Ghiaccio finished dressing in his clothes and left the hospital room for the last time. He signed the necessary paperwork and left with Melone. As they walked outside, Melone put an arm around Ghiaccio's neck.

"Glad to have you back," he smiled.

Ghiaccio smiled and nodded. He was happy to be heading home. The sterile smells of the hospital were beginning to get to him and the fluorescent lighting aggravated his head. The fresh air was a welcome change. It was getting warmer, and almost May now. It had been the beginning of April when this all began.

They walked toward the road instead of the parking lot. Ghiaccio looked around for his car but didn't see it anywhere. Maybe he'd parked somewhere further down the road? Melone let go of Ghiaccio and began to hail a taxi. We don't have money for a fucking taxi. What the fuck are you doing, Melone? One stopped next to the street and Melone opened the door for Ghiaccio to enter first. Ghiaccio gestured at the car and shook his head in confusion.

"I can't drive," Melone said. Ghiaccio mouthed the word what. "Look, just get in and I'll explain on the way." Ghiaccio begrudgingly got into the taxi and Melone slid in next to him. He gave the address to the cabbie and then sat back. He didn't put on his seatbelt. Ghiaccio always yelled at him for it when they drove in his car, but now he couldn't even do that. So he leaned over and yanked the seatbelt from where it rested to across Melone's chest. "Okay, Ghia, I get it." He clicked the buckle into place as Ghiaccio sat back.

The taxi began to drive and Ghiaccio mimed driving a steering wheel and shrugged his shoulders.

"I can't drive because my vision is fucked up," Melone explained. "The snakebite was bad. I have a lot of complications now because of it. One of them is that I'm now legally blind in one eye." He pointed to his right eye.

Fuck, mouthed Ghiaccio.

"Yeah, it's really fun suffering neurological damage... but at the same time it's kinda fascinating too that such a small bite could cause so much deterioration." Melone smiled at him and Ghiaccio just shook his head. Only Melone would find fascination in his own predicament. They drove in silence the rest of the way since it was hard to carry on a conversation when only one party could participate and Ghiaccio had a hard time writing in a moving vehicle. The car ride wasn't all that long and they were there before Ghiaccio could really let his mind wander. Melone paid the cabbie and they got out in front of the base.

This rundown looking hellhole that he called home, Ghiaccio had never been so happy to be standing in front of it, alive, with Melone. They walked up the stairs and unlocked the door. The first thing Ghiaccio noticed was that the door to Risotto's office was open. He looked to Melone and pointed at the door.

"I haven't touched his office. Felt wrong." Melone stared at the haunting reminder of Risotto's absence. The door was always shut, whether he was in it or not. Ghiaccio imagined Risotto having stormed out after Ghiaccio had failed. The simple notion that he hadn't closed the door on his way out disturbed Ghiaccio. The careful and calculated Risotto had been too preoccupied with his team's utter annihilation to have done the simple task of closing the office door behind him in his departure. It was a small thing that had huge implications, that in the end, Risotto had been unraveling.

Ghiaccio closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Don't think about it," Melone said as he stepped closer. "Come on." He walked further into the base. Ghiaccio closed the office door before he followed Melone into the living room.

Formaggio's crossword puzzle sat unfinished on the couch. He had always had trouble with these things but he kept doing them despite this. Ghiaccio was pretty sure it was a way of proving himself intellectually by completing them even though he begged everyone around him for help. It used to bug the shit out of Ghiaccio, but now he'd give anything to hear that asswipe begging Illuso for help.

He looked at the word he'd been working on. Two down, a twelve lettered word: being completely destroyed or obliterated. Of course he hadn't figured it out which seemed disturbingly coincidental: annihilation. Maybe if he'd been able to deduce the answer he would have seen the warning staring up at him from the daily newspaper. It was a ridiculous thought but one that Ghiaccio couldn't help thinking, as if there had been any way to avoid the inevitable.

He sat down on the opposite couch and listened to the clock tick on the wall. He looked around the room. An empty milk glass sat on the table next to a half spent cigarette in the ashtray, still waiting for its owner to return to finish it. Melone sat next to him on the couch and sighed.

"I couldn't move them," Melone whispered. They both just stared at the ashtray. Ghiaccio hated looking at the reminders but he also didn't want to touch them either. Disturbing those items would erase the last moments of their friends' lives. They had done these things with the intention of coming back, leaving these unfinished tasks behind.

Ghiaccio looked away only to see a half-read romance novel on the end table—a genre well-beloved by the king of mirrors and mercilessly mocked for by the rest of the squad. Illuso would never know how that book ended, whether or not that stupid wench would end up with the king's knight. Ghiaccio lifted his glasses and rubbed at his eyes.

It was too much. Too many reminders.

They were never coming home.

He felt Melone put his arm around him. He pulled Ghiaccio to rest his head against his shoulder. Melone squeezed his arm as Ghiaccio tried not to cry. Each rub of his arm from Melone coaxed the sorrow from Ghiaccio. He couldn't even cry as his team deserved. There was no sound, only shuddering gasps. No words of sorrow. Ghiaccio could only give silent tears.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

*********

Later in the evening, the two sat at the table in the kitchen, eating leftovers from a dinner Melone had made the day before. They discussed their options together for getting back on their feet. Melone sat to the right of Ghiaccio so he could watch as he wrote on the pad.

"If we're looking to fly under the radar, we could always just take our own contracts," Melone suggested. "We have enough of a reputation. Bucciarati accepted tasks from whoever he saw fit."

Ghiaccio wrote on his notepad as he chewed a bite of pasta. Maybe we could do some hits for some of the drug lords? Eliminate competition.

"Ah-ah." Melone shook his head and wagged his finger. "That's another thing that's changed since you've been out of commission. Giorno banned drugs." Ghiaccio just squinted at Melone who chuckled, "Yup, you heard me."

Kid's a fucking idiot. That's not how anything works. You can't just ban the one thing that fucking funds this gang.

"Idealism," Melone chuckled and tapped his nose. "Cute, isn't it?" Ghiaccio rolled his eyes.

There's gotta be others we can take.

"Oh, sure. The arms trade is still going strong. Probably doubling their efforts to make up for the drug deficit." Melone wiped his mouth and stood up. "Helluva lot more gambling too. Anyway to make a buck. Want some wine?" Ghiaccio sighed and nodded. So much has changed. It's like he woke up in another reality.

Melone walked over to grab the unopened bottle and uncorked it. He sniffed the cork then licked it. Ghiaccio sighed knowing there was nothing he could do about it now. It was just another argument that he couldn't have. There were a lot of these mounting up now. He was grappling with the frustration of not being able to express his thoughts versus letting them go, even though he desperately wanted to berate Melone for how unsanitary that had been. There would only be more of these moments going forward. Ghiaccio took a deep breath and tried to let it go.

Melone set two glasses down before them and poured moscato into each. He set the bottle on the table as he sat back down and draped his arm around the back of Ghiaccio's chair. He raised his glass to his lips. "Welcome home."

Ghiaccio felt a finger brush against his cheekbone flirtatiously. The look in Melone's eyes was teasing and something about that made Ghiaccio feel like things would be okay. Melone was still himself despite everything. Ghiaccio even allowed himself to enjoy the touch. He smiled back and clinked his glass with Melone's before taking a sip.