The Fluffy Sheep Experiment [Sci-Fly, Plume]

Kevin had his spoon in his mouth, already having a good pick swirling in his mouth (mmm, kiwi), as he saw Luca's eye on that strawberry, sitting at the bottom of the bowl -- enough for one more person. There was just a moment of hesitation, given the sheer amount he just put in his mouth. However, it was enough for him to lose the last bite when he tried to cheekily grab a hold of the entire bowl.

Darn. He thought, retracting back his hand.

"You win."

Luca spooned the with a smug look on his face. He placed the spoon beside the bowl and leaned back to admire his work.

"What up, newbie!"

He folded his arms across his belly contently, holding back a small burp.

He was awesome.

"Alright, I'm all set."

Kevin exhaled in content, putting his spoon down. It was a great date. Good food, good conversation. He could do this more often.

Quiet for a moment, he stood up out of seat. "Right, let's go."

Paying for the meal and leaving a tip, he walked right out of the restaurant alongside Luca before passing through the door and onto the side-walk.

He was feeling full... and a bit heavier. Hmmm...

"You sure you want to fly?" He asked.

Luca scoffed. Don't estimate his flying. 

"I'm fine! The mansion isn't that far from here anyway."

The Italian swept the other man off his feet and carried him bridal style. To give him some luck, he bent down to kiss Kevin's forehead before zooming away.

"Oh, can we take a small detour? I wanna show you something."

Luca flew a little faster towards his favourite spot in the city: a tall office building with the lamest holo-ad for deodorant. It had a great view of the city, so he didn't really mind it.

Kevin raised a brow as they suddenly took a detour, landing a top an office tower. He looked at the black skyline which was glittered brighter lights than there were before.

"Wow," he exclaimed in awe at the clear sight of the city. He reverted into a child at a toy store, turning about, seeing what places he could recognise. "Hey, you can make out the mansion over there." He scrunched his face at the notice of a banner with his face and code-name before turning back to Luca with a face of mischief. (Not that he could ever get here again without help.)

"So, have I been brought to Luca Donati's secret spot?"

Luca sat Kevin down by the edge of the roof, murmuring a 'don't worry, I got you', before sitting down beside him and holding his hand.

"This is the best spot in the entire city. I know that because I checked every single building."

He grinned at Kevin's sour expression. Well, that was also the reason why Luca enjoyed the view. The photographer did a really good job at getting the perfect angle of the scientist's face. Mm.

"So, yeah. I thought this'd be a great spot for me to talk more about, er, Sicily. More private, haha."

Here goes nothing.

Kevin took his seat, staring at his feet dangling from the roof. He pressed his hand into Luca's, trusting his word.

I'm having all sorts of experiences today.

Deciding to avoid the feeling of more vertigo than was possible, he looked into Luca's face just as he began to speak.

He blinked, staring in surprise. He thought it was going to be the end of that conversation for a long time after bringing it up at dinner.

"Oh. Okay."

All eyes and ears were now in wait.

"Warning you, it's a sob story." Luca took a deep breath.

Let's see if Kevin will still want you after this.

"The whole thing with Sicily all started when I was 19. I ran from home and flew, yeah, flew to Sicily when my father died of leukaemia." He chuckled sadly to himself, "Yeah, I know what you're thinking: 'Why the fuck did he have to run all the way to Sicily? Overreacting much?' Well, when you've got powers like these and an Italian temper? Shit happens."

The Italian cleared his throat and brought their joint hands onto his lap.

"I avoided my relatives there, didn't want my mom to find me. I was aimlessly wandering the streets for almost a year. Got into alley fights a lot, and ended up killing a lot of people for a piece of bread."

Shoulders slumping, he turned towards Kevin with a forlorn expression.

"And that's how the mafia found me."

Kevin did not brace himself enough for this. He'd partly expected it given it was something that made Luca uncomfortable to talk about. Also, he joined a mansion filled with actual heroes with field experience where bloodshed and sad stories seemed to be something that followed most of them. This was in stark contrast to himself, which who was rightly called a newbie for many a reason besides being a new addition to the team.

End game, he felt enough sympathy to continue to listen quietly. It was heavy stuff: filled with things he could not understand as a consequence of his safer, privileged life. However, Luca wasn't feeling great talking about it, and while he admittedly felt a mix of emotions he couldn't yet sort out, he held his ground, continuing to clasp Luca's hands.

"So you were in the Mafia for a while," he merely reiterated, his face mirroring Luca's expression with concern.

This was a horrible idea.

"'Were'. I wish it was that easy." He loosened his hold on Kevin's hand, giving the other man a choice.

"I made a deal with the boss. I'd get to leave the HQ, but I'd have to go back for... special assignments. So far, they've never called." Apparently, they knew his mother. He didn't want to risk it.

He shook his head at himself and rubbed at his eyes. 

