A Hellscape

Characters ~ All images made in picrew/neka apart from Kairi

Obey Me! My Hero Academia Shiki/Durarara/2p Hetalia Original Characters

Masterlist

I never ended up finishing the prompts but I figured I would post the rest of what I did even if it’s really late haha

Day 24: Teeth - Megumi and Rika (Shiki oc)

Day 27: Stitches - Juuzou Suzuya

TW blood, wounds, weapons, body horror

Prompts and Characters

Day 14: Eyes - Sayo (Diabolik Lovers oc)

Day 15: Self Inflicted - Crona (Soul Eater)

Day 16: Decomposition - Emily (Corpse Bride)

Day 17: Too Much Blood - Maisy (oc)

Day 18: Candy Gore - Sayo and Yui (Diabolik Lovers)

Day 19: Bones - Emily (Corpse Bride)

TW blood, gore, weapons, wounds

Prompts and characters

Day 7: Accident - Trinity (2p! Hetalia oc)

Day 8: Beaten/Bruised - Eva (Obey Me oc)

Day 9: Torture - Sayo (Diabolik Lovers oc)

Day 10: Masochist - Sayo (Diabolik Lovers oc)

Day 11: Slasher - Eva (Obey Me oc)

Day 12: Burns - Lucas (oc)

TW blood, gore, weapons, insects, hanging

Prompts and the characters

Day 1: Cannibalism - Kairi (MHA oc)

Day 2: Sharp Objects - Eva (Obey Me oc)

Day 3: Asphyxiation - Ava (2p! Hetalia oc)

Day 4: Gut Spill - Madison (oc)

Day 5: Amputaion - Lindy (oc)

Masterlist

“You’re back!” Casey exclaimed, the shock and confusion apparent in her expression when Ava entered their apartment. 

“You look surprised,” she couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Well…of course,” Casey said as Ava sat down on the couch with her. “It’s Monday. I’m not stupid, I know Luciano was trying to kidnap you. When you weren’t back after midnight…I figured you weren’t coming back at all. Why did he let you go?”

Ava had shared the same feelings as Casey when she was given the option to go home. She could have tried to escape early that morning when she had woken up before Luciano…but she had chosen to go back to sleep. She knew then what the consequences would be, and she had come to terms with it. But Luciano had shocked everyone when they were gathered for breakfast this morning. 

That morning as she and Luciano were getting ready to join everyone downstairs, there was a knock on his bedroom door. Before he could say anything, it was pushed open. 

“Luci, how long are you going to sleep? I made breakfast for once and here you are-”

Flavio stopped short, staring in surprise. Ava was already dressed, but Luciano was in the process of buttoning up his shirt. 

“What have I told you about knocking?” Luciano snapped. “You have no concept of privacy!”

But Flavio was more amused than anything. 

“Mi dispiace,” he grinned. “I’ll see you both downstairs for breakfast, fratello.”

“Honestly,” Luciano sighed, clearly frustrated. “Bastardo.”

“I mean…that could have been worse?” Ava forced herself to chuckle. 

Once he finished getting dressed, the two went downstairs for breakfast. It was way too late to have any thoughts of escaping. There was no way she would be able to, even if she tried. The fact she was here on a Monday morning told Flavio and the others all they needed to know about what happened after she left the festival with Luciano. As embarrassing as the interaction would be, she had no choice but to deal with it. 

“Look who’s here,” Kuro was staring at her, a wicked grin on his face.

“Don’t look at me like that…” she muttered. 

Lutz had been resting his head on the table, but looked up after hearing the exchange. 

“Congratulations, boss,” he smirked. “Took you long enough.”

“Do you think you could have done better?” Luciano glared. 

Lutz chuckled, but didn’t respond. 

“Leave the poor girl alone,” Flavio criticized, placing two plates of food on the table for them. “Just ignore them and eat, bella.”

“Thank you…” 

Even though she was used to the teasing by now, she still didn’t love it. The two sat down to eat with everyone. Flavio joined once he was finished passing out plates of food. Ava mostly remained silent as the group discussed the work that needed to get done for the day. 

“As much as I love your company, when do you need to be home, ragazza?” Luciano suddenly asked as they were finished eating. 

She stared, unable to say anything for a moment as she tried to figure out if her ears were playing tricks on her. But the others were staring at him as well, as surprised by his words as she was. 

“Wait…what?” She asked when she finally managed to form words.

“Do you want to stay~?” He whispered in her ear before placing a kiss on her neck. 

Her cheeks flushed red. “It’s Monday…I thought I wouldn’t have a choice.”

“That wasn’t an answer to my question,” he smirked. 

“You’re just letting her leave, fratello?” Flavio was baffled. 

“For the time being, of course. Or do you think it’s a good idea to keep her when the last place she was seen was Allen’s haunted house? Those first players would suspect the peace treaty had been broken.”

“Oh…” she realized. “You’re right. They would probably be suspicious of that.”

“If you let her leave, there’s no guarantee she’ll come back to you,” Kuro was staring her down.

“Oh, I think she will,” Luciano grinned. 

He was definitely implying something…and in front of the others, no less…

“Keep talking like that and I definitely won’t come back…” she grumbled. 

“I’ll just keep you here then,” he shrugged. “I’ll deal with our counterparts when it comes down to it.”

She sighed. “I’ll come back…This is going to be a hassle either way, but this way it won’t be as bad.”

“Bueno.”

“You’re going to be living with us!” Flavio grinned. “There’s so much I have to do to get this place ready for you!”

“Really…?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Fratello, you aren’t allowed to go crazy,” Luciano glared. 

“I don’t have the slightest clue what you mean,” he smirked. “She’s going to be living in a home with a bunch of men. She has different needs. And I’m going to be designing her room, of course.”

Luciano grumbled under his breath, but didn’t say anything more. 

“You really don’t have to do all that for me…” she muttered. 

“Don’t be silly, bella. Of course I do,” he smiled. “We have to make you feel at home.”

“You aren’t going to change his mind,” Luciano stated. 

“Ah…Well, thank you, Flavio,” she smiled. 

“You’re very welcome!”

“You know, with how you’ve been butting heads with our counterparts, I didn’t expect you to want to stay with them much longer in the first place…” Luciano muttered.

“Well…it has been really awkward, having to spend so much time around Ludwig and the others with all of the festival prep…” she admitted. 

“You’ve been butting heads with them?” Lutz asked. 

“Yeah. I kinda snapped at them over a bunch of things they’ve done when they tried to confront me for dating. Feliciano and Kiku were the only ones who apologized, and everyone else has been trying to act like it didn’t happen. So it’s been super awkward. We’ve been busy with the festival, so that’s been a distraction at least. Now that it’s over, things will probably be even more weird…”

“Heh…” Kuro smirked. “Who knew that your relationship with them would deteriorate like this when they were your trusty shields in the beginning?”

“Luciano really drew a wedge in between you all,” Lutz chuckled. 

“It wasn’t just that. There were plenty of things before I got involved with Luciano that I chose to ignore. I’ve just opened my eyes to all of it, is all,” she shrugged. 

“And it’s a good thing you have,” Luciano smirked. “If not, I doubt you would be here with me right now.”

“Probably not,” she admitted. 

Later on, Luciano drove her home. 

“Things are going to be very different from now on…” she muttered once they were stopped in front of her apartment building. 

“Do you regret it…?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Good,” he smirked. “You better not.”

“Bossy,” she teased, sticking her tongue out at him. 

“Don’t push your luck,” he leaned forward, taking her face in his hands. 

She leaned forward, placing a kiss on his lips. 

“Not good enough,” he whispered in her ear. 

Before she could respond, he pulled her in for a greedy kiss. Their lips locked together as his hand dipped down, grabbing her ass. 

“I-I need to go inside…!” She managed to say when he pulled away to suck on her neck. 

He sighed. “Fine, I’ll let you go…”

He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear with a grin. “But you’ll make it up to me soon, won’t you?”

“A-Alright, alright…I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

She got out of the car. As she passed the driver’s side, Luciano rolled down his window. 

“Ava…Ti amo.”

She smiled. “Anchi’io ti amo.”

Ava did have a few regrets. She would be leaving Casey behind, and she didn’t want to do that. But her relationship with Luciano was too far gone for her to leave him. She was determined to be able to see Casey again, though. She was a civilian, after all. If Casey wanted to, she could come to see Ava. 

As for everyone else…maybe someday the truth would get out and she could make them see why she had decided to leave them. That was probably wishful thinking, though. She couldn’t picture a time when the first and second players could get along enough for that to happen. That time would probably never come, not with their prejudice against each other. 

 “Luciano let me leave,” Ava explained to Casey. “For now, at least. I was ready to accept the consequences of my actions, but now I have a little time…Since I was last seen at Allen’s haunted house, he wanted to avoid any suspicion that the peace treaty had been broken. He’s making a plan to publicly kidnap me.”

“Seriously?” She grinned, throwing her arms around Ava. “I’m so glad! I didn’t want you to leave…even if I was the one who encouraged you to tell him how you feel…”

“You don’t need to worry,” Ava smiled, returning the hug. “You aren’t involved in the conflict. You can see me whenever you want.”

“You’re right!” Realization dawned on her face. “I never thought about that!” 

“Neither did I until earlier. But there’s one thing I am worried about…How are you going to pay the rent on your own…? You’ll have to find a new roommate…”

“Oh…That’s going to be difficult…Nobody I know is looking for a new place…and it’s not like living in the city is something people want to do to begin with…”

“I’ll make something work! Don’t worry, okay?”

“Do you have a plan or something…? You can’t give me rent money if you aren’t living here. That’s not fair to you.”

“Like I said, don’t worry,” Ava winked. “I have an idea.”

~~~~

“The festival went on without any problems,” Ludwig said at the meeting with all of the first players later that week. “We received more positive feedback from the experience than any of us could have expected.”

“Even the second players expressed that it went well, correct?” Kiku asked. 

He nodded. “During the survey we sent out to the attendees, we asked if there would be a continued interest if we made it a yearly event, and the majority said yes.”

“Is that so?” Arthur was a bit surprised. “I do admit that it was successful, even though the preparation was exhausting. But if we keep that space reserved for the event so that we don’t have to tear down the bigger attractions, there won’t be as much preparation down the line.”

“That’s what we were thinking,” Ludwig nodded. 

“It will be great to do it every year!” Feliciano grinned. “And now that people have seen how much fun it was, more people will want to join in! It will just get bigger!”

“Your bake sale was a big hit, Ava,” Ludwig suddenly said, pulling her out of her thoughts. “People enjoyed the easy way to get involved. Danke.”

“No problem,” she nodded. 

Some of the others exchanged glances. She didn’t answer him coldly, but the warmth she used to have towards them was no longer there. 

“Did something happen between you two…?” Yao asked. “You guys are acting weird.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing for a while now,” Francis agreed. 

“Ava, you’ve been distant lately,” Antonio said. “What’s been going on?”

“It really isn’t a big deal,” she said to spare Ludwig and the others from an awkward rehashing of their confrontation. 

“It doesn’t seem like the sunflower is very fond of you all anymore, da?” Ivan smiled. “Maybe Luciano finally succeeded in driving a wedge between you all? The next thing you know, she’ll be gone.”

He chuckled, making everyone uncomfortable. She stared, trying to keep her emotions hidden. 

Does Ivan know something…?

“Don’t even joke about that!” Lovino exclaimed as Feliciano tried not to cry. 

“E-Exactly…” Arthur agreed. “Our counterparts stealing from us is no laughing matter.”

“I’m telling you, it’s nothing,” she insisted. “Just something stupid…”

“Your feelings aren’t stupid, bella!” Feliciano cried. 

“T-That isn’t what I meant…I was trying not to get everyone else involved, Feli.”

“Just tell us, dude!” Alfred urged. 

“She’s pissed at us!” Lovino snapped. “Happy now?”

“We gathered she’s upset, but nobody has explained what happened,” Arthur said. 

“She’s upset because she thinks we’re controlling and inconsiderate of her happiness,” Lovino huffed. 

“Please do not minimize the fact that Ludwig shot at her…” Kiku muttered. 

Everyone was silent. She sighed, shaking her head. 

“This is why I tried to say it was nothing…”

“You’re treating the rest of us coldly while you’re still the same with Feliciano and Kiku!” Lovino snapped. “How is that nothing?”

“L-Lovi, you should calm down…” Antonio muttered. 

“Feli and Kiku actually apologized to me after that lecture Ludwig tried to give me!” She snapped back. “The rest of you tried to pretend it didn’t happen! Of course I’m still upset!”

“Y-You wanted an apology…?” He clearly wasn’t expecting that. 

“Honestly…” she sighed. 

“What on earth were you trying to lecture her for?” Arthur asked. 

“She has been secretly dating someone for the last few months…” Ludwig finally spoke up. “I had told her before that relationships interfere with her duties, so she was directly disobeying me.”

“Dang, dude, really?” Alfred, along with almost everyone else, was surprised. 

“How was it an issue if nobody was able to tell she was in a relationship?” Yao asked. “Clearly it was not interfering with anything.”

“I knew,” Ivan locked eyes with her, a knowing smile on his face. “I saw him dropping her off at her apartment on Monday. He’s…an interesting fellow.”

Her face paled. So he did know.

“Who is it?!” Brian exclaimed. 

“Why should I tell you if she’s keeping it a secret?” He chuckled. “No thanks. It’s more interesting to watch you all like this, frustrated that you don’t know anything.”

For once, she was grateful that Ivan was like this.

They argued for a while longer amongst themselves before Ava got fed up and left. She was sick of it all. Luciano’s plan couldn’t come soon enough. 

~~~~

“No!” Casey exclaimed, pulling Ava behind her by her arm. “You can’t take her! I won’t let you!”

The two girls were in town, walking back to their apartment, when Luciano showed up with Lutz and Kuro. It had been a little over two weeks since the festival. Since then, Ava had spent her time tying up loose ends and doing the things she probably wouldn’t be able to do after moving in with Luciano. Despite being on rocky terms with the first players, she still made sure to spend some final time with them without letting them know it was a goodbye. 

Casey was also prepared for this moment. The two didn’t want to leave each other, so this is what they had to do. 

Since they were in the middle of town, everyone around had either ducked inside nearby stores or buildings to hide or had completely run off. Nobody would even consider stepping in to help with a situation dealing with one of the Roleholders, especially not a second player. 

“What should we do?” Lutz glanced over to Luciano.

“This is taking too long,” Luciano looked extremely annoyed. “If she wants to play hero, bring her along as well.” 

“What…?!” Casey squeaked under her breath, but then put on a determined face. “I won’t back down just because you threatened me!”

“Casey, no!” Ava fumbled to pull her gun out. 

But in one swift moment, Kuro had knocked the gun out of her hands with the sheath of his katana. Luciano was simply watching, a confident smirk on his face. This was going his way. Nothing had happened that he wasn’t already prepared for. But if the first players showed up, that could change. It was clear he wanted this to go as quickly as possible, yet still put on a public display. 

“Leave her alone!” Casey yelled, moving to go after Kuro. 

Lutz was too fast for her. She was thrown over his shoulder as she kicked and screamed for him to let her go and leave the two of them alone. 

“Stop it! Let her go!” Ava tried to run over to her, but Kuro grabbed her. 

A car suddenly pulled up directly beside them, its tires screeching to a halt as it stopped. She flinched at the loud sound, giving Kuro the opportunity he needed. Before she knew it, she and Casey had been tossed into the back of the car, sprawled over each other, along with Lutz and Kuro as they got into the back seat. The car was moving again just as quickly as it had stopped. 

“Ow…” she muttered, attempting to move off of the three people she was on top of. 

Somehow, Casey had already maneuvered herself to sit in the middle of Lutz and Kuro. There wasn’t much room left, so she had no idea where she was supposed to sit. Casey shoved Lutz over in hopes of making more room on the seat for her. But it really didn’t help much. The four were squished together no matter what they did. 

“Why, exactly, couldn’t you have driven a bigger car?” Kuro asked, extremely annoyed. 

Flavio glanced back. “There is absolutely no way I would be caught dead driving one of your tacky cars. It was either mine or Luciano’s, and mine happens to have more space.”

“You couldn’t have sucked it up just this once?” Lutz sighed. 

“Stop complaining,” Luciano ordered, from the comfort of the passenger seat. “We were successful, that’s all that matters. You and Gilen did your part, right fratello?”

“Si,” he chirped, cheery once more. “We got everything they wanted from their apartment.”

This was a part of the plan Luciano had decided on with Ava and Casey. The two girls had packed everything they had wanted from their apartment so that Flavio and Gilen could pick it up while the two girls were out. Ava had made sure to give Flavio her keycard and apartment key so he could get into the building without any problems. 

Casey didn’t want to find a different roommate and didn’t want to stop living with Ava in the first place, so they had come up with the only solution possible. Casey would have to be kidnapped as well by trying to play the hero. 

Luciano had agreed to it, saying he had plenty of space for her as well. Flavio was more excited than anyone. He kept gushing about being able to remodel two rooms instead of one. Apparently, Luciano always stopped him from redoing rooms that weren’t being used, despite how much he had wanted to. Flavio had visited their apartment since then so that he could analyze how their rooms looked and would use it as a basis for the remodel. Ava had no doubt it would be impressive, considering his work as a designer. 

“Good…” Casey let out a relieved sigh. “I was worried this wasn’t going to turn out well.”

“I was worried the first players would find us and intervene…” Ava agreed. 

“We would have given them quite the fight if they had,” Lutz had a dark grin on his face.

“It would have been troublesome, but there was no way they could have stopped me,” Luciano shared a similar look. 

“Let’s just be glad it worked out…” Ava muttered. 

Casey nodded, grinning at her. “I feel like I should probably be more concerned over what just happened. Even if this is what we decided on, this was still a kidnapping.”

“It’s too late for regrets,” Lutz seemed amused. “It’s better not to think about it so that you don’t have any.”

Flavio pulled into the large garage of Luciano’s home. Kuro was the first to get out, looking extremely relieved to have his personal space back. Lutz and Flavio followed suit. 

“I think it’s inevitable to have some regrets,” she said, glancing at Casey. “But it’s fine as long as we don’t regret letting this happen.”

“Do you?” Luciano was watching her carefully. 

Casey seemed to realize this wasn’t a situation she needed to be a part of, so she quickly went after the three boys into the house. 

“No, I don’t regret it,” she smiled. “I’ve dragged my best friend into this…but I know she wanted to do this with me, so I think it’s okay. Even though the first players were good friends…at least until recently, I’m not cut out for dealing with all the conflict, and all I wanted was to have a normal life with my best friend…and with you. This wasn’t the normal I had in mind, but I’m happy with the decision we’ve made. So don’t worry, okay?”

She leaned forward, kissing his cheek. He smirked, wrapping an arm around her waist. 

“Do you finally believe me? I always get what I want, ragazza.”

