Ambarabà
#26 of Roman Life
Ciccì coccò!
Hey everyone,
Sorry for not posting anything lately, life kinda stopped my muse T_T Now, I did the test to enter a law school, so I can relax a bit while waiting for the results, and my muse came back! Yay! So, hope you will like this new chapter of my ongoing series, and, if you can, show me that with a comment, a fave or a comment 
I thank my lovely Gritou, for always helping me and being with me. I love you babe *kiss*
"Uhm, such a difficult decision..." Luca muttered, a paw to his chin while he peered down on his bed, shirtless. His fur had still the sign of the drier, his hair all in different directions, but he didn't mind that, since it looked good on him.
"UUuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhmmmm..... Camicia o polo, questo è il dilemma1..." He wondered, his eyes flashing from the nice blue shirt to the red Lacoste he had laid on his bed. Both went nicely with the beige pants he was wearing at the moment, and with his fur colors too, but that didn't make his decision any easier to him.
A quick glance to the Pokémon clock on the wall, an heirloom from his childhood, showed him that he had been standing there for the past five minutes, too long for his tastes.
"It's no use!" He exclaimed, separating his paw from his chin and pointing his index to the clothes. "Ambarabà ciccì coccò2..." The lupo began to chant the nonsensical rhymes about howls perched on cupboards and having their way with the daughter of the doctor, while he moved his paw from the shirt to the polo with each syllable, as a child would do. His paw stopped on the shirt in the end, the fate and the power of poetry declaring which piece of cloth would be wore.
The lupine quickly put back the loser in its resting place, then put on the winner, not tucking the tails in to not look too formal. His reflection in the mirror satisfied him, so he exited the room, quickly grabbing the helmet on the way out of the apartment. He wasn't really in a hurry, since he would use Ale's motorcycle, as he often did when he was out; everything was much quicker when you got a motorcycle.
Still, he closed the door and locked it, descending the stairs two step at a time, putting the helmet on his head, and soon being out in the summer twilight, fishing for the keys of the vehicle. The motorcycle had remained where he had left it, just outside his building, so that the few minutes that would have taken to get it out of the garage was spared to him.
Luca had a shower at his place, and put some perfume, getting the hints from Sara not to come sweaty and dirty. He chuckled as he found the keys, thinking that he definitely wasn't looking as if he just finished working now, all trimmed and with nice clothes. It might be just a dinner with Sara and Franco, but still that didn't stop him from looking at his best, as always!
Turning on the motorcycle, he drove through the streets of Rome, slowly, too wary of the many holes and bumps in the road, and not confident enough to drive as his rottie friend did. The air rushed around him, feeling cool on him even if the temperatures were quite high, summer being falling on the city.
The trip was quick enough, even if the lupo had to cross the Tiber, since the squirrel lived not too far away, in the neighborhood of Parioli3. He passed through Piazza Euclide, already infested with kids and youngsters alike, and climbed up the hill until he had to turn right, getting away from the more trafficked street to one not flooded by the cars, even during the week. He stopped in front a nice building, not too high and without balconies, one that he had been to a couple of times before.
Luca parked on the sidewalk, not trusting the car abilities of those living in Parioli and not wanting anything to happen to Ale's precious motorcycle. He checked the state of his headfur in the mirror, after taking off the helmet, and, after deciding that they were fine, walked toward the entrance, past the open front doors and into the cool shade of the building. He found that peculiar, that the doors where open, but didn't close them, thinking that there should be a reason behind it.
Since the rodent couple lived on the first floor, he climbed the stairs, his laziness not extending itself to use the elevator for just one floor. He strode to the wooden door belonging to the household, pressing the button to alert its inhabitants that he was there and waiting patiently to be let in.
The door sprung open almost immediately, framing a smiling squirrel in a white apron.
"Luca! Puntuale come al solito4!" Sara exclaimed, gesturing him to enter. "And looking fine too!"
"You know me, I like to wear nice things in my free time." He rumbled while stepping inside, while raising his helmet-bearing paw. "Where can I put this?"
She looked at the black head piece, blinking for a second before answering. "I guess you can put it on the appendiabiti5."
The lupo did as ordered, posing the helmet on the brown hanger that was just at the side of the door. "Are you cooking something complex, Sara? You shouldn't, I know you must be tired! I would have been happy with a simple pasta."
"Shush you, don't worry!" The petite squirrel waved away his protest. "I always wear an apron when I cook, be it for something simple or something complex alike."
"Your mother taught you that?" He asked, grinning at the thought of feminine knowledge passing down the rodent's family.
"No, my father. He is the cook of my family!" She responded quickly, grinning back at the lupo.
"Not the classical, Barilla family, eh?" Luca jabbed at her.
"Eh già6, mine never was!" She jokingly sighed, as if it was a misfortune she had to bear all her life. "I have to go back to the kitchen, but please, go and make yourself comfortable in the living room! There should be Franco there too!"
