Lev was cooking dinner for Alessio and himself. I stood up to leave. Lev turned around and crossed his arms. He got a glass of water and set it on the table. He returned to the stove to stir the food. 

“Sit down, Matteo. You can leave after dinner.” Lev said, firmly. 

Sitting back down, Alessio looked at me, and the glass of water, amused. Lev groaned as he looked at his phone. 

“Your underbosses are at the door, Alessio.”

“Let them in.”

I heard the door lock flip and Luca, Vito, and Caio came inside. Alessio stood up and spoke. “We can go speak in the office.”

“It’s better if we speak here. It concerns your brother as well.”

“Of course it does.” Alessio said flatly. 

Vito passed Alessio the paperwork, and he flipped through it. 

“You’ve spoken with Emilio, yes?”

“Of course, he confirmed that Matteo was handling everything in Italy. Given he did give Emilio a very in-depth run over everything from the last three years. Emilio is still clueless when it comes to everything from the last three years.” Vito said. 

“I told you.” I muttered. 

“Matteo, you’ve made a colossal mess for me.”

“Hardly. I told Emilio how to do everything and showed him. It’s not my fault he is a fucking moron.” I sighed, taking a drink of the water Lev brought me. 

“Why did you sign these yourself? Matteo.” Alessio asked rather harshly. 

“I was coming back here. I didn’t care. I didn’t sign them before because I didn’t want you to come find me.”

“Vito, Pack your things. I’m sending you to go fix this—-”

“Just let me go back to Italy. I’ll go back to doing what I was before. Officially.” I said.

“No. Out of the question. You’re staying here. Caio, you’re handling Vito’s work until he returns.” 

Everyone started to leave, and Alessio spoke. “Caio, you better stay. I want to speak with you privately in my office.”

“Alessio. Don’t.” I warned him. 

“Alright.” Caio said. Following Alessio back to his office. 

“Sit tight, Matteo, we’ll be back shortly.” Alessio said. 

Lev took Alessio’s seat and crossed his arms. Looking at me, he spoke. 

“Matteo, I know getting along with your brother is going to be hard, but please, try to make things work with him. It will be easier on you both.”

“He doesn’t understand.”

“About Caio?”

“Yeah. He thinks it’s some childhood crush, but he doesn’t know the things I would do to keep that man safe. When he was injured by Nico, I wanted nothing more than to—-”

Caio returned with Alessio. They both looked uncomfortable. Caio moved the dining chair a little farther away from me before he sat down. Lev gave me sympathetic eyes, seeing Caio’s behaviour. 

Alessio made small talk with Caio and Lev. Standing up, I started to head to the door, and Lev spoke. “Matteo. Come back to the table. Dinner is almost ready.”

“I’ve lost my appetite.” I muttered.

“You don’t have to eat then. Just come back to the table.” Lev urged me. 

Sighing. I turned back around and walked to the table. I moved my chair farther away from Caio before sitting down again. 

Alessio gave me a scoop of food, even though I didn’t want it. Picking at the food, I ate a few bites and nursed the glass of water from Lev. 

“Matteo, Alessio told me you got your chef’s papers.”

“I did.”

“You will have to show us your skills.”

“Sure.” I said, taking another bite of food. 

Caio changed the way he was sitting, and his arm bummed mine and I snapped at him. 

“Don’t fucking touch me.” I hissed. 

“Matteo. It was clearly an accident.” Alessio said. 

“I don’t care it was—--”

Alessio kicked me under the table, and I glared at him. 

“Your husband is attacking me under the table, Lev.” I hissed.

“Alessio, that isn’t wise. Matteo is already injured.” Lev said, glancing at his husband. 

“I stabilized his foot. It’s fine. Besides, I kicked him in the shin on the other—-”

“Alessio.” Lev said firmly. 

“Right.” Alessio groaned. 

Caio waited until I was finished with my plate of dinner, and went to help Lev with dishes, and Alessio whispered across the table at me. 

“Don’t be a dick to him, Matteo. He can’t control who he loves.”

