I cut a little bit off of one and eat it, contemplating the taste. “It must be an acquired taste, but it’s not bad. At least, it’s not terrible. I’ve had worse.”

Giada buzzes back into the room, setting a plate of something covered down onto the table before looking over to me. “Go ahead, dear, have some more.”

“I don’t eat very much, or very often, but thank you.” I take a bite of more noodle. I definitely don’t like alfredo. This could be a worse situation. They could be trying to force me to eat shrimp. Then I’d bloat and this would be considerably less enjoyable.

Into the room walks a short, fat man in a suit with peppered hair and a very disgruntled face. He instantly takes a seat at the end of the table, obviously the man of the house. He sets his face in his hand and sighs. “Giada, get me an aspirin.”

“Oh, Alvise, you’re home. I didn’t think you were gonna make it,” Giada replies.

“I said I’d made it and I did. Aspirin. Please.”

She dashes off to get the aspirin, and Alvise stops to look at me as if trying to place something before his eyes narrow. Giada returns and sets some aspirin into Alvise’s hand as he turns his head to her. “What is he doing here?”

“Oh, that’s Sebastion, Lucio’s friend.” She stops and turns to look at me. “Oh, did I say that right, hon?”

“Close,” I say with a smile as I set down my fork. “My name is Sevastyan Daniil Sokoll V, and I can guess your name is Alv-”

“Sokoll?” Alvise says with a visible twitch. “Did you say Sokoll?”

“Yes? Have you heard of my family?”

Alvise’s hand slams down into the table and he stands up as if to look down on me as I take another bite of the bad food his wife made. “Know you!? I’d say I do! The Sokolls are the cause of all of my problems lately!”

Dante laughs and Norma shrinks back. Lucio puts a hand on his bad heart and onto his forehead before leaning down. I manage to keep a level face however and arch a brow at him. “Cause of your problems? Care to explain?”

“Lucio, hall!” Alvise says. Lucio makes a small noise like he’s in pain before getting up and going into the hallway. Next follows the angry Italian man, and I give a sigh before looking at Giada.

“I feel I should say this now because I have a feeling I’m going to be doing something that won’t let me finish this meal. So thank you for cooking it.”

I follow after them, managing to hear a “Dante, you stay in that seat. This doesn’t concern you” as I slide against the wall to better hear the conversation between father and son.

“Lucio, I would have expected this from your brother, maybe even your sister, but not from you!”

“Sorry, Dad, I didn’t know,” Lucio reasons. He didn’t so that’s fair.

“What do you mean you didn’t know? You know his name don’t you?”

“Lots of communists go to my school now. How was I supposed to know the boy who ditched out of gym class just happened to be the leader of the Red Eagles’ son!” Yet again, that’s fair. We are a whole army after all. I barely know everyone’s name. I hire people for that.

“They’re problem enough for this family. I don’t need you bringing them closer!” Alvise hisses at his son, and for some reason I can’t resist walking into the room.

“Problem? First you shout at me for my name, and now you call me a problem personally. Are you usually this rude to guests?” I ask as I lean into the entryway to the hall. I manage to maintain the same straight face from before as I stand there.

“Get out of my house and get back to your country!” Alvise snaps on me, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“My family came here because our nation has betrayed us,” I respond to him. “The cold shoulder is the worst decision you could make and being mean to me is second.”

“You know, Dad,” Lucio cuts in, stepping near us. “This could be a benefit.”

“Yes, because two schoolboys could fix this!” Alvise argues and I leer forward slightly.

“I happen to be the heir to every bit of land my family claims, and if you’re not careful I have no doubt we could claim from here to Maine.”

“Getting rid of you here would help stop that!” Alvise snaps at me, and I don’t even hesitate to react to his threat. My right fist collides with his temple and as he begins to stumble as my left knuckles slam into his ribs so hard he falls backwards. The man is very likely to have a gun, so I need to figure out how to alleviate that problem.

I open his coat to find a shoulder holster and take that gun, managing to hear him say something close to, “You hit like an Irishman.”

I cock the gun and point it under his chin. “Well I’m not, and the Red Eagles are here to stay.”

Lucio suddenly grabs me by the shoulders, “Get off of him!”

“This is between me and him, Lucio. Stay out of it for your own good.”

“Sevastyan, give me the gun,” Lucio says, holding out his hand.

I stare at him. “Give me your word you won’t shoot me.”

“Just give me the gun,” Lucio commands.

I shake my head and press down the gun against the old man’s throat. “Give me your word and I’ll give you the gun.”

“I won’t shoot you. Now give me the gun,” he commands again and I put the gun into Lucio’s hand.

“All right but only because you gave me your word,” I tell him, standing up off of the insulting fat man.

