Luckily for Feliciano, the next day was Friday and he only had one class today. Even better, it began at 11am so he didn't have to get up early either. Unlike his brother Lovino who had a lecture beginning at eight.
Feliciano squinted and threw his pillow at his brother whenever he turned on the light, waking him up. Feliciano had always been a light sleeper.
"Alright, I'll turn it off just give me a couple minutes to get ready and then you can go back to sleep."
Feliciano groaned in tired frustration and buried himself underneath his covers. True to his word, after about five minutes Lovino turned off the light and left the dorm with a quiet goodbye. Feliciano rolled over onto his side to face the window, he tried to fall back asleep but failed, he was wide awake now because of that light.
He decided to get up and get ready for the day, despite how much he longed for his bed, he knew that he would have to do it at some point.
The class that he had was his art class, and unfortunately for him, he was all alone. He also really enjoyed it though, so he was slightly happy that he was alone because that meant he could focus more on it.
After he finished stumbling to pull on his pants and pulling on a hoodie over his head, he walked down to the student center where all of the food was. It was nice outside, but kind of chilly when the wind blew. The fall was creeping up on them fast but Feliciano loved the fall, he loved the smells and the colors that it brought. He loved to paint the trees after all of the leaves had changed colors.
He bought a banana and searched for his brother, it was only 7:30 so he was more than likely still here. He found him over in his usual spot over by the window with Arthur and Alfred, who also had early morning classes. Noticing the empty chair next to Lovino, he walked over to it and sat down.
"I thought you didn't have classes this early on Friday's," said Alfred.
Feliciano shrugged, "It's true, I don't, but he woke me up with all of his lights and I couldn't fall back asleep. I do have a class at 11 though."
Alfred nodded in understanding, "I feel you man, Matthew has all of these early morning classes almost every day and he likes to get there super early too, you just missed him actually, anyway, he wakes me up with the lights too, it sucks."
After a minute of comfortable silence, Arthur gathered his trash and rose from his seat, "Yeah, well I think I better go, my class starts at the 45."
"I'll walk you there," said Alfred in a rush to catch up to him. "We'll see you later!" He called back to Lovino and Feliciano.
Feliciano moved to the other side of the table so he was sitting across from his brother instead of directly next to him.
"I have something to tell you," said Lovino slowly.
Feliciano stopped munching on his banana and looked at his brother, "What is it?"
Lovino dug around in his backpack before sliding a brochure across the table. It was a brochure for apartments.
"Between the two of us, and Grandpa Roma, we have finally saved up enough to rent out a small apartment, if you want."
"Are you serious?" His question was rhetorical.
"Yes, I'm serious. Now we need to start looking at apartments to rent out. I've already done some researching and there is a complex not too far from campus, and the rooms there are a decent price too, but we should keep searching until we are sure on the one we want."
Feliciano was ecstatic. They could finally get out of their cramped dorm, and they could finally have their own kitchen, and maybe even their own bedrooms. That excited Feliciano the most, his own bedroom. Sharing with Lovino was great and all but, he wanted privacy, and he was sure that his brother did too.
Almost knocking his chair over, Feliciano rushed from the table to hug his brother. Grunting, Lovino shrugged him off, wanting to regret telling him about this.
"I'll start searching right now! Yeah! We're getting an apartment!" Feliciano shouted with glee, drawing the eyes of a few strangers sitting at the surrounding tables.
Lovino quickly shushed him, "I haven't told anyone yet, and we are not even sure if we are getting one yet. So keep it on the down-low, okay?"
Frantically nodding his head, Feliciano pulled his brothers hand away from his mouth. "Okay, sorry," his smile never wavered.
Lovino sighed and grabbed his bag and gathered his trash, "I have to go now, maybe do a little research before your next class okay? I'll see you later." With that Lovino threw away his trash and hiked up his backpack over one shoulder before exiting the building, leaving his ecstatic brother behind.
Quickly, Feliciano ran back to the dorms and up to his room. Out of breath, he searched for his laptop before finding it still in his backpack and feverishly opening it up, clicking on the safari, and searching for available apartments within the area.
