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Valentino's home |

"And red riding hood lived happily ever after with her grandmother"

"Again again!"

"Now Rossa this is the fifth time today, go sleep or something. Stop bothering mommy!"

"But.. but"

"GO!"

Rossa walked out of the dinning room and ran outside.

"Why does mommy get so upset with me, I just love that story. Mommy is the one who told me that my name means red, I am just like red riding hood! I have to go save grannie from the wolf!!"

Rossa walked toward the path leading to her grannies house.

"I wonder if granny will read to me?" Rossa said running down the path

As Rossa ran she saw a field of flowers and decided to take a small detour

"How pretty, I'll pick some for grandma"

Rossa jumped into the flowers rolling around a bit, then stopping to pick some, she paused when she heard someone crying. She then walked toward the noise.

"Are you ok?"

The boy jumped his face soon turning a red hue. The boy looked nothing like Rossa, instead of Rossa's dirty torn clothes he wore a nice suit.

Instead of Rossa's brown tangled hair he had light blonde, almost white hair, it looked smooth with not a single knot in sight. His eyes were a light blue and puffy from all his crying. While Rossa's eyes were a light emerald green.

"Who are you?" The boy asked quickly wiping away his tears.

"WAIT!" Rossa screamed grabbing the boys hands.

"Wha-"

"You can't wipe that hard or you'll hurt your eyes, let me help"

Rossa grabbed the boys face and brought it close to hers, she then balled up the end of her sleeve and begun lightly patting around the boys eyes.

He was shorter than Rossa but he still seemed to be around Rossa's age.

"Wha- wah! What are you doing?!" The boy said as if he was upset but did not move away from Rossa.

Rossa finished wiping his eyes and helped the boy stand up.

"Why were you crying?"

The boy clicked his tongue and turned from Rossa.

"I don't speak to strangers" he said rolling his eyes.

"Oh... Well I'm Rossa whats your name?"

"My name is Valentino Leandro Narciso Romano the third" The boy said haughtily

"Dang I'm sorry we just met and I cut you off whats the rest of your name?" The boy said waiting.

Rossa saw that the boy must be real proud of his name as it seemed to make him lower his guard.

"Thats it though" Rossa said smiling

"What about your last name, or your middle names?"

"I don't have one, my mom said its something about our class I think" Rossa said confused

"So your from the lower class... I see" the boy said looking to the ground as if Rossa had said she was homeless.

"Welll since we have exchanged names now we aren't strangers, so why were you upset"

The boy raised his head, quickly realizing that he had let his guard down.

"Sigh, fine I'll tell you. My favorite dog died" Valentino said rubbing his arm.

"Oh..... Whats a dog?" Rossa asked confused.

Valentino stared at Rossa in disbelief

"You must know what a dog is, even commoners have at least seen a dog" Valentino said grabbing Rossa's hand

"I have never left this forest, although mommy always goes far away. I only have grandma and mommy." Rossa said smiling.

"Well... Come with me I'll show you my dogs" Valentino said pulling on Rossa's hand.

Rossa looked back toward the path to her grandma's and then squeezed Valentino's hand.

"Ok but we have to be quick" Rossa said turning toward Valentino

Valentino smiled and, holding Rossa's hand, ran toward the tree line far away from the path.

1 Hour Later

Rossa began rethinking her decision, her mother had taught her of the dangers of strangers, and Valentino has been running for a while.

Right as Rossa was about to tell Valentino to stop, she saw a huge mansion infront of her.

"Why are there lights in this lake?" Rossa asked as they walked toward the entrance.

"That is one of the pools, it lights up at night. And this is my home" Valentino said catching his breath.

They took breaks while running but it was still quite the distance for two 7 year olds.

Rossa was intrigued by all of the lights, and stairways that led up to different entrances into the house. The roof was a lovely blue color, the house had more windows than Rossa had ever seen before.

Valentino entered the house and was immediately met by his attendant who took off his jacket.

The attendant paused for a moment as Rossa entered the house behind Valentino.

"Hello!" Rossa said waving at the man.

"Young master... Is this an employee of your fathers?" The man said cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"Watch your mouth Giovanni! This is my friend her name is Rossa, Rossa this is my attendant you can call him Gio" Valentino stared daggers at Gio while guiding Rossa into the dinning room.

