Decades have passed. Curses lifted. demons slayed and warlocks rifted.
I awake in the night. Carpaccio is missing. I thought he'd be. I hear a noise coming from the foyer, it must be the cat, i think. Groggily, I leave the comfort of my warm bed. It's a cold night and I am very dissatisfied that I must be up.
I reach the foyer and realize with a chuckle, mittens has been gone for years now. It's not mittens.
In the foyer garden crouches a hunched figure. It is sobbing.
"why...why... everything I touch breaks..."
"Car?"
the figure stiffens. He puts a hand behind himself and turns without getting up. "Gio? I didn't want you to see me like this. I thought this might happen." he is openly weeping now. So emotional, so dramatic. Mios dio, he's dramatic even for un Italiano.
"hey car, what's going on?" I say in a soothing tone. I put a hand on his shoulder.
"stop it Gio," he growls. "everything that touches me breaks."
"Everything except me, amore. I've been touching you for the past 15 years before the curse got lifted."
"you know what i mean."
"I do, and you're wrong."
He gestures to the broken pots and marooned plants littering the foyer. "I can't even garden anymore."
"that is not a personal failing, dare su."
I pick up a flower and put it back in a spare ceramic pot. "all is not lost. it's going to take a little bit for the flowers to recover, but they will be alright. the same goes for you." I turn around and throw an arm around him. "it's only been a week. you didn't learn to master the sword in a week, you won't learn to master your new body in a week. Patience."
I pick up the flower he was weeping over when I arrived. "here. do not hold any tension." He turns his head and looks at me with his soggy puppy dog eyes as if asking permission. "gently, mi amore."
He picks the flower up out of my hand by the pitted, vaguely pot-shaped wad of dirt at its bottom. I hold a pot for him. He gingerly places the flower into the pot and I pat it down.
"see? no harm done. i am here with you. If you'd like, we can do some planting tomorrow. I'll make some coffee for us. Suone benne?"
"sì, mi amore."
"Molto benne. Let's get some sleep, we'll need the positive energy for the plants tomorrow."
We both start to head back to the bedroom. Carpaccio stops.
"Gio?"
"sì, mi amore?"
"Grazie. I don't know what I would do without you."
"probably rot in some dungeon as a sword for all eternity," I laugh. He lets out a gurgle that I've come to understand as his new laugh.
"now, let's go. I'll open some windows, it's like an oven in there with you like this. Ha!"