She disappeared, padding down a corridor and leaving him alone. The lupine walked through another door, one that he knew that gave in the living room-slash-dining room, a normal sized room with a table and chairs on a side and a couple of couches in front of TV in another. Everything in the room was in a shade of green, hitting at what could be the favorite color of a certain squirrel, even though now it had an orange tint thanks to the sunrays that shimmered through the windows.
As Sara had predicted, there it was her boyfriend, idly sit on one of the couches and watching the news on TV. He averted his eyes from the gruesome display of some car accident to look at the newcomer, his orange front teeth flashing when he smiled at him; he stood up, to properly welcome him, after silencing the TV, a paw going forward to grab the wolf's.
"Ciao Luca!" The nutria7greeted him warmly while they were shaking paws.
"Buonasera8!" The lean lupine answered back. "Sorry if I'm crashing here for the dinner, maybe you wanted to relax."
"Don't say such thing, it's our pleasure to have you here tonight." The coypu stated, motioning to the other male to sit down and be comfortable.
"Well, thank you. Just, it seems that Sara is doing a bit too much, I just hope my presence here isn't forcing her to show off." The wolf half joked, his ears flicking a bit. He really was hoping that his invitation for dinner wasn't throwing his friend in a cooking frenzy.
"Although her craving to show off is as big as the sea, she isn't doing that right now, don't worry." The brown-haired fur reassured him, with a causal flick of his paw. "Sara is cooking her usual stuff, that's all."
"And since you aren't helping her, it must be stuff easy to cook!" Luca noted with a grin on his long muzzle.
"That's not indicator. When I do try to help her, she always ends up shouting at me that I'm not doing things in the right way." The rodent mused a bit, with half a smile showing that it wasn't a matter of grievance in the couple.
"I am curious now, but... I don't want to dare the den of the squirrel!" The lupine laughed, with the fellow fur joining in briefly, even if the joke wasn't that much funny.
"You don't know how right you are... Comunque7, how are you doing Luca?" Franco asked the dog, his eyes attentive and focused on him.
"Uhm, I guess good. Since last Saturday, nothing special happened." The restorer answered, taken aback a bit by the question, some of that showing on his face since the older male hastily added more.
"Don't worry, I wasn't expecting anything else. Sara just told me you were a bit depressed on being alone tonight, so I wanted to check out." The kind coypu spoke gently and with concern. He seemed ready to listen to him, and to dispense words of comfort
"Oh. Well, I was, I don't like to be alone at dinner." The lupo replied, deciding in his mind that his friend was just a bit too overprotective sometimes. "Who likes that, after all?"
"No one." Franco agreed. Then, a somewhat mischievous expression appeared on his short muzzle. " Maybe you could call Guido, he might have liked to dine with you."
"What?" The dog exclaimed in surprise, his ears dancing over his skull. "You think that he wants that?"
The rodent took his time to answer, enjoying what he had just caused to the fullest, before he answered. "No, I didn't get any vibe from him. Not sure I can read those signs in guys."
"Che segnali9?" He asked, curious about that statement but relieved that the nutria was just pulling his leg.
"You know, the ones that indicates that they are interested in someone." The other explained calmly, as if he was quite experienced in the matter. "I'm not saying those specific to guys who wants guys. In general. I never paid attention to that, I was always more interested in the kind belonging to the gentler sex!"
"Uhm, I guess they can be different, after all...." The wolf wondered, thinking about the matter.
"Do you know them?" The orange-toothed fur continued his informal interrogation.
"Uhm, I think I do, well, pretty much. The hardest thing is to figure out if the other man is on the same team." He admitted. Sometimes, it could be quite easy, even if he hadn't caught any of them with Stanley, during their walks...
"I guess it is for sure. Not every one has a lisp or something." Franco said, amused by the notion. "And some of them are straight."
"Oh yeah, you don't know how many. One time, I tried to pick one of them, and found that out painfully". The lean lupine recalled that terrible night at the disco.
"Painfully?" The somewhat round nutria replied.
"For my ego, only for that." He blushed at the memory.
"Well, a lesson learned." The coypu chuckled, then glanced at the TV, where a white robbed mouse was greeting a small crowd in a foreign country. "If only those guys in the church could do the same."
Luca stared at the screen for a bit and at the German papa10who eerily looked like the Emperor of Star Wars, trying to think about a good answer, since the conversation was veering in an unexpected and quite thorny direction.
"They are doing that. Slowly." He diplomatically said, stilling his ears so to not show how he really felt.
"Too slowly. I think they are not realizing how much they are chasing away people, with their stubborn resolve." Franco grimaced.
"So, you don't follow the Church anymore?" The young wolf asked, guessing from those words that the other fur counted himself in the number of people spurned by the Vatican.
"Yes. I find them... hypocrites, for the most part. They should focus on the real problems, not on hating and prohibiting." The nutria said, his paw waving a bit while he talked. "I decided long ago that I won't give my Otto per Mille11to the Church."
"I do understand that you can do that." The wolfish fur agreed. No use to give part of your taxes, however minimal, to an organization you didn't identify with.
