"I'm telling you! She thought I was awesome – you saw it, Antonio!" Gilbert gave a smug smile to Francis and turned to Antonio to back him up. The three of them sat in their high school hallway, leaning against the large windows. Other students streamed passed them, in a hurry to leave as quickly as possible for the weekend.

"I said I wasn't getting involved!" Antonio was laughing. His eyes seemed to sparkle around his friends. It was a silly debate they were having, but lighthearted, and amusing to listen to nonetheless.

The three of them didn't have as many classes together as they used to - just world history now, so they were happy to spend a little extra time talking in the school hallways instead of fleeing them.

"Hm, she was most clearly interested in someone else mon ami," says Francis, rolling his eyes. "Now if I were the one talking to her-"

"Don't you have a boyfriend, Francis," interrupts Gilbert. He leans back on the wall, avoiding the club posters hung around them.

"Yes, yes, but if I were..."

"She would like you?" Antonio decides to chime in – he's heard this enough time to guess what Francis would finish with. And, Antonio thought, Francis might just be right. He seemed to be, anyway, in matters like this, so Antonio would trust him.

"I thought you weren't getting involved!" Gilbert puts on a rather over-the-top tone of betrayal. Though with Gilbert, many things can seem over the top. Not just him, but Francis too. Of course, Antonio wouldn't say it to them, and he never really noticed the subtitler emotions they expressed. He was never very good at that, after all.

"It only makes sense he would side with me!" Francis flips his hair behind his shoulders. Yeah, Antonio had slightly dramatic friends.

Gilbert was about to retort when all three of them heard the buses start up. They weren't exactly the stealthiest vehicles, after all. They watched them rumble their way away from the school.

"Ah, sorry Toni…" Gilbert says while Francis smile apologetically.

"It's alright – I'm gonna start walking now, then!" Antonio got up, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. The other two called out goodbyes to him, and he responded with a cheery wave until he made it out of the school.

Antonio had missed the bus, but that was okay. Chatting with Gilbert and Francis had distracted him. After all, time seemed to fly right by when he spent time with those two. He supposed it made sense, they were, after all, best friends.

Still, it might be nice if having great friends like them helped him catch the bus instead of making him miss it. It wasn't a problem for the two of them, after all. Gilbert drove and picked up his younger brother. Francis lived close enough to the school to bike there in just a few minutes.

Of course, they hadn't meant to. Neither of them paid much attention to it, It was Antonio who was too spacey to notice the time going by.

It certainly wasn't the first time this had happened, and Antonio sincerely doubted that it would be the last time. It wouldn't be too much of a problem if he lived closer, like Francis. Even Gilbert lived only a few miles from their school.

Meanwhile, Antonio lived on the very edge of their district. Not that he was complaining about where he lived, of course not. The long walk could help to clear his mind from the clutter of a stressful week, and his house was not too long of a walk to the ocean, which made summer days spent in the sun at the beach an often occurrence.

That was certainly something he enjoyed. It wasn't as sunny, as warm here as it was back in Spain. But that beach, where he had spent plenty a long, hot summer's day messing around with his friends almost brought some of the memories of his home country back.

Although, vacations back to Spain to visit family did that a little more, but that wasn't the point.

The beach wasn't really too popular – it had large rocky cliff sides that made it difficult to even get to the water, and therefore it wasn't exactly a busy tourist spot. It could get crowded in some of the warmest days of the summer, but today he would seriously doubt that there was anyone there.

The sky was filled with dark grey clouds. They were thick enough to make the afternoon look almost like evening. Antonio wouldn't be surprised if a thunderstorm started up. There was a breeze, as well, just enough to give him goosebumps and make him shiver.

"I hope not…" mutters Antonio, speaking to himself. "My turtles hate storms!"

Not that he could really be certain, but it just seemed like they did to him. So, maybe that wasn't the most scientific way of proving that they hated storms, but Antonio didn't mind that much.

A drop of rain hit Antonio's nose, bringing his attention away from his (adorable) turtles and back to the weather.

"Aw…" Antonio had been hoping that the rain would hold off until he got home, or at least closer to home. He could see the ocean now. It was a dark blue-grey that almost blended in with the clouds so that the horizon blurred together with the sky. Waves crashed against the side of the cliffs that were before him.

Someone stood next to the edge of the cliff, looking out from the precipice to the sea. He looked to be about Antonio's age, a little taller maybe. He couldn't see their face, but their hair was somewhere lost between red and brown with a little curl sticking out.

'It looks like Feliciano, but I know that's not him… maybe he has a sibling?' Antonio didn't know, he had English and History with Feli, but not much else. He might have mentioned a brother but Antonio really couldn't remember… oops?

Either way, they didn't seem prepared for this weather at all. They had a tank top and pants on, and not anything else.

'They must be freezing!' Antonio thinks, considering offering his jacket. It wasn't too much farther for him to walk, really, and whoever this guy was, related to Feliciano or not, they needed something more to be standing around on an ocean cliff like this.

Antonio had made up his mind; he would approach the stranger, offer his coat, and then fast-walk the rest of the way home. Then maybe take a nice hot shower and have some hot cocoa, as long as no one else was using the shower, that is.

