A/N: Here I go again. Another gen!flip AU story. For those who have read "And It's Supposed to be the Day of Love" this is a companion story that goes more in depth on Antonio and Lovina's relationship when they were children. And it basically follows the events shown in the short little flashback in part 2 of that story. For those who haven't, gender!flipped characters in this story will include Romano, Italy, and Prussia.

Tomatita

Part 1

"Heracles! Quit sleeping! The first mate can't be sleeping when he's steering the ship! And you're not supposed to have cats onboard either. They'll eat the parrots."

The younger Greek child opened one eye to glare at his playmate and tugged his kitten tighter into his grip. "Can too. They always have cats onboard ships to eat the rats."

Sadiq, as captain of this crew, did not appreciate being proved wrong. Especially by Heracles, who he had never really liked all that much and hadn't even wanted to play with. Let alone let him be first mate. But Arthur, Antonio, and Francis were being the bad guys and he couldn't just have a captain without a crew. Which was how he'd ended up with annoying Heracles and quiet Kiku. "Well…even if they did, then the cat should only have one eye or a missing foot." He pointed accusingly toward the little ball of fluff sitting on his first mate's lap. "They aren't supposed to be fluffy!"

Heracles flashed him a murderous glare and cuddled it closer. "Not her fault that she's fluffy."

"And it's a girl cat! Girl cats can't be on pirate ships!"

"Who said?"

"Hey!" Arthur called from the sandbox that he, Francis, and Antonio had designated as their pirate ship. "If you keep arguing, we're gonna attack your ship." He scowled and waved his toy sword around in what was an attempt at a menacing fashion.

He was rather proud of that sword. It had been a present sent to him from his father, along with a real captain's hat with a big red feather on top that he was wearing now cocked down over one eye. Partly for effect and partly just because it was a little too big to sit properly on his head.

Sadiq immediately jumped onto the top of the slide attached to the swing set they were using as their ship. "Full speed ahead!"

And neither of them moved. Kiku was petting Heracles' kitten, which was now curled up on his lap, while Heracles just watched him as he sat on one of the swings and kicked his feet distractedly.

"You two are the worst crew ever!" Sadiq exclaimed irritably.

"Hey! I wanna play!"

Great. Sadiq groaned as he turned toward the familiar voice. It was her again. He turned, brandishing his own stick-sword out toward the little girl now standing at the bottom of the ladder. "No! No girls allowed! I'm Captain and what I say goes!"

Lovina was standing with her hands on her hips, glaring up at him with a pout. "I wanna play!"

"No girls allowed and besides, you can't be a pirate in a dress!" He pointed toward her again with the sword, motioning toward her frilly green dress, white stockings, black Mary Janes, and green ribbon threaded through her dark strands. "Go back and have a tea party with your sister!"

The only person more annoying than Heracles in Sadiq's eyes was this little pain. She was always showing up when they were in the middle of an exciting adventure of searching for buried treasure or fighting evil aliens or being master thieves. And she'd always demand to play with them, her hands on her hips and her expression murderous.

Really, it wasn't their problem that she didn't have any friends. They shouldn't be forced to play with her all the time.

"I don't wanna play with Feli! I wanna play pirates!" She stomped a foot into the grass to accentuate her point. "'Sides, she's already playing tea party with the stupid potato."

"Ludwig is playing tea party with Feli?" Francis suddenly purred from beside Sadiq. How he had gotten there was anybody's guess. Francis had a natural talent at sneaking up on people and invading their personal space. "Does Gill know about this?"

Lovina eyed him warily, scooting away slightly. "I don't know. Feli begged the stupid potato to play."

Francis made a mental note to let Gill in on this later. Blackmail was always useful.

"Sadiq, let her play," Antonio remarked, as he and Arthur made their way from their 'pirate ship' to the enemy's. Arthur looked rather irritated at having the game interrupted and kicked the swing set just for good measure. "It won't hurt anything."

And that was also why he hated Lovina. Antonio would always stand up for her, and Antonio, unfortunately, had this likability around him that made it hard for anyone else to disagree with him.

