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Hey everyone!

Sorry for not delivering any story lately :/ I had been awfully busy, with work, studying and life in general, which prevented me for writing. Maybe there was a bit of writer block in the mix, but well, finally I am delivering this long awaited chapter, following the cliffahnger of two chapters ago now Hope you will comment, vote or fave, it is what get me going!

That said, thank you Gritou for being at my side, always *hug*

Edit: Sorry, I had problems posting it ^^

Luca stood there at the bottom of the stairs, in the broad light, his arms staying limply at his sides, as a pair of thin feline lips were pressed against his own. He could feel faintly that the cougar had let go of his paw and put his paws on his hips, but nothing else as his brain was totally frozen; the lupo was totally passive in it, eyes widened to the max in shock, and only those tantalizing lips were keeping him from dropping his jaw.

Not that the feline wouldn't have appreciate, probably he would take advantage of it and pierced his tongue in his muzzle. That strangely clear thought was the sign that the lupine had overcome the initial surprise, but he was still far from taking a complete hold of his capacità mentali1.

Finally, after what had been hours for the dog but merely seconds from the outside world, Edward stepped back, releasing him from the kiss, a smirk appearing on the short cream-colored muzzle. To his utter shame, the lupine's jaw did dropped a bit before he caught it, trying his best to appear in control of himself.

"Questo bacio2 is to thank you for the great day, Luca." The cougar purred, his eyes flashing with mirth, his tail roping and trashing behind him

"Uh, well, uh, non dovevi3..." Came the brilliant and witty response of the restorer, his brain incapable of properly function.

"Yes I did. And I haven't paid you fully with that! Maybe we can arrange a date to make amend of that?" Edward winked, sounding a bit flirty. His genuine smile tempered that impression, and the blush on his cheeks was sign enough that his gesture had been spawned by some whim, along with some occasional ear flick.

"I... guess so..." The lupine replied, still dumbstruck by what had happened; it was for the better, else his ears would have moved madly on his head, making a fool of himself.

"Great! I will call you soon, okay?" The smile of the big cat actually broadened, reaching his eyes and banishing away the redness on his furred face.

"O-okay, see you soon." Luca said, remembering that the other fur was parting ways with him before the sudden... kiss. For good measure, he waved his paw, his instinctive good manners kicking in; his mom surely would have been proud of him for doing that.

"A presto4!" The feline waved back, then turned to his right to address someone, just out of sight of the lupine whose eyes were centered on the light brown fur. "Bye guys! Sorry I can't stay! I leave Luca in your care!"

With a last smile, he turned away, jogging toward Prati5, or so it seemed to the lean canine who followed him until his swishing tail disappear around the corner. His eyes focused on whom were standing just a few meters away, the ones to whom Edward had entrusted Luca, his brain registering finally that they were his brother and his best friend with helmets in their paws.

The two other dogs looked as shaken as he was feeling, not having expected such a display of male-on-male action. Valerio clearly wanted a dose of mind bleach, not because of seeing two guys kissing, but because he saw il fratellone6 kissing someone; nothing the university student couldn't survive, though, as he was already literally shaking off the image with jerks of his head. Truth be told, he seemed to take this turn of events easily enough.

Dismissing his traumatized but quickly recovering brother, Luca glanced at his rottie, uncertain on his reaction. Ale was just... standing right there, his expression giving out his shock and something that the lupine couldn't quite figure out. It almost looked like he was upset... be it because he resented for coming quickly while his best friend was flirting with the cougar... Or maybe he was still angry toward Stanley, and that anger was mixing with his surprise. Knowing his friend, the latter was the most probable, and he thanked whoever sat in heaven that the husky was out of sight at the moment.

"Uhm, salve7 Ale, Vale." The tall lupo greeted his dear ones, closing the distance between them in just a couple of strides. Those few, short words broke the silence and worked miracles on the other two dogs, or at least on Valerio. The Rottweiler still seemed a bit off, somehow, not fully there actually.

"Luca! How are you?" The younger dog replied back, using a stock phrase. Realizing how lame a question it was, he grimaced; after all, they guessed in what state of mind he could be and what he had felt not long ago.

"I'm fine Vale, really. Fine." He answered, a shy smile appearing on his long muzzle. He found cute that his fratellino8 could be bothered by such an inoffensive question.

"I wasn't referring to... QUELLO9. I meant, after that other thing, we are worried that you feel depressed, scared, down, angry..." The dam broke and the shorter lupine turned into a blabber mouth, listing all the possible mental states his big brother might have. That turned Luca's smile in a more confident one, his little sibling cheering him up through his silly behavior despite not wanting to.