After a while of searching, he had made a list of some pretty decent apartments, looks and price wise, but they were too far away from the campus. Their ideal apartment was one close to the campus, because the problem was, they only had one car. It was Lovino's, and plus it would save money on gas if they could just walk to and from school everyday. A knock at the door pulled Feliciano from his computer.
"Hello? Hey Feli I know you're in there! I think I forgot my wallet whenever I walked you guys home last night! Unlock the door!"
Antonio.
Before getting up to go to the door, Feliciano did a quick scan of the room for a stray wallet, and sure enough, there it was, sitting on the side table next to Lovino's bed. The black leather wallet gleamed in the tiny ray of sunlight being let in through the open curtains. He left his chair and retrieved it before walking over to the door, were Antonio's voice once again resonated through.
"Come on Feli I have class soon and I want to buy something to eat before I go-" Cutting him off by opening the door, Feliciano handed the wallet to his friend. "Thanks," he said. Antonio frantically opened the wallet and peeked inside a velcroed flap and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God, it's still there," he breathed.
Curious, Feliciano tried peeking around the mans large hands. "What's still there?"
Antonio's usually tan skin went pale before he forced a laugh, "Oh, uh, you mean," he dug around in his wallet for a bit, "you mean this?" He held up a picture of himself and Lovino, Antonio's arms are wrapped around Lovino while he had a huge smile on his face, but what made Feliciano's heart warm, was not Antonio's smile, but his brother's. In the picture, Lovino's arms are wrapped around Antonio's face in a loving manner, and he is smiling. Smiling. And it's not just any ordinary smile, this was one of he biggest ones he had ever seen on Lovino's face, even if it was just a picture. The most important thing to Feliciano about the picture though, was that they looked very, very happy, and that's all Feliciano could ever ask for.
Even though Feliciano had only spent a few seconds looking at the small photograph before Antonio returned it back into his wallet, it felt like hours.
"Well, thanks for the wallet, by now," said Antonio before leaving.
His response was late, and he didn't even know if he heard him, but he shouted out a goodbye down the hall anyway.
After spending so much time on the computer, 11 o'clock was nearing, and it was time for him to get ready for his favorite class, Art.
He had already dressed and done everything else, all he needed to do was gather his art supplies and head over to the art building. The walk there wasn't that far, but it wasn't close by any means either. The art building just happened to be just far away enough from the dorms that you would have wished you brought your bike, but by the time you wish that, the building is already in sight, so you say screw it and walk the rest of the way.
Plus Feliciano didn't have a bike, so it's not like he had some sort of choice.
He made it into the classroom with five minutes to spare, he set up his supplies and waited for the professor. She walked into the room at exactly 11 and locked the door behind her, that was one thing about her. She would not let anyone into the classroom after she walked in, so basically, if you were late, you were screwed, unless she was late too. Then you had a slight chance of beating her to the classroom.
Once the class began, she set them off with an easy assignment, to paint a bowl of fruit with at least three different types of fruit in the bowl and the bowl must have some sort of design. Other students groaned at the assignment, but Feliciano was all for it. About five minutes into class, another professor dragged theirs out into the hallway, and they closed the door behind them.
The class went by quickly, and by the time Feliciano was finished, he had a small crowd of surrounding heads gathered around him to admire his work. In his tan, wood woven bowl, was an apple, two oranges, and six cherries scattered about. He had even painted the bowl on a table, and made a couple cherries sit on the table as well. Then at the bottom of the canvas was his name delicately signed.
"Very good work Mr. Vargas," the professor praised. This made his smile grow wider, though he tried to hide it, he didn't like to boast.
"Th- thank you, ma'am," he stuttered out.
Feliciano was happy that she approved of his work, and that others thought that it was good too, but he still felt he could do better, he just didn't know what he felt he could paint better. All of his works to him felt like they were all on the same skill level. He had yet to find that one, special thing that would challenge him.
