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Hey everyone,

Here it is the newest chapter, I'm glad I managed to write it now and so quick, since I had a busy week :-) Hope you will like it this confrontation, and if you do, you can show me with a fave, a comment or a vote? As always, thank you Gritou, for helping me with my writing and for being my mate!

Time froze in the colonnade, around the three restorers. Luca almost felt like his heart stopped beating, and he couldn't avert his eyes from the approaching tiger still in the middle of the piazza, his mind being completely filled with the image of Carlo walking toward them that he didn't even know what the other two were doing. Then some pigeons took flight, almost like they sensed the incoming emotional storm, and that marked the moment when time flowed again.

The lupo began to flicker his ears, and so did Ale at his side, both fully showing how shocked and uncomfortable they were. He didn't know much of squirrel's body language, but he was sure that Sara's fluffy tail coiled around her body, almost like she was trying to hide herself, wasn't a good sign. His mind madly raced and tried to calculate the reasons why the tiger was coming, and why he wanted to talk with him, and how this would affect Ale and WHY ON EARTH WAS this HAPPENING!

Before their chance meeting in Piazza del Popolo this kind of thing wouldn't have brought this much drama, but now it was, and , worst of all, it was in the presence of two furs who knew about the whole story, or at least a good part of it.

He threw a glance to his friend and saw that one of his lips was curled in a growl. The situation would end up terribly if there was animosity from the beginning, so Luca tried to calm him down.

"Ale, please, don't do that. If he acts or says something wrong, we will chase him, but there is no use to begin talking in angry tones, okay buddy?"

He looked at his friend straight in the eyes, to make sure he was understanding that, and after a second, the rottie smoothed his features and just nodded, now seemingly only annoyed by the whole state of things.

"It could be better, but this should be enough." He thought before turning toward his other friend. The petite rodent had regained her composure again, her tail behind her and her muzzle pensive.

" Senti1 Sara, this doesn't involve you, you can go and leave us dealing with him." The lupine asked.

"No." She shook her head. "It might not concern me directly, but I'm at least partially responsible for this."

"Are you sure?" Luca asked, a bit touched by her behavior.

"Yes. I can't leave you two alone with him, not when he treated Ale badly." That earned her a puzzled look from the rottie. "Luca told me some of it. I prefer to be here, to make sure it won't turn badly."

Now the lupo was really moved by Sara resolution to stay there, and it seems that his friend was too since the shadow of a smile appeared on his muzzle.

"This tiger sure is slow to walk." The squirrel commented, trying to lift the mood a little.

"Ah, yeah, he always has been, we called him Tartaruga2 for how slow he is!" The rottie recalled while still staring at the leisurely walking feline. Carlo didn't seem to have noticed the three furs looking intently at him, or maybe he did, but he managed to mask whatever discomfort that could cause to him.

The feline finally reached the colonnade and saw that it was occupied by the three restorers, but surprise didn't showed on his muzzle, only a smile.

"Ciao Luca." He greeted, then continued without waiting for the lupine to answer. "Ciao Ale, and good day... Sara, was it?"

"Yes, I'm Sara, nice of you to remember my name." She said cordially, her acting skills amazing Luca.

"Hi Carlo." The tall canine said, while the rottie at his side mumbled it under his breath. An awkward silence fell on them, no one wanting to break it first. Luca stubbornly waited for the striped cat to talk, not wanting to give him any advantage and, besides, it was his ex the one who came to them, not the other way around. He wasn't sure why the others weren't talking, maybe for the same reason he wasn't, or maybe because they preferred to do that.

Finally, the big cat seemed to gather all his courage and opened his mouth. "So, did Sara told you that I came yesterday at the University?"

"Yes, I did tell them, don't worry." The squirrel answered for them. "You could have told me why you did, or at least that you were planning to come here today."

"The idea didn't come to mind until this morning." The tiger simply spoke, keeping a straight face.

"But you could have called me, at least. We could have agreed on meeting and saved you a visit to the University." Luca intruded, while Ale echoed with a "Yeah, you could have!"

"I wanted to make you a surprise, that's why I went there and didn't call you." He smiled, then he added with some ear flickering. "Plus, I didn't know if you would accept meeting me..."

"Of course he would! If you knew him well, you should know Luca is the nicest fur on Earth!" The petite squirrel jabbed the big cat, with the rottie having taken the role of the chorus and replying with "He's the nicest!"

The feline's ears danced on his head, not expecting that kind of united front, or maybe shocked by how Sara was ready to defend her colleague. "Well, you are right, but still, I wanted to make you a surprise, and Ale too!"

This time was the rottie's turn to flick his ears. "Me?"

"Yeah, I wanted to have a little chat with you both." He explained. He didn't continue, maybe thinking that one of the others should say something or begin a session of idle talk, but they didn't give in to that and patiently waited. Finally, he abdicated and asked a question.

"How are you doing, big guy?" He addressed the rottie.

