Luca But Make It Gay(er)

Part 13

(fanart by MilleFaller on DeviantArt)

As they went down, their reactions were completely different.

Alberto was overjoyed and kept whooping, but Luca was terrified and kept whimpering.

As he noticed the Vespa starting to crack near the middle, he hastily grabbed onto Alberto's torso and pulled, snapping the Vespa back together.

Silenzio Bruno, silenzio Bruno-

"Silenzio Bruno, silenzio Bruno," Luca muttered under his breath, eyes squeezed shut and pink nose scrunched up in fear. "Silenzio Bruno, silenzio Bruno-"

They leapt off the ramp, with one last yelp from Luca, "Silenzio Bruno!!"

He carefully opened his eyes, then gasped as time seemed to slow as they soared through the air, high as the seagulls and close enough to touch them.

"Whoa," Alberto breathed, as Luca chirped, "Wow..." at the same time.

But apparently, their wonder wasn't meant to last.

The Vespa started to lurch downwards, and Alberto said, "Uh-oh." as if he had already prepared for this, when he had obviously not.

They began to fall right towards a huge rock, and in a moment of panic, Luca remembered the cracking Vespa.

So he took advantage of that and tucked in his legs against Alberto's hips and pushed.

They broke apart from the rock and crashed into the ocean on either side of it, but completely unharmed.

They both resurfaced, and Alberto was the first one to start celebrating.

"Whoo-hoo! Yeah!" he cheered.

Luca laughed, rolling onto his back to float on the water.

"Yes! We're alive!" he gasped. "I can't believe it!"

"Take that, Bruno!" Alberto hollered.

"Yes!"

"What are all those tiny lights?" Luca asked Alberto, laying on the wooden floor.

"Anchovies," Alberto replied. "They go there to sleep."

Luca propped himself up on his elbows, then wrinkled his nose disbelievingly.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Alberto said, then pointed at the big offwhite circular rock way up with the anchovies. "And the big fish protects them. I touched it once."

Alberto shrugged and picked at his teeth.

"Dunno, felt like a fish."

"Wow." Luca silently fantasized about touching the big fish. "Your life is so much cooler than mine. I never go anywhere. I just... Dream about it."

"You came up here," Alberto pointed out.

"Thanks to you," Luca contradicted softly. "Otherwise, I never would've seen any of this."

He stood up and admired the anchovies in the dark sky, then turned and caught sight of the human town, a fair ways away from them and separated from the island Alberto lived on with water.

"Have you ever been to the human town?" Luca inquired, resting against the edge of the tower.

"Yeah!" Alberto chirped, sitting up. "Uh, no. But- But, my dad told me all about it, so I'm pretty much an expert."

He stood up and leaned on the edge next to Luca.

He sighed.

"Your dad sounds so cool," he envied him quietly. "You're lucky he lets you do what you want."

"Yeah," Alberto confirmed. "For sure."

Luca withered down, a bit sad and down.

Alberto must've noticed, because he immediately changed the subject.

"Hey, you remember that time we almost hit that giant rock?" he chuckled, tilting his head at Luca, who giggled.

When he saw that his little cheat had worked, he eagerly went on.

"And we flew through the air, and I was like, 'Yeah!' and then you were like, 'Nooo!'"

They both laughed together, Luca quickly rubbing his eye as a tear had trickled down.

He immediately felt bubbly and cheered up, and warm and grateful to Alberto for having him do that.

Wish I could repay him...

"Wouldn't it be amazing to have a real Vespa?" he exhaled, looking back at the human town.

"Yeah," Alberto purred. "That's the dream."

"Yeah..."