Hold Me Close

Chapter Fifteen: Famiglia

-=Alex=-

I woke up with Evan in my arms and a stream of Italian sunlight coming through the window right above the headboard.

"Morning sleepyhead" a soft voice said as I stirred.

"Morning love." I replied, pulling him in closer to me. "How'd you sleep?"

"Like a rock." He mumbled, closing his eyes again. I looked over his shoulder and at the alarm clock on the bedside table. 16:32...16:32?! "Ah shit man wake up. We've been asleep for fifteen hours." His eyes flipped open.

"What?!"

"Yeah. Must have been because of jet lag." I swung out of the bed, resting my paws on the carpet as I leaned over my suitcase and picked out an outfit for the day. "Oh, uh, let me go out and talk to my parents first about our...situation."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." He responded, sliding a t-shirt on over his now exposed chest. I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Pictures of my mom and dad hung on the wall, as well as a rather large picture with me in the middle of the two of them, a goofy smile on my face at the beach. My parents moved to Italy when I started college to be near other family members. Couldn't blame them, it was beautiful out here. I walked down a few steps and into a kitchen. No one was in sight. I looked around, scanning the open house around me for movement. A small white piece of paper was on the island, so I picked it up and read it.

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Alexander,

We went out to go see a movie and get something to eat. Should be back by 19:00. Can't wait to see you and meet your special girl. ;)

~Mom + Dad
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Ew they used my full name. Well I guess this was a blessing in disguise, Evan and I had some alone time together. I walked back to the room and saw Evan sitting on the floor leaning against the bed and looking at his phone.

"We good?" He asked, looking up at me.

"No one's home until later tonight, so I was thinking. Want to go out and explore the city?" His ears perked up.

"I'd love to!" He chirped, shoving his phone into his pocket and jumping up.

"Great, let's go." I chuckled. We walked outside. My parents only lived about a mile away from downtown Milan so we decided to walk. It was a nice 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside and a slight breeze. While we were walking I felt a paw intertwine with mine. I instinctivley looked around, looking for judging eyes but found none. Instead all of the other furs just kept going along and doing what they were doing, nothing seemed unusual to them. I eased up a bit, continuing to walk down the cobblestone sidewalk. We passed by some old stone buildings, a huge cathederal that I snapped a quick picture of, and kept at things like that for the next couple of hours. We were simply enjoyjng ourselves, free from worry and stress. While we continued on our way down the street, I noticed a gray figure out of the corner of my eye on the other side, taking a picture in our direction. Assuming it's a tourist picture, I just kept walking while holding Alex's hand to make it seem natural.

"I'm starting to get hungry." I stated, my stomach feeling empty.

"There's a restaurant over there I think." Evan said as he pointed to what appeared to be a small place to eat. Why not. I pulled him with me as we crossed the street and came up to the restaurant. A small plaque was on the door. Problem was, it wasn't in English. "Speak any Italian?" Evan asked, cocking his head to the side.