"It's fucking hilarious. Hero by day, assassin by night. Merde, can you even call me a hero..."

A weight pooled in the bottom of his stomach and his heart began to ache.

Man, this is just our third date. Way to go, you ruined everything.

Kevin didn't know what to do with the gravity that'd been unloaded on to him. Luca's hand loosened around his hands, and while he hesitated, he returned his hands to his sides, hands gripping at the cold metal under him.

His eyes were downcast back to his no-longer swinging feet as Luca finished talking.

Doesn't sound like a bad time to fall and disappear off the face of the earth right now.

What was he supposed to slugging say?

There was a mix of confusion and pain building steadily. About things -- beyond sympathy -- he didn't account for. Just things. There was a saturated stream of thoughts swimming in his mind. He tried to reach them to construct something useful to say, but there was nothing. They'd just slip through his fingers.

He was blank.

He tried so hard to shake the tension away, but it wasn't working. He knew there were ways he would have possibly dealt with the situation, like a casual 'oh that sucks,' or 'that's no big deal'. However, he couldn't bring himself to treat it so lightly.

"I," he started. "Uh-- Hmmm."

He leant back, staring up into the night sky. He took a sharp breath of the heavy smell of city combustion.

"I need two days," he said gently, his eyes shut, unable to bear looking at Luca's face. "Maybe a week."

The scientist couldn't think straight right now. Was his reaction positive or negative? He didn't know -- he just felt terrible.

"There's just a lot to take in."

Sorry.

Blood rushed into his ears and his heart sunk.

He won't come back.

The thought reverberated around his head as he felt Kevin's hands leave his. He couldn't stop trembling. His hands pressed at his face, squeezing his eyes until he saw stars. 

Fuck, rejection hurts like a bitch.

After a moment, once he was sure that his face wasn't wet (he will not cry), the Italian turned to the man beside him, his eyes avoiding the other's.

"Okay. I-I'll just bring you down, yeah?"

He quickly dismissed the idea of flying back home with him. 

As if Kevin would want to see his slugging face after this.

"Yeah, thanks," was all that Kevin could muster, trying to compose himself but instead rather despondently moved from the edge of the roof.

He flickered a glance at Luca, waiting to be brought down to ground. It was a blurred silhouette that he could only manage to see; and exactly all that he could deal with. Air was caught in his throat, at the mere knowledge he was probably devastated by his response.

I'm the worst.

Luca nodded and stood behind the taller man, sighing.

He never got to appreciate this.

"Close your eyes."

Hoisting him up by Kevin's sides, he began to descend to the empty sidewalk. It was harder for Luca to carry him like this, but he kept it to himself. They landed close by a deserted taxi stand and he carefully set the other man down.

Deciding to just fly back home, he stayed afloat and lightly tapped the man's shoulder.

"Thank you for dinner," Luca mumbled, mustering the best smile that he could. It wasn't much.

With that, he took off.

Was it weird being carried to the ground after all of this. Yes. But it wasn't like he had a choice.

Doing as he was told, he shut his eyes and waited until his feet touched the ground. He had issues about the safety about how he was being carried but remained silence despite his tense frame.

Luca let go of him, tapped his shoulder and reflexly he turned around seeing the strained smile.

"No problem."

He watched Luca disappear and the very moment he realised he was alone, he pinched at the bridge of his nose.

"Fuck!" He said in quiet anger. Expletives reeled through his head as he ungracefully reached for the nearest lamp-post and tried to shake it free to no avail.

He fucked up, and he couldn't wipe that last face out of his mind.

Why couldn't you think, Howland? Why the fuck couldn't you do ANYTHING?!

Ugh.

He lightly bumped his forehead against the metal and took a few slow breaths.

"Fely-- Just call me a cab."

Shortly after he dropped Kevin off, Luca raided the kitchen and stole all of the gin and tonic water, got sloshed on the mansion roof, and woke up on a tree with the worst hangover he's had in years. 

He avoided everybody like the goddamn plague after that. The only time he'd ever gone out was to grab food from the kitchen at 4 in the morning.

And leave before 6 because he's gonna be there.

Luca stopped listening to music because Thurlow freaked out and ended up shuffling to the sad love songs. He thought about visiting Dax, but he didn't want to be seen. The management and the other residents wouldn't be happy about random smokescreens around the mansion.

It's only been 4 days, but slugger they were just growing longer.

He woke up to his room filled with fog. Again. No wonder he was so tired. Scrubbing his face, he walked over to his mirror, collecting the fog as he went. Red eyes and sunken cheeks were familiar to him now, it was no surprise to see the same thing today.

Merde, just let the week come already.

Day one, Kevin tried to do his morning routine as usual. Subsequently, each following day resulted in him holed up in his lab for longer hours in search for distraction. It wasn't as if he wasn't giving any thought to the date; instead he was thinking too much about it.

