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Jan. 1st, 2026 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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beagoldfishTitle: The Empress of Ice Cream
Ratings & Warnings: G
Fandom: L'amica geniale | The Neapolitan Novels - Elena Ferrante / L'amica geniale | My Brilliant Friend (TV)
Relationship(s): Enzo Scanno & Pasquale Peluso & Lila Cerullo
Summary: Set sometime during The Story of a New Name
When Enzo stepped out of the last shop on his route, he saw Pasquale petting Baldassare.
"Hey," Enzo said. Pasquale nodded in reply as Enzo tossed an empty wooden box into the cart.
"You really gonna teach me to shoot when you get back?" Pasquale asked as he slowly slid his fist down the soft slope under the mule's forelock; Enzo watched Baldassare blink in silent, sleepy pleasure.
"If you want," Enzo said. He peeled the remains of a squished pepper out of the cart and tossed it onto the side of the road.
"We're gonna need to know," Pasquale said, looking up and squinting as if he thought he could see the future in the twilight that had settled over the street. "All of us."
Enzo tightened his jaw and leaned against the smudgy gray building he'd parked the cart in front of. He preferred to watch Pasquale's tender touch than to listen to his tough words, but he preferred listening to just about anything to talking about anything, so he let Pasquale go on about the Fascists and the Christian Democrats and the rest of his list of enemies. Enzo had heard the speech countless times before, but he knew that somehow talking about that future war made Pasquale feel better about not being able to fight in this one, so he let him rant.
After that, they didn't have much more to say to each other, or at least that they knew how to say, but they lingered anyway, because they knew that each time they saw each other these days might be the last before Enzo left for the Piedmont.
They pointed their eyes anywhere but at each other, which meant they both saw Lila as soon as she turned the corner. She was holding something in each hand, and she smiled when she spotted Pasquale. Then she spotted Enzo. She froze in place for a beat before turning and disappearing.
"I should get going," Enzo said, taking the hint and taking Baldassare's limp lead.
"No, no, stay," Pasquale said, resting his hand on Baldassare's rump. "It's nothing--she'd just asked me for some literature." He pulled a few tightly-folded leaflets out of his back pocket as evidence.
Enzo nodded, unconvinced, his hand still on the bristly rope hanging from the mule's halter. He and Baldassare both shuffled their feet a little on the dusty street, but they stayed in place.
The conversation, if it could be called that, shifted, the way their conversations always did, to Lila. They shared notes--clipped, terse, like they were reciting telegrams--about when they'd last seen her, how she'd seemed, who she'd been with. They avoided Stefano's name as if neither of them wanted to dirty their mouths with it, but his invisible presence loomed in their midst like the inescapable smell of garbage baking in the hot sun. They talked, passing words across the mule's back, until Lila appeared again, smiling, carrying three paper cups. She set the cups on the low stone wall beside the cart, and Enzo and Pasquale took turns kissing her cheeks before she gestured to the already-melting cups and told them to help themselves.
The flavors, Enzo noticed, matched the colors of her dress.
"How are your teeth?" Lila asked, gently scratching Baldassare's chin.
For a second, Enzo thought that she was asking the mule. Then he saw Pasquale's face redden.
"They're alright," he said, poking violently at his ice cream with his wooden spoon.
Lila smoothed her skirt under her and sat on the wall, taking the last of the ice cream cups. "I told you, if you need--" she began, but Pasquale cut her off.
When he looked up, he saw Lila trying to hold back a laugh behind her knuckles.
"What?" Pasquale asked. His head swiveled to Enzo, who quickly dropped his eyes to his cup. "What?"
"Sorry," Lila said, clearing her throat and composing her face. "It's just funny hearing you swear with a mouth full of ice cream."
Pasquale stared at her for a moment, then went back to jabbing at his ice cream. When Enzo took his next bite, he realized he was smiling. He was going to miss them.
Ratings & Warnings: G
Fandom: L'amica geniale | The Neapolitan Novels - Elena Ferrante / L'amica geniale | My Brilliant Friend (TV)
Relationship(s): Enzo Scanno & Pasquale Peluso & Lila Cerullo
Summary: Set sometime during The Story of a New Name
When Enzo stepped out of the last shop on his route, he saw Pasquale petting Baldassare.
"Hey," Enzo said. Pasquale nodded in reply as Enzo tossed an empty wooden box into the cart.
"You really gonna teach me to shoot when you get back?" Pasquale asked as he slowly slid his fist down the soft slope under the mule's forelock; Enzo watched Baldassare blink in silent, sleepy pleasure.
"If you want," Enzo said. He peeled the remains of a squished pepper out of the cart and tossed it onto the side of the road.
"We're gonna need to know," Pasquale said, looking up and squinting as if he thought he could see the future in the twilight that had settled over the street. "All of us."
Enzo tightened his jaw and leaned against the smudgy gray building he'd parked the cart in front of. He preferred to watch Pasquale's tender touch than to listen to his tough words, but he preferred listening to just about anything to talking about anything, so he let Pasquale go on about the Fascists and the Christian Democrats and the rest of his list of enemies. Enzo had heard the speech countless times before, but he knew that somehow talking about that future war made Pasquale feel better about not being able to fight in this one, so he let him rant.
After that, they didn't have much more to say to each other, or at least that they knew how to say, but they lingered anyway, because they knew that each time they saw each other these days might be the last before Enzo left for the Piedmont.
They pointed their eyes anywhere but at each other, which meant they both saw Lila as soon as she turned the corner. She was holding something in each hand, and she smiled when she spotted Pasquale. Then she spotted Enzo. She froze in place for a beat before turning and disappearing.
"I should get going," Enzo said, taking the hint and taking Baldassare's limp lead.
"No, no, stay," Pasquale said, resting his hand on Baldassare's rump. "It's nothing--she'd just asked me for some literature." He pulled a few tightly-folded leaflets out of his back pocket as evidence.
Enzo nodded, unconvinced, his hand still on the bristly rope hanging from the mule's halter. He and Baldassare both shuffled their feet a little on the dusty street, but they stayed in place.
The conversation, if it could be called that, shifted, the way their conversations always did, to Lila. They shared notes--clipped, terse, like they were reciting telegrams--about when they'd last seen her, how she'd seemed, who she'd been with. They avoided Stefano's name as if neither of them wanted to dirty their mouths with it, but his invisible presence loomed in their midst like the inescapable smell of garbage baking in the hot sun. They talked, passing words across the mule's back, until Lila appeared again, smiling, carrying three paper cups. She set the cups on the low stone wall beside the cart, and Enzo and Pasquale took turns kissing her cheeks before she gestured to the already-melting cups and told them to help themselves.
The flavors, Enzo noticed, matched the colors of her dress.
"How are your teeth?" Lila asked, gently scratching Baldassare's chin.
For a second, Enzo thought that she was asking the mule. Then he saw Pasquale's face redden.
"They're alright," he said, poking violently at his ice cream with his wooden spoon.
Lila smoothed her skirt under her and sat on the wall, taking the last of the ice cream cups. "I told you, if you need--" she began, but Pasquale cut her off.
When he looked up, he saw Lila trying to hold back a laugh behind her knuckles.
"What?" Pasquale asked. His head swiveled to Enzo, who quickly dropped his eyes to his cup. "What?"
"Sorry," Lila said, clearing her throat and composing her face. "It's just funny hearing you swear with a mouth full of ice cream."
Pasquale stared at her for a moment, then went back to jabbing at his ice cream. When Enzo took his next bite, he realized he was smiling. He was going to miss them.