"I told Ale on the phone already." The restorer said, grabbing his brother's shoulder and looking in his brown eyes. "I'm fine. It was terrible just after that, but I don't have any nasty after-effects."

The lupo hold the canine for a few seconds, until he was sure that he had received the message. He knew his brother, and he could read him easily, catching the moment when the realization that his big bro was well hit him.

"Okay, I'm convinced. I know the Rienzi are made of tough stuff after all." Vale nodded, satisfied with his own, infallible logic, passed down generations after generations of their family. Or so their grandfather used to say, at least.

"Io non lo sono10." A grunt came from the, until then, silent rottie, who crossed his arms and looked at his friend sternly, as if to unearth a lie. He looked quite intimidating like that, his muscles being highlined by the pose; he just lacked cracking his knuckles, and he would have given the perfect image of a dog about to punish someone.

"You are not what?" Luca jabbed at him, playfully imitating the grunt. He knew that the dog had been worried and such, but the wolf really didn't need someone to mother him; it almost looked like the Rottweiler was going to scold him or something, even if it wasn't true.

"You may pass as if nothing happened, but that... stronzo11 hurt you." Ale grimaced, not easing up even one bit on the subject; he probably was thinking that his concealment of his anger was succeeding, the poor, naïve guy.

"I'm really touched by you Ale, my friend, but really, right now I am okay. If I feel worse, I will tell you." The cream and brown canine assured his roommate. The black dog seemed on the verge to retort, taking out the big guns like when he didn't tell him how badly he wanted a relationship until he found him crying in the kitchen. Thankfully, Ale had enough tact not to exhume that time.

"Okay. Ma non pensare12 that I will stop asking. You had a very traumatic experience, and I wasn't there to protect you, while I should have been present!" Ale persisted in his attitude, sounding dangerously close to beat himself down even if he still had his facial features wrapped in cold fury.

"I am more than capable of defending myself, thank you very much." The lupine sharply replied, then tried to soften his tone. No need to lash against his friend, who wanted his well being. "I mean, it could have gone worse, but I handled it. Trust me."

"Ma13" The rottie tried to rebut, rising his protests and counter-argument, but it was cute from his friend, who didn't want to hear any of that.

"No buts. What happened, happened, and nothing else could have been done." The tall wolf reassured his friend, trying to speak in a soothing voice but not succeeding. Honestly, the situation might have gone worse if his fellow restorer had been present at the explosion of homophobia; Ale had a fiercer temperament than the lupo, after all.

The rottie opened his muzzle, about to reply, but then the other Rienzi bucked in, having been forgotten by the other two furs.

"Mom, dad, non litigate14, I am sad when you fight!" The younger male whined, making an unsettling good impression of a scared pup, what with his lowered ears and big eyes, lip trembling as if on the verge of crying.

The two restorers stared at him for a few seconds, then burst in a short but refreshing laugh, the university student joined them after taking off his mask. He had done well; breaking the tension and making all of them relax for a second, so that the general mood wouldn't turn sour and angry.

"I wonder who is the father and who is the mother." Luca breathed heavily, whiping a tear from the corner of his brown eye.

"Well, you are the mother Lu, since you are so reliable and responsible. Dumb-head here is the father! Though, the roles are reversed in bed, a lupo is always on top." Vale outrageously explained, coaxing an embarrassed laugh and a deep blush from his brother.

"Me, topping Ale? Oh my..." He thought, his brain making up forbidden images. He hastily tried to suppress them, but the fur in the fantasies changed from canine to feline, which caused an even stronger reaction in his pants.

Luckily for him, the other two were too busy horsing around to notice bulges and blushes, the rottie having grabbed the unruly pup by his neck, dragging him down so that he could knuckle his head with the free paw, black smashing into brown.

"BRUTTO BACAROSPO15! I'll teach you to say such things!" Ale shouted while delivering his punishment, though he refrained to throttle the lupo like the beloved cartoon character would. He wasn't even inflicting too much pain, despite the squirming and pitiful sound the younger fur was producing.

"Okay, okay, stop it, stop!" The wolf gave in quickly, and was released as swiftly, regaining as much composure as possible even if the effect was tarnished by his huge grin. He didn't hide that he was pleased by the turn of the events and his success of lightening up the mood.

"Good. Now we should focus on your dear brother here." The bulky dog pointed out, turning to face said brother. "Do you want to go home, Luca?"