By day four, he'd only written half a page to his report, and every read-over (when he even remembered to) made him realise it was absolute bull. Beer glasses were littered across the floor and microwaved meal containers were stacked to the side. There was at least two days of unkempt stubble, and he probably spent more hours trying to avoid confrontation of his feelings by forcing himself to sleep the hours away on the hospital bed in the corner of the room.

In his lab, Kevin rubbed his face into the pillow in frustration before remaining face down. The deafening silence was something he didn't want to get used to. Memories reeled through his head and they drew himself back to one fact.

He turned to his side, staring at the plain wall in his direct view.

"I can't live like this any more," he said with resolve, slipping off the bed and ironing out his lab coat. He patted down at his hair, palms lastly drawing themselves down the sides of his face.

He was still nervous. Still scared.

Slipping outside of his laboratory, he headed to Luca's room and determinedly knocked at the door.

"Luca? Are you in there? Can we talk?"

A knock on he door shook him out of his stupor. He wasn't able to pick out what the person was saying. It was probably Dax, the idiot was probably mumbling again.

He sighed and half-heartedly ran a hand through his unruly bed hair. The Italian never gave that much of a damn about his hair nowadays.

He opened the door his gaze fixed on the ground.

"Dax, what's up--"

Luca's jaw snapped shut as he looked up to see Kevin. He looked just as bad as he did. Instinctively, he took a step back, unsure what to do.

"K-Kevin. What are you doing here?"

The door swung open and Kevin stared at Luca, who seemed to have been undoubtedly taking it worse than he was.

"H-Hey," Hey replied, with a nervous smile. "I wanted to... talk."

His hand reached to scratch at the back of his neck, trying to ignore the dull throbbing pain in his chest.

"If that's alright with you."

Don't get your hopes up. He might just throw that door back on your face.

Luca tightened his hold on the doorknob and bit his lip.

Fuck.

"Oh. Um, sure... Come in."

He swung the door open, motioning to the chair by the desk. A gust of wind shut the door closed once they were both seated. Luca fiddled with the smokebomb filled with the previous fog in the room, waiting for Kevin to talk.

"I'm alright."

Kevin walked into the room, and declined the chair, remaining on his feet in ease the restlessness. He felt like a stranger here, and he wasn't fine with that at all.

He took a deep breath, taking his time to prepare himself for what he had to say. Hands were thrown into his pockets and his nails dug into his palm.

"So," Kevin started, "I'm really sorry about last time. I didn't say anything and I should have." He looked at Luca, studying his face for a moment before continuing, unable to gauge the response. "So, I've been thinking about it. A lot. There's things I don't know much about, like the whole mafia stuff. But I realised if it weren't you, I wouldn't be like this."

"No, what I mean is--" He heaved a sigh, throwing the last bit of pride he carried with him. "I fucking missed you, Luca. I wish I said this to you earlier. I think I can handle the truth about you. Just--"

He laughed derisively at himself. He might as well have prostrated himself before the Italian.

"You remember when I said about my greatest pleasure? I don't think that's changed."

Don't disappear.

There was still a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, no matter how happy he was to hear that Kevin still wanted him.

"Bello, I missed you, too. So much. But-- are you sure? I barely scratched the surface! How are you going to handle the truth when you bailed on me when I spat out 'mafia'!"

He shot to his feet, pacing across the room and shoving the smokebomb into a drawer. Luca stood there, hands on the desk with his shoulders hunched.

"I don't want to go through this again."

Shit.

For a moment, he tripped up in his thoughts.

Are you really ready for this?

His arms shook, and once again he was weighing his self-preservation against Luca's presence in his life.

"I absolutely can do it. You're still you. Assassin or not."

He wouldn't dare speak of what really set him on edge.

His own death.

Becoming a target of the Mafia through association.

However, he was a slugging hero himself and danger was going to be around him. What was another bounty on my head going to do? He'd rationalised, You're smarter than that to be killed.

His heart ached, taking a few hesitant steps towards Luca, unsure whether he was even making progress.

"Please," he pleaded, "trust me."

He straightened up and made up his mind. All he needed was that little boost.

He wanted this relationship to work as much as the other did. He didn't want everything they'd been through to be all for nothing.

The Famiglia won't know about Kevin. He'll protect him.

Luca sighed and closed the space between them, enveloping him in a hug.

"Fine. You better keep your promise, bello. My heart can't take it."

Kevin expected the worst, holding his breath for Luca's reply.

His heart leapt, dumbfounded as Luca wrapped his arms around him.

"Oh thank god--"

He felt the weight on his shoulders lift. Over the moon, he finally grinned, pulling him into a tight embrace. He buried his head into Luca's shoulder his heart beating loudly in his ears.

"I promise. I'm sorry for scaring you. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I won't do this again. I missed you."