She playfully rolled her eyes. “I guess you do.”

Before he could reply, she wrapped her arms around him. 

“Ti amo, Luci.”

He smiled, kissing her forehead. “Ti amo di più.”

Amusement Park Interlude: End

Masterlist

“I can’t believe you dragged me here…” Ava was currently sulking against the stand for the community bake sale. 

It was the long awaited day of the festival. It had been a little over a month since the first planning meeting she had attended. The day after, the first and second players agreed upon the plans for the festival, so they decided on a date and a space where the festival would be located. All that was left was for everyone to prepare their specific stands or attractions. 

Some people’s preparations were more intense than others. Alfred and his group had been working around the clock to get his rollercoaster up and running. It was a miracle they managed to do it in a month. The same went for other amusement park like attractions that were set up. Allen’s haunted house had a lot of prep involved as well. They had to create a whole building for it, after all. 

Casey and Ava had just dropped off the brownies Ava had made. Originally, the plan was for Casey to bring them. Ava hadn’t planned on attending the event at all and Casey knew the reason for that. But she had a plan to drag Ava out of the apartment…

“Pleeeeaaaaaseeeee,” Casey begged that morning. “I really miss spending time with you. You’ve been so busy with all the prep for this festival that we haven’t done much together. The festival will be so much fun. Please come with me!”

Ava had always been weak to Casey’s begging. 

“Alright, alright…” she sighed. “You win…”

And that was how she wound up stuck at the festival. It was true that she hadn’t spent much time with Casey lately. Pretty much all of her time had been spent helping with the festival. Even her Sundays had been consumed with festival preparation, meaning they couldn’t even go out then. And that meant she also hadn’t been able to spend any time with Luciano either…

After the night she had spent at his house, she had decided she couldn’t go back to ignoring him. But before she could try to plan a date with him the following Sunday, Feliciano told her that they needed her that day in order to help with planning for the festival. And it had been the same every Sunday since. Luciano knew this. They were talking regularly again, even with how busy she was. He was more annoyed than she was that the festival was keeping them apart. 

He also knew that her relationships with the first players were strained after her confrontation with Brian, Ludwig, Gilbert, Feliciano, Lovino, and Kiku. She still had a soft spot for Feliciano and Kiku because they had done the least and helped her the most, but her relationships with the others hadn’t recovered. Nobody had done any work to mend it, and had chosen to ignore what had happened instead. The fact Feliciano, and later Kiku, were the only ones to apologize only fueled Luciano’s urging for her to leave them. 

“Today we are forgetting about everything,” Casey stated, pulling Ava aside so they had some privacy to talk. “I know how hard everything has been lately, and there’s not much I can do to change that. But I do know how to have a fun time with you. So I want us to just have fun together today, okay?”

“Just being there helps,” Ava smiled. “I’m really lucky to have such an amazing best friend. So thank you, Casey. You’re right. Let’s forget about everything and have fun.”

“That’s the spirit!” She cheered, punching one fist into the air. “Time to party!”

Ava and Casey spent the entire morning going around to the different rides that had been set up. Casey was really impressed with the amount of effort that had been put into it. It truly looked like a mini amusement park. All of the rides were extremely fun, especially Alfred’s rollercoaster. By the time lunch rolled around, the two took a break to eat at Feliciano’s stall. 

It was no surprise he was serving pasta. It was his signature dish, after all. But Ava’s heart ached a bit as she ate. She couldn’t help but think about how Luciano had made pasta for their first date…She shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about him. She had promised Casey a day of fun. She couldn’t give that to her if she was dwelling on Luciano. 

There was still plenty to do after they finished eating. After all of the preparation, it was incredibly satisfying for Ava to see everything up and running. It was so much more magnificent than she thought it would be. For Casey, the festival was much bigger than she thought it would be. It seemed like there was something new around every corner. 

Out of all the things they did, Ava enjoyed Yao’s petting zoo the most, although the roller coaster was a close second. All of the animals were adorable and would snuggle up against everyone, completely content, for as long as the person would let them stay. Ava and Casey were there for so long they ended up helping Yao and Kiku out for a while. It was evening by the time they left. 

“We have to do that!” Casey suddenly exclaimed, grabbing Ava’s hand and pointing to a large building. 

“The haunted house…” she muttered. 

Originally, it was Allen’s idea, but he had recruited a group of the other second players along the way to help him out. She wasn’t sure exactly who was working on it, but she knew for sure it was Allen, Matt, and Oliver at least. 

“You don’t want to? Since when do you not like this kind of thing?” Casey’s expression fell. 

“It’s not that,” Ava shook her head. “I was just trying to remember who was all working on it. Let’s do it!”

“Awesome!” Her excitement came right back. 

She grabbed Ava’s hand, dragging her along towards the large, abandoned looking building. It certainly looked like a haunted house. As they were standing in line, they couldn’t help but appreciate how much detail Allen and the others put into making it. The line was long, so it took a bit to get to the front. 

“Poppet!” Oliver exclaimed, a bright grin lighting up his face when he saw her. 

He was manning the ticket table at the door. There were two containers on the table. One of them contained the tickets that were being sold for people to use at the attractions, so the two each dropped one ticket in. The other one was strange, though. It contained glow stick bracelets. 

“Hi, Oliver,” Ava smiled. “It’s nice to see you.”

“It’s wonderful to see you too, dearie~ Are you enjoying the festival?”

“Yeah, it’s been fun. How has the haunted house been?”

“Well, I wanted to serve some of my cupcakes, but Allen needed more help,” he huffed before smiling. “This has been very successful, though, so I’m proud of him.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“What are these for?” Casey asked, motioning to the bracelets.

“Oh! Those are for people to wear inside if you would like. If you wear it, you’re allowing those inside to touch you.”

“Really?!” Casey exclaimed. “I want to do it!” 

“Doesn’t that seem like a bit much…?” Ava muttered. 

“You scared?” She taunted with a grin. 

“Of course not,” Ava stuck her tongue out at her. “I’m sure I dealt with worse on a daily basis. We can do it if you want.”

“Yes!” 

Oliver explained the rules of the touch bracelets a bit more before the two entered the haunted house. The most they were allowed to do was grab and move you, nothing that could harm someone. That wasn’t Ava’s concern, considering Ludwig wouldn’t have approved something that could cause harm. But as the two were shut inside, Ava realized exactly who would be working as actors. She hadn’t seen any of the second players around the festival, after all. If Allen was in charge and Oliver was running the ticket table, the rest of them were probably roaming around inside the house. And every single one of them knew her. 

“There is a good possibility this could be hell…” she whispered to Casey as they walked down the hallway. 

It was completely dark apart from the occasional light on the wall that would flicker in and out. But from what she could see, there were cracks in the walls and ceiling. The wallpaper was old and peeling as well. There was even an odd smell to the place, although she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

“Why do you say that?” Casey whispered back.

“Everyone working here is most likely a second player…meaning they all know me.”

“Oooh, we’re screwed!” She chuckled. 

The two had been to plenty of haunted houses since they had met. They were well aware that actors gave the people they knew a harder time than regular customers. That didn’t faze Casey, though. She was even more excited than she had been. She didn’t know everything Ava did about the second players, but she knew enough, which made Ava think her reaction was a bit crazy. 

“Dollface~” a voice behind her cooed, directly in her ear. 

Ava let out a small squeak, flipping around to face him. It was clearly Allen from the voice and pet name. Casey, on the other hand, just chuckled at her reaction along with him. 

“I was hoping you would show up,” a dark grin was on his face. “You even have the bracelets…This is going to be fun.”

With that, he was suddenly gone. Her head whipped around, trying to figure out where he had disappeared to, but she couldn’t see anyone. 

“I told you!” Ava exclaimed. “This is going to be hell!”

“Relax,” Casey grabbed her hand, dragging her further down the hall. “This is going to be great!”

But even she didn’t expect what was coming when they reached the end of the hallway. It was a dead end. As they were glancing around in confusion, wondering if they had missed a turn somewhere, the floor suddenly dropped out from under them. They both screamed from the shock. The drop wasn’t long at all, though, and they landed on a cushion on the floor below them. 

“That was…different…” Casey muttered as they got up. 

“And this is worse than the hallway…” Ava glanced around the room they had landed in. 

They were in the middle of a completely circular room. Multiple doors lined the wall and there was a sign that said “Only one door is safe”.

“Which one do you think it is?” Casey began to carefully study each door. “There has to be a hint here.”

“Do you really think so…?” Ava followed her lead. 

Before they could decide on a door, one of them opened. Francois walked out, closing it behind him. Ava quickly tried to peek inside, but wasn’t able to see in time. His regular dress shirt was tattered and covered in blood, and he was carrying a broken wine bottle as a weapon. Compared to what they had seen so far, his ‘costume’ wasn’t very original. 

“Oh,” he stared right at Ava. “You’re here.”

“Is everyone just expecting me or something?” She huffed. 

“Yeah,” he moved over and opened one of the doors. “Hurry up and go.”

“Don’t we get to pick?” Casey asked. 

“You two don’t get a choice.”

Without waiting for a response, he shoved the two through the door and slammed it shut. Ava flipped around, trying to open the door so she could yell at him, but it was now locked. 

“Great…” she sighed. “This can’t be good.”

“Oh well,” Casey shrugged, grabbing her hand once more. “It should prove to be more interesting.”

And so, they began their trip through the winding rooms in the haunt. There were plenty of jumpscares from either props or some of the second players. It was hard to see because of how dark it was, which made that ten times easier to accomplish. That continued for a couple of rooms. Until Allen and Matt found them, that is. 

They had just gone up a flight of stairs, only to be faced with an area that split into two different hallways. She peered down one path, only to see that it branched into multiple others. 

“A maze, huh…?” Casey looked down both paths. “They look the same, so should we just choose a random direction?”

“Seems like our only option,” Ava nodded.

The two decided to take the right hallway. The branching paths further down the hall were clearly visible, but they were only halfway there when they heard it. Something was dragging against the wooden floorboards behind them. They turned, only to see Matt, dragging a chain behind him. Allen was right beside him, holding a set of shackles. 

“Found ya,” Allen grinned, taking a step forward. “Hope ya don’t mind if we keep ya here for a bit, dollface. I promise none of us will hurt either of you.”

Ava was sure they wouldn’t, but the look on their faces made her doubt that. It only took Casey a split second to grab her arm. From the look on her face, she was thinking the same thing as Ava. 

“Time to go!” Casey exclaimed, running as fast as she could. 

Ava was faster, so she ended up taking Casey’s hand and dragging her along. Sure enough, the two began to chase after them. The girls were frantically trying to outrun them, taking random paths as they continued to branch off. 

“Should we even think about what paths to take?” Ava was trying to stay calm. 

“Hell no! That would take too much time!” Casey wasn’t calm at all. “Just keep running!”

“Yup, that’s what I thought…”

This continued for who knows how long, but it felt like hours to the two girls. 

“How big is this place?!” Casey exclaimed after a while of running around. 

She was losing it, which was surprising to Ava. She was usually the coolheaded one with this kind of thing, hard to scare and enjoying every attempt the actors made. But they hadn’t been in a situation like this before. 

“Is this what you have to deal with all the time?! These guys are crazy! Nobody has ever tried anything like this in a haunted house before! And if we were chased, it was never for this long!”

She was right about that. Despite how far they had run, Allen and Matt were still hot on their trail, showing no signs of stopping any time soon. 

How are we supposed to lose them? Are they really going to keep at this until they catch us…?

Ava was given no time to continue thinking. Something cold suddenly wrapped around her ankle. She glanced down in shock. It was the chain Matt was holding. He yanked on it, effectively dragging her down to the ground. Her hands shot down, prying it off her ankle. Casey flipped around, moving to help her up. But she wasn’t able to reach Ava. Matt went after Casey, causing her to stumble back. 

“Just run!” Ava shouted as she got to her feet. 

She was extremely unlucky. The path had split into two. Casey had run down the left, Matt following after her. She tried to follow, but Allen was blocking her way. 

“End of the line, doll,” he grinned, stalking towards her. 

She had no choice. She had to take the other path, or he would catch her. There was no way to get around him. 

“Dammit!” She shrieked as he lunged at her. 

She managed to avoid him, running like a bat out of hell down the right path. 

“Casey! I had to go down the other path!”

“Just don’t get caught!” She yelled back. “I’ll find you, I promise!” 

“Got it!”

It didn’t take long to reach the end. There was a door at the end of the path Ava was on. She didn’t think about what might be inside. She could only hope that it might let her meet back up with Casey. Once she was successfully through it, she slammed it shut. She glanced around to find the exit to the room, but realized that there wasn’t one. 

“Oh, shit…”

“Hey, doll!” Allen called from outside the door. “Hope ya have fun in there! Oh, and just so you know, nobody can use this door anymore.”

She heard a lock click and the sound of footsteps walking away. 

What the hell does he mean, nobody can use this door anymore…? Did he just lock me inside?!

She rushed over, attempting to turn the doorknob. But sure enough, the door was locked and wouldn’t open. 

“W-What the hell…?!”

She took a step back, turning to the rest of the room again with a frustrated sigh. She hadn’t seen an exit before, but she had probably missed something with how quickly she had been looking. The room was small and didn’t have anything in it other than cobwebs and a bookshelf. 

“Think logically,” she tried to reason with herself. “There has to be a way out of this room…”

She looked at the bookshelf carefully. That had to be the other way out. It was cliche to have a secret room hidden by a bookshelf, but if that was her way out, she would explore that option. As she was staring at the books, wondering if you had to pull a certain one, she suddenly heard an ear piercing scream. 

“Casey!” She exclaimed. “I don’t have time for this! I have to find her!”

She flipped around, prepared to break down the door. But the sound of something moving behind her made her freeze. Before she could even turn her head to look, someone wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her backward. The bookcase began to close as she was pulled into the secret room. 

Is it Allen? This must be his way of trying to scare me. He traps me and then sneaks around to get me out…

She couldn’t be more far off from the truth. When whoever it was let her go, she was able to turn around. Her heart began to race. It wasn’t Allen. It wasn’t even Matt. Luciano was standing in front of her. 

“L-Luci…?” She was at a loss. 

“Ciao, ragazza,” he smirked. “Did I scare you?”

“No way…No way! Was this all planned?!”

He placed a hand on her cheek, a wicked grin on his face.

“Knowing you and Casey, there was no way you wouldn’t come to a haunted house. I may have asked Allen for a favor.”

“And to think I wasn’t even going to come…” she let out a sarcastic laugh. “Matt and Allen aren’t going to do anything to Casey, right?”

“Of course not. Surely they’ll have their fun scaring her, but they’ll tell her I have you eventually. You weren’t going to come?”

“...No. I couldn’t stand the thought of being at a festival where everyone can interact normally but not being able to spend it with you…Casey convinced me to come since I’ve been so busy and haven’t been able to spend much time with her either.”

Before he could say anything, she threw her arms around him. He held her tightly. 

“I wish things weren’t like this…” she muttered. “I wish we could be normal…”

“You know I would have loved to spend the day here with you,” he placed a kiss on her forehead. “But I’m glad Casey convinced you to come. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to trap you in the haunted house with me like this…”

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “You know…Casey asked me once if I regret letting her talk me into going on that first date with you. It would have been so much easier if I hadn’t gone, but I don’t regret it…I had only seen you as my enemy up until that point, the monster everyone said you were. But then I got to know you and I was able to see that wasn’t true at all. Sure, you can be cruel and manipulative, and you absolutely hate when things don’t go your way-”

He glared at her. 

“You know it’s true,” she stuck her tongue out at him. “But my point is, I don’t think you’re a bad person. I wish there was some way I could make your counterparts see that. Maybe if I could, things wouldn’t be this way.”

“You know it’s not possible.”

There was a bittersweet smile on his face before his expression suddenly changed into a mischievous grin. 

“I want to know the reason.”

“The reason for what?” She cocked her head in confusion.

“You’re biased. I really am a bad person and you know that. So why are you overlooking it? Why do you feel that way?”

“Why…?” She mumbled, her cheeks flushed pink. 

She understood. There could only be one thing he wanted to hear. She had never said it, and had really only realized it recently. But then again, he had never said it to her either. His actions told her he felt that way, though. Maybe she had just been entertainment to him at first, but she knew it wasn’t like that now. He would have lost interest a long time ago. 

Can I tell him? If I do…that’s it. There’s no escaping him, even if I desperately want to. Not that I do at this point…

“Ragazza~” he whispered in her ear as he trapped her against the wall. “You know what I want to hear.”

“I…ngh….”

Her ability to think rationally was thrown out the window as he began kissing down her neck. Her hands gripped his shoulders for support. 

“Luciano…You already know…You know I love you.”

“I know,” he took her face in his hands. “Ava…Ti amo, bella.”

She couldn’t help herself. She leaned forward to kiss him. All of the feelings she had been bottling up towards him were surfacing all at once. His fingers tangled in her hair as he returned the kiss. It was clear he had some pent up feelings as well. 

Ava was the first to pull away, panting to catch her breath. This wasn’t enough for him and it was obvious. His eyes were captivating her, making it so she never wanted to look away. 

“You’re coming back home with me,” he smirked. “Unless you want other people to hear, that is.”

Her face flushed bright red. “We are not repeating anything like that ever again.”

“Thought so,” he chuckled. 

He grabbed her hand, leading her through the secret area to a window. Before she knew it, she was sitting in his car as he drove back to his house. As he was driving, her phone went off. It was a text from Casey. 

“Allen and Matt are relentless. They are terrifying to both me and everyone else coming through. I’m helping them out for a bit. Tell Luciano how you feel. Good luck <3”

She smiled. 

Oh, Casey…What would I ever do without you? 