He sat Rossa down at a seat and clapped his hands, in seconds a maid came to him.

"Tell the chef to prepare a full course meal full of protein, vitamins, and is very fattening." Valentino ordered glancing at Rossa.

"I thought we were just here to see your dogs" Rossa furrowed her eyebrows confused.

"My dogs are great danes, they will break you if your this weak and hungry" Valentino grabbed Rossa's hands shaking it around

Rossa giggled and jumped on Valentino tickling him.

Valentino laughed and him and Rossa began wrestling as the fought to not get tickled by the other, Rossa losing in the end, and they went back to their seats.

As the maids brought out the food they were shocked to see Valentino with marks on his clothes and his hair in a mess.

"Young master, what happened?"

"No-nothing! Serve the food immediately!" Valentino said a blush covering his face as he turned away from the maids.

The maids placed all of the food down infront of Valentino ignoring Rossa, some of the maid would look at her and make sly remarks such as holding their noses or covering their mouth as they giggle.

Valentino noticed this and slammed his hands on the table.

"Now do I really look like I am in dire need of all this food? HUH! Put the goddamn food infront of the hungry girl, or do you wish to be fired?!" Valentino snapped at the maids.

The maids quickly moved the food, bowed, and scurried out of the room.

Valentino sighed and turned toward Rossa who had tears swelling in her eyes.

Valentino look at Rossa shocked
"Rossa? Im sorry I raised my voice, I was not mad at you though"

Rossa calmed down "oh.. Usually when mommy or grandma yells its at me, so I thought you were mad at me"

Valentino shook his head and gestured for Rossa to begin eating.

After she finished eating he took her to see the dogs.

Immediately Rossa was jumped on and began to get a shower of dog kisses.

"SIT!" Valentino said firmly

The dogs quickly sat excited for when they would get to play with Rossa.

Valentino pointed to each dog as he introduced them.
"These are my dogs, the black one is Jasmine, the harlequin is Diego, and the boston is Leonardo.. And the one that passed away was a old female albino named Sofia." Valentino grew a sad look as he mentioned Sofia.

"Well.... Can I play now?!?!" Rossa said jumping around excitedly.

Valentino smirked "are you sure your able to handle all of them they weigh close to 200 pounds if not more"

Rossa nodded excited to play with new animals she had never seen before.

"RELEASE!" Valentino commanded

The dogs ran toward Rossa licking her face. Jasmine lightly grabbed Rossa's hand in her mouth, but still added enough weight for Rossa to feel the dogs urgency. Jasmine led Rossa toward a pile of toys.

Rossa grabbed the rope
"What is this toy for?" Rossa asked Valentino

"Its tug-of-war, she will grab one side and you grab the other and whoever hold on the longest wins."

Rossa began pulling the rope from Jasmine, the dog did not give an inch as she shook Rossa off of the rope.

"Jasmine wins!" Valentino said laughing.

Rossa laughed as well and began plying with the other dogs with Valentino.

3 Hours Later (11 p.m)

"I guess I'll have to go see granny another time" Rossa said as she stood at the door of her home.

"You can come see me- I mean my dogs anytime, they would love to see you" Valentino said blushing.

Rossa nodded and reached for her door handle

"Wait!" Valentino said grabbing Rossa's shoulder

"I.. I.. I have a gift for you" Valentino pushed a small red jacket with fur around the hood toward Rossa.

"You dont have to keep it, its just its getting cold and you didnt have a jacket today and your name is Rossa so i assumed you liked red but maybe you dont and-" as Valentino rambled on Rossa hugged the jacket close to her

Rossa then jumped toward Valentino covering him in a big hug.

"Thank you" Rossa said smiling and turning to walk into her house

"Bye Rossa"

"Bye Valentino"

As Rossa entered the house she heard girls screams coming from the attic, followed by her mother yelling at them to shut up and some guys moaning.

"I guess mom is working again, I wonder if she noticed I have been gone all day?"

Rossa walked to her room and saw that everything was gone, the only thing that was left was her Red Riding Hood book on the floor. As she picked it up she saw a message on it that said sold.

"I guess mom is selling all of my stuff"

Rossa felt something cold on her cheek and touched it.

"Why am I crying, I should be happy that mom is making money and is happy. But.... No.. Nevermind" Rossa wiped her tears and curled up on the floor.

Slowly falling asleep.