Price of Love-Lovi chronicles-part 3

Lovino opened his eyes to a dark room and a grungy ceiling. It wasn’t at all what he had been expecting. His brain worked to catch up with his current situation and figure out what had happened. Jason was dead, and Feliciano was gone. The last thing he remembered was crying over Jason’s body, realizing that he didn’t even know how he could survive anymore. So where was he now? And why was he wherever he was now?

Sitting up, he cast quick glances over the room. It was small, a little apartment. He’d seen these, but never spent any time in them. Whoever lived here was poor. It was dingy and damp, but fairly clean. Everything seemed to be in order, three or four dishes stacked neatly on a table in the corner, a cupboard closed tight, and in another corner a barrel stood. The next thing he saw was the doorway, and he was about to jump up and run through it, but a shadow suddenly stood in it. Instead, he jumped out of the uncomfortable excuse for a bed and cursed at the shadow.

“You have a dirty mouth for such a little guy,” a stupidly cheerful voice said, and the shadow morphed into a man. Lovino gaped. It was the tomato vender.

“Where have you taken me, you, you…” he fumbled for words, clenching his fists angrily. “You ugly kidnapper!”

“Kidnapper?” the man questioned, his accent soothing Lovino’s anger and feeding it at the same time. “You might have caught a cold out there in the rain little one, I could not leave you there.”

Lovino’s mind wandered back to Jason’s body and the drizzle of rain that fell as the sky itself cried over his misfortune. The misery of that moment slowly came back, threatening to crush him in its severity, but he used his anger as a tool to ignore it. “You should have left me alone.” Lovino unclenched and reclenched his fists, attempting to stop his trembling and quench his building tears. It wasn’t really working.

“Little boy, your friend would not want you to suffer over his death. If I had left you there, his spirit surely would have come back to curse me for my cruelty. I would never leave a little boy in need to wither on the streets. Especially not such a cute one.”

“I’m not cute, and I’m not little!” Lovino yelled angrily, stomping his foot. He would never let the jerk know it, but the man’s words warmed him. This man was saying he cared. No one but Jason and Feliciano had even wanted to help him before, not even his father or _____. Though _____ hadn’t been trying to hurt him, she hadn’t been trying to help him either. He knew she was a good enough person; she just didn’t have his interests in mind. This man, at least on the surface, seemed to be different.

“If you don’t want me to call you cute or little, what do you want me to call you amigo?”

Amigo? Lovino puzzled over the meaning of the word for a moment then dismissed it. It wasn’t likely an insult. But he made his expression a little more angry just in case. “Lovino.”

“Lovino! What an adorable name!” The man clapped his hands together.

“It is not adorable!”

“I’m Antonio!” he ignored Lovino’s outburst and introduced himself. “Do you have anywhere to go?”

Lovino glared at the man silently for a few seconds, his anger melting away at the realization of his position. “…No.”

“Then you will stay with me! I’ve always wanted an apprentice.” Antonio smiled and patted Lovino on the head, ignoring his objections. “Tomorrow, we travel to my home land! You will like it there.”

Lovino looked the man up and down suspiciously. “What is your homeland?”

“Hispania!” Antonio’s eyes lit up when he said this. He gestured to a lumpy bag sitting to the side. “Do you have any possessions you wish to retrieve before we leave?”

“No.”



>~time skip~<




Lovino stared at the line of empty carts lined up and ready to go. Slaves stood watch around them, a few of them hooking up donkeys to pull them. They were getting ready to head to the coast, and Lovino was beginning to wonder if going with Antonio was such a great idea after all.


The previous night Antonio had explained to Lovino about who he was and what he did. He was a merchant. His trade was mostly done in ships though. From one coast to another, he carted other merchants’ goods from Spain to Rome. Normally, Antonio didn’t go to the cities his cargo went to, but this one time he decided he wanted to go to Rome. He told Lovino he was glad he did. Lovino wasn’t sure he believed that, but it sounded nice.

Antonio claimed to have a lot of servants and slaves. Again, Lovino didn’t know if he should believe this or not, but he was okay with it. If Antonio had lots of slaves, Lovino would get to give them orders, and he hadn’t gotten to do that since he ran away from his father’s house.

“Come little friend!” Antonio cried excitedly, stopping in front of Lovino. He had been buzzing around busily all morning, like an annoying, giant, brown-haired bumble bee, getting things ready to go. They had one small cart that was set up to be pulled by a donkey.

“It’s about time,” Lovino snorted, jumping off the crate that had been acting as his chair for the past few hours.

Antonio didn’t seem to notice his annoyance, and went on chatting about Hispania and his family, and how great it was and how much Lovino would enjoy.

Finally Lovino burst through his endless onslaught of words. “Where are we going?”

Antonio gave him a confused look. “Why, Hispania, of course. I have already told you this.”