"Uh, well..." The black canine hesitated, obviously taken aback by the question and the strange curiosity about him the tiger was displaying. Even Luca wasn't sure what he was trying to do with that question, something that piled on the various doubts he had about this whole situation.

"Come on, Luca said something the other day, but I want to hear from you!" Carlo exclaimed. Bringing up that encounter wasn't the best thing to do, since the rottie tensed up and came really close to baring his teeth, but he glanced onward his friend and the shaking of his head was enough to show he didn't have to make things worse right now.

"Uh, well, everything is fine, with work and friends, and love life too, for that matter." He diplomatically said, while trying to ease up some tension.

"Love life? Do you have a girlfriend at the moment?" The other asked, with genuine interest.

"Actually no, but I am seeing a girl, and we will have a date tomorrow." Ale said without giving many details. "Actually, Luca will come too, and she will bring un amico3 with her too."

"A double date?" The feline repeated, his brows rising a bit and some hurt showing on his muzzle before turning toward Luca. "You said you weren't seeing someone!"

"It is the truth, I'm not seeing someone, and that isn't a double date, I've never met that guy before." The lupo explained almost angrily, not liking that the striped feline resented him for something.

"He doesn't have the right to do that, and it doesn't concern him if I'm dating or not!" He thought, without expressing his opinions, just to keep the conversation civil.

"Ah. Okay, well, it seems that you have a nice evening ahead of you!" The male with the suit said with a cheerfulness that sounded a bit fake to the tall ears of the lupine.

"It isn't the only good thing happening to him!" Sara chimed in, maybe sensing something with her feminine instincts. She managed to capture the attention of the tiger, naturally, since she was very skilled to do that, in a positive way.

"Not the only one? What are the other good things?" Carlo asked.

"Oh my, yes. The most important is that his work, and Luca's, has been noticed by a high-ranking fur of the Ministry!" The squirrel smiled, pride showing in her voice and her eyes sparkling with an inner light.

"Really!?" The tiger replied, impressed by that.

"Yes, and that can mean that they could get an important job soon enough, our boys here! Fortunelli4!" She joked, almost reaching the cheeks of said boys in a maternal gesture.

"That is lucky indeed, I hope that will happen, they both deserve it! Say Sara, are you from Milan? I can hear a bit of accent in the way you speak." He intruded, and such a question was typical of him, since he possessed a lot of the well-known feline curiosity.

"Oh, yes, I am, you have quite a good ear, years of living here lessened my accent!" She blushed a bit. The other two furs were forgotten for now, something they really didn't regret, at least Luca didn't. His mind was in turmoil, and he was tensed for not knowing the true motive behind the visit.

_ _

"Why talking with Ale, and then with Sara? Isn't he here to talk with me, to try to get back with him? I don't understand..." He was thinking the whole time, smelling that it might be some kind of tactic on the feline's part.

"It is a faint one, but if you careful enough you can hear it." The tiger continued while Luca was zoning out.

"I know, after all it is the one I was born with, anche se ho lavato i panni nel Tevere5." She said, using a famous quote to see how cultured her interlocutor was.

"But you are way cuter than Manzoni ever was!" The feline replied, making the squirrel giggle. "You must really love Roma to leave Milano, I must say."

"Well, I do love this city, there are so many things that I love, artistically speaking, and more chance for work for someone like me." She told him, with the tiger not interrupting her but just nodding to her words. "The city is lovely too, if you look past the traffic and some other problems. It has a fair weather, many places to go during the night, and the locals are welcoming."

At this point she blushed again, even if it was something she said to cause that redness. "Not like it isn't the same in Milan, mind you, but I think I would have ended up crazy living here if I was too attached to my hometown."

"I understand that, I'm glad you aren't like those of the Lega Nord6." He chuckled. The two kept ignoring whatever and whoever was around them, and for many of the furs who were passing it could seem like the feline was flirting with the rodent. Luca knew he wasn't, he had visited the big cat's ass too many times for him to be straight, or even bi, but that didn't help bring peace to his troubled mind. He was barely bearing the conversation, just waiting for the tiger to snap his trap! Ale, on the other paw, didn't seem to share his mind set, he just stood there with a very bored expression.

"Of course I am not, they are nuts, even more so now that their leader has been caught doing the exact things he always accused others to do." Sara snorted, as any sensible fur would.

"I agree, they are really crazy. Now, I wonder, how did you end up here exactly?" The tiger asked, to Luca's despair and Ale's boredom, since he just showed his impressive set of teeth with one, big, canine yawn.

"It was after I finished University up in Milan, I got a high voto di laurea7, and my thesis had attracted some attention for its particularity, so I received a lot of job proposal..." She began to narrate.

"And one of them was from Roma." The big striped cat interrupted her with a chuckle.

"Actually, several." She retorted with an annoyed tone. "Well, one of them was of the Professor, so I accepted his."