"I don't follow any religion, really. They are the opium of the people, and cause so much hatred. What about you?" Franco inquired, maybe thinking that it was about time for the wolf to give his thoughts.
"Whut?" Was the dumb reply of the lupo.
"A person in your... position, in the eyes of the Church, must have strong feelings about it." The older rodent insisted.
"Uh-oh..." He said, not sure what to actually tell him. It was always tricky to talk about religious stuff, especially with someone as strongly opposed to them as Franco seemed to be. "I... Well, while I still believe in the central core of the Christian faith, about love and comprehension..."
He stopped, to see if the coypu would interrupt him, but the other just nodded, listening to his words and waiting for more.
"That said, I believe that everyone should think with their own head, not obey blindly. That's my major issue with the Church, how they aren't forthcoming in giving its fedeli12freedom to think." He concluded, now his ears flicking for real, having lost the ability to stay still.
"So, you would let the Church be, if they were more understanding?" Franco asked once again, his tone lacking criticism but full of interested attention, or so it seemed.
"Yeah. I don't have anything against people who still find solace in the Church. It's their own choice, after all." The lupo added, completing his thoughts about the religions.
"Even if said Church make them a bunch of homophobic jerks?" The rodent pointed out.
"Well, do you think they are like that because of the Church? They just need an excuse, any, to spurn their hatred," the lupine responded truthfully, "As long as mankind exist, so unreasonable people would, unfortunately."
"Yes, most of them would keep behaving like that, even if the Church said something different." The other concurred, his head bobbing with his agreement.
"Exactly." Luca said with a smile. Luckily, the conversation didn't exacerbated, and become more heated, like so many times in the past.
"Though, for those morons, we don't have a law against homophobic hate crimes." Franco said, tsk-ing at the stupidity and the injustice.
"I know, that's just crazy. But considering that they don't do anything about the rampant racism that some politicians and party display...." It hurt a bit to admit such a thing, but it was sadly the truth. Even if such a law existed, it wouldn't be applied to some categories of people.
"You're right. But it is still one of the many things we are ashamed to have here in Italy." The nutria concluded, and didn't seem that there was to say about the subject. Silence fell, both men just staring at the TV, the news having ended in the meanwhile, giving space to other programs.
Tiredness descended on the wolf, momentarily making him unable to think about something to say, and almost making him close his eyes. The day had been long and full of work, after all, and he should have taken more coffee now that he thought about it.
The same must be true for the other male, since Franco was displaying all the signs, with his half closed and regular breath. He wondered if he should go and help Sara with the dinner, but that wasn't a great idea, according to the nutria. So they stayed there, both of them almost drifting to sleep.
To find something to do, Luca fished his phone and saw that he had received a message from the last time he checked, one from Ale.
Got back home, grabbed a few things
and going to Clara's right now.
Have a good evening!
He typed a few buttons, writing a quick reply and his wish for a good evening to the rottie. He was sure he would have one, since he would be with his current sweetheart. The lupo felt a bit.... jealous of his friend, even if it wasn't fair of him. And he should stop thinking about that, and in that way. He was happy for his best friend, and he won't let other feelings moor that happiness, it would be hor-
DRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN
The door ringed loudly, waking both furs from their thoughts and almost sleep. Luca's ears perked up for the surprise, and turned toward the door.
"VADO IOOOOOOOOOOOO13!" They heard Sara shouted, followed by her hurried steps to the door.
"Were you waiting for someone else?" Luca expressed his puzzlement to the sudden host. He guessed they were, since he heard the squirrel welcomed someone, a male fur from the sound of the voice answering her. There were some wet noises, indicating that kisses on the cheeks were been delivered too, along with words.
"Didn't she tell you about him coming?" Franco asked back, surprised by the lupine's words. The tall restorer tried to think if Sara did tell him, sometimes tiredness made him forget about things.
"I...." He opened his mouth, but stopped, a pair of glacial eyes freezing him on his place.
Translation:
1) "Shirt or polo, this is the question." Sorry, I butchered Hamlet with that ^^
2) I kid you not, this childish rhyme is used to decide things randomly, and goes like that:
"Ambarabà ciccì coccà/ tre civette sul comò/ che facevano l'amore/ con la figlia del dottore/ il dottore si ammalò/ ambarabà ciccì coccò."
Translation:
"Ambarabà ciccì coccà/three howls on the cupboard/that made love/ with the doctor's daughter/the doctor fell sick/ ambarabà ciccì coccò."
3) Fashionable neighborhood in the north of Rome, where many wealthy and snobbish people live.
4) Punctual as always!
5) Hanger
6) Oh yeah!
7) Nutria, or coypu. Since, for once, the American English name is exactly the same as the Italian one, I will use the first one. If you are curious about nutrias, here's a link that might satisfy your curiosity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria
8) Good evening!
9) Which signals?
10) Pope.
11) The small share of taxes that goes to the Church, or to any religious institution you like and follow. It's very minimal, in truth.
12) Churchgoer.
13) I'm go