"Uhm, since we are here, better take a gelato16, no?" The restorer suggested, thankful that his blush and... tumescence had waned. He raised a paw, adding a condition to his proposal. "But no talk about the accident. Really, no need to stress ourselves on that, we gave it and him too much importance."

"Well, okay. I can pester you about that... later." Ale agreed, with the shorter canine nodding at his side. Content about the promises, the wolf turned, leading them to a small gelateria17 just a few meters away from the piazza. The other two followed without a word, probably seeing no need to talk before reaching the ice cream place.

That took only a few minutes, since the place was nestled between a pub and a pizzeria, with a small table just outside it, in the shadowed street, blissfully empty at the moment. There were just two furs being served at the moment by a tired-looking Persian cat, his long fur almost glued to his body.

"You can wait at the table, Luca." The Rottweiler stopped him from entering, gesturing toward the object and giving him his helmet. "I know you want a cone with melone e cocomero con panna18, right?"

"Uhm, yeah, right. Go and fetch my ice cream boy!" He teased his friend while sitting down, claiming the place for themselves, after his brother trusted his helmet to him, the two head-covers resting on the table. He was left alone, even if for a few minutes, the first time that day, and that let his brain wander about.

How could Stanley think such things? Maybe it was his upbringing, or maybe not. Still it had been a nasty surprise, something truly unexpected. Did Sara know about the husky's opinions? Surely not, the squirrel didn't even know the dog that much, let alone if he was gay friendly. She probably assumed he was, else she wouldn't have organized such a thing; he needed to talk with her, too, she needed to know after all...

The episode of verbal violence had brought at least one good thing, he thought. He hadn't expected that kiss either, and the wolf still couldn't warp his mind around it. Sure, he sucked in recognizing fellow ass-lovers, but still, he didn't thought his gaydar was THAT bad.

His musing where interrupted by the arrival of ice cream-bearing dogs, the rottie thrusting a big cone in his paw, the mounds of orange and pink making him salivate. The wolf licked away the panna, as he liked to do, while the other two settled down on the chairs, each already assaulting their frozen delicacy.

"Sooooooo Lu, you and the cougar boy are an item now?" His little brother asked nonchalantly between licks, showing no outer sign of discomfort on the question. Luckily, it had been foreseen, so it didn't find the wolf unprepared.

"No. Before that kiss I wasn't even aware he was interested. Or gay, for all that matters." The lupine answered truthfully, his ears firmly unmoving. An inopportune gesture and they might think that he was lying; it amazed him how often an involuntary move or tone made imply that he was hiding something.

"But surely you had hints!" The young lupo persisted, wanting to satisfy his curiosity. He kept eating his ice cream, without noticing how his muzzle was coated with it, which prompted Luca to hand him a paper napkin to clean himself before his fur got stuck with sugary remains.

"Nope, I honestly didn't. Non ne avevo sentore19, that kiss came completely out of the blue." The restorer stuck to his version. All considered, he had passed only a few hours with the feline, no surprise if he hadn't caught any tendency to like the male body.

"Doesn't he have a girlfriend?" Ale asked gruffly, his eyes boring holes in the wolf's flesh while he delivered the question. That, actually, was a point he hadn't thought yet, and the mean reason he had seen the puma as straight; didn't the feline had a girlfriend?

"Uh-oh, yeah, he does.... I... really don't know." The wolf confessed his ignorance, his pointed ears dropping a bit.

"Sooooo you are breaking a young love? Nasty." Vale smirked, leaning in his chair in a relaxed pose.

"I don't know! That is the first thing I will ask clarification to Edward..." The lupine trailed off, as he had seen the face his best friend had made. His expression really conveyed his thoughts, showing that, for the rottie, something was wrong.

"What?" He asked, facing his roommate, a bit puzzled.

"Nothing." Ale played innocent, keeping eating his ice cream in small, measured licks, unlike the canine at his side, who would have made his ancestors proud for his wolfing down abilities.

"Now you tell me." The wolf insisted, one eyebrow quirked. If the rottie had a peculiar idea about the puma, better to hear it now.

The muscled restorer sighed, the deep breath expanding his thick chest, then spat out his opinion. "Are you sure you want to call him back? He stole you a kiss after all."

"Wouldn't have you called romantic if it had been a girl doing that?" The lean dog replied, his eyebrow raising a bit more, his eyes looking deep in his friend's. The stare fight lasted for a minute or so, before the rottie gave in, averting his brown eyes.

"You are right." He simply admitted, then consoled himself with a big chunk of gelato.