When Ava told Casey to go home without her, she immediately caught on to what was happening. Ava was sure she was bouncing in excitement back at the festival. But there was no time to say anything else to her. Luciano had her hand and was pulling her up to his room. 

~~~~

“Nn…” Ava suppressed a yawn. 

Masterlist

The next day, Ava was called to a meeting at Feliciano’s house. Considering what happened between Casey and Brian, she expected to be chewed out over the fact she had been dating someone. However, when she arrived, all of the first players were present, along with Brian. If they were going to lecture her, she didn’t understand why everyone had to be there.

Either this is a real meeting or they are trying to make this as awkward for me as possible….

Since Feliciano’s living room was only so big, they decided to take the meeting outside since the weather was nice. 

“Now that we all have gathered…” Ludwig began once they were all settled. “It is time for us to discuss the final plan for the event before it is presented to the second players for their thoughts.”

She and Brian exchanged confused looks. They both had no idea what Ludwig was talking about. 

“Oh! We haven’t told Ava and Brian about this yet!” Feliciano exclaimed when he noticed. 

“Oh, that’s right…” Ludwig realized. 

“We’re putting together an amusement park!” Feliciano grinned. 

“...a what?” Ava voiced the fact that she and Brian were baffled by the sudden turn of events.

“It’s going to be a festival,” Ludwig sighed. “It will be held on a Sunday, and everyone can contribute a stand or attraction as long as their plans are preapproved.”

“Why do something like that?” Brian asked. 

“Yeah. I don’t remember anything like that happening in the past,” Ava added.

“Exactly!” Feliciano nodded. “There’s always fighting going on, and our people have suffered because of it. I wanted to do something fun for the people of the city, and a bunch of the others agreed it could be a good idea!”

“I’ll bet it will be a lot of fun,” she smiled. “Nice job for coming up with it.”

“Grazie, bella,” he squeezed her in a hug. “I’m going to do a food stand! You and Brian should do something with your human friends!”

“I guess we could…” she glanced over at Brian. “I’ll bring it up to Casey.”

Brian tensed up when Casey was mentioned, but didn’t say anything. 

“So everyone is putting something together for this?” She glanced around at the group.

“Yeah, dude!” Alfred exclaimed. “It’s gonna be awesome! I’m gonna make this epic rollercoaster with Arthur and Matthew!”

“I have unfortunately been roped into the project…” Arthur sighed. 

“Kiku and I will be doing a petting zoo!” Yao grinned. 

“As you can see, there are different groups doing different things,” Ludwig explained. “But it isn’t just us. As I mentioned earlier, we need to finalize our part of the plans so that we can present it to our counterparts. They will be participating as well.”

“You’re seriously going to let them…?” Brian muttered, clearly suspicious of them already. “Couldn’t that ruin the whole thing?”

“It is a Sunday, so there shouldn’t be any issues,” Ludwig answered. “We agreed to allow anyone to participate as long as what they want to do meets certain requirements. This is their city as well. It is important that people see them putting forth effort, just like we do. It would be unfair to exclude them if they want to participate. When we pitched the idea to them, Allen brought up wanting to do a haunted house. We will know more about their plans once we meet with them again.”

“That…doesn’t actually surprise me,” Ava muttered. 

She had run into Allen multiple times during her many trips to see Luciano. And it wasn’t just him. She had met many of the second players by chance at this point. A haunted house did seem like something Allen would enjoy. She had to admit she was a bit interested to see how it would turn out…

“At least we know it should be eventful,” she said. “Let me look over the requirements and I can start trying to work on something with Brian and Casey.”

“Danke for helping out,” Ludwig handed her a folder of papers. 

“This is going to be so much fun, bella!” Feliciano beamed. “I can’t wait!”

She forced herself to smile. “Yeah, neither can I.”

“Um…I should probably help Alfred out with that rollercoaster,” Brian said to her. “It sounds like a big project, ya know? You and Casey can handle gathering your human friends, right?”

She understood why he wouldn’t want to work with Casey. Honestly, it would be awkward forcing the two to do this together. Letting him help someone else would be easier in the long run. 

“That’s fine. We can handle it ourselves.”

“Yo, for real?” Alfred grinned. “You’re gonna help me, Brian? Thanks, dude!”

“No problem, man,” Brian smiled. 

Ava had to force herself not to show her disappointment throughout the rest of the meeting. Everyone continued to talk about the plans for the festival, but she was lost in thought for most of it. A festival would be a lot of fun…but what was the point? It was a festival where everyone could interact normally…and all she could think about was spending the day there with Luciano. 

There was no way she could go. She would just be depressed, knowing she would never be able to experience it with him. And it would be unfair to force Casey to deal with her in that state when she could go with her other friends and actually have fun. She’d already put her through enough these past months…

As the meeting finished up, almost everyone filtered out of Feliciano’s home. Brian, Kiku, Gilbert, and obviously Feliciano and Lovino were still present when Ludwig called for her to stay behind. From the look on his face, she figured it was time for the lecture she thought she was in for when she was first called for the meeting. 

“What’s up?” She asked when they moved to the living room. 

“Brian has informed me that your friend told him that you’ve had a boyfriend for the past few months,” Ludwig stated. 

She sighed. This was not going to be pleasant. 

“Yeah, I’ve been seeing someone.”

“We have discussed this before. A relationship conflicts with your duties to Feliciano.”

“And yet nobody has noticed?” She countered. 

Ludwig opened his mouth but then realized he didn’t have a comeback for that. 

“I’ve made sure to prioritize my duties. There should be no problems,” she continued. 

“E-Even so…Brian said your friend made some disturbing comments about him.”

“Like?”

“Like the fact he wants you to give up being an Attendant,” Brian suddenly spoke up, an accusing tone in his voice. 

Everyone but Ludwig was shocked by his words. 

“W-What?!” Feliciano cried. 

“Brian!” Ava snapped. “That’s none of your business. Obviously, I’m still an Attendant and I’ve still prioritized my duties over my boyfriend no matter what he’s said about it.”

“That doesn’t matter! The fact you’re with someone like that is dangerous!” Brian snapped back. “Not to mention Casey! I had no idea she’s thought the same thing this entire time. Apart from us, the two people you’re close to want you to have a normal life, and you don’t get to have that. You aren’t human. They’re driving you away from us!”

“The ones driving me away are you!” She exclaimed without thinking. 

It became dead silent. After a moment, Kiku was the one who tentatively broke it. 

“Ava…what do you mean?”

Dammit…Now that I’ve said it, I can’t take it back…I have to explain myself.

“They aren’t the ones telling me I can’t date, or that I can’t get a normal job. They don’t make comments about me rarely misbehaving when I answer a phone call during a break in a meeting. They don’t tell me my friends are bad because they just want me to be able to live in a way that makes me happy. And they don’t shoot their guns when they might risk hitting me.”

“Wait…you were shot at?” Brian was baffled.

She nodded. “And you want to know the best part? Luciano was the one who pushed me out of the way!”

She turned to glare at Ludwig. “Do you know how ironic it is when the person who is trying to kidnap you saves you from being shot?!”

“We…We were trying to save you,” Ludwig stumbled back, surprised by her sudden hostility. “We were willing to do anything to stop him.”

“Shooting me along with him shouldn’t have been on the table!” She yelled. “Not after everything I’ve done for all of you!”

“B-Bella…” Feliciano muttered, but apart from that, nobody knew what to say. 

“If anything were to make me stop being an Attendant, it would be your actions, not anyone else’s,” she stated before storming out of the room. 

“Bella, wait!” Feliciano exclaimed, but she didn’t stop. 

He chased her all the way out to her car. 

“I’m sorry, bella!” He flung his arms around her. “We didn’t mean to treat you that way!”

“Feli…You aren’t the one who needs to apologize…” she muttered. “You didn’t do any of those things. Yeah, certain things you went along with, but most of the time when I’m ordered to do or not to do things, it’s Ludwig. And I’m not even his Attendant…”

“But still…I had no idea those things were upsetting you, bella. Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“I don’t know…I’ve been fighting the viewpoint I grew up with, that this is just how things are, and the realization that it doesn’t have to be this way. It all just…finally boiled over, I guess…”

“We can change, bella!” He clung on to her. “So please don’t leave me!”

“I’m just going home, Feli…Don’t worry,” she sighed. 

He stood up straight, but there was still a sad look on his face.

“You’ve changed, bella…Around when Luci started targeting you…it seemed like you were enjoying your life more. But then he almost took you and you stopped coming to the fights…and you got really sad. You weren’t leaving your apartment…I was really worried, but everyone brushed it off and said they were sure you were fine. But you weren’t fine, were you…? What happened, bella? You can tell me anything, I promise.”

“...No, I can’t.”

“Does it have to do with Luci…?”

“No, Feli…It doesn’t.”

She hated lying to him…There was no way she could tell him the truth, though. It didn’t look like he fully believed her, but he let it go. 

She decided to tell Casey about the festival as they were making dinner together that night. 

“That sounds like it’s going to be awesome!” Casey gushed. “I’ll bet they’re going to go all out! I mean, Alfred is making a rollercoaster?”

“Ambitious, huh?” She chuckled. “They asked if we would put something together with some of our friends.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They want community involvement. They saw me as an easy way to get some of my human friends into it.”

“Guess that makes sense…Do you have anything in mind yet?”

“I was thinking something simple that we can get a lot of people involved in. Like a community bake sale?”

“That’s not a bad idea. You’re a great baker and a lot of my friends enjoy baking too. I’ll bet we can get a good amount of people involved.”

“Want to help me recruit then?” Ava smiled. 

“Hell yeah! We’ll make it the best bake sale ever!” She grinned. “And we’ll have to find someone to run it so that we can enjoy the festival together!”

Masterlist

“Ava!” Casey exclaimed when the apartment door opened that night. “I’m so glad you’re back! Are you o-?!”

She stopped when she saw Ava. She recognized the jacket she was wearing. It was Luciano’s. She had it pulled tightly around her…but Casey could still see the dark bruises on her neck that the jacket failed to cover. 

“Thank you for talking to Kiku and the others,” Ava quickly said. “I’m okay. Can we talk about it some other time?”

“Y-Yeah, of course…” 

Without another word, Ava swiftly walked past her and shut herself in her room. 

“You aren’t okay at all…” Casey mumbled, staring at Ava’s bedroom door. 

It had been a long time since she had answered any of Luciano’s calls or messages. But that night, she messaged him. She couldn’t help it after the conversation she’d had with Ludwig and the others after she had been rescued. 

“I asked what they would have done if they had accidentally shot me…Ludwig said it would have been unfortunate, but they needed to get you away from me somehow. They said on the off chance I was hit, he was confident it wouldn’t be in a vital spot…and they would just take me away in the confusion.”

She put her phone down on her nightstand, lying down on her bed. After everything that happened, she didn’t know how to feel. Luciano had used her to torment Feliciano and Ludwig and the others were willing to risk shooting her. How messed up was that? 

To her surprise, her phone suddenly started ringing. She glanced over to see Luciano was calling her. She knew she should ignore it…but she had messaged him. Letting out a sigh, she reached over and accepted the call. 

“You have no idea how pissed I was at those bastards for shooting when you could have been hit,” he said. 

“You sounded really mad,” she found herself laughing a bit. 

“You’re…laughing?” He sounded thrown off. 

“I…guess I am. It’s just…we haven’t talked on the phone like this in a while…”

“We haven’t. You know, when I call you it’s because I hope you’ll answer.”

“I know…I’m sorry.”

“You sound off. What’s wrong, ragazza?”

“Oh…it’s just…Feli having to hear everything that happened…and then the shooting…I guess I just feel like breaking down but I’ve already cried, so I don’t want to…”

“…What time is it?”

“Huh…?”

She checked the time on her phone. 

“It’s almost one a.m. How come?”

“It’s Sunday now. Come see me. If you’re going to cry, I don’t want you to cry alone.”

She thought about it for a moment. Was that a good idea? Technically he was part of the reason she was upset. But maybe that was why she should go. 

“Okay…”

“Come to the garden when you get here.”

“Okay? But why?”

“Because you like the garden in the moonlight.”

She forgot she had said that to him once before. It seemed like so long ago…

“I’ll see you soon,” he said before hanging up. 

She got up, changing into a better outfit before sneaking out of the apartment. 

Luciano was waiting on a bench in the front of the garden when she entered through the side of the house. He immediately got up and walked over to her, pulling her into his arms. She returned the embrace, laying her head on his chest. 

“There’s plenty I have to say to you…but not here,” he said. 

She nodded, so he led her deep into the garden. The two ended up underneath a tree, Ava sitting between his legs as he held her tightly. She didn’t want to admit just how comforting it was. 

“I was so focused on making a point to Feliciano that I didn’t think about your feelings,” he said. “I assumed that as long as I made you feel good, you would forget that he was there. And then we would leave and you wouldn’t have to think about him again. But then those bastards showed up…I never should have pushed you away…At first, I thought they would never shoot if you were in the line of fire, but Ludwig was clearly aiming with you so close to me so I couldn’t be sure…If they had hit you, I would have tried to kill every last one of them. I can’t believe they were alright with the possibility of you being shot.” 

“After a while, I really did forget he was there…” she admitted. “I feel guilty he had to listen to everything that happened…I’m sure it was awful…but he said he didn’t blame me. He said he thought I did everything you wanted to protect him, so he blames himself. And that makes me feel even more guilty…”

“It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have made you do something like that…” he admitted. 

“And then I had to hear Ludwig say that they were fine with me getting shot…!” She began tearing up. “How could anyone think that’s an acceptable way to save someone?! I help them with everything they ask! I drop whatever I’m doing when they say they need me without any complaints! And yet they think it’s okay that I get shot if it’s a convenient way to rescue me? Sure, they’re rescuing me, but do I really mean that little that they can’t go out of their way to make sure I don’t get hurt?”

Her tears spilled down her cheeks. Ava turned on her side, laying her head against his chest. He held her tight once more as her body shook from her silent sobs. 

“I would have never shot if there was even a slight chance you could be hit. You’re important to me, ragazza. They’re blind if they don’t see your worth. But they’ve always been spoiled bastards that take what they have for granted. I meant what I said earlier. You don’t owe them anything. You should abandon them.”

“I don’t want to think about that right now…” she muttered. “I don’t want to think about any of it…Just let me stay with you like this for now…”

“Alright, ragazza…” he placed a kiss on her forehead. “You look exhausted. Let’s go up to my room.”

She knew she probably shouldn’t…because if she went up to his room, she doubted she would go back to her apartment tonight. But he was right, she was completely exhausted…and she just wanted more cuddles. It was Sunday, so this was fine, right? 

“Okay…”

She let him lead her up to his room. They ended up in his bed with her wrapped securely in his arms. She had changed into one of his shirts since they both figured they would probably fall asleep at some point. And sure enough, it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep in his arms. 

“Mm…” Ava shifted as her eyes fluttered open. 

For a moment, she was surprised to find she wasn’t in her own room. But the scent enveloping her was unmistakable and the arm wrapped around her quickly reminded her where she was. 

“Are you awake, ragazza?” 

She glanced over to see Luciano was staring at her. 

“Mhm…” she yawned. “I think this is the best I’ve slept in a long time…”

“I could get used to waking up with you in my arms,” he grinned. “You should just stay right here with me.”

“I could get used to it too…” she muttered with a sad smile. 

He chose not to push the issue. 

“Are you hungry?”

“A little, yeah,” she nodded. 

“Breakfast is probably being prepared right now. Do you want to get up?”

“We probably should. It would be bad to lay in bed all day…as tempting as that is,” she giggled. 

“Having you in my bed all day does sound tempting,” he chuckled, but let her go nonetheless.

The two got up, getting dressed so they could go downstairs for breakfast. Flavio was the first to spot them. 

“Oh my…” Flavio stared, chuckling a bit. “I don’t recall Ava being here after your failed kidnapping attempt…”

“Shut it, fratello,” Luciano glared. 

“Is she done giving you the silent treatment then?” 

“You must have done something pretty good for her to start talking to you again,” Lutz chuckled. 

Her cheeks flushed. She was happy she had put on a high neck shirt and pants last night before leaving. 

“Ludwig was alright with the possibility of me getting shot when he fired at Luciano during their rescue…Luciano asked me to come when I told him that last night.”

The three boys looked over at her, clearly surprised. 

“You’re joking,” Flavio was flabbergasted. “How could they even think such a thing was acceptable? Aren’t they supposed to be your allies?”

“We already knew they were bastards…” Lutz muttered. “But that’s a new low.”

“I was upset over it, to say the least,” she sighed. “I was lucky Luciano pushed me out of the way.”

“That’s completely understandable,” Flavio hugged her. “You never should have been forced to go through that. I’m glad Luciano protected you.”

She didn’t know how to feel. It felt like the roles had been reversed. The people who were supposed to be her enemies had protected her and were glad she was alright. The people who she had been with her whole life and were the ones who were supposed to care about and protect her were the ones who didn’t care if she was injured…who had shot even though she could have been hit. It made her question…where she even belonged anymore. 

Tears filled her eyes. 

“Oh, darling, please don’t cry!” Flavio exclaimed, holding her shoulders. “Was it something I said?”

“No,” she shook her head with a smile, wiping at her eyes. “It’s just…Luciano protected me and you’re happy I’m safe…A few months ago, I never would have thought that was possible. It’s just funny…”

“I guess you have a point,” Flavio chuckled. “I don’t think anyone could have predicted things would turn out this way…except maybe mio fratello. He always gets what he wants. But you’re a special girl. You naturally fell into place here.”

“Did I…?” 

“Of course you did,” he grinned. “We’ve all welcomed you into this house. Trust me, if anyone didn’t want you here, something would have been said.”

She glanced around for confirmation. 

“You’re fun to tease,” Lutz smirked. 

“I agree with that sentiment,” Kuro chuckled.

Gilen said nothing, but he did smile at her. It was true he didn’t talk much, but in the time she had been dating Luciano, they had made progress. He could at least talk to her now without stammering when he had something to say. 

“See?” Flavio smiled. 

“Yeah…” she smiled as well. 

“It seems you must come live with us before our shady counterparts end up shooting you,” Kuro said. 

“You’re already here. Might as well just stay,” Lutz shrugged. 

“I said the same thing,” Luciano chuckled. 

“I can’t stay now…but I’ll think about it,” she replied. 

“Hm…That’s the most you’ve ever considered it, so I’ll accept it for now,” Luciano smirked. “Shall we eat, ragazza?”

She nodded, so they went into the kitchen to get breakfast.

~~~~

“Hey,” Brian greeted when Casey came downstairs to let him into the apartment. “Sorry for making you come down, but Ava isn’t answering her phone. After what happened yesterday, I’m just worried about her…”

The only thing Casey knew about last night was that Luciano had kidnapped Feliciano and used his phone to lure her to them. Ludwig and the others had rescued them, but considering Ava had walked in wearing Luciano’s jacket as a shirt and had dark hickeys on her neck, thighs, and surely places she couldn’t see, they must have been pretty late getting to her. Casey couldn’t help but feel guilty. If she had asked them about Ava’s whereabouts sooner, they would have found her faster. 

“I haven’t seen her today,” Casey admitted. “She probably slept in. You know her…she tends to keep to herself when she’s upset.”

It was only ten a.m., so Casey wasn’t really surprised Ava hadn’t emerged from her room yet. 

“Can I come in anyway?” He asked. “I was going to invite her out, but I want to check on her at least.” 

She was a little reluctant. If Ava was still asleep or didn’t want to talk to Brian at the moment, she didn’t need to let him in to see her. But it felt rude to turn him away. 

“Sure…I’ll check to see if she’s awake. But if she’s sleeping, I’m not waking her up.”

“That’s fine,” he nodded. 

The two went upstairs to the apartment. Casey knocked on Ava’s door. When there wasn’t any response, she opened it slightly to peek in. Her eyes widened. Ava wasn’t there. She shut the door, glancing over at the bathroom. The door was open and there was nobody inside. So where was Ava? 

Casey went back to the living room where Brian was waiting.

“Um…so funny thing…Ava isn’t here,” she grinned sheepishly. 