Didn't mean he wouldn't try. "No! We agreed forever ago that girls couldn't play with us!" Except Gill, but she didn't count, since she was basically a boy anyway and she wouldn't hesitate to use her fists…and boots…and teeth…and whatever else happened to be on hand…if you tried to stop her from doing what she wanted.

Antonio had moved next to Lovina and had his arms around her now, flashing Sadiq his most pitiful expression as she struggled unsuccessfully to free herself. "Come on, Sadiq, what if we let her play on our team?"

Arthur and Francis both flashed the girl slightly weary looks, but didn't bother arguing. You couldn't win against Antonio when Lovina was involved, so you might as well just go with it.

"No." He was already being forced to play with his most hated rival and their pirate ship had a fluffy girl kitten on it. That was enough giving in for today.

"Just let her play, idiot," Heracles added to the argument. He didn't really care either way, but if he got the opportunity to oppose Sadiq, then he'd agree with anything. "Antonio said she'd play on his team."

"I agree with Heracles-san," Kiku offered in his quiet, polite voice, as he continued to stroke the purring kitten in his lap.

"Well, I'm not playing with a stupid girl!" Sadiq exclaimed irritably. Why in the world did everyone always gang up on him like this? "I'll go play with my other friends!"

"What other friends?" Heracles questioned without hesitation.

"I have plenty of other friends!" Kind of. Okay, not really. Why would he be playing with these guys in the first place if he had other friends?

Heracles snorted in disbelief. "Sure, you do."

Antonio looked horrified—he was the only one—at Sadiq's remark. "Don't leave! She won't bother you. She'll just play with us." He glanced down at the still squirming girl and brushed a hand through her dark curls. "Right, Lovi?"

"Bastard, let go~!" she squealed, attempting to free her arms so she could hit him.

"You can't play if you hit, Lovi," he warned, effectively stopping her attempts at attacking him. "Promise that you'll leave Sadiq alone if we let you play. No hitting or yelling at him, okay?"

She glared over at the person in question and then glanced back up at Antonio and nodded once. "'Kay."

Antonio immediately grinned and squeezed her tighter. "Aww~, you're so cute, Lovi~"

"Fine, as long as you keep her away from me," Sadiq finally agreed, flashing her an irritated glare. Stupid girl.

Antonio immediately nodded and released her, grabbing her hand and tugging her toward their ship. "I promise, Sadiq. Come on, Lovi."

Arthur gave the swing set another kick, just for good measure and then followed Antonio back to the sandbox, while Francis flashed Sadiq a less-than-innocent smirk before skipping after them.

He really needed new friends.

~.~.~

"Lovina!! Lovina!!"

The pirates all glanced up from what they had been doing—which happened to be digging around one of the park's trees in search for buried treasure—at the sudden call. Arthur was the first to react, probably due to his dislike of getting into trouble, hurriedly dropping his shovel and jumping in front of it to hide it and the rather large hole that they'd created. The others took a moment, but followed his example in covering their excavations from the adult. All except Lovina, who just glanced up, scowled in the general direction of the voice, and then returned to digging beside the hole with the little spade that Antonio had managed to scrounge up for her.

"Lovina!!"

An older woman suddenly walked into sight, glaring around at the surroundings with an expression surprisingly similar to Lovina's usual scowl. She had dark hair that was a few shades darker than Lovina's and was wearing a grey suit that only made her look more imposing and slightly scary. One of her hands was gripping Lovina's younger sister's hand, almost dragging her along after her. Feliciana was stumbling as she tried to keep up. She was dressed in a dress that almost matched Lovina's, except that hers was pink instead of green…and also happened to be much cleaner.

The boys all glanced back at Lovina, suddenly realizing that Lovina's mom was probably not going to be happy about the fact that her daughter was covered in dirt.

And when they said covered, they meant covered… Her formerly white tights were now almost entirely brown, she'd lost one of her shoes somewhere, her dress was ripped and caked with dirt, her ribbon was gone, and her face and hair were both smudged with mud.