After class was over and he arrived back at the dorms, he opened the door to find Lovino on his laptop with Antonio looking over his shoulder, wearing a perplexed expression.
"If you move into this building it's only about a five minute walk to campus," said Antonio pointing to the screen.
"Yeah, but this one has a better price range, though it's about a ten minute walk," said Lovino, the both of them completely unaware of the newly arrived third person in the room.
Sighing, Antonio rose his head from over Lovino's shoulder, "I mean, it's your choice. Although, I do want you to stay close, otherwise I won't be able to see you as often as I do."
Lovino pried Antonio's arms off of him and scooted away from both him and the computer. "Have you forgotten that you have a car? You self-centered bastard! You could just drive to my apartment if you need to!"
"So you're saying that I'm allowed to come to your apartment when it's not safe to walk?" He asked sensually, his fingers wandering back onto Lovino's chest.
Feliciano cleared his throat loudly, causing the other two to look up, and Antonio to jump away from Lovino.
"How long have you been creeping there?" Lovino asked.
Feliciano gave a nervous laugh, "long enough."
Antonio caressed the back of his neck before glancing at his watch, "Crap, I have to go I promised that I would meet up with Alfred at the café to help him with Sociology." He quickly grabbed his backpack, which had been lying in the corner, and shoved his wallet into his pocket. "Help your brother make a decision on which apartment to rent out, good luck! See you later!" He called out behind him on his way out. Lovino rolled his chair back to the computer and pulled his hair and groaned.
"I don't know which one we should get, I saw the list you made and I went back to each of those and looked them over. They're nice but most are a little too far away. Then I found this apartment complex thing and its not that far but it's a little high on price. Get over here and look at it."
Feliciano dropped his things and headed over to where Lovino was sitting at his computer. He had several tabs open, all of them showing a different apartment that was up for rent. After a few minutes of looking through the different tabs and re-looking at a few, Feliciano stood up straight and let out a breath of frustration.
"All of them are nice, some are more than others, but I think we should keep looking. Maybe one will suddenly pop open!" He said the last part enthusiastically and smiled brightly, trying to help his brother's dampened mood and make him do the same.
Apartment hunting was not easy. It was hard to find something close, nice, and within their price range. Most of all, they didn't want to settle on anything either, if they got an apartment, they wanted to both like it. That was probably one of the hardest parts about it.
Feliciano walked over to his bed and lied down, "So you told Antonio?"
Lovino stopped rubbing his face and looked up at his brother, "Yeah."
"How'd he take it?"
"He was a little taken aback at first, but once I convinced him that we weren't moving away just to an apartment, he was okay with it. Then he kinda got quiet for awhile as I was researching and then the bastard suddenly had one of those big goofy ass grins on his face and was all for helping me research. That guy has bipolar tendencies I swear."
Feliciano laughed and sat up, "I think I know why he was suddenly all for it."
"What? How? Why was he?" Lovino rapid fire questioned.
Adverting his gaze, he played with a loose thread on the comforter before answering, "It's okay, I'll just stay out of the house a little bit more."
Still completely oblivious, Lovino sat there dumbfounded. Meanwhile Feliciano wore a smirk as he grabbed his wallet and phone from his bag. "I'm going to go for a walk, you know, practice for when we get that apartment."
Just as he shut the door behind him he heard a loud gasp of realization, "YOU BASTARD I WOULD NEVER! YOU GET BACK HERE YOU ARE NOT PRACTICING FOR ANYTHING!" But Feliciano was already down the hallway and heading to the elevator.
When the doors opened, Matthew was already standing there.
"Oh, hi Matthew!" Said Feliciano as he stepped into the small area.
"Hi, Feliciano. Are you going to the lobby too?"
"Yeah." After that a silence rose between them, having been on the tenth floor, the ride down took awhile. Feliciano turned to the slightly taller blond, "Wait, I thought that your dorm was on the eighth floor, so why were you in here going down?"
"Oh, I was on the roof," Matthew said.
