Author's Note: Thanks to Junkmail for helping me choose a title. The verses are from Madonna's song "Spanish Eyes", although I doubt she wrote it. Maria belongs to me, but Angelo himself belongs to Marvel Entertainment. I am not going to make any money out of this, and I don't intend to hurt anyone in any way. Okay?:)

Maria stopped sobbing into her pillow for a moment. She needed to breathe. She needed to make sense of what was happening around her.

"But he's dead!" It didn't make sense. She started crying again. All she wanted in the world was to hug him. To touch his face. To see him smile.

She clasped her rosary tight, and started to pray. Her speech was fractured with teary gulps for breath, her face screwed up with grief.

"God, please, please, look after my Angelo. I love him so much." She stopped speaking aloud as she remembered him alive, smiling, making her happy. He teased her continually, without being cruel, and she looked up to him. He protected her against everything, he always seemed so brave and strong. "He needs taking care of now. He needs a hug every so often, to remind him who he is. He needs hugs. I need hugs. Ange, where are you? I need you, so much."

"Why? Why did you have to die? Why did you have to get involved with their petty stuggles? Why was your sense of honour so great that you had to abandon me and die for them? They killed you! You were everything to me, and they killed you! It's not fair!"

"You're right," she scrubbed away the remaining tears on her face. "If I had been in your place, I would have done the same, any of us would. But it was still wrong. You shouldn't be dead." Her eyes moistened unconsciously. "How am I going to live without you, Angelo? How will I cope without my big brother?"

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