“What?!” He exclaimed. “Where is she?”

“Calm down. There’s no need to overreact.”

“This isn’t an overreaction! She was almost kidnapped yesterday!”

“That was yesterday. Today is Sunday, which means she’s safe. So calm down. She’s obviously just out around town somewhere…maybe with her boyfriend,” she admitted. 

She couldn’t imagine Ava walking around town on her own. She rarely left the apartment unless it was with Casey. If she was gone, she was most likely with Luciano. That was surprising, after what happened, but maybe it had finally pushed her to talk things over with him.

“Boyfriend?” Brian was surprised. “Since when is she dating anyone?”

“You didn’t know? She’s been dating someone for a few months now.”

“Then she’s been keeping it a secret…” he clucked his tongue in disapproval. “Ludwig and the others wouldn’t let her keep a boyfriend.”

Casey had no idea that even Brian shared the same controlling opinions as them. 

“And why not?” She glared.

“It interferes with her duties. The time she spends on a boyfriend takes away from the time she gives to Feliciano and the others. Besides…that’s how we’ve lost Attendants in the past. They get a taste of life with a normal person and think they can have that life for themselves. Soon just being together isn’t enough. Then they want to get married, start a family. We don’t get to have normal lives. Our lives are spent serving the Roleholders. She should stop seeing him.”

“Get out.”

“W-What?” Brian’s eyes widened, surprised by her sudden hostility. 

“You’re just like the others. You think you can control the way Ava lives her life. If she wants to start living free of your guys’ control, she should. I’ve always thought she should start actually doing the things she wants to do instead of listening to you guys when you say she shouldn’t or can’t. But she didn’t want to go against what they said. Well, guess what? Both me and her boyfriend think that Ava should live as a normal person. He wants her to give up her life as an Attendant, and I agree with him! You guys don’t give a damn about her and what she wants. You only care about her when it benefits you!”

“...Who is this guy?”

“None of your damn business, Brian. I don’t owe you anything.”

She stalked over to the front door, flinging it open. “Now get out of my apartment. I don’t want to see you here again.”

He looked like he had a lot more to say, but he begrudgingly left the apartment. Because of the security, she was forced to escort him out. He tried to ask her questions about Ava and her boyfriend once more, but was faced with hostile silence the whole way out. Casey slammed the building’s front door in his face before heading back up. 

She didn’t want to bother Ava, but decided to call her to make sure she was okay. 

“Hey. It’s a long story on why I had to check your room, but I saw you aren’t here,” Casey explained when she answered. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry I didn’t say anything about leaving…I went over to Luciano’s in the middle of the night and fell asleep.”

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you’re safe. You guys are talking again?”

“Yeah. That’s also a long story…How about we exchange when I get home later?”

“Sounds good to me. By the way…just because he’ll probably be trying to get a hold of you again, I spilled the beans about you having a boyfriend to Brian…and may have yelled at him and banned him from the apartment.”

There was stunned silence for a moment. 

“I’m assuming that’s a part of the long story, right…?”

“Yeah…” she chuckled awkwardly. “I’ll explain everything once you’re home. I’m really sorry…”

“It’s fine,” Ava couldn’t help but chuckle as well. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yeah, later.”

Casey let out a sigh of relief after Ava hung up. At least Ava was safe and wasn’t upset about what happened with Brian. She wasn’t sure if it would stay that way once Ava heard the full story, but she could only hope so…

Meanwhile, Ava was still at Luciano’s mansion. She was out in the garden with Luciano again, basking in the sun as she laid in the grass. He was sitting beside her. 

“Oh boy…” she sighed after she hung up the phone. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Casey spilled that I’ve been dating someone to Brian. He’s probably going to tell everyone else about it.”

“Why is that a big deal?”

“Because they’re controlling about that sort of thing,” she explained. “Relationships take away time that should be spent on an Attendant’s duties. It also is a temptation. Start a relationship with a normal person and you might start to crave a normal life. I tried to start dating in the past, but Ludwig told me I couldn’t.”

He stared at her, completely baffled. “Please tell me you’re joking, ragazza.”

“Unfortunately I’m not.”

“So they even control your dating life and you still have stood by them?”

“I know….I didn’t start to question it until recently. I just thought that’s the way things were for us so there wasn’t anything I could do about it. You and Casey were the ones who opened my eyes.”

“I can’t believe all of the things you’ve just blindly accepted from them. Like I keep saying, you deserve so much more, ragazza.”

“And you can give me that?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Exactly,” he grinned. “At least, I want to be the one who can give you the life you want.”

She smiled, sitting up so she could place a hand on his cheek. “You’ve already given me plenty.”

“But not nearly enough,” he said before pulling her in for a kiss. 

Ava returned to her apartment later that night. Casey was watching TV in the living room. She immediately paused her show and got up, running over to hug Ava. 

“Woah!” Ava exclaimed but wrapped her arms around Casey anyway. “I appreciate the hug, but why so suddenly?”

“Just because of all the crazy things that have happened,” Casey smiled. 

“Oh, I see,” she chuckled. “Well, thank you.”

The two went to sit down on the couch. 

“So…did Brian harass you after I called?” Casey asked. 

“He called once and then sent a message saying to call him,” she explained. “I told him I was busy today and would talk to him later. I still haven’t gotten back to him. But that’s a problem for later. What happened?”

Casey explained what happened when Brian came over earlier that day. Ava wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not over him getting banned because Casey was so angry with him. 

“I don’t blame you. I’m sure that was really annoying to listen to…I’m honestly not ready to hear the lecture either,” she admitted. “He’s probably told the others too…or will if he hasn’t already. But that isn’t your fault. I never said you had to keep the fact I had a boyfriend in general a secret.”

“Still, I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright,” she smiled. 

“Sooo…you went over to Luciano’s last night?” Casey asked. 

“Uh…yeah,” she chuckled awkwardly. “I was upset…because when Ludwig and the others rescued me, Ludwig shot at Luciano…and if he hadn’t pushed me out of the way, I might have been hit by the bullet. I asked them what they would have done if I had been hit, and Ludwig basically said it would have been unfortunate but that was something they were willing to risk if that meant they could rescue me.”

“They were fine with shooting you?!” Casey exclaimed, outraged.

“Yeah…Luciano was pissed, and I was really upset about it. That’s why I went over there.”

“Of course he was pissed! I’m pissed! Those guys are out of their minds! I’m glad they rescued you because I want you here with me, but you might have been safer with Luciano at this point!”

“It’s funny…Kuro joked…or maybe it wasn’t a joke, but he said that I should stay with them as basically a protective measure. Crazy, right?”

“A little,” Casey chuckled before she looked to be deep in thought. “...All our lives, we’ve been told that they’re the bad guys…and in these past couple of months, we’ve found out it isn’t that black and white, huh?”

“Yeah…we really have,” she forced herself to smile. 

“What are you going to do now? Are you getting back together with Luciano?”

That was a good question. Luciano hadn’t asked her what would happen between them now when she was leaving his home. She had told him she would consider staying with him, so maybe he really had been content with that. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do…but after realizing she loved him, could she really stay away?

“I’m not sure…I did tell him I would consider staying with them, even if it was a spur of the moment,” she sighed. “I need to think about it…”

“You know I’ll support whatever decision you make,” Casey smiled. “I want you to be happy.”

Masterlist

((Warning: This part contains dub con smut. Please do not read if this will upset you. Art is mine.))

A few weeks had passed since her encounter with Luciano at the shooting range. Ava decided to stop going. She wasn’t making much progress anyway, so it’s not like it was doing her any good. And if Luciano could find her there, she couldn’t go anymore. 

Casey got Ava out of their apartment every Sunday. She did her best to pick activities around town that she thought Ava would enjoy since Ava rarely voiced what she wanted to do anymore. Anytime Casey asked, Ava just said she wanted to do what Casey wanted. It was like she had lost interest in everything outside of the things she did inside their apartment. 

Ava couldn’t help it. Their apartment had always been her fortress, where she felt safe. She could do whatever she wanted while she was inside it. That wasn’t the case when she stepped outside. Except for on Sundays. But then she started spending those Sundays with Luciano. Now it was just a painful reminder that those times were gone. Having Casey choose what they did was her way of trying to reassociate her memories of Sundays with fun times with Casey. 

Saturday she got a message from Feliciano. It said:

“What are you doing right now, bella? I haven’t seen you in a while! You really should get out of your apartment…We’re worried about you. If you come pick me up, we can go back to my place and do something fun!”

Ava didn’t really want to. As much as she loved Feliciano, being with him right now sounded like it was going to take up more mental energy than she had at the moment. But she also felt bad…It was true that it had been some time since she had seen him and the others. She wasn’t surprised they were worried about the fact she wasn’t leaving her apartment during the week. 

She sighed. “Guess I should…”

“Alright. Send me your location and I’ll pick you up.”

He sent his location almost immediately. She got up, leaving her room. Casey was in the living room, working on homework. 

“Hey, I’m going to pick up Feli. He wants to hang out since he hasn’t seen me in a while.”

“Sounds good,” Casey turned to her. “Let me know when you’re over at his house. Things have been crazy lately…”

“I will, don’t worry,” she smiled. “See ya later.”

“Yeah, later.”

Ava left the apartment, going out to the parking lot to get in her car. She put the address into her GPS without paying much attention to the area it was in. But as she neared it, she realized something was off. It was a part of his territory that was practically abandoned. The buildings were run down, most closed up businesses and abandoned houses. She couldn’t understand why Feliciano was in a place like this. 

The address looked to be an abandoned house. She parked her car on the street in front of it. Looking at the location he sent her again, she confirmed that this was the place he supposedly was. 

She tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. 

“Guess I’m going inside…” 

A small voice inside of her was telling her that something wasn’t right…That she should get back in her car and leave. But if Feliciano really was inside, she owed it to him to see. She steeled herself, going into the building. She decided that this was probably some prank he was trying to pull on her with some of the others to have a little fun…

“Feli….?”

She glanced around, a chill running up her spine. She did not like this place one bit. It was giving her the creeps...not to mention, she had this weird sense of dread. She knew it was probably just because this place was making her anxious, but still. She needed to find Feli quickly so they could leave. If this really was just one big joke he and some of the others came up with to scare her, she was going to be pissed…

There was still furniture inside, although it was collecting dust. The living room and kitchen were empty. When she moved on to one of the bedrooms, she found who she was looking for. 

“Ava…! Get out of here!”

“W-What the…?”

Feliciano was tied up in the middle of the room. She was frozen for a moment from the shock. But once she snapped out of it, she rushed over to him. 

“What happened?! I’ll get you out of this!”

“No! Just run!” He cried. “Tell Ludwig and Kiku! You can’t stay or he’ll get you too!”

Ava had started trying to untie Feliciano’s bindings, but those last words made her stop. 

“What…? Who?”

But the second she said it, she realized who he must be talking about. Who else would do this to Feliciano and also want to go after her too? 

“Oh…” she muttered. 

“You have to run! Get help from Ludwig!”

“I can’t just leave you!” 

“Ava, he doesn’t want me, he wants you!”

She didn’t want to leave Feliciano. But what he was saying was true. Luciano had already taken Feliciano once to lure her out. He was doing the same thing again, only this time, she didn’t have anyone around to help her. If they got caught, she couldn’t protect herself and she definitely couldn’t protect the both of them. Logically, it would be better to do what he said. 

“O-Okay…I’ll go get Ludwig and Kiku…We’ll save you, okay?”

“Once you get them, don’t come near here again! Don’t let him take you!”

“Okay…I won’t come back…”

Ava got up, leaving the room with a heavy heart. But once she reached the doorway, someone blocked her way. 

“Where do you think you’re going, ragazza~?” Luciano grinned. 

She stumbled back a few steps, her heart racing. The last time he had almost captured her had been an extremely close call…She knew she wasn’t getting that lucky this time around. 

“Luci, no!” Feliciano cried out. “Just leave her alone! She doesn’t have anything to do with this!” 

“You’re wrong, Feliciano. She’s your Attendant, so you can’t say she’s unrelated. She caught my attention and now I want her. And I get what I want.”

He grabbed her wrist, pulling her into his arms. She was frozen. She had never thought of what she would do if it ever came to this point…

“No! You can’t have her! I won’t let you hurt her!” 

“What are you going to do, tied up like that?” He snorted. “Just sit tight, Feliciano. I’m going to enjoy my prize.” 

He made a sudden movement. Ava felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck before her consciousness faded. 

When Ava woke up sometime later, she found she was in the bedroom from earlier. But what was more concerning was the fact that she was tied up. Her ankles were bound together…and so were her hands. 

“W-What…?”

“I see you’re awake, ragazza.”

She glanced up. Luciano was on a chair beside the bed she was on. 

“Is this necessary…?” She wriggled her hands but knew there was no way they would slip through her bindings with how tight they were. 

“For now,” he chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll free you soon.”

“What are we still doing here? You caught me…Wouldn’t you want to run off with me right away?”

“Oh, I’ll be taking you away…once I’m done with Feliciano.”

Her heart sank. She didn’t want anything to happen to him. 

“I thought he said you were after me…What are you going to do…?”

“Exactly, I’m after you,” he smirked. “I’ve already made you mine multiple times…but Feliciano doesn’t know that.”

Her eyes shot wide open. “Y-You’re going to make him watch?!” 

“No, just listen. Although that would be traumatic too. His imagination will wreak havoc for me.”

“I…I don’t want to be a part of that…” 

“You don’t? Would you rather I focus my attention on him then? I’m sure I can come up with all sorts of other ways to torture him.”

He stood, turning towards the door. 

“Wait! Please, don’t!”

“It annoys me that you’re begging for him…Beg for me instead.” 

“W-What…?”

“Beg for me to fuck you.”

How embarrassing…! But if it will save Feli….

“P-Please…fuck me instead.”

“Give me more than that.”

“Uu…Please fuck me while he listens. You can use me to torment him instead…”

“Good girl,” he let out a dark chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you feel good too.”

With that, he picked her up and left the room. The room he took her to was simple, almost a carbon copy of the bedroom they had just been in. The bed and dresser looked old but weren’t dusty. Other than that, there was a closet. She could hear struggling from inside, so she figured that’s probably where Feliciano was. 

Luciano dropped her on the bed before taking out his pocket knife. She let out a yelp of surprise as he began cutting her shirt off. He dropped the torn up fabric on the floor before cutting the rope binding her ankles together. After putting his knife away, he pulled her shorts off, leaving her in just her bra and underwear. 

To her horror, Luciano got up, walking over to the closet. He opened the door before grabbing Feliciano by the hair. 

“Look at her,” Luciano forced him to look over at Ava by his hair. 

“A-Ava…!” Feliciano stared in horror as she tried in vain to cover herself. “Stop this, Luciano! You don’t have to hurt her!”

“I’m not hurting her,” he chuckled. “On the contrary, I’m going to make her writhe with pleasure. She’ll cry out my name and beg for more. And you’ll have to listen to every second as I make what’s yours mine.”

“No! You can’t do that to her! She doesn’t want that!”

A twisted grin lit up his face. “You think so? But she already begged me to.”

“W-What…?” Feliciano looked to her for confirmation. 

Ava wanted to cry from how mortified she was. If she denied it, she knew something bad would happen. She forced herself to nod. She couldn’t even look at Feliciano. 

“Be grateful to her,” Luciano suddenly threw him back in the closet. “She’s the only reason I’m not torturing you right now.”

“T-Then she only did it to-!”

She couldn’t hear the rest, because Luciano shut the closet door. Ava wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. Luciano could have let him believe that she had begged him for it with no context…but now Feliciano knew that she did it to save him. It still didn’t make what was about to happen any better, but at least he knew that much. 

Luciano walked back over, pinning her under him. 

He chuckled before whispering in her ear, “I may have gotten a little carried away.”

She let out a squeak of surprise as he bit her earlobe. To her relief, he finally untied the rope around her wrists and neck. She tried to rub her sore wrists, but he grabbed one of them, pinning her arm above her head as he kissed her. 

She thought this situation would be a turn off, but as usual when she kissed him, she was quickly swept away. She reached up, running her fingers through his hair. Things heated up fairly quickly. She rarely used her tongue when kissing, but found herself naturally joining in when he did. 

“Mm…!” She squirmed as his hand slid up her body, groping her chest. 

He reached back, unhooking her bra before tossing it to the floor with the rest of her clothes. She was out of breath when he pulled away, moving down to her neck. He bit down, sucking hard at her skin. 

“L-Luciano…!” She exclaimed before remembering to lower her voice so only he could hear. “W-We agreed that you wouldn’t leave any marks where people could see…!”

“But that’s the point of this, ragazza~” he grinned. “I’m marking you as mine.”

Sure enough, there was now a purple mark forming where he bit her. He moved to the other side of her neck, repeating the process. 

“Ngh…” 

He added a few more before he moved on to her chest. She squirmed as he massaged one of her breasts, rolling the nipple in between his fingers while he created more hickeys on her other breast. Once he was done, he switched. All the while, she was trying, and failing, to contain the soft noises she was making. This was why this form of torture worked. Luciano knew she couldn’t stay quiet. And he knew she would only get louder the more he stimulated her. 

Ava was a panting mess by the time Luciano was satisfied with his work. He smirked down at her body, now littered with hickeys, as his fingers played with her through her panties. He could tell just how desperate she was getting from the look in her eyes and how wet she felt. What Feliciano had heard so far was good, but Luciano could already tell that it was going to get ten times better. If Feliciano wasn’t filled with despair already, he would be soon. 

“Ava~ That’s quite the look in your eyes. If you want more, you’re going to have to ask for it.”

“P-Please…give me more,” she pleaded.

He knew she would, but he didn’t expect it to be so quickly. He grinned as he started to undress. 

“Your wish is my command~”

She sat up to help him. Her panties were the last to be added to their clothing pile as he pinned her underneath him. 

“Luciano…!” She cried out as he pushed all the way inside her in one thrust. 

She wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him as he fucked her without mercy. But from the sounds she was making, it would be obvious to anyone who overheard that she didn’t mind in the least. 

“Feliciano and those bastards have never done anything for you, ragazza,” he suddenly said. “All they do is order you around without a care for what you want and the life you’re trying to live. Surely you know that. I can give you so much more. You wouldn’t be a servant anymore. You could be a normal woman together with me.” 

Her eyes widened. She didn’t expect him to say something like that all of a sudden. 

“A-Ah…!” She exclaimed as he reached down to rub her clit. 

Her body trembled. If he kept that up, she wouldn’t last long. 

He chuckled. “And of course, I’ll be able to pleasure you like this as much as you want. Doesn’t that sound appealing?”

With perfect timing, he hit her g spot. 

“Ah…! Y-Yes! Yes…!”

“I’m so glad you agree~ Now be a good girl and cum for me.”

She wrapped her legs around him. After a few moments, she could feel the pleasure overwhelming her. 