"It's getting colder and closer to fall, you might want to start wearing a heavier hoodie," Feliciano suggested after taking a look at Matthew's lightweight red hoodie and jeans.
"I'll be okay, I'm Canadian after all. I'm used to the cold."
Just as he finished his sentence the elevator doors opened, "Ah, well I'm going to go now, bye Matthew!" Feliciano said.
"Bye, Feliciano." Said Matthew just before he started walking in the opposite direction towards the lobby sitting area where Francis was waiting for him.
Feliciano walked out of the doors and decided to take the sidewalk to the left. After a few minutes of walking he remembered he had shoved his earbuds in his pocket this morning, and dug them out before plugging it into his phone and placing them in his ears.
The first song that came on after he hit the "shuffle" button was one of his favorites, Unsteady by X Ambassadors. It was kind of slow, and kind of sad, but he loved it anyway. He always secretly wished that he had someone to hold him steady. The problem was though, that even after his 20 years of life, he had not once found a person that he truly loved, hell, even liked in that way. He hoped that if he did find that one person, they would stay with him, and they would never let him go. Just as he would never do to them.
As he continued to walk farther and farther away from all of the buildings within campus, the songs on his playlist shuffled around, and as the trees around him got thicker and thicker, he realized that he had never been this way before. Despite the fact that he had been going to this college for two years now.
He slowly took out one earbud, observing his surroundings. The trees around him were a mixture of many, and with some of the leaves beginning to change colors, the scenery reminded him of something out of a movie.
The sky was bright in the mid-afternoon sun, but the trees around him cast enough shade that it didn't seem to bright, it was perfect. He decided to walk a little bit further whenever suddenly his music cut off and was replaced by his ringtone.
"Hello?" He answered.
"Feli, come back to the dorm. I need your approval on an apartment-thing." It was Lovino.
"I thought we agreed to wait and keep searching," Feliciano whined.
He could hear him sigh through the phone, "Yeah, but, I did some more searching and there is this guy and he is putting up his house for rent and I looked into it and it's actually pretty cheep but it currently has someone pending for it so I was thinking if we offer a little bit more before the guy makes their decision then we might be able to get this one."
"Really?!" He said, excited.
"Yes. Now hurry up. I don't know how long this guy has been pending, he could have his answer within a few minutes or a few hours. Come. ON. Feli."
"Okay, okay. I'm coming," said Feliciano, turning around and taking off in the direction of the dorms at a full sprint. "Tell me about," breath, "the house," he panted.
"Okay well, it's a house to begin with, which I like because it's bigger than pretty much every apartment that we've looked at. Basically everything is on the main floor, even though there is a second floor, the only thing up there is storage areas, but by the looks of these pictures, there is one actual room up there and we can use that as either a sitting area or like a game room or some shit. Then on the main floor there are two bedrooms and two bathrooms. One of the bedrooms is a master and one of the bathrooms is connected to it. Then there is a living room, a kitchen, and a small little dining room looking thing that is connected to the kitchen. Then there is a cellar basement thing but thats the only thing down there. NOW HURRY UP FELI!"
Just as Lovino was finishing his rant, Feliciano came bursting through their door. He threw his phone on the bed and ran to his brother who was frantically waving him over, his eyes never leaving the screen. On the screen was a picture of the house, and it had its location posted underneath it, which surprisingly was only a couple of blocks away from the campus. Some guy named Ivan Braginski was the one renting the house, and he currently had an offer from someone who was "unidentified."
"How much is it to rent?" Asked Feliciano as he quickly scrolled through all of the pictures and the article telling about the house.
"It's at the top of our price range but it's not outside of it."
Feliciano looked at Lovino with a very serious face, more serious than he's ever been in his life. "Do it."
"Are you sure?"
"Do it."
Lovino took a deep breath before clicking the "make offer" button and typing in his ideal amount and other information before hitting submit. The two of them let out a sigh of relief after the action had been complete.
"Now we wait," said Lovino.
"Yup," said Feliciano, back to his usually cheerful self, "now we wait."