Esperanzas head stood up after a small nap, sensing something was wrong. She gasped, even held onto her stomach, her fingers gripping onto her skin. Slightly huffing in discomfort. 

“Hokaze…”

She sat up,

“You look after my studies while I’m gone.”

Hokaze’s eyes widened and stood up, 

“W-Where are you going?” 

Esperanza paused, 

“To…work on something in the lab.”  She spoke softly, then placed her coat on after swiping off from the chair of a table near her,

“Mhh…alright. Good luck then.” Hokaze hesitated, she was worried, but sat down to look after the pages and works that Esperanza had charged her to watch over, sighing as she watched her walk off out the room.

Valentino huffed, breathing heavily, feeling the knife that had impaled his beloved,

“O-Oh no…” his hands shook, letting go, watching the blood drip down, slowly pooling onto his clothes and onto the floor. Enzo couldn’t breathe, he made small gasps, collapsing beside Valentino, 

“Oh nonono…I’m sorry Enzo…I’m sorry I didn’t mean-“ he struggled to speak, trying not to cry, his body felt frozen, covering his mouth as he held in his tears,

“V-Val…” Enzo softly spoke,

“I-I’m sorry it was an accident…I’ll fix you up big guy. J-Just give me a bit.” He held onto his hand and eventually picked him up, dragging Enzo onto a cleaner spot away from the shattered glass and broken wood from their unfortunate fight.

“Alright there…here,”

He placed a towel,

“Press down on it a little.” Valentino’s voice shook, but was glad that Enzo was responsive despite his side being pierced, thankfully it didn’t hit any internal organs, only stunned him.

“I wish I could take you to the doctor but we can’t risk it. They’ll find out who we are and take you away. I-I’m so sorry hun….you’re strong, I’ll take it out quickly and aid you right after okay?”

Enzo nodded in agreement as he grunted, 

“Alright…3…2…1-“ the knife was removed quickly and slightly painless,

“There you go Enzy…I knew you could do it, you’re really strong, it’s hard to take someone like you down.” Valentino spoke as he placed pressure on the wound and disinfected it.

“I’m so glad it didn’t stab anything important in ya.” Commencing to place a thick wrapping bandage around his body where the wound had been made. Enzo slowly sat up as his beloved was aiding him, his hair covering his face as he kept his head down, staring onto the floor. 

“I’m sorry, Val…” He stood up,

“H-Hey wait, I’m not done wrapping!-“ Valentino softly shouted, however, he only watched as Enzo opened the front door,

“I’ll be back.” 

Leaving the house. Leaving him Alone. 

“For Jeremy!” The barista yelled out loud as she handed the drink to a customer,

“Phew! I should be on break for now.” She spoke to herself, hearing the bell chime of another customer entering, however, it was no stranger.

“Enzo?” 

Enzo ignored and sat down on the corner where the comfortable seats were. Christy knew something was wrong, and walked over towards him,

“Hey Enzo!”

She slid on the leather seat in front to face him. Enzo kept avoiding eye contact,

“What’s wrong? Where’s Valentino?” She questioned concerningly,

“Nothing. It’s, it’s none of your business. Why would you care?”

Christy sighed,

“Because we’re friends. Maybe you might not see it, but I do. I’ll ask again, what happened?”

Enzo hesitated, but let out

“I…I messed up, Christy. I messed up badly…” 

She started to listen, tilting her head,

“About what?” 

“Val..We..We got into a fight-“

 He slightly lifted his shirt, revealing his bandaged body,

“It was my fault, I let my own emotions take over again. I hurt him. I hate that I hurt him. And…I just..left him there…fuck…I-I should go back to him-” he stood up in struggle as Christy pulled him back to sit down.

“Hey hey hold on a minute.” 

Enzo covered his face in his arms as he lied his head down in frustration,

“Hey hey…”

She lowers her head,

“I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, Enzo. You two have the most amazing chemistry between each other that I have ever seen. You two may be different, but you both work out either way. I think you two need some time and space alone from each other for now. Whatever it is that caused so much stress making you two fight, you definitely need a break.” She tried comforting, 

“I guess so…I just, I don’t know what to do right now..I was supposed to be his one and only, but after all that, now I feel like…like I’m his last. We’ve gotten into fights before, but never this physical, as kids we have tho. But never as we got older. But if he didn’t make this wound, I..I could’ve killed him…”

“Nonsense. You two have been through a lot, sometimes bad things happen in the most unexpected ways, but it’s to teach an important lesson. I’m sure you two will figure it out as always. Isn’t that what he says all the time?” 

Enzo sighed,

“Yeah. I guess he does.” 

“Well, I may not have known you both too personally, but I do know that at some point you two were strangers at first too. But now, you both can barely part. You guys still have a long road ahead of you, sometimes you’ll feel lost, and you wouldn’t let a single day go on without seeing him, nor to not talk. And neither would he. So why now?”

