Chapter 1
Winter, Spain
"Ah, it looks like they weren't kidding about this winter being a bad one..." Antonio was looking out upon his dying garden from his frostbitten window. He knew he wasn't going to be able to protect his precious tomatoes this year. He let out a small sigh and stared out his frosty window for a few minutes before turning away from the depressing sight of his poor, dying tomatos.
It was supposed to be one of the coldest winters Spain has had in years. Antonio tried preparing for it but no matter what he did, his garden still ended up dying off in the spine-chilling wind. The Spaniard sat on his couch to gather up some warmth near the fire. Antonio had nothing better to do during the winter. He lived alone and the feeling of loneliness was never the greatest to him but he dealt with it.
Antonio walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat, when he opened up the refrigerator, he was surprised to see he was almost out of food. He opened up the cupboards in search of something to snack on; it was unsettling to find he was out of Pop-tarts.
"Maybe I should go out for a little while..." he muttered to himself.
He nodded in agreement to himself. Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea, he needed to stock up on food to prepare himself for the long winter ahead. Antonio gathered up his long, brown trench coat, blue scarf, white ear muffs and gloves, but as soon as he stepped out of his door a sudden rush of cold wind slapped against his body. "Ay carumba. It's cold!" But Antonio took it like a man and braced himself against the freezing air. The wind nipped at his ears and the tip of his nose, causing them to turn a bright pink color. He walked down the street a little and noticed his neighbor, Bella was looking out her window.
Her smile was bright when she saw Antonio. She waved to him happily. Antonio smiled and waved back, then kept walking towards the town. As he almost reached his destination, his face was red, nose was running, his ears were numb. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to go out for the day. He pulled up his scarf over his mouth to protect his freezing lips.
"It's freezing..."
Antonio continued walking down the frosted path noticing some squirrels gathering acorns to bring to their families. Antonio smiled, "You and me both... except I don't have any friends left." He contined walking through the frozen park slowly, covering himself from the bitter cold.
He continued quickly to the market before it closed. Antonio walked in and was kindly greeted by warm air, as he walked in he grabbed a trolley and headed down the aisles looking for things to store in his house for the cold, bitter winter ahead.
"Do you need any damn help?" Antonio looked up from the Pop-tarts to see a man with abnormal, gravity defying greyish blonde hair. "Uhh, no." Antonio was already confused by the man; his hair was so... so... so gravity defying! The man's look was quite intimidating, "No, you definitely need help. What the hell do you want?" Antonio didn't know what to say. He didn't need any help! What the hell was this man talking about?
Antonio didn't want to be mean seeing the man probably wanted to just help a friend. He put a nice, small smile on his face, "Um ok, what kind of Pop-tarts do you reccommend?" The man just looked at him with a 'You're a dumbass' look. Then he made a smart comment back, "Which ones do you like? I'm not a miracle worker. I don't know what you like!" Antonio didn't know what to do, he just wanted to grab his favorite strawberry Pop-tarts but it seemed like this man wasn't going to leave him alone.
"S-Strawberry..." the Spaniard was reaching for his Pop-tarts and was about to run away and just leave his trolley behind but the worker grabbed his wrist before he could grab the delicious treat, "No." Antonio looked at him suprised, "W-What?" The grey haired man grabbed the purple box of Pop-tarts and handed it to Antonio, "I think you'll like grape better." Antonio laughed nervously. This man scared him and grape was his least favorite! "O-Ok, thank you very much, sir!"
The man nodded and turned around. Antonio didn't know if he heard right but he thought the man muttered, dumbass... before he walked away. Antonio sighed and strolled around to the produce section of the market. Of course he was going to buy some tomatoes! As he started scanning through the baskets of tomatoes to find the most ripe and reddest looking ones, he heard a slightly familiar voice appear, "Do you need any damn help again?"
Antonio jumped a little at the sound of the voice. Damn, he's back! He turned to the same man with the wild hair, "Umm, no thank you I'm just looking." He started laughing nervously again and averted his eyes back to the basket.
"You do need some help."
"Excuse me?" This man confused Antonio too much. He knows he didn't need any help. What does this man want?
"I said..."the man said with a louder tone, "Do you need any damn help?"
Antonio shook his head quickly, "N-No, I promise, I don't need any help!"
"Liar." replied the man bluntly.
Antonio whispered to himself and whined, "Would you please leave me alone?..." then he spoke up, "Why do you want to help me so badly?" The man looked around the area for a minute. It looked like he was trying to think of an answer, "My manager said I had to help out the damn customers or I lose my fuckin' job." What's up with the language on this guy? He can be a little friendlier, I know the weather isn't "at best" right now, but he can be nicer.