Alvise grabs his head and begins to pick himself off the ground, his son helping. “Lucio,” he orders, “shoot him.”

I shake my head, reasoning out the matter. “I don’t think he’ll shoot me.” I don’t think he will at least.

Giada enters the room and goes to help her husband, and Lucio grabs me, leading me towards the door. “Sevastyan, go.”

“For the record, he started it,” I argue back. “You know me. I don’t get mad that often.”

“I told you to behave yourself.”

“I did for the most part,” I reply as we reach the door. Lucio opens the door, and he pushes me out of it.

“No, you didn’t,” he says. “Now get out of here before you get killed.”

I grin at him, leaning forward toward him slightly. “Don’t worry. I’m immortal.”

“Then get out here before I get killed,” he says with an exasperated expression as he starts to push me out further onto his stoop.

“You’re making me step on the roses,” I inform him, and Lucio gives a sigh.

“Goodbye Sevastyan.”

“Happy birthday to me,” I say in response, crossing my arms as he closes the door.

I’m not giving up on getting my birthday present that easy.

-

I waited at least two hours for everyone to be gone from Lucio’s house except for Lucio, and finally that time has come. I even moved my car and managed to spy on the house just to make sure it emptied out. Now that it has, I cross the street and knock on the door with the knuckles I didn’t manage to bruise by hitting a man in the face today. As I wait for Lucio to answer the door, I gather the good roses into my hand and start humming. My present will be mine.

Lucio answers the door and squints his eyes at me as if to make sure he’s not suffering from a hallucination. I hold up the roses to him. “You left these out here.”

“Yeah,” he says, “I did.”

“Can I take them inside for you?” I ask, gesturing. Lucio ignores my gesture to ask me why I’m back. I smile at him before humming again and then singing a song about love he wouldn’t understand, leaning close to him.

Lucio listens for a verse to two before shaking his head. There’s a smile on his face, and that’s a start. “That’s nice, Sevastyan, but I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“It’s a song about being in love with an outlawed beauty with dark brown eyes that goes bad,” I explain, picking up right were I was and wrapping an arm around his waist. He’s bound to let me inside if I’m public with him.

“All right,” Lucio says, pulling back a little. “Get in here before someone sees you.”

He moves inside, and so do I, but as soon as the door is closed I pull him back into my one armed embrace and don’t stop singing until the song is done. I’m a master at this.

Lucio takes the flowers from me and starts to look at them. He has a smile on his face, but the look in his eyes says he isn’t sure if he should have it or not. “That’s nice but today was a disaster and this doesn’t exactly make it better.”

“Is your father all right?” I ask.

“He is now,” Lucio says as I reach into my pocket and pull out my car keys.

“This won’t make it better either, but I want you to take my car as an apology,”

Lucio looks at the keys and shakes his head but his smile widens. “I don’t want your car, Sevastyan.”

“Don’t lie,” I respond as I reach behind him with my now free hand since Lucio grabbed the flowers and place the keys into Lucio’s back pocket, making sure to keep my hand in that pocket as I move my lips towards his. “You know you want the car because that’d be accepting my apology, and you want to forgive me – and get a car.”

He now has a real smile and doesn’t pull away from me. “I suppose you have a point.”

“Take the car, then?”

“And your apology,” he adds.

I lean forward and press my lips against his. He kisses back and after awhile I pull away with a lecherous grin on my face. “Then I say it’s time for my present now.”

Lucio shakes his head, but he still smiles. “Still persistent after all of that?”

“All of what?”

“The trouble today,” Lucio explains. “Though, I suppose I should reward your conviction.” His smile starts to widen a little and I have to say my interest is now peaked. “Not many people brush up against the bad side of my family and still want to come back.”

“Apparently we both have bad sides of the family,” I say with a laugh. “But I knew about you after awhile, and that didn’t stop me from going after you, now did it?”

“Apparently we do,” Lucio agrees as he leans back towards me again almost magnetically pulling me towards him as well. Only, a sarcastic tone rises up to meet me. “It was nice of you to leave me in the dark about your family. It would’ve made this a little easier if I had known.” The sarcasm leaves as he inches closer to me again, one hand falling onto my side as he says, “But I’m glad mine didn’t stop you.”

His lips come back into contact with mine in a heated vaguely more than chaste kiss that drives the hand on my side around my arms and pressing me tighter into him. I take the opportunity to press my lower half against his as well. “Little stops me from what I want.”

Lucio presses back against me, lowering his voice. “What about a present, Sevastyan?”

“Hold on, there’s something stopping me first,” I say, making sure to sound what I assume is a joking tone before kissing him again. “I need you to answer a question.”