“No you idiot, I mean now. We aren’t going to drag these stupid carts all the way to Hispania.” Lovino kicked a rock for good measure, and it hit a dog who scattered off, yipping loudly. Antonio frowned at that.

“We are going to Ostia, where we will board my ship.” At those words Antonio’s eyes lit up. Lovino rolled his eyes, preparing for another tirade as the wagon train began moving.


>~time skip~<


By the time they reached Ostia, Lovino was sure there was dust in every inch of his clothes, and he just knew his ears would fall off at any moment from all of Antonio’s talking about the sea and his ship. And he had had to walk half the way to top it all off. When Antonio finally let him get in the wagon, Lovino was thrilled, but then he realized just how much his rear end was going to hurt before it was all over. And it did. It stung, and the bones in his butt hurt from hitting the bottom of the cart. Travelling by horses or by liter was so much better. It wasn’t even comparable. Being poor was stupid. He wasn’t supposed to be poor. He was born to be rich. And he was certain by now that Antonio’s claims to being rich were just lies. After all, what kind of rich man walked when he could afford to ride? It was stupid really. Who did Antonio think he was fooling? Definitely not Lovino. No one could fool Lovino, not that easily.

“Lovi, I found you some bread and cheese for dinner!” Antonio said, walking into the room and tossing him a loaf of bread. Lovino started in horror at the nickname, and then settled into glaring at the wall and eating his bread, shooting glowering looks at Antonio every now and then.

For his part, Antonio seemed extremely perplexed by his young ward’s behavior. He sighed, shaking his head in confusion. None of his family ever acted this way, at least not the children. He knew the boy had been through some rough times, sure, but really, why be so miserable all the time?

“Lovi…” Antonio said testingly, walking towards him slowly.

“Don’t call me that! And go away!” Lovino shouted, not bothering to look.

“But I want to know what’s wrong with my little amigo.”

“Nothing’s wrong, I just don’t want to see your stupid face!” Lovino yelled, turning to face the wall.

For a few minutes Antonio stood there quietly, his feelings a little bit hurt. He’d done nothing but try to help the kid, why was he so unfriendly and defensive? And offensive too for that matter. Maybe being perpetually ungrateful was a Roman thing. Finally he left, closing the door quietly behind him.

Lovino grumbled as his nibbled on the cheese, still fairly hungry but not really feeling like eating any more. That stupid freak, making him lose his appetite like that. He threw the cheese at the wall, guilt gnawing at his insides. Why should he feel guilty?! So what if the man was taking him to Hispania and giving him some sort of home again. He had never asked for that. He didn’t owe Antonio anything. He stared at the cheese lying on the floor and sighed, leaning down to pick it up. Why did he care that he made the guy upset?

He tossed and turned for hours before finally falling asleep.


>~time skip~<


The ship wasn’t at all the little thing that Lovino was expecting. It was bigger and more streamlined than most ships he saw. Whoever built this ship was either a genius or a fool. But in any case, he could see how much Antonio loved it just by the way he was looking at it. It reminded him of the way his father had looked at some women, just a bit more tender. Antonio’s eyes had pure hunger and desire burning in them, a passion that surprised Lovino. It was weird, but kind of interesting in a way. A freaky way. But… almost a comforting way.

Lovino shook himself, angry for his unusual and conflicting feelings.

“Welcome to La Perfecta!” Antonio motioned towards the ship, giving a slight mock bow to Lovino, who rolled his eyes. “She is my amante.”

“Your what?”

“Oh, my apologies mi amigo, she is my mistress.”

“…” A flood of different faces floated through Lovino’s mind at that, faces of different shapes and sizes and colors. Egyptians, Romans, Arabians, Celtics, you name it, a woman of that race had once snuck through the gates late and had a slave come with messages regularly. Those were unpleasant memories that he didn’t wish to recall, but couldn’t help. That was his childhood. That was his life. His father and dozens of women. Some had been nice, some ignored him completely, but he didn’t like any of them. He’d always hoped for his mother, but she never came again, not after his father threw her out. He wondered if she was even still alive. He probably would never know where she went or if she lived. Maybe she’d had other children, or maybe she’d died alone in a gutter somewhere.

“Lovi? Are you alright?” While Lovino had been thinking about his mother Antonio had moved in front of him and leaned down to his level and was giving him a concerned look.

“Of course I’m alright, stupid…” Lovino growled. “Are we going to get on your stupid mistress or not.”

Antonio gave him a strange look but nodded, and with a few words, there was a gangplank in place and he was being pulled onto the ship and away from his old life.

Standing on the deck he watched as land began becoming smaller and smaller. He was leaving Rome behind now, Rome, and every vestige of the life he had always called his own. For the first time in his life, he was beginning to feel like he was choosing his destiny, he was doing something different and new and exciting. Maybe, just maybe, Antonio and the sea could give him a future.

And maybe, just maybe, he could be happy, truly happy, for the first time in his life.