He walked up to the stranger. Antonio almost recognized him, at a closer look. He probably saw him in the hallways, or somewhere else during school, Antonio wasn't sure. "Um, hi! It's kind of raining a lot, well, at least a bit-I mean you can see that of course-so I was wondering if you wanted to borrow my jacket," said Antonio, rushing over the words.

He wasn't bad with people, necessarily, but it was a bit nerve-wracking to approach someone he only slightly recognizes in order to offer them his jacket.

Antonio smiled awkwardly as he turned to look at him.

"What the fuck? What kinda weirdo comes up and offers their goddamn jacket to a fucking stranger, huh?!"

Antonio blinked several times. That wasn't really the answer he had expected. "Oh, sorry! Just, my house is pretty close and I don't know where you live but if you're going to be standing here, a jacket would probably help you more, yeah?" He tries to explain himself. "And uh, I'm Antonio!"

There! Maybe he wouldn't find him as much of as stranger now.

"…it's Lovino," the other replies.

"Do you want the jacket Lovi?" Antonio starts to take it off, planning on offering it.

"Can you not fucking hear? Lovino. And no, I don't need your dumb jacket anyways, it would be-yeah." Lovino cuts off his own thought. There was more to be said, something important, but Antonio leaves it be. If it really was important maybe Lovino would tell him anyway.

"Oh," says Antonio. He slides his jacket back up his shoulders. He almost offers to go get an umbrella for Lovino, but decides against it. "So, uh, what are you doing here? I don't think I've seen you before, si?"

"I've biked passed here before," Lovino grumbles, gesturing to a bike lying behind them, just off the road. Despite it being a loud red in color, Antonio hadn't noticed it until it was pointed out. "And I felt like watching the ocean, so what?"

"During a rainy day like this?" It didn't make much sense to Antonio, but he shrugged it off. He guessed some people wouldn't mind this weather. Lovino didn't answer right away, so Antonio moved on - he wanted to keep the conversation going. "Do you know Feliciano? You two look a lot alike," Antonio points out.

Lovino's eyes seem to harden, but with what, one couldn't tell. And either way, Antonio wouldn't be able to tell.

"He's my brother, so yeah, I know him," responds Lovino.

"Oh, really? That makes sense then I guess!" Antonio laughs a little. He reaches his hand to his forehead and pushes away some of the hair that had gotten in his face. The wind was picking up, and apparently, he needed a haircut. It, however, almost immediately returned to its previous place, so Antonio ignored it.

"No shit, idiot," says Lovino as his eyes followed the quick motion of Antonio's hand. "So are you planning on staying out in the rain talking to someone you don't know, or are you going to leave, huh?" There was an odd edge to his voice, almost panicky.

Antonio's not sure if he imagined it, though. Lovino seems grumpier than anything, glares being directed at him every few minutes. Less often, though, they would wander out to the ocean, distant, before snapping back to Antonio, when he moved or when he said something new.

"Well, you're not too much of stranger anymore, your name is Lovi, I know your brother, and we go to the same school! Besides, talking to you more would make you less of a stranger, si?" He didn't really want to leave, something about Lovino was pulling him, keeping him there.

Lovino stared at Antonio, either shocked by his air-headedness (a look Antonio received often enough from Francis) or thinking about what he said. Whichever one it was, Antonio couldn't tell.

Lovino closed his eyes. Thinking then, maybe? When he opened them, the air seemed to freeze. What Antonio thought was a glare before was nothing compared to this. Everything about Lovino suddenly screamed "hostile", leaving Antonio bewildered and thinking he most certainly missed something.

"Look, bastard, I didn't ask for you to come offer me your dumb jacket, I didn't ask for you to try to be my damn friend or talk about my brother!" Lovino snaps.

Antonio's mouth is open, ready to speak when Lovino continues. "You're just being annoying, alright? So just go away, and leave me the hell alone, because I never asked for you to fucking talk to me!"

Lovino's chest was practically heaving for breath after his outburst. He was seething. Antonio's eyes stung, a little - that wasn't exactly what he had hoped to come from this, and he didn't understand Lovino's rejection.

"Ah, yeah, sorry for bothering you then," says Antonio. Lovino just scoffs, and Antonio resigns himself to walk away from the boy standing on the cliff.

He steps back and starts to walk, sending a weak friendly smile back behind him. Lovino wasn't looking.

Antonio was a few feet away when he stopped. Some realization had clicked, an underlying anxiety had bubbled to the surface. When he turned around, Lovino was still there. He walked back and Lovino turned around, slightly startled.

"What more do you want?" Lovino's voice was tired.

There was a tense moment of silence while Antonio hesitated. What if he was totally off? He wasn't good at reading people, but this seemed too important to simply just hope he was wrong.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to jump as soon as I leave…?"


Author's Note: Woo, first chapter! I'm never sure if I'm getting Antonio's thoughts right. Please comment to let me know what you think!

I started this quite awhile ago as a vent piece, but now I'm a bit determined to finish it! The next chapter will be from our dear Lovino's perspective (perhaps with the others, who knows).

Anyways, sorry to leave this on a CLIFF hanger... get it? No, I'm not funny? Well, either way, it just had to be done. Please leave a review if you can and thank you so much for reading!