I know right! Random chapter in the middle of the week! Basically, I'm ill and have literally nothing else to do T-T I can't even get up and wander round without having to sit down! So, in the middle of not being able to breathe, this sort of, happened.
MiddleEarth4eva

The knock at the front door came when Lovino was starting to make lunch. He'd left Giselle where she'd fallen asleep on a sofa in the front room and padded into the kitchen to turn on the hob. The shadow through the glass was an odd one, making him unnerved by it. The knock had been a loud one and had roused Giselle, and she came barrelling out of the room she'd bee sleeping in, nearly crashing into the stairs. 

"Who is it?" she asked, skidding to a stop and glancing up at him. "Has the meeting finished already? I wanna know what happened."

Lovino glanced at the clock. If the meeting had already finished, it hadn't been a long one - they'd only been there for about three hours. "I don't think it has" he said, patting her head. "Right, um, do you want to just go upstairs a moment?"

"Eh?" Giselle frowned. "Why?"

"I don't know" Lovino glanced at the shadow at the door. "I just... if you want to stay, that's fine." Giselle nodded and skipped the rest of the length of the hall to the door as the person knocked again. "Fine." He stepped around her and twisted the key in the lock, opening the door wide enough for him to be able to see outside. The person on the step was someone he recognised, but not well enough to say who they were, but well enough to know that he didn't want them in his house. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, Lovino Vargas, right?" they said in a strong Italian accent, tipping their small, brown hat at Giselle as she appeared around the back of Lovino's legs. "Buongiorno signora."

Giselle grinned. "Bonjour."

Lovino glanced down at her, and then back at the person in front of him. "That's me. What do you want?"

He extended a hand to Lovino and gave a shark toothed grin. "Luciano."

Something clicked inside Lovino's brain and suddenly, Luciano was all the more familiar. He briefly remembered something about a dark place, and something about electricity, but didn't wait around to remember more. He slammed the door in Luciano's face, backing away from it.

"What's wrong?" Giselle asked, staring up at him, turning the key in the lock. "Who's that man at the door?"

"I..." Lovino started, leaning against the wall and sliding down it to the floor where he brought his knees up to his chest. "I can't remember. A bad person. A very bad person. Don't open the door again."

"Is he one of them?" Giselle asked, separating 'them' from the rest of the sentence with a spit.

Lovino hesitated and nodded. "I think so. I think... Feliciano? He's not mine. Mine wears a scarf."

"Have you seen my counterpart?" Giselle asked. Lovino was about to shake his head when there was another knock at the door. "Should I get it?"

"No" Lovino grabbed her arm. "Don't touch the door. He's still there."

After a moment, there was a clanking noise and the letter box slowly slid open, a pair of red eyes appearing on the other side. "There you are." The barrel of a gun appeared, slowly poking it's way through to their side of the door, pointing in their direction. "Now, I want you to open this door, or I'll kick it open."

"Ne fais pas" Lovino said before Giselle could take another step forwards. "Go into the kitchen, now. I'll deal with him." 

The second she'd disappeared into the kitchen, Lovino stood up and made his way towards the door, closing the letterbox forcefully against the gun  After a second's hesitation, he turned the handle again, opening the door. He was met with the gun that Luciano still held.

"Well?" Luciano asked. "Are you going to let me in, or am I going to have to stand out here in the cold?"

Lovino didn't waste time trying to tell him that it was mid-July, in Rome, with no clouds in the sky at all, and instead opened the door a little wider and quickly walked away from the door to the kitchen. Giselle was sat on the table, tapping with one hand.

"What's going on?" she whispered as Luciano closed the door behind him.

"Hide" Lovino muttered. "The second you get a chance, get upstairs, or out the door, just make sure he doesn't see you."

Giselle nodded and clambered off the table, crawling under it and moving chairs around her to hide her place. 

"Right" Luciano came into the kitchen. "I believe you still have trouble remembering things."