“Luciano…!” She moaned as her body twitched underneath him. 

After a few more sloppy thrusts, he groaned as he released inside of her. She lay under him in a daze, still clinging to him. That was more intense than usual. She found that there was one word on the tip of her tongue. Strung together with two other words, that sentence would change everything. But when Luciano spoke again, it wasn’t to her, and she realized she had gotten so caught up that she had forgotten why they were there in the first place. 

“Hear that, Feliciano?” He sneered as he looked over at the closet. “I made your Attendant mine. I’ve marked up her pretty little body. She clung to me as I showed her more pleasure than you or any of your bastard allies ever could.”

Her eyes widened. How could she have been so stupid? Feliciano had heard everything…At first, she remembered trying to stop herself, but after a certain point, she had completely forgotten about him. He must have heard some awful things…She was completely horrified with herself. 

She could hear Feliciano struggling from inside the closet again. She wanted to cover her ears and run from the room…but knew she couldn’t. 

“Hmph…” Luciano smirked. “Shall we go, ragazza? There’s no reason to stick around any longer.”

There was no point in arguing. She had been caught. There was no escape for her. 

“What about my clothes…?” She muttered. “You cut my shirt apart…”

“I guess I did…No matter, you can just wear my jacket.”

She nodded, so the two got dressed. His jacket ended up being low cut on her because of how it buttoned, but it was better than no shirt at all. 

Luciano took her hand, leading her out of the building. At first, she was going to ask if he was just planning on leaving Feliciano there, but decided against it. It was better to let him forget about Feliciano in case something worse would happen if she reminded him. 

His car was parked near the back of the building, hidden from sight. Even if she had been smart and staked out the building before going in, she probably would have missed it. 

As they approached the car, he suddenly pushed her away from him. She stumbled, almost falling. She was shocked, to say the least. But before she could confront him, a bullet whizzed past her. He dodged, pulling out one of his throwing knives. 

“W-What…?” She muttered, shell shocked. 

If he hadn’t pushed me out of the way…would that have hit me…?

“Bastardi! Avresti potuto colpirla!” He yelled.

She had never seen him so angry before. She glanced around and found Ludwig and Kiku rushing towards them. Ludwig had his gun out and must have been the one who shot at them. Ludwig shot at him again as Kiku grabbed her arm, pulling her behind them. 

“We have come to rescue you,” Kiku said. 

Luciano was yelling again, but she couldn’t hear very well over the sound of Ludwig shooting. Gilbert and Lovino rushed over as well, training their guns on Luciano. 

“Give up, bastardo. You’re outnumbered,” Lovino glared. “Where’s mio fratello?”

“Tch…” he glared back before turning to Ava. “I’m not giving up on you, ragazza.”

With that, he jumped in his car, speeding off. The boys were going to start shooting at the car, but she yelled for them to stop. 

“I know where Feli is. There’s no need to go after him.”

“I see,” Ludwig nodded.

“Ava, are you alright?” Kiku asked. 

They all turned to her, eyeing her carefully. Their eyes widened, their cheeks flushed pink, when they realized what must have happened. She wanted to sob. She pulled Luciano’s jacket tighter around her, but it couldn’t cover the marks on her neck or thighs. 

“Let’s just get Feli…He’s inside…”

“If you do not want to go back in there, we understand,” Kiku said. 

A part of her really didn’t. She was sure the room they were in smelled like sex. This was already mortifying enough. She didn’t want to have to lead them to that room and see their reactions. 

“O-Okay…Luciano shut him in the closet in one of the rooms…”

“Wait, was he listening?!” Lovino exclaimed. 

That was her breaking point. She lifted her hands to her face as tears poured down her cheeks. 

“Er…I-I’m sorry, Ava. Please don’t cry…” Lovino muttered. 

“It is alright, Ava,” Kiku placed a hand on her back. “All of you, please leave us be. I’m sure this has been very hard on her and Feli is still inside. You should go find him.”

“Right…Let’s go,” Ludwig motioned for the others to follow him. 

“Thank you, Kiku…” she muttered. 

“You are welcome. I am very sorry we did not get here sooner.”

“I didn’t think anyone was coming at all…”

“We realized Feli was missing earlier today…We didn’t want to worry you until we knew where he was. But we didn’t realize you were missing as well until your friend asked us if you had made it back after picking him up. We worked much faster to find the two of you after that.”

“I see…”

“Ava!” 

She heard Feliciano before she saw him. He came running out of the building towards her. He tried to throw his arms around her, but she quickly took a step back. 

“Please don’t touch me…”

She could barely look at him, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw his expression…It was a mixture of shock and the pain of rejection. It looked like everyone was surprised by her actions, for that matter. 

“Ava…? What’s wrong?” He asked. 

“Just…don’t touch me…Not after what happened…” she muttered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes again from the guilt. 

“If it’s about what Luci did…I’m not upset with you. He hurt you…all because of me. You did what he wanted so that he wouldn’t hurt me, but I should have been the one protecting you…I’m so sorry, Ava…I’m just so glad Ludwig and the others saved you before he could take you away.”

Masterlist

“What’s wrong?” Brian asked Ava, who was spacing out more than usual. 

The two of them were hiding in the forest. Luciano and Flavio had attacked Feliciano and Lovino again. That meant Ludwig, Kiku, Lutz, and Kuro were fighting as well. The fight had broken out outside a set of buildings nearby, so the two had decided the best place for them would be in the forest since it wasn’t so out in the open. Since Ava had to be there to help with any injuries, Brian had come to protect her from Luciano. They had all learned that any time he attacked Feliciano, he usually ended up going after her as well, after all. 

“Nothing,” she shook her head. “I’m just anxious, I guess.”

“I don’t blame you. At this point, you’re targeted just as much, if not more than, the first players.”

It was true. She never knew when Luciano would show up. The chances were less when it was a fight he wasn’t directly involved in, so she didn’t worry as much during those. But when he was directly attacking Feliciano, he always managed to find her. And recently, his attempts at capturing her had been bolder…She always managed to get away, but there had been a lot more close calls. 

“I’m sorry you always have to protect me…” she mumbled. 

It had become his unspoken duty. Even if Alfred wasn’t involved, he was coming to every fight with her. And ever since a few weeks ago, when Oliver had drugged her, he was always on protection detail instead of helping with the fights. 

“It’s fine. I would rather protect you than have something happen and have to rescue you.”

“It’s still frustrating…to take you away from your duties because I’m being targeted and can’t protect myself…” she sighed. 

“I know you weren’t interested in learning to use your gun before, but circumstances have changed,” he pointed out. “I think that you really should-!”

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly let out a cry of pain. His body fell forward towards her. She caught him, preventing him from falling face first into the ground. 

“Brian?!”

All he did was groan in response. There was a bloody gash on the back of his head. But before she could take off her bag to get any first aid items out, she froze in shock. 

“Luciano…?” She stared, wide eyed. 

“It’s about time I finally got my hands on you, ragazza,” he grinned. 

“Run…!” Brian managed to push her away from him. 

Luciano began walking towards her. She was frozen for a moment, but then her body registered the threat and what she should be doing in response. She flipped around, shooting to her feet as she ran like a bat out of hell, dodging trees as she went. 

“Why…?” She muttered. “Why…? Why?!”

This was the first time Brian had been injured because of her. She had chosen to turn away from the reality of her situation. They weren’t the same people on Sundays. On their days of peace, she could be a regular girl who enjoyed her time with her boyfriend. But this moment was how things should be…how they really were. She wasn’t a regular girl. She was an Attendant who served the enemy of the man currently hunting her down. That was supposed to make him her enemy as well. 

“I don’t want to hurt you, ragazza,” Luciano called. “Don’t you secretly want this? If you didn’t, you wouldn’t ignore everything and spend your Sundays with me. You want to be with me, Ava.”

She grit her teeth. She didn’t like hearing that question…or his solid reasoning. 

“That…it can’t be true…I can’t let you catch me…!”

To her surprise, he laughed. “You can keep saying that if it will make you feel better. But I know the truth…and deep down, you know it as well.”

A pit settled in her stomach. She couldn’t let his words get to her. She had to keep running. She had to. Their secret meetings shouldn’t have happened. She served Feliciano, his counterpart and enemy. Everyone would think she was betraying them if they found out what she had been doing…

Why did I let this go on for so long…? Why did I let Casey convince me to go on that first date when I knew all of this? This was stupid…! I’ve been so stupid…!

Her feet suddenly came out from under her. She gasped as her body hit the ground hard. There was a tree root sticking out of the ground, and this was the worst time to be clumsy and trip over it. She flipped over to see where Luciano was. Sure enough…he had been right on her trail. She was frozen in place once more. 

She knew she needed to pull out her gun. Even if she was a terrible shot, at this range, it should be fine. It would at least keep some distance between them. And at this point, it was the only thing she could do to protect herself. Her fingers fumbled with the gun strapped at her hip. 

Her hands shook as she pointed it at him. She knew what she had to do to protect herself…but even as he was reaching down to grab her, she couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger. Tears filled her eyes as the gun fell from her hands. 

I can’t do it…I can’t shoot at him…

He pulled her into his arms.

“There’s no reason to feel bad, ragazza,” he whispered in her ear as he went about tying her hands together behind her back. “I wouldn’t be able to shoot you either.”

He suddenly stood up straight, seemingly alerted by something. 

“Bella!” Feliciano’s voice suddenly yelled. 

Before she could even react, there was a gunshot so loud she wanted to cover her ears. Ludwig was standing a short distance away, his shotgun pointed in their direction. Feliciano was hiding behind him. Her head flipped around to Luciano. He had jumped away, and didn’t look to have been hit by the bullet. She resisted the urge to sigh in relief. She couldn’t let them see…

The two ran towards them, Ludwig at Luciano while Feliciano ran to her side. He kneeled beside her, untying the ropes around her arms. 

“I’m so sorry we didn’t get here sooner!” He exclaimed. 

“It’s fine…” she muttered, turning to watch Ludwig and Luciano. 

It was clear Luciano was irritated that they had been interrupted. But in the middle of their fight, he suddenly looked right at her. Ludwig paused, unsure of what to do. 

“Don’t forget what I said, ragazza. You’re not being honest with yourself and you know it.”

Her breath hitched from how intense his stare was. The desire in his eyes was overwhelming to her. 

Don’t look at me like that…Please….I can’t stand it…

With those parting words, Luciano took off. 

“What did he mean, you aren’t being honest with yourself?” Ludwig asked once he was gone. 

“...Nothing,” she muttered. “It was just something ridiculous.”

“I see…”

“Are you alright, bella?” Feliciano hugged her. “I’m sure that was super scary…When we found Brian injured and saw you were gone, I was scared that Luci had already taken you away…”

“Is Brian okay?!” She exclaimed, remembering what had happened earlier. “I have to treat his injury!”

“Lovino and Kiku took him to Alfred’s house,” Ludwig explained. “I believe they were going to try to treat him themselves, but it’s probably a good idea for you to oversee. Plus, I’m sure he’s worried about you.”

“Let’s go then,” she nodded. 

Ludwig drove the three of them to Alfred’s house so that they could meet up with the others. Brian was resting on the couch. Alfred was causing a ruckus about his injury despite how Kiku was trying to tell him an injured person needed a calm environment to heal. 

“Thank god,” Lovino sighed in relief when the three walked in. “I’m glad Luciano didn’t get his hands on you, Ava. I don’t know shit about wounds and Alfred won’t shut up.”

“Did you say Ava?!” Brian exclaimed. “She’s alright?!”

“I’m right here,” she rushed over to the couch. “I’m so sorry, Brian…This happened to you because of me…”

“Don’t even,” he was baffled. “This happened because I was distracted and Luciano got the drop on me. He almost got to you too because of my mistake. This isn’t your fault.”

“But still…Let me look at the wound. I’ll patch you up, okay?”

She went about disinfecting and bandaging Brian’s wound as the group continued the conversation. 

“So what happened?” Lovino asked. “Obviously Luciano didn’t get her…”

“We managed to get to her right on time,” Ludwig explained. 

“The poor bella…” Feliciano cried. “Luci is so mean! He was tying her up and everything!”

It seemed those words only made Brian feel even more guilty from the look on his face. 

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “They saved me, right? So in the end, nothing really happened.”

“It’s alright for you to be upset about it…” he muttered. “Something like that would be traumatizing to any normal person…”

“Well…you aren’t wrong about that…But we aren’t normal, right?” She forced herself to smile. 

“Guess you’re right,” he chuckled. 

“You probably have a concussion too after that hit…You have to be careful with what you do for a bit, alright?”

“Got it…Damn, what a drag…”

She turned to everyone and decided to voice the decision she had made during the car ride. 

“I can’t be on the battlefield anymore.”

Everyone turned to stare at her in surprise. 

“Bella, are you scared?” Feliciano gently wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t want Luci to take you away…If not being with us will prevent that….”

Ludwig seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before nodding. “I agree that your decision is for the best. We can’t always protect you. This will ensure your safety and ease our minds. You can still do your job even if you aren’t with us.”

“I agree…When a fight starts, I’ll prepare to help everyone. Afterward, I’ll rush to help the injured, or we can decide on a location beforehand that everyone can go to.”

“That is the best way to go about this,” Kiku agreed.

“I know you always want to be there to help…” Brian looked like he was racked with guilt. “This is my fault. If I could protect you properly, something like this would have never happened…”

“It isn’t your fault,” she shook her head. “You did the best you could. We didn’t expect him to sneak up on us like that. That’s why I’m going to stay away. It’s what’s best. Nobody will have to worry that I’m in danger.”

“I guess you’re right…” Brian muttered.

Luciano called her that night. Tomorrow was Sunday. They hadn’t made any plans for a date yet. Since they always saw each other on Sundays, they would usually plan what they were doing the night before. But this time around, she didn’t answer his call. 

“Gooood morning, Ava,” Casey greeted when Ava came out of her room the following morning. “There’s coffee ready.”

“Morning...”

Casey was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, watching a show on the TV. Ava got a cup and sat down to join her. 

“What are your plans with your boyfriend today? Anything fun?”

“...We don’t have any.”

Casey turned to look at her, clearly surprised. “You…don’t have any?”

It was then that she picked up on the fact Ava looked off. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked, pausing her show. “Did something happen?”

“I guess you could say that…” Ava muttered.

And so, she explained what had happened during the battle the day before. 

“He thinks…that deep down I secretly want him to capture me…because I want to be with him. He pointed out why else would I spend my Sundays with him if I didn’t,” she said at the end. 

“...Do you?” Casey asked. 

“I…don’t know…” she muttered. “That’s what scares me. I could have shot my gun to try to get away….but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t shoot at him. I…gave up instead. That’s why I can’t be at the battles anymore. I don’t know what I’ll do if I’m faced with that situation again…”

“Have you told Luciano this…? Is that why you don’t have a date?” 

“No…We don’t have a date because I didn’t answer him last night…”

“Are you planning on dodging the issue until it goes away…?” Casey asked. 

“I don’t know…Maybe…”

“Ava…It isn’t going to go away.”