Immediately every eye turned to Antonio, who glanced over at the woman nervously and then knelt down beside Lovina. "Hey, Lovi. Your mom is here."

"Don't wanna go," she replied without even looking up.

"You know that she's gonna be mad when she sees how dirty you are." He knelt down and tried to rub some of the dirt off her cheek. It only succeeded in smearing it around more.

"Don't wanna go home!"

"Lovina!" And now said mother marched toward the boys, who parted out of her way as quickly as possible, not wanting to anger her anymore than she already was.

She froze in horror when she saw Lovina sitting in the dirt, still digging away with her spade, while Antonio fruitlessly attempted to clean her up. He glanced up when he noticed that her footsteps had silenced and immediately blanched. "Ah, Mrs. Vargas…"

"What have you done to my daughter!?" she screeched furiously, immediately bending down and dragging Lovina to her feet. "She's absolutely filthy!"

"Uh, she just wanted to play…"

Lovina attempted to kick at her mother and break free. "Don't wanna go! I wanna play pirates!"

Lovina's mother looked absolutely sickened by the state that her daughter was in. She flashed Antonio a furious glare. "I've told you before that she isn't allowed to play in the dirt! Now her dress is ruined!"

"Let go~!"

"Mommy? I wanna play too," Feliciana suddenly remarked, tugging on her mother's hand as she eyed the giant hole that the boys had managed to dig.

Antonio was pretty sure he'd never received a dirtier look in his life. And he spent a lot of his time with Lovi, so that was saying something. She immediately whirled around, almost knocking both of the girls off their feet.

"No dinner for you tonight, Lovina."

"No!"

"But, Mommy…" Feliciana whined in her sister's defense.

"And if you aren't quiet, Feliciana, you're not going to get any either."

Feliciana started to sniffle unhappily, as she glanced over her shoulder to where Antonio and the others were standing. Antonio offered a sad, apologetic shrug. Then she looked back up at her mother, not wanting to risk missing dinner by crying.

Lovina, on the other hand, was screeching angrily, attempting to break free from her mother so she could return to her game. "Let go! Let go!"

"Mrs. Vargas." Here, Antonio spoke, receiving disbelieving looks from the rest of the boys. Was he suicidal or something? Feliciana and Lovina's mom was probably the scariest adult they'd ever met. "I could take Lovi back to my house and then bring her home for you. My mom's really good at sewing. She might be able to fix the dress."

The older woman flashed him a suspicious glare, and then glanced down at the still squirming little girl. "I seriously doubt this can be fixed."

"I could ask my mom at least. She's really good."

Mrs. Vargas stared down at Lovina again, seeming to try to decide whether she wanted to deal with a screaming, crying daughter for the rest of the night. Eventually, she sighed and released her arm. "Fine. Have your mother bring her back before dusk."

Lovina immediately took the opportunity given and ran to Antonio, grabbing his hand and then hiding behind his back. Antonio glanced back at her with an expression mixing exasperation and fondness. "All right, Mrs. Vargas. I promise."

"And this had better not happen again, Antonio."

"It won't. I promise."

With that, Mrs. Vargas nodded and then turned, pulling Feliciana with her. "Come on, Feli. You still have to clean up your tea party."

"Aww, but Mommy…"

"I'll make pasta for dinner tonight if you clean it up without whining."

If there was one way to make Feliciana instantly quiet, that was it. It was a fact that many people considered one of the most important things to learn during your life.

A/N: In my head!canon for this AU (versus all the other ones in my head, lol) Lovi and Feli's mom has a bit of a temper… She doesn't really like the boys of the neighborhood all that much, since they're pretty rowdy, but she doesn't mind Antonio since he's at least a bit more responsible.

And little!Lovina has no friends :( How sad.

I feel like I want to map out where everybody lives in this, but it'd be pretty insane. Basically, most of them live near the park, except for Francis who lives in the ritzier section and has a chauffeur pick him up and drop him off when he's playing, and Antonio who lives out in the more rural section and takes a bus to and fro.