“Remember that.” I muttered. 

Caio and I were kicked out of Alessio’s wing, and he turned to me. 

“Matteo, look what happened—-”

“Don’t.” 

“Matteo, we need to talk about what happened. Look, I get you have some small infatuation with—--”

“You don’t get anything, Caio. If anything, I figured you would fucking get it.” I snapped, walking away from him. He walked behind me the entire time, but didn’t say anything more. He let me in his wing first, and I stomped off to the bedroom and slammed the door. 

I laid in the bed, angry about everything. I heard Caio slam a door somewhere else in the wing. Once I was sure he was probably sleeping, I left the spare room. Sneaking back out to the kitchen, I opened cupboards and drawers, looking for anything useful to cook with. I wanted to cook. 

Caio had everything right down to brand new knives with covers. I opened his fridge and looked through everything. I pulled out many things, washing the vegetables, and I sliced them on the cutting board he had by the sink. His pots and pans were stacked in a doorless cupboard and his cooking utensils were hung up on the wall. 

I pulled down a pot and found his olive oil in a dark cupboard after hunting around for it. I poured the olive oil into the pot and tossed my vegetables in the pot once it was heated and the oil shimmered. The sizzle of the vegetables was comforting to me. I added water once the vegetables were cooked. I hunted up and down for any kind of soup stock, but Caio didn’t have any. 

He had a list on the fridge with things on it. I took the pen and wrote soup stock and stepped back and felt good about my handy work on this list. I knew how to make good stock, but it was a longer process than I wanted right now. 

Caio had some chicken breasts in the fridge, and they would give a good flavour to my soup. I cut them up and tossed them into another pan with some more olive oil to brown the chunks slightly before I put them in the soap pot. 

I added spices and sauces into the pot to create some stock. I pulled the chicken out and tossed it into the pot, too. 

“Noodles. Noodles. Where would I find noodles?” I muttered to myself. 

“Second cupboard from the sink.”

“Right, thanks.” I took two steps towards the cupboard before I stopped and turned around. Caio was in sweatpants and a t-shirt. His arms were crossed as he watched me.

“Sorry.” I muttered. Not really sure what to say to him. I didn’t want to argue with him anymore. I was jetlagged and just wanted soup.

“You’re welcome to use the kitchen.” Caio muttered, before heading back to his room, or what I assumed was his room. I found the noodles and added them to the pot. I put the lid on and sat down while it simmered. 

The medication Alessio gave me had worn off, and my toes were throbbing. Getting up the check the pot a little while later, I gagged when I stepped down on my foot, even in the fucking boot. 

The pain was too much for me to even want to eat now. I turned off the stove after I checked to make sure it was done and transferred the soup to a container large enough that I found. Ripping the bottom off the paper where I had written stock, I wrote ‘help yourself’ and set it on the lid of the bowl inside of the fridge. 

I found where to turn the light off and did that. I hobbled back to the bedroom, wanting to cry out in pain. Laying on the bed, the blankets were cold and comforting, but did little for the pain in my foot. 

I was sure Alessio had pain pills for me. I was praying that he gave them to Caio and when he woke up again, I could ask about them. 

I laid on my back and stuffed the pillow under my foot to stop the throbbing. It did little to help. I kept my eyes closed and begged for sleep. But it just wasn’t coming. I needed to ask Caio where the pain pills were. 

Limping out of the bedroom, I tried his door handle, but it was locked. I wanted to cry, taking more than one deep breath as I walked to the bathroom. I yanked the medicine cabinet open, looking for any kind of pain pill.  

I took one of the first pain pills that I found. Swallowing it down dry. The bedroom seemed too far, so I curled up on the couch and took deep breaths. The pain was miserable. 

By the time, the pain pill kitchen in it made me drowsy, and that was actually funny. Considering how hard I had been trying to fall asleep. Closing my eyes, still curled up in a ball, I was going to make Alessio find something better for this stupid foot. 

“We are going to figure this out.” I reassured myself, before closing my eyes.