I know that…But I don’t know what to do anymore…

~~~~

The gun went off, sending a jolt through Ava’s arms. Across the room was a target plastered on the wall that had a human body outline with the vital spots marked so you knew what to aim for. She let out a frustrated sigh. She had missed again. 

“At least I actually hit the body this time…”

She had been at this for a month now. During the day on Sundays, she spent time with Casey. In the evening, she came to the practice range. She had decided to take Brian’s advice to heart. He had said that since she was a target now, it would be a good idea for her to actually learn how to use her gun. She was still awful. Even though she was trying to learn how to aim properly, she still didn’t like the idea of aiming at a person, so it was hard to overcome that instinctual barrier. 

Instead of letting herself think about how much she missed her Sundays with Luciano, she focused all of her attention on this. She had stopped picking up his calls and answering his messages. She had stopped going to fights. Really, the only time she left the apartment was on Sundays when she was with Casey or to come here. Anytime someone was injured, they came to her, so she didn’t need to leave during the week. She had become a recluse. Casey was worried…probably rightly so. Brian and the others thought she was just shaken up after the kidnapping attempt and that it was good she was trying to learn how to defend herself. 

She shot a few more times. Back when she started, she couldn’t hit anywhere on the body for the life of her. She was a bit better now, but being distracted never helped her aim. She still couldn’t hit any of the vital spots…

She groaned, placing the gun down and ripping the protective earmuffs off. Her back slid against the wall, allowing her to sit and wallow in her defeat. It all seemed pointless. 

I don’t want to have to get better at shooting a gun. I don’t want to have to use one in the first place…All I want is a normal life. I thought I had given up on that a long time ago…I was able to ignore it…until I got close to Luciano. 

“Everything has gone to shit…”

“You have no idea how right you are, ragazza.”

The shock of hearing his voice made her shoot back up to her feet. Luciano was standing in the doorway. 

How long has he been watching…?

She did her best to stay calm. “How did you know where I was…?”

“I asked Casey,” he walked closer. “I told her that I needed to talk things out with you.”

“Oh…”

Dammit, Casey…Of course you would tell him….

“You stopped coming to fights.”

“I…I couldn’t do it anymore…I only get in the way. There was no reason for me to keep going if everyone just had to protect me…” She could barely look at him.

“You’re just running away. You know how you feel, and you also know those precious first players of yours won’t accept that, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she sighed. “I wanted to turn my back on my duties, pretend I was just a normal girl. But I’m not, and I can’t keep ignoring that. That’s why…I decided I can’t keep going out with you on Sundays. It isn’t…it isn’t real, and I was just fooling myself. Being together is hopeless if we can’t be the same way during the week as we can on Sundays.”

“You’re wrong,” he grabbed her hand, pulling her into his arms. “There is a way for every day to be like Sundays, and you know it. Just let me catch you.”

That same look was in his eyes…the desire that was there the day he had almost captured her. She glanced away. She knew if she didn’t, she would lose herself in those eyes…

“I can’t…If I did that, I would be abandoning everything in my life…Casey, Brian, even your counterparts…They’re all important to me too. I would be giving up too much. No matter how much I might want to…I can’t. Don’t you understand that?”

“I refuse to accept that,” he growled. “I won’t give up until I have you. I warned you before that I don’t stop until I get what I want.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. “I envy you…You can do whatever you want…But I can’t. I don’t have that luxury…”

She managed to slip out of his arms, which were desperately trying to keep her against him. Her tears spilled down her cheeks. 

“I’m sorry…” she muttered as she ran from the room. 

Masterlist

“I see you took my advice,” Casey chucked, flicking the hickey on Ava’s neck as she walked by. 

Ava’s cheeks flushed. Her shirt was hiding the rest of them but of course, Casey had walked in when her hair wasn’t hiding her neck. It wasn’t actually a big deal if Casey knew, but a little embarrassing for marks to be seen nonetheless. 

“It escalated before I knew it…” she muttered. 

Casey sat down on the couch with her. Ava was currently on her laptop, working on a course to review some of her nursing skills. Casey would never say it, but she thought it was an act of futility. The skills being reviewed were all hospital based care. As long as she obeyed Feliciano and the others, she would never practice nursing in a hospital setting. 

“You know I’m not judging you. It’s about time you got some. Was it good?” 

She sighed but nodded. “He’s practically good at everything, so of course it was…”

“You’ve got it bad,” Casey chuckled. “I love it.”

“I forgot to tell you. He decided he wanted…our relationship to be official…”

“So he’s your boyfriend now?” She grinned. 

“Yeah…”

“You don’t seem very excited…”

“I’m happy…It’s just that everything is so complicated now. I’m living a double life. We’re a couple on Sundays but every other day of the week I have to act like his enemy and run when he tries to capture me. And with Feliciano and the others…I’ve started noticing little things. Sometimes it just annoys me a little bit, like Feli trying to answer my phone and realizing there are no boundaries because of it. Other times one of them says something crazy, like Gilbert saying I usually behave so it’s fine to cut me slack when I do something they think is bad. Which was answering that phone call during a break in our meeting, by the way. It’s just little things like that that keep compounding. I never used to notice those things. Or they didn’t bother me if I did…”

“They really annoy me…” Casey shook her head. “You’re finally opening your eyes to how things really are. I’m proud of you for that, but I know it’s hard to see, so I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Ava smiled. “Like you said, it’s been going on for a long time…It’s about time I saw the big picture. Luciano, how they really are…all of it.”

“Hell yeah,” Casey grinned. 

Later that day, Ava got a call from Arthur. Oliver was wreaking havoc in his territory. As usual, he was using poison and a large knife as his weapons of choice. Some of the others had come to back him up, and now it had escalated into a large fight between them, Alfred, Allen, Matthew, Matt, Francois, Francis, Yao, Zao, Ivan, and Viktor. Brian was on his way to help, and Arthur had asked him to pick Ava up on his way. She was slightly annoyed that she was being told that Brian would be picking her up instead of being asked if that was okay, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. With it being such a big fight and poison being involved, she absolutely had to be there. 

Arthur had tried to get the fight away from the city, so they had wound up in the middle of the forest in his territory. Brian chose a secluded spot a good distance away from the fight for Ava to set up. There was a large tree trunk she could take cover behind. 

“You’ve been pretty quiet this whole time,” Brian said. “Is something wrong?”

Leave it to him to notice…I guess I need to snap out of it and get better at pretending everything is fine.

“No, nothing really,” she shook her head. “Just lost in thought, I guess.”

He eyed her carefully but had no choice but to accept that answer. “Alright then…Stay safe. Luciano isn’t here, so I’m going to help fight. Send out an S.O.S if you need help.”

“I will. Be safe.”

“Right,” he nodded before dashing off in the direction of the fight. 

She sighed, kneeling down behind the tree trunk. All she could do was wait and hope nobody was injured.

The waiting period during fights was always a mixture of being bored and anxious about anyone getting injured. But after sitting around for over half an hour, she was more bored than anything. She would never wish for someone to be injured so that she had something to do, but at least when Luciano was at the fights, Brian would be with her, so she had someone to talk to. 

“Oh! How wonderful! It’s the lovely poppet!” Oliver exclaimed from behind her. 

She shot to her feet, shocked that she had been found. Even though she was bored, an interaction with the second players wasn’t how she wanted to kill her boredom. 

“O-Oliver…What are you doing over here…? I thought you and Arthur had gotten into a fight…” 

“Oh, nonsense, I don’t care about that,” he giggled. “I started this fight because I wanted to lure you out~! There’s something I want from Luciano, and he’ll absolutely want to trade if I have you.”

Oh shit…This is not good. 

She tried to run, but Matt stepped out from the trees, blocking her way. 

“Not so fast. Luciano keeps losing you because he always chases you by himself. But we have you outnumbered. You won’t get away from us.”

“Just make this easy and come along with us, dearie,” Oliver smiled. “We don’t want to hurt you. Luciano wouldn’t be very happy if we did.”

He suddenly held up a handkerchief. It most likely was steeped in some kind of drug that would knock her out. She absolutely could not let him use that against her…

She attempted to dash around Matt, but he grabbed her arm and pushed her back towards Oliver. 

“Gotcha~!” Oliver wrapped his arm around her before trying to use the handkerchief. 

She thrashed around, making it difficult for him to get a good seal over her mouth and nose. But she was still breathing whatever drug it was in. She was beginning to feel woozy. 

“Oh dear…!” Oliver exclaimed as her vision started to blur. 

He let go of her, causing her to stumble forward and fall to her knees. Through her blurred vision, she could see Luciano walking up to them. 

“I see you’re trying to take something that belongs to me,” he said. 

“Only so that we could hand her over to you, of course,” Oliver explained before chuckling. “…for a price.”

“That’s what I thought. Get out of here. Unfortunately for you, your plan has failed.”

“Well, darn…” Oliver sighed. 

“Let’s go,” Matt said. 

She could hear footsteps moving away from them, so she assumed they were leaving. 

She was unable to keep herself upright anymore. Luckily, Luciano caught her as she began to fall forward. 

“It looks like he was pretty close to succeeding,” Luciano chuckled, stroking her hair. “But you put up a good fight, ragazza.”

A part of her knew she needed to get up and get away from him, but her head was too fuzzy. Her body wouldn’t move at all, even if she wanted it to. 

“Up you go,” he picked her up. 

Her eyes closed, the sway of him walking lulling her to sleep. 

She woke up not too long later. They were at the edge of the forest. 

“Ah?!” She forcefully pushed at his chest.

The unexpected impact caused him to drop her. 

“What the hell are you doing, ragazza?” Luciano stared at her, as if she was crazy, as she scrambled to her feet. 

“Oliver’s drug knocked me out!”

“I know that. What’s your point?”

“You’re taking advantage of that!” 

“I also just saved you from being captured by Oliver,” he pointed out. 

She didn’t have a comeback for that. 

“Did you want me to just leave you passed out in the forest?” 

“No…”

“Then I don’t see the issue here.”

“This shouldn’t count…I was drugged so I won’t be at my best trying to get away from you…It’s like cheating.”

“When did you start seeing this as a game, ragazza?” He chuckled. 

“Hasn’t it always been one big game?” She sighed. 

“Like I told you before, I only play games if I’ll win in the end. But I suppose you’re right, this is like a game. And my victory is practically guaranteed.”

“Why do you say that?”

He leaned forward, whispering in her ear. “The sweet way you were moaning for me last night, of course.”

Her cheeks flushed red. She wanted to deny it, but how could she? 

He chuckled at her reaction before placing a kiss on her neck. 

“Go home, ragazza. Tell those idiot counterparts that you were drugged by Oliver and I’m sure they won’t complain. I guess I’ll let you off the hook for today.”

“How big of you,” she smiled. 

“Next time you won’t be so lucky,” he smirked before turning to walk away. “I’ll see you soon.”

She watched him go. Since she had gotten a ride with Brian, she had to walk all the way home. It wasn’t the best, considering she was still groggy from the drug, but it was better than staying at the battle and risking Oliver finding her again. 

“I was just about to go looking for you,” Casey said when Ava walked into their apartment. 

“Why? What’s wrong?” 

“Brian told me that you were drugged at that fight you went to but you decided it was a good idea to walk home, that’s what! He’s been looking for you and he asked if I would too.”

“I’ll tell him I’m home now, so there’s no need to worry. I’m sorry he brought you into this…”

“Don’t apologize! I was just worried about you. Why didn’t you just call and ask me to come get you? I can’t believe you were drugged…”

“I didn’t really think about it,” Ava admitted. “The drug has made my brain kinda foggy…”

She pulled out her phone, realizing that Brian had been trying to call her for a while now. 

“Oops…”

He picked up almost immediately when she called him back. 

“Are you an idiot?! Why would you walk home by yourself after being drugged by Oliver?! Are you okay? Did you get home?”

“Yes, I’m home safe. I’m sorry. I wasn’t really thinking straight because of the drug, honestly…I just knew I couldn’t stay there and risk Oliver finding me again.”

That seemed to calm him down a little. “What even happened? Why did Oliver go after you?”

“Well…he said he wanted something from Luciano, and wanted to capture me so he could trade me for it…but I managed to get away from him, so it’s fine.”

“Are you serious…?” He grumbled. “Even when Luciano isn’t there, he’s still causing problems for you…”

“Is everyone else okay?” She asked. 

“Yeah, everyone’s fine. The fight was dying down around the time you said you were leaving. Oliver and Matt ran off or something and the others decided they had retreated after a while….Wait…Do you think Oliver and Matt left because they weren’t successful in taking you?”

“Probably.”

“Damn…so then you were their target the whole time.”

“That’s what Oliver said, yeah.”

“This is getting ridiculous…It’s one thing for one of them to let Luciano know you’re at a battle, but it’s another for them to try to capture you for Luciano, even if it’s for their own gain.”

“Trust me, I don’t like it either,” she sighed. 

“I’ll let the others know what really happened. They're worried about you too.”

“Tell them I’m just fine. I’m just going to hang around the apartment for the rest of the day. Hopefully that brain fog from the drug goes away soon.”

“Hopefully. Sorry you had to go through that…”

“Don’t worry about it. You couldn’t have known.”

“I guess so…See ya.”

“See ya later.”

“Today’s my day off,” Casey grinned once Ava hung up. “Shall we lounge around and watch movies to get rid of that brain fog?”

Masterlist

((Warning: 18+ content towards the end of the chapter.)

“Bella!” Feli waved Ava over as she entered his living room. “Your phone is ringing! It’s a call from someone named Elle! Should I answer it?”

Her eyes shot open and she rushed over in a panic. “No, I’ve got it!”

Ava had been called to Feliciano’s home for a meeting earlier that day. She had been in the kitchen to get a drink and had left her phone on the coffee table. She absolutely could not let Feli answer that phone call…because Elle was the name she had used for Luciano’s contact. She had considered just an L or even Lulu but decided those were both strange or obvious. Elle was better because it was disguised as a real name. Nobody would guess it was Luciano calling or texting her if they saw it…not that they should be suspicious in the first place. 

She grabbed her phone off the table before dashing from the room. 

“Sorry, this is urgent!” She called to everyone as she rushed off. “I’ll be back after I take this!” 

Once she was safely in her car, she answered the call. 

“Buongiorno, ragazza~” Luciano said, his tone sounding amused already. “Where are you right now?”

“Are you trying to cause problems?” She exclaimed. “You’re asking because you know I’m with Feliciano, right?”

“Possibly,” he chuckled.

“He almost answered my phone! There’s absolutely no boundaries with these people. Don’t you understand how bad that could have been?”

“It would have been unexpected, but I could have handled it. You forget that I can just say I tracked down your phone number. Nobody would think twice.”

“I guess that’s true…You are a stalker…”

He sighed, but said nothing about the comment. 

“No more impromptu calls, okay? I don’t want anymore scares like that, even if you can just pretend you got my number somehow…”

“But having to ask beforehand defeats part of the point of calling you.”

“Well…” she mused. “As long as you just make sure I’m not with Feli and the others around the time you want to talk to me, it’s fine…”

“I’ll try my best,” he reluctantly agreed. 

“Did you call because you needed something?” 

“Oh, yes. I want you to come over for dinner tomorrow.”

“At your house again?”

“Yes,” he said before sighing. “Flavio asked if you would join us. He said he wants to see you now that you’re my girlfriend.”

“W-What?!” She exclaimed. “Since when am I your girlfriend?!”

“Hm…since now?” He chuckled. 

“No discussion involved I see…”

“It has been over a month since we’ve started seeing each other. Wouldn’t you rather call me your boyfriend over just someone you go on dates with every week?”

Putting labels on it meant commitment…and she was aware of the problems that came with that. Going on dates with him was already problematic enough. She had been hiding it from everyone for weeks now, and Casey had been helping cover for her if people came looking for her on Sundays. 

“You’re worrying about tedious things again, aren’t you?” Luciano sighed in response to her silence. 

Tedious to you, yes…

“I guess you can call me your girlfriend…” she agreed without answering the question. 

“That means I’m your boyfriend, Ava. Don’t forget that. So I’ll see you tomorrow at six?”

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

“Bueno. I’ll let you get back before anyone comes looking for you. Ciao, ragazza.”

“Yeah, ciao.”

“My boyfriend, huh…?” She muttered after hanging up. 

On one hand, she was happy…but on the other hand, she knew she was just making everything more complicated for herself. She got out of her car, heading back inside. Everyone was waiting for her. 

“What took you so long?” Lovino’s tone was impatient. 

“Maybe she was on the phone with that guy she went on a date with,” Gilbert snickered. 

“But the person’s name was Elle,” Feliciano pointed out. “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”

“Enough,” Ludwig interrupted. “Ava, we were in the middle of a meeting. You should not have run out to take a phone call.”

“S-Sorry…”

“Cut her some slack, West,” Gilbert shrugged. “She rarely misbehaves. It’s fine every once in a while.”

“Maybe so…” Ludwig loosened up just a little. 

“Let’s get back to the meeting~!” Feliciano grinned. “Come back and sit by me, bella!”

She did so without saying a word. But she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. They were on a break from the meeting, but maybe Ludwig was right. She probably shouldn’t have run outside to take a phone call. But Gilbert’s comment about misbehaving didn’t sit right with her…She was sure they had said things like that in the past, so why was it getting to her now? Was it because of all the things Casey had pointed out the other day?

~~~~

“So what’s the plan today?” Casey asked Sunday morning as they were sitting together on the couch with their coffee. “Do you have a date?”

Casey asked every Sunday even though she knew the answer was always yes. 

“Yeah,” Ava nodded. “Flavio wanted to see me too, so I’m having dinner at their house.”

“Ooh, nice. You said it was a fancy mansion right? And that the garden was super pretty?”

“It was. Maybe I’ll ask him if we can walk around it again. It was so serene in the moonlight…”

“Sounds like the perfect romantic setting,” Casey chuckled. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Oh, shush,” she rolled her eyes. “And that doesn’t take much off the table, you know.”

“Harsh,” Casey laughed. “There’s a new bookstore opening down the street. Wanna check it out before your date?”

“Absolutely,” she grinned. 

The two girls spent their afternoon at the bookstore before coming home so Ava could get ready for her date. She was much more relaxed compared to the first time she had gone to Luciano’s home. Since then, they had met at his home before going elsewhere a few times. She hadn’t spent much time inside apart from their first date, though. A part of her still felt like she needed to have her guard up, but most of her walls had fallen by now. 

When she knocked on the front door, she was surprised to see Lutz. But considering she had seen Kuro on their first date, she shouldn’t have been. 

“Oh…it’s you,” he muttered before looking her up and down, a smirk spreading across his face. “Trying to seduce my boss?”

“N-No,” her cheeks flushed pink. “I just wore something nice…”

She was in a black skirt and a nice green tank top. It really wasn’t that fancy or sexual, just a solid date outfit in her opinion.

“Oh, bella, you’re here!” She suddenly heard Flavio exclaim. 

Lutz stepped aside, allowing Flavio to wrap his arm around her shoulders as he pulled her inside. 

“Don’t let Lutz harass you. He’s just jealous that mio fratello has such a bella ragazza on his arm. It’s so good to see you again. Luci has hogged all of your attention and hasn’t let me near you at all. How cruel is that when I’m the one who helped get the two of you together at the club, don’t you agree~?”

She was going to ask about that, but he kept talking, so she chose to follow him deeper into the house in silence instead. 

“But it’s been nice to see him enjoying himself for a change. Even though it’s frustrating when he can’t catch you on the battlefield, it seems like he enjoys the chase. Probably because he knows he’ll have you on Sundays and there’s nothing those counterparts of ours can do to stop it.”

“Fratello, you’re talking her ear off,” Luciano interrupted him once they reached the kitchen. 

“Oh…My apologies, bella,” he chuckled. “I got a little too excited, it seems.”

“It’s fine,” she smiled. “We haven’t really talked at all. Are you cooking again, Luciano?”

“We both are!” Flavio grinned. “Since everyone is going to be joining us this evening, I told him I would help. It’s more work than just cooking for the two of you, after all.”

“Oh, really? Who all lives here? I just saw Lutz and I saw Kuro on our first date.”

“It’s the four of us, plus Lutz’s brother, Gilen,” Luciano replied. 

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him…” she muttered. 

“I can’t imagine you have,” Flavio replied. “He stays out of the fighting. He tends to shut himself away in his room or the library. The only ones he really talks to are Lutz and Viktor…Oh, you know Ivan’s counterpart, don’t you?”

She nodded. He was a rather intimidating man. Ivan was intimidating himself, but Viktor was on another level. She swore she had never heard him speak. But if someone who sounded as shy as Gilen could speak to him, he must not be as scary as he seemed. 

“Anyway, we all live together because Luci wanted this big mansion and what’s the point of having all of these rooms with just the two of us?” Flavio continued. 

“You have a point,” she agreed. “That sounds like it would get lonely.”

“True enough. It isn’t exactly lively here. Lutz is lazy and Kuro and Gilen keep to themselves. But it’s still better to have the others here.”

“You’re starting to sound sappy, fratello,” Luciano chastised. “I thought you were supposed to be helping.”

“Right, of course,” he chuckled, going over to help his brother. “Feel free to do as you like, bella. Dinner will be done soon.”

“I’ll look around the first floor a little,” she shrugged. “Any places you want me to stay away from?”

“Look around as much as you like!” Flavio shook his head. 

“I’ll be back then.”

Once she left the room, Flavio turned to his brother. 

“You said she watched you like a hawk the first time you cooked for her. I’ll bet she was worried you would drug her. But now look at her. She trusts you, fratello.”

“And she said I wouldn’t be able to win her trust,” Luciano chuckled.

“I would call that a glorious success. And for how stubborn she seems, it didn’t take that long, either.”

“You’re right about that. And sooner or later, whether she realizes it or not, she’s going to want to stop fighting when I try to capture her. She’ll realize that letting me take her will make everything easier.”

Flavio grinned. “Things will surely be lively around here with her around.”

Dinner was interesting to say the least. When Luciano invited her over, even if he said it was because Flavio wanted to see her, she wasn’t expecting to have dinner with everyone. Kuro was fairly quiet throughout the whole evening. Lutz made occasional comments towards her that seemed to have hidden sexual meanings. When they introduced her to Gilen, it looked like he didn’t know what to make of her. Sometimes, it seemed like he was looking at her with pity, while other times if she tried talking to him, he would stare at her in a panic, as if unsure of how to talk to her. Eventually, someone else would step in because it would be too hard to watch. 

After everyone was done eating, she snuck away with Luciano into the kitchen as the servants began to clean up. 

“I apologize, ragazza,” he sighed. 

“What for?” She asked, fairly confused.

