Shades of Innocence (A GerIta FanFic)

Chapter 13

Feliciano finished peeling is his last potato, he'd lost count of how many spuds he'd shed with the blunt peeler. The Italian dropped the potato into the bucket by his feet now almost full to the brim with spuds, drying his hands on his trouser legs. Beside him Johan still had a considerable amount of potatoes piled up, he'd been peeling agonisingly slowly in the last hour; the three manly cafeteria women were conversing in gruff voices somewhere behind them. The prison kitchen was rather small and grotty, with a greasy stove, mucky tiles and no windows; Feliciano was sure that had to be health hazard. It wasn't as bad as he'd imagined however, time was slipping away relatively quickly and every now and again he and Johan had managed to sneak a grape or two from the fruit basket sat beside the sink when they went to wash their peeled spuds.

"Need some help?" Feliciano asked kindly, holding out his hands.

Johan glanced up with a distorted smile and pushed a handful of potatoes over to him across the counter. "Thanks, I've never been too good at this stuff." he muttered, staring down in annoyance at the grimy peeler in his hands. "You're fast at this."

"I get a lot of practice." Feliciano said with a shrug. "I kind of like it, it's relaxing...although we do ever even get given potatoes? I don't remember ever eating any..." he muttered thoughtfully, glancing up at the large grey shutters above the counter that separated them from the cafeteria; they were usually wide open during meal times over the serving station but now that it was the afternoon and lunchtime had past they were locked closed again until dinner later in the day.

Johan nodded slowly. "Yeah...I think they just mash them up and put them in the stew and stuff." he said quietly; his hands fumbled slightly over the peeler and he almost dropped it to the floor.

Feliciano watched him curiously. "...are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah fine." Johan gabbed hurriedly, beaming up at him with his wide grin.

The Italian smiled in an unnerved sort of way. "Okay." Feliciano went back to his potato peeling, much slower this time to try and match Johan's pace. Something about the way the man peeled his spuds didn't seem to be purely his inability to use a peeler well; he held it correctly against the potato in his hand yet seemed to drag it agonisingly slowly across the spud to scrape away the skin. Feliciano glanced behind him when he smelt a powerfully strong aroma of cigarette smoke; the three broad women had started smoking beside the rusty cooker despite the sign above their heads on the wall clearly stating it was not permitted to smoke inside the kitchens.

Johan almost slammed his peeler down on the counter, glaring slightly at the women over his shoulder. "Excuse me, but I think that sign says no smoking in here." he said in a harsh tone; the Italian jumped.

One of the women in a black hair net and with a rather large moustache narrowed her eyes. "...and you're telling us because...?"

"I have bad asthma, and I'd hate for it to come about again and to have to tell the physician it's a result of you three breaking the rules." Johan said darkly, the potato and peeler trembling slightly in his hands. The three of them looked momentarily unaffected by his words, then a slow dawning became apparent, they gave the two of them a sharp look before stalking out of the kitchen into the cafeteria, where they heard them leave through the backdoor into the empty courtyard.

Feliciano looked at Johan in concern, gently tapping his shoulder. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked quietly, he'd never seen the man act quite so edgy before.

Johan dropped the things he was holding to the counter, stretching his thin mouth into that wide grin once more. "Yeah fine, just get a little touchy about smoking you know?" he tried to brush it off as a joke but his smile was wavering, as if it was taking immense effort to keep it fixed in place; the man's smile had never reached his cold eyes, but Feliciano had never noticed it as much as he did now.