He looks curious and asks me what my question is, but I only answer by pressing back into him a little harder from lip to knees. I bring him into a series of kisses that leave both of us a little short on breath before whispering into his ear. “Do we stay here or go to the hotel I got just in case?”

Lucio pulls away a little and narrows his eyes. “I don’t think I like that you got a hotel before you even visited me. Are you that confident?”

I offer up a small laugh and press my forehead against his with a smile. “More hopeful and persistent than confident.” I kiss his cheek before laughing again. “I like to leave my options open in case something goes wrong. If I had gotten you to agree with my present and your house was full, I still wouldn’t get it. I consider the hotel a hopeful back-up.”

His expression softens back into what it was before I asked him my question. “My house isn’t full now,” he says before pulling me into a kiss that shows any offense he took is gone, and equally so that he’s still interested in my plans for a present. He gets a suggestive tone as he pulls away to ask me if I’m still interested in a tour of the house. I have a very good feeling that he’s referring to a tour of his bedroom more appropriately.

“You lead, I’ll happily follow.”

He takes me directly to his room, and I instantly take the opportunity to press into him yet again as soon as he’s stopped moving. I get him moving again fast enough as my hips rock against his, and even faster our clothes have melted off into a puddle on the ground and he’s backing me towards his bed sending open mouthed kisses across my neck and face.

My whole body trembles against his as my hand travels down his chest until I reach the object of my desire between his thighs. He groans softly into my neck as I grind against him accompanied by my hand, and then his hand as well sweeps downward.

Two of his fingers move up to squeeze one of my already hard nipples before he presses his lips to my chest and sends his tongue across it, making me squirm from being freezing cold there and yet on fire everywhere else across my body, especially where my own hand moves to hold his erection against mine.

He bucks his hips and mine follow until we build up a cycle of back and forth, and my toes dig slightly into the sheets. I admit it feels weird to have another man between my legs, but the friction almost numbs my brain entirely and only the occasional bead of sweat that falls from his body onto mine draws my attention away from the sheer pleasure from the pressure of him against me.

Just as I manage to bite back a moan, a sound manages to break barrier into my brain. I squint my eyes towards the source of the noise, only to see the last person I expected in an empty house – Norma. “Lucio, I’m back from – ” She stares just a moment as if to digest what she’s walked in on and then belts out a shriek and slams the door.

“Holy shit! Norma!” Lucio says as he removes himself from on top of me. He takes no hesitation for searching for his pants.

I rub my forehead from my spot on the bed and press my head back into a pillow. “Happy Birthday to me. She already saw. You could at least not just run off.”

Lucio pulls on his pants as soon as he finds them despite his shaking, and he physically falters with a panicked expression his face. “Fuck, she just - !” He starts vigorously shaking his head as he zips up his pants, the bothered expression outweighing any pain he’s feeling showing up on his face. “I’m not running off! I have to talk to her. If she tells, I’m – ” he shakes his head again as if to clear his head of his thoughts and walks out of the room leaving me now amazingly cold and alone on his bed.

I’m not stupid enough to even try to put on a pair of pants right now, but do let myself calm down before wrapping Lucio’s sheet around my waist. The girl already saw me naked. I really don’t think seeing me in a sheet will scar her any. Though, I do feel weird leaving my tattoos open even if there is the personal amusement in the fact that the girl liked how I look.

I shiver under the sheet because I’m extremely cold, and I seek out the person that’s supposed to be keeping me warm right now. I find him talking to a door, begging. “Please, Norma, don’t tell!” He looks so worried it’s actually kind of - … handsome. I can’t resist walking up behind him and hugging him- half for warmth and half for his sake.
A screech comes back from the door in his little sister’s voice. “Tell? Why would I want to tell someone that my brother is a freak?”

Lucio sets his arms on top of mine and turns his head to me, his voice lowering to ask me the obvious-answered question of, “Is that my sheet?”

I kiss his shoulder blade before resting my chin there. “Yes. I’m sure it looks wonderful on me, but in other news I’d like to get this sister business of yours over with. You don’t seem very level headed.” I smile at him which he may or may not be able to see. “Can I try and talk to her? She clearly won’t tell, but if she’s going to yell at someone she could at least yell at the person who won’t see her often.”

He keeps his voice low as I kiss at his shoulder simply to do it. “No, I don’t trust you with a member of my family after what you pulled earilier.”

“All right,” I say, nipping at him just for the comment since I still believe Alvise deserved what he got, “Then I suggest you tell her that telling on us would lead to your entire family shot probably by my father if word spread back to him. Most likely starting with your mother, knowing my father. It’s not a lie, either, so if we get that over with we can trust she’ll be quiet. See? Problem solved.”