“That dinner was a mess. I should have known better than to let all of them interact with you at once…”

“It was fine,” she placed her hand on his. “They’re a little quirky, but I think you underestimate the amount of weird I deal with almost every day.”

“If you say so, ragazza,” he chuckled. “I’m glad you don’t want to run for the hills.”

“I don’t,” she chuckled as well. “Um…There’s something I wanted to ask. Can we go out to the garden again?” 

“If you’d like. You enjoyed it that much?”

“It was really pretty under the moonlight…” she smiled.

“Then let’s go,” he offered her his hand.

She took it, so he led her outside to the garden. Taking a deep breath in, she smiled. The scent of the roses enveloped her…and the moonlight truly made it serene. 

“You’re adorable, ragazza,” he grinned as they made their way down the path. 

“Why do you say that all of a sudden…?”

“Your reaction to the garden. It was adorable. I’ll bring you here as much as you want if it makes you this happy.”

“I’m sure I’ll want to take you up on that offer again…”

The two wound up sitting against a tree deep within the garden. Luciano thought it would be a nice place to take a break from their walk and enjoy the night together. Ava readily agreed. But if she had known she would end up making out with him out in the open, she wondered if she still would have agreed. 

Luciano’s lips lingered on hers in repeated long kisses as he pulled her onto his lap. One of his hands slipped under her skirt, trailing up her thigh. 

“L-Luci…” she stammered against his lips. 

“Yes, ragazza?” He smirked. 

His lips moved down to her neck, lightly biting her before sucking on the skin. 

“Mm…! P-Please don’t leave marks where other people can see.”

“But I want everyone to know you belong to me,” he whispered in her ear before lightly biting it. 

She let out a small squeak of surprise. “It will just be troublesome to explain myself to your counterparts, though…And besides…if they think I have a boyfriend, they might start trying to get in the way of our time together on Sundays.”

“Tch…I don’t particularly want to deal with that…” he sighed. “Fine, you win.”

He leaned down to kiss her before moving down to her chest, sucking at the exposed skin above the hem of her shirt.

“Shall we go up to my room, ragazza?” He smirked.

Her eyes widened in shock. “No way…! That’s a horrible idea. If I go up there with you, I might not be able to leave…”

“Well then, shall I fuck you right here?”

“Y-You wouldn’t…!”

A wicked grin spread across his face. “Are you challenging me, ragazza?” 

“U-Uh…”

She didn’t know how to answer. Technically she had, but now she regretted her words. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to be able to back out of whatever he now had in mind. 

“I’ll let you pick, ragazza. We can either go up to my room, or you can be stubborn and I’ll make you mine right here and now.”

Her cheeks flushed bright red. She bit her lip, debating her options. She had her watch on. She didn’t know what time it was, but it would go off when it was eleven. It would be harder to leave Luciano’s room…and there was always the chance that if they started cuddling after having sex, she would be tired and might fall asleep in his arms…She couldn’t let that happen. Right now, they were deep in the garden, so the chances of anyone finding them was low…

“I-I can’t go up to your room with you…” 

“You’ve made your choice then,” he chuckled. 

He leaned down to kiss her. His hands slipped under her skirt and began pulling her panties down her thighs. But after a moment, her eyes flew open at the feeling of fabric tearing. 

“D-Did you just…?!”

“I think I’ll keep these,” he grinned, holding up her panties, along with the knife he used to cut them off. 

“B-But…”

“You’re going home after this anyway, right?” He asked as he pocketed both. 

“Yes…” she sighed in defeat. 

“Then what does it matter?” He pulled her shirt off. 

“A-Are you really going to strip me out here…?”

“You’re the one who chose this,” he chuckled. 

He leaned down, biting at the skin of her breast before sucking hard.

“Ah…!” She squirmed. 

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to squirm like that on my lap?” He smirked. 

“U-Um…I’m sorry?”

“Don’t apologize, ragazza,” he chuckled. “Just lift your hips for a moment.”

She put her weight on her shins, lifting her hips off of him like he asked. Her face flushed bright red when he unzipped his pants, pulling his erection out. 

“I can’t wait to fuck that innocence out of you,” he grinned, using one hand to position her. 

She bit her lip at the feeling of his tip slipping between the slick of her folds. 

“Ready?” He whispered in her ear.

She nodded, so he pulled her hips down onto him. 

“Mm…!” She grabbed onto his shoulders. 

She was tight. It had been some time since she had last had sex. 

“Ragazza…you aren’t a virgin, right?”

“Of course not…!” She exclaimed as he slowly bounced her hips on him. 

“No need to be offended,” he chuckled. 

“I-I’m not…”

“Keep moving your hips.”

She did as he said as his hands moved her bra aside. She couldn’t help but moan as his fingers teased one breast while he created hickeys on the other. 

“Good girl…I want to hear you. I want you to moan my name when you cum.”

“I-I don’t want to be too loud…That’s embarrassing…!”

“What was that?” He narrowed his eyes at her as he pulled her hips down as far as they would go.

“O-Oh fuck…!”

He smirked at her reaction, grinding their hips together. She clung to him, unable to contain her moans. 

“I will! I will!” She exclaimed as he kept at it. 

“Good,” he chuckled. 

She continued to cling to him, a moaning mess, as he aggressively bounced her hips on top of him. Even if she tried to help by moving herself, he wanted to control the pace. All the while, he switched between teasing her breasts with his teeth or kissing her. 

“Are you close, ragazza?” He whispered in her ear after some time. 

“M-Mhm…”

“I’m sure you’re extra sensitive then,” he reached under her skirt to rub her clit. 

“W-Wait…! A-Ahh…It’s too much….!”

“Just accept it, ragazza,” he chuckled. “Doesn’t it feel good?”

“Yes…Y-You’re…going to make me…!”

“Cum for me.”

“Mm…! L-Luciano…!” 

She clung to him tightly as her body lightly shook. 

“F-Fuck…” he muttered in response to her walls tightening around him because of her climax. 

It was enough to push him over the edge as well. She bit her lip, resisting the urge to moan from the feeling of his cum filling her up. 

She loosened her grip so she could actually look at him. He grinned before leaning in to kiss her. 

Masterlist

“Sooo…where are you going?” Casey stopped Ava as she was about to leave their apartment. 

“Um…just out for a while…” her cheeks flushed from the embarrassment of being caught.

“Oh, really?” Casey smirked. “We aren’t making plans today because you want to go walk around by yourself?”

She didn’t have a comeback for that. Casey was smart. She most likely had figured out what was going on. 

“Your date must have gone really well if you’re going to see him again,” Casey was acting fairly smug. 

“Alright, alright,” she sighed. “Yes, I’m going to meet him.”

“The plot thickens,” she chuckled, rubbing her hands together. “When are you going to give me more details about your date? Come on, come on! Did you kiss?”

She had pressed Ava for details all week, but Ava wasn’t prepared to talk about what had happened yet. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about the kiss…and she wasn’t ready to admit that she did kind of want to see him again. But after this, she couldn’t keep dodging the issue. 

“I need to get going, but I’ll tell you everything when I get home…” she sighed in defeat. 

“Yes!” Casey pumped her fist in triumph. “Have fun on your date!”

“It’s not a date…” she grumbled as she left. 

But as she headed for the first floor, she realized that probably wasn’t correct. Even if Luciano hadn’t specifically called it a date, he had invited her out again after a first date. This was most likely another date in his eyes. And she had accepted…

“Oh jeez…I’m digging a hole here, aren’t I…?”

Ava didn’t need to walk. She had a car, but it was nice outside and the walk would help clear her mind, even if her destination was on the other side of town. She was meeting Luciano at a coffee shop that was on the side of the city that was closer to the border of the second players’ territory. Because of that, she wasn’t likely to run into Feli or the others. The trade off was the probability of running into the second players. 

And sure enough, her worries came true as she neared her destination.

“Even if it’s Sunday, it’s pretty ballsy to come around here, dollface,” someone said from behind her. 

She turned to see Allen and Oliver. 

“The only reason I can is because it’s Sunday,” she replied.

“What could you possibly be doing out here?” Oliver questioned. “There’s nothing on this side of town that you can’t get closer to where you live, I’m sure.”

He was right. She hadn’t come up with some kind of story on why she was on their side of the city in case she ran into them. But before she could answer, Allen suddenly grinned. 

“Luciano got his hooks in ya, ain’t that right doll?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she tried not to be defensive, but her face flushed a bit. 

“Oh, I see!” Oliver grinned. “Are you going to meet him, poppet?”

“O-Of course not.”

“Sure you’re not,” Allen chuckled. “Then what are ya out here for, doll?”

She repressed the urge to grimace. She didn’t have an answer. 

“Mind your own business, will you?” She glared. 

He only laughed. “Defensive much?”

“Do have fun, poppet,” Oliver smiled. “I would rather it be us stealing from our counterparts, but I’m happy something is finally being taken from them. And from what I’ve seen, you’re quite precious to them~”

“See ya, dollface,” Allen grinned. 

She watched as the two walked off. Oliver’s words were a bit unsettling. She couldn’t let him get to her, though. She kept walking as she sighed. It only took a few more minutes to get to the coffee shop. 

Luciano was already there, sitting at a table near the back of the shop. She was a bit disappointed since she had hoped to arrive before him. She walked over, sitting down across from him. 

“You weren’t waiting long, right?”

“Not at all,” he smiled. “I’m just glad you came.”

There were two cups of coffee on the table already. He passed one of them to her. 

“I told you I would. Did you doubt me?”

“You are rather flighty when it comes to me,” he chuckled. 

She couldn’t deny that. She took a sip of the coffee, pleasantly surprised to find it was her favorite latte. 

“Did you know this was my favorite…?” She asked. 

“I took a guess. It’s what you’ve had every time I’ve seen you with coffee. I thought about waiting for you to order, but you wouldn’t have let me pay, right?”

“I feel like an inconvenience when other people pay for me…” 

“You think you could be an inconvenience to me?” He snorted. “I get rid of anything of the sort.”

“That…doesn’t surprise me,” she forced herself to chuckle. “By the way…does Allen know that I came to see you last Sunday…?”

“I didn’t say anything to him. I can’t say if the others kept it to themselves. Did you see him on your way here?”

“Yeah…him and Oliver. He asked if I was coming to see you.”

“What else would you be on this side of town for?” He smirked. 

“Ugh…” her face flushed. “Don’t say it like that…Next time I won’t come…”

“So there will be a next time?” His smirk widened into a grin. “That’s not what I meant…”

His smug look remained for a while. The two continued to chat as they finished their coffee. As they were getting ready to leave, they heard a familiar voice. 

“Knew you were a bad liar, doll,” Allen chuckled. 

Ava turned, her face immediately pink from being caught. Allen and Oliver were walking up to them. 

“We were passing by on our way back and saw you from the window,” Oliver giggled. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, dearie~ You could have just told us you were going to meet him.”

“I-It wasn’t any of your business…” She was quickly defensive. 

Luciano suddenly reached out and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. Her blush darkened to red. 

“So you lied and told them you weren’t meeting me?”

“Uh…well…”

It was hard to reply with how intense his gaze was. 

“Ragazza, they already knew why you were here. Denying it is simply foolish. The next time someone asks you, you’ll tell them the truth, right?”

“But it’s-”

Her eyes widened in shock as he pulled her forward, locking his lips with hers. 

“Oh my,” Oliver giggled. 

She was a bit breathless when he let her go. 

“You’ll tell them the truth, won’t you?” He smiled. 

She nodded without thinking.

“Damn, you’ve got her wrapped around your finger,” Allen chuckled under his breath. 

“Isn’t it about time you two get going?” Luciano prompted. “You’re interrupting our date.”

“Of course,” Oliver grinned. “We’ll take our leave. I’m sure we’ll see you again soon, poppet~”

“Good luck, dollface,” Allen chuckled. 

Yeah…I’ll need it…

“Well…I’m not ready to give you up quite yet, ragazza. Shall we take a walk? Or is there something else you would rather do?” Luciano grinned. 

“We can walk around,” she nodded. 

I feel like I just got whiplash…I just got a glimpse at a controlling side of him, didn’t I…?

Luciano stood, offering her his hand to help her up. She took it, but he didn’t let go once she was standing. She wasn’t exactly surprised by that, though. She let him keep her hand as they left the coffee shop. There was a large park nearby, so they decided that would be as good a place as any for their walk. 

The sun was beginning to set, casting an amber glow across the city. There weren’t very many kids around either. And with how nice the weather was, it was the perfect setting for a peaceful walk in Ava’s opinion. 

“How often do you actually relax like this, Luciano?” She decided to ask as they were watching the pond in the middle of the park. 

“Not very often,” he admitted. “Is it that obvious?”

“Not really. I just got that feeling. You seem like you would be a really busy person.”

“I am. But I wouldn’t mind setting aside my work to do these things more often with you,” he smirked. 

“You really lay it on thick, don’t you…?” Her cheeks flushed pink. “I’m really not that interesting…”

“I disagree. You become more intriguing the more I get to know you.”

She didn’t respond, but her fingers tightened their grip on his hand slightly. She thought he might not notice, but he smiled and pulled her closer. 

“Let me walk you home,” Luciano said later that evening. 

Ava checked her watch. It was only six in the evening, so it wasn’t that late. She didn’t need an escort home. When she thought about it, she realized that might not be the reason he was asking, though. 

“But what if the others see us? You know how bad that could be…”

“Does it really bother you that much?”

“I’m bound to Feliciano…you know that,” she muttered. “It…would be seen as betraying them. What the hell am I doing…?”

He began walking, pulling her along with him since he still had her hand. The sudden movement pulled her out of the beginning of her spiral. 

“You shouldn’t worry about it so much. If anything happens, I can handle it.”

“I’m holding you to that…” she sighed.

And so, the two walked back to Ava’s apartment, Ava desperately hoping that they didn’t run into Brian, Feli, or any of the others along the way. It was clear she was anxious about it. Luciano kept trying to keep her involved in their conversation to distract her. It worked somewhat, but she still worried nonetheless. Luckily, they made it there with no issues. 

“Are you going to invite me in?” He grinned cheekily as they stepped away from prying eyes. 

“Security is tight. If I let you walk me up, you couldn’t get back out,” she decided to return his cheeky grin with one of her own. 

“I could always stay long enough to make it worth bringing me in and out,” he countered. 

“As if Casey didn’t have enough to interrogate me over…” she grimaced. “She would just get the wrong idea…”

“Or is it the right one?” He chuckled. 

“Not at all…”

“Well then, you leave me no choice…”

He suddenly pulled her into his arms. Her cheeks flushed bright red with how close their faces were. 

“L-Luci…”

“Did you hear that from Flavio?” He grimaced.

“No? That’s what Feliciano calls you sometimes…Flavio uses the nickname too?”

“That’s even worse then,” he clucked his tongue, clearly disgruntled. 

“But I think it’s cute,” she grinned. “I like it.”

“It’s not cute,” he glared. 

She resisted the urge to laugh. Instead, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. 

“I think you’re cute, Luci.”

“Hmph…Don’t think you can get away with that, ragazza~” he smirked.

“Wha-?”

He silenced her with his lips. His fingers slid along the back of her head, lacing through her hair as he held her against him. She couldn’t help but feel swept away as their lips locked over and over. She was out of breath, her head laying on his shoulder, once they separated. 

“I guess I’ll allow you to use that ridiculous nickname if you promise to keep kissing me like that,” he chuckled, running his fingers through her hair. 

“I-It’s your fault…that I got swept up…”

“I’ll gladly take responsibility for making you so passionate,” he looked fairly smug.

Saying that might have backfired…

“Thank you for spending time with me today,” she stood up straight. “I should go help Casey with dinner…”

“I’m glad you agreed to see me again,” he smiled. “I hope you’ll continue to spend your Sundays with me. Ciao, ragazza.”

She watched him go. Once he was out of sight, she left their hiding spot and entered her apartment building. Casey was watching t.v. in the living room when she walked in. 

“Sooo…how did your date go? Not to mention your last date? I was promised all the details,” she grinned. 

“Alright, alright,” Ava chuckled. “I’ll tell you everything while we cook dinner.”

“Yes!” 

The two went about preparing their dinner as Ava told her about the date last Sunday, along with the one from today. By the time she was done, Casey was extremely giddy. 

“You two sound so cute!”

“Uh…I don’t want to argue with you, but there are still some major problems here…”

“I know, I know…” she sighed. “The fact he’s Feli’s counterpart, right?”

“Exactly…”

“So what?”

Ava almost dropped the cup of water in her hands. She stared at her best friend, eyes wide.

“W-What do you mean so what?”

“Ava…I’ve never said anything because I knew you probably wouldn’t do anything about it, but…you’re yanked around by Feli’s group and it isn’t right.”

“W-What…?”

“Yeah, they say they care about you, but all they ever want is for you to drop what you’re doing to help them or to see them. They never show any consideration to you or your time unless it’s a Sunday. That’s the only day you get to act like a normal person. I can’t even count the amount of things you’ve given up on because of them…including relationships! Remember last year? You were going out on dates with one of our high school friends and when he wanted to get serious, you stopped seeing him. Do you remember why?”

Ava’s head fell. “Ludwig told me…a boyfriend would want too much of my time…That having one would interfere with my duties…”

“Exactly. I know they’ve been around your whole life…but do you actually owe them anything?”

She couldn’t answer. 

“I’m just saying…that maybe this thing with Luciano is a good thing…to show you that you can be a normal person, Ava.”

Those words reminded her of her and Luciano’s conversation from outside of the coffee shop before she was supposed to meet Casey. 

“If you weren’t an Attendant, would you have run off last week?”

“W-What…?” She was surprised by the hypothetical. “Why are you asking?”

“Because I want to know what your choice would have been. Not the Attendant worried about what might have happened after midnight.”

She was silent for a moment, unsure of how to respond. She couldn’t wrap her head around the possibility of living life making choices with the mindset of a regular person. 

“But…I…it doesn’t matter, because that could never happen…I am an Attendant, so…”

“It seems you don’t understand…” he sighed. “I’m telling you to forget that for a moment and answer as if you were just a regular woman.”

“I wouldn’t have had an alarm on my watch…so I wouldn’t have been worried about the time…”

“Meaning you wouldn’t have run from me,” he smirked. 

“I guess not…” 

“Doesn’t that say something?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re surprisingly dense…” he chuckled, although he seemed a bit spent. 

“Hey…!” Her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. 

“I’m saying, you don’t dislike me as much as you think you do,” he grinned, brushing his fingers against her cheek. 

“I don’t know…” Ava sighed.

Masterlist

“Well, if it isn’t Ava~” Luciano’s voice came from behind her. 

It was Sunday, and she was out with Casey, as usual. It had been a few weeks since her encounter with him in the coffee shop, and they had run into him every week since then. Even if Ava tried to avoid him, he always managed to pull her into a conversation. Sometimes Casey would join in, but she usually tried to stay out of it. 

