dearest cacau! i hope you like this one!
Meeting their gaze after throwing a coin in a wishing fountain
the magic of a wish, a stranger
Joe’s not sure when he started believing in wishing on fountains.
His memory tells him it’s when he was four years old, and he had climbed on a fountain and fell into it while wishing for a puppy.
And got a little sister instead, after all the trouble.
Maybe that’s why he’s here, clutching a coin in a death grip, his knuckles turning white as he stares at the water. Because he ended up loving said baby sister, Nasima, even though she can be a pain on the butt. And because no matter how old he gets, Joe can’t help but cling to that part of him started believing in that magic from the start.
The magic that a simple wish on the right fountain or well, can make everything better, just like his baby sister did.
And apparently, this is the fountain to make the wish on.
Fontana di Trevi. In Rome. His last stop in, what his sister calls, ’the trip you should’ve gone on much earlier Yusuf, but you never did because you took care of everyone, and now it’s my turn to do the caring because I make bank now, so you can go and take that trip now, bye fam!’
Ever the force, and not one to take no for an answer, Nasima had literally forced him out the door, much to his Mama and Baba’s glee.
At the thought of his Baba, his heart twinges, just a little in his chest, and he sniffles.
Baba was not well, when he left, and was going through tests, upon tests, and upon tests. He had wanted to cancel his trip but none of his family would have it.
They’re meant to hear of what’s happening with him, while he’s on the flight back. He feels his anxiety crawl under his skin at the thought of turning on his phone after landing, and getting any sort of bad news.
So here he was. At the crack of dawn, standing in front of the fountain.
Joe takes a deep breath and clasps the coin in his hands, closing his fist over it. He brings it close and presses his lips against his knuckles, sighing against it. Wishing over it.
Please, let my Baba be okay. Please.
It sounds so childish in his mind, because maybe it is. Maybe he’s desperate, and he’s not ashamed to admit it. When Joe opens his eyes, and goes to toss the coin, he freezes, as he catches the eye of a man walking by on the other side. The courtyard is almost empty, since it’s very early after all, and there’s nearly no one around.
The man gives him a small smile, and nods, and Joe finds himself staring, his lips still on his curled hands. The man then tilts his head, and then takes one of his hands from his pocket and makes an underhand throwing motion towards the fountain and he blinks.
Joe blinks, and nods his thanks, before closing his eyes again and making the same wish, then throwing the coin to the water. When he hears it hit the water, he opens his eyes.
Joe yelps, jumping away from the voice, and turns to find the man across the fountain standing beside him, hand extended and blinking rapidly. With a hand on his chest, Joe straightens up with a sigh, and shakes his head.
“Scared me,” he gasps out, and the man smiles a little, shrugging. Even in the dim lights of dawn, he can see the man’s intense colour of the man’s eyes, sea-glass and ethereal. Partnered with a strong profile, and a cupid’s bow that almost seemed one of fiction, the man was an artist’s dream.
There’s no other way to describe it, and Joe’s hand itches for his charcoal. But then the man moves again, extending his hand.
“Take this,” he says, and Joe blinks, before opening his palm, letting the man drop another coin in his hand. When he looks up, the man continues to smile at him, turning back to the fountain then.
“I feel like I distracted your wish. I thought you’d want to do it again,” he says, and Joe faces the fountain then as well, before looking down at the coin. The man sounds like he lives there, and yet he’s still looking at the fountain with such wonder, and fondness.
“Will it make my wish come true even more?” Joe finds himself asking, and he sounds a little desperate, voice croaking. The man turns to him then, taking out another coin.
“My Nonna says so. And I’ve made one before, and it’s come true. I can join you in this second one,” he says, and Joe smiles at him then, nodding.
They’re both turning to the fountain then, and the man curls his hands over his own coin in the exact same way he does, and together, they toss their coin to the water. Joe watches at it falls, almost in sync and in that moment, he wants that magic that he clings to, that he refuses to let go, to be at its strongest and most powerful.
“My name’s Nicolò,” the man says, and Joe turns to him them, smiling.
“Yusuf,” he whispers, and smiles when the man nods to follow him, and he finds himself doing so. He had no plans, for his last few days in Rome.
“Do you live here?” he asks, and Nicolò smiles, before shaking his head gently.
“I did. I am visiting my Nonna,” he says, eyes ahead as they walk. “It’s my wish. When I left Rome, all signs pointed to me never returning. And so, before I left, I made this wish. They say that if you toss one coin, you get your wish and you get to return to Italy,” he says, and Joe blinks.
“And you got it,” he says, his chest warming as he watches Nicolò smile then, grinning.
“Yes! I wished to see my Nonna again, and now I’m here. We celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday,” he says, and Joe gasps, clapping his hands.
“Amazing! That’s brilliant!” he says excitedly, and Nicolò laughs, grinning now.
“It is,” he says with a hum, before turning to him then. “I think your wish is going to come true too, and you’ll get to return to Rome!” he says, and Joe laughs, his heart feeling lighter in days. He prays that it’s the case. That he comes home to good news.
“That wouldn’t be so bad,” he says, and Nicolò smiles, before he pauses. Joe looks at him then, pausing in step with this beautiful stranger.
Nicolò blinks at him, and then laughs, staring at him for a moment, before walking again, Joe mirroring his movements.
“I just remembered something.”
Joe blinks, and then waves his hand.
Nicolò snorts, and looks up at the sky.
“One coin means a return to Rome. Two coins mean something else,” he says, and Joe nods.
Nicolò closes his eyes for a moment, and then looks back at him, smiling.
Joe stares at him then, and he feels himself breaking into a grin, nodding for Nicolò to start walking again, this time, extending his hand towards him. When the man takes his hand, he immediately brings it to his lips, kissing his knuckles. The flush that rises on Nicolò’s cheeks makes him unreasonably happy.
“Again, that wouldn’t be so bad.”
A few years later, Joe does come back to Rome, with his whole family this time, for Mama and Baba’s 50th wedding anniversary.
And with Nicolò by his side.
