For Eternity (Vampire! 2p! Italy x Reader)

Chapter Sixteen - The Clandestine Past

All was quiet within Luciano's castle. The maids and butlers were carrying on with their usual duties but performed them silently. Flavio's studio with all the hustle and bustle of models and stylists was dead silent. Even the prince's pacing in the throne room made little to no sound. If one wasn't so used to the nonexistent sound nothingness, it would surely drive them slowly insane. This was almost normal in a sense for vampires. Not hearing anything was rather calming to their heightened senses. It was a true blessing.

As mentioned before, Luciano was pacing in the throne room up and down the long hall. He went from his throne, which would soon be shifted to the left to make room for your throne once it was completed, and down to the large wooden doors before turning on his heels to pace back up to his throne. Today was the day that he would learn about your past, and he was growing nervous. Matthieu was meant to be back over three hours prior to the current time of 2:45 in the morning. The prince grew more restless by the minute. The Hunter was never this late to an arranged meeting with him. The man was never late to a meeting period.

The doors suddenly opened as Luciano was mid pace back to his throne. He whipped around with such speed that his neck let out a sickening crack, accompanied by his back doing the same. He paid no mind to it as he finally saw he walked in. It was just his older brother, Flavio, looking quite sheepish as he noticed his younger brother's harsh gaze. He bowed his head and backed out of the room, saying he would come back later before heading back to his studio. Luciano smacked a hand to his face in a rather epic facepalm before dragging it down. His annoyance levels were going up rapidly. He shook his head, putting his index and middle finger along with his thumb to the bridge of his nose, his other hand resting on his hip.

"Where could he be?" he growled through gritted teeth.

Luciano removed his hands away from his face and hip and walked away from the center of the large room. He moved to stand in front of one of the many tall windows decorating the left wall of the room. He looked over his reflection. His hair looked smooth except for the lone curl that jutted out to the right of his head. It was frazzled from stress, not to mention from how little sleep he had gotten after a second argument sprung up between you and him when heading to bed in the morning. His eyes reflected that as well seeing as though they were on the verge of being bloodshot. He wore his usual attire of a black slacks, a white poet shirt and cravat of the same color, and a waistcoat, this one being a dark emerald green. His footwear was also different. He decided that today would be a good night to wear his black slip on boots whose tops stopped about an inch or two below his knees.

The prince sighed, now staring past his reflection to the outside world. It looked peaceful and it sounded peaceful. Luciano ran his hand along the middle of the window where the central vertical mull post ran. He found the window latch and unmatched it, allowing the window to separate in two as it swung out. A soft breeze blew through the room, Luciano's soft tufts of dark auburn hair flowing ever so slightly with the air current. Without another thought, he hopped over the small window sill and landed onto the thin ledge.

He shuffled his way to the window panes hanging over the edge of the building and gripped onto the glass, using his weight as leverage to swing around it to the other side. Once there, he balanced himself before taking a hold of a cluster of vines growing up the side of the castle walls. He scaled the stone building, using the vines and grooves in the worn stones to help him along the way. The prince pulled himself up and over the ledge of the roof. He sat down on the red tiles and looked out onto the surrounding forest. He inhaled the crisp spring air and then exhaled it. It was a rather cool and damp evening, cooler than it usually would be in this area of the world, but Luciano didn't mind. It reminded him of Italy, his true home. Well, the northern half of Italy that is.