Lovino scoffed. "That's not why you're here."

Luciano laughed. "Very smart" he reached over and patted his head, an action which Lovino ducked and batted away. "In that case" he said, walking over to the table and pulling out a table. "Take a seat."

"I'd rather not" Lovino said bluntly, watching Giselle shift to the other end of the table.

Luciano sighed and took out his gun again. "Sit." Slowly, Lovino pulled out a chair and sat down, drumming his fingers on the table. "That's better" Luciano left the gun out on the table and smiled. "So, let's start with the girl who was with you. Where is she?"

Lovino glanced out the window at the back towards the end of the garden where a small gate lead to a back alley. "Gone."

Luciano huffed, clearly not believing it, but not continuing with the topic. "Fine" he snapped. "In that case, I want you to tell me what you make of these." He pushed a ripped, folded sheet of paper across the table to him and Lovino almost yelped.

It was a list of cities, all within specific surviving countries, and alongside them, named, famous buildings. He didn't have to be a genius to know they were the locations of the next few meetings. Recently, so that everyone knew what was going on, or knew what to do if a nation died, the month's list of meeting had been handed out on the first. He'd seen Joao glancing over them before, once a bit ago, just after they'd told him Feliciano was dead. That time, he'd been frowning and stabbing at the paper with pens, scribbling out parts and adding in extras before he took a photo of it with his phone.

Somehow, that was what Luciano now had.

Instead of trying to grab it, destroy it, or anything that might protect the nest locations, Lovino shrugged. "How should I know?" he asked angrily. "As you very rightly said a bit ago, I'm struggling remembering stuff still, and you expect me to know all of this?" He jabbed at one of the names. "I know this one - it's that political building in London." He pointed to another couple. "This one's the government building in Germany and this one's the same in Japan. I'd assume they're all politically involved buildings. Anyone could've told you that though." He leant forwards, pulling the paper towards him and pretending to peer at it more. "Why did you come to me?"

"Because" Luciano reached across and yanked the paper back. "They're more than just politically involved buildings, and I think you know that." Lovino shrugged again, an action which obviously annoyed Luciano. "They're the next conference buildings, aren't they?"

"How should I know?" Lovino huffed. "You expect them to tell me anything?" He hesitated and pulled the paper back. "Although, I'm pretty certain that the next one isn't in England, but in Spain, the one after that is in Japan, not Germany, and the one after that which is supposed to be in Japan is Australia."

"So you do know" Luciano said, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you might..."

"It's just a guess" Lovino interrupted. 

"However" Luciano continued as though he'd never spoken. "It was clear at the door before when I said my name that you remembered me. You know who I am, so why are you helping us?"

"Look" Lovino sighed. "Just because I recognised your name doesn't mean that I know you. I used to know someone with the same name, I think, and I assumed straight away that it was you."

"I have a gun" Luciano pointed out, holding up the gun so it was in line with Lovino's head. 

Lovino stared down the barrel of it and then back at Luciano. "That's nice." He stood up, swiping the paper off the table as he went. "And by the way, Luciano, currently the only personification of North Italy, I wouldn't trust you with anything, so I'm confiscating this off your person." He held up the paper for Luciano to see and ripped it up into thousands of tiny pieces, sprinkling the ground with the harmful confetti. 

For a moment, Luciano did nothing, just stared at the floor, his face slowly turning more and more stony. Then, his angered eyes flickered back up to Lovino, the gun following, and he pulled the trigger, implanting a bullet between Lovino's eyes. From underneath the table, Giselle, who had been keeping so quiet she was almost proud of herself, now shrieked, clamping a hand over her mouth and backing away from where she knew Luciano was. There was silence, then a hand appeared over the underside of the table and, now minus his hat, Luciano peered under the table.

He grinned and pointed the gun at her as she shuffled out from under the table, leaning against the cupboards behind her. "Found you" he giggled, squeezing the trigger again.