"Still, you are not wrong. Investigherò20on the subject of the girlfriend, then maybe, and I stress maybe, we could go on a date." Luca unfolded his master plan, after all he wasn't an utter fool. The cougar was dreamy and handsome, but not worth going into troubles... at least for now.

"Have you seen this fidanzata21 of his?" Valerio entered the fray again, seemingly interested to know more of this turbid affair. Actually, this kiss had been the best thing to happen, since it gave all of them the excuse of ignoring the other, much less nice event of the day, a welcome respite for the one who had been involved directly in it.

"No, she should have come today but work kept here away." The lupo responded, the last bit of ice cream disappearing in his opened jaws.

"Maybe she isn't real. You know, he might have invented her because he was afraid to come out." Ale proposed, his theory actually having a sense and logic. Edward was in a foreign country, with people he didn't know and from a different culture, where being gay might be dangerous. But...

"He talked too much about that for it being a very convoluted lie." The lupo shrugged, dismissing the theory. "What I know is that I will ask him about it."

"Yes, you should." His brother nodded, whipping out the remains of ice cream from his muzzle after he finished. "So, I don't want to be a rompiscatole22, but I think we can go home, right?"

"Eager to leave us, eh?" The rottie teased him with a smile, going back to his usual cheerful self after his gloomy detour, his eyes sparkling again.

"Uhm, maybe. No need to stay if you aren't going to do anything, and my bro is okay. You are okay, don't you?" The younger sibling asked half seriously, coaxing a laugh from the other lupine.

"Ehehehe, yeah, I am okay! You can go home, and so should we." He agreed, rising up from his chair, immediately followed by the others who snatched their helmets from the small metallic table.

"I guess we should go home too then." The rottie echoed, walking back to the piazza along with the other canines. "Where did you park Luca?"

"Just on Lungotevere, before the piazza." The wolf answered, the three having already reached the piazza thanks to their powerful strides.

"Well, good, my moto is just here." Vale said, pointing out to the other end of the open urban space. "Guess it is time for farewell. See you in a couple of days ragazzi23!"

"See you!" The restorers answered back, watching the younger dog walking away for a few seconds before moving.

"Do you have something planned with him?" The muscled Rottweiler asked out of curiosity, keeping easily the pace set by his friend.

"Nope. He just invited himself over." The lupine chuckled throatily, since he didn't mind such a behavior if he saw his brother more often. The same was for his roommate, probably, who just chuckled without adding anything.

It didn't take long for them to reach the motorcycle, which was still parked undamaged where the lupo had left it. He went to retrieve his own helmet, with the rottie strapping his own; he did it less carefully than Luca since his ears were folded, meaning that they didn't need much adjustment in the helmet. He almost envied his friend for that... though, tall, perky ears were always loved.

"Gimme the keys, I'm going to drive." The black canine demanded, extending his paw. He complied, it was his moto after all, and while the other was busy turning on and preparing the vehicle to welcome another fur he had time to put on his helmet.

All done, Luca jumped on the motorcycle, behind his friend's vast back. On the spurn of the moment, he didn't grab the handles but wrapped his arms around his best friend, giving him a strong hug.

"What is this for?" Ale asked a bit breathlessly because of the surprise and of the tightness of the embrace.

"Just to thank you for caring for me and coming so quickly." The lupo answered, giving an extra long squeeze. His friend just grunted a reply, embarrassed but pleased, and set off the vehicle, beginning their return home. The lupine lingered a bit more in the embrace, enjoying it for good minutes before taking the right, proper position, his heart feeling light.

Translation:

1) Mental abilities.

2) This kiss.

3) You shouldn't have.

4) (See you) soon!

5) Neighborhood near Saint Peter and the Vatican. Called like that because it used to be just fields (prati).

6) Big brother.

7) Hello/hi.

8) Little brother.

9) THAT.

10) I am not.

11) Jerkass/asshole/piece of shit.

12) But don't think that.

13) But!

14) Don't fight!

15) Ugly mix of a cockroach and a frog! The word "bacarospo" is a neologism created by the Italian voice of Homer Simpsons, the much loved and missed Tonino Accolla, and the whole phrase is used in the place of the character's catchphrase "Why you little" uttered against his son.

16) Ice cream, Italian style.

17) Ice cream place.

18) Melon and watermelon with cream.

19) I didn't have the scent of it. Italian equivalent of "I didn't have a clue".

20) (I) will investigate.

21) Girlfriend.

22) Partypooper.

23) Guys.