"There are others customers you know. I don't need help all the ti-" Antonio cut off noticing the man was staring at him with a death glare. Chills ran down Antonio's spine as he turned away, smiling nervously, and pointed to the tomato boxes with a shaking finger, "Which tomatoes look ripe and the most red to you?" The worker turned away to look at the basket.
Before Antonio knew it, he was leaving the market with his least favorite treat, tomatoes that were too squishy and a little brown, and other items that he didn't want. The worker followed him everywhere he went in the market. Antonio kept asking himself if the guy was stalking him but he didn't want to say anything. All he knew is that the less food he got, the faster he could get out of there.
As he started walking out the market with his bag, he decided to take the longer way back home. It may be freezing but, he lived alone so there was no point of going back so hastily.
He decided to walk down an empty street that nobody ever went down, the cold wind started to chill his whole body again. His breath becoming visible once again. He pulled his scarf over his chapped mouth and wrapped his arms around his trembling body. There was something that felt different down the frozen road like he wasn't alone. He didn't hear anybody or anything but the sound of his light footsteps crunching in the snow and the wind blowing against his numb ears. Antonio closed his eyes tightly every other second to attempt to warm them up. Then the sound of a light moan appeared from... somewhere around Antonio. He couldn't make out where it had came from, snapped his eyes open, and turned around quickly to see nobody was around.
"Maybe it's just my imagination..." The snow started to come down harder.
Antonio wrapped his coat tighter around him, stuffing his hands under his arms, and dug his face into his scarf as best as he could. He trailed down the road. He needed to get home before he turned into a Spanish popsicle. Then the sound of a loud groan echoed in the area. Antonio stopped in his tracks, gasping lightly. What is that noise? It sounds like a dying animal. It's hard to see anything in this thick snow. Then the sound of heavy but slow taking footsteps started filling Antonio's ears. He looked around to see if someone or something was following him, then something happend to catch his eyes. A black silhouette in the shape of a human started to appear from a distance in the snow. Antonio had to squint his eyes harder to see. The snow was really starting to come down even harder.
"H-Hola? Is someone over there?" Then Antonio gasped as he watched the silhouette drop. He dropped his bag of groceries and ran towards the dark figure still trying to keep warm, "Oi! Are you alright?" His eyes were starting to sting and tear up from the wind but when he reached up to the silhouetted figure, he was shocked. It was young boy who still looked like he was still in his early teens.
The boy had short sleeves on and a pair of worn-out shorts, the only warmth he seemed like he had was a ragged scarf wrapped around his neck. "Dios mio." Antonio kneeled down to feel the boy's pulse. He's still alive. Thank goodness. But his skin was ice cold, Antonio stared at the boy trying to process certain things in his mind. He couldn't help but notice how the boy's chocolate hair fell around his face neatly. Antonio shook his head quickly finally processing everything, "What am I doing? This boy is dying and I'm looking at his hair?" He told himself to focus.
No matter how cold it was and not really thinking, Antonio quickly threw off his jacket and wrapped it around the boy, "Here, I'll help you warm up." The boy was unconcious so the Spaniard knew he could not hear him. He then wrapped his scarf around the boy's neck and mouth. Antonio took the brown haired boy and put him on his back, "You'll be warmer when we get to my house..." Antonio could feel the boy's body trembling and his breathing was abnormal. How long has he been out in this weather for? Antonio's body heat was dropping rapidly without his jacket on.
"Alright, let's go." Antonio started to walk as fast as he possibly could to get home but he almost forgot one thing, "Gah! The groceries!" He ran over and tried to grab the bag without dropping the boy. He felt a cold hand grip his shoulder tighter. The boy was heavier than he looked and Antonio struggled trying to carry him and his bag of groceries he didn't want, but he knew he had to get the boy and himself out of the cold.
Antonio started walking down the street again and then something suprised him a little, "G-Grazie..." the voice trailed off. Antonio looked at the young boy. Was that Italian? Antonio knew what that meant, smiled, and spoke softly, "De nada." He didn't know if the young, possibly Italian, boy was talking to him or possibly dreaming but he was glad that the boy could respond. "Don't worry, we'll be at my house soon and you can warm up there and eat something. I hope you like grape Pop-tarts..." Antonio started heading in the direction to his house. This was first time he actually wanted to go home sooner than usual. He sped up a little and continued quickly until he made it home. Once there, he struggled with his keys until he got the door open. Antonio and the boy were met with soothing warm air, and as they entered the boy began to mumble something in Italian. The boy stopped mumbling and spoke more clearly, in English, Why... Why did you help me?..." The question took Antonio by suprise as he looked at the boy, who was still unconcious. He laid the boy on the couch carefully.
To Be Continued...