"I'm sure you went for the easier and less tiring option..." He said with an indefinite tone, maybe mockery, maybe spite against the old badger. Whatever it was, it didn't please the restorers, the squirrel frowning at Carlo, and the canines waking up from their musing with perked ears.

"What do you mean with that?" Sara asked, her paws posing on her hips in the ultimate display of feminine irritation, ready for a scolding.

The tiger opened his mouth, ears flicking, but he didn't have time to speak his mind, since the rottie beat him.

"He means that Prof. De Angelis isn't that important and doesn't get works and the likes." The black canine growled.

"You do?" She questioned the male in front of her, her tone demanding truth from him.

"No, it isn't that ..." He tried to defend himself, his ears moving fast on his skull, raising his paw to hold off the accusation.

"Come one, you haven't ever been shy to point that out, and how little you think of him." He retorted to him, not giving him time to justify himself.

"Well, I might not think highly of him, but I didn't-"

"How dare you think such things about the professor?" Sara attacked, now pissed off for that. Things were finally getting worse, as Luca had foretold, but not in the way he envisioned it. The cat was put in an angle, attacked on two fronts by formidable adversary, and surely doomed to a defeat. The lupine couldn't see that slaughter being carried forward, so he stepped in.

"Sara, Ale, give him a break." He spoke with as much authority he could find. The two stopped to stare at him, both surprised by the interruption and with anger on their faces, a more evident one on the rottie's, a calmer and colder ire on the squirrel's short muzzle.

"What? He is insulting the Professor, we have all the rights to be pissed off!" The muscled canine shouted his outrage to his friend, his triangular ears perked up at their most and his hairs standing.

"He needs to be ... disciplined, Luca." The rodent added matter-of-factly.

The tiger didn't say anything, just looked relieved that someone was coming to his help, a weary smile extending on his muzzle, even if his ears were flattened, showing that he was feeling a bit of regret for what he had said, or so the lupine thought.

"I know, and I'm pretty upset too." The tall canine said, making the newly acquired smile disappear from Carlo's whiskers bearing face. "But there is no use to attack him so much, it isn't that civil, we must let him explain himself. Though I know what his ideas of the professor might me, he deserve as much."

"You are.... Very fair Luca." The rodent uttered, her anger not diminished and still present.

"You are right, Luca. Sorry for being always such a hot-headed jerk." The rottie apologize, being pacified by his friend and now showing the classical signs of canine shame, ears flattened and eyes fixed on his feet-paws.

"I.... I should be the one to apologize, Ale." These unexpected words hit the restorers, and attracted all their eyes to the fur who uttered them, a very mortified tiger who at the moment bear some resemblance to the rottie thanks to his posture. Seeing the "Whut!?" expression on his interlocutors, he took a deep breath and explained himself.

"I worded it ... wrongly, I didn't want to insult you or the professor. Even if he isn't... likeable to me, I shouldn't put in discussion his professionalism, even only implying it. So, I'm sorry for what I said."

The jaws of the two canines literally hanged, their mouths wide open for the disbelief of hearing Carlo say such things. Sara was a bit surprised too, but not as shocked as the other two, just pleased to hear the tiger's apologies.

"It is nice of you to admit your short comings." She voiced her appreciation, eliciting a reaction in Carlo clearly seen as redness on his white-furred cheeks.

The lupine succeeded to shake his surprise. "I'm impressed, you haven't ever confessed something like that." He said.

"Well, I'm trying to change, and one of the most annoying personal tracts I have is to inadvertently insult others." The tiger blushed further, looking uncharacteristically shy for once.

"That's a good thing of you to improve, Carlo." The rottie finally spoke again, after reattaching his jaw to his muzzle. He captured Luca's gaze, and his eyes and furled brows asked him to finally end this charade. Sighing, the lupine did as asked.

"I'm happy you are doing that too, Carlo, but know, sputa il rospo8, why did you come here? The real reason, we don't believe it was because you want to chat with us."

The feline laughed nervously, his ears keeping their never-ending dance. "Perceptive of you, Luca, as always. Well, I came here, well..."

"So, why? Come on!" The rottie urged, his patience at its limit, while getting closer to listen to ex friend's words. He was mimicked by Luca, and also Sara, who, after all, was too deep in that mess to not listen.

Carlo gulped, nervous because of this encirclement he was subject to, looking like the trapped tiger he was.

"I ..... I wanted to talk with Ale."

Translation:

1) Listen.

2) Turtle.

3) A friend, specifically a male one since it ends with -o.

4) Lucky ones.

5) If even I washed my clothes in the Tiber. Alessandro Manzoni, father of modern Italian, went to Florence to get a purer Italian, and he used to say that he went to wash his clothes in the Arno, the Florentine river.

6) Political party which is against the European Union, immigrants and the part of Italy lies south of Bologna and desire to get the secession from Italy and form the Padania Country.

7) Mark of degree. Your degree get a mark after discussing your thesis, with the highest being 110 with laud.

8) Spit the toad, literally. Akin to spit it out.