This is just a fanfic I thought up and felt like writing...even though I already have two others going on at this time. I may not update this one often, but it won't be very long anyway; probably just a few chapters.
Since they're human in this fanfic, Ancient Rome is Lovino's father. It would be weird to have him be his grandfather since he looks so young.
WARNINGS:bullying, depression, cutting/suicide attempt
His alarm clock started going off, and he groaned and made a lazy attempt to reach for it. Realizing his arm was too short, he let it fall limply over the side of the bed and buried his face in the pillow.
After a few more minutes, he heard the thumping footsteps of his father coming down the hallway. His door flung open, revealing a tall Italian man that looked much like himself but with slightly curlier hair and a more masculine build.
"Lovino!" the man shouted angrily. "Get up!" his father demanded and grabbed his arm, yanking him out of bed. "Now do you need me to dress you, or are you old enough to do that yourself?" he asked mockingly and stormed out of the room before his son could even reply.
The teenager sighed and headed to his dresser, grabbing the first clothing articles he could find and lazily dressing himself. He grabbed his book-bag off of the messy floor of his bedroom and slung it over his shoulder, dropping it in a kitchen chair before heading off to the bathroom.
Breakfast was irritating, to say the least. His father kept scolding him about how lazy he was and how messy his room had becoming, all while comparing him to his cheerful little brother, Feliciano.
Lovino hated this more than anything. It happened every day.
He was glad when he heard the school bus screech to a stop, so he and his brother could grab their stuff and run out of the house.
But the bus wasn't much better. As usual, Feli was sitting with a group of friends near the back, where the cool kids sat, talking and laughing. Lovino sat in the middle section, a little towards the front, by himself. He could hear the cheerfulness in his brother's voice, the 've~' emanating throughout the bus. He closed his eyes and leaned his head on the cold window, trying to block the noise out, which failed when he felt someone snickering over him. He opened his eyes and tilted his head to see a red-eyed senior with bleached hair; one of his bullies.
"Kesesesese~" the boy laughed. "Sitting alone again, are you? So unawesome."
Lovino turned back toward the window, trying to ignore it.
"Y'know, it's kind of amazing that you're Feli's twin," the boy said again.
"Bastard," Lovino mumbled, earning an ungrateful glare from the red-eyed boy.
"If you want to say my awesome name, it's Gilbert," the boy told him. "Man, Feli's right. You are a jerk. Kesesesese~" the boy laughed and continued to pester him throughout the ride.
'Whatever,' Lovino thought and sprung up as soon as the bus stopped in front of the school. He rushed up the aisle, earning glares and curses as he bumped into people. He didn't care though. None of them liked him anyway, so why be nice? He just wanted to avoid any fights and get to class.
Most people ignored him, only throwing glares or purposely sneering away from him. Some actually bothered with spitting insults at him. Some actually spit at him. He was used to it all, and so he kept walking as if nothing happened, not sparing a glance at any of them. He didn't want to see their hateful faces. They were already burned into his mind. Practically everyone in the school hated him, even the so called 'losers.' He was like the loser of the losers. Everyone compared his scowl to his brother's constant smile. They hated him for being so anti-social and grumpy all the time, but never once did they actually try to talk to him, unless it was to call him an asshole along with other names.
And then there were his bullies.
Lovino stared down at the essay in his hands; the one that the teacher just handed back to him with an angry look on her face. It was easy to see the lot of red marks that littered the paper.
He'd worked hard on this assignment. They'd been told to write a two-page essay about any world problem they could think of. He chose bullying. Bullying was a problem, wasn't it? And yet there was a note written in the margins of his paper: "You've stated many examples of bullying, but you have failed to explain the consequences of bullying and why it is a problem." That's what the note said.
'Damn it,' Lovino thought as he gripped the paper in his hands. He'd put his heart into this paper...because it was secretly based off of himself. But in the midst of his anger and pain as he was writing, he'd somehow forgotten that the goal of the essay was to explain why something was a problem; the aftermath of whatever world problem they would write about. He'd failed to do that, and to make it worse, he forgot that it had to be in MLA format. And if that wasn't bad enough, his grammar and punctuation was horrible. He really wasn't the greatest with English, since it wasn't his first language.
He kept bashing himself in his mind as he continued to stare at the incredibly low score, thinking of how horribly he'd failed yet again.
And that was when his bullies came in.
"Tsk, tsk," a melodious voice said from behind him, and a blond-haired senior draped an arm over Lovino's shoulder, staring at the failed grade. "You couldn't write a simple essay?" the blue-eyed boy asked, smirking mockingly and quirking an eyebrow in amusement.