Another shriek issues from behind the door and I lift my head away from Lucio’s shoulder to stare at the wood between us and the girl. She has some powerful lungs on her. She’ll make some man very happy one day. Lucio just places a hand on his head. “She heard you.”

“Yeah? See, then we’re done here,” I say, tugging on him slightly.

Lucio leans towards the door and for some reason apologizes to his sister before he gives in to my tug and begin to steer him back towards the bedroom with my hand, mentally congratulating myself on ending the situation. That is, until I hear a door open and subsequently another shriek this time issuing much louder and making me turn around to see Norma standing in her doorway gaping. “You couldn’t even put clothes on!?” she calls.

I’m tempted to flat out tell her I didn’t plan on being done with her brother yet, but I restrain myself somehow and settle for just plain wrapping my arm around Lucio’s shoulders as he turns around as well. “I wanted to make sure things were going well,” I lie. I don’t need to explain the fact that I’m ready to jump Lucio right here on the floor to his sister.

She, instead, yells at me. “Why don’t you just stay away from my brother!”

“Lucio, why don’t you explain why I don’t stay away from her brother? I can think of a few reasons but you probably don’t want me to say them.”

Lucio looks hesitant to answer and I wrap my other arm around him as if to help him decide what to say. His answer comes to him as his lips suddenly come into contact with mine, and my breath instantly leaves me as I deepen the kiss despite us standing in front of Lucio’s sister. Norma lets off a belting screech, and I hear the door slam. We break the kiss, and I bury my face against his throat. “Take me back to your bedroom. Now.”

He gives a sigh as I lift up my head in hopes of another kiss. “I’d rather be there than here right now.

“Good, then let’s go. The situation with your sister can get worse. The situation with me can get better.” I get the kiss I had hoped for, and he steers me back into the room so that the sheet around my waist makes it back onto the bed and quickly underneath us.

-

I comfortably settle back onto his bed and put my arms behind my head with a satisfied sigh as Lucio holds onto his head from beside me, catching his breath. After a short while, he rolls over and lies down next to me propping his head up with his hand. I close my eyes under his gaze, feeling tired for once but satisfied despite the fact that I need a shower.

To keep myself from falling asleep in Lucio’s bed, I open an eye to find him looking at my arm before his eyes meet mine. “Why do you have so many tattoos, Sevastyan?”

“Tattoos are important,” I answer. “They tell a story or important things about me.”

“Do they? Like what?” he asks with an interested expression. I close my eyes again as I pull my hands from behind my head and pull two rings off of my fingers, flashing two tattoos of jagged blue lines and stars like rings around my fingers.R;.ijcg ;.6’?Te’/

FD;.nnb

“Well, these two rings each are jail tattoos I got while in prison on two different occasions. Each star means a year. There’re only three stars in total but two convictions. I got them for being caught in my own home’s borders.” I let him inspect my hand before I put my rings back on. “Like that. Have you ever been arrested?”

Lucio just smirks at me. “No, I haven’t. Not yet, at least.”

“If I get arrested again I’m supposed to get executed. I was arrested with my father last time so he was given the threat but if I am on my own,” I mime shooting myself in the temple. “Goodbye. Those tattoos are my countdown.”

“Oh, okay,” Lucio says, strumming his finger up my arm suddenly to my shoulder where I have my SS rune and numbers. “What about this one?”

“The SS means I don’t talk in prison, and the numbers are my father’s story. For a short while in WWII he was in a death camp after betraying his superiors and falling in love with my mother. He ran away with her and got caught. Beginning to notice a pattern?” I laugh as I stretch and role towards him. “Now I’m going to guess you understand my eagle, but it means more than the group I associate with. An eagle is a noble beast, strong and powerful and mighty like I consider myself and those around me. The rose it holds means I am associated with a group and note just a soldier.” I smile at him and close my eyes. “Maybe you should get a tattoo sometime. It’s important to have something safe that can know you. What safer than your own body?”

“Maybe I will,” he says thoughtfully, and I feel myself start to drift. My whole body is exhausted, and I guess that isn’t really that unusual for me but I really am starting to feel it. I might actually get some sleep before I leave. That sounds nice. “So,” Lucio says, and I lift my head to look at him from the pillow I was starting to drift into, “where did you learn to sing?” A smile stretches across his lips as he adds, “I didn’t know you could.”

“I learned in choir. I can dance, too. My mother encourages an art on every one of her children,” I say lazily. “Do you know an art?”

“I can dance,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders. “So why did you sing a song about a love going bad?” I think I hear as I sling an arm over Lucio’s side and use my own arm as a pillow over the pillow I already have.

“I don’t know,” I barely mumble before I feel my arms start to loosen their grip on him and my closed eyelids shut out the world around me.