“Well, if it isn’t Luciano,” Ava mocked. 

“Sunday is the only time you will give me the time of day,” he ignored it. “I’m pleased we can always run into each other like this.”

“It’s as if you’re always keeping tabs on me to know where I am…”

“And what if I am?” He smirked.

“It would be creepy,” she grimaced. “Although that’s not surprising, coming from you. You’re always hunting me down during fights too.”

“I would be happy if you came to me one of these days. Or if you surrendered yourself to me on the battlefield.”

“Not a chance,” she gave him a cheeky grin. 

“It seems I always have to make the first move,” he sighed. “Care to join me for coffee?”

This was common too. He would invite her to do something with him, and she would shoot him down because she was already with Casey. 

“I’m with Casey right now. We already have plans.”

It looked like Casey was about to speak up, but Ava sent her a look, telling her not to say anything. Casey had already encouraged her encounters with Luciano from the beginning, but as the weeks went on, she was becoming more vocal about how she thought Luciano truly liked Ava and how she should give him a chance. 

He suddenly had a cocky look on his face. “Since you’re busy right now, I know the solution to that. I’ll make plans in advance. Please allow me to treat you to dinner next Sunday.”

Ava was completely baffled. “You…want to…what?”

He was clearly amused. “I’m asking you on a date.”

Casey was ready to burst with excitement. No matter how many times Ava had explained how dangerous Luciano was, the situation just didn’t sink in…or maybe Casey just didn’t care about it. She had it in her head that there was more going on. 

“But why?”

“I want to go on a date with you. What other reason do I need?”

“You’re up to something…” she muttered. “You would just try to capture me if I said yes.”

“Have I ever broken the rules of our day of peace before?” He lifted his hand to his chest, as if her words had truly hurt him. “I have had plenty of opportunities before now, isn’t that right?”

He has a point, but still. Going on a date with him? What would Brian, Feli, and the others say? I would be crazy to say yes…Sunday or not, he has ulterior motives. I don’t know what they are, so there’s no way-

“She’ll go!” Casey finally said since Ava was silent. 

“Wait, what?!” She exclaimed. 

Casey pulled her close, whispering in her ear. “He’s asking you on a date. What do you have to lose by going on a single date? It will be Sunday, so he won’t be dangerous. Think about this. He always makes it a point to come see you on Sundays. He clearly likes you.”

“I don’t know…He’s up to something…”

Casey sighed, shaking her head. “Either way…You’re curious, aren’t you?”

“Well…I guess I am a little…”

“So go on the date.”

“Ugh…Fine.”

Ava turned back to Luciano, who was waiting patiently. 

“I guess I’ll go…”

“Bueno,” he smirked. “I’ll need your number, ragazza. That way we can figure out the when and where. You have places to be today, after all.”

“Alright,” she sighed, taking out her phone. 

Casey waited as the two exchanged phone numbers. 

“I’ll talk to you later, then, ragazza. I hope you two enjoy your day.”

She nodded as he turned to leave. 

“It was nice to see you, Luciano,” Casey waved as he walked off. 

She turned to Casey. “Not a word of this to Brian or anyone else, okay?”

“Sure!” 

~~~~

That Saturday, Ava was at Feliciano’s house. He frequently had other guests over when she was there. It was no surprise that Ludwig was over. He had brought Gilbert along. Antonio was present as well, spending time with Lovino. 

“What are your plans for tomorrow, bella?” Feliciano asked her. “I want to spend time with everyone! We should plan something fun!”

“I actually already have plans. I’m sorry, Feli.”

“Really?” His expression fell. “Are you going to do something fun?”

“Uh…I guess? I’m going on a date.”

“A date? How exciting, bella!”

She had said it without thinking, and now everyone was paying attention. 

“I’m sure your date isn’t as awesome as I am!” Gilbert laughed. 

“Maybe not,” she chuckled. “Who knows?”

“So who is it?” Antonio asked, brimming with curiosity. “Do we know them?”

She glanced around. Everyone in the room was waiting for her to answer. She had no idea they would be so interested. She hadn’t thought this through.

Yikes…I need to steer this conversation in a different direction, and fast. There’s no way I can say anything about Luciano. They’ll freak out. 

“Just an old friend from high school,” she shrugged in hopes of making it seem like it wasn’t a big deal. “We ran into each other the other day and wanted to catch up. Are you guys really that interested? I’m a little surprised.”

“You’re like a little sister to us,” Antonio smiled. “Of course we’re interested.”

“We have to know who to threaten if he messes up…” Lovino muttered, but she still heard it. 

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks guys. It means a lot that you’re concerned about me. But it will be fine, I promise.”

~~~~

Sunday came before Ava knew it. Casey was easily the one who was more excited about the date. She was rushing around Ava’s room, trying to plan outfit and makeup options all afternoon. She claimed it was because Ava always helped her get ready for dates, but rarely had any of her own, so this was her time to shine. Ava was glad for the help. Even though she had been on a few dates, she didn’t really know what to do about this one. Luciano was…different than everyone else she knew, to put it lightly. She didn’t want to look like a fool for not trying hard enough or trying too hard. As much as she said she didn’t care, maybe it was true that she cared more than she liked to think she did. 

Before she knew it, she was staring at Luciano’s mansion from beside her car, nervous beyond words. Now that she was actually there, the reality of what she was doing had kicked in. She was going on a date with the man who was trying to capture her every other day of the week. She was about to enter that man’s home. Sure, it was six in the evening on a Sunday…He wasn’t allowed to do anything that would go against the compromise. But she couldn’t help but think back on their time at the club. He had distracted her so easily, and she had come too close to being there after midnight. What if by some chance, something similar happened tonight? She would be fair game, and she had no way of defending herself against him. She could try running, but that was it. 

Why did I think it was a good idea to have dinner at his house?! Yes, I wanted to avoid anyone seeing us together so Feli and the others wouldn’t find out, but this is clearly a horrible idea…! I’m here already, but nobody knows…It isn’t too late to turn tail and run home. Casey will scold me for ditching him, but she’ll understand my reasoning…I should just get right back in my car and-

“You’ve been standing there for quite some time now,” someone said from behind her, making her flinch from the shock. 

She turned, surprised to see Kuro standing almost directly beside her. He had a bag in his hand, meaning he was probably returning from a trip to the shops in town. 

“I apologize for frightening you,” the smirk on his face said otherwise. “You are Ava, correct?”

“Um…yes.”

He already knew, so there was no way she could lie as much as she wanted to. Going home was no longer possible…

“I imagine Luciano is waiting inside for you,” he motioned her to follow him. “Or do you plan to stand here all night?”

“No, I was planning on going inside,” she couldn’t help the attitude in her tone. 

She expected him to be angry, but he only chuckled. 

“Right. It didn’t look like you were having second thoughts at all. I would have to think you were crazy, or maybe naive, if you didn’t think this was dangerous, however.”

“So I’m not wrong in thinking so…”

“Keep your wits about you,” he opened the door for her. “Now that you’re here, who knows if he plans on letting you leave. He is a man of his word. He won’t do anything that breaks the compromise. However, there are other ways of distracting you long enough for Sunday to end.”

She immediately flipped around to run right back out the door, but he must have expected that. He was blocking her way out, a knowing smirk on his face.

“Luciano, your guest has arrived.”

A pair of hands were suddenly placed on her shoulders. 

“Welcome to my home, ragazza~” 

She couldn’t stop herself from letting out a surprised squeak. The two men chuckled. 

“Are you nervous?” Luciano let go, allowing her to turn towards him. “We didn’t have to stay here. I would have taken you wherever you wanted to go. Although I have already started cooking.”

“It’s fine…” she relaxed just a bit. “I was the one who agreed to come. You’re cooking?”

“Yes,” he took her hand, placing a kiss on her knuckles. “Does that surprise you?”

“A little,” she admitted. “Do you cook often?”

He led her towards the kitchen as he spoke. “I have servants who usually do. But this is a special occasion.”

“Special…?” She muttered. “I don’t get it. I don’t understand what you think is so special about me.”

“How clueless you are,” he smirked, but said nothing more about it. 

Ava watched as he continued to cook. It smelled absolutely amazing. He told her she could look around the house if it got boring, but she didn’t want to take her eyes off of him. She knew he would most likely respect the compromise, but had to keep her guard up anyway. She couldn’t deny the possibility of him trying to drug her through the food.

All she could do was stare in awe when he placed her serving in front of her later on at the table. She wasn’t surprised by the fact it was pasta since she had been watching him, but she had no idea it could look and smell so good. Feliciano would cry if she ever said such a thing in front of him. He loved pasta, after all, and was good at making it. Even though Ava had intended to watch for Luciano to eat in case he slipped something in before she came, he had already started eating while she was awestruck. 

“Ragazza, you don’t trust me yet, do you?”

“What?” She snapped out of it, surprised by the sudden question. 

“You haven’t taken your eyes off me since you got here,” he grinned. “Either you don’t trust me, or you’re falling for me.”

“I don’t trust you.”

She didn’t want to even acknowledge the other half of his sentence. 

He laughed. “At least you’re honest. I’ll just have to earn your trust, then.”

“You think you can? Even if I can learn to trust you on Sundays, you’re still trying to capture me any other day of the week.”

All he did was smirk, as if he was completely confident he could win her trust. Ava couldn’t decide if he was just really cocky or had something figured out already. Either way, it put her on edge. She couldn’t imagine dropping her guard, but then again, she never would have imagined herself going on a date with him either. 

The two ate their meal, continuing to chat as they did. Luciano offered her wine, but she respectfully declined. She was much more relaxed than when she first arrived, but knew better than to add alcohol to the mix. She was surprised with how easy it was to have a conversation with him, as if they weren’t enemies. She knew he didn’t see her that way, but it was strange to consider the idea that being bound to Feliciano didn’t mean his enemies were hers. 

“Do you like flowers, ragazza?” He asked after they were done eating. 

“Hm? I do. Why do you ask?”

“Allow me to show you the garden,” he offered his hand for her to take. 

“With how extravagant your mansion is, I’m excited to see,” she chuckled, taking his hand. 

“I hope it does not disappoint, then,” he chuckled as well. 

He led her out the backdoor. The sun had already set, the moon casting an ethereal glow over the garden. 

“Wow…” she muttered, glancing around in awe. 

It was a beautifully landscaped array of roses, different areas all different colors. 

“You don’t strike me as the type to have a large garden like this,” she voiced her thoughts as they walked around. 

“You think so? The servants do most of the work, but I do oversee on occasion. A mansion such as this wouldn’t look the same if it had a drab backyard, don’t you agree?”

“You have a point. It would be strange if there wasn’t much going on back here. I think a rose garden like this fits perfectly.”

“I’m glad you think so. Are roses your favorite flower? Or do you prefer something else?”

“Hm…roses are really pretty, so they are one of my favorites. Lilies are as well.”

“That does not surprise me at all,” he chuckled. 

“Why is that?”

“Lilies are symbols of purity. You are my counterpart’s innocent little Attendant,” he smirked. 

“I thought I told you I’m not that innocent…” she sighed. “I don’t know what makes me seem that way.”

“The fact none of those men around you have touched you,” he placed a hand on her cheek. “I did some digging. Those closest to Feliciano may see you as a little sister, but there are others that look at you with hungry eyes. And yet you don’t seem to notice.”

“Y-You’re definitely imagining things…” her cheeks flushed. “There’s no way any of them see me in that way.”

“And that is what makes you innocent and naive,” he chuckled. “The fact you don’t even consider it a possibility.”

“I’ve known them forever, you know? I don’t see why they would…”

“Well, whatever,” he shrugged. “It’s better for me that you don’t take them seriously.”

She was about to ask him why, but figured it was best not to. 

Once they finished the tour of the garden, Luciano pulled up his sleeve slightly to check his watch. It was then that she realized, in a slight panic, that she hadn’t been thinking about the time at all. 

“It’s almost ten. You should be getting home, ragazza.”

She was thrown off. “I figured you would be trying to get me to stay…”

“I won’t stop you if you’d like to stay. If you did, I would be getting lucky…in more ways than one,” he smirked. 

Her face flushed bright red. His intense gaze blew away any words she had to say for a moment. 

“You may be charming, but not enough for me to let that happen!” She exclaimed once she managed to snap out of it. 

“With how long it took you to say that, it isn’t convincing at all,” he leaned down, tilting her chin up with his fingers. 

Her head felt fuzzy. She suddenly didn’t have much confidence in what might happen if she let him have control of the situation. And so, she pulled away, quickly walking past him. 

“I need to be going…”

“I’ll walk you to your car.”

His tone told her everything even though she couldn’t see his expression…he was thoroughly enjoying messing with her. 

Before she could agree, he had taken her hand again and was leading her back to the house. It was easier not to argue, so she didn’t pull away. 

“I don’t really trust you,” she admitted as they were standing beside her car. “But I still had fun tonight, and your cooking was delicious. Thank you, Luciano.”

He grinned. “You’re welcome, bella. I’d like to do this again, if you will let me.”

“I can’t guarantee that I will,” she teased.

“How cruel,” he chuckled. “But I don’t give up on the things I want. Please remember that.”

Despite the insinuation of those words, her smile was amused. 

“Goodnight, Luciano.”

Without waiting for his answer, she turned to open her car door. But the feeling of being tapped on the shoulder was unexpected. She turned around, only to be surprised by his close proximity. That wasn’t the only surprising thing, however. His fingers laced through her hair as he leaned forward to kiss her. It only lasted a few seconds, not long enough for her to recover from the shock. 

“Goodnight, Ava,” he said before turning to walk back to his home. 

Masterlist

Ava glanced around as she entered the coffee shop her and Casey were regulars at. Casey had planned to meet her here after she was done working on a group project for one of her design classes. Ava knew she was early, but she was sick of sitting around at home. 

After ordering her usual latte, she found a table to sit at so she could read the book she brought along. She wasn’t sure how long she would be waiting for Casey, and wanted to make sure she had something to do. Reading in a coffee shop was a nice way to bide her time. 

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually, someone sat down in the seat across from her. 

“Ciao, ragazza. What a coincidence, meeting you here.”

She didn’t need to look up to know who it was. 

“I would call it stalking…” she muttered, turning the page of her book. 

“I’m hurt,” he chuckled. “What are you reading?”

“Ten best ways to get someone to take a hint.”

“Your words may be cold, but your body on the dance floor last week gives me a different impression.”

She finally looked up at him with a sigh. He looked fairly smug. 

“I’m waiting for Casey, Luciano. I’m not playing this game with you.”

“What game is that, ragazza?”

“That’s a good question. What game are you trying to play?”

“If it looks like a game to you, I’m curious what you think it is.”

“Oh, I don’t know…Something like cat and mouse, probably.”

“Interesting…” he chuckled. “I suppose it could look that way. I’m only interested in playing games if I win in the end…”

He reached over, twirling a lock of her hair in his fingers. 

“If we were playing cat and mouse…” he smirked. “I might take my time toying with you for a while before devouring you.”

She moved back so that her hair slipped out of his hand. “I have no interest in that.”

“Well then, isn’t it a good thing we aren’t playing games?” He chuckled. 

She sighed. “I’m going to wait somewhere else…”

Before she could get up, he placed a hand on hers. 

“Don’t run off, ragazza. Relax, I just wanted to speak with you after what happened last week. I thought it looked like you were having fun with me, or was I mistaken?”

She didn’t want to admit that to him, but she didn’t want to lie either. 

“It might have been a little fun…” 

“I’m pleased to hear that,” he smirked. “I rather enjoyed myself as well. I wouldn’t be opposed to doing it again sometime.”

“...you know the problem with that. I went along with it, but I shouldn’t have. Whether or not we consider ourselves to be enemies, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m an Attendant bound to your counterpart.”

“Worrying about something like that sounds so tiresome. You shouldn’t let them police who you spend your time with. Aren’t you a girl who knows how to make her own decisions?”

“No, I’m a servant,” she snapped. “I don’t have the same luxuries as you do.”

He stared, surprised she had suddenly snapped at him. She took that opportunity to grab her things. He only snapped out of it as she was on her way out of the shop. He rushed outside after her. 

“Ava,” he called, grabbing her wrist to stop her. 

“What?” She glared. “Why are you following me?”

He pulled her into the alley beside the coffee shop. 

“If you weren’t an Attendant, would you have run off last week?”

“W-What…?” She was surprised by the hypothetical. “Why are you asking?”

“Because I want to know what your choice would have been. Not the Attendant worried about what might have happened after midnight.”

She was silent for a moment, unsure of how to respond. She couldn’t wrap her head around the possibility of living life making choices with the mindset of a regular person. 

“But…I…it doesn’t matter, because that could never happen…I am an Attendant, so…”

“It seems you don’t understand…” he sighed. “I’m telling you to forget that for a moment and answer as if you were just a regular woman.”

If she didn’t have to worry about the Compromise ending, there wouldn’t have been an alarm on her watch. Hell, she probably wouldn’t have even worn a watch. It wouldn’t have interrupted them…So whatever Luciano had been trying to do back then would have happened. They probably would have stayed together until he got sick of it or Casey came to find her. 

“I wouldn’t have had an alarm on my watch…so I wouldn’t have been worried about the time…”

“Meaning you wouldn’t have run from me,” he smirked. 

“I guess not…” 

“Doesn’t that say something?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re surprisingly dense…” he chuckled, although he seemed a bit spent. 

“Hey…!” Her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. 

“I’m saying, you don’t dislike me as much as you think you do,” he grinned, brushing his fingers against her cheek. 

Her blush darkened. “I’ll be the judge of that, thanks…”

He tried to trap her against the wall, but she managed to slip away. 

“I’ve got to get back to the coffee shop,” she said quickly. “Casey is probably waiting by now.”

“Fine, I’m satisfied for now. But I’ll see you again soon, ragazza…be it on Sunday or on the battlefield.”

He took her hand, placing a kiss on her knuckles. 

“Give Casey my best,” he said before walking away. 

She watched him go, her face hot. 

“He thinks he’s so smooth…” she grumbled once he was gone as she rushed back to the coffee shop. 

Casey was sitting at a table waiting for her. 

“There you are. I’m surprised I beat you here…or not?” Casey questioned when she noticed the latte Ava placed down on the table. 

“I got here a little bit ago…It was Luciano who beat you here,” she sighed. “I tried leaving to lose him but he followed me out.”

“No way,” she laughed. “He came to see you again?”

“You’re…excited about this?”

“Seeing you at a club is one thing, but this is the second Sunday in a row that he’s come up to talk to you, right? He obviously wants to spend time with you.”

“Well…I can’t really say you’re wrong, but we talked about this…”

“Right, right…It’s too bad,” Casey sighed. “He’s totally hot, and this could have been a good chance to get you a boyfriend…”

“I think you’re worried about the wrong things here…”

“Well, whatever! Forget about that, let’s go do something fun!” Casey grinned. 

“Sounds good to me,” she chuckled.