"Kesesesese~" joined the familiar voice of Gilbert, snatching the paper out of the Italian's hands. "What a lame number. Even my awesome essay got more than this," he laughed and began to show other students the terrible score on Lovino's paper.
The blond boy chuckled as he noticed how tense and angry the Italian was becoming. "Oh come on, everybody is bad at some subject, non?" he asked as if trying to console him but then added with a grin, "Too bad you're not somebody."
And that was when Lovino lost it and turned on the blond boy, Francis, and began hitting him violently. Gilbert joined in trying to pry the Italian off of his friend, also getting hit in the process. The rest of the class watched in amusement or disgust until the teacher finally managed to stop the fight.
And the next thing he knew, Lovino was sitting in the principals office. Again. His temper had gotten him into trouble plenty of times before, though it was never quite this bad.
The principal sat his desk, propping himself up with an arm while blankly glaring at the Italian. Beside Lovino were Gilbert and Francis; both with bruises and bloody noses. They'd just told the principal that Lovino was angry that they got better scores than him and that they had done nothing wrong. The Italian boy tried to explain that they were shoving their scores down his throat, but the man would not have it. Both of the injured boys were liked by practically everyone in the school, while the Italian was disliked and always getting into trouble. Honestly, who would he believe? The good kids or the one that threw a temper tantrum?
Sighing, the principal told the other two to head back to class or to the nurse in case they didn't feel well enough. 'Of course they'd do the second,' Lovino thought. 'Anything to get out of class. Bastards.'
"You're lucky tomorrow is the last day of the semester," the principal informed. "Otherwise, I would be expelling you right now."
Lovino felt as if he were sinking in his seat, a weight on his shoulders becoming heavier and heavier.
"Today and tomorrow, however, you will have both lunch and after school detention," the man said irritably. "You know, Vargas, I am getting fairly fed up with your trouble-making." He paused and picked up the telephone at his desk, looking at his computer screen to dial a number. "I am going to discuss with your father about sending you elsewhere next semester. For now, you should be going back to class." He held the phone to his ear and shooed Lovino out the door with a motion of his hand.
As soon as he closed the door, Lovino stood in the empty hallway, feeling as if the world weighed down on him. Slowly, he made his way back to class and grabbed his stuff just after the bell rang, and he headed to his next class.
During lunch, he skipped eating and sat in the detention room, writing over and over again that he would no longer misbehave. He was doing the same again at the end of the school day, when he had to stay behind for two more hours.
He was forced to walk home in the rain afterward. It was at least a forty minute walk, and he was drenched by the time he finally made it to the front door.
But of course, it wasn't much better once he got there. The moment he stepped inside was the moment his father started screaming at him in full-on Italian, which he only reverted to when he was really angry.
"WHY ARE YOU SO DAMNED STUPID?!" was the first thing Lovino heard (that wasn't in Italian) as his dad stomped up to him and shouted in his face.
Lovino dropped his wet book-bag to the floor and kicked off his shoes. He clenched his teeth together and tightened his fists, trying not to lose his anger for the second time that day. He just listened to what his father had to say.
"CAN'T YOU GO ONE DAY WITHOUT GETTING IN TROUBLE, LOVINO?!" he screamed and continued to ramble about other times that his son had gotten detention. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU HIT SOMEONE!"
"They started it," Lovino mumbled through his gritted teeth, but his furious father somehow heard it.
"Don't fucking lie to me, Lovino!" his dad shouted with more control than before. "Your principal said that you got angry over failing an essay! You're the one that hit them!"
"Because they wouldn't fucking leave me alone!" Lovino finally snapped and yelled back, which only sparked more anger in his father.
"No, Lovino! You wouldn't leave them alone! You never fucking get it, do you?" his father asked, seething with anger.
"Get what?! That I get blamed for every fucking little thing?!"
His father scoffed. "Little? Lovino, you just got kicked out of school! That is NOT little! You fucking failed an essay! You beat another student. And now I have to find another fucking school for you! You'll be lucky if any of them even want you!" he shouted once more.
Another weight added to the Italian boy's shoulders, and he found it hard to think. He didn't say anything back but simply growled and stomped to his room, slamming the door shut.
"DON'T BOTHER COMING DOWN FOR DINNER!" he heard his father shout one last time before everything went silent to him.
Lovino could hear a high-pitched buzzing in his ears, and he could feel his heartbeat pulsing through his body. Faintly, he could also hear the muffled voices of his father and brother talking calmly in the kitchen. His father always used such a sweet tone with his brother, and that sweet tone settled in Lovino's stomach like a rock.
He felt angry and sad and betrayed -and unwanted- all at once.
He fell asleep early, hoping that this day would just end.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter & hope you stick around for whatever comes next. Thanks for reading & please review ^_^