Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Hetalia. They belong to Hidekaz Himaruya.

Author's Notes:

Every other chapter will be from Antonio's point of view. The chapters that are not from his perspective will be from Lovino's. When the text is in italics it means two characters are speaking in the same language other than English.

Beta: MsCatPlainer

"Hola, ¿me puede ayudar a buscar una tienda?"

The pedestrian I spoke to looked over at me with furrowed eyebrows. He looked around, as if searching for someone, but nobody was around. The street we were on was vacant besides a few early-birds who hurriedly walked to their destinations.

When he came to that realization, he began waving his hands around frantically at me, but none of the words he said made any sense. He was speaking too fast, and I only knew general words in English like "hello" and "how are you?" None of what he said made sense, and I was only running on pure luck that he would understand Español when I tried to get him to help me. I needed to find a book store for my English class. When I tried to explain with hand motions and broken English (when I was desperate), I was unsuccessful.

"¡Dios mío!" I cursed, running my fingers through my hair in frustration. The person in front of me looked at a lost, standing there awkwardly, not sure how to comfort me. When all hope seemed to be lost, I noticed a young man walking past after exiting a small store, holding a bag of tomatoes.

I called him over, and was stopped when a harsh glare was pointed at me.

He muttered something, probably in English, before he said in my tongue, "What do you want?"

Relief washed over me, and I made a show of my joy with a clap of my hands. "I need to find a book store!" I said, not using my hand gestures or broken English. "You know English, yes?" His nod confirmed that, though he hesitated, and narrowed his eyes further when I asked, "Could you translate for me?" I pointed toward the pedestrian who watched the exchange with interest.

He seemed hesitant to take me up on my request. But after looking me over for a second, he sighed, and gave in. "Fine."

I clapped my hands once more, grin across my face, and nodded in thank you. "Ask him if he knows where I can find a book store."

The young man turned to the person I was trying to speak earlier to, and translated, "He needs to find a book store. Do you know where there is one?"

The fellow shook his head in a universal 'no', and said something back to the man.

The guy turned back to me. "He doesn't know." I dropped my head into my hands with a groan. When I stopped, I took notice of him walking away. Patting the shoulder of the fellow next to me with a hurried "gracias" (even if he wouldn't understand), I quickly followed the young man, who increased his pace into strides, seemingly alert to me behind him.

"Wait! I need help, please I'm begging you kind sir!" I pleaded from the bottom of my heart.

His answer was immediate, "no, I have already helped enough." He halted (I nearly ran into him), and turned around to show that he was serious.

"Can I least know your name?" I probed. I felt in debt for him helping me.

"Lovino Vargas," he said, looking at me with high expectations, "you?"

"I'm Antonio Fernandez."

"Nice to meet you, now leave." Lovino began to turn away from me, but I reached out to snag his elbow before he could.

A sudden idea had come to mind. "Can you teach me English?" I queried, hoping that his answer would be "yes."

Lovino pushed my hand away as his eyebrow ticked in frustration. "I am only generous once in a while." My shoulders drooped.

I clasped my hands together, begging. "Please, sir!"

"Why are you even in Pittsburgh if you can't even speak English?"

Pausing, I explained, "I'm a foreign exchange student, you see. I go to a college around here."

He tilted his head in interest. I'm sure he was feigning it though. "Oh, and what school would that be?"

"University of Pittsburgh," I said, hands on my hips, feeling a bit selfish with my answer.

In a low voice, Lovino uttered, "Dammit, that's where I go." Through gritted teeth, he declared, "Fine, I'll help. But, this doesn't mean that you can hang out with me all the time. Got it?" His tone was stern and his visage portrayed exasperation.

"Thank you Lovino!" I attempted to hug the shorter man, but one of his arms came out from his hold on his bag of tomatoes to push me away at the chest. "I promise you, you won't be disappointed!"