She learned over and hugged him very quickly, 

“Bad days never last. Go back to him. Look how far you’ve both come.” 

Enzo froze but, he didn’t panic, he wondered why a hug from someone else didn’t trigger him like others would. He gasped, then slightly cried. It felt the same as when Valentino first hugged him when they had first met,

“Y-You’re right…” Enzo sniffled, then broke the hug apart out of embarrassment. Christy stood up and walked over to the counter as Enzo stared. She came back with a drink.

“Here, take this to him, okay? Tell him you got it. Gotta go now, break ends in a bit pfft.” Christy stood up, and walked off once more but paused, 

“Hey Christy?”

She turned around in response,

“Thanks…” Enzo softly smiled, staring to the side a little. Christy smiled back and nodded, as Enzo stood on the corner, looking down to his bandaged wound, then to the drink he had been handed over. He stood up and left the café.

Back at the lab

“Fuck. I hope those two are okay….” Esperanza paced around worryingly. Her ear picked up a hoof in the distance, pausing to immediately put her coat back on,

“Esperanza!” Cody greeted in the distance, 

“How’s it going my trusty scientist?”

Esperanza grunted, 

“It’s going well, I found another way to the laboratory for the hitmen to get in if they would even accept this again. We just need to convince them in order for this to wor-“ 

Cody cut her off from her explanation,

“No need. I think I found a way to convince them in less than a day.”

He took his hand out of his pocket, pulling out an ominous device.

“I’ll be paying them a very quick visit from afar~” 

Enzo returned home. 

“Hey Val? You home?” He turned on the light as he slowly entered the house. He heard a footstep coming from the hallway.

“Enzo!” Valentino came running towards him, 

“Hey I-I’m sorry Enzo. I set up a bath for you to help your wound and-“

Enzo cut him off, 

“Hey, it’s.. it’s fine. Thank you. But uhm- I wanted to give this to you, it’s by Christy. She made it just for you.” 

Enzo handed him the drink,

“O-oh! Uhm, thank you…” he gently smiled, hugging him.

“So..Val, I wanted to talk to you about what happened. I know sometimes we have our fights, but I’m really sorry for letting my own problems take over my emotions like this and hurting you. It's really not like me when it comes to you.” 

Valentino sighed, running his hand on his cheek gently,

“I know. It wasn’t your fault. You’ve gone through a lot too. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Enzo sighed and shot up a little, 

“Your shoulder! Oh my god I need to go get the aid kit to-“ 

Valentino paused him before he ran off, 

“Hey, I’m okay. Don’t worry Enzy. It stopped bleeding and I already applied medicine on it. I already feel better that you came back. I’m more worried about how this Cody guy affected you so much, but I’m sure he won’t be too much of a problem no-“ 

The lights powered off. The house was completely dark. 

“Wh- is there an outage?” Val and Enzo firmly stood on their ground,

The television turned on, only glitching in and out as an echo was heard,

“Hello my little assassins…~” a voice echoed. Multiple holographic screens appeared completely surrounding the hitmen. 

“Apologies for my sudden appearance. Valentino, Enzo. I wanted to once again ask for a humble request to come back to my laboratory for a small discussion. It will be short, I’ll even pay you for the arrival. Take it as a payment for consultation since you two are v e r y very hard workers.” 

Enzo and Val stood their ground as they stared around at the screens as Enzo growled. 

“How did you find us?-“ Val grunted,

“Well, it was honestly quite easy considering you two led me there.”

Both hitmen stared in confusion as Enzo looked down into his pocket, 

“It was the business card… YOU-“ Cody interrupted him,

“Now now no need to get aggressive again. I hope my reveal didn’t create any conflict between you two. But, judging from your reactions, I’m guessing it did. What’s wrong Enzo? Letting your own anger take over again? Risking the life of your own beloved?“

Enzo growled once more, holding his stance this time, trying not to lose his temper again. Valentino stood firmer and spoke out, 

“Hey, it wasn’t entirely his fault. Whatever fucked up intentions you had or did to him doesn’t mean he’s to blame for. Now tell us, how cowardly were you to not come by our home instead of chipping a tracker on your own business card huh? Are you afraid? You don’t know our capabilities, goat.” 

Camoren snarled but kept his cool,

“My what an attitude you have for our business encounter. Just come by. I have something you’ll be very interested in, maybe I’ll even help your little animal whom you wounded. I can have my colleagues help heal him. That’s if you visit again. But if you ever commit any funny business around my facility, I’ll make sure you regret it. You already know where to go! I expect your arrival very soon tonight~” 

The screens shut off, completely leaving the house dark. 

“Shit…” Valentino sighed, 

“Hey, we don’t have to go if-“ Enzo cut him off 

“No, we’ll pay him that visit. We’ll show him what we’re made of.”