Harbinger Of Glory

While Vittoria sat on the call waiting, the call ended from Leo’s side.

For a few moments, she lay back against the cushions with her phone resting on her chest, staring at the ceiling.

Her nose was still slightly blocked, another annoying symptom that had followed her around all day.

When she realised that the call had ended, she frowned.

And then before she’d even realised it, her eyes had started watering.

"...Seriously?"

She rubbed at them with the back of her hand before setting the phone down beside her.

"I need a bath," she muttered to the empty apartment before glancing at the clock on the wall.

19:34.

With a sigh, she dragged herself to the bathroom.

The warm water helped.

Not enough to make her feel better, but enough to take the edge off the cramps.

Afterwards, she changed into an oversized T-shirt, reheated the leftover bread pudding with ricotta she’d picked up earlier that day for her lunch, then turned on the TV, fumbling over which movie she wanted to watch before hastily selecting one when she felt her food going cold.

The film was good, which she knew, but she just wasn’t watching enough of it to appreciate it.

Her attention drifted in and out, never staying on the screen for more than a few minutes before another wave of discomfort pulled her back into her own body.

Eventually she reached for the remote and paused it as once more, the apartment fell quiet.

While her eyes searched the apartment, they settled on the clock, which showed the time at 22:15.

"That quick," she muttered right as her doorbell rang.

She frowned, immediately wondering if she had heard wrong or not, but then the doorbell rang again, making her wonder who it could be.

"Mom?" she said as she rose to her feet.

"Aunt Dessa?" she mentioned while walking.

Then, "...Gianna?"

The name had barely left her mouth before she closed her eyes.

"...Right."

Gianna was in Manchester.

She shuffled toward the door with a quiet, one hand absently rubbing at her lower stomach.

When she got there, the camera beside the door lit up as she pressed the button.

She glanced at the screen, and perhaps because of the discomfort, she felt she was seeing things.

She leaned a little closer and then realised it was all real.

"...No way."

She looked again, just to make sure she wasn’t imagining things, and when she confirmed it, her hand found the lock almost automatically.

The door swung open and there, standing in the corridor, was Leo with an overnight bag slung over one shoulder and another smaller bag hanging from his hand.

He opened his mouth, and it was clear that he’d rehearsed something.

Probably a clever entrance or maybe even a surprise, but he never got the chance to say it.

The moment Vittoria saw him, her lip trembled, and for some reason her eyes filled almost instantly.

"Oh..."

She covered her mouth with one hand as the first tear escaped.

Leo’s smile disappeared at once.

"Tori..."

She shook her head, laughing weakly through the tears.

"I don’t even know why I’m crying."

Leo glanced up and down the empty hallway and then stepped forward and pulled the door shut behind him.

"Why are you crying?" he said, with genuine alarm, while she wrapped her arms around him.

She nestled her head into his chest while Leo stood there for a moment before he gathered all the bags in one hand and then gathered Vittoria with the other, the latter wrapping her legs around Leo to make it easy for him.

He eventually made his way to the kitchen, straining slightly as he set the bags on the island before he stood still, with Vittoria still attached to him like a koala to a branch.

Despite not showing it, he himself was tired from the whole day’s events, and so a moment later, Leo carried her back to the living room, where he found the couch and sat down, still with her on him, and exhaled once.

It was only after a while that Vittoria picked her head up from his shoulder.

"My mood is bad because of my cycle," she said. "Not because I’m happy to see you."

"Of course," Leo said, nodding, though his face said something slightly different.

"I believe you," he added.

"Good," she said before leaning back and looking fully at Leo, who glanced down at his waist and then back up at her eyes.

"Are you going to get up?" he said eventually.

She looked around as if registering her position on his lap for the first time, and then shook her head.

"Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?" she said.

"Because if I told you and then didn’t get permission to leave the camp, that would have been worse."

While he said so, he looked at the small desk in front of them and at the bread pudding container sitting on it.

"Are you hungry?"

She also glanced at the pudding before nodding.

Following that, Leo tried to stand, but she still didn’t move.

He shook his head and stood anyway, bringing her with him.

He walked to the kitchen island, finally setting her on one of the stools before she let go.

After that, he went around to the bags and began unpacking.

While he did so, a pack of Haribo gummy bears landed on the island in front of her.

She caught it and had one open before he’d looked up.

"Where did you find Haribo in Milan this quickly?" she said. "I can never find them here."

"I brought them from the UK", he said.

"Thought I’d give them to you when I met you, but I didn’t think I was going to meet you like this."

She ate another gummy bear and watched him unpack the rest of the food and begin plating it, an assorted spread of things that had clearly been assembled with some thought.

They ate and talked, and somewhere in the middle of it, Vittoria asked how he had gotten permission to come, citing that she didn’t want to be one of those football girlfriends people looked at sideways for being controlling or stuff like that, to which Leo looked at her across the island and asked how many people even knew they were together.

Vittoria